Leaf

  —

  "Erin, what are fae?"

  That one sentence was enough to destroy the casual atmosphere we were enjoying around the table outside that night after dinner. Erin was finally able to move around and not hurt too badly, so she had slowly been increasing her range. At this point, we should be leaving again in less than a week.

  "Nah."

  Erin didn't even look at me, just pulled her PokeNav out. I had asked her why she kept it when she had a Rotom Phone, one hovering in the air next to her in fact, but apparently I was kind of dumb. That phone was how Rotom interacted with the world. It was a Pokemon, yes, it could leave the phone, but… that was mean to do to them when she just wanted to look up stupid videos to avoid my gaze, which was growing more and more piercing as I just glared. Mom just watched on in amusement and a little trepidation, Lucy in her lap as always. Wukong sat cross-legged nearby, attempting to meditate as he had been shown.

  Attempting.

  She finally looked up and scowled at me, her tone scathing.

  "Why?" Can I get a full sentence, Erin?

  "Because I have a fae and I'm curious? Why not? Shouldn't I know everything I can about my own Pokemon, and isn't asking someone with vast knowledge the smart move? Vast knowledge holder? Sister mine? Sister dearest? Best sister I've ever had? Your Most Savageness?" She snorted at that last one, shaking her head before she looked back at me.

  "Leaf… Fine. Fine, I will tell you my theory. Clefairy? Please don't react while I speak, I know you can control that somehow. I don't want to know how close I am! Like, I truly, from the bottom of my heart, do not want to know if I am correct, Clefairy!" She looked unsure for a moment, then nodded at Erin before seeming to freeze into a statue. Not even the glint in her eyes shifted, but I could feel her watching, still. Not in my mind, though. She had completely withdrawn from there, not something she did often. She loved hanging out in my mind…

  "This is going to come out a little bit disjointed and fragmented, and I might bounce around a bit, because it ties into… everything… so…" Everything?

  "To even begin, I want to talk about time. Here is how I see these things, Leaf, Patricia. I'm in no way qualified, this is just what… makes sense, mostly, to me."

  Wait, I just asked about fae, Erin…

  "It might literally be different here, what with certain Legendaries, but at least where I was from, time moved forward, never back. You can't go back, without Legendaries… You know what, I'll have to say that a lot, so just imagine I am for this whole talk, okay? They make my brain hurt." You make my brain hurt, Erin!

  "So you can only go forward through time, ever. Everything is always moving forward through time, nothing is ever motionless. You're looking straight ahead of you. You have roughly a cone of vision in front of you, right? That's the future. In an ever expanding cone forwards of possibilities, from the one singular point that's observing it, you. So… What if there's more than one 'point', or in this case, people? What if the perspective is just slightly off? Just the difference between our views if we stood shoulder to shoulder? Not much, right?"

  "Except that cone extends forever. Eventually you reach a point where those two separate viewpoints still encompass almost the same view, in the overlap, but they see so much more than you would even be capable of imagining in the differing viewpoints. Something so close becomes something almost completely known, but never fully." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  "Back where I come from, there was a thought experiment. How would you visit an entirely different dimension? Assuming you could get there, which I will not touch on, how would you be able to survive in a dimension where everything is fundamentally different? I don't mean that in a vague way, I mean it literally. Lets say your scientists are able to send a pencil there, and somehow watch as it simply ceases to exist entirely, not destroyed, it just won't work there on that reality's operating system. Different physics, essentially. Your science and understanding literally don't apply there." She took a deep breath and held it momentarily.

  "How do you explore that dimension?"

  "You make a ship, a vehicle, something that can transport you and keep you safe as your vehicle moves about this strange, strange place you find yourself entering. How is the vehicle able to function in this environment? It's technically not in it, it is surrounded by a container, a barrier. Think of a Protect that never fades, aura that acts like a divider between your vehicle and that strange dimension. You still interact through the vehicle, through the barrier, but you don't cease to be, because you're still operating under your rules, inside your vehicle."

  "Well, now you have a vehicle that can move, has sensors to examine the environment with, you've got some tools to manipulate whatever you come across as well, you have systems to test what it even is your sensing, and it won't just disappear in the strange physics of this new place. So what next? You would need to find a fuel source in that dimension, and a way to process whatever you found. Ideally you give your vehicle the ability to repair itself somehow as well. And wouldn't it be nice if you could make more vehicles for others of your people who might want to explore this strange place?" I… didn't want to follow that train of thought.

  "What would you call a vehicle like that, Leaf?" Her eyes were so serious. She rushed to continue before I could even begin to form a thought.

  Erin! Will I ever answer one of these endless questions?

  "Before I died, my world made a discovery. Well, they confirmed something that was long believed, but dismissed as foolish superstition, religious nonsense." Erin, what the fuck was this segue.

  I know you said you'd bounce around, but you're like Clefairy right now!

  "They discovered that consciousness is fundamental. I'm not smart enough to explain it in detail, but have you ever heard the term mind over matter? That's real. There is nothing in reality but minds interacting, but they create the matter we see and interact with. You can't just imagine a bar of gold in your hands, though, because you're not the only one thinking… How do I put this in a way you would understand… It's almost like consensus reality? Like, if the majority know, not just believe but know it to be true, it becomes true. It becomes the reality we interface with. The sky is blue. Everyone knows that. I couldn't just go on TV and say the sky is green, and people believe me. It's clearly blue." She looked at mom inquisitively.

  "Do computers here use binary? Yeah? Okay, so, a desktop computer, like in your room, Patricia. Take one of those, and look at it. It's so easy to use, right? Just move the mouse around, click the icons, type on the keyboard. Easy. Because it's simplified."

  "People have limiters on our senses, so that we can function. Our senses actually detect such a small, narrow band of frequencies for the most part. It's more efficient, basically, and it leads to greater survival rates. Why know that the… I don't know, why know that the color blue you see is millions of tiny variations of blue as shadow and light play across it instead of just blue? Why see radio waves, or something like that? It's hard to come up with examples, because we literally can't comprehend these things. It would be too much, or useless." I could see that, yeah…

  "So the brain just snips and trims it up for us. Like how you don't always see your nose in your vision, until I said this, and now you're seeing it because I reminded your brain." Yeah, I was now, thanks Erin.

  "We do the same thing with our eyes, the optical nerve goes straight back. We have a blind spot directly in front of us, and isn't that a terrifying thought now that I think about it. You're never actually seeing what's directly in front of you, you're seeing what your brain puts together and shows you. Look it up, people's eyes are almost never still, they're called saccadic movements, at least in my old place, and they fill in that blind spot the same as your nose gets removed. Because we never actually see reality." We what now?

  "We see our operating system. We see an illusion created to help us make sense of reality. The desktop, the browser, the cursor? They aren't like a file or a picture, they don't exist as a separate thing. They're tools, illusions to help us interface with the countless zeros and ones that are the actual computer." That…

  "Matter, material reality that we see isn't real, nothing is, there's just a collective acknowledgement that it is. Everything is an illusion but consciousness." She got a huge, stupid grin on her face and I felt my mood lighten just the tiniest bit.

  "Real quick, it's very dumb, but I have this image of the 'real' universe we're experiencing right now just being a huge room full of people with blindfolds on… just talking, spinning out this grand illusion, thinking up these great stories to act out in their minds, like that one with Pokemon in it…" Her face fell back into its former serious expression.

  "It was never proven, proven, technically. There was always someone having some issue with it, but it tied into my own beliefs I'd had before they ever published the paper."

  "It… actually makes more sense here, probably. I believed that the totality of the universe, of all universes, was a singular being. You could call it God, or The One, but I always preferred The Source. The Source of what? The only thing that matters. The only thing that's real." Her smile was soft.

  "Love."

  "If you are a being that vast, that powerful, what do you do with yourself? What if it is just you? What if you… split yourself, as you can do as an almighty being, to have someone to interact with, even if it's just you from a different perspective? It's so much better than being alone, singular." Her face was so… light and free as she spoke.

  "You split yourself so many times, split so much of yourself each time, eventually you reach a point that you forget that everything is all the exact same being, that everything and everyone is exactly the same being. You reach a point where you question why you're even there, what you even are, because you forgot." Her voice was gentle as she spoke, a light smile on her face.

  "Because that was the goal. To play games and not know the outcome before it ever happens. To experience things and be surprised by the outcome. To grow, to advance to the next stage, and the next stage after that. To reconnect, all of us, eventually, and probably to do it all over again once finished. Eternally. To love another is just finding another piece of yourself." Her smile was so soft as she finished, before she looked at us again, eyes gentle.

  "I believe that is what reality is. I think it's easier to deal with, here. That's just… Arceus. Literally. Instead of The One, or The Source, I can just say The Original One here." She shook her head and clapped her hands together softly, looking at us firmly.

  "As I was saying though, you send your divided self out that many times, but how do they interact with consensus reality? They make a vehicle, or find one. We call them bodies." Wait, what?

  "I believe that humans, Pokemon, fae, all life is light. All living beings emit light, even if it's only a few photons. I believe that our bodies are more like antennae that pick up your soul. I am not my body, I am my soul, my light, controlling my body like a mecha pilot." She smiled brightly, happily.

  "To summarize… Matter is subjective to mind, we are all the same immortal being of light that has purposefully forgotten that fact so we can have new experiences, using bodies like spaceships to explore an alien world that we were born into as we grow, as we advance, as we eventually reconnect. The only difference is the fae remember where they were, before they were… born, and they can go back at any time, or at least the Clefairy line can from what I've seen." Clefairy rocketed up from her position at the table and practically sprinted as she bounded off. Erin scowled at her receding back.

  "G- Arceus DAMNIT! THAT WAS A REACTION, CLEFAIRY! FUCK YOU!" Mom's fingers reached out to flick her and she glared so hard that mom recoiled.

  "I'll curse for that one! No! I didn't want to know!" I frowned at her.

  "But, wasn't that your theory? Don't you love being right?" Her eyes looked up at me and I shivered at the look in her eyes. She hissed out her answer.

  "Ignoring your choice of words, sister dearest, yes, most people like being right! I'm not happy because I ASKED HER SPECIFICALLY! I WANTED TO REMAIN IGNORANT!" She was growling now.

  "But why? I mean… it's kind of too big for me to really, I don't know, hold it in my head. It was…" I stopped talking as I had a thought. Mom looked at me and got nervous, before turning to Erin's pale face.

  "Erin, dear… What am I missing?"

  I choked out the question before Erin could.

  "Where are fae from?" She had never specifically answered what they were either, but I felt like they were the same answer. I kept talking, trying to work through the confusing ideas.

  "If we all come from one… direction, behind us, and if your right and the eventual goal of all life is to… recombine? To come together? Then their cone of vision has to be in our cone, right? There's overlap, and they're looking in the same direction?" Mom was quiet as she tried to wrap her head around what we were avoiding. She gave Erin a direct stare.

  Erin's voice was deathly quiet as she spoke.

  "Why can't we go back and return just like Clefairy can, Patricia?"

  Moms face was still so confused, and I couldn't blame her. I spoke up softly.

  "Because our… light… it's… Light can't go backwards. If a light shines forward, and we're all light, what can go forward and back? Nothing, not if you can't go back in time. She doesn't go back to before she was born." Moms face was so worried, but not understanding. Erin spoke up once more.

  "We can never return to the past, because that is behind us. We can only look forward, move forward, as we speed through time. We're always moving forward, forward, forward."

  "I think that, the Clefairy line at least, but probably most born fae, are… I think they are a separate being that split off from The Source, interacting with The Source, with what would be The Original One… With Arceus, if I'm right and he is the totality. I believe they are below Arceus, below us dimensionally, somehow. That would explain why they are able to leave, because they are not from our dimension anymore, not until they… recombine, eventually. That, or they never were to begin with. I think that thought is far more terrifying, though, and probably unlikely." She sighed and looked at us, eyes deliberately blank.

  "When Clefairy just shuts down, it is her light going forward, as everything must, but down, at an angle, out of our cone, into her dimension. Our 'cones' have a ceiling and a floor, because remember, we can't see so much that our minds never even sense, or that they throw out. Then she comes back up, still going forwards. From our perspective, it looks like she's left the universe, this dimension, because to us she has. She descends into hers, then ascends to ours. It can't be up, because there is nothing past the totality but the totality." She took a shuddering breath. She looked so pale.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "I believe that fae are demons, eldritch horrors, djinni, asura, no matter the term. I believe they are from a dimension that is lesser, more lacking than ours, and they come here to acquire things they lack. Like knowledge of emotions, like friendship. Like the joy of torture. The beauty of a sunset. The thrill of murder, of childcare. The feeling of an itchy nose. They lack so much in their own dimension, is the feeling I get, and they covet this one. They are jealous of this dimension. The Clefairy line are mostly benevolent, yes, but I would never want to encounter a wild Grimmsnarl in its domain without Leto. Maybe even with her." She was still pale, but steady.

  "I believe that they are a fundamentally different, dangerous people, and I would even say the vast majority should never be interacted with, just out of good caution. All species have their outliers, of course. I'm sure there's a Chansey, an Indeedee that has been a murderer. Most aren't, though. I think most fae are dangerous, deceptive demons that will… treat you like that Clefable treated me." We flinched as she said that, but she continued.

  "I think that, but no people are a monolith, so I took a calculated, deliberated chance with Clefairy. I don't regret what's led me to my situation now, and I don't hate Clefairy… Except maybe for basically confirming this." Her eyes locked onto me.

  "So to answer your question, Leaf? What are fae? I think they are demons, and I think that few are truly good and benevolent, or even neutral. I think the vast majority are like that Clefable. The Clefairy line and some others are just… nicer on average, usually."

  "I think they are fundamentally separate from the rest of this world, this… dimension. I think they are… parasites, but even parasites deserve life. That doesn't stop me from removing any I find on me or mine. Clefairy is a parasite on you Leaf, and I essentially put her there. You know I love you, so why would I do such a thing?"

  I stared at her as she spoke, mom gazing at her in a weird combination of horror and trust. I trusted her too, but I wanted some damn good answers, now.

  She smiled at me, her eyes warm and open.

  "Because she can't take anything from you, Leaf. You know what she gets out of it, but what do you get out of your relationship with Clefairy? What did you get out of your bond of friendship with Clefairy when you formed it?" She stared for a moment, and I realized she actually wanted an answer, this time.

  "I mean… friendship? She's my friend? Nothing else? Right?" She smiled at me, eyes wide with pure joy. She was so excited!

  "EXACTLY, Leaf! You believe that, wholeheartedly. You truly just wanted a friend, that was all! When you communed with her, she evaluated you. She didn't take anything, but she saw all of you. She was only able to do that because she had been temporarily bound to be completely peaceful while we talked in that circle, to take nothing even in ignorance, by accident, because as you know, even her being nice hurt the first time she said hello. She took nothing, but she saw all of you, and she decided, Leaf." Her eyes were wide and sparking!

  That was a new one! It was small, just in her irises, but it was like tiny purple static electricity dancing in them. Mom was giving her eyes a look, too. She looked so vibrant!

  "I don't know what they would call it in this world, or even in mine. You don't have a contract, or even a true contract with Clefairy, Leaf. You have nothing, technically, because the singular tie that binds you is friendship mutually given!" I thought these were demons, Erin! Friendship?

  Wait, no contract!?

  "When I read that contract out, I said many things, Leaf. Quite a lot of things, as most contracts tend to be. It was a very nice contract, but still far too stifling. Too unfair to accept. Then I told her to just form a bond of friendship mutually given instead. Take nothing, but give freely. Because that is all friendship is. She knew I was speaking the truth, too. I never lie, especially not when I am temporarily bound not to. Like everyone in that circle was." No way…

  She got a vicious, devious look on her face. She was so proud of herself.

  Viciously proud.

  "How does a being that can't, or couldn't at the time understand feelings, give you friendship? It can't give you friendship, because it didn't know what it was, it just understood. It can't, so it gives you collateral instead. What would be good collateral for friendship, when you can't know it? You can't know, and to give too little would be a grave insult. It was temporarily bound to give no insult! So that being didn't choose a certain amount of collateral." Her eyes were sparking so wildly they touched her eyebrows now, so deviously delighted in herself.

  "She gave you EVERYTHING!" Mom gasped even as my eyes widened so quickly it almost hurt. When we had formed the contract, no, the bond, she had given me something! I had just never thought about it afterwards! It felt so wrong I had ignored it! I couldn't feel it now, either!

  Erin was viciously gleeful in her exuberance as she almost wiggled with joy.

  "She chose not to walk away from my carefully constructed, fantastically imbalanced, devilishly unfair bargain. Because she had a feeling, a certainty when she saw everything that you are, everything that makes you, you, Leaf. That it would not only be worth it, but that she would make out like a bandit king despite paying the ultimate price, despite never being able to take from you."

  "You can't take from the one who owns you. Because let me be very clear on this, Leaf. You have total control over Clefairy, because you own all of her true self. Has she ever disobeyed you? Outside combat, I mean?" I nodded slowly, stunned beyond words as she just kept going.

  "Of course, but why, if you could literally tell her what to do at any time? Why does she ignore some orders? It's the simplest thing in the world, Leaf. You're not the kind of person to demand complete obedience, just loyalty, and fae can sense things like that. Remember how I said that if Patricia had never come with us, some other brave, kind woman would have been there? Because that Clefable saw her? Fae don't see faces, they don't see bodies. They don't see the vehicles." Her eyes were boring into me, sparking and warm.

  "They see your light, Leaf. You could order her to kill herself, and she would, but that is an absolute impossibility. It has to be a true order, one you absolutely want to be carried out wholeheartedly with your soul. One of those messed up Malamar couldn't come along and force you to do that. Mom, me, everyone here, and Clefairy all know you would never do something like that, not in a million years. If you somehow warped so much that you would do that, you wouldn't be the same person anymore, and you would hold nothing. She is in absolutely no danger from you and never will be, even though you technically hold her soul in your hands." She was so proud, of both of us.

  "So congratulations, Leaf! You have something so incredibly rare I'm not sure if it's ever been seen before. You have a fairy, a fae, a demon bound to you that will never turn on you, can never, will never want to, one that you would never turn on. Her friendship may grow greater, or it may disappear entirely. It won't matter, because you hold all of her, now. Though, I think we all know the friendship will only grow greater, even with all this disturbing information. Especially because of it, because I can see your thought process right now, Leaf." Her face was crinkling up in amusement.

  "Poor Clefairy, having to live in a place so horrible and lacking that she comes here. So desperate she gave me everything. Something like that. You're not… entirely wrong, or right, but I wont chide you for your thoughts. It's exactly those thoughts that enabled your bond with Clefairy. Your friendship." Close enough, Erin…

  "Congratulations, Leaf. You're not a Fae Contractor, you're a Fae Binder." I don't think that's a term, Erin… Or it could be much better.

  "And I tricked a fae, a demon, into giving her soul to someone for nothing!" Erin's eyes were still sparking, and I guess that was intense pride, because she was still so proud of herself, hands gesturing wildly in her delight. I frowned at her, though.

  "Friendship is nothing?! Also, that was a horrible thing to do to her, Erin!" She just smiled and pointed at me, looking at mom with her stupid, huge smile.

  "See what I mean? She's too precious for this world! Clefairy will never take anything from her, but she's going to be so delighted every day she spends with your daughter. She won't need to take anything if she's receiving far more than she could ever use." Mom gave her an amused, relieved smile.

  "Erin, I really… Okay, we will have to talk about the majority of all that some other time, because all I can think about right now is Clefairy! How!? How did you trick a fae, Erin!?" Her voice was almost panicked now, but Erin's huge, wide, smile never faltered. She sounded overwhelmingly smug as she answered.

  "I tricked her with the truth. I gave her a taste of something she coveted, and then I showed her an endless goldmine of it. The only rule? She could never take from it. Just receive what was freely, willingly given, and give a little back, too." Her eyes turned back to me and she got serious.

  Still so smug, though.

  "She chose to accept such a horrendously imbalanced bargain because you have the kind of soul that everyone loves, Leaf. Even a demon saw it and said 'This is too good to be true, I just want to be close to it, take my soul.'" Her eyes weren't sparking or anything anymore, they were just her normal purple ones, but she was looking at me like I was… like I was so good it hurt, and as I turned my head I saw moms face with the same expression.

  I looked down at my lap, because I really had no idea what to make of that. Me? I mean, I'd like to think I was a good person, yeah. But that good? Is it a contest? Being good was just… normal, right?

  "And right now, Patricia, your daughter is probably going 'Oh, it can't be me, I'm not that special, it's just luck, its normal to be this nice and kind and good.'" Her impression of my voice wasn't appreciated, and I raised my head to glare at her. Mom laughed, but she was still looking at me like Erin.

  "Dear, if there was someone so good they managed to enamor a fae so badly they did that, I'm not surprised it was you." I felt my face heat up at her words, but continued to glare at Erin. She smiled back at me.

  "Not to tease you, Leaf, but I'm serious. You never have to worry about that fae, because she is yours in a way I've never even heard of. I'm certain you're not like, the fae whisperer though, so don't get any ideas in your head about more of them. Please, I can't actually enforce that, but I swear to Arceus, Leaf, if I wake up one day and there's a Flabebe on your team we will have words. We will have words with both of our mothers. I mean… I loved the Fairy type in the games, to be fair, but…" That reminded me…

  "Erin, is there a reason you hate fairies and know so much about them?" I actually watched the vibrancy just drain out of her eyes until they were blank, face going neutral so quickly from a smile it hurt to see.

  "In my old place? No, just interesting myths and legends. Here? Met Hecate's mom. Did some research." That was all she said, but every one of her Pokemon flinched, including Leto. I had vaguely heard of this before, I thought…

  "Dear, would you like to… talk about it?" Subtle, mom… Erin looked around, and her Pokemon must have seen something in her eyes, because to our astonishment Artemis and Hecate returned themselves.

  "Rotom, block their sensors until we're done, please." It just beeped at her. "Thanks, bud." She looked at me and mom for a long moment before she put her head on the table, looking down at the ground as she spoke.

  "The second and last night I spent in the Lowlands, it was all of us but Hecate, and we were at the foothills of the mountain. I'd gotten a huge bonfire going, because I was fu- extremely cold with just skins, and we had just eaten…" She trailed off a little, and Seraphina returned herself. Rotom beeped, and Erin murmured a thank you.

  "So we'd just eaten, but we only had a single Sneasel corpse between us. We were still hungry, and mom went to hunt. She moved so fast it felt like she was halfway up the mountain before I had even noticed. I'd basically just met Cerberus and Seraphina, because bouncing miserably in a raw skin contraption for hours is not bonding time… I was about to ask them to show me their Moves when I heard a voice. In my head." Cerberus whined, but didn't budge from his new spot, just to the side of Erin. He was guarding her.

  "It was an Alpha Hatterene. Wood witch, Psychic Fairy, known as the Silent Pokemon, because most can't stand people's thoughts, the sounds of their emotions. I looked it up later. They usually have a home range of a few miles where nothing enters. It's their quiet space. Most Hatterene."

  "Hatterene are seven foot tall Pokemon, but their body is actually quite small. They are towering creatures of hair, white and pink and blue and so beautiful. Otherworldly, but still so beautiful, especially their eyes. I've seen pictures of regular ones, and they didn't look kind, but they didn't look mean, either. They mainly looked like they wished the photographer would leave them in peace." She took a deep, shuddering breath.

  "That Alpha Hatterene was almost as tall as Leto, but once again, even then her actual body was probably 'only' half my size. Her very presence terrified you, and now I know that was her aura, like Charizard. You know, for other people, not us." Me and mom chuckled a bit at that despite the mood. Poor Charizard. For the most part, she just liked to hang out and chat these days in her old age, but she terrified everyone away. Well, most people.

  "She came up, and she asked me to join my fire. I freaked the fu- actually, this qualifies. I freaked the everloving fuck out, and I started to growl at her, like a caged, trapped animal. Luckily Kallen stopped me, and I tried to think about everything I have ever heard about fae… Then she asked me if I was going to answer her." Her face was pale as she lifted her head, her eyes closed.

  "I invited her to share our fire for a period of time, but gave 'fair warning' that Leto would be back. I offered her my last piece of Sneasel freely, with no expectation of payment. She ate it, and then complimented me on my hospitality. On my knowledge of the old ways… Of the true ways, and then she really freaked me out, because I hadn't really thought about the first part of her typing. She was psychic, and she told me how interesting I was, being where I'm from, with fae that sounded so like her and her kind." Kallen returned himself, and Cerberus was whining.

  "She asked me what I was doing with the children of the Terrors, then explained the power dynamic down there when I grew confused. She laughed at Leto agreeing to be my Pokemon… Then she looked at me like food and laughed again. Told me she didn't eat humans. She rarely even killed them." Cerberus returned himself. It was just Leto from Erin's team left.

  "Why end the fun prematurely?"

  What the fuck?!

  Well, actually, I know another fae like that, so it's not exactly unexpected…

  "Then she Teleported Hecate to her. Hecate was so quiet for a split second, and then she… wailed doesn't cut it. I never want to hear whatever you would call that sound again. Hecate was a disappointment, because she hadn't adjusted to the entertainment." Erin's voice held the same hate as for that Clefable as her words dripped out like acid. I felt sick as Erin continued, Leto somehow glaring with her eyes closed.

  "Her 'game' was to leave her right there. If Hecate had tried to run, she would have died in those woods, if she was lucky. If she came with me? She would have to adjust to a world that is probably so loud, so painful for my little nightcap. She told me that was a fun choice to have people make. Agony or Death… Then she slowly gave me this, bottom-up as I was held still with her mind." She pointed to her scar, the one I had never asked about. The long, thin mark that started on her jaw and went right onto her eyelid.

  "She did it with her actual hand claw, licked the blood off, and smiled at me. Told me us humans liked to change our answer after a time, but that there's no going back on your word. Not in her woods… She gave me and my team safe passage out of her woods, but told me her curiosity was slaked. To pray that we never met again. Then she just vanished. There one instant, not the next." She cleared her throat as me and mom sat silently, stunned. That was…

  "She will die. If not to me when I am powerful, then hopefully earlier. The head Ranger there saw it, along with Looker… and poor Raihan and Joyce… and Alakazam, that's the guy who deserves pity. He heard me list sooo many Legendaries while thinking about as much as I could." Mom frowned at her.

  "It sounds like you deliberately caused him stress, Erin. Do I need to call Looker, have a chat with Alakazam? See if he's doing alright?" She was glaring, but it was light, and Erin just grinned at her.

  "You should have seen his face when I thought about Girat-" She stopped herself with a snap of her teeth. I glared at her.

  "Giratina? We've heard the name, Erin. Why would the name disturb hi-" No, she hadn't, had she? She was looking away…

  "Erin, dear, what did you show that poor Pokemon?" Moms voice was calm, but I wasn't, not at the sound of her voice. Erin sort of shook her head and shrugged, looking around idly. She wasn't really looking at anyone, just staring off unfocused.

  "I mean, I only showed him Giratina's dimension, the Distortion World, what he looked like when not there, while in our world, and what he could look like when he was even more powerful with a certain item. Although, that's what he looks like in his home dimension all the time, the super creepy-cool lookin' giant Renegade Pokemon God of Antimatter that he is…" She wasn't really looking at us anymore at all, almost talking to herself as she just… reminisced.

  About bonkers stuff. Erin didn't lie, either.

  "It's called his Origin Forme, and he, Palkia, and Dialga all have one as the Pokemon of Myth, the Creation Trio. They are the true, original forms they had when it was just them and Arceus, after He created them as the first beings in an empty void, before Space and Time clashed with Antimatter to form our current universe as it exists. Supposedly, I'm not sure of that, or if I'm remembering it correctly, not entirely… They were so fun to catch, although I never liked Palkia's water/dragon typing for battling all that much. Dialga was much funner to use as a steel/dragon! Giratina was much more entertaining to use in Pokemon Contests, actually. I just loved envisioning these people watching the Ghostly PokeGod of PokeHell just pop out and start twirling… and then lose! Hilarious! Arceus could hold a Plate and be any type instead of his usual Normal typing, which was cool, even if it was basically just an avatar you catch instead of, you know, the universe imploding into a Pokeball…"

  Casually describing the beginning of the universe like it was basic fact? Catching the 'Creation Trio'? Giratina in a Pokemon Contest!? Catching The Original One!? Arceus had a Type!? I would never get used to how casually she just said stuff like that.

  Although Normal typing makes so much sense…

  I don't think mom ever would either, based on the looks she was giving Erin. Erin didn't notice, purely talking to herself at this point, and continued to Dig her own grave.

  With a team of Dugtrio.

  "I think me vaguely explaining my theory of everything and the multiverse and how it all might be Arceus, or how Arceus might just be a speck of dust in a far greater macrocosm of multiverses, and showing him at the same time was worse than those thoughts, actually…"

  I think Erin could eat dessert or sweets in a month from now, maybe? She just kept adding days! Mom was going to have to come up with a new punishment, because Erin might just have to skip dessert the rest of her life at this rate.