Spiteful Murkrow
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- #28
Als König Klaus Engelstadt gründete, tat er dies in den Ruinen einer Menschenstadt, die so weit verstreut war, dass sie nach dem „Glühenden Blitz“ zu einem unregierbaren Labyrinth geworden war, ähnlich wie andere, die nach der Zeit verloren gegangen sind. Daher hielten es der Erbauer und die Göttin Wirklichkeit für angebracht, eine Zitadelle zu errichten, die eine aufstrebende Zivilisation vor den Gefahren einer unruhigen Welt schützen sollte.
Sie taten dies am Dämmerungsturm und den umliegenden Türmen, die zu Zeiten der Menschheit einst die Zentrale der Vector AG gewesen waren. Ihre dominanten Höhen gefielen unserer Göttin und überblickten jeden, der sich der Erbauer-Stadt näherte, während ihre Lage entlang einer Flussbiegung es leicht machte, sie in eine Bastion zu verwandeln. Deshalb dient ihre Zitadelle bis heute als Verwaltungsbezirk der Hauptstadt unseres Landes. Ein Thron, der sich bis zu den Wolken erstreckt, für die Göttin unseres Landes und für ihre Könige und Helden.
Einen Großteil seiner frühen Regierungszeit verbrachte Klaus damit, den Raum zwischen den zehn Türmen, die jenseits seiner Bastion lagen, zurückzuerobern. Hoch aufragende Monolithen, in denen Maschinen untergebracht waren, die die Lichter und verschiedene von Menschen hinterlassene Handarbeiten betrieben, indem sie die Kraft eines fernen Strahlens nutzten. Er war der Architekt der großen Stadtmauern, indem er die zehn Türme in Wehrtürme verwandelte und sie mit Mauern verband, die mit Hilfe menschlicher Werke errichtet wurden, die den Glühenden Blitz überlebten. Deshalb ist er als „Klaus der Erbauer“ in unserer Geschichte verewigt.
Was auch immer es König Klaus und der Göttin ermöglichte, solche Wunder zu wirken, ging mit Zeit verloren, nachdem Wunsch und Wirklichkeit und die Länder, die sie als Gönner verehren, erstmals Krieg gegeneinander führten. Seitdem oblag es seinen Nachfolgern, zu versuchen, seine Werke aufrechtzuerhalten. Aus diesem Grund beginnt jeder König und jede Königin der Wahrheit ihre Herrschaft damit, im Namen ihrer Schutzgöttin einen Eid zu schwören, dies nach besten Kräften zu tun.
Auch angesichts des Laufs der Zeit und seiner Verwüstungen. Auch angesichts des Wissens, das in Vergessenheit geraten ist. Sogar angesichts derer, die es mit ihrer Gier und ihren bösen Absichten mit böswilligem Wunsch und ruinösem Donner verwüsten würden.
- Auszug aus »Die Wahrheiter Chroniken – Eine kurze Geschichte der frühen Jahre unseres Königreichs«
“Gottverdammt, look at all of that!”
Lyle stared at his surroundings with his mouth open as Kate stole the words right out of his mind. The moment that Boudewijn’s raft left the tunnel, it exited out into a collection of ancient-looking structures—human ruins, judging from their shape and construction—that loomed over a sea of wood and half-timbered buildings along both sides of the river that surrounded them. The newer construction looked about par for the course for a Varhyder settlement, punctuated every so often by an occasional structure styled after a Pokémon’s head.
Why, it reminded him a bit of the more central portions of Moonturn Square. Except many of the buildings around them were visibly taller, especially the ruins. Every now and then, shooting out over the thatched and tiled rooftops, there would be some decaying concrete and steel skeleton that dwarfed them rising high above.
All around, the mass of structures seemed to blur into each other, which made it hard at times to tell where the city began and where it ended. The watchtowers and city walls helped bring back some sense of scale, as the whole mass was hemmed in by the same ramparts behind them which carried on in a grand ring. Though even that proved a bit hard to tell sometimes with the way some sections had buildings creeping up their inner surfaces.
He was beginning to see why Dalton seemed nostalgic for this place.
“Blauflamme, I knew Newangle City was big, but I didn’t realize that it was this big,” Lyle murmured.
“Well, being the capital of the kingdom helps,” Dalton remarked. “So’s having a history of stability to turn to. Aside from the likes of internal uprisings, Newangle City has only ever fallen to outside invaders once in its history, and that was hundreds of years ago before it was given its present name.”
Lyle blinked and shot an askew glance at the Heliolisk. The capital once had a different name? Maybe that was where the ‘New’ it came from. He’d certainly believe it from all the human ruins scattered about.
Why, even the river itself carried marks of ancient history. Up ahead, there were a pair of corroded towers with struts that looked almost triangular, and between them, a broad ramp that slumped into the river where Pokémon were gathered bathing and washing fabric. Further up, there was a bridge with houses built on top of its span. Curiously enough, the pillars seemed to be mismatched. There were four spread an even distance that seemed to be built in a human style out of concrete, while the rest were nestled between them and made of stone in a style Lyle was more used to. Two of the gaps in the arches were larger than normal: one off-center to the left, and another similarly off-center to the right. Could it have been that back in human times, this bridge somehow stood on just the four older pillars?
He heard the hustle and bustle of voices and carts coming from the inhabited bridge as they passed, which sounded almost like his hometown on market day. Was this from seasonal preparations from the Autumn Festival, or was this bridge just always crowded enough to sound like this? After Boudewijn’s raft passed the bridge and its structures, the human ruins stretched up higher and higher into the sky from a place just off at a bend in the river downstream—enough to make Moonturn Square’s Great Spire look like a little road marker! On the right, the ruins looked almost skeletal in nature, with vegetation in autumn colors spilling out from holes or gutted floors. Some were visibly listing, others had gouges in them or were visibly shorn from taller heights, with a curious patch that was largely empty aside from a few ancient-looking chunks that laid strewn about among more modern construction. The human ruins on the left bank were taller and if nothing else, seemed to stand straighter than the ones on the right. Curiously, a number of them were covered in white and gray tiles or cladding of some sort, some stopping abruptly about halfway up.
Lyle wasn’t sure what the story was behind that. But even the dilapidated towers looked awe-inspiring. From the side, Lyle saw Irune was still staring ahead in blank wonder, as her eyes kept darting up towards the tops of the ancient structures.
“Are… those towers the ones we saw back from the Kyurem shrine?” Irune asked. “Will we be able to go on top of one of them?”
“Gods, no,” Dalton said. “There’s a reason why the vast majority of city life here goes on within a Southern Exeggutor’s height from street level.”
So, about three or four stories up, or at least if what he’d heard of Exeggutor that evolved in the far southern Provinzen beyond the coastal range were right. He vaguely remembered occasionally encountering Pokémon from such Provinzen during the likes of market days. Most of them seemed normal enough, but there’d occasionally be the likes of a snowy Vulpix or a black-furred Rattata, with some Pokémon who’d merely evolved while passing through the area having gotten one of those strange forms. Nobody really knew what happened to those parts of Varhyde to make them that way, only that what few records from those lands predating the Great Flash had no mention of such Pokémon dwelling there.
Still, he was a bit surprised that that was Dalton’s reflexive frame of reference. He must’ve spent time down south, or else in a place where their Pokémon commonly passed through.
“Besides, even if it wasn’t a chore to climb them, there’s nothing for us up there,” the Heliolisk continued. “The towers that have more than the occasional Flying-type’s roost in them are taken up by quarters owned by the crown, or worse still, army installations meant to fend off enemies from the air.”
Irune had a brief flash of disappointment cross her face and looked down with a quiet pout. Had her father been a ‘mon that could fly or something? For one without wings of her own, she sure had a thing for heights.
A sharp crash rang out from the opposite bank of the river, loud enough to make Lyle and his companions flinch. The Quilava turned, where at the bottom of one of the wood-framed buildings, he saw a party of Pokémon in green armor headed by Rhyperior massed at a doorway. He looked on with his teammates, staring as the figures drug a flailing Combusken out, with another following after tugging at the Rhyperior—a female from the looks of it—along with a trio of Torchic. The Quilava was too far away to clearly make out their words but his vision was just clear enough to see the female Combusken pleading with the figures as her children began to cry.
The mood aboard the raft quickly took a dark turn as the figures grew blurry from the distance and the cries began to fade as they drifted off. Lyle glanced over at his teammates, where he spotted Dalton looking back in the direction of the guards, before turning away with a low mutter.
“Gods, what a thing to see right when coming back to the city.”
Lyle wasn’t fully sure what had happened, but his best guess was that the Combusken who was dragged out was some unfortunate who’d tried to dodge a draft notice. The whole incident sure as hell reminded him of the times he’d seen that happen in the past. Why if he hadn’t paid off those Grünhäuter two years ago, his own mother-
Lyle stopped his train of thought as a chill went down his back. The only consolation he’d had in the two years since then that everything had been somehow worth it was that Nils mentioned that his parents wanted nothing to do with him, and that they still had a Quilava about the shop who he assumed was his younger brother. If the army served one of them a draft notice again… what could they do about it?
For that matter, what could he do for them now?
He started turning his attention off for shore to avoid seeing the water when he noticed Irune staring off at the raft’s timbers with an uneasy rub at her tusks. From how troubled she looked, he supposed she must’ve also seen scenes like those herself in the past. Lyle’s ears flicked as he heard approaching footsteps, a glimpse of blue scales revealed Boudewijn walking up to them, as the Feraligatr shook his head with a deflated sigh.
“I’m surprised they’re doing that just before the Autumn Festival of all times,” he muttered. “From the stories I’ve heard coming from the frontlines about offensives stalling this year, you’d think that the army would at least want to not make morale for their new guys worse...”
Boudewijn trailed off after that. Lyle didn’t know whether or not the Feraligatr was worried about letting his tongue run too freely around them or if it was something else. The whole time, Irune remained quiet and stared at the raft’s timbers blankly.
Had something Boudewijn told her back when they were going through that tunnel stuck with her?
Lyle flattened out his ears and turned his attention to their Feraligatr pilot. The wonder of his surroundings had worn off by now, and he frankly just wanted to get off the damned raft and figure out how on earth he and his teammates were going to make it back out of the city and through the rest of their journey to the Divine Roost. If Lacan had thought of informing the Gendarmen about them as far out as Austor Provinz, it’d only be a matter of time before he caught up with them again if they stayed in one place.
“Boudewijn, where exactly is our stop?” he asked.
“Right over there.”
The Feraligatr raised a claw and pointed off at what appeared to be a pair of unnaturally tall stone piers with tall parapets on opposite sides of the river. To the left, there was a small, strip-like island with a set of wooden piers teeming with barges and swimming Pokémon of various shapes and sizes, with timbered buildings and shacks built around the stone pier and even a few that had been built up at its top. It took Lyle a moment to realize it, but it dawned on him that he was looking at what was left of an ancient bridge span, one originally wide enough to carry six or seven Pullers and their cargoes walking astride each other.
“I’ll be towing you up to the docks from here,” the Water-type explained. “Just hang tight for a bit.”
The Feraligatr slipped into the water with a splash that made Lyle reflexively flinch. A few moments later, Boudewijn was back at the front of his craft with his trusty tow cable and started pulling the raft forward. Lyle reflexively recoiled from the raft’s edge as the water around it sloshed, as Dalton and Irune settled down against the deck and Kate drifted off towards the back of the craft. The whole time, the Quilava dutifully kept his eyes on shore, as the sounds of Pokémon loading and unloading at docks mercifully drowned the river’s sounds out by growing louder and louder until the raft finally made it up to the docks. The raft slid up against a pier, where it jostled up against it and made Lyle and his fellows stumble as they tried to keep their footing. Lyle pratfell and flared up briefly, hurriedly getting back up onto his feet just in time to catch a glimpse of Kate turning her head briefly and quickly hiding something behind her back. He quirked a brow when he heard dripping water coming from the pier, where there was Boudewijn, pulling himself onto the docks and looking down at them with a toothy smile.
“Welcome to Newangle City,” the Feraligatr said. “She’s full of highs and lows, but I hope you all find what you came here for.”
Lyle looked up at the buildings by the ancient bridge and further ashore as Pokémon milled around on the land, in the air above, and in the water behind them. He raised his gaze off at the tall towers looming in the distance behind them when from the corner of his eye he spotted Irune doing much the same. The Axew grimaced briefly, before lowering her head with a quiet murmur just loud enough for him to hear.
“I hope so too.”
Boudewijn went over to one of the moorings to tie down his raft as the Quilava went along with Dalton and Irune to fetch the gangplank when it dawned on him. Where the hell was Kate right now? He turned his head over towards the rear of the raft and saw her holding a sack of coins in her claw… the same sack ones they’d given Boudewijn earlier.
Lyle fought back an urge to shout out a demand of what the hell she was thinking when all of a sudden, a gout of blue dragonfire sailed in and hit Kate’s shoulder. Lyle’s eyes shrank to pins as the Sneasel recoiled with a sharp hiss and dropped the coins to the deck with a loud clatter. He already knew the culprit before he turned around: Irune, who was narrowing her eyes at the Sneasel with an angry snarl.
“Kate! What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Huh? What’s going on here-?”
Everything went by so quickly afterwards. First Dalton running towards them before freezing and looking-up wide-eyed at the pier, then Irune doing much the same. Lyle flattened his ears and turned his head up as a shadow fell over them. It was Boudewijn looking down at them with a surprised gape, which made Lyle’s blood run cold as a single word crossed his lips:
“Crap.”
Lyle’s mind went blank for a moment, before he reflexively grabbed at the bag and held it up towards the Feraligatr with a nervous stammer.
“H-Here,” he insisted. “Sorry about that, we got your stuff mixed up with ours and almost walked off with it.”
Boudewijn said nothing for a long while, giving suspicious glances between him and his companions. The Water-type narrowed his eyes briefly, before throwing out a claw and snatching the coin bag away with a low harrumph.
“Tch, you four really do remind me of when I was younger,” the Feraligatr grunted. “I remember using excuses just like that one when I got caught nicking things in the past.”
Lyle briefly felt a twinge of surprise at the Water-type’s answer, only to be keenly reminded that he was standing cornered on a raft. He suddenly felt a lot smaller now with the water all about him, and for a second, he thought he saw other Pokémon from the nearby docks starting to stare at them. Gods, had they seriously gotten through those giant gates and everything only to be undone by this?
“H-Herr Impergator
Feraligatr
₁, I swear, it was really just a-!”“Enough.”
Lyle grimaced and pinned his ears back as his teammates abruptly tensed up and braced themselves in anticipation of a soaking blow. A loud thump rang out, which made Lyle screw his eyes shut and flinch. He waited a moment, before warily cracking them open to see that Boudewijn had set up the out gangplank. There was a brief silence as Lyle watched the Feraligatr study them carefully for a moment from beside it, before the raft pilot folded his arms and shook his head.
“... I’ll let you go this time. Times are tough, and you’re obviously in a hard place. I’ve been there myself,” he insisted. “Just make a point of dealing with your problems in a better way in the future. In my own experience, thieves don’t usually get happy endings, and Newangle City in particular isn’t kind to ones that get caught.”
Lyle wasn’t sure what to make of Boudewijn’s gesture, but he wasn’t going to stick around and complain about it. He nodded back and hastily scampered up off the raft with his teammates. After four made their way up the docks, they beelined for the buildings clustered around the remains of the bridge, ducking down a back alley between two sets of cramped, timbered buildings built under the shade of the span’s arch. Lyle didn’t stop running until he saw the afternoon sun fade away completely with the shade and he could no longer see the docks behind him. He stopped and panted for air as his heart pounded in his chest as Dalton stumbled past and slumped against a wall doing much the same. Gods, that was way too close.,
Asharp yelp rang out behind him, which sent Lyle springing up with his vents ablaze. He turned around, where behind him,Irune was jumping back and pawing at her side. Off to the left, Kate was pulling an ice-slicked claw back, with her eyes narrowed into a withering glare.
“Irune what the hell?!” she hissed. “There must’ve been at least a month’s wages in that bag! We could’ve used that to get a head start here!”
“Kate, we’re not robbing a ‘mon that stuck his neck out for us just five minutes ago, alright?” the Axew snapped. “For gods’ sakes, have some standards!”
“I’m inclined to agree,” Dalton huffed. “Seriously, trying to steal from someone blocking our only way of escape?”
This had gone on for long enough.
“Enough, all of you.”
Lyle stepped towards Kate and Irune with a sharp frown, stopping in front of the Axew with a loud harrumph.
“If you’ve got a problem with one of us in the future, bring it up quietly,” he growled. “We can’t exactly help you get to the Divine Roost if we’re busy rotting in a cell.”
The Axew turned away and gave an unimpressed snort in reply. He would take that as a ‘fine’, and he supposed it solved half of the problem…
“And Kate, I’m sure you’ll find someone else to steal from, so just let it go already,” he grumbled. “And don’t go surprising us like that! We’re a team of four, not an entire band. It’s not exactly hard for us to wind up getting into situations where we’re in over our heads in our current situation.”
Assuming that they weren’t already. The Sneasel remained quiet for a moment, before she folded her arms and pinned her ears back with a low pout in reply.
“Well that’s a nice goal, but since we’re short on money again, what do we even do right now?” she grumbled. “Somehow, I don’t think that we’re going to just be able to slip in and out of the gate to sleep in the fringes. And with how crowded this place looks, I’m not holding my breath on finding another burnt-out house like we did in Moonturn Square.”
Lyle’s ears flicked after hearing an approaching clatter coming down from the alleyway, prompting him to look out and see a Tauros tugging a wagon laden with hay. The Puller and his cargo made their way up a ramp leading up to the bridge’s surface where a small market of shops and stalls had been set up near its edge. Why, it even looked like there was a beer hall there! Lyle raised a paw and let out a low grunt in reply.
“We can restock for the next leg of our journey,” he said. “There’s no shortage of ‘mons here that can help us with that and we can afford to be a bit picky with our marks.”
Lyle started off, only to be held back with a sharp tug from Dalton’s good arm as the Heliolisk gave a sharp glance down at him.
“Maybe, but I’d recommend taking a look around first before risking trouble,” Dalton said. “I’ve been here before during a better season of my life in the past, and it isn’t the sort of place where we’d want to be fumbling around in the dark.”
Lyle blinked at Dalton’s reply. He’d gathered that Dalton had a background that was very different from his own given the Heliolisk’s accent and mannerisms even before the Electric-type said he’d been a student here. Even so, it was still hard to believe the ‘mon had really been in Newangle City before. Let alone enough to be familiar with it. The Quilava opened his mouth to ask for more detail, only for the Dalton to quietly slip out of the alley and warily eyeing his surroundings, before eyeing his fellows on Team Forager with a tilt of his head.
“We’ll take a quick walk through our surroundings to see if there’s any promising marks, but we should make a point of putting distance from these docks and getting our bearings before we get into too much trouble,” he insisted. “Ideally someplace that’s a bit further from the Eastern Gate we entered through since that’s the first place the Grünhäuter will start looking if they get wise to us.”
Right. That made sense. Lyle was frankly surprised it was still possible at all to steal things in the capital with the way that ‘mons outside talked about it. Though he supposed having a guide who knew the ins and outs of the city didn’t hurt.
“I think I know just the right place in the city to do it, too,” the Heliolisk added. “Though there’s something we should take care of first.”
… And of course there’d be a catch. Lyle and his fellows turned expectantly towards the Heliolisk, as Irune blinked at him with a puzzled frown.
“Wait, there is?” she asked. “What is it?”
“That blanket up there to your left. I see scarves hidden under it, and there’s a couple others hidden further along the line.”
Of all the places Kate imagined herself being after robbing that caravan just outside Waterhead Cave, being smack in the middle of a hive of wood-and-stone buildings was never one of them. Sure, it’d crossed her mind before everything happened that things could’ve gone south and that maybe she’d need to get out of dodge, but even then, she never saw herself being in the capital of all places. Much less clambering up a wooden post towards a bunch of clotheslines strung up from underneath a window, for that matter.
Though she supposed a lot of things that seemed unimaginable had been happening lately. The Sneasel’s ears flicked as her eyes fell on a white blanket—one that didn’t look washed enough from its dingy coloration—before glancing down towards the alleyway where Dalton and the rest of her teammates were waiting on her.
“Scales, you know that I could’ve just cut the line with an Ice Shard with how tightly it’s strung,” she harrumphed. “It’d have made this go by a lot faster.”
“Better to be safe than sorry by avoiding a racket,” the Heliolisk replied. “You never know how closely these clotheslines are being watched. A lot of dwellings in Newangle City are communal, and the skies here are busier with fliers than they are in most other settlements.”
Maybe that’d explain a thing or two about why the laundry didn’t look all that well-washed. But was climbing up here really that much harder to miss? Kate brushed her thoughts aside and turned her attention back to the lines above. She followed the blanket’s clothesline with her eyes back to the base of an open window and tested it with her claw. It didn’t feel that sturdy, so then all that was left was to pull her claw up a bit to build a bit of momentum, and…
Thwip!
The line gave way with a downward swipe, the Sneasel latching onto the loose end and riding down into the alleyway with a rolling stop. Lyle and Irune didn’t wait for her to get back onto her feet, and promptly threw back a couple sheets to get at a pair of colored scarves from underneath. Dalton did much the same with the blanket, where Kate looked down and spotted a scarf made of silvery fabric that felt silken to the touch.
“Whoa-ho, fancy.”
“Hey! What are you doing down there?!”
Kate briefly glanced up to see a Bibarel glaring down from the window. She snatched the scarf and took off running, following after Lyle’s heels as Irune and Dalton ran after her. The Bibarel’s shouts rang off in the distance, intermixed with footfalls and the jostling of wood and wire bins that the Sneasel forced her way past as one alleyway seemed to blend into the next. Kate wasn’t fully sure where they were going right now, other than “away from the angry tree-killer trying to catch up with them”, with her only guidance being Lyle’s fire further ahead of her.
“Quick! This way!”
Kate planted her feet and skidded to a stop, turning back to see Dalton at a broad stairwell made of crumbled concrete that was wedged between rows of squat wood-timbered buildings. Guess they were going that way, then. The Sneasel darted up the steps, briefly noticing that large parts of the surrounding walls were made up of bare concrete faces, until they popped out into a broad street with Pokémon milling about.
“Hey, watch it!”
Kate hurriedly jumped out of the way of a Rhyhorn laden with bags who stumbled to a stop as Lyle and Irune stepped back before running past him. Gods, they hadn’t even been in the city for an hour and here they were almost getting stepped on by others overlooking them. She thought she’d left that behind years ago. Her breaths came tense as she followed Dalton’s tail, bobbing and weaving past passers-by until she followed him into a back alley just past a stall with stands filled with spiky green fruits. She stopped along with her teammates and paused to catch her breath, when she noticed Irune stop and sniff at the air before screwing her eyes shut.
“Ew… what is that smell?”
Kate sniffed at the air and supposed things did smell a bit rank. She glanced at Lyle, who was pinching his paws over his snout, and then at Dalton as he motioned off at the stand and its green fruits.
“It’s those Durin Berries over there,” he explained. “They have a strong odor, so if anyone was trying to scent us, it should throw them off our trail for a bit.”
“Ugh, why didn’t you just lead us through an open sewer while you were at it, Dalton?” Lyle groaned.
Dalton narrowed his eyes briefly only for his own nose to twitch before he visibly fought back a gag. There was that inner priss of his in action. Even so, part of Kate couldn’t help but be surprised by her teammates. She always thought her own sense of smell was pretty good, but even if these Durin Berries didn’t have the sort of odor she’d want constantly to be around, there were worse to be had in the refugee camps she’d grown up in after mom had to settle down...
… No, she didn’t want to think about that right now. She shook her head and continued down the alleyway, giving an irritated twitch of her tail feathers.
“Come on, let’s get going and get some fresh air.”
The others were all too eager to do so, and as the smell of the produce stand started to thin out further along the alley, she noticed the rest of Team Forager breathing in and out sharply—probably trying to get the scent out of their nostrils. Even so, there was something about all of this that she couldn’t wrap her head around…
“How did you know how to go up those stairs anyway, Scales?” Kate asked, turning her head over to Dalton. “Since I didn’t smell those Durin Berries from all the way over there, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got a better nose than you.”
“I actually didn’t notice the stand until we got onto that last street,” he answered. “But I knew to come this way because I saw that poking out over the rooftops.”
Dalton lifted his splinted arm and pointed off up ahead as Kate followed with her eyes. Much to her surprise, high above, there were a set of concrete slabs set atop tall pillars with some sort of fencing along their edges. The things had to be at least twice the height of the surrounding two-and-three-story buildings and they looked wide enough to squeeze at least two or three of them side-by-side together. The Sneasel turned her head to try and follow the slabs’ path, but they just kept going on and on. A few of them looked like they had chunks missing, but from their construction, they appeared to be—
“Are those bridges?” Irune asked, her mouth hanging agape. “What on earth were those built for?”
“Human machines. Ones that supposedly could travel faster than a galloping Rapidash on their own,” Dalton answered. “Most bridges of this sort in Newangle City have fallen into disrepair or been destroyed through the ages, but the ones that are still around and passable provide paths to go between districts in fairly short order.”
Kate stared up with an incredulous gape at the bridges as she tried to wrap her mind around Dalton’s explanation. Did those human machines have sails? It’d explain how big the bridges were, but she’d never heard of a boat or one of those ‘Segelwagen
Land sails
₂’ which were supposed to be used in the desert or plains Provinzen ever going fast enough to keep up with a galloping Rapidash.“Though let’s hurry and change our colors. We might as well make it a bit harder for those Grünhäuter to find us while we’re here in the city.”
Kate snapped to attention after hearing Dalton’s voice and felt scaly digits tug at her paws. She looked down, where he was taking the silver scarf from her. She at once tightened her grip on it, flattening her ears with an unamused hiss.
“Hey! What’s the big idea?! That’s the scarf I found-!”
“Yes, and it’s one given out to students from Universität von Wahrheit.”
Kate blinked as Dalton turned the scarf around, where sure enough, there was a design of a blue flame in an enclosing circle on it that looked much like the one on his badge. He lowered his head briefly, before letting out an unimpressed harrumph.
“And just who here do you think would be most likely to convincingly pass himself off as still being a student from it?”
The Sneasel trailed off and looked off at Lyle and Irune as the pair stared at her with unamused frowns. Dammit, she liked that scarf… but if it really was one that was meant to be worn by prissy nerds, it was hard to argue that Scales would have the easiest time selling the act.
“Ugh, fine.”
Kate let the scarf go as Dalton claimed it and tossed a wadded-up blue scarf back at her. The Sneasel unfurled it and was immediately greeted by a white circle with four triangles around it much like the corners of a square. It wasn’t as nice as the last scarf, but she could certainly live with this.
The Sneasel raised the scarf and started to tie it around her neck, only to discover much to her dismay that hung too loose around her neck—it had clearly been sized for a ‘mon that was shorter and had a thicker neck than a Sneasel. The Dark-type paused briefly, and turned to see Irune looking at a set of matching scarves in Lyle’s paws. They looked to be light red with a yellowish tinge, with some sort of design involving a pair of concentric tan circles with a small spike poking up from the inner one.
“Bah, of course the next nicest-looking scarf doesn’t fit me,” she sighed. “Guess you’re getting this one, Irune.”
The Sneasel passed her scarf over to Irune who took it only to look down at it with a blank stare. Kate quirked a brow at the Dragon-type’s reaction. Was there something wrong with it she hadn’t noticed? The scarf Dalton gave her was sized about right for the Axew, and while bold, a ‘mon could do worse than to have a scarf with that pattern on it.
“Something wrong, Irune?”
“No, no. I… just was a bit surprised by the design.”
“By a Drachensiegel
Dragons' Sigil
₃? I can’t say I’ve seen too many scarves with ones that big on them, but they’re not that rare as a design,” Lyle said. “Just wear it with the symbol rolled up or facing inwards if you’re worried about it being too noticeable.”“Right, I guess I’ve heard of them before. But that’s not what I was getting at,” Irune explained. “This symbol’s supposed to be on things that come from the Divine Roost. I just… wasn’t expecting to see it on a random scarf like this.”
Kate quirked a brow at the Axew. Things from the Divine Roost really had lucky charms on them?
“Because it’s a lucky symbol that’s supposed to help its bearer remember their home and guide ‘em back safely?” Kate asked. “Why, even Edialeighers are supposed to put stock into that superstition. There’s a reason why ‘mons who’ve done stints in the army like hiding it somewhere on their garb.”
Dalton seemed to tense up briefly after the mention of the ‘army’. There was a brief silence, before he shook his head and let out a low sigh.
“It’s a symbol which was popularized around the time of the Kingdom’s founding that’s said to originate from a faraway land called ‘Annal’,” he explained. “There’s some folklore about how it reminded the Founder’s patron of a place she’d seen in her life before the Great Flash, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it was used to decorate things that came from the Divine Roost.”
The Axew fell quiet for a moment, before looking down at the scarf with a quiet murmur.
“Right, I guess that makes sense. And I suppose a blue scarf would go better with my scales than one that’s a shade of green.”
… Oh, so those two scarves she and Lyle found were green, apparently. Well, at least they didn’t have to worry about it looking too much like their current ones. Even so, something about Irune’s comments didn’t sit right with Kate. She supposed that the idea of things from a shrine to the gods being marked with lucky symbols sounded a bit dippy, but the Dragon-type sure sounded convinced about it.
It was those last few words Irune said in particular that felt off. Like she was trying to hide something.
The Sneasel finished putting on her new scarf and went over to help tighten Irune’s as Lyle and Dalton finished up. Before she knew it, they were all done, and staring down at their red-and-silvers lying on the ground. Lyle let his vents flare up as he walked forward, embers built at the back of his mouth.
“I suppose that it’s time to torch these and get moving.”
“Hold on, Lyle.”
Kate flicked her ears as Irune’s voice suddenly cut in, just in time to prompt Lyle to smother the cinders in his mouth. A couple stray wisps of smoke curled from its corners as the Axew hurriedly cut in and stepped between them and pawed at her right tusk uneasily.
“Are we sure it’s a good idea to get rid of our current scarves?” she asked. “It wasn’t as if it made a ton of difference the last time we did it.”
Oh boy, they were doing this again, huh? Lyle didn’t look particularly amused by the idea himself, as he reared onto his hindlegs and folded his forearms with a sour huff.
“Yeah, no thanks to the scarf that you wouldn’t let me burn and insisted on burying in the forest.”
“But can we even burn these here?” the Axew insisted. “And what if the scarves we just stole get wanted too?”
Kate turned her head over at Lyle, and saw he was visibly biting his lip. Guess that was a sign that he hadn’t thought of that. Had Irune had a bad experience since being put on the run after ditching a scarf or something? Since the Axew didn’t seem to have gotten attached to those colors they stole from those Team Pathfinder ‘mons…
“... She does have a point, Lyle,” Dalton cut in. “If the guards here didn’t know about our colors going in, they’re more likely going to be looking for us after any trouble we cause in these new ones we just stole. At the very least, we shouldn’t get rid of our original scarves before lining up another set that we can change into.”
“Yeah, and if we do need another set in a hurry, isn’t it easier just to try and change the pattern of ones we already have?” Kate asked. “If we need to wash our paws of them in a hurry, it shouldn’t be hard to dump them in a gutter or something like that.”
The Quilava flattened his ears and raised a paw with a sigh. For a moment, Kate worried that Lyle was going to make things difficult, since he always had been the type to second guess suggestions. Though much to her surprise, he stooped down, and grabbed the red scarves before handing them off to her.
“Fine. But at least wad ‘em up and hide them in one bag, so that way we can get rid of them easily if things come to that.”
Kate balled up the scarves before going over to Dalton and summarily shoving them down towards the bottom of his bag. The Heliolisk winced briefly from his right arm getting jostled, before piping up with a sharp cry.
“Hey! What on earth are you-?!”
“I mean, your bag is the one that’s all chewed-up at the moment, and you can’t use items all that well with that busted arm of yours,” she said. “You said that you wanted to get a replacement for that book we stole from those Hunters, so there’d be no harm if you were the one in charge of ditching things if we had to, right?”
The Heliolisk grumbled and rolled his eyes, before swinging his bag around to adjust the wadded-up scarves with his left hand. Guess that was one way to tell she’d won Scales over with her argument, even if some acknowledgement from him would’ve been nice.
Kate’s ears pricked at the sound of footsteps against cobbles as Irune drew near and gave a worried glance up.
“Wait, where exactly is this place that you wanted us to get our bearings, Dalton?”
“The Administrative District,” he explained. “It has a number of vantage points that overlook the city’s northern bank, so it’ll make going over options a bit easier.”
… ‘Administrative District’? As in a district where Pokémon who ran stuff would be? Kate wasn’t sure how good of an idea it’d be to go skulking around a place like that, but Scales was the one who knew where he was going in this city…
“Wait, how are we supposed to get there anyways?” the Sneasel asked.
Dalton raised his left hand and motioned off towards the leftward part of the ruined bridges above. A pair of Pidove flew past, which at first made Kate wonder if Dalton had lost his mind and expected them to travel on Carriers they’d have to grab onto by their ankles… when she saw it.
There, poking out just past the rooftops, was a ramp made of stone and wood with tightly-spaced arches running up it. There were hazy figures climbing it, some Pokémon, while others appeared to be carts or wagons from their size.
“We go up, of course,” Dalton said.
The walk to the ramp went by smoothly enough, and after pocketing a couple odds and ends off a few less attentive marks at some stalls built at the ramp leading onto the bridges, Team Forager made their way up and onto its upper spans. The lengths of the bridges’ spans were largely empty and mostly paved over with stones, with occasional patches of ancient asphalt and concrete which could be seen in more dilapidated sections. Every now and then, there would be concrete walls that occasionally had rib-like structures that curled in towards the road: posts that once had metal slats which had been harvested and melted down, probably centuries ago.
Their journey took them deeper into the city, following the ancient bridges along their length until whenever their spans ran out. Whenever they came to such points, they’d cross over on narrower extensions made of hanging bridges built from wood and rope for shorter gaps—with other stretches of the ancient bridges had ramps that went back to ground level. It was a strange dichotomy whenever they made the crossing one way or another: ancient, crumbling, and largely straight lines above, and cramped, haphazard roads flanked by half-timbered buildings that stretched up four to five stories below, occasionally punctuated by human ruins that jutted out among them like oversized blocks. Every now and then, there’d be a row of buildings built up tall enough for shopfronts and small markets to spill out onto the bridges’ spans, while in others where the bridges’ full width was still standing, the entire left or right half would be taken up by dirty and reeking masses of tents and mats clustered so thick that one could barely see the pavestones—refugee encampments of the sort Boudewijn had mentioned on their way into the city.
Lyle made a point of picking up the pace whenever they passed by such places, he didn’t need to see the disappointed gazes of the beggars they walked by. Much less to risk some desperate type from them finding out that they were still carrying a decent chunk of money on them.
It almost felt like going through parts of Moonturn Square, with the way modernity piled up on top ancient ruins. Except here, it just kept going and going wherever one looked. Whether on the bridges, or up into the skies with the gray-and-white spires of the Administrative District that grew ever higher as they neared. High enough that some of them looked almost like they were touching the clouds.
“Blauflamme, and I thought the Great Spire was tall,” he murmured. “Though why do those towers have those gray and white tiles or whatever those things are? Most of the shorter ones we’ve seen so far don’t have them.”
“The gray-and-white surfaces on those towers are panels put up where windows or missing walls once were to protect the interiors from the elements,” the Heliolisk explained. “Putting them up is a tradition that began in the times of King Agarez the Great, and most human ruins in the Administrative District are at least partly covered by them. Even if they haven’t exactly been maintained well in recent years.”
Lyle turned his head up to see Irune panting and looking past Dalton at the head towards the spires in the background. The Axew stared up at them mesmerized, almost as if she’d brought her bead collection back out, with her attention curiously focusing on the tallest one in the center.
He wondered what the story behind that was, only for the Axew to glance back down at their Heliolisk guide.
“How much longer do we need to go until we reach the district, Dalton?”.
“We’re just about there, actually,” he said. “Couldn’t you tell from the surroundings?”
Lyle looked up as Dalton pointed off towards the base of the ruins, where he saw that they were approaching a ring wall that had been built between the gaps of a set of stone-cladded towers that looked almost like squarish, upside-down hooks. They were shorter and inward-facing unlike the ones at the gates, but from how high they loomed into the air, they had to be at least twice as tall as any of the more modern buildings nearby.
Lyle walked along the length of the wall from along the base of the road, marveling at its size. Why these had to be taller than Moonturn Square’s fortifications, and this was an inner wall! Which wouldn’t have been a problem, except for the fact that there wasn’t a good view across the river like Dalton said there’d be…
“Are you sure this is the right district, Scales?” Kate asked. “Since I’m not exactly seeing how we’re going to spot much of anything across the river like this.”
“The vantage point I had in mind is still a bit higher up than this,” the Heliolisk explained. “There should be a path we can take towards it right about…”
The Heliolisk followed the length of the inner wall with his eyes, and raised a hand to trace his gaze. Lyle quirked a brow and followed after Dalton’s fingers, where off to the left, he saw the Electric-type’s fingers stop. There was a brief outcropping that split off and overhung over a few smaller buildings underneath. It was another ramp made of a patchwork made of wood and stone like the one they’d taken to get onto the ruined bridges, along with a few wagons making their way up and down it.
“There,” he insisted. “That’s our way up.”
Gods, that high up? Lyle was surprised that anyone other than Flying-types would want to live so far off the ground when drawing wellwater was bound to be a chore. He dismissed it as just another quirk of this strange, ancient place and set off alongside their companions. They followed after the flow of traffic on the road as flying Pokémon casually flew past them, dutifully keeping their distance whenever they spotted Gendarmen nearing. As Lyle climbed up the ramp, he noticed that there top of the wall looked like it was anchored by a set of ancient bridges, or at least what was left of them that had had the space below them filled in.
All around, there were other remnants of bridges that converged in towards the ring. Nowhere near as complete as the one they’d taken, but still intact enough to see that they must’ve once been linked together in a network, almost like a giant web of some sort that radiated out from the ones where the wall now stood.
Lyle felt his feet even out from under him and noticed there was a wooden railing that ran the length of the edge to the right. He walked up close to it and slowed his pace as he gaped out and let his mouth hang open and his vents came alight in surprise.
A ‘mon really could see a lot from up here. Much of it the view was muddy from being so far in the distance, but from the features, he gathered that they were looking roughly towards the eastern gate they’d come through earlier. There was the river they’d floated in with Boudewijn and his raft, the docks, and the route they’d taken from there to get here. And all around them, a veritable sea of ramshackle buildings, interspersed with crumbling human ruins here and there.
He’d heard stories while growing up about how the capital was built among ruins of a great human city. About how it was filled with ancient structures of scales that nobody in all of Wander had ever built again since their construction. But to see it with his own eyes… it just made him feel like he was walking in the shadow of a city built for fearsome giants.
Lyle stole a glance at his teammates. Kate was just off to his left, with Irune beside her as well, with both of them appearing similarly floored by the vista. Like him, they gaped out at the spread of the city below, all as the Axew gave a quiet murmur to herself.
“Scales, is this the ‘Administrative District’ you were talking about?” she asked.
“Sort of, we’re presently at the district’s edge. The spiral road that scales its walls allows for Pokémon to reach its different levels,” Dalton explained. “It’s the remains of a district built by a mysterious institution called Vector ‘Ah-ghee’ which used to use the buildings here in the time of humans. It’s also where King Klaus founded our land, so it’s also the place where the Crown keeps the royal palace and the rest of the citadel which anchors Newangle City.”
Lyle quirked his brow and turned back at Dalton. He knew that Dalton said he’d come here to Newangle City before, but he weren’t expecting this level of familiarity with the city from him. And Dalton said he was here as a student, so then…
“Just how do you know this district so well again, Dalton?”
“... It’s where I used to go to university while I lived here, back in better times,” he sighed. “It’s not as if the city’s been sacked since the last time I was here, so it hasn’t changed that much.”
Lyle blinked at the Heliolisk’s reply. He’d figured for a while that Dalton had an upper-class upbringing just from his mannerisms and his accent. But hadn’t he said he’d been an Outlaw around Port Velhen? That was all the way across the Lesser Mist. How on earth did he wind up going from here to there?
There were other things about Dalton’s story that didn’t seem to add up from what he could recall. He spent time around someone who was familiar with counting money, in Hightongue, at that. He apparently had seen cloth made from a machine loom before, and was familiar enough with it to ask Boudewijn about the fabric he used for his patches. And of course, the Heliolisk had a brother named ‘Dieter’ in the army who bit it from something that still tore the ‘mon up inside.
How on earth did Dalton go from a world where he was apparently being educated far from home to turning to a life of crime? What next, would he turn out to be some disowned prince who’d been kicked out of his home?
“Lyle. Heads-up.”
Lyle felt a prod at his shoulder and snapped to attention as Kate and the others hurried behind a wagon. The reason why quickly became apparent: there was a large party of Gendarmen headed their way. Lyle stiffened up briefly and sucked in a sharp breath as he joined his teammates, but still too slow to avoid being spotted by a Mamoswine in green plates. He bit his lip and held his breath as the Ice-type cast an askew glance that lingered on him briefly, before the guard let out a low grunt and continue on.
Lyle wasn’t sure if word of them hadn’t reached the capital yet, or else if those scarves they stole were saving their asses at the moment. Either way, considering how it’d taken all of a night for wanted posters for them to hit the streets of Errberk Village, it probably wasn’t safe to assume the guards’ ignorance would last for long. Whatever gear they needed to grab and whatever information Irune was hoping to discover about herself needed to be squared away as quickly as they could manage. He relaxed a bit after the party of armored guards shuffled out of earshot, his breath coming with tense pants as he looked over at his teammates similarly letting out sighs of relief… along with Kate flattening her ears with an unimpressed frown.
“I suppose that I should be less surprised that a prissy type like you would hang around high society, Scales,” she grunted. “Not that I don’t mind a challenge or that the marks here wouldn’t be rewarding, but are we really going to be able to snag anything while going out to those scenic spots you mentioned?”
Dalton shook his head back and raised turned his head off inward from the wall. When Lyle turned to follow, he saw there was a bridge splitting off from the roadway and onto a network of raised roads which teemed with Pokémon heading in and out of it.
“If a decent opportunity arrives for us, maybe. Not that I don’t consider myself partial towards robbing the rich, but there’s safer places to look for a mark in this city,” he said. “We don’t need to hang around here for much longer than to get our bearings.”
Dalton took a few steps forward, before motioning for the rest of his teammates to follow.
“There’s an overlook for the other side of the city we can get to after crossing the Administrative District’s inner walls,” he explained. “And besides, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten the chance to get a view of things here.”
The bridges that Dalton took Lyle and the rest of Team Forager through reminded the Quilava of the ones they’d taken over to the Administrative District—just narrower and branching off into many more directions. They sprouted almost like a web of some sort, with some sections abruptly ending from having collapsed with the ages, while the remaining ones had been turned into bustling streets. Far below, there were other streets on the proper ground, wedged in between towering spires with white-and-gray cladding that seemed to stretch up towards the sky.
History and modernity had a way of just blending into one another. The cladding that some of the taller towers had was much newer than Lyle expected, with Dalton explaining that they’d been added and replaced when needed by successive kings since the reign of Agarez the Great. Both to protect their internal structures and to beautify what were otherwise crumbling facades… which even to this day appeared to be incomplete from the way how some of the shorter buildings had chunks of missing cladding while still others had skeletal interiors partly overgrown with plants left bare for the world to see.
“G-Götterblut, just look at all this!” Lyle exclaimed. “Dalton, this is just one district?! There must be more Pokémon than in all of Moonturn Square living on this one street!”
“It’s less impressive than it looks,” Dalton remarked. “Most of the floors of these buildings that are more than about ten removed from some sort of accessible surface aren’t consistently inhabited. Few Pokémon without wings have the time or energy to climb all of those stairs on their own or else to wait for the Tuggers manning the cargo lifts to take them up or down.”
Lyle blinked and peeked over a nearby railing to inspect his surroundings more closely. At both street levels, the exteriors had been gutted, with more normal buildings built into their facades, much like in Moonturn Square’s marketplace. Such construction carried on for four or so floors, when new shingled and thatched rooftops would be built increasingly into the human ruin itself. By the sixth to eighth floors, sure enough, the signs of habitation started to give out, aside from scattered holdouts that continued further on.
Lyle noticed Irune gaping up at those upper floors herself, and curiously enough, there seemed to be a look in her eye. That same sort of excitement and yearning that she’d had while they were flying with Hermes.
“Feels like a bit of a waste,” Irune murmured. “Though what are all those floors normally used for, then?”
“They’re mostly used for storage or else kept vacant for use as citadels in the event of a siege,” the Heliolisk explained. “I’ve heard in the outlying districts, some of the vacant floors of the taller ruins there are taken up by refugee camps and even heard rumors of stray Wilders living in some of them. But I don’t know how much stock I put into them when towers like those usually have Air Marshals posted on the roofs...”
Gendarmen or soldiers unwittingly sharing space with Wilders in the middle of a city like this? That definitely seemed far-fetched, but what did he know? Lyle continued on, only to sidestep Kate as she stopped and squinted off at the towers above. The Quilava looked up, and saw shapes fly up near their tops and circle around, a few slipping onto various rooftops, including a black-and-blue blob that he could vaguely make out that had six wings and three heads on it.
“... Wait, so does that mean that there’s an Air Marshal garrison there as well?” she asked, pointing off at the tower she spotted. “If so, is it really a good idea to linger around here? Since I’m pretty sure that I just saw a Hydreigon flying around.”
Dalton’s eyes followed Kate’s claw, and when Lyle did the same, he noticed she was pointing off at a central spire towering over the surrounding ones. After a brief pause, the Electric-type’s eyes narrowed and he glanced around warily before letting out a low grumble under his breath.
“It almost certainly does, even if it’d be hard to tell just who’s coming and going from there,” the Heliolisk muttered. “That’s Dämmerungsturm, where the king’s palace is. You might have spotted a guard, but you could’ve just as easily seen someone flying in towards one of the palace complexes on one of the roofs.”
Where the king’s… palace was? Lyle supposed that the story checked out from the tales he’d heard of Newangle City and the Crown while growing up, but… something didn’t add up with what Dalton had told them about the towers.
“I thought that you said that nobody lived more than about ten floors up or down from the streets here,” the Quilava remarked.
“I said from an accessible surface. That includes rooftops,” the Heliolisk explained. “It’s said that the practice started after the tallest rooftops were given over to shrines for gods to roost in when visiting the city. The kings of the land wanted to be closer to them, and so the lower rooftops in Dämmerungsturm and the surrounding towers are taken up by palaces for the court and quarters for nobles summoned by them to stay in…”
Dalton trailed off to himself as his eyes lingered wistfully on the towers for a moment, before he looked down and shook his head with a low grunt.
“Though that’s enough of us getting our heads up in the clouds,” Dalton insisted. “The overlook I told you about is just up ahead. It’s pretty hard to miss.”
Lyle couldn’t help but wonder what Dalton’s look was about, when he was snapped to attention by a loud gasp from Irune. He looked over and saw her mouth hanging open and her attention fixed off where Dalton was pointing:
It was the rooftop of a human ruin, with a tall statue of Reshiram made of polished white stone gazing out in the direction of the river.
“... No kidding,” Kate murmured to herself. “Though how are we supposed to get up to it?”
“There’s a path up to it,” the Heliolisk replied. “Follow me.”
Dalton headed through the crowds of Pokémon as Lyle and the others followed closely to avoid falling behind. After what felt like a sea of bodies passed by that made it hard to see much that wasn’t past their heads, he found that Dalton had taken them to a flight of steps cobbled together from wood and stone which wrapped around the walls of the building the statue rested on. No space along the path had gone to waste, as the whole time, Lyle found himself pushing past Pokémon going to and from past cramped shopfronts and entrances to simple houses making their way up and down the flight steps providing access, an awful lot of them hawking amulets and papers of some sort. Shopkeepers plying wares to pilgrims, perhaps?
The steps began to even out, and the crowds started to thin, which Lyle quickly realized it was simply from there being more space. They’d stepped out into a rooftop plaza of some sort, where dead ahead was a view of the entire northern bank of the city.
And the Reshiram statue that stood guarding it under her watchful gaze.
Dalton and Kate were quick to set off, and made their way past the statue as Lyle followed along. He turned his head and glanced at the statue as they passed, when he noticed Irune lingering in front of it with a blank stare.
Gods, he hoped that keeping her focused and moving along wasn’t going to be a regular occurrence here in the city.
“Irune, come on,” he said. “You can look at the statue later-”
Lyle trailed off after he noticed the details on the statue were worn with age and that the glyphs on the pedestal were shaped like various footprints arranged in patterns. Just how old was this thing, anyways?
“I… just didn’t realize that there were so many Pokémon that still left prayers.”
Lyle turned back at Irune, who was now looking off at the ground and pawing at her tusks. He turned back towards the pedestal of the statue, when he noticed that all along it below the glyphs, it had been covered from top to bottom in various papers.
“... Huh?”
That really was a lot of prayers. Lyle supposed that the statue being in the middle of a big city didn’t hurt, but somehow it didn’t occur to him that it’d also double as a shrine. He walked up to the pedestal close enough for the runes written on them to begin to take form, and sure enough, they were wishes left behind by other Pokémon like the ones at the Bildstock west of Moonturn Square. Except here, there weren’t visible gaps between stones to slip all of them in, so most of the prayers and petitions were leafletted on top of each other. To the point that some of them were plainly visible for passersby to read—or at least the wishes were, anyways. The confessions seemed to be firmly hidden on the backs of the papers.
They… didn’t look all that different from the ones Pokémon from Moonturn Square would leave behind at the Bildstock, or the ones that some Pokémon from his hometown would for that matter. There was one by some Hunter wishing for luck for his team to make it to their next guild rank, another by some lovebird wishing to catch the favor of a crush, one for good luck in some manner of fighting tournament that was apparently going on…
And then there were the prayers that made him feel uneasy just looking at them.
There were a few wishing for vengeance on Edialeigh for everything Varhyde had been forced to endure over the course of the war, and that Reshiram would come and set their land afire in vengeance. There were others that just flatly wished for peace of any sort. A couple desperate-sounding ones wished for the safe return for a relative from the frontlines, to be passed over from the army’s levies, or for healing from wounds taken while fighting in the war.
… He almost had half a mind to put one up himself. Hell, he’d admit to his whole life as an Outlaw if it’d somehow, let him see Alvin again alive and well again.
But what was the point? There was no Reshiram to answer all these prayers right now. And even whenever there was one again, why on earth would she lend an ear to the pleas of an Outlaw?
“Lyle?”
Lyle’s vents came alive with a start briefly as he felt tugging at his shoulder. He looked down and saw Irune pawing and Kate and Dalton staring back at him from a railing along the rooftop. The Axew gave an impatient stare up at him, before motioning off to their waiting teammates.
“The overlook’s over there,” the Axew insisted. “Weren’t we supposed to figure out where we were going?”
Lyle blinked for a moment, before shaking his head and flattening his ears with a quiet sigh. To think that he’d ultimately need to be the one pulled away from being distracted by the scenery.
“Sorry,” he replied. “Though you’re right, we should take care of that quickly and not dawdle here.”
The Quilava followed Irune along, quietly stealing glances back at the statue before he caught up with his teammates at the railing. Past it, was an overlook. The view was a bit muddy from this distance, but it really did look like a ‘mon could see the entire northern bank of Newangle City from it. There were a small handful of bridges that ran across the river, with a sea of buildings made in rougher styles at the other end. Above it all, human spires shot up in their midst, ones which had gone entirely uncladded and sprouting vegetation from their upper levels. Some of them were visibly leaning, while others had gouges torn out of them.
… Was that what the spires around them looked like underneath those panels on the outside?
Why, there was even a curious bowl-like structure off towards the northwest that pressed up right against the city walls. One that looked just like the central marketplace in Moonturn Square, except it looked big enough to fit the whole of the town’s central marketplace in its hollow!
Dalton raised a finger, moving it off towards the north, as he settled it over a bridge just past the river’s bend.
“Over there, on the other bank of the river near the part with the toppled human spires,” the Heliolisk said. “There’s some marketplaces there that are used by merchants that we can hit up, and it shouldn’t take too long to get there if we exit through the Lower Streets.”
Lyle squinted and strained his eyes to try and make out what Dalton was pointing at, when he noticed there were chunks of towers lay on their sides without obvious roofs or ceilings. He flicked his ears, before giving a worried frown at the Electric-type.
“What the hell happened to those buildings out there?” he asked.
“According to folklore, there used to be a Mystery Dungeon there in the early days of the kingdom that had a Link to a distant land,” Dalton explained. “The part of it that used to be visible aboveground faded away sometime before the events of the first war between Varhyde and Edialeigh after the Great Flash and left those ruins behind. Its remaining entrances are now all underground.”
That sounded like it could come in handy for getting out of the city, really.
“I don’t suppose that that Mystery Dungeon will get us closer to the Divine Roost, will it?” Lyle asked.
“Hardly,” Dalton scoffed. “Its known exit loops back to its entrance and the only known Link inside that feeds into that Mystery Dungeon goes to a cave system in unknown parts that no Exploration Team has found an exit to yet.”
… Or not. Lyle sighed and leaned forward, when he noticed Kate quirking her brow, and shooting an askew glance over at the Heliolisk.
“Eh? We’re supposed to go all the way out there?” she asked. “I get not wanting to raise too much hell in this district when there’s literally nobles and prissy types living right above us, but if we’re not going to stick around this city for long, why not hit up whatever we find on the way back down?”
Dalton shot a serious look back at the Sneasel, and gave a small frown in reply.
“Because this is Newangle City and not some peasant village,” the Heliolisk insisted. “As big as this city is, you need to have a good feel for what territories you can do things in before going and causing trouble, just like anywhere else as an Outlaw.”
Guess that meant that that part of the city Dalton wanted them to go to was a bit of a dump, then. Lyle looked out at the cityscape below, it was far enough that his eyes couldn’t make out much of it beyond gutted spires flecked with autumn vegetation poking out of a muddy jumble.
“Also, those marketplaces aren’t close to any garrisons or Guilds that would potentially cause us trouble,” the Heliolisk added. “As a matter of risk management, it’s the best place that I know enough about to be comfortable with our odds of stealing what we need.”
A marketplace would be full of potential marks, and if Dalton was convinced that was the place to be, it was hard to argue with him as the ‘mon who knew the lay of the land. Lyle turned his head towards Irune after hearing her ask something in passing about whether they should start “by that bridge over there”. Guess that was a sign her farsight was better than his was.
From how long it’d taken them to make their way up to this overlook, it’d take a good hour or so in order to make their way over and then reach that district. A glance up revealed that the sky was starting to turn orange, which was probably as good a cue as any that they should move along.
“Let’s get moving then,” Lyle said. “Those marketplaces aren’t going to get any closer from us standing around like this.”
He just hoped that Dalton’s memories of the city were as good as he remembered.
Author’s Notes
Words and Phrases:
1. Impergator - “Feraligatr”
2. Segelwagen - “Land sails”
3. Drachensiegel - “Dragons' Sigil”
Teaser Text:
When King Klaus founded Angle City, he did so in the ruins of a human city spread out so far and wide that it had become an ungovernable warren after the Great Flash, much like others which have since been lost to time. As such, the Founder and the goddess Reality saw fit to build a citadel which would shelter a budding civilization from the dangers of an unsettled world.
They did so at Dämmerungsturm and the towers about it, which had once been the centerᵃ of Vector Ah-gheeᵇ during the era of mankind. Their commanding heights were pleasing to our goddess and overlooked all who would approach the Founder’s city, while their location clustered along a river’s bend made them easy to turn into a bastion. This is why to this day, their citadel serves as the Administrative District of our land’s capital. A throne that stretches up towards the clouds for our land’s goddess, and for her kings and heroes.
Much of Klaus’ early reign was spent reclaiming the space between the ten towers that lay beyond his bastion. Towering monoliths which housed machines that fueled the lights and various handiworks left behind by humans by drawing from the strength of a distant radiance. He was the architect of his city’s great ramparts, turning the ten towers into Wehrtürmeᶜ and connecting them with walls built with the aid of human works that survived the Great Flash. Thus why he has been immortalized in our history as “Klaus the Founder”.
Whatever enabled King Klaus and the goddess to work such wonders was lost to time after Wish and Reality and the lands which hail them as patrons first made war against each other. In the ages since then, it has fallen to his successors to attempt to maintain his works. Which is why every king and queen in Varhyde begins their reign by swearing an oath in the name of its patron goddess to do so to the best of their abilities.
Even in the face of the march of time and its ravages. Even in the face of knowledge that has grown forgotten. Even in the face of those who would lay it waste from their greed and evil designs, with malevolent desire and ruinous thunder.
- Excerpt from 'The Varhyder Chronicles - A Brief History of our Kingdom's Early Years'
a. ‘Zentrale’ in German carries connotations of a focal point, especially from which something is controlled. As such, it can also mean “headquarters” in some contexts.
b. Derived by phonetic approximation of the original letters.
c. Plural of ‘Wehrturm’, a word for a defensive tower. Left untranslated for flavor purposes.
They did so at Dämmerungsturm and the towers about it, which had once been the centerᵃ of Vector Ah-gheeᵇ during the era of mankind. Their commanding heights were pleasing to our goddess and overlooked all who would approach the Founder’s city, while their location clustered along a river’s bend made them easy to turn into a bastion. This is why to this day, their citadel serves as the Administrative District of our land’s capital. A throne that stretches up towards the clouds for our land’s goddess, and for her kings and heroes.
Much of Klaus’ early reign was spent reclaiming the space between the ten towers that lay beyond his bastion. Towering monoliths which housed machines that fueled the lights and various handiworks left behind by humans by drawing from the strength of a distant radiance. He was the architect of his city’s great ramparts, turning the ten towers into Wehrtürmeᶜ and connecting them with walls built with the aid of human works that survived the Great Flash. Thus why he has been immortalized in our history as “Klaus the Founder”.
Whatever enabled King Klaus and the goddess to work such wonders was lost to time after Wish and Reality and the lands which hail them as patrons first made war against each other. In the ages since then, it has fallen to his successors to attempt to maintain his works. Which is why every king and queen in Varhyde begins their reign by swearing an oath in the name of its patron goddess to do so to the best of their abilities.
Even in the face of the march of time and its ravages. Even in the face of knowledge that has grown forgotten. Even in the face of those who would lay it waste from their greed and evil designs, with malevolent desire and ruinous thunder.
- Excerpt from 'The Varhyder Chronicles - A Brief History of our Kingdom's Early Years'
a. ‘Zentrale’ in German carries connotations of a focal point, especially from which something is controlled. As such, it can also mean “headquarters” in some contexts.
b. Derived by phonetic approximation of the original letters.
c. Plural of ‘Wehrturm’, a word for a defensive tower. Left untranslated for flavor purposes.
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