She lands in a well-stocked alchemical laboratory near... what might be a shockingly humanlike pokemon, or might be a startlingly pokemon-like human, with sweeping zubatlike wings and a pair of impressive horns. This entity fixes her with a stare as her feet touch the ground, and every muscle below her chin freezes in place.

"Good. Needle!"

A more elongated, slightly less humanoid pokemon straightens at the sound. "Yes, mistress!"

"Retrieve the gatecrawler."

The pokemon salutes, then teleports away.

"Uh, hi."

The entity nods pleasantly, and Lucy finds her body moving without her input, removing her shirt and sitting in a reclining chair. "Good evening. I apologize for the rudeness of my summons... among other things."

"Wait, that was on purpose? Why?"

"I had need of a subject meeting certain criteria. You were the nearest that I could straightforwardly access."

She picks up a small knife with a blade that is difficult to look at directly.

"...and for what it's worth, I am sorry about this," she says quietly.

Aw, fuck. 

With her muscles frozen, there really isn't much she can do about this. 

"Please leave my pokémon alone."

"Don't worry," she murmurs. "This will only hurt you."

But it does, a great deal.

Well, that was incredibly awful. But--it is a comfort, the promise that she was the only one hurt.

"You did well," whispers the stranger-mother-demon.

And then

The first thing she sees, after the mirror-snake 'mon, is cracked and barren earth. She's being hurried along on a stretcher.

Her chest hurts a great deal.

A cold, metal-covered hand touches her forehead and a strange man says something. Her chest hurts a little bit less.

"Help," she croaks. 

"We will," the man growls. "Someone get Terendelev! You there, boy!"

"But I'm busy enjoying your fine festival! All of this medical drama is rather spoiling the occasion, isn't it? Couldn't this poor soul be carted off to, oh, I don't know... an infirmary? Or some accommodating ditch?"

"Enough," says a calm feminine voice. "Let me through."

Heal. It's like being running face-first into a wall, except it isn't like that at all, because Lucy wasn't moving and it doesn't hurt, it does the opposite of hurt. It heals. But it's closer to running face-first into a wall than it should be, given all of that.

Lucy's chest still hurts, but only in the dull, throbbing way of an old scar before a storm. Something one could live with.

She levers herself up cautiously, one hand pressed against her throbbing chest and one hovering over the segment of her belt with her pokeballs on it. 

"Where am I?"

"You're in the city of Kenabres," the woman says. "Everyone, let's give her some air? Go back to the festival, enjoy yourselves – I'm including you in that, Hulrun – easy, there, don't rush it." She offers a steadying arm.

She takes the arm. "I don't recognize the name Kenabres, I'm sorry. What region is that in? I ran into--I don't know, a pokemon I didn't recognize, presumably with Teleport...?"

"We're in the region of the Worldwound, which was once Sarkoris. You say you were teleported by some kind of magical beast? I'm sorry, your translation spell isn't catching the specific word."

"Teleport? The Move? Do you not have that? I mean, I don't know for sure that's what happened..." Worldwound is an incredibly ominous name but then again the world nearly ends ever other year or so so maybe it's fine. 

"No, that other word. 'Pokemon.'"

"Living things that move around and aren't human? Move around volitionally, I mean, not, like, trees waving in the wind."

"...that is a very broad category, but I suppose it's a coherent one. What did this Pokemon look like?"

"Sort of snakey, with a flat reflective face."

"Hmm. I don't recognize it offhand... the parsimonious explanation is that it's some kind of demon, but parsimony will have you right nine times and eaten the tenth." She sighs. "I'll do some research, on that and on why your chest wound might have been so reluctant to heal. I think you should stay within city limits for at least the next day, in case it opens back up; would you like to stay at the barracks, or an inn room?"

"What's a barracks?"

"It's where the soldiers stay. There are always a few beds free, but you'd be in a room with other people; the advantage is that you'd be somewhere I know how to find you."

"Oh, I don't mind sharing, I stay at pokecenters all the time." 

Terendelev gives her a shining smile. "Then I think the next order of business might be for you to enjoy our humble festival."

"Thanks! What kind of festival is it, and can I have directions to the barracks for later?"

"It's a celebration of the Wardstones, the blessed artifacts that keep the Worldwound sealed. Without them, powerful demons would stream forth into the world at large; with them, and the efforts of the crusaders, the threat is contained." She lowers her voice. "Between you and me, it's mostly a harvest fair. But it's a military town, and the spin helps morale."

"...Huh." She's seen harvest festivals with all kinds of local traditions plastered on top, but she's really starting to be concerned by the implications of this whole "Worldwound" thing. Terendelev seems busy though so she should probably ask someone else what exactly is meant by "demon" here. Sounds ominous though.

Terendelev walks off into the crowd.

The festival is in full swing! There is drinking! There are hand-to-hand combat dummies! There are archery targets! The world is her cloyster.

...Lucy boggles at the dummies and the archery. These people are fighting with their...selves? Not their pokemon? It should be, like, a machop hitting that straw thingy, not a human being. Archery takes longer to figure out, she doesn't even know off the top of her head of a 'mon that does that. 

"Aren't they silly?" asks a girl with pointy ears, glossy black eyes, and severe burn scarring covering most of her body. (Who isn't wearing shoes, despite the autumn nip in the air.)

"I don't think I have enough context to say if they are or not."

"They think it protects them. Being strong, like that. When really it just makes you more able to be hurt."

"Well, yeah, no matter how good you are at punching something with your own fists, you still shouldn't wander into tall grass without a pokemon. But Terendelev didn't even know the word pokemon, which is really confusing!"

Blink.

"I don't either. Soot, do you know?"

A black bird pokes its head out from her tangled hair and croaks.

"He doesn't... Soot knows so many things, but he doesn't know pokemon. What are they?"

She squints at him.

"Is...is he not a pokemon???" 

"He could be," Ember says dubiously. "But wouldn't he know, then?"

"I--maybe? If he's not a pokemon, then...what is he instead???"

"He's my friend!"

Soot caws reproachfully.

"And an animal," she amends, giggling. "And maybe something more than that? But only a bit more. But –"

She glances around, and her eyes light upon a little tabby cat. She scoops it up in her arms.

"Tiger, here? Tiger is an animal. And I'm not his friend yet. And I don't think there's more to him like there is of Soot. Just an animal."

"'Friend' is not the same kind of thing as pokemon versus not pokemon. Obviously I'm friends with all my pokemon. And I guess I could only be friends with pokemon, but that's not the case, I have human friends too. Tiger also looks like a pokemon, although I don't know of any specific pokemon that Soot and Tiger appear to be. I think 'animal' is more, uh, relevant, but I...don't...recognize it...any more than you recognized 'pokemon?'"

"Hmm... an animal is like a person, but usually they're less clever, and smaller or bigger, and covered with fur or feathers or scales. They eat each other, sometimes, some of them, but others of them just eat grass or fruit. They can't do anything very strange, like breathe fire, or they'd be a different thing, like a demon or a dragon or a beast. Does any of that help?"

"They eat each other!?!?!?"

"Yes! Tiger here would eat Soot, if he was hungry enough and I wasn't here to give him a treat instead."

Serenely, she sets Tiger down and draws a bit of fish jerky out of her pocket to feed him.

"Pokemon eat berries. And stuff that's made of berries. And human food, too, sometimes, but mostly berries. And loads of them breathe fire, and dragon is a pokemon type. And demon and beast are words that gets used to describe pokemon sometimes, but not, like, specific subsets of pokemon, like a type."

"They sound nice! You said you're friends with some?"

"Yeah! I have six. That's the most anyone can have with them at a time, like, as a Trainer. You get herds of Miltank or whatever that are bigger than that, but the people who take care of them aren't properly bonded to all of them."

"Six!" Ember's eyes sparkle. "It sounds lovely, having six friends with you all the time... but I think I have more friends than that around the city, and I wouldn't like to choose. Maybe it's for the best."

"Well, you can be friends with pokemon who aren't yours. Especially if you stay in one city instead of traveling around like I do, although that doesn't mean I'm not friends with any other pokemon. ...Maybe it will clarify anything whatsoever if you meet mine." 

"I'd love to!" says Ember predictably.

There was festival food, right? If she's bringing everyone out they should get a treat.

There is festival food! Fried dough features prominently, as does squash soup served in little hollowed pumpkin bowls.

Little hollowed pumpkin bowls! That's so charming! She will get some of each. 

She puts food in a set of dishes she pulls out of her bag and then pulls her balls off her belt and calls out her pokemon. 

"Chika!" Tess plants her forelegs against Lucy's leg and nuzzles her delightedly. 

Oooooh! Novel food! EXCELLENT. 

"Rike..." Dana the electrike circles Ember. She smells WEIRD.

"And that's Linty," Lucy points at the pink spiky one, "and that's Maggie," the borb, "and Ava." The sleepy yellow one. 

"Ohhh," Ember coos delightedly. Her fingers cats-cradle around each other and she whispers something, and then she says "Hello, little friends! May I pet you?"

Tess bounds over to her. She LOVES pets!!!

...So like, it's not that she's not allowed to pet Linty, but like, is she sure she wants to, Linty is SUPER pointy.

Ember barely has sensation in her hands anyway! Pets for Linty! (And also for Tess.)

Nom is definitely too busy eating right now for pets but like check back in later. 

Instead of pets Dana would like to be LESS CONFUSED about why Ember SMELLS WEIRD. 

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're smelling! Is it smoke? I know I smell like smoke sometimes..."

No, no, Dana has smelled smoke before, Lucy doesn't have any fire-type pokemon but she battles them sometimes and also makes campfires on the road. Ember smells MOSTLY like a human but ONLY MOSTLY.

"Oh! I'm not a human, I'm an elf. We're like humans in most ways but we live much longer, and we've got a little extra magic."

Like they can bond to more pokemon? That is the magic that humans have, mostly, is bonding to pokemon. 

Wow, this conversation is SO interesting. Maggie is going to stand on Ember's head. 

"No, like the thing I'm doing to talk with you! That's a bit of my magic. Or I can put people to sleep, or heal them a little bit, and that's magic too."

That sounds more like things pokemon can do than like things humans can do! Even the talking part, pokemon can all talk to each other but talking to humans is different and harder.

zzzzzzz worth it though... zzzzzzzz

Well. Yes. Obviously. And communicating with your trainer is easier than communicating with random humans regardless.

Ember giggles. "Maybe I'm the pokemon, not Soot!"

Oh hi Soot do you have any insight into what's up with any of this?

Anyone may change the world around them, if their will is strong enough, Soot croaks. Ember's will is strong, and she believes.

"I just know some tricks," Ember demurs.

Hm. "Anyone may change the world around them if their will is strong enough" resonates with Maggie's understanding of the world, it's just, usually having a strong enough will also involves having pokemon and a good relationship with them. 

Ava has finished her treats, would Ember like some sleepy cuddles?

Ember would love some sleepy cuddles!!!!

But then Soot caws urgently. Something bad is going to happen!

...That is another weird smell, only this time it's bug-type pokemon instead of humans.

The locusts come out of nowhere, crawling out from thin air and swarming and eating everything they can fit into their little mouths. The feast tables are covered with them in seconds.

Then, festivalgoers start shedding their disguises, cackling and revealing weapons or claws that they use to butcher the nearest panicking humanoid.

Then, a hole opens up in the sky, and a vast and horrible creature steps through. Its body is that of a great locust, its arms wield a scythe of razor chitin, its wings are a droning swarm.

Welp, that's a legendary pokemon engaging in apocalyptic behavior. 

Wait, holy shit, those other ?pokemon? are killing people, what the fuck. Like killing them directly, by stabbing. What in the Distortion World???

Suddenly there is a giant silvery dragon, swooping at the legendary and blowing an icy gale in his direction.

"Deskari! Begone from my city!"

What the fuck? You see legendaries fighting, sure--or hear about it, Lucy's never personally been at the site of a catastrophe like this before--but they don't kill each other!

Her first instinct is to run up to the giant bug-legendary and try to talk to it but apparently it does murder. 

She starts calling her pokemon back into their balls. It's likely she's going to need to move fast and trying to do that as a group is both cumbersome and unnecessary. 

One of the spear-wielding murder 'mon observes her doing this. It would like to offer its own input: spear? Murder?

Tess, still outside of her pokeball, swings the leaf on her head, flinging razor-sharp plant matter at the creature. "Chika!"

The spearbearer doesn't appreciate that! It goes to stab –

– and then its eyes flutter closed and it slumps to the ground, snoring audibly.

Ember doesn't look afraid. But she does look sad, terribly sad. The way people look when their friends fight.

"We should leave," she says quietly. "I can't protect them from each other... they're all soldiers."

"Is this what soldiers do? Kill people?"

"They think they have to. To protect themselves, and to protect the people they love. They never understand that they could just stop."

"How do you just not notice that if you don't kill people, people don't die?"

"But they do."

Deskari's scythe comes down.

The earth opens beneath their feet.

Lucy shrieks and grabs for Ember--she's so young, if Lucy can cushion her fall--

They fall for a very long time, and land in a dark place.

Miraculously, while they hit the ground with some force, neither of them is significantly hurt. A few bruises, nothing more.

"...Well, that could have been worse..."

"It could!" Ember says. "We're not dead. I'm not even really hurt, are you?"

"No. I'd've expected to be hurt a lot worse, from that kind of fall."

"Usually, yes... I wonder if we were falling slower? Magic can do that, even though I don't have the spell for it."

"There are definitely pokemon who could have cushioned our fall...Ava could learn to do that when she gets stronger, but not right now, and anyway none of them were out."

"Maybe someone is helping us."

Ember calls forth a little petal of heatless flame, which hovers above her head and casts a radius of soft white light. This reveals details about the cavern they're in, including "covered in blue moss," "not actually connected to the larger rift Deskari cut except via a hole in the ceiling," and "full of hand-sized white spiders which scurry away from the light."

Lucy immediately crouches down to try to get a better look at the spiders. 

spider spider spider hand? hand? frighten. spider. spider hand frighten. frighten scare

(It's a bit more on the crustacean end than properly arachnid, with sharp chitinous chelicerae and serrated pedipalps. If she tries to touch it she might get bitten, the little guy is pretty freaked out.)

She's not going to try to touch a random wild pokemon "animal" without its permission, that sounds like a great way to get zapped or poisoned or, yes, bitten. 

Then it will scuttle away unmolested, its pacifist streak maintained.

"I want to ask what pokemon that was, but I guess I have to instead ask what...animal...it was."

"A spider! They spin webs, and some of them have poisonous teeth."

"Spider is another term that gets used to describe pokemon, and most of the pokemon you'd call 'spider' have webs, and some of them are poison-type..."

"Huh! So you've got pokemon that are like animals... Maggie looked like an owl, a bit. And Dana was sort of like a dog. But Linty and Nom and Ava and Tess weren't very much like anything I've heard of."

"Linty is a corsola. I've heard them described as a 'coral' pokemon...Nom is a ditto, and Tess is a chikorita. Ditto is a 'transform' pokemon, and chikorita is a 'leaf' pokemon, but transforming and leaves are, like, normal words, that have meaning outside the context of describing pokemon, which isn't true of coral or spider or owl."

Ember nods. "Would you like to see if we can find a way out of this cave?" she asks. "I don't think anyone will likely find us down here."

"Ava could Teleport us back up to the square but it's still full of...murder guys."

"Yes, I don't think we'd be safer there... honestly I don't know that we'd be safer finding a way out, either, it's only that we'll do badly if we can't find food and water."

"Well, I have some on me...although really I ought to try to do something about the murder guys, it's not like murder is okay just because it's not me being murdered."

"Most of the demons are stronger than the one I put to sleep," Ember says carefully. "That's not to say we shouldn't! But... we should be careful. If we die we can't help anyone."

"...Yeah. What--man, if they're really not pokemon, they wouldn't have types, would they..."

Ember blinks. "...no, what do you mean?"

"Well, Tess is grass type and Linty is dual water and rock type. Water and rock are both weak to grass, so they'd take more damage if Tess used Razor Leaf on them than Dana would."

"Oh... well, demons like fire and ice," she says thoughtfully. "And they can't be hurt by lightning. I think they don't mind poison, either. But they really don't like cold iron. Or priests can do some things that they don't like either."

"Cold iron? Like steel? Like...steel and ice together?"

"It's a special metal that doesn't melt until it's hot enough to melt rocks. It hurts demons very badly."

Nod. "It's called steel type, and most steel-type pokemon have steel on them, or something like it; but it could be any metal. ...You said something about priests?"

"Yes, they get some powers from the gods and some of them are good for hurting demons with." (This is not a feature which Ember approves of.)

"...What's a god?"

"A very big, very powerful person. So powerful they can give power to people who serve them, and hear when people need them, and pretend they aren't afraid..."

"Well, of course, anyone can pretend they're not afraid."

Ember smiles sadly. "But most people don't try so hard. The gods pretend so hard that they believe themselves."

"I've met some people like that but admittedly they mostly weren't pretending in the face of masses of murder guys so that's probably easier."

"They're also strong enough that it's very hard to kill them," Ember notes. "That helps, I think."

Distantly:

"Is anyone there? We could use some help!"

Whoah.

"Hello, we're here!" She hurries forward. 

Followed by Ember, she comes upon the voice's source before too long: a barrel-broad woman wrapped in plate armor, standing over a pile of rocks.

Which just groaned with pain. Upon closer inspection, there's a lady under there.

"Oh no! Are you okay?"

"No, I'm under a cartload of rock. Okay is a different thing."

"I'm not strong enough to get all that rock off her," the armored woman frets. "Not without making it fall over and crush her worse."

This is actually a kind of danger that Lucy was prepared to deal with! Unlike murder. She pulls a Halligan bar out of her bag and starts levering rocks off the first woman. "I mean, are you very badly injured."

"Yes. I'll live, if we live, but I wouldn't say no to a healing potion if you've got one in that bag."

"I have healing, but not potions."

"Good that I'm not too thirsty, then."

"I have a canteen of water, if you were."

Once the rocks are off, Ember brushes a hand against the woman's forehead.

Her color immediately improves, and there's a series of subtle crackling sounds from her legs. "Gods. Okay. Standing in three, two..." She gets to her feet, wincing.

"Thanks. Seriously. I'm Anevia."

"And I'm Seelah," contributes the knight. "Paladin of Iomedae."

"I'm Lucy. What's a paladin? Or Iomedae?"

"Paladins – are you asking because you don't know the language very well, or because you've never heard of, uh, god-warriors?"

"We don't have gods where I come from. I...think."

"Well, we're warriors empowered by the Good gods," Seelah manages. "To protect the innocent from those who'd do them harm. And... gods... are like... fundamental forces, in a way? But also sort of people? Like Shelyn is beauty and love, but she's also a beautiful woman who lives in Nirvana, with a glaive and a harp and a paintbrush. Or Desna is freedom and travel, but also a giant butterfly who flies through the space between stars. Or Iomedae is righteous victory and glory, and also the greatest human hero who ever lived."

"That reminds me of some things I've heard about Legendary Pokemon, but those don't have, like, humans who get powers from them."

"Legendary? Like, they might or might not exist?"

"Oh, no, no, they definitely exist. But they're not like normal pokemon! There's only one of them, and they're really powerful, and they're connected to the world in a way that normal pokemon aren't--like, Arceus created the universe, and Dialga and Palkia control time and space respectively, and Groudon made the land and Kyogre the oceans, and Ho-oh can raise the dead..."

"...huh. They sound a bit like gods, yeah. Sort of low-budget ones, any strong enough priest can raise the dead with a diamond in hand, but maybe that one's just starting out?"

"I think I prefer Legendary Pokemon to gods," Ember muses. "Especially if they don't make people worship them."

"Well, Legendaries definitely aren't all the same amount of powerful, Ho-oh is as ancient as the others as far as I know. But it's also totally possible that it can do more impressive stuff and I just haven't heard of it, specifically."

"Wait, no, hang on, gods give you the power to raise the dead?"

Ember nods. "But other things can do that. I think I could do it if I got strong enough, and I don't get my power from gods at all."

Seelah frowns. "...you shouldn't say that where people can hear, they might think you're a witch."

"I am!"

"Definitely don't say that where people can hear you," Anevia advises.

"I guess that might explain why people are going around killing each other, if you can fix it as easily as a fainted pokemon."

"It's very hard to fix," Ember says sadly. "And you need a diamond, and there aren't many diamonds around. And demons can't be Raised at all."

"You're a witch?!" Seelah exclaims, clearly very upset about it.

"Seelah, quick tip from someone who's been at this business longer than you: witches aren't always Baphomites, and the ones who are pretend they're wizards, they don't act like moontouched angels. South of Lastwall they don't even care."

Also, if you're suspicious of someone serving Baphomet, the thing you do is watch them closely, not ask them out loud to justify themselves, but Seelah isn't exactly an Inquisitor.

"What do 'witch,' 'wizard,' 'moontouched,' 'angel,' and 'Baphomite' mean?"

Anevia ticks off her fingers. "A witch is somebody who uses divine magic, god-magic, without the gods giving it to them. A wizard is somebody who learns magic the way mortals usually do it, lots of books and chanting. Moontouched is, uh, when you're a bit odd in the head, sorry, my filter isn't exactly on. Angels are like the opposite of demons, they're kind and brave and they help people without wanting anything for it. Baphomites worship Baphomet, the demon lord of lies and treachery, and usually want to fuck other people over so nobody likes them very much."

"I don't really know what a demon is, either, except I think I inferred that the...entities...that attacked in the square are demons? And they're why you have enough military stuff going on to need a barracks?"

"Yep. Demons are a colossal bunch of assholes who want to rape and break and kill everything that isn't them."

"Soldiers are like that, when they're not at home."

"Great. They can go home, then."

"Where is their home?"

"The Abyss. An infinite hole full of demons who all hate each other. It's a pretty unpleasant place, by all accounts, and there's a bunch of giant holes leading to it in the middle of the Worldwound – those being the eponymous Wound."

"Why would that be a thing that exists???"

"Search me. There's lots of bad places in Creation, and the Abyss is only one of the worst."

"I think Arceus did a better job than your gods."

Anevia barks laughing. "I won't argue. Really the only one who did the creating was Pharasma, and I've got my own disagreements with that... estimable personage."

"So now we get to clean up her mess, I suppose." Sigh. "Uh, Ava can teleport us up to the surface when we're ready, but...I don't think my pokemon can handle that many, uh, 'demons,' yet. --Ava is my Abra. Uh, Abra is a species of pokemon."

Anevia nods, businesslike. "I doubt the four of us together are any match for the demons in the square, even with your... pokemon. Can she teleport somewhere based off a description, or does she have to have been there first?"

"Have to have been there."

"Mm. The square was the epicenter of the attack, and it's probably going to be swarmed with demons for days, if not forever. If our only teleport target is there, then I want to explore through these caves and see if we can't find our way to the surface elsewhere, at least until we get down to less than a day's rations."

"Okay...hmmmmm. If you don't have pokemon, do you have berries."

"We have berries unless the tone of that question implies something special about the berries, in which case we only might have berries."

"Do you have...hm. Plants that grow unusually quickly, but only under specific conditions, and bear fruit that has, uh, exotic effects."

"Yeah, druids can do those. They're called Goodberries, to distinguish from the regular kind of berries. Do your Pokemon need them?"

"They can eat food that isn't berry-derived but I have no idea if not having any berries in their diet is good for them in the long term, it doesn't come up at home. I was just thinking that if you didn't, I should save the berries I have on me to plant, because even apart from feeding pokemon they're really useful."

"...if you can just plant them and they go, yeah. Druids have to personally make our kind out of regular fruit. A renewable source would be the kind of thing people fight small wars over."

"...Well, uh, don't do that, there's more than enough murder already. Yes, berries breed true; I don't even know what a druid is."

"They're a kind of witch that nobody tries to murder about it because they're too useful, they do plant-and-animal magic."

"If I ever meet one I'll try to see if they know anything about pokemon but I'm not optimistic at this point." 

"Sorry," Anevia says.

As they progress further down the tunnel, they hear... faint singing?

Okay, that's a human voice and not a Jigglypuff. What kind of human is it?

High, lilting, devotional. Someone with at least a choral amount of training.

"Stone mother, tooth of earth, swallow him and make him whole again... fire mother, tongue of sun, lick his bones to purity... water mother, river's heart, wash him well and bring him home..."

Stone, fire, water...it doesn't matter that she can't think of any legendary trios off the top of her head with that combination, because this place somehow doesn't have pokemon. And if it did would probably have legendaries she's never heard of. ANYWAY. 

"Do any of you recognize that song?"

"No, I don't even know the language."

"Nor I... it's very pretty."

Lucy quietly gives an approximate translation of the lyrics. Her language situation is apparently weird right now? Or something? Come to think of it she doesn't recognize the language she's speaking right now, either. 

"...still don't recognize it. Let's talk to her? You can take point, in case she doesn't speak Taldane."

Nod.

Lucy steps out. "Hello?"

The singing stops. "Hello," the voice responds, in the same language the others have been speaking, and a light flickers into existence some tunnel-distance away. "Did you fall as well?"

"Yeah! Are you okay?"

"I am well."

As they advance towards the light, it comes to reveal a half-elven woman, her hair very black, her hands very red. At her feet is a mangled corpse; much of it has been eaten, and the blood has been used to paint runes on the intact portion of the body and on several nearby stones.

"The same cannot be said of this unfortunate fellow."

"--What happened to him?"

"He died shortly after falling into these caves, and as you can see, was partially eaten. I believe the giant insects in this cave have a taste for flesh. I have been conducting a ritual once practiced by the shamans of this blighted land. It lays to rest a soul which might otherwise be enraged by violent death, in addition to strengthening and healing nearby nature-spirits. I could not save this man, but I could bring him peace, and ensure his death was meaningful."

"These 'animal' things are so creepy, eating other volitional beings."

A small smile. "I hope you are not so harsh on your fellow travelers; most of us do not refrain from that practice ourselves."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, uh. Most people eat animal meat. We get kind of sick when we don't, actually, unless we're really careful."

"...Well, since I don't have time to chisel 'Arceus is better than Pharasma' into the cave wall, I'll just register that I think that's bad designwork and move on."

"Matters of the stomach aside, there is safety in numbers. Would you mind my tagging along with your party? I can defend myself with a light blade, should it become necessary, and I have some small magics."

"Please don't stab anyone."

"Not even if they are a giant centipede with intent to eat us?" Camellia raises her eyebrows.

"At least let me try to chase them off first."

"Hm. I can accept that, I suppose."

She falls in line behind Anevia.

Great!

...It'll probably go better if she already has a 'mon out before the centipedes arrive. Which one...

"What's a centipede, incidentally?"

"A long bug with many legs and a poisonous bite."

"Thanks." She calls Linty out. 

"Corsola!"

Camellia stares.

"What an odd mode of summoning. How long will it last?"

"Uh, Corsola are diurnal, so if she's still out when night falls she'll want to sleep then..."

"...you mean to say that isn't a conjuration, and is instead simply a creature you had stored in that little sphere."

"It's called a pokeball! You can catch pokemon in them. I have no idea how they interact with 'animals,' we don't have those back home."

"Fascinating. Do you have any spare?"

"Not exactly. I do have a couple of Apricorns, but I think I had better plant those instead of carving them." She rummages in her bag, producing a spherical green nuttish sort of thing, with a shallow brown cap a little like an acorn's but flatter. "Modern pokeballs are made of other stuff, mostly, but it used to be that all pokeballs were carved out of Apricorns, and my family still makes artisanal custom balls that way."

Decisive nod. "It's certainly better to plant your seeds than use them, if they might be the only ones anyone here ever sees. Perhaps we could get someone in who knows how to quick-grow a tree... druids are notoriously difficult to pay, but this is the sort of thing one can convince them to do."

"I'm not sure how useful they'll be, if it doesn't turn out pokeballs work on animals. Or...non-animal things like beasts or whatever. They don't work on humans."

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," she shrugs.

Down the path, there are more voices.

"What do you plan to do with it?" wonders the first - purring, more fond than exasperated. "Do you even know how to wield a sword?"

"Please don't hit people with swords!" Lucy calls. 

There's a startled-cat sort of noise.

"Who the fuck're you?" Voice One calls back.

"I'm Lucy! I'm a pokemon trainer!"

The sources of the voices come into view. One is some kind of blue-skinned catgirl with spider legs coming out of her back.

The other is some kind of half lizard-man, half goat-man.

"Are you a surfacer?" he asks, marveling. "Or – surfacers?"

"Yeah, we fell down when the demons attacked."

"Solalala!"

Lann crouches down and extends a hand to Linty. "Hello there, little friend. Sorry I don't have a treat for you, the hunting's been bad."

Then the rest of Lucy's statement catches up to him. "Demons attacked? Then maybe we're needed up there."

"Demons attack all the time. This is the Worldwound."

"Cors!" She gently bumps his hand with a minimally-pointy part of her front. 

"She had a treat earlier." And he mentioned hunting and Lucy would really prefer that people not feed her pokemon corpses. ...But it is a kind thought.

"So the demons attacked, and you all... what, ran away and fell in a hole?"

"No, a really big one hit the ground with a scythe and made a chasm where we were standing."

"A really big one – Deskari?!"

"I...think someone called it that?"

Lann gets back to his feet. "We're needed on the surface."

"They'd kill us because we're all demon-spawned mongrels," Wenduag points out.

"Not if we have Lariel's blade."

"How certain are you that Lariel's blade won't kill us for being demon-spawned mongrels?" Wenduag snaps.

"It won't."

"Who is Lariel, and why is adding another sword to the mess supposed to help?"

"...Is getting confused about who is and isn't a demon normal?"

"Not usually, but..." Seelah winces. "Prelate Hulrun has been known to... be... overzealous. About whether someone is a threat to his city."

"He only wants to protect people, but... he hurts others, to do it." Ember rubs her burn scars half-consciously.

"Grand. Alright, about where was it supposed to be? Does it smell like anything?"

"Anyone who smelled it is long dead," Lann apologizes. "But it was supposedly interred with him, and I have a suspicion about where he was buried –"

He leads them to a large chamber containing some crudely carved impressions of winged humanoids. "I think there's something in here that conceals his tomb. A secret switch, or something? It's one of our oldest landmarks, and I think there's a reason our ancestors spent their time on it."

Well, hunting for secret switches is perfectly normal pokemon enrichment. 

She calls out the rest of her pokemon. "Okay guys! We're looking for a secret switch, or latch, or something like that. Also this is apparently a tomb, so if there's a corpse, please be respectful." 

"Chika!"

Sniff sniff. WHOAH these guys smell even weirder than Ember.

There's a metallic smell under this pile of rubble! It also smells a little like a Flying-type, and a lot like the sun.

Dana has never actually smelled the sun itself but "metal, flying type, other weird stuff" seems significant enough to paw at Lucy's leg about. 

Lucy gets out her halligan bar again. 

Underneath the rubble: yeah, that's a really fancy sword. The blade is shining silver, etched with delicate golden runes. The hilt unfurls like a pair of white-gold eagle's wings, with a perfect opal set between them.

For something made to kill, it's beautiful.

It is beautiful. It's not like you can't use sharp objects for perfectly reasonable things, like cutting through brush or slicing bread or carving decorative soaps. She reaches down to pick it up. 

As she touches it, there's a flash of light, and she feels.

The sword is... confused. That's what it is. It doesn't understand what's happening, who this is. She's an azata, a worthy ally in the fight for good. She's a demon, a vile thing to be purged. She's a dedicated trainer, someone who chose the path of helping others in a world that hardly needs it. She's a squeamish child, too fearful to do what is needed. She's a rightful wielder, a graverobbing thief, a civilian, a victim.

The sword doesn't know what to do. It's not an angel - it's all that's left of one. It wants to do the right thing. It doesn't know what's right. It knows what's good, but that's different. There's a thousand good things you could do every second, and only some of them are right. It's desperate to do what needs to be done. It's been down here for a hundred years, unable to do anything - they sealed it away, that's not what you do with a sword. It wants to help. But so much is happening, so suddenly, and it doesn't know how to help or who to help or what to help with.

All of this rushes through her in the first moments she's touching it. It's pulled in so many different directions that it's paralyzed. If she lends it her own guidance, it would believe her, whatever she said, just so that it doesn't rip itself apart.

--She wants to save people. She wants to protect them, wants to put a giant barrier between fighting sides until everyone has calmed down and stopped trying to do violence--and if that won't work, she wants to try something else instead--also apparently you can raise the dead here and she really wants that. 

The sword thinks it can work with that.

It's no longer in her hand, but in her heart. She could pull it out again, if she likes; it'll light her way, energize people, radiate hope in the dark. It can also cut things, like brush or bread or decorative soaps.

It won't cut people anymore. Not even demons. That part of its existence is over.

She gasps and falls to her knees. 

And then she pulls the sword out again. 

Wow, this is really confusing. But, like, in a good way. 

And there are new shapes to try, which is neat!

"Ditto."

Wenduag yelps in shock, and scuttles away from the pokemon wearing her face! That's her face!

Lann is busy beholding the angel's sword in Lucy's hands.

"...it's beautiful."

"It's--I don't think I fully understand what it is. What just happened. But, uh, I think I'm going to have to come with you, to show your chief."

"I think it... chose you. I didn't know it could think, like that. But it chose you, and that means you're good. Destined for greatness, maybe."

"I had better be. It looks like it's going to take some greatness to stop all the killing."

"If you can do that, it'll be the most important thing anyone's done in a century," Seelah says.

Lann starts leading them toward the village of the Iron Arrow tribe.

While he does so, Wenduag falls to the back of the group and gestures for Lucy to join her.

Sure, okay.

"You shouldn't show the chief the sword," she says quietly. She looks calm and collected, but her fingers are twitching.

“What? Why not?”

"Lann wants the tribes to all come to the surface. But we shouldn't be bringing up the weak, the vulnerable. We'll spend resources protecting them that we can't afford. Maybe once the demon attack is over, we can whip them into shape – but right now, it'd be foolish. Lann and the chief trust their omens too much."

"Can't we just say that the omen doesn't say to do that?"

Snort. "You can try. Once Lann has an idea in his head..."

"What about the chief?"

"He trusts Lann. Do you think I haven't thought about this? It's a miserable trap."

"I see." 

She moves over towards Lann. "Hey, Lann, Wenduag says you want to bring your entire group up, including the vulnerable parts, and that that's a bad idea." 

Lann frowns deeply. "It's dangerous, but... you have to understand, living in the caves is dangerous too. It's been bad hunting for the last hundred gongs, and in the coming lean season we're going to be rationing sharp enough to lose some of the weaker tribe members already. I don't know anyone who'd rather die starving than fighting the demons. This fight is what we were born for. And we have a sign – you fell into our world and found the Light of Heaven like it was waiting for you. I can't let the tribes suffer down here when the time is perfect for us to rise."

"Okay, but...am I missing something, or wouldn't it be safer for the, uh, stronger people, to go up first, and make sure there's a good place for everyone, and then bring up everyone else? I could totally be missing something, I've never personally lived in a cave."

"They'd be leaving the rest of their tribe defenseless... but it's possible we could pick a couple of warriors from each tribe, instead of stripping one completely? They might not work together as well, but it'd be less to ask of them. And it'd delay the exodus, but – it'd start it, not just leave it in the same limbo as ever."

"It's just that I'm a little worried about overinterpreting the omen--it's not like Lariel left behind specific instructions."

"He didn't, but... I have to believe that he'd want us to go by now. We've already been down here too long."

He shakes his head. "Anyway, you convinced me. I won't try for a mass exodus until we've had scouts up to get the lay of the land."

"Wonderful!" She really has no idea why Wenduag thought it would be necessary to lie about anything. 

Well, she could ask Wenduag directl – no, wait, she's vanished.

"--Hey, where'd Wenduag go?"

"Scuttled off into the shadows in a huff when you decided to communicate like an adult instead of doing whatever she wanted," Lann says brightly. "I thought it polite not to mention it."

"She thought I should lie about the sword, to your chief, in front of four different witnesses who knew better. Five counting you."

"That's Wendu for you. Never met a bad idea she couldn't love."

"...You guys wouldn't have backed me up if I had taken leave of my wits and decided to lie about it, right?"

"...I'd've been confused, and... I might've trusted you for the moment and asked why later... but you wouldn't have been off the hook."

"Wouldn't have second-guessed you. General policy."

"Hmm?"

"I don't care," Camellia contributes.

"Wow, okay. Was it really dumb of Wenduag to bank on that, or is this another place where," everything is worse than back home, "my instincts are going to mislead me a lot."

"People have good reasons for lying, sometimes. I prefer to know them before I trip someone up."

"It is true that people sometimes have good reasons for lying but at least in my experience it's usually a bad idea to lie in front of people who know the truth without earning a lot more trust than I've had time to. Or having a really good explanation. Presented in advance."

Shrug. "I'm not saying it's a moral imperative, or that it wouldn't have been a bad idea. Just that I don't tattle, and why I don't."

"Okay, sure. Seelah, I really appreciate that I wouldn't have been off the hook with you." Ember's situation seems to have been "not paying attention" which she can't really fault her for either. 

"Of course. If I'm going to be a paladin, the least I can do is keep my friends honest."

Gods, it's lucky that she didn't get called on that. Actually having to confront her new friend about blatant lies sounds miserably awkward.

What's the connection between "warrior affiliated with a quasi-Legendary" and honesty...no, that's silly, you're a public figure, like the Mayor, or Officer Jenny. Of course that would be a position of trust.

"Wenduag wanted me to lie about the angel's sword," she explains to Ember.  

"Oh. That wouldn't have been very nice... except to her, I guess. She's very afraid of it."

"She is?"

"Yes! It makes her think she isn't good enough, because why wasn't it her? And why couldn't it happen before she was hurt?"

"You know, that's a good question. Why wasn't it her?"

Ember tilts her head. "She wasn't you."

"You think it was waiting for me specifically this whole time?"

Ember hums distractedly. "It could have been anyone whose story was right. But she doesn't even really have one."

"What does that mean? Everyone has a story!"

"Everyone has a story after. When you tell it. Not everyone has a story trying to tell itself while they're still here. You do. I think I do, a little bit. She doesn't."

"...Is that the same kind of thing as destiny?"

Careful nod. "A little bit... but destiny is when something will happen no matter what you do, and a story can stretch and bend. Your story will show through."

"I guess I hadn't been assuming destiny was rigid! It still feels sad for Wenduag to have grown up around the sword and not been able to touch it and then I waltz onto the scene and pick it up immediately with no emotional investment."

"Stories don't have to be nice," Ember says simply.

"When the stories are real, not being nice is something that needs fixing," she says firmly.

"Yes... yes, you're right. But sometimes things happen, and the most you can do is move forward with hope."

Her burn scars are stark in the dimly phosphorescent cave-light.

"That is true." Sigh. "I don't mean to give the impression that bad things don't happen back home, or anyhing. This is a startlingly large concentration but I'm only mostly as naive as I'm sure I come off."

"I think it's good to be naïve," Ember says firmly. "Because if you know things can't be changed, you won't change them."

"...I mean, obviously things can be changed. Things change literally all the time. The trick is getting them to change for the better. Which, you know, you can totally do! But it takes hard work."

They enter a large, open cavern ringed by deep water, with a tall island in the middle. There are rope bridges out over the water, and small fishing boats. There's also a building atop the island-hill, the chimney of which emits smoke that floats up and out through vents in the cavern ceiling.

"Welcome to the village of the Iron Arrow tribe," Lann says.

Lucy does not immediately identify the boats as for fishing; fishing in Johto generally involves individual fishermen with poles catching water-type pokemon, not people with nets hauling in small food animals. 

"Your home is beautiful," she says sincerely. Honestly this is for sure the prettiest cave system she's ever been in. Mostly they don't have glowing purple fungi.

Lann pauses. "Yesterday I would've said you were crazy, but knowing I might not see it again... I think I agree."

"Well, everywhere is beautiful if you know how to appreciate it, but I've never seen fungi like that before." She points at a column of glowing purple arched against the cave wall. "Magnificent."

He pats the fungal shelf. "Yeah. Yeah, they're pretty great."

They advance up the island's surface, towards the smoking hut. There's a clanging metal sound coming from it, and then a hiss of steaming oil.

Smithing, maybe? Not super her business, anyway, she'll find out or she won't. 

Indeed, when they reach the summit there's a man holding up a freshly quenched iron sword to check its edge. He's old, his hair yellow-white, and he has thick tusks protruding from his lower jaw.

"Hello, Lann," he rumbles, lisping around this impediment. "I šee you've found šome šurfacers."

Lann nods. "They fell down – Deskari attacked – and she found Lariel's sword."

That is probably her cue to produce the sword! She does so. 

The chief squints, against the light and his tears.

"I did not believe you, Lann," he murmurs. "I thought the šword had been lošt to uš forever. You have proven me a fool."

"Not a fool, Sull," Lann says firmly. "You were right, that I would never find it. Lucy did. And she's convinced me not to bring up the whole tribe, not yet. Just a few good warriors, to get the lay of the land and make sure there's a place for us."

"Do we have warriors to špare?" Sull wonders.

"I think we should convene a moot. Get one warrior from each tribe that will come, and send them up once we've cleared the path for them to get through."

"Warriors" is going to imply more killing, isn't it. This...is maybe not the time and place to object to that?

Maybe she can convince her pokemon to have babies and then everyone can have pokemon instead of hitting each other with sharp objects. That would be so nice.

"I will need to let Veredin and Efi šee the blade, if we are to gather warriors from their tribes," Sull says. "It will take them a gong or two to arrive."

"A gong is half a surface day," Lann explains to Lucy. "Does that sound workable?"

Lucy glances at the other surfacers. “I don’t know if we want to wait here that long…but we can certainly come back.”

"Honestly, I could use the rest," Seelah admits. "I wear metal pants."

"I don't, but I'm flagging too."

“Oh. Okay. I’m still reasonably fresh, is there anything I can do to help out around the village?”

"There's always work to do," Lann says. "I don't know that you'd want to gut fish, but there's rope to be mended, and stuff like that."

Absent objections, he'll show her over to a pile of frayed ropes and show her how to splice them back together.

Oh sweet a lesson in a skill!!!

And the rest of her party will sleep.

(She might want to get in a nap too, in the interest of pegging her sleep schedule to the local sun. No rush, though.)

Meanwhile, Ember sits near her. "I would like to gut fish," she says dreamily to Lann. "It sounds relaxing."