Another Day at Unity (33)

Julian left his tower not long after, before the warm jacket could make him start sweating. He walked, though floating would probably be faster. Maybe one day he would get around to learning.

The halls students used to navigate Unity were all indoors, made from fresh wood and glass his own family had funded. Despite their connection to the building, it never stayed warm enough for a mew to be comfortable. Aerie could only float out of his pocket for a minute or two at a time before she started to shiver, and zipped right back.

There were not very many students here, despite the school's enormous size. Unity had perhaps a hundred students in all, most of which had settled to real families like Julian had. Even so, he had to pass the huge psychic-type dorm, with private quarters for at least a dozen people separated into a boys' and girls' floor.

"Hard to imagine this place being full one day," Aerie thought, directly into his mind. But there were other people out here, so that was not strange. Aerie never spoke where strangers would be able to hear her.

Once, there were other students who didn't know who he was, and he had to deal with unwanted questions and attention.

No longer. Somehow, his fellows had discovered who Julian was, and what position he would one day occupy. Now they got out of his way when he approached, sometimes even bowing.

The old families didn't do that, of course, but lots of wildlings had old instincts. Maybe they should've let them keep acting that way until they proved they deserved something better.

At the same time, there was another quiet part of himself that wished for something else. Whenever he went around the school with Hayden, she stopped to talk to most of the other kids they met, or else they would come to her to ask to join in.

It would be nice to have friends like that.

Eventually, Julian neared the section of the school dedicated to the fire types. He knew they'd arrived because the wood was all gone, replaced with rock and cement only patterned to look natural. There was still art here—mosaic tiles mostly, along with elaborate stained glass of various burning things, volcanoes, and similar.

He unzipped his jacket, and Aerie floated free of the pocket. Maybe he should've been visiting this part of the school more often. But Hayden never came here, so he rarely did either.

But Hayden didn't know everything! She could be wrong, just like she was about servants. Julian should've tried to prove it long before that.

He hadn't come for the dorm or any of the groups of pokémon who lived there. There was at least one wildling victini, a shy girl who liked spending time with ghost types. But if Julian wanted a wildling to teach him, he could've just gone to find Hayden. If he told her how she needed to apologize, she might just agree and get it all over with...

But no, he'd made it much too far along this path to give up now. He wasn't going to get too shy and go home this time.

House Victini had its own towers, just like his own noble house. He didn't really have very far to go, or any worry that he might've found the wrong place.

Besides, Julian Moonstone knew this world; he wasn't some intruder who didn't belong. Despite the difficulty of it, he floated over the lower door meant for lesser guests, and instead approached the one on the second floor, which was too far from any balcony to reach on foot.

Aerie devoted most of her attention to holding them both there, but at least she could do it.

Julian knocked sharply on the door, then floated back a short distance to wait with both hands meditatively before him. There were no classes today, so that should mean the victini was already here. Even if he couldn't feel the pokémon through the wall, that might just be a problem with his senses...

The door opened, and a servant appeared there, dressed in the silvery metal uniforms common to House Victini. Exactly the sort of person Julian expected to find here, but not the one he wanted. An oblate servant was useless to him—he already had one of those assigned to him, and barely even told the boy to do anything.

"I'm looking for Lord Fae," he declared, in the most confident and commanding way he could. "Where is he?"

Like all oblates, this one was a few years younger than Julian, with the small, terrified look he took for a given with their kind. "I, I... think he went... into the workshops..." the child said, looking like he might just combust if Julian interrogated him any further.

But maybe he would—he didn't exactly know how the everstone harnesses worked. Maybe the servant children chosen to wear them really could just catch fire.

He didn't bother thanking the servant—there was nothing to thank them for when they couldn't do what he wanted.

Instead, he turned his attention on the workshops. He had never cared much for that part of the school, or any part of the school that wasn't in his tower. But if he didn't have to get there directly, it would at least save him the trouble of dealing with other students along the way.

He landed on the ground in front of the tower, letting Aerie devote her full mental powers towards this goal.

There was one thing he could do better than his betrothed. He'd been watching Ilene teleport things around since he was still in diapers. No mew could spend their whole life like that and not learn something from the experience.

The air warped, then cracked. Ice formed along his jacket, before melting and crumbling only seconds later. Aerie wobbled in her flight, before slipping away into the pocket of his jacket again, breathing heavily.

"You should... work on how to float too, so you can carry me for a while after... jumps like that."

That would probably be good to remember, if they could find the time for it in their confusing schedule. One more thing to put up on the list of important tasks waiting for him.

The workshops were another less interesting part of Unity, one that many of his fellows were inexplicably interested in. Lots of them wanted to make things or build them or fix them, even though they had servants for such unimportant work.

But Fae apparently cared enough to come here, and now Julian had too.

The space was fully underground, an enormous round room with workshops of various kinds spread evenly. That meant the entire thing was overwhelming, filled with smells, sound, and yammering students.

What could they possibly be talking about that they needed to do it with so much noise? Then there was the one in the forge, hammering on something so loudly that the whole building shook with each strike.

Julian wasn't the only one annoyed by it, clearly. Despite the weekend, many other students had cleared out, and those few who remained were entirely isolated in their smaller workshops.

Except for whoever was making all the noise, of course. The blacksmith in question had left the door to their workshop deliberately open, filling the hallway with clattering noise.

Aerie would probably have done something to shield her sensitive ears by then, if it weren't for the pain of a recent teleport. All she could do was roll up in the jacket, squeezing her ears shut with all her might.

"Whoever that is should be more considerate. If they're powerful enough to make all that noise, they can hold it in a bubble."

Julian put his original task aside for the moment, turning to stride across the workshop. A handful of other students moved out of his way, though he didn't know any of their names. If he saw Fae, maybe he would ask how the victini could deal with this awful sound.

He did find Fae, not much further.

The victini was in the workshop, hands curled around metal so hot that it glowed faintly orange in his grip.

He'd stripped all the way down to the waist, and his usual clothing of woven metal produced its own glow from the warmth.

Fae had ignored every posted safety warning, turning up the heat in the forge so high that many surfaces ignited, while instruction cards and shelves melted into a Bakelite slurry. Another second later, and Julian saw where all that heat had come from: Fae's daemon was lying in the forge, her wings beating and her body glowing faintly blue.

Julian stared through the open doorway, momentarily transfixed by the sight. He'd seen many strange things over his life, some beautiful and others terrifying, but none quite like this.

Fae's chest looked different than anyone he'd ever seen. He was all angles and sharp lines, with a thin layer of sweat from the exertion. With each swing, his muscles briefly contracted, arms and chest rippling with the incredible force of each blow.

Any lesser material might've crumbled away—the anvil wasn't doing very well, now deformed in the shape of his many strikes. How could anyone hit that hard with their own body?

"I want to go in there. Can you shield us, Aerie?"

The kitten poked her head out of the jacket, exhaustion overcome by the force of something much more powerful: interest.

"Would be easier if we could turn into them. Could we?"

Julian didn't have to answer, they both already knew. Becoming other pokémon just didn't come as easy to him as it did for a mew like Hayden. But she had wanted to be multiple pokémon for her whole life. For Julian, the subject was fascinating, but not central to his identity. It was okay to stay one thing for a few days, even if that was something boring like his normal self.

Unfortunately that left the two of them ill-prepared for a moment like this.

Maybe, if the situation was really desperate, they could copy Hayden's shaymin. She had taken that shape around them often enough that they had learned it by then. But shaymin would only make this much worse.

"If I say get out, you get out right away," Aerie thought. "Don't try to push me. If my bubble pops in there, we could die."

Julian nodded. "I promise, I'll get right out. You can use as much of my strength as you need." That wasn't an invitation he often made. Mother had discouraged sharing power between them like that, afraid it might push them towards greater Unity. They saved that power for moments when they needed a little extra push.

Like right now. The kitten lifted out of his jacket, floating right up against him. Her long tail stretched back, far enough to curl around Jamie's wrist. Aerie held both paws in front of her, as though she were going to hold back the rising tide.

He knew the instant their powers worked, because the overwhelming heat vanished from around them. Even the open door was enough to produce a considerable breeze, lifting the fabric of his oversized jacket. Julian unzipped it the rest of the way, then tossed it onto a bench, and stepped into the workshop.

Maybe “floated” was closer, since he didn't touch the ground. The rubber on his shoes would probably melt to the metal, sticking him in place. He had to float just above the ground, low enough that it wouldn't strain him too much.

As the heat grew, the bubble became brighter, a sphere of blue just big enough to fit Julian inside. It didn't quite track him, though—it was centered on Aerie.

Julian crossed the room, until he had come all the way in front of Fae.

The pokémon didn't react to them at all at first, hammering away at the object resting on the anvil. Julian couldn't see what it was—sharp, maybe a dagger?

"You're Fae Victorious, right?" Julian asked, when the victini paused between swings. Any interest in asking the inconsiderate blacksmith to quiet down was lost in something much more important.