Another Day at Unity (30)

Coraline sat up in the dirt, holding Lamplight as close to her chest as she could. She spun in place, staring back at the person lingering in the doorway.

The lights were off behind her of course, and Coraline had lit no candles. Yet she was almost completely covered—there were only her eyes visible within, a shade of silver gray darker than Coraline had ever seen before. Her daemon was entirely hidden, tucked away in what she guessed was the bag over her shoulder.

The stranger dressed like a robber, except that she carried no weapons, and the little bag would not have held much. Besides, there was nothing left in the family's fortune to steal.

"Who are you?" Coraline asked. It hurt too much to move, her body still burning in the agonizing transformation's afterglow. "Why are you hiding?"

"Because my presence here is a crime," came the words. Not spoken out loud this time. This was like what the comet had done, except it focused on Coraline instead of her daemon.

She strode purposefully over, past pieces of old wooden furniture. "It would likely invalidate all new contracts I have made, or force my new house into war. I do not know which would be worse."

She reached Coraline, holding one hand down towards her. Even that was covered with a glove. "Come with me, Coraline. You cannot remain here."

She stared up at the black glove. She should've been terrifying, this stranger. Yet she wasn't that much taller than Coraline herself. She couldn't be fully grown with a voice like that, maybe a teenager? But why hide her daemon?

"Not without my father. He's... dead. Upstairs." Coraline wasn't sure exactly how she did it. It wasn't Lamplight, the little daemon was barely even still conscious. Something about feeling that silent speech demonstrated to her was enough to duplicate it in herself. "I won't leave him like that. Was... preparing something in the kiln. His daemon."

Those silver eyes stared at her, unblinking. But if she expected to intimidate Coraline into changing her mind, it wouldn't work. Nothing could hurt more than she already had.

The stranger sat down next to her in the dirt. She moved slowly, as though the motions were somehow old and unfamiliar, and she was afraid of making a mistake. "That's what it meant with that name. Child of pain."

"You heard it too?"

Another voice answered in her mind—male, sharing much in common with the speaker. It came from the bag over her shoulder, projected into her thoughts as the human did. "I did. We weren't born the last time it passed the planet, so we weren't sure what it would be like. We didn't expect to feel someone else."

Lamplight twitched in her grip, squirming enough to peer out from between her arms at the stranger and her daemon. His eyes focused on the bag, and the pokémon it contained.

"Who are you?" Coraline asked. "Your accent is... I think it's from Hoenn, but I don't know where."

"My name is Ilene Millennium," the woman thought. "I heard your wish. I would like your help in granting it, but there will be some difficulty if Eon House finds and executes you."

As she spoke, the woman settled her bag on her lap, turning the zipper towards Coraline. She moved it down, just far enough for Coraline to see inside.

A jirachi smiled out at her from within, his head just barely small enough to fit inside the satchel. He reached up with one tiny hand, waving at her, before the zipper slid back up again, hiding him.

That was when she realized what she was holding. That pale body, the oversized star headdress and the cape over his back. Lamplight wasn't any pokémon she'd ever seen before in person. No trapinch like the rest of her family.

Coraline couldn't argue. She didn't have the strength for any of that anymore. She pressed her head into the young woman's shoulder, and she cried.

Her dad hadn't been strong enough to hold her while she cried, not for a long time. But this stranger—she did.

Ilene wrapped one arm around her shoulder, and squeezed. Through her plain clothes, her touch was irresistibly strong, stronger than either of Coraline's brothers had been while they still lived. Even stronger than father, before the plague.

"I would bring your family back if I could, Coraline. But I already need to bend causality once to get you from this place. I do not dare Lord Moonstone's tolerance a second time."

She nodded weakly. "Can we... bury him? I don't care what you do with me after that."

"This wish is within my power to grant. In exchange, you will keep your eyes closed a moment."

She obeyed, burying her face further in the stranger's chest. A stranger, yet also somehow the long-lost rulers of Hoenn? How was that possible?

"You may open them now," Ilene Millennium said. "Though you will not know where we are."

She did, and saw—somewhere strange. They were up high, much higher than anywhere in Petalburg. Before her was a low wall, half-toppled and overgrown with moss and lichen. The girl helped her to her feet, then tugged down her hood, removing the scarf from her face.

Underneath, the girl was unnaturally pale, much whiter than any typical complexion. So pale that her skin practically glowed in the moonlight.

Then she unzipped the bag, and her daemon floated freely out from within, trailed by the little gold capes behind him. "Eon House will have no means to sense this place. Yet if we remain too long, they will search it anyway. You cannot linger."

"Then why... bring me?" Coraline stopped staring long enough to turn around, and look back at the place they were standing.

There was a palace here in the cliffs, built from ancient stone and metal. Massive stained-glass windows stretched between many identical pillars, in a way Coraline vaguely remembered from her history education. "If it's not safe..."

"Nowhere is, at this moment. But it will be in time, come. I told my friend I would be coming here, on this date. She will not abandon us." She gestured towards the building, and an ancient door rattled and shook, swinging part way open. "I have prepared a place of refuge within. You should be able to rest."

"I can... rest," she repeated. She tucked Lamplight under her other arm, so Ilene wouldn't accidentally brush against his body. "Why are you helping us? If... the comet, not... aren't we your enemies?"

The girl circled around her once, then dropped to one knee in front of her. Ilene rested her arm gently on Coraline's shoulder, holding firm. "I haven't seen another of my own kind in three centuries, Coraline. I do not care what House Eon sends into this palace—if they want to hurt you, I will make them kill us both. And on this night, I do not think they will attempt it. If they send an army, I'll send their heads back to Southern Island until they stop."

Coraline shuddered—but whatever horror that she might've felt just didn't come. There was something strangely reassuring about those words. "Your... kind," she repeated. "For a few hours, at most. I should be... trapinch."

She looked down at the little daemon in her arms, much the same as the metal shape hovering behind Ilene. Even in his exhaustion, she felt what the daemon did not have to say. Lamplight couldn't change anymore. They had settled in a way that would probably leave her having nightmares for the rest of her life. Like Lamplight had been lit on fire from the inside, but just didn't burn...

"Trapinch would not have survived what you experienced tonight, Coraline. You're something stronger."

She gestured, and the open sky vanished, replaced with somewhere else. For a few seconds there was total blackness, then Ilene's daemon touched something on the wall, and a crystal set in the ceiling began to glow.

It was a bedroom—or it had been, long ago. The carpets were gone, and old portraits had lost all their color, turning brown and curling at the edges.

There were no windows either, only another pinkish crystal in about the same position as windows ought to be.

Ilene carried her across the room, and set her down on something soft. Well, soft-ish. Someone had brought a modern cot down here, and with a sleeping bag as fancy as the ones travelers and tourists sometimes used. She would get it filthy like this, covered with mud and blood and other things like she was.

But if Ilene didn't care, why should she?

"Your father—was he the only member of your family left, Coraline? Your mother already gone, no grandparents..."

She nodded tearfully. So maybe there were a few tears left, after everything else. "Few uncles left on my mom's side. But they never liked me. Father said... they only offered for the house. Now he’s dead, they'll try to take it."

Ilene settled onto her knees beside the cot, one hand gentle on her arm. "Then... we have something else in common, Coraline. My parents are gone too. My brothers are gone, and the only extended family I have are probably already getting ready to sleep for another thousand years. That means it's just us, and whatever cats happen to be dressing up at the time. They mean well by it, at least one does. But it's a long way from actually having someone who understands."

She squeezed Coraline's shoulder one last time. Despite her incredible strength, there was no pain. This stranger wasn't trying to hurt her. "I'll bring water for you in the morning," she said. "And I'll find the time to pray to Arceus that our help is here by then."

Coraline was much too exhausted to argue. Sooner or later, all that was left was to submit to the absurd situation, and hope her life would make more sense in the morning.

Her new friend dimmed the lights for her, but left a small glow from overhead. It was enough to keep her from feeling like she was in the dark.

Coraline dreamed of comets that night, and their strange voices promising wishes. Had this one granted everything it promised, or just tormented her?

Coraline woke eventually, feeling—something. Not cold, not hot, barely anything at all. For a few minutes she just lay there on her back, trying very hard not to feel the sleeping bag she was laying in.

This wasn't her bedroom, it wasn't her comfortable home—and she would never have gone to sleep so dirty. Even at the worst, with the water and electricity off, Coraline would always have gone to the river to rinse off if she smelled like this.

She lay there for a little while, feeling her daemon stir in the sleeping bag beside her. Rarely did Lamplight ever take a form that was quite so rigid. Those sharp points on his hat probably should've hurt more when they pressed into her skin, but she found his presence there surprisingly comforting.

"No matter what happened to us, we're still us," he thought, somehow alert before she was this time. "They're back. I think they realized when we woke up."

Indeed, something moved in the bedroom, and the dark crystal overhead sprung to life again. Ilene stood by the door, or... floated? Her feet didn't quite reach the ground. "Morning, sister. I'm sorry, I cannot let you rest any longer. But I have drawn a bath. I'm told you should take it quickly."

She sat up, stretching both arms wide. As she moved, so did Lamplight, floating himself up into the air next to her just like Ilene's daemon was doing. He made it look easy, though Coraline knew better. She felt the struggle tormenting him. But she pretended to ignore it, and so did the visitor.

"How? Doesn't look like the water in here is still working. Or... much of anything. What is this place?"

"I will answer those questions and more," Ilene said. "But first, the bathroom. It would not be good for you to make this trip covered in your own blood scorched by the comet. You will feel better if you come this way."

Coraline stood up, then tossed her dirty jacket to the ground beside the bed. She'd taken it off during the night without realizing it, along with all but her underclothes. It didn't really help, she still felt disgusting.

"I never had a sister."

Suddenly, Ilene was right beside her. How had she moved so quickly without making noise? She took Coraline's hand in hers. "I learned watching a cat that doesn't really matter. So long as the desire is there, that declaration itself becomes the truth."

"I don't know you," Coraline whispered. She looked away, and Lamplight fled behind her, shielding his face in shame. "I don't mean that to be ungrateful... but I barely even know what happened yesterday. I'm not ready for a new family."

"That's okay." Ilene squeezed her hand, then released her fingers. "I've been waiting a very long time, but you haven't. You may simply call me... Ilene. I expect nothing further."

"Not 'lady'?" Coraline pressed. "Or some long line of titles? Lady Ilene Millennium? Or..."

"Just Ilene. Now... let's see to that stench."