Another Day at Unity (7) (Patreon)

Jackie still couldn't sense her. She finished chewing, savoring each bite. While fleeing for her life, she sometimes got to steal fresh produce from orchards or farmers' stalls. But more often than not, she ate leftovers. Sometimes she picked their meals out of garbage bins. Never in her memory could Jackie recall something so delicious.

"She didn't know it was yours, Lady Hayden." Astrid curtsied in Jackie's direction, head down. "It's her first day. Please forgive her."

"I don't want you to bow, I just want my bottle." The speaker drifted into view around Jackie's other side, floating just above the table.

“Lady Hayden” was the least human human Jackie had ever met. Bright pink hair, ears, big blue eyes, and a tail so long it lifted her dress behind her, curling through the air as though it had a mind of its own. She flew like the one who caught Jackie, ignoring gravity as though it were no more than a minor annoyance.

Her daemon was there too, a kitten no bigger than Cammy. Even so, the fact Jackie couldn't sense either of them was more frightening than any muscles or powerful weapons. Only one person she'd met could hide like that.

The daemon became instantly fascinated with Cammy, floating as close as decency allowed. Still out of reach, so no accidental touch would brush her by mistake.

"This?" Jackie lifted it up in one hand, holding it up to the light. If it was wine, it was a strange vintage, with seeds and pulp floating there. "You don't look old enough to drink. Maybe I should take it off your hands."

Astrid whimpered, backing away from the table. She said nothing—but her daemon's voice came through clearly. Telepathy, directed only at Cammy. The message moved between them along their native connection. "That's Hayden, betrothed to the heir of the Johto Mews. She's one of the most dangerous pokémon here."

"I guess you could," Hayden said. Jackie could read nothing of her emotional state—no hint of whether her words amused or annoyed her. She might not care at all, or she might be boiling with murderous rage. "It might be fun to watch, but it might kill you. I've never seen that kind of daemon before; what are you?"

Jackie turned the bottle over in her fingers. "Are you threatening me? I thought we were supposed to be nice to each other."

"I am being nice." The girl drifted close to her through the air, far closer than any human personal space would allow. She didn't seem to care much about boundaries—or wearing the uniform correctly. "That's very dangerous. If you drink it, you could die."

Jackie set the half-eaten sandwich down. Besides, another scent was near her now, impossible to ignore. She hadn't looked at Hayden's daemon long enough to see it, but the smell was obvious. "You've got a girl daemon too." She let go of the bottle, handing it to her. "I was one of the only ones in my whole village. Now there are two here in one day. I guess the Great Families really are strange."

"Stranger than anything you've heard about them." Hayden took the bottle reverently in both hands, moving it between her fingers to clear away the dust. "The world must reconfigure to suit their needs. If you're born the wrong way, well that's a you problem. Time to become what the family requires. And they do mean requires. Most of us didn't start this way."

She wiggled the cork between her fingers, then gestured at Astrid. "She hasn't said as much, but it's obvious to me. She has the Unity for it. And all the other rock princesses were... princesses."

She floated over the table more than at it. The mew clearly knew how to fly—she just didn't want to. Between her dress and her attitude, a picture was coming through clearly. Jackie didn't need Cammy's supernatural senses when her eyes and ears worked just as well.

Astrid whimpered, sinking to the ground across from them. She held her little daemon close to her chest, squeezing tighter. "Who told you?"

Hayden giggled. "No one had to. I know how it feels. I went through a phase like yours, hiding in my old clothes and pretending nothing changed. But Shaymin House wasn't patient enough to let me keep pretending for very long." She finally got the bottle open, then took a long sip. Her face lit up with the widest, most satisfied smile Jackie had ever seen. Pure happiness, as sweet as nectar.

"What is that stuff?"

"Gift from the Eldest," she said. "We're... not exactly on speaking terms with each other right now. Peace offering or a bribe, not sure. Maybe both. Wants to retire more than you can imagine."

That's not an answer. Not only that, but Astrid was just actually crying now, her face buried in her chest. Hayden barely seemed to notice her there. Her interest was still fixed on Jackie—and more importantly, her daemon.

Jackie left the food behind, and instead joined her new friend. She sat down beside her, wrapping one arm around her shoulder. Some plain message had passed between the two before Jackie's eyes. It was all out loud, yet it didn't make sense to her. Why was the crystal girl so upset?

"It's not dangerous to you?" Jackie asked. She grew harsher with each word. Whatever strange power Hayden had to upset Astrid, it wasn't nice to use it like that. "You took that whole bottle in like three sips."

"She does pretty good as a cat these days," said her daemon. Like Hayden herself, the daemon seemed friendly and conversational, oblivious to any harm she had just caused. "Flying is the important thing. Transform. Telekinesis. She has me to look out for her when she gets into trouble."

Hayden tossed the empty bottle onto the table in front of them. "If anyone asks, I'm just flying north to see some friends by the lake. I'll be back by class tomorrow. Hopefully without the fur."

Jackie stared, searching for some meaning in those strange words. People like this were why common pokémon thought the Great Families were just insane. She had to resist that impression, no matter how strongly the evidence might support it. Buried in all this was meaning, and if she could find it, everything Hayden did would make sense.

"You're betrothed to the son of Mew House," she said instead. Back to something that made sense, far from the strange meanderings of a half-cat mind. "Right?"

"Julian," Hayden said. "I'm not taking him with me, if that's what you're asking. Ambrosia would give him too much Unity too fast. Mew House would lose their chance for an heir."

Everything this creature said wandered down one strange road or another. She might not even be capable of just answering simple questions. And still Astrid was crying. She understands the mythicals better than I did. I might be crying too if I knew what she said.

"But you've got a girl daemon," Jackie said, more directly. "You don't like boys."

That caught her off-guard. The girl stopped her whimsical floating, freezing in place. Her loose dress stopped drifting too, as though she'd become another statue. It took her a few seconds to reply.

"I don't like most boys. Girls are..." She nodded. "More comfortable. But some guys aren't so bad. They're so brave, so... confident. It's different."

"Not a good kind of different," Jackie said. "They're gross. All of them. You don't want to be trapped with one."

"I'm not trapped," she said. "I'm not stuck. Maybe you are, little flying fluffball. I wonder if the guardians know what you are..."

She vanished in a flash, leaving only... her clothes? Her belongings dropped to the ground in a heap.

Cammy giggled as she saw it, her little swirls getting brighter with obvious pride. She's gonna be real embarrassed when she gets where she's going. Remember when we couldn't bring clothes, Jackie?

She nodded glumly. It had been a brief, exceptionally embarrassing period, one they both worked as hard as they could to end as swiftly as possible.

"Can we go inside, please? I don't wanna be here when she gets back." Astrid relaxed her grip on her daemon, but not by much.

“Sure.” Going somewhere indirectly was a harder proposition, one more likely to get them hurt. She fished around in her pocket, and came up with the second key. There was one place they weren't likely to teleport onto anyone else, since it was Jackie's bedroom.

She held it towards the little ball of dust and gas, which briefly engulfed it. Cammy's eyes dimmed as she focused on the teleport.

"I don't exactly understand why she upset you so much," Jackie said. "Didn't seem like she lived up to the stories of evil Great Families too well. She was just weird."

"She knows," Astrid muttered, staring down at her hands. "They said no one would ever find out. Even the Eldest promised he wouldn't say."

"Knows what?" Jackie asked. She released her grip on Astrid's shoulder, so she could meet her eyes easier. "Didn't say much of anything there. Your daemon used to be different when you were young, so what? Everyone settles sooner or later."

Cammy didn't say she was about to teleport them, but Jackie felt it even so. She froze, bracing for the change—and they were somewhere else. The floor went from concrete to wood, the light much dimmer. It took a second for her eyes to adjust.

But Cammy had no such problem, or any fear of wind to blow them away. She bobbed and floated further from Jackie, inspecting the room.

As far as bedrooms went, it was more spacious than anything Jackie had lived in for a long time. Huge bed on one side, with a separate walk-in closet, and another corner of the room devoted to books, shelves, and a single oversized desk. She had two big windows and a skylight in here, so there was no danger of missing out on a view of the outside. Or a chance for quick teleportation to somewhere more interesting, should the need arise.

"People don't have daemons the same sex as them," Astrid said. She wobbled, then stood up, keeping her daemon close. She must have tougher skin than Jackie thought, if she could hold a sharp rock up against her chest so often without getting hurt.

"Don't listen to her." Jackie stood too, flicking on the lights. The bedroom had electric lights of its own, bright enough that she would never need to burn a candle or oil lamp. More wealth than Jackie had imagined. But if that wasn't enough to catch her interest, the closet was. Not just empty space—someone had filled it with clothes. Would they fit? "People can have daemons the same as them. Cammy and I were both girls since we were born. You're not broken, Astrid. No matter what anybody says."

She whimpered, wiping away tears. "But she wasn't wrong, Jackie. That's the problem." She hurried out the door then down the hall, vanishing without another word.