Another Day at Unity (14) (Patreon)

Hayden woke up on a cloud. She assumed it had to be—shifting under her, somehow perfectly warm, moving when she moved. There was a gentle rocking to it, as though it flowed in with the tides and out again when the moon shifted in the sky. She was so tired, squeezed so dry she wanted to lay down and stay dead forever.

I'm sorry, Liz, she thought, before she was even fully awake yet. I didn't mean... to push you so hard.

The kitten said nothing. Her daemon was still upset with her. She would forgive, in time—she knew a good cause when she saw one.

Someone is coming. Wake up, the mew commanded, shifting her mind from drowsy to fully alert in an instant.

She opened one eye, and saw.

She was in a bed, a bed in the same dusty bedroom she had briefly used to change a few hours ago. Or... maybe it was a day now? Her perspective of time had gone completely sideways.

A girl sat down on the foot of the bed, just out of her reach. Not the princess—she was too young for that. Besides, Princess Seraphine didn't have a red gemstone on her chest, or a yellow mask on her skin.

"Your name is Hayden, isn't it?"

"Yeah." She remained on her back on the strange bed, feeling it shift and flow as it adjusted to the new weight. She was sleeping on water! Somehow. "That's me."

"Hayden of Sinnoh," Adeline said. "Hayden of Shaymin House. That's how you fooled the warlord. You know their secrets."

She sat up against the headboard, nodding slowly. The stink of bile and stomach acid was gone. Someone had cleaned her, and replaced the outfit she'd stretched and torn by getting too old. "I know a lot, yeah. When they first took me in, I visited their honored ancestors in the sacred mountains. They taught me a lot. More than that warlord did."

Adeline moved closer, holding her manaphy to her chest. "What will they think when they hear what you did? You... betrayed your house. For someone you never met."

Hayden giggled, though her voice was weak and faltering. "You wanna talk about me breaking rules—there's a way bigger one. Almighty Sinnoh is gonna get my number sooner or later. Flagrant disregard for the sanctity of time."

Adeline remained silent for a while. She stood up, made her way over to a drawer. She opened it, poked around at the gemstones within, then shut it. She did the same to the closet a few seconds later. "I thought I was... hallucinating. Celebi aren't real, everyone knows that. My old room is exactly how I remember. But when I'm outside, Samiya is... whole. No dead. No Shaymin army. And none of my old friends. Everyone is different."

"If I hadn't brought you forward, I think someone would've stopped me. Celebi—or worse." Hayden floated out of bed, and into almost a standing position. She floated a little higher, so she would be taller than this native Manaphy. "You're supposed to be dead."

Adeline wrapped her arms around her chest, squeezing her daemon close. She rocked back and forth, eyes down. "I saw the crypt. My big sister had my favorite flowers there for me. After all these years, she still..."

Hayden followed her eyes to the bouquet on the desk—Gracidea, the petals slightly warped. "Those are your favorite?"

She nodded. "Saw the migration, once. A few months ago... before negotiations broke down. Hundreds of your ancestors, all flying down together. It felt like being in the ocean again, except for the light. We never see the sun down here." She sniffed, resting one hand on her belly. There her skin was paler, twisted into a scar.

"What are you, Hayden?"

She shrugged. "Depends who you ask. Cancer? A pretender? A wild and undisciplined menace?"

She opened her arms, ready to catch Liz when she changed again. The third time came easier than either of the first two. Besides, she had an example in front of her now.

With just one change—short hair, wild from the life Adeline wanted under the sun. She didn't copy the scar either. "You know what they say about cats," she said, in a very different voice. "Always getting where we don't belong."

Adeline hugged her tight, so tight the breath briefly left her lungs and her body deformed. She was more water than she used to be, though not as slimy as her sister. Eleanor had her beat for flexibility.

"I felt the cold of deep water," Adeline whispered. "Heard the song of Lugia calling for me. Thank you for... keeping me here."

Hayden's eyes filled with blurry tears. "Welcome to the future."

The door groaned, then swung open. A familiar figure stood there, holding a tight scroll of dark vellum stamped with green wax. "I can hardly believe how badly I misjudged you, Hayden of House Shaymin," she said. She approached slowly, extending the scroll towards her. "I don't believe the Myrmidons would have fared well in a contest with you."

She let go of Adeline. The manaphy shuffled away from her, watching the exchange in curious silence.

"They killed me the first time," she said. "And the second time..."

She caught the scroll, then pushed it aside, tossing it onto the bed. "I don't care about that. Keep it."

Princess Seraphine tilted her head sideways. "You defied the will of Dialga for that treaty. Don't lie—pick it up."

Hayden didn't budge. "If someone did to my sister what Lady Gracidea did to yours, I'd be at war too. Maybe I'd want to get even."

Seraphine stepped sideways, then pulled her sister close. "You're the worst shaymin I've ever seen," she said. "Where's the unfeeling ire of nature? The chill of the mountains, the desert where rains never fall?"

"Lady Gracidea probably knows about those things. But her real daughter isn't very good at it. I learned from her."

She released Adeline's shoulders. "I know what Lord Moonstone saw when he met you," Seraphine said. "What do you want?"

Her face hardened. "No more people dying in your war with my mom. I grew up with some of the orphans you made—they were my friends in Sunyshore." Her old self would've called those kids her enemies. They fought wars too. But kids didn't die in those battles. They were really just having fun.

"And... this isn't a condition or anything, but I'd really like to learn to swim? I thought I was really good in the water, until I saw how you are. I flop around in there like a ditto!"

"You look like you can swim," Adeline said, indignant. "You sound like you know!"

"I do," Liz said, from her arms. "But her only experience is as vaporeon. They don't do deep water very well."

"It will be done," Seraphine said. "Be recorded as a friend of Manaphy House, Hayden Gracidea. Samiya welcomes you always. You can share with my sister."

She looked sideways at Adeline. "I have to send a message home to tell them how it went. You wanna go up with me? Might be day up there."

Adeline squealed with excitement, bounding energetically up and down. "Can I can I can I? I haven't seen the sun since the war started."

"Not in a—" Seraphine hesitated, watching her face fall. "I'm not letting you out of my sight up there. But I could go with you."

Hayden clambered up onto the deck of the Spiral, rolling onto her back. That manaphy was right after all—it was a long, long way up. Everything hurt, muscles she couldn't even name. But importantly, she'd made it. Somehow.

Emerging into the open air was every bit as painful as she remembered from the last time. She flopped onto her side, then vomited the salty contents of her lungs out onto the deck. She made a great deal of noise, loud enough to draw several sailors towards her. If they hadn't heard her climb aboard, they would now.

A sailor approached from the side, heavy rifle over his shoulder. "Whoever you are—this vessel sails under the flags of two Great Families."

She sat up slowly, eyeing him. "You don't recognize me, Rihoden?" Hayden wiped the slime away from her chest, then changed. Her hair turned pink, her skin went pale. The swimsuit was a little loose—her real self didn't need as much muscle as the manaphy. "How about now?"

"Lady Hayden? She's returned!"

Blackwood appeared beside him, with the gardevoir gliding a few steps behind. Her eyes were on the water, where others waited below the surface. The daemon's psychic powers might not be as powerful as Liz's, but she could still sense a mythical.

"Lady? You've been gone almost two days. Your mother ordered us to watch for you... is everything alright?"

He helped her to her feet—then before she could react, draped his dark red jacket over her shoulders, and wrapped it tight. "You really have been with the People of the Water all this time."

She nodded. "Yeah! And it went..." She hesitated. Her sense of time was a mess now. All the damage to the ship was gone, the injured crew on their feet without a scratch. And the greater Unity she’d created by healing the captain was gone. How did Cody live like this?

"Listen, we've got some visitors. A new friend of mine wants to be in the sun for a bit. Everyone, put your weapons down now. Maybe just stow them all below to be safe."

She waited for the captain to obey. He eyed her cautiously, then removed his belt, lowering the cutlass to the deck. "In these waters? Two days ago, you prepared us for an assault."

"Yeah, and it's over." She floated up into the air, and the wet jacket slipped partway down her shoulders. "Liz and I went through hell for this. If anyone tries to hurt them, I'll throw you so far overboard you never see the ship again."

Hayden squeaked, catching the jacket before it slipped all the way off, and landing on her feet again. "Now—can you... bring the dining stuff up here? Oh, and I want to send a radio message back to shore."

The captain waved, and another sailor approached with parchment in hand. Several others rushed to clear the deck at her instruction, while more scrambled below in search of furniture. "What message is that, lady?"

"Shipping lanes are secure," said another voice, speaking from around the corner. "There will be no more tsunamis in your coastal cities. Shaymin House offers a small percentage of its revenue from shipping each year in exchange. And you agree to several generous agricultural contracts in exchange for undersea ore, to begin immediately."

Princess Seraphine emerged. How she could already walk and talk without the disgusting conversion back to air, Hayden had no idea. Nor did she look tired from the swim—a swim that took Hayden hours.

The sailors gasped. A few bowed, others backed away, reaching for weapons they were no longer wearing. Hayden stepped sideways, between them and the manaphy. "One more thing. I've agreed to spend the summer here, in the company of the young heir of Manaphy House. But I'm allowed my sister's company. If she wants to come, she won't be harmed."

"I've never met a ditto!" Adeline emerged from behind Seraphine. She too hadn't audibly coughed or struggled to breathe. Her eyes weren't on the crew, though—she was looking up at the sky.

A terrified sailor scribbled all that down, then looked to the captain. At least the rest of the crew continued their task, bringing the dining table and chairs up to the deck along with Hayden's old tea set.

"That's your message?" the captain asked. "It was... inconsistent with my orders. I was to return you home as soon as you were successful here."

Hayden shrugged. "Technically I'm not successful until the end of summer."