Another Day at Unity (15) (Patreon)

"She wants to see Alola!" Adeline squealed, scampering over to the table. She eyed Hayden, face twisted into a sideways grin. "That's where the sea temple goes next. But it will be back here around... September."

Hayden floated over to the table and warmed the kettle as she had before. She picked a pouch of dried leaves, the same sweet-smelling variety served in the temple below their feet. "Don't put that in the letter. But—I guess you should. Eleanor should sail to Hau’oli City if she wants to come. And if not, she doesn't have to."

Lady Gracidea needed to know—she wasn't a hostage, nor was her other daughter. Princess Seraphine was wrong. Her mother wasn't as cold as the mountains or as loveless as the desert.

"I don't have to either," she finished. "I'm not a hostage. I asked them to stay, not the other way around."

She poured three little glasses of tea, offering one to each guest before taking one herself. Princess Seraphine wore the same outfit she had last time, her swimsuit covered in layers of white cloth. But Adeline just wore the same thing as Hayden. She had the right idea, that stupid jacket was soaking wet. That cold cloth on her skin sucked the heat out like an ice attack.

She shrugged it off onto the seat, then took a sip.

"It's just how I remember," Adeline said, leaning back in her chair. She spread her arms, closing her eyes as the sun beat down. "No wonder people like coming up here."

"The surface has its benefits." Seraphine settled into the other chair, sipping delicately at her glass. She stiffened and nearly spat it out. "This is not one of them. Mew, this is dreadful. You will learn to brew this properly."

Hayden took another sip, and her expression soured. Seraphine was right. "I just thought... it was supposed to taste like that."

"Ha!" She tossed the glass to the ground, and it shattered. "And you're supposed to swim like a beached Magikarp? One summer may not be enough to remedy your substantial failings."

"Yet it will have to be," said another voice, much deeper and more confident. A dark figure landed on the deck behind Hayden, wrapped in a flowing robe of dark silk.

Hayden felt him without turning around. She strangled back a mew of surprise and levitated the damp jacket back onto her shoulders.

The crew dropped to the ground, faces pressed to the deck. Even the captain bowed flat, silent supplication on his face. "Honored one, divine guest of—"

He froze. They all did, actually, bodies outlined in blue. Even Princess Seraphine was suddenly paralyzed in place. Unlike everyone else, her eyes still moved, darting to the Eldest and back again.

Lord Moonstone waited for Hayden to stand—or float. She lifted off the deck, her eyes falling on her bare feet like a scolded child. She didn't look up.

"If this was your way of convincing me to reevaluate my perspective on that celebi of yours," he said, gesturing at Adeline. "You'll find you've seriously miscalculated. If it wasn't for that dexterity near the end, he would've wrenched a hole in spacetime."

Liz perched on her shoulder, tail curled around her neck. There was no need to act terrified when she felt it so completely. "That wasn't Cody, it was me."

Force lifted her chin upward, so their eyes met. He said nothing, just peeling away layers of her mind until he found her recent memories.

He released her a second later, eyes going wide. "You?"

"Cody would be furious. He... will be furious, when he finds out. Or she. Usually a she when she's mad at me." She looked down, her own tail curling around her thigh.

"Then the celebi has more wisdom than you do. You risked tearing a paradox ninety years across for..." He looked away from Adeline "A petty trade dispute. To lower shipping costs?"

"No." She moved sideways, between the Eldest and Adeline. She didn't like that look on his face very much. Was he going to undo what she changed? "First it was because they killed me. But then I learned why they killed me. It wasn't fair. Adeline didn't deserve to die like that."

"No one ever said life would be." He turned his back on her, so fast his tail smacked up against her leg. "Hayden, preserving one life endangered 90 years of history. Do you have any idea what a paradox that large would look like?"

She shuddered. But if there was one thing Mew House hated most, it was a liar. "No. I don't."

"You don't," he agreed. "And that is why I will not learn that you've altered history again. Your concubine thinks she can hide behind chains of petty causality—you can't. You have the precision of a raging tauros in a museum of fine glass."

She nodded. "You won't! I promise! I think... I think Cody's probably gonna make me promise the same thing. Next time I see her. Just don't... don't change it back, please."

She wrapped her arm around Adeline’s frozen shoulders. "She deserves to live. No one has to know what I changed."

He groaned, then waved in their direction. Seraphine and Adeline stopped glowing. Seraphine stood up, squaring her shoulders. The gentle swells lifting the Spiral became distant and still. "You won't touch her, Lord Moonstone."

"I won't," he agreed. He took Hayden's hand in his, tugging her away from the terrified manaphy.

Adeline darted around the table, hiding behind her sister. But the Eldest didn't care. "Hayden. A very long time ago, there was a girl not very different from you. She loved this garden too—so much that she never wanted to leave. She said goodbye to her father forever so she could tend it."

She nodded. "I... remember the story."

"It isn't a story." He stopped beside the railing, lowering her hand to the wood. "Nine generations, and she was still alive. Part of keeping a garden is letting it grow. Without the wind and rain, the trees will weaken. When a storm comes, they'll be washed away. Without their roots, the soil will turn into a landslide. You can stop the wind, you can shelter the saplings. But if you always do, they cannot grow strong."

She kept her head down. It took a long time before she had the courage to speak. "Not always, but maybe a little? Some trees never got a chance. Another gardener ripped them up. Just this once, maybe it was okay? She can grow up strong... isn't that what the Great Families need?" She clung to his sleeve. "The first daughter has been gone too long, Eldest. Our families are sick."

He reached over to her, adjusting the coat on her shoulders. He settled it there, buckling it so it wouldn't slip off again. "You can't save them all, Hayden. The Great Families are bitter and petty. They raise armies, they scheme for invasion, they experiment with horrifying new ways to defile. There will be blood before the end, and you will see it."

She wiped the moisture from her face. "I... know. I've been there."

He strangled a laugh. "The easy way. Still have to survive." He gestured back at the manaphy, standing terrified by the railing. "You make new enemies with every choice. Don't make me regret mine."

He vanished. The ship stopped glowing. Its crew stood up, bewildered and confused. The captain kept speaking to the Eldest, who wasn't in front of him anymore.

Hayden ignored them all. She hurried down the railing, where the two nobles of Manaphy House lingered.

Adeline no longer looked eager to be on the surface. She leaned one arm over the railing, then looked back at Hayden. "Did he—"

"He won't hurt you," she said, taking her free hand in both of hers. "He was upset with me, not you. You didn't do anything wrong."

Seraphine looked between them, then back at the empty place where the Eldest had been standing only minutes before. "You mock him. You told him about the celebi. Cody—that's his name?"

Hayden nodded, then let go of Adeline's hands. "Cody taught me that trick, yeah. She—he—didn't mean to. But I learned, so now I get to make a mess everywhere I go. And sometimes, by accident, I make things better instead."

"I've seen enough of the sun," Adeline said. "Can we go back now? An Alolan beach, that sounds more like it. Not this little ship, with... Lord Moonstone waiting for me."

"Go on." Seraphine nodded to the railing.

She slipped over the edge, then landed with a splash.

Seraphine jerked her hand forward, tugging on Hayden's borrowed coat, until they were inches away. "I saw what you did, mew. Putting yourself between the Eldest and—my sister. Stopping him."

"I didn't do it 'cause you could see."

"I believe you." She released her jacket. "You're going to get yourself killed, Hayden of Shaymin House. Sooner or later, you're going to try that with one of the ancient monsters and it will rip you in half."

She unbuttoned the jacket, hanging it over a railing. For where she was going all that fabric would just slow her down. Hayden caught her daemon out of the air, and they changed. Swimming down should be less effort than getting to the surface, right?

Some of those feelings made it into her transformation, because she got a little shorter this time. Her clothes hung looser, the railing higher up.

She held Liz close to her chest, grinning the biggest, crooked smile she could up at Seraphine. "What if I walk up like this? Would you rip us in half now, big sister?"

She tossed her daemon into the water, then straightened, twisting Hayden around in front of her. "No. I would fix your outfit before it slips off in the water column. You ever think about buttons or something?"

"Oh, yeah. My real mom made me something like that! Not for swimming, though..." She lowered her voice. "She'd be so mad if she saw I was dressed like this. You sea people are so... brave."

Captain Blackwood approached the railing, eyes on Hayden. "Noble Lady. You... really shouldn't do this. You belong at home. Lady Gracidea will be furious with both of us."

Hayden had been brave about things like that a few seconds ago. But now that she was shorter, she just looked up at Seraphine for support, tugging on her arm.

The manaphy groaned loudly. "You can tell your..." She muttered something under her breath, something extremely crude. Hayden didn't know what those words meant, but she could guess none were very nice. "—master, that this kitten is the only reason we're indulging Shaymin House in peaceful terms. If she wants her treaty, she will leave her unpunished for her visit. Consider her a... diplomatic envoy."

She turned, helping Hayden climb over the railing. "The least she could do after yanking my sister ninety years out of time is give her a friend."

"Of course! We can stay friends at Unity too, if she goes." She caught herself on the railing, wrapping her leg around it. "Send that letter! And... hopefully Eleanor can come? If she wants. I'd like to see her again."

She was about to jump, but Seraphine caught her shoulder. "Wait. Lose the helpless kitten act, we've got two kilometers of swimming. You asked for the practice. We aren't carrying you the whole way."

She groaned, then stretched, standing on tiptoe until she got taller. Back to where she'd been.

"Better. Now watch how I jump. You have to cover your face like this, or you'll get water shoved up your nose when you hit the surface..."

She jumped, and vanished under the surface, where she joined her little sister. Hayden turned, waved back at the captain—then let go.