Breaking the Silence

After finishing up with breakfast, Blake wasn’t entirely certain what to do with herself. She still felt far,fartoo exposed without her catlike hearing, but there wasn’t a whole lot she could do about it. She’d get it back when she went back to the Time Witch, but she had no idea when that would be. She felt deaf. She was used to being able to hear people’s heartbeats and breathing. Now, she could only hear that in a relatively quiet room. It could, of course, be a little overwhelming at times, but she had gotten used to it since it was how she’d been born. She wasn’t used to pure quiet. The world felt so dull yet dangerous right now. Without her hearing, she felt like anyone could sneak up on her at any time. That apparently wouldn’t be a problem here, but even so… She hated it. Maybe she ought to just explore the Union a little bit. She wasn’t entirely familiar with the layout of the place and it was ahugebuilding. Ten stories tall. She would have to be careful tonotinterfere with anybody working, of course, but she felt like she could do with a little bit of poking around and figuring out the lay of where things were. She probably wouldn’t really need anywhere beyond their sleeping quarters, the library, and the dry goods store, but still… Knowing where things were especially in case of an emergency was probably a good idea. She was alwaysincrediblyprepared for anything. Though nobody had seen Ironwood’s coup coming… She had the little badge Summer had given her, so she went to the elevators and looked at the floors. They were just labeled one through ten with a couple of basements. She wasn’t sure if she’d be allowed into the basements but, for now, she just hit floor four. Their quarters, the dry goods store, and the library were all on the third floor. The elevator door opened with people rushing around, nearly hitting her. Okay, maybe a bad time, so she retreated back into the elevator. She didn’t even really get to see what was there, but she didn’t want to get in people’s way. She was a civilian in this world. Getting in the way of people attempting to do their jobs wasn’t something she wanted to do at all. She didn’t want to be the problematic civilian everyone hated for getting in the way. Floor five was another story thankfully. It was a relatively quiet place with lots of small rooms. The carpet was thick and her footsteps were incredibly muffled. The next floor up was the medbay if she remembered correctly. However, this didn’t seem to be any sort of recuperation area. It was just very,veryquiet. Unnervingly quiet for the Faunus who was used to things being incredibly loud and chaotic. The rooms had no windows facing the hallway, so she couldn’t just peek inside and see what they were used for. Eventually, though, she reached a large, semi-circular room full of comfortable chairs, couches, hammocks, and other things that would just let people relax. She saw people reading or watching videos on phones and such. They were all dressed in civilian wear, but she could see badges on their belts or clipped to their chests. She hated to interrupt them, but she approached someone and spoke quietly. “Excuse me; I’m new here. What is this floor for?” she asked. The man looked up and smiled. “Oh, this is the quiet floor. It’s meant for relaxation and quiet. Rangers, Operators, and Mechanics deal with a lot when they’re on duty and need time to decompress. This floor is meant exclusively for that. A place to let people just have some peace of mind. There are individual rooms that are meant for darkness for short naps that people can sign out for a few hours. However, they’re not meant for long-term stays.” He paused. “You look like one of those two that arrived under strange circumstances.” She sighed. “Thingsreallyget around here, don’t they?” The man chuckled. “With as strange as our Chairperson is, yes. Rangers are also gossipy hens along with the Operators.” “I am; my name is Blake.” “Nice to meet you, Blake. If you want something, feel free to ask anybody as long as they aren’t rushing anywhere.” “What was all the commotion on flour four? It was the complete opposite of this.” “That’s the preparation floor. It’s in commotion 24/7 since Rangers are on call around the clock. Things tend to quiet down during the night a little bit, but it’s where all our gear and everything is. We don’t keep it in the barracks since we’re already squeezed pretty tightly in. Lockers just aren’t available. We have so many Rangers, Operators, and Mechanics squeezed in here that it’s pretty crazy.” “I see. So I guess I’ll be avoiding that floor.” “I’d also suggest avoiding floor six. It’s the medbay. The doctors don’t want anybody snooping around unnecessarily. Rangers are supposed to be recuperating from injuries, not being bothered. Don’t go there unless you have an appointment or get injured.” “Duly noted. What about seven, eight, nine, and ten?” Might as well get an answer before going there. “Seven is the tech lab, run by Ben. I’d suggest avoiding himat all costs.”The man grimaced. “Unfortunately, already been there, done that.” He sighed. “My condolences. Eight and nine are operations centers where Operators help Rangers on their Missions. Ten is the Ancient Tree.” “…Do you mean a real tree or a fake tree?” She was used to seeing small shrubs, grasses, and flowers on top of buildings, but notentire trees.That…sounded insane. Ithadto be fake. “Oh, it’s real, all right. It’s a nice place to go if you just want to chill out and be in nature withoutbeingin nature. A lot of Rangers chill up there especially if they’re stuck in medbay for an extended period. Breaks and stuff are common due to the dangerous nature of our job.” Blake nodded. “That’s…definitely something I didn’t expect. I guess I’ll avoid the other floors and see about the Ancient Tree. Thanks for the info.” “No prob. Most Rangers are willing to help out. It’s a part of our job.” He smiled, then returned to his book. Thoroughly dismissed, Blake went back to the elevator, the odd quiet of the floor getting to her. She slipped into the elevator and hit the tenth floor button. The door opened and she saw amassivetree unfold in the open ceiling. She let out a low whistle. That wasdefinitelyaverybig tree. Ithadto be ancient, based on the width of the trunk. She didn’t want to know how much time and effort went into putting it up here. She doubted such a modern building would have a tree growing in here for hundreds of years. She wasn’t sure how long ago the Union was founded, but she doubted it was hundreds of years ago. This treehadto have been moved here, someway, somehow. A world without magic… She really wasn’t sure how they’d do that. She did see more than a few people sitting underneath the tree’s branches, some spread out with picnic blankets and just talking. It was really odd to walk on grass on the top floor of a building with a tree growing in it. Her own home world did have grass and shrubs on top of buildings to help make sure the climate didn’t go out of control and to try to help to replace forests and natural environments that had been destroyed hundreds of years ago by planting native plants for pollinators. She never would’ve imagined eventhemable to handle a tree on building like this… It was crazy to think about. She wasn’t entirely certain what to do with herself up here, but it was nice to see grass and flowers around. She could only imagine how magnificent the tree would look in the fall with its colors ablaze. Almia felt like the sort of place that would have all four seasons. It felt like summer now, but she had a feeling that fall would make its way to them soon enough… It was nice and warm, but it wasn’t terribly humid. Pueltown had been right on the water so the region definitely got sea breezes which would help keep it cool. “Hey, who are you?” A dark-skinned woman with a noticeable accent approached. She had a badge on her, a red one. She imagined that meant the woman was a Ranger. “Your badge… It’s white.” Blake looked down at her own badge which was, indeed, white. “Oh… What does that mean?” The woman blinked. “You don’t know? How are you on this floor then?” “Um… Summer gave me the badge so I could use the elevator. I’m Blake. I’m a guest of hers.” “Ohhh you’re one of those strangers, then?” Blake’s expression flattened. “Doeseveryoneknow about me and Weiss?” They’d been here less than two days and everyone somehow suddenly knew they were there. It was crazy how quickly information spread here. Guards could definitely be gossipy hens, but it usually took a good week or two for gossip to fully go around the castle. But here? Two days and it seemed likeeveryoneknew about her and Weiss. Good gods, this was annoying. She wouldneverget to introduce herself. The woman nodded. “Pretty much… The Union is a pretty close-knit community and we talk a lot, unless it’s something incredibly confidential. Stories of Chairperson Young’s escapades get around pretty quick. She doesn’t normally go on Missions anymore, but it seems like whenever she does, they turn pretty weird. Most people know within a few days. We’re all pretty used to her weirdness by this point… Always a shock to new graduates, but those of us that have been here long enough? It’s business as usual.” She smiled. “Would you like to come over with us?” “Sure, I suppose. My name is Blake.” There was no need to be rude to this woman, of course, as she hadn’t done anything wrong. It was just frustrating to be ‘the weird woman that appeared overnight.’ She hoped that Weiss would be able to deal with it when interfacing with the general public. Weiss wasincrediblyeasy to trigger right now and she seemed to get exhausted so easily. Granted, there was only so much that one person could take with torture… The fact that she had managed to withstand it for what sounded likemonthswas insane. Blake…probably would have cracked within a few weeks. Weiss was made of tough stuff, but everyone had their limits. “I’m Ikena. It’s nice to meet you, Blake.” Ikena motioned and Blake followed. As they walked, she was suddenly aware that the vast majority of the people, while some were tan, most were not dark skinned like Ikena. Some of them seemed to give her a wary glance as she passed. Blake wasn’t sure if she was seeing things or not, but she wasdefinitelyaware that a good chunk of the people were giving Ikena some sort of look. Why? It definitely seemed weird to her. Then again… Racism and bigotry were still a thing where she was from. It was technically illegal in most locations, but it didn’t stop people from finding ways to practice it in subtle ways and treat people like they were lesser for some reason. She really didn’t get it personally… People were people despite where they were from, what language they spoke, how they identified, or who they loved. It just made no sense to her. They approached a small group of similarly dark-skinned people and Ikena motioned for her to sit down. She did so. There were four people; one other had a red badge, and another had a green badge. So two Rangers and two Operators, she assumed. “It’s nice to meet you, Blake. What are you doing up here?” “Getting used to the Union. I’m used to a castle so I’m used to long, winding, narrow passage and obtuse layout. It’s a bit odd to be in such a neatly organised building. I mean modern buildings on my world are normal, but when you spend most of your time in an ancient building that’s still been kept up… It’s weird.” It was definitely odd for her to have a clear idea of where she was going and all of that. Of course, it sounded like this building was old-ish by this region’s standards, but for her, it was modern enough that it could easily be organised and followed. Everywhere had a clear, set place and it was easy to find where one was going. She only knew the castle back home because she had grown up in it and trained there. She spent the majority of her time there…or, at least, shehaduntil she’d been forced to escape. “That does make sense. I’ve been stationed here for a few years, so I’m used to it. Originally it felt large and labyrinthine and hard to find where I was going. But a castle? There is one here in Almia, but I’ve never been. No need to go most of the time. Especially since it’s in an ice field in the coldest part of the region.” Ikena shivered. “Only a few Rangers stationed at Shiver Camp ever go to the castle.” “Who would build a castle on a tundra in front of an ice field?” That madeliterally zerosense in Blake’s mind. Shouldn’t a castle be surrounded by a city and such? Summer’s castle still sat at the center of a city, though the city had grown magnitudes larger since the time the castle had been built. It was still an administrative center and training grounds for guards. It didn’t house all of the city’s administration anymore as it simply wasn’t large enough, but there were people that absolutely did some administrative tasks lived there. But now, it was mostly just servants, guards, and the royal family themselves that lived there. Some historians as well, but they were few and far between. Most everything had been moved out of the castle. It was mostly tradition that kept the queen and royal family there. Thankfully, there were magical forcefield and other more modern defensive measures that had been added as technology developed since it wasn’t like they were looking at trebuchets and battering rams in armed conflict. Ikena shrugged. “Legend says that the area was once extremely verdant and easy to reach, but the grief of one of Almia’s kings turned it to ice. The castle just sits there, quite literally frozen in time. We continued to have kings until just a few hundred years ago, but it’s been a long time since any of the kings reigned from the castle. It just wasn’t practical to have to go through an ice field each and every time a communication went to and from there. Another castle was built, but it’s in the Chroma Highlands and it’s a ruin now.” “Interesting. I wonder if the legend is true.” “Well, the legend of the three princes is true.” “Three princes?” Blake tilted her head a bit. There was so much she needed to learn here. Of course, she wasn’t familiar withanypotential legends or history here. She was more than willing to learn, of course, but she had to at least be prompted right now… “Basically, the legend is that there was a king who had three sons. Some sort of conflict ripped the king and his sons apart, so he exiled the red son and the yellow son to what are now the Haruba Desert and Boyleland…though turn those two around. There were three stones called the Tears of Princes, one for each son.” “Well… That’s definitely quite the legend.” Blake paused. “But you said it wastrue?” “Maybe noteverybit of it, but the three crystals are real. When Team Dim Sun was attempting to take over Almia some years ago, they used the Darkness Crystal to control Rafesan the Darkrai to attack people. However, the three crystals purified it and made it the Luminous Crystal. There were guardians for each of the crystals… And then there’s only one Vatonage Styler.” “Va…to…nage?” “It’s what the Top Ranger Kellyn uses. Basically, it forms a bond with Pokémon so strong thatnothingcan stop it from working.” “Interesting.” There was so much to learn here… She might need to track this Kellyn figure down and ask him about what happened. Or maybe she could ask Summer. Something told her that Summer had her nose in practicallyeverythingin her history… Something about Summer just seemed to be the type of person to always be involved in some sort of nonsense even when she was supposed to be resting. The woman did seem pretty relaxed, but…she just had thisfeelingthat there was far more than met the eye when it came to the Union’s Chairperson. “Anyway, enough about legends and stuff. What brought you to the Pokémon world in the first place?” Blake sighed, missing the feeling of her cat ears. She missed all the extra sound that came with it as well… Hearing had been her first line of defense against a lot of things, and without it, she felt almost blind. Plus, they had been a major part of her body language as well. So to be missing actual limbs… It hurt. It really did. But she understood why the Time Witch had taken her ears. They weren’t necessary here and would make her stick out unnecessarily. “War.” That was all she was really willing to say. She didn’t want to go into her personal circumstances especially after having seen what Weiss had been through and how it impacted her. Blake wasluckyto have not been subject to torture. Ikena frowned. “War? We haven’t had a war here in many, many generations.” Blake nodded. “I wish I could say the same, but there was almost always a war going on on my home planet. But it was always so far off… I never expected it to hit my home and force me away from my queen.” “You have a queen?” one of the others asked. Blake nodded. “The monarchs don’t really have any power anymore… It’s pretty much purely ceremonial, but monarchy was just such a big part of our identity we couldn’t fully let it go.” They were a democratic monarchy; the people ruled through votes and elected officials. The king and queen really had no power to do much of anything. But they were generally loved. If someone wanted to take down the nation—which Ironwood had—targeting the ruling family was really the way to do it. Taking down such beloved figures who did so much charity work for those who were less fortunate… Yeah. It had been a good strategy to take down the nation. Fortunately, he hadn’t succeeded in capturing Her Highness or her daughters. She was glad for that. “Weird to think there are places that still have monarchs, ceremonial or not…” the man said. Blake shrugged. “Different worlds have different norms. We don’t have anything like Pokémon on my world. Animals can’t think and rationalise like humans can.” The man blinked. “That’s very strange to think about.” Blake shrugged. “It’s just how things are.” She really didn’t have much more to say about it. She didn’t want to get into the history of why she was here unnecessarily really… It felt…bad. She had abandoned her home and fled when Ironwood had set her sights on her. She knew she wasn’t going to survive if she went back anytime soon. With her being so close to the royal family—Yang and Ruby in particular—she had been high on Ironwood’s list of people to capture and extract information from. She wasn’t entirely certain if she would’ve broken or not. She had had no choice but to flee unless she wanted to be treated horribly and possibly have her life cut short. There had been no real way around it. “When Unova started a revolt some couple hundred years ago, it swept through the world and every region switched over to democracy. No royalty remains in any region, Ranger or not,” Ikena explained. “Though old bloodlines remain…” Ikena looked away, implying something, but what it was, Blake had no real idea. “What do you mean?” “Summer… She comes from the Blackwell family of Sinnoh…which descends from the Irionde family of ancient Oblivia. She has the blood of ancient Oblivian rulers.” Blake blinked. “I take it that’s a big deal?” Ikena frowned. “For us, yes… She was the last princess of Oblivia, sister to the last king.” “So he was older?” Ikena shook her head. “The kingdom was her birthright, but Sabios’ attack razed the kingdom to the ground… We were forced to flee to Almia and Fiore. We—” “What do you meanwe?Are you immortal or something?” It sounded like this was in the fairly ancient past, a lot like those three princes. Had Ikena somehow lived through the events all those years ago? But it was the realm of legend… How did one have memory of a time so long ago when things had passed into legend? It was hard to comprehend how memory had remained intact for one area but faded into legend for another. The small group looked at each other, then Ikena spoke again. “No, I’m not immortal… But, ethnically, they and I—” She motioned to the small group. “—are ancient Oblivian. It was 1200 years ago when the region was razed to the ground and the kingdom broken. Almia forced assimilation; Fiore kept us separate. It’s only been since Chairperson Summer took over that things have gotten better for us Ancivians.” “Ancivians?” “What we call our ethnic group now… Fiore has a rigid caste system that even she can’t get to change too much. But she’s forced the government’s had in order to have us receive better treatment… We weren’t even allowed citizenship.” Ikena sighed. Blake frowned. She knew prejudice existed everywhere, but facing it like this was pretty awful. She supposed that was why they had darker skin as well… Ethnically, they weredifferenteven if it’d been over a thousand years since their civilisation had really existed. At least she didn’t have to deal with it, even being a Faunus… Some countries on her worldstillpracticed slavery despite most having prohibited it over fifteen hundred years before. But even trade embargoes and sanctions couldn’t stop slavery, though it was a festering wound in the modern world. Some places just refused to give up old mindsets and practices even if there were more efficient ways to handle a lot of modern industry. “I see. I’m so sorry.” Blake knew she came from a place of intense privilege especially when talking to Ikena. “Things have started to improve slowly, but it’s going to take consistent pressure from the Union for generations to fully make it better.” A soft sound came from Ikena’s pocket and the others’. “Shit! We have a mission. We need to go! Feel free to track us down again, Blake. We’ll talk to you again!” They dashed out and left Blake alone beneath the Ancient Tree. She looked up and sighed. She hadnothingto do and it seemed like there weren’t any nearby cities unfortunately… Might as well go see if she could track somebody else down to talk to…