Moira Magro
Sylath Outskirts, Synamax -> Sylath, Synamax
ARP’ers: @The Nonexistent Tazz

My belly was full and our little “camp” was quiet when I got back. I was mildly annoyed, but not surprised, to see that Downey was still there, snoring several feet away from Abelard, who in turn was curled up not far from Captain Pike. The Nidoqueen was still, but her ears swiveled forward immediately, indicating that she was still awake.

“How was the hunting?” the captain asked, raising her head.

“Good.” I plopped down beside her, unworried about her spikes. They were hard to hurt yourself on unless you were trying, and anyway the worst thing they could do to me was poke me a bit. “Honestly, I just walked right into the Trapinch’s nest and offed it with a Drain Punch to heal the bite it gave me. Feels weird eating the meat raw, but I’m glad it was a predator who would’ve killed someone else.”

The Nidoqueen nodded. “Fair. We’ll be able to fix everyone up with a proper meal shortly. I have to say, I’ll miss Downey’s cooking.”

I could feel the scowl on my face. “He should’ve left. It’d be better for all of us.”

“You didn’t have to do it, you know,” Captain Pike said calmly. “Threatening him like that. I can handle myself - and a rowdy crew.”

“He crossed two of my lines,” I snarled. “He’s lucky I didn’t deliver the warning with my fists. And besides, he sounded like he was getting way too nosy about Blue.”

‘Blue’ was a shorthand that Captain Pike and I had come up with, which referred to any part of my life that was related to or the result of my Indigo Seer abilities. Of all of the members of the Braviary’s crew, she was the only one to ever know, and I preferred it that way. If the information got public, it would make it that much easier for the Abyss to target me.

What’s more, Captain Pike knew that was how I preferred it, and her voice had a hint of concern in it for the first time. “Declan is… he’s not a coward, but he’s not hardened like the rest of us. When he signed onto the Braviary, he was expecting to just sit in the kitchen and shop vegetables and listen to the occasional pirate fight from a distance. He wasn’t expecting to hear and see his crewmates die around him while swarms of Abyssal monsters tried to kill him.”

“If he’s not tough enough for the work, then why was he on the ship to start with?”

“That’s just it. He was tough enough for what we were doing. But now, Arceus and everybody can see that he wasn’t cut out for a rough life, so he’s overcompensating by showing off. If he truly thought I was going to lead him to his death, he’d have been gone.”

I wasn’t so sure, but I decided not to push that particular issue. The captain had a knack for seeing what people were really made of. “Still, he was faulting Abelard, who probably already blames herself. And if he figures out about Blue…”

Captain Pike gave me a doubtful look, “You really think he’s not going to figure it out on his own? Neither he nor Abelard are idiots. You saw the destruction coming, and you’ve helped us out with your predictions before. Eventually they’ll figure it out. Honestly, I think it might be best if you just told them.”

“Unacceptable.” Rare was the occasion in which I would flat-out defy my captain, but I was not about to compromise on this. “No one can know. If word spreads, the target on my back gets even bigger. I don’t feel like getting whacked. Let them assume it’s my aura sight or something.”

Another long pause reigned. Conversations with Captain Pike typically involved a lot of those. “It’s your decision,” she said eventually. “Just think about it. Here. Why don’t you go to sleep? I’ll have you take last watch, if it’s all the same to you.”

“That’d be good, thanks,” I said, relieved that she didn’t press the issue. I padded a few feet away from her and lay down, setting my rifle beside me and settling my chin on my paws.

Before I went to sleep, however, there was one more important task to take care of. Now that the Braviary had crashed, the terms of my service to the world had changed. My first job was to take care of the remnants of the crew, but after that was done, it was time to get into the fight with the Abyss personally and make them pay for what they’d done. So I closed my eyes and cast about with my senses, hunting for other Indigo Seers.

It took me only a few moments to triangulate the nearest Seer - some manner of Dragon-type in Syn City. I couldn’t tell much other than that, and I didn’t want to contact them yet - it was very late, and it wouldn’t be very endearing of me to awaken them in the dead of night.

Syn City, I told myself, as I drifted off into sleep. Just gotta get to Syn City.

…

Sylath was the largest city in Synamax, by my reckoning, although it didn’t come close to the splendor of Jansen. The city had been built for practicality, with brick and metal making up most of its features. Like Jansen, it overlooked the sea; however, there seemed to be more trees and grass here, which provided the terrain with some texture. All in all, it didn’t seem like a bad place to be, and the armed guards who stopped us at the gate assured us that it was also one of the safest cities still on the face of the map.

That’s what they’d said about Jansen, of course.

As it happened, word of Jansen’s demise was mostly considered “under investigation” within the city, and having nothing but our word that our airship had been brought down by Abyssals, we had no evidence for them up or down. The only person who believed us was an old Raichu who smelled of moonshine and happened to overhear us explaining the situation in Sylath’s skyport. “The end is upon us, I know,” he had said sagely while the skyport authorities marked down the Braviary’s crash as an ‘engine failure’. “Say, do you fine folk have any spare coin?”

By the time we were done trying to harass the skyport authorities into taking us seriously and subsequently getting kicked out of the skyport, it was the afternoon. Downey was whiny, Abelard was nervous, I was angry, and even Captain Pike seemed mildly annoyed. It was no surprise, really, that we ended up in the nearest bar within a few minutes.

“Can’t believe those idiots won’t listen,” grunted Downey. Unlike the rest of us, he was a desert Pokemon, and had skipped the stage of furiously downing water that we were on and gone directly to assaulting his liver with his weapon of choice: wine. “They’re ‘investigating’ the situation, they know something’s wrong. Why’s it so hard to listen to a reputable captain and her reputable crew?”

A wry smile tugged at my mouth, “We look ‘reputable’?”

Abelard spoke cautiously, “They probably don’t want to believe that Jansen could be wiped out. It’s very close to this city, and Jansen was equal to - if not superior to - Sylath in terms of security. If Jansen can be destroyed, so can Sylath.”

Captain Pike nodded, then requested a Micle Martini from the bartender. “Hit the nail on the head there, Helmsman. They’re scared. But the main point is that we’re here and that ‘here’ is relatively safe. The Braviary didn’t have enough insurance on it to cover a whole new airship, but we’re not going to end up having to beg in the streets before we can find new jobs. And we don’t have to pay off the shipment to Jansen, because no one’s around to lay claim to it. We’re going to be alright.”

“Until the Abyssals swarm Sylath, too,” Downey grunted, precariously holding his wineglass between two of his claws. “Our time is borrowed. I say we should head further northwest. Kuran’s got a skyport as good as Sylath’s.”

“I say we should head to Syn City.”

It hadn’t really occurred to me that I could serve two of my goals in one stroke until just then, but the idea had merit. Syn was isolated, not a huge target for Abyssals, and they had good security measures. They also had their own port, which by my reckoning was better than Kuran’s or Sylath’s. This move bought me travelling companions to assure my safety, and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to find a better place for my crewmates to settle on the whole continent.

“Hmmm,” murmured Captain Pike. “Isolated, safe, nice big skyport, not too crowded, temperate weather except for the occasional hurricane. I say why not.”

Downey fixed me with a curious look. “What made you think of Syn?” he asked.

I could feel my tail puffing up defensively. There he was, getting all nosey again. “Besides the reasons that Captain Pike just rattled off? It’s safer there than here, and I can’t leave you guys in good conscience without making sure that you’re safe.”

“Leave?” Downey asked innocently. “I didn’t know you were planning on leaving. Where are you trying to go?”

Ho-Oh’s feathers, I couldn’t believe I’d actually let that slip. All I was doing was giving Downey more pieces to the puzzle, and if he figured it out then everyone in the vicinity was going to know. “Right now,” I said hastily, “I’m going to the john. Don’t you guys get too plastered without me.”

I could hear them talking behind me, but I didn’t hear what they were saying. Crap, crap, crap. If they wouldn’t listen to me, I couldn’t leave them behind, I couldn’t - not even Downey. Sylath didn’t feel safe the way Syn did, but I couldn’t tell them why that should matter, or else I’d have ten separate knives in my back in a blink. I couldn’t save the crew, couldn’t keep everything from falling apart, couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t.

I blinked. While I was standing here in the hall to the bathrooms, there was one thing I could do: make contact with the other Seer.

On closer analysis, I sensed that the Seer was a Goodra, which was good news. I’d met one once, when we were running a job to Bayoutown. They were hardy, powerful Pokemon, which was just what I was looking for in an ally. Conveniently for me, this Goodra was still in Syn City.

To my surprise, I actually felt a little nervous. So far as I knew, I had never actually made contact with another Seer before. My abilities only told me bits and pieces about this Pokemon - I had no idea how he would react to me, or whether he would even heed my call at all.

But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Hello, I began, my name is Moira Magro, and I’m an Indigo Seer like yourself. I, and three of my crewmates, were involved in an airship crash two days prior in Jansen; we are the only survivors. If you didn’t already know, Jansen’s been overrun. I don’t know if my crewmates will follow me to Syn City, but once I have made arrangements for their safety, either in Sylath or Syn City, I would like to aid you in fighting the Abyssal forces, if you are so inclined.

The communication felt weird, and I was glad to end it, although I knew that hopefully I was going to have to receive and respond to another such message in time. Having spoken my piece, I leaned back against the wall and prepared for the wait.