Summary: "The quiet will be good for you," the guild said, before transferring Alfred against his will to work as a guide in a neighboring rural kingdom. Moving from the city to the boonies is the definition of downgrade, or so he thinks. But even small towns have tricks up their sleeves; maybe this place isn't quite as backwards as he thinks it is.
Evening on the 10th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
The wind whistled through the plains, rustling through tightly-packed grasses and the leaves of stray trees. The flapping of wings overhead signified the return of birds from the south, calling noisily to each other as they spoke of new destinations and speculated about the weather. The wheels of a passenger carriage creaked as they rumbled down the dirt path, joined by the steady stomping of a zebstrika’s hooves, and the crushing of stray rocks underneath, and the groaning of wood straining against metal, and the bumping of cargo jostling in the back, and the tapping of an audino’s claws on the carriage door as he hung out the window staring boredly at the sight of precisely nothing.
Damn it was quiet.
Alfred pushed away from the window with a defeated sigh. That was it: boredom had won. He had thought he brought enough books to last a journey. Apparently not, said his last one, making taunting rustling noises as the movement of the carriage shifted it against the fabric of the seat. His destination was supposed to be signaled by a large mesa called the Giant’s Grave, and it was definitely there, but the thing was massive! It had appeared over the horizon hours ago now! The sun was setting!
The audino adjusted his loose-fitting emerald vest and sprawled out across the seat, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the city he left behind. It’ll be good for you, they said. It’s so much quieter, out in the Palkia-shunned boonies. What did the guild know? He could’ve been working as a guide in the biggest guild branch of the east, instead of a small, backwater kingdom like Farbroad…
The sound of wings flapping close traveled through the roof, and their braviary scout called out. “Hey! We’re almost there!”
Alfred bolted upright and rushed to the window to look out and ahead. Right there in the distance, close to the mesa’s base, he could barely make out a collection of silhouettes that could only have been buildings, coupled with a tower that poked above them. No walls for fortification; it must’ve been Harmonia all right.
The zebstrika pulling the cart threw a look back. “Maybe now you’ll stop complaining!”
That was uncalled for. Alfred leaned sideways on the windowsill and shot his own look back. “I didn’t complain that much.”
Mr. Coachmon put his attention back on the road and laughed. “Sure, sure, city boy.”
He heard the scout snicker as he flew ahead. Annoyance flashed across the audino’s face. Rude way to treat a client. But he decided to let it slide. The joy of seeing civilization again was more than what a few cheap jabs could ruin.
It was several minutes spent passing scattered plots of farmland before the watchtower came into proper view. The watchog at its top looked down upon them as they passed by. Alfred figured their job must’ve been hard, as all they guarded was a flimsy wooden picket fence separating the town from its outskirts. And on the other side were some of the shabbiest wooden buildings he had ever seen: a doorless shack of worn planks built right next to the entrance gate. The braviary scout spoke to the pyroar gatekeepers, and soon they were on the other side standing right in front of their poor excuse for a guard outpost.
“And we’re here!”
By then, Alfred had already gathered his things into the bookbag hanging over his shoulder, so all that was left for him was to jump out the carriage and walk around to grab his suitcase from the trunk. He also made sure to grab a silver coin from his wallet. He rubbed it in his paw as he walked up to the coach, then flipped it up into the air and snatched it with flair and a suave smile. “A tip,” he said, as he smoothly slotted it into the small jar attached to the zebstrika’s harness.
The coach only snorted, and as he left him behind Alfred could only shrug. Okay then.
The town outskirts were sparse. The single dirt path ahead snaked through bends in the earth and had Alfred passing by round buildings seemingly made of cloth -- yurts, he remembered they were called. They were humble in size, though as if to make up for that, they were also decorated in various colors and patterns, themed around the pokémon whose likenesses were stitched into the roofs: litleo, blitzle, eevee, mareep... All spread out to leave plenty of open, grassy spaces. At this time of evening, with the sky shifting to warmer hues, it looked quiet, barely a soul in sight outside the occasional grazer. But to Alfred’s ears, he could hear the signs of activity from inside their yurts: preparing for supper, talking about their days, the wrestling of children on patches of grass hidden from view…
The audino hit the side of his head. Dooon’t get distracted. You got one goal here.
As he followed the path deeper into town, cloth buildings were steadily replaced by more permanent wooden ones, though even here they were still painted in the patterns of various pokémon. Kinda tacky. It was a tad noisier this far in, colorful buildings packed a little tighter and wide streets busied by pokémon hurrying to finish their routines. And when the road changed to cobbled stone, that was when he knew he was in Harmonia proper.
The capital of the kingdom of Farbroad, but one would never know it standing in his position. It was really only capital by default, being the one permanent settlement across the entire small territory. Nomadic pokémon would use this town as a home base of sorts: a center for meetings and whatever meager trade the kingdom saw. The town’s major landmark rested over the rooftops, the giant of a mesa stretching endlessly tall and endlessly wide to hide the southeast sky behind its girth. With how close it looked, Alfred bet he could walk to it if he really wanted to.
But it wasn’t the only thing in the distance. Alfred finally noticed it while admiring the mesa: the tall figure of a water tower, peaking tall above the buildings to the south. I don't recall seeing that in my research. Does this town have running water? It would be a welcome surprise, though also a strangely major thing to miss…
As he followed the directions he had memorized, the world slowly grew louder. Something was happening on a street somewhere. Pokémon talking, chattering, squawking, calling, barking, shouting over… prices? Alfred found himself rubbing one of his feelers with his free paw, his claws digging into the scarred, raw flesh and sending sharp jolts of distraction that made him shiver. I-it’s not that loud. This is nothing, I’ve just been traveling on silent roads all day…
Wait, where am I?
He blinked, stopped moving, then turned to his right, and the Guild Center was right there in front of him. And behind him was the road leading directly into the market. Oh. No wonder it’s so loud. He squeezed his feeler tighter. I’ll have to get used to that then.
Alfred took a step back and placed his suitcase down so he could frame the narrow building squashed between its neighbors in his paws. Three stories, check. A sign bearing the guild’s bouffalant-head emblem, check. The doorway seemed kind of small though. Not prohibitively so, but there was no way a rhydon could fit through that. Guess there’s not a lot of big pokémon around these parts.
He pushed the door open and entered; somehow, the lobby managed to be even narrower on the inside. A good quarter of the space was partitioned off by the reception desk that he’d be working at from now on, leaving a quarter for the entryway and the remaining half for the request board and the staircase up. With the window caught in the building’s own evening shadow, everything was cast in a dim light. Alfred shut the door behind him and had to stifle a cough as the stuffy air quickly settled in.
It was quiet, save for the muffled sounds of the market and a slight shuffling coming from the ceiling. He had a feeling he knew who that was, but forget that. His attention was caught on the desk. His desk.
Alfred couldn’t help running a paw across the wooden surface as he rounded the corner and put himself behind it. It was a mess: whoever worked here last didn’t bother to keep it neat for him. Blank request papers littered the desk haphazardly, some brushing dangerously close to a lit candle and another placed on top of the inkwell. What wasn’t on the desk was loosely jammed into drawers spilling their excess onto the floor, and the cabinets against the wall were in no better state, some drawers stacked too high to close and all unlabeled. Perhaps the concept of proper organization was too much to expect from a nominal guild branch in the middle of nowhere.
At least he had the window to himself. He put his suitcase down and checked for a latch, and luckily enough. Course, with the market right there, I’m choosing between peace and fresh air.
The noise above traveled towards the staircase, and Alfred turned his head to catch the heliolisk right as he appeared at the bottom with his frill flared in surprise. “Oh, you’re-!”
“The new guide. Hey there.” Alfred put on his best smile and stepped forward to offer a paw. “Name’s Alfred, from-”
“You’re early!”
Alfred’s arm slacked. “Huh?”
The heliolisk walked up and pushed the confused audino aside, staring at the disorganized mess with dismay. “I was supposed to get this all cleaned up before ya got here!” He growled at one of the cabinet drawers and gave it a hard shove, but it didn’t budge. “Dialga’s a bitch…”
Rude. Alfred cleared his throat and held his paw more assertively. “Hello?”
“Yeah, I see ya.” The lizard dismissively pushed his paw down as he turned to face him. “Helios, Guildmaster of Farbroad’s Traveler’s Guild. And you’re the new guy the Yagoran branch sent. Alfred, you said?”
Alfred pulled back his rejected paw and rubbed it against his vest. “Yeah… Nice to meet you.” He’s the boss, don’t say anything you’d regret.
Helios’ face brightened up. “Well nice to meetcha too!” Then with no warning he lurched forward, and Alfred almost recoiled as the guildmaster suddenly got very close. There was a scrutinizing glint in his eye as he practically coiled around the audino, examining him like an inspector checking for structural faults. “Audino ain’t too unfamiliar to the ‘mon around here. I bet you’d fit.”
Needles rolled across Alfred’s fur. “Could you give me a second to breathe here?”
The guildmaster responded by patting his shoulder. “Right, you seem tired.” Then mercifully broke away to give some space. “Long journey?”
Alfred’s posture slumped with relief, only for the new topic to draw out an exhausted sigh. “You could say that. The weather wasn’t too bad, but that last stretch took forever.”
“If only it took a little longer, I’d have this place up and ready for ya.” Helios glanced at the mess again just to shrug it off. “Eh, it’s not like I’d be putting ya to work today anyway. How’re ya liking town so far?”
What's there to like? Alfred thought through his actual response more carefully than that. “I only just arrived, but so far I’d say it’s… rustic. Hard to believe it’s the capital.”
“Oh I’m sure it’s nothin’ like your northern cities,” Helios replied, not looking too bothered. “But you’ll learn to love it once you get to know it more. Speaking of, they did prepare ya to take the job, right? Done all your research?”
Right. A guide needed to know everything there was to know about the land surrounding their town, and Alfred didn’t make that journey to come unprepared. He allowed some confidence to creep into his smile as he patted his bookbag. “What do you think I filled this with?”
Helios sauntered up to him and leaned on his shoulder. “Oh I’m sure you know a lot, but being a guide’s about more than that.” His tail came to rest on Alfred’s other shoulder, pointing at the door. “Your job is to intimately understand the needs and desires of every ‘mon who walks through that door. To know ‘em all on a personal level, so that you can solve their problems before we even need to get an adventurer on it.”
It was cute of him to try and be all inspiring. Alfred shrugged off his tail with a sheepish smile. “Trust me, I can handle it. You got the assessment my mentor sent you, right?”
The heliolisk scoffed as he stepped away, waving it off. “Yeah, and it was all glowing praise, but that ain’t the point,” he tried to clarify. The slightest hint of a continuation escaped his throat, but he cut it off with a shrug. “Ah, you’ll get it eventually. The work does that to ya.”
I’m sure it’s not that complicated. He nodded along anyway. “I bet it does; I’m not worried at any rate.”
Brushing off that exchange, Alfred picked up his suitcase and looked around for any sign that the building was larger than it seemed. “So, where am I staying? Are the lodgings upstairs?”
Helios shook his head. “Nah, buildin’s too small for that. Take a right from here and you’ll find our lodge, can’t miss it. I already got you a room all set up, just tell ‘em I sent ya. Oh, and-” He opened one of the lower cabinet drawers, the only one with a label: ‘Badges.’ Then picked out a golden piece and held it out to him. “Take this too.”
Alfred took it and examined it closely. It was a round shape with upward-turned horns jutting out the sides, like the head of a bouffalant. The Gold Giant Badge. I’ll be giving these out from now on.
He slipped it into his vest pocket. “Thanks.”
“That’s the last badge I’ll ever grant,” Helios remarked with a wink. “Now I gotta go back up top and finish takin’ care of some things. Any questions before you go?”
“Nothing important,” Alfred said, though now that he mentioned it. “Actually, I’m curious. What happened to the last guide?”
Helios’ frill began to glow with pride. “You’re lookin’ at ‘im!”
“Oh, congrats.” Alfred tilted his head. “But then what happened to the last guildmaster?”
With shifty eyes, the current guildmaster leaned in close to whisper. “We don’t talk about that.”
Wha- Alfred returned a deadpan look. “You’re messing with me.”
Helios snickered, pat Alfred on the shoulder, then guffawed as he walked away to return upstairs, his laughter a sharp knife to the audino’s ears.
Alone again, though Alfred could still hear the guildmaster chuckling to himself through the ceiling. Working for him sounds like it’ll be a pain, he thought, rubbing a feeler. How long will they keep me here? Surely this can’t be permanent.
In the back of his mind, he knew that was just wishful thinking. But what else did he have to cling to? He took one last glance at the mess of papers, sighed, and once again ran his paw over the desk as he made his way back to the door. It’ll be good for you, repeated those words. I bet it will…
Cool air rushed in as he opened the door. The din of the market had subsided; the day was almost over. And looking out at the shoddy town, he hesitated. Only one thing was on his mind.
Does the lodge have running water…?
---
11th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
By Palkia’s mercy, it did.
When Alfred returned to the Guild Center the following morning, the mess Helios swore he meant to clean was still there. How nice of him. At least he had a clear set of tasks for his first day.
Most of the time, work as a guide was simple. Keep track of requests put up by the townsmon, so that you can give advice to adventurers when they take them. From his experience in the city, activity usually spiked in the mornings, and kept steady throughout the day. Helios already briefed him on the requests left over from yesterday, so he was ready for whatever the town could throw at him.
…Which ended up not being much. One pokémon had visited in the hour since opening, a luxio, and only to put up a request. Since he couldn’t write, Alfred wrote it up himself, placed it on the board, and nothing had happened since. So, he filled his downtime working on organization instead.
With sunlight filtering through the window, the lobby didn’t seem so cramped anymore. If he just ignored the guildmaster’s poor organizational skills, it was actually fairly clean, and the space around the board looked just enough for a few pokémon to regroup, if they didn’t want to use the dedicated meeting room on the second floor. The different atmosphere also caused Alfred to notice a couple details he hadn’t yesterday. One was that there was no news board. The other was what could only be described as a wooden post.
It was just… there, jammed in the corner, right next to the board, jutting from the floor to about his own height. Easy to miss in the evening dim due to its dark color and bark texture, but at this time of day it stuck out like a cheri in a barrel of oran berries. It looked as if someone took a log and stuck it there, and as to why, he couldn't fathom. Helios wasn’t around, so Alfred made a mental note to ask about it later and tried to ignore its presence in the meantime.
The first adventurer to come in that day was an emolga. Alfred didn’t notice him at first, too preoccupied placing labels, at least until his visitor’s shrill voice pounded his ears. “Who’re you?!”
Alfred winced, then turned around and peered over his desk to see an electric rodent glaring daggers at him below. He tried to put on a smile.
“Hey there. I’m the new guide.” He tapped his guild badge, now pinned to his vest. “Name’s Alfred.”
The emolga tilted his head. “Who?”
I just told you- Alfred bit his tongue. “I’m not from around here? I arrived in town yesterday evening.”
“Oh.” Something caused his expression to soften. Satisfaction, maybe, except the skepticism in his glare didn’t fade. “Well don’t mind me then.” And then he scampered off to the board.
While the emolga wasn’t looking, Alfred allowed his emotions to contort his face. The hell is his problem?! He had to keep it reigned in though. His visitor was too short to reach the board, so this was the part where he would have to weather his glares and help him out.
Except, to Alfred’s surprise, the emolga wasn’t heading for the board. He was heading for the post. Without hesitation, he climbed up its length and jumped off to cling to the board, where he began climbing around, looking at requests.
Alfred was dumbfounded. The post… is for him. It was such a simple thing, and made perfect sense, yet he’d never seen anything like it before.
It wasn’t long before the emolga adventurer picked out his request and glided over to the desk with it in his mouth. He placed it down in front of him and crossed his tiny arms. “Well? Whaddya know about this one?”
Alfred squeezed a feeler and shocked himself to attention. “Right, that one came in this morning…”
---
About halfway through the day, just around noon, Alfred had a strange encounter.
He could hear it from his desk: something rolling, bumping, and rattling against the cobble street outside, coupled with tiny grunts and breaths. Feeling concerned, he was about to abandon his paperwork and check it out when it suddenly stopped at the front entrance.
A light scratching at the door signaled an eevee pushing it open so that it swung on its hinges and hit the wall with a *thunk!* The eevee paid it no mind, too busy pulling a tiny, creaky wagon carrying a rattling box. She barely threw him a glance until finally it was out of the entryway, where she quickly abandoned it to jump right onto the desk.
She stared at Alfred with large, innocent eyes. “Hi.”
Alfred recoiled somewhat. “Hey…” His eyes drifted to the door, still open and allowing outside noise in. “Can you close the door?”
In reply, the eevee dropped her ears, whined and took a step forward. “Can you help me?”
Completely ignored. Whose kit is this? It wasn’t really his job to help others directly, but she seemed distressed. He rubbed a feeler. And it’ll give me the chance to close that door.
Alfred took a deep breath, allowed the calm to wash over him, and put on a rehearsed soft smile. “Sure I can. What’s your name?”
The eevee’s distress faded as if the question had distracted her. She sat down and answered. “Vee. I’m…” Something seemed to confuse her, her attention wandered to the paper on the desk. And to Alfred’s horror, she placed both paws on it and scratched. “One-”
“No!” Alfred paws shot forward to catch hers before she could do any more damage. Vee jolted, but her focus didn’t waver. She placed her free paw on top of Alfred’s and continued.
“Two… Three!” she exclaimed. “I’m three years old!” With that, she sat on her haunches, tail wagging with content and looking pleased with herself.
Alfred drew back and sighed. “Okay Vee, where are your parents?”
Vee whined and looked down at her paws. “Uncle Espio said he’s busy today, so I can’t ask him.”
That’s not what I asked. Maybe she didn’t have parents? Though, she was an eevee. Farbroad’s royal family was supposed to consist of them and their evolutions: was she part of it? I can’t imagine a royal kid would just be wandering around…
For now, he figured it didn’t matter. “What do you need help with?”
“My box is broken,” she said, looking forlornly at the box in her wagon.
It didn’t look broken, but he decided to humor her anyway. “Lemme see…”
Alfred rounded the desk and approached the wagon (after closing the door, of course). The box inside was made of polished wood panels, with a handle on one side and a crank riddled with teeth marks on the other. It didn’t look like it opened.
Vee jumped off the desk and reared up to place her paws on the wagon’s edge. “The handle won’t turn anymore,” she said.
She means the crank. Alfred turned it clockwise and immediately felt resistance. And he could hear it too: something was caught in there. Thinking to lift it for a better feel, he grasped the handle and grunted when it barely lifted with nothing more than a rumbling sound. “What the…?”
Okay, so this time he grabbed the handle and the crank. Some more effort got the box off the wagon and pressing into his arms, punctuated by the sound of several objects rolling around. He almost lost his balance trying to carry its surprising weight. “Wh-what’s in this thing?”
“I put my rocks in there,” Vee stated matter-of-factly.
I’m doing this for rocks? With a grunt of effort he hauled it onto his desk. Okay then, first let’s figure out what’s going on…
Alfred grabbed a feeler and pressed it against the box. First, he tried rotating the crank clockwise again. He could hear the resistance now: the crank turned something inside, pushed a piece of metal into another piece of metal, and that second piece must’ve been caught on a pebble somehow. He rotated it counterclockwise and met no resistance. That’s gotta be right then. Though it was odd. He could feel something else in there too, beyond just rocks.
Regardless, he had a good feel for how the pebble must’ve gotten stuck. With two thumps, he flipped it upside down, the rocks clattering along with it. Vee was on the desk now, watching with fascination. Can’t disappoint my audience.
He tried picking it up and hitting a corner against the desk. Instead, it was too heavy and he dropped it on its edge. Vee jolted and whined. “You broke it!”
“It’s not broken!” Alfred tried to assure. He felt the box with a feeler again and shook it a bit to create some vibration. And with luck, he couldn’t hear the trapped pebble anymore. Now to hope it really isn’t broken.
He carefully flipped it rightside-up, so that when the rocks tumbled they didn’t hit the mechanism. And then he placed his paw on the crank. “I think that fixed it,” he declared. And then he tested it with a quick turn-
*POP!*
“SHIT!”
The audino stumbled backwards and fell on his own tail. The cotton head of an impidimp jeered down at him, swaying on the spring released from the open box. Vee had been shocked into a defensive posture, her tail raised and fur on end. “Shit!”
Horror dawned on him. “D-don’t repeat that!”
---
A bit of tail-rubbing and desperate pleading later, and the box was once again in its wagon. “Don’t put your rock collection in there,” Alfred sternly told Vee. “Or it might get stuck again.”
“But then where do I put my rocks?” she whined.
“Why don’t you keep them in the wagon? You’re already pulling it everywhere.”
“But…” The eevee glanced at her wagon, and her tail waved as if in thought. Then: “I’ll ask Uncle Espio!” she exclaimed. “He always knows what to do!”
Is Espio her guardian or something? Didn’t matter, she was almost out of his fur. He leaned down to pat her head. “Well you go do that. And do not say the secret word around him, got it?”
Vee nodded with a serious shine in her eyes. “It’s a secret!” She bounded over to the wagon’s handle and hesitated, then abruptly faced him and bowed her head. “Thank you mister!”
Alfred smiled and scratched a growing, funny feeling off his chest. “You’re welcome.” And with that, she pulled her wagon around and out the door.
His smile immediately dropped and he sighed with relief. Hell of a distraction… Alfred figured the best thing to do was try and forget any of it happened. Maybe he could play dumb if an angry ‘Espio’ confronted him about his language.
Still though… A crank that turned a metal spool with a tooth that pushed a latch to release a wound spring. He’d never seen a toy like that before. Maybe she was royal. After all, it had to have been imported. It was inconceivable something like that could’ve been made here of all places.
Something to think about. Later, anyway. Alfred closed the door and got back to work.
---
With time, more adventurers found their way to the Guild Center. It turned out that mornings were just less active here. “Cuz mornins are when our local adventurers are at their most busy,” Helios had explained. Most of them were tied to various traveling caravans, so oftentimes they had other obligations to fill. “Sometimes we’ll get a traveler or two comin’ here to earn our badge though, and trust me, you can bet their face’ll be the first you see every day!”
Still, the work wasn’t tough. Even at the peak of activity, it couldn’t compare to the environment Alfred had trained in. By the time the sun began its downward journey, there were only a couple requests left on the board, not that many got put up in the first place. The only inconvenience was having to light a few candles in the middle of the afternoon to keep the place well lit. He could imagine that getting annoying.
But he could put that out of mind for now, because it was time to break for the evening and let Helios cover until closing time, and Alfred had some plans in mind. He heard about a nice bar in town -- the only bar in town, the Giant’s Horn. Rumor said they imported everything, so it’d be expensive, but he brought plenty of silver with him. And maybe I can find a taste of home there…
The audino made sure to chart his course to avoid the market. The ‘scenic’ route took him through a shoddy side street of small shacks and little activity. It all put his city instincts on alert. His research had told him that crime wasn’t a big problem in Harmonia, but it paid to be careful.
*hsss*
Snake?! Alfred jolted, stopped, and turned his head towards the noise.
The front door of one of the larger buildings was wide open, and a luxray was walking out. She gave him a strange look, then went on her way.
Alfred’s eyes were frozen on her until she left, and he couldn’t help but shiver. Luxray sure are intimidating…
Another long *hiss* took his attention. But when he looked this time, all he saw was an empty doorway, its door calmly swinging to a close.
Huh? He didn’t see anything that could have made that hissing sound. And while he knew of doors rigged to close themselves, something felt off about this one.
Alfred shook his head and continued walking. There was probably some good explanation for it. And I can’t be seen gawking here.
After that distraction, it wasn’t long before he made it to the bar: a fairly sizable building with a wine glass sign and a big set of double doors. The only set of double doors he’d seen so far, actually. Alfred could hear murmurings of activity coming from inside. Doesn’t sound too busy… He chalked that up to this being a small town and entered.
It wasn’t busy: he could count the patrons, all four of them, making noise at a table in the corner. Alfred tried his absolute hardest not to eavesdrop on them, keeping focus on the tall counter where a rhydon stood polishing a glass. With confidence, he walked right up and hopped onto a stool so he could see her properly. “Slow evening, huh?”
The rhydon barkeep looked up from her polishing as if she had just noticed him. “Oh! ‘Scuse me.” She placed her glass and rag down on the granite countertop. “Nah, not many drinkers in Harmonia, as you can imagine.” A gesture with her horn towards the group. “But I’m converting ‘em. Slowly.”
Alfred chuckled. “Sounds rough. Luckily for you I do drink, though I’m not downing anything harder than wine, sorry to say.”
“I’d be surprised if someone your size could,” she replied, with a bit more levity and a small smile that faltered with curiosity. She pushed a menu towards him and asked: “I’ve never seen you around. Where you from?”
“Ebeld, so quite a ways north.” Alfred checked his options and caught his eye on something. “Mt. Kagora?”
The barkeep pulled the menu away with a grin. “Rastort. Looks like we’re both Yagoran.”
Without even asking to confirm, she had already moved to the back counter to begin mixing his drink. Alfred felt a little concerned as to what he had accidentally ordered, but hell, he could probably take it. He was just glad to meet someone from the same kingdom.
The rhydon continued the conversation as she worked. “So you’re from the city, then? What’s your name?”
“Alfred.”
“Hm. You can call me Rhys. Not a very ‘Yagoran’ name, I know, but I figured I’d change it to match local customs, since I live here now.”
“Local customs…” He’d read about it of course. Pokémon in Farbroad fashioned their names from their species. Apparently the custom used to be commonplace everywhere, until newer traditions replaced them over time. “Maybe I should start calling myself ‘Dino,’ then,” he joked.
“Alfred’s a good name, you should keep it.” Rhys shook her metal shaker, then turned around, poured its contents into a glass, and handed it to him. “There. Despite the name, Mt. Kagora’s a light drink. You’ll be fine.”
Alfred grabbed it with both paws. The cocktail was a light orange in color, and when he took a sip…
His brow furrowed, and he put the glass down. “It tastes like rocks.” It was impressive.
The rhydon tilted her head. “Is that a problem?”
Alfred lifted the glass with a sheepish smile. “I-I meant it tastes like home.” He took another, reluctant sip. Can’t be too picky…
Before long, the two found themselves swapping stories of how they came to be here. Rhys had moved in three years ago. She once worked for a bar in her old town, and unlike him, she had come here on purpose to escape the stress.
“Wasn’t it hard?” Alfred asked. “I can’t imagine you took a carriage.”
“No, I walked all right. And it was tough.” Her gaze diverted slightly. “Still can be.”
Something occurred to him right then, about this town compared to those in Yagora. “I couldn’t help noticing it. This town isn’t built for pokémon your size. The doors are too small.”
He could hear her tail drag against the floorboards. “Yeah, that’s part of it.”
“Part of it? Where do you even live?”
“I have a place big enough for me on the outskirts,” she answered. “It’s not much, but it’s comfortable enough for my purposes.”
A strong pang of sympathy washed over Alfred. “But you can’t be okay with just that?”
Rhys shrugged it off. “Hey, we all make sacrifices, don’t we?”
A sudden round of shouting from the other patrons caused Alfred to wince and clutch a feeler. “I suppose…”
Unbothered, she continued. “I still have access to everything I need, and this business makes enough to survive, if only barely.” She turned her gaze to the window. “And besides, I like it here. It’s quiet, the locals are kind, and we’re isolated from all the politics going on elsewhere. We get no news out here except rumors, and I find I prefer it that way.” She let out a grunt of discontent. “You just can’t find that kinda calm in Yagora anymore.”
It shocked Alfred to hear that. He expected her perspective to be something he could relate to, and yet here he really didn’t understand what she longed for at all. It all sounded like too much trouble for too little gain. At least his stint here had a point.
He took a couple seconds to stare into his glass and ruminate. “Well, if you ever need anything from the guild, just tap on the window. It opens, and I work right there, so I can put up anything you need.”
The rhydon’s eyes widened. “Huh, really?” she said, as if that were the first time anyone had told her. “Thanks. I’ll see if I can think of anything.”
Alfred lifted his glass and smiled. “No problem. It’s my job.”
After finishing his drink, he made sure to pay in full. And with a light head and lighter wallet, he soon was on his way back to the Guild Center to see an end to his first day of work. His thoughts kept going back to that conversation. Maybe there was something about this town he was missing.
When he opened the door into the center, he found Helios panicking at a clean and organized workspace. The guildmaster gave him a look of pure distress. “Wh-what happened to my desk?!”
Alfred was unamused. “I made it comprehensible.”
---
15th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
The next few days settled into a rhythm as Alfred’s routine solidified itself. He’d gotten used to waking up early, opening the Guild Center, taking his evenings to visit the Giant’s Horn, then closing up to head back to his room. The nights were quiet here, far quieter than he had ever been used to.
That first one was probably the best sleep he’d ever gotten.
So, maybe it was less stressful here than his old home. But was it a replacement for the city? Hell no. Harmonia truly was small. Only a few businesses, one tailor, no proper restaurants, and few books outside a small selection at the Guild Center. All of it boring, dry, practical nonfiction. Oftentimes it felt there was nothing to do besides his job. It wasn’t all bad: most of the locals were fine enough to talk to, and he’d grown to like Helios (if only because he was often the only one around). But in between those rare conversations, the small hours of the day provided little fulfillment.
Those slow moments could perhaps be bearable, if it weren’t for one thing. The one thing he couldn’t get used to: the market.
No matter how many times he passed it, or how much time he spent hearing it through the wall, the buzz of the market never faded away. Never stopped drilling into his head, or disturbing his thoughts. But why? He never had these kinds of problems with noise in the city, he grew up learning how to block it all out. This was objectively tame by comparison, and yet somehow it made him feel worse. What changed? Was it the lack of distractions? Was the boredom driving him insane?
And today, he’d have to brave the market to restock on food. He tried so hard to avoid it, coasting on what Helios and others had given him in moving-in gifts. He figured the best time would be the morning before work, that’s when it was quietest. And so, with a basket in one paw and a feeler in the other, he took his chance.
The market was a wide cobble street lined with stalls. Cart-pulling ‘mon passed through, hawking their wares both to passerby and other merchants. This quiet hour avoided the worst of it, but there was always something to trade, and just about every merchant made a point to let Alfred know as he tried to make sense of it all.
He squeezed his feeler. Felt himself draw inward. I don’t care about half of you. Just let me find what I want so I can-
“Alfred!”
A shrill voice pierced through the clamor to reach his ears, and that’s when he noticed the eevee running up to meet him. “Vee?”
Ever since that day, she had started making it a habit to visit the Guild Center. Usually for no reason other than to say hi. Alfred wasn’t sure why: he never thought himself good with kids.
He couldn’t let her see his distress, so he forced his best smile. “What are you doing here by yourself?”
“Uncle Espio sent me to buy a cheri berry!” she cheerfully informed. She pawed at the drawstring sack hanging around the fluff of her neck. “See, he gave me money!”
Alfred placed a paw on his hip. “A single cheri berry?” Sounds like he’s trying to get rid of you.
Vee, ever innocent, just nodded with a yip. “Are you shopping too?” she asked. Then her eyes grew bigger as she brushed against Alfred with a wagging tail. “We can shop together!”
The audino lifted his arms with a sheepish smile as she excitedly circled around him. I can’t just say no to her, he thought. Maybe if he put all of his attention on her, she could help keep him grounded. “Sure we can. Just stay close, okay?”
She bounced in front of him and smiled. “Okay!”
And so they were off. With such a thin crowd, it was easy to keep track of Vee, even as she blatantly ignored his advice and bounded ahead to try and guide him. As he tried to keep his focus on her, he couldn’t help noticing how the calls of the merchants switched from being directed at him to her. One even called her by name. And she just walked along, barely acknowledging them as if this were the most normal thing in the world.
She’s got to be royalty. As Alfred caught up to her staring at one of the merchants, he couldn’t help remarking on it. “Where can I get your confidence?”
The eevee turned to him and tilted her head. “Huh?”
He waved it off. “Nevermind. Where are you leading me?”
“Right here!” She walked up to the vendor who caught her interest: a dachsbun whose flat tail began wagging as his customers approached. He sat on a carpet, the baskets containing his wares laid out in front of him. ‘Berries! Freshly picked!’ read the sign.
“Hi! What’re you lookin’ for?” asked the merchant with a friendly smile and lolling tongue.
Vee took charge with a step forward. “I need one cherri berry please!”
Alfred bent over to observe a basket of chesto. They were only three silver each. I guess I could take a couple. Though as he looked over the rest of the display, he noticed a strange-looking wood box by the dachsbun’s side. It had an overhang with a funnel jutting out the bottom, and coin-sized slots on the top. What’s up with that? Is it for coins…?
His thought was interrupted when the merchant leaned towards him and sniffed. “I’ve never seen you around before. You’re that new guide, aren’tcha?”
“He’s my new friend!” Vee butted in.
Hearing that caused something warm and fuzzy to beat in Alfred’s chest. He placed a paw against it and gave the merchant an amused smile. “This is my first time visiting the market, so I’m having her show me around.”
The dachsbun gave him a knowing look. “Ain’t she somethin’? What’re you lookin’ to buy?”
“I’ll just take two chesto berries,” Alfred replied.
“So two chestos and a cheri. That’ll be nine silver.”
Vee held her head high and proud. “I can pay for that! Espio gave me a gold piece!”
Alfred looked at her with skepticism before reaching into his satchel for his wallet. “You don’t have change for nine?”
“Don’t worry about change,” said the merchant. “Just give it here.”
Vee lowered her head and batted her paws at the string around her neck, prompting Alfred to speak up. “Are you sure? I can pay for it.”
She stopped to glare at him. “No, I wanna pay for it. Espio asked me to!” Then went right back to struggling to get the bag off.
Alfred wasn’t eager to let a child pay for him, but he didn’t want to argue with her either. And he definitely wasn’t comfortable watching her writhe around like that. “Look, at least let me get that for you.”
The eevee huffed, then let him kneel down to take her pouch off. He then opened it up, grabbed the single gold coin within, and offered it to the merchant.
The dog took it in his jaws and reared up onto that strange box so he could let the coin drop into a slot. “Okay, now open the pouch under that there cone,” he instructed.
Huh? He must’ve meant the funnel. Slightly confused, Alfred did as told and held the pouch open underneath it. Then, the merchant pressed his nose against something on the other side.
*Click! Whir! Clink! Rattle!*
And then a silver coin fell out, right into Vee’s wallet. Alfred watched in fascination as the dachsbun continued to press the button, each for another coin until eleven silver’s worth of change had been deposited.
The merchant sat down and dipped his head. “Thanks fer the business!”
Alfred drew the pouch back and looked inside. Normally, a transaction like that would be a long exercise in watching a four-legged ‘mon try and manage money with their teeth. And yet with the help of that device, it was over in just a few seconds. “What is this thing?” he asked.
“It’s a coin dispenser,” said the merchant. “Makes things easier, don’t it?”
“Uncle Espio made it!” Vee cheerfully informed.
Alfred blinked. “...Huh.”
After gathering their berries, they were off once again. Now that he was paying attention, the dachsbun wasn’t the only quadrupedal vendor in the market, and several of them had identical boxes. Yet another thing he never would’ve seen back in the city. And if Vee’s ‘uncle’ had made them…
---
At the end of their excursion, Alfred figured he’d better escort Vee back to her uncle. And so she excitedly led him through several streets, each quieter and with sparser construction, until they had passed into the shadow of the mesa and found themselves at a shack on the shore of a stream where a large waterwheel steadily turned.
It felt lonely there in the giant’s shade, quiet except for the rhythmic sounds of rustling grass, creaking wood, and running water. No other buildings were around, the only other structure being the water tower standing guard from its place on a nearby hill. Alfred’s theories of Vee’s nobility looked to die up there. What kind of royal would live in a place like this?
Vee ran up to the front door and pulled on a rope that caused a bell to ring. Before long, the door opened as if by some invisible force, to reveal an espeon wearing a green capelet and golden hoop earrings at the base of his ears.
“Uncle Espio! I bought the berry!” Vee announced as she bounded to him and brushed her cheek down his side.
The espeon, Espio, sat down and gently draped his forked tail over her head. “I see that, thank you.” A small smile played at his lips, cut short as soon as his eyes locked with Alfred’s.
Alfred felt his heart chill. The espeon’s gaze was cold and inscrutable, piercing ice through his head and sending shivers down his fur. He raised a paw in a weak greeting. “Hello…?”
Espio’s tail rose and curled. “Who are you?”
“He’s my friend!” spoke Vee. “I showed him around the market!”
Espio blinked, then relaxed. “Ah. I see. You must be the new guide.” He bowed his head with precise courtesy. “Thank you for watching over my niece.”
And without waiting for a response, he gestured with his tail for Vee to come inside, and the door closed itself behind them.
Alfred could only stand there. Who…
Who is he?
---
“Espio?” Rhys passed Alfred his drink. “You mean the crown prince?”
Alfred almost choked on his wine. “The crown prince?!”
“Yeah, you never heard of him?”
He blinked in disbelief. “Somehow,” -- Despite all my research -- “no, I haven’t.” He knew about King Jolt, and the rest of his family was collectively a footnote. He never thought to question why, he just figured Farbroad had nothing going on in terms of royal politics. “So what’s his deal?”
The rhydon held a claw to her chin and stared at the ceiling. “I dunno much. He’s a bit of a recluse; not very princelike. Most of what goes around is rumors.”
“Like?”
“Well, y’know how every now and then you’ll come across something strange? Like those coin boxes in the market, or doors that open by themselves, or the town gates: have you seen one lock before? It’s done by some strange rope contraption. Word goes that it was all made by him.”
All of it… Thinking about it, ‘doors that open by themselves’ did sound familiar to him. “So he’s some kind of inventor?” he asked.
Rhys nodded. “You could call him that.”
Pieces continued to put themselves together. His shack was near the water tower. Maybe he’s the reason we have running water. A forward thinker in a town like this… Figures he’d be a prince. His thoughts swirled in his drink as he absentmindedly used a claw to stir it.
Rhys knocked on the counter with an amused smile. “I see that look in your eyes. You wanna talk to him, don’t you?”
Alfred let out a self-conscious chuckle. “I can’t help it. He sounds like an interesting guy.”
“I wouldn’t bet on getting a chance,” she warned. “Like I mentioned, Espio’s as aloof as they come. Nothing like the rest of his family. He spends all his time in that workshop of his on the outskirts and doesn’t bother with anyone. Some ‘mon in town find him more suspicious than anything.”
“Anyone’d think that way if they were stuck in the past,” said Alfred with a wink. “But where I come from, we value ‘mon like him. And he’s got a niece who’s enamored with him, so he can’t be that bad.”
He took another sip as thoughts of the inventor prince continued to swim in his head. Of course, that might’ve all been the alcohol talking, but dammit was he sure it was more than that. “I’d love to have a drink with him,” he dreamed aloud.
Rhys snorted. “Maybe if he doesn’t just brush you off first.”
Alfred pointed back at her. “Hey, I’m charming. That’s gotta count for something.”
She rolled her eyes. “Suuure it does.”
He frowned and scoffed. Go be skeptical somewhere else. Though the moment he actually thought about how it might go, the memory of Espio’s icy stare sent another wave of goosebumps. He bit his lip and stared into his glass.
“I’m just saying I’d love the chance,” Alfred finally said. “A royal like him probably wouldn’t have the time for me anyway.”
Perhaps he had been getting ahead of himself; the novelty of having met such an important figure was just too strong. He didn’t really expect to ever get his chance, but in a town as small as this, it seemed to him that it was only a matter of time before they met again.
---
Sunrise on the 17th Day, Month of Lux, 1802.
Inside the post office, and just by the entrance on the side of the door opposite its hinges, a section of the floorboard had been replaced by a conspicuous metal plate. On the wall just above it was a plaque that read “Open.”
There were several of these around town. Not every building had one, but the ones that did, it was hard not to notice now that he was looking. When Alfred pressed his foot down on it, it sank easily underneath his weight. He listened as something seemed to shift underneath the floorboards, followed by a long *hssss* as, slowly, it opened.
He watched, fixated. So that’s what it is. He took his foot off the plate, and just as slowly as it opened did the door gradually swing back into its closed state.
Closer inspection of the door frame revealed that the door’s pivot point attached it to a metal plate in the floor, so that -- from what he could imagine -- it could be turned by a contraption hiding underneath. What that was exactly, he couldn’t tell. Even as he continued to mess with the door opener with feeler against the floorboards, he found he simply did not have the vocabulary to piece together what it was he was hearing. The best he could gather was that the *hiss* was the sound of air whistling inside.
Whatever it was, it was ingenious, and convenient at that. Espio must’ve made this. Though, as he began to consider it further, it wasn’t as if the door was hard to open in the first place. It took him about the same amount of effort to step on the button as it did to simply pull the door open. Maybe that’s why the Guild Center doesn’t have one…?
As he continued testing the door, Alfred’s ears twitched at the sound of small footsteps from behind, and he turned to see an emolga standing there, staring at him as if he’d lost it. “You busy there?” he remarked dryly.
Alfred’s cheeks flushed with warmth. He shifted his stance and leaned against the wall to make his plate-pressing seem more purposeful. “No, just curious,” he tried to play it off with.
“Uh huh.” The emolga’s eyes were unamused and skeptical. He adjusted the strap of his tiny satchel that barely held an oversized letter. “Well since you’re not busy,” he said. “Mind helpin’ out with somethin’?”
Wonder what for. It was early enough that Alfred figured it wouldn’t be too much trouble. “Yeah, sure,” he said, then kept his foot on the door opener and gestured for him to lead the way.
Over the past quarter, Alfred had come to learn this emolga’s name: Emol. He was a local adventurer who came around to the Guild Center fairly regularly, though their common interactions never seemed to take the edge off of the suspicion the ‘mon regarded him with. Alfred knew that he was part of one of the nomadic groups that frequented Harmonia, and as he followed him through town towards the outskirts, he began to suspect that this task would have something to do with them.
The walk took them past the point where the road could be called a street. Up ahead, a small herd of zebstrika and blitzle had gathered in a flat area not far from the exit gate, accompanied by their wagons. Alfred took note of the vibrant oran blue of their harnesses: he heard it was meant to signal to the pyroar and luxray prides that they were citizens of Farbroad to be protected.
Interesting facts like that just made Alfred wonder why any ‘mon would choose to live like this, where the line between ‘citizen’ and ‘prey’ was a couple pieces of dyed fabric. But he knew that judging them for it wasn’t very productive.
Emol took him behind one of the wagons, where an older zebstrika and a flaaffy helper moved cargo up and down it’s ramp. While the flaaffy struggled against their weight, the zebstrika pulled in crates with a rope lasso, her pace brisk and effortless. As she came down for another crate, the zebstrika met eyes with Alfred, straightened her neck, and paused. “Who’d you bring with ya, Emol?”
“The guide,” he answered. “I caught ‘im at the post office playin’ games with the door.”
Alfred shot him a look. “He’s making stuff up,” he said quickly to save face, before nodding more amicably to the zebstrika. “My name’s Alfred. Emol asked me to help assist with something.”
“I was just figurin’ we could use a couple extra paws,” the emolga said with arms crossed. He looked up at Alfred. “You up to help load these wagons? Dialga knows I can’t.”
“You’d be welcome. The name’s Rezka,” the zebstrika introduced herself with a respectful bow of her head. “Our caravan’s headin’ out to trade with the west border before headin’ to the spring pastures. Typically we’d steal some of the flaaffy to help’n get ready, but they couldn’t spare us more’n a couple today.” She gave the helper a piteous glance. “I’m sure he’d appreciate the help.”
The flaaffy sagged against the crate he was struggling with and bleated sorrowfully. “I would.”
Alfred couldn’t see himself faring any better than the poor flaaffy. But, standing there, with the loudest sounds being the whistling of the wind and the light conversation of the caravan, the prospect of instead returning to the Guild Center had him feeling that the amount of cargo didn’t seem too large...
It’d be rude to refuse anyway. “Sure I can help. Though I’ll have to return to my own work soon.”
“It shouldn’t take long,” Emol reassured. He pointed at the flaaffy. “Now lend ‘im an arm, he’s dyin’ over there!”
And so Alfred got to work. The main thing they really needed him (and the flaaffy) for was fastening Rezka’s rope around cargo for her to pull in, and lifting the occasional thing that couldn’t be pulled. He was lucky there wasn’t much, because he met the limits of his strength not a few minutes in and could barely move anything without the flaaffy’s assistance.
The wagons were spacious on the inside, for reasons Alfred could imagine. And when he rolled a barrel up into a second one, he was surprised to see that already sitting in there was, not just a plough, but one with a curved iron mouldboard, its wooden parts still polished. But those are…
When Rezka came in behind him, he took the chance to ask about it. “The plough? What about it?”
“That’s a relatively new design from Ebeld. It was a big deal a couple years ago,” he explained, staring at it. “I was just surprised to see it here.”
“Ah. Yeah, you can thank Prince Espio fer that. He managed to get a hold of a few and handed ‘em off to us.”
The zebstrika finished pushing her cargo the rest of the way in, then turned to stare at it with him. “We’re farmer’s too, y’know. We pay dues to the King in return for protection like Emol. And that thing?” She snorted. “Well, it’s certainly better than what we used to have.”
Alfred could feel the dismissiveness in her tone. “And that’s a good thing, right?”
“You could sure say so. Makes the work we do much easier. But it’s not like we couldna managed without it, and Espio never bothered to ask before givin’ it to us. Of course, that’s just like ‘im.”
Why is she questioning it? He looked up at her and furrowed his brow. “Does it matter whether he asked? He would’ve had to go far out of his way for this.”
Rezka’s tail swished as she turned to face him. “Now hear me right, I’m not sayin’ that I don’t appreciate it. We’ve been usin’ it plenty. I just don’t care much for this little project of his, puttin’ so much time into those inventions of his.”
The zebstrika’s ire was intimidating when she stood so tall over him. But Alfred stood his ground. “Well I’ve only been here for a quarter. But the way I see it, it looks like he’s thinking of this town’s future.”
“The town’s future. That’s got nothin’ to do with us.” She turned her head towards the plough, and spoke with a voice that was as considered as it was irritated. “Sure, I’ll admit that Harmonia’s become a much more welcome place these past few years. Anyone can see that, plain as day. But Farbroad’s more than just a town, and it takes more from a ‘mon to be a proper King. The herd and I will never have a place in a town, and if he can’t understand that then how’m I supposed to trust him when he comes in with somethin’ like this? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he’s fixin’ to increase our dues.” She raised her head high. “And I think I’m bein’ quite charitable.”
Don’t have a place? You chose to live like this. Alfred bit his tongue before he could say it.
She snorted, then nodded to the barrel he hadn’t yet righted. “Now how ‘bout you do what we ask of you and stop questionin’ things you don’t understand?”
Rezka bit the rope and yanked it off the crate before turning to leave. Alfred watched her, bewildered thoughts keeping his brow furrowed. Rhys had told him that others were suspicious of Espio, but this just seemed weirdly stubborn to him. Are zebstrika just generally unpleasant?
He rubbed his feeler and took a deep breath. I shouldn’t care so much. But as he went back to work, it continued to bother him. Rezka had spoken with such conviction and certainty. Farbroad had a history all its own, he knew that, and so that belief had to have come from somewhere.
She was right. He really didn’t understand.
---
The only other thing asked of Alfred was to help attach the draftsmon to their wagons. And after that, he stood alongside the pyroar guards to see them off. Emol waved to him from atop a wagon as it shrank into the distance. It was hard to make out, but it felt like he must have been smiling. Guess I grew on him somehow.
By the time he finally returned to the square, the day was almost in full swing. He clutched his feeler as he approached the Guild Center, both from the noise and in anticipation of having to explain his absence to Helios, and just as he was about to open the door-
The door opened itself, and Espio was there.
Alfred froze up, still clutching his feeler, then quickly shuffled out of his way. “S-Sorry, go ahead.”
Espio regarded him for a moment stretched long and distorted by the noise of the market. Then he nodded. “Excuse me,” he said, before walking past him.
Why was he-? Wait, no, this is your chance to say something. “Hey, uh…”
Espio paused midstep and turned to look at him. The cold in his eyes: nothing seemed personal about it, but it made the audino instinctively anxious all the same.
Alfred breathed carefully and went for the first thing that came to mind. “Those door openers. There are a few around town, but the Guild Center doesn’t seem to have one. I’m curious as to why.”
The espeon’s tail curled. “No particular reason. It was an iterative invention. I began with a mechanism to close a door automatically, and pushed to have it installed in buildings with high traffic, to which the previous Guildmaster told me he had no need for such a thing. The mechanism that opens the door came later, and in the end, it was easier to test it using the infrastructure that had already been built.” He tilted his head. “Why do you ask? Do you believe the Guild Center would benefit from it?”
“N-no, we manage just fine,” he tried to clarify (though for some reason it felt like a lie). “Like I said, I was just curious. It’s a neat thing. They don’t have those in the city I’m from.”
After another long moment, Espio dipped his head. “I see. I appreciate the compliment.” And then he walked off.
Alfred blinked, unconsciously returning a tiny wave. “Goodbye…?”
Entering the Guild Center, he wasn’t sure what to think about that encounter. I’m dreaming. I’ve got to be…
---
19th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
Alfred had spent his free time yesterday probing around for more information about Espio, though it proved more difficult than expected. He could learn plenty about the rest of the royal family, who seemed to have connections all over the place and were well-regarded. But the prince only had a few, primarily the town’s woodworker and blacksmith. In particular, he learned that the old blacksmith had retired under Espio’s orders in favor of newer, more skilled blood from Yagora, a decision that some still resented him for (though it seemed logical to Alfred). Meanwhile, Helios said they knew each other ‘professionally,’ but that it didn’t amount to much.
“Espio calls himself the town’s head of infrastructure,” he had explained. “So every now and then he’ll come to us for somethin’, but we’re not that close.”
When he asked Vee about him, she went on about how smart and kind he was, before quickly becoming bored and asking to play. And really, what was he expecting?
It was threatening to become an obsession at this point, Alfred had to admit it. Harmonia had no shortage of interesting things but it was all secondary to the one incongruous aspect. He simply couldn’t reconcile a ‘mon of innovation being born to a town for nomads who barely appreciated him. How did it happen? Why did he bother? Was Espio just… bored?
Standing at his desk today, Alfred felt like he was just one piece away from understanding it. But he had little hope of finding it anytime soon. It’s not as if Espio’s just going to walk in the door.
And then the door opened and Espio walked in.
The din of the market faded away into irrelevance, and the audino’s eyes widened as he straightened up. Lessons drilled into him on how to deal with nobles shot through his head faster than thoughts of seeing the subject of his fascination again. Be polite.
But the espeon prince barely noticed him. Vee followed after, pulling her wagon inside. This time, it carried yet another strange device: what seemed like a glass lamp, stood on a thick wooden base. A wire looked to be coiled inside for some mysterious purpose.
Espio sat on his haunches as he looked around the room, then up, then at Alfred. If he recognized him, he showed no sign. “Where’s Helios?”
The audino tried gathering his nerves, and just then did the market’s noise roar back into focus. “Uh, h-he’s uh…” he stammered, squeezing a feeler. “...Not here.”
Espio glanced at the open door, and his eyes briefly glowed as it closed itself, lowering the volume to a buzz. “Better?”
Alfred sheepishly rubbed his feeler and nodded. “Yeah.”
The espeon let out a thoughtful trill, then stood up as he looked at the stairs. “I had hoped the guildmaster would be here, but I suppose we can attempt this without him for now.”
“Can we turn it on?!” exclaimed Vee, her tail wagging frantically.
“Not right there. We should find a better spot for it.”
Alfred looked between them, confused. “Excuse me, but what are we attempting here?”
Espio didn’t even look at him, instead staring at the ceiling again. “At this time of day, the sun is located outside of that east-facing window’s view, lowering the light level.”
Alfred blinked. What.
The inventor’s gaze shifted towards the window in question. “As a quirk of this building’s construction, that is the only window in this room. And so, the inside of the lobby receives no direct sunlight for the remainder of the day, until the sun rises in the morning. I see there is an unlit candle on the corner of your desk.”
There was also a candle on a sconce near the request board. He realized he hadn’t lit either yet, and so that half of the building remained noticeably dim.
Espio turned to his niece. “Vee, could you move it near the board?” he asked gently.
With an emphatic “Yup!” Vee picked up the wagon’s handle and pulled it into the darkest corner, near the climbing pole. “Right here?” she asked as the handle clattered to the ground.
“Yes, that’s good.” He walked over to her and sat himself there. Then turned to Alfred. “You may want to come closer.”
Curious, Alfred took the offer and left his desk for a better look. “It reminds me of the gas lamps used back home,” he remarked. “What’s the wire for?”
“You’ll see.”
Espio placed a paw on a metal switch on the base, then pushed it into place with a *click!* There was a *snap!*, and with a soft thrum the wire began to glow brighter and brighter until Alfred had to avert his eyes. “Wh-what the-?!”
The entire corner had become bathed in the lamp’s light, bright enough so that the requests on the board could be read with perfect clarity. Vee eyes were transfixed, hypnotized by its luminescence. “Woah…” She held out a paw to touch it. “Electricity’s so cool…”
Espio covered her eyes with his tail. “Don’t stare directly into it.” Even as he scolded her, Alfred was sure he caught him smiling.
Alfred looked back at the lamp and winced as he failed to take the inventor’s advice, then used a paw to block it from view and turned to him. “So, what is this?”
“An incandescent lamp,” Espio explained. “‘Incandescent’ referring to the property of the wire as it is heated by an electric current.”
“Electricity…?” The enormity of what was just implied was slow to dawn on him, but once it did his eyes became as wide as Vee’s. “You mean, this doesn’t use fire, or gas?!”
Just as he said that, the hum of the lamp cut off and the light abruptly went out. Vee gasped. “Oh no!”
“It’s fine,” Espio reassured. He pressed the switch into its original position. “The current is powered by a battery hidden inside the base, but I already exhausted it in testing, and I wasn’t able to store an adequate charge before coming here. I was hoping Helios would be able to help with that. I plan to lend it to him, after all; I designed it for his use.”
Alfred found himself struggling to follow. Battery? What is that? How many things did he invent here?! If electricity could be used like this, what else was possible? “This is incredible… Is there a catch?”
“Relatively few, compared to its competitors,” he answered quickly. “It lasts far longer than a candle and is much safer than a gas lamp. The primary concern is powering it.”
Alfred’s ears perked. “How long can it last?”
The inventor shifted his head mulling over his answer. “I estimated about one thousand hours of continuous use.”
In the moment, that length of time sounded unfathomable. “A-and you’re just giving it to us?!”
“I figured you’d find the most use out of it.”
“Yeah, but…” Alfred bent over to get a closer look. “This is incredible! If you made a bunch of these, something like this could be revolutionary! We could light up the whole town!”
Espio’s ears stood high, as if he didn’t quite expect this reaction. “I appreciate the enthusiasm. Unfortunately, Harmonia lacks the resources and infrastructure to support widespread use. With what I have, I could make two more, at most. And only Electric types could use them long-term.”
“But I’m sure there’s ways to fix that, right?” A voice in the back of Alfred’s head told him it was rude to be this forward with a prince. But who cares, I’m building a rapport.
The prince just seemed puzzled. “Well, in theory, yes. I wasn’t expecting you to be so interested.”
Alfred stood straight and pat the espeon’s shoulder. “I just find this kind of technology interesting. I thought I’d be leaving it all behind when I came down here.”
Espio just stared at where Alfred touched him. “I see…”
A sliding drawer caught Alfred’s ear, and he turned to see Vee behind his desk, poking around in an open file cabinet. “V-Vee! That’s off limits!”
She looked at him with drooping ears. “I’m bored,” she whined.
Espio sighed. “It seems we ran out of time.”
Immediately, Alfred recognized the opportunity to make his shot. “Hey, whenever you have the time, would you like to continue our talk over a drink?”
The crown prince of Farbroad regarded Alfred with the same inscrutable gaze he always seemed to hold, though the coldness was missing. “I’ll think about it.” He sounded… curious.
With a flash of his eyes, the lamp floated out from the wagon and traveled to rest on the desk. He then stood up. “I’ll return later in the day to meet with Helios and explain to him how this works.” A bow. “Thank you for providing an audience.”
After that, he signaled for Vee to grab her wagon, and they left Alfred in the afternoon dim.
He approached the lamp and fiddled with the switch, listening to the way it snapped and clicked. Did I get my chance…?
---
Evening on the 20th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
The next day, in the quiet of the evening, Alfred was in the Giant’s Horn, carrying two wine glasses to the table where Prince Espio waited on his seat with his tail curled neatly around his paws. He passed a drink to him and carried his own to his place on the opposite end. From the bar counter, Rhys watched out of the corner of her eye, clearly trying to remain inconspicuous.
Espio leaned forward to lap at his apple cider, and his face scrunched at the first lick. He then licked his chest and shook it off. “Apologies, I’m not normally one for alcohol.”
“It’s fine,” Alfred assured. “Not everyone has the constitution for it.”
Espio hesitated, then lapped another sip and adopted a dignified posture. “You wished to talk about my invention?”
Alfred smiled. “Well, yeah, it’s incredible. I can’t help but wonder where you got the idea for it.”
The inventor didn’t seem too flattered. “What you saw represented only one possible outcome of my years of work and research. I merely stumbled upon the idea.”
Alfred tilted his head. “Is there something bigger you’re working on?”
There was a moment of hesitation and a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. “...Practical applications for electricity,” he admitted. “Progress has been slow, as you can imagine. Farbroad has little in the way of material production, and so most of what I make relies on imports from our neighbors.”
The audino made a thoughtful noise. “Sounds expensive.”
“It can be.” He bent down to drink. “I pay it with your taxes.”
…Was that a joke?
The conversation hit a lull. Alfred took a sip and attempted to revive it. “So why don’t you show off your inventions? There are tons of wealthy patrons in Yagora who’d pay a lot for them, I’m sure.”
“I’m not interested,” he responded instantly. But then the look on his face grew pensive, as if reconsidering his words. “I… suppose that yes, it would be easier to achieve widespread recognition if I did so. But it would be at a great risk.”
“What do you mean?”
“The kingdom of Farbroad is nothing more than a loose collection of agreements and honor rules, pressed into place by outside influences. Most of our population consists of nomads who primarily fend for themselves, only providing enough value to fulfill their obligations to the crown. And what little silver passes through Harmonia comes almost entirely from border tolls and convoy escorts, as our neighbors refuse to take us seriously and are only interested in the trade that passes through us, rather than with us. We’re at their mercy, and as a result, we don’t have the necessary leverage to protect ourselves from bad faith actors who would seek to exploit my work.” His eyes momentarily shifted away. “Not yet, at least.”
The more he learned, the more Alfred was impressed by him. “Wow. You’re a prince all right. Always thinking ahead,” he complimented.
“I’m only being practical.”
“Don’t be so modest.” Alfred took another sip. “It’s not just electricity either, you’ve made other things too, right? Like, what about that water tower?”
Espio shook his head. “That was before my time. My mother Vapor led the trail on that project ten years ago. Though I did oversee its end after she passed away.”
Alfred’s ears perked. “Oh, I never even heard about that. Sorry for poking.”
“No worries. Our internal affairs aren’t widely publicized, so it’s not a surprise you’d be unaware,” he replied. “She saw a need in this town, and used the example set by other kingdoms to fulfill that need.” A sense of pride entered his voice. “I like to believe I inherited her legacy.”
Alfred tipped his glass to that. “I’d say so. You both sound like forward thinkers to me.” Starting to get a little heavy though. He decided to try changing the subject. “Y’know, after hearing that, I’m surprised you’re not a vaporeon. Or a jolteon, for that matter. Why’d you choose espeon?”
Espio closed his eyes. “Simple: it is the objectively correct option.”
Alfred chuckled. He could imagine the kinds of petty arguments eevee might have on which evolution was the ‘best.’ “How so?” he asked with a light smile.
The espeon didn't reciprocate his humor. Instead, he just stared at him coldly. And then, he reached out a paw, pushed his glass sideways, and kept pushing it, until it tipped and fell over the edge of the table.
Alfred’s heart jumped out of his chest. “Wha-”
Just as it began to fall, the glass caught itself in the air, its cider sloshing violently yet never leaving its confines, as if the laws of gravity had bent sideways. It then floated back up to its original spot.
Espio’s eyes stopped glowing. “That’s how.”
The tone in his voice: it wasn’t a joke. The audino felt discomfort sizzle through his feelers.
The prince continued with a calm, even tone. “I’m sure you’re not blind to the difference in physical capability between us. I’ve tried to convince the rest of my family not to take such decisions lightly. And yet, they all treat it like you did: as a matter of opinion rather than practicality. Making life harder for themselves in the process. As the royal family, we have access to servants who can do the tasks we cannot take care of ourselves. But the rest of Harmonia doesn’t have that luxury.”
Alfred looked down at the paw that grasped his glass. It’s not that I’ve never been aware of it, it’s just…
“...Is that why you made those coin dispensers?” he asked.
Espio nodded. “Yes. I believe the goal of technology should be to ease the burden of participating in society. Much of Farbroad consists of misfits: pokémon who couldn’t adapt to the rise of cities and structures meant only for the most well-rounded and versatile of us. You see this in the nomads, and our immigrants, and the many four-legged ‘mon who call this town home.”
Like Rhys. That was why she came here. Guilt began to weigh on Alfred’s ears. “I have to admit, I never saw it that way before. I always figured everyone here was just backwards.”
Espio sighed and shook his head. “I don’t blame you for that. Honestly, sometimes I feel that way too. Many of my solutions seem like common sense, yet I’ve come to realize how easy it is, to become complacent with the way things are.”
Common sense… A memory flashed through Alfred’s mind. “Huh. You reminded me of that climbing pole in the Guild Center.”
The tips of Espio’s tail curled. “That? I was the one who had that installed.”
“Wait, that was you?”
“Yes. Originally I wanted a box placed under the board, but Helios didn’t like the way it looked. The pole was a compromise, as this was primarily for Emol’s convenience.” Espio licked his paw. “It also works for sharpening claws.”
Alfred felt relief as the conversation regained its levity. “It really is a simple thing. Not what I’d expect from an inventor.”
“If it serves its purpose, that’s all that matters.” He brushed one of his ears and shook his head. “I assume city ‘mon prefer flashier solutions.”
“Heh, sometimes,” said Alfred. “But…” His eyes wandered over to Rhys, still watching from the counter. Something occurred to him in that moment.
“...I think I get it. I mean, it makes my job easier too.”
“It does?”
Alfred nodded. “As a guide, it’s my job to accommodate everyone who comes in. If that pole weren’t there, I’d just be reading the requests for that guy. So, yeah, I think everything you said makes sense. Working to make our lives easier is what the guild’s all about.”
The espeon’s tail rose, and he blinked slowly. “I’m glad to hear that.”
The audino smiled, and an idea began to form in his mind. “Hey, if I ever think of anything that someone might need, I’ll tell you, okay? And then you can make it for them.”
Espio avoided his gaze. “I’ve never taken requests before…”
“Now’s a good place to start! It’ll help with your image when you become King. Like with the nomads: I talked to one of the zebstrika, and they don’t seem to like you very much.”
The espeon turned his head away, his ears twitching with thought. “The zebstrika have a long tradition of self-sufficiency. I’ll admit, it has been a struggle to account for them.”
“If it’s a struggle, then the guild has connections with them.” Alfred leaned forward on the table. “It’s not too late to make connections with the community. Heck, I still have some work to do there myself. We can work together on this.”
“Well…”
“C’mon.” Alfred held his glass out. “Toast on it.”
Finally, Espio let go a smile, thoroughly embarrassed. His glass floated across the table and tapped his with a *clink!*
“As it happens, I already have my next project in mind.”
---
26th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
Alfred was in his lodge room pulling his vest on, getting ready to leave for another day of work, when he heard light pawsteps approaching the door. The sound stopped, and waited.
Strange… Was someone coming to visit?
He moved to open the door, and felt mild surprise when on the other side sat Espio, with a sack at his feet. “Good morning.”
“Oh, good morning,” Alfred greeted back, before sheepishly rubbing his chest. “It’s been a while.”
“It has. I won’t keep you long, I just have something to deliver.” He nudged the bag closer.
A gift? Alfred took it and pulled out a curved, metal band. Both ends curled inwards, with large pieces of soft, thick white padding attached to them. “What is this?”
“They’re earmuffs. They help reduce noise,” answered Espio. “Consider it my thanks for being Vee’s friend.”
Alfred blinked in surprise. “Oh. You… made these for me?”
He nodded. “The hard part, as always, was the materials. I also made some assumptions on your measurements, so do tell me if anything is amiss.”
The audino turned it in his paws. “I appreciate the thought,” he said. “But I’m from the city, remember? I’m used to a lot of noise.”
Espio tilted his head. “Is that true, or have you only convinced yourself it is?”
His ears perked. Huh…?
“I suggest you try it. It might surprise you.” And without another word, the prince left.
Left to his own devices, Alfred was about ready to just shrug and throw the earmuffs into a drawer. But somehow he couldn’t bring himself to be that blasé about it. A gift was a gift, after all: Espio must’ve put a lot of thought into it.
He found himself turning the object around in his paws, feeling the softness of the mufflers. On second thought, maybe it wouldn’t hurt. The market never got any quieter. But do I really need this? I’m supposed to be better… than…
He put it on.
The headband fit snugly, and the ‘muffs’ curved to enter his ears and block them. It sounded a little quieter, but not by much. He could still hear his footsteps, and the door close behind him, and the lodge receptionist greet him as he entered into the lobby.
On the street heading for his destination, he began to notice it a little more. The grass didn’t rustle; talking passerby became passing hushes; he realized he couldn’t hear what was going on in the surrounding buildings anymore. When he made it to the Guild Center’s front door, he heard the market as if he were inside, noticeable but distant.
He opened the door, entered, and closed it behind him.
Complete silence.
For the first time since he began working there, he could feel himself breathe.
…Oh…
Work could wait. He leaned against the door and admired the calm.
(not that anyone could and get away with it).
This was my entry in the Thousand Roads 2024 One-Shot Contest: “Mundane but Magical.” The theme was “daily life in the Pokémon world.” You can see the results thread here, which includes author interviews for most of the contestants, including my own. This story was part of the “Eevee Flight,” and won first place.
Oooohh boy. This one-shot was a trip. I’m not even sure what to put in the foreword. I hope you like it, I guess? I have a lot more to say in the Author’s Notes for this one, I think.
This is the “author’s cut” version of the story, with an added scene and some of the issues with the original fixed. This makes it different from the version in the zine (the original “uncut” version that restores all the content and prose I cut in order to get the story down to 10k). Ultimately I found I didn’t have the energy to expand the story too much, and, well, people liked it as it was already, so ^^;. Though really, I decided that the story didn’t actually need that much more to reach something approaching its full potential. It might still not reach that, but regardless, I really hope you like it. I think that’s all I can ever hope for.
Also, while this isn't my longest one-shot, it is definitely on the longer side. You'll find the end of most scenes here work well as stopping points, so don't be afraid to use them!
Changes from the contest version:
Oooohh boy. This one-shot was a trip. I’m not even sure what to put in the foreword. I hope you like it, I guess? I have a lot more to say in the Author’s Notes for this one, I think.
This is the “author’s cut” version of the story, with an added scene and some of the issues with the original fixed. This makes it different from the version in the zine (the original “uncut” version that restores all the content and prose I cut in order to get the story down to 10k). Ultimately I found I didn’t have the energy to expand the story too much, and, well, people liked it as it was already, so ^^;. Though really, I decided that the story didn’t actually need that much more to reach something approaching its full potential. It might still not reach that, but regardless, I really hope you like it. I think that’s all I can ever hope for.
Also, while this isn't my longest one-shot, it is definitely on the longer side. You'll find the end of most scenes here work well as stopping points, so don't be afraid to use them!
Changes from the contest version:
- This is built on top the uncut draft I submitted for the zine, meaning all of the changes there apply here too. This means several restored scenes (arrival scene, pole scene, vee scene, lamp scene), a ton of restored prose, and restored worldbuilding. You can see the differences as early as before the sneak peak cutoff used in the contest results thread! I cannot understate just how much 1.2k is.
- A new scene was added (technically two) to help flesh out some of the weak spots I didn't have room to fill. It was part of the original plan for the fic, but had to be cut during writing due of the encroaching word limit. Now it's here, and so the one-shot is now properly complete.
- Many scenes were either tweaked or expanded, for the purposes of addressing judge feedback and working better with the new stuff.
- I applied Liber's calendar system to the fic, so it now includes dates to mark the passage of time.
- Some minor changes to the prose to include just a bit more detail.
Engineering Harmony
Word Count: 13.9k
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Word Count: 13.9k
-------------
Evening on the 10th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
The wind whistled through the plains, rustling through tightly-packed grasses and the leaves of stray trees. The flapping of wings overhead signified the return of birds from the south, calling noisily to each other as they spoke of new destinations and speculated about the weather. The wheels of a passenger carriage creaked as they rumbled down the dirt path, joined by the steady stomping of a zebstrika’s hooves, and the crushing of stray rocks underneath, and the groaning of wood straining against metal, and the bumping of cargo jostling in the back, and the tapping of an audino’s claws on the carriage door as he hung out the window staring boredly at the sight of precisely nothing.
Damn it was quiet.
Alfred pushed away from the window with a defeated sigh. That was it: boredom had won. He had thought he brought enough books to last a journey. Apparently not, said his last one, making taunting rustling noises as the movement of the carriage shifted it against the fabric of the seat. His destination was supposed to be signaled by a large mesa called the Giant’s Grave, and it was definitely there, but the thing was massive! It had appeared over the horizon hours ago now! The sun was setting!
The audino adjusted his loose-fitting emerald vest and sprawled out across the seat, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the city he left behind. It’ll be good for you, they said. It’s so much quieter, out in the Palkia-shunned boonies. What did the guild know? He could’ve been working as a guide in the biggest guild branch of the east, instead of a small, backwater kingdom like Farbroad…
The sound of wings flapping close traveled through the roof, and their braviary scout called out. “Hey! We’re almost there!”
Alfred bolted upright and rushed to the window to look out and ahead. Right there in the distance, close to the mesa’s base, he could barely make out a collection of silhouettes that could only have been buildings, coupled with a tower that poked above them. No walls for fortification; it must’ve been Harmonia all right.
The zebstrika pulling the cart threw a look back. “Maybe now you’ll stop complaining!”
That was uncalled for. Alfred leaned sideways on the windowsill and shot his own look back. “I didn’t complain that much.”
Mr. Coachmon put his attention back on the road and laughed. “Sure, sure, city boy.”
He heard the scout snicker as he flew ahead. Annoyance flashed across the audino’s face. Rude way to treat a client. But he decided to let it slide. The joy of seeing civilization again was more than what a few cheap jabs could ruin.
It was several minutes spent passing scattered plots of farmland before the watchtower came into proper view. The watchog at its top looked down upon them as they passed by. Alfred figured their job must’ve been hard, as all they guarded was a flimsy wooden picket fence separating the town from its outskirts. And on the other side were some of the shabbiest wooden buildings he had ever seen: a doorless shack of worn planks built right next to the entrance gate. The braviary scout spoke to the pyroar gatekeepers, and soon they were on the other side standing right in front of their poor excuse for a guard outpost.
“And we’re here!”
By then, Alfred had already gathered his things into the bookbag hanging over his shoulder, so all that was left for him was to jump out the carriage and walk around to grab his suitcase from the trunk. He also made sure to grab a silver coin from his wallet. He rubbed it in his paw as he walked up to the coach, then flipped it up into the air and snatched it with flair and a suave smile. “A tip,” he said, as he smoothly slotted it into the small jar attached to the zebstrika’s harness.
The coach only snorted, and as he left him behind Alfred could only shrug. Okay then.
The town outskirts were sparse. The single dirt path ahead snaked through bends in the earth and had Alfred passing by round buildings seemingly made of cloth -- yurts, he remembered they were called. They were humble in size, though as if to make up for that, they were also decorated in various colors and patterns, themed around the pokémon whose likenesses were stitched into the roofs: litleo, blitzle, eevee, mareep... All spread out to leave plenty of open, grassy spaces. At this time of evening, with the sky shifting to warmer hues, it looked quiet, barely a soul in sight outside the occasional grazer. But to Alfred’s ears, he could hear the signs of activity from inside their yurts: preparing for supper, talking about their days, the wrestling of children on patches of grass hidden from view…
The audino hit the side of his head. Dooon’t get distracted. You got one goal here.
As he followed the path deeper into town, cloth buildings were steadily replaced by more permanent wooden ones, though even here they were still painted in the patterns of various pokémon. Kinda tacky. It was a tad noisier this far in, colorful buildings packed a little tighter and wide streets busied by pokémon hurrying to finish their routines. And when the road changed to cobbled stone, that was when he knew he was in Harmonia proper.
The capital of the kingdom of Farbroad, but one would never know it standing in his position. It was really only capital by default, being the one permanent settlement across the entire small territory. Nomadic pokémon would use this town as a home base of sorts: a center for meetings and whatever meager trade the kingdom saw. The town’s major landmark rested over the rooftops, the giant of a mesa stretching endlessly tall and endlessly wide to hide the southeast sky behind its girth. With how close it looked, Alfred bet he could walk to it if he really wanted to.
But it wasn’t the only thing in the distance. Alfred finally noticed it while admiring the mesa: the tall figure of a water tower, peaking tall above the buildings to the south. I don't recall seeing that in my research. Does this town have running water? It would be a welcome surprise, though also a strangely major thing to miss…
As he followed the directions he had memorized, the world slowly grew louder. Something was happening on a street somewhere. Pokémon talking, chattering, squawking, calling, barking, shouting over… prices? Alfred found himself rubbing one of his feelers with his free paw, his claws digging into the scarred, raw flesh and sending sharp jolts of distraction that made him shiver. I-it’s not that loud. This is nothing, I’ve just been traveling on silent roads all day…
Wait, where am I?
He blinked, stopped moving, then turned to his right, and the Guild Center was right there in front of him. And behind him was the road leading directly into the market. Oh. No wonder it’s so loud. He squeezed his feeler tighter. I’ll have to get used to that then.
Alfred took a step back and placed his suitcase down so he could frame the narrow building squashed between its neighbors in his paws. Three stories, check. A sign bearing the guild’s bouffalant-head emblem, check. The doorway seemed kind of small though. Not prohibitively so, but there was no way a rhydon could fit through that. Guess there’s not a lot of big pokémon around these parts.
He pushed the door open and entered; somehow, the lobby managed to be even narrower on the inside. A good quarter of the space was partitioned off by the reception desk that he’d be working at from now on, leaving a quarter for the entryway and the remaining half for the request board and the staircase up. With the window caught in the building’s own evening shadow, everything was cast in a dim light. Alfred shut the door behind him and had to stifle a cough as the stuffy air quickly settled in.
It was quiet, save for the muffled sounds of the market and a slight shuffling coming from the ceiling. He had a feeling he knew who that was, but forget that. His attention was caught on the desk. His desk.
Alfred couldn’t help running a paw across the wooden surface as he rounded the corner and put himself behind it. It was a mess: whoever worked here last didn’t bother to keep it neat for him. Blank request papers littered the desk haphazardly, some brushing dangerously close to a lit candle and another placed on top of the inkwell. What wasn’t on the desk was loosely jammed into drawers spilling their excess onto the floor, and the cabinets against the wall were in no better state, some drawers stacked too high to close and all unlabeled. Perhaps the concept of proper organization was too much to expect from a nominal guild branch in the middle of nowhere.
At least he had the window to himself. He put his suitcase down and checked for a latch, and luckily enough. Course, with the market right there, I’m choosing between peace and fresh air.
The noise above traveled towards the staircase, and Alfred turned his head to catch the heliolisk right as he appeared at the bottom with his frill flared in surprise. “Oh, you’re-!”
“The new guide. Hey there.” Alfred put on his best smile and stepped forward to offer a paw. “Name’s Alfred, from-”
“You’re early!”
Alfred’s arm slacked. “Huh?”
The heliolisk walked up and pushed the confused audino aside, staring at the disorganized mess with dismay. “I was supposed to get this all cleaned up before ya got here!” He growled at one of the cabinet drawers and gave it a hard shove, but it didn’t budge. “Dialga’s a bitch…”
Rude. Alfred cleared his throat and held his paw more assertively. “Hello?”
“Yeah, I see ya.” The lizard dismissively pushed his paw down as he turned to face him. “Helios, Guildmaster of Farbroad’s Traveler’s Guild. And you’re the new guy the Yagoran branch sent. Alfred, you said?”
Alfred pulled back his rejected paw and rubbed it against his vest. “Yeah… Nice to meet you.” He’s the boss, don’t say anything you’d regret.
Helios’ face brightened up. “Well nice to meetcha too!” Then with no warning he lurched forward, and Alfred almost recoiled as the guildmaster suddenly got very close. There was a scrutinizing glint in his eye as he practically coiled around the audino, examining him like an inspector checking for structural faults. “Audino ain’t too unfamiliar to the ‘mon around here. I bet you’d fit.”
Needles rolled across Alfred’s fur. “Could you give me a second to breathe here?”
The guildmaster responded by patting his shoulder. “Right, you seem tired.” Then mercifully broke away to give some space. “Long journey?”
Alfred’s posture slumped with relief, only for the new topic to draw out an exhausted sigh. “You could say that. The weather wasn’t too bad, but that last stretch took forever.”
“If only it took a little longer, I’d have this place up and ready for ya.” Helios glanced at the mess again just to shrug it off. “Eh, it’s not like I’d be putting ya to work today anyway. How’re ya liking town so far?”
What's there to like? Alfred thought through his actual response more carefully than that. “I only just arrived, but so far I’d say it’s… rustic. Hard to believe it’s the capital.”
“Oh I’m sure it’s nothin’ like your northern cities,” Helios replied, not looking too bothered. “But you’ll learn to love it once you get to know it more. Speaking of, they did prepare ya to take the job, right? Done all your research?”
Right. A guide needed to know everything there was to know about the land surrounding their town, and Alfred didn’t make that journey to come unprepared. He allowed some confidence to creep into his smile as he patted his bookbag. “What do you think I filled this with?”
Helios sauntered up to him and leaned on his shoulder. “Oh I’m sure you know a lot, but being a guide’s about more than that.” His tail came to rest on Alfred’s other shoulder, pointing at the door. “Your job is to intimately understand the needs and desires of every ‘mon who walks through that door. To know ‘em all on a personal level, so that you can solve their problems before we even need to get an adventurer on it.”
It was cute of him to try and be all inspiring. Alfred shrugged off his tail with a sheepish smile. “Trust me, I can handle it. You got the assessment my mentor sent you, right?”
The heliolisk scoffed as he stepped away, waving it off. “Yeah, and it was all glowing praise, but that ain’t the point,” he tried to clarify. The slightest hint of a continuation escaped his throat, but he cut it off with a shrug. “Ah, you’ll get it eventually. The work does that to ya.”
I’m sure it’s not that complicated. He nodded along anyway. “I bet it does; I’m not worried at any rate.”
Brushing off that exchange, Alfred picked up his suitcase and looked around for any sign that the building was larger than it seemed. “So, where am I staying? Are the lodgings upstairs?”
Helios shook his head. “Nah, buildin’s too small for that. Take a right from here and you’ll find our lodge, can’t miss it. I already got you a room all set up, just tell ‘em I sent ya. Oh, and-” He opened one of the lower cabinet drawers, the only one with a label: ‘Badges.’ Then picked out a golden piece and held it out to him. “Take this too.”
Alfred took it and examined it closely. It was a round shape with upward-turned horns jutting out the sides, like the head of a bouffalant. The Gold Giant Badge. I’ll be giving these out from now on.
He slipped it into his vest pocket. “Thanks.”
“That’s the last badge I’ll ever grant,” Helios remarked with a wink. “Now I gotta go back up top and finish takin’ care of some things. Any questions before you go?”
“Nothing important,” Alfred said, though now that he mentioned it. “Actually, I’m curious. What happened to the last guide?”
Helios’ frill began to glow with pride. “You’re lookin’ at ‘im!”
“Oh, congrats.” Alfred tilted his head. “But then what happened to the last guildmaster?”
With shifty eyes, the current guildmaster leaned in close to whisper. “We don’t talk about that.”
Wha- Alfred returned a deadpan look. “You’re messing with me.”
Helios snickered, pat Alfred on the shoulder, then guffawed as he walked away to return upstairs, his laughter a sharp knife to the audino’s ears.
Alone again, though Alfred could still hear the guildmaster chuckling to himself through the ceiling. Working for him sounds like it’ll be a pain, he thought, rubbing a feeler. How long will they keep me here? Surely this can’t be permanent.
In the back of his mind, he knew that was just wishful thinking. But what else did he have to cling to? He took one last glance at the mess of papers, sighed, and once again ran his paw over the desk as he made his way back to the door. It’ll be good for you, repeated those words. I bet it will…
Cool air rushed in as he opened the door. The din of the market had subsided; the day was almost over. And looking out at the shoddy town, he hesitated. Only one thing was on his mind.
Does the lodge have running water…?
---
11th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
By Palkia’s mercy, it did.
When Alfred returned to the Guild Center the following morning, the mess Helios swore he meant to clean was still there. How nice of him. At least he had a clear set of tasks for his first day.
Most of the time, work as a guide was simple. Keep track of requests put up by the townsmon, so that you can give advice to adventurers when they take them. From his experience in the city, activity usually spiked in the mornings, and kept steady throughout the day. Helios already briefed him on the requests left over from yesterday, so he was ready for whatever the town could throw at him.
…Which ended up not being much. One pokémon had visited in the hour since opening, a luxio, and only to put up a request. Since he couldn’t write, Alfred wrote it up himself, placed it on the board, and nothing had happened since. So, he filled his downtime working on organization instead.
With sunlight filtering through the window, the lobby didn’t seem so cramped anymore. If he just ignored the guildmaster’s poor organizational skills, it was actually fairly clean, and the space around the board looked just enough for a few pokémon to regroup, if they didn’t want to use the dedicated meeting room on the second floor. The different atmosphere also caused Alfred to notice a couple details he hadn’t yesterday. One was that there was no news board. The other was what could only be described as a wooden post.
It was just… there, jammed in the corner, right next to the board, jutting from the floor to about his own height. Easy to miss in the evening dim due to its dark color and bark texture, but at this time of day it stuck out like a cheri in a barrel of oran berries. It looked as if someone took a log and stuck it there, and as to why, he couldn't fathom. Helios wasn’t around, so Alfred made a mental note to ask about it later and tried to ignore its presence in the meantime.
The first adventurer to come in that day was an emolga. Alfred didn’t notice him at first, too preoccupied placing labels, at least until his visitor’s shrill voice pounded his ears. “Who’re you?!”
Alfred winced, then turned around and peered over his desk to see an electric rodent glaring daggers at him below. He tried to put on a smile.
“Hey there. I’m the new guide.” He tapped his guild badge, now pinned to his vest. “Name’s Alfred.”
The emolga tilted his head. “Who?”
I just told you- Alfred bit his tongue. “I’m not from around here? I arrived in town yesterday evening.”
“Oh.” Something caused his expression to soften. Satisfaction, maybe, except the skepticism in his glare didn’t fade. “Well don’t mind me then.” And then he scampered off to the board.
While the emolga wasn’t looking, Alfred allowed his emotions to contort his face. The hell is his problem?! He had to keep it reigned in though. His visitor was too short to reach the board, so this was the part where he would have to weather his glares and help him out.
Except, to Alfred’s surprise, the emolga wasn’t heading for the board. He was heading for the post. Without hesitation, he climbed up its length and jumped off to cling to the board, where he began climbing around, looking at requests.
Alfred was dumbfounded. The post… is for him. It was such a simple thing, and made perfect sense, yet he’d never seen anything like it before.
It wasn’t long before the emolga adventurer picked out his request and glided over to the desk with it in his mouth. He placed it down in front of him and crossed his tiny arms. “Well? Whaddya know about this one?”
Alfred squeezed a feeler and shocked himself to attention. “Right, that one came in this morning…”
---
About halfway through the day, just around noon, Alfred had a strange encounter.
He could hear it from his desk: something rolling, bumping, and rattling against the cobble street outside, coupled with tiny grunts and breaths. Feeling concerned, he was about to abandon his paperwork and check it out when it suddenly stopped at the front entrance.
A light scratching at the door signaled an eevee pushing it open so that it swung on its hinges and hit the wall with a *thunk!* The eevee paid it no mind, too busy pulling a tiny, creaky wagon carrying a rattling box. She barely threw him a glance until finally it was out of the entryway, where she quickly abandoned it to jump right onto the desk.
She stared at Alfred with large, innocent eyes. “Hi.”
Alfred recoiled somewhat. “Hey…” His eyes drifted to the door, still open and allowing outside noise in. “Can you close the door?”
In reply, the eevee dropped her ears, whined and took a step forward. “Can you help me?”
Completely ignored. Whose kit is this? It wasn’t really his job to help others directly, but she seemed distressed. He rubbed a feeler. And it’ll give me the chance to close that door.
Alfred took a deep breath, allowed the calm to wash over him, and put on a rehearsed soft smile. “Sure I can. What’s your name?”
The eevee’s distress faded as if the question had distracted her. She sat down and answered. “Vee. I’m…” Something seemed to confuse her, her attention wandered to the paper on the desk. And to Alfred’s horror, she placed both paws on it and scratched. “One-”
“No!” Alfred paws shot forward to catch hers before she could do any more damage. Vee jolted, but her focus didn’t waver. She placed her free paw on top of Alfred’s and continued.
“Two… Three!” she exclaimed. “I’m three years old!” With that, she sat on her haunches, tail wagging with content and looking pleased with herself.
Alfred drew back and sighed. “Okay Vee, where are your parents?”
Vee whined and looked down at her paws. “Uncle Espio said he’s busy today, so I can’t ask him.”
That’s not what I asked. Maybe she didn’t have parents? Though, she was an eevee. Farbroad’s royal family was supposed to consist of them and their evolutions: was she part of it? I can’t imagine a royal kid would just be wandering around…
For now, he figured it didn’t matter. “What do you need help with?”
“My box is broken,” she said, looking forlornly at the box in her wagon.
It didn’t look broken, but he decided to humor her anyway. “Lemme see…”
Alfred rounded the desk and approached the wagon (after closing the door, of course). The box inside was made of polished wood panels, with a handle on one side and a crank riddled with teeth marks on the other. It didn’t look like it opened.
Vee jumped off the desk and reared up to place her paws on the wagon’s edge. “The handle won’t turn anymore,” she said.
She means the crank. Alfred turned it clockwise and immediately felt resistance. And he could hear it too: something was caught in there. Thinking to lift it for a better feel, he grasped the handle and grunted when it barely lifted with nothing more than a rumbling sound. “What the…?”
Okay, so this time he grabbed the handle and the crank. Some more effort got the box off the wagon and pressing into his arms, punctuated by the sound of several objects rolling around. He almost lost his balance trying to carry its surprising weight. “Wh-what’s in this thing?”
“I put my rocks in there,” Vee stated matter-of-factly.
I’m doing this for rocks? With a grunt of effort he hauled it onto his desk. Okay then, first let’s figure out what’s going on…
Alfred grabbed a feeler and pressed it against the box. First, he tried rotating the crank clockwise again. He could hear the resistance now: the crank turned something inside, pushed a piece of metal into another piece of metal, and that second piece must’ve been caught on a pebble somehow. He rotated it counterclockwise and met no resistance. That’s gotta be right then. Though it was odd. He could feel something else in there too, beyond just rocks.
Regardless, he had a good feel for how the pebble must’ve gotten stuck. With two thumps, he flipped it upside down, the rocks clattering along with it. Vee was on the desk now, watching with fascination. Can’t disappoint my audience.
He tried picking it up and hitting a corner against the desk. Instead, it was too heavy and he dropped it on its edge. Vee jolted and whined. “You broke it!”
“It’s not broken!” Alfred tried to assure. He felt the box with a feeler again and shook it a bit to create some vibration. And with luck, he couldn’t hear the trapped pebble anymore. Now to hope it really isn’t broken.
He carefully flipped it rightside-up, so that when the rocks tumbled they didn’t hit the mechanism. And then he placed his paw on the crank. “I think that fixed it,” he declared. And then he tested it with a quick turn-
*POP!*
“SHIT!”
The audino stumbled backwards and fell on his own tail. The cotton head of an impidimp jeered down at him, swaying on the spring released from the open box. Vee had been shocked into a defensive posture, her tail raised and fur on end. “Shit!”
Horror dawned on him. “D-don’t repeat that!”
---
A bit of tail-rubbing and desperate pleading later, and the box was once again in its wagon. “Don’t put your rock collection in there,” Alfred sternly told Vee. “Or it might get stuck again.”
“But then where do I put my rocks?” she whined.
“Why don’t you keep them in the wagon? You’re already pulling it everywhere.”
“But…” The eevee glanced at her wagon, and her tail waved as if in thought. Then: “I’ll ask Uncle Espio!” she exclaimed. “He always knows what to do!”
Is Espio her guardian or something? Didn’t matter, she was almost out of his fur. He leaned down to pat her head. “Well you go do that. And do not say the secret word around him, got it?”
Vee nodded with a serious shine in her eyes. “It’s a secret!” She bounded over to the wagon’s handle and hesitated, then abruptly faced him and bowed her head. “Thank you mister!”
Alfred smiled and scratched a growing, funny feeling off his chest. “You’re welcome.” And with that, she pulled her wagon around and out the door.
His smile immediately dropped and he sighed with relief. Hell of a distraction… Alfred figured the best thing to do was try and forget any of it happened. Maybe he could play dumb if an angry ‘Espio’ confronted him about his language.
Still though… A crank that turned a metal spool with a tooth that pushed a latch to release a wound spring. He’d never seen a toy like that before. Maybe she was royal. After all, it had to have been imported. It was inconceivable something like that could’ve been made here of all places.
Something to think about. Later, anyway. Alfred closed the door and got back to work.
---
With time, more adventurers found their way to the Guild Center. It turned out that mornings were just less active here. “Cuz mornins are when our local adventurers are at their most busy,” Helios had explained. Most of them were tied to various traveling caravans, so oftentimes they had other obligations to fill. “Sometimes we’ll get a traveler or two comin’ here to earn our badge though, and trust me, you can bet their face’ll be the first you see every day!”
Still, the work wasn’t tough. Even at the peak of activity, it couldn’t compare to the environment Alfred had trained in. By the time the sun began its downward journey, there were only a couple requests left on the board, not that many got put up in the first place. The only inconvenience was having to light a few candles in the middle of the afternoon to keep the place well lit. He could imagine that getting annoying.
But he could put that out of mind for now, because it was time to break for the evening and let Helios cover until closing time, and Alfred had some plans in mind. He heard about a nice bar in town -- the only bar in town, the Giant’s Horn. Rumor said they imported everything, so it’d be expensive, but he brought plenty of silver with him. And maybe I can find a taste of home there…
The audino made sure to chart his course to avoid the market. The ‘scenic’ route took him through a shoddy side street of small shacks and little activity. It all put his city instincts on alert. His research had told him that crime wasn’t a big problem in Harmonia, but it paid to be careful.
*hsss*
Snake?! Alfred jolted, stopped, and turned his head towards the noise.
The front door of one of the larger buildings was wide open, and a luxray was walking out. She gave him a strange look, then went on her way.
Alfred’s eyes were frozen on her until she left, and he couldn’t help but shiver. Luxray sure are intimidating…
Another long *hiss* took his attention. But when he looked this time, all he saw was an empty doorway, its door calmly swinging to a close.
Huh? He didn’t see anything that could have made that hissing sound. And while he knew of doors rigged to close themselves, something felt off about this one.
Alfred shook his head and continued walking. There was probably some good explanation for it. And I can’t be seen gawking here.
After that distraction, it wasn’t long before he made it to the bar: a fairly sizable building with a wine glass sign and a big set of double doors. The only set of double doors he’d seen so far, actually. Alfred could hear murmurings of activity coming from inside. Doesn’t sound too busy… He chalked that up to this being a small town and entered.
It wasn’t busy: he could count the patrons, all four of them, making noise at a table in the corner. Alfred tried his absolute hardest not to eavesdrop on them, keeping focus on the tall counter where a rhydon stood polishing a glass. With confidence, he walked right up and hopped onto a stool so he could see her properly. “Slow evening, huh?”
The rhydon barkeep looked up from her polishing as if she had just noticed him. “Oh! ‘Scuse me.” She placed her glass and rag down on the granite countertop. “Nah, not many drinkers in Harmonia, as you can imagine.” A gesture with her horn towards the group. “But I’m converting ‘em. Slowly.”
Alfred chuckled. “Sounds rough. Luckily for you I do drink, though I’m not downing anything harder than wine, sorry to say.”
“I’d be surprised if someone your size could,” she replied, with a bit more levity and a small smile that faltered with curiosity. She pushed a menu towards him and asked: “I’ve never seen you around. Where you from?”
“Ebeld, so quite a ways north.” Alfred checked his options and caught his eye on something. “Mt. Kagora?”
The barkeep pulled the menu away with a grin. “Rastort. Looks like we’re both Yagoran.”
Without even asking to confirm, she had already moved to the back counter to begin mixing his drink. Alfred felt a little concerned as to what he had accidentally ordered, but hell, he could probably take it. He was just glad to meet someone from the same kingdom.
The rhydon continued the conversation as she worked. “So you’re from the city, then? What’s your name?”
“Alfred.”
“Hm. You can call me Rhys. Not a very ‘Yagoran’ name, I know, but I figured I’d change it to match local customs, since I live here now.”
“Local customs…” He’d read about it of course. Pokémon in Farbroad fashioned their names from their species. Apparently the custom used to be commonplace everywhere, until newer traditions replaced them over time. “Maybe I should start calling myself ‘Dino,’ then,” he joked.
“Alfred’s a good name, you should keep it.” Rhys shook her metal shaker, then turned around, poured its contents into a glass, and handed it to him. “There. Despite the name, Mt. Kagora’s a light drink. You’ll be fine.”
Alfred grabbed it with both paws. The cocktail was a light orange in color, and when he took a sip…
His brow furrowed, and he put the glass down. “It tastes like rocks.” It was impressive.
The rhydon tilted her head. “Is that a problem?”
Alfred lifted the glass with a sheepish smile. “I-I meant it tastes like home.” He took another, reluctant sip. Can’t be too picky…
Before long, the two found themselves swapping stories of how they came to be here. Rhys had moved in three years ago. She once worked for a bar in her old town, and unlike him, she had come here on purpose to escape the stress.
“Wasn’t it hard?” Alfred asked. “I can’t imagine you took a carriage.”
“No, I walked all right. And it was tough.” Her gaze diverted slightly. “Still can be.”
Something occurred to him right then, about this town compared to those in Yagora. “I couldn’t help noticing it. This town isn’t built for pokémon your size. The doors are too small.”
He could hear her tail drag against the floorboards. “Yeah, that’s part of it.”
“Part of it? Where do you even live?”
“I have a place big enough for me on the outskirts,” she answered. “It’s not much, but it’s comfortable enough for my purposes.”
A strong pang of sympathy washed over Alfred. “But you can’t be okay with just that?”
Rhys shrugged it off. “Hey, we all make sacrifices, don’t we?”
A sudden round of shouting from the other patrons caused Alfred to wince and clutch a feeler. “I suppose…”
Unbothered, she continued. “I still have access to everything I need, and this business makes enough to survive, if only barely.” She turned her gaze to the window. “And besides, I like it here. It’s quiet, the locals are kind, and we’re isolated from all the politics going on elsewhere. We get no news out here except rumors, and I find I prefer it that way.” She let out a grunt of discontent. “You just can’t find that kinda calm in Yagora anymore.”
It shocked Alfred to hear that. He expected her perspective to be something he could relate to, and yet here he really didn’t understand what she longed for at all. It all sounded like too much trouble for too little gain. At least his stint here had a point.
He took a couple seconds to stare into his glass and ruminate. “Well, if you ever need anything from the guild, just tap on the window. It opens, and I work right there, so I can put up anything you need.”
The rhydon’s eyes widened. “Huh, really?” she said, as if that were the first time anyone had told her. “Thanks. I’ll see if I can think of anything.”
Alfred lifted his glass and smiled. “No problem. It’s my job.”
After finishing his drink, he made sure to pay in full. And with a light head and lighter wallet, he soon was on his way back to the Guild Center to see an end to his first day of work. His thoughts kept going back to that conversation. Maybe there was something about this town he was missing.
When he opened the door into the center, he found Helios panicking at a clean and organized workspace. The guildmaster gave him a look of pure distress. “Wh-what happened to my desk?!”
Alfred was unamused. “I made it comprehensible.”
---
15th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
The next few days settled into a rhythm as Alfred’s routine solidified itself. He’d gotten used to waking up early, opening the Guild Center, taking his evenings to visit the Giant’s Horn, then closing up to head back to his room. The nights were quiet here, far quieter than he had ever been used to.
That first one was probably the best sleep he’d ever gotten.
So, maybe it was less stressful here than his old home. But was it a replacement for the city? Hell no. Harmonia truly was small. Only a few businesses, one tailor, no proper restaurants, and few books outside a small selection at the Guild Center. All of it boring, dry, practical nonfiction. Oftentimes it felt there was nothing to do besides his job. It wasn’t all bad: most of the locals were fine enough to talk to, and he’d grown to like Helios (if only because he was often the only one around). But in between those rare conversations, the small hours of the day provided little fulfillment.
Those slow moments could perhaps be bearable, if it weren’t for one thing. The one thing he couldn’t get used to: the market.
No matter how many times he passed it, or how much time he spent hearing it through the wall, the buzz of the market never faded away. Never stopped drilling into his head, or disturbing his thoughts. But why? He never had these kinds of problems with noise in the city, he grew up learning how to block it all out. This was objectively tame by comparison, and yet somehow it made him feel worse. What changed? Was it the lack of distractions? Was the boredom driving him insane?
And today, he’d have to brave the market to restock on food. He tried so hard to avoid it, coasting on what Helios and others had given him in moving-in gifts. He figured the best time would be the morning before work, that’s when it was quietest. And so, with a basket in one paw and a feeler in the other, he took his chance.
The market was a wide cobble street lined with stalls. Cart-pulling ‘mon passed through, hawking their wares both to passerby and other merchants. This quiet hour avoided the worst of it, but there was always something to trade, and just about every merchant made a point to let Alfred know as he tried to make sense of it all.
He squeezed his feeler. Felt himself draw inward. I don’t care about half of you. Just let me find what I want so I can-
“Alfred!”
A shrill voice pierced through the clamor to reach his ears, and that’s when he noticed the eevee running up to meet him. “Vee?”
Ever since that day, she had started making it a habit to visit the Guild Center. Usually for no reason other than to say hi. Alfred wasn’t sure why: he never thought himself good with kids.
He couldn’t let her see his distress, so he forced his best smile. “What are you doing here by yourself?”
“Uncle Espio sent me to buy a cheri berry!” she cheerfully informed. She pawed at the drawstring sack hanging around the fluff of her neck. “See, he gave me money!”
Alfred placed a paw on his hip. “A single cheri berry?” Sounds like he’s trying to get rid of you.
Vee, ever innocent, just nodded with a yip. “Are you shopping too?” she asked. Then her eyes grew bigger as she brushed against Alfred with a wagging tail. “We can shop together!”
The audino lifted his arms with a sheepish smile as she excitedly circled around him. I can’t just say no to her, he thought. Maybe if he put all of his attention on her, she could help keep him grounded. “Sure we can. Just stay close, okay?”
She bounced in front of him and smiled. “Okay!”
And so they were off. With such a thin crowd, it was easy to keep track of Vee, even as she blatantly ignored his advice and bounded ahead to try and guide him. As he tried to keep his focus on her, he couldn’t help noticing how the calls of the merchants switched from being directed at him to her. One even called her by name. And she just walked along, barely acknowledging them as if this were the most normal thing in the world.
She’s got to be royalty. As Alfred caught up to her staring at one of the merchants, he couldn’t help remarking on it. “Where can I get your confidence?”
The eevee turned to him and tilted her head. “Huh?”
He waved it off. “Nevermind. Where are you leading me?”
“Right here!” She walked up to the vendor who caught her interest: a dachsbun whose flat tail began wagging as his customers approached. He sat on a carpet, the baskets containing his wares laid out in front of him. ‘Berries! Freshly picked!’ read the sign.
“Hi! What’re you lookin’ for?” asked the merchant with a friendly smile and lolling tongue.
Vee took charge with a step forward. “I need one cherri berry please!”
Alfred bent over to observe a basket of chesto. They were only three silver each. I guess I could take a couple. Though as he looked over the rest of the display, he noticed a strange-looking wood box by the dachsbun’s side. It had an overhang with a funnel jutting out the bottom, and coin-sized slots on the top. What’s up with that? Is it for coins…?
His thought was interrupted when the merchant leaned towards him and sniffed. “I’ve never seen you around before. You’re that new guide, aren’tcha?”
“He’s my new friend!” Vee butted in.
Hearing that caused something warm and fuzzy to beat in Alfred’s chest. He placed a paw against it and gave the merchant an amused smile. “This is my first time visiting the market, so I’m having her show me around.”
The dachsbun gave him a knowing look. “Ain’t she somethin’? What’re you lookin’ to buy?”
“I’ll just take two chesto berries,” Alfred replied.
“So two chestos and a cheri. That’ll be nine silver.”
Vee held her head high and proud. “I can pay for that! Espio gave me a gold piece!”
Alfred looked at her with skepticism before reaching into his satchel for his wallet. “You don’t have change for nine?”
“Don’t worry about change,” said the merchant. “Just give it here.”
Vee lowered her head and batted her paws at the string around her neck, prompting Alfred to speak up. “Are you sure? I can pay for it.”
She stopped to glare at him. “No, I wanna pay for it. Espio asked me to!” Then went right back to struggling to get the bag off.
Alfred wasn’t eager to let a child pay for him, but he didn’t want to argue with her either. And he definitely wasn’t comfortable watching her writhe around like that. “Look, at least let me get that for you.”
The eevee huffed, then let him kneel down to take her pouch off. He then opened it up, grabbed the single gold coin within, and offered it to the merchant.
The dog took it in his jaws and reared up onto that strange box so he could let the coin drop into a slot. “Okay, now open the pouch under that there cone,” he instructed.
Huh? He must’ve meant the funnel. Slightly confused, Alfred did as told and held the pouch open underneath it. Then, the merchant pressed his nose against something on the other side.
*Click! Whir! Clink! Rattle!*
And then a silver coin fell out, right into Vee’s wallet. Alfred watched in fascination as the dachsbun continued to press the button, each for another coin until eleven silver’s worth of change had been deposited.
The merchant sat down and dipped his head. “Thanks fer the business!”
Alfred drew the pouch back and looked inside. Normally, a transaction like that would be a long exercise in watching a four-legged ‘mon try and manage money with their teeth. And yet with the help of that device, it was over in just a few seconds. “What is this thing?” he asked.
“It’s a coin dispenser,” said the merchant. “Makes things easier, don’t it?”
“Uncle Espio made it!” Vee cheerfully informed.
Alfred blinked. “...Huh.”
After gathering their berries, they were off once again. Now that he was paying attention, the dachsbun wasn’t the only quadrupedal vendor in the market, and several of them had identical boxes. Yet another thing he never would’ve seen back in the city. And if Vee’s ‘uncle’ had made them…
---
At the end of their excursion, Alfred figured he’d better escort Vee back to her uncle. And so she excitedly led him through several streets, each quieter and with sparser construction, until they had passed into the shadow of the mesa and found themselves at a shack on the shore of a stream where a large waterwheel steadily turned.
It felt lonely there in the giant’s shade, quiet except for the rhythmic sounds of rustling grass, creaking wood, and running water. No other buildings were around, the only other structure being the water tower standing guard from its place on a nearby hill. Alfred’s theories of Vee’s nobility looked to die up there. What kind of royal would live in a place like this?
Vee ran up to the front door and pulled on a rope that caused a bell to ring. Before long, the door opened as if by some invisible force, to reveal an espeon wearing a green capelet and golden hoop earrings at the base of his ears.
“Uncle Espio! I bought the berry!” Vee announced as she bounded to him and brushed her cheek down his side.
The espeon, Espio, sat down and gently draped his forked tail over her head. “I see that, thank you.” A small smile played at his lips, cut short as soon as his eyes locked with Alfred’s.
Alfred felt his heart chill. The espeon’s gaze was cold and inscrutable, piercing ice through his head and sending shivers down his fur. He raised a paw in a weak greeting. “Hello…?”
Espio’s tail rose and curled. “Who are you?”
“He’s my friend!” spoke Vee. “I showed him around the market!”
Espio blinked, then relaxed. “Ah. I see. You must be the new guide.” He bowed his head with precise courtesy. “Thank you for watching over my niece.”
And without waiting for a response, he gestured with his tail for Vee to come inside, and the door closed itself behind them.
Alfred could only stand there. Who…
Who is he?
---
“Espio?” Rhys passed Alfred his drink. “You mean the crown prince?”
Alfred almost choked on his wine. “The crown prince?!”
“Yeah, you never heard of him?”
He blinked in disbelief. “Somehow,” -- Despite all my research -- “no, I haven’t.” He knew about King Jolt, and the rest of his family was collectively a footnote. He never thought to question why, he just figured Farbroad had nothing going on in terms of royal politics. “So what’s his deal?”
The rhydon held a claw to her chin and stared at the ceiling. “I dunno much. He’s a bit of a recluse; not very princelike. Most of what goes around is rumors.”
“Like?”
“Well, y’know how every now and then you’ll come across something strange? Like those coin boxes in the market, or doors that open by themselves, or the town gates: have you seen one lock before? It’s done by some strange rope contraption. Word goes that it was all made by him.”
All of it… Thinking about it, ‘doors that open by themselves’ did sound familiar to him. “So he’s some kind of inventor?” he asked.
Rhys nodded. “You could call him that.”
Pieces continued to put themselves together. His shack was near the water tower. Maybe he’s the reason we have running water. A forward thinker in a town like this… Figures he’d be a prince. His thoughts swirled in his drink as he absentmindedly used a claw to stir it.
Rhys knocked on the counter with an amused smile. “I see that look in your eyes. You wanna talk to him, don’t you?”
Alfred let out a self-conscious chuckle. “I can’t help it. He sounds like an interesting guy.”
“I wouldn’t bet on getting a chance,” she warned. “Like I mentioned, Espio’s as aloof as they come. Nothing like the rest of his family. He spends all his time in that workshop of his on the outskirts and doesn’t bother with anyone. Some ‘mon in town find him more suspicious than anything.”
“Anyone’d think that way if they were stuck in the past,” said Alfred with a wink. “But where I come from, we value ‘mon like him. And he’s got a niece who’s enamored with him, so he can’t be that bad.”
He took another sip as thoughts of the inventor prince continued to swim in his head. Of course, that might’ve all been the alcohol talking, but dammit was he sure it was more than that. “I’d love to have a drink with him,” he dreamed aloud.
Rhys snorted. “Maybe if he doesn’t just brush you off first.”
Alfred pointed back at her. “Hey, I’m charming. That’s gotta count for something.”
She rolled her eyes. “Suuure it does.”
He frowned and scoffed. Go be skeptical somewhere else. Though the moment he actually thought about how it might go, the memory of Espio’s icy stare sent another wave of goosebumps. He bit his lip and stared into his glass.
“I’m just saying I’d love the chance,” Alfred finally said. “A royal like him probably wouldn’t have the time for me anyway.”
Perhaps he had been getting ahead of himself; the novelty of having met such an important figure was just too strong. He didn’t really expect to ever get his chance, but in a town as small as this, it seemed to him that it was only a matter of time before they met again.
---
Sunrise on the 17th Day, Month of Lux, 1802.
Inside the post office, and just by the entrance on the side of the door opposite its hinges, a section of the floorboard had been replaced by a conspicuous metal plate. On the wall just above it was a plaque that read “Open.”
There were several of these around town. Not every building had one, but the ones that did, it was hard not to notice now that he was looking. When Alfred pressed his foot down on it, it sank easily underneath his weight. He listened as something seemed to shift underneath the floorboards, followed by a long *hssss* as, slowly, it opened.
He watched, fixated. So that’s what it is. He took his foot off the plate, and just as slowly as it opened did the door gradually swing back into its closed state.
Closer inspection of the door frame revealed that the door’s pivot point attached it to a metal plate in the floor, so that -- from what he could imagine -- it could be turned by a contraption hiding underneath. What that was exactly, he couldn’t tell. Even as he continued to mess with the door opener with feeler against the floorboards, he found he simply did not have the vocabulary to piece together what it was he was hearing. The best he could gather was that the *hiss* was the sound of air whistling inside.
Whatever it was, it was ingenious, and convenient at that. Espio must’ve made this. Though, as he began to consider it further, it wasn’t as if the door was hard to open in the first place. It took him about the same amount of effort to step on the button as it did to simply pull the door open. Maybe that’s why the Guild Center doesn’t have one…?
As he continued testing the door, Alfred’s ears twitched at the sound of small footsteps from behind, and he turned to see an emolga standing there, staring at him as if he’d lost it. “You busy there?” he remarked dryly.
Alfred’s cheeks flushed with warmth. He shifted his stance and leaned against the wall to make his plate-pressing seem more purposeful. “No, just curious,” he tried to play it off with.
“Uh huh.” The emolga’s eyes were unamused and skeptical. He adjusted the strap of his tiny satchel that barely held an oversized letter. “Well since you’re not busy,” he said. “Mind helpin’ out with somethin’?”
Wonder what for. It was early enough that Alfred figured it wouldn’t be too much trouble. “Yeah, sure,” he said, then kept his foot on the door opener and gestured for him to lead the way.
Over the past quarter, Alfred had come to learn this emolga’s name: Emol. He was a local adventurer who came around to the Guild Center fairly regularly, though their common interactions never seemed to take the edge off of the suspicion the ‘mon regarded him with. Alfred knew that he was part of one of the nomadic groups that frequented Harmonia, and as he followed him through town towards the outskirts, he began to suspect that this task would have something to do with them.
The walk took them past the point where the road could be called a street. Up ahead, a small herd of zebstrika and blitzle had gathered in a flat area not far from the exit gate, accompanied by their wagons. Alfred took note of the vibrant oran blue of their harnesses: he heard it was meant to signal to the pyroar and luxray prides that they were citizens of Farbroad to be protected.
Interesting facts like that just made Alfred wonder why any ‘mon would choose to live like this, where the line between ‘citizen’ and ‘prey’ was a couple pieces of dyed fabric. But he knew that judging them for it wasn’t very productive.
Emol took him behind one of the wagons, where an older zebstrika and a flaaffy helper moved cargo up and down it’s ramp. While the flaaffy struggled against their weight, the zebstrika pulled in crates with a rope lasso, her pace brisk and effortless. As she came down for another crate, the zebstrika met eyes with Alfred, straightened her neck, and paused. “Who’d you bring with ya, Emol?”
“The guide,” he answered. “I caught ‘im at the post office playin’ games with the door.”
Alfred shot him a look. “He’s making stuff up,” he said quickly to save face, before nodding more amicably to the zebstrika. “My name’s Alfred. Emol asked me to help assist with something.”
“I was just figurin’ we could use a couple extra paws,” the emolga said with arms crossed. He looked up at Alfred. “You up to help load these wagons? Dialga knows I can’t.”
“You’d be welcome. The name’s Rezka,” the zebstrika introduced herself with a respectful bow of her head. “Our caravan’s headin’ out to trade with the west border before headin’ to the spring pastures. Typically we’d steal some of the flaaffy to help’n get ready, but they couldn’t spare us more’n a couple today.” She gave the helper a piteous glance. “I’m sure he’d appreciate the help.”
The flaaffy sagged against the crate he was struggling with and bleated sorrowfully. “I would.”
Alfred couldn’t see himself faring any better than the poor flaaffy. But, standing there, with the loudest sounds being the whistling of the wind and the light conversation of the caravan, the prospect of instead returning to the Guild Center had him feeling that the amount of cargo didn’t seem too large...
It’d be rude to refuse anyway. “Sure I can help. Though I’ll have to return to my own work soon.”
“It shouldn’t take long,” Emol reassured. He pointed at the flaaffy. “Now lend ‘im an arm, he’s dyin’ over there!”
And so Alfred got to work. The main thing they really needed him (and the flaaffy) for was fastening Rezka’s rope around cargo for her to pull in, and lifting the occasional thing that couldn’t be pulled. He was lucky there wasn’t much, because he met the limits of his strength not a few minutes in and could barely move anything without the flaaffy’s assistance.
The wagons were spacious on the inside, for reasons Alfred could imagine. And when he rolled a barrel up into a second one, he was surprised to see that already sitting in there was, not just a plough, but one with a curved iron mouldboard, its wooden parts still polished. But those are…
When Rezka came in behind him, he took the chance to ask about it. “The plough? What about it?”
“That’s a relatively new design from Ebeld. It was a big deal a couple years ago,” he explained, staring at it. “I was just surprised to see it here.”
“Ah. Yeah, you can thank Prince Espio fer that. He managed to get a hold of a few and handed ‘em off to us.”
The zebstrika finished pushing her cargo the rest of the way in, then turned to stare at it with him. “We’re farmer’s too, y’know. We pay dues to the King in return for protection like Emol. And that thing?” She snorted. “Well, it’s certainly better than what we used to have.”
Alfred could feel the dismissiveness in her tone. “And that’s a good thing, right?”
“You could sure say so. Makes the work we do much easier. But it’s not like we couldna managed without it, and Espio never bothered to ask before givin’ it to us. Of course, that’s just like ‘im.”
Why is she questioning it? He looked up at her and furrowed his brow. “Does it matter whether he asked? He would’ve had to go far out of his way for this.”
Rezka’s tail swished as she turned to face him. “Now hear me right, I’m not sayin’ that I don’t appreciate it. We’ve been usin’ it plenty. I just don’t care much for this little project of his, puttin’ so much time into those inventions of his.”
The zebstrika’s ire was intimidating when she stood so tall over him. But Alfred stood his ground. “Well I’ve only been here for a quarter. But the way I see it, it looks like he’s thinking of this town’s future.”
“The town’s future. That’s got nothin’ to do with us.” She turned her head towards the plough, and spoke with a voice that was as considered as it was irritated. “Sure, I’ll admit that Harmonia’s become a much more welcome place these past few years. Anyone can see that, plain as day. But Farbroad’s more than just a town, and it takes more from a ‘mon to be a proper King. The herd and I will never have a place in a town, and if he can’t understand that then how’m I supposed to trust him when he comes in with somethin’ like this? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he’s fixin’ to increase our dues.” She raised her head high. “And I think I’m bein’ quite charitable.”
Don’t have a place? You chose to live like this. Alfred bit his tongue before he could say it.
She snorted, then nodded to the barrel he hadn’t yet righted. “Now how ‘bout you do what we ask of you and stop questionin’ things you don’t understand?”
Rezka bit the rope and yanked it off the crate before turning to leave. Alfred watched her, bewildered thoughts keeping his brow furrowed. Rhys had told him that others were suspicious of Espio, but this just seemed weirdly stubborn to him. Are zebstrika just generally unpleasant?
He rubbed his feeler and took a deep breath. I shouldn’t care so much. But as he went back to work, it continued to bother him. Rezka had spoken with such conviction and certainty. Farbroad had a history all its own, he knew that, and so that belief had to have come from somewhere.
She was right. He really didn’t understand.
---
The only other thing asked of Alfred was to help attach the draftsmon to their wagons. And after that, he stood alongside the pyroar guards to see them off. Emol waved to him from atop a wagon as it shrank into the distance. It was hard to make out, but it felt like he must have been smiling. Guess I grew on him somehow.
By the time he finally returned to the square, the day was almost in full swing. He clutched his feeler as he approached the Guild Center, both from the noise and in anticipation of having to explain his absence to Helios, and just as he was about to open the door-
The door opened itself, and Espio was there.
Alfred froze up, still clutching his feeler, then quickly shuffled out of his way. “S-Sorry, go ahead.”
Espio regarded him for a moment stretched long and distorted by the noise of the market. Then he nodded. “Excuse me,” he said, before walking past him.
Why was he-? Wait, no, this is your chance to say something. “Hey, uh…”
Espio paused midstep and turned to look at him. The cold in his eyes: nothing seemed personal about it, but it made the audino instinctively anxious all the same.
Alfred breathed carefully and went for the first thing that came to mind. “Those door openers. There are a few around town, but the Guild Center doesn’t seem to have one. I’m curious as to why.”
The espeon’s tail curled. “No particular reason. It was an iterative invention. I began with a mechanism to close a door automatically, and pushed to have it installed in buildings with high traffic, to which the previous Guildmaster told me he had no need for such a thing. The mechanism that opens the door came later, and in the end, it was easier to test it using the infrastructure that had already been built.” He tilted his head. “Why do you ask? Do you believe the Guild Center would benefit from it?”
“N-no, we manage just fine,” he tried to clarify (though for some reason it felt like a lie). “Like I said, I was just curious. It’s a neat thing. They don’t have those in the city I’m from.”
After another long moment, Espio dipped his head. “I see. I appreciate the compliment.” And then he walked off.
Alfred blinked, unconsciously returning a tiny wave. “Goodbye…?”
Entering the Guild Center, he wasn’t sure what to think about that encounter. I’m dreaming. I’ve got to be…
---
19th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
Alfred had spent his free time yesterday probing around for more information about Espio, though it proved more difficult than expected. He could learn plenty about the rest of the royal family, who seemed to have connections all over the place and were well-regarded. But the prince only had a few, primarily the town’s woodworker and blacksmith. In particular, he learned that the old blacksmith had retired under Espio’s orders in favor of newer, more skilled blood from Yagora, a decision that some still resented him for (though it seemed logical to Alfred). Meanwhile, Helios said they knew each other ‘professionally,’ but that it didn’t amount to much.
“Espio calls himself the town’s head of infrastructure,” he had explained. “So every now and then he’ll come to us for somethin’, but we’re not that close.”
When he asked Vee about him, she went on about how smart and kind he was, before quickly becoming bored and asking to play. And really, what was he expecting?
It was threatening to become an obsession at this point, Alfred had to admit it. Harmonia had no shortage of interesting things but it was all secondary to the one incongruous aspect. He simply couldn’t reconcile a ‘mon of innovation being born to a town for nomads who barely appreciated him. How did it happen? Why did he bother? Was Espio just… bored?
Standing at his desk today, Alfred felt like he was just one piece away from understanding it. But he had little hope of finding it anytime soon. It’s not as if Espio’s just going to walk in the door.
And then the door opened and Espio walked in.
The din of the market faded away into irrelevance, and the audino’s eyes widened as he straightened up. Lessons drilled into him on how to deal with nobles shot through his head faster than thoughts of seeing the subject of his fascination again. Be polite.
But the espeon prince barely noticed him. Vee followed after, pulling her wagon inside. This time, it carried yet another strange device: what seemed like a glass lamp, stood on a thick wooden base. A wire looked to be coiled inside for some mysterious purpose.
Espio sat on his haunches as he looked around the room, then up, then at Alfred. If he recognized him, he showed no sign. “Where’s Helios?”
The audino tried gathering his nerves, and just then did the market’s noise roar back into focus. “Uh, h-he’s uh…” he stammered, squeezing a feeler. “...Not here.”
Espio glanced at the open door, and his eyes briefly glowed as it closed itself, lowering the volume to a buzz. “Better?”
Alfred sheepishly rubbed his feeler and nodded. “Yeah.”
The espeon let out a thoughtful trill, then stood up as he looked at the stairs. “I had hoped the guildmaster would be here, but I suppose we can attempt this without him for now.”
“Can we turn it on?!” exclaimed Vee, her tail wagging frantically.
“Not right there. We should find a better spot for it.”
Alfred looked between them, confused. “Excuse me, but what are we attempting here?”
Espio didn’t even look at him, instead staring at the ceiling again. “At this time of day, the sun is located outside of that east-facing window’s view, lowering the light level.”
Alfred blinked. What.
The inventor’s gaze shifted towards the window in question. “As a quirk of this building’s construction, that is the only window in this room. And so, the inside of the lobby receives no direct sunlight for the remainder of the day, until the sun rises in the morning. I see there is an unlit candle on the corner of your desk.”
There was also a candle on a sconce near the request board. He realized he hadn’t lit either yet, and so that half of the building remained noticeably dim.
Espio turned to his niece. “Vee, could you move it near the board?” he asked gently.
With an emphatic “Yup!” Vee picked up the wagon’s handle and pulled it into the darkest corner, near the climbing pole. “Right here?” she asked as the handle clattered to the ground.
“Yes, that’s good.” He walked over to her and sat himself there. Then turned to Alfred. “You may want to come closer.”
Curious, Alfred took the offer and left his desk for a better look. “It reminds me of the gas lamps used back home,” he remarked. “What’s the wire for?”
“You’ll see.”
Espio placed a paw on a metal switch on the base, then pushed it into place with a *click!* There was a *snap!*, and with a soft thrum the wire began to glow brighter and brighter until Alfred had to avert his eyes. “Wh-what the-?!”
The entire corner had become bathed in the lamp’s light, bright enough so that the requests on the board could be read with perfect clarity. Vee eyes were transfixed, hypnotized by its luminescence. “Woah…” She held out a paw to touch it. “Electricity’s so cool…”
Espio covered her eyes with his tail. “Don’t stare directly into it.” Even as he scolded her, Alfred was sure he caught him smiling.
Alfred looked back at the lamp and winced as he failed to take the inventor’s advice, then used a paw to block it from view and turned to him. “So, what is this?”
“An incandescent lamp,” Espio explained. “‘Incandescent’ referring to the property of the wire as it is heated by an electric current.”
“Electricity…?” The enormity of what was just implied was slow to dawn on him, but once it did his eyes became as wide as Vee’s. “You mean, this doesn’t use fire, or gas?!”
Just as he said that, the hum of the lamp cut off and the light abruptly went out. Vee gasped. “Oh no!”
“It’s fine,” Espio reassured. He pressed the switch into its original position. “The current is powered by a battery hidden inside the base, but I already exhausted it in testing, and I wasn’t able to store an adequate charge before coming here. I was hoping Helios would be able to help with that. I plan to lend it to him, after all; I designed it for his use.”
Alfred found himself struggling to follow. Battery? What is that? How many things did he invent here?! If electricity could be used like this, what else was possible? “This is incredible… Is there a catch?”
“Relatively few, compared to its competitors,” he answered quickly. “It lasts far longer than a candle and is much safer than a gas lamp. The primary concern is powering it.”
Alfred’s ears perked. “How long can it last?”
The inventor shifted his head mulling over his answer. “I estimated about one thousand hours of continuous use.”
In the moment, that length of time sounded unfathomable. “A-and you’re just giving it to us?!”
“I figured you’d find the most use out of it.”
“Yeah, but…” Alfred bent over to get a closer look. “This is incredible! If you made a bunch of these, something like this could be revolutionary! We could light up the whole town!”
Espio’s ears stood high, as if he didn’t quite expect this reaction. “I appreciate the enthusiasm. Unfortunately, Harmonia lacks the resources and infrastructure to support widespread use. With what I have, I could make two more, at most. And only Electric types could use them long-term.”
“But I’m sure there’s ways to fix that, right?” A voice in the back of Alfred’s head told him it was rude to be this forward with a prince. But who cares, I’m building a rapport.
The prince just seemed puzzled. “Well, in theory, yes. I wasn’t expecting you to be so interested.”
Alfred stood straight and pat the espeon’s shoulder. “I just find this kind of technology interesting. I thought I’d be leaving it all behind when I came down here.”
Espio just stared at where Alfred touched him. “I see…”
A sliding drawer caught Alfred’s ear, and he turned to see Vee behind his desk, poking around in an open file cabinet. “V-Vee! That’s off limits!”
She looked at him with drooping ears. “I’m bored,” she whined.
Espio sighed. “It seems we ran out of time.”
Immediately, Alfred recognized the opportunity to make his shot. “Hey, whenever you have the time, would you like to continue our talk over a drink?”
The crown prince of Farbroad regarded Alfred with the same inscrutable gaze he always seemed to hold, though the coldness was missing. “I’ll think about it.” He sounded… curious.
With a flash of his eyes, the lamp floated out from the wagon and traveled to rest on the desk. He then stood up. “I’ll return later in the day to meet with Helios and explain to him how this works.” A bow. “Thank you for providing an audience.”
After that, he signaled for Vee to grab her wagon, and they left Alfred in the afternoon dim.
He approached the lamp and fiddled with the switch, listening to the way it snapped and clicked. Did I get my chance…?
---
Evening on the 20th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
The next day, in the quiet of the evening, Alfred was in the Giant’s Horn, carrying two wine glasses to the table where Prince Espio waited on his seat with his tail curled neatly around his paws. He passed a drink to him and carried his own to his place on the opposite end. From the bar counter, Rhys watched out of the corner of her eye, clearly trying to remain inconspicuous.
Espio leaned forward to lap at his apple cider, and his face scrunched at the first lick. He then licked his chest and shook it off. “Apologies, I’m not normally one for alcohol.”
“It’s fine,” Alfred assured. “Not everyone has the constitution for it.”
Espio hesitated, then lapped another sip and adopted a dignified posture. “You wished to talk about my invention?”
Alfred smiled. “Well, yeah, it’s incredible. I can’t help but wonder where you got the idea for it.”
The inventor didn’t seem too flattered. “What you saw represented only one possible outcome of my years of work and research. I merely stumbled upon the idea.”
Alfred tilted his head. “Is there something bigger you’re working on?”
There was a moment of hesitation and a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. “...Practical applications for electricity,” he admitted. “Progress has been slow, as you can imagine. Farbroad has little in the way of material production, and so most of what I make relies on imports from our neighbors.”
The audino made a thoughtful noise. “Sounds expensive.”
“It can be.” He bent down to drink. “I pay it with your taxes.”
…Was that a joke?
The conversation hit a lull. Alfred took a sip and attempted to revive it. “So why don’t you show off your inventions? There are tons of wealthy patrons in Yagora who’d pay a lot for them, I’m sure.”
“I’m not interested,” he responded instantly. But then the look on his face grew pensive, as if reconsidering his words. “I… suppose that yes, it would be easier to achieve widespread recognition if I did so. But it would be at a great risk.”
“What do you mean?”
“The kingdom of Farbroad is nothing more than a loose collection of agreements and honor rules, pressed into place by outside influences. Most of our population consists of nomads who primarily fend for themselves, only providing enough value to fulfill their obligations to the crown. And what little silver passes through Harmonia comes almost entirely from border tolls and convoy escorts, as our neighbors refuse to take us seriously and are only interested in the trade that passes through us, rather than with us. We’re at their mercy, and as a result, we don’t have the necessary leverage to protect ourselves from bad faith actors who would seek to exploit my work.” His eyes momentarily shifted away. “Not yet, at least.”
The more he learned, the more Alfred was impressed by him. “Wow. You’re a prince all right. Always thinking ahead,” he complimented.
“I’m only being practical.”
“Don’t be so modest.” Alfred took another sip. “It’s not just electricity either, you’ve made other things too, right? Like, what about that water tower?”
Espio shook his head. “That was before my time. My mother Vapor led the trail on that project ten years ago. Though I did oversee its end after she passed away.”
Alfred’s ears perked. “Oh, I never even heard about that. Sorry for poking.”
“No worries. Our internal affairs aren’t widely publicized, so it’s not a surprise you’d be unaware,” he replied. “She saw a need in this town, and used the example set by other kingdoms to fulfill that need.” A sense of pride entered his voice. “I like to believe I inherited her legacy.”
Alfred tipped his glass to that. “I’d say so. You both sound like forward thinkers to me.” Starting to get a little heavy though. He decided to try changing the subject. “Y’know, after hearing that, I’m surprised you’re not a vaporeon. Or a jolteon, for that matter. Why’d you choose espeon?”
Espio closed his eyes. “Simple: it is the objectively correct option.”
Alfred chuckled. He could imagine the kinds of petty arguments eevee might have on which evolution was the ‘best.’ “How so?” he asked with a light smile.
The espeon didn't reciprocate his humor. Instead, he just stared at him coldly. And then, he reached out a paw, pushed his glass sideways, and kept pushing it, until it tipped and fell over the edge of the table.
Alfred’s heart jumped out of his chest. “Wha-”
Just as it began to fall, the glass caught itself in the air, its cider sloshing violently yet never leaving its confines, as if the laws of gravity had bent sideways. It then floated back up to its original spot.
Espio’s eyes stopped glowing. “That’s how.”
The tone in his voice: it wasn’t a joke. The audino felt discomfort sizzle through his feelers.
The prince continued with a calm, even tone. “I’m sure you’re not blind to the difference in physical capability between us. I’ve tried to convince the rest of my family not to take such decisions lightly. And yet, they all treat it like you did: as a matter of opinion rather than practicality. Making life harder for themselves in the process. As the royal family, we have access to servants who can do the tasks we cannot take care of ourselves. But the rest of Harmonia doesn’t have that luxury.”
Alfred looked down at the paw that grasped his glass. It’s not that I’ve never been aware of it, it’s just…
“...Is that why you made those coin dispensers?” he asked.
Espio nodded. “Yes. I believe the goal of technology should be to ease the burden of participating in society. Much of Farbroad consists of misfits: pokémon who couldn’t adapt to the rise of cities and structures meant only for the most well-rounded and versatile of us. You see this in the nomads, and our immigrants, and the many four-legged ‘mon who call this town home.”
Like Rhys. That was why she came here. Guilt began to weigh on Alfred’s ears. “I have to admit, I never saw it that way before. I always figured everyone here was just backwards.”
Espio sighed and shook his head. “I don’t blame you for that. Honestly, sometimes I feel that way too. Many of my solutions seem like common sense, yet I’ve come to realize how easy it is, to become complacent with the way things are.”
Common sense… A memory flashed through Alfred’s mind. “Huh. You reminded me of that climbing pole in the Guild Center.”
The tips of Espio’s tail curled. “That? I was the one who had that installed.”
“Wait, that was you?”
“Yes. Originally I wanted a box placed under the board, but Helios didn’t like the way it looked. The pole was a compromise, as this was primarily for Emol’s convenience.” Espio licked his paw. “It also works for sharpening claws.”
Alfred felt relief as the conversation regained its levity. “It really is a simple thing. Not what I’d expect from an inventor.”
“If it serves its purpose, that’s all that matters.” He brushed one of his ears and shook his head. “I assume city ‘mon prefer flashier solutions.”
“Heh, sometimes,” said Alfred. “But…” His eyes wandered over to Rhys, still watching from the counter. Something occurred to him in that moment.
“...I think I get it. I mean, it makes my job easier too.”
“It does?”
Alfred nodded. “As a guide, it’s my job to accommodate everyone who comes in. If that pole weren’t there, I’d just be reading the requests for that guy. So, yeah, I think everything you said makes sense. Working to make our lives easier is what the guild’s all about.”
The espeon’s tail rose, and he blinked slowly. “I’m glad to hear that.”
The audino smiled, and an idea began to form in his mind. “Hey, if I ever think of anything that someone might need, I’ll tell you, okay? And then you can make it for them.”
Espio avoided his gaze. “I’ve never taken requests before…”
“Now’s a good place to start! It’ll help with your image when you become King. Like with the nomads: I talked to one of the zebstrika, and they don’t seem to like you very much.”
The espeon turned his head away, his ears twitching with thought. “The zebstrika have a long tradition of self-sufficiency. I’ll admit, it has been a struggle to account for them.”
“If it’s a struggle, then the guild has connections with them.” Alfred leaned forward on the table. “It’s not too late to make connections with the community. Heck, I still have some work to do there myself. We can work together on this.”
“Well…”
“C’mon.” Alfred held his glass out. “Toast on it.”
Finally, Espio let go a smile, thoroughly embarrassed. His glass floated across the table and tapped his with a *clink!*
“As it happens, I already have my next project in mind.”
---
26th day, Month of Lux, 1802.
Alfred was in his lodge room pulling his vest on, getting ready to leave for another day of work, when he heard light pawsteps approaching the door. The sound stopped, and waited.
Strange… Was someone coming to visit?
He moved to open the door, and felt mild surprise when on the other side sat Espio, with a sack at his feet. “Good morning.”
“Oh, good morning,” Alfred greeted back, before sheepishly rubbing his chest. “It’s been a while.”
“It has. I won’t keep you long, I just have something to deliver.” He nudged the bag closer.
A gift? Alfred took it and pulled out a curved, metal band. Both ends curled inwards, with large pieces of soft, thick white padding attached to them. “What is this?”
“They’re earmuffs. They help reduce noise,” answered Espio. “Consider it my thanks for being Vee’s friend.”
Alfred blinked in surprise. “Oh. You… made these for me?”
He nodded. “The hard part, as always, was the materials. I also made some assumptions on your measurements, so do tell me if anything is amiss.”
The audino turned it in his paws. “I appreciate the thought,” he said. “But I’m from the city, remember? I’m used to a lot of noise.”
Espio tilted his head. “Is that true, or have you only convinced yourself it is?”
His ears perked. Huh…?
“I suggest you try it. It might surprise you.” And without another word, the prince left.
Left to his own devices, Alfred was about ready to just shrug and throw the earmuffs into a drawer. But somehow he couldn’t bring himself to be that blasé about it. A gift was a gift, after all: Espio must’ve put a lot of thought into it.
He found himself turning the object around in his paws, feeling the softness of the mufflers. On second thought, maybe it wouldn’t hurt. The market never got any quieter. But do I really need this? I’m supposed to be better… than…
He put it on.
The headband fit snugly, and the ‘muffs’ curved to enter his ears and block them. It sounded a little quieter, but not by much. He could still hear his footsteps, and the door close behind him, and the lodge receptionist greet him as he entered into the lobby.
On the street heading for his destination, he began to notice it a little more. The grass didn’t rustle; talking passerby became passing hushes; he realized he couldn’t hear what was going on in the surrounding buildings anymore. When he made it to the Guild Center’s front door, he heard the market as if he were inside, noticeable but distant.
He opened the door, entered, and closed it behind him.
Complete silence.
For the first time since he began working there, he could feel himself breathe.
…Oh…
Work could wait. He leaned against the door and admired the calm.
I’m really glad you liked Espio! I really like him too: he has a lot of interesting stuff going on beneath the surface, and I will fully admit that this story was partially just an excuse for me to get to write more of him, as he’s a character I like thinking about.Dragonfree said:
Yeah, the original intention was that I wanted Alfred to make his move slowly over the course of a couple scenes, but I had to cut down on that and it left a hole behind. Though I also don't think I thought this idea through all that well to begin with, so I did take your feedback and change things to make Alfred's interest a little more passive. Hopefully it feels more natural!Dragonfree said:
Thank you so much! Your review was lovely and I've gone back to it multiple times while trying to figure the rest of this story out. I hope the revised version still captures what you saw in it!Dragonfree said:
That is a good thing, that’s what I was going for! I think that’s an important part of the feel of this story, that it doesn’t quite click together until the end. Though that’s also just my tendency when it comes to storytelling in general ^^;.Flyg0n said:
Thank you! I'm happy to hear this worked theme-wise for you, as these kinds of stories are the ones I enjoy writing the most.Flyg0n said:
I'm happy to hear! I was quite proud of those sentences when I wrote them.Lisianthus said:
This is always something I’m trying to work on, since believe it or not, I’m actually not super big on ‘Pokémon as humans’ either, particularly when it comes to this setting, since it’s so important to its themes. It’s a delicate balance to strike in this genre, and even if I didn’t do it perfectly, I’m glad you still enjoyed it and found something essentially “Pokémon” in its characters!Lisianthus said:
Well you’ve already read some of it before ^^;. Thank you!Lisianthus said:
You did well to pick up on that! There's a lot going on with Farbroad and Harmonia politically, but most of what that ends up coming out to is that there's little reason for anyone to want to attack itWindskull said:
I'm always glad to hear this because I take it like, way too seriously lol. I explicitly avoided referring to the setting by it's name "Liber" specifically because I wanted to avoid bogging the story down in too much irrelevant baggage. Even namedropping Ebeld as the city Alfred is from felt like I was committing a crime ^^;. I relented a tiny bit in this version to also namedrop Rhys' hometown though (originally she was supposed to in that convo).Windskull said:
I'm glad you enjoyed it!Windskull said:
There are two deleted scenes for this version of the fic, and since I'm not making a whole Google Doc for them I'm just going to drop them here.
The first was something that I wanted to do in the original concept but cut early from the outline. I decided I wanted to write it out for this version, but it's preeetty extraneous, and the one-shot ended up really long, so I ended up cutting it again. If you like this scene and you think it does have a place in the fic, let me know! It's fully complete and I could easily add it back in, it really wouldn't be any trouble at all. This takes place just after Alfred meets Helios, at the lodge he was directed to.
As for the second, this was something I considered for a moment. The calendar date for Engineering Harmony proved difficult to figure out, because I said it was at the beginning of spring, but there's a bunch of stuff going on with the calendar at the beginning of spring, ranging from the new year on the equinox to lunar bullshit and a founding holiday right when this would likely take place. I decided to try writing out that festival scene to see if it could add anything, but it started to lose steam and wasn't really relevant to the story, so I axed it before it could get too long. This takes place after the second bar scene and before the caravan scene. Also, keep in mind, it's very unfinished.
(the idea was that it would be a short scene where alfred would notice espio being kind of distant. but then i kept going "but, what about" and that was the sign it wasn't meant to be)
The first was something that I wanted to do in the original concept but cut early from the outline. I decided I wanted to write it out for this version, but it's preeetty extraneous, and the one-shot ended up really long, so I ended up cutting it again. If you like this scene and you think it does have a place in the fic, let me know! It's fully complete and I could easily add it back in, it really wouldn't be any trouble at all. This takes place just after Alfred meets Helios, at the lodge he was directed to.
(as a note, I was originally planning for the dates to be a little different.)
22nd Night, New Bygone Moon, Month of Acheseelle, 1802.
Just as Helios promised, Alfred found he had a reservation waiting at the Traveler’s Lodge. He followed the pawmott receptionist as she led him through halls of worn wood, listening to the *pitter* of her footsteps bouncing off the walls while the *tock* of a grandfather clock chased them from the lobby. They traveled all the way to the end of the hall, where she took her key, unlocked the door, and pushed to hold it open for him. “Aaand that's your room!” she exclaimed with a gesture inside.
Alfred stepped past her and felt a slight pang of dismay as his eyes adjusted to its darkness. The “bed” was nothing more than a pile of fresh straw, while a small drawer rested innocently against the nearby wall as if to distract from the misery of the fact. A low table equipped with a lamp and tinderbox took up much of the space in the center, while a sink basin sat in the far corner, mercifully equipped with an attached faucet. There was one, handless interior door behind the table, and he had a feeling it wasn’t a closet.
The pawmott spoke up, chipper as ever. “We lock up ‘bout an hour after sundown, so always make sure you’re in here by then, alright?”
Alfred returned a fake smile. “I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.”
The door swung close behind her, leaving him there in the dark.
*tock… tock… tock…*
The damn clock could still be heard through the walls.
Alfred’s tired sigh broke the silence. Well, first things first, let’s answer the water question.
After a minute of blindly fiddling with the tinderbox to light the lamp, he took off his bag and placed both it and his suitcase down before walking over to the basin. It was just a small tub jutting from the ground, probably intended for multiple purposes. He turned the faucet’s handle, and sure enough, water spilled out to crash on its metal floor. It’s Palkia’s small mercies…
He turned it off, and turned to look at his straw bed.
*tock… tock… tock…*
It's only a temporary arrangement until I can find a better place.
Alfred took the time to open his suitcase and start removing his things. First thing before anything else was a folded quilt, a hammer, and a couple of nails. After moving the drawer towards the wall shared with the hallway, he used it as a stepping stool to reach as high as he could with the massive quilt’s corner. And, as quietly as he could manage, he hammered a nail through it to pin it to the wall. He only needed three nails to cover the entire wall up to the door, and made sure not to drive them in too deep. After all, someday he’d have to take them out.
By the end, he hopped off the drawer to admire his work. The clock was far less audible now, leaving only the quaint chirping of tiny insect pokémon outside the window as the loudest sound in the room. Good. And so he placed the door bar into its holder to keep it shut, put out the lamp, and promptly flopped onto his bed.
…
Despite the chirping, it really was quiet.
He could still hear the clock.
It’ll be good for you, those words repeated in his head. Yeah, I bet it will…
22nd Night, New Bygone Moon, Month of Acheseelle, 1802.
Just as Helios promised, Alfred found he had a reservation waiting at the Traveler’s Lodge. He followed the pawmott receptionist as she led him through halls of worn wood, listening to the *pitter* of her footsteps bouncing off the walls while the *tock* of a grandfather clock chased them from the lobby. They traveled all the way to the end of the hall, where she took her key, unlocked the door, and pushed to hold it open for him. “Aaand that's your room!” she exclaimed with a gesture inside.
Alfred stepped past her and felt a slight pang of dismay as his eyes adjusted to its darkness. The “bed” was nothing more than a pile of fresh straw, while a small drawer rested innocently against the nearby wall as if to distract from the misery of the fact. A low table equipped with a lamp and tinderbox took up much of the space in the center, while a sink basin sat in the far corner, mercifully equipped with an attached faucet. There was one, handless interior door behind the table, and he had a feeling it wasn’t a closet.
The pawmott spoke up, chipper as ever. “We lock up ‘bout an hour after sundown, so always make sure you’re in here by then, alright?”
Alfred returned a fake smile. “I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.”
The door swung close behind her, leaving him there in the dark.
*tock… tock… tock…*
The damn clock could still be heard through the walls.
Alfred’s tired sigh broke the silence. Well, first things first, let’s answer the water question.
After a minute of blindly fiddling with the tinderbox to light the lamp, he took off his bag and placed both it and his suitcase down before walking over to the basin. It was just a small tub jutting from the ground, probably intended for multiple purposes. He turned the faucet’s handle, and sure enough, water spilled out to crash on its metal floor. It’s Palkia’s small mercies…
He turned it off, and turned to look at his straw bed.
*tock… tock… tock…*
It's only a temporary arrangement until I can find a better place.
Alfred took the time to open his suitcase and start removing his things. First thing before anything else was a folded quilt, a hammer, and a couple of nails. After moving the drawer towards the wall shared with the hallway, he used it as a stepping stool to reach as high as he could with the massive quilt’s corner. And, as quietly as he could manage, he hammered a nail through it to pin it to the wall. He only needed three nails to cover the entire wall up to the door, and made sure not to drive them in too deep. After all, someday he’d have to take them out.
By the end, he hopped off the drawer to admire his work. The clock was far less audible now, leaving only the quaint chirping of tiny insect pokémon outside the window as the loudest sound in the room. Good. And so he placed the door bar into its holder to keep it shut, put out the lamp, and promptly flopped onto his bed.
…
Despite the chirping, it really was quiet.
He could still hear the clock.
It’ll be good for you, those words repeated in his head. Yeah, I bet it will…
As for the second, this was something I considered for a moment. The calendar date for Engineering Harmony proved difficult to figure out, because I said it was at the beginning of spring, but there's a bunch of stuff going on with the calendar at the beginning of spring, ranging from the new year on the equinox to lunar bullshit and a founding holiday right when this would likely take place. I decided to try writing out that festival scene to see if it could add anything, but it started to lose steam and wasn't really relevant to the story, so I axed it before it could get too long. This takes place after the second bar scene and before the caravan scene. Also, keep in mind, it's very unfinished.
First Night of Lux, Growing Bygone Moon, 1802.
The first day of the Month of Lux was known as Liberation Day, a holiday held to commemorate victory in the ancient war that led to the formation of the kingdoms. Back home, Alfred appreciated it for being one of the quieter festivals: a time to enjoy lives already lived, just as they had been and would continue to be. Unfortunately that meant no time off work, but work in the Traveler’s Guild was already a full-moon affair anyway.
That day, watching from the guild window, it didn’t appear at first that Harmonia had anything special in store. It wasn’t until Helios came in with lunch that Alfred heard about preparations in the town’s center park for an event that night.
“It’s nothin’ too special, as ya’d likely expect by now. But the King’ll be there, and seein’ ‘im ain’t a chance you wanna pass these days.” (unfinished) “Only Dialga knows how long he’s got left.”
Normally Alfred avoided events, but that had managed to convince him, and so that night he found himself at Helios’ side as a representative of the guild. Harmonia’s park took up more space than he had expected it to. It was a ring of brick path surrounding a grassy center, with torches tied to stakes to help light the area. The path to the royal manor was blocked by hastily put together wooden stage, which was more like a series of ramps leading up to a platform sitting high above the lawn.
Many pokémon had already begun to congregate. He could hear their voices: the zebstrika caravan, who complained about the ampharos shining like a beacon to help guide his flock of mareep and flaaffy, who spoke suspiciously of the pride of pyroar, whose litleo cubs tussled and tumbled with their rival shinx from the luxray clan, who gossiped about the crown and whether the prince would be fit to wear it. Each group produced their own distinct and unified sound, impressing on Alfred like separate worlds set beside one another. He stood with Helios on the edge of it, feeling more like a stranger than he ever had before.
Eventually, the royal family made their appearance, and everything went quiet. The group of eevee forms arrived to a respectful silence, which persisted as a flareon and an umbreon slowly made their way up the ramps to the top of the stage platform. It was difficult to see from so far away, but he realized from the sound of extra pawsteps and strained breathing that supported between the two was none other than King Jolt of Farbroad.
Alfred reached for the monocular in his bag to get a better look. The King was (unfinished). A wiry crown sat atop his head, and the dual gold rings signature of his heritage clung tight around his forelegs. Their vibrant color stood stark against his thin and wispy pelt, nearly silver except for the faded hints of a yellow once befitting of them. But what he lacked in youth he made up for in posture. Dignified, resilient, and attentive, the respect he commanded could be heard in the silence of his diverse subjects. Alfred had to admit his doubts in a jolteon’s ability to look like a King, but he couldn’t deny Jolt’s presence.
As the King began his speech, Alfred shifted his focus to the royal family. He managed to spot Vee alongside a couple other eevee, but curiously, he couldn’t seem to find Espio among them. He’s the crown prince, shouldn’t he be up there?
A light slap on Alfred’s arm snapped him out of it. “Eyes forward, he’s mentionin’ us,” Helios hissed.
Alfred lowered his monocular and gave him a look. “I-”
“...And replacing his position is a new member of our community. Alfred, the audino from Ebeld.”
He stiffened, and his eyes met with the King’s from across the clearing. The attention from the crowd was an afterthought in that moment, as he watched the jolteon give him a respectful nod. “We will welcome him as (unfinished)
He bothered to learn my name…? (lol)
The first day of the Month of Lux was known as Liberation Day, a holiday held to commemorate victory in the ancient war that led to the formation of the kingdoms. Back home, Alfred appreciated it for being one of the quieter festivals: a time to enjoy lives already lived, just as they had been and would continue to be. Unfortunately that meant no time off work, but work in the Traveler’s Guild was already a full-moon affair anyway.
That day, watching from the guild window, it didn’t appear at first that Harmonia had anything special in store. It wasn’t until Helios came in with lunch that Alfred heard about preparations in the town’s center park for an event that night.
“It’s nothin’ too special, as ya’d likely expect by now. But the King’ll be there, and seein’ ‘im ain’t a chance you wanna pass these days.” (unfinished) “Only Dialga knows how long he’s got left.”
Normally Alfred avoided events, but that had managed to convince him, and so that night he found himself at Helios’ side as a representative of the guild. Harmonia’s park took up more space than he had expected it to. It was a ring of brick path surrounding a grassy center, with torches tied to stakes to help light the area. The path to the royal manor was blocked by hastily put together wooden stage, which was more like a series of ramps leading up to a platform sitting high above the lawn.
Many pokémon had already begun to congregate. He could hear their voices: the zebstrika caravan, who complained about the ampharos shining like a beacon to help guide his flock of mareep and flaaffy, who spoke suspiciously of the pride of pyroar, whose litleo cubs tussled and tumbled with their rival shinx from the luxray clan, who gossiped about the crown and whether the prince would be fit to wear it. Each group produced their own distinct and unified sound, impressing on Alfred like separate worlds set beside one another. He stood with Helios on the edge of it, feeling more like a stranger than he ever had before.
Eventually, the royal family made their appearance, and everything went quiet. The group of eevee forms arrived to a respectful silence, which persisted as a flareon and an umbreon slowly made their way up the ramps to the top of the stage platform. It was difficult to see from so far away, but he realized from the sound of extra pawsteps and strained breathing that supported between the two was none other than King Jolt of Farbroad.
Alfred reached for the monocular in his bag to get a better look. The King was (unfinished). A wiry crown sat atop his head, and the dual gold rings signature of his heritage clung tight around his forelegs. Their vibrant color stood stark against his thin and wispy pelt, nearly silver except for the faded hints of a yellow once befitting of them. But what he lacked in youth he made up for in posture. Dignified, resilient, and attentive, the respect he commanded could be heard in the silence of his diverse subjects. Alfred had to admit his doubts in a jolteon’s ability to look like a King, but he couldn’t deny Jolt’s presence.
As the King began his speech, Alfred shifted his focus to the royal family. He managed to spot Vee alongside a couple other eevee, but curiously, he couldn’t seem to find Espio among them. He’s the crown prince, shouldn’t he be up there?
A light slap on Alfred’s arm snapped him out of it. “Eyes forward, he’s mentionin’ us,” Helios hissed.
Alfred lowered his monocular and gave him a look. “I-”
“...And replacing his position is a new member of our community. Alfred, the audino from Ebeld.”
He stiffened, and his eyes met with the King’s from across the clearing. The attention from the crowd was an afterthought in that moment, as he watched the jolteon give him a respectful nod. “We will welcome him as (unfinished)
He bothered to learn my name…? (lol)
This is the author interview that I got to do with Spiteful Murkrow as part of the winner feature for the zine. We did this all the way back in October 2024, long before I finished the final version you just read. I'm posting it here with Negrek's approval, as it has a tooon of dev trivia in it and I usually like talking about this stuff after having posted a story. Enjoy!
---
The actual biggest challenge was the final word cull: the story ended up exactly 1.2k words over the limit, so I had to do a bunch of cutting to get that down to 10k. Off the top of my head, I believe about 500 of that was prose trimming, and the remaining 700 was cut content from various scenes, and the whole thing was just painful. While about 100 of the trimmed prose was warranted and is kept in the zine version, the rest was legitimately just the process of me going through the fic and making it less fun and flavorful. I had to make some really tough calls for the sake of the story: one of the cuts I made was the original introduction to Vee's character, which hurt because that moment was literally the first scene concept I came up with. By the end, I kinda ended up hating the result, but it ended up working out, so clearly they were the right calls ^^;.
Originally it was called Fyrewood, and the initial concept was that I wanted a town in Farbroad that was somewhat removed from the rapid technological and industrial progress that defines the rest of the kingdom. So I came up with a simple idea (there used to be a forest here, and then it burned down one day) and associated it with the rightmost town on Farbroad's map because it's a good distance away from the capital.
But, as time went on and Farbroad got further fleshed out, the nature of Fyrewood and its purpose in the story started to change. Long story short, in 2019 it became the "old capital," and its backstory was tossed. I wanted the town to provide a tie into the way Farbroad used to look like to create an important contrast, and even longer story short, I went with the idea of Fyrewood once being the only town in a kingdom of nomads. Nomadism is already fairly common in Liber, so the idea of this one small part being focused on it felt like a natural extension that fit into the name I gave the kingdom. And the idea that Fyrewood would then feature a focus on quadrupedal pokémon followed naturally from that premise too, as most nomadic pokémon in Liber are quadrupedal (and there's a reason for that).
Where the technology aspect comes into the equation involves minor Sword spoilers unfortunately, but suffice to say, it became an important part of the concept, and this one-shot was a chance to play around with that in a time set long before the main fic. Eventually, in early 2024, I finally renamed it to Harmonia. The meaning is obvious, but it also has a second meaning that's meant to be a reference to a "certain" name, which has thematic significance you can probably imagine yourself.
As for the layout, I put it near a river because I wanted a waterwheel, and I also needed to make sure there was a hill for a water tower to fit into that early foreshadowing bit. The Guild Center is put near the market for obvious story purposes. I also made it a bit smaller than Guild Centers typically are (more like a Traveler's Office), since the Farbroaden branch is very small at this point in time and doesn't have the resources for a full operation. Though I still gave it three floors so that it can at least fit everything it needs. The town is fenced off rather than walled, partially to fit into the nomad idea: it's ultimately a very "open" town, not really defined by a strict delineation between civilization and the wilds, and it helps that it's protected by the magic of its King and the grace of Liber's Emperor.
As for the mesa, I didn't put that there! It was put there partially against my will, in fact, and then I just went along with it. I realize that is hard to believe, but I'm not ready to reveal how it happened yet, let's just say ^^;. But, like everything Sword, it just kinda worked out: you can imagine that the town was probably built near the mesa on purpose, as it is the most defining landmark of Farbroad's sparse plains, and therefore perfect for the various nomadic families and caravans to meet at. Since it makes sense for the mesa to be there, I didn't have to change anything, and it adds a neat flavor to the town, I called it the Giant's Grave and decided to keep it. It also allowed me to change Harmonia's title to "the Town of Resting Giants," which I thought sounded cool.
As for everything else (aka, basically the whole story outside those couple paragraphs that got cut from the contest version anyway), admittedly I just kinda winged it ^^;.
I also wanted to flesh out the dynamic between Alfred and Espio more. That scene would have been part of that: the intention was that they'd keep running into each other, which Alfred uses to slowly make his move on trying to share a drink with him. But that ended up being too much for the story as I planned it: in hindsight, if the story was built from the ground up around this idea, I could have fit this entire dynamic in 10k, but that's just the way it goes ^^;.
Espio's shack was also a fairly spur-of-the-moment decision. The original idea was that he had a study in the royal manor, and Vee would lead Alfred there. But I ended up figuring a shack worked better, as it both fit his personality more, and also was just simpler to write :P.
I also almost featured a Tinkaton blacksmith as a character, but it got cut from the outline pretty early, alas.
Ultimately though, I went Audino because of its excellent hearing. I felt that there was a potential angle there to really expand on the themes I was trying to hit on and provide Alfred with a stronger arc. Audino is meant to be an empathetic pokémon, but his time in the city closed him off from others and himself, and so living in Harmonia ends up being good for him. It's also a Normal-Type, which fits into Farbroad's guild being the "Normal-Type branch" at this point in time. Then everything kinda started writing itself after that point. The idea that his sensitive hearing made it so that he could hear the internal mechanisms of a gadget was also part of why I called the one-shot Engineering Harmony, even if I didn't quite fully capitalize on it in the contest/zine version.
For the Guildmaster, I went in looking for an Electric-Type pokémon. And so Helios was almost an Ampharos, because sometimes I think "Electric-Type" and suddenly Ampharos is the only pokémon in existence. But ultimately I went Heliolisk because of how perfectly it works into the Farbroaden guild's type theme. At the time the story takes place, it's Normal, as I mentioned, but later it becomes the "Electric-Type branch," hence me looking for one. Heliolisk is both, and also bipedal, so it works out.
Rhys is a Rhydon because it just made sense to me. No real principled decision making there, I just wanted Big Rock-Type to represent Yagora, and then the aspects of her character followed from that.
Espio explains why he's an Espeon in the story ^^;. But as for why eeveelutions specifically, the idea that Farbroad's royal line once consisted of them for several generations was something I decided much earlier. I basically just thought it'd be neat, as eeveelutions have limited prominence in Sword, and if anywhere were to give them prominence, it'd be here.
---
Oh it was definitely challenging. I had a hard time starting at first, and I definitely had to brute force through some scenes, especially towards the end as I started running out of time (because I'm a procrastinator, that's what I do). Trying to figure out what needed to happen and what I could get away with was probably the second-biggest challenge of the story, since the concept is asking for a lot of scenes (contest/zine version has 10, arguably 11).
The actual biggest challenge was the final word cull: the story ended up exactly 1.2k words over the limit, so I had to do a bunch of cutting to get that down to 10k. Off the top of my head, I believe about 500 of that was prose trimming, and the remaining 700 was cut content from various scenes, and the whole thing was just painful. While about 100 of the trimmed prose was warranted and is kept in the zine version, the rest was legitimately just the process of me going through the fic and making it less fun and flavorful. I had to make some really tough calls for the sake of the story: one of the cuts I made was the original introduction to Vee's character, which hurt because that moment was literally the first scene concept I came up with. By the end, I kinda ended up hating the result, but it ended up working out, so clearly they were the right calls ^^;.
So, full disclosure, Engineering Harmony is a spin-off of my main longfic Sword, taking place in its wider setting Liber, 40 years before the events of the story. Harmonia was one of the first towns I placed on Liber's map way back in 2014, and was first properly conceptualized in 2017, making the town's history several years long and heavily intertwined with the bigger picture of the setting. This makes it very hard to talk about without getting into a massive several-paragraph diatribe on the development history of Farbroad and the way it connects to the plot and themes of Sword, which would include some story spoilers and balloon way outside the scope of this one-shot ^^;. But I'll try my best to keep it succinct, if a bit vague.
Originally it was called Fyrewood, and the initial concept was that I wanted a town in Farbroad that was somewhat removed from the rapid technological and industrial progress that defines the rest of the kingdom. So I came up with a simple idea (there used to be a forest here, and then it burned down one day) and associated it with the rightmost town on Farbroad's map because it's a good distance away from the capital.
But, as time went on and Farbroad got further fleshed out, the nature of Fyrewood and its purpose in the story started to change. Long story short, in 2019 it became the "old capital," and its backstory was tossed. I wanted the town to provide a tie into the way Farbroad used to look like to create an important contrast, and even longer story short, I went with the idea of Fyrewood once being the only town in a kingdom of nomads. Nomadism is already fairly common in Liber, so the idea of this one small part being focused on it felt like a natural extension that fit into the name I gave the kingdom. And the idea that Fyrewood would then feature a focus on quadrupedal pokémon followed naturally from that premise too, as most nomadic pokémon in Liber are quadrupedal (and there's a reason for that).
Where the technology aspect comes into the equation involves minor Sword spoilers unfortunately, but suffice to say, it became an important part of the concept, and this one-shot was a chance to play around with that in a time set long before the main fic. Eventually, in early 2024, I finally renamed it to Harmonia. The meaning is obvious, but it also has a second meaning that's meant to be a reference to a "certain" name, which has thematic significance you can probably imagine yourself.
As for the layout, I put it near a river because I wanted a waterwheel, and I also needed to make sure there was a hill for a water tower to fit into that early foreshadowing bit. The Guild Center is put near the market for obvious story purposes. I also made it a bit smaller than Guild Centers typically are (more like a Traveler's Office), since the Farbroaden branch is very small at this point in time and doesn't have the resources for a full operation. Though I still gave it three floors so that it can at least fit everything it needs. The town is fenced off rather than walled, partially to fit into the nomad idea: it's ultimately a very "open" town, not really defined by a strict delineation between civilization and the wilds, and it helps that it's protected by the magic of its King and the grace of Liber's Emperor.
As for the mesa, I didn't put that there! It was put there partially against my will, in fact, and then I just went along with it. I realize that is hard to believe, but I'm not ready to reveal how it happened yet, let's just say ^^;. But, like everything Sword, it just kinda worked out: you can imagine that the town was probably built near the mesa on purpose, as it is the most defining landmark of Farbroad's sparse plains, and therefore perfect for the various nomadic families and caravans to meet at. Since it makes sense for the mesa to be there, I didn't have to change anything, and it adds a neat flavor to the town, I called it the Giant's Grave and decided to keep it. It also allowed me to change Harmonia's title to "the Town of Resting Giants," which I thought sounded cool.
Ah, I wish I could have done more of that, honestly! The outskirts of Harmonia do feature yurts, a type of tent used primarily by nomadic groups in central Asia. The traditional word for it in Mongolia is "ger." They're basically fancy tents designed to protect from wind and keep insulated. Setting them up is a little complicated, so I am asking for some suspension of disbelief with their use here: I'd imagine the ones on the outskirts are mainly meant as temporary homes for visiting nomads, while the more portable ones are owned by nomadic farmers with helpers who can assemble/disassemble them. I mostly chose them for aesthetic reasons, as they look nice and lend themselves well to the "traditional PMD tent architecture style," while still being its own distinct thing.
As for everything else (aka, basically the whole story outside those couple paragraphs that got cut from the contest version anyway), admittedly I just kinda winged it ^^;.
Originally, there was going to be an Emolga character named Emol. He's in the zine version briefly, but he was going to get another scene later on, which got cut partway during writing when I realized that I was running out of words and wouldn't be able to fit it. The idea was that I was going to use him to help flesh out the nomads a bit, as he travels with a caravan as a scout. Alfred would help him with something related to that, we'd see another Espio invention, and then another Espio appearance at the end. This would place it after the second bar scene and before the lightbulb scene. Part of my plan for the final TR/AO3 version is to finally write this scene as I outlined it.
I also wanted to flesh out the dynamic between Alfred and Espio more. That scene would have been part of that: the intention was that they'd keep running into each other, which Alfred uses to slowly make his move on trying to share a drink with him. But that ended up being too much for the story as I planned it: in hindsight, if the story was built from the ground up around this idea, I could have fit this entire dynamic in 10k, but that's just the way it goes ^^;.
Espio's shack was also a fairly spur-of-the-moment decision. The original idea was that he had a study in the royal manor, and Vee would lead Alfred there. But I ended up figuring a shack worked better, as it both fit his personality more, and also was just simpler to write :P.
I also almost featured a Tinkaton blacksmith as a character, but it got cut from the outline pretty early, alas.
Alfred was almost not an Audino! The original idea was Azumarill, and a strong competing idea was Simisear, but I ended up liking Audino the best. Azumarill was just a gut decision from the initial concept that I decided against because I already have an Azumarill character somewhere else, and I wanted to try a different vibe. My second thought was Raichu because of its Electric-Typing, but the vibe wasn't quite right. I decided to go down a list of possibilities, and picked out Simisear and Audino as the two strongest candidates that were also fairly distinct as MCs. Simisear was in the running because of its hearing theme as the "hear no evil" monkey, the idea being that's he's fairly closed off from other perspectives, and then opens his mind as he "hears" other people out. It also just fit aesthetically with the personality I was going for.
Ultimately though, I went Audino because of its excellent hearing. I felt that there was a potential angle there to really expand on the themes I was trying to hit on and provide Alfred with a stronger arc. Audino is meant to be an empathetic pokémon, but his time in the city closed him off from others and himself, and so living in Harmonia ends up being good for him. It's also a Normal-Type, which fits into Farbroad's guild being the "Normal-Type branch" at this point in time. Then everything kinda started writing itself after that point. The idea that his sensitive hearing made it so that he could hear the internal mechanisms of a gadget was also part of why I called the one-shot Engineering Harmony, even if I didn't quite fully capitalize on it in the contest/zine version.
For the Guildmaster, I went in looking for an Electric-Type pokémon. And so Helios was almost an Ampharos, because sometimes I think "Electric-Type" and suddenly Ampharos is the only pokémon in existence. But ultimately I went Heliolisk because of how perfectly it works into the Farbroaden guild's type theme. At the time the story takes place, it's Normal, as I mentioned, but later it becomes the "Electric-Type branch," hence me looking for one. Heliolisk is both, and also bipedal, so it works out.
Rhys is a Rhydon because it just made sense to me. No real principled decision making there, I just wanted Big Rock-Type to represent Yagora, and then the aspects of her character followed from that.
Espio explains why he's an Espeon in the story ^^;. But as for why eeveelutions specifically, the idea that Farbroad's royal line once consisted of them for several generations was something I decided much earlier. I basically just thought it'd be neat, as eeveelutions have limited prominence in Sword, and if anywhere were to give them prominence, it'd be here.
Considering how heavily it ties into The Legacy of Light: Sword, I would hope you'd like to check it out if you enjoyed this story! There are some ideas and foreshadowing here that will eventually pay off in that fic, and I'm excited to get to it one day. There's also The Myriad Investigations of Detective Oscar, which is similarly lighthearted to this one-shot, and is eventually planned to touch on a couple ideas adjacent to what was explored here.
I began writing this one-shot on June 9th, 2024. I finished writing it right before the deadline on June 30th, 2024, taking 21 days to finish. I completed it on January 7th, 2026, taking 480 days from when the results went up to publish. The contest version is exactly 10,000 words long, while the final version is 13,947 words long.
So, I already talked about the development history of this one-shot quite a bit in the author interview I did for my winner feature in the zine, so I don’t want to repeat myself too much. Instead, I’m gonna vent a bit. And I’m putting that into a nested spoiler tag, because maybe you don’t want to see that. Honestly, I would like to keep things on a positive note, but I don't think there's a way to do that and talk about why this took so long without being extremely dishonest. But if you want this to stay on a positive note, don't read this.
ANYWAY. *slaps my fic like it were the hood of a car* this baby can fit so much foreshadowing in it-
The caravan scene was the big addition, and very difficult to figure out. I really wanted to expand more on the nomad wb in the original version, but I ended up having to cut almost all of it out. This version, and this scene, are my way of trying to rectify that, because I feel it's important to my vision of the story. I definitely tried to keep it lighter in prose than some of the other scenes (because uhh *glances at word count*). My big worry is that it messes too much with the message of the story; I had to walk a very thin line just to get it into its current state, so I would like to know how people feel about how it fits in.
In order to solve the scene, I actually had to do a bunch of additional internal worldbuilding to flesh out the perspective on the nomads and how they fit into the organization of the kingdom. And I kept being tempted to slip it into this fic because, believe it or not, I don't actually like worldbuilding stuff that isn't going to come up in a story at some point. Unfortunately, most of it couldn't fit into the story, and it's likely never going to be used, because when I write about Harmonia again someday it's going to look completely different.
"is eevee in this fic a cat, a dog, or a fox?" yes, the answer is yes. For Eevee behavior, I just took from all three and it made it a blend, with Espeon being slightly more cat-flavored. I felt it made sense with Eevee's design intention of "weird furry thing i saw in my backyard once."
In a lot of other places, I mostly focused on changes to incorporate new stuff (such as the door opener bits). I didn't make too many prose changes otherwise: my logic generally was "well, the judges liked it just fine, so." Plus I really just wanted to get this out there so it'd stop weighing on me.
All things said, I do really appreciate the love this story got from the judges, and I'd like to thank them, my own fellow judges from that year, and Negrek for running the contest. Judging a contest was an interesting experience (and writing this was even more interesting lmao), and I'm really flattered that Negrek gave me a chance to try it. And of course, I really hope you enjoyed it. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
So, I already talked about the development history of this one-shot quite a bit in the author interview I did for my winner feature in the zine, so I don’t want to repeat myself too much. Instead, I’m gonna vent a bit. And I’m putting that into a nested spoiler tag, because maybe you don’t want to see that. Honestly, I would like to keep things on a positive note, but I don't think there's a way to do that and talk about why this took so long without being extremely dishonest. But if you want this to stay on a positive note, don't read this.
So, I kind of implied it in a few places, but I really did not think this was going to win the contest. I spent the entire last couple days before the deadline panicking, having realized that this story wasn’t working within word constraints and that I’d have to make some serious sacrifices in order to get it there. And doing that was a struggle, the kind of struggle that makes you hate what you wrote. And boy, did I start to hate what I wrote. 2024 was an absolutely horrible year for me: I already wasn't in a good headspace to begin with, and so I spent the whole judging period just having regrets. Like, full on panic mode trying-to-preemptively-disassociate-from-this-fic kind of regrets. I had to make so many compromises, and I felt like I made a huge blunder in choosing an idea that couldn't fit the word count, when ideally this contest is most suited to concepts that should only barely be hitting half that, and I could have easily written something stronger with less. And so I became convinced that what I wrote was bad and a mistake, and that everyone was going to see it that way. It led to me opting out of the zine at first (if the zine comes out and this fic does not have art despite being a winner, now you know why), and the feelings got so bad that at one point in August I almost broke down to Negrek and requested to drop out. I was not okay.
I think the big factor at play that put so much pressure on me was the prompt. Whereas 2023’s prompt played to my weaknesses and I wasn't stressing too hard about a podium placement, this prompt played directly to what I consider to be my greatest strength. In my head, I decided I had to do well: somewhere along the way, my performance in the contest got wrapped up with my sense of worth as a writer. And so the second I realized that my decided approach was too big for its britches, I immediately started catastrophizing about it. Because I love writing this stuff! I will write “Two Characters Having A Conversation About Random Bullshit” at every single chance I get and now that you know this it should recontextualize everything I’ve ever written and will continue to write. There are so many ways I could have tackled this same theme with less words, something I thought a lot about during the judging period as I read other people’s stories, and it was killing me inside.
In the end, I chose this idea because I thought it had potential. These themes are the bread and butter of Sword. No matter what way I tackled “Daily Life” in Liber, it still would’ve been about this, because this is the focus of the setting and what it’s fundamentally about. And I have a lot of faith in those themes and my interpretation of them, to the point where I came into this feeling very confident. And yeah, I know, this is all rich coming from me considering I was validated in the end! But that's exactly what makes all of this so awkward and messy. Because I was so sure I messed it up, and I still can’t help but feel I could’ve done better than this. For some reason, I struggle to feel happy about this story.
The fact that it won is also part of why it took so incredibly long to publish (though 2025 also being a terrible year for me definitely didn't help). The contest/zine version is literally unfinished, and originally I thought I knew exactly what the story needed in order to become finished. But the judges disagreed! Aside from Dragonfree unknowingly picking up on one of the holes I left behind, they all pretty much understood exactly what I was trying to communicate, and felt that it had been explored sufficiently. The story did almost everything it set out to do; all that was left were the elements that were cut, but those elements clearly weren’t as essential as I thought they were, because it still worked out in the end. And so suddenly, I didn’t know what the story needed anymore. All I knew was the objective fact that it had a hole in the middle and the subjective reality that it didn’t matter. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to finish it; somewhere along the way, I think I had lost sight of what I was really hoping to communicate with Harmonia as a setting in the first place -- the reason it’s set here and not just anywhere. And rediscovering that (and figuring out how to implement it) proved to be far more difficult than I think anyone could have expected. It was a lot of pressure for me. I really wanted to give this story the justice it deserved. To prove that it deserved its win, if to no one else but myself, so that the imposter syndrome in my head might finally shut the fuck up and allow me to actually be happy about this.
It feels pathetic and weird to admit to all of this, because I know the mindset I got myself into was wrong and that I need to practice having a more healthy relationship with my work. But I'm not here to tell you that the truth was pretty. frankly if you're offended that's not my problem why would you even be reading this in that case it’s under a spoiler for a reason.
I think the big factor at play that put so much pressure on me was the prompt. Whereas 2023’s prompt played to my weaknesses and I wasn't stressing too hard about a podium placement, this prompt played directly to what I consider to be my greatest strength. In my head, I decided I had to do well: somewhere along the way, my performance in the contest got wrapped up with my sense of worth as a writer. And so the second I realized that my decided approach was too big for its britches, I immediately started catastrophizing about it. Because I love writing this stuff! I will write “Two Characters Having A Conversation About Random Bullshit” at every single chance I get and now that you know this it should recontextualize everything I’ve ever written and will continue to write. There are so many ways I could have tackled this same theme with less words, something I thought a lot about during the judging period as I read other people’s stories, and it was killing me inside.
In the end, I chose this idea because I thought it had potential. These themes are the bread and butter of Sword. No matter what way I tackled “Daily Life” in Liber, it still would’ve been about this, because this is the focus of the setting and what it’s fundamentally about. And I have a lot of faith in those themes and my interpretation of them, to the point where I came into this feeling very confident. And yeah, I know, this is all rich coming from me considering I was validated in the end! But that's exactly what makes all of this so awkward and messy. Because I was so sure I messed it up, and I still can’t help but feel I could’ve done better than this. For some reason, I struggle to feel happy about this story.
The fact that it won is also part of why it took so incredibly long to publish (though 2025 also being a terrible year for me definitely didn't help). The contest/zine version is literally unfinished, and originally I thought I knew exactly what the story needed in order to become finished. But the judges disagreed! Aside from Dragonfree unknowingly picking up on one of the holes I left behind, they all pretty much understood exactly what I was trying to communicate, and felt that it had been explored sufficiently. The story did almost everything it set out to do; all that was left were the elements that were cut, but those elements clearly weren’t as essential as I thought they were, because it still worked out in the end. And so suddenly, I didn’t know what the story needed anymore. All I knew was the objective fact that it had a hole in the middle and the subjective reality that it didn’t matter. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to finish it; somewhere along the way, I think I had lost sight of what I was really hoping to communicate with Harmonia as a setting in the first place -- the reason it’s set here and not just anywhere. And rediscovering that (and figuring out how to implement it) proved to be far more difficult than I think anyone could have expected. It was a lot of pressure for me. I really wanted to give this story the justice it deserved. To prove that it deserved its win, if to no one else but myself, so that the imposter syndrome in my head might finally shut the fuck up and allow me to actually be happy about this.
It feels pathetic and weird to admit to all of this, because I know the mindset I got myself into was wrong and that I need to practice having a more healthy relationship with my work. But I'm not here to tell you that the truth was pretty. frankly if you're offended that's not my problem why would you even be reading this in that case it’s under a spoiler for a reason.
ANYWAY. *slaps my fic like it were the hood of a car* this baby can fit so much foreshadowing in it-
The caravan scene was the big addition, and very difficult to figure out. I really wanted to expand more on the nomad wb in the original version, but I ended up having to cut almost all of it out. This version, and this scene, are my way of trying to rectify that, because I feel it's important to my vision of the story. I definitely tried to keep it lighter in prose than some of the other scenes (because uhh *glances at word count*). My big worry is that it messes too much with the message of the story; I had to walk a very thin line just to get it into its current state, so I would like to know how people feel about how it fits in.
In order to solve the scene, I actually had to do a bunch of additional internal worldbuilding to flesh out the perspective on the nomads and how they fit into the organization of the kingdom. And I kept being tempted to slip it into this fic because, believe it or not, I don't actually like worldbuilding stuff that isn't going to come up in a story at some point. Unfortunately, most of it couldn't fit into the story, and it's likely never going to be used, because when I write about Harmonia again someday it's going to look completely different.
"is eevee in this fic a cat, a dog, or a fox?" yes, the answer is yes. For Eevee behavior, I just took from all three and it made it a blend, with Espeon being slightly more cat-flavored. I felt it made sense with Eevee's design intention of "weird furry thing i saw in my backyard once."
In a lot of other places, I mostly focused on changes to incorporate new stuff (such as the door opener bits). I didn't make too many prose changes otherwise: my logic generally was "well, the judges liked it just fine, so." Plus I really just wanted to get this out there so it'd stop weighing on me.
All things said, I do really appreciate the love this story got from the judges, and I'd like to thank them, my own fellow judges from that year, and Negrek for running the contest. Judging a contest was an interesting experience (and writing this was even more interesting lmao), and I'm really flattered that Negrek gave me a chance to try it. And of course, I really hope you enjoyed it. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
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