Volume 1, Part 4 - Hush in the Throne Room
The preceding week was foggy as the day she had found them, but she remembered spending all the tears she had between her dreams. Now she couldn't force herself to cry as she read the words on the gravestone over and over and over and over and over and over and over until a hand on her shoulder restrained her.
Kris glanced at the crowd behind her. An impossible mass of thousands, perhaps more, waited fifty meters behind at the base of a soft hill. Though many had come to honor the Champions, only a select few private individuals could approach the burial site itself. The one holding her was Steven Stone, Champion of Hoenn, stiff like an automaton. His black suit was spotless, and his otherwise pale blue hair was bleached gray by the overcast sky. He said, "You've been here a long time."
"...Yeah." Kris returned her eyes to the headstone.
"The longer you stay, the harder it will be to leave," he said.
She knew that. But she couldn't take her eyes, or her body, away. It wasn't listening to her true self. Or perhaps it was, and she wasn't.
He lowered his head to the grave, and she was thankful for the lapse of silence that allowed her to stay. The grip on her shoulder shifted to beneath her arm. She didn't protest when he walked her away from the end of the world, but she kept looking back. A man in dusty boots took their place at the headstone and their eyes met for a moment as he passed.
The crowd of black-garbed visitors parted when they reached the base of the hill. It was dotted with familiar faces. Gym Leaders, Elite Four, Champions, and other League figures from across the world passed her by. Normally, standing in front of so many would have weighed on her, but aside from her essential senses, she didn't feel much of anything at all.
They were stopped by two men. One had purple hair and a messy blazer—she knew him distantly as Leon Tarak, Champion of Galar—while the other looked much more put together behind his glasses.
"Jolly hello, Mr. Stone," said Leon. A smile formed on his face for a few seconds but vanished quickly. "Good to see you're doing well."
"Please, Dr. Stone. Or just Stone is fine," Stone said.
"Right, Mr. Stone was—" Leon zipped himself shut as Kris fell into his sight. Awkwardly, and without her consent, he wrapped his arms around her. It wasn’t warm. "I know we aren't good mates but know that I'm here for you and your brother. Your parents... inspired me, and many others, and I'd return the favor if I can."
She mumbled a thank you into his chest and he finally pulled away when he realized she wasn't comfortable in his arms.
His companion pulled him back. He said, tapping a binder he was carrying under his arm, "We're still on schedule. Let's not delay much longer."
"Yeah, yeah. The Chairman can right shove it if he wants to rush me here," said Leon, who bid them goodbye and journeyed to the resting hill.
There were a few more distractions on her way back. More people telling her sorry and expecting that something would change. Some offered her gifts, which she turned down with her reluctance to answer. Kris kept her head down and let Steven Stone take her forward, because she had no power left to do it herself.
Eventually, they cleared the blackened crowd and found stragglers near the edge of the grounds, including security and other managerial staff. What was most important was her brother, who beckoned them over. Stone pulled her along the bleached greenery.
Saber was speaking with the Sinnoh Elite Four. Three men, Dr. Lucian Furutre, Mr. Flint Oba, and Mr. Aaron Feil, and one elderly woman, Mrs. Bertha Kikuko, all assembled around him and spoke in hushed terms. Whatever they were discussing, he dropped it as soon as they approached. Kris felt small beneath them, like she was standing before a grand jury and awaiting her charges.
"I retrieved her for you." Stone tapped his hand against her back, and she stepped up.
Saber bowed deeply to the man, his torso parallel to the ground. "Thank you, Dr. Stone. I was busy speaking with the Elite Four and I couldn't possibly pull myself away."
Kris chose not to speak even though she knew it was a lie. They had been on the grounds for over an hour and he had never once strayed up the hill, instead circling the edges of the visiting crowd and speaking to every acquaintance he could find. But there was nothing compelling him to do so. There was no urgent business to anyone but him.
"What’s all this?" Kris whispered. "I just want to go home."
"But you are! You're—we're—going to be home very soon, and I thought we should update you on the League's plans," said Saber.
Lucian stepped forward and adjusted his lavender-tinted glasses. He inverted his usual attire, a crimson undershirt beneath a black suit for the occasion. "Ah, you are officially under care of the Sinnoh League. Once we return to the grounds, you may not leave without permission from the Viceroy. I apologize that it has to be this way."
"What about the Indigo Plateau?" she asked.
"The League believes you two may still be… in danger, considering the circumstances," said Stone. "Because of the Rocket Heist, the Indigo League is considered compromised until its security protocols are completely overhauled. My suggestion was to keep you at the IPL headquarters on the Grand Axis, but they insisted you be somewhere familiar."
"I also already cleared with your professors at Saffron to give you breathing room for your classes, and to permanently work away from campus," Saber said.
"And know that we are dedicated to supporting you," said Lucian. He approached her and spoke under his breath. "If you ever need my counseling, I shall make myself available."
Kris let the explanation pass through her without response, feeling overwhelmed by so many people speaking. It didn't matter anyway. She could be just about anywhere, just as she was when she was traveling between the two Leagues on the regular. Back when she was in high school. Back when she was still living with Mom and Dad.
She toppled into Saber's arms. When had he moved so close to her? He was saying something to the people around them, but she couldn't hear him. Kris brought a hand to her cheek to find that it was wet. Oh. So she did still had some tears left.
"Maybe we should leave soon," he said, holding her tight and speaking directly into her ear. "Would you like to go?"
She hesitated. Her mind cast to the hill beyond the crowd, hundreds of meters behind her, and to the granite at its peak. One more moment would be enough. Just one more.
"Yeah," she said, despite herself.
Her brother supported her weight as they moved on, leaving the Elite Four and the Hoenn Champion behind. They reached the black iron gate that marked the fenced-off grounds, swung wide open for visitors to move as they pleased. Just as they passed under it, Kris's head swung on its own, and she sent one last gaze to the hill.
The mourners were still parted, giving her a clear view. She was tethered to the monument, like and could read the epitaph while so far away. The text etched itself into her mind.
May your peace live forever.
Even if it lived forever, it would take her an eternity to find it.
Their castle. Their fortress. Their magnificent new home.
The Sinnoh League was the guardian of Lily of the Valley Island. Though its arches and curves recalled a religious sanctuary, five domed, fortified towers rose from within. A stronghold that once held against a hundred-thousand strong army was renovated into the League's watchful citadel over the Region.
Saber, for one, thought it genius! A true symbol of hope for the Sinnohan people, that the Pokémon League could defend them from whatever ills threatened their way of life. It was a perfect throne from which a Champion could lead and inspire!
Saber stood inside the Champion's chamber. The abstract cubed interior pulsed with a neon heartbeat leaking from beneath the crystal Poke Ball emblem laid into the floor. Only the brightest public symbols, those that proved they captured the hearts and minds of the Region, were even allowed entry to this sacred place. And on the rare chance that that challenger emerged victorious—certainly not something he remembered happening in his lifetime—they would ascend to the apex of the tower on the rising platform and formally receive the defeated Champion's torch.
Only now, the throne was empty.
There would be no passage through battle. Someone would have to stand in his mother's place, and even if they were as officially qualified, they would have no way to prove that Sinnoh had grown stronger than it was before.
"Mr. Masuta, the conference," said a man behind him. It was an assigned International Police guard, a stocky man with long blond hair.
Saber pulled up his black sleeve and checked his watch. Just shy of eight. He'd been waiting all afternoon and had done little but pace around the building in anticipation since they arrived. He hadn't even discarded his funeral wear.
Saber turned away from the blackened chamber and passed into the sterile connecting halls lined with bar lights. He stood on an access elevator, and once the guard stepped on behind him, he let himself fall from the heavens. As he returned to the grand hall of the Sinnoh League, a whirling of emotions stirred within, unable to calm.
The throne wasn't empty. It was
emptied.
He had seen their bodies with his own eyes. Puncture wounds to each of their heart, inflicted in their sleep. Oceans of ink had been spilled on newspapers already—every journalist and investigator on the planet was no doubt scrambling to learn why this had happened. It couldn't possibly have been a crime of passion. This had happened for a reason.
His eyes shifted left and right, racing between people standing in the grand hall. Clerks, visitors, Trainers. The room was positively packed, but aside from tacit gestures and close whispers, it was quiet. No one had anything to say, not that they could speak if they did.
Any one of them could be guilty. As he walked to the main staircase, he focused on the people passing by. He tried to read their culpability and find something sinister hidden beneath their saddened faces. Whatever they saw on him in return, it made them cower.
Just days before their deaths they had assisted the League’s efforts to de-escalate an armed conflict in Orre, and they were scheduled to attend the World Trial next year. They were symbols for people the world over.
Somehow, he would find who did this. Sinnoh, and the entire planet beyond it, couldn't rest until a suspect was brought forward.
Saber ascended the spiraling stairs and ran his hand along the glass railing. He looked one last time at the hall, and the suspects within, before his view was obscured by the upper floors. When he reached the uppermost level—a suite for the Champions and their families, much like at the Indigo Plateau—he swiped his ID badge to gain entryway.
It was dark inside. Saber waved his hand over the wall's motion sensor and watched it come alive after a short delay. He didn't bother turning on anything beyond the main commons, knowing that his sister was locked away. She hadn't left her bedroom since they settled in.
He set himself down on the sofa, powered on the TV, and set the volume just above a whisper. The channel was already on the live feed from IPLTV-1, the Grand Axis's public broadcasting service. A motionless camera broadcast an empty podium somewhere within the International Pokémon League's headquarters. A timer in the corner blinked from 19:59 to 20:00.
A figure glided from offscreen. It was the honorable CEO of the International Pokémon League, Oberon Terminus. His emerald suit was topped with a mantle around his shoulders, signaling a ceremonial procession, and a scabbard hung at his waist. In his shadow was only a single person, one Saber recognized immediately. Ms. Karen Morgana of the Indigo Elite Four, in a flowing, yellow dress and wearing her ashen hair in a bun. They were barely acquaintances, but he had spoken with her frequently while living with his father at the Indigo Plateau.
Immediately, something gnawed at him. Why was he leading only one person to the podium? Beneath his stalwart face, there was an uncharacteristic fidgeting in Mr. Terminus's hands. This hesitation wasn't becoming of a CEO, and judging by the whispers of the audience, it didn't escape their notice.
"
Thank you for your patience." Mr. Terminus's mature baritone silenced the crowd immediately.
"I do not wish to linger on this point, so I shall be brief. Nor do I wish to ignore the gravity of what has transpired this past week, so I shall be reverent. We mourn the passing of Cynthia Masuta and Lance Masuta, Champions of Sinnoh and the Indigo Plateau."
The sound of their names drove a pain through his chest. He clutched his heart, almost believing for a moment that he received their same wound.
The man on the pedestal grew more unsettled by the moment. His hands dropped out of sight below the podium to hide his uncertainty.
"It is painful for us to announce new title bearers and leave behind the world they championed. We have, and will continue, to deliberate on our decisions today, as we understand they will have lasting consequences."
He drew out a pause. Someone offscreen announced,
"The Honorable Karen Morgana of the Indigo Elite Four will step forward to receive the title of Champion."
Ms. Morgana strode beside the podium and then dropped to a knee. The camera turned to focus on her as the CEO stepped from behind, reached for his waist, and pulled a blade from the scabbard.
"
By decision of the Indigo Plateau, and by the authority of the International Pokémon League, I may offer you this right," said Mr. Terminus. He brought the blade up and tapped it once on her left shoulder. Rather than a second tap on her right, however, the man brought the edge to her neck.
"Do you accept the responsibility of your Region and your world?"
"
I accept," said the woman without hesitation.
The ceremonial sword returned to its home. That warranted a greater reaction than the adoubement itself. Ms. Morgana rose, stepped back, and allowed the CEO to resume speaking.
"
We hope that this will enable us, as a united people, to forge onward. Mr. Masuta would be proud to have a successor with such strength of character as Ms. Morgana," said Mr. Terminus.
Who was it? Who would take the Championship in his mother's place? Barely apparent to him, he had risen from the couch and inched close to the television. His own hands were shaking. With anxiety. With fear.
"
However, I now must bring attention to unfortunate news. Due to a lack of suitable candidates," the man said, making Saber's heart sink,
"the position of Sinnoh Champion will remain vacant. We are addressing this matter with utmost priority, and we will seek a Champion that the people truly deserve."
Saber felt himself seize. Though the crowd was hushed leading to this moment, the assembly exploded with questions and microphones. Oberon Terminus had no answers to their demands.
As he stepped back from his pedestal, amidst the roar of a begging citizenry, he issued one final—hollow—statement.
"
Thank you for your cooperation."
