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Julien stood next to Delilah, one hand on the deck's railing. The Silent Icelands were aptly named, snow-covered hills and fields stretching to the horizon. From their vantage point, he counted several ice sculptures, each one unique, shaped like Pokémon.[break][break]

Supposedly, they were Pokémon, frozen alive for months and without an apparent end.[break][break]

"It is. It reminds me of home, so I'm quite comfortable," Julien said.[break][break]

And it was true. Though living in Lumiose City had acclimated him to a landscape that saw much less snow than his beloved Snowbelle, he had not been prepared for Hoenn's tropical climate. The heat was irritating, giving him headaches and compounding his stress.[break][break]

At the Silent Icelands, wearing a wool coat, scarf, and fur-lined leather gloves, he felt calmer and more clear-headed. Inhaling deeply, he found he could breathe more easily.[break][break]

"What exactly happened here?" he asked his companion, turning to look at her. He knew Delilah to be FERNANDO SILPH's younger sister.[break][break]

Though the councilman had made it clear Julien was not to go snooping around League matters, Delilah did not seem to harbor the same sentiments. She had invited Julien to this outing, though her reasons remained a mystery to him.[break][break]

For now.

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FERNANDO SILPH had commanded Delilah to leave, to return to Unova, to leave him and his beloved region alone. His words had conveyed the condescending assumption that she was nothing more than a frivolous celebrity without the capacity to understand the immense responsibility a man like him might face, as a leader of a region plagued by faction conflict and supernatural threats alike.[break][break]
She knew that ambassador Julien Demassieux had met with her brother already, and she strongly suspected that he had faced a similar onslaught of self-righteous disapproval of any efforts he might make to get to know Hoenn or - Arceus forbid - help the people here. She and Julien were alike in this way: distrusted outsiders to a region beloved by the councilman.[break][break]
But Delilah was also a Silph. Fernando would not dismiss her so easily. And what better way to undermine his asinine insistence on martyrdom than to work with the others he saw fit to reject?[break][break]
"Surely Kalos was made aware of our situation with the meteor?" She asked, ripping her gaze away from the solemn landscape to meet his eyes with her own, a pair of keen amethysts. "On that fateful day, when our government attempted to divert Meteno, a massive Kyurem appeared here and froze everything in sight. The Pokémon and plant life you see below are now locked in an eternal winter. The Kyurem has since fled, but the League continues to work towards restoring this area to its former state, though the lives claimed by the ice dragon are lost to us forever."[break][break]
She paused, a respectful moment of silence for the dead.[break][break]
"Tell me, Ambassador. What would Kalos do if faced with a similar threat?"

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Julien nodded when Delilah mentioned the meteoroid—it had been all over the news, in Kalos and other regions. But the information about Kyurem was new. Even the articles published in local Hoennian newspapers had not mentioned a massive Pokémon as the cause of the Silent Icelands.[break][break]

As much as he wanted to embrace Delilah's forthcoming nature, he could not deny the suspicion this revelation sparked in him. What was her motivation? What did she stand to gain, sharing this with him when the general public did not know?[break][break]

"I see."[break][break]

Julien turned his gaze back to the desolate landscape that spread out in front of them. He matched its silence as he considered how to answer her.[break][break]

"If a Legendary Pokémon caused this, then only a Legendary Pokémon can reverse it, I would think. Human technology is advanced in a lot of ways, but this is a supernatural phenomenon."[break][break]

The obvious question was left unspoken: whether the League possessed a Legendary Pokémon who could undo this catastrophe. After all, if they did, surely they would have reversed it already.

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Julien didn't trust her, not entirely. A forthright nature was not befitting a Silph, after all, unless they had some ulterior motive. Fernando had certainly left his mark on the world, that much was undeniable. His reputation preceded him, latched onto his siblings like a leech.[break][break]
Perhaps she was more like him than she cared to admit, even to herself. An unbroken cycle of manipulation, all in the name of Hoenn's enduring survival. She hadn't cared about it, until he'd accused her of not caring about it - and how Delilah hated to be told who she happened to be.[break][break]
"You are making the logical assumption that we must not have access to such a Pokémon, because we have not yet deployed it for such a purpose." Her eyes swept over the barren, wintery landscape - obviously still present, a sign that nothing the League had tried thus far had been capable of reversing it.[break][break]
"Kalos must not have such a Pokémon, either," she concluded. "Otherwise surely a diplomat such as yourself, here on good faith, would have suggested us borrowing it."[break][break]

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Julien arched an eyebrow at Delilah. "And you assume that Kalos is like Hoenn, where Legendary Pokémon are part and parcel of your everyday lives. I'm sure they would be for us, too, if anything as mystifying as this happened to our region."[break][break]

He gestured to the Silent Icelands spread out before them.[break][break]

"But no. Our Legendary Pokémon are aloof from Kalosian affairs. Xerneas and Yveltal are creatures of secrecy and mystery. They do not come when we call, but act with their own motivations."[break][break]

Julien was not a religious man, but even he knew better than to believe humankind could know the whims of such god-like creatures.[break][break]

Little did he know Xerneas and Yveltal were there in Hoenn, one of them bonded with a human in the unique phenomenon known as Avatarship.

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Her time in Kalos had taught Delilah a little of Xerneas and Yveltal, the basics of their mythology. Intended or not, his mentioning of them felt like a diversion tactic - one she did not intend to become distracted by.[break][break]
"Does it bother you?" She asked, cocking her head, a midnight shower of silken hair falling over one shoulder. "The mystifying quality of this land?" She waved her hand idly at their surroundings, though her tone implied an intended reference to all of Hoenn.[break][break]
It was the sort of thing nobody said, but everyone believed: Hoenn's seemingly unending phenomena - Tera energy, paradox Pokémon, incidents such as what happened to the Silent Icelands - were a problem. Unnatural. Unnerving. To her, it was merely a nuisance: a thing occupying her family's time, eating away at their reputation, consuming their lives. His life most of all. Idiot martyr.[break][break]
"If it does, I can relate," she continued, softening her tone, inching closer to him with an air of conspiratorial intimacy. "It isn't coincidence. This region is plagued with supernatural incident after supernatural incident. Unlike the media and the League government - " and my own brother " - I'm not afraid to say it: we are in trouble, Julien Demassieux."[break][break]
She turned away, once more gazing out at the desolate tundra before them.[break][break]
"Which is why I am looking for other likeminded people to help me figure out what can be done about it."

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If Delilah thought she was being honest with Julien, she wasn't—not fully. Her intentions may be good, but what lay in her heart?[break][break]

He stared at her for a long moment, trying to assess the sincerity of her statement by the expression on her face. Then he turned once more to the snow and ice.[break][break]

"And what can I expect, if you were to recruit me successfully to this plan of yours?" he asked. "What is your plan?"

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Did she have a plan?[break][break]
"I want access to the rifts," she admitted. "And I want to better understand the phenomenon of Avatarship." Pursed lips gave way to a genuinely concerned expression. "I have some sway over public opinion: all major celebrities do. Our government isn't always transparent with its citizenry, and a divided region won't help us overcome the challenges we face. There are those amongst our leadership who would shoulder these burdens alone, but that's foolish, in my opinion."[break][break]
She shifted, facing him fully.[break][break]
"My name carries weight, but it's not enough to grant me access to every restricted area or classified report. The HBIC can be especially difficult to bypass without the proper credentials." Delilah reached out to gently touch his arm, smiling along with the encouraging gesture. "Let us work together, Ambassador, using my general influence and your legal authority. Politics can be manipulated in our favor, should we present the right united front. For Kalos. For Hoenn."

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Access to the rifts and the Avatar phenomenon. Both were of interest to Julien, especially the latter, as he hadn't yet had the opportunity to witness it himself.[break][break]

And he wasn't a stranger to the power of celebrity status. He knew enough famous actors, musicians, and athletes to know their sway over the public. Even he knew it, to some extent, thanks to his years as a professional competitive fencer.[break][break]

But would it be enough to get their way, when FERNANDO SILPH tried to block Julien and his embassy at every turn?[break][break]

He glanced down at Delilah's hand on his arm. Their thick clothing prevented him from feeling the warmth of her touch, but the weight of her hand expressed her earnest intent.[break][break]

So he smiled and met her gaze once more. "Very well, Miss Silph. Let us form an alliance. Give me a few days and I will reach out to you regarding a trip into the Wilds. We can start our partnership there."

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