she stepped out of the way so he could take the wheel, lingering off to the side and getting one last good look out over the water before they reached the dock. once secured, she took care in moving the eggs back into their carrier. her lavender eyes strained to look past it as she made it off the boat, holding her breath all the while until she’d found her footing.

”i had faith in us,” she assured—although james had done most of the real work.

with her ninetales trailing before, they’d make their way to their destination in mossdeep and deliver the eggs, all miraculously still unbroken.

JAMES BAKER

and so, they’d come full circle.

”right.” he hadn’t answered her question, but she abandoned it as they quickly approached their destination. assuming that they were sure ultra space was unreachable, she supposed it could be assumed that attempts to reach ultra space had occurred, perhaps even on a regular basis. whether they had been in pursuit of solgaleo specifically would remain a mystery.

the building was just ahead, their brisk walk nearing its end. it had still revealed a little more. not only was ultra space not safe—obviously—but getting there would use up extensive resources. furthermore, fernando seemed decisively against it for multiple reasons.

quite a significant thing for hoenn’s council to not meet eye to eye on. troubling that meetings were being held without full transparency.

the plot thickened.

FERNANDO SILPH

”good! i’ll take it easy on you,” she assured. from the sounds of it, his a-game would still be lackluster—but everyone had to start somewhere.

mossdeep was in sight, and iseult gradually became less confident at the helm, the closer they drew to the dock. cezanne paced past to situate himself at the nose of the boat, anticipating being back on land.

”maybe you should take the wheel,” she suggested. that way, she wouldn’t be responsible for any damage.

JAMES BAKER

from that, it was easy enough to gather the potentialities of their situation.

”so a key to reaching hoenn is still out there.” which was, actually, perhaps the reason if any that she could see to return to ultra space. hopefully, such a tool would remain in possession of a dominable force.

”have there been any attempts for its retrieval?”

FERNANDO SILPH

”yes!” she’d just said she could.

she was busy, but not too busy to help out her friend james. after all, hoenn was a crazy place to not know how to defend oneself. this was only the right thing to do.

”i think you might be even busier than i am. just let me know when you’re free and we’ll make a plan.”

JAMES BAKER

her eyes briefly peeked up at him from the side, as though keenly poised to try and poke a hole in any implication of security. such dissatisfaction went unvoiced, however. she didn’t know enough about solgaleo, or exactly what special powers had enabled it to open the gates for such an invasion.

”then it’s good to know that solgaleo is in better custody now.”

hopefully it would remain that way, and there were not similar liabilities out there to worry about.

FERNANDO SILPH

his frown was joined by her own.

”then isn’t it perhaps safe to assume that traversal through ultra space leaves us vulnerable to another invasion, should someone else take notice?”

if all it took was one pokémon loose on the multiversal highway invaders to trace back, wasn’t sending anyone else through a bad idea?

”what if the resources that make hoenn so attractive call to others, as well?”

and on that note, what about sea!hoenn? had they taken note of hoenn’s profound fortune?

FERNANDO SILPH