[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]"Yeah, I've never heard of any Pokemon ever commissioning a human to make them anything before," the red-haired smith agreed with candid wonderment in her eye—and perhaps a glint of pride in being the first. "Though I guess Pokemon generally don't talk either, at least not in any language we'd understand."

Her expression turned pensive with recollection as she thought back to the last words it'd spoken to her. "As for who the commission is for... I'm sure that it has to be Calyrex itself. I didn't mean to imply that it might be otherwise.

"After all, its words were, 'Fashion me a saddle of staunch resilience.'" The red-haired smith recited the words with the ease of someone who'd replayed that speech countless times in her head or aloud in her workshop. "'And forge a shield of formidable might.' So, it seems as though it intends to use the saddle and shield itself in battle."

She shrugged and let out a wry chuckle. "It hasn't said anything more, but it does appear sometimes when I'm forging. Thankfully, it usually stays quite still, so I've been able to measure it for the saddle and shield's proportions. Easier than with some human customers, honestly."

Aurelie paused and tilted her head skyward again to stare up at the Galarian Moltres, still preoccupied with its snack. The sight stilled her usually ready flow of words, and a look of unabashed awe came over her face.

"It's breathtaking," she murmured honestly. "It's hard to believe something so huge, so powerful, so...real just materialized out of the pages of a book."

She drew a sharp breath as the Moltres finished devouring one fruit and immediately turned to pierce the skin of another, juices still dripping off its beak. "And it's so hungry too! Your patron must cost you a fortune in groceries," she chuckled, looking back at Admin Bee.

"Either that, or it just really likes Dyna fruits, I suppose," she added, with a grin that suggested she could hardly blame the Galarian Moltres for having a taste for the succulent-looking ruby-red fruit.

It did pause for a moment, though, when Admin Bee mentioned Calyrex, almost as if the Pokemon's name had somehow piqued its interest.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]At first, Aurelie frowned quizzically when the blue-haired young man in the middle of her shop initially started stammering and second-guessing himself. She'd guessed at first that he was about her age, but the uncertain, almost painfully earnest quality to his words made him seem younger.

Then, she couldn't help smiling when he burst into a spontaneous, heartfelt torrent of words about why he'd come to her shop and what he was looking for. Honestly, it was endearing! She had heard similar requests before from League trainers, but the hopeful note in his voice tugged at her heart a little.

Thus, Aurelie found it somewhat harder than usual to give him her normal canned response. "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't make weapons here in this shop. Everything that you see here is meant to be used strictly as a tool, not as a means for endangering or harming anyone.

"So, that means no knives, no swords, no polearms, none of that." The words came easily to her now, after many repetitions to numerous nameless recipients. The red-haired smith shrugged and crossed her arms. "Too many legal drawbacks, too many potentially bad situations that could cause me to lose my shop. You know how it is."

Unless, of course, the user isn't concerned about following the law in the first place, she mentally amended, thinking of her Rocket customers. But somehow, I doubt that's the case with this guy.

Yet, despite her best efforts to stay professional, Aurelie couldn't help wincing a little at how blunt her own reply sounded. She didn't want to just leave him with that. Besides, it seemed like bad customer service to simply tell someone who wanted to pay you money, "No, I'm sorry, I can't help you."

With a start of inspiration, she perked up abruptly and spoke again. "Oh! But you did mention armor, didn't you? Not many people have ever asked me for that, so I didn't even catch it at first. But..."

Aurelie rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I don't think I have the facilities here—or, frankly, the knowledge anymore—to forge you a full suit of plate mail armor or anything like that. Nor can I make you modern ballistics armor, since that's mostly Kevlar and ceramics.

"However..." Aurelie leaned forward, a glint of excitement and speculation in her eye. "I do think I could try making smaller-scale armor. Maybe...not for you? But for your Pokemon instead? Would you—and they, for that matter—be okay with something like that?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]There had been more to the sequence of events that led to Aurelie's losing an eye than she shared aloud with Howard, though not too much more. The rest of the world believed it to be an accident, caused by her own carelessness with safety equipment and forging work.

But she remembered the strap on her safety goggles that she later discovered hadn't been frayed but cut with scissors. The glitter of a skulking Sableye—her brother's, she was sure of it—out of the corner of her eye as it prowled through the workshop. The sharp push from behind by clawed hands, as she was in the middle of hammering a bar of red-hot metal sending up showers of glowing sparks.

And of course, a series of screams. Pain. Betrayal.

Aurelie wondered what it was like for Howard and why it happened. Yet, she couldn't force the question past the lump in her throat. It'd been two and half years, and it was still too soon.

She did chuckle, though, when Howard joked about the eyepatch making costume parties easier. His view about humanity's capability to learn and grow made Aurelie wonder if he lost his eye in a natural disaster or some other way that didn't involve other people. Otherwise, surely no one could have such a rosy view of the thing that caused you to lose a major sensory organ, right?

Isn't there some myth of a god who willingly sacrificed his own eye for wisdom? Aurelie thought. I could kind of see Admin Slayte doing that…

When Howard mentioned the gears, the red-haired smith seized gratefully on the change of subject. "Right, yes, the gears. Of course. Let me see..."

Looking visibly relieved, Aurelie bent to examine the schematic again, turning it this way and that and squinting her eye at the tiny details and labels for the interior. "This schematic really is excellent. It doesn't just show how everything fits together; it also has measurements, diagrams, and separate wireframe close-ups of the important parts. Like these gears!

"I thought we'd have to take them out first, before I could measure them and make sure they were an exact match," she went on to explain, her voice gaining strength and confidence again as she immersed herself in the joys of work, rather than the tragedies of the past. "But with these diagrams, you and I can work in parallel."

Hefting the Gigaton Ball, she handed it carefully to Howard, before nodding toward a selection of picks, hooks, wrenches, screwdrivers, and Dremel tools on a nearby worktable. "Can you handle removing the tarnished gears? I feel like I can trust you'd be very careful." She grinned briefly.

"Meanwhile, I'll work on making new gears." Humming happily, she sorted through her metals until she found a sheet of titanium alloy she liked and measured out small discs exactly the circumference listed for the gears. Then she headed to the circular saw.

A furious buzzing noise reverberated from the machine as Aurelie cut out the discs, sparks flying from the sheet metal as she maneuvered it carefully through the saw blade. Once the discs were cleanly cut, she brought them back toward Howard's table to select a Dremel tool.

"Ah, the perfect size to create the gear teeth," she said with satisfaction. Then she glanced over toward the admin. "How's your progress so far?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]It took Aurelie a moment to realize she was somehow on her feet now in front of Howard's desk, staring down at the Dynite ore. She didn't even remember standing up or pushing her chair back. The revelation that the Dynite ore accessible in their world was the same as the Dynite ore from dream-Galar—and that Howard possessed some of it—had clearly flabbergasted her utterly.

I guess I'm lucky that Admin Slayte didn't interpret me jumping to my feet like that as an aggressive move, Aurelie reflected. Some underbosses in Rocket probably would've lashed out if they thought she was threatening them. Either she simply didn't come across as aggressive, or Howard understood her better than she thought.

"I'd heard a little bit about the Dynamaxing phenomenon and the Power Spots in Hoenn," she replied slowly, forcing herself to pull her chair back and sit down again. "Mostly the effects. Colossal Pokemon twenty feet high stomping through cities and so on.

"But I didn't know we had some, in Rocket. It's like..." She trailed off for a moment and let out a self-deprecating snort, before continuing, "It's like a dream come true. Except I don't also have a billion Pokedollars in the bank and a harem of gorgeous men and women at my beck and call."

The red-haired smith unthinkingly reached out to pick up the chunk of ore, before catching herself just in time to pause and look up questioningly at the admin. "Can I...examine it more closely? I've worked with it before, but only in dream-Galar, a long time ago."

A pleased little smile stole across her face when the admin complimented the stew. Absently, she tore herself a chunk of bread and dipped it in her own bowl, before taking a meditative bite.

"What do you mean Calyrex's barrier won't be enough, though?" she asked, her eye wide as she listened to him. "Enough for what?

"You mean it won't be enough to prevent Dynamaxing entirely? Or prevent the flow of Dynergy into Sootopolis? Or it won't be enough to protect Rocket?" She bit off another piece of bread, saturated with rich seafood and tomato flavors, and swallowed thoughtfully. "Or do you mean the barrier will fail entirely at some point?"

Aurelie exhaled sharply at this thought, uncertain how to feel about it. Unlike Howard and his Regice, or the trainers in Rocket and League alike who could utilize Dynamaxing, Calyrex's barrier was neither a help nor a hindrance to her. Its absence probably would feel the same, though she supposed she might think differently if dangerous swarms of Dynamaxed Pokemon started rampaging through Sootopolis.

"To be honest, I never even knew Calyrex could even create barriers like this, let alone such a unique barrier," she admitted sheepishly. "I thought it was just a friendly royal Pokemon that caused good harvests and kept Galar safe."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Though Aurelie didn't realize that Zev assumed her question about Calyrex using him as a mouthpiece had been in jest, rather than in at least partial earnest—inspired by Cillian Quinn's thoughts and queries on the matter—his response seemed pretty much right for Zev. He'd never seemed like the type who would allow anyone power over him, either.

When he spoke about motivations, though, particularly those of the powerful Legendary Pokemon, her eye widened. Everything he said made sense, even if she'd never put it that way in her own mind before. But to have it be Zev talking to her like this...

Is he actually explaining his whole thought process to me? Or thinking aloud in front of me? Aurelie wondered. Or, even weirder still, is he trying to educate me? Help me?

Shaking off the unsettling thought, the red-haired smith sighed and spread her hands wide in a gesture of perplexity. "I wish I knew! I have no idea why it wants a saddle or shield. I would assume it wants to use them, but it's never spoken to me again, let alone offered any clarification on the issue."

Thinking back to the last words that she'd actually heard the King Pokemon say to her, Aurelie mused, "Calyrex did speak of a 'familiar, ominous force' drawing near, so we must prepare for...umm, I think for...'the impending clash of war.'" She curved her fingers in air quotes.

"So, it seemed like it wanted to be ready for war. The familiar, ominous force... The first thing I thought of was Eternatus, of course, because we saw it in the..."

Abruptly, Aurelie trailed off, her brow creasing in a frown as she looked at Zev. "I should ask first, I guess. Do you still not remember the dream we all...well, dreamed together in front of the Ancient Tomb, almost a year ago? The dream that this Calyrex came from?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]If I'd known it'd be like this, I would've brought a sweater, Aurelie found herself thinking suddenly, irrelevantly, as Jayden's emphatic declaration reverberated around the office. Except I don't just need a sweater for my body. I need one for my soul too! Arceus, these chills!

She didn't even know what qualified as a sweater for the soul. Therapy, maybe? Well, certainly both she and Jayden could probably use some.

At the moment, though, all Aurelie had was a knife and his instructions. For a moment, she was sorely tempted to simply give Jayden a light scratch, just deep enough to make him bleed. With the way his eyes just flashed a startling, spectacular crystalline-blue, though, she suddenly doubted he'd be satisfied with such a halfhearted gesture.

"If you say so, sir," she answered aloud respectfully, seeking to keep her teeth from chattering in the deepening chill. A laugh escaped her as she added in a lighter tone, "Then, I guess...try your best to take it easy on me, instead."

The red-haired smith lifted the knife, which she held in a simple grip with her fingers wrapped around its hilt, like she would hold a hammer, and narrowed her eye. Automatically, she scanned Jayden briefly for weak points, even though she hardly knew what she was looking for. Even in his fragile-looking state, the admin still exuded menace.

Taking a deep breath, Aurelie went with a basic knife fighting maneuver. Sweeping the knife in a quick, curving slash in a feint to hopefully raise his guard and buy her space to close in, she stepped toward Jayden at the same time. Then, on the backstroke, she lowered the knife and aimed a short, sharp stab at his unprotected left arm.

Aurelie knew it wasn't a real fight, and Jayden hadn't asked for anything but a cut. But if he wanted to see how it'd feel to cut and be cut by these knives in combat, then she would do her best to simulate one.

If it wasn't what he wanted...well. Then, she'd regret not just inflicting a small scratch on his palm.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]When Caleb ordered his coffee and assured her that he was okay, Aurelie found herself relaxing a little at the normality of it all. She even felt relieved that he didn't seem more wounded in body and spirit by his ordeals. Clearly, he's stronger than I am, because I know I wouldn't deal with it so gracefully, she reflected.

Then, he broke down and told her the truth, and Aurelie's calm expression crumpled into a look of grief, pain, and sympathy. Instinctively, she reached out to take his other hand but stopped herself, not sure how he would take the gesture in a moment of such heightened emotions.

"Oh, Caleb," she breathed, her heart aching at his words. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that and...I'm sorry it was so hard for you and it left you in such a bad place."

The words felt so inadequate in her mouth. Especially when she was still part of Rocket, the organization that had inflicted this on him. Even the sunlight filtering through the windows seemed dimmer and colder now.

Hesitantly, Aurelie ventured, her words emerging in stuttered fragments, "I...I did hear a little bit about what happened to you. Through Isaac. A few months ago. He said he went looking for you...when you disappeared...after we all woke up at the Ancient Tomb."

A shudder rippled through her as she bared her teeth in a grimace. "He said you'd been kidnapped by...by Rocket, of all things. And Isaac dragged you out and got you home."

The very thought of it made Aurelie angry, but she couldn't tell right now what the source of her anger was. Was it that these things had happened to Caleb? That Rocket had been foolish enough to do all this to him? Or was it that this sequence of events had caused Isaac to leave Rocket? That Caleb had caused Isaac to defect?

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," she added quietly, lowering her gaze. "I'm not a therapist, after all! But if you want to... She shrugged and glanced back up at him.

"I guess at least I wanted to find out if it was all true. It's so hard to believe that all that happened to you. It's insane that there are people out there who do things like that."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]As everyone declared their votes, Aurelie's lips twisted in annoyance. While she could sympathize with the desire to abstain, she sensed those who voted Ugly were the type who were used to being in power and believed they were smarter than everyone else in the room. She didn't recognize those voters, and she imagined she certainly wouldn't after their misplaced nobility eventually led to them smashing their own bodies into a bloody, flayed, shattered mess under Fezandipiti's beguilement.

For now, though, only the feverish Ugly voter and his luckless cellmate were beaten. Wincing with each meaty blow, Aurelie instinctively reached out toward oscar clayton, whose voice she did recognize, but she was too far away in line to offer comfort or a bandage for his bleeding.

Already sickened by the heat, Toxic Chain, and brutality, she felt an overwhelming wave of nausea when Fezandipiti whisked them airborne. To her shame, the redhead retched up water and bits of mochi as they flew through the seemingly never-ending hallway, turning her head so it landed harmlessly below. After their masks fell off, she gratefully gulped huge breaths of cool air to settle her stomach.

Though, with her eyepatch taken away, like all their belongings, Aurelie hurriedly clapped one hand over her right eye to hide the scars that had undoubtedly earned her her place here.

Then she looked rapidly from face to revealed face, many of which were vaguely familiar—including the haggard yet elegant features of her own cellmate freya morningstar, oddly. Though not as familiar as the Megalopolan general who spoke to them. Velmos? Aurelie thought incredulously. Why is he here? Distantly, she remembered a blond woman (Lulu Flint in disguise) mentioning his name to their captors in Route 119 and their snarled response that Velmos was a traitor and hated turncoat.

The redhead was so startled that she didn't resist or even respond at first when offered a glimpse into the crystalline mask. She caught her breath as an unexpected vision unfolded through its eyeholes.

---

---

Drawing away reluctantly from the mask, Aurelie let out a shuddering laugh, her cheeks and eyepatch damp with tears. That's all I want from life, is it? she thought. Not conquest, not power, not even a harem of gorgeous men and women... Just mundane contentment. Just normality.

In the communal shower, she enthusiastically stripped off her sweaty uniform to stand happily naked under the near-scalding water. Accustomed to heat and flames, Aurelie didn't flinch as it poured down her body and cleansed off the grime. She studied her fellow prisoners anew, marveling at their physical beauty and fitness and amused that they had all been sorted into the Ugly ward.

I wonder what makes us all so ugly, in the Megalopolans' eyes, she thought. And...I wonder what everyone else saw in the mask. It couldn't be the same things I saw. And I wonder if it was really a reward...or just another enticement... Her eye lingered on the Toxic Chains that still entwined them all, pulsing a malignant, noxious purple.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Considering the intense interest that Zev used to take in the make and material of his knives, Aurelie was surprised to see his decided lack of concern for the design and construction of Calyrex's saddle and shield. Was it just because the saddle and shield weren't his? Did he only care about weapons? Or was it yet another change wrought by his alliance with Necrozma?

Whatever the reason, he clearly doesn't care, she mentally grumbled. What else is new?

Instead, what he seemed to care about was Calyrex itself. Again, though, what else was new? Since the mysterious High King Pokemon unexpectedly appeared in the real world, everyone was curious to know what it wanted or what it'd do next. Aurelie only wished she had more insight to offer in that regard.

"No, Calyrex hasn't spoken a word to me since," she answered, sighing. "Sometimes, it suddenly appears in the workshop while I'm working, as if it were supervising or monitoring my progress.

"But when it does..." She narrowed her eye and smiled humorlessly. "It never gives any sign of listening to me or responding to me if I try to ask it questions. Then it disappears or leaves just as abruptly."

Aurelie hesitated, before admitting, "It's by far the strangest customer-craftsman relationship I've ever been part of. But that's all it is. Calyrex really just feels like a very snoopy, nosy, yet unresponsive customer."

Crossing her arms, the red-haired smith tilted her head inquisitively toward Zev and raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask? Are you volunteering to be possessed by the Calyrex so it can use you as a mouthpiece, by any chance?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Absorbed in the task of putting finishing touches on a solid steel skillet commissioned by a local chef in Lilycove City, Aurelie almost missed the bright blue light flashing in her workshop. It was part of the alert system that let her know someone was at the front counter of her shop, along with a shrill, ear-splitting airhorn. It was the latter that got her attention, making her jump to her feet.

Dammit, how long have they been waiting? Aurelie thought with alarm. I should've been paying more attention...

Not even putting down the skillet, the red-haired smith whisked off her safety goggles and leather apron with one hand and quickly hurried into the shop. Bustling through the door, she spotted a young man with blue hair leaning back against the front counter, looking around. Almost automatically, she pasted on a friendly customer-service smile as she walked toward him.

"Hi! Sorry if I kept you waiting," Aurelie exclaimed a little breathlessly by way of greeting. "Welcome to the Iron Lady Forge. I'm Aurelie Lefevre, the, uh, the proprietor of this fine establishment."

Her smile turned impish at those last words, acknowledging her own self-congratulatory tone. Clearing her throat, the red-haired smith continued, "Anyway, how can I help you? Are you looking for anything in particular? Maybe a..."

She looked around at her shop and then down at the skillet still clutched in her right hand, as if she'd only just remembered it was there. Brandishing it in front of her, Aurelie chuckled in what she hoped was a charming and disarming fashion. "Can I interest you in some hand-forged steel cookware, maybe? Or has anything else around the shop caught your eye, sir?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]When Aurelie saw the competence and certainty with which Cillian approached the assorted aluminum pieces and began fitting them together, she sighed in relief. As he began to assemble the beginnings of the saddle, the red-haired smith actually felt safe trusting him to do the work, while she returned to pull the hot metal from the forge and began hammering on it.

Not with her own arm, though—Aurelie used the electric power hammer for the arduous task of beating the heated ingot into a flat sheet of metal. If she tried doing this manually, she was pretty sure her arms would fall off from the strain! Keeping the ingot level in her tongs, she carefully turned and moved the metal to ensure it was being compressed to a uniform size and thickness.

From the corner of her eye, the red-haired smith quietly monitored Cillian's progress as well. Under his meticulous approach, Aurelie could see the Galarian saddle slowly but surely taking shape. She found herself glad he'd volunteered to help, no matter what mixed feelings he stirred up.

Aurelie also found herself frowning as she watched. Despite the underboss' best efforts, some pieces simply didn't click together neatly, while others were misshapen or asymmetrical. These were clearly her own mistakes in molding and casting the pieces, or possibly even in the initial design of the saddle parts.

It took a while for the metal to be flattened satisfactorily into a smooth, even sheet. By the time she felt comfortable setting it down and coming to inspect the saddle's progress, Cillian seemed nearly done. She stood a few paces behind him and watched, crossing her arms.

"Well," she commented finally, "I think that looks nearly done. You've done a very admirable job, sir. Thank you."

Balling her fists at her sides, Aurelie muttered in a lower, grimmer tone, "I hate it."

Hastily, she raised her hand to interpose and explain herself, realizing how she sounded and not wanting him to take offense. "I mean, I don't hate your work. I think you did great! It looks as close to a saddle as I think anyone could have made it look, considering the pieces I gave you to work with. I just...I just..."

Falling silent for a moment, she clutched at her hair briefly in frustration. "I don't think this is how the saddle should look. There's too many loose pieces, too many parts that don't fit well, and too many places that seem overly heavy and stiff. I...I think..."

She took a few deep breaths to steady herself, her eye narrowing in calculation and the muscles in her jaw rippling as she gritted her teeth. Finally, Aurelie declared, with a grimace, "I'm sorry to have wasted all your hard work with this saddle, sir, but I want to start over.

"I'd like to mold the saddle bottom—the tree, did you call it?—and the housing, pommel, seat, and all that again, but thinner and more pliable. Then I want to weld the parts on one by one instead of puzzling them together like this. I think then it would look closer to how a normal saddle looks and not quite so clunky and off-balanced like it looks now."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT