Blackjack Gabbiani
Clearly we're great!
Mind spoilers for mission 26! Also, I got the impression that Cogita is around mid to late 40s so that's how old she is in the fic. Seriously donno how some people come to the conclusion that she's grandma age.
A clash of gods should be felt through the land, Cogita thought with some dismay as she looked up at the clear sky. She would have thought the sky would at least turn red again, or some lightning would sear through Hisui, but instead it was as if nothing was happening. Only if one kept eyes on the Temple of Sinnoh, or what remained of it, could anybody tell the utter catastrophe that had happened.
It was Volo; there was no doubt in her mind. The merchant, or whatever he truly was, believed it to be his birthright as a member of the Sinnoh bloodline to control the power of the gods. But Cogita was also of the Sinnoh people and he had never mentioned her having such a role.
She had suspected he was up to something for some time, the way he always followed that newcomer from the sky, how he always seemed to be there when it was time to discuss legends, but she had just thought him lazy and shiftless for leaving the work to others. His outburst when she revealed that she was in possession of the Pixie Plate had sent a shiver through her, though at the time she didn't fully understand why. Things only fell together when that energy burst from the summit. It wasn't laziness, as least not as straightforwardly as that, it was a sense of superiority. He thought himself entitled to everything, even the universe itself, even the fabric of reality and the renegade that had once threatened it.
She sighed, stopping at the gate of Jubilife. Something she had passed had caught her eye and it felt odd to pass it without attention. Volo's picture had been one of the first added to the photography studio's display, and he stared out from the image with a smile, happily posing with his Togepi. Cogita frowned back. What would happen to that Togepi, or Togekiss now? And the rest of his team, his trusted companions; where would they go now?
"...A passionate flame burns out fastest," she murmured at his image. She had said something similar to the lost one from the rift just a few minutes before. The visitor had wanted to know more, to talk to her further, but she could only admit that she did not understand Volo's thinking, and likely never would. At the time she had smiled sadly, concerned for the lost one more than anything else. But looking at Volo's captured smile, she felt a strange pang of pity.
The sky was still blue when she returned to the Ancient Retreat, and she was lost in the thoughts surrounding it. The day was long already and still had a ways to go. Deep in thought, she at first didn't notice that she wasn't alone, until she nearly tripped over a familiar backpack.
"Volo. Show yourself." She tried to keep her words as even and free from judgement as possible, not knowing what to expect from him.
"Mistress Cogita...you finally deign to present yourself." The voice came from around the side of her hut, and she found him lying against it, wearing an unusual ancient-styled outfit. His hair, usually hidden under his cap, was up in an elaborate sculpt in the image of the Original One's crest, and his one visible eye was notably red. At the first glimpse, she took a step back, but it wasn't the red of a ferocious Alpha's eyes.
He had been crying.
Volo sneered up at her. "Will you only stare? Is the sight of a fallen aspiring god one to gape at? I had everything and I would take everything and everything was below me, and now there is only the void!" But he made no effort to get up, only remained where he was with a defeatist resignation.
So she didn't move either, other than to steady her pose and avert her gaze away just a bit. "You'll likely want to get cleaned up. If you're going to be here, I want you to help me make dinner."
"Do you think you have the right to command me?"
"If you want to share in it then you'll help me. But it's your choice if you don't. You'll have to fend for yourself for dinner then." She brought a hand to the side of her head. "But I will offer you some tea. It can calm the nerves, and you seem like you'll need that."
He jolted, pulling his legs to his chest as though he meant to bolt to his feet, but remained there instead. "And you mock me! I devoted my entire life to the Original One and get nothing in return! This farce continues even in the one person I believed I could--"
Before he could finish, Cogita was before him with a cup of tea, the everpresent and somehow always fresh cup from her fine set. "I thought I could trust you as well. But it seemed your loyalties lay elsewhere."
With another glare at her, he took the cup and drank deeply. Perhaps the tea set itself was a type of unexplained power, for it was always nicely hot. "...I thank you for this. But it cannot change what happened."
"And you wish to." She held the saucer in expectation that he would place the cup back, but instead he set it in the dirt next to him. "Our ancestors, the Sinnoh people, knew the wrath of that creature and yet it answered to you like an old friend."
His hand tightened around the handle so severely that she feared the porcelain would snap. "A being that knew the wrath of the Original One, the full power of Arceus itself..." He swallowed heavily, giving Cogita the impression that he had intended to spit after saying the name of the overarching deity. "When did you figure out that I had such a beast by my side?"
She smiled and knelt next to him. "The lost one told me. Well, others described it, but the lost one gave me its name. The forbidden name, cast from history..." Her hand fell to his, to try to take the cup back from his grasp. "Here, I'll refill this."
But instead of surrendering the cup, he grabbed her wrist with a sudden violence. "You will not leave!" The order was loud, sharp, and undercut with a shake to his voice, and his glare was watery, betraying his uncertainty.
Cogita met his gaze calmly. It would have been straightforward to turn him away. Even if he attempted to lash out at her, he was in no mindset to truly harm her, even if he intended to. "You're welcome to come with me. You know the teapot is never far."
His grip loosened but didn't release. "Mistress...did I not serve you faithfully? Did I not perform every duty asked of me?" The words were on a shaky breath, and his gaze was directed at the ground. "I've done everything I was told. Was it not enough?"
She decided not to remind him that just the day before, he had neglected to bring her three pieces of wood. Or to chastise him for shirking his regular work with the guild. "You were a devoted student, but to gain the attention of the Original One--"
At the mention of the being, he slammed his fist into the ground. "Does it have no heart?! Answer me, mistress, is there no compassion within the heart of the creator?" Before she could respond, he grabbed her wrist again and this time pulled her down towards him. "I devoted my entire life to that monstrous deity, even commanding its most fearful opponent, and still no response!" Turning with a ferocious vigor, he ground a heel against the ground to work his way to his feet, looming over her with eyes wild. "Tell me, mistress! Tell me what will impress this beast!" He grabbed at her chin, denying her the chance to look away. "Tell me what I have to do to get its attention! Tell me what will finally permit me to meet it!"
Despite his hands squeezing her wrist and chin, despite being forced to kneel from being knocked off balance, Cogita remained calm. If Volo had ever intended to bring her harm, she reasoned he would have done so already. Although some part of her had to consider that she really had no reason to believe that. She stared back at him, eyes heavy in dull impatience. "Volo, your zeal has overtaken you. I am not the subject of your wrath and you are well aware of it. If you lash out at me, you will lose the one conduit you have to those legends you hold so dear."
Immediately the grip on her chin loosened but didn't entirely retreat, and it did nothing to calm the fury across his face. "Then tell me! Give me the answers I need, or what good are you?"
She shook her head, his hand still clinging. "Is that the question you mean to ask?"
"I..." Something in her question had caught in his mind, and he let his arms fall to his sides. "Mistress, I..." For just a moment, all emotion drained from his face and he stared at her with hollow eyes before they filled again with a near distress. "Then what good am *I*? I devote myself to a creature who cares nothing for me...for any of us..." That anger shuddered through him again, though not as intense as it had just been. "It witnessed the devastation of our people and did nothing to stop it!"
"And in your attempt to lash out at it," she reminded him, "you turned to the embrace of the fallen one."
He stared at her but said nothing.
Cogita had to choose her words carefully, but this miscreant had his mind made up. "Even I do not understand the full scope of the fallen one's wrath, nor what fueled it. I scarcely knew of its existence. That is the folly of our ancestors, to have kept this information from subsequent generations." Experimentally, she reached out with the intent to touch his arm, but instead brought her hand to the charm he wore on a chain around his neck. "This symbol," she murmured, other hand closing around her own nearly identical charm, "even that has been lost, hasn't it? Perhaps it represents the tears of our ancestors. But if that is true, are they the tears of loss? Or joy, at knowing the Original One at all? Or perhaps it is just a symbol they thought looked nice. We can attribute meaning to all things, but in the end, we will never know everything. And that was your goal, yes? To know all the answers in creation?"
Volo nodded emphatically, lips pressed tightly together hard enough to turn them white. The redness of his eyes was still present, and it seemed that he may well up again.
She patted his charm and trailed her hand up the chain, tracing up his chest. "I doubt even the Original One knows everything. And you sought to replace it...what answers would you have from it if you had destroyed it?"
He tightened, as if the idea had only just occurred to him. To kill Arceus would mean he could never find the answers he sought from it. His hands balled into fists, his eyes darted to and fro, his breathing grew shallow and rapid. "I would have..."
Her hand laid flat against his shoulder, hoping it would serve as some sort of anchor, and she rose up from her kneeling position to stand across him. "Volo. Perhaps you are a lost one yourself. Not in the same way as our visitor, but lost just the same." After a brief hesitation, she brought her other hand up to rest on his other shoulder. "Your fascination consumed you like a brilliant flame, but you have not yet burnt out. You still exist, and thus you may still seek those burning answers. Pray that you are not spent in the search."
Volo continued to avoid looking directly at her. It didn't matter much to Cogita if he didn't make eye contact, but he wasn't looking in her direction at all despite her closeness. He seemed to be speaking more than he was, mouth moving with barely a sound, only "I would have..." repeated like a dim, faint mantra. Whatever he intended to end the thought with was unknown, likely even to him.
Cogita remained in place, but permitted a faint smile. She wanted to address him or prompt him for the conclusion to his repeated phrase but suspected she shouldn't. When she finally spoke, it was only "would you care for some more tea?"
His head drooped, but it was unclear if he was staring at the discarded cup or not. "...It will do nothing, but yes."
"Very well." After a beat, she took a step back from him, letting her hands trail midway down his arms before fully pulling away. He was shaking from some restrained emotion that would be dangerous if it was fully unleashed. "Please wash that cup, if you will, and I will brew a fresh pot. Something calming, to soothe the nerves." She picked up the saucer and headed inside with only a glance back at him.
Cogita wasn't sure why she had thought that Volo would join her inside, but for the entire brewing process he was nowhere to be seen. Suspicion grew as she watched the blend steep into the teapot. Volo was in a volatile state and he could be plotting any number of things, the two most likely in her mind being that he could have run away or that he could be lying in wait to attack, even though she had dismissed that idea already. It was confusing and perhaps only invoking her distant ancestors could settle her mind. The conflict in her was disquieting. Surely if he plotted against her...no, she decided, she had to have been correct the first time.
Nothing seemed disturbed as she opened the door, and Volo was waiting at her usual table, kneeling on the ground in the manner of the local clans and even the Galaxy team. Whatever was customary to their own people had been lost to time.
"The table is a bit high for such a reception. Would you be more comfortable with a chair, perhaps?"
He shook his head but didn't speak at first, instead toyed with the washed cup, turning it around in his hands. "...There is no meaning to this design," he murmured. "I had hoped there would be."
"And what would give you that impression?" she asked as she set the teapot down.
"Because it is owned by Mistress Cogita." Again he refused to look in her direction.
"Do you often assign deeper meaning to all that I do?" She tried to keep the amusement out of her voice but wasn't certain if she was entirely successful.
"Maybe that was foolish. Learning your use of the Pixie Plate..." The hostility rose in him but not enough to break his reverie, and his thought trailed off before it could go farther. "I thought I could put my faith in you."
She sat in her usual chair and looked down at him with a sad smile. "I believed the same of you. We cannot go back to what we were."
He set the cup down next to the offered saucer rather than atop it. "And what was that?"
Cogita had begun reaching for the teapot but stopped at his question, setting her hand on the handle instead. "You were an excellent pupil, in hindsight. I believe I underestimated your zeal to learn. Your zeal for a lot of things. Perhaps if I had seen the truth of you, I could have spoken plainer. We could have discussed your plans together."
"You would have stood in my way."
She poured him some tea, and then herself. "Naturally. But your way is misguided."
Volo's gaze followed the teapot, the closest he came to watching Cogita herself. "Wicked and vile, am I not?"
"Do you believe yourself to be?"
He laughed, loud and sharp, and unbeknownst to her it was the same laugh he had given at the ruined statue several hours before. "I am an affront to the Original One! A devoted servant who plots against his master! Either I am none other than God itself or I am no different from the renegade Giratina! And yet here I am, having no divine judgement, no banishment...only TEA of all things!" Almost to emphasize the shouted word, he jolted up, almost upturning the table in the process, and gestured wildly to himself. "I attempt that which no other in history has, and still Arceus refuses to answer! Am I that unimportant to it? Does it truly lack any heart within it?" He beat his hand against his chest. "Do you know how surely it refused me? The only acknowledgement it made of me?"
Cogita only shook her head and tried to remain impassive.
Volo's body shook with tension as he laughed again, louder and sharper than before. "Haha! Hahaha! I beseeched it with all my heart, all my passion, all my very being, and instead it turned its back to me!" He flung his arms wide and stared at the mountain with wild eyes, his voice crackling with emotion as he continued. "Instead of its most faithful servant, it turned to that...lost one! That miserable newcomer, the one who knows nothing of this land or our history or our people!" With a terrible swiftness, he grabbed the table entirely, knuckles white around the rim, and Cogita quickly picked up the teapot lest he upturn everything, but for the moment he only hunched over it to bring himself to eye level with her. "Mistress...dear mistress, do you know what it did? Do you know what blessing it bestowed upon the UNWORTHY?"
This time it was clear that he wanted her to answer, and she shook her head softly. "I do not. The lost one told me of no blessing."
"Of course not," Volo whispered, the sudden softness of his voice immensely unnerving. That tension in his shivering arms was rattling the remainder of the tea service, starting to spill the contents of the cups. "The true magnitude of that gift would be utterly lost on any outsider..." He drew in a hissing breath between his teeth and bit his lower lip hard, so hard that Cogita was surprised that it didn't draw blood, though it left a distinct mark. "It gave that unworthy one, your precious 'lost one'..." He drew another breath with an open mouth, and pushed back from the table to face the heavens, targeting the distant summit with his shout, "The most sacred of artifacts! It turned the Celestica Flute into the AZURE Flute!"
The Azure Flute...Cogita set the teapot back on the table, slowly, as the magnitude of the revelation sunk in. The lost one, visitor from somewhere and somewhen unknowable, had received an artifact so utterly sacred that a simple tune from it was said to be able to summon the Original One itself. And the lost one had said nothing of it. Either they knew nothing of the importance of such a thing, or they knew full well what it meant and wished to keep it a secret. Either was likely, she reasoned. She let her eyes close, hoping Volo would take it as a gesture of calmness and trust, and hoped that he wouldn't betray that trust. "I see. Which means that you did indeed catch the attention of the Original One. That itself is more than most will accomplish in all their lives."
He inhaled, shuddering and uneven, before dropping to his knees, still gripping the edge of the table. "And do you believe that makes it better...that it somehow sets anything RIGHT? That it MOCKING my devotion is all right just because it means it knows I exist?"
She paused for a sip of tea to center herself. "Volo...I never said that."
"What should it mean then?! Every day of my life I've devoted to studying that beast and the land it brought forth, and this is how I'm rewarded, by mockery?" He rested his head on the table, surprisingly lightly, and sighed heavily. "Is this what I was meant to be, just a plaything for it? Is this what my years of devotion..." He shuddered again, arms going limp to droop against the ground. "Mistress...is this my condemnation? Is this its divine punishment, to be a laughingstock? How could it dare be so heartless..." The last wasn't really a question but a defeatist sigh.
Cogita pulled the cup nearest him aside and rested a hand on his head. His piled hairstyle was beginning to fall flat, framing his deflated attitude, though she wasn't sure how long it would be before his mood would flash into something else. "Perhaps it is your role, as mine is to preserve the legends. Yours may be to uncover them. It would be beyond my scope to overstep my bounds as a human, just as it is yours, but that does not mean that you're not meant to study it. We are human, no matter what else. And a human cannot be a god."
He snorted in dismissal but didn't otherwise move. "Is that written?" he asked as she began to stroke his hair reassuringly. "There is nothing in the legends that limits us so. The ten companions of the hero were mortal beings and their descendants are deified even today. The hero himself is revered by both Diamond and Pearl clans, and isn't that a form of godhood, to live forever in the heart of the region itself? Death of the mortal body is nothing against the divine soul. I will continue on as long as I have to. Even if I must push forward for ten thousand years, fifty thousand, ten million years!" Despite the zeal in his voice, his body remained limp and dejected, only looking up at her to meet her gaze. "Mistress..." He dropped his head back to the table. "Tell me a story."
"Only if you come closer. Reaching across the table is uncomfortable. And take a drink of tea first. It will help calm you."
He followed the instructions without hesitation, sipping the offered drink and scooting forward, this time sitting straighter as if waiting for instructions. "Very well, Mistress. Begin."
She sat a little straighter as well, and bore a gentle smile. She wasn't certain which, exactly, story to tell, so she decided to make one up. "Not long ago, within living memory, there was a bold child. One with the blood of Hisui itself in his veins."
Volo's eyes narrowed. The story was to be about him. "Very well, so be it."
Cogita only continued, that smile not flickering. "That child so loved his homeland that he wished to know all there was to it. Every last corner of it, every moment of its history. But there were so few who remained who knew these stories, and as time progressed, that number grew fewer indeed." She took another sip, knowing Volo was already hooked on her words. "By the time the child grew into a young man, the world he knew had already changed so much. It was a world that had forgotten its past. A world where even the gods lay abandoned, where the creator's children were blindly worshipped by those who didn't understand their own loyalty. The two clans that divided the land claimed to know the truth, but the young man knew that they believed a falsehood. The true creator, he knew, lay beyond either clan's knowledge."
Volo sat silently, taking in every word. At some point he had closed his eyes, giving the impression that he was deep in thought, though Cogita knew he was still consumed with his passionate pursuit.
She took another drink and continued. "What the two presented as fact was, despite being very old, the young man knew to be a recent invention, compared to the sheer scope of the age of creation. Humans ourselves, merely a moment in time to a being such as it. And yet, the young man knew, we were special to it. Something that had caught its divine eye. And yet it no longer spoke to us. It no longer protected us. It no longer encouraged us. So the young man came to ask himself, 'why?'" Here, she chanced a look at Volo.
His eyes had tightened, his fists balled at his sides, and she could see the beginnings of tears again. And yet before she could ask if he wanted to hear more, he murmured "Continue" as if he knew.
"Very well." She straightened up in her chair again and drew in a deep breath. "The young man wished to understand all of it. The whole of the world, and most of all the creator. That lingering 'why' had to be asked of none but the creator itself, for it was the only being that could possibly know the answer. The young man would ask 'why' of the air, of the land, of time and space as they passed him by, and still it stood firm that only the creator could truly answer."
Had Volo inched closer? Cogita wasn't certain.
"And over time, as his 'why' remained unanswered, the young man's passion reshaped into something new. As much as he loved the creator, he came to despise it as well. This contradiction burned, a horrible flame within his very being, and his new discovery only fueled it. He had found a terrible secret, a creature, a god, locked away for its hatred, and the young man believed he had found a kindred spirit in that creature."
Volo's ragged breathing was audible, and his arms were trembling, but his eyes remained closed. He seemed to have gotten closer still.
"Somehow, through means even he didn't fully understand, the young man managed to break through the barrier between worlds, his powerful emotions reaching the imprisoned being. They both believed they had found a kindred spirit, one that could accomplish the goal of reaching the creator."
He seemed to whisper something, but Cogita couldn't hear it, only see the bitter expression across his face. And again he seemed to sense that she was about to ask if she should stop, for again he bid her "continue!" with shaking breath.
"Very well," she replied, though she wasn't certain if she truly should. "But I will stop if I deem it necessary to do so."
He bowed his head, hiding his expression.
"...The young man's heart had grown cold to the world. Though he had this being as his companion, though he had pokémon at his side that adored him, though he had people around him that thought of him fondly..." She chanced a glance at him at that and caught the shimmer of a tear down his cheek "...he believed himself to be alone. Despite his curiosity, despite his bravery, despite his boldness, because the creator would not answer his plea, he convinced himself that he was forsaken." Cogita closed her own eyes and took another drink. "The young man was, for many, a figure of adoration, and yet he had turned away from the world and refused to see what existed around him. He had a life and a mind most would envy, but without the creator's approval it was not enough for him. What he loved, what he hated, fervently consumed him until he lashed out at the very fabric of creation itself."
"I know this part." Volo's voice was harsh but whispered. "Skip to the end."
Cogita smiled sadly and reached down to wipe away a tear. "I can't do that. The story isn't over."
He shook his head. "My story ended when I lost to that interloper. Tell me the ending," he ordered through gritted teeth.
"If that was truly the ending," she reminded him, "would you have vowed to continue your quest?"
That seemed to be what it took for him to finally meet her eyes. Still kneeling, still breathing heavily, he reached out at her chair, penning her in place for a moment before choking out a sob and collapsing his head in her lap, crying out in a fool's despair. "Mistress...mistress," he repeated through forlorn gasps.
Cogita could rightfully say any number of things to him, but instead she remained silent and stroked his head. His oddly piled hair fell to loose strands at her touch. "You really are just as lost, even in a world you were born into." A world he would have undone in his zealotry.
Volo didn't respond beyond a faint whimper.
Just a few hours ago, Cogita had dismissed him as a scoundrel and told the lost one to spare no further thought for him. At that moment she wished she could have the selfish luxury to cast him away from her life, but that would be to turn away a desperate man. He was wicked, there was no denying that, but he was also in utter ruin. She thought back to the photograph of him and Togepi, of the broad smiles. Togepi only evolved if it had the utmost faith in those around it, if it could trust the hearts of its flock. And so it had to have that trust and faith in Volo. The empathic little egg would have looked into his being and seen something there that could be trusted, so Cogita would hesitantly trust him as well.
He was wicked, but he wasn't *only* wicked. He was dangerous, but not at all times. He was wild and zealous and obsessed, but he was also intelligent and passionate and curious. In all these ways, he seemed to embody Hisui itself, a harsh, beautiful land.
"Almighty Arceus," he muttered with a hitch to his voice, "please forgive my transgressions..."
Cogita stroked down his jawline, down his neck, and felt his pounding pulse. "And if it doesn't forgive you?"
He turned his head the other way, almost facing away though he wasn't facing her to begin with. "Then what good could it be?"
She sat up a little straighter, but kept threading her hand through his hair. "Its veracity depends entirely on how it views you, one human?"
"There is none in creation more devoted to it than I, so who else?" When she didn't reply immediately, he sighed. "Mistress...what else could I have done? I gave my life and mind and soul to it and it refuses to so much as look my way. It MOCKS me, mistress...it mocks me and still yet demands loyalty..."
Her hand stopped, resting against his cheek. "Does it? Has it ever asked anything of you? Or have you decided that for yourself?"
Volo shook his head. "I will not have this. I will not be mocked from you either."
"I do not mock you, Volo." She had addressed him by name countless times since they had met, but to use his name at that moment seemed to carry a weight to it. "I ask simply who placed that burden on you."
With another sigh, he leaned back on his heel to face her. There was a defiance in his eyes, but it was surrounded by the weariness of his expression. "Mistress. Is it not the role of all true Sinnoh people, of all Celestica people, to serve Arceus?"
She paused for a second, thinking over the vast legends. "We are stewards of this land, this history. That is our servitude, as passed down from our ancestors. But the extent you have gone...that is written nowhere."
Volo's fists tensed again. He rose to his feet and turned away, giving the impression that he was about to leave, but instead he only brushed dirt from himself. He lightly beat a fist against the table, not hard at all, and picked up his cup to finish off the tea within before setting it back, on the saucer. "...Mistress. I will leave soon. You know I cannot remain here."
"I know you will not. But you're perfectly capable of doing so." She stood as well and gathered the empty cups. "Would you like more tea while you're here?"
"No thank you, mistress."
"As I said, you're welcome to stay for dinner, if you aid me in making it."
He drew a deep breath and held it for a moment, debating what he should say. "...Thank you, mistress. I will stay for a short time."
Cogita smiled, brightly this time, and regretted that Volo couldn't see it. "Very well. Go pick an ear of corn from the garden, and fill a pot with water from the stream. We'll work together."
Another sigh, but he nodded.
A clash of gods should be felt through the land, Cogita thought with some dismay as she looked up at the clear sky. She would have thought the sky would at least turn red again, or some lightning would sear through Hisui, but instead it was as if nothing was happening. Only if one kept eyes on the Temple of Sinnoh, or what remained of it, could anybody tell the utter catastrophe that had happened.
It was Volo; there was no doubt in her mind. The merchant, or whatever he truly was, believed it to be his birthright as a member of the Sinnoh bloodline to control the power of the gods. But Cogita was also of the Sinnoh people and he had never mentioned her having such a role.
She had suspected he was up to something for some time, the way he always followed that newcomer from the sky, how he always seemed to be there when it was time to discuss legends, but she had just thought him lazy and shiftless for leaving the work to others. His outburst when she revealed that she was in possession of the Pixie Plate had sent a shiver through her, though at the time she didn't fully understand why. Things only fell together when that energy burst from the summit. It wasn't laziness, as least not as straightforwardly as that, it was a sense of superiority. He thought himself entitled to everything, even the universe itself, even the fabric of reality and the renegade that had once threatened it.
She sighed, stopping at the gate of Jubilife. Something she had passed had caught her eye and it felt odd to pass it without attention. Volo's picture had been one of the first added to the photography studio's display, and he stared out from the image with a smile, happily posing with his Togepi. Cogita frowned back. What would happen to that Togepi, or Togekiss now? And the rest of his team, his trusted companions; where would they go now?
"...A passionate flame burns out fastest," she murmured at his image. She had said something similar to the lost one from the rift just a few minutes before. The visitor had wanted to know more, to talk to her further, but she could only admit that she did not understand Volo's thinking, and likely never would. At the time she had smiled sadly, concerned for the lost one more than anything else. But looking at Volo's captured smile, she felt a strange pang of pity.
The sky was still blue when she returned to the Ancient Retreat, and she was lost in the thoughts surrounding it. The day was long already and still had a ways to go. Deep in thought, she at first didn't notice that she wasn't alone, until she nearly tripped over a familiar backpack.
"Volo. Show yourself." She tried to keep her words as even and free from judgement as possible, not knowing what to expect from him.
"Mistress Cogita...you finally deign to present yourself." The voice came from around the side of her hut, and she found him lying against it, wearing an unusual ancient-styled outfit. His hair, usually hidden under his cap, was up in an elaborate sculpt in the image of the Original One's crest, and his one visible eye was notably red. At the first glimpse, she took a step back, but it wasn't the red of a ferocious Alpha's eyes.
He had been crying.
Volo sneered up at her. "Will you only stare? Is the sight of a fallen aspiring god one to gape at? I had everything and I would take everything and everything was below me, and now there is only the void!" But he made no effort to get up, only remained where he was with a defeatist resignation.
So she didn't move either, other than to steady her pose and avert her gaze away just a bit. "You'll likely want to get cleaned up. If you're going to be here, I want you to help me make dinner."
"Do you think you have the right to command me?"
"If you want to share in it then you'll help me. But it's your choice if you don't. You'll have to fend for yourself for dinner then." She brought a hand to the side of her head. "But I will offer you some tea. It can calm the nerves, and you seem like you'll need that."
He jolted, pulling his legs to his chest as though he meant to bolt to his feet, but remained there instead. "And you mock me! I devoted my entire life to the Original One and get nothing in return! This farce continues even in the one person I believed I could--"
Before he could finish, Cogita was before him with a cup of tea, the everpresent and somehow always fresh cup from her fine set. "I thought I could trust you as well. But it seemed your loyalties lay elsewhere."
With another glare at her, he took the cup and drank deeply. Perhaps the tea set itself was a type of unexplained power, for it was always nicely hot. "...I thank you for this. But it cannot change what happened."
"And you wish to." She held the saucer in expectation that he would place the cup back, but instead he set it in the dirt next to him. "Our ancestors, the Sinnoh people, knew the wrath of that creature and yet it answered to you like an old friend."
His hand tightened around the handle so severely that she feared the porcelain would snap. "A being that knew the wrath of the Original One, the full power of Arceus itself..." He swallowed heavily, giving Cogita the impression that he had intended to spit after saying the name of the overarching deity. "When did you figure out that I had such a beast by my side?"
She smiled and knelt next to him. "The lost one told me. Well, others described it, but the lost one gave me its name. The forbidden name, cast from history..." Her hand fell to his, to try to take the cup back from his grasp. "Here, I'll refill this."
But instead of surrendering the cup, he grabbed her wrist with a sudden violence. "You will not leave!" The order was loud, sharp, and undercut with a shake to his voice, and his glare was watery, betraying his uncertainty.
Cogita met his gaze calmly. It would have been straightforward to turn him away. Even if he attempted to lash out at her, he was in no mindset to truly harm her, even if he intended to. "You're welcome to come with me. You know the teapot is never far."
His grip loosened but didn't release. "Mistress...did I not serve you faithfully? Did I not perform every duty asked of me?" The words were on a shaky breath, and his gaze was directed at the ground. "I've done everything I was told. Was it not enough?"
She decided not to remind him that just the day before, he had neglected to bring her three pieces of wood. Or to chastise him for shirking his regular work with the guild. "You were a devoted student, but to gain the attention of the Original One--"
At the mention of the being, he slammed his fist into the ground. "Does it have no heart?! Answer me, mistress, is there no compassion within the heart of the creator?" Before she could respond, he grabbed her wrist again and this time pulled her down towards him. "I devoted my entire life to that monstrous deity, even commanding its most fearful opponent, and still no response!" Turning with a ferocious vigor, he ground a heel against the ground to work his way to his feet, looming over her with eyes wild. "Tell me, mistress! Tell me what will impress this beast!" He grabbed at her chin, denying her the chance to look away. "Tell me what I have to do to get its attention! Tell me what will finally permit me to meet it!"
Despite his hands squeezing her wrist and chin, despite being forced to kneel from being knocked off balance, Cogita remained calm. If Volo had ever intended to bring her harm, she reasoned he would have done so already. Although some part of her had to consider that she really had no reason to believe that. She stared back at him, eyes heavy in dull impatience. "Volo, your zeal has overtaken you. I am not the subject of your wrath and you are well aware of it. If you lash out at me, you will lose the one conduit you have to those legends you hold so dear."
Immediately the grip on her chin loosened but didn't entirely retreat, and it did nothing to calm the fury across his face. "Then tell me! Give me the answers I need, or what good are you?"
She shook her head, his hand still clinging. "Is that the question you mean to ask?"
"I..." Something in her question had caught in his mind, and he let his arms fall to his sides. "Mistress, I..." For just a moment, all emotion drained from his face and he stared at her with hollow eyes before they filled again with a near distress. "Then what good am *I*? I devote myself to a creature who cares nothing for me...for any of us..." That anger shuddered through him again, though not as intense as it had just been. "It witnessed the devastation of our people and did nothing to stop it!"
"And in your attempt to lash out at it," she reminded him, "you turned to the embrace of the fallen one."
He stared at her but said nothing.
Cogita had to choose her words carefully, but this miscreant had his mind made up. "Even I do not understand the full scope of the fallen one's wrath, nor what fueled it. I scarcely knew of its existence. That is the folly of our ancestors, to have kept this information from subsequent generations." Experimentally, she reached out with the intent to touch his arm, but instead brought her hand to the charm he wore on a chain around his neck. "This symbol," she murmured, other hand closing around her own nearly identical charm, "even that has been lost, hasn't it? Perhaps it represents the tears of our ancestors. But if that is true, are they the tears of loss? Or joy, at knowing the Original One at all? Or perhaps it is just a symbol they thought looked nice. We can attribute meaning to all things, but in the end, we will never know everything. And that was your goal, yes? To know all the answers in creation?"
Volo nodded emphatically, lips pressed tightly together hard enough to turn them white. The redness of his eyes was still present, and it seemed that he may well up again.
She patted his charm and trailed her hand up the chain, tracing up his chest. "I doubt even the Original One knows everything. And you sought to replace it...what answers would you have from it if you had destroyed it?"
He tightened, as if the idea had only just occurred to him. To kill Arceus would mean he could never find the answers he sought from it. His hands balled into fists, his eyes darted to and fro, his breathing grew shallow and rapid. "I would have..."
Her hand laid flat against his shoulder, hoping it would serve as some sort of anchor, and she rose up from her kneeling position to stand across him. "Volo. Perhaps you are a lost one yourself. Not in the same way as our visitor, but lost just the same." After a brief hesitation, she brought her other hand up to rest on his other shoulder. "Your fascination consumed you like a brilliant flame, but you have not yet burnt out. You still exist, and thus you may still seek those burning answers. Pray that you are not spent in the search."
Volo continued to avoid looking directly at her. It didn't matter much to Cogita if he didn't make eye contact, but he wasn't looking in her direction at all despite her closeness. He seemed to be speaking more than he was, mouth moving with barely a sound, only "I would have..." repeated like a dim, faint mantra. Whatever he intended to end the thought with was unknown, likely even to him.
Cogita remained in place, but permitted a faint smile. She wanted to address him or prompt him for the conclusion to his repeated phrase but suspected she shouldn't. When she finally spoke, it was only "would you care for some more tea?"
His head drooped, but it was unclear if he was staring at the discarded cup or not. "...It will do nothing, but yes."
"Very well." After a beat, she took a step back from him, letting her hands trail midway down his arms before fully pulling away. He was shaking from some restrained emotion that would be dangerous if it was fully unleashed. "Please wash that cup, if you will, and I will brew a fresh pot. Something calming, to soothe the nerves." She picked up the saucer and headed inside with only a glance back at him.
Cogita wasn't sure why she had thought that Volo would join her inside, but for the entire brewing process he was nowhere to be seen. Suspicion grew as she watched the blend steep into the teapot. Volo was in a volatile state and he could be plotting any number of things, the two most likely in her mind being that he could have run away or that he could be lying in wait to attack, even though she had dismissed that idea already. It was confusing and perhaps only invoking her distant ancestors could settle her mind. The conflict in her was disquieting. Surely if he plotted against her...no, she decided, she had to have been correct the first time.
Nothing seemed disturbed as she opened the door, and Volo was waiting at her usual table, kneeling on the ground in the manner of the local clans and even the Galaxy team. Whatever was customary to their own people had been lost to time.
"The table is a bit high for such a reception. Would you be more comfortable with a chair, perhaps?"
He shook his head but didn't speak at first, instead toyed with the washed cup, turning it around in his hands. "...There is no meaning to this design," he murmured. "I had hoped there would be."
"And what would give you that impression?" she asked as she set the teapot down.
"Because it is owned by Mistress Cogita." Again he refused to look in her direction.
"Do you often assign deeper meaning to all that I do?" She tried to keep the amusement out of her voice but wasn't certain if she was entirely successful.
"Maybe that was foolish. Learning your use of the Pixie Plate..." The hostility rose in him but not enough to break his reverie, and his thought trailed off before it could go farther. "I thought I could put my faith in you."
She sat in her usual chair and looked down at him with a sad smile. "I believed the same of you. We cannot go back to what we were."
He set the cup down next to the offered saucer rather than atop it. "And what was that?"
Cogita had begun reaching for the teapot but stopped at his question, setting her hand on the handle instead. "You were an excellent pupil, in hindsight. I believe I underestimated your zeal to learn. Your zeal for a lot of things. Perhaps if I had seen the truth of you, I could have spoken plainer. We could have discussed your plans together."
"You would have stood in my way."
She poured him some tea, and then herself. "Naturally. But your way is misguided."
Volo's gaze followed the teapot, the closest he came to watching Cogita herself. "Wicked and vile, am I not?"
"Do you believe yourself to be?"
He laughed, loud and sharp, and unbeknownst to her it was the same laugh he had given at the ruined statue several hours before. "I am an affront to the Original One! A devoted servant who plots against his master! Either I am none other than God itself or I am no different from the renegade Giratina! And yet here I am, having no divine judgement, no banishment...only TEA of all things!" Almost to emphasize the shouted word, he jolted up, almost upturning the table in the process, and gestured wildly to himself. "I attempt that which no other in history has, and still Arceus refuses to answer! Am I that unimportant to it? Does it truly lack any heart within it?" He beat his hand against his chest. "Do you know how surely it refused me? The only acknowledgement it made of me?"
Cogita only shook her head and tried to remain impassive.
Volo's body shook with tension as he laughed again, louder and sharper than before. "Haha! Hahaha! I beseeched it with all my heart, all my passion, all my very being, and instead it turned its back to me!" He flung his arms wide and stared at the mountain with wild eyes, his voice crackling with emotion as he continued. "Instead of its most faithful servant, it turned to that...lost one! That miserable newcomer, the one who knows nothing of this land or our history or our people!" With a terrible swiftness, he grabbed the table entirely, knuckles white around the rim, and Cogita quickly picked up the teapot lest he upturn everything, but for the moment he only hunched over it to bring himself to eye level with her. "Mistress...dear mistress, do you know what it did? Do you know what blessing it bestowed upon the UNWORTHY?"
This time it was clear that he wanted her to answer, and she shook her head softly. "I do not. The lost one told me of no blessing."
"Of course not," Volo whispered, the sudden softness of his voice immensely unnerving. That tension in his shivering arms was rattling the remainder of the tea service, starting to spill the contents of the cups. "The true magnitude of that gift would be utterly lost on any outsider..." He drew in a hissing breath between his teeth and bit his lower lip hard, so hard that Cogita was surprised that it didn't draw blood, though it left a distinct mark. "It gave that unworthy one, your precious 'lost one'..." He drew another breath with an open mouth, and pushed back from the table to face the heavens, targeting the distant summit with his shout, "The most sacred of artifacts! It turned the Celestica Flute into the AZURE Flute!"
The Azure Flute...Cogita set the teapot back on the table, slowly, as the magnitude of the revelation sunk in. The lost one, visitor from somewhere and somewhen unknowable, had received an artifact so utterly sacred that a simple tune from it was said to be able to summon the Original One itself. And the lost one had said nothing of it. Either they knew nothing of the importance of such a thing, or they knew full well what it meant and wished to keep it a secret. Either was likely, she reasoned. She let her eyes close, hoping Volo would take it as a gesture of calmness and trust, and hoped that he wouldn't betray that trust. "I see. Which means that you did indeed catch the attention of the Original One. That itself is more than most will accomplish in all their lives."
He inhaled, shuddering and uneven, before dropping to his knees, still gripping the edge of the table. "And do you believe that makes it better...that it somehow sets anything RIGHT? That it MOCKING my devotion is all right just because it means it knows I exist?"
She paused for a sip of tea to center herself. "Volo...I never said that."
"What should it mean then?! Every day of my life I've devoted to studying that beast and the land it brought forth, and this is how I'm rewarded, by mockery?" He rested his head on the table, surprisingly lightly, and sighed heavily. "Is this what I was meant to be, just a plaything for it? Is this what my years of devotion..." He shuddered again, arms going limp to droop against the ground. "Mistress...is this my condemnation? Is this its divine punishment, to be a laughingstock? How could it dare be so heartless..." The last wasn't really a question but a defeatist sigh.
Cogita pulled the cup nearest him aside and rested a hand on his head. His piled hairstyle was beginning to fall flat, framing his deflated attitude, though she wasn't sure how long it would be before his mood would flash into something else. "Perhaps it is your role, as mine is to preserve the legends. Yours may be to uncover them. It would be beyond my scope to overstep my bounds as a human, just as it is yours, but that does not mean that you're not meant to study it. We are human, no matter what else. And a human cannot be a god."
He snorted in dismissal but didn't otherwise move. "Is that written?" he asked as she began to stroke his hair reassuringly. "There is nothing in the legends that limits us so. The ten companions of the hero were mortal beings and their descendants are deified even today. The hero himself is revered by both Diamond and Pearl clans, and isn't that a form of godhood, to live forever in the heart of the region itself? Death of the mortal body is nothing against the divine soul. I will continue on as long as I have to. Even if I must push forward for ten thousand years, fifty thousand, ten million years!" Despite the zeal in his voice, his body remained limp and dejected, only looking up at her to meet her gaze. "Mistress..." He dropped his head back to the table. "Tell me a story."
"Only if you come closer. Reaching across the table is uncomfortable. And take a drink of tea first. It will help calm you."
He followed the instructions without hesitation, sipping the offered drink and scooting forward, this time sitting straighter as if waiting for instructions. "Very well, Mistress. Begin."
She sat a little straighter as well, and bore a gentle smile. She wasn't certain which, exactly, story to tell, so she decided to make one up. "Not long ago, within living memory, there was a bold child. One with the blood of Hisui itself in his veins."
Volo's eyes narrowed. The story was to be about him. "Very well, so be it."
Cogita only continued, that smile not flickering. "That child so loved his homeland that he wished to know all there was to it. Every last corner of it, every moment of its history. But there were so few who remained who knew these stories, and as time progressed, that number grew fewer indeed." She took another sip, knowing Volo was already hooked on her words. "By the time the child grew into a young man, the world he knew had already changed so much. It was a world that had forgotten its past. A world where even the gods lay abandoned, where the creator's children were blindly worshipped by those who didn't understand their own loyalty. The two clans that divided the land claimed to know the truth, but the young man knew that they believed a falsehood. The true creator, he knew, lay beyond either clan's knowledge."
Volo sat silently, taking in every word. At some point he had closed his eyes, giving the impression that he was deep in thought, though Cogita knew he was still consumed with his passionate pursuit.
She took another drink and continued. "What the two presented as fact was, despite being very old, the young man knew to be a recent invention, compared to the sheer scope of the age of creation. Humans ourselves, merely a moment in time to a being such as it. And yet, the young man knew, we were special to it. Something that had caught its divine eye. And yet it no longer spoke to us. It no longer protected us. It no longer encouraged us. So the young man came to ask himself, 'why?'" Here, she chanced a look at Volo.
His eyes had tightened, his fists balled at his sides, and she could see the beginnings of tears again. And yet before she could ask if he wanted to hear more, he murmured "Continue" as if he knew.
"Very well." She straightened up in her chair again and drew in a deep breath. "The young man wished to understand all of it. The whole of the world, and most of all the creator. That lingering 'why' had to be asked of none but the creator itself, for it was the only being that could possibly know the answer. The young man would ask 'why' of the air, of the land, of time and space as they passed him by, and still it stood firm that only the creator could truly answer."
Had Volo inched closer? Cogita wasn't certain.
"And over time, as his 'why' remained unanswered, the young man's passion reshaped into something new. As much as he loved the creator, he came to despise it as well. This contradiction burned, a horrible flame within his very being, and his new discovery only fueled it. He had found a terrible secret, a creature, a god, locked away for its hatred, and the young man believed he had found a kindred spirit in that creature."
Volo's ragged breathing was audible, and his arms were trembling, but his eyes remained closed. He seemed to have gotten closer still.
"Somehow, through means even he didn't fully understand, the young man managed to break through the barrier between worlds, his powerful emotions reaching the imprisoned being. They both believed they had found a kindred spirit, one that could accomplish the goal of reaching the creator."
He seemed to whisper something, but Cogita couldn't hear it, only see the bitter expression across his face. And again he seemed to sense that she was about to ask if she should stop, for again he bid her "continue!" with shaking breath.
"Very well," she replied, though she wasn't certain if she truly should. "But I will stop if I deem it necessary to do so."
He bowed his head, hiding his expression.
"...The young man's heart had grown cold to the world. Though he had this being as his companion, though he had pokémon at his side that adored him, though he had people around him that thought of him fondly..." She chanced a glance at him at that and caught the shimmer of a tear down his cheek "...he believed himself to be alone. Despite his curiosity, despite his bravery, despite his boldness, because the creator would not answer his plea, he convinced himself that he was forsaken." Cogita closed her own eyes and took another drink. "The young man was, for many, a figure of adoration, and yet he had turned away from the world and refused to see what existed around him. He had a life and a mind most would envy, but without the creator's approval it was not enough for him. What he loved, what he hated, fervently consumed him until he lashed out at the very fabric of creation itself."
"I know this part." Volo's voice was harsh but whispered. "Skip to the end."
Cogita smiled sadly and reached down to wipe away a tear. "I can't do that. The story isn't over."
He shook his head. "My story ended when I lost to that interloper. Tell me the ending," he ordered through gritted teeth.
"If that was truly the ending," she reminded him, "would you have vowed to continue your quest?"
That seemed to be what it took for him to finally meet her eyes. Still kneeling, still breathing heavily, he reached out at her chair, penning her in place for a moment before choking out a sob and collapsing his head in her lap, crying out in a fool's despair. "Mistress...mistress," he repeated through forlorn gasps.
Cogita could rightfully say any number of things to him, but instead she remained silent and stroked his head. His oddly piled hair fell to loose strands at her touch. "You really are just as lost, even in a world you were born into." A world he would have undone in his zealotry.
Volo didn't respond beyond a faint whimper.
Just a few hours ago, Cogita had dismissed him as a scoundrel and told the lost one to spare no further thought for him. At that moment she wished she could have the selfish luxury to cast him away from her life, but that would be to turn away a desperate man. He was wicked, there was no denying that, but he was also in utter ruin. She thought back to the photograph of him and Togepi, of the broad smiles. Togepi only evolved if it had the utmost faith in those around it, if it could trust the hearts of its flock. And so it had to have that trust and faith in Volo. The empathic little egg would have looked into his being and seen something there that could be trusted, so Cogita would hesitantly trust him as well.
He was wicked, but he wasn't *only* wicked. He was dangerous, but not at all times. He was wild and zealous and obsessed, but he was also intelligent and passionate and curious. In all these ways, he seemed to embody Hisui itself, a harsh, beautiful land.
"Almighty Arceus," he muttered with a hitch to his voice, "please forgive my transgressions..."
Cogita stroked down his jawline, down his neck, and felt his pounding pulse. "And if it doesn't forgive you?"
He turned his head the other way, almost facing away though he wasn't facing her to begin with. "Then what good could it be?"
She sat up a little straighter, but kept threading her hand through his hair. "Its veracity depends entirely on how it views you, one human?"
"There is none in creation more devoted to it than I, so who else?" When she didn't reply immediately, he sighed. "Mistress...what else could I have done? I gave my life and mind and soul to it and it refuses to so much as look my way. It MOCKS me, mistress...it mocks me and still yet demands loyalty..."
Her hand stopped, resting against his cheek. "Does it? Has it ever asked anything of you? Or have you decided that for yourself?"
Volo shook his head. "I will not have this. I will not be mocked from you either."
"I do not mock you, Volo." She had addressed him by name countless times since they had met, but to use his name at that moment seemed to carry a weight to it. "I ask simply who placed that burden on you."
With another sigh, he leaned back on his heel to face her. There was a defiance in his eyes, but it was surrounded by the weariness of his expression. "Mistress. Is it not the role of all true Sinnoh people, of all Celestica people, to serve Arceus?"
She paused for a second, thinking over the vast legends. "We are stewards of this land, this history. That is our servitude, as passed down from our ancestors. But the extent you have gone...that is written nowhere."
Volo's fists tensed again. He rose to his feet and turned away, giving the impression that he was about to leave, but instead he only brushed dirt from himself. He lightly beat a fist against the table, not hard at all, and picked up his cup to finish off the tea within before setting it back, on the saucer. "...Mistress. I will leave soon. You know I cannot remain here."
"I know you will not. But you're perfectly capable of doing so." She stood as well and gathered the empty cups. "Would you like more tea while you're here?"
"No thank you, mistress."
"As I said, you're welcome to stay for dinner, if you aid me in making it."
He drew a deep breath and held it for a moment, debating what he should say. "...Thank you, mistress. I will stay for a short time."
Cogita smiled, brightly this time, and regretted that Volo couldn't see it. "Very well. Go pick an ear of corn from the garden, and fill a pot with water from the stream. We'll work together."
Another sigh, but he nodded.