The Lady of the Islands

 The Lady of the Islands

The North Atlantic

The highest portions of the eastern face bear the brunt of the burden now, still baking in the light of the descending sun. The light camouflages its rusty streaks against the rest of the stone which makes it up, diffusing across the towering canyon wall once again while its western sibling settles into the shadows with its half of the canyon. Skarmory scan the skies from their nests atop the walls, watching with unease the Fearow circling above. Just below them on craggy outcroppings, Cubone lay curled up, basking in what little remains of the sun's rays, Nearby Marowak listen for the squawking of Skarmory while patrolling the precarious paths leading up the walls, herding away curious Phanpy and scheming Meowth alike.

The canyon trembles as Onix retreat into the ground, their warming and feasting done for the day, marking the end of another day in the rugged Sevault Canyon.

For most, that is.

As the sun sets on Quest Island - better known to the world at large as Seven Island, one of the larger islands in the archipelago known as the Sevii Islands - and the wild cats begin to roam, a grunt echoes through a cave tucked into the canyon walls. Within the Tanoby Key, so named because of the carving of three Unown spelling out the word "KEY" above its entrance and its assumed connection to the Tanoby Ruins and their numerous similar carvings, a woman dabs a handkerchief on her forehead to clear away her sweat, dusting off her hands as she steps away from a stone pillar nearly as tall as herself and the strange iron sculpture resting atop it.

"It appears that this arrangement produces no change, as well. Our mystery persists," she observes, her vexation apparent in the slight tilt of her head as she stows away her handkerchief. Hardly the image of an explorer or a spelunker with her flowing black dress and her pristine white sunhat, Lady Selphy surveys the cave nonetheless.

Near the back wall of the cave, Florin the Persian yawns and stretches, content to laze about while her trainer puzzles out another mystery, the light shining from the gem on her forehead illuminating the cave. By Selphy's feet, another feline Pokémon rises up on her hind legs, tilting her head up as she tries to get a look at the sculpture atop the pillar. 

Seven stone pillars, each rising up to a different height, built with wide, flat tops, take up a considerable amount of space in the cramped cavern. Seven depressions rest squarely in the center of the cavern, each one clearly made to accommodate the strange iron sculptures which now sit - arranged such that the lightest sits atop the shortest and the heaviest atop the tallest - atop the seven pillars. Had she done all she could do with the pillars and sculptures? Perhaps she had.

Selphy's gaze passes over the pillars, her eyes settling once again on the symbols carved into the cavern's back wall, the only ones inside which were not a random jumble of letters.

"THE KEY IS BEFORE YOU"
"THE KEY IS NOT BEFORE YOU"

"I must order a commentary on koans should we return from this expedition with no discovery made," she notes to the Pokémon at her feet. "Kindly see to it that I am reminded, Belle."

Belle, her species name "Rinrin", acknowledges the request with a chipper meow and a swoosh of her tail, the chiming of her tail-bell echoing through the cavern. Turning her attention to considering the mystery of the Tanoby Key as a whole unit, rather than examining its individual components, Selphy reaches down and allows Belle to step into her hands, lifting the feline up and allowing the cat to properly inspect the sculpture atop the highest pillar while she further ponders the puzzle before her.

Not a one of her attempts at arranging the sculptures had yielded any results, and, taking as accurate his notes and comments, he had tried every possible arrangement over the course of his own various expeditions. According to his research, taking the sculptures out of the cave consistently resulted in them disappearing within 24 hours with no apparent explanation, as did taking a sample of them. Yet, whenever he had left the cavern unattended, the sculptures would all somehow reappear in the depressions seemingly tailor-made for them, back in a pristine state no matter what had been done to them beforehand. Examining samples of the sculptures within the 24 hours they would persist had yielded no results other than revealing them - almost certainly erroneously - to be made of unremarkable iron. Though the sculptures were hollow, they contained nothing inside. Bringing a radio into the cavern resulted in the radio playing a strange transmission at seemingly random intervals. Surely the strange properties of the sculptures and the radio waves were connected, but, then, could the carving outside the entrance and the cryptic messages inside the cave be disconnected from the puzzle? Perhaps they-

"If you've finished verifying my observations, I've set our camp up a short hike away from here." A voice forces Selphy to abandon her quiet moment of contemplation, the woman turning to see a scientist - Gideon - entering the cave, a fully juiced-up lantern in hand and his Magneton floating behind him.

Striking the sculpture atop the highest pillar with her tail and letting it ring, Belle pays the man no attention, taking in the sound before jumping out of Selphy's arms and scurrying to another pillar while leaving her trainer to deal with Gideon.

"I offer my gratitude." Aside from crossing her arms, Selphy ignores the hint of smugness in his voice. Everything he had told her had been accurate so far, she can't help but admit. "In accompanying me on these expeditions, preparing our camp, and sharing your research on the ruins, you have been extraordinarily helpful."

"If it keeps you buying supplies and edges me closer to making a breakthrough here…" His slouching and his incomplete mumbling do not go unnoticed, but he straightens up and hands the lantern over to Selphy when she extends her hand expectantly. "If you want to wait until morning to continue, I'll bring in the equipment I brought then. We'll have two full days with the supplies we've brought."

"The two of you, do you feel fatigued?"

Florin and Belle are quick to give their answers, the former with a drawn-out yawn and the latter with the ringing of yet another of the sculptures.

"Very well, then." Drawing a Luxury Ball from her bag, Selphy recalls Florin, handing off its ball to Gideon. "Please see to it that Florin is able to retire peacefully for the evening. Belle and myself will join you when we grow weary."

"Fine, then. Mind the stones on your way out after dark." With that, Gideon departs, Magneton following behind him, leaving Belle and Selphy to their work, Belle continuing to ring the sculptures and Selphy taking to inspecting the pillars themselves.

Perhaps the key was not before them because they were inside the Tanoby Key? Yet, at the same time, these pillars at the edges of the cave wall were seemingly trying to evoke the overall shape of the Tanoby Key, thus being the key before them…? Maybe? No, on second thought, that made rather little sense. Then perhaps it could be that the sculptures needed to be filled with something from outside the cavern, with part of the key being before those inside the cavern, and part needing to be retrieved from elsewhere…?

While the duo further investigates and ponders the mystery, a single eye, seemingly etched into a wall of the cavern, opens up. It trains its gaze upon the woman and her partner, hiding itself among the jumble of letters strewn across the cavern walls.

xxx

 

"Riririririri! Riririri!"

Around a half hour after Gideon's departure, Belle fills the cavern with a new sound, shouting excitedly and pounding the ground with her paws as she demands Selphy's attention. "Yes? Have you made a discovery?" She once again reaches down to take Belle up in her arms, the cat absolutely insisting on getting a lift, stretching her paws up just as a toddler might stretch their hands to make clear they want up.

Soon, Belle has Selphy revisiting all of the pillars one by one from shortest to tallest. Belle strikes each with her tail, insisting on complete silence as they each ring out with a distinct note. With the fading of the final note, Belle looks up at Selphy expectantly.

"My, how unusual," she muses as she tries to piece the significance together. "Are they so precisely designed so that they might produce this melody?" The sounds they made were so clearly distinct; that had to be deliberate. They produced different notes, didn't they? Hazy memories of incomplete piano lessons in her youth bubble to the surface. Going over the notes one by one, she begins to piece them together. A G... was it? And an A? So then that might be a B, and then it would follow that was a C? If that were the case, the tune was in G…

…in the key of G.

"Belle, allow me a moment to retrieve Gideon. Until our return, prepare yourself." Too excited to care about the impropriety of the act, Selphy slams her fist into her palm, positively beaming as she hurries out of the cave to fetch Gideon.

The exact notes and exact key hardly mattered. Belle would be able to identify them even if she had been mistaken. Fully confident that her expedition is on the verge of a breakthrough, Selphy rushes through the canyon, barely heeding the advice to mind the stones and watch her step, finding her path through the gap in the towering stone walls by the light of the sprawling spread of stars hanging above the isolated island chain.

xxx

 

A short time later, with Gideon and Selphy back in the Tanoby Key, Belle raises her tail in the air and plays the melody for a third time, to, once again, no effect. Neither member of the duo succeeds in concealing their disappointment with the results, Gideon scowling and Selphy closing her eyes and tapping her finger against her wrist impatiently.

Belle looks towards Selphy, with Gideon glancing between the both of them, waiting for someone to finally say something.

"Other keys of music exist! Try every key there is!" He finally blurts out his thoughts on the matter, earning a look of skepticism from Belle, the Pokémon questioning exactly how deep his musical knowledge runs.

Selphy, though, pays his shouting no heed, grounding herself in her thoughts. Having come so far, could they truly turn to brute forcing this the rest of the way? Would brute forcing this even work? Maybe. They did know they were working with seven notes on a scale, after all. Perhaps that would keep the possibilities narrowed down. Still, would the designers of this puzzle truly require them to employ brute force now, while so close to making progress? That would just be unsporting.

Did she still need something from outside of the cavern? Did she have a part of the key, but needed to look elsewhere for the other piece? No, no, as often as she returned to that thought, there was no other hint that she needed to go elsewhere, and the first part of that message seemed to indicate the key could be found within the Tanoby Key itself. The key had to be the key of G, or A, or whatever it was. That's what was before her. Then, if not meaning that piece of the key was elsewhere, what else could "the key is not before you" mean? The combined statements had to be right and wrong at the same time. Then… somehow…? She had the right key and the wrong key at the same time? How could you have the wrong G? Or wrong whatever key? Missing a sharp? A flat? Playing in major instead of minor? Minor instead of major?

Maybe it wasn't the perfect answer, but it was an answer.

"Begin with the original melody," she finally chimes in, interrupting Belle's third attempt to play a new key at Gideon's behest, standing tall and speaking as though she knows exactly what she's doing despite her considerable doubts. "Transpose it into another mode, then proceed."

"Another mode?" Gideon's confusion does nothing to deter Belle from assisting, the Rinrin simply making the call to go from the Ionian mode to the Aeolian mode after hearing Selphy's non-specific suggestion. The bell-cat takes a moment to mentally convert notes, and then the transposed tune rings out through the Tanoby Key.

The pupil of the eye seemingly etched into the wall swivels, the silent observer turning its gaze away from Selphy and her associates and towards the back wall of the Tanoby Key. All at once, a great rumbling strikes the cavern. The sounds of stone crumbling and crashing down and the large cloud of dust that gets kicked up up do nobody any favors, turning the cavern into a chaotic mess. Acting on instinct, Selphy runs to Belle's side, leaning over the feline to shield her and covering her head. Gideon, on the other hand, reaches for a Pokéball in his pocket, preparing to throw it.

The rumbling stops after only a few seconds, stilling Gideon's hand, but the dust cloud lingers. When it finally clears, everyone still stands, no worse for wear save for some coughing, but the back wall… does not. Where once there had been a message carved in stone, now there is only a gaping hole, a previously-hidden chamber visible on the other side.

"Hch, Hmph." Selphy attempts to stifle her coughing as she picks Belle up, dusting off the Pokémon, then dusting off herself and taking a moment to straighten her clothes. "It seems as though we can proceed. Shall we continue?" After receiving her dusting and being set down, Belle scurries into the newly-opened chamber, Selphy herself following behind at a leisurely pace, leaving Gideon to recover and join them.

Stepping over the rubble separating the main chamber from this new area, Selphy spots it even before her eager companion. In the middle of the chamber, there is a pedestal, an aged, beat-up iron key with thin cracks running across its length sitting upon it. The Key that needed a key… hid a key, or so it would seem.

"Hmm? So you would be-"

"MY DISCOVERY!" Gideon rushes into the secondary chamber just as Selphy picks up the key and begins to inspect it, Belle desperately lifting her paws in hopes of getting a lift so she can see it too. "Fufufu, I was certain there would be something hidden in this cave that would assist in further investigations of the Tanoby Rui- Oh?"

Both Gideon and Selphy pause and take a closer look at their find as the key lights up, soft pinkish light emanating from its cracks as Selphy holds it in her hands.

xxx

 

The scratchy screeching of Fearow echoes through the canyon.

"You are certain you have no objections to me keeping the key on my person for the duration of my trip?" In the light of the morning sun, their discovery made and, over the course of another full day, thoroughly documented, Selphy and Gideon pack up their remaining supplies. Florin helpfully contributes by scarfing down a can of fish, while Belle sits patiently, letting her tail sway and chime as she soaks up the sun. Gideon's Magneton, back out of its ball, takes the opportunity to recharge Gideon's lantern.

"It's fine," Gideon replies, not entirely fine with the situation. "It may be a relic - and prestigious to have the original - but a key can be copied. I've taken enough notes down on the key to copy it exactly."

"Very well. My expeditions to the Tanoby Ruins will commence shortly after my return from the Glasetera region, if you will care to accompany me then as well. Should I proceed alone when I return, I will inform you of any discoveries made within the ruins."

"Don't expect that I won't come along! Investigations of Quest Island fall under my-! Ahem," he corrects himself, remembering he ought to at least try to sound dignified. "In my professional opinion, discoveries significant to the islands await in the ruins."

"Certainly, and how exhilarating it is to make those discoveries," she says, glancing over her shoulder to check on Belle and Florin. "Now then, everything is packed away, so shall we depart?" The question gets the attention of the two cats, the pair immediately coming to Selphy's side.

With that, as the morning continues to burn away, Gideon and Magneton set off north, towards town, while Selphy and her companion set off south, set on following the canyon to its southern terminus and continuing from there to the sea…

…with both groups unaware of the thin, one-eyed S-shaped Pokémon now tailing Selphy and her companions…

 

 

(Artwork: "Lady Selphy" made by Gooper Blooper. "Rinrin" made by @Raciebeep for Dr. Lava. "Gideon" made by @Emdyofficial for ProZD.)