Two nights later, Morgan and Moon were walking down the road, equipped with a piece of paper. It was a map of the city, crisscrossed with blue lines that signified the path that police officers would take in their patrol. Another paper detailed their schedule. Mayor Dan gave it to him so he could evade the curfew. It was all very fishy, but Morgan guessed it was a perk of being the mayor.

Sable City at night looked so different. Instead of alleys' corners hiding gloom, it was the inviting glimmer of light from buildings and lamps that became the focus. As a contrast to everything else around it. Only a smattering number of civilians were still showing their presence outside at this time, each ignoring the others to hurriedly reach their destination.

Morgan gave them the same courtesy. He kept trawling through the street, looking at the papers once in a while to make sure he avoided being caught by the police.

Someone bumped into his shoulder, pulling his attention. It was a teenager, who looked like she was around his age in fact, and the girl didn't look like she was fine. She was swaying drunkenly. Her clothes were full of creases and dirty.

Morgan reached out to steady her, "Miss, are you alright?"

She turned around, and her eyes suddenly cleared as if just realized that there was a person with her. She slapped him and then dashed away.

"What?" Morgan said, surprised. "What?"

He ran after her, Moon hopped into his arms so Morgan didn't leave him to straggle behind. He couldn't just let it stand. He needed an explanation, at least. Morgan followed her into a narrow gap between buildings, it seemed like half of this city was composed out of alley.

Morgan found her crumpled on the ground. He let go of Moon and approached slowly. He said, "Hey, what was that for? Do you need help or something?"

The alley was dim, but then some shimmering dust floated down from above to provide scant illumination. Morgan yawned, and he started to feel drowsy. It was the late hour of the night, but this reaction seemed too fast and too strong for anything normal.

Morgan fell first, Moon tried valiantly to shake him awake. But he, too, finally succumbed.

The girl lifted her head, and said, "Didn't you know that there was a curfew? You should have listened to them."

With his last breath of consciousness, Morgan thought, he knew it, he knew he was going to get kidnapped!

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Morgan gradually regained his awareness. He opened his eye to see the sleek floor of a stage. He panned his sight to meet the stare of a dark robe-wearing crowd. They were sitting in an arranged seat before the stage in total silence. He was held in a shadowed room styled like a small theater. The ceiling was painted with what looked like an exaggerated depiction of a meteor circled by arrows pointing toward the cardinal direction.

An unknown woman was standing near him. She wore the same kind of robe but had her hood down. Her face was painted with the color yellow-gold. She cut her dark hair short, and left it jagged.

She said, her voice sounded scraggly. "Ah, I see that our last guest is finally here with us."

Morgan was strapped to a chair, the binding tightly refuses any movement beside his head. Though, he tried anyway. Moon was beside him in a similar situation, sans his bone. Both of them gagged. On the other side of him was a man.

The man was in quite a different state. Leaning heavily on his backrest, he was drooling, his eyes heavy-lidded. Morgan didn't think that he was even aware of his surroundings. No gag for him.

The woman continued, "My name is Esmeralda, and I'll be your host for tonight's festivity. I do so hope that you'll enjoy your stay with us."

Moon tried to growl through his restraint, but it failed.

"There is no need for that. I'll forgive the slight this once because this is your first showing. But I promise you, both of you will learn the value of being quiet on your third, if you ever reach there. Not unlike the man over there."

Morgan stopped, waiting to observe whatever it was these people were going to do.

Esmeralda clapped her hands, "Let us begin! Bring in the Augur!"

Two people entered through the door, hoisted on their shoulders was a palanquin, upon which a Pokemon was sitting rigidly. It was a yellow Pokémon resembling a duck or maybe a bipedal platypus. On top of its head were three thick strands of black hair, and it had a wide, flat cream-colored beak. Its eyes seemed vacant and had tiny pupils.

"He is the direct descendant of our Saviour herself," she began, gesturing toward the Psyduck.

The crowd chanted, altogether, "The Saviour!"

"A noble blood flow in his veins. Granting him the coveted ability to know the future. And many other knowledge besides! His lineage is the strongest Psyduck in the world. They were steadfast in giving this city the first warning of any coming disasters."

She took a moment to gather her breath. Then continue, "Recently, a new premonition arrived. But it is too massive and nebulous for him to make sense. This disaster is messing with even the force of the world. Regardless, even the knowledge of it drives Augur catatonic. Again and again. That is why this House is created, our purpose is to keep them sane and able to predict what's coming. And for that, we have the solution."

"The Solution!"

Psyduck was carefully deposited on the stage. He stood immobile, staring at nothing. Esmeralda guided him toward the other man. She said to her audience, "The first is a sacrifice," and then to Augur she ordered, "Do it."

Psyduck grabbed his head and let loose a strain of psychic power with a cry. It traveled in a wave to reach the man. He jerked awake violently, his whole body shaking. The chair thudded against the floor. A trickle of tears slowly dripped to his chin, mixing with the nosebleed. Then he started to shriek.

Morgan never heard a man scream quite like that before. It bounced off the wall, and then you could feel the sensation when it hit your skin. It was the visceral scream of someone desperate to die. The noise climbed to a crescendo. The pressure from inside the mind mounted, and it wanted out. It pushed against the physical barrier in its way.

The skull cracked, and then pieces of bone launched away. Blood and bits of brain matter along with it. The man's head literally exploded.

Some of it ended up on Morgan's face, and got on his hair. His heart began to pound in his chest. Moon wasn't doing any better, he scratched at the wood of his chair but it just wasn't enough.

Esmeralda carried on with her monologue. "An overflow of knowledge received will give Psyduck an overwhelming headache. It needs to go somewhere else. A sharing of burden. Luckily, the human mind is a fitting receptacle for that sort of matter. It is not unlike an empty box that will absorb psychic energy. Unfortunately, the first gift is often time entirely disproportionate. Especially from such a powerful psychic.

"Oh, it surely can be released somewhere else, but it is an inefficient and slow path to throw away the gift. To which I say, let's not waste our resources. Knowledge is knowledge, after all. And the end-product from the process can always be useful for something else."

What a woman, thought Morgan. But he didn't have the space to admire her in his present situation because now she turned her attention to him. Augur was guided to face him by her hands.

"The second is a struggle," she said.

Another psychic strain, Morgan observes it coming with one eye wide open. His breath intake quickened. It entered him. It was in his mind. He screamed, it was inside his mind. He vaguely heard Moon howling his own pain. There was nothing to do, though, except to fight through it.

He couldn't fully describe the feeling. It was like there was a moving finger stirring his brain, making a soup out of the electrical signal. It didn't care what it touched. The only thing that mattered was to find an appropriate place to insert itself in, and to expel what was previously there. Then, he could see nothing but darkness for a short moment.

(Moonlight, shadow crooked. Hanged in the half-life, she sang a scythe song. The black cord unraveled into pieces and rained down from the sky's rocks. The ticks that hunt ate the blacks, and were enveloped by light and heartsong.)

Morgan came down with a slush of liquid pouring out of him. His chin was glued to his upper chest. He was heaving loudly.

"It is survivable," Esmeralda said. "If one has a will to. And I see that you two do have it. Lucky us, we get ourselves a repeat performer."

She turned her back on Morgan to face her audience once again. "The third is a boon."

The crowd whispered to each other. Some even stooped to physically shove another.

Esmeralda raised her palm, and everyone immediately stilled. "I have chosen the blessed one for tonight. Faye, step forward."

The girl from before hesitantly climbed to the stage, now in cleaner clothes. Her wispy bangs swung back and forth. Esmeralda grabbed her shoulder and asked, "Are you ready, child?"

She visibly swallowed, but her voice was clear when she said, "Yes, Mother."

Augur repeated it for the third time. However, after this one, his eyes started to lose the empty quality. He became more and more cognizant. At least for a few days.

Faye, on the other hand, was shivering in cold sweat. She took in breaths laboriously. She said in a thick voice, "I'm fine."

Esmeralda nodded approvingly, "And that concludes our show for tonight. I'll see you all back here in three nights."

The curtains closed to a rhythmic applause.

Esmeralda ordered for Morgan to be put in a spare room. One without windows. A man cut his and Moon's binding. He dropped the Cubone into Morgan's arms, and roughly shoved him forward. Marching him to somewhere. Faye followed behind, laden with Morgan's possession.

Morgan was half-unconscious the whole way. He remembers nothing of the steps he took to get there. The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on a carpeted floor.

"It was a pity that you got caught up in all of this," said a girl's voice. It was Faye, that's her name, thought Morgan. She was alone with him, the man nowhere to be seen. "Not that I'll do anything to help you, I guess."

She tossed his PokeBall onto the bed, beside a knocked-out Moon, as well as the Cubone's stick of bone. There was a bed there in the room, but they chose to leave Morgan on the floor anyway. What a disgrace.

Morgan deliriously muttered, "Careful with the bone, it's his only weapon."

"Was that an euphemism for something?" Faye replied. She shook her head, "By the way, just to give you a warning, the wall here is very sturdy. Your weak Pokemon wouldn't be able to do anything. So just sit tight, and don't do anything stupid. Do you understand me?"

Morgan didn't answer. His eye were already closed.

After what felt like a moment later someone was chittering right by his ear, and shaking him awake. It was actually a large, rodent-like Pokémon. It was primarily tawny-colored with a cream underside. Its gaping mouth baring a pair of very large incisors. The whiskers on its cheeks shifted madly. A Raticate! But how did it get here?

Morgan looked at the broken down door, oh that's how. It pointed to Moon, and then to his PokeBall. He tiredly got up and reached for it. He activated the button to return Moon inside the red and white device. "Now what?"

Raticate jumped to the back wall and then bit through it. The wall gives. It crumbled in the face of Raticate's powerful teeth. Having successfully made the hole, it looked back toward Morgan with a prideful mien.

"Alright then," said Morgan. "Let's go."

Morgan ambled closer, and crawled through the hole. He found himself amongst wild growth of greenery. In order to not stumble upon anything, he carefully trailed after the Raticate, who had a better night vision.

They eventually managed to find their way back into the cobbled street. Morgan could only hope that their escape went unnoticed for a little longer as he made his way toward the police station.