Chapter 2: Let’s Meet There

The sun had already hidden behind the horizon long ago, the crescent moon with its veil of stars gracing the sky for those who’d spare the evening to be enthralled by it. Ember was not one of them. Surrounded by packed shelves of books, the desk of her study had a dozen or so pages of scattered notes and calculations, different Uxiepedia books haphazardly opened with colored post-it notes stuck to different points, and Ember’s overworked eyes traced imaginary lines among all of them.

Ember took a deep breath, then another deeper one. She stood on her chair, standing tall against the myriad of information she had spent the past few hours working diligently on. Only Dad’s most difficult quizzes had ever overworked her brain as much as this letter had done. A bird’s eye view provided the broader perspective she needed.

‘Okay, Ember.’ She thought. ‘Let’s take a step back and review what you got. Organize your thoughts and notes. You’re almost done.’

‘There are Pokémon names in these questions, and Uxiepedia has a comprehensive list of all species, numbered according to the order they were cataloged. Questions with Pokémon in it are supposed to have them used as their Uxiepedia entry numbers instead.’

“Question 1: 1,371,330,631 is a large number. A Venusaur root will put it back to its place.”

‘According to Uxiepedia, Venusaur is entry #3. The root of a Venusaur would be a cube root. The cube root of 1,371,330,631 is 1111.’

“Question 2: An amusing thought: what happens when you combine two Flaaffy, and then divide it by a Pidgeot?”

‘Flaaffy’s Uxipedia entry is #180. Now, the letter said combining, not multiplying. “Details matter.”, as you taught me, Dad. Combining two Flaaffy creates the number 180180, and then dividing by a Pidgeot, entry #18, results in 10010.’

“Question 3: Nothing to the potency of nothing should also result in nothing, but it still results in something. Tricky, isn’t it?”

‘Nothing is zero. Any number to the potency of 0 results in 1, even zero. You used this example when you taught me that “things are just the way they are sometimes.” And they are, aren’t they?’

“Question 4: True or False, and then to the base of 2:”

‘Just a short quiz. Base of 2 is making numbers be either 1 and 0 to count. True and false is treating it as boolean, treating a true as 1 and a false as a 0.’

“( ) Due to still unknown time-space anomalies, the layout of a given Mystery Dungeon is always unique each time it’s entered.”

‘True. It is a still unknown phenomenon of why it happens, but this is basic Mystery Dungeon knowledge. At least according to Uxiepedia.’

“( ) The Pokémon who dwell in a Mystery Dungeon are facsimile echoes of Pokémon who formerly inhabited that region.”

‘This is a recorded phenomenon that researchers have extensively reported on Uxiepedia. The echoes are presumed from the Pokémon acting “feral”, not following any discernible sentient reasoning according to tests run.’

“( ) Historically, natural grottos have been widely used as shelter and protection by Pokémon.”

‘True. You taught me in our History lessons, and Uncle Rim stories always had his team going to caves at the end of night to camp or to hide from strenuous weather whenever available.’

“( ) A tree is able to grow without a source of sunlight.”

‘Now… this one is false. Photosynthesis requires sunlight, even if a little. There are bushes and smaller plants that grow under the moonlight, but not trees. Trees grow tall so they can get more sunlight than their surrounding neighbors.’

‘True, true, true, false. Again, to the base of 2, with ‘true’ equaling 1 and ‘false’ equaling 0, this question’s result is 1110.’

“We’ve always counted to 2. Readability is important, so let’s count to 10 instead, shall we?”

‘Even though counting is more efficient in base 2, base 10 is how most people count. That is why we convert, because readability is important. All numbers from previous questions have “ones” and “zeros”. We convert them from base 2 to base 10.’

“Question 1: 1111 = 15
Question 2: 10010 = 18
Question 3: 1 = 1
Question 4: 1110 = 14”

‘15, 18, 1, 14. Those are the numbers Dad wants me to find.’

“Water it with Unown, and a lovely berry will grow.”

‘Watering it with Unown… Unown is Uxiepedia entry #201… but they are also an ancient alphabet. If in this case we are no longer going with entries and instead going with the alphabet, Uxiepedia has also cataloged each Unown format in an order. So, if “watering them with Unown” means cross-referencing the converted results with the corresponding letter in the Unown alphabet’s order, we get…’

“15 = O
18 = R
1 = A
14 = N”

‘Oran. An Oran berry! The berry that grows from all of this is an Oran berry!’

“We might need some of their seeds. Let’s meet there.”

‘Okay, Dad wants to meet me, and he said we need some Oran seeds. So he wants to meet me where we could get Oran seeds. But Oran berries are one of the most common seeds to find… unless he means Oran Stead! Oran Stead has the largest Oran berry farms in the continent. He must want to meet me there!’

“The fourth is important for the right meeting spot.”

‘So, if my assumption is correct, I should be meeting him in Oran Stead, and if I am to understand it correctly, it is somewhere there related to Mystery Dungeons, grottos, trees, and sunlight.’

The Quilava plopped back to the chair and deflated against its rail. Ember’s entire belly flared up with Butterfrees, her heart rate skyrocketed. After all these years, she was about to meet her father again. It was sudden, it was out of ordinary, but it was real.

Ember straightened up and took a deep breath. She released her breath, then breathed in more deeply. As much as the news was indeed the best they could ever be, leaving first thing tomorrow was undoubtedly the worst choice to make. If her father wanted to meet her, the possibility that she would be far from Pidove’s Nest for an extended period of time was considerably, no, overwhelmingly high. She had a job with responsibilities, there were Pokémon counting on her, and she couldn’t just leave without saying anything to anyone… especially Uncle Rim.

Her heart sank. She was about to do exactly what her father had done. Uncle Rim had always reassured her that her father’s research was worldchanging and he would never have left her if it weren’t. But she knew exactly what happened to those who were left behind. She was one of them after all.

Ember looked out the window, up to the stars. Her eyes dampened. Somewhere close, beneath that dotted veil in the sky, her father also wanted to be close to her, to share a warm embrace, to pick at each other’s brains over dinner. She yearned to meet him too much. Her father needed her help. The call had to be heeded.

But unlike every ounce of her which argued to just up and leave right there and then, if she were to heed the call, she had to do so correctly.