prelude

Altomare, a city of beauty, culture, and property so valuable the sea itself is trying to steal it away. This comes with a price of its own however, with all the accolades to its sights owning anything here is nothing short of a Herculean task; as such, tourism is the only way the city manages to stay afloat (for now). The traffic has done wonders for small town shops and the sale of useless knick-knacks, but places like libraries have gathered dust over neglect. Not helping was the advent of the internet so most of the information here was online, free, and infinitely more convenient. This leads to long hours and gluttonous consumption of your own products. This librarian in particular has done this for so long he's almost convinced he could replace the internet with all that he knows; though company sure wouldn't hurt. The man was just about to pull out a copy of some off-hand smut novel for a generous helping of cheese when he heard footsteps in the distance. This could be one of two things: another annoying Digimon GO user who snuck in for some rare finds, or an actual reader. The furor-filled formerly forlorn man rushed to the stranger to find a young woman with brown hair, and a white hat. Bianca, a girl he recognized as someone who more than often came in to get inspiration for art was for some reason looking in the "occult" section of the library. He paid no mind as there was plenty to be inspired by from these tomes and grimoires, though she seemed lost and confused looking at them.
"Ah, Bianca, lookin for something spooky to paint?" He said
The painter jumped and turned around suddenly to address the man with a blank stare, and made a gesture towards her mouth making some weak groans in junction.
"Can't speak eh? Need any suggestions? this section is small but it's got some interesting material"
Bianca nodded her head vigorously.
"Well, there's the Arceus compendium, for divine magic. The Nox for curses, and Gehenna Invidia for rituals and body altering spells."
She eagerly plucked the latter from his hands, and looked with immense joy.
"Ha, well don't too excited, some of the stuff in there is quite intense and not for the unprepared, but if you..."
He turned around to face where she was to find that she had left in an instant, taking the book with her.
"Oh well, not like anyone was clamoring for it anyway." he scoffed.

---

Bianca stared out towards the sea, lamenting her career choices in life. She had thanked Lorenzo multiple times for letting her stay with him while she tried to get her life together, in return for tending to the museum and his yard work, but it seemed her aspirations of being an artist were slowly being crushed. Ever since she was little she always loved to paint. She loved making colors form shapes, and making those shapes dance on a canvas. She was talented too, making the acclaim of most artists who examined her work; but that wasn't the issue as she soon found out. She had spent so much time on art that she really hadn't developed any other skills, at least not ones that were marketable. She didn't even have a stable pokemon team, and trying to start in a tourist trap is just begging to go broke in 4 hours; tops. She had tried to sell her painting but only had genuine success one time, when some "prodigy" trainer named Ash somehow managed to fry a Golem with a thunderbolt, despite its ground typing. That showcase of divine intervention and baffling rule-breaking inspired her to both interview and paint the trainer and his frankly disgusting display. Luckily for her he swore to secrecy so he wouldn't tell anyone about the Eon guardians and where they were hiding. Speaking of which she tried to sell those paintings as well, but got way too many intrusive questions from some shady people wondering how she got such detailed art; so she had to drop those immediately. She sold over a hundred of copies of her act of intervention piece and could never manage another spark of genius; even years later. She chose this, this her job now, and she needed to make sure that she had a stable career, Lorenzo wouldn't last much longer; but it wasn't like she had a library of images in her head to choose from.

Wait... Library.

Bianca arrived down at the west Altomare local library and called for the keeper.
"Ah Bianca." He said. "It's been a few weeks hasn't it. uh, next time you want to borrow a book, please check it out first, I know you're eager but.."
"What?" Bianca questioned "I haven't seen you in months, and I don't have any of your books."
The librarian looked puzzled at her reaction. "Sure you do, you got that spellbook for your art projects and-"
Bianca interrupted him "Spellbook? I don't even have any normal books around my space, you sure you didn't dream this?"
The old man was getting frustrated now "Look, I know this may seem like meaningless paper to you, but that this is immensely expensive and I know you can't pay me for it, so bring it back, and we can work out an extension for your-"
Bianca interrupted him again in panic "I didn't come in! I don't even know when this happened, what book you're talking about, I can help you look for it but... I... don't have it."
The man saw the genuine fear and panic in Bianca's eyes and thought about her situation, and came to a sort of grim realization after putting what he knew together.
"Maybe you don't have it, but I think I might know who could."
"Who?" Bianca asked desperately
"There's been talk these last few weeks about a mysterious figure in red going around collecting "things" from people" He explained "He steals these seemingly random objects and then randomly disappears himself, he might have possessed you."
She didn't feel like her questions were answered, but she felt like she needed an easy way out of her predicament; so she took advantage "Uh, I'll go look again and see if I have what you're talking about, if not, I'll go look."
With her parting words, she bolted off, trying not to continue a conversation that could lead to bars; but she did think about what he said. spellbook... Red figure... someone looking like her... Maybe this mysterious man was using Latias for some ritual. She wasn't hard to fool from her experience and had gotten her into trouble before because of that. If this was true, she could be in great danger.
Bianca rushed towards the secret garden.

Bianca looked all over the wooded area, only to find the red dragon on the ground, with a slit wrist. She knelt by her side and desperately checked her vitals, she was alive, but in a state of shock; it was clear whatever the red man wanted, he already had it. Bianca examined the wound, the blood was fresh, so he couldn't be far. Bianca left Latias to heal as she thought she would be able to use recover to heal quick. She ran all over the wooded area, occasionally catching glimpses of a figure wearing a crimson red robe; this had to be him. She chased him all the way to an opening near the pond, where she found a red circle with various "Things" around it. Was this the ritual? was this what he was building up to? She walked inside the circle to get a closer look, only to see something red stand before her. The robed man held the book and opened it to a choice page and lowered his disguise; only to reveal a bright red and white, plane-shaped dragon, with a slit wrist. Latias then smiled and waved at Bianca
Bianca felt many things at this moment: betrayal, fear, danger, defeat, humiliation, and many other like emotions, but nothing could quite convey them all better than one crass word:

shit

you didn't think I wrote that just for nothing did you?