Latios surfaced from the underground river and moved directly to Ash, the Soul Dew cradled carefully between his fins. He held it out without hesitation.
Ash took it.
The moment it touched his palms, his Aura spiked.
He knew that feeling. He'd felt something close to it once before, standing in the Maya shrine on the Whirl Islands, looking at the ceremonial scepter the priestess kept on its altar. The energy signature was the same family, the same origin, the same underlying force.
Suppressed in the scepter. Fading in the Soul Dew. But unmistakably the same.
"The power in this," he said slowly, "matches something I saw at the Whirl Islands. A ceremonial scepter the Maya priestess keeps in the shrine." He turned the Soul Dew over. "Not identical. The scepter felt like it was being held down by something. This feels like it's running out."
Lorenzo went very still.
Then he stood up sharply. "The Sea Crown."
"Is that what it's called."
"That's what the old accounts call it." Lorenzo's voice had dropped. "Xiaozhi, that wand should be at the bottom of the ocean. It sank after the battle. That's what every record says."
"It's not at the bottom of the ocean," Ash said. "It's on an altar on the Whirl Islands and the Maya priesthood has been treating it as a sacred relic for generations."
The colour had left Lorenzo's face entirely.
"Grandpa, what is it?" Bianca asked, moving to his side.
Lorenzo sat back down heavily and pressed both hands flat on the table. "The trainer who attacked Alto Mare," he said, "wasn't just a powerful person. The power wasn't his. It came from the wand, the Sea Crown." He looked at Ash. "According to my grandfather's account, the Crown could turn the surrounding sea black and command dead Pokémon. The evil trainer held the whole island under threat with it alone."
"Until Latios stopped him," Ash said.
"Until Latios stopped him. And the Soul Dew's energy has been suppressing whatever remains of the Crown's influence ever since." Lorenzo looked at the faintly glowing sphere in Ash's hands. "If the Soul Dew loses its power completely..."
"The suppression breaks," Ash finished.
The room was quiet for a moment.
Bianca looked between them. "How long?"
"Less than a year at the current rate," Ash said. He was still reading the Soul Dew's energy, tracing the decay. "The weakening started two years ago. Whatever is causing it accelerated the process." He set the sphere down carefully on the table. "Lorenzo, you said you'd read about my abilities. The vitality techniques specifically."
Lorenzo nodded. "I was hoping you might be willing to try."
"I can try to stabilise it. Whether I can reverse the decay depends on what's causing it." Ash pressed his palm flat against the Soul Dew's surface and closed his eyes, letting his Aura sink into it slowly.
The energy inside was old, genuinely ancient, layered in a way that reminded him of deep geological strata. At its core it was still intact. What was eroding was the outer structure, the part that interfaced with the world and maintained the suppression.
He began channeling green Aura inward, careful and measured.
"Hmm."
It was working. Slowly, but the decay rate was dropping under the influx of vitality.
Latias drifted close and watched, her eyes moving between the Soul Dew and Ash's face with an expression that was difficult to read but unmistakably intent.
Latios said nothing. But he didn't look away either.
...
Twenty minutes later Ash sat back and exhaled.
"Stabilised for now," he said. "It'll hold for a few months at least. But it's not a permanent fix. The root cause is still there."
"The Sea Crown," Lorenzo said.
"If someone activates the Crown fully, the suppression breaks regardless of what I do here." Ash looked at the Soul Dew, its light marginally steadier than before. "The Crown is on the Whirl Islands. Someone who knows what it is could already be moving toward it."
The thought of Archer, dark green hair and cold eyes, standing at the Alto Mare port that morning floated to the surface of his mind.
He hadn't put it together until now.
"James," he said, without raising his voice.
James appeared in the doorway almost immediately. "Yeah."
"Get Meowth. I need to know if there's been any unusual activity at the Whirl Islands in the last forty-eight hours. Rocket activity specifically."
James read his expression and left without asking why.
Ash looked at Lorenzo. "I need to know everything your family's records say about the Sea Crown. All of it."
Lorenzo nodded and stood. "Come with me."