Chapter One: But a Fleeting Memory
"Isaac?"
"Yes?" Isaac turned his head to face Jenna, tears dripping down her face, wetting her soft white blouse.
"Are we going to find m-my br-brother? He never even got t-to go to school with the rest of the kids. He... he..." Jenna was clearly on the verge of a mental wall, holding back as much as she could in front of her friends.
Isaac wrapped his arms around Jenna in a large, intimate hug, comforting her with his body warmth. His hand slid down her back to her lower abdomen.
"Everything's going to be all right, Jenna. There's nothing to worry about. We'll find Felix. I promise. You have my word as leader of the party."
"Al-alright." Jenna shied away, and awkwardly walked out of the Newman residence back to her now empty home. As she left, she turned to look at Isaac one last time, and smiled.
"You really have a way with women, don't you Isaac?" Garet appeared from behind, as he tends to do. A lot.
Isaac uttered a very foul profanity as he jumped into the air, nearly soiling his new trousers.
"GARET! Don't sneak up on me like that!"
"But it's so fuuuuun!" Garet laughed, his cheeks dying a rosy red, almost as red as the spiky hair upon his head (which he hadn't washed in four days, for the record).
"What is it Garet?" Isaac sighed.
"Well. I heard from Kraden, you know, that old guy who doesn't belong around here because he totally doesn't know Alchemy and is about three years older than dirt? YEAH! So I heard from him that there's this really hot pad called the 'Soul Sanctum'. He says we can gain really powerful Psynergy if we get the four holy elemental stars there! I call Mars."
"Well Veuns is all mine. I've been waited to learn Hover all year." Isaac expressed the length of time by making a large gesture with his hands. Luckily, nobody saw this, as an onlooker might assume Isaac was referring to the size of his intellectual superiority.
"Why? So you can sweep Jenna off her feet?" Garet mocked.
"SHUT UP GARET!" Issac snapped back. He led the way out of the house. "So where is this Soul Sanctum anyway, Garet?"
"It's up to the North, by Kyle's... uh..." Garet cleared his throat, remembering Isaac was sensitive about his father's death, and regretting mentioning it the second it escaped his lips.
"It's okay. It's by his gravestone? You must mean the 'secret path', right?"
"Yeah, that. Are you all packed up?" Garet scratched his head.
"Not yet. Would you mind helping me?" Issac answered.
"Fine," Garet groaned before following Issac up to his bedroom. Garet stepped into Issac's chambers and looked around, confused, for he didn't see Issac. Then the door slammed shut and Issac quickly stepped out from the shadows and locked it.
"What are you doing?" Garet asked, confused.
"Giving you a little...reward," Issac said with a playful wink. Garet gulped and started to edge towards the locked door.
"Why are you trying to run away?" Isaac asked innocently.
"Uh..." Garet said as he grabbed the lock and tried to rip it off of the door handle.
"I'm just... checking to see if this door handle is on tight. Yup! Ch-check..." Garet made a weak attempt at a laugh.
"Oh, well that's good. I was just going to give you this battle axe I found in the forest. I hear you like big sharp things."
"AXE!" Garet lunged at Isaac, and tackled him to the ground, ripping the axe from his hands. He cuddled it playfully until it shone with a glisten that would make even the hottest Fire Adepts jealous.
"Uh. Let's just pretend that didn't happen and we can still be friends. Anyway, I need you to put all my herbs in our bag. I'll pack us some armor and accessories." Isaac dusted himself off, and dug through his drawers.
"What herbs? The drug kind or the healing kind?" Garet chuckled only half-jokingly.
"Garet." Isaac said promptly. That was pretty much all there was to say on the matter. They finished packing, and headed out without another word. Only when the fresh breeze of the trees, casting dark shadows over the ominous gravestones did meet the cool, smooth stone path leading off to the Sol Sanctum, Garet finally broke the silence.
"I think something bad is going to happen." Garet performed a double-take.
"Why would you say that? Nothing has gone wrong so far. Except, you know, Felix disappearing, half of the village being crushed by a giant boulder, and of course those weird dreams about the eye thing I keep having."
"You're right; I don't know what I was worrying about."
So the two boys continued on their way to the Sol Sanctum, battling the strange monsters that attacked them frequently, and training to use their Psynergy in harmony with each other. Before they knew it, the bright purple doors of Sol Sanctum were beaming down at them.
"Well, look. We're finally here. Now we just need to get the doors open." Isaac walks up the staircase, and attempts to push the doors open, to no avail. He leans against the door, but it still stays locked tight.
"Garet! Come help me open this door!" Garet turns his attention from his reflection in the sparkling plate at his feet to Isaac, whom he thought to be much less important. Garet walked up the stairs, and braced himself in front of the door. He cracked his knuckles, and prepared to break the hinge.
"Uh… Wait a minute Garet. The uh… door's made of stone. You can't break down the hinges on a-" But Isaac's warning fell on deaf ears. Garet charged straight forward with a cry of victorious valor, right into his wall of pain and misfortune. Also known as the Sol Sanctum doors.
-CRACK-
"Hey Garet! I think you broke the lock!" Isaac got up to examine the doors, ignoring the fact that Garet was lying on the ground softly sobbing.
"Nope. That was my shoulder. And my spirit." Garet didn't take well to being bested by a door.
"Well. I guess it just won't open... open… opeeennn…" Isaac's words echoed through the mid-day air. And as if by some magical force, the door swung open, and the Sol Sanctum could be explored for the first time in ten years. Let's just hope there are no crazy puzzles, or anything dumb like that. What kind of person would leave statue puzzles lying around for ten years anyway?
"Here Garet, take this herb. It heals 50 HP." Isaac handed a palm-sized green plant to Garet, who ate it in disbelief of any effect.
"This is isn't going to work, Isaac. Why would a simple herb heal my broken shoul- Hey, my shoulder's fixed!" Garet twists his arm in circular motions; when nothing bad is found, he gets up, nods his head, and follows Isaac into the Sol Sanctum.
"Hey Garet? Do you ever feel you're forgetting something? Like something really important that you know you need to do?" Isaac asked.
Meanwhile in Vale
"Hello… Isaac… Garet…" Kraden peeked his head into Isaac's home. "Do you guys want to go to the Sol Sanctum now? It's really cooooool. I know you'll like it."
No one answered him. Even Isaac's mother had left to go to the market, buying a long sword for the turkey they were going to have tonight. She also had to kill the turkey with the long sword so she could have it for dinner tonight. Finally, she would have to clean off the long sword of blood, and return it to the store; it was only a rental.
"Did you guys forget about me again? I'm… uh… I'm still here. GUYS! YOU NEED MY HEEEEEEELP!" Kraden yelled at the sky, attracting the attention of a local atheist group.
Sol Sanctum
"Yeah, I get that feeling a lot too. I've learned to ignore it by now." Garet answered Isaac's question. The two headed deeper, into the Sol Sanctum's lobby.
There, they found a startling amount of ornate statues, which looked as if they could be pushed around with ease. Cracks of light shone out from behind some of them. It was if the Gods were testing them, trying to see that if someone could solve their "impossible riddles", they were worthy enough to possess the Elemental Stars. It was unlikely that this was the case; everyone knows Gods don't make their own statues.
"Hey look! It's a cute little slime!" Garet bent down and attempted to pat it on its head. The slime spewed out a corrosive acid, which promptly proceeded to hurt a fuck ton.
Garet cleared his throat. "Well. That only hurt a little… bit…" Garet winced. In a fit of fury, he swung his axe in an overhead motion, sliced right through the middle of the slime's body.
The slime flopped down in two separate pieces on the ground. After Garet sliced through it twice more to ensure it was really dead, one pushed two gelatinous round eye balls up unto its head, and got back up. The other three shortly followed, much to Garet's dismay.
"GOD DAMMIT! STAY! DEAD!" Garet sliced several more times into their squishy green bodies, and lobbed a fireball just to be sure they stayed down. Isaac, during this time has solved the entire room, and is waited for Garet to cross over so they can leave the room.
"…" Isaac remains speechless about Garet's anger issues. All for the better he supposes. As soon as Garet reaches the other end of the room, they open the door and head off into the next chamber. A surprise awaits them.
"Isaac? What are you doing here?" Jenna asks. "I thought you were supposed to go the market with your mother today. Aren't you getting your new armor?" Jenna is standing on a ledge about four feet above Garet and Isaac's heads, preparing to jump across to one on the other side.
"I came here to… uh… look for your brother! Yeah." Isaac lied through his teeth.
"I thought we came here to get that 'eternal power' stuff from the-" Garet was hushed by Isaac. "Why did you come here, anyway?" Garet yelled out anyway.
"Well, that's simple! I came with Kraden to study the powers of the Sol Sanctum, and the Elemental Stars hidden deep within its… well, depths." Jenna leaped over our heroes' heads, over to a ledge which unbeknownst to our heroes below had a chest which hid a rather large sum of coins.
"Sounds like a great idea! Why don't we come with you? Where's Kraden?" Isaac had a hard time following where Jenna ran, but he enjoyed the angle he got as she jumped over his head.
"Wait…. I don't want to go with Kraden. I already stole his wallet last week. I don't think he'd be very happy to see me. And I also broke his record player. And his favorite record. And I ate all his Herbal Baked Chips." Garet confessed rather profusely.
"Garet, you're a terrible person." Isaac said.
"Yes, yes I am." They both chuckled. "Anyway, we should keep going, I suppose. You don't really want to keep Jenna waiting, do you?"
"Right, right. Let's go on." Isaac shuffled across the watery platforms, being careful not to get Garet too wet. He'd probably dislike it. Jenna waited on the other side of the little creek.
"Alrighty! Let's go see Kraden! I'm sure he'll be glad to see both of you.
"Yeah. Glad is exactly what he'll be." Garet whispered under his breath.