AN: This oneshot was first posted a few years ago on Golden Sun Fanfiction, the archive linked to Golden Sun Realm, as an entry in the Tolbi contest. I only found out afterwards that Tolbi was just the name of the contest; it didn't have to be taken as the theme. Fortunately, it worked out quite well that way.
19/06/10: Rounded out the very end slightly.
Disclaimer: I do not own Golden Sun; it belongs to Nintendo/Camelot.
Tourists in Tolbi.
"Can you name this herb, my dear?" A man with faint streaks of grey in his blue hair picked a sprig of leaves, still wet with dew, from a bush growing by the road, and handed it to the sleepy little girl sitting on his shoulders.
"Is it... valerian?" Mia guessed, sniffing the leaves uncertainly; she didn't really recognise it.
Walking beside them, Alex laughed a little unkindly at this, before a reproving look from his mentor quieted him.
"Not quite. This is agrimony; applied to wounds, it aids coagulation of the blood, and as an ingredient in spring tonics and other potions - "
"Can you name this one?" With a gloved hand, Alex passed her a darker, thicker sort of leaf.
"Um... ahh!" She dropped it, the sharp stinging of her fingers making her eyes water, and buried her face in her father's hair. As she prayed to Mercury, her father turned to glare at his apprentice.
"I... I'm sorry, Mia." Alex tried to look it. She peeked at him through damp eyelashes, her hands glimmering with white light. He sighed irritably, slipping his gloves back into his satchel. She was being far too cute.
"What was that for?" His mentor asked sternly.
"Nothing," Alex muttered. "But really... anyone could tell valerian from..."
"You're fourteen. She's nine. Can't you be a little more mature?"
"Yes. I'm sorry..." Alex wondered if he could get away with changing the subject yet. "Is it much further to Tolbi now?"
"It shouldn't be, if the information they gave us at the docks holds true. I haven't been this way for twenty years... Isn't it strange how time slips by?"
Ivan gazed left and right at the roaring plaza, barely keeping up with Master Hammet and the others. Street vendors hawked trinkets, old weapons, dried meats and sweets and buttered corn; warriors clad in freshly-polished armour shoved through the crowds on their way to try-outs at the stadium; a pair of jugglers tossed jewelled knives at each other on a nearby corner, and a burst of flames from a fire-eater on another drew a spirited cheer. A woman with long purple hair looked away from Ivan when he looked at her, and he wondered if she was from Xian, and then a trio in heavy clothes hurried by, and he wondered where blue-haired people like that lived. One of Hammet's retainers tugged at the seven year old's wrist as he fell behind again; he pulled free and ran to the front of the group instead, and tuned in to an argument between Hammet and a few of the younger servants.
"Come on, when are we next gonna be here during Colosso? Everyone else - "
"We're here on business, boys! If we get this contract, you'll have gold enough to go sightseeing another time..."
Mia wasn't sure what Lord Babi had wanted to speak with her father about, but then, neither was her father. The letter had been very vague, mentioning their 'reputable lineage' and an 'intriguing folk tale' about the 'legacy of Hermes', but not much else. Alex had shrugged and said that Babi had probably just heard about the dried-up old fountain, but her father had been willing to answer the summons whatever it was about.
When they'd reached the palace, her father had left with an attendant and Alex had been given permission to study in the library; Mia had been handed over to a stocky woman named Helena who smelt of sardines and vinegar, and asked if she wanted to 'help out in the kitchen'. As 'helping' seemed to involve playing with cake mix while Helena and the other cooks gutted fish, Mia had no objections. Flour, butter, sugar, eggs and water... Actually, the only complaint she could possibly have was that the recipe was a bit plain.
"How're you doing there, kid?" Helena came over to check on her.
"Fine, thank you, ma'am." Mia hesitated. "But... could I ask...?"
"What?"
"Do you have any cloves? Or ginger?"
"Sure, we've plenty of root ginger. Anything else?" Helena offered, opening a cupboard behind them.
"Ginger is good with honey and chilli powder..."
"Chilli? In a cake? Look, here's some mixed spice - that'll do, right?"
"Yes. Thank you." Mia nodded, and took the extra ingredients happily. The ginger needed preparing; she took her chore knife from her bag and set about cutting the root into thin, neat slices.
Helena smiled. The kid looked so intent - but she didn't seem to have noticed she'd gotten flour on her nose.
Setting the old tome down next to his staff and satchel, Alex rubbed his eyes. This scholar - Darreus of Thares, wherever that had been - had quite awful handwriting, and the lighting in this room was of a similar standard. Still, this was the most useful book so far... Of the last few he'd picked up, the first had been entirely about electrolytic alchemy, the second had been written in some indecipherable code, and the third had been the journal of a hermit who believed he was a squid.
Alex reviewed the notes he'd made, and almost felt like giving up. All of the most interesting points so far had been references to other texts. He'd gladly turn to the 'Compleate Theorie of Duall-Ellemental Dissipation Mechannics' for further reading, if he knew where in the world it was... Well, he would have a few more hours here today, wouldn't he? And maybe more tomorrow. Enough time to make some worthwhile progress.
"Found out anything interesting?" His mentor's voice sounded from the doorway.
"Possibly." Alex frowned. "Almost. I think..."
"That's more than I can say. When I told Lord Babi about the Water of Hermes, his interest was piqued; when I told him that it no longer flows, and that it could not cure one who suffered from no illness, his interest died."
"One who suffers from no illness?"
"He didn't care to explain."
"Are we... leaving already?"
"No, there are a few sages studying here with whom I'm to spend the afternoon. Exchange secret formulas." There was a sardonic edge to his mentor's voice; healers with Psynergy did not guard their reproducible work quite as jealously as other academics did. "I came to ask you to take Mia back to the inn for lunch."
"Oh. Sure, of course."
"And if it's all right, would you show her round town this afternoon? I didn't bring her here to leave her cooped up in the kitchen."
"Oh. Fine."
"Nor did I bring you here to let you give yourself a headache."
"Uh... thanks." Alex paused. "You went travelling a lot more when you were younger, didn't you, sir?"
"All over Angara. Indra, the odd time. And as for Gondowan - have I ever told you and Mia about the time I fell for a Colosso finalist's wife?"
"No." Alex smiled in response to the slight laugh that came with this confession. "Unrequited, I take it?"
"Yes, of course... Well, are you ready to go?"
"Oh... almost. I'll find my own way to the kitchens. We'll be leaving Tolbi tomorrow morning, won't we?"
Alex sighed as his mentor left. That was fine, and they would be.
Mia was carefully dissecting a sardine - and giving the oven occasional anticipative glances - when Helena tapped her on the shoulder and pointed out the boy waiting for her in the doorway.
"Alex..." She hurried over, smiling happily. "Look, they gave me sugared plums and I saved you some!"
"That's... nice... but would you go and wash before we leave? Your hands are sticky, and you have flour - "
"It's just sugar and spice, and - oh, where?"
After cleaning up, and receiving a promise from Helena that the cake would find its way to her father once it was baked, Mia left holding Alex's hand; he permitted it, for the time being.
Outside, the crowds had subsided a little since the morning; not so many people were leaving the stadium for lunch. Without suffering as much jostling - a phenomenon far less common in peaceful little Imil than over here - the two Mercury Adepts found the walk through town much more pleasant this time.
"Do you have enough for any of those?" Alex asked Mia dubiously when they stopped at a jewellery stall; a set of pearl-white bangles had caught her eye.
"Maybe..." Mia turned to him. "Do you think Ma or Grandma would like them, though?"
"Probably." Alex smiled in a way that made her wonder what was so funny about that question.
"Well..." Mia hesitated, and watched as Alex picked up a turquoise bead necklace, his expression softening. It was like the ones... "Are you getting that for your mother?"
"Maybe."
"I think she'd like it." Mia bowed her head, trying hard not to be nervous around this subject. "She likes the other necklaces you left her, doesn't she? And the lilies."
"...Yes, I suppose she does." Alex wasn't sure whether she believed it, or was saying so because she thought he did.
"Does she... like the bracelet I made for her?" Mia asked awkwardly. She'd given it to him to give to her, and he hadn't said a word, at the time.
"It's her favourite." Alex smiled and ruffled her hair, then pulled her into an impulsive hug, and she wasn't sure quite why.
"Are you buying that?" The woman behind the stall asked sharply.
"Yes. Yes, definitely." Alex paid for the necklace, then draped it around Mia's neck.
"What...?"
"It's not for her. It's for you." He smiled proudly at her, and she smiled back, still a little confused. "So don't go giving it to Grandma, or anyone else!"
"Um, Alex, I was wondering..." As they started down the street again, Mia figured she'd ask him this while he was in a good mood - he didn't normally like answering questions very much. "What's in your bag?" It looked far more full than it had been that morning.
"I'm borrowing a few books from the library." He sounded pleased with himself... He really was in a good mood.
"Is that allowed?" Mia asked, even so. "Aren't the things in the palace Lord Babi's? Mightn't it be - "
"I'll return them before we leave. It's fine." He squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Don't argue."
Neither of them realised that they'd been overheard.
Ivan leaned against a window ledge in the inn's hallway, melting rows of sweets with the little lightning bolts crackling from his fingertips. The others were a bit upset; the contract hadn't worked out. Some of them were out; some were hanging around the inn; Ivan was melting sweets. It took a lot of effort.
A couple of men entered the corridor from downstairs and continued on round the corner. Ivan had been here a while, and he was sure he'd seen different people entering and leaving both the rooms around the corner around lunchtime; warriors and blue-haired folk stood out a bit. When the two men came back a few minutes later, Ivan stepped up and tugged on the hand of the nearer one.
"What's wrong, kid?" The man stared at Ivan apprehensively. Ivan kept hold of his hand and stared back silently. The second guy started to laugh. The first one scowled and hit Ivan, then walked off, shaking his head. "Little freak."
Ivan went back to his sweet-melting with fresh ferocity, a dark bruise forming on his cheek.
A while later, Ivan caught sight of the blue-haired youths outside and leaned closer to the window to watch. The boy was grinning and saying something that was making the girl laugh. Ivan turned back to his blobs of charred and melted sugar, stifling a mild pang of envy. While he was laying out another row, emptying the packet, the boy passed him by on the way to his room. He came rushing back pretty quickly.
"Say, have you seen any-"
"Two of them - Taros and Jannin of Tolbi. They have your stuff," Ivan told him, "and they're headed for a cave that's a twelve minute walk out of town, due north from the stadium. It's by a fork in the stream, with a big rock. They found it when they were young... And they do this every year, just to the tourists. They think they're better than us."
The older boy stared at him for a few moments, before recovering his manners. "Well, then... thank you." And he rushed off again. Looking through the window, Ivan soon saw him and the girl leaving. After thinking about it for a minute or so, he left to follow them.
"You're not coming," Alex told her again, without breaking his stride. He'd left his staff and the books under his bed. He wasn't returning without them, and he was returning before Mia's father. "Go back now, or..."
"It's safe enough," Mia replied. "You... you wouldn't put yourself in any danger over something like this, would you? So it's safe. And if you're going to say it's dangerous..."
Alex glared at her; she'd already threatened to tell the palace guards. After a few minutes, he slowed down so that she could still keep up.
The cave was exactly where the weird little boy had said it would be. Before they'd gone more than a few paces in, they heard voices from deeper inside, and they retreated to the trees beyond the stream. Two men who could well have been citizens of Tolbi emerged, in high spirits, and started back towards the city. Good. They were gone. It made sense; who would bother stay to guard such an isolated place? Alex led the way into the cave, with Mia following just close enough that he wanted to snap at her not to tread on his heels and just distant enough that doing so wouldn't be fair.
A heavy metal door greeted them after the first twenty yards, leading southwards; Alex managed to shove it open, and let it clang shut after them. From that point on, green tiles covered the floor - fewer were cracked or missing the further they walked - and grey stonework made up the walls, for the most part. Dirt and rubble filled the rooms that lay along the ancient passageway; many doorways were choked up or jammed shut. Bracketed torches still burned, lighting the way, as the floor slanted downwards. They were thankful for that.
Pale statues eventually started to appear along the walls at regular intervals, reminding Mia of the ones in Mercury Lighthouse - except that these ones bore scrape marks round their eyes, where gems had been gouged out. A faint thunder-like noise started to sound every now and then; Alex wondered how near the stadium they were, now that they'd been heading due south for about a dozen minutes. The very end of the tunnel had caved in, but a door nearby opened into...
On the other side of the room, three people stood up as the door squeaked open. A short sword, a knife and a mace... Alex dragged his eyes away from the weapons at their belts and tried to look just at their faces. Two men and a woman. The taller man drew his hand across his throat, and the other two thieves nodded, stepping past a decent hoard of wallets and bags as they headed for the door. Alex felt Mia clinging to his arm. The distant crowd's cheers filtered into the tunnel.
"Looks like this was a bad place to tell them to meet us." Alex smiled apologetically. "I would just tell them to find somewhere else, but they're already a bit drunk and they can be quite rowdy... You might be best off clearing out of here, I'm afraid."
When Ivan approached the mouth of the cave, he heard a metallic clang from inside; when he investigated, he found a door that he couldn't open. Disappointed, he retreated outside and wondered what to do. He really did want to see what happened to them...
Jumping across the stream, he settled on climbing a tree and waiting there. There was a decent breeze out here... Sitting amongst the highest branches, Ivan closed his eyes, trying to feel for the tree's energy. He'd never yet managed to read a tree's mind, but that had just turned the challenge into a reassuring habit - it was far more relaxing than actually managing to read anyone else's mind ever proved.
Swaying gently in the breeze, Ivan smiled - and he swayed - and he slipped, falling through the branches with a shriek.
"You're telling us to get out?" The lead thief clarified, incredulously.
"It's just... you see, our older brother and his friends saw this spot on the way into town, and now that most of them have cleared the Colosso try-outs, they've decided they may as well throw the party here," Alex explained. "And there's a sizeable bet resting on how deep the cave goes... I think Keith only sent me on ahead so that he could buy more drinks first. Oh! Or you could stay, if you want to join in? Three more people won't make much difference..."
"You're here by coincidence?" The woman laughed derisively. "So there's no way you're the blue-haired brats who ought to be looking for us around now?"
"The... no, of course not..." Alex wondered how he could have been so stupid as to wander in here. Possessions were misplaced all the time, and nobody really worried... "There are other... people with blue..."
The knife-wielder made a grab for them, and Alex held out his hands; a jet of water burst from the floor beneath her feet, knocking her over. While she scrambled to her feet and the other two stared in surprise, Alex backed away into the corridor. He couldn't win that way, and he and Mia couldn't outrun them the whole way back to Tolbi... As the sword-user rushed him, Alex raised one hand to send a barrage of ice his way and managed to get his knife out of his bag; the mace struck him a glancing blow as he moved, and as he stumbled and turned he sent a jet of water at its wielder; when the thief fell Alex lunged and stabbed him through the eye, the movement throwing him clear of the brunt of a blade's attack, though it still left its mark...
Mia backed away shakily as she watched Alex fight. She couldn't look away. When the man with the sword headed for her, she vaguely registered Alex yelling something at her, but didn't catch the words; holding out her hands, she prayed for a blessing, and at the sight of her palms glowing and shimmering with Ply, her attacker hesitated; moments later, a blast of water knocked him flat, and Mia kept backing away.
It seemed like hours, to her, before Alex limped over to the wall. Mia made herself look at the bloody figures lying on the ground. All three thieves looked very dead. She turned her gaze back to Alex, who had started to heal himself, though he was as close to passing out from psychical exhaustion as from physical pain. The powers Mercury granted them weren't limitless... She opened her mouth to tell him to stop, but couldn't find her voice, so she fumbled with her bag and got out her set of emergency vials in silence, thought a moment, and tipped out everything else as well, just in case. She could cast Ply, but only well enough to heal stings and scrapes. He was unconscious by the time she started treating him.
When Alex woke up - with that headache he hadn't been supposed to give himself - he opened his eyes to see Mia kneeling miserably by the opposite wall, next to a pile of books. She'd left his staff beside him. That would be useful on the walk back... When she saw that he was awake, she moved to pick up the books.
"Leave them!" Alex snapped, before wishing he hadn't.
"Y... your hands are sticky..." Mia whispered, as if reusing his words could invoke the last meaning they'd carried. He started to laugh - it was absurd, as if this could be taken for sugar and spice! - and she shrunk back. He realized quite abruptly that he was scaring her.
"I didn't mean..." It wasn't that he didn't want her touching his things, though that had been the case often enough in the past... Alex wondered what good would come of leaving those wretched books here - he never wanted to see them again, but they were what they'd come here for. It didn't matter. She might as well do as she wanted. "I'm sorry, Mia, I... I'm sorry."
"What are we going to tell - "
"You won't say anything to anyone! How daft can you - do you know what sort of trouble you'll be in if you ever..."
Alex trailed off. He was the only one who'd be in trouble, he knew that really, and now she was shaking as if she believed she was actually at fault. He could practically hear her apologising for him again... 'I'm sorry, I know I should have told someone. I knew he'd be angry, I shouldn't have let him get into trouble. No, of course he'd be angry. I'm the one who thought of telling someone, I should have known...' He couldn't remember her ever blaming him for anything - out loud, at least, though the way she would look at him was another matter entirely - but that would be so much easier to bear.
"No, I mean... it's not your fault. Believe me, it's not your fault! I'm sorry, I... please, Mia, you're not to blame... for anything, ever..." And he felt a brief flare of resentment that she never would be to blame for anything, ever, and that she'd surely keep making him feel guilty whenever he did anything an inch out of line around her... That feeling passed, though, as he crawled over and hugged her, trying to keep her from shaking so miserably. "You're in no trouble, so please, for my sake, keep quiet about this, all right? You mustn't worry, please, you're fine, it doesn't matter - "
"Alex..." She shoved him away and stared at him with those big blue eyes, and he wondered if he had seriously just tried to tell her that he could kill people and it didn't matter.
"I... no, I didn't mean... I'm sorry, Mia, I..." Trying to fight back a fit of bleak laughter, he clasped her hands. "You're going to have to stop listening to me, you know that?"
Then she hugged him again, and stayed by his side until he was ready to leave.
Ivan felt his head pound. Low growls surrounded him. Opening his eyes a fraction, he saw a wolf's face very near his own. He wondered whether being eaten alive would be worse if he knew or didn't know what the creature was thinking as it happened... The sound of frantic footsteps reached his ears, and as he was wondering why anyone would be out running here, he saw the wolf fly into a tree. Then everything slipped away again.
A woman with long purple hair sent another wolf flying with a blast of Chi. The pack beat a hasty retreat as she called down a cascade of near-blinding lightning bolts from the sky, singeing the grass at their heels.
Kneeling beside Ivan, she spent a few moments staring through him apprehensively, as if searching for signs invisible to normal eyes. With a sigh of profound relief, she smiled and reached out to stroke his hair. Poor boy...
No doubt Master Feh and the others would be waiting for her to return; they had been discussing the expansion of the dojo when she'd left the room at a sprint. She would have to leave before Ivan woke up. It wouldn't do for him to see her here. She delved into his mind to see how close he was to waking, and sensed only confused dreams of giant caterpillars and bolts of cloth.
He mumbled something in his sleep. She leaned down to kiss his forehead, feeling her resolve eroding. He'd grown so much. She'd expected to miss out on his entire childhood. Seeing him today only made her decision harder to live with, to the point where she started weighing up apocalyptic visions against Ivan's bruises.
She wondered whether it would bring him any comfort to know his future. She wondered whether she dared stay with him from this moment on, always, whatever the consequences.