FOREWARNING:
There are many spoilers to the Golden Sun: Dark Dawn game in this story. Read at your own discretion.
Chapter 1: Goodbyes
For them, this was the end of the road. The final journey. The long adventure filled with pain and violence, madness and death was finally coming to a close. The result? A ravaged country, a dead king and many innocents dead or injured.
Matthew crossed his legs under him, staring at the docks of Belinsk from atop a crate on Eoleo's ship. The townspeople had gathered below, greeting and saying their thanks and farewells to the travelers.
"Never thought a pirate would get a hero's welcome here." Matthew turned as Eoleo walked up beside him. His crew had mostly stayed back from the celebrations, distrusting as they were of the beastmen that only a few months before had tried to boil their leader alive.
"They are only relieved that the madness has ended... for now." Matthew sighed, watching Karis and Tyrell talk with a couple of musicians. "Soon enough the joy will fade and the people will start to blame Sveta and the government for their role in the start of the disaster. I'd hate to be in her position then."
"Or maybe she'll be well loved?" Eoleo countered. "They might just forgive her for whatever small role she played in the activation of the Alchemy Dynamo. You never know how the hearts of the people might sway."
"I'm not so sure." Matthew squinted against the sunlight, searching the crowd before him. Rief and Amiti were approaching the ship now. Tyrell and Karis laughing with the musicians. Kraden and Himi were chatting with a few scholars... but there was no sign of Sveta. Matthew sighed, regretting not being able to say goodbye. Eoleo's men were already preparing the ship to leave, but Matthew knew he'd wait if Matthew decided to find Sveta... And how long would that take? The girl could stay hidden for a week if she wanted not to be found.
"Captain!" Matthew turned with Eoleo as a tall, dark haired man approached. He'd seen the pirate a few times before, his hauntingly light blue eyes were not so easily forgotten.
"What is it, Han?" Eoleo straightened his back, showing for all the world to see an imposing pirate king, which Eoleo definitely seemed.
"We're ready to sail, but the hole on the starboard side worries me. It's low enough to leak in a storm." Han shook his head. "The weather doesn't seem like that'll happen, but you never know how the sea will treat you."
"He's more articulate than the rest of your bunch." Matthew chuckled. "I thought all of your crew were grizzled and uneducated."
"You'd be surprised, mate. Obaba doesn't like a stupid pirate, and neither did my father." Eoleo smirked. "Though I can't say he always made the best of decisions." He turned to Han then, motioning towards the mooring lines. "We're casting off soon anyway. I'll inspect the hole myself when we reach Yamata. If it's that bad, I'll find a carpenter to repair it."
"Of course, sir!" Han rushed off, shouting orders to the rest of the pirates, who readily did what they were told. Matthew stared at Han's back, a nauseous feeling rising in his stomach at the continued sight of the man, but he couldn't tell why.
"Himi!" Eoleo shouted from the ship, leaning over the edge of the ship. The young priestess turned towards him, slight dissatisfaction that he was interrupting her conversation showing on her face. "Say your goodbyes! We're setting sail!"
ooo
"Matthew didn't seem very happy today." Rief sighed, hands on hips as he watched the boat slowly draw away from them. "He didn't even want to say goodbye to any of the beastmen."
"Let alone any of us." Tyrell folded his arms. "This pisses me off. We should go after him, Karis, and force him to come with us. Whatever he's doing isn't so important that he should brush everyone to the side."
"I wouldn't advise that, Tyrell." Amiti shook his head as he spoke. "I know the look of a determined man when I see it, and Matthew is dead set on something. What it is, I do not know, but it weighs heavily on his mind."
"Oh, let the boy go." Kraden chuckled. "Let him have his adventure and his heartbreak while he's still young. Better to get it out of his system now before he becomes an old geezer like me."
"Heartbreak?" Rief said, waving as Himi climbed to the edge of the boat, shouting her goodbyes to them as the ship pulled away. "You talking about Sveta?"
"You'd think Sveta and Matthew would have a long and tearful goodbye. I wasn't expecting her to not show up at all." Kraden sighed. "Youth. How troublesome."
"Maybe they had a fight?" Rief pondered. "I heard from a pirate that he had heard fighting in Sveta's room a few nights back, and then Matthew came out with a really dark look on his face, like he'd seen the Devil or something."
"I'm sure she has a good reason." Karis sighed. "She's always been a little mysterious, even to Matthew, like with what happened on top of the Apollo Sanctum."
"That was... an uncomfortable situation." Amiti shook his head as he spoke. "She spoke to Matthew only for him to collapse, then her eyes turned gold. I got the feeling that they were... the same person. Do you think the fight was because of that?"
"It's none of our business." Karis said definitively, shutting Amiti up. "Sveta was a good friend for the while that she was with us. Her relationship with Matthew saved all our lives."
"But she didn't even come to say goodbye to any of us." Tyrell grunted, waving to Himi.
"And who can blame her?" Amiti turned back towards the castle. "Why would she say goodbye to the very people who caused Volechek's death? Regardless of her feelings towards Matthew, a family member's fate is never taken lightly."
"Of all the people to say such a thing, it would be you, Amiti." Kraden nodded, before walking back down the length of the deck as the ship was now very small in the distance. "I think it's best we get back to the inn. There's a long journey back to Ayuthay for you and Rief."
"Why would you say that, Kraden?" Amiti questioned.
"Because Ayuthay is substantially farther away from Belinsk than the Goma Plateau, considering the border is now open." Kraden shrugged, walking down the docks.
"That's not what I meant! What are you implying about my family?" Amiti rushed after him, with Rief following after, leaving Tyrell and Karis alone on the docks, as the Belinsk citizens had long since filtered away.
"I guess we should get going, Tyrell." Karis laid a hand on his shoulder as the fire adept stared at the ship moving away faster and faster. Himi had long since disappeared from the edge of the ship and no one else was visible.
"We're following him."
"What?" Karis recoiled in shock. "I thought I already told you that was a stupid idea!"
"I'm following him. My best friend thinks that something out there is more important than me? To the point that he thinks he can threaten me and get away with it?" Tyrell stared at the fast disappearing ship. "I don't think so."
"And you're not going alone." Tyrell smiled at Karis, who smiled back. At least there was someone he could depend on.
ooo
"A noble soul, run through and through..." Darkness everywhere, the only transient form of his surroundings being the dark rocks he couldn't see, some hidden object that was invisible to none but he.
"It's just a little bit further." Why? Why did he say this? Who was he speaking to? "I can see it now. Just over those rocks up ahead."
What was it?
"Into ashes of hell you walk..." Who spoke these dark words? Why did they haunt his dreams so? Why couldn't he stop himself, turn himself around? What was happening?
"Not enough time to say adieu..." The voice was so faint... everything was so faint... What was this blackness? Though he could still see nothing, he felt the scene change, as if the dream had shifted.
Despite his blindness, he knew he was now standing in a bright room. But he was... crying? And there was... someone holding him. Or was he holding it? He couldn't tell. Everything was transient, ephemeral...
"No... No..." He heard. Was he saying it, or was someone else? Again and again the voice called. Why? What was happening! What cruel joke was this to set these horrific dreams upon him?
Why did it hurt?
ooo
Matthew awakened viciously, his head shooting upwards, only to slam into the wooden bottom of the bunk above him. Matthew swore, rubbing his head and struggling to stop himself from shivering despite the heat.
"Keep it down... down there..." Matthew heard the pirate bunking above him state tiredly. Damned Eoleo just had to keep him bunked with the crew when he gave the girls their own separate rooms. The bastard.
Well, "the girls" was now "Himi". Everyone was gone now, Matthew thought. The Children of the Warriors of Vale were no longer a single, functional group. It was just Matthew, Himi and Eoleo now, though Himi would be departing once they reached her home village of Yamata.
It was better that way.
Whatever it was that the dreams were telling him, he knew that someone would die. Three people, in fact. He didn't know who, or when, or even where, but he knew he had to get as far away from the people he cared about. He must never let it happen.
If he had to, he'd end fate itself to keep it from coming true.
Matthew climbed to the edge of his bunk, swinging his legs over the side. There was no reason to believe the dreams were real. They could just be recurrent nightmares, after all. But...
He never was one to have faith or simply "believe" something, but Matthew couldn't help but feel like his nightmares were something... more. He had no proof, no assurance, yet he believed. It was illogical.
Yet he believed so strongly that he cast his friends aside, that he abandoned Sveta in her time of need. He should have stayed with her in Belinsk, to help her recover from the scars of their victory, but instead he ventured out on his own. She probably didn't come to wish him goodbye because it was too painful, too selfish of Matthew to do what he did.
"I did what I must." Matthew angrily muttered to himself under his breath, standing. Fighting against the gentle rocking of the ship, he lightly stepped out of the barracks. He wandered the absent halls, listening to the sounds of a sleeping ship. Only two or three others would be awake at this time, monitoring the seas for any sign of danger in the night.
Matthew stepped out onto the main deck, staring up into the darkness of the night. It seemed so calming and friendly when compared to the darkness in the world of his nightmares. If anything, the darkness of his dreams seemed to be spawned of the same miasma that enveloped the Grave Eclipse.
Did that mean they were related? Matthew spent the most of the time in the Grace Eclipse out of all his friends, but it wasn't much longer and none of his friends seemed adversely effected.
Matthew sighed, grabbing hold of the netting that led to the Crow's Nest. He needed to keep his mind off recent events. Nightmares... Sveta... Everything. It was best for now if he could just forget it all.
He easily scaled the netting, pushing back his fear of heights. Matthew swallowed hard, knowing there was no solid ground for miles around him, no small terror to an Earth Adept. But he had faced worse and emerged victorious. Matthew confidently pulled himself up the netting.
"I'm here to relieve you of duty." Matthew said once he pulled himself into the crow's nest. He couldn't see the face of the man stationed there in the darkness.
"Oh really?" Matthew nodded, before realizing the man likely couldn't see it.
"Yeah. Captain's orders."
"That's pretty funny, you know." Matthew cocked an eyebrow at this strange response.
"Why?"
"'Cause I'm the Captain." It was Eoleo! Damn it all. Matthew sighed. There goes his plans of being atop the crow's nest in complete solitude. "What's the deal, Matthew? Trying to assert your authority on my ship or something? I thought you Venus Adepts don't like high places."
"I couldn't sleep."
"Nightmares again?" Eoleo kept scouting the distance through his spyglass, making note of the surroundings despite the impenetrable darkness.
"Not just that." Matthew rested his hands on the rail, appreciating how he seemed suspended in the air in total darkness, the only sounds being Eoleo's occasional movements and the sea breeze. "I was thinking of Sveta too, how she didn't come to say goodbye. It's my fault, no matter how you strew the situation. I let Ryu Kou activate the Dynamo. I didn't go back to save Volechek. I could have prevented it."
"Girl trouble, huh?" Eoleo chuckled. "Except this seems a bit heavier than the usual. Have some faith. I'm sure she'll forgive you given enough time."
"Maybe..." Matthew continued staring into the darkness, his vision unable to adjust to this level of pitch blackness.
"It's always darkest before dawn, mate." Eoleo stared off into the spyglass, examining the invisible horizon. "So where did you plan on heading to after we hit Yamata and drop off Himi?"
"It doesn't matter. Whatever is in my nightmares will come to me before I can find it. The best I can do is get as far away from Angara as possible." Matthew shivered, his body finally responding to the cold.
"Gondowan, then? Or maybe even further, like Osenia?" Eoleo shook his head. "Not sure if my boat can get you there, but it's worth a shot."
"I was thinking Atteka or Tundaria." Matthew sighed deeply. "As far away from Angara as possible. If I could find some sort of land beyond the Gaia Falls, I'd head there."
"By the gods, kid." Matthew could see Eoleo shake his head. "Are you going into seclusion or something? How bad can these dreams be if they've got you so terrified? What do you see in them?"
"I see death. Of anything and everyone I hold dear." Matthew buried his head in his hands. "I'm wandering through the darkness, blind and unseeing yet it seems like I'm looking into the future, of who I am sometime later in my life. The images always change, and there is always pain... death. And a poem."
"A poem?" Eoleo shook his head. "I think you've got to take a rest from all this adventuring. It's getting to your head."
"A noble soul run through and through." Matthew repeated. "It's always the first line, like it's the first event to happen. It could be interpreted as anything, but I think it's pretty obvious."
"What else?"
"Into ashes of hell you walk, Not enough time to say adieu. No return once you pass the hawk, unwitting soul blackness shall cleave." Matthew sighed as he recalled the final line. He start to say it, but choked on his words. Finally, he managed to spit it out. "Four shall enter. One shall leave."
"Damn it, Matthew. Those could be interpreted as anything." Matthew shook his head at Eoleo's response.
"I'd know what they meant, if only I could see the images they go with." Cursing, Matthew turned back to the sea. "I'm blind in these visions, but I somehow feel like I know what's going on. Sometimes it seems like my position in the dreams change, but those words are always present."
"Well, I've got one suggestion." Eoleo started, seeming almost hesitant to speak his mind. "Speak to Himi about this before we drop her off in Yamata. She knows more about this mysticism and dream interpreting and whatnot than I ever will. I'm just a pirate."
ooo
Himi opened the door just as Matthew was about to knock on the wood. Stepping back in surprise, Matthew stared at her in shock for a few moments before gathering his thoughts.
"I..."
"Need my help? Come in." Himi said quickly, opening the door wide. Baffled, Matthew stepped inside her cabin. He looked around the spacious room with envy before noticing Himi was pointing at a chair. "Sit."
Matthew did as he was told, understanding the girl had a quirky nature, as if she had some sort of secret insight into the world that no others could understand. Just what Matthew would need, after all.
Himi pulled a chair up close to Matthew so that she was sitting directly in front of him, staring into his eyes for a long while. Matthew looked around nervously, unnerved by the tattoo of an eye on her forehead, a tattoo that he was present for when she received it.
"You are troubled." Himi said finally. Matthew relaxed. After all that staring, that was all she managed to deduce? "By your dreams, of loss and a life not lived."
"That's cryptic enough to relate to a multitude of things." Matthew smirked. Despite his uneasiness about his dreams, mysticism was never his strong point either. He had always thought Himi's powers were simply psynergy, not anything supernatural like how the citizens of Izumo treated it.
"Indeed." Himi smirked, drawing her legs under her on the chair so that she sat cross-legged. Her voice had a cold edge to it, an unfeeling vibe that sent shivers down Matthew's spine. "The poem is not simply a poem, Matthew. It is a prophecy."
"How do you know about it? I've only told Eoleo!" Matthew narrowed his eyes. Had she been eavesdropping? But that impossible. He was a good thirty feet up in the air when he told the captain.
"The mind's eye sees much, Matthew. Like your fear, your guilt and your burden." Now Himi narrowed her eyes at him. "And do not simply assume I'm speaking vague gibberish. Words have meaning, and meaning comes hand in hand with power. Your poem is the future speaking through you, a warning to prepare you for what is to come."
"So you're saying that the 'prophecy' or whatever you called it is going to come true?" Matthew felt the fear in his chest rising. Himi had never been wrong before, so why would she be now?
"Without a doubt. You cannot prevent the future." Himi closed her eyes for a few moments, and Matthew couldn't help but feel like the eye on her forehead was staring at him. "Even now, a hiding one lies. The prophecy calls for four. I see a sacrifice, a traitor, a noble and the unwitting. Once they are together and divided the future will be decided. You cannot stop Him from rising."
"This is nonsense!" Matthew stood flinging his chair back as he stood. Himi stood as well, her eyes boring into his soul.
"Only half has been shown to you, disciple of Venus, and even then you will misunderstand, misconstrue. There will be a death by your very hands. There will be a curse that will show you the truth and what you see as evil will be your greatest savior."
"It won't happen!" Matthew had to keep himself from shouting, so unnerved as he was by this display. "I can't kill anyone!"
"You cannot stop Fate." Matthew backed up, stumbling over the falling chair and catching himself against the back wall of the cabin, speechless. Himi stared at him, impassive and unresponsive. "Watch your blade carefully, for you know not whom it may slay. He calls for you, Matthew. Resistance will only meet with more death."
At this sentence, Himi collapsed to her knees, her face downward. After a moment, she shook her head, rubbing her eyes and looking around sleepily. She blinked a few times before noticing Matthew clinging to the walls. She shrieked, falling backwards, pointing at Matthew while she struggled to formulate words.
"Wh-Wh-Wh... Why are you in my room!"
ooo
Whatever cruel spirit picked and chose who was allowed to fall asleep either mercifully or maliciously prevented Matthew from closing his eyes for more than a few moments that night. Himi had been in a trance state, similar to when he had first met her after she had awakened, having no memory of her talk with Matthew about his dreams.
Matthew leaned off the railing of the port side of the ship, near the bow, watching the sun rise in the distance. The island of Izumo appeared in the distance, signaling the near-end of this part of the journey.
"You still awake, kid?" Eoleo yawned as he walked up next to Matthew. "Get some sleep, like I plan on doing. It'll help clear your head."
"Maybe..." Matthew chose not to mention his insomnia.
"Well, good night, kid. Or... I guess it's good morning." Eoleo yawned, walking back into the ship. Matthew stared after him, his vision unfocused and mind foggy with weariness.
"If I sleep I'm miserable, but if I stay awake I'm completely useless." Matthew slogged back across the deck, his body and mind weary. He turned sharply when he heard a noise behind him, startled, but chalked it up to just hearing things. He needed rest.
"I hope Himi is wrong."
ooo
"Look, dude, I'm friends with your queen Sveta. I'm sure she can pay you all the money you'd like if you can just give us that boat." Tyrell said again, growing annoyed by the stubborn beastman who refused to part with his vessel.
"Even if you were rich and powerful, a friend of the absent queen's is no friend of mine." The beastman snapped back. "I know my kind are all celebrating and you 'heroes' think you can push us around and get whatever fancy materials you want, but I know the truth. The Grave Eclipse was your fault. I'd never help you."
"Are you asking for a fight, little man?" Tyrell growled, gripping his longsword threateningly. "I say that I'm trying to save a life and you won't even help me then? What kind of monster are you?"
"Tyrell!" Karis moved between the fire adept and the beastman, stern look on her face. "Let me handle this."
"Threats aren't going to make me budge, miss." The beastman blocked the gangplank onto his ship defiantly. "Find someone else with a boat to do your supposed rescue mission. I bet you're just lying pirates anyway."
"There aren't any other boats in Belinsk! We'd have to go all the way to Port Rago to find one. Can you please at least take us there?" Karis pleaded, putting on her best pouting face. Unfortunately, her woeful expression seemed to have little effect on the stubborn beastman, who merely shook his head.
"Not my problem. Go celebrate while you can, criminals." The beastman sneered. "Once everyone else finds out that Queen Sveta's abandoned us they'll be sure to run you outta town. Maybe then I'll get my revenge for what you unleashed on my poor family."
"This is useless. Let's go, Tyrell." Karis turned quickly, leaving Tyrell to stumble after her. He couldn't help but notice the dark look on her face, the question that had plagued both their minds for the last few days while they were trying to chase after Matthew and Eoleo.
First Matthew had run out on them, threatening them not to come with, and only a day earlier they had heard news from the castle guard that Sveta had been missing for a while as well. They were doing their best to hide it from the city of Belinsk, but it apparently wasn't enough.
"Karis..." Tyrell stopped, as did Karis. He stared up at the castle, looking at the many facets on the stone caused by monster claws when the dark creatures had tried to attack the castle. "What the hell is going on now? Why is all this happening?" Tyrell's next words were softer, more nervous. "Don't we get any rest?"
"There is no rest for the wicked, Tyrell."