Jupiter's Curse

by Ranowa Hikura

While Matthew and company race around to try and end the eclipse, Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia try to do their own part in saving those trapped in it. The mission goes awry when Ivan is left stranded in an eclipsed forest, and comes across something that he can not handle. Slight implied mudshipping (in ch. 2), slight implied sandstormshipping.

2. Chapter 2

Thank you for reviewing! This is the sequel to Jupiter's Curse. Essentially, it's nine drabbles- moments in time, I suppose, that take place after the first chapter. By the way, my definition of drabble is pretty much just... not 5000 words or upwards... I think it's really impossible for me to write anything in under 1000 by this point :( Took me an extra bit of time because I found myself inspired by the anime Shiki, a horror/war anime on the nature of humanity (IMO). I had to work it in to the last drabble :)

Just checked the word count. 15000 WORDS FOR JUST THIS CHAPTER?! WHY?! I saw this entire fic maybe being that much or less... I'm really sorry, I know it's a lot to read in one sitting... this seriously happens every time by this point I have no idea what's wrong with me ugh :(

Well, regardless, I hope you enjoy!

Mercury's Gift, 1

Ivan slept for days.

The lithe Wind Adept showed no signs of recovery, just as they got not even a glimpse of what he had been through. Whatever sleep claimed him, it was unbreakable, and unending. First hours that melded into a day, then two, then three, and very soon they lost count. Ivan slept on, and all Isaac had as reassurance was that he still breathed.

Mia did not understand it. She would sit by his side with Isaac many times, working her magic over him without pause or rest; once she poured her energy into him for an entire day. She might as well have not even tried, for all the difference she made.

"There is no poison, no curse," she said adamantly, time and time again. "His wound is near entirely healed. He should have woken by now!"

Of course there was no poison or curse, Isaac thought, but he did not have it in him to say it aloud and to rebuke her like that; cruelly. She was only trying to help. But, then, what curse could have torn Ivan apart into what they had found in Kaocho? There was no poison that could make a man scream.

There was no physical ailment that could reduce him to sobbing in another's arms as if the world had already ended.

No physical torture that could have broken Ivan so cleanly in two that he did not even recognize the sight of his own friends.

Once, her patience fraying on endurance's end, Mia had snapped, whirling around to point at Ivan, her eyes glinting in the slightest departure from calm reality. "For Mercury's sake! He healed faster on Jupiter Lighthouse, and this was after you two had gotten your butts burnt by Agatio and Karst! But now, you're- ugh! I can't do anything more for you, Ivan! Wake up already!"

Then, she realized what she had just actually done, and Mia clapped a hand over her mouth in dismay. Her fierce expression melted first into horror, and then, to despair. She bowed her head, shoulders shaking. "...I..."

Isaac winced in sympathy.

Mia was, first and foremost, a healer. If they had never come to her in Imil... if Alex had not gotten involved... he was willing to bet she would have been satisfied living her whole life there as a healer. She could fight, but her passion was in putting her hands to Ivan's wound and watching it gently blend into life again. It must disturb her- at last encountered with a disease she could not cure by Psynergy alone.

Whatever was wrong with Ivan was something that she could not fix, and that surely bothered her more than anything.

It had to hurt, that the only time it felt like her powers truly mattered- they did not work.

Isaac knew the feeling.

Leader, they called him, the one that tied four brands of unique together, the piece that connected four Adepts who had nothing in common except bonds of friendship. Near anyone from Vale could have fulfilled the requirement of Earth Adept- very few, Garet had once told him, could have gotten them all to Prox and won the day for them. But, if a leader was what he was in life, then why had he left one of their own behind to be slaughtered?

The one time it mattered...

"It's okay, Mia," he said, without any conviction. "Ivan will be okay."

False promises- was that something else a true leader did? Or merely the shell of one?

Isaac wasn't sure, but he had a sneaking suspicion it was the second one.

A true leader would not need to give false promises. A true leader would not see Ivan like this in the first place.

Mia left, her composure fast fleeing, and he let her seek her privacy while he sought his own. There was nothing he could do for her now, and nothing she could do for him.

Ivan slept on, oblivious to the breakdowns shattering the peace around him.

Venus' Endurance, 1

"Sometimes," Mia had said, her hands passing in a warm flurry over the vicious gash turned faded, white line, "people sleep because they don't want to wake up." She paused. Looked at him sadly. "They don't want to face reality."

Isaac didn't know what that meant, or at least how it could relate to Ivan. He had done nothing he should feel guilty about. He had not lost anything he should terribly miss. Reality was golden now, literally; the sun had risen once again and whatever that horrible eclipse had been, it was finished.

The screams still echoed in his ears sometimes, and the haunted whispers of a son Ivan didn't have and a mother who had died years ago would return to him at night, both from Ivan's own lips and his own tortured memory of that day.

He tried not to dwell on what could have caused them.

Even when Ivan would scream so loudly in his sleep he would wake half the town, and even when he would mumble of children he did not have and not wanting to die in the dark that no longer existed, Isaac tried very hard not to think of what Ivan could've gone through to cause them.

They don't want to face reality.

Reality, maybe.

In Ivan's case, Isaac was more inclined to think is that he did not want to face his own memories. He did not want to live with what he had seen.

Sometimes, in the rare unguarded moment when Ivan's nightmares pulled him from his own sleep, just moments after he had been yanked from a restless night, Isaac would wish that he could read minds. He would wish it was as simple as being able to peer into Ivan's head, because that way, he'd know. And if he knew, then everything would somehow simply be better.

Then his own reality caught up with him.

There was no magic fix to this. No Psynergy move that would revert everything to what could be accepted as normal now. There was only waiting for Ivan to recover himself, and all they could do for him was wait by his side.

No matter how tortuous it had become.

Mars' Passion, 1

Garet was not Mia; he was not good at fixing the broken. Garet was not Isaac; he was not good at waiting.

Garet was Garet. He was good at action.

The sun had only just risen on the fifth day, much of Ayuthay still slumbering and the entire city still, when the Fire Adept made his appearance. He stood next to Isaac, and said in no uncertain terms that he was going out to Kaocho.

"Something there is why he won't wake up, so I'm going there to find out what it is."

Isaac looked him over with a cursory glance, but said nothing to the effect of stopping him. He may have been the de facto leader, but when it came to actual orders or commands or any sort of hierarchy- their group did not have that. Garet was free to do as he pleased. "I don't think you'll find anything," he said still, and looked back at Ivan. "Whatever this is... I think it relates to the eclipse. Not necessarily Kaocho."

"Do you have a better theory? Because I am all ears."

Isaac smiled to himself, detaching himself enough to draw a sad kind of amusement from the situation rather than only defeat. His plan was simple: to wait.

Of course, to Garet, that was no plan at all. He was sure Garet had tired of it the moment they realized that Ivan simply was not waking up.

Instead, he said quietly, "King Paithos advised us that Kaocho had no defenses against the eclipse. The casualties were probably high. ...It won't be easy to see. Be careful."

"Against what? I'm sure Ivan saw worse from that stupid eclipse." Garet shifted his weight, expression holding steady and firm rather than descending into the calm resignation Isaac felt like had long since claimed him. "Look, whatever it was, it's over now. I'll be fine; back in a few days, yeah?"

When Isaac didn't say anything, the determination faded, and Garet looked to the floor, uneasy. The Fire Adept shifted, one hand resting on his massive sword's hilt, the other twitching anxiously by his side. "...I have to do something, Isaac. I'm going crazy, just sitting here and waiting for something to happen. There has to be a better way."

Isaac nodded silently. If there was a better way, then Garet would assuredly find it. But, somehow, he doubted Garet would find what he was looking for in Kaocho.

"All the same, be careful."

"Isaac, the eclipse is done. Whatever that godlike hunk of rock was up to, he moved on to something else. I'll be fine out there!"

Not that Isaac had been referring to the eclipse in the first place- but, in spite of himself, the Earth Adept smiled. "You think the Wise One was involved?"

Garet shrugged, as if it should be obvious. "Who else? It reeks of that asshole. Anyway, we're still kinda the strongest Adepts around- and we obviously didn't do it. Who else?"

Isaac kept his opinions to himself this time, merely turning back to Ivan with a mirthless chuckle. He didn't think Garet would be entirely pleased to know his own ideas of who was behind the disaster were less of a divine quality. Alex had been conspicuously absent these past thirty years, and while Garet was inclined to believe that was because he was dead and buried under Mt. Aleph... Isaac wasn't so sure.

And Alex was the strongest Adept alive- not the Warriors of Vale.

And the Wise One's duty was always to Weyward. The eclipse destroyed it.

Alex, however, danced to the beat of his own drum.

But voicing his thoughts would only rock Garet's boat, and he had no proof. It did reek of the Wise One, as Garet had said; blatant sadistic suffering of innocents was the Wise One's tune, not Alex's. And Garet would rather blame it than admit the possibility that Alex was back.

Isaac shook his head at himself. Who was behind the eclipse was neither here nor there, at this point. If the Warriors of Vale were really going to have to combat its mastermind, they would do it with Felix, Jenna, Sheba, and Piers too- and, when Ivan was of a less unconscious quality. For now, that last part was all that mattered- getting Ivan to wake up. He recentered his thoughts around that and that alone.

"Be careful all the same, Garet. If you're right, and whatever happened to Ivan is still there- well..."

No further words were needed.

"...I will. Thanks, Isaac."

And Garet slipped out of the room as swiftly as he had come.

Venus' Endurance, 2

Ivan would toss and turn for hours on end, lost in a fever without origin. Unintelligible nothings were muttered out as haunted whispers as he twisted back and forth, blanket tangling around his toes and short, sweat slicked hair dancing over his contorting face. Forever caught in the throes of a nightmare until at last, the exhaustion would do him in, and he would lie still as a rock for even longer, frozen as a statue that breathed.

The only constant was that he never once woke.

Isaac stayed with him through it all, tending to the fever when it appeared and simply sitting silently when Ivan did the same.

"...open doors... coming, they, they open doors..."

Isaac said nothing to answer Ivan's ramblings, senseless as they were; words gave nothing but meaningless sentiment and they only served to comfort those who were awake to hear them.

He had already tried them, anyway. Would try anything, at this point.

Ivan had not responded to anything he'd said anymore than he had responded to anything else. That was to say, not at all.

"...damn cat."

That quirked a tiny smile out of him, a tiny, mirthless smile. Ivan loved cats.

"They're so smug. Every single one of them- manipulates us into feeding them, sits there purring until we pet them like they want. They're the only people who aren't afraid of my Mind Read... I use it on them and they just look at me, like, what, do you want something, Ivan?"

Isaac could hear the blond laughing afterwards, shaking his head affectionately even as he stroked the cat padding around in his lap.

"...stupid... cat..."

Then the vision shattered, and he fell back to the present again.

Sighing, Isaac bowed his head in defeat and carefully touched Ivan's shoulder, holding his hand still when he flinched and waiting for Ivan to become accustomed to the existence of an outside world once again. He lay curled and struggling on his side, thin back to Isaac so all he could see was his slim form and mop of hair twitching in whatever worlds his fevered mind cared to show him. When he moved his hand and Ivan did not flinch, he carefully guided the adept onto his back again, slow and cautious as ever. Ivan did not resist so long as he was slow and did not force him.

Twisted blond hair remained dancing over his anguished and contorting face in a sweaty mop, revealing only furrowed brows and a twitching mouth that whispered constantly but rarely audibly. He trembled just as hard on his back as he did on his side, but Mia had told him to do it, said if he's on his back it's less stress on the wound.

Not that Ivan noticed any physical pain anymore. Or was even aware of the physical world.

"Hey, come up here, kitty..."

Isaac laughed miserably. What, would it take a cat to get Ivan to wake up? He'd find one if that was it, but, somehow, he doubted-

"AGH!"

With the shout, Ivan jerked straight and stiffened, breaths jolting to a short and panicked rhythm. His face twisted and Isaac stayed back, hand hovering over his shoulder in the moment that Ivan lay frozen but absolutely not out of the nightmare.

The seconds it took for him to descend back into his regular (and terrifying pattern) felt almost like hours, to Isaac.

He sighed.

Minutes of stressful mumbles and struggling passed, most things Ivan said too quiet for anyone to hear. Isaac cautiously laid a hand on the twitching arm, but they no longer took it as a good sign that he did not flinch anymore. To Isaac, it seemed only that he was so deeply entrenched in passing dreams that he did not even feel it.

"Why do you sleep still," he whispered, defeated. "What is it we can do for you, what is that you need? If you could just find a way to tell us, we'd get it for you."

Though they doubted what Ivan needed was anything concrete that they could go fetch. That would be too convenient, and far easier than the road he was sure lay before them all now.

"...daddy?" Ivan murmured, voice uplifting in a question. He held silent for the briefest of moments, almost as if waiting for an answer, before the twisted paths of his mind carried him away again.

Isaac looked away.

Ivan had never known his real father, and Hammet had been dead for a long time now. Now that Ivan had ever called his adoptive parents anything over than Lady Layana and Master Hammet... Isaac was reasonably sure that Ivan had never called anyone 'daddy' in his life.

Though, if that were the most troubling thing that Ivan had mumbled through his fevered ramblings, Isaac would've been thrilled. But reality was not so kind.

"Jupiter, be merciful..."

"If only it would," Isaac muttered back. If only indeed.

Ivan said nothing in response, and, downtrodden hopes falling just a bit lower, Isaac simply pulled the tossed blanket higher once again and shifted to sit silently through the ordeal.

When Ivan at last slept once again, Isaac did, too.

Venus' Endurance, 3

Karis nearly started to cry when she saw her father. When she was told how it happened, the girl stood there and trembled for barely a second before she burst into tears and dissolved into a sobbing heap.

When his son explained why, telling in halting tones their own intrinsic role in the death and eventual resurrection of the dawn, Isaac could hardly believe it.

Matthew fled soon after, saying he had business to take care of, but the guilt ridden look on his face said quite clearly that the only thing he was interested in was getting out of that room. Tyrell and Rief went with him for no doubt exactly the same reasons.

And Karis stayed behind, sobbing silently at her father's bedside and clutching his hand to her heart.

For the first time in a week, Isaac left Ivan's side.

(Daughters deserved their privacy far more than he needed to stay. And even that aside... he had no doubt Karis would lay down hell on earth if anything at all happened to risk her father's safety again.)

The day was passed with Kraden, the scholar quite unsurprisingly having played yet another important role in adventures to stop the apocalypse. The man was ancient by this point and had already saved the world twice- Isaac had to wonder if there was a limit on that sort of the thing or if the universe had just taken a fancy to Kraden.

Whatever the reason, it seemed the four lighthouses had not been just four, and the four elements were not, in fact, four. And Kraden positively delighted in it.

"Can you imagine, Isaac?" he gushed. "Two entirely new elements! Light and Dark Psynergy... Luna Tower, Apollo Sanctum- two new lighthouses, I think! Can you imagine the implications?!"

Well, Isaac had, firsthand, but he didn't want to put a damper on Kraden's spirits just yet. "Yes," he said dryly, unable to help an amused smile as the scholar went at it again without even looking at him.

"And there must be two entirely undiscovered cultures as well! The Taurapanga seem to be Luna Adepts, certainly, but I am convinced there are Sol Adepts out there as well!"

"If anyone can find them, you will," Isaac laughed. He believed it, too; no one had a talent for ferreting out secrets like Kraden.

"The existence of the Umbra Armor raises so many questions, and the fact that it was hidden around the world, too- it seems once there were non-Adepts involved in this battle between Luna and Sol; I can't imagine that Sol Adepts would have needed it, given especially that they were the ones who built it. But was this before the elements were sealed away? Ah, it must have been- the Taurapanga seem like Lemuria, one of the great civilizations of old, and they have remained invisible to our eyes, too, until now! Oh, what do you think Isaac? Silly me, dominating the discussion."

"Uh- huh?"

Kraden waved his hands excitedly. "Yes, what do you think about all of this?"

Isaac froze, having lost track of Kraden's rambling eagerness a long time ago. "I, uh... I think it's, uh... very interesting..."

"Interesting? It's positively thrilling!"

And he went off at it again.

When at last the discussion passed Isaac's ability to provide even satisfactory answers, Kraden mused to himself silently, continuing on their circuitous walk around the great Ayuthay.

It was on their third walk around when he at last spoke up again, considerably calmer than before. "So- a great coincidence it is, that we would run into you here. If it weren't for Amiti, we likely would not have stopped by here on our way back at all. Tell me, what brought you to Ayuthay?"

Isaac frowned. "...Ivan did," he said shortly, and lowered his eyes to the ground. It was the truth, more or less. If it wasn't for Ivan, they would have left this city long ago.

"Ivan?"

"Yes, Ivan," he snapped, annoyed. "You know, the Wind Adept we traveled with? Short, blond, still looks like a kid? Governor of Kalay? Anything ringing a bell here-"

"Yes, Isaac, I am quite aware of who Ivan is," Kraden said waspishly. "I was more referring to why he was your reason for coming to Ayuthay."

Isaac blinked, then groaned. He rubbed his forehead, trying to push away the headache he felt coming. "I... yes, I know... I'm sorry, Kraden. It has been a long- couple of weeks, actually. I feel as if I haven't slept since this whole thing started..."

"You are not alone in that, my friend."

He sighed miserably, coming to a halt aside the underground river that ran through everywhere in Ayuthay. He glanced down at his reflection and found himself too tired to even wince, but he was obviously a mess. An exhausted one, at that. Isaac dropped down to his knees, feeling the last of his strength leave him and render him all but a step away from passing out right then and there. "With the eclipse... then what happened to Ivan..." he muttered, rubbing his eyes, "we've all been going nonstop. As it turns out, not the best idea."

"Hardly," Kraden snorted. "Ivan- he was... poisoned, no? Or cursed?"

"For all we know. It's the only thing that I can believe, at this point."

"Wait." The scholar joined him by his side, far too agile for a man of over a hundred. "Does Mia not know?"

Isaac shrugged, irritated. "She says she can not find any evidence of such things. But why else would he sleep for a week?! I don't know, maybe it's what you said... Dark Psynergy and whatnot. Maybe there's something wrong with him that she just can't see; you know, the new Psynergy is masking it or something."

Kraden said nothing, simply looking at him while Isaac stared down his own reflection in the water. He knew he was making no sense at all; he didn't much care. Ivan wasn't making any sense either, these days, and he got a free pass. Seemed only fair he get the same.

"...Wait here, Isaac." Kraden stood and swiftly moved away behind him and out of sight. Isaac followed the order merely because he did not have the strength, or the willpower, to do otherwise.

When Ivan's scream rang in his ears again, he simply dropped his head into his hands and shut his eyes.

"I can't die like this, please let me see the sun again!"

"Please keep our children safe!"

"I don't want to die!"

God, Ivan...

"Eat."

Isaac groaned at the outside world. Any other response took more effort than he had.

"Isaac, here; eat something."

Kraden had to physically jolt him out of his miserable reverie for the past to stop echoing in his mind; even then, it still took a few moments for him to register what was going on. "I- oh." Without even looking, he took whatever it was Kraden was offering and jammed a bite in his mouth. It was dry and tasteless, but Isaac wasn't sure if that was Ayuthay's fault or his own; exhaustion had a way of draining one's senses into nothing.

The food did force him to perk up a little, and by the time he was finished, Isaac felt a just slightly less lost than before. He ran a hand through his hair, brushing over the mussed portions and ripping out a few tangles. Maybe Kraden and his unspoken judgement was right... he needed to sleep.

"Now," the scholar said at last. "What happened to Ivan? How was he injured?"

It not in him to resist any longer, Isaac at last gave forth the monotonous story.

"Harapa was starving. By the time we got here, they had almost run out of what supplies they had left. Ayuthay, in contrast, had stockpiled supplies for a while now to deal with Kaocho's seige. They were also fed by the ocean- fish came by often enough for them to make a living. They agreed to help."

"Admirable, how we all forget our differences in such dark times."

"Admirable, or human nature?"

Kraden smiled slightly. "Touché, Isaac."

Isaac did not smile himself, the mere memory of the story leaving him mired in guilt and recurring exhaustion once again. "We escorted the Harapans to Ayuthay. It was the only way," he continued, without attempt at transition or explanation. It had been a difficult decision to make; they had stressed over it enough at the time. The fact that he now wished with his whole heart they had opted to wait- just a few hours, even, just a few hours would be enough- no long had any play. "On the way, monsters attacked. Ivan said that he would draw them off, and he went to the forest. ...That night, the eclipse ended. We went looking for him as soon as we could; finally found him in Kaocho." He paused, trembling when he remembered in just what state they had found him in.

Screaming... sobbing...

"...Mia healed him as best she could, and he has not woken up since," he stated simply. He glossed over the details because he didn't think he could handle explaining them- or reliving them.

"This was a week ago?"

Isaac nodded mutely, idly rubbing at a smudge of dirt on his cheek.

"And... you found him in Kaocho, you said?"

He nodded again, now slightly irritated. "Yeah, Garet actually is there now trying to figure out what happened. So?"

Kraden paused, falling silent again. He let Isaac sit and stew in his own miserable guilt, the scholar now looking at the river himself in introspection.

At last, he spoke again.

"I do not think Ivan was cursed."

Isaac jerked.

"You- you what?!" he demanded. Suddenly the energy that had been lacking all day returned full force, Kraden's words enough to jolt him into thinking and working once again. "You know what's wrong with him?!"

"Possibly," Kraden said carefully, and there was a dark look in his eye, like he did not necessarily want to go on. Sure enough, he did not continue.

"Hey, out with it! What's wrong with Ivan?! What do we have to do to fix him?!"

"Isaac... you misunderstand. I am not a miracle worker- I do not know of anything to do that would, er, fix him."

His heart pounding, Isaac whirled to fully face the scholar and smacked his palm against the rough ground. Kraden was now pushing him from anxious, to frustrated, and, at last, to fearful. "Spit it out!"

"Isaac, you and your friends are not the only ones to go to Kaocho after the eclipse. We did, as well." Kraden paused, his face darkening with the memory. "Sveta, our mindreader, insisted we leave mere minutes after we arrived. She would not explain why. We had to take care of something and when she wouldn't say why, Matthew said she would have to wait until we were done. She became ill shortly after. It was not until after we had left the city, and she had slept, that she recovered- and she still refused to speak of what had happened. That this would happen to Ivan as well... they are very dissimilar, linked only in Psynergy. Mind Read, that is. Or Spirit Sense, in her case. The fact that Karis was just as confused as us only further cements this theory."

Isaac frowned, heart still hammering painfully hard in his chest. He looked back over his shoulder to the shadowed inn, feeling almost as if he could look through the wall and see Ivan and his daughter. "So, what are you saying?" he asked nervously, curling his fingers together in his lap. "There's something in eclipsed Kaocho that's- reacting badly with Mind Read, or something?"

"No, no." Kraden shook his head. "Not a physical reaction at all. I think there is- or was- something in Kaocho that Ivan must have tried to Mind Read. Sveta's Spirit Sense seems to differ in that it is less a conscious action on her part- she would say that unless she actively tried not to, she could hear people's thoughts whether she wanted to or not. I think there is something in that city that the rest of us could not hear that disturbed these two greatly."

Isaac sighed, turning away from Kraden to look back at the river again. He dropped his chin to rest in his hand, morose. "...Did this happen in any other cities to Sveta?"

"No. But, we were unable to enter any other fallen cities."

"And, let me guess- Sveta isn't here, is she?"

Kraden chuckled uncomfortably. "I daresay she found ruling Belinsk in her brother's stead slightly more important than escorting us home..."

Isaac groaned.

So, per Kraden, they had learned it involved Mind Read.

Fantastic. He'd just go find his non-unconscious Mind Read-yielding friends for some insight.

"Have hope, Isaac." Kraden stood and clapped a hand on his shoulder, strong and steady with a century's worth of experience. "You four are resilient- Ivan is no exception. Wind can never be eradicated. It may be forced to blow a different direction, or at times seem to be even nonexistent, but wherever there is a world there is a wind. Ivan will recover. And I have no doubt that you are patient enough to see it through."

"Yeah, because mountains are so patient, right?"

Kraden smiled. "Of course. Have you ever seen an Earth Adept tire of waiting?"

"Felix on Venus Lighthouse, Susa on Izumo, my son every morning to learn a new Psynergy move..."

The scholar groaned. "Oh, dear," he chided sardonically. "It seems that my reasoning is flawed. How troublesome."

Smiling, Isaac pushed himself to his feet and dusted himself off, feeling for the first time in this entire nightmarish week like the iron weight had at last been lifted off his chest. "Thank you, Kraden. ...Seriously."

Kraden winked back. "Anytime, my boy."

They parted ways once again, Isaac headed back to Ayuthay's inn with at last a new sense of purpose. Kraden had given him hope, roundabout way or no. If he had to pick a word to describe Ivan- no, all four of them, it would be resilient. They had weathered the four lighthouses and tread across all of Weyward... they would weather this, too.

When he slipped back into the inn, the steady beat of his heart jolted again, and he found himself rooted to the spot.

Ivan's eyes were open.

His small grin burst into a full blown smile.

Ivan was awake.

The Wind Adept sat upright, slim but fully conscious and finally with them once again- his daughter fit tightly into his arms. Her head buried against his shoulder and she trembled through sobs of sheer relief, hiccuping against his arm and shaking in his grip. One of Ivan's hands rested against the back of her head, fingers sliding comfortingly through the long strands of green, agile and quick fingers now slow and kind. Standing, Karis was at least equal to Ivan's height now, if not taller, but she folded into his lap like a heartbroken child, sobbing in unending thankfulness that her father had at last woken from what she had done.

And Ivan sat through it all, simply hugging his daughter.

Isaac could not help but beam.

Kraden had been right.

Ivan looked up, hair falling from his eyes to behind his ear. His flat gaze met Isaac's.

He stopped smiling.

Ivan showed absolutely no recognition. No- he showed absolutely no emotion at all, period. He just stared at Isaac with all the sentiment he would have towards a complete stranger, and his eyes remained as blank and empty as when they had first found him. His mouth moved, murmuring soothing platitudes to Karis, but nowhere on his face did Isaac see any attachment to her, or any kinship with himself.

Isaac's hopes crashed back down to earth and shattered.

Ivan may have woken up, but he was not okay. He was not okay at all.

Mars' Passion, 2

Garet returned late. In typical Garet fashion.

"What?! He's already awake?!" he demanded, so earsplittingly loud Isaac didn't think he would have to go track down Ivan after all. "But- all this trouble-! Are you kidding me?!"

Isaac laughed at that, shaking his head in amusement. "Sorry to break it to you, Garet."

The Fire Adept looked wholly put down, and Isaac snickered. It wasn't much, but any levity at all nowadays was worth something. And Garet was just a walking bag of levity waiting to happen. "Yeah, if I didn't know better, I'd say he was only staying asleep because of you."

"God, you're an asshole, Isaac."

He grinned. "I'm sorry, Garet, you make it too easy. Sorry your trip was a waste, though."

But at that, Garet brightened, and his eyes lit up in excitement. "Hey, who said it was wasted? Koichiyo! Hey- Koichiyo, come out of there!"

Isaac blinked, watching in confusion as his friend turned and headed to pull the darting away form of a young girl back from around the corner. She looked to be no older than seven or eight, and by the way she stayed back, hesitant and eyes on the floor, biting her lip, she looked even younger. Garet prodded her forward slightly. "Isaac, this is Koichiyo. I found her in Kaocho."

His eyes widened. "She- survived?!" he managed. But how had a child...?

Garet nodded somberly. "Yeah. She told me about half the children made it to the palace. Emperor Wo and his family holed up there and the monsters couldn't get in. ...It's only kids, though..."

Isaac swallowed and looked down at the girl. What Garet was saying was at once both wonderful and horrible. People had survived in that desolate massacre; children had survived- but, only children. Kaocho was now a city of a still corrupt and greedy emperor, and... kids. Kids whose families had been slaughtered without exception.

Garet had made the right decision, bringing Kochiyo here. Isaac felt that they'd be seeing many more like her, in future days.

"Hey," he said, directly to her, and moved forward to crouch in front of her. "Hi, Kochiyo. I'm Isaac." He smiled warmly.

Her large eyes darted from him to Garet, who nodded encouragingly. She managed a small smile at him, and he knew it was genuine; how children could only be. She still looked nervous though, and pale, and Isaac resisted the urge to nudge Garet in annoyance. "Why'd you come with Garet to Ayuthay, Kochiyo?"

Kochiyo blinked, then hurriedly looked down, digging around the small bag slung over her shoulder. "I found something in my house. Mr. Garet said it belonged so somebody here, and I... I wanted to ask him a question..." She turned away, her eyes going to the floor even as she thrust out her find to him.

Isaac stared in disbelief.

The thin blade held out over her open palms...

Impossibly light, the ancient characters etched over the silvery surface, the hilt wrought with a yellow metal that was otherwordly- there was no mistaking it. That was Ivan's Kikuichimonji.

This explained why the ancient blade had been missing.

"Thank you," he said, taking the weapon from her gently and bringing it down to his side. "Ivan will be very glad to have this back."

Not that it explained why Garet had actually brought Kochiyo back with him, and not just the sword.

"Garet, can I talk with-"

"Hey! Airhead!"

Isaac jumped, turning just in time to see Ivan look in surprise too, the Wind Adept entering innocently from stage left. Ivan didn't even have time to dodge before Garet barreled in, snagging the unfortunate man in one of his headlock-turned-hugs, bringing a hand up to ruffle his hair. "Ivan!"

"Ack- Garet! Hey!"

Isaac smirked, rising to watch as Ivan tried to escape from the thrilled Fire Adept and failed miserably. He squirmed and twisted, and Garet just beamed. "I knew you'd be fine! Isaac was all pessimistic about it, you know him, but I was sure of it!"

"Hey, what now?"

"Ack- Garet- can't breathe- hah!"

Garet stumbled back and the spinning film of wind around Ivan receded, lowering the Adept gently to the ground and allowing him to dust himself off. Ivan sent a mild glare at the other as he did so. "You are aware that I'm forty-five, right?"

"Yep. You are aware that I'm still two years older, right?"

Ivan groaned.

At Ivan's apparent defeat, Garet sobered again, moving away to again stand next to Kochiyo. He took the sword from Isaac and held it out, and Ivan's eyes widened. "My Kikuichimonji!" He reached for it in surprise. "How... Garet, did you-?"

"Nope. She did." Garet moved aside, gesturing to Kochiyo.

She nodded. It was impossible miss that she was as close to clinging to Garet's side as she could get without actually touching him. "Yeah... it was in my house, mister."

Just like that- all hint of happiness on Ivan's face, gone.

His smile drained away in an instant, and the warm light in his eyes shut off with a mechanical force. He went from Ivan to bland robot in the space of a second.

"...Oh," he said simply. The previously relieved grip on his precious sword relaxed into a loose and nonchalant grip, and he smoothly lowered the weapon against his side. "Thank you for returning it to me, then."

Isaac looked down, crestfallen.

Ivan was no better at all. The mere mention of Kaocho had raised his defenses, and now he lay sheltered behind them and utterly unreachable. Stiff and formal, distant and removed... this Ivan had a stake in nothing; cared for nothing. This Ivan was nothing but a lie and a mask.

Garet looked only confused, not privy to Ivan's reclusion as Isaac and Mia were. He looked on with a frown, then merely shook his head and prodded the girl forward, when she did not continue. "She has a question for you. I was hoping that she could talk to Mia, since we know he was in her house, maybe something there was the problem- but, well, you're awake now! So it's fine. Kochiyo, go on; ask him."

She looked down, fiddling anxiously with a braid while her voice dwindled smaller and smaller. "It's okay if you don't know anything," she said, and shifted from one foot to the other. "Mr. Garet said you probably wouldn't. ...But my cat wasn't home. And I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find him! He really needs me to feed him, he doesn't like going outside, but I... I can't find him. I couldn't get him in time to get to the palace, and well, you were in my house... I was really hoping you'd seen him?"

The flicker of emotion at the word 'cat' was impossible to miss. The contort from uncaring to caring too much, a twist of emotion pulling apart the empty mask to shreds and permanently poisoning the blank facade he clung to so dearly. Ivan's mouth dropped open and his eyes went wide in a shocked display of... is that... fear?

And then it was gone.

Ivan stood stock still for a good five seconds, expression frozen in an empty canvas, body unnaturally still. He stared blankly at the hopeful Kochiyo, face devoid of any emotion at all, but Isaac knew, somehow, that Ivan was fighting for control.

The question had, for whatever reason, thrown him.

And now he was fighting to get his empty facade back, because whatever alternative was something he did not want to face.

At last, Ivan shook his head.

"No. I'm sorry. I never saw your... cat."

And then he whisked away so fast it left Garet staring, Kochiyo nearly crying, and Isaac- simply disappointed.

"Hey! Ivan, what's your problem?! It was just a simple question!"

It took more effort than Isaac wanted to admit to reach out and stop him. And when the Fire Adept twisted back to face him angrily, he did not have the will to explain what he did not fully understand himself. He just shook his head, meeting Garet's eye and praying he would understand.

He didn't, evidently, by the way he kept on staring blankly.

The tiny sniff at their feet caught his attention, and, shaking himself, Isaac let go of Garet and dropped to his knees again. "Hey, I'm sorry about that," he told her, and forced out a weak grin. Her wet eyes meeting his ruined any chance he had at even faking a smile and he flinched, hands curling anxiously. "Ivan hasn't been feeling very well lately, but he is grateful you found his sword. Thank you very much for returning it. Would it be okay if Garet and I took you see a friend of ours now? Amiti's prince of Ayuthay. I think he would like very much to meet you."

It took Kochiyo a couple of seconds to nod, and when did it was weak and her eyes stayed down miserably. Isaac felt even worse about what was essentially brushing her off, but he needed to talk to Garet alone. Isaac took her by the hand and stood, then shot a glare in Garet's direction. I'll explain later, he mouthed, and the Fire Adept only huffed before reluctantly moving to follow after him.

Somehow, Garet and Kochiyo had only made things worse.

---

It was well into the misery cloaked night when Garet finally relented, opting to not go beat some sense into Ivan after only much insistence. Isaac was convinced yelling would not help; given the way Ivan was responding thus far, he would only shut down even more.

But Garet had trouble processing that. Garet, who hadn't seen him standing in the heart of celebration without even possessing a single glimmer of happiness. Who hadn't seen Ivan move around these past two days like someone had sucked the soul out of him.

Who hadn't seen Karis sobbing her heart out in her utterly emotionless father's arms.

It was late that very same night, Isaac and Garet sharing mutual unhappiness over a stack of cards, seeking distraction until exhaustion was strong enough to prevail, that Kochiyo returned.

She looked much better, clean now and dressed as an Ayuthian, but the sadness had not gone, nor had Isaac expected it to. He looked at the timid girl and smiled again, setting down his hand. "Hi, Kochiyo. How are you liking Ayuthay?"

She smiled back timidly and stopped peeking around the edge of the door, moving further into the room. "...Very much. The people are nice here. It's not like what they taught us in school at all."

"I'm glad."

She hesitated again, fiddling with the crinkled piece of paper in her hand, then approached closer and looked at Garet. "Here."

Garet raised an eyebrow. "What's this?"

Kichiyo shrugged slightly. "I found it in my room here. Mr. Ivan's your friend, right? I thought you'd want to know..."

Isaac blinked. He looked from her to Garet, who looked just as surprised as he did. The Fire Adept sat still for a moment, then held out the paper so they could both see it and unraveled it.

Kochiyo-

I apologize for earlier. I didn't feel as if I could say this in front of my friends.

I did see your cat. He died in the eclipse. I'm sorry.

-Ivan

Garet just stared at the letter for a good ten seconds.

Then it was discarded like trash, and he was on his feet headed to the door.

"Hey! Hey, Garet, stop!"

"He could at least have the decency to say it to her face! What's that supposed to mean, 'couldn't say this in front of my friends', what bullshit is this." He stormed out of the room, Isaac hot on his heels, one hand tightly around Kochiyo's to not let her be left behind.

"Garet! Ugh!"

The Fire Adept moved on his determined and angry march with no hesitation, hunting down Ivan with a ferocity that left Isaac feeling like his entire conversation earlier had been utterly worthless. He had to hurry just to catch up with him, and by the way Garet was rushing, he wouldn't be able to stop him before he launched into a tirade at Ivan that only made things worse.

Isaac was so focused on stopping Garet that he almost didn't slow down in time, nearly ramming into him and bringing their whole group to the ground when the Fire Adept stopped.

Garet had found Ivan.

And he was crying.

The Wind Adept sat alone in one of the many oft forgotten rooms in Ayuthay, leaning against the wall with his feet dangling in the water and his eyes closed. But the emptiness that had so disturbed Isaac was gone. And now he wanted it back.

The anguish and tears were far worse than anything he had seen before.

Isaac stared, stunned.

He'd been so concerned with getting Ivan to stop faking recovery, that he hadn't stopped to consider what was underneath the mask.

When Isaac and Garet didn't move, Kochiyo did.

The girl slipped in between them from behind and moved hesitantly towards Ivan, hands clasped in front of her and steps tiny. The second Ivan heard her, he froze, then twisted, rubbing furiously at his cheeks with the back of his hand. His efforts did nothing to wipe away the sorrow and the slow, steady stream of tears. His frantic gaze found Isaac's for just a fraction of a second before he looked away, rubbing his cheeks even harder.

"...Thanks for telling me about my cat."

Ivan blinked, his hand coming to a shaking halt. He just looked at her, sitting anguished but frozen, hand still sitting in mid air against his cheek.

"...You're welcome."

Neither Ivan nor Kochiyo moved.

Then, silently, Kochiyo crawled down to his level and wrapped her arms around his stomach.

When Ivan recovered from the shock, he lowered the hand from his cheek to instead hug her back. He was still crying, but now, he was smiling too.

And Isaac would take a real, brokenhearted smile over any of the fake ones he had seen these past few days.

He and Garet left together, leaving Ivan and Kochiyo behind.

Venus' Endurance, 4

Matthew, Tyrell, and Karis all left together shortly after Ivan had at last woken up. It had only been a day when Ivan started gently nudging them in that direction, and only one more after that for him to convince them it was for the best. "The eclipse ravaged many places in the north, too," he had said wisely, looking for all the world like the Ivan they all desperately wanted to return. "You three should go and assist them. We will stay here and help the people here. Do not worry. I am fine now."

Very stilted and formal; very forced indeed. Ivan's facade was slipping the longer that Isaac watched, moments when his smile faltered, or the dank nothingness in his eyes spread to encompass his entire face. He still didn't know whether it was for Karis that he was trying to smile again, no matter how fake, or whether it was everyone, not simply his daughter. He remembered Mia's words, before Ivan had woken; Sometimes, there are things they do not want to face. Perhaps the facade was for Ivan himself.

Whatever the reason, Isaac found himself hesitant to accept change. Whatever variable they removed, it could prompt a change backwards, something inbetween endless sleep and utterly fake recovery. Isaac saw hints of it in his eyes now, and it took a pronounced effort to stop himself from speaking up when Ivan convinced their children to go.

But he only sat silently by and watched.

He knew it would accomplish nothing to forestall the inevitable. Why manipulate the situation to his pleasing when it would only be just as fake as Ivan's smile?

So he simply sat by and let it happen.

It was the night before they were set to leave that Karis found him.

She stood in the doorway to his room, just looking at him sadly. She had been all smiles too, lately, but when he saw her like that, he had to wonder if she was faking it, too. Like father, like daughter.

"My dad's... not really okay, is he?" she asked quietly.

Isaac looked away. So, like Garet and Mia, she had noticed. Unsurprising. He doubted Matthew and Tyrell had- they barely knew Ivan. That had left just Karis, to notice that her father may have been conscious, but for all the real recovery he showed, he might as well have been still asleep. "No, he's not," he answered, unable to meet her eye. "...I was going to talk to him after you'd left."

Karis looked to the ground, shifting uncertainly. She fingered the small bag in her hands anxiously, features that he was so used to seeing fired up now sad and hesitant. "I know he wants us to leave. So I'm not going to stay. I'll leave, and- I don't know, I guess I'll help out in Kalay, until he's ready to come back. But, uh... can you give him this for me?" She held out the bag.

Isaac took it. "Yes. What is it?"

"It's this dream leaf that we got in Kolima. We never found a reason to use it, and, well- I doubt we ever would. ...I want him to have it."

"A... dream leaf?" he questioned unsurely, and opened the bag. Inside was a multicolored leaf, silver and streaked red, unnaturally still and when he touched it, unnaturally cold. "What does it do?"

"If he eats it before bed, he'll have good dreams for the night. He has to eat the whole thing, and we only had one, but- it's something, at least. And, uh- can you tell him that Matthew gave it to you? I don't know if Dad's faking this for me or not, but I don't want him to think he worried me. Please?"

Isaac softened. Once upon a time, Karis would have marched straight to Ivan and demanded to know what was going on, and not left until she got an answer. This roundabout method- the dream leaf, the ensuring Ivan didn't know she was involved... they were all signs that Karis had come back an entirely new woman. He thought Ivan would be proud.

"Yeah, Karis. I can do that."

The girl smiled. "Thanks. ...And you make sure that he comes home when he was ready, okay?! I get that he needs to stay here for now, but- not for too long! Please?"

Isaac relaxed, and grinned. Karis had grown, maybe, but inside, she was still the same girl who had nearly beaten Tyrell silly for stealing the soarwing. And he had no doubt that she would give Ivan the time he needed, but if he took too long, she could come to drag him back home.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that, Karis."

They both smiled.

Mercury's Gift, 2

"Hey, Isaac."

The Venus Adept sighed to himself, watching through the water's reflection as Mia drifted to stand behind him. She looked tired- though, admittedly, not as tired as he felt- and he managed a grim smile at her in the river. "Hey, Mia."

"Mind if I join you?"

He shrugged and gestured for her to sit.

The Water Adept dropped smoothly down to his side, rolling up her long pants so she could slide her legs into the cool water. "Let me guess... no progress with Ivan?"

"How could you tell?" he deadpanned. "What about you?"

Mia shook her head sadly. "He stopped coming for me to check on his wound. Left a note, saying he was going to see the an Ayuthian healer; not to worry."

Isaac sighed. There went another link they had with Ivan, another way to keep tabs on him and make sure he at least did not get any worse. The only constant anymore was that, with every day, he seemed to withdraw just a little bit more. "You know he's not really going to see one."

"I do. We both also know his wound was fine, and I only asked him to see me because I was worried about him. I shouldn't have used deceit anyway... Ivan was polite enough to not point that out."

Isaac grimaced and opted not to respond. In his opinion, Mia was the one being too polite to insist on seeing Ivan, not as a patient, but not as a friend.

The healer paused and looked at him in the water, her eyes rippling in the waves. "Isaac, don't be so worried. You know Ivan! He's not the little kid you and Garet found thirty years ago. If he needs help, he'll ask for it. He knows there's no shame in that."

Isaac winced. He wished he could believe Mia, he really did... but how was he supposed to simply not worry? This was serious, and with every turn Ivan only left him more and more fearful that it was something they couldn't fix. Whatever he had seen in Kaocho... whatever he had done...

Whatever was slowly driving Ivan insane was doing the same to him, now, too.

He opened his mouth to ask Mia how it was even possible for her to sit here with him, unconcerned- then caught sight of her reflection again.

The wavering smile... her eyes, rendered colorless in the blue of the water, hollow...

Isaac sent one of his own wavering smiles her way. "I'll take your advice when you've taken it yourself, Mia."

The cracking mask vanished, and in its place Mia was just as distraught as he was.

"How'd you know," she muttered, reverting her gaze back to the water.

"You're worse at faking things than Ivan. Really, Mia... it's okay to be worried about him. God knows I am."

"I know that. I was only trying to make you feel better. Guess only Kraden's good for dispensing the sagely advice..." She blushed and looked away, embarrassed. "Looks like I'm not going to be making anyone feel better, these days."

Isaac softened. He remembered how greatly her inability to help had affected her, when Ivan slept still. He remembered how hard she had worked even when it was futile, exercising her healing arts into fatigue even when the chances had been slim to none that Ivan would respond. He was sure it was even worse now, when his suffering was clear and anguished indeed- and Mia was only able to stand helplessly by.

"You helped him get this far, Mia," he tried, looking at her directly this time. "Even if you can't heal him now, you still saved his life in Kaocho. That counts for something."

"Not enough," she said quietly. Stubbornly.

Her hand tapped restlessly against the ground.

"...I don't know why I'm like this," she said abruptly, her gaze doing down to the water. "Healer or nothing. I used to think it was because of my clan- how we are only renowned for healing. But then, I met Piers- and there was still Alex..."

At Isaac's look, Mia frowned and shook her head at him. "I know how you feel about Alex. And you and the others have good reason. But I promise, there's more to him than what you saw. But, Alex never shared my passion for this. The only reason I knew any attack Psynergy at all, when you met me, was because of him. He was interested in it." She shrugged. "And Piers- well, he's a much better fighter than I'll ever be." It was said simply, with no hint of apology or regret, but Isaac frowned, trying to explain it anyway.

"Piers is from Lemuria, you know; he's never seen what sickness or injury can do to people. He had no reason to want to be a healer. It's not surprising he would be a strong fighter, either, Mia."

"Yes, but it doesn't give me an answer for why I'm like this." She splayed her fingers over the water, watching as thin streams ran over her fingers and the back of her hand, pooling when she created a small circle with her thumb and forefinger. "I suppose my clan was a convenient target to begin with..."

"It's not a bad thing. Sometimes, we get too obsessed with trying to fight our way through things. The world needs healers, too, Mia."

"I'd be okay with that, Isaac- honestly, I would. But... it's not enough for Ivan."

The water continued to splash through and over her palms, cool and rapid. Her hands disrupted the current enough that her reflection had turned shimmery and uneven, disguising a torn face wearing a sad stare that met the water in what was near hopelessness. "You're not having any progress... Garet's not... and this is what I'm good at it. Helping people. But nothing I try is working."

"Hey- nothing I try is working, either. But you've got to stop thinking like an Adept." He tapped her head fondly. "Not everything can be fixed with Psynergy... nor should it be. We can help Ivan by being his friend through this- there's no Psynergy move called 'Go Back In Time', or, I don't know- 'Remove Memory' or something."

Mia nearly choked on a giggle, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "'Remove Memory'? That's the best you can come up with?"

He flushed. "Hey, it's accurate!"

She grinned. "Right. You're awful, Isaac."

"Awful and accurate."

Shaking her head in amusement, Mia turned back to the river. Now, the reflection smiled.

"So... as Ivan's friends, then. How can we help him?"

At that, Mia had him stuck again, and he looked to the river himself, trying not to let his despair show. "...He won't talk to any of us. The only time I thought we were getting through to him was with Kochiyo, but the next day he was back to this- this pretending to be fine bullshit. I thought staying here would help after Karis left- you know how he feels about her; he would never want her to see him like this- but it didn't help at all. I try to be consistent, I try to just- be there, in case he needs anything. But he just keeps on hiding and saying he's fine." He shook his head in frustration. "I don't get why he's acting like this. Just what the hell happened there, Mia?!" He hit the pavement now, frayed emotions built up and contained over this past week now fighting to burst out. "Kraden says Mind Read is involved. Okay, great. That clarified this by 0%, and Ivan's not helping! I just- what am I supposed to do?"

Mia's hand climbed over his own and rested there, soft and still wet from the river. She held still, and Isaac closed his eyes, focusing on the feel of her hand over his and the sound of her steady, even breaths. He let his own fall from their angered pace to match hers, trying to keep a handle on his emotions.

Come on, Isaac, losing control isn't helping anybody, least of all Ivan. Come on... just calm down, now...

When he breathed in time with Mia fully, each inhale calm and each exhale slow, the healer spoke up again.

"Kraden said Mind Read was involved?" she asked, calmly.

Isaac opened his eyes. "Yeah. He thinks so."

Mia nodded carefully but did not speak, her eyes distant. She sat for several long moments, clearly deep in thought, but her hand held still over his, fingers near absentmindedly tracing a light pattern over the back of his hand.

At last, she went on. "Ivan's Mind Read- does it work on dead people?"

Isaac paused. "...I don't know. What are you getting at?"

She looked at him, her eyes wide and empathetic. "You know he doesn't like being able to Mind Read people in the first place. And, in Kaocho- what if something happened, and he accidentally or, somehow had to read a dead person's mind? Nearly the whole city was killed... I imagine there were bodies everywhere." She trailed off with a shudder. "Maybe- something just got out of hand. Maybe he Mind Read... a whole bunch of people. He doesn't just hear thoughts, either, does he- he can see things, sometimes, and feel the same things they did... and everybody he would've found was killed by the monsters..."

Isaac's eyes widened.

Mia's calm but rising voice painted a vivid picture indeed. He could see it so clearly it was nearly a memory- Ivan, alone and injured in destroyed Kaocho, surrounded only be monsters and the dead. Ivan, in desperate need of help that was not coming- Ivan, who knew no help was on its way.

Who might've just been desperate enough to turn to the dead for aid, even if they only could give knowledge.

But what he had borne witness to was not mere thoughts; he had taken on as the sole survivor of that massacre and the lives and dying words of ten, twenty, a hundred people. Innocent civilians... those who watched their loved ones get torn apart, those who shielded their children, those who tried to run and those who tried to hide...

That was a momentous responsibility to bear.

"Mia..." he murmured, dismayed.

This was far worse than he had imagined.

"Hey- it's only a theory," she said quickly, laying a hand on his arm. She shook her head earnestly. "Don't look like that, please? We don't know anything for sure... and even if this is true, Ivan's still alive, like you said. We can work with that, if nothing else. If this really is what happened to him... it doesn't matter. No, it doesn't matter. We can still help him. We're still his friends, yes? We'll always be able to help each other."

"We haven't helped him thus far! We've tried everything and he just- won't respond!"

Mia shook her head again, stronger this time. "No. No, we absolutely have not tried everything. Ivan is..." She frowned and looked away, starting to bite on her lower lip. "Ivan... can be difficult. He's not like you or me... he's not so consistent in what he needs or wants. He's- like the wind itself. He changes. We need to change with him if we want to help him at all. He doesn't need us to be consistent anchors or we'll only leave him behind... we can't figure out a surefire way of getting through to him and helping him because there is no one single way. We need to understand what he responds to, and we need to understand how he changes! Kochiyo only helped him right then- that's why she's not not still helping him now. He's not like us, Isaac- we can't use the same methods every time and hope to get through to him!"

She turned to him, beaming with excitement, her face bright with hope. She looked truly alive again for the first time in a week, finally back in her true element of helping people and easing suffering; this was what she was good at and what she loved, and it looked as if whatever mental block that had been in her way had finally dissolved. He rarely saw her more true to herself or more glad.

The bright energy faded when she realized Isaac was simply staring at her, his mouth hanging open- entirely nonplussed. Her cheeks colored, and she looked away, suddenly self conscious. "I- do you not agree?"

"...Wow."

"Wha-"

"Uh, seriously, wow. That was amazing, Mia. You just figured out was wrong... and how to help him. In like, a minute."

She reddened further, reaching up to awkwardly rub the back of her neck and hide her face. The overreaching relief took a backseat to her shyness now, and she shrugged, her eyes down. "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing," he corrected her. "It's a gift. ...And you just helped Ivan with it."

Jupiter's Curse, 2

"Going somewhere?"

Ivan jumped.

Isaac stayed still from his spot beside the gate leading out from underground, leaning back against the wall and looking down at the figure of the Wind Adept standing frozen and unsure of himself, still half in Ayuthay. Ivan's cheeks flushed, and he looked down, as if he just slipped back inside he could pretend this had never happened.

Frowning, Isaac unfolded the note from his fist and read aloud. "Have business to attend to in Morgal. Go home without me; will catch up- Ivan.' Huh. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but a verbal goodbye is, generally, custom? Or is the new tradition to slip away in the middle of the night?"

Ivan frowned himself, and the vestiges of nervousness faded away as quickly as they had come. "I needed to hurry," he said flatly, and pulled himself up the ladder. "Still do, actually."

"Hurry to Morgal. And see who?"

Ivan merely dusted himself off, seeming distinctly uninterested and detached. "Some old friends. I wish to check on them, after the eclipse- they are saying it was worst in Morgal."

For the first time since this had all began, Isaac found himself getting angry.

Yeah, because that was perfectly believable. Oh yeah, because he couldn't find any problem with Ivan just marching off without warning to parts unknown; oh, excuse him, parts unknown in Morgal.

"Hey, if you could pick a more believable excuse, that'd be great; give me something to tell Karis when we head back without you."

Ivan's eyes narrowed in a glare. "...It's the truth, Isaac."

"Don't kid yourself. You're not a good liar."

Ivan shrugged easily, appearing again extraordinarily disinterested. "You can believe what you like, Isaac, but I really am headed to Morgal. If you want to follow me, and prove it, then fine, but I'm leaving now. I'll head back to Angara in about a week- shouldn't take me that long to track down the people I'm looking for."

Isaac hesitated. Ivan was being senselessly difficult, yes- but maybe he should just let him be difficult. If he wasn't willing to explain what was going on, that was his choice. And, what was the worst that could happen? Post eclipse, Morgal should be safe. Ivan would (hopefully) find what he was looking for, then head back to Kalay- that was within a mile of the Lookout Cabin. He could check up on him when he came back.

Then, the note crinkled in his fist, and Isaac scowled.

No- that wasn't what would happen.

What Ivan actually would do is leave for Morgal, or who really knew, and then a few days later, they'd get another note. Sorry guys, change of plans, will be gone indefinitely and I'm not sure where. See you later.

And Ivan had a talent for hiding. If he wanted to disappear then- then he would.

"Yeah, you're not going to Morgal, Ivan."

The Wind Adept paused, his back to him. Ivan stood still for a moment, staff grounding into the floor in irritation, and Isaac could just feel he was fighting to get himself under control. Then, stiffly, Ivan looked back over his shoulder at him, one eye shadowed by the fringe of his hair. "Excuse me, Dad?"

Isaac winced. So, maybe he could have phrased that better.

"Look," he said, spreading his hands placatingly. "At least let us come with you. It's been a rough week for us all- I think the others would feel more comfortable if we just stuck together for now. We'd worry, otherwise."

Ivan laughed with a false brightness that hurt. "Why? The eclipse is over. I'll be fine. It wasn't that long ago I went to Morgal by myself. What are you afraid of?"

"You not coming back," he said honestly.

Ivan's frown deepened. "Seriously, are you worried I'm going to run into superpowered beasts that hid out during the eclipse? Isaac, there's nothing up there that'll be a threat to me."

"That isn't what I meant at all." Isaac sighed, frustrated, and rubbed a hand over his face. "...I'm worried you wouldn't come back of your own volition."

Ivan's eyes widened.

When the Wind Adept did not answer, and just stared at him, the only way Isaac had to describe him being takenaback, he sighed. It seems that confirmed it, then. Ivan had been planning on heading to Morgal- and staying there.

Isaac slumped back against the wall, rubbing his eyes again as he felt the fight go out of him. How had they gotten to this point? How had they progressed in a downwards spiral so drastically in the space of a week? Before the eclipse had hit, Isaac never could've guessed this could even happen- but now, here they were, Ivan practically lying and definitely scheming just to get away from them.

"Come on, Ivan. What's the point. ...Why can't you just talk to us?"

The Wind Adept said nothing, his eyes only for the ground.

Isaac watched on, close to giving up entirely, and Ivan eventually turned away, hands planted on his staff, looking out of Ayuthay and to the sloping field he had just so nearly escaped to. His features were entirely unreadable, shadowed in the dim moonlight and left as guarded and distant. He moved away from the underground portal, crossing his arms and turning so his back was to Isaac. He said nothing, and once in place, the only part of him that moved was his hair brushing through the wind.

Isaac tried again.

"Ivan, I'm begging you here. Garet and Mia are both really worried, and Karis'll probably lose it and hunt you down herself if you just don't come home. No, scratch that, she will, if all I cant tell her is you've gone off to Morgal."

Ivan stiffened again, head tilting his way as if he wanted to turn and face him again. "I'm fine; Karis thinks I'm-"

"Give it up, Karis knows that you're not okay. You're not fine, at all, and she knows it; Garet knows it, Mia knows it, I know it; you're only fooling yourself at this point!"

Ivan stood still, head half-turned, then simply shifted to look away again.

Disappointed, Isaac looked down at his hands and fell silent. It seemed Ivan had actually been under the terribly incorrect impression he was successfully faking recovery. Somehow, Ivan had gotten through this last dreadful week thinking the show he'd put on was believable. Somehow, he had missed the fact that his daughter, and his old companions, were worried about him.

The Wind Adept's head bowed, his hair sweeping over the base of his neck and shadowing everything but the outline of his features. He said nothing for a moment, his form very still and very tense, drawn tight like a bowstring; his staff shook against the ground, wood rattling on stone from the trembling that was now almost intrinsic.

"What do you want me say?" he asked at last, monotonous and cold. Isaac heard the unspoken half, could actually hear Ivan going on with that he would say whatever asked of him, and Isaac sighed miserably.

"The truth. ...I want you to talk to us, Ivan. Tell us why you're doing this! Why is that so difficult?"

"Because-" Ivan broke off with a frustrated sigh, rubbing his head with a shaking hand. "Because..." He groaned, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration, and didn't go on. It seemed that simple question was enough to slump him, and, resigned, Isaac leaned his head back to wait.

It was minutes before Ivan at last managed to respond again.

"I'm not going back to Kalay, Isaac."

The words were limp; defeated. Filled with what just sounded so much like I give up, Isaac almost could not reply.

"Why?" he asked at last.

Ivan turned to meet his eyes again, burning violet simmering with some kind of emotion at last, unidentifiable and harsh but at last it was emotion that he wasn't trying to hide, and Isaac would take that over the alternative. The Wind Adept stared at him for several moments, then, still utterly unreadable, he went on. "People in Kalay don't look at me like this, Isaac." When he blinked, Ivan pointed a hand to his cheek. "Eye to eye. When I was growing up there, I was just that strange child Master Hammet found and took in for reasons unknown; now, I'm a scary Adept. One who uses Mind Read, nonetheless." He laughed bitterly. ''They have no idea how it works... think if all I do is look then in the eye, then I'll see every thought they've ever had."

Ivan paused, then, holding his gaze still but fingers twitching like he wanted to look away. "I was- okay with that, I guess."

"No, you weren't."

Ivan's false smile faded. "...No. I wasn't. ...But, what was I supposed to do about it? If they wanted to be afraid, then that was their prerogative. It was not the first time it had unsettled people, after all." He smiled again, and this time, it was even faker than before.

"...Then, they started doing it to Karis, too."

Here, he darkened.

Isaac swallowed. "Doing-?"

"Being afraid of her! Not looking her in the eye, whispering behind her back- they were even worse with her than they were with me. And she didn't even have it." Ivan shook his head bitterly. "Parents were telling their children not to play with her because they were afraid she'd read their minds, and do something equally horrible. She even asked me about it one time, you know- I'll never forget it; she said, 'Daddy, why did Carla run away from me today'? And what was I supposed to tell her- sorry, Karis, they're just worried I've passed on my magically invasive and uncontrollable mind reading on to you?" Ivan's mirthless gaze at last left Isaac's, staring sullenly at the opposite wall as if it held the answers he needed. "...There was nothing I could do."

This explained why Karis had spent more time with Matthew and Tyrell than her friends from Kalay. She didn't have any friends from Kalay.

It also explained Ivan's far too numerous to be normal visits to the Lookout Cabin. They hadn't been for himself- they had been for Karis.

Ivan closed his eyes, hanging his head until a long section of hair shielded all but the general, resigned outline of his features. He rubbed a hand over his face, then left it there, hiding even that sparse bit of detail from view. "Things were still this bad when she left months ago, with Matthew and Tyrell. And they were still this bad when the eclipse hit. ...All things considered, I think it would be best if I just did not return."

Isaac frowned but said nothing. It took a second to control the irrational impulse to press Ivan on why he hadn't said anything before; Ivan, after all, was passive and non-confrontational. It was very likely he had simply decided to take it in stride, and moved on- and Isaac knew the last thing he would have wanted was him or Garet storming in there to yell at people. Well, specifically Garet, as he was the one in most likely to do that. But it wouldn't have helped matters, and Ivan would've hated it in the first place.

"Where would you go?" he asked instead, and Ivan shrugged noncommittally.

"I don't know yet. Contigo, maybe. Hama's temple."

Jupiter Adepts revered as gods didn't seem much Ivan's style, anymore than Kalay. But Sheba had lived there for quite a while now... perhaps their attitudes had changed. But a monk seemed even less Ivan than what he was now. They had all been surprised when he'd settled down in Kalay, ending a decade long world travel sequence that had taken him to places even Piers did not know. Now that Karis was grown, Isaac wouldn't be entirely shocked if Ivan again did something similar.

"I don't think it's a bad idea to see Sheba or your sister," he said carefully; neutrally. "Would you really like Contigo or a temple longtime, though?"

"I don't know. But I really, really don't want to go to Kalay now. You, Garet, and Mia should probably head back without me. I'll look around- get in touch with you when I find somewhere good."

Isaac raised an eyebrow. It sounded like the decision was already made. "Karis will kill you, you know."

Ivan laughed hollowly. "Yes."

The lack of anything following was telling.

Isaac felt the anger rising again, and, once more, had to reign it back in.

"So- stop me if I have it wrong- you were just going to leave in the middle of the night. Not tell us where you were going and lie about when you'd be back. All this, after the eclipse and, you know, that little bit about you staying unconscious for a week and scaring the hell out of us all? Sorry. I guess I'm not as smart as you; I don't see the logic in there. I'm afraid you'll have to point it out to me."

Ninety percent irritation, and ten percent, relying on Mia's words, if nothing else. Mia had said to try something different. Well, waiting passively was clearly not working- perhaps provoking would. Whatever the case, provoking was something he had not tried yet, and it had a better chance of working than his current strategy of trying to let Ivan come to it and tell him himself.

Isaac did still regret it, just a little, when Ivan did not react in the slightest.

"...I don't understand," he tried again, softening when it seemed that was also going to get him nowhere. "How does you leaving Kalay relate to what happened in Kaocho?"

Now Ivan did react, twitching at the word Kaocho before his mouth turned down in a stubborn frown. One hand curled around his knee, fingers shaking minutely even as he tried to stop it and eyes turning guarded and shadowed. "Nothing happened in Kaocho, Isaac."

Isaac blinked in surprise. He looked over the Wind Adept then shook his head unsurely, completely takenaback that Ivan was actually going to try and deny it. "...Ivan, you were unconscious for a week. When we got there you didn't even recognize us, you-"

"I was physically injured, yes," Ivan said, and he shrugged carelessly. "Mia took care of it. This is all that happened, Isaac."

So- that was how Ivan wanted to put it, then.

Even now, when it was blindingly obvious that something really terrible had happened in Kaocho... Ivan just acted as if nothing was wrong.

Mia was right. He had to try something different- he had to try anything different he could think of, before Ivan really did go to Morgal and not come back.

Well, Ivan was acting on the premise that they knew nothing that had happened in Kaocho and taking complete advantage of it- phrasing his decisions in vague terms and his motivations in even vaguer ones, in imitation of fine and putting up a bad show of everything being okay. But, Ivan was wrong- they did know something of what had happened.

So, maybe it was time to break that illusion.

Matter of factly, Isaac faced Ivan head on and started to explain everything he already knew. There was what Kraden had figured out, and told him concerning Sveta, and then there was what Mia had deduced. Midway through, Isaac made the connection himself; from Kaocho came his problems with Mind Read, and from that came increased aversion to wanting to return to Kalay. He still went on, preferring that Ivan explain it himself. So far, they had connected all the dots- but Ivan had to at least be willing to help them do it, or they would find themselves at yet another impasse, and unable to help.

Throughout his explaination, the Wind Adept grew increasingly uneasy, suddenly no longer able to hold Isaac's gaze. His eyes darted away to the ground and the walls, anywhere but him, and his hands started twitching until he started to wring them together anxiously, lithe fingers curling around each other tightly; not even that forestalled the shaking.

When he was done, and fell silent, Ivan could not even look at him.

Isaac took a deep breath, systematically removing any hint of what could be considered accusatory or angry or even judgmental, and then he went on. "So. We know something happened in Kaocho, Ivan. And we think we know what, but I don't want to make presumptions. ...So please, just talk to us. We're your friends, right? Why is that so difficult?"

Ivan's gaze still stayed on the floor, and his features remained just as torn but ultimately unreadable. The shaking in his hands did slow, though, noticeably, and some of the tortured dilemma that consumed him seem to be resolved. He shifted uneasily, eyes still the on the ground, but then, let out a bitter laugh that just felt so unsuited to the situation it made Isaac shiver.

"Yes," Ivan said at length, "you three are wiser than I gave you credit for. However, you have still only gone as far as conjecture can take you."

There was a long pause.

Then, the dark eyes raised once again to meet his. There was not even a glimmer of emotion to be seen.

"You and Mia were right. That is- exactly what happened to me, and this Sveta, I would presume, as well. It's rather... gruesome; I think you want me to spare you the details, Isaac. The short of it is, you were right. And, no, my Mind Read does not just show me thoughts. I can see things, sometimes... feel things..." He looked away briefly, unreadable gaze coming to rest against the wall and what emotion there was now flickering in violet so quickly it was impossible for Isaac to interpret.

"The people in Kaocho were eaten alive, Isaac. And I saw it happen through their eyes."

Horror knocked him breathless.

Ivan, meanwhile, simply looked back at him, stare flat and expression utterly empty. "So, you see, Isaac, I am still not exactly open to, ah, sharing those memories with you. Nor do I think you all very much want to hear them. Perhaps I could've handled this better; I'm sure acting as though nothing was wrong left you more worried than if I had just come out and said it. But, it's too late for that. I'm not fine, though, Isaac, and that's why I'm not going back to Kalay. Sometimes, I hated it there. I think now, after everything- it would just be best if I did not return."

Isaac still had yet to recover from Ivan's revelation.

The slim adept looked away, rubbing a hand over his eyes. Then he shook his head, and again, he looked just so resigned, it hurt. "Maybe I'll go to Contigo, like I said; maybe I'll go to my sister's temple in Morgal. Maybe I'll go somewhere else entirely. But I'm not going back to Kalay with you. Not now- maybe not ever." Then, suddenly, he lowered his hand and met Isaac's eyes again, wary. "Don't try and guilt trip me into staying because of Karis. My decision is made. She's old enough to take care of herself, and at this point... I need to get away from there, more than she needs me there."

Isaac shuddered. "I wasn't about to try," he managed, his throat dry. "You- you have a reason for it. I thought you were just being stubborn, and avoiding us, but- you actually have a reason. For leaving, I mean."

Ivan tilted his head slightly, gazing at him through the fringe of his hair and the shadow of past memory. "Yes. I do, Isaac."

"And, I'm sorry for not going about this a better way. I- probably should've just talked to you before today, shouldn't I?"

Ivan laughed softly. "Perhaps that would've been best, yes. Though you could probably also blame me for not saying anything to any of you. I assumed I was fooling you... thought I could just leave, head to Morgal, and you wouldn't worry, and I would be able to resolve things myself. Guess I wasn't all that great an actor, huh?"

"Nah. We just know you too well."

The Wind Adept grinned. "Apparently."

Forcing himself to smile back, Isaac leaned forward, trying to hold Ivan's gaze. "And, please, don't just vanish without talking to me or the others. If you need to go on some soul-searching Jupiter trip, or, just get out of Kalay- that's fine. We won't stop you. But we're worried about you, Ivan. I'm worried about you. You're going to have to tell us not to follow you, because, otherwise, we will. If you need to be alone, then okay, but unless you want us to not let that happen... you're going to have to at least try to talk to us."

It was the truth, and as simply as he could put it. If Ivan had succeeded tonight, slipped away with nothing left behind but a written goodbye for them to wake up to, Isaac had no doubt that Garet and Mia would have gone with him to Morgal and they would've searched until they found him. After what had happened during the eclipse- after his very stilted recovery and week spent worrying them all so greatly- there was no chance on earth they would've been content to just let him disappear.

In that moment, looking on at Ivan and waiting for a response, Isaac was struck, not by how young he looked, but by how old he looked. Ivan had been fifteen during the Golden Sun event, and he'd looked even younger; nowadays, he could still pass for thirteen. When he'd been unconscious, one of the guards had tentatively asked if Ivan was his son.

But now, slumped as if the weight of world rested on his shoulders, drawn and face heavy with a suffering far beyond his apparent years, he at last looked his age. More so than Isaac himself.

At last, two dark eyes met his again.

"What is there to say, Isaac?" he asked simply. "I didn't know a single person in that city. And, yet, I remember them all being eaten. I have memories of- not people; mothers, sons, sisters, people I didn't know in the slightest but I felt like I loved them, seeing them just... eaten..." Ivan trailed off and shuddered through sheer revulsion, his slim frame rocked now with tremors and unbearable sorrow. "I'm sure I saw it happen to Kochiyo's family, too. They're memories that are not mine to have, and I still remember them, for better or for worse. You, Garet, Mia... you've never experienced this. I know you want to understand and help, but you can't, Isaac. Not every problem has an easy solution- no amount of me trying to have you three understand would get us anywhere." He shrugged again, resigned and defeated to the point where the motion was as small as possible. "It is as I said before. ...This is something I need to work out by myself."

That hurt, too.

But, it was also the truth.

Isaac sighed.

Suddenly, he felt just as defeated as Ivan.

"...You'll at least stay in contact, right?"

Ivan smiled without any real humor. "You three would worry if I didn't, right? Ha... evidently, I can't fool you, so that's really my only choice."

Isaac paused. "Don't do it because you feel like you have to-"

But Ivan waved him off, and that fake smile stayed plastered on. "No. No, that's not why I- ...look, I'm glad you stopped me. It may seem like it didn't help, but, it has, Isaac. Helped me realize, it's probably been an awful few weeks for you guys- and I haven't helped much with that. There's no reason for this to be worse than it already is. And, besides- you've already shown that you won't let things rest. You figured out much more than I expected you to, and so much quicker than I ever would've guessed. If I left you guys to your own devices, who knows what you'd come with... no, I'll keep in touch, Isaac. You don't have to be concerned."

This time, when Ivan smiled, it was genuine.

It gave Isaac what he felt he'd been missing ever since the eclipse started- hope.

Still smiling, just slightly, the Wind Adept averted his eyes pulled himself to his feet, wrapping a secure hand around his staff. "Sorry to ask this, but, can you talk to Mia and Garet for me? ...Barely got through this once; don't think I could handle it two more times."

Isaac laughed weakly. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever you need."

Ivan nodded casually back. "Thanks."

He had almost turned away when Isaac remembered.

"Hey, wait!" Jumping to his feet, he hurried forward while rooting around in his pockets. "Hey, hang on... here!"

Ivan blinked in complete confusion.

Isaac smiled sheepishly. "It's from Karis. A, uh, dream leaf. She said it guaranteed good dreams if you ate it at night. ...I waited because I figured you were under the impression you were fooling her, too."

The Wind Adept just stared blankly.

Then, he chuckled. "I'm a terrible actor, aren't I?"

"Unfortunately."

Ivan took the leaf and laughed again, smile broadening in a move from just genuine to real happiness. He clutched the dream leaf tightly to his chest and bowed his head, chuckling quietly first but letting the feeling grow until he shook with laughter. Isaac let out a weak chuckle of his own, half strangled first, then decided to finally release the chokehold he'd had on his own emotions for this entire cursed week and laugh with him.

Ivan slipped to his knees first, then Isaac followed. The lithe hand that found his shoulder was unexpected but another beacon of foreign hope that made his smile even stronger, unrestrained joy of the finality of it all claiming him at last and easing away the horror until there was nothing left but the memory of it.

Memory remained a powerful force, truth be told- Ivan was living proof of it.

But the past was still not important than the present.

"Karis is going to murder me when she finds out about this, isn't she?" Ivan gasped out, shaking his head at himself. "I should be glad I won't be there to see it!"

"What, and leave the telling her to me as well? I hope you come to my funeral..."

Ivan grinned. "So long as you don't fake your death to get me to come home."

"Deal."

Ivan met his eyes again, leaning back against the wall with an easy grace that eclipsed the stiff tension that had been so familiar in him as of late. One corner of his mouth still pulled up in a beaming smile, and the darkness that had so recently haunted his eyes was gone. If Isaac hadn't already been smiling, that would've done it, no question.

"Thanks, Isaac," Ivan said, lightly. Then, more seriously, "Thank you. ...For everything."