"Is it really necessary for us to come here every day and check on the lighthouse? I mean, you always lock the door with psynergy when we leave anyway, so why do we have to check on it all the time?" The girl asking was 13 years old, she had long blue hair and smart eyes.
"Nowell, I told you already, we have to make sure, that no one enters this building without permission. It would be a disaster if someone without psynergy entered these sacred rooms.", Mia answered. "I just want you both to know this place as good as I do. I have been here a lot since the day of my return and as members of the Mercury Clan we have to make sure, that everything is alright in here." Nowell knew, that guarding the lighthouse was very important to her mother. But the girl could not stop thinking, that she might have another reason, why she checked the lighthouse every day.
"Well, upstairs is everything okay. Nothing changed." Her younger brother Rief came down the stairs. "Rief! How many times do I have to tell you not to wander off alone? You know, that mum doesn't like it if we seperate from another. Especially in this place, where..." "Nowell! Calm down. There is no need to be so angry with your younger brother.", interrupted Mia her daughter. Then she looked at her son, who was only 11 years old. "You don't have to smile like that, young man. I know you like this place, but you should not wander off like that. If we go here, we go together. Going alone is dangerous and even though the psynergy seal at the entrance is there, there could be monsters all the time. So please, don't scare me by going away like that."
Nowell shook her head: "You go way too easy on him, mum. How the heck is he supposed to be a strong and mighty warrior, if you never yell at him?"
"A-actually.. I don't want to be a warrior... I-I think I want to be really wise man, who knows everything about psnergy and Weyard.", Rief answered.
Nowell looked at her younger brother. "Yeah, I figured that already out. But do you really think you can travel all across Weyard without a single fight?"
"W-Well, I sure can, if I got company..."
"Company? Who do you think would travel all across the world from Imil? There is no way anyone would leave this town..."
The siblings both knew it was true. No one from Imil was a traveller. No one left for adventure or foreign countries. And they both knew, that they both had to stay here and guard the lighthouse. Because they had to. It was their duty as members of the mercury-clan. Mia recognized the sudden silence between those two. "Well, let's leave this place for today. I would like to practice some basic psynergy with you, before it gets dark!"
Nowell sighed. In general she enjoyed training and studying a lot. But when she thought about her future, she had no chance to dream about it. Because every time she tried imagining exploring foreign countries, her look fell on the mercury-lighthouse. This god-damn lighthouse. As fascinating as this building was, and though her psynergy was stronger near the beacon, she couldn't like this place. Because she knew, as the older sister she would have to stay here and guard the lighthouse. She just knew it. Of course everyone would say, that it was Rief's duty as well as hers, but Nowell just knew, that Mia hoped for her to be the next guardian. She knew it, because the way of training was slightly different from that, what Rief learned. And this was not because of their difference in age.
Nowell wrote everything she did and learned down in her diary. She could exactly tell which tasks and duties she had to perform when she was at her brother's age. And there was also her brother himself. Though she always mimed the superior older sister when they had people watching them, she knew, that her brother was, despite of his shy character, meant to be a scholar. Some one who knew the world. He had every talent for that. He studied really hard, he was able to read at the age of four years. He could quote the whole story of the "Warriors of Vale" and he was like a living dictionary!
The last thing was Nowell as well, but she was more specialized in special topics than her brother. He knew everything in general. I tried learning and absorbing everything. Each fact that might matter some time he tried to remember and it was amazing what he could do with his eleven years. While he read encyclopaedias, history and science books, Nowell read a lot of fictional and mystery novels. She just loved being able to forget this land of snow and to imagine to live in a different time, a different place. Being a different person. As much as she loved being an adept, as much hated she the imagination of being bound to this lighthouse for all of her lifetime.
Sometimes, only sometimes she thought, that this was, what her dead uncle Alex must have felt like, when he still lived here. Before he left and became a traitor. She could never shatter her mother's hopes for Nowell's future. She loved that smile on Mia's lips. This gentle all-sin forgiving smile which cheered her up, every time she was sad. Her mum was not only her mum but also her teacher. She was indeed inspiring, but now that the Winter reached out for the land again, she had the feeling, that everything became dull.
An hour later they stopped practising their psynergy and went on their way home. Rief seemed to be really exhausted from his training. Nowell wasn't feeling any better. Mia made her practise with the mercury djinns. Though they gave the adepts greater power it wasn't particularly easy to summon them proper and effective. "Mum, you said a while ago, that Isaac and your other companions have kids as well, right?", Rief suddenly asked. "Yes, dear, that's right. What about it?", Mia replied surprised. "Well.. what are they like? I mean, are they great adepts? Or don't they have any power at all?" Mia thought for a short moment, before answering. "Well, as far as I know from Isaacs letter, their kids are adepts as well. But I don't know any details..."
"What do you want to know that for anyway, Rief? It's not like, that they're going to visit us. Imil is far out of direction. And Isaac and Garet have to guard the old Sol Sanctum, so there is no way they would visit with their kids. And crossing the Goma Mountains is for us by now far too dangerous!", Nowell added.
"Yeah, I know, but... if they are really adepts... I just would like to meet them. You know... meeting other kids,... like us!", said Rief and Nowell knew what he meant.
The two siblings weren't really outsiders or anything, but they were treated special. Because they were Mia's kids. The adults knew about their psynergy and thought really high of them, because both of them studied and trained a lot. Nowell did not exactly know, what people saw in them, sometimes she wished for being a jupiter-adept. Then she would have been able to read their minds. But more important to the two young adepts than the adults were the other kids in town. Some of them were quite nice. But Nowell never managed to get close to any of them. Sharing secrets, laughing at silly stuff or playing with dolls... for some reason it was not possible. It was not because they had not any free time to spend with other kids. But neither Rief nor Nowell could resist using their psynergy to make some games more "fun". One time Nowell played with the neighbour's daughter. They both had dolls and took them outside. They started building homes for their dolls and Nowell suggested using psynergy. But the beautiful shaped home out of ice did not have the wanted effect on the other girl. First she was surprised, then impressed but in the end she started playing with some other girl, excluding Nowell from their plays.
Her brother didn't have the same problem, but he had one. The one that he was always right. He just was the type of person who could not stop correcting other people. And he wasn't liked for that. He had some friends, but Nowell did realize, that they were always mocking him a bit. Of course this could be just joking among boys, but Nowell knew her brother. She knew, that he didn't like it being called "Four-Eyes" or "Smart-a-pedia" (the boy who came up with that name, was punched by Nowell. Really. Hard. He still feared her wrath). Rief said, he didn't care about those names. He said, they were nicknames, this would be normal. But Nowell thought of them as insulting and if she was her brother, she would freeze that boys into ice.
By the way, there was no boy in all of Imil who was any interesting at all. In her books the heroines often had a guy they liked. A guy who would comfort them on their quest. Some dude who was smart, pretty damn cool and a warrior. But there was nobody even CLOSE to that in Imil. The boys her age were... just stupid. She would never admit it, but she was glad her brother turned out like this. Well, he wasn't a playboy either, but at least he was a person she could talk to.
They arrived at their home and to their surprise, there was not only their dad at home. No, there was an old man sitting on a chair, taking notes and babbling some stuff in his beard. "Mia, is that you? It is good to see you.", the man said, as he noticed the three persons in the door. Nowell and Rief looked from the old man to her mum and back at him.
"Kraden? You haven't changed at all, if I may say so..." Mia closed the door and greeted the foreigner with a hug. Rief and Nowell looked at each other. Did their mother just call that guy "Kraden"? Kraden the wise scholar? The one that travelled all across Weyard, who studied Alchemy under the legendary Lord Babi and who was present when the lighthouses were lit?
As fast as they could the siblings tried to get rid of their shoes, gloves and scarves. When they followed their mother to greet the prominent guest, Kraden already asked: "So these are your children, I suggest?"
"Well it's more than obvious", commented Mia's husband, who was cooking dinner back in the kitchen. Kraden laughed and looked at the siblings with his eyes, which seemed to know the answer to everything. "Yes, that's right. This one is my daughter Nowell, 13 years old and my youngest one Rief, he is 11. I did not expect you to be here so soon, Kraden. Any reason for that?", Mia introduced her children.
"Well, I have to admit I was just curious about them. I already got to know Isaac's and Jenna's son and of course Garet's kid was there as well...", Kraden answered, still observing Nowell and Rief, which felt after a while quite uncomfortable, because they did not exactly know what was going on. "Well, you know, it is good to see you Kraden, but, the thing is, I haven't told them yet." "Haven't told us what?", Rief and Nowell asked at the same time.
Mia smiled. "I could not help but realized, that you two got bored the last weeks while training and studying. Though your results were pretty good, your minds weren't present. So I asked Kraden if he could come and stay a bit as our guest. And of course as your new teacher."
Neither Nowell nor Rief knew what to say. Her brother was the first one, who found the right response. "It- it is an honour to study under the great Kraden! I won't disappoint you, Sir!" "Leave the 'Sir' aside, but I'm glad you both seem to like the idea.", was Kradens response.