Chapter 2:

Four years had passed since that fateful day. And to everyone's delight, the word "normal" was becoming more and more applicable to life in Vale. The five remaining heroes have settled into their roles in town. To his Father's dismay, Garet has opened a restaurant in the center of town, far and away from following in the footsteps of the town Mayor. Yet his disappointment abates when he gets the chance to have one of Garet's meals. Cooking is one of the few things Garet applies his mind to, and the rest of the villagers couldn't be more thankful. Though they learned quickly that, if they wanted anything other than really well done, they would order raw packaged meat and cook it themselves. Everyone orders rare even though they know they won't get it. No one has ordered a well done steak from Garet in years, and travelers have been warned not to ever since Felix ordered one and heard the word "SUPERNOVA!" coming from the kitchen. The following day, a "Closed for Repairs" sign appeared on the door for two weeks.

Isaac was never satisfied with this return to normalcy. He knew the threat that alchemy posed to the world. This was the reasoning behind his decision to join Kraden in his continuing research of alchemy. The basement laboratory of Kraden's home was one of few structures to survive the collapse of Mount Aleph. This was very fortunate, as its survival preserved a lifetime of notes and research. Once Kraden's home was rebuilt on top of the remaining foundation, the pair set to work.

The release of alchemy was not as earth-shattering as the legends purported it to be. The erosion of Gaia Falls had ceased, and the stagnated civilizations of Weyard had begun to advance and flourish once again. The changes were subtle though, as if an obstacle to progress had been removed, humanity was not instantly rocketed into a new Golden Age, as was expected. But if there was one dramatic change that all of Vale could take notice of, it was the one that took place in Kraden.

One would think that Kraden would be ready to retire. After all, he was kidnapped and led across Gondowan in chains, and he chased eight young heroes all across Weyard through dungeons, forests, and deserts… he had seen the entire world on the open sea. That might've been enough for the old Kraden, but now he craved adventure as much as he did knowledge. Kraden was often away on expeditions into the Aleph Basin. He hiked the foothills and explored the great cracks in the ground. It was thanks to his work that parts of the outer edges of Sol Sanctum were discovered. The survival of those few room was a great testament to the legacy of the last Golden Age. Kraden was often gone for days at a time, sometimes close to a week, but he always returned with an excited grin and something he dug up from the Sanctum Ruins. Kraden's home and laboratory became filled with the spoils of his expeditions. Fractured stone slates, pottery, and all manner of artifacts covered every surface of his home. It always amazed Isaac to see someone so old so giddy with excitement. Isaac hoped that he would be like that someday and, it appeared, so did Kraden. Kraden did his best not to interrupt Isaac's studies, always entering the room and waiting for Isaac to notice him, and he always enlisted Garet or Felix whenever he needed heavy lifting done. They became quite the pair over the years.

People may quibble over Mia's reasons for staying, but everyone is glad she's there. Mia is the self-appointed caretaker of the Djinn. She lives in a steel-walled bastion known affectionately as "the Fortress." It took a combined effort of Isaac, Felix, Jenna and Garet almost a month to construct and is the only building in Vale capable of containing the energetic creatures. By the same token, it's been said that Mia is the only person in Vale who can control them all. Mia was capable of both loving kindness and iron-fisted discipline, and managed to keep them all in line. Roll call was essential at the Fortress. Many of them were masterful escape artists and they would turn up in odd places every so often. Chests of drawers, shoes… they found their way into everything. A popular destination was Garet's kitchen. Once, Garet walked into the Fortress holding a flour-caked Zephyr by the wing and scolding "You were this close to being a muffin!" Despite his toleration of the Djinn in his kitchen, Mia has repeatedly denied Garet's requests to borrow all 18 Mars djinn. She didn't know what he was up to, but she knew it was a bad idea. (She was right; Garet was planning to cook an entire cow to save time.)

Jenna ran relief shifts for her, because she liked to study with the healers of the Sanctum occasionally to keep her healing abilities honed, "Just in case." You could always tell when Jenna was minding the Fortress, there were a great many more explosions coming from it. Jenna was a lot more iron-fisted and less nurturing than Mia was. Either of them could be seen now and again, chasing colored streaks across town.

Apart from allowing Mia a respite from her lot in life, Jenna adventured with Kraden when there were areas that required some agility to get to. Kraden was spirited, but by no means as young as he once was. She never had to worry about torches too. While helping to build the Fortress, she discovered her talent for metalworking. As she sharpened her skills, (And her weapons) it wasn't long before she had a smith shop, and buyers as far away as Tolbi. She invented many exclusive weapons that were sought around the world. As word and shipment of her weapons spread, she began wrapping the handles of her weapons with leather dyed pink, and topped the hilts of her finest signature works with a lock of her deep purple hair. She felt that it was imperative that she squelch the stories of the great man in Vale that made such fine weapons. It was a sight to behold, a legion of Tolbi's finest, all wielding pink battleaxes. Their opponents snickered until they saw the power of the weapons in battle.

Like Isaac, Felix feared for the future of Weyard. He kept close tabs on the effect of alchemy. He noted that it had given nearly everyone in the world psynergy, but not a lot of it. As Kraden summed it up, everyone on Weyard had "A few party tricks and a lot of potential." Kraden had hit the nail on the head. Most people could channel psynergy items, and some had a few mundane uses for their meager psynergy. The world was full of Mars adepts that could toast bread, Mercury adepts that could shield themselves from the rain and the like, but very few who were not adepts before alchemy were interested in training their abilities.

Felix knew that this was a problem. Such adepts could not contend with the threat that alchemy posed to Weyard. He recognized that what Kraden about potential was also quite true. They had psynergetic ability about equal to his when he left Prox with Saturos and Menardi, but they couldn't focus their power with their mind. They had been instantly made into adepts, unlike the previous generation that had been born that way. Felix had had the chance to let his powers grow with him, and over the years he had developed an innate sense for the earth and how to affect it with his mind. The new generation had their power thrust upon them instantly, so they had difficulty controlling and focusing their power. So Felix made up his mind to compensate for their inexperience by founding Weyard's first Adept Academy since the last Golden Age.

He already knew how to be vigilant of Earth's unstable nature. However, adepts of other elements might come to learn at his academy and he possessed little insight into the other elements, but he knew people that did. Felix spent days in Vale's sanctum, listening to the wisdom of the great healers and interviewing the Jupiter adept there. He learned of wind's fickle nature, and the importance of speed and accuracy when fighting with it. Jenna taught him how fire required a firm hand, and how it wouldn't respect you if you didn't command it with authority. Mia let him borrow some of the ancient tomes that she brought from the Imli Sanctum. She told him about how a Mercury Adept must walk the tightrope between water's great healing and destructive power, and how water psynergy is as much teamwork between adept and element as it is one's mastery over water. It wasn't long before word spread about the Academy and Felix had students coming in from all over Weyard; some curious about their new abilities, some wanting to be heroes like Felix, some wanting to meet girls… But no matter, Felix could tell almost instantly who was serious and who wasn't. That dedication was his only enrollment requirement.

All was well in Vale. Isaac was working on deciphering some runes on a piece of stone pillar that Kraden had brought him. He felt a sudden tremor in the Earth. The concrete walls around him acted like a resonating chamber to bring the tremor to his ears. He wasn't sure if he had felt the vibrations in the ground or he had sensed it with his Venus psynergy, but he knew it was different. He had felt calamitous crashes from rocks falling in Aleph Basin, the ones that made him worry about Kraden. "He has been away for a long time." Isaac thought. He worried constantly about Kraden. Jenna said that Kraden knew what he was doing, and that Isaac should stop giving himself gray hairs over it. He worried just the same. Especially since this was nothing like a normal quake, not loud at all, but it still held all the power of a raging avalanche. This was the Earth heaving with some great unrest. "The Earth is trying to communicate…" He thought. "It's trying to tell me that there's someth-"Felix burst through the door at the top of the stairs. They exchanged a glace that confirmed Isaac's suspicion. "You felt it too." Isaac said, knowing the answer was yes. "Aye, and so did a handful of my students." Felix replied gravely. They both said "Something is very wrong."

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Wow. These expository chapters go fast, but they're a lot of fun! Read+respond and such...