Disclaimer: I do not own Golden Sun - which belongs to Nintendo/Camelot - or the quote below.

"The boy looked at Johnny
He said 'Don't you know who I think I am?'
Well I knew you once before
Now I'm trying all I can."
The Libertines, 'The Boy Looked At Johnny'

Chapter 4: Trying to be Alex.

Isaac frowned and stepped back as the others behind him looked on, equally puzzled. He'd opened the door to be faced with a blank wall of rock, and asking Alex what he was doing in there had been as good as asking the wall.

"He could be telling us to leave him alone," Ivan suggested.

"We'll have to ask him to leave eventually," Piers pointed out.

"Shh! I hear something." Mia quieted everyone, and they heard Alex asking for help again.

Isaac and Felix stood on either side of the door, each placing a hand on the surface of the rock. After a slight pause, the entire mass of stone dissolved into nothing. Everyone stared as a wide eyed, panting, sweat soaked Alex fell from three feet up in the air, collapsing on the ground with a quiet thud. Still shivering, Alex picked himself up, turning to face them.

"Never seen him this energetic before," Felix called over his shoulder to someone Alex couldn't see, before stepping back with the others. King Hydros slowly came into view, approaching the door and drawing to a halt at the threshold. The King waited, surveying the man who stood before him. Alex stepped forwards curiously, looking a lot calmer. Isaac noted with surprise that even the sweat seemed to have been drawn back into his skin.

"So, Alex. I'm glad to finally make your acquaintance." Hydros opened the conversation for him, wondering who he would turn out to be.

"Majesty. What's it like to have so much majesty about you?" The king opened his mouth, but Alex hadn't finished and didn't seem to notice. "You have Alchemy. Are you strong?"

"Fairly strong, yes."

"Same here." Alex tilted his head sympathetically. "Nothing ever turns out infinite, does it?"

"Does it need to?" Hydros asked.

"You don't enjoy your reign? Don't wish to rule eternally?" Alex asked mildly.

"There is satisfaction to be had from doing what I can for my people, certainly, but I could never wish away a well earned rest at the end. What about you? Do you still desire the world?" Was he truly so far gone that he would admit to it?

"Sure, if you're offering. Two sugars, no milk."

"I wasn't offering," Hydros replied, though he assumed Alex had been sarcastic. "What are your plans, now you've been 'brought back into the real world', if that was how you put it?"

"See what the real world is doing. That's a must," Alex replied like it was obvious. "When I knew of everything but one rock, the mountain I'd presumed to rule ruled me. Prevention is everything. Foresight is always... No, hindsight is always..."

"Yes, prevention is everything. I am here to offer you support if you choose to act as an ally of the realm, and to prevent you from acting otherwise. Provided you have no objections, I will entrust your situation to the Governors of Alchemy."

"How could I object?" Alex replied with a strange smile; it was hard to say whether it held any bitterness. "My life is theirs."

"And this room is yours indefinitely." Hydros stepped back with an answering smile. "I must say, as a king, it is rather refreshing to see someone stand and face me as an equal without prompting. Especially one such as yourself."

"What are you saying?" Alex called after the king as he walked away to inform the senate.

"He's saying you're an evil madman," Felix replied scornfully.

"I'm not… mad… or - "

"So says the man who just filled his room with stone," Felix interrupted, glaring at him.

Alex stared back, studying his old companion without venturing another reply.

"Well, it's official. He's here to stay," Piers reflected. "Let's hope this all works out."

"Of course it will," Sheba replied, offering Piers an encouraging smile.

"King Hydros has always been the best judge of character on Weyard," Ivan added. "I'm just glad Conservato's retired. He may have been one of the first to accept Alchemy, but this would still make him so mad…"

"We'll have to go tell him, won't we?" Garet grinned.

"You know you can't! He'll have another heart attack!" Jenna reminded him.

"Yeah... maybe," Garet admitted. "But he's got to hear it sometime, and I'm not missing it."

"Do you have to be anywhere today, though? We need to decide what to do with him." Felix walked over, leaving Alex lost in thought.

"I'm busy," Mia answered. "I had to be here for this, but there's a new installation at Mercury Lighthouse that I have to oversee." She left in a hurry.

"I'm not free yet either," Garet told them. "Neikul will be waiting for us to help sort those kids out. And when the camping holiday's over, we're taking them up to Mars Lighthouse for their test. See how much they haven't learned."

"The trip was scheduled to end today anyway," Jenna added. "We'll be free by evening, though I'd rather get a few things done in Prox before I go anywhere else. I guess I'll have to see if I'm needed by then." She and Garet walked into Isaac's room, the one opposite Alex's, to use the teleportation pads.

"We can't abandon ship for too long when the rest of the crew's still at sea. It'll be cutting the session short, but we can be docked by evening and free from then on too." Piers spoke for Sheba and himself, before turning to follow her into Isaac's room.

"Isaac, aren't you and Ivan attending the trade conference between Bilibin and Kalt this morning?" Felix asked, slightly worried. He did not want to be stuck on his own for this.

"Hey, don't worry. I can manage without you," Ivan volunteered. "I may be going as a WTCC councilor, but I can act as the attending Governor of Alchemy at the same time, if that's what's needed."

"Thanks." Isaac and Felix gave Ivan identical relieved and grateful smiles. Isaac hated sitting around worrying while other people dealt with his problems.

"I should have known better than to make this week a holiday from 'everything except emergencies'. That was a sure way to summon something like this," Felix added.

"You'd better decide where you're going - hey, wait." Ivan realized something. "Alex has only just woken up, he hasn't had breakf- He hasn't eaten for decades!"

Everyone felt rather silly, only realizing this now, even after Mia had brought that glass of water. Alex hadn't appeared starved when they'd found him, and no one usually thought about food in the middle of the night.

"Alex? Would you like something to eat?" Isaac called over to him.

"Food?" Alex turned, giving them a puzzled look. Food had sometimes tasted quite good, but the new input from all his other senses was distracting enough, and he had bigger issues to deal with. Unless they thought… "I don't need food," he informed them. "There is nothing destructive about nourishment, so I get it directly from the elements - they are what food is made of anyway."

"But don't you want to taste something again, for fun?" Ivan asked.

"Fun? Gathering in pointless circles, grinning like idiots? I worked for so much more than that! You needn't assume I've lost enough hope to sit around mimicking your levels of useless inanity!" Alex snarled at Ivan. There was no way he could simply… He had to have held on for something of more substance. Surely he had more ahead of him than the most redundant aspects of the life he'd left behind…

"I'll leave this to you two," Ivan told the others quietly, walking off without another word. Felix knew another of his friends had been hurt. Ivan and Mia were so sensitive. Still, now that they'd rescued him, did Alex plan to insult and alienate everyone all over again?

"So, you want to learn about the world? How about visiting the House of Light?" Felix suggested.

"You should get more of an overview there than at any of the Lighthouses," Isaac agreed. "We could introduce you to Kraden too - though I think we'd better find someone more impartial to teach you."

"Where is - "

"Not far from the palace," Felix interrupted, "so you won't have far to walk. Save your questions until then."

Felix and Isaac started down the corridor, both glancing over their shoulder impatiently at Alex to indicate he should be following. Alex walked after them, wondering how much power and symmetry they truly possessed. If he found another route to power, would he ever be able to play them all again?


The House of Light, Alex decided, certainly lived up to its name. It had been visible from the palace gates, once he'd recovered from the sheer blueness of the sky. Alex had stared at the sun for a full minute before Isaac and Felix had gotten tired of standing around. The sun did seem far brighter than he'd remembered, but then he'd never been able to look directly at it before.

Lemuria's silvery stone pillars and archways, set against the rich green grass and pure blue of the sea and sky surrounding the island, gave the landscape an air of both refreshing, exposed openness, and impossibly ancient magnificence. Resting on one of the city's lower slopes, the House of Light shone brilliantly white past the dusty silver of the other buildings. Drawing closer had revealed its shape, a perfect hemisphere like a pearl the width of the palace embedded in the earth. Once they were standing right next to the building, Alex could see it had been constructed of the same stone as its surroundings, and enchanted with a shadow-thin layer of light across its surface. The four elemental colours intertwined in a billion momentary whirls and swirls up close, blurring into a dazzling white from any further than three feet away. Alex didn't like much, but he found himself liking Lemuria a great deal.

Upon entering the building, they found themselves in a small chamber with a door on the opposite wall, next to a panel of glowing buttons. These were labelled with words such as 'Chemistry', 'Optics', 'Physics' and 'Mythology'.

"Different aspects of Alchemy," Isaac explained, as Felix said "different ways of studying Alchemy." Alex nodded, getting the idea.

Isaac pressed 'Philosophy' and the room glowed golden for an instant. Felix opened the door, presumably to the part of the building designated to this aspect of study, and led Alex into a moderately vast room full of chairs, tables, charts and fiercely debating scholars of a range of ethnicities. They soon found Kraden deep in conversation with a dark-eyed Lemurian woman.

"Ah, Felix, Isaac, good timing." Kraden greeted them without turning to look at them. "Meda was just arguing that the infinite nature of Alchemy must rule out the existence of an entirely omnipotent god; care to help me argue that it might in fact make it a necessity?"

"Take what happened in the Dark Age," Meda elaborated, her eyes glinting happily. "Without being sufficiently replenished, earth was worn away by wind and water, while the seas were lost to evaporation and to Gaia Falls. It's been proven that most material manifestations of air can be dissolved in water, so the atmosphere too was being depleted. Heat dissipates; if we didn't receive heat and light continuously from the sun, a body entirely of the element fire, Weyard would be lost to cold and darkness. The elements which compose everything in existence undergo continuous decay. Only the eternal renewal of this elemental force can be infinite; the eternal maintenance of reality.

The stone of sages would link one soul to the essence of Alchemy, renewing them forever from this source. If a single benevolent god was behind the constant creation of the elements, then why would this stone grant any human, good or evil, the same eternal and infinitely powerful state?"

"Look at it this way," Kraden enthusiastically countered. "Each human is composed, in part, of all four elements. Let's use the model taking earth and water as the principle elements behind solidity and fluidity of form, infused with fire in life; warmth, the energy of thought and movement, the spark of consciousness, which must be fed by air as we breathe, as pure fire needs air to burn.

In death, without this shell of earth and water, the fire of the soul may no longer contact living souls, but it is then in complete contact with the air, allowing it to burn yet brighter. Weyard is in continuous growth, expanding the land we live on, the heavens above and the dense earth below. Concentrations will spread over the available area unless some force is creating a vacuum, so with no physical weight holding them to the relatively tiny area which living souls inhabit, departed souls must depart; they must either rise to the heavens where pure air allows these souls to blaze brightly for as long as the elements exist - in other words, eternity - or they must be drawn down where there is no space for air, completely extinguishing their existence. Does this not call for an infinite and just god, to ensure good souls pass on to the heavens and bad souls are ended?"

"Try to remember," Alex interrupted, "that the cosmos is a unity of interdependent parts all consisting of the same four elements as humans. What makes you think there is a vacuum anywhere? You missed out the Jupiter energy in people, and as a former water Adept, I would also object to the notion that my soul is a thing of fire."

"Air is rather hard to pin down," Meda contributed on Kraden's behalf.

"Well, if we take fire to be the spirit which sustains the body and soul…" Kraden started to argue as he turned to face them at last, but when he saw Alex standing near him, the old scholar froze and turned a deathly pale shade.

"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost… Or a spirit?" Meda asked.

"This is, uh… This is someone Kraden thought long dead," Isaac explained.

"Deep down in the earth, I was not extinguished. If I were the resurrected dead, that would make this hypothetical god a vengeful creature intent on torturing departed souls. However, I am fairly sure I am not dead right now, despite implications to the contrary."

"You… were buried by Mt. Aleph's collapse… and are back. How? Why?" Kraden whispered, recovering slightly.

"We rescued him, Kraden," Isaac told him carefully.

"No one really knows why," Felix added.

"King Hydros knows about him, and now we've told you. He's here to catch up on some history, so we're taking him to that department next. We can talk later," Isaac finished.

"Mt. Aleph?" Meda caught on. "Wait, so is he…? He can't be!"

"He is," Felix confirmed. "Let's go." He and Isaac started to leave.

"Wait." Alex hadn't moved. "I want Kraden to teach me."

Kraden loved learning more than anyone else Alex had ever known. He would probably be the best source of information by now, and Alex might still be able to tell whenever he deliberately left something out. Plus, it was oddly reassuring to see that Kraden looked as though he had actually aged a couple of decades. It made all the time that had passed seem slightly more real.

"I think your, ah… rescuers there… had a much better plan," Kraden responded, still not quite believing his eyes.

"You are wise. You know who I am, what I should hear, perhaps what I shouldn't hear if it's for the best. You're curious and I will answer any question I can. You will teach me." Alex could see Kraden's expression softening.

"Well, we could talk a little, while you're here…" Kraden spoke as if he half considered Alex a mere phantom. It wasn't wholly due to his sudden reappearance.

Over the years, Kraden had honed a kind of intuitive Alchemy, even though he'd never gotten the hang of fireballs and the like. He knew who was around him, and he could hear a lot from people's voices, especially how open or deceitful they were trying to be. He'd thought something seemed strange before he even turned around. Kraden wasn't getting any sort of reading from Alex, nothing but the sight of him and the noise his voice made. It was like thinking of a half-forgotten conversation from long ago, or plain imagining things…

Alex allowed himself a faint smile. There was still a certain fluidity to manipulation, especially when it worked. Maybe over time he could bury all the ways he'd changed when he'd been buried and be exactly who he'd been before. Did it matter, for now, that he was more than just satisfied at a chance to talk to someone useful - that everything felt like a chance to win over companions? It was hard to think straight. Even empty air was still such a distraction… But he could focus if he tried.

"While they talk, would you two mind filling everyone else in on this?" Meda led Isaac and Felix away to gather the philosophers for an interesting story.

"People don't recognize me? She knew me by my part in history, but not very well if even those who study Alchemy don't know my face. Did claiming the majority of the golden sun not make me that significant?" Alex asked Kraden quietly.

"Every scholar here will know that an Alex from Imil travelled with the various parties that lit the Lighthouses, left before the end to seek the golden sun, and was therefore the only one to die when Mt. Aleph fell. It's not a secret, exactly, what you gained before the mountain's collapse, and what Isaac received of the golden sun, but we've never emphasized that side of Alchemy. It's in the most comprehensive texts, but it's not really general knowledge. You never even visited Lemuria, of course they're not going to know your face. You'd be recognized in any town where you made an impact, I suppose."

"What is common knowledge, then? If it's all so patchy, could you add a bit of uncommon?" Alex asked, rather annoyed. He'd been the most important person in bringing back Alchemy, and had almost become the most important anything. Ever.

"Well, to start at the beginning… In the Dark Age, Weyard was slowly decaying from a lack of the universe's fundamental elements. The seal on Alchemy had locked away far too much elemental force, the lifeblood of reality. Looking back on it, the worst part was that barely anyone noticed. Prox was the first community to stick around long enough at the most inhospitable edge of the world to be pressed into action by its recession.

The first party from Prox, composed of four diplomats guarded by two warriors, found no help in the old village of Vale. When they tried to take the elemental stars, only the warriors survived, as you know, each suffering a terrible loss. They took hostages from Vale, saving their lives and leaving Vale grieving over more deaths than the boulder had actually caused.

After a few years of recovery, in which many others were trained as warriors for this time of crisis, the next party left with Felix. So strange, to think there was a time when he wasn't known in every house on Weyard… They restarted the quest, rather more ruthlessly - though no one blames Felix, of course - and with far more success. This… new style? It accumulated most of the other heroes of our time, either as hostages or in pursuit.

When the warriors died, the situation in Prox still spurred on those who'd travelled with them, and the quest was continued in a far more humane fashion. Piers was the last hero to join them, and thanks to him, they all finally realized the significance of Alchemy - that Weyard would shrivel up and die in every way without it - and eventually united to finish the quest together and save the world. Thus began the current Golden Age. This is the heartwarming story celebrated each year during the Lighthouse Festival, which lasts the final few weeks of the five months the quest took to complete. It finishes with a wonderful street party on Lighting Day, which is close to the first day of winter in Lemuria, since they take the solstice as the start of the season, though there are parts of the mainland that place it near the center. And of course the climate is warmer these days… I always remember finishing the quest so far into such a bitterly cold early winter that it seems odd to me.

Anyway, with the seal broken, the heroes soon met with the King of Lemuria, the most civilized land humanity had inherited from the last Age of Alchemy, bringing along the refugees formerly of Vale. The Golden Week… that was a real landmark. We arrived two days in, so while all over the world, people saw the sun grow brighter, the - "

"I knew it," Alex muttered.

"What?" Kraden was quite surprised. Students usually interrupted him far sooner. Alex was a wonderful listener. Though it was rather strange how he didn't even blink…

"Nothing. Continue." Alex waited quietly, unnerving Kraden slightly. Definitely not like most students.

"Yes, well… while people everywhere saw the trees grow greener, the seas grow calmer and the air grow warmer and fresher, an open air conference was held in Lemuria which more or less decided the future of Weyard. King Hydros offered all the heroes the position of Governors of Alchemy, leaving it to them to determine what sort of a position it became; whether they wished to keep travelling and guiding the progress of civilization with the help of all the town and city leaders who held them in high regard, or settle down with an honorary title. As you've probably surmised by now, they decided to keep making a difference. Oh, and I was obviously one of the heroes, but I declined the new title. Rushing all over the place is all very well for the young, but I only wanted to stay and learn about Alchemy and the construction of Weyard in the most knowledgeable society on the planet… It doesn't sound like much of an 'only' to me, but I was the only one.

Master Hama also arrived a few days in, along with Puelle of Prox; they had each been given instructions in their dreams. Hama had proceeded to walk through a tree in Contigo to arrive in the centre of Lemuria, while Puelle is rumoured to have walked through a snowman. As the discussions continued, Puelle was quick to offer the Valean refugees homes in Prox, seeing as three of the villagers already had friends and jobs there, while the others were keen to see the town that the 'children' of Vale had saved.

Ivan wished to live with his sister Hama, and to learn of his original home town Contigo and the people of Anemos. It was decided that Hama and the Governors would travel to Contigo with a party of Lemurian scholars - including me - on Piers' ship. Once there, they used everyone's skills and the new gift of Alchemy to construct a working pair of teleport pads, one on the ship, the other in Contigo. This being a brilliant success, they then created a second pathway between Lemuria and Contigo, and so it was established that wherever the Governors travelled, those in Contigo would join them to build more teleport pads, to create a revolutionary network of pathways allowing people on opposite sides of the world to live like neighbors.

You see, a great deal of experimentation during the Golden Week established that almost anyone can learn Alchemy, to a degree. Generally only Adepts can figure it out for themselves, apparently using a similar method to Psynergy. The Governors offered to train people wherever they visited, in classes that grew ever larger as they brought those from each town together. Most people could use the teleport pads by themselves after a few months of training.

Within a few years, it was possible to teleport from anywhere, to anywhere, if you didn't mind up to half a dozen stages in between. At this point, only Piers and Sheba decided to continue living on the ship; Piers loves the sea, and I believe Sheba loves the sense of belonging everywhere and nowhere. They both love to be constantly on the move at any rate, and at the start of each month they hold a week-long voyage for training young Alchemists in sailing and weather related Alchemy.

They made sure Briggs of Champa and a significant number of the population of Yallam were included in the first few trips, which each included several days of treasure hunting. They wanted to help the people in the village Yepp had founded rediscover the skills and legends their hero had left them, partly in thanks for how Yepp had left Piers and the rest of us the way back into Lemuria, without which we would have been truly lost. Briggs, meanwhile, still hadn't gotten around to paying back the towns he and his men had raided before the Lighting. This hadn't mattered too much in the years of mild weather and plentiful harvests that had followed, but it was an outstanding debt even so.

The Governors soon found that the population's increasing skill was placing their guidance in high demand, so they decided to convert the Lighthouses into academic resources for Alchemy closely relating to each element. Felix and Isaac worked on Venus Lighthouse from the inn at Lalivero, Jenna and Garet on Mars while staying in Prox, Mia on Mercury while staying in Imil, and Ivan on Jupiter, where Hama quickly became just as involved. The Governors would visit each other in the evenings and spend some days helping out at each other's sites, but they ended up spending a lot of their free time meeting up and relaxing in Lemuria. It's so calm here, while they were so busy - and they liked visiting me, of course. They received help with the Lighthouses from the Lemurians, as well as those from nearby towns, and people from all over Weyard who would teleport in to see their progress and help out for the day. Most of the puzzles and traps were removed, while libraries, classrooms and various pieces of equipment were installed, and skilled local Alchemists were trained as teachers.

During this time, Jenna was especially glad to get to know Prox, a place so important to her parents there, and to her brother. She found she had a lot in common with the Mars Clan, making many friends and becoming a cherished member of the community herself. The town's spirit had been subdued for a long time after all the deaths it had seen, especially as each of their warriors had lost so much of themselves to this grief, in their different ways, and died before they could ever find their way back to being the brave and happy protectors the Clan remembered. Jenna helped fill a void and, well, she made an effort to cheer the place up. Felix often visits his family, glad to spend time with everyone he knows from his upbringing in Vale and Prox, but he doesn't consider the place home as Jenna does. Garet enjoyed his time there, and he seems to visit Prox slightly more often than anywhere else these days, but he couldn't settle down there either.

Since communication was established between Contigo and Kalay, Ivan had been in touch with Lord Hammet and Lady Layana, and once all of Weyard had been linked up, Ivan decided it would also be worth setting up a way to organize trade across the myriad routes available. He enlisted Hammet and Hama's help in recording supply and demand across every region, and distributing this information for a reasonable fee. Hama still considers the original silk route her greatest idea, but what they have accomplished now is truly incredible, getting farms, markets, shops and craftsmen everywhere involved in an efficient system of trade that has helped all of Weyard prosper. Now you can buy silk from Xian in Shaman village, or find Proxian sweets for sale in Vault.

Hama also started organizing the further construction of teleport pads at this point, to make certain trade routes easier to use, improving communications between towns at the same time. Everyone involved in this whole enterprise decided to officially name themselves the Weyard Trade and Communication Committee, or WTCC."

"One question. Why exactly did they need more teleport pads for this? You said they were all connected anyway."

"Didn't I also mention all the stops in between? Teleporting is one of the hardest sorts of Alchemy. Even if they're not transporting stock, most people are exhausted by two or three trips in a row, and some people can barely manage one." Kraden didn't mention that he was one of those people, but the look on Alex's face suggested he'd guessed. "You used to Warp, didn't you? Surely you found instantaneous transport tremendously hard, much more so than your other Psynergy? You weren't even using a set path!"

"Dissolution is not instantaneous. And it is the simplest thing in the world. But can this wait? Please continue." Alex didn't know how anyone could make warping difficult. If people found teleporting hard, they must all be doing it wrong. He suddenly felt like trying it again, to see if he still could, but he was busy right now. That would have to wait too.

"Right... Well, once the refurbishment of the Lighthouses was complete, King Hydros offered Isaac, Felix, Garet and Mia rooms of their own in the palace, from which they could access every corner of the planet; the Governors could probably manage dozens of teleports with ease, if there was ever any point. They all accepted, though only Isaac and Mia truly inhabit their rooms anymore.

This move was especially convenient, as it soon became apparent that the Lighthouses weren't sufficient, leading to the construction of the House of Light. Alchemy is more than the particular powers of its individual elements; nature blends them together in countless combinations. To reflect this, a holistic research facility was needed. Ever since the Lighting, careful records of every town's history and progress had been compiled in Lemuria and Contigo, and it was getting to the point where a dedicated facility was needed for this, too.

I helped design the building in which we now stand, as did many of my colleagues and all the Governors of Alchemy. The Philosophy department here was a late addition, but very popular. There's a saying that while every other department is about finding out what Alchemy can do, in Philosophy we only look at things we can never know for sure. Actually, that might be the dictionary definition."

"Dictionary?"

"Oh, sorry. That's a set of books listing in alphabetical order each and every word people use, alongside its meaning. A group initiative from the Language department. It's very useful, don't look so derisive."

"So people find it useful to be told what words such as 'it' and 'three' mean?"

"Never mind… I'll show you one later. Anyway, the House of Light took eight years to complete. We used new architectural techniques that had arisen from people's new skills, and from several informed studies of the Lighthouses. We were able to employ people from all parts of Weyard… It was an incredible project. Added to the fact that the Lemuria Spring was still the only source of youth water, the substance which had prolonged the lifespan of Lemurians for millennia, and Lemuria was busier then than it has ever been before or after."

"How did this lost island become so busy? Did they not have reservations about giving the rest of the world free access, when so few people even knew of its existence beforehand?"

"There was some controversy at first. Lemuria used to have laws preventing people from entering or leaving. Well, it still does, technically, but they're so archaic nobody would bother to enforce them. When the heroes first returned to Lemuria in the Golden Week, a few senators tried to bring those laws up, in a general fit of fear and frustration at everything happening without them I suppose. Lunpa sorted them out, using the research he'd conducted at the palace."

"Lunpa?"

"Yes, he's alive, he stayed here when Babi left. I could have told you that fifty years ago. He revealed that the written laws are so careful to distinguish between Lemurians sailing out to fish and people actually crossing the ocean, they only ban sailing to or from anywhere else, even in the parts that define exile. Felix and the others flew us back in a winged ship, and since then people have tended to teleport.

I mentioned youth water too, didn't I? The sheer abundance of the elements after the Lighting set Lemuria Spring overflowing, and by the time the House of Light was started it had been reworked dozens of times, despite a new factor that had been keeping it in check: tourism. Lemurians never used to have much contact with outsiders, but once they started talking to the visitors who found their way here, they realized how different life was for a great many people. The Lemurian public became rather horrified as it sank in how soon most people died, people who were friendly and intelligent to varying degrees - none of them savages after all. Visitors were urged to drink their fill from the spring and stay for as long as they pleased. To Lemurians, despite the boredom of a long life stuck on a small island, the old human lifespan sounded tragic and unbearable. I suppose that's how we all look back on it now.

The very night the House of Light was completed, Lemuria Spring flooded worse than ever before, making it clear that another solution had to be found. It was Ivan's wife, Keisha, who thought of using the crater by Contigo as a reservoir. You remember her? She used to run the general store in Contigo... Well, she's a member of the WTCC, and that was the idea that made her a Councilor. She even, just that one time, made her sister-in-law Hama slightly jealous.

The WTCC received help from the House of Light and the Lighthouses in figuring out how to accomplish this task. We eventually designed a perpetually open pair of modified teleport pads, vertically suspended in space, imbued with enchantments and additives to preserve the water's quality and enhance its effects, powered by an infusion of Alchemy that's topped up every morning. It basically creates a waterfall in the air above the reservoir, while the part in Lemuria looks like an underwater window to the sky.

The water level in the reservoir was very low at first, but it's risen steadily, so that now the crater is nearly two thirds full. Around the rim, a set of teleport pads were built especially for transporting a set of heavy water tanks to and from the reservoir - they usually rest on the other halves of their paths, at the centre of the biggest town or city in each area. Each town's share is pumped into the tanks once a week, an amount that is also constantly on the rise. Isolated regions still get their share; it's teleported to them as an extra service, as the whole thing is done free of charge anyway by the WTCC, which is never short of funds.

You will therefore find that nobody is the age they look anymore. Well, except babies. Youth water slows different ages by different proportions, or one would find oneself a screaming infant for a decade or so. A five or six year old will stay that way for quite a few years longer than might be expected, and by the time they're a teenager, they could be more than fifty years old, though some will only be twenty or thirty. No two communities started drinking youth water at quite the same time; the younger you start, the more potent its effects, with the optimum age being nine months before you are born; it takes better to stronger Alchemists, especially if they used to be Adepts; sometimes variations seem to be pure luck. And though most of these factors should even out eventually, we don't yet know how long future generations will live, once everyone's blood is as saturated with this potent, post-Lighting youth water as Lemurian blood has always been with Mercury energy.

You can't tell how old anyone is by their appearance, but to a certain extent that doesn't matter. A teenager of fifty years will be intelligent and mature, someone you can trust as you would an adult, but they will tend to retain something of a teenage mindset, full of ideas and energy. Try not to judge anyone by anything but their personality. Oh, and don't ask how old they are. You don't need to know, and it only gets people mixed up these days."

"Very well, but are you sure you cannot guess how long humans will live from now on?"

"We think around a thousand years, considering how long King Hydros has lived, though as I said, it varies right now. For instance, I didn't start drinking youth water until I was in my sixties, I was never an Adept, and I'm no luckier than average. I'm fairly sure I only have another sixty or seventy years left at most. Isaac and Felix and the others will still be young men and women decades after I'm gone." Kraden turned to watch those two for a moment, a wistful look finding its way into his eyes.

The Governors were at the centre of an argument at the other end of the room. It didn't seem to be a philosophical debate. More the sort of argument where rather a lot of people got very upset. They must still be talking about Alex.

Kraden turned back and saw without much surprise this time that Alex was waiting for him to continue, standing there still and expressionless. Only seventy years more, perhaps, but Kraden knew he was lucky to have been able to live each year the way he wanted to. He continued talking, with a slight sad laugh for the way he couldn't help feeling.

"Listen to me, moaning about living a far longer and richer life than I could have dreamed of last time I saw you. There's so much I want to find out, so much that no one knows, but that's the way it'll always be. As much as I'd love to live several hundred years more, I've already been blessed with more privileges than I can honestly say I've earned. I'm truly happy for Isaac and the others. They went through so much, so young, they deserve every reward life has given them. I tried to find Lemuria for Babi, but I didn't find it for him in the end. I don't want to end up like him, terrified of death…

Oh, and did you know that Babi tried to pad out the drink he took with powdered nuts and herbs? He'd long realized it would run out. When I left for Vale it was getting very murky, and Mia told me he'd turned it practically orange by the time he was down to the last drops." Kraden smiled, inordinately fond of that story. Then he remembered…

"Say, Alex. Do you remember when you told us that you were there when Babi died, and everyone in Tolbi assumed it was because of you and the Proxians? No one has ever been able to prove or disprove that accusation. The accepted story is that he died of old age, but the way it was supposedly just as you walked into the room… A great many people in Tolbi would still insist it was not mere coincidence…"

"So the mob still sticks by its spontaneous, superstitious stupidity? I'm impressed."

Alex got the impression Kraden was half expecting him to admit to something. Babi's death had turned out to be quite convenient, giving him leverage to dissuade Felix from backtracking and wasting time. But Alex had been asked to visit the palace when he was recognised as a member of the Mercury Clan, and offered a significant reward if he managed to stabilise Tolbi's leader. He'd accepted the offer to top up his travel funds, not to get his party run out of town.

"Well, not everyone… never mind." Kraden coughed to cover his embarrassment. It was a valid historical dispute, and when those who knew for sure were all long dead (until recently)… He should just get through the history Alex was here to learn. "I got as far as the completion of the House of Light, didn't I? Since then, the Governors have been involved with various individual projects, construction and redevelopment, politics, education, keeping the peace and dealing with natural disasters. Of course, nothing has ever matched the tidal wave that shifted the continents, and there have been too many small changes to cover…

Perhaps an example of a fairly large change in one part of the world? As you may know, Champa used to be run by the village elders. When Briggs and his men saved the village from famine, the elders started to consider turning the running of the village over to its sailors, feeling somewhat useless themselves - except for Obaba, of course, who'd expected nothing less from her grandson. When we revealed Briggs' piracy, the elders reconsidered, realizing how rash and immature the young could be. However, they continued to doubt the effectiveness of their own guidance.

When Briggs was on Piers and Sheba's first training voyage, he often talked with them about his home - the way it was coping well enough while times were so much easier, but its future was uncertain. On returning to Champa, Piers and Sheba went with him to speak to Obaba, suggesting a council in which each elder and each youth had to come to an agreement to vote as a pair on every suggestion. It seemed like a very strange idea, but as Obaba wished to give it a try, it eventually came to pass, and that is how Champa has been run ever since. The youths of Champa are now exceptionally wise, level-headed sailors, and the elders have far more free time.

Obaba started to spend much of this extra time in the House of Light, finding it very interesting, and of course contributing a lot to research here herself. She has a remarkable mind…" Kraden trailed off, realizing he'd been about to tell Alex that he had spent a lot of time with her. That it would be their thirtieth wedding anniversary next March. No reason he shouldn't tell him, it just seemed a bit… social. Would Alex even care? Oh well. "When we started working together in the Astronomy department, we grew very close. We've been married for almost thirty years now."

"Congratulations." Alex smiled, looking sincere and almost normal for a moment. Kraden smiled back uneasily. From the look in Alex's eyes… he almost seemed hurt by the news, and it only showed in his eyes, making that smile slightly creepy. Why would he mind…? Kraden wished he'd stuck to the world history lecture.

Alex kept smiling, waiting for Kraden to continue. Thirty years ago had not been a happy time for him. It had been just the same as ten years ago, forty years ago, last week, last month and yesterday... It was different up here, but he couldn't keep thinking about how long it had been. Not if he wanted to keep going this way. Alex wished Kraden would start talking about something more distracting again. At least he wasn't expected to respond much.

"The Governors have been involved with so many decisions all over Weyard that it has become customary for at least one of them to sit in on most major meetings held by regional governments, and most conferences between towns. Isaac tends to be heavily involved with this. He has a reputation for being very reliable and trustworthy, at least when it comes to diplomacy. He has a keen sense of right and wrong. They all do, of course, but Isaac… he'll take on anyone's worries as his own. He seems to have a great deal to worry about sometimes. The others all look out for him, though; the Governors are always there for each other. They went through a lot together.

Ivan also spends a lot of time in meetings, though it's often for business reasons. He's a very respected figure too, quite old for his age with his family in Contigo. He always seems very happy there, very settled. I think he enjoys thinking about all the time he's spent there, while the others are happy to still feel the age they look.

Let's see… Garet has been involved with much of the construction that has taken place since the House of Light. That's mainly been new homes, shops, schools and sanctums, for the growing population. There haven't been many new settlements founded, as it's easy these days to look around every existing town and find somewhere you'd like to move to. Garet will stay wherever he's working, so he doesn't tend to live anywhere for more than a few months at a time. He'll often help out with one of Piers and Sheba's voyages, or with training at the Lighthouses, alongside the other Governors. He even enjoys working at Mercury Lighthouse; he says his own Alchemy greatly benefits from the practice. Still, it's construction work that he's really taken to. He told me once that he never felt he could have taken after his grandfather and become a leader. He's always considered Isaac to be the responsible one. Perhaps he underestimates his own abilities.

Oh, and construction includes road maintenance, which is worth a mention. You see, the planet seems to be growing rapidly compared to the rate at which it was shrinking, though it's eased off since the years immediately following the Lighting. Far more maintenance work is required, especially for those routes across the land that are still in use, such as paths between nearby towns or to camping, hunting or research areas. However, many roads simply aren't used any more, having proved far less convenient than teleporting. Mountain passes, desert paths, routes joining distant towns with nothing in between, all of these have fallen into disrepair. There may not be many monsters left near settled areas, but the wilderness has never been more vast, overgrown and, well, wild.

Most people never venture out into these abandoned areas any more. Felix might be the only person on the planet to ever wander around the Suhalla Desert or the far reaches of Kolima Forest, the only one to know their exact layout now. He often goes camping. Not in a group, not at sites with tents and facilities - he doesn't often seem to sleep anywhere civilized. I think he did stay the night at Riki and Tavi's place a few days ago; the couple invited him round as he'd spent the afternoon helping with the craft fair in Daila. That morning, I believe he was in Izumo, he had some business with Kushinada and Susa, though I'm sure he said he'd spent the night before somewhere east of Loho…

Ah well. The djinn can always find Felix, and he has an uncanny way of knowing where he'll be wanted anyway. He seems to know everyone on Weyard by name and face, and I swear he's developing precognitive Alchemy. He's rather good at Jupiter Alchemy for an old Venus Adept. And he picks up Mars exceptionally well. He's not terribly keen on Mercury, though, only bothering with the basics. I suppose a certain degree of antipathy towards water was to be expected after he jumped into the sea from a lighthouse and swam for miles only to be knocked out by a tidal wave immediately afterwards. Never mind dragons and demons, that wave was the scariest thing I've ever seen."

"I wouldn't say it was terribly fearsome. Simply immense… I am glad I was there to see it." Alex felt the need to speak up on the wave's behalf.

"I wouldn't believe you'd just said that, but you did seem rather too calm at the time… Plus, it's not just you. Piers told me once that when he first saw that wave coming, he felt pure awe. Then he got scared, then he got knocked out, then he got thrown in jail... He had a hard time on his own. Good thing we found him." Kraden found he could no longer feel the slightest bit surprised that the Governors had chosen to rescue Alex.

"Is there much else?" Alex could guess what Kraden was thinking and he didn't appreciate it. Pity was no consolation.

"Much more history? Of course! You missed a lot. Still, we'll never cover everything in one day, and that's gotten most of the important parts out of the way. Why don't you answer a few questions for me now, like you promised?"

"Fine."

"Right…" Kraden wondered if his first question might seem rather tactless. Well, he had to ask. "We've accumulated enough information at the House of Light to estimate more than we used to be able to about the golden sun and the stone of sages; how the stone has never been formed, but left on its own, the golden sun would have either condensed into it, or fallen into the planet and spread throughout its heart… or possibly exploded… but it's all guesswork. How… What did the golden sun look like, up close? What did it feel like to…"

"Very bright. Like the surface of this building but a thousand times more intense, and the elements are so mixed up you can't see them, you can only feel them as they meet your skin. So intense that you feel you're burning up, spinning so fast in every direction that it looks perfectly still, but it feels as though it will tear you to shreds. And then it settles into the core of your being, and you realize you'd been blinded and hadn't noticed, and it's rushing right through you and nothing feels quite the same… Because it doesn't leave any part of you quite the same. I… didn't realize what that meant in time…"

Alex suddenly realized he was telling Kraden far too much. He didn't need to speak these memories aloud. Nobody should know him, or he would lose himself, a life's worth of treasured and painful memories lost to those he could never respect, never trust. That was a terrifying thought. He couldn't ever slip like that, not ever.

Kraden saw Alex falter and fall silent. So it was a personal question after all. Well, he was still extremely glad to have asked. The way Alex had described the golden sun, he should hate it, yet he seemed irrevocably enchanted. Perhaps anyone would be. Kraden was slightly jealous himself. If his studies had revealed enough about the stone of sages, it might have been him… Yet it never could have been. Kraden knew he could never sacrifice others for such a selfish cause, could never ignore what he'd learned from the Wise One. Alex's words made Kraden rather glad it hadn't happened to him anyway. They did make a small part of him wildly envious of the chance to experience such rich and vivid power… Kraden was glad it was only a small part.

"Ah… Hmm. Would you mind me asking… Can you tell how long a lifespan the golden sun gave you?" Kraden considered this a reasonable enough question to follow with.

"Not quite. An extended one, certainly, but I was told it would be nearly endless, as if that were not a contradiction in terms, so that does not tell me much. I'd thought you might have some idea, based on how fast Isaac is ageing, and the proportion of the golden sun he has received, if such a thing is even possible to estimate."

"Nearly endless… Yes, the Wise One showed us that memory. Isaac hasn't aged much, so we think he'll live around five or ten times longer than everyone else. I suppose you could expect to live at least a hundred thousand years, possibly a million or more," Kraden reasoned.

"I'd think at least a few million," Alex corrected him. So they had even less idea. "Well, it hardly matters. There's not much difference."

"What do you mean, not much difference?" Kraden wondered if he'd heard wrong.

"You're a mathematician, are you not?" Alex asked. Kraden nodded. "So you know. Relative to infinity, any finite number is practically nought. Say I live for a billion years. Anything I achieve is merely a hundredth of what I could have done with only a hundred times as long. Even that..."

Kraden was speechless. How could Alex take for granted the greatest power any human had ever attained? Kraden found himself waiting for Alex to say something more, to take it back. Alex was staring through him, though. His thoughts must be miles away. Kraden suddenly realized that the scene reflected in Alex's eyes was not the room ahead. Kraden glanced over his shoulder, confirming that the Philosophy department hadn't melted away. According to the reflection, a young boy was sitting against a wall, opening a book. Messing with Alchemy truly meant messing with the laws of physics…

"Compared to infinity, everything else fades away. My choice was everything or nothing. I can't possibly regret my decision. But that perfect... I'm going to die, like everyone else. Then I will truly be null. We only grieve in life. Do you think it was worthwhile? I have seen what it amounts to, in the end."

Alex's expression seemed so lost, Kraden felt compelled to turn away. He was sure Alex had never wanted to be seen like that. The more Kraden got to know Alex, the more he wished he hadn't. Still looking away, Kraden decided to ask another question. Maybe it would serve as a distraction.

"I, ah, I can understand how you could have been caught up in Mt Aleph's collapse, and how you could have survived underground for years if you were powerful enough, but how were you rescued? How did the Governors know to go find you, and why now?" Kraden turned to face Alex and was glad to see he had lowered his eyes to consider the question.

"I contacted them. I got around to trying to establish some sort of telepathic communication, and Isaac heard," Alex eventually replied. He couldn't exactly lie when Kraden would hear it from the Governors later.

"It took you fifty years to try asking for help?" Kraden exclaimed, probably a little too loudly. Alex flinched. He'd been trying to keep it from sounding like that.

"I contacted Isaac and he helped." Alex tried not to sound impatient.

"So, you were trying to reach him specifically? Any particular reason?" Kraden thought something sounded odd there.

"No. Anyone. I'm not exactly sure why he was the only one to hear, or how he heard at all, but it must have something to do with the golden sun."

"Yes… As the heart of all Alchemy, it's theoretically linked to everything, so it would be relatively easy to establish a link between its two parts. He would be the easiest person to reach." Kraden couldn't see any great mystery there. It was a tempting research topic, but Kraden knew Isaac wanted as little to do with his own powers as possible.

"Two parts. The quintessence of all things, ripped in half. How can it be? Both of us will die. The stone of sages wasn't supposed to expire!"

Alex could never quite believe how ridiculous it was, the way he'd been beaten. Divide infinity by two, and it should still be infinity, but the 'Wise One' had proven that it was not speaking in riddles. That rock had desecrated a sacred power, the reverse of a transmutation, leaving only mortal powers for mortal hands. Weyard's energies had become finite, gifted to two recipients and unable to sustain either of them forever. As a result, surely everything in existence would decay alongside them, with no immortal source. Not that he cared what would happen after he was gone...

"The stone of sages can't expire," Kraden replied. "I'd imagine its power would merely be released from your body upon your death, the same applying to…"

Kraden froze, horrified. Had he really just said…? How could he be so foolish?

Alex saw Kraden realize his mistake. The same applying to Isaac.

Even when broken apart this way, the golden sun could not be compared to normal Alchemy or Psynergy. Isaac's powers would not die with him, but would be freed from his body and made available to the nearest taker. Could it be true? Shouldn't it be true?

Divinity was still within reach. His life had been one long taste of the grave, but he need never return. Isaac was nothing but a shell to be cracked open. Life would be worthwhile, endless and blessed.

"ISAAC!" Kraden shouted across the room, backing away from Alex as his eyes shone with ethereal light.


Isaac sighed, trying to think of yet another way to explain why they hadn't killed Alex. Most of the philosophers had wandered off by now, some to talk among themselves, some to take another look at the History department. A handful of very angry people wouldn't leave him and Felix alone. They kept yelling the same questions again and again without listening to any of the answers. Felix seemed to be coping fine, but Isaac was getting a headache. Couldn't something interrupt? Anything!

"ISAAC!"

Isaac spun around, thinking for a moment that Kraden's panicked cry was the answer to his prayers.

What was going on? Kraden looked scared, and Alex…

Isaac froze up for a moment. Alex was turning to face him with a dreamily calm expression, and an odd light in his eyes.

#Kraden! What happened?# Isaac asked. Needing a quick briefing, he read the thoughts that Kraden formed for him upon hearing his question.

So Kraden had told Alex that he could liberate Isaac's half of the golden sun by killing him…

Isaac could have kicked himself. He should have known that the golden sun would be an issue. He should have gone to the House of Light before he rushed off to the rescue, should have somehow sorted everything out before something like this happened. Well, he had no choice but to deal with the matter here and now. Alex wasn't moving, just standing and watching him as if hypnotised, watching his face, watching him breathe in and out…

Isaac walked up to him, trying not to look nervous. Trying not to feel nervous. There was probably nothing Alex could do to him here and now. Especially with Felix watching his back. But Isaac wasn't sure he could do anything much to Alex either, after he'd survived the worst the earth could throw at him. If he had to draw on his own powers to a degree that he'd never attempted before, he'd endanger everyone in the vicinity. If Alex walked out of here and started planning something, it could likewise get dangerous for everyone involved - and for everyone not yet involved.

If there was going to be a fight, Isaac would rather face it now. But if he made the first move, he'd be undermining any non-violent way of sorting this out, and he might only drive Alex to retreat. Besides, it'd be a shame to give up on him if it was still possible to truly help him.

Isaac stopped a few feet away, wondering what on Weyard he could do to keep control of the situation.

Wait, what had Ivan's message from Hama been, the bit about control? Something vague… 'Keep control with that which motivated us in the first place'. So kindness and decency, that was how Hama expected him to deal with Alex, or he would lose control. Isaac trusted Hama. He was willing to take a risk by heeding her advice to the best of his ability. Not least because it meant he actually had a plan...


Alex watched as Isaac approached him. How should he accomplish the inevitable? He'd never deliberately finished anyone off before, but it couldn't be too hard. People did it all the time.

Isaac drew his sword. The fire brand… Wasn't it capable of unleashing the Psynergy Purgatory? How fitting. What use did Isaac think it would be against him?

Wait… Isaac was offering him the sword. Alex looked into Isaac's eyes, thoroughly confused. Isaac was nodding without breaking eye contact, smiling at him, holding out the sword…

Alex took it shakily, trying to figure out what was going on. Isaac didn't want to die, did he? Well, if so, this would only make it easier.

Alex gripped the fire brand, trying not to think. Trying to visualize killing without thinking, and trying not to think all the invasive thoughts he'd been trying to suppress all day, or to think about who he really was, now that he could be who he wanted to be and wasn't yet, or to think who Isaac was, to have saved him and to stand by him, or to think about how he was so furious at his belated savior that he wanted to lift this sword and rip Isaac to pieces and dig out his eyes with his thumbs and keep him alive and hurting for years to show him what it was like, and how sickening it was to think such thoughts as though he were a savage beast, and to think that way about someone who'd shown him the sun again and given him a home where the walls weren't crushing him, or to acknowledge that he truly had to kill him but when he lifted this sword an inch he couldn't bear the emotions he hadn't expected and had never tried to deal with before and couldn't get rid of after all, and trying not to be so furious with himself for trying to kill Isaac and for not trying to kill Isaac, and he didn't want to cut into that smile, but feeling that way would mean giving up hope, and everyone in the room was staring at him, and they wouldn't wait forever and he couldn't even move. Alex gripped the fire brand, trying to think.

He had to do something, and couldn't follow through one way or the other. That rock had certainly made this world a hard place to live. He couldn't simply walk away from this. Nobody would ever trust him if he didn't drop this sword ten seconds ago…

Hopeless. It almost made sense. Ever since he'd climbed that mountain and found himself underground, everything seemed to become its opposite. His puppets ruled the world. His suicide note saved his life. The most beautiful moment of relief and hope had turned into this impossible confrontation. Maybe violence would buy him a little peace…


Isaac stood his ground. Hopefully he'd communicated that he was willing to show some goodwill - and found the least hateful way of pointing out that Alex was in no condition to start a fight. When Alex had met his gaze, the weird light in his eyes had faded, and Isaac had managed to summon a smile.

So far, his gamble seemed to be working. Alex wasn't moving, and wasn't looking quite as murderous. But he was still holding the sword. With every passing second, Isaac was growing increasingly worried that he wasn't going to drop it. If the situation got any worse, Isaac would have to count on his reflexes, and Felix's common sense.

Isaac saw Alex's expression clear slightly. He seemed to have come to a decision.

Alex moved faster than Isaac could follow, but when Isaac blinked and stepped back, he saw that Alex had buried the fire brand in his own chest. Isaac blinked again. Alex was still standing there with a sword through his chest, half of it sticking out either side. He'd closed his eyes. He wasn't moving. He wasn't bleeding. He was breathing deeply, calmly… He was asleep.

What did Alex mean by this? Impaling himself and falling asleep?

Isaac felt Felix's hand on his shoulder. That was a comfort.

"I don't think he's going to do anything else. You can stop waiting," Felix told Isaac gently.

"But… he's…"

"Yeah. We should get him out of here."

Isaac looked around. Everyone in the philosophy department was staring at them. Of course they were. Kraden had found a seat, and was looking rather happy. He must not have enjoyed the reunion after all.

"He could have just dropped it," Isaac muttered, gazing at Alex.

"Oh, come on," Kraden replied. He couldn't resist. "Surely he knew what he was doing the moment he raised his sword."