D-O-T-W: Yeah it's me again Nothing much to say this time. Except yeah i cut the title a bit, i just thought it was too long. Yeah so I'll just give a little thank you to Lightning-in-the-dark for supporting me and leaving me feedback on my fic and stuff. Anyway stop reading this its not part of the story!
Disclaimer: yeah, the usual stuff, I don't own Golden sun or any of its contents and such. Whatever.
Seeing not with the eyes...
The soldier roared out a battle cry and leapt forwards, his sword trailing behind him. The sun sank lower in the sky and the rays of the sunset caught the blade. The light, dancing, shimmering. Death never looked so beautiful.
The solider slashed down with his blade at Riley. Riley sidestepped the blow and caught the soldier's wrist, pulling him forward before ramming his own weapon into the soldier's gut. The soldier staggered backwards both hands covering the gaping wound in his stomach as if trying to stop his insides from spilling out. Blood flowed freely from the wound staining the soldier's hands and the ground red. He gave Riley one last look before falling to the ground, dead. Another soldier ran at Riley. Riley spun out of the way as the man slashed down where Riley had been standing. One of Riley's spear heads connected with the back of the soldier's neck as he went.
Riley looked about, it was a grim situation. There was at least fifty Tolbi and Lalivero soldiers scattered loosely across Lalivero's main square against the adepts with more and more arriving with each passing minute. Xell was incapacitated and his sister, Amy, was busy tending to him. Leaving just Tidal and Riley to defend them.
Riley smashed his elbow hard into a lunging soldier's face and slashed at a soldier attacking from his other side catching the man across his sword, arm rendering it useless. "Sure could use Raix and Kyra's help right now." Riley muttered to himself. "Wonder how Tidal is holding out?" he said looking back over his shoulder, across the defensive circle he and Tidal had tried to form around Amy and Xell, to see how his friend was doing.
Tidal's weapon clashed off of a another soldiers sword, the sound echoing out. Tidal recovered quickly and caught the soldier by the wrists and booted him backwards into another two soldiers knocking them over. "Amy! Get Xell over to the pool around that large spire!" he yelled, pointing at the large spire that stood upright in the center of Lalivero. "It will be easier to defend you as they can only attack from one side!".
Amy nodded. She picked her brother up from under his arms and dragged him across the open plaza to the small pool of water that surrounded the spire. "Get her!" yelled a soldier and a group of three ran at Amy.
She stood up and stepped forward swinging her staff as she moved, striking one soldier across the face, knocking him out, and slapping a palm onto the chest of the second soldier. "Flare wall." she hissed. The soldier's confused look turned quickly to panic as he felt the heat rise at the point of contact on his chest. The soldier was thrown backwards in a jet of flames and landed, smoldering, in the pool of water. The third sliced at her but she ducked the blow, struck the soldier in the chest with her staff and spun on her heel, pulling Xell's sword free of its scabbard as she spun, and slashed at the soldier as she rose. The blade caught the soldier across the neck and he fell to the ground gasping for air as the blood welled up in his throat.
Amy dropped to her brother's unconscious body and took his sword to his shirt, slicing it open, as to get a better look at his wounds. Four arrows produced from Xell's back. The flesh had swollen up around the shaft of the arrows. Amy cursed "I gotta work fast.".
Tidal and Riley backed up to Amy and Xell. "Well, at least we only have to defend in a semi circle" said Riley with a wry smile.
"Bet I can kill more than you." joked Tidal with a large grin on his face.
"You're on!" shouted Riley and he jumped headlong into a group of attackers.
"Wait, what! I was only joking!" Tidal gave a sigh. "This could be interesting.".
"One...Two...Three...Four." Riley said to himself as he plowed into a small group of soldiers. He glanced over to see if Tidal had set to work yet.
Tidal stood with his arms outstretched, four spheres of crystal clear water absorbed from the pool floated behind him. Tidal smirked when he noticed Riley was looking in his direction. "Diamond dust!" he yelled. The spheres of water stopped rippling and rolling and suddenly reformed and solidified into four wicked looking blocks of ice. Tidal threw his arms froward and the four ice blocks flew forward crashing into the crowd of soldiers. The blocks of ice smashed into the line of soldiers sending them flying in all directions like rag dolls, their cries and yells filling the evening air.
"Awww, no fair!" yelled Riley at Tidal before turning back to his fight, narrowly avoiding having his head removed from his shoulders. Riley smashed the shaft of one of his spears into a soilder's face. Riley sheathed one of his spears on his back and swung the other in a wide arc in front of him, flattening five oncoming enemies. "Flare wall!" he yelled throwing the flames along the ground, creating a burning wall between himself and the soldiers on his left. Turning to face the rest of them, he pulled his other spear free. Riley smirked "heh, time for some fun." he took a deep breath and jumped into the fray.
Amy threw the last arrow away, leaving it to skitter and bounce through the dust. Placing both her palms on Xell's back she cast Healing aura. The wounds slowly receded and closed up leaving four neat little scars on Xell's back. "That should do it...I hope." she muttered, concern heavy in her voice, as she rolled Xell onto his back. Amy stared at Xell's closed eyes, she gave a sigh of frustration. "Why does everyone get hurt because of me? Protecting me. Am i so useless that i cannot even protect myself?". She pounded her fist on the ground, stirring up little clouds of dust, "I'm sorry Xell. If only i were stronger things like this would never happen. My friends, my own brother, getting hurt and it's all my fault.". Tears of frustration filled her eyes.
"Hey...don't talk...like that." said an oh-so-familiar voice. Amy looked up from the ground at her brother. Xell groaned in pain as he slowly sat up. "You make yourself sound useless.".
"But I am! It. feels like I can do nothing from myself and I need to rely on you or Tidal or any of the others to protect me!" she said with such a passionate anger it caused Xell to flinch.
"No you're wrong, you do all that is asked from you and that is enough. You don't need us to protect you. We do it on our own accord because we care for you, Amy. You're not useless. I'm meant to protect you, take blows for you because, I'm your brother.". Xell reached out and put his arms around his sister, pulling her close. They sat there in an amiable silence, ignoring the battle fought before them. As brother and sister. As they should be.
Riley fought fiercely. There was no way any of these guys were going to reach his friends. Not as long as he had something to say about it. A soldier stabbed at him. Riley deflected the blow with his left hand spear. He spun around to his opponents right hand side and back to back rolled across his opponents back to the left side of him. Riley landed with his back to the soldier and spun around and struck the soldier in the chest with both pincer like spear heads. They sliced clean through the man's armour and threw him backwards into two of his comrades. Interlocking the two ends of his spears he spun them round like a double bladed staff, scything down more attackers. Riley swung at the head of another soldier, who ducked and rolled towards Riley and attempted an uppercut slash. Riley jumped back as the man rose and he jammed one of his spears down catching the soldiers sword and pinning it down. Riley swung round the shaft of his spear and drop kicked the soldier in the chest, pulling his spear free as he went, lashing out at the soldiers legs as he landed.
Tidal couldn't keep it up, he staggered back taking deep heaving breaths. He was sweating heavily and it seemed for every soldier he defeated two would take their place. Tidal backed off from the advancing crowd of soldiers and, to his surprise, backwards into Riley who was also drenched in sweat and retreating from the advancing swarm of men.
"Looks like this is it, huh?" panted Tidal.
"Yeah, I never thought it would end this way." said Riley between breaths.
"there's just to many.".
"So, how many did you kill.".
"What?" asked Tidal.
"I said how many did you kill? Remember that bet we made? I got forty seven." said Riley smugly, smiling.
"Fifty two.".
"Oh goddamit!" exclaimed Riley.
Riley and Tidal braced themselves for the coming onslaught when there was a yell and a lot of shouting from the northerly main road that headed towards the Babi lighthouse. "Help! He...Help!". The soldiers turned to see what the disturbance was. A young man stumbled into the main plaza and fell to the ground, he had severe burn woulds to his left side. "Th...The Babi lighthouse! It's...it's...it's under attack!" yelled the man as he scrabbled to his feet.
One of the higher ranked soldiers ran over to the man and surveyed his wounds. "I need medical help here! Now!". The soldier turned to the young man. "You must tell me what has happened!".
The young man had turned a pale white colour. "A...a group of people came to the lighthouse...They tried to go in but...the foreman tried to stop them and...and they killed him!".
The man's breathing was becoming steadily shallower. "Someone get a doctor!" yelled the soldier.
"They...attacked using...fire. They...killed any...any who tried to stop them.". Spoke the man quietly.
"Attacked with fire?" murmured Xell. He shot Tidal a 'do you think it is...?' glance.
"Felix and the others?" Tidal said.
"Maybe but if they are here then Isaac..." Xell was cut off in mid-sentence when the young builder spoke again.
"They had Sheba with them! Why?...Why did...they have...Sheba?" the man's eyelids flickered. Tidal pushed his way past the soldiers and knelt beside the man before placing his hands over the man's wounds.
"What the hell do you think you doing!" yelled the soldier who was talking to the man.
Tidal stared scornfully at the soldier. "This man is dying, I'm a healer I may be able to save him.". Tidal's hands glowed a pale blue as he continually cast Ply well on the dying man's wounds.
"They said...said something about...a door...a door to the ruins...beneath the lighthouse." murmured the man.
Tidal grimaced and turned back to the soldier "I'm sorry, he is too far gone, I...I cannot save him.".
The soldier knelt down beside the man. "Everything is going to be fine, just...go to sleep.".
The man closed his eyes. "Man, I really need this rest...the foreman...makes us work like dogs...wake me up before...lunch..." and he was gone. The soldier bowed his head along with the rest of his men.
He stood up and turned to Tidal "Thank you for your effort, you did what you could.". The soldier placed a hand on Tidal's shoulder. "He cleared your names. We are so sorry about this mix up.".
Tidal sighed "It's okay.".
The soldier turned to the rest of the ranks. "Men!" He turned and pointed to the large building that dwarfed the town. "To the Babi lighthouse! We will catch that group if its the last thing we do!". This was met by the resounding cry of 'sir!'.
Xell protested "No! Your men will get slaughtered! Your cannot hope to understand what power you face here.".
"And what do you suggest we do?" asked the soldier.
"We." said Xell pointing at Riley, Tidal, Amy and himself. "We will go to the Babi lighthouse.".
"Then I shall accompany you." declared the soldier.
"Then its settled." said Riley loudly "let's go!".
The gravel crunched loudly underfoot as they made their way through the construction site in front of the Babi lighthouse. Amy looked around nervously. Blackened corpses littered the ground and much of the building equipment was destroyed. "Everything is all scorched..." she said.
Tidal moved from body to body "everyone is dead..." he said sorrowfully.
Xell placed his hand on the smooth stone at the door of the Babi lighthouse and peered inside. "It's clear." he said to the others before stepping inside, the others quickly followed him.
The soldier made his way over to a nearby staircase "its this way to reach the underground ruins." he said and removed a torch from the wall. The group slowly began their decent into the depths of the structure.
The door to the ruins was stiff but Xell and Riley managed to force it open They heard voices as soon as they entered the chamber, dropping into a crouch they ducked into the shadows. "shhh, keep quiet and follow me." whispered Xell pressing up against the wall and shuffling along to the corner of the wall which opened up into a small chamber.
"Well? What does it say Saturos?" said an aggressive sounding female voice.
A man dressed in blue stood at the wall examining a stone tablet that was there. "It says 'the truth of this door is open to those seeing with their true heart' hmmmm, that makes no sense to me, how about you Menardi?.
"No, nothing." Menardi gave a sigh of frustration. "Why do these things always have to be so difficult?"
Saturos looked at Alex who was leaning against the wall, smiling with amusement. "Alex, do you have anything to contribute?".
"Ha ha, it's talking about that power of Sheba's you fools. " He said smugly. Alex stepped forward towards the tablet on the wall. "'Those seeing with their true heart'. It is referring to the power of reveal, a power only those of the Jupiter clan can master.".
"Why didn't you tell us earlier?!" yelled Menardi.
"I wanted to see if you could figure it out on your own." He smiled. Alex motioned a hand towards Sheba. "Why don't you make her try her hand at opening the door? She is, after all, a Jupiter adept".
"Which is the reason why we kidnapped her." said Saturos impatiently.
"Well? What are you waiting for! Open the door!" snapped Menardi at Sheba.
"O...okay." said Sheba shakily and made her way over to the door.
"Come on." whispered Riley. "If we attack now we can get the jump on them!" Riley edged forward, reaching for one of his spears.
The corner of Felix's mouth twitched. He was pissed off with the way Menardi and Saturos were treating Sheba. He tried not to let his anger show but it was hard to conceal.
Xell grabbed Riley back. "No you idiot! Remember what happened in Imil?" Riley looked like he was thinking hard for a second before nodding slowly. "We still aren't strong enough to win. Let's just wait and see what happens".
"Is something the matter Felix?" asked Saturos, obviously amused by Felix's discomfort.
Riley shuffled back to where he had been hiding in the shadows and Xell turned back to watch the events taking place in the small chamber.
Felix turned his head away to face the entrance to the chamber. "No it's...nothing, I'm fine." he said. Saturos shrugged and turned to observe Sheba trying to open the door. Felix caught something out the corner of his eye, he was sure the shadows at the entrance moved slightly. Felix turned his full attention on the entrance, trying not to give himself away that he was watching. He saw it again but this time the shadow took on a shape before vanishing again. Felix was sure he had seen someone. An image flashed into his head, an image of someone once forgotten, Felix remembered almost immediately. The shadow resembled his childhood friend in Vale, Xell. "Xell? Here? No thats impossible.". He looked back at the shadows at the entrance, nothing was there. "Hmmm maybe my mind was playing tricks." He muttered.
"Whats taking so long! Hurry up and open the damn door!" shouted Menardi and Sheba recoiled away from her.
"Stop shouting at her! She's trying her best!" yelled Felix
"Well then her best isn't good enough." Alex put simply.
Felix looked back towards the entrance to try and calm down. "Even if Xell is here..." thought Felix "what could his intentions be? What reason could he have for being here?".
"I...I found it." said Sheba quietly. She concentrated and her eyes began to glow with a pale, distant glow. She placed her hand on the tablet and her hand seemed to pass straight through the stone, there was a faint click. The large door started to rumble and slowly slid apart revealing the path to the tunnel ruins.
The officer gasped. "I shall go inform lord Faran and lord Iodem of this." said the soldier. Xell gave the man a nod and the officer snuck out of the chamber and hurried away.
"Felix!" called Saturos, interrupting Felix's train of thought "the path is open, let us go.".
"I always have wondered what the Venus lighthouse may contain." said Kraden with a hint of excitement in his voice. Jenna gave him and impatient look as they walked through the door.
"Alex come on!" said Menardi.
"Ah but alas, I must take my leave now. I have buisness to attend to elsewhere." said Alex, taking a bow.
"What! You're leaving at a time like this!" yelled Menardi.
"Relax Menardi." said Saturos. "Alex will return before the beacon is fired, won't you Alex?"
"That is correct Saturos." Alex approached the Proxian. "Here take these, in case you are in need of my powers while i am gone.". Alex handed him two gems, a frost jewel and a douse drop. "Goodbye." Alex said before teleporting out of the chamber.
"Come Menardi, there is a lighthouse beacon in need of firing." said Saturos. Mendardi turned to face her companion and they walked through the door, which slid shut behind them.
The adepts Moved from the shadows. "owww my back! Riley you have really bony elbows you know!" protested Amy rubbing her lower back.
"Well you...you uh...shut up!" shouted Riley
"Shut up? That was the best you could come up with?" Asked Tidal mockingly. Riley glared at Tidal.
"Will you three stop arguing and help me with this door?" called Xell from the far end of the chamber. Xell ran his hands back and forth over the door trying to find another way to open it.
Tidal approached the stone tablet on the wall. "The man with blue hair, Alex, he said something about a power that only Jupiter adepts can use is needed to open this door didn't he?" asked Tidal. "'Reveal' I think it was called.".
"Man, it's times like these that make you realize just how much we need Raix and Kyra." said Riley. A frown spread across Amy's face at this statement.
Voices echoed from the entrance to the underground chamber. "Are you sure of this?"
"Yes lord Iodem, I seen it with my own eyes."
"So your trying to tell me that these...people...just up and walked through that door that even the land's greatest scholars could not open?"
The soldier that had returned to Lalivero turned the corner followed by three men and one of his underlings.
"Yes Faran, it would seem that way." said a tall man with dark hair and beard.
"But Iodem!" protested a smaller man. The smaller man had chestnut brown hair and a thin moustache.
The man named Iodem noticed the adepts first. "Aha, so you are the warriors who defeated over one hundred of my best men with ease! My gracious, I was expecting more of a group of fierce warriors from the way you described them lieutenant." said Iodem to the soldier that had accompanied the adepts into the lighthouse. The man gave a quiet 'sir'.
"Well the lieutenant already gave us the gist of what happened so why don't you fill in the gaps for us?" asked the other man, apparently named Faran.
Xell nodded and the adepts began to tell the two nobles the story from when the first arrived in Lalivero.
When they had finished Iodem let out a sigh. "This is all very confusing." he said, rubbing his temples. "Lieutenant, take your private with you and go fetch all the top scholars still in Lalivero. We must try to figure out what this so called 'reveal' is." He ordered.
"Sir!" came the reply and the two soldiers hurried off.
"Well i suppose there is nothing you can do for now." said Faran to the adepts. "You should return to Lalivero and rest at the inn, free of charge, of course. We shall remain here and figure out our next plan of action.".
The adepts didn't even bother trying to argue, they were exhausted, they needed the rest. Leaving the small underground chamber they headed for the lighthouse entrance.
The sunlight dazzled in their eyes as they emerged from the depths of the Babi lighthouse.
"Hang on." said Riley with a puzzled expression on his face. "I thought it was sunset when we went in. Just how long were we down there?".
"I have no idea but judging by the position of the sun I'd say it was around ten o'clock in the morning." said Tidal.
"But thats like fifteen hours!" complained Riley. "Well whatever. I'm tired can we just hurry to the inn?" he said with a yawn.
A little bell jingled as the adepts opened the inn door. "Xell and companions?" asked the innkeeper. "Faran sent word, we already have a room made up for you".
The adepts thanked the innkeeper and hurried upstairs to find their room. They wandered around the upstairs corridors searching for the room they were given. "Hey I found it!" yelled Riley and he threw open the door of the room he was at and stepped inside, the others following.
Inside the room there was four beds all against the walls. Two on the opposite side from the window, two on the wall to its left and a small wooden table with two wooden chairs sat by the window. The room had no carpet of curtains, it was pretty basic, but it would do.
"Sweeet! A bed!" Exclaimed Riley before throwing himself onto the nearest bed. He was asleep in no more than five seconds after he hit the mattress.
"Well I'm exhausted. I think I'll take a nap like lazy boy over here." said Tidal, pointing to Riley's sleeping figure. Tidal went to a bed and got into it. Amy sat on the bed next to it. "G'night, day, whatever." yawned Tidal before drifting off.
Xell sighed. He was exhausted too but there was no way he could sleep at a time like this. He sat on one of the chairs by the window. "I'm really starting to get worried Xell." said Amy quietly. "There still hasn't been any sigh of Raix and Kyra anywhere. I'm beginning to think maybe they didn't survive the fall...".
Xell gazed out of the window. "Maybe you're right Amy." he sighed "but I'm still not giving up on them, no matter what the others say. Those two will pull through.". Xell turned around too look at his sister.
Amy was resting her head on the pillow on her bed with her eyes closed. "Yeah..." she murmured before peacefully drifting off.
Xell shrugged and turn to look back out of the window. Little thoughts started up inside his head like why they hadn't seen any trace of Isaac yet. Surely he must be close is Menardi and Saturos were here? And what happened to Raix and Kyra? These thoughts played around inside Xell's head and he thought long and hard about them until he unwittingly fell asleep.
Not long afterwards four familiar figures entered the main plaza of Lalivero. Three boys and a girl.
Isaac looked around the square before setting of at a quick pace across the plaza. "Woah Isaac, slow down." said Garet "what's the rush? Can't we stop and eat or something?".
"No! We can't, Garet! Didn't you hear those townspeople? Felix and the others have already passed here! We can't afford to waste anymore time!" Isaac said franticly.
"Also they kidnapped a young girl with powers like Ivan, named Sheba." added Mia.
"Oh right, yeah." said Garet.
"We don't know how close Menardi and Saturos are to lighting the beacon." said Isaac.
"Time is of the essence then." Mia said looking around. "Hey, what happened here?"
Garet took in the sight of the bloodstains on the ground and the scattered arrows and swords. "A fight, obviously." he said.
"Do you think Felix and the others caused this too?" asked Mia.
"I don't know but we should hurry on." replied Isaac.
"The northern main road should take us straight to the Babi lighthouse" said Ivan.
"Let's go!" said Isaac. They hurried out of the plaza along the main road and off to the Babi lighthouse in pursuit of their foes. This was it. They would stop them this time, no matter what.
Xell awoke. Riley's snoring had roused him from his sleep. Xell reached out onto the window ledge and picked up a small stone. He turned and threw it at Riley hitting him square in the nose. Surprisingly Riley didn't wake up he just rolled over and murmured something. "Well thats Riley for ya." mumbled Xell but at least it had stopped his snoring, Xell was content. He looked blearily out over the plaza. "Nothing unusual." he said and settled back down to sleep. Unknown to him the importance of the event that he'd just missed.
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D-O-T-W: End of the chapter. I'd just like to say Thank you so much to the people still reading my fic. I hope you've enjoyed it so far . As always feedback would be appreciated, ya-da ya-da ya-da and all that crap. Anyways until next time.