The Uncharted Isles
Chapter 6: Alchemy Alit Desire
In the midst of the Ayuthay outpost, which Aegersus found to be very commodious, he was surprised hat he completely let his guard down in the presence of the Ayuthay soldiers. They have escorted him, essentially as a prisoner, to the Ayuthay outpost. Somehow, the captain of the guard treated him with great respect on behalf of Princess Veriti. If only they realized that their hero was the world's recent villain.
She was brilliant, Aegersus thought, examining the red brick floor with was he assumed to be adjacent to a great waterway – the wonder of the Exalthi. No, that was how Veriti put it. He didn't care about the Exalthi; it was the powerful Psynergy that could course through this Alchemy Well that he cared about. Even though he had not completely recovered from his Golden Sun injuries while in Ayuthay as he had planned, he was looking forward to watching his temporarily diminished power go a long way.
His eyes dropped to the lower platform by which water probably was meant to flow over. Was he getting soft and reflective after nearly being killed by that unreasonable Wise One? Maybe.
Oh, the Wise One, he fumed in a brief flash of anger. He hated those stories he was forced to read growing up about a wise figure punishing someone by taking away their abilities instead of their life to teach them a lesson because now he was the main character. The Wise One probably threw me off the mountain into my own psynergy vortex and left me crippled to teach me a lesson, he thought. Too bad, Wise One, my healing powers increased threefold, my injuries are completely gone, and very soon I will have Insight in my hands.
After all, getting back to being soft, he was collaborating with the Tuaparang to unleash a great power over the world.
However, since Isaac's annoying crew was no longer romping around Weyard, his assignment was pretty easy for now – to keep tabs on Kaocho with Darts and Hearts, which he had named them mentally since they were rather useless cards in his deck. All Hearts had to do was to tempt King Wo with power over a prosperous Ayuthay. Aegersus, or Arcaneus as he was aptly called, could see she was just getting started. He did not see why a princess of such beauty should have to suffer all that for a greedy king who was probably planning to go to war regardless of whether the assassin captured for ransom or not.
In the meantime, Aegersus hated being weakened as he was still recovering, yet at the same time, enjoyed being revered as if his questionable actions were seen to be good.
That darn princess. He saw her running over a makeshift bridge that led to the Barai Temple. Her white priestly traveling cloak flapped elegantly through the wind like a bird, an effluent spirit, free and unburdened. That darn princess actually made him want to collaborate, not manipulate or intimidate as he usually did with partners.
Maybe I should just fix the well and leave her behind, he thought.
Settling in an overstuffed plush chair, he felt like that lazy King Paithos being fanned by servants all day. He felt bored with life. It felt too easy, too predictable.
Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to wait for her.
Very early the next day, Aegersus arrived at the entrance of the Alchemy Well. Princess Veriti was already there, eagerly awaiting his arrival.
After the princess unlocked the door, he followed her in, filled with awe when he saw the interior of the Alchemy Well. Intricate zol lines covered every column and spread through thick channels in the floor. In the center, they met in a web of fine zol lines surrounding an empty bowl. Behind it lay an imprint of a mask. And this was all done with zol blocks and fine skilled craftsmanship.
"All you need to do is fill this bowl with water and push the zol blocks in place," Veriti instructed him.
Activating his Psynergy, he filled the bowl of water and adjusted the blocks of zol, but each time he tried, the well somehow reset back to its original position. Slightly, frustrated, he turned around to see Veriti's puzzled expression.
"Hmm, I was so sure of it," she thought aloud, noticing his perplexed expression. "Don't worry. I will figure this out."
Her dark brown eyes trailed the thick zol lines on the floor. Walking over, she followed them to the bowl affixed at the center. Lost in her thoughts, she pushed Aegersus aside and examined the mask imprint with her hand. Aegersus was amused by how easily she shoved him aside when she had a goal in mind. For one thing, he was usually the one that had to resort to this when he was working with useless pawns who were driven by emotions rather than common sense.
"Something belongs here," she stated, turning to face him. "but it is probably hidden in some ancient ruins. So that means either Harapa, Barai Temple, or if there are any other places in Ei-Jei or Kaocho."
"I saw you walking there yesterday," he said. "More investigating, I suppose?"
"No," she replied. "I pray there everyday unless my brother deems it unsafe."
"The Barai Temple is a good place to start since it's closer than the other places you mentioned," he added. "I will go alone since traveling in too deep may be dangerous for you."
Wordlessly, he headed off to the temple. The princess waited a while until she could see him in the distance and proceeded to follow him.
Veriti crossed the makeshift bridge that stretched across the nonexistent Barai Pond. The sun was directly overhead, indicating that it was already midday in Ayuthay. She saw Aegersus disappear into the temple alone.
Not wanting to be left back, she ran over the rest of the wooden planks until she was in the shade of the remarkably well-preserved blue temple.
As always, it was cool and dark inside the temple. She briefly waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness with only the dim blue zol lines as a light source.
Realizing that Aegersus was not in the main room, she headed further in. Most of the zol blocks in this room were unlit, much to Veriti's displeasure. After all, there were creatures here that she encountered from time to time.
Using her Insight, she closed her eyes and heightened her senses in hopes of finding out what to do. She was surprised how powerful Arcaneus' presence was. He was very easy to locate.
Rushing around a statue, she almost ran into a crowd of monsters that Aegersus was fighting.
Laughing to herself, she reached into her pocket and withdrew a Bramble Seed. Even after the vines of the Nettle psynergy struck the creatures, it didn't seem like enough to finish them off so she rushed forth to whack them with her Angelic Ankh.
One of hydra squirted out a multicolored saliva all over Veriti and Aegersus.
"Disgusting," Veriti responded, unsuccessfully trying to sling some of the slime back at the monster.
Although Veriti's speed was greatly decreased, with the naturally high speed of a Mercury Adept Aegersus was still able to rush forward and skewer them with a few slashes of his Verdant Sword. He glanced at her as she approached him with a victorious expression. It was kinda cute that she thought she was helping him.
"You sure attract a lot of hydra," she exclaimed. "Do you want to know why?"
"I didn't know you could fight."
"Didn't know or didn't think I could fight?" she replied with a laugh. "I have to survive somehow when I pray here every day, don't you think? And you didn't answer my question, but I will tell you anyway. You have a really strong – overpowering I might add – Essence. It draws many monsters to you."
"I see," he replied. "Let's keep moving."
"Of course," she said. "but aren't you at least a little interested in how monsters view you?"
"Maybe."
"Hmph, you really are no fun," she frowned slightly. He didn't glance to look, but he could hear the disappointment in her voice.
She rushed ahead of him and stood still, eyes focused on a raised platform. Her hand wandered into her pocket for another Bramble Seed.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he advised with a hand on her wrist.
"What?" she asked, though ignoring him and throwing it at the blue Djinni anyway.
Squealing in fright, the Djinni jumped out of the way and ran to the ground platform to get out the way.
As the pair approached the Djinni, he ran through the door and appeared on the platform above.
"Darn. I missed him again," Veriti said.
"You're getting distracted," he noted.
"I don't know about that," she replied. "Maybe he can help us find the object since he's been here so long. I see him all the time and he evades me every time like this is some sort of game."
While she rushed towards the small door the blue Djinni exited, he grabbed her around the waist.
"I guarantee you that I can find it faster."
"Oh, is that a challenge?"
"Those Djinn," he stated. "They're useless without power."
"And power without wisdom is meaningless," she clarified.
"Profound words for someone who has not experienced power," he tightened his grip around her as she struggled.
"Well, you are certainly in need of wisdom," she quipped. "And humility, I might add. Now kindly, let go of me so I can find what I'm looking for."
"I doubt you can get very far without my Psynergy."
"So be it. Let us test power and wisdom and see how far we get. You seem like you are used to working on your own anyway."
"Very well, my dear," he replied. "I will not fail you."
He watched as she ran off through the side passageway. Meanwhile, he continued along the straight main path. It led to an expansive balcony, but mainly he gazed a hundred meters below to see five adjacent arches that divided the entire room into five parts lengthwise. Stopping in front of a bowl in the middle of the room, he smirked to himself. He didn't need Veriti to tell him what to do with a temple so simple in design.
Using Douse, a puffy rain cloud appeared in front of the bowl and filled it as it drifted over the bowl and faded into the air.
Peering downward at the floor below, he spotted a red Djinni followed by a brown Djinni run down the stairs. Perhaps my eyes are deceiving me, he thought. There was only one Djinni before and it was blue. Walking to the other end of the balcony to get a better view of the stairs, he saw Veriti emerge from the stairway stumbling backwards to stop at the landing.
"I know, Waterdrop, you love me," she cooed as a mother talking to a child. "Now, please help me find the mask."
Squealing from being squeezed too hard, the Djinn jumped out of her arms and yelled at her.
"My name is not Waterdrop, it's Surge!" he glared. "And there's no mask here just a grouchy face."
"Ok Surge," she replied. "That's a cute name."
"Wait no, I told you my name before testing if you were worthy. Now you can summon me...aaaah... help... Mercury is going to furious at me."
"Huh?" she questioned him. "What are you babbling about? I can only recognize the word 'summon' and 'Mercury.' "
"Aaahhh!" the blue Djinni burst into tears or raindrops. "That's already too much!"
Running off before she could get in another word or pat his head, she heard the blue Djinni cry, "I am so dumb. Dumb! DUMB!"
Glancing upward, she spotted Aegersus watching her from the balcony of the floor above.
"Aegis," she called. It echoed off the walls of the empty aqueduct. "Thanks for helping me out. There was really tough spot where there were zol blocks really low below the platform and I couldn't jump safely to them without your rain. And then the blue bear's friends came to play and tried all attacking me at once, but fortunately I borrowed this from you..."
"Sorry, princess, can't hear you from here," he shouted back, walking to the staircase that led downward on his floor. He could hear her fine but was too frustrated to hear how she got ahead of him. It was supposed to be the other way around. She certainly had a lot of Vitality, but there was no way, his Speed was much higher. For a second, he hesitated, thinking perhaps to teleport to the entrance and follow Veriti. No, there must be a reason for this path, he decided, continuing along.
Finally, Alex was several flights down and Veriti was still one step ahead of him. He was thoroughly pissed. He thought her to be innocent and naive and sheltered. Instead, she had a lot of Vitality for someone with such low-level psynergy and too much intelligence for someone who–
He heard another squeal, but it wasn't a Djinni, it sounded like Veriti. Perhaps I should just leave her to teach her a lesson, he frowned. No, not possible. Paithos probably wants his sister back and alive. Oh, and the plan with Darts and Hearts would not work if he didn't collaborate with them for the time being.
Traveling through yet another doorway, he realized that he was standing on the arches of an aqueduct. Water rushed past his knees quickly to form three waterfalls. This does not seem like a safe situation for Veriti, he thought.
Leaving the archway, he saw Veriti appear with one Djinni in her arms and two trailing behind. The red one ran past Aegersus to reach the doorway he had entered. Apparently, the brown one was chasing him. The red Djinni jumped onto his shoulder for protection and violently shook the water off of him. It just took one glare for the Djinni to jump right off and run away to some place dry and hidden from the brown Djinni on the ledge above.
"Which one should I choose, Aegis?" she asked, grasping a very unhappy blue Djinni.
"For what?"
"Jumping down," she responded.
"I wouldn't suggest it for you. Make the Djinni do it. Meanwhile, I will find the right path."
"Right path?" she laughed. "I have been leading you all along. Anyway, I guess it's up to chance. See ya!"
"Veriti, what are you doing?"
He heard her scream as the water pushed her off the aqueduct. As he rushed over to the adjacent arch to save her, he hesitated, recalling how the Wise One rudely pushed him to his "death." It looked like quite a fall from the top of the aqueduct to the bottom.
The brown Djinni peered behind him to spot the red Djinni hiding on the ledge. Making some intimidating babbling noises to the other Djinni, the red one leapt off the ledge onto Aegersus' shoulder. It made him slightly wobbly as he approached the edge. Then, the brown Djinni took the bait and leapt after him, forcing all three to fall head first off the ledge of the aqueduct. He cast some psynergy to levitate, but it appeared he was falling too fast.
A/N: Oh no, Aegersus' identity ...exposed. When I first wrote this, I realized I had been writing Djinn as singular and Djinni as plural. Fortunately, I got that mostly fixed.
So new mini characters.
All the Djinn in Ei-Jei are fair game as well as Kaocho. Anyone miss Kaocho out there? I remember when I was playing it a few years ago, it made me pretty hungry seeing all the good food lying around or available in shops. I was pretty sad when I got back after the Grave Eclipse and everyone was dead and the food was gone. Don't worry if you miss Kaocho like me, I will probably devote at least one chapter to it.
Also, I liked that the king's name was King Wo because wŏ (我) means "I" in Mandarin Chinese and he is definitely a selfish king.
Another thing. Why am I allowing Veriti to beat Aegersus? I feel like he's smart, but lazy, leaving the puzzles to the Adepts he's manipulating to solve.
One last thing. I took some liberties with how Veriti will get the well going and how much of the well Aegersus can fix. It's not going to be exactly like DD. And I made some things up about the interior of the Barai Temple.