(I'm not usually one for authors notes, but I'd like to tell all of you that I'll be finishing this fic by July. So, if any of you original readers are still there, uh… yay!)
Piers walked slowly down the stairs, thinking to himself that he had not seen so much drama since the group had battled the wise one. He felt a bit sorry for Isaac, and Jenna in particular. Though Mia was angry with Garret (more just because she was angry with everyone at this point), she hadn't broken it off with him. Jenna on the other hand, had histrionically become a single mother.
Piers walked slowly down the stairs, thinking to himself that he had not seen so much drama since the group had battled the wise one. He felt a bit sorry for Isaac, and Jenna in particular. Though Mia was angry with Garret (more just because she was angry with everyone at this point), she hadn't broken it off with him. Jenna on the other hand, had histrionically become a single mother.
"But not really," Piers mused aloud. "Felix and... Sheba would help her raise it."
But there lies the problem, the stem of all this. Sheba and Felix. Piers had always been especially fond of Sheba- who wouldn't be? She was a cute young girl, intelligent beyond her years (Piers had told her alone how old he actually was), sassy and independent to a fault. Sheba was mature because she carried so much on her shoulders at such a young age- she decided not to go back to her original foster family because they never stopped thinking of her as a Goddess, which she could no longer bear, now that she knew her true origins.
Piers knew that Jenna and Isaac would get back together. It would be silly if they didn't. But he also strongly suspected Sheba would have to intervene.
This made Piers stop and pause. Did this young girl still carry all the responsibility that Felix had encouraged her to leave? Surely the melodrama of a handful of young adults was less burden than the worship of a town?
Piers sighed, and walked the remaining steps, down to the common room in the inn. It was now later in the night, a soft violet light from the sky mingled with the red firelight. Garret and Isaac were the only people downstairs, huddled together because it was getting colder.
"Dammit Garret, can't you just make the fire bigger?!" Isaac snapped, shivering. Garret thought for a moment, and the fire became bigger and warmed the room.
"I wonder how much longer we're going to be here..." Garret said.
"I don't know, he's Lemurian. Maybe he thinks that ten minutes have passed." Isaac said.
Piers stepped out of the shadows. "Actually, boys, I knew how much time had passed." Piers said, extra emphasis on the word "boys". "Some peoples girlfriends were rather upset."
"So you don't have a new boyfriend, Piers?" Garret commented idly. Isaac hit him, but Piers chuckled.
"Be kind to Ivan, Garret. I love him- like a little brother. Which he will be, legally, when Hamma and I wed this summer."
"What?! How did he take that?!" Garret exclaimed.
"Well enough... now Garret, not to sound like a parent, but I think Isaac is the one with the real problem here. And I didn't stay up till three o clock in the morning to gossip with you like a schoolgirl."
Isaac had buried his face sulkily in his arms, and lifted it slightly, so that Piers could hear him speak. "Jenna must hate me. I acted like a jerk." He said, barely audible.
"Yes, you did." Piers commented. "But the dumb part was when you didn't apologize. What made you act like- forgive me- such a complete buffoon?"
Isaac sighed. "Felix rubs me the wrong way," He said.
Garret nodded, "They've never gotten along, Piers. When we were kids, there was always this... rivalry between them."
"The young earth adepts of Vale." Piers said thoughtfully. "And you were infatuated with his sister from how long ago?"
Isaac and Garret looked at each other. "We had both started liking Jenna around twelve." The two nodded at each other.
"Hmmm... that would put Felix at fourteen... a delicate age..."
"As if you would remember." Garret muttered quietly.
"-the same age that Sheba was when Felix met her. Do you see where I'm getting at?"
"Uh... no, actually." Garret said.
"Listen, Isaac, Garret, but mostly Isaac." Isaac looked mildly offended by this, but kept silent. "When did either of you think," Piers continued, "'I'm in love with this girl?'"
There was a pause.
"Hmm... On my fifteenth birthday, I kissed Jenna." Garret said suddenly. "And you and I got in a huge fight, remember?"
"Oh yeah. I wasn't turning fifteen for another month and a half, and I told you that you had betrayed me because I was in love with her." Isaac recounted.
"We laughed about it later." Garret admitted.
"How much later?" Piers asked, eyebrow raised.
"Ah... about a year and a half ago, when we met Mia, and we... both liked her..." Isaac said, trailing off, embarrassed at the sheer one dimensional aspect of this statement.
"Right. So, at fourteen, did you love Jenna?" Piers asked the two of them. Slowly, without looking at each other or Piers, they nodded.
"Well, I don't have anything else to say to you. Goodnight." Piers said, rising to his feet. "Nice fire, Garret."
"Thank you," Garret said, a little puzzled. Isaac jumped to his feet.
"PIERS!" Isaac yelped. "Aren't you going to help me? Anything. I'll do anything to get Jenna back."
Piers turned and looked at the panting Isaac, and shook his head.
"Why don't you ask Felix?"