Chapter 14: Ascent of Jupiter
Isaac wiped the sweat off his brow. Climbing the lighthouses is no easy task, he thought as he walked out into the bright sunlight. Using his hand to shade his eyes, Isaac glanced up at the top of the lighthouse. Not too much further to go now...but where is Felix at? He wondered, worried about coming all the way to the Jupiter Lighthouse and not running into Felix, Jenna, or Sheba yet.
"I'm sure we'll find them soon," Mia's voice said on Isaac's left as she walked past, placing a hand gently on his shoulder to reassure him. "I think we actually might be ahead of them this time," she added as she continued on.
As Garet and Ivan also walked past and out onto the ledge Isaac turned away from the aerie and followed. Suddenly there was a shriek from Mia as the flooring underneath her gave way and she tumbled down from the ledge. Isaac yelled out as she fell and Garet jumped after her on impulse. In under a second Isaac was at the edge of the ledge looking down, trying to assess the situation as his heart beat rapidly in his chest. Mia was stuck on a small ledge below and Garet was dangling from one arm off the same ledge with Mia trying to pull him up.
"I can't do it..." Mia said to Garet, after struggling to pull him onto the ledge again. "What happened to your other arm?" she asked.
"I'm not sure, but it hit something and I can't raise it up to the ledge," Garet replied, trying to adjust his grip with his good hand to find better support.
Isaac turned to Ivan who had witnessed the same exchange. "We need to find some way to get down there quickly and help them up," he said with a nod of agreement from the younger boy.
"I'm afraid you won't be doing that," a new voice said from behind them.
"Who are you?" Ivan asked, turning around to face the newcomers with Isaac. A red haired girl and blue haired man stood there watching the pair.
"Karst," the red haired girl introduced herself, bowing sarcastically.
"And I am Agatio," the man added without a hint of movement. Reading the confused looks on Isaac and Ivan's faces, Agatio decided to give them a hint. "Karst here has a little score to settle with you," he stated.
"A score to settle? But we don't even know you..." Ivan replied.
"You will both pay for what you did to my sister!" Karst exclaimed, seething with anger and allowing flames to flicker in her hands.
Isaac looked at her with sudden comprehension. Red hair...flames...a fire adept? He wondered. "So that means...your sister was Menardi...?" he questioned.
Karst's grin was the only warning he got before psynergetic fireballs came flying toward his face. Ivan's quick reaction to blow them off course saved Isaac from the brunt of the damage and allowed the Venus adept to draw his weapon.
In seconds Agatio was on top of him with augmented fists of fire, forcing Isaac to parry with his sword and back away. Karst shifted her focus to Ivan as the Jupiter adept sent a bolt of lightning flying in her direction. Blocking the lightning with a shield of fire, Karst sent the raging inferno after Ivan, forcing him to duck out of the way.
Agatio's assault was relentless, never pausing to allow Isaac a chance to recover from the attack as the sounds of steel gauntlets clashing with Isaac's sword rang out loudly in the air. Isaac just kept blocking while analyzing his foe for a mistake he could use to turn the tables. When Agatio finally overextended just barely too far, Isaac sidestepped the attack and countered with a quick slash to the leg, forcing Agatio off balance as he scrambled to dodge the counterattack. Back on equal footing with each other, the incessant blows stopped and the two combatants sized each other up to determine how best to proceed.
Meanwhile a less physical battle was taking place next to them where fire and wind clashed in spectacular displays of psynergetic power as Ivan and Karst battled for dominance. Spells flew back and forth between the pair as they deftly dodged each other's attacks our blocked them with powers of their own. As Isaac looked over, Karst had finally managed to trap Ivan with his back to the ledge, forcing him to take an attack head on. A giant serpent of flame burst from below Ivan and knocked him into the air before forcing him violently down to earth.
Isaac turned to see if Ivan was okay but Agatio caught him with a blow to the stomach. "Never let down your guard!" the blue haired man yelled as he knocked Isaac off his feet with another strike. Karst turned her attention to the Venus adept as well and cast the same spell she had used on Ivan to hit Isaac as well.
Isaac felt himself engulfed in fire as he rose into the air and was forcefully dropped back to the ground before blacking out.
...
"Isaac," a voice said softly, as if from a long distance away.
"Isaac," the Venus adept heard again, slightly louder than before.
Isaac's eyes cracked open slightly to try and discover the source of the voice, seeing only a blurry world and flash of cerulean. Mia...? he wondered as his eyes closed again and threw him back into the blackness from where he came.
"Isaac, wake up," he heard again and forced his eyes open once more to see the face of a girl with auburn hair leaning over him, the cerulean hue nowhere to be found. As his vision improved, he saw the worried expression on her face and opened his mouth slightly in shock.
"J-Jenna...? Is that...you...?" he managed to get out weakly as a warm psynergetic light enveloped him, slowly mending some of his wounds.
"Isaac!" Jenna exclaimed as she realized he was fully conscious again, giving the blonde boy a big hug in her excitement.
Isaac cringed as the hug put pressure on his wounds and heard another voice from behind Jenna. "I know you're excited to see him, but you're killing him like that," it pointed out.
Jenna immediately went red in the face and let go of Isaac, turning to reply to the speaker. "I know Sheba, I was healing him too," she said, receiving a laugh from the Jupiter adept.
Isaac tried to turn and look over to where Ivan was, seeing a blue haired man casting healing psynergy on the younger boy. "Is Ivan okay?" Isaac asked, remembering the battle. "What actually happened?" he added as an afterthought.
Jenna turned back to him. "Ivan will be fine. Piers is healing him up as we speak," she said. "As for what actually happened...Well you passed out for a few seconds after that last attack and we stopped the fight," Jenna explained.
Isaac tried to turn over to where Mia and Garet had fallen, but Jenna held him still. "Take it easy. They're both safe as well. Piers and Sheba helped them up."
Isaac gave a sigh of relief and saw a familiar face come into his view. Mia knelt down next to Isaac and looked over the remaining wounds before saying, "Not bad."
"Hey Mia," Isaac said with a smile on his face seeing she was okay.
Calling upon her healing psynergy, Mia began to mend Isaac's remaining injuries as Jenna watched. "Sorry it took me so long," Mia apologized as she worked. "Something was wrong with Garet's arm and I had to check it out first. Good news is that it wasn't broken though."
"Don't mention it," Isaac replied with a smile. "Jenna did a fine job of patching me up while you made sure Garet was fine."
Mia nodded. "I didn't realize fire adepts had healing techniques such as these," she commented, looking over at Jenna who looked slightly embarrassed for no reason.
"Ah...well it's not much...but we do have a few tricks that can help," Jenna explained sheepishly.
At that point Felix finally interjected. "Give me the Mars Star," he said solemnly, extending his hand toward Isaac.
This action caught the attention of everyone in the group as Isaac looked up at the other Venus adept, trying to read his intentions. Making a decision, Isaac reached into his bag and pulled out the Mars Star before handing it over to Felix. "I still trust you," Isaac stated. "But you owe us an explanation," he added on the end. Felix gave him a nod of respect before turning and heading for the lighthouse aerie with Piers.
Feeling the tension between the groups at the exchange, Jenna spoke up. "Don't worry, we will tell you everything. There's a reason Felix is doing all this."
Garet seemed a bit frustrated. "We came all this way just to hand them the last star...there better be a damn good reason for this or I'm going to tear Felix to pieces!" he exclaimed.
The injured Ivan spoke up. "Calm down Garet. We are in no shape to fight right now. We should all head back to Contigo and sort things out. Jenna did say there is a reason for all of this so we should at least hear them out."
Garet calmed down a bit and Sheba spoke up in agreement with Ivan's idea to meet back in Contigo. "There is really no reason for us to fight anyway," Sheba added. "I think meeting back in Contigo is a wise choice. This is neither the time nor place for this discussion."
Jenna looked back at Isaac, who was sitting up after recovering from his injuries. "I'm going to go help Felix on the aerie. Are you going to be able to get back to town fine?"
Isaac nodded. "We've been through worse than this. We will meet you back in Contigo," he said with a smile.
Jenna and Sheba nodded back and ran off toward the summit to assist Felix and Piers. Mia reached out a hand to Isaac to help him up which he gratefully accepted. "Thanks," he told her as a sudden flash of violet light drew everyone's attention to the lighthouse beacon.
After a few moments of just staring at it Ivan said, "Well that's 3 lighthouses lit..."
They continued to stare but eventually Isaac shrugged. "Well we should go find out why we let them light it I suppose," he said, indicating the now working lighthouse elevators on the edges. As a group they walked to the elevator and took it down to the ground before heading back toward Contigo.
Isaac was pensive as the group made their way along the path to town in the last of the daylight, mulling over possible reasons for lighting the lighthouses. It is true that I have some doubts about this, Isaac thought as he walked alongside Mia. So far the lighthouses that have been lit haven't caused too many problems. I mean there was the earthquake after Venus was lit but...what about Mercury? The healing waters from the lighthouse saved the town of Imil as well as the Kolima Forest. Isaac shook his head slightly. I just don't understand what the motivation to light the lighthouses is...
"You're wondering the same thing aren't you?" a soft voice said, breaking Isaac out of his thoughts and causing him to stop walking. He turned his head to look at the cerulean haired girl next to him that had a knowing smile on her face. "You don't think they're necessarily wrong for lighting the lighthouses, but you don't know why they would either do you?" Mia asked as Isaac stared at her.
She's so beautiful...Isaac thought, caught off guard at the moment, admiring the way her hair fell across her face with a rosy smile on her face.
"Hello? Isaac?" Mia asked turning slightly red at his prolonged gaze, waving a hand in front of his face.
"Ah! I um...err sorry!" Isaac got out with a stutter, turning away to hide the rapidly appearing color in his cheeks. "What did you say?" He asked, turning around to face Mia again after a moment to regain his composure.
Mia giggled and gave him a wide smile that made Isaac's heart involuntarily beat faster. "That's okay," Mia said. "I was just saying that I think you were trying to work out why they want to light the lighthouses," she reiterated.
Isaac found himself lost in her gaze once again, but quickly snapped out of it when Mia fell silent. I really can't get her off my mind can I? Isaac thought with an amused smile before answering Mia. "Yes you're right," he told her simply. "I can't help wondering why even though there's no point in worrying about it now."
Mia nodded. "I know what you mean. Something doesn't add up, but I guess we'll know soon." Glancing forward, Mia noticed that Garet and Ivan were almost over the next small hill and that she had to catch up with Isaac. Mia's face flushed slightly as she saw an opportunity and took it, reaching out to take Isaac's hand in her own. Quickly turning away toward the boys ahead, Mia stepped forward and brought Isaac along with her. "We should probably catch up to the other two," she gave as an explanation for the sudden action.
Isaac was surprised at the sudden butterfly effect in his stomach at the touch of Mia's hand, but went along with it and let her lead the way as they started catching up to Ivan and Garet. Even a touch as simple as this from her is enough to make me grin like an idiot...
Mia looked back at Isaac with pink on her cheeks as Isaac reached her side. Instead of pulling his hand away, Isaac shifted it to make it more comfortable for Mia to hold and intertwined his fingers with hers. Mia almost silently said, "Oh!" in delighted surprise at the action and Isaac tried to hide a blush and a smile on his face.
Mia composed herself, but couldn't help but to grin as she looked over at Isaac. Squeezing his hand gently to indicate her happiness got Isaac's attention and made him give up trying to hide his face. Ah forget it! Isaac thought. Holding her hand makes me happy and she doesn't seem to mind it. I guess there's no reason to try to hide that happiness.
With that thought, Isaac grinned at the girl next to him and saw her face brighten even more at the fact he was enjoying it. Mia pulled herself closer to Isaac and for a brief second laid her head on his shoulder before skipping forward a step with a laugh.
Isaac just continued to smile as he admired Mia next to him, walking hand in hand back to town.