Disclaimer: (urge to kill rising) I do NOT own Golden Sun etc. etc. (getting very bored of saying this)

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Mia was sitting in her house in Imil one evening, idly watching the snow fall from her snug and comfortable front room. She went south to Vale in the winter, but it snowed all year round in the area of Imil. Her house was also her place of work, though far fewer people needed her services as a healer with Hermes' water flowing in the Mercury lighthouse just beyond the town, and the door was rarely locked. Someone burst through it now, collapsing against a chest of drawers and using it to hold himself up. Mia spun around in surprise and time seemed to slow for a moment as the snow and wind from outside howled in through the wide open door. She stared into the eyes of the man who had just reappeared after five years, meeting eyes she had never thought to see again. His hair had gone entirely grey - at the age of 27!?! - but still she would know him anywhere after any length of time.

"I-Isaac?" she asked tremulously. She then noticed why he had collapsed against the chest of drawers - his tattered traveller's garb was ripped in several places and soaked through with blood.

"Mia. Sorry to impose on you after all this time, but I'm rather stuck for other options." His voice, even though she could see that it hurt him just to speak, still had its dispassionate edge, but there was some deep irony and bitterness hidden within it. He passed out, slowly toppling onto her rugs.

Mia snapped out of her trance, dashing over to him to check that he was not dead and look at his wounds. She realised that although he was alive he had no real right to be - he had wounds on his chest, thigh, both arms and a nasty cut on his forehead. It was also obvious that he had travelled a fair distance bearing these wounds. A quick magical scan showed her why he had not used his own healing magics - he was utterly drained of psyenergy after whatever fight he had acquired the wounds in.

"Gods above!" she exclaimed, quickly summoning her powerful elemental magic to heal him. Even for a healer as skilled and powerful as her, though, wounds like this would not go away quickly - if they did at all, she thought as a new wave of fear rushed through her. He had lost a lot of blood. She quickly got him into her bed to work on him.

She worked to heal Isaac all through the night, applying poultices and bandages as well as her healing enchantments, and finally fell asleep in a chair next to the bed facing him as the grey light of dawn began to creep in through the window.

Mia was awoken by Isaac's hand reaching out to grab her sometime in the early morning. Bleary, it took her a moment to remember what she was doing there. A slight smile creased Isaac's face as he said

"I know I need to rest, believe me, but I need to tell you something. Two things in fact." The smile, faint as it had been, was gone and the travelling warrior looked grimmer than ever "Garet, Jenna, Ivan and Felix are all dead. You are in a great deal of danger."