Shining In The Darkness

A Tale of Sol and Luna

Chapter Six: Sword, Soul, and Sky

It was hard to say precisely what happened while Isaac floated there, hanging on to Lycoris' whip, with Orian tied in the middle. It was too bright to see most things, and even blurred sights of the walls shifted in ways that made his eyes hurt.

Up top, Ivan and Sheba had the same idea. Or at least, one of them had the idea and the other caught it pretty quickly, since they almost always left their thoughts open to each other. Either way, the results were the same- both had moved to leap off the path with the intention of catching up with Isaac and creating a strong updraft, at the very least slowing him down.

Only Sheba had succeeded, since she had grabbed Ivan by the collar and yanked him backwards hard enough that he landed flat on the tiles, the wind knocked out of him most ironically. Sheba, on the other hand, had just discovered why she could move but Isaac and the other two weren't falling. The Lighthouse had nullified gravity. Sheba was currently about a foot above the railing, hovering in mid-air like a photograph of an Olympic diver.

"Whirlwind!" she shouted, casting the tornado below herself. The suction pulled her downwards, but as Sheba moved, she pushed the funnel further, diving with what felt like agonising slowness toward the Venus Adept. It seemed that Isaac had been stunned straight back to childhood, watching the murals in wonderment as they melted and reshaped themselves like clouds turning into dragons and ships and rabbits in a high wind.

A chance look upwards snapped him back to reality. "Sheba!" he shouted. "What are you doing?!"

"Trying to help you! You might be a bit more grateful!" she replied, still focusing on the whirlwind.

"I see you've got your rebellious attitude back," he commented dryly, referring to the time when Felix, Jenna, Sheba and Picard had been adventuring on their own. Sheba had developed a bit of an antiauthoritarian spirit in those months, and Jenna in particular had been glad when it subsided later.

"We should be helping them," Mia commented in an annoyed voice as she watched from above.

"Suggestions?" asked Garet sarcastically. "If asked for a plan, I'd probably say 'send Sheba'."

"What's with those two?" called Isaac as Sheba passed by Lycoris and then Orian. Neither were moving much, but they weren't transfixed by the light either.

"Orian looks sort of comatose. I think he's on a power high or something. Lycoris…" Sheba looked back at the girl, curled in space with one hand holding firmly onto the black Psynergy whip and the other over her eyes. Occasionally shadows sparked off her like static electricity on a dry winter night. "Lycoris seems to be having some trouble."

"Clear shot," Garet muttered.

"I've got it," said Felix. "Spire!" Venus Psynergy flared, a bit of green in the midst of yellow and white, barely noticeable. He thought it was just the overwhelming brightness that made it look like the stalactite vanished before it could even fall, but a second later Felix realised his casting had been neutralised by the rush of Sol power.

"Fine. Who's got a dagger?" asked Mia. Ivan looked up at her, shocked, but the icy flare in Mia's eyes was not one to be argued with. And Ivan wouldn't have anyway. He knew, as she and all the others did, that Lycoris was more dangerous than Orian. He probably had the greater power, but they were all familiar with the threat of someone who didn't even blink at the idea of killing. Anyone who saw other people as obstacles was way off the danger scale.

"Right here," said Garet, reaching into his pack, but at that moment gravity decided this was no way for a fundamental force to behave. Fortunately, the Lighthouse apparently had also had enough with the slow mystic transformation thing, and with a few solid smashes of stone and metal, it had reshaped the lower levels. The crescendo of slamming continued upward until the entire tower had been turned from temple to dungeon. The walls were still bright and golden, but the Outer Well was no more.

One floor slid out from one side to the other so fast Isaac found himself rolling to a stop after falling the remaining inch or two. Sheba landed on Isaac's back, but leapt up quickly, having experienced a more controlled fall. Lycoris landed lightly, her whip coiling itself into her hand obediently. Orian began to fall, but a flash later, he stood normally beside his sister.

Isaac stood at last, drawing the Sol Blade and standing ready.

"Shall we deal with these two first, then?" asked Orian, straightening his robes and hair.

"I can handle them," said Lycoris, and Isaac shuddered at how normal she sounded. In another place and time, it might have been an older sister insisting that she could look after her younger siblings. "You should get up there and slow the others down. I don't know what they did, but they're going to wish they hadn't."

"If you're sure," said Orian, glancing at Isaac. "But he may yet have a trick or two."

"Go!" shouted Lycoris. "Leave me to these two. You have other tasks. The Sol Star is the ultimate goal." She grinned at Isaac like a tiger at a zebra wearing leg irons.

"Then why wait here?" asked Orian, a touch of defiance in his voice. "They'll only slow us down."

"Isaac is only a threat if we leave him alive. Once he's gone, victory is simply a matter of time."

"You sound pretty confident for someone standing up to Defenders of Venus and Jupiter," said Isaac, confident that he could speak easily now. The fall had been rather terrifying, and he was exhausted.

"If you're sure," Orian relented. Lycoris nodded, and the Sol Adept ran out of the room. For the first time, Isaac noticed the chamber they were in. It was large, square-floored and about equally high. Much of the ceiling was a large white glass circle, at the centre of which was a stained-glass sun with a black crescent moon across it. There were two doors: the one Orian had just left through and another set into a small alcove on an adjacent wall.

"Now then. Ready for a fair duel?" asked Lycoris.

"Fair sounds good to me," said Isaac.

Sheba was shocked. "Fair? You're a Luna Adept, the total void of any true Psynergy, and you call this fair?" Lycoris glanced at her with a look that conveyed a very strong and simple message: you're not worth my time.

"Of course not. I do intend for this to be quite fair. Your vaunted Djinn give you an advantage that simply cannot be ignored, Isaac of Vale."

"And you think your own power doesn't make up for it?" asked Isaac.

"No Psynergy," Lycoris added, graciously. "Just whatever fighting skills you think you've got versus my mastery of combat. But only if you give up the Djinn."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" demanded Isaac. "Djinn die if they don't connect to an Adept." That wasn't quite true, he knew from Bane. Djinn merely began ageing if left alone, and their lifespan could probably only be counted with scientific notation.

"I know that. Give them to her," said Lycoris, gesturing toward Sheba. "And don't try pulling any tricks. I also know that unbalanced levels of set Djinn will cause Psynergy feedback between Adepts. Leave them all on standby, Venus and Jupiter."

"You know a lot," said Isaac, sighing with the awareness that if Lycoris used Psynergy in this battle, he didn't stand a chance. Everyone on standby, he thought. Switch over to Sheba.

Don't be ridiculous, said Flint. You think you can trust her?

Predictably, none of the other Djinn liked the idea either. Bane in particular made his opinion known very vocally. The boy's an idiot. Don't listen to him.

I'm the Adept here, and the rest of you are going to do what I say, Isaac stated, well aware that they wouldn't take him seriously enough to be offended. Look, it's my only chance. You've got to go.

It's only your only chance if she follows through on her promise! Would you trust that spider?

Do I have a chance, even with you? Can even one of you stand up to Luna Psynergy?

"No," said Lycoris cutting the Djinn off. "And don't look so shocked. Of course I can read minds."

Go, said Isaac, particularly to cut off any further comments. I'll be back, I promise. He raised a hand, and a host of lights flew out of Isaac's arm. Close inspection would have shown them to be tiny Djinn spirits, transferring themselves to Sheba. She shook a little at the sudden intrusion into her mind.

"Isaac, you're not going to-"

"Good. That's done. You may begin whenever you wish," she said. The Psynergy whip was sucked back into Lycoris' wrist with a sound that made Isaac's spine try to break out of his back and crawl into hiding. Instead, he simply raised his sword into a guarding position -annoyed at even noticing that it felt a little heavier than he was used to- and took a deep breath.

"I'll take the left," said Sheba, raising her staff.

"You'll stay back out of danger," Isaac corrected her. He wondered if it was worth trying to get the message through covertly, but then remembered Lycoris' mind read. "If things go bad, find the others and give them whatever help you can."

He charged.

The Depths were much brighter now that Jenna had 'flipped' the switch. Most of the spiders had fled back into whatever dark corners they came from, and those that weren't had mostly stopped smoking. She walked back through the tunnels, roughly towards where they had started running from the spider. Jenna turned a corner and found Picard, slumped against the wall, holding something against his arm.

No one quite knew what had caused the evolution of the plant usually just called antidote, which naturally could neutralise just about every poison in the world. At this moment, breathing more easily every second, Picard didn't much care how it worked, as long as it continued to do so. As Jenna approached, he pulled another of the plants from his pack, crushed the blue berries in one hand, and applied it to his leg.

"Careful there. You don't want to overdose on that sort of thing," she warned him. Picard looked up at her with an unusual wild light in his golden eyes that faded as he realised that she couldn't possibly understand what had just happened.

"What could it do that would be worse than that spider's venom?" asked Picard, and then he winced and wished he hadn't.

"You could end up with an antidote-based hallucination in which melting bread explains to you the true meaning of limestone," she suggested, and Picard couldn't help laughing, even though it hurt. "Hey, those some nasty gashes. Let me take a look at that." Jenna kneeled beside the Lemurian, but he pulled back.

"Hey, which one of us is the Mercury Adept here?" he asked rhetorically.

"Which one of us may well have a chip or two of exoskeleton still stuck inside them?" she returned.

"What are the cha-AAGH!" Picard's question turned into a yelp as Jenna reach down and pulled a black shard out of his leg. "…You could have just said something."

"We don't have time. We have to get back up there fast, so hold still. I've never done anything this detailed before." And of course Aura Psynergy affected all the Adepts in her range, so it would take twice the power to heal anything, as the Psynergy would be cast on herself as well.

"You've never talked to someone while healing them, either."

"How did you know?"

"…Luck."

Jenna ignored the comment, which was most definitely not quite true, and set to work. She really hoped all the right bits were still inside, since Mia had told her several times that trying to make people regenerate rather than repair was a lot harder.

Once the blood had been washed away, Jenna tried to decide how exactly she was going to figure out whether or not there was anything in there to get out. She slid her pack off her shoulders and started rummaging through its contents. "I'm going to need some help. Could Chill or Spring-"

"I can handle this," said Justice, speaking with a slightly offended tone as she landed.

"Fine." The thin blade Jenna had produced flared red for a second and even Cannon felt the heat. "Cool it down, will you?" Something at the core of Justice's eyes flickered, sparks of Psynergy whirled around her, and the dagger returned to its usual steel grey with a tiny clink of cooling metal. Jenna looked from the edge to the Lemurian. "Hold on."

"If we don't move now, we'll have lost our only advantage. We have to get to the top before Orian." Felix took a deep breath. "Even Isaac and Sheba aren't as important as that." To his surprise, both Garet and Mia failed to knock him senseless.

"But there are only four of us now," Ivan pointed out, still stuck on that moment when Sheba had pulled him back. She didn't do that sort of thing much. It was like… well, from the thoughts he had picked up on, he thought Sheba had decided that she'd rather take the danger than let Ivan be threatened.

Sheba was good at judging danger.

"So what do we do? Go help Isaac and Sheba? They can take care of themselves for now. Isaac would freak if we went after him instead of heading up anyway," said Mia, and even without reading her mind Ivan could practically hear her thinking 'Idiot. Brave and wonderful and intelligent, too. But still idiot.'

"Right. Seraph, get us the hell up there right now," said Garet.

"That'll be difficult now that the labyrinth defences are active. It all depends on whether or not we managed to get past the gates before those two stopped us. Or rather, where the gates are now," said the Sol Djinni. "Come on."

"Have you ever noticed," asked Ivan as they started running again, "that nothing good ever involves gates? They're always in the way. They never stop anyone but us."

Isaac held the Sol Blade's hilt close to his body as he ran, knowing that inexperienced fighters often panicked when someone went for a fast and strong stab. It was easy to parry, but they had to stay calm-

It was a moment after he leapt back holding his bleeding forearm that Isaac managed to figure out what had happened. The strange short sword in Lycoris' hand that now dripped with his blood was a good hint. The blade wasn't much more than a foot long, wavy like the kris carried by people on Atteka continent, but also curved, like a Gondowan scimitar.

She hadn't dodged, she hadn't blocked. Lycoris had simply drawn the weapon and slashed his arm. She didn't even consider the defensive options. She drew blood. If Isaac had been anything but a Venus Adept, and a good one, that would have seriously scared him.

"Don't even think about interfering, kid. This is one-on-one. Any hint of Psynergy, any Summoning, and all the rules are broken," said Lycoris, noticing Sheba's expression. Isaac paused for another moment, still clutching his arm, longer than necessary. As he had hoped, she continued. "Besides, it wouldn't do you any-"

Isaac had heard somewhere that the best warriors never spoke in battle. They took advantage of the slight delays when people had to switch from talking to fighting. Now was a perfectly good time to try, he supposed.

Lycoris was fast, though, and blocked, but the simple reality was that Isaac had been trained by the greatest quest ever undertaken on Weyard, and he was much stronger. He knocked the guarding blade out of the way and sliced. Lycoris rolled and dodged with the motion, so that the edge of the Sol Blade just skimmed along her back.

"You're not bad," she admitted. The kris came whirring through the air at Isaac's head. By the time he blocked, she was already striking low on the other side. A quick twist deflected that shot, but Lycoris spun and caught him in the neck with a kick. "But if this is the best you've got, I'm really not impressed."

Isaac's next strike came in low and upwards, threatening to remove any number of important parts if she didn't block or avoid it. Lycoris sheathed the kris and grabbed Isaac by the shoulders, vaulting over him. She landed, drew, and slashed, but Isaac's armor and the fact that he was already spinning to dodge and strike back made it less than effective. The sudden jab with her blade turned the swinging edge away from Lycoris, but the flat of it still smashed into her and knocked her to the floor.

"If you were anything more than a self-obsessed wanna-be tyrant, you might know that it's better to save a trick or two for when your opponent thinks they know you," Isaac pointed out. Lycoris leapt to her feet and dove back into battle.

"Are you sure that's clean enough to -AH!" shouted Picard as Jenna began easing a mandible part from his leg. The metal was still hot, which had good and bad points, and mostly the bad ones were on his mind, as well as the sudden jolt of pain.

"I said hold on," Jenna reminded him.

"If you focus on it, it's just going to feel worse," Justice pointed out.

"Tell me of your valiant journeys, brave Herald!" said Guardian. "I would greatly like to know more of the towers of the elements within Mars Lighthouse."

"I don't think I can be that coherent," said Picard, slightly gurgling every word. "Jenna seems to be cauterising every nerve in my leg, and it's a bit of a distraction."

"I'm doing what I can to keep you from taking permanent damage. There's a chip stuck in your… help me out here, Justice. Which one's the tibia and which is the fibula?"

"Oh, Spirits, let this end…"

"Hold on, you weakling!" At this, Picard began to laugh. "Great. I think he's snapped." Either proving or disproving Jenna's theory, Picard began to sing again.

"Hold on

Hold on to yourself

'Cause this is gonna hurt like hell

Hold on

Hold on to yourself

You know that only time will tell

What is it in me that refuses to believe-"

It was about there that Guardian detonated the sleep bomb.

"This could really be good or bad," said Luff, staring in bewilderment at all the clockwork in front of them. The room appeared bottomless, simply a sheer drop between the two doors -in keeping with Lighthouse tradition- but axles stuck out of both walls of the chasm. The majority of the room was rotating somehow, and it was definitely implied that people were expected to be very good at what they did if they wanted to cross.

"I vote bad," said Garet a moment later.

"Looks deep," Felix observed.

"Looks unusually sadistic," Mia suggested.

"Looks fun," said Ivan. The others glared at him. "No, really." He unslung his pack and began rummaging through it. "Look, I've got one of Sheba's old staves in here."

"I'm not surprised," said Garet, but he went no further when Mia glared at him.

With a flourish, Ivan produced a dragon's head-tipped staff. It appeared to be solid bronze and very sturdy. "I think, with this, it shouldn't be too hard to hold on to one of those axles."

"And the other three of us?" asked Felix.

Ivan looked at him blankly for a moment. "Well, it's something," he said at last.

"I think you might be forgetting about us," Aeon pointed out.

"And how do you intend to help? I don't recall anyone mentioning levitation Psynergy," said Garet.

"We could use a Hover point," Mia said.

"We could use a collapsible bridge," commented Garet.

"We could use a door with a sign saying 'This way to Sol Lighthouse Aerie'," said Felix.

"If anyone so much as begins to say the word 'kraken', they will regret it," Ivan warned them.

Even the harsh clang of metal colliding and grinding together was fading from Sheba's notice. All she could see was that even though Isaac was fighting as well as she had ever known him to, he was still tired, and Lycoris seemed to exist on the demonic equivalent of a sugar rush. She saw every move Isaac made before he was half into it, and never seemed to take a hit. On the other side, he was bleeding from half a dozen minor slices dealt by Lycoris' weapon.

It was also maddening to know she couldn't help Isaac. Lycoris didn't seem to notice that Sheba was constantly probing at her mind, occasionally picking up a stray unshielded thought, but it would do no good to tell everyone. She had to wait for a chance to turn the battle decisively.

How long will you wait?

Blitz, unless you have a really good plan, be quiet!

He's right, added another Djinni. We don't have time for this.

Whorl, stop it! Both of you. Isaac might depend on me before this ends- I can't be distracted with upstart Djinn if or when he does!

You'd think she'd be happy to have backup, said Whorl.

Or at least moral support, Blitz agreed.

Now stop it, Bane interjected. The girl's right, and if I were here for anything longer than the next few minutes, I'd have a serious talk with both of you about discipline. Who's the eldest Djinni here?

You are, sir, replied Haze, full of awe.

I like your attitude, said Bane. The rest of you could learn a thing or two from him. Anyway, I meant Jupiter.

Right here, said Gale. What do you-

Can't you communicate without using my brain as a conference room? Lives are at stake here! Sheba shook her head as though she could throw off the confusion from the chorus of voices. Slowly her thoughts cleared enough for her to notice what was happening in the battle. Just in time to see a blade dart in between the plates of Isaac's armor.

"Thanks for not knocking me out too, Guardian," muttered Jenna. "I don't think Picard would enjoy having five inches of cobalt sliding through his calves as I fell over."

"He knows that they have small areas of effect. Therefore, so do I," explained Guardian. "Now are you or are you not going to finish healing him? There are battles yet to be won!"

"And fragments yet to be removed. Damn it, this thing's caught on a muscle or something… I don't want to cause extra damage…" Jenna muttered to herself, working at a shard of the giant spider's broken mandibles. Apparently it had found armor at bit tougher to chew than expected, but neither opponent had noticed in the midst of shadowy combat.

"Cuts are something you can fix with a thoughts, Jenna," said Justice. "You just want these things out fast."

"In that case," she said, cringed in preparation, "I guess it's good that you knocked him out, then." Jenna reached in with her free hand and grabbed hold of the curved shard. Once sure that she had a firm grip, Jenna eased it into position as well as she could and pulled. Even through the cloak of sleep, his face twitched. So did a lot of the rest of him.

"Tell me that's it," said Jenna, wiping her brow. She stared at the gloves she had just used, stains and all, and removed it before wiping again. This time, she felt it made an improvement, rather than making her look like she had just headbutted a troll to death.

"Would I know?" asked Justice.

"One of you had better know!" she said, raising the dagger. Guardian would have sworn her eyes flamed, and so he quickly slipped into Picard's subconscious again. He reappeared a moment later.

"That's everything. Nothing in that leg that shouldn't be there," the Sol Djinni reported.

"Good," said Jenna. "Time to start sealing him up, then. With all this blood lost, I don't know how long he can last without serious healing."

"Um…" Justice began as Jenna raised a hand, "do you have any Psynergy left?" A sparkle or two flew from her palm, but then nothing. "No. I thought not. This could complicate things."

"This is truly a plan beyond the scope of my comprehension. Absolutely above and beyond anything else you've ever come up with, Ivan," said Garet. He looked down. There was still no floor. He looked up. There weren't many handholds except those he had already been lucky enough to find. "A complete disaster. The thing is, what the hell made you think it was a good plan?"

"If you would stop complaining and start reaching," said Ivan, rotating by on a large gear.

"Oh, good. And when you spin back away and I'm left hanging by one arm?" he asked sarcastically.

"Look, you might as well try," called Felix.

"Yes, the only downside is the fatal -if not endless- fall below me! Have you noticed that we're not getting any echoes? I don't think this hole ends!"

"Well then, I guess you'll never hit anything, will you?" said Mia.

"No, and with any luck I might starve before I dehydrate! But wait! I have rations with me! So not only am I going to dehydrate, I'm going to take a long time to do it!" he shouted with the irrationally of those facing down a terrible end and knowing that they might be getting off easy. After all, Orian was still somewhere out there, climbing as well as he could toward the Aerie…

"Shouldn't you be running out of breath or something?" asked Mia.

"Actually… no. I feel fine," Garet said, suddenly realising that he wasn't losing his grip at all.

"I knew you were forgetting about us," said Aeon.

"They're really quite self-centred," Seraph muttered, appearing and touching down weightlessly on Garet's hands. The single block jutting a few inches out of the wall had been rather convenient, now that he thought about it, but when something saves your life, it doesn't seem grateful to question it, even if it is inanimate.

"I thought you said you defended against physical attacks," said Garet.

"Well, yes. But I also made you a Titan, and with that comes a good share of Psynergy-enhanced muscle power. Also, you Moved this block out of the wall instinctively, which I thought was a nice touch."

"Hmm. Extra strength, you say?" repeated Garet, looking around.

"Yeah. Actually, Lycoris was doing something very similAGH!" Seraph cut himself off as Garet burst away from the wall, removing the Djinni's perch. Garet soared across to the other wall and just managed to get a good grip with his boots before ricocheting up again. A few rebounds later, he crashed down beside Ivan.

"That was a rush," Garet breathed. "Seraph, get your spiky tail up here. We have an elemental Star to save."

"Great. He's gone adventurous again," muttered Ivan, and jumped to the next massive wheel.

"Mythril shirt," said Lycoris sourly as Isaac stepped away, unharmed by her stab.

"Yeah. Read about something like it once before, and thought it would make a nice backup plan," the Venus Adept replied. "Troll's spear, in that case, so if you think you can cut through it with that warped thing, I'll be quite impressed."

"You'll tire, you know," said Lycoris, coming in with an overhead slash but switching hands at the last moment, intending to surprise him with a low cut. Isaac wasn't so easily tricked, even when he was this tired, and blocking the strike. "You can't keep up with me."

"Oh really? You're not breaking our no-Psynergy rule, are you?" asked Isaac. "No little boosts to your speed or stamina, are there?"

"You're a good opponent, Isaac of Vale. There's no need to ruin it by becoming annoying, too," Lycoris responded, twirling away from a triple-slash sequence.

"Hey, whatever works," Isaac muttered, and tried to knock her legs out fom under her, receiving a swift kick in the shoulder for his efforts. He caught sight of Sheba, still waiting anxiously and impatiently at the side. With eighteen Jupiter and Venus Djinn gathered somewhere in her soul. All on standby… "Sheba, go and find the others!"

"What?!" she shouted.

"I can handle this, don't worry! You have to go help Ivan and the rest of them! I'll be there soon, I promise!" She began to argue, but an expression appeared on her face just as her mouth snapped shut that was too bizarre for it to be anything other than Bane cutting her off. Slowly and still very annoyed, she nodded.

There was a flicker of purple light, and a Jupiter Djinni appeared. "Blitz is going to stay here and keep an eye on you! He'll lead you to me when you're ready- look out!" Isaac dropped to the floor and rolled back up, just as Lycoris' blade swept overhead. Once she saw that he was okay, Sheba dashed out of the room. The entire Lighthouse was burning with Psynergy of all kinds… she had to seek out the only other part that glowed with power like her own…

"Well, it's nice to have her out of the way," Lycoris said pleasantly, blocking a slash. "Tell me, Isaac, do you find me attractive?"

"This is the best plan you've got?" asked Justice.

"Do you have anything better?" demanded Jenna.

"I approve of your daring," said Guardian appraisingly.

"He's still out cold, right?" she asked.

"Like a candle in a hurricane."

Jenna looked at the dagger clutched in her hand, and the unconscious Lemurian below it. "Where's the heart? I don't want to kill him by accident. I don't even know if Revive works except under special circumstances, and I definitely don't have it."

Even if you did, I could handle it. You know that.

"Oh, all right. Here goes…" Jenna took a deep breath and plunged her dagger into Picard's torso. She took an agonising moment to wait for his face to start looking pale, and then called up power. "Unleash Tinder!" The soul of a Mars Djinni appeared, flaming with Psynergy, and shafts of light shone down on Picard. Phoenix feathers swirled around them for a moment, and then all his injuries sealed themselves. The paleness faded from his face, and Jenna exhaled for the first time in a minute or so.

"I think we should leave him for now," said Guardian. "Psynergy's no match for rest, and you're not in such great shape yourself. Take a few moments to breathe."

"I thought we were in a rush," said Jenna, trying to stand. Both Sol Djinn landed on her shoulders and pushed her back down to lie against the wall.

"Not really. We were just trying to speed you up," said Justice.

"You-!"

Spiritual sheep rained through the tunnel as Justice flapped a wing impatiently. Jenna slumped, trying weakly to resist the Sleep Psynergy. "We really don't have much time, you know," she said to Guardian.

"It will do no good to get them killed," he replied. "We can wait a few minutes. In the meantime, see if she has a vial on her. I don't like the looks of these scratches on her shoulders."

Jenna snored quietly.

"I mean, really," said Lycoris. "Powerful, assertive… these are supposed to be good, right? Don't men want someone who's outgoing and follows her dreams, no matter the struggle?"

"When you try to kill my friends in the process, I think there's more than one angle to consider. And if you say anything else about what 'men want' I may forget how nice and merciful heroes are supposed to be," Isaac growled.

Heroes? asked a voice in his head. Got a pretty good opinion of yourself, haven't you?

I hope you have a really good point, Isaac responded. He hated dealing with philosophical questions in the middle of combat, and he was pretty sure that this would soon be one. Otherwise I don't have time.

Voices in one's head rarely take the hint. Well, you were thinking just a few days ago about being a hero, weren't you? Something about thinking that even though you all survived the journey, the quest took your life anyway?

"Besides, you can't possibly tell me that this sort of figure counts for nothing," said Lycoris, twisting into a quick pose. Isaac paused for just a fraction of a second, and she smashed him down. "Now that was pathetically easy. So much for higher ideas, I suppose."

"Don't give yourself too much credit," said Isaac.

What exactly did you mean?

I guess… I was running the whole time, trying to stop the Lighthouses from being lit, and then trying to light the last one, and fighting hundreds of monsters and it was all a great adventure… and then it ended, and I was supposed to stop running… And I'm not sure I could…

"True. Unless I'm much mistaken, Miss Mia of Imil wears that big thick cloak all the time. I suppose you'd react like that to just about anyone who showed some-"

She meant to make him angry. That was the whole point. Angry people are supposed to lose focus. Isaac had learned, though, and it worked the other way around. Fury in him just narrowed the view. He leapt, spinning in mid-air, and thrust backwards, cutting deeply into Lycoris' shoulder, then drawing back and landing on guard again.

"Shut up, damn you," said Isaac. "I don't have time for this. Lives are at stake and I'm standing here listening to you spew garbage about everything in the world. Just shut up. I've fought undead and slime beasts and walked through about four sewer-like things that someone decided were vital parts of the elemental Lighthouses and walked right out again feeling just fine, but about two minutes after meeting you I want to burn these clothes and shower for about a year. So don't say a thing, all right? You taint every word you speak."

"You're right about one thing, Isaac of Vale," said Lycoris, her blade slicing close to him on either side, but always being deflected before it could cut. She didn't seem to care.

"What?" he demanded.

"There is a life at stake here," said Lycoris. She slashed one more time, cutting the last leather strap of his armor -he hadn't even noticed the others go- and watching it fall to the floor with a clatter. The kris came in again, and cut under the shirt. "Yours."

Blitz wanted to turn away, or close his eyes, but he knew that Sheba had to tell the others. Lycoris' blade cut into the side of Isaac's stomach and then drove deeper, opening him to the middle and then twisting, slicing upwards.

A few floors above, still connected to Blitz's sight in her mind's eyes, Sheba faltered, fell to her knees, and choked. She couldn't hold it after what she saw, and was sick.

Isaac collapsed to the floor, and his vision started to go dark. Before it faded out completely, one last question came from the voice.

I can't help but wonder… what were you running from?

Sheba tried to get up, to keep moving, but now tears were streaming down her face, and she couldn't see where she was going. She fell against a wall and slid to the floor. A few floors up, Ivan suddenly caught a thought so strong he didn't even see it coming.

"Oh… oh god…" he whispered. Felix, Garet, and Mia looked at him, wondering why he had suddenly stopped before a jump. "Isaac…" Their expressions remained wary, uncertain. "He's dead."

[Author's Notes] I'll leave you with that. Credit to the muse, of course. Next part up as soon as I write it. Now go review.