[Author's Notes] Wow. Notes first. Unusual for me, but for one joyous occasion I actually have reviews to respond to, so here we go.
To Ryan Griffin: Oh, good questions. Well, let's see. Firstly, Luna Psynergy is still Psynergy, but it has no weakness. For example, Mars tends to be vulnerable to Mercury. Luna, on the other hand, sucks everything in and doesn't care what it is. For the other two questions… well, that would be telling, now wouldn't it? All shall be revealed in good time.
As for Midnight C, Griffinkhan, and Alex… What makes you think there was a cliffhanger in there? No, really. I didn't intend any cliffhanger. Oh, just go read the next chapter. (And in case anyone's wondering, I have so far written all GS fics in the same continuity-universy thing, by which I mean anything mentioned that you don't remember from the games should be found in another fic.)
Shining In The Darkness
A Tale of Sol and Luna
Chapter Seven: Final Gauntlet
Blitz stared at Isaac's body for a few minutes longer, furious with the knowledge that he couldn't do anything. Couldn't have done anything, rather. He had gone into battle knowing that Lycoris had every advantage, that he would only win if she never had a chance to break her own rules. And now Isaac of Vale, a Defender of Venus and the wielder of the Sol Blade, lay dead in front of him. Lycoris had waited a moment, watching to ensure that this was no trick.
The Djinni could have spared her the trouble. Ivan and Sheba were Wind Seers without any Djinn attached, which meant that in some indescribably way, they could see the air currents as they twisted about. It was a power shared by all the Jupiter Djinn as well, and Blitz could sense no motion from him. Isaac was not breathing, even slightly. The Sol Blade's handle lay in his limp grasp, its blade no longer glowing.
She shook her head, wiped the blade on his scarf, and walked out of the room.
Blitz returned to Sheba.
The body remained, still motionless.
"It just can't be like this," said Sheba, trying to stop her tears. "He can't be dead… not Isaac." Infinity was silent. She didn't know how to deal with death, really. Most of the Sol Djinn, so close to the Star all their long existences, hadn't even begun to age. Harmony alone had been born elsewhere, and so felt the weight of a few years. Even being old, like Bane, was beyond Infinity's comprehension. Death, natural or not, was unthinkable to the long-youthful Djinni. But she could still see that sorrow would cause yet more pain.
"I'm…. I'm sorry, Sheba. But if we don't find the others fast like Isaac asked at the… like he wanted, then we might be too late," said Infinity, slowly.
"You're not going to just sit-" began Whorl, but he was cut off by someone who knew what to say.
"Don't give up hope," said Breath, the Jupiter Djinni that had known Sheba longest, since their first day of adventuring. "We can still make a difference here. Don't let anyone stop you now, Sheba."
Breath's friendship gave her an advantage here in getting Sheba back from the edge. She knew how Sheba was thinking right now, and exactly how to stop it. With a final sigh, Sheba picked up her staff and put her weight on it, rising to her feet again. Tears still streaked her face, but she didn't seem to take any notice. The Prophet simply walked out of the room, determination ringing from her footsteps.
"I don't think we can wait any longer," said Justice, uncomfortably.
"Agreed. There is no more time for rest. Now is the time for valor!" shouted Guardian. Jenna twitched and opened her eyes. The Valkyrie looked around for a moment, her eyes settling on Justice, flapping not too far away.
"You've got some nerve for a person with no arms," she said, eventually. She looked to the unconscious Lemurian. "Picard's still out?"
"Apparently he got a good breath of that sleep bomb," said Justice, ignoring the comment.
"Let me handle this," said Jenna, holding back the two fluttering Djinn. She crawled over to Picard, brushed his long blue hair out of his face, and screamed "And if you ever even try to touch me again I'll do worse than knock you senseless, you lecherous relic!"
Picard's golden eyes snapped open and he leapt to his feet, head whirling about, trying to find the source of the sudden auditory assault. Eventually he had the presence of mind to look down, and found his gaze returned with a glare that burned with hellish flames.
"What did… how could… why…" Picard paused as memory and understanding rolled over him. "You blasted Mars Adepts," he groaned, the dizziness of sudden awakening and jumping upright catching up with him.
"Can you blame me for having some fun before we head up there to get beaten senseless?" Jenna asked, packing away the few instruments she had used while healing him. That done, she heaved the pack back onto her shoulders and beckoned for Justice.
"I suppose not," Picard admitted. He thought for a moment. "How many Mars Adepts does it take to light a lantern?" As they started after Guardian, who knew a shortcut back towards the top, Jenna looked at the newly-declared Herald skeptically.
"How many?" she responded after a moment.
"Four. One to light it, one to pick up the pieces, one to get another lantern, and one to find a Mercury Adept to do it properly."
"…You don't fear death, do you?"
"I'm a Lemurian. After a few centuries of practice, you would not either."
"What do you mean, Isaac's dead? You mean he's been downed? We should get down there before-" Ivan barely had the heart to cut Garet's hopeful bravery off, but he had seen the images in his head.
"No, Garet, I don't mean he's taken a mortal injury or something. I mean he's dead." Ivan looked around at the other Adepts, all caught in the middle of crossing the clockwork-filled chasm. Mia alone, who had just reached the other side and was just about to throw the dragon-headed staff to Felix so he could make the last jump, could take the luxury of leaning against a wall for support.
She swallowed with some difficulty. "There's got to be a mistake. Isaac-"
"Isaac is already gone," said Ivan, wishing he didn't have to say this. "Blitz saw it happen, so Sheba saw it happen, so I saw it happen. There's nothing we can do."
"Revive," muttered Felix, wishing that the gear he was standing on would stop turning for a moment. It felt ridiculous in a situation like this, even though he knew it was irrational to expect machinery to notice a solemn moment.
"We've only had to use it a couple of times-" began Mia, but she stopped, remembering Venus Lighthouse. Garet noticed, and continued for her.
"You've seen it too, when you've had to use Revive Psynergy," said the Mars Adept. "Revive only works if the body is still intact, mostly. Lycoris would probably know that. Even if she didn't, somehow I think she…" Garet trailed off too, looking to Ivan, who slowly shook his head. Garet's hatred of the Luna Adept increased a thousandfold.
"Then what do we do?" asked Felix, aware that this wasn't the sort of thing a real leader was supposed to say at a time like this.
Ivan realised, with a bit of a shock, that he was suddenly the one in charge. Garet was furious, Mia was heartbroken, and Felix was helpless. "We have to keep going. Stopping now means we lose everything."
"The Archon is right," said Oracle, sparkling into existence on top of Ivan's head (he was quickly moved for appearance's sake). "Isaac knew what he was doing-" A fraction of a second later, Ivan was struggling to shove Oracle into his pack, aware that noble speeches were not a good plan right now.
Mia didn't even notice what was happening. She was lost in thought and memory. An eternity ago, back at the top of Venus Lighthouse, Isaac had defied death and saved her when the Fusion Dragon had tried to remove the threat she posed before dealing with the others. The Venus Adept had gone on to break the dragon and defeat Saturos and Menardi, calling on Judgment for the first time.
The boy -comparing Isaac then, not even two years ago, to the Isaac she had known yesterday, he did seem like just a boy- had even been too shy to kiss her, even though they were already falling in love. Romantic cluelessness, another one of the things about him that she liked… Well, Mia had dealt with that part Isaac forgot, she remembered with a smile. She could almost feel his hand in her grasp, and tried to squeeze it for assurance…
Her hand closed on empty air.
"Where do I go from here?" demanded Sheba, who had made her way into the labyrinth that was once the vast emptiness of the Outer Well. Ivan -and therefore the others- were somewhere not too far above her, and she had to catch up quickly.
"The fastest way, please," Whorl added.
"Well," Infinity replied slowly, "fastest is a relative thing. Monsters-"
"-had better run for cover," said Sheba, cutting the warning off.
"Right, then," said Infinity, trying not to be unnerved, since Sheba's current attitude was about as unexpected and terrifying as watching a chipmunk pull a magnum on a pack of ravenous wolves. "If we're going that way, you might want to know about some of the new Psynergy you've got…"
"Mia?" said Garet, quietly. Ivan was swinging back and forth on one last axle. At the end of his forward swoop, he flipped and unhooked the curved head of the staff from the shaft, flipping backwards once and landing, lighter than the others, near the door out of the room. Felix and Garet had already crossed.
Felix came up behind Garet, who was keeping his distance from the Mercury Adept. Mia sat against the wall, legs drawn up to her body, her forehead resting on her crossed arms. They couldn't see her face, but it wasn't exactly hard to guess why she seemed to be hiding.
"Maybe we-" Felix began, but Garet raised a hand to silence him. He looked back to Mia, and wondered for a moment why she was clutching her staff so tightly.
"Mia?" called Garet again, and very slowly her whitened knuckles relaxed, just slightly. "We need to keep moving…"
"Why?" she whispered, asking the empty air. Garet started to say something, but Mia continued her question before he could ask what she meant. "Why did he have to go? Why did it have to be Isaac…"
"Who would you have sent in his place?" asked Saviour, wavering into reality as she spoke.
Mia looked shocked at the question, but she knew it was a good one. "Myself," she snapped after a moment, and her head sank back down. Saviour looked nonplussed by the angry response, and calmly dealt the verbal equivalent of a slap back to her.
"So you'd feel better if you were dead and Isaac were sitting where you are now, broken and mourning for you? You'd give this pain to him so that you wouldn't have to take it any more?" demanded the Sol Djinni. Mia's eyes flashed furiously as she snapped back up to glare at Saviour. "I'm not impressed, Mia of Imil. I'd expect better of a hero."
"That's not-!" Mia began angrily, but she was cut off.
"Isaac was likely the greatest hero Weyard has ever seen. He did what he didn't have to do, just to give you and everyone else a chance. You say you loved him, and he decided his life wasn't too great a sacrifice this time. Could you dare to not be worth that?"
Mia was silent for a moment. She looked at the staff, her knuckled again whitened by the force with which she gripped it. After a moment, the Mercury Adept raised herself from the floor and turned toward the others. "All right. Let's find that Star." Then Mia turned to Garet, her dark expression matching his. "And then we'll find Lycoris." The quiet rage in Garet's eyes as he nodded terrified Ivan to his core.
In the stillness of the now long-empty room, the body of Isaac continued to lie unmoving.
Sheba lay flat against the floor, looking out over the ledge at the creatures Sol Lighthouse had shaped when Picard or Jenna activated the labyrinth defences. Four of the monsters had gathered in the chamber below her, and the Jupiter Adept thought there were several more in the halls ahead. She didn't want to imagine something else that could make that clinking-scraping sound with every heavy step.
"What are they?" she whispered to Infinity.
"I don't really… wait… yes. Yes, that's right. They're called Mortacles," the Djinni answered slowly, as though she was remembering she had never been told.
"The underside of the world is just full of surprises, isn't it? Usually sharp ones."
Even compared to the beasts outside, the dark Sorro'wings and vicious Drenmar, these creatures looked a dangerous force to consider attacking. The Mortacles were likely twelve feet tall, and they would have reminded Sheba of the great bears of northern Angara, except that instead of thick fur, the beasts' coats were layers of ragged icicles that clattered almost melodiously as they turned about. One stomped by, clattering with every step and slowly chipping its wicked armor down to fragments. It paused in its slow, deliberate step, and from between the foggy white of the icicles it released a minor flow of water. The drops rolled along the shards and enveloped them, freezing in place. In less than thirty seconds, it was coated in frosty spikes.
"How did it do that?" asked Blitz, as confused as Sheba and all the other Jupiter Djinn.
"Look closely," said Infinity. "Wait for one to turn around." At last a Mortacle did glance down the corridor below Sheba, and after all this time, she was only slightly surprised to see that the yeti-like creature's face was no more than a mask of ice, behind which the pure-water core of its body flowed furiously. "They can, of course, replenish themselves with Psynergy," the Djinni went on. "We should be careful."
"Sheba," said Ether, quietly, "I've been looking through your mind, and I've been finding Psynergy that definitely isn't usually there."
"Is that good or bad?" muttered Sheba uncertainly.
"Your range of Jupiter powers has been rather expanded now that I am with you," said Infinity, as though it should be obvious. "I'm not a master of these things, but you should be capable of casting anyth-"
"There it is," said Sheba, victoriously. She had been searching for a power she had used once or twice before, when swapping Djinn with the others in unusual situations. Watching the Mortacles milling about, occasionally grinding their arms together impatiently, the idea had appeared that this was one of them.
"You intend to go on with this?" asked Infinity, but Sheba didn't other answering. She simply called the air into an updraft below the shadowy ledge she lay on and leapt. "This is definitely not a good plan."
The strong updraft carried Sheba to the floor lightly, and the hulking creatures barely noticed her near-silent touchdown as she slid off the winds. They did notice, however, when the Prophet shouted "Flash Bolt!" and evaporated the water inside three of their number with a lightning strike. The frosty shells collapse to the floor, breaking in several places, but one more remained, and quick, clinking footsteps echoed through the halls. "Come on," said Sheba, raising Atropos' Rod to readiness against the alerted monster.
The Mortacle, though still several feet away, raised an arm and swung at her, jerking in the middle of the arc. An unpleasant shattering sound was immediately followed by the flight of the ice-creature's spiky hand -which appeared to have the usual number of fingers, cubed. It skipped off the ground and hurtled toward Sheba's face, but with agility that was expected of Jupiter Adepts, she spun away from it. Icy shrapnel bounced away.
"Okay, that was good, but why bother with the old Psynergy-" began Infinity, but she swerved to dodge a flying shard and by the time she could find Sheba, the Prophet was heading into battle. "This is so not a good plan," she muttered.
The chamber beyond the chasm of clockwork was much easier to navigate, and actually had a floor. Ivan considered this a major bonus in a dungeon room. They stood on a platform perhaps ten feet from the floor, and the room was mostly empty, except for a second door on the adjacent wall, and the images of ancient times that was drawn with ridges on all the walls of the Lighthouse.
"Doesn't look too bad," Ivan commented, hoping to get something other than dull rage out of Garet.
"Waste of time if this is all there is to the room," Mia muttered. "Keep moving."
Felix took a step, and a dire click, like the closing of the gates of Hell, echoed off the far wall. As one, the Adepts turned to look at where Felix had just placed his foot. What was left of the ragged, dark brown boot was right in the middle of a silver and bronze plate in the floor, and into it a twisted line had been carved.
"Is that supposed to be a fish?" asked Ivan, almost hopefully.
"It's an aleph," Garet replied, uncertainty in his voice. "That was on the arch just outside Vale, on the path to Mount Aleph. Sol Sanctum," he added, but Ivan and Mia already knew. The confusion they now showed was over what on Weyard it could mean.
Stones began grinding heavily, and the opposite wall of the room shifted. It almost seemed to be rolling back to either side; individual stones turned as though on hinges and after just a moment, a space had been cleared in the middle of the wall. Out of the shadow beyond the wall slid something that was half mural, half statue. At first, the creature was merely an embossed picture like all the others, but about halfway up it reached out of the flatness, three golden hydra heads with maws wide open.
"If they want an elemental star or something, make it clear I don't have one," whispered Felix, remembering Mars Lighthouse with a shudder. Ivan laughed, but silenced himself quickly. Mia and Garet didn't twitch.
"That was definitely ominous," said Ivan. "Let's get going before-"
With a slight rumble, the mouths of the hydra heads glowed red from some internal source. That source was made clear a moment later, when it began pouring out between the fangs of the statue. The lava didn't hiss when it touched the floor, nor did it make the slightest mark on the pale golden stones. It did, however, continue flowing and spreading across the perfect surface.
"Real good, rock boy!" growled Garet.
"Garet, will you just see if you can do something about that lava?" asked Ivan, trying to sound authoritative enough to move Garet's rage onto something that was actually a problem, instead of a convenient target who was on their side.
"Like what?" asked Garet, now glaring at the flow of molten rock. "I guess I could try to melt the things closed."
"If the magma they're spewing isn't doing that, nothing you throw at them will," Mia pointed out.
"Oh really? Well, do whatever you think you should, but I don't intend to give up-" He never could have expected a slap that fast, and Garet wasn't sure if he would have done anything anyway. "Sorry," he whispered. "I deserved that."
"I loved him," Mia said, cringing at the past tense. She was shaking slightly, for any number of reasons. "And just because he was your best friend doesn't give you the right to go off in a blind rage and try to throw away the rest of us."
"Does she always slap people before saying something profound?" asked Felix. "I think she's done it before." Ivan looked up at the Venus Adept and couldn't help laughing. After a moment, Mia and Garet joined them, though their mirth was short-lived.
"Inferno!" shouted Garet, and unleashed a storm of white-hot fireballs that blasted into the opposite wall. The lava had reached a depth of perhaps two feet now, and was continuing unabated. "I guess you were right. Okay. I've seen you guys do this with wind and water all the time. How hard could it be?"
"Thanks," said Ivan, wryly.
Garet focused, trying to get into that intensely mental part of Psynergy that he preferred to handle with sheer instinct. If what he had heard Ivan describe as was at all the way Mars Adepts did this sort of thing –if they even could do it- then Garet was supposed to shift his mind out of his head or something. Be the magma, probably. He could feel the heat radiating off it, but there was no extra level of understanding, no sudden burst of the lava becoming an extension of his body…
This was so stupid! He had better things to do than try to-
"Whoa!" shouted Ivan. "Garet, I don't know what you're doing, but it's not working!" Garet opened his eyes and saw that the ever-deepening lava was now sloshing about angrily, lapping at the edge of the platform they stood on.
Great. He had been in whatever Nirvolcana he needed to get to, and now they were moments from being turned into charbroiled jerky-
One massive wave of molten stone rolled up, skimming the ceiling of the room before falling down toward the Adepts. "Deluge!" shouted Mia, suddenly aware of her expanded Mercury Psynergy repertoire. Water exploded from the end of Clotho's Distaff, rushing against the red tsunami and suddenly cooling it to a calm dark grey. The Adepts were inside a bubble of igneous rock, and the slowly rising heat coming through suggested that it was in turn being surrounded by more of the molten stuff.
"Good one, Mia," said Ivan, frozen in terror, but glad he was alive. "Anyone have a new plan?"
"If this is such a great path to take, then why didn't we use it to get down here in the first place?" asked Jenna, skeptically. Guardian looked at her with a surprisingly emotive expression for a Djinni. He seemed to be questioning her presence.
"It is… dangerous," he said, darkly. "Many perils await us on our skyward journey. This way was not meant for the weak of body, mind, or spirit."
"If I see any, I'll warn them," Jenna shot back. Guardian's expression immediately became defensive.
"I was not suggesting-" he began, but not fast enough.
"Guardian, tell me you haven't still got some chivalrous 'women-don't-fight' problem. I thought we dealt with that a century or two ago," said Justice.
"No, never, I simply-"
"All right, you two, stop tormenting Guardian," said Picard, putting an arm between his Sol Djinni and the Valkyrie. "Let's get up there fast. I do not like not knowing what has happened up there."
"How bad could it be? We're heroes, Picard. We can handle anything." They reached a dead end in the oddly bright caverns, and stared expectantly at the blank wall. "Okay, what happens next? More singing?"
"No," Justice replied. "Actually, I didn't remember this part being blocked off. If you wouldn't mind…" Picard started to step forward, but Jenna reached out to hold him back.
"Uh-uh. Mine," she stated, grinning. Jenna faced the wall, took a deep breath, and shouted with a grin "Nova!" It was one of Jenna's favourite Psynergies that she rarely got to use, since the Adepts kept Djinn of their own element with them most of the time.
Mars power focused at a point on the wall for a moment, then exploded in a wave of red and blue flames. The wall glowed with heat and buckled for a split second, then collapsed. The dust settled surprisingly quickly, and through the new space the Adepts could see a dark room. At its centre was a brightly lit circle of white marble set into the floor. They entered cautiously, and at Guardian's direction, stepped onto the stone.
"And now?" asked Jenna.
"I have a very distinct feeling about this, and I am not sure I like it," the Lemurian commented. A short pillar rose out of the centre of the circle, and two sockets were set into it. The one nearer to Picard held a pale, opaque green stone, and the other was empty. "I might have guessed."
"Good. Mind telling me what it might have been?"
"This one," said Picard, tapping the empty socket, "could probably use a Psy Crystal. Do we have one?"
"You mean one that won't suck out my brain through my ankles? No," Jenna answered, grinning slightly.
"Oh, geez, you people took Psy Crystals through the Psyphon?" asked Justice, cringing.
"It's not like I could step off the massive sliding shard of rock to put them somewhere for pickup later," Jenna explained, a little testily.
"But you have gained a great deal of power since we joined you!" pointed out Guardian. "It should be possible to charge at least one of the gems, I am certain."
"You really think you've given us that much power?" asked the Mercury Adept.
"Might as well try. Be ready to smack the thing if it goes wrong, okay?" asked Jenna. Picard nodded, and she drew one of the purple stones out of the mythril bag on her belt. Carefully, Jenna placed it in the socket, then slipped off her glove and tapped it gingerly with one finger.
"No, wait-" began Justice, too late.
Psynergy flared at Jenna's fingertip, a blazingly bright purple glow as power was transferred from her reserve to the crystal. It seemed to be filling with light, like pouring water into a glass. If the expression on her face was anything to go by, the experience wasn't all that enjoyable.
Just when Jenna though she was going to be sucked into it herself, the drain stopped, and she fell backwards onto the marble. "That was a once in a lifetime thing," she said at last, breathing heavily. "By which I mean I am never doing it again in this lifetime."
"You should not need to," said Picard, watching what was happening now in the pedestal.
"Yeah, 'cause you're doing the next one, if there is a next one."
"I believe it is ready. You should get up," said Picard, watching energy flowing through tiny conduits in the stone. It was not unlike the electrical circuits of a different world and time; Psynergy was coursing through a hundred tiny lines that led out of the purple stone and into the floor.
"What is all this?" asked Jenna, rising to her arms and noticing the lines down the pedestal's sides. They reached the floor, and energy rippled outward, leaving in its wake a rainbow glow. "Oh my… Picard?"
"Yes?"
"We're standing a giant Hover pad, aren't we?"
"I think you have it."
"And the other rock in that pedestal?"
"Looks like a Hover Jade to me."
"Unleash Wheeze!" cried Sheba, smashing her staff against the Mortacle's shoulder. She grinned in grim satisfaction as shards went everywhere and the monster's watery essence tinted a venomous purple. Sheba ran then, and watched as it tried to give chase, weakening with every step until it tripped and shattered completely. The cursed water spilled across the floor and evaporated.
So far she had felled four of the things, not counting the three stricken by her surprise Flash Bolt, but Sheba was wearing down, and knew that the battles would have to end soon. Unfortunately, every time the Jupiter Adept took one down, another had time to find her.
"Sheba!" said Infinity, fluttering over the battle. "I can feel Justice and Guardian somewhere nearby! Picard and Jenna must be getting close!"
"Good. I could use some help," she grunted, blocking a hammering swing. One of the many random icicles that stuck out from the creature got past her anyway, and scratched across her face. Sheba recoiled, falling backwards onto the floor, but when the Mortacle snapped its hand off at the wrist and hurled at it her like the first, she was ready, and rolled away quickly.
Unfortunately, the creatures of Sol Lighthouse in particular had a good grasp of strategy –not to the degree of some rarer and eviller beasts, but greater than many- and the Mortacles had been saving a few tricks for the last. From the bubbling wound that was once the monster's wrist came a torrential jet of foam that blasted Sheba off her feet and propelled her back into the wall.
Sheba found herself pinned by the focused stream, and for that matter, she was having difficulty finding air to breathe. It was like the time she fell off Picard's ship during a storm, water everywhere, surrounding her until she couldn't hold her breath any more…
At that moment Jenna stumbled through the lower door, the one beneath the ledge that Sheba had watched from not so long earlier. She fell to her knees, still waving from side to side, with a look that said she never wanted to do again what she had just been forced to do. Picard entered following her, looking unaffected by the ordeal.
"Stay away," Jenna warned him, holding her head in one hand and warding the Mercury Adept off with the other. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"Certainly the fastest upward journey I've ever experienced. I wonder if it was meant to- Sheba!" Picard caught sight of the trapped girl and rushed the Mortacle that had her pinned, swinging his great sword around in a wickedly fast arc and cutting through the ice armor. Completely chopped through, the Mortacle's attack halted, and it collapsed in a few pieces.
Sheba spluttered for a moment, but once she got a few good lungfuls of air and wiped the water out of her eyes, she saw who had saved her, and nodded in thankful acknowledgement. "Look out," she gasped a moment later. "There are plenty more out there somewhere."
"We should meet them head on!" stated Guardian.
"You always say that," Jenna pointed out, who had evidently decided that feeling ill was a waste of her time right now.
"This time he has a good reason. Now let's go," said Infinity. "Felix, Garet, Ivan, and Mia are still ahead of us, but we should be able to catch up if we take the right path-"
"I really didn't like the way you listed four people there," said Jenna. "Very intentionally, too. Where's Isaac? Was he hurt?"
"Oh, gods…" said Sheba, and looked as though she was going to cry.
"Sheba, what's wrong?" asked Jenna, kneeling beside her friend. Sheba didn't break down like this, hadn't in over a year, since they left Venus Lighthouse. Jenna didn't want to think about what could have happened, but it was becoming clear to her already. "…What's happened to Isaac?"
"Lycoris," Sheba sobbed. "Lycoris killed him…"
"No," Jenna hissed. Picard breathed a few words of old Lemurian, half curses and half prayers to the spirits for just about everything and anything good.
"She did. I saw it happen. I mean, Blitz saw it, and so-"
"It's…" Jenna had started to say it was okay, but it wasn't, not any more. It might never be.
"They're coming," called Spring, who had been standing guard, since no one else seemed interested. He had been aiding healers for centuries, and had learned to handle death better than most. The loss of Isaac hurt him, but he was practical, and wasn't likely to change. "Big frosty things again."
Sheba leapt to her feet with a speed and ferocity that startled Jenna, but she and Picard followed the Jupiter Adept anyway, down the hallway and into a cluster of Mortacles. At least eight, too many to deal with in the short time they knew they had.
The icicle-coated creatures raised their arms in unison, and Psynergy began to gather around them. It swirled through the air and tied together like strands of fabric. Jenna sensed the power gathering and remembered feeling something like it before.
"I do so hate Freeze Prism," she growled.
We can't stop them all before they cast, Picard realised.
Then perhaps it is time you gave in and used our powers? It was Guardian's voice, and he sounded irritated. You do recall what I told you earlier.
Picard thought for a second, one of the last ones they had, and remembered. "Unleash Guardian!" The glowing spirit of a Sol Djinni soared from him, circling once and exploding in a shower of sparks, each one in the shape of a tiny Psynergy seal. The gathering power wavered, fractured, and flew away into the ether. The Mortacles, faced with three Adepts that were inexplicably not being crushed under tremendous hail, looked up at their still-raised arms.
"Unleash Infinity!" Sheba's Sol Djinni followed up immediately, appearing and then flashing out of existence a moment later. The Lighthouse wavered and faded around them all, replaced with the incredible void of space. Stars swirled and soared past, the only things in all the void. All motion halted, and after a second's pause they blasted away into the distance, shrinking into mere points and then vanishing entirely.
The Lighthouse snapped back into existence around them, or maybe they snapped back into it, and golden light flashed one more time. The Mortacles fell backwards, collapsing to the floor and not moving.
"Are they dead?" asked Picard, warily.
"No," Sheba replied. "Just stunned. Very, very stunned. We should keep going."
She went ahead, past the chipped monsters, and Picard followed, but when he looked back, Jenna was still standing there, looking at the helpless Mortacles. "Let's go, Jenna." She looked up, startled from her thoughts by the Lemurian's accented voice. "There's no reason to stay."
She nodded, for a moment, then drew her Tisiphone Edge and swung it in a great arc, slicing the air straight down to the Mortacle's head. Picard cringed, but when he looked again, he saw that she had just cut off the point of an icicle. Jenna leaned over into unseeing eyes.
"Remember that," she muttered, and ran to catch up with the others.
"Are you sure this will work?"
"No."
"Go for it."
Mia raised Clotho's Distaff like a spear over her shoulder, prepared to jab at the right time. Felix placed his hand on the rough new stone of the dome, ignoring the intense heat from the other side, and called up as little Psynergy as he could. "Quake!" The stone shook and cracked, and the weaker parts started glowing red. Mia thrust the end of the staff into one of these points and straight through the stone.
"Glacier!" The air was suddenly much colder, and Mia's breath became visible as she channelled Mercury Psynergy through to the other side. Slowly, far too slow for her liking, all the magma that filled the room was turned to cool stone. "It's done," she reported.
Felix gripped the straps of his gauntlet, making sure it was still solidly attached (he liked his bones the way they were, in the right number of pieces) and strong. Then he drew back and smashed it into the stone, calling out "Quake Sphere!" The rock shook again, far more violently, and Felix struck again, casting the Psynergy until fractures ran all through the stone and sand started seeping in from above.
"That's probably the best we're going to get," said Ivan, and grabbed Felix's free hand.
Garet and Mia joined in the chain, so that when Felix spoke "Sand!" and walked into the stone, they followed without any ill effects, except that Ivan always hated doing this and tended to say so afterwards, over and over again.
With whatever extra sense he gained while doing this, Felix led them right to the door, and then straight through it. He and Ivan –the ones most drained by walking through rocks- fell to their knees. This room was smaller than most, darker, and the most decorated.
It was circular, and at four equally distant points there were stained glass windows showing events of long ago. One showed thirteen Adepts standing alone on a battlefield, facing a shadowy, indistinct army riding below dark stormclouds. Another was Mount Aleph, fire exploding from its top. The third had to be Lemuria, but the city was a very different place from what the Adepts remembered of it. People thronged in the streets and the sun shone brightly overhead, unmasked by fog. The last was Sol Lighthouse, standing in a valley of deep green and radiating light from its beacon.
"Amazing…" whispered Mia, running her fingers along the contours of the windows.
"This is the eruption of Mount Aleph," said Garet, staring at another. "But this Lighthouse has been here for centuries, hasn't it? How could they know?"
"Maybe it was just a warning sort of thing. This one shows the land around the Lighthouse as bright and lively as the rest of Weyard, maybe even more. What could have happened to make it so bleak?" wondered Mia. She shook her head and turned to the others. "Felix, Ivan, let's figure out what's next."
"I betcha this has something to do with it," said Garet, sounding a little amused. He was standing on an image of a flaming meteor drawn into the floor, and a column of red light had sprung up around him.
"Thor, Boreas, and Judgment," said Ivan, pointing to the other three. "Pretty clear to me. Let's go." He stepped onto the likeness of Thor, and a purple glow radiated from it. Mia did likewise, and her step was marked by blue light, but before Felix could step forward, a part of the wall opened and Picard came through with Guardian at his side.
"I told you it was a shortcut," said the Djinni victoriously.
"Felix!" said Jenna, happy to see that her brother was still safe.
"Good to see you safe, Jenna. This is it. Stand over there with lo- …with Garet," Felix ordered, just catching himself. He managed not to look at Mia. "Picard, you too." Felix stepped ahead, only realising as his foot touched the stone that he had forgotten Sheba. Then green light rushed around him, and the room faded.
At the Aerie of Sol Lighthouse, four points in the golden stone flared with colour, and six Adepts rose out of them. The glow faded, and they saw the Lighthouse Well nearby, a bright yellow beacon still shining above it. "We're not too late," said Felix, thankfully.
"Not this time," Mia added, very quietly. They stood for a moment in silence, looking out at the grey earth around them and the incredible beauty of the Sol beacon. It was still, except for the occasional breeze.
On the other side of the Aerie, four more points burned with the colours of the elements, and ghostly glows rose from them. They shot together in the middle of the columns, and Orian shook his arms out, a grim expression of determination on his face.
"Orian," called Felix. "You don't want to do this."
"Not especially," the Sol Adept agreed. "But it seems to be necessary. Wretched Wave!" An intense wall of light exploded from his hand, smashing the Adepts down and blasting them close to the edge. They tried to stand, but none could find the strength. "Don't try again," he said, almost sadly.
Ivan couldn't even keep a solid grip on his staff, but he noticed as he lay there that the purple light he had emerged from hadn't quite faded. It was flickering, like it was trying to vanish, but something was fighting back. Orian moved toward the Well; the light was too distant and faint for him to notice.
But the Adepts certainly noticed when it flared to full intensity and Sheba appeared, grumbling "No one leaves me behind." She saw Orian, still unaware of her presence, and realised why Isaac had sent her ahead. This moment was it, though how he could have even imagined its importance, she didn't know.
"Go get him," whispered Ivan.
"Earth and Wind Power Rise!" called Sheba, and Orian turned at the unexpected cry. The beacon burned brighter, but the sky above the Jupiter Adept darkened. All of Isaac's Venus Djinn, bolstered by her own Jupiter allies. The summon that could be Orian's bane. "Sheba Summons Charon!"
The darkness above turned to blood red, and the spirit ferryman appeared in the distant sky, a skeletal thing wrapped in a ragged robe. Dark power gathered and burned with incredible fury, and was set loose, a wave raging across the barren ground. It climbed the Lighthouse Wall and leapt over it, shaping into a violet dragon's head that dove upon Orian with determined satisfaction.
The wind blew across the silent Aerie. Orian collapsed, and Felix wondered if it was over.
[Author's Notes Continued] Almost, Felix, almost. One chapter to go.