Golden Sun Redux: Tolbi Chapter
Something of a jump back here (naturally, since I started at the end of the game). Tolbi is the best I could come up with for this: I'll actually start on the ship and go right the way through to Colosso in this story, including Altmiller Cave on the way through (probably...) For those who think I've done something weird to the classes and Summons, please read two or three paragraphs of the notes at the beginning of my first Chapter/story (simply titled Golden Sun Redux), where it is all explained. Enjoy!
"You are such a cheater, Isaac," said Garet as they waited to board the Tolbi-bound ship. The line was long, and they had been waiting for at least half an hour by now. Isaac, on the other hand, could care much less. He was currently holding one arm up, palm perfectly level, and staring at the Venus Djinni sitting there. The origin of that Djinni was what Garet was talking about.
"Come on, Garet," said Mia. "He just picked a faster route." Standing in the noon sun for half an hour was certainly taking a toll on the Mercury Adept, who preferred much cooler temperatures. Mia without her massive, indestructible white cloak on and her hair down was something to be seen, if only for the rarity value.
"Oh, yeah, you would side with him," Garet muttered, loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"Why?" asked Mia, hoping that her slightest blush would be taken for a flush of anger.
"I'm just saying that maybe it was... a less than heroic choice to blow up the landslide rocks instead of going around the other way. Besides, shouldn't we be trying to keep some balance? This is his sixth Venus Djinn!"
"Be reasonable. We're taking a boat across the Karagol, and you think we should walk all the way back around the shore -to the place where we started- to get a Djinni?" said Ivan, stretching out his cloak to catch the wind.
"Even one as powerful as me?" the Djinni added.
"Sap, you stay out of this," Garet snapped.
"I'm Ground."
"How should I know? You all look the same!"
"What's bugging you, Garet?" asked Isaac, as Ground hopped onto the recently-promoted Gallant's head to sun himself. Garet looked out at the Karagol, which flowed away from shore and over the horizon.
"That!" he said, like someone explaining that the axe murderer in the basement made them nervous. Isaac followed Garet's viciously pointing hand with his eyes, out to the waves.
"A thing of endless water at the edge of the world," said Isaac, reflectively. "Not quite, Garet."
"It's pretty bloody close!"
"He hasn't been this bad since the Mercury Lighthouse," Ivan whispered to Mia. She wasn't really listening; something seemed to be on her mind.
"But... wait, Garet, how do you get clean if you hate water so much? A bath-" she continued, but Isaac snapped first. He sprinted ahead to the front of the line and demanded to be let on before he finished his dive into the abyss of insanity.
"What's wrong with you?" the guy shouted, trying to pull away from Isaac's stone grip on his collar. He settled for just recoiling away from the apparent madman.
Fortunately for all of them, Mia was a quick thinker. She stepped up beside Isaac and pulled him off the ticket guy. He looked relieved until Mia turned her gaze on him, as cold as an arctic sea.
"Don't scare the man, Isaac," she said coolly, pushing him back while never taking her eyes off the ticket guy. "The mercenaries are here," she continued. "Where's the captain?"
"Uh... guh... tickets?" he managed. Mia looking imperious was like having your soul cryogenically frozen.
Still not looking away, Mia raised one hand and snapped her fingers. "Garet!" Garet appeared and took the stance of a noble bodyguard. "Tickets." At Mia's command he handed over the four cards, which he immediately snapped away and shoved at the man.
"Guh... looks in order. Right, uh, up the plank... guh."
"Thank you," said Mia, forcefully, and gave the man a strong impression that she was making a very detailed and indestructible note in the back of her mind. 'I won't forget this or anything else' was the impression that the ticket-taker got. After watching him for just a little too long to be normal, Mia walked up the plank and the other Adepts followed.
On board, she kept on walking right to the other side, turned around, and hung her torso backwards over the hull.
"I hate doing that," Mia commented.
"I didn't know you could," said Garet in disbelief. "Bloody ice queen."
"Since when are we mercenaries?" asked Ivan.
"Well, we will be crossing some dangerous waters," Isaac began.
"Since just now," Garet translated. "Ah well. Maybe I can keep my mind off the water if I'm watching... for... monsters..."
"That come out of the sea?" suggested Isaac, brightly. "Mia, you okay?"
"I'm landsick," she groaned from over the edge. She swung back upright. "Can we get moving? Where's the captain, anyway?"
"Don't worry about it!" said an old man near the, uh, flat end of the boat. "Monsters, rough seas, nothing can stop us as long as we have the Anchor Charm!"
"Have you been trafficking narcotics?!" demanded one of the ship's crew. He coughed. "Sir?" he added, carefully. Isaac studied the old man, and realised that his ancient face and white beard belied a tremendous strength. His arms bulged with muscles, but there was a frailty to him as well. This was the captain, and he had been sailing for decades.
"That Charm has never failed me, Rick. All the years I've had it, my ship has never once had a fatal voyage. Now that's something you can count on!" The captain turned to leave.
"Of course it hasn't," said another crewman. "You're still here, so there couldn't have been any wrecks unless you jumped ship beforehand." The other crewer leaned against the big pole thing in the middle and checked his nails in the most masculine way he could manage.
"I would never-" began the captain angrily.
"I didn't say you did," the crewman replied, making it clear that he sure as hell meant the captain would. The captain turned and left, followed by Rick.
"Huh. Well, if that relic wants to take us out there to get killed, I'm not going. And neither's anyone else." He stood upright and started toward to the blunt end of the ship.
"Ivan, tag him," said Isaac.
"Why me?" protested Ivan.
"Garet's ill, Mia's ill in reverse, and I have to talk to the captain. Go get bad dude," said Isaac, indicating the way the crewman had gone.
"Figures always having to do the dirty work just because I'm younger and have unusual Psynergy not that it's useful in cases like this it won't exactly help to see invisible stuff when I'm chasing a guy who's really there..." Ivan stalked off surprisingly well, considering his size, and the grumbling followed.
"Right then," said Isaac. "Time to get hired out."
"I hate doing jobs like these I'm shorter than everyone else so they're way faster practically have to run to keep up with this sailor punk and he's trying to be inconspicuous..." Ivan suppressed the urge to ramble as he got closer to the crewman, who was leaning nonchalantly against the wall of the captain's cabin.
As Ivan watched from around the corner of the building, the guy slid over a foot or so and screamed as quietly as he could. He leaned away from the rough wood, reached behind himself, and pulled a splinter the size of on of Ivan's fingers out of his back.
The guy tried again, this time leaning slightly away from the wall before sliding. A minute or two later, he did it again, this time leaning back against the door to the captain's cabin. It swung open and he managed to get inside without falling over backwards.
"Subtle," Ivan commented to himself, and resigned himself to waiting.
"So we would be quite willing to help you out and guard the ship as long as we can get going soon. We're in something of a rush," Isaac explained to the captain.
"Ah," said Ouranos, grinning. "Gonna try to get into Colosso, are you?" Isaac looked at him and tried desperately to keep the emotions from his face. This was actually pretty easy, since he wasn't sure whether he should laugh, cry, or just tear the guy down.
"I wish," he decided on. "As it is, this is far more pressing than Colosso, and we need to get moving." Ouranos and his friend did laugh now, in disbelief.
"More pressing than Colosso? It's only once a year, if that!"
"Would you like there to be a next year?" asked Isaac, pleasantly.
"Enough, enough. Ouranos, you and Sean have agreed to guard us on deck," said the captain. "Isaac, if you and your friends could stay down below and protect the rowers, we'll do fine. Besides, what can happen if... we've got..." The captain's voice trailed away like someone checking who they just ran into and looking up, and up, and up... "Where's the Anchor Charm?!"
"I guess that explains that," Isaac whispered to himself, and he wondered where Ivan had got to.
"Anchor Charm? Some little mystical trinket that wards off sharks or something?" scoffed Sean.
"Give me a break. Let's set sail already, you can look for it when we reach Tolbi," added Ouranos.
"I'll have you know that that Anchor..." Isaac shut them off. If that was what the crewman had been after, then Ivan should know where it was. All he had to do was find Ivan and they could get going.
"Excuse me," said Isaac, and slipped out of the gathering argument.
"So let's see... what else do you have to apologise for?" asked Garet rhetorically. He was leaning against a barrel above deck, looking at the sky thoughtfully.
"This is one of those lessons about not misusing my powers, isn't it?" suggested the barrel.
"Could be, could be. Mostly it's because I like revenge. Hey, how about that time in Alpine Crossing when you said we should break the rocks with my head, since nothing else on Earth was harder or thicker?"
"I apologise most sincerely and profusely. You're going to pay for this in spades, Garet," said the barrel.
"Ooh, that's going to cost you another half hour at the least. Hey, Isaac," he said, as the Earth Adept approached them at a run.
"Hey, Garet. Have you seen Ivan anywhere?" asked Isaac, looking around distractedly.
"Funny you should mention that," said Garet.
"This is the last time I try to disguise myself," the barrel stated. "I figured, 'hey, who'll notice a barrel, even if it is following them?' And being smaller, I can actually get inside one of these things."
"Getting out is apparently a different matter," Garet added.
"Well get him out, Garet, or we'll never get to Tolbi at all. Ivan, did you see where that guy went?"
"I can only guess what it is that he did, but yeah, he's just about the only thing I can see from in here. He went straight to the crow's nest and hasn't left since then," said Ivan, and the barrel wobbled a little. Garet had leapt up and was trying to pull Ivan out by sheer force, on the grounds that anything that got them away from the Karagol fast was a good thing.
Eventually, with a sound like a silk cork, Garet managed to pull Ivan out of the barrel. By the time they were on their feet Isaac was halfway up the mast ladder. As he climbed, Isaac's level of disbelief rose, until he reached the top, where it maxed out.
"Now really, when was the last time stealing helped anyone?" asked a soothing voice.
"Well, I guess never..." said another, frail voice.
"Exactly. And what if it actually protects people? You wouldn't want anyone to get hurt because of something you did, would you?"
"No..." The voice was near tears now.
"So, pull yourself together, and let's go down there right now and give that back to the captain before anything bad can happen. Oh, hi, Isaac."
"Hi, Mia," Isaac responded, staring at the crewman. He was sitting against the edge of the crow's nest, opposite to Mia, staring at an anchor- shaped object in his hands and shaking with insecurity. "We'll be ready to go as soon as the captain gets his Anchor Charm back, wherever it is." Very carefully, Isaac didn't even come close to looking at the crewman and the charm.
"Well, if you'll get out of the way so that this innocent man can get back to his vital job, I'm sure it'll turn up," Mia suggested, reaching out to Isaac. He took her hand, trying desperately to pretend that this was no big deal to him, and pulled himself up into the crow's nest. The crewman practically ran down the ladder and to the blunt end of the ship.
"What did you do to him, anyway?"
"I am a healer. We're supposed to be able to counsel people too."
"Really? Do you think-"
"Don't bother asking. Garet's hopeless." They looked out across the vast, beautiful Karagol, where the other shore was just a faint hint of a suggestion of darkness on the edge of the world. Isaac decided to go for it, and turned to Mia to say something charming and witty.
"Whoa!" said Ground. "The view from up here is incredible! Sap, you've got to see this!"
"Ground," said Isaac, "get off my head."
"No way. This is too cool."
"Do you ever get the feeling that the Djinn are the ones completing the quest and we're just hauling them around?" asked Isaac, but Mia had other concerns.
"Hmm. I can see why you like it up here," said Sleet, who was reclining in Mia's hair. "Will you look at those waves?"
"Hey! You two!" called Garet. "Get down here. We're ready to get moving!" Garet was out of date; at that moment the ship heaved away from the docks and onto the sea. They were on their way to Tolbi.
"Heading set!" "Course clear!" "Row those oars!" "Monsters!"
"It never fails..." muttered Isaac as he slid down the ladder and drew his claymore.
Something of a jump back here (naturally, since I started at the end of the game). Tolbi is the best I could come up with for this: I'll actually start on the ship and go right the way through to Colosso in this story, including Altmiller Cave on the way through (probably...) For those who think I've done something weird to the classes and Summons, please read two or three paragraphs of the notes at the beginning of my first Chapter/story (simply titled Golden Sun Redux), where it is all explained. Enjoy!
"You are such a cheater, Isaac," said Garet as they waited to board the Tolbi-bound ship. The line was long, and they had been waiting for at least half an hour by now. Isaac, on the other hand, could care much less. He was currently holding one arm up, palm perfectly level, and staring at the Venus Djinni sitting there. The origin of that Djinni was what Garet was talking about.
"Come on, Garet," said Mia. "He just picked a faster route." Standing in the noon sun for half an hour was certainly taking a toll on the Mercury Adept, who preferred much cooler temperatures. Mia without her massive, indestructible white cloak on and her hair down was something to be seen, if only for the rarity value.
"Oh, yeah, you would side with him," Garet muttered, loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"Why?" asked Mia, hoping that her slightest blush would be taken for a flush of anger.
"I'm just saying that maybe it was... a less than heroic choice to blow up the landslide rocks instead of going around the other way. Besides, shouldn't we be trying to keep some balance? This is his sixth Venus Djinn!"
"Be reasonable. We're taking a boat across the Karagol, and you think we should walk all the way back around the shore -to the place where we started- to get a Djinni?" said Ivan, stretching out his cloak to catch the wind.
"Even one as powerful as me?" the Djinni added.
"Sap, you stay out of this," Garet snapped.
"I'm Ground."
"How should I know? You all look the same!"
"What's bugging you, Garet?" asked Isaac, as Ground hopped onto the recently-promoted Gallant's head to sun himself. Garet looked out at the Karagol, which flowed away from shore and over the horizon.
"That!" he said, like someone explaining that the axe murderer in the basement made them nervous. Isaac followed Garet's viciously pointing hand with his eyes, out to the waves.
"A thing of endless water at the edge of the world," said Isaac, reflectively. "Not quite, Garet."
"It's pretty bloody close!"
"He hasn't been this bad since the Mercury Lighthouse," Ivan whispered to Mia. She wasn't really listening; something seemed to be on her mind.
"But... wait, Garet, how do you get clean if you hate water so much? A bath-" she continued, but Isaac snapped first. He sprinted ahead to the front of the line and demanded to be let on before he finished his dive into the abyss of insanity.
"What's wrong with you?" the guy shouted, trying to pull away from Isaac's stone grip on his collar. He settled for just recoiling away from the apparent madman.
Fortunately for all of them, Mia was a quick thinker. She stepped up beside Isaac and pulled him off the ticket guy. He looked relieved until Mia turned her gaze on him, as cold as an arctic sea.
"Don't scare the man, Isaac," she said coolly, pushing him back while never taking her eyes off the ticket guy. "The mercenaries are here," she continued. "Where's the captain?"
"Uh... guh... tickets?" he managed. Mia looking imperious was like having your soul cryogenically frozen.
Still not looking away, Mia raised one hand and snapped her fingers. "Garet!" Garet appeared and took the stance of a noble bodyguard. "Tickets." At Mia's command he handed over the four cards, which he immediately snapped away and shoved at the man.
"Guh... looks in order. Right, uh, up the plank... guh."
"Thank you," said Mia, forcefully, and gave the man a strong impression that she was making a very detailed and indestructible note in the back of her mind. 'I won't forget this or anything else' was the impression that the ticket-taker got. After watching him for just a little too long to be normal, Mia walked up the plank and the other Adepts followed.
On board, she kept on walking right to the other side, turned around, and hung her torso backwards over the hull.
"I hate doing that," Mia commented.
"I didn't know you could," said Garet in disbelief. "Bloody ice queen."
"Since when are we mercenaries?" asked Ivan.
"Well, we will be crossing some dangerous waters," Isaac began.
"Since just now," Garet translated. "Ah well. Maybe I can keep my mind off the water if I'm watching... for... monsters..."
"That come out of the sea?" suggested Isaac, brightly. "Mia, you okay?"
"I'm landsick," she groaned from over the edge. She swung back upright. "Can we get moving? Where's the captain, anyway?"
"Don't worry about it!" said an old man near the, uh, flat end of the boat. "Monsters, rough seas, nothing can stop us as long as we have the Anchor Charm!"
"Have you been trafficking narcotics?!" demanded one of the ship's crew. He coughed. "Sir?" he added, carefully. Isaac studied the old man, and realised that his ancient face and white beard belied a tremendous strength. His arms bulged with muscles, but there was a frailty to him as well. This was the captain, and he had been sailing for decades.
"That Charm has never failed me, Rick. All the years I've had it, my ship has never once had a fatal voyage. Now that's something you can count on!" The captain turned to leave.
"Of course it hasn't," said another crewman. "You're still here, so there couldn't have been any wrecks unless you jumped ship beforehand." The other crewer leaned against the big pole thing in the middle and checked his nails in the most masculine way he could manage.
"I would never-" began the captain angrily.
"I didn't say you did," the crewman replied, making it clear that he sure as hell meant the captain would. The captain turned and left, followed by Rick.
"Huh. Well, if that relic wants to take us out there to get killed, I'm not going. And neither's anyone else." He stood upright and started toward to the blunt end of the ship.
"Ivan, tag him," said Isaac.
"Why me?" protested Ivan.
"Garet's ill, Mia's ill in reverse, and I have to talk to the captain. Go get bad dude," said Isaac, indicating the way the crewman had gone.
"Figures always having to do the dirty work just because I'm younger and have unusual Psynergy not that it's useful in cases like this it won't exactly help to see invisible stuff when I'm chasing a guy who's really there..." Ivan stalked off surprisingly well, considering his size, and the grumbling followed.
"Right then," said Isaac. "Time to get hired out."
"I hate doing jobs like these I'm shorter than everyone else so they're way faster practically have to run to keep up with this sailor punk and he's trying to be inconspicuous..." Ivan suppressed the urge to ramble as he got closer to the crewman, who was leaning nonchalantly against the wall of the captain's cabin.
As Ivan watched from around the corner of the building, the guy slid over a foot or so and screamed as quietly as he could. He leaned away from the rough wood, reached behind himself, and pulled a splinter the size of on of Ivan's fingers out of his back.
The guy tried again, this time leaning slightly away from the wall before sliding. A minute or two later, he did it again, this time leaning back against the door to the captain's cabin. It swung open and he managed to get inside without falling over backwards.
"Subtle," Ivan commented to himself, and resigned himself to waiting.
"So we would be quite willing to help you out and guard the ship as long as we can get going soon. We're in something of a rush," Isaac explained to the captain.
"Ah," said Ouranos, grinning. "Gonna try to get into Colosso, are you?" Isaac looked at him and tried desperately to keep the emotions from his face. This was actually pretty easy, since he wasn't sure whether he should laugh, cry, or just tear the guy down.
"I wish," he decided on. "As it is, this is far more pressing than Colosso, and we need to get moving." Ouranos and his friend did laugh now, in disbelief.
"More pressing than Colosso? It's only once a year, if that!"
"Would you like there to be a next year?" asked Isaac, pleasantly.
"Enough, enough. Ouranos, you and Sean have agreed to guard us on deck," said the captain. "Isaac, if you and your friends could stay down below and protect the rowers, we'll do fine. Besides, what can happen if... we've got..." The captain's voice trailed away like someone checking who they just ran into and looking up, and up, and up... "Where's the Anchor Charm?!"
"I guess that explains that," Isaac whispered to himself, and he wondered where Ivan had got to.
"Anchor Charm? Some little mystical trinket that wards off sharks or something?" scoffed Sean.
"Give me a break. Let's set sail already, you can look for it when we reach Tolbi," added Ouranos.
"I'll have you know that that Anchor..." Isaac shut them off. If that was what the crewman had been after, then Ivan should know where it was. All he had to do was find Ivan and they could get going.
"Excuse me," said Isaac, and slipped out of the gathering argument.
"So let's see... what else do you have to apologise for?" asked Garet rhetorically. He was leaning against a barrel above deck, looking at the sky thoughtfully.
"This is one of those lessons about not misusing my powers, isn't it?" suggested the barrel.
"Could be, could be. Mostly it's because I like revenge. Hey, how about that time in Alpine Crossing when you said we should break the rocks with my head, since nothing else on Earth was harder or thicker?"
"I apologise most sincerely and profusely. You're going to pay for this in spades, Garet," said the barrel.
"Ooh, that's going to cost you another half hour at the least. Hey, Isaac," he said, as the Earth Adept approached them at a run.
"Hey, Garet. Have you seen Ivan anywhere?" asked Isaac, looking around distractedly.
"Funny you should mention that," said Garet.
"This is the last time I try to disguise myself," the barrel stated. "I figured, 'hey, who'll notice a barrel, even if it is following them?' And being smaller, I can actually get inside one of these things."
"Getting out is apparently a different matter," Garet added.
"Well get him out, Garet, or we'll never get to Tolbi at all. Ivan, did you see where that guy went?"
"I can only guess what it is that he did, but yeah, he's just about the only thing I can see from in here. He went straight to the crow's nest and hasn't left since then," said Ivan, and the barrel wobbled a little. Garet had leapt up and was trying to pull Ivan out by sheer force, on the grounds that anything that got them away from the Karagol fast was a good thing.
Eventually, with a sound like a silk cork, Garet managed to pull Ivan out of the barrel. By the time they were on their feet Isaac was halfway up the mast ladder. As he climbed, Isaac's level of disbelief rose, until he reached the top, where it maxed out.
"Now really, when was the last time stealing helped anyone?" asked a soothing voice.
"Well, I guess never..." said another, frail voice.
"Exactly. And what if it actually protects people? You wouldn't want anyone to get hurt because of something you did, would you?"
"No..." The voice was near tears now.
"So, pull yourself together, and let's go down there right now and give that back to the captain before anything bad can happen. Oh, hi, Isaac."
"Hi, Mia," Isaac responded, staring at the crewman. He was sitting against the edge of the crow's nest, opposite to Mia, staring at an anchor- shaped object in his hands and shaking with insecurity. "We'll be ready to go as soon as the captain gets his Anchor Charm back, wherever it is." Very carefully, Isaac didn't even come close to looking at the crewman and the charm.
"Well, if you'll get out of the way so that this innocent man can get back to his vital job, I'm sure it'll turn up," Mia suggested, reaching out to Isaac. He took her hand, trying desperately to pretend that this was no big deal to him, and pulled himself up into the crow's nest. The crewman practically ran down the ladder and to the blunt end of the ship.
"What did you do to him, anyway?"
"I am a healer. We're supposed to be able to counsel people too."
"Really? Do you think-"
"Don't bother asking. Garet's hopeless." They looked out across the vast, beautiful Karagol, where the other shore was just a faint hint of a suggestion of darkness on the edge of the world. Isaac decided to go for it, and turned to Mia to say something charming and witty.
"Whoa!" said Ground. "The view from up here is incredible! Sap, you've got to see this!"
"Ground," said Isaac, "get off my head."
"No way. This is too cool."
"Do you ever get the feeling that the Djinn are the ones completing the quest and we're just hauling them around?" asked Isaac, but Mia had other concerns.
"Hmm. I can see why you like it up here," said Sleet, who was reclining in Mia's hair. "Will you look at those waves?"
"Hey! You two!" called Garet. "Get down here. We're ready to get moving!" Garet was out of date; at that moment the ship heaved away from the docks and onto the sea. They were on their way to Tolbi.
"Heading set!" "Course clear!" "Row those oars!" "Monsters!"
"It never fails..." muttered Isaac as he slid down the ladder and drew his claymore.