Golden Sun Redux: Tolbi Chapter, Part Three
The sun was almost set when the Adepts entered Tolbi, but inside the city you could hardly tell. The streets were filled with people and lit like the stars had fallen. Music was playing everywhere- as soon as one song faded into the distance, another one was within hearing.
"Song and dance!" moaned Garet. "When was the last time we ate, anyway?"
"What day is this?" asked Isaac, ducking under the swinging arm of a dancer as they made their way through the crowd.
"Thursday," Mia answered.
"This morning, then," Isaac said to Garet.
"Aaaagh!" said Garet, clutching at his stomach.
"All right, all right, we'll find some place to eat," said Isaac, shaking his head. The first stars of the evening were starting to appear, just faint points of light in a dark purple sky. One of his favourite times of the day. Staring upward at the stars, he noticed the slightest differences in colour between them. The noise and chaotic celebration around him faded away…
One that was slightest blue, glowing brightest of all for the moment. Another, perhaps with a tint of green to its twinkling halo, not too far away. And purple, and red, and faintest gold. Others were winking into visibility as the sun fell further behind the distant mountains. It was as though the entire universe was unfolding before him, and the closer he looked the farther he could see, across unimaginable distances, to the hearts of the stars…
"Heads up!" Garet, Ivan, and Mia ducked, along with the rest of the crowd. Isaac simply stared upward into the sky as the chair flew out a third-storey-apartment window, struck the wall on the other side of the alley, and fell on him. A ceramic bowl of fruit that was apparently much tougher than it looked followed the chair, but Garet caught this in mid air.
"Thanks," he called upwards, biting into a starfruit. From the window he could hear someone yelling 'Put that down!' "Do you want the chair back?" he added. A head appeared at the window, apparently holding someone away.
"Yeah," she said. "And the bowl, if you don't mind. You can keep the fruit, don't worry," she added, laughing. She stopped as Garet lifted the chair off Isaac and turned to face whoever was inside. "You psychopath!" She turned back. "Is your friend all right?"
"Oh yeah, rock-hard head," said Garet. "You're fine, right Isaac?" Isaac stood slowly and with some effort, then looked at Garet. He flinched back.
"Why are you so close?" he mumbled, more or less coherently and a little annoyed.
"I'm three feet away, Isaac," Garet replied.
"Rock hard head indeed. We should get him to the inn," said Mia.
"That'll never work," said the woman in the window. "They're all full during Colosso. Bring him up here."
Once Isaac was lying on her couch with an ice pack and Mia was checking to see if there were any other injuries that they couldn't see, Garet and Ivan asked the woman (whose name was Kelsey) about Colosso.
"You must be from a long way away!" she laughed, twirling a curl of hair. "Everyone knows Colosso. It's the biggest thing to happen in Tolbi. Every year, Lord Babi organises-"
"With a name like, um," said Garet, carefully, "Are you sure you don't mean 'Lady Babi'?" Kelsey laughed harder than ever.
"I should hope not! He's got to be over a hundred!" Garet stared for a moment, then pulled his hood over his face and tried to strangle himself with the clasp. "Oh, don't worry. You couldn't have known. Anyway, it's a big tournament. All the greatest warriors and strongest men compete in the Trials, and the winner gains tremendous fame and prestige."
"Whoever was hurling furniture out your window would be a good bet," said Ivan, grinning.
"You're not going to place a bet, are you?" said Kelsey, now looking quite severe. "I can't stand those people."
"Just a figure of speech," said Ivan, now several steps back from where he had been without having been seen to take them.
"Oh. Okay. No, that was my sister Morgan. She saw your friend -Isaac, wasn't it- and thought he was an old very former boyfriend of hers," said Kelsey.
"That would take some effort. He comes from Vale, far to the north," said Ivan.
"Vale! You are far from home. I've never heard of anyone who's been there."
"Until a couple of months ago, I had never been anywhere else," said Garet.
"And you came all this way for Colosso?"
"I wish," Garet replied. "We can't stay."
"Oh, surely nothing is that serious! Why not?"
"Fate 'f the w'rld," mumbled Isaac.
"What?" asked Kelsey.
"He said he, uh," said Ivan, starting quickly but trailing off, "whorled… wold… wood… would! He would like to, but we can't. Too bad, but there's no escaping some things."
"Like the Apocalypse," whispered Mia as she saw to Isaac, who would have smiled if he had been conscious enough to get the joke.
"Well, at least to make up for your friend getting crunched, let me let you stay here tonight. You'll never find any inn that isn't full to the roof," Kelsey pointed out.
Ivan opened his mouth to say something, but Garet was faster and threw an arm out to silence him. "Sure. That's a big help, thanks a lot." He was thinking of adding something like 'You're a very generous person' when Ivan grabbed his hand and shot a Look at him.
Don't forget Jenna, Ivan thought into Garet's mind. Garet froze for a second, then sagged very slightly. Ivan grinned. Of course, she's got to be more than a hundred miles away. Garet turned and glared at him.
Stop it, Ivan, he heard through the Mind Read.
Well, really, she'd never-
"Down in flames, you soggy little half-pint!" shouted Garet, and tackled Ivan. Kelsey, who had watched the entire exchange without a clue of what was going on, turned to Mia.
"Are they always like this?"
"Usually," said Mia, finishing her check and standing up. "I think we should probably just let him sleep for tonight. It's been a long day. Rough seas, too."
"You came across the Karagol! They say that there are monsters in the depths," said Kelsey.
"One or two," Mia agreed, collapsing with a sigh on the other couch.
When day came again, the world looked much the same as it had to Isaac the previous evening. The streets of Tolbi were still packed, many people were playing or singing songs against each other, and his head still hurt. He looked up, and saw Ivan looking out the window.
"You're up early," he commented.
"Technically I'm up late," Ivan replied. "Tolbi's on an interesting sort of plain; the sheer power of the wind refreshes me. Besides, this is so much further from home than I've ever been. It's amazing."
"Home," Isaac muttered. "Home has its advantages."
"You Venus people have no appreciation of wandering," Ivan replied, grinning.
"And you Jupiter people can't see something good when it's right in front of you," Isaac shot back, but he was grinning too.
"What on earth are you talking about?" asked Kelsey, walking through the apartment door. Isaac and Ivan spun around like the were competing for the Oscar for Most Suspicious Movements. Fortunately, Isaac could think very quickly when necessary too.
"Personality types. Very popular these days. Excellent for selecting workers," he said.
"Oh, that. Like how Mars types tend to be very aggressive?" said Kelsey. Garet entered just in time to hear this.
"Stereotypes," he growled. "I hear anyone say that, I'll crush them like insects."
"I hear death threats, the rest of you must be up," said Mia from a sofa. She tried to roll over and ended up on the floor. Isaac looked to Kelsey.
"This has been a big help. If there's any way we could repay you…" he offered.
"This was to repay you, remember? Oh, no, I suppose you wouldn't. Anyway, you haven't even had breakfast," Kelsey pointed out.
"Oh no, we don't have time. Got to get moving again," Isaac said.
"Mmph," Garet agreed, half another starfruit in his hand.
But when they reached the city gates again and shoved their way through the crowd, it was blocked by a pair of large oaken doors and a pair of equally large guards. Between them, either much smaller or simply less visible because of the way the gravitational fields of the other guards bent light, a third, older but equally gruff guard seemed to be offering an explanation.
"Get the hell off my foot! Hey! Get back, you savages!" Or at least, he might have under other circumstances.
"This isn't good. What's going on?" demanded Garet, but only the other Adepts could hear him over the cacophony of the crowd.
"We'll never get anywhere like this. And I don't think there are any other gates in Tolbi," said Ivan. The others looked at him. "What? The wind doesn't get into the city any other way."
With a sigh and a shake of his head Isaac stepped forward and cast a minor Quake Psynergy into the ground, causing the entire crowd to stumble back at once.
"Why are there locked doors at a Tolbi gate?" he asked.
The guard looked at him like he was insane. "There are supposed to be doors at a city gate. That's what the gates are for."
"I meant more specifically these doors. The ones that were, and I want to be clear on this, open yesterday."
"Ah. We're, eh, having some trouble. Missing person. Ver' important, a missing person case. So we're locking the gates and searching the city. Won't take long, he can't get lost and wander out," said the guard smugly.
"And if he's already outside the city? He can't get back in," said Mia from behind Isaac, absolutely innocent and helpful. Isaac looked at her in wonder, remembering how she had got them onto the ship from the Kalay Docks. Her current expression would likely have melted anyone who really was like the Ice Queen role she had taken on before.
The guard looked at her in frozen astonishment for a moment, then said, "That's a good point, little girl." Still smiling, Mia stepped forward.
"Little girl? She's taller than me," muttered Isaac.
"It's in the expression," Mia whispered as she passed by him. "And I'm only taller with my hair like this. So," she said to the guard in a more normal voice, "you've clearly got the city secure, with competent authority figures posted to keep the people calm." What impressed Isaac most about this was that she said it with an absolutely straight face while a near-riot was taking place not two feet behind her back. If the guard had tried to look any more militaristically disciplined and skilled, he would probably have spontaneously generated a Shield of Tolbi on his forehead.
"Absolutely, miss!" he said, with a sort of authoritative clip to his voice.
"So now you need to send out some of those young, fiery recruits to search the area; get some real field experience." The guard nodded vigorously. "We'd be glad to help." More nodding that came to a sudden halt.
"You, miss?" asked the guard.
"Yes, me," Mia said, slight exasperation in her voice. "Don't worry, Garet, Ivan, and Isaac can protect me, I'm sure." The guard looked at them in a discerning, disapproving way.
"You, and you," he said at last, pointing at Isaac and Ivan. "I don't trust this guy, he stays inside the city," he added, nodding at Garet, whose eyes bulged with indignance.
Don't worry about it, said Ember from somewhere inside his head. There are still things in Tolbi worth seeking. The others stared a bit as Garet nodded at nothing.
"All right," he said. "You guys go find whoever's missing. I'll check out the city until you get back. Try not to take too long. None of this near-death stuff."
"Check out the city?" whispered Ivan. "And possibly Kel-" Someone watching Garet might have thought it was some kind of muscle spasm. He looked totally normal except for one foot, which shot out and hooked Ivan's leg, tripping him.
"No near-death stuff anywhere, thanks," said Isaac. He turned back to the older guard, who had lured several of the more gullible and impressionable young guards out of the guard house through the old and time-tested system of screaming 'Move it!' "Are we ready to go?"
"Yeah, get moving," said the senior guard. "And come back here to tell me if anything happens. Kids these days, don't know what they're doing, running around like they're going to save the world…" The screaming crowd had dispersed, either because they had heard what was going on and lost interest or their throats were tired from screaming and they had been set upon by beverage salesmen.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," said Isaac, not in the least hinting that he found the guard's comment amusing. "Come on, Mia. Ivan, let's move it."
When they were gone, Garet turned around and looked out at the city, its streets teeming with people and music, food and many other sorts of merchandise. "All right," said Garet, when he was sure no one would notice him talking to Ember, "what's so good about a big city?"
[Notes] After an exceptionally long time, Tolbi is back. I've decided to space things out a bit more -shorter chapters more frequently- in the hopes that more people will take notice and review. And that Vil won't go psycho, if that's possible (what 'that' is, I refuse to say on the grounds that it may doom me). Anyway, next chapter will cover Altmiller Cave, Hail, and Garet's showdown against probability, and it (along with the rest of Tolbi) will all be up before the end of the month, I hope. Of course, the more reviews, the faster it'll happen hint hint despite provincial exams.