As Luck Would Have It
Disclaimer: Do I seriously have to do this every chapter?
A/N: Again, all I know when I start this is, the crew's going to meet Ivan, and the bandit fight is gonna start off the next chapter, not be in this one. So enjoy! And by the way, I have the fifth chapter written, but I won't post it until I hit at least 10 reviews.
Kaede: In the meantime, she's gonna type up a storm cause she's on a GS high. Not that it's a bad thing. So, Vil, get on with it!
Chapter Four: You Read My Mind
"Zoe, get up! C'mon, get up!" Garet shook Zoe's shoulder. Her eyes flew open, and she sat up, running her hands through her hair.
"What?" she asked sleepily, eyes half-shut.
"Isaac's had another of his 'great ideas' and now we're going to go meet that Ivan kid from last night."
"Oh…ok, sure…I'll get ready," Zoe said, waving a hand at him. Garet took the hint and left the room, joining Isaac downstairs. Isaac looked up and, seeing Garet, wordlessly tossed him an apple. Garet caught it and bit into it, grinning.
A few minutes later Zoe came running down the stairs, long hair looking tangle-free and pulled into a long braid again. She was wearing a green shirt and purple leggings, and had her sword buckled onto her belt. She grabbed a fruit from the bowl on the table, ate it quickly, and smiled.
"Alright, Isaac, what's your 'great idea' that Garet woke me up with?" she asked, her tone giving away her thoughts on using the words 'great idea.'
"We're going to the mayor's house. We're gonna meet Ivan," Isaac said, pushing himself away from the wall he'd been leaning on.
"Any particular reason why?" Flint asked, jumping onto Isaac's shoulder.
"I'm curious. And I think it's stupid to leave a little kid like that behind, and worse to send him back while your traveling out in the open. Maybe we can help him."
"He likes to help people," Garet said with a mock-exaggerated sigh. "But I can't complain. If it weren't for us having to help people we wouldn't even have left Vale."
After a few moments, the three left the Inn. Isaac led the way to the mayor's house, muttering something when he saw a young man fixing a hole in the Inn's roof. The stairs to the mayor's house seemed rickety to Zoe, but she reasoned that it was because she was afraid of heights.
"Hello," Isaac said as the mayor opened the door for them. His two children were playing by the fire, and his wife was busy with her back to them, doing something on a table. In the back of the large room was Ivan, sitting on a chair and staring out the window.
"He told me his secret!" the mayor's daughter whispered to Zoe. "I'll tell you if you want!"
"Ok," Zoe said, grinning. The little girl grinned back and whispered, "He can talk to animals!"
"Really?" Zoe asked. "That must be so cool!"
Isaac and Garet approached Ivan, who turned and looked at them with a blank stare. "Hello," the boy said flatly.
"Hi Ivan," Isaac said. "We saw you at the Inn last night. Was something wrong?"
"Why do you care?" Ivan asked, face hardening. He stood and faces Isaac, and Garet had to hold back a laugh. Ivan was a head shorter than Isaac, but he looked like he'd gladly beat Isaac up if he said anything.
"Because, like Garet says, I like to help people." Isaac shrugged, and Garet grinned. Ivan's eyes suddenly went distant, and a ghostly white glow surrounded him. Waves of the light seemed to go between Ivan and Isaac, until suddenly they stopped, and Ivan smiled.
"Ok, so you're telling the truth. I'll tell you why I'm here. Master Hammet lost his Shaman's Rod, a weapon. He thinks I've stolen it, or that I lost it here in Vault. I know I did neither. There are a few strange people here, they got here the day before we left for Kalay, and they're still here now. And other things are missing, too. The sanctum here is missing their gold statue, and the mayor's missing a vase, I think."
"Hold on a second…you read Isaac's mind, didn't you?" Garet said, looking Ivan hard in the eye.
"Well…yes. That's partially why Master Hammet sent me back, and not one of his stronger men. He thought my strange powers would protect me."
"You're an adept! Your powers are called Psynergy."
"You can see when I use my power? No one else can. You have strange powers too, don't you?" Ivan was almost laughing with excitement. "Then I'm not a freak?"
"No, you're not," Isaac said. "You're an adept, in fact I think you're a Jupiter Adept. There were a few of those in Vale." Isaac grinned. Ivan grinned too, and the two of them shook hands. Ivan turned and looked questioningly at Garet, who rolled his eyes and smiled, shaking hands with the boy.
"Who was that girl you came in with?" Ivan asked, glancing over at Zoe. Seeing him look, she walked over to them. "Hello," she said. "I'm Zoe."
"Hi. I'm Ivan. Are you an adept too?" Ivan asked, then gasped when he saw the little creature jump onto her head.
"Isaac and Garet say I should be. I don't know how to use Psynergy, but I can see it. And this," she said, pulling the creature off her head, "is Torrent, a Mercury Djinni."
"Pleased to meet you, Ivan," Torrent said. Flint chose that moment to appear as well. "That's Flint, Isaac's Venus Djinni."
"You'll help me too?" Ivan asked, and Zoe nodded. "Good. Then I can find that Shaman's Rod and take it to Lunpa for Master Hammet."
"I don't think you'll get quite so far," the mayor cautioned. "Lunpa will be locked tight now that they've got Hammet inside the walls. They'll want a ransom for him."
"Well, let's find the Rod first," Garet said after a pause. "We have to find that before we can get anywhere, right?"
"Right," Isaac agreed, and Ivan's face brightened.
"You're really going to help me?"
"Of course we are, Ivan," Isaac said warmly, slinging an arm around the boy's shoulder. "Come on, we'll treat you to some lunch." Isaac led Ivan out the door, leaving Zoe and Garet staring after him.
"They sure hit it off," Garet commented, and he and Zoe said goodbye to the mayor and left. Outside the brightness was nearly blinding, and Zoe had to blink a few times before she could make out Ivan standing in front of her. Her eyes were level with the top of his head, so she had to look down a little to meet his gaze. He was smiling and holding a hand out to her.
"We never really met," he said by way of explanation, and Zoe gladly took his hand and shook it. For a moment it was as though some strange force was racing through her, but when Ivan let go of her hand it stopped. She shrugged it off, instead looking past Isaac and Ivan at the man who was watching them all. Everything about him seemed dark and foreboding, and his hard glare was openly angry and even a bit afraid.
"Don't turn around," she whispered to Isaac and Ivan, "but there's a suspicious man over there, watching." To confirm this, Garet nodded, smiling all the while. The four of tem began heading towards the man, pretending not to notice as Isaac and Garet told Ivan about Zoe's rather pitiful lesson in swordplay the previous day. As they reached the man, Isaac reached the height of the story, and all four of them burst out laughing.
"Were you really that bad, Zoe?" Ivan asked in disbelief.
"They're being kind," she said, a devilish grin on her face. "I was worse."
They had lunch at the Inn, then headed upstairs, and were almost to Isaac's room when the same man ran up the stairs, shoved past them, and hurried into the room at the end of the hall. Looking at each other, the four of them nodded and followed him. They walked into the room and ducked behind the wall, listening to the three men in the room talk.
"Did they see you?" a gruff voice asked.
"They walked right past me, but I don't think they paid me any special attention," was the deep reply.
A rather whiny, cowardly voice cut in, "We should leave town! If not, we'll be discovered!" The four chose that moment to burst in on the men.
"It's that weird kid!" one of them yelled, and the three instantly retreated to the back of the room. "Surround them," Ivan muttered, and Garet and Isaac split off, each coming at the men from a different side of the room. Zoe and Ivan came at them from the middle, and the three were quickly surrounded. Ivan saw his opportunity and took it, and used his mind-reading power to read the thoughts of the three men.
When he was finished, all three men began to go for their weapons, and the four took their cue and fled, running for Zoe's room, as it was closer. Once inside, Zoe locked the door with the key she had been given, and turned to Ivan. "What did you learn?"
"It's them alright," Ivan said, face sullen. "They took the Shaman's Rod, and everything else too. And they've hidden it all right here in the Inn. Under our very noses."
"Then we'll have to search the Inn," Garet said decisively. Isaac nodded his agreement.
"If you want my opinion," Flint said, hopping over onto Ivan's shoulder, "I think you should steer clear of those thieves. They could be dangerous."
"They are dangerous," Ivan said gloomily. "They came from Lunpa. But c'mon, lets go look. Then I'll have to figure out how to get to Master Hammet." Nodding, the four of them left the room and hurried down the stairs and racing out the door.
They almost collided with a very angry woman. Isaac recognized her as one of the maids who worked in the Inn. "That darn Derek," she muttered angrily as she brushed past them. "Never gets his jobs done! That roof could have been fixed hours ago!"
"Ivan?" Isaac asked, and Ivan turned to look at him, walking backwards a few steps. "How did the hole in the roof get there? I mean, I'm pretty sure Garet wasn't up there jumping." Garet glared.
"Oh, they said that a big rock crashed down onto it, but I didn't hear or feel anything like a crash. The hole showed up the day after…the day after the thieves got here!"
"Good enough place to start," Garet said, beginning to climb the ladder that led to the roof. "Well? You guys coming, or not?!" Hurriedly, Isaac and Ivan followed, the latter looking down at Zoe, who, after a bit of a hesitation, climbed up after them.
Another ladder led down into the hole and onto what appeared to be part of the second floor of the Inn. Zoe was the last to climb down the ladder, and all four of them stood there staring at a hole in the floor. On the other side of the hole was a big wooden box. Next to the box they could see a door, obviously leading into another room.
"Even if we wanted to get across," Zoe observed, "we can't move that box out of the way."
"Great idea Zoe!" Isaac said, grinning and approaching the edge of the hole. Holding out one hand, he closed his eyes and whispered, "Move." He was surrounded by the glow of his Psynergy, and a phantom-like hand reached out and moved the box out of the way.
"What do we do now?" Zoe asked, half-afraid of the answer.
"We jump over," Isaac said, and did so, landing lightly on his feet. Garet jumped also, landing somewhat heavily, and stumbling after he landed, but he made it. Ivan hesitated, so Zoe came up next to him and smiled before she jumped herself. Ivan gulped down his fear, backed up a few steps, and ran at the hole. At the very last second he closed his eyes and leapt, surprising himself by landing on his feet, then losing his balance and rolling into the wall.
"Ivan?" Zoe asked, helping him stand. "Are you alright?" Ivan nodded, embarrassed. Zoe nodded too, and followed Isaac and Garet through the door and into a room full of wooden boxes and barrels. The four split up and began to search the small room.
Isaac came upon a partially open box and lifted the lid the rest of the way. In the box was a golden statue that reminded him of the statue in Sol Sanctum back home. "Found one!" he called, hurrying back to the entrance to meet the others.
"Looks like we've been found out," said a gruff voice, and all four gasped as the three thieves walked in the door.
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Oooh! Cliffhangers! Only at least 10 reviews will get you to the next chapter, so get reviewing!
Kaede: Before Vil loses her mind. Please.