As Luck Would Have It
A/N: Second chapter of the climb up Mercury Lighthouse. As far as I know, the chapter after this will be mostly battle with Saturos. So, get reading!
Chapter Thirteen: High Water
"Yes, fire-boy, we jump across the water," Mia said exasperatedly.
"But we can't," Garet protested, brown eyes wide in what could only be fear. "I mean, it's deep…and…well…we won't be able to pull ourselves out on the other side," he said finally, believing he had found a point Mia couldn't possibly argue with.
"Don't be a baby," she said condescendingly, springing lightly off the pedestal and landing on top of the water. There was a collective gasp from the boys and Zoe. "Ok, you guys have definitely never been to Mercury Lighthouse before."
"Actually, it looks kind of fun," Ivan said, and he too jumped out onto the water. Lifting one foot and slamming it down caused a splash, but he never broke he surface. "Interesting. Almost like the water is solid."
"Solid water," Zoe said, jumping so she was beside Ivan and causing ripples, "is ice. And ice doesn't splash or ripple."
"Sure, defeat my wonderful analysis of the situation," Ivan retorted, sticking his tongue out at her. "Next thing you'll be fighting basic logic, too."
"The basic logic that says we're too dense to walk on water?" Zoe shot back with a grin. Ivan groaned and hit the heel of his hand against his forehead. "That's what I thought."
"Are you coming or not?" Mia asked from the outside walkway of the room. Zoe and Ivan easily hopped across, with Isaac only a few steps behind. Garet, however, remained on the pedestal.
"Come on, Mars boy, you won't sink," Mia said, and Garet glared at her. Tentatively, he stepped down onto the water. When he didn't sink, he seemed to get his attitude back and hopped proudly across.
"And did I mention you only have three jumps before the spell wears off?" Mia asked just as Garet launched into his fourth jump, one that would have landed him on the floor if he hadn't stopped in midair at Mia's words.
"I what?!" he asked, then yelped as he fell down and sank to the bottom of the deep pool.
"Garet!" Isaac cried, nearly diving in after him. Garet's head came back up suddenly, and he swam to the side. After a moment, Zoe cast Flight to lift him out of the water, and he sat against the wall, soaking wet and not liking it.
"You could have told be before I started out," he muttered as they made their way back to the room full of water.
"But then you'd never have started across, because you wouldn't have thought you'd make it in three jumps," Zoe said, and Garet, about to fire an angry comeback, stopped himself when he realized Zoe was right. If he had known he had a limited chance to get across, he would still be standing on that pillar.
Both he and Zoe, unknown to each other, shot a furtive glance back at Mia, who neither noticed nor cared at the moment. Something about the feeling of the lighthouse had suddenly changed.
"Ok, when the pillar we jump to glows, what does that mean?" Isaac asked, snapping Mia out of her thoughts.
"What? Oh! Uh, that is, that means that pillar will grant you three chances to get to the next landing space. But only three. The magic of Mercury Lighthouse will warp you back to the starting point if you fall in before you get to a dry spot."
"Oh that's nice. Four jumps and you have to start all over," Garet muttered. "Not that it matters. I'm already wet."
"Wet suits you," Ivan said with a smirk. "Makes your hair look like hair and not like an explosion gone bad."
"You want me to push you in?" Garet threatened, and Ivan just smiled.
"Unlike you," he said, grin never faltering, "I don't have a natural aversion to water. Now, if you asked me to walk through sand…" At this Ivan shuddered. "Totally unthinkable."
"Can we just get going?" Isaac said, irritated.
"Sure thing buddy," Garet said. "As long as you go first."
Not bothering to reply, Isaac jumped out onto the pedestal. Sighting another glowing one off to his right, he carefully judged the distance and managed to land on it with his fourth jump. One at a time the others followed his path around the room, until they were on the floor in the northwest corner of the room.
"Lets just hope nothing's waiting for us around this corner," Ivan said, walking around it and almost right into a line of five blue blobs with spiked on their heads and beady little red eyes.
"Yuck! Oozes!" he cried, backing away. "Disgusting!"
"Oh come on, little baby," Zoe chided, taking one down with a swing of her longsword. "They're not that hard to—YAH!" she yelled as another one slammed into her back with its spiked head. "Ok, that's it, I've had enough!" she yelled, whirling and slicing straight through the one that had hit her.
"Ok…that was a little different," Garet muttered, blasting two of the oozes with a Flare Wall. Isaac quickly unleashed Flint on one, while Ivan turned Gust on the other one. Mia, acting on impulse, began smashing the other one with her witch's wand.
Zoe, seeing Mia's attack, spun around in a complete circle, sword outstretched, and cut the final ooze in half. With a smug smile she slid the sword back into the sheath that she wore on her back. The others stared at her for a moment, then Isaac shrugged and walked on, jumping across another short channel of water and walking through the next door, the others quickly following.
Again Mia looked at Zoe, now behind her, and again something about her friend's violet eyes bothered her. Something just didn't sit right about the way Zoe was acting.
"We've already been in this room," Garet pointed out helpfully as he came through the door, last of the group.
"I think we noticed that," Gust muttered, appearing on Ivan's shoulder. "Mind you, Mars boy, I didn't say anything that Ivan wasn't thinking."
"Gust!" Ivan cried in protest, but before he could say anything more, Gust disappeared in a flash, her giggle fading as the twinkling purple light did.
"Come on, guys, we've got more water to cross," Isaac said, sighing. The others groaned inwardly (except Garet, who made no attempt to hide his feelings about water in large amounts) and followed Isaac through to the next room.
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"We have to do what?!" Garet asked in shock and horror.
"Through the waterfall. Under it, really," Mia amended, a sly grin slowly spreading over her face. "It's the only way to get higher up the lighthouse."
"We've been pushing statues and pipes around all night, plus beating up that mutant treasure chest—"
"Mimic, actually," Ivan cut in. "And we did get some Water of Life out of it."
"—AND whatever else jumps out at us from behind corners or hidden underwater, and we've already gone through waterfalls already and I'm sick of it!"
"I'm sure you are," Mia said with a smirk.
"Thank Mars you went in by yourself for that Djinni?" Garet asked, fear edging into his voice. "What did you call that thing? Hail?"
"Sleet, Garet. Though what would you know of Mercury things."
"Actually, it's often beneficial to study the strategies and weaknesses of something that has power over you," Ivan pointed out in his best sage-like voice.
"Well said, and agreed," Mia acknowledged. "Now just go on with it, Garet, and go through the waterfall."
"Only if you go—" Garet started to say, but was cut off by another sound, this one louder than the adepts could deal with. Ivan and Zoe fell to their knees, and Mia barely managed to stand, supported by her witch's wand. Isaac and Garet fought the noise, knowing full well what was coming. They were not very surprised when three Sirens leapt from three adjacent waterfalls and faced the Adepts. Ivan, Zoe and Mia pulled themselves back into standing positions.
We're worn out, Isaac realized as he looked quickly at the others. It must be close to dawn, the end of a night we've spent climbing the lighthouse after a day in the cold of Imil, instead of sleeping like we should have. I just had to bring us chasing after Mia.
Ivan, though fighting not to fall asleep on his feet, raised the Shaman's Rod, fighting the urge to just beat the things senseless and instead recalling something he'd once heard, about channeling power through an object to amplify its magnitude.
"Wind Seer's Storm Ray!" he yelled, focusing with everything he had on the staff he held in his hands. An immense electric charge shot from the tip of it, throwing Ivan backwards with its force, but striking all three Sirens and causing them to scream at an almost ultrasonic level. Ivan, his head making solid contact with the wall, fell hard to the ground, and there was a cracking sound, almost like a twig snapping, though a quick glance revealed that that Shaman's Rod lay unbroken.
"Ivan!" Zoe cried, and suddenly it was as though she watched the battle from the sidelines, watched as the Sirens descended upon the rest of them, shrieking, clawing and using their own forms of Psynergy. One by one the adepts fell, first Garet, weak against water, then Mia, distracted by Ivan, and then herself, standing as though nothing at all was happening. And then, all three of the Sirens turned on Isaac, claws whirling and water Psynergy blasting.
And then they screamed. The image Zoe saw, of Isaac, dead on the grating of the room of waterfalls, torn, scratched, scraped and broken, his eyes and mouth open in one final, horrified scream, burned itself into her mind. And she let loose with a scream of her own.
The vision shattered then, and she found herself back in her own body, miraculously alive and somewhat well, with Isaac and Garet on either side of her, and Mia slightly behind. All alive. And the Sirens' screech dying down, fading as they smirked evilly at Zoe, knowing the visions and confusion they had brought.
Zoe saw in a flash what Ivan had done, and was convinced she could do something like it. Close to exhaustion, she drew her longsword slowly with both hands as Isaac and Garet called on their respective Psynergies to fight the Sirens. Mia, with a hurried glance back at Ivan, came on with an attack of her own, calling Murk from her witch's wand.
Zoe barely noticed as one of the Sirens disappeared, defeated. Forgetting the sword for a moment, she threw a hand skyward and called, "Explorer's Storm!" causing lightning bolts and electrically charged water to zap the Sirens, defeating yet another one. But something about the attack was wrong, Mia noticed. The lightning was dark, instead of bright. Zoe's eyes were growing darker as well, with every passing second losing their violet hue and passing to black.
"I summon the spirit of Venus, power of the Earth!" Isaac screamed, and the great yellow Venus summons took out the final Siren. "End of story," Isaac finished wearily, sinking to the floor and leaning back against a wall.
Mia hurried to Ivan, but stumbled halfway there and fell, landing and not moving. Garet, too, was exhausted, too tired to move from his position against the wall opposite Isaac. Only Zoe still stood, one hand still on the hilt of her half-drawn sword.
She felt the darkness taking her. And she knew that Mia had seen, that Mia had some idea of what was happening. "One last chance," Zoe muttered, and knew in that moment what she would do.
Drawing the sword, she held it high, practically collapsing from lack of sleep but forcing herself not to waver. "Please work," she whispered. "By Sol, this had better work," she amended, gritting her teeth and beginning to call her power into the sword.
"Sol's Light," she whispered, and golden light radiated from the sword, and for a few moments Zoe was suspended in the air. Isaac, Garet, Mia and Ivan felt the light, felt their injuries and weariness fade and disappear, their power and strength return, and watched as the shining glow faded and revealed Zoe, kneeling on the ground with the sword clutched tightly in both hands. Slowly and shakily she sheathed it, then turned to face the others.
Her eyes were an empty, merciless black. Mia gasped, getting up, but Ivan's hand on her shoulder stopped her from approaching Zoe. For a moment, Zoe's eyes became violet again, and in that moment she spoke.
"Keep going. Through the waterfall. It's the only way."
"Then lets do it," Isaac said, and he and Garet lifted Zoe and walked with her between them through the waterfall. On the other side, the spray of the falls created a colorful rainbow, and as Mia and Ivan passed through there was a collective gasp.
A statue similar to all the others in Mercury Lighthouse, and yet very different, stood off to one side. Mia approached it, touched it lightly and said, "Ply." The spirit-fairy danced around the statue and there was a tremor and a grinding noise. As the five adepts looked on, the water in the waterfall began to flow upwards.
"Well, come on," Isaac said, and he and Garet (complaining as usual), carrying Zoe, stepped into the waterfall and were carried skyward. Mia and Ivan followed quickly, rising with the torrent of water.
In seconds, the five adepts were unconscious on the very peak of the Mercury Lighthouse.
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Vil: Well, how was it? Hmmm? You better review now if you want the Saturos battle chapter. *laughs* Or any chapters following. So, I'll leave you to your reviewing…coming up is chapter fourteen: Shining Strike. Oh, by the way, I need 55 reviews to keep going.