Author's Note:

Rio: Well, I'm glad this Saturday morning is over with. That was my second funeral in two weekends, so my life should go back to normal now. Don't any of you die so I have to go to another funeral, okay? I am sooo sick of graveyards...

Ryu: On a happier note, this chapter does advance the plot! Almost to Magma Rock folks! ^.^

Rio: We'll see you all next week, oh and if I seemed to breeze through Gaia Rock... I did. I was completely void of ideas for fluffy stuff. (And the only Review I could use, since they have already been to Gaia Rock for the Sand psyenergy, well... let's just say I could have made an entire new story just from that plot. Sorry Sarah aka Celebi, it really would have made this way to long, so I had to butcher it a bit... well I had to cut it down a lot. But thank you so much for the review!)

Ryu: And thank you to all our Reviewers, you already have been told how we feel about you all (just read former author's notes). ^.^ We will see you all again next week! And a Happy Thanksgiving to all that celebrate the holiday!



Fantasies of the Open Mind

Chapter Fourteen: Of Rocks and Hard Places


The room that the very confused Earth Adept was in looked like a simple cavern. It had a wrought purple floor which looked worked and out of place next to the rough cavern walls. In the middle of the room a small green plant wavered slightly in the nonexistent breeze of the cavern. Sighing Isaac leaned against the wall. He was stuck. Stuck as in completely baffled.

"Isaac!"

The earth adept smiled in greeting as one of his companions stumbled into the room.

"Hello Garet. Any luck?"

"No. This place is impossible to navigate with any kind of logic." Garet had tried going though one of the doors in the room and seeing if he could find something while Isaac was sure that the plant in the room had something to do with this mystery, he just wasn't sure what.

"Well then, there's only one thing to do."

Garet looked at Isaac hopefully. Isaac was always the one to come up with the plans.

"We don't think logically."

And with that the two adepts randomly chose a door and walked through it.


Felix, unlike said two adepts, knew how to navigate the rooms of Gaia Rock, having been there already. This was why he was already past the maze of rooms and on to the cavern after them. He still hadn't figured out what had really gone on in this room, fighting the dragon enemy and then that whole mix-up afterwards... what a nightmare. So he was returning to the spot where the fight had played itself out to think. What he didn't expect was that he was not going to be alone.

"Susa."

The dark haired warrior looked up from his position on the sand. His face seemed to light up when he saw Felix. "Felix. I wasn't told you were back."

Felix shrugged as he sat down next to Susa. For a moment the two sat in silence. Then Susa spoke.

"Are you trying to figure out what went on here?"

"It has been a problem on my mind, yes. Along with others, many others."

"Then we're here for the same thing. I have much to think about as well."

The two both sat in their own meditative worlds, thinking. For after all, the both had a lot to think about.


"Isaac, I'm sure that we have been here before."

"Doesn't matter. We aren't thinking logically remember?"

"Oh yea."


Picard stood in the same room Isaac had stood in before, frowning as he remembered what one had to do in these rooms. Of all the times for earth adepts to be scarce...

With many mini flashes of light Picard summoned his djinn, all of them. When he had a crowd of djinn looking up at him he spoke. "Find the way through this maze, then memorize it and come back."

With sequels of glee... or just regular sequels, Picard couldn't tell, the djinn took off in all different directions.


"Isaac, did that look like a Mercury Djinni to you?"

"Garet, just because we are not thinking logically does not mean we are hallucinating..."


Felix had long moved on in thought from the dragon, deciding that there was nothing he could do about it now. So he had settled on plain meditating which meant he was, for all intents and purposes, gone from the world. So he did not hear the conversation about him.

"So... is he normally like this?"

"All the time. Once he starts thinking, there is almost nothing that can break him out of his reverie."

"So how do you suppose we get him out of here?"

"Don't worry about it. I can handle it."

Nodding to Picard, Susa left the room. Almost immediately he heard a muffled thud and then a loud, "PICARD!" Slowing down for a moment he looked back at the cavern wondering if he should go back or not.

"NO I DID NOT MISS YO-"

Felix's angry voice was cut off and Susa decided he did not want to know.




Jenna sat reading waiting for Alex and Mia to come down from Aqua Rock. The appointed time for the group to get back together had literally come and gone, so while everyone else had gone to forcefully detach the two water Adepts from the ancient source of watery psyenergy, Jenna had stayed behind. She was buried deep in her fourteenth textbook of spells for Dark Mages which Nuitari had so nicely... acquired for her. Jenna still didn't know where the books had come from really, but she was sure the ghosts hadn't bought them. She had gobbled the first thirteen in the week that the group had been apart, memorizing simple spells and cultivating the correct sills to use them, with the constant guidance of her three spirit familiars and the support of Saturos who was still a ghost. This last fact was really what had hurried her through the simple spells of a Dark Mage. For the past week her dreams had been plagued with the memory of that night so long ago under the growing shadows. Sure she was happy that Saturos was not in Hades, trapped in one of the levels of hell reserved for the dead, but it was not enough. She wanted to be able to touch him again, feel him wrap his arms around her... she was getting ahead of herself again. First she needed to know how to revive him. She had Revived before, but that had been under special circumstances. She had just been the vessel through which the ghosts had worked through her, but they had made it clear that if she wanted to Revive Saturos, then Jenna would be the one to cast the spell. And Jenna truly wouldn't have it any other way. So she continued to study.

The Revival Spell is Trademark spell of the Dark Mages, in that it has the power to bring back anyone who has died before the correct time which the Fates have chosen for that person. This could happen if he/she is killed in battle or murdered, but not if he/she died from sickness or another bodily ailment. This spell, though easy to the accomplished mage is difficult to the apprentice. The first time Revive is cast the apprentice may black out or become comatose for as long as a week. Over time as the spell is cast more and more the amount of energy needed to cast the spell decreases as the body gets used to the taxation. Thus the spell becomes more natural and at the point where the Mage's body is strong enough, will not require any energy at all.

To prevent the comatose state of apprentice Mages, the first Revival spell is cast in the heart of the ancient source of the adept's former power. All apprentices who were former water adepts cast the spell at the ancient source of water's power, fire adepts at the ancient source of fire's power, etc. This source feels the kinship of the apprentice Dark Mage, and thus prevents the comatose state by loaning the apprentice enough power to stay prone. After the initial casting of Revive, the body starts to become accustomed to the taxation of power and so the threat of becoming comatose disappears.

There is the exception of the Descendant of Hades who cannot Revive anyone who might love him/her in any way (such as his/her mortal family). According to the band set by the council of the Gods above in their heavenly House, this Descendant is forbidden to find love with another and thus anyone who would become his/her partner is destined to die when they become aware of their love for the Descendant.

"Well then I can't be the Descendant." Jenna murmured. "Because Saturos said he first figured out his feelings around the Mercury Lighthouse and he didn't die until the Venus Lighthouse."


"What are you reading Jenna?"

Jenna looked up to see Mia sit down next to her. Jenna closed the book so Mia could see the title. The water Adept nodded.

"I see you and Alex finally joined us."

Mia smiled and the two felt the lurch of the ship as it set out. "Isaac and Felix thought we should try to find the Rock of Fire Psyenergy, Magma Rock, since none of us have been there and it's only fair for Garet."

Jenna also smiled, relaxing in the company of her companion. "True." And at Magma Rock she could Revive Saturos.

"Jenna..." Mia started, looking a little timid, as if she didn't quite know how to approach the subject she was about to bring up. "I overheard Isaac, Felix, and Garet talking earlier."

Jenna raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.

"They were worried-"

"About me right? About how I seem to have changed?"

Mia nodded. "I did not notice anything until Alex mentioned it." Mia mentally added that you were descended from a god, but didn't say it.

"Alex thought something was different?" Jenna was confused.

"Yes. He... mentioned that our, meaning Alex and my, relationship had similarities to what you are going through. I wondered if you might want someone to talk to."

And tell Felix I'll bet, Jenna thought angrily, but suddenly she didn't care. Let Felix know what was going on, he couldn't stop her anyway. "Yes, what happened with you and Alex happened with myself and someone else."

"What do you mean?"

"Before You, Garet, Isaac, and Ivan knew about the world situation, you all thought that..." Jenna choked. Why couldn't she talk about it? What was wrong with her?

"We thought that...?" Mia's eyes widened in realization. "Oh, Jenna, I'm so sorry."

"Yea." Jenna said gruffly before getting up, taking her textbook with her and leaving.

Mia watched the other leave a black feeling growing in her stomach. Jenna had been so open to her... until she told Mia about Saturos. And after all this time, Jenna's heart was still torn because of their foolishness. Sure they had thought they were doing the right thing but they should have, should have just... known. Something. Anything! But they had killed Saturos. And if Jenna still hadn't recovered, then the girl really did love the dead fire adept. Mia felt tears well up in her eyes. It just wasn't fair! And she knew exactly how Jenna felt. If they had killed Alex... she would have never recovered.

Mia felt warm arms encircle her and she dissolved into Alex's firm grip, tears trailing down her face in twin drops.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked gently.

"We... we..." now Mia couldn't say it. What if Alex had know of Jenna's feelings for Saturos? "Alex... do you know how Saturos felt about Jenna?"

"I do." Alex looked at Mia as if wondering what she had found out. "Is this about the Venus Lighthouse?"

Mia nodded.

"Don't feel badly Mia. It wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was! If we had not killed him he-"

"He would have been killed some other way. He already had lived longer than he was supposed to."

"What?"

"You know what I said about Jenna? How we were in the same situation? Well Jenna is the Descendant of Hades. And you know the Legend. Saturos should have died at the Mercury Lighthouse as the day before that he realized how he felt about Jenna."

"How do you know this?"

"I heard Menardi and him fighting. Apparently he figured out his feelings at the same time that she figured out his feelings. I was grateful that Jenna, Kraden, and Felix were not around at the time to hear it." Alex looked off towards the sea as he started speaking again. "As it was, Saturos did not regret what happened at the Venus Lighthouse."

"He didn't?"

"No. He knew that he would not survive another fight with you four even if he and Menardi did fuse into the Fusion Dragon, which he hated doing anyway. So that night, figuring that he would die the next day anyway and so wouldn't have to worry if Jenna rejected him, he-"

"He told her?"

"Yes. It was a very cute screen actually."

"You watched?" Mia asked dryly.

"I wanted to make sure nothing went wrong... like Menardi or Felix walking in on them."

"Oh." Mia thought for a minute. "So Jenna is banned from ever loving anyone else?" Alex nodded. "But then... why didn't Saturos die at the Mercury lighthouse like he was destined to?"

"I don't know. Maybe because since the Gods placed the ban and I have Mercury's power I could stall his destiny... I really don't know."

"Did you know about Jenna at the Mercury Lighthouse?"

"No."

"I still don't think it's fair."

"It's not. But maybe it is not a hopeless case."

"What do you mean?"

"Well the curse of the Gods was already messed up because Saturos could love Jenna and he wasn't even suppose to be able to do that. But since Jenna didn't become a Dark Mage in her youth, Saturos wasn't affected by the curse."

"What do you mean? Is there hope for Jenna to find another love?"
"No. Now that she is a Dark Mage no mortal will fall in love with her. But Saturos can and will still love her."

"But she couldn't Revive him."

Alex sighed. "I don't know. There are too many complications. First of all, the Three were not supposed to be buried together, but through Felix's knowledge and Sheba's Mind Read ability, I find that they are. That would mean Jenna will find within her the full power of Hades if the situation arises where her life is threatened. And since the Gods' power was tied to the Lighthouses I am not sure the ban can hold. Hades is the only God to have power that is not tied to a Lighthouse because it is tied to the river Styx. So his power was stronger than the other Gods for a long time. Now there is a surge of power from the lit Lighthouses so the power of the Gods will be all messed up for a while even after all the Lighthouses are lit."

"So there is a chance then."

"A small one, but knowing Jenna she will take the chance anyway."

"That's why you were keeping an eye on her."

"Among other reasons of course."

Mia blushed under the look Alex was giving her and kissed him softly. "Of course."