Author's Note:
Rio: I am sooo sorry guys, but I had a ton of homework over the weekend and couldn't update. Luckily I had a delay this morning for snow and could post this before school.
Ryu: We would also like to add that we know Prox doesn't have any real gates... but we are giving it two! (its just something Camelot forgot to show in the game we're sure) Enjoy!
Fantasies of the Open Mind
Chapter Seventeen: Snow, Cold, and Coffee
With the addition of six travelers to the group, the morning routine on the ship had changed. Picard was not the only one who could be found first thing in the morning with a coffee cup in hand. Now, he had allies in his coffee endeavor. Saturos was well known to need at least three cups of coffee in the morning before his brain would function to his liking, and Alex always drank something when he was thinking. Since there was no fermented stuff on the ship he opted for coffee. He was not the only one who complained about the lack of fermented beverages, but alas he and Saturos (and Isaac who would never admit it out loud) were easily over ruled by Mia and Sheba. So Alex had turned to coffee as his drinking substance. And as he was often thinking in the morning, he often joined Picard and Saturos on the deck of the ship, cup of coffee in hand. It was on one of these mornings when he had brought up the idea which had been on his mind for the past week to Saturos. The fact remained that the Mars Lighthouse should have been lit by now. And it had not been. Saturos agreed that this was highly unusual as Karst and Agatio had lived in Prox all their lives and therefore knew where to go to light the lighthouse. If they had not completed their self appointed task, then that was only because something had gotten in the way. And they knew it wasn't Isaac's group (as Karst had dubbed the four fighters) because the they were no where near the Lighthouse. And Saturos commented point blankly that neither Karst nor Agatio were the type to wait around. This problem had then been made almost more real to Alex, because someone other than himself and Felix (who was paranoid about the entire thing from the start) had thought of it. Now while Alex was the type who would have brooded on the situation a bit longer, Saturos was not. This was why they were now headed for the Proxian's homeland: Prox. For the millionth time, Alex thanked Mercury, Aries, and Hades alike that Jenna had been able to revive Saturos. Alex had only been in Prox twice, and only once without a Proxian guide and he was not of the mind to repeat that again, for Proxians were as legendary for their hostility as they were for their tempers.
But as they say, "the best laid plans of mice and men...". The group ran out of coffee. Now, if they were not going to Prox than Picard, even with the help of Saturos and Alex, would have been overruled until the group got to where they were going. However, the group was going to Prox: the land and settlement that was the four letter spelling of the words freezing, barren, and cold. Saturos had put his foot down that in no way was he going to even approach Prox without a stash of coffee unless he wanted to freeze to death. (Of course after this he reminded everyone that dyeing again was not one of the things he was looking forward to.) Alex agreed, explaining that the climate of Prox was cold in not only the literal seance of the word, but in a metaphorical seance as well. There was a reason all adepts in Prox were Mars Adepts after all, and Alex could vouch for the toll the climate would take every morning when the sun had not risen yet if there was nothing warm to drink.
This had lead to the landing of the ship on the coastal beach north of Magma Rock, which in turn had lead to the finding of the ruins called Loho, which in turn had lead to their current predicament. Well, more like Picard's current predicament, which Alex was watching with silent laughter.
Now Alex had been the one who suggested to use the Magma Ball which they had acquired in Magma Rock in the cannon and had been very pleased when it performed its job. Even Picard had been pleased at its success. However, Picard had not been pleased with the reaction of the explorers of the town who had then proceeded quite merrily to attach the cannon to his ship... without his permission. Picard did not find out until much later about the mutilation to his already... injured ship because he had been dragged by an enthusiastic (albeit silent) Felix into the ruins of the village. But when he did find out, all levels of Hades had been introduced to the somewhat formerly perky explorers. Felix almost had to restrain Picard from causing physical harm to the explorers as the memory of how the villagers of another settlement had added wings to his ship without his permission... and the cannon wasn't even blue. It was black. Blue and black were a decidedly bad combination.
Felix was however able to maneuver Picard into the mariner's room and left Saturos and Alex to navigate the ship to Prox. Felix was silent throughout Picard's ranting but couldn't help putting in one fact.
"Picard, if you keep pacing on that floorboard, it will wear out."
Picard stopped pacing and looked at Felix incredulously. "You haven't been listening to a word I've said, have you?"
"I stopped listening once you started to repeat yourself." Felix stated primly. "Which was about twenty minutes ago, give or take."
Picard shook his head, maneuvering around Felix to lie down on the bed. "I must not be getting enough sleep." the Lemurian groaned, trying to understand exactly why it mattered that people kept adding things to his ship without his permission. Sure it was his ship, not theirs, and the things were useful in the end... oh well maybe there was no real reason to be found.
"Well then you don't need me here anymore." Felix grinned evilly as he began to stand up, only to be pulled back down.
"What were you saying?" Picard murmured in his ear.
"Nothing."
"I thought so."
Felix and Picard weren't the only ones who were at least attempting to sleep. Jenna was also halfway into the world of dreams, not because she was blaming any crankiness on lack of sleep, no Jenna's problem was different. She had been having these weird dreams, they had something to do with four powers and four guardians, but she couldn't remember anything else. If she had to wager a guess, she could come up with a theory, but it was farfetched. The four powers would have to do with the four elements of psyenergy, that she was almost certain of. But the guardians and the feeling of loss she had after the dream ran its course she had no answer for. Even her ghosts could not explain the dreams she had... or they were purposefully not explaining the dreams to her.
The three beings watched as their charge slept peacefully for now, with different expressions apparent on their faces. Nuitari was currently not speaking to the other two because he felt they should have told Jenna what the dreams were. He said that he knew Jenna better than the other two because he had been there to help her with her first Revive, and the other two ghosts knew he was right on this matter, they just knew that telling Jenna would hurt Jenna more than letting her find out on her own.
For the three ghosts could feel the apocalypse coming for Hades' Descendent. Hades might have been thrilled with the weakening of the other god's power and the situation which allowed Saturos to love Jenna, but he was only one God against many others. And it only took two or three Gods (because they were weakened) to wake the power that could be used to destroy Jenna or Saturos, for only one of them had to die for the story of the Descendent to play out the way the rest of the God's wanted it to.
Lunitari had felt it first, the thread of power coming from Contigo and gathering strength. Once she had mentioned it to her brothers they too had been able to feel the outburst of power which was being suppressed by an unnatural force. But there was nothing they could do to stop the will of the Gods, they were only ghosts after all.
"Idiot humans." Nuitari muttered. "They should have destroyed the Anemos when they had the chance. Now it's to late."
"We must make sure the fourth lighthouse is not lit." Lunitari said softly. "We must stall the Gods long enough for Hades to find a way to protect his child."
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Solinari muttered. "They need only one fire adept to get into the lighthouse and Prox has fire adepts crawling out of the woodwork."
"No. The lighthouse will not stall the gods. They are not using the power of Aries to call forth the power of the Anemos." Nuitari grimaced. "I feel no fire power in the beast. Mostly wind power."
"Zeus." the three growled.
"They will call for the Descendent before the group goes to light the lighthouse." Solinari stated. "They might even use the lighthouse as a distraction so no one realizes she is gone."
"Saturos would realize." Lunitari murmured.
"Oh, that's great. We'll give them both of them." Nuitari exclaimed.
"They might not even call for Jenna herself." Solinari whispered as if he didn't want to say what was on his mind but had to. "After all, there may be another reason that the Gods are not including Aries."
If the ghosts were not ghosts, they would have paled as they realized exactly how hopeless the situation was.
"Damn." Nuitari cursed. And that summed up the situation quite nicely.
"You know Saturos, that's a nice piece of ice there." Alex stated, looking at the wall of ice that blocked their way to Prox.
"Just a little bit of ice." the Proxian murmured, heading aft with a grim smile on his face.
"A little? He says 'a little'" Alex groaned as he followed the Proxian back. "Saturos that is a wall of ice!"
Saturos was not paying attention as he was checking to see if the magma ball was still in the cannon. Seeing that it was he moved around to the back of the cannon.
"Even an army of fire adepts couldn't melt that thing!"
Saturos watched the magma ball shoot past Alex and hit the ice, melting its way strait through the ice and leaving a large hole where the ball had been. The Proxian's eyebrow twitched and he glared at the icy barrier. The barrier began to crack and melt, falling away to let the ship through.
"Just a little bit of ice." he said simply going back to the wheel to steer the ship close to Prox.
Alex looked up at the sky helplessly. "Proxians! They think they know everything!"
It was dark out by the time the group reached Prox, the winds becoming even harsher than they were during the day, and the temperature dropping twice as low as it did when the sun was shining. All the cloaks and scarves and warm clothing couldn't stop the cold. It was just as Alex had said, there was an aura of coldness that seemed to seep right inside you and then nothing could keep you warm. Mia had long since cuddled close to Alex as they walked and Felix found himself wishing that he could plead temporary insanity to the rest of the group and latch on to Picard. (But the fact that everyone would come to the same conclusion stopped him as the rules of Vale still existed to the rest of the world. Jenna two had sought out Saturos for warmth but had to step back as they reached the gates of Prox.
Saturos easily found the hidden lever that was known to all Proxians and a door in the gate opened. Everyone hustled inside the village but the tall gate only shut out some of the wind.
"Stop. Only Proxians can enter Prox." An elder Proxian holding a lantern made his way from a small house to the group.
Saturos let out a bark of laughter. "You still guarding the gate old man? I thought they'd let you retire by now."
The gatekeeper did a double take, seeing Saturos now that there was a light. He broke out into a smile. "Saturos! We took you for dead! Good to see you're back, young one. Come on, I'll open the inner gate for you myself so no one asks any questions."
Saturos nodded and the gatekeeper led the way to the inner gates, more beautifully carved than the outer gates.
Saturos tuned out the older man's talking. He had known the gatekeeper since he was young, very well in fact because he had always been caught outside of Prox after dark.
The group made their way to the inn, and immediately Picard and Alex made a bee line for the coffee. Everyone else also needed a drink of something warm to get the cold out of their systems.
"Yes, definitely much easier to get into Prox with a Proxian." Alex muttered, remembering when he had come to Prox for Agatio and Karst and the gatekeeper had kept him there nearly all night with questions. ("if you really came to Prox this" and "if you really came to Prox that", what a nightmare)
Saturos surprisingly was the only one who was unsettled that night. Yes, returning to Prox was like returning home and by morning his father would know of his return. But that was the problem. He could already feel the headache coming on. Between his father and the elders of Prox... maybe he should not have come back at all.
Author's Note:
Rio: Awww, poor Saturos.
Ryu: Yes, we know Saturos never mentions having a father in the game... (why would he after all) but we know he must have had one. Oh, bad times ahead for Saturos.
Rio: Why do I always torture my favorite characters?
signed,
Rio the FlowerofBlackFire