And here is part two! Keep on reading, now…or else…

*****

Forge A Hero: Tempering Cold

                Saturos, Menardi, Gerhalt, Karst, Agatio, and Myrilia left Prox at a run, their footfalls pounding the ground a dozen times a second.  They ran with the energy of those who have heard about the excitement of adventure and aren't quite bright enough yet to understand the terror that tends to go with it.

                The Proxans' swift advance slowed around the cold-edge, the line around Prox where the Caldera's power stopped and the true cold of the decayed north had free rein.  The winds were still only chilled, not anywhere near winter's lethal gusts, but the snow never melted, and had used the many years since the lighthouse's extinguishing to build up into a serious force.

                "That's bloody cold," Gerhalt grunted, having taken a step onto what he thought was higher ground, only to puncture the surface of the snow and drive down until he appeared to be legless.

                "What, you've never been out this far?" asked Menardi.

                "Not this way.  I mean, I've gone to Mars Lighthouse like everyone else, for the summer solstice."

                "And you stuck to the path?  Run around in the snow once in a while.  Honestly, I can hardly tell we're out here," Karst insisted, trudging through snow that rose above her knees.

                "How come your teeth are chattering?" asked Gerhalt.

                "Habit."

                "Well come on," said Saturos, the farthest of the group.  "I think we have better things to do than complain about the snow."

                "Yeah, yeah, we're coming, I know.  Saving Jacia.  On it," said Karst.

                "I meant, we're Mars Adepts.  Shouldn't we have a creative way to speed things up?"

                Menardi and Karst exchanged glances.  Gerhalt leapt for cover.  "Flare!" the sisters called in unison, sending large gouts of fire racing across the ground, instantly melting them a path of soaked grass for a good distance into the white oblivion.

                "That worked pretty well," Saturos decided, wondering if the singeing he felt at that moment was anything like sunburn.  It was similar to the way the edges of toast looked if they were left over the fire for too long.

                "We should probably save Psynergy for big drifts, though," said Menardi.

                "Or defrosting the planet," Myri muttered, since her own skill with Psynergy wasn't geared toward the usual Mars fire at all.  It didn't seem to be geared toward anything, really.

                They continued across the tundra for a long time, heading to the northwest, where a cluster of mountains made a good hidden lair for whatever creature had attacked Puelle.  Myrilia had checked with her mother, and found that Puelle's patrols last night had been in that direction, and they all agreed if there was anything dragonlike in the north, it would probably be in the nearest mountains.

                Eventually, when they were nearing the edge of the forests that had grown up around the wind-breaking mountain range, Saturos started to wonder about Psynergy.  Karst and Menardi had obliterated everything frozen obstacle so far, even blasting apart what Agatio had sworn was a hill right until it melted.

                Saturos knew that he had a gift for swordplay that few in Prox could match, and an enthusiasm that tended to make his teachers worry and double-check the locks on the really dangerous weapon rooms.  But if he were to be Prox's champion, he would need to be able to handle anything, and against something so minor as snow, his blade did nothing, while Menardi was blazing them a trail with just her thoughts.

                He had managed to call up a little Psynergy, but had usually ended up with a headache for the rest of the day, too.  Saturos made a decision.  He was good with swords, and would keep getting better, but from now on, he would devote himself more truly to the Psynergetic arts.  He would become the hero of Prox, of Mars itself, and be invincible, immune to the attacks of any mere warrior or monster-

                It was at about this moment that one of the Pyrodra's heads grabbed Saturos by the back of his tunic and lifted him up so that the other two could start chewing on his legs.

                "Hydra!" Gerhalt shouted to the others, but he could have saved his breath, since people in Tolbi had probably heard Saturos' shout.  The sword-wielding Proxan was currently doing his best to reach around and hack at either of the two heads with free fangs, but couldn't get the right angle or reach far enough to actually cause any damage.

                "We have to get Saturos down," Myri stated to Menardi.

                "I'm a little more worried about the whole 'it's going to kill us all' aspect of this than whether or not Saturos is a little bit off the ground," Menardi replied tersely, bringing to mind the considerable store of Psynergy she had remaining..

                "She means we have to get him down or we're going to be worrying about hitting him with any Psynergy we throw at it," said Karst, sparking occasionally.  "I agree.  Are Pyrodras resistant to fire?"

                "Beats me.  Let's ask," said Gerhalt, hefting his greatsword and casting Guardian.  Faint red light wrapped itself into a shield around him.

                "Oh, I'm sure it'll be quite happy to answer all our questions.  You want to find out its favourite colour, too, maybe what sorts of allergies it has?" snapped Myri, trying to think of something that she could do to help.  No serious skill in combat, hardly any Psynergy, certainly none that would put a dent in a Pyrodra- she was just another target…

                "I meant him," said Gerhalt, gesturing at Agatio.

                "Oh.  Right," said Myri, embarrassed.  Agatio's knowledge of most monsters could make conversations with him similar to a debate with the Tome of Extraordinary Beasts.

                "Resistant to fire, weak to water, just like any sort of truly Mars-aligned monster," Agatio replied.  "They survived the freezing of the north by developing an incredibly high normal body temperature, and can use it to burn prey on contact."

                "I bet they're great in a cream sauce," said Menardi.  Resistant to Mars power, she knew, wasn't the same as immune.  The striking effect of her yellow hair whipped about by the winds and the contrast from her nearly-inhuman pink skin to the inanimate whiteness of the region was heightened when trails of flame swirled from nothing and then leapt from her hand at the Pyrodra.  "Flare Wall!"

                The hydra hadn't noticed her yet, as she was standing behind it.  But when a gout of fire rolled across its back, sending a massive steam cloud up from the snow, its attention was definitely drawn in her general direction.

                Saturos was swung around with its heads, but fortunately the other two had stopped trying to savage him, in light of more dangerous prey in the area.  "That was the best you could think of?" Saturos yelped, swung forward on the central head as the other two lunged to sink fangs into Menardi (fortunately, she had a head start on running).  "Make it angry?  Whoa!"

                He was jerked higher as the heads rose up, and on either side of him the Pyrodra took deep breaths.  He almost wished the middle one would, too, so that it would drop him, but when jets of fire lanced out into the snow, Saturos decided that he was probably safer where he was.

                Gerhalt swung his weapon around once as he approached the Pyrodra from the side.  It was an axe, relatively small, with a solid head of dark iron and a red leather-wrapped handle.  A loop of that leather at the bottom of the handle made it much easier to twirl as he so enjoyed doing, and had developed more than one battle routine that relied on such an addition.

                "Fire!"  A salvo of a half-dozen minor fireballs blasted the hydra's side, causing the three heads to swing in his direction.  Weaving his arms as though he were manipulating a pair of knitting lances, the blunt side of the axe head looped around and bounced off all three heads, one after the other, then swept around and its edge scored the Pyrodra's neck scales.

                Gerhalt dropped to his back as it inhaled and muttered an oath to the Mars Spirit when the two free heads let their fiery attacks loose.  He stabbed upward into the throat of the middle head, and it gasped when the iron crumpled its hide, letting Saturos fall free.

                "Took you long enough," he wheezed, getting back to his feet.

                "Volcano!" Menardi called., and a geyser of fire blasted up from underneath the hydra.

                "Heat Kiss!"  Karst followed her sister's attack, but none of the others had the slightest idea what she was talking about.  Psynergy took the shape of a cloud of fiery hearts, which surprised them enough to begin with, but after the flurry washed over the Pyrodra, a faint reddish aura remained around its fangs.

                "What did you do?" Menardi demanded.

                "Uh…" Karst stuttered.  She hadn't known herself what the Psynergy did, it had simply appeared in her mind and told her to use it.  By the looks of things, she might very well have blessed the creature with extra power.

                Saturos moved next, lashing at the Pyrodra's (hopefully) vulnerable mouth.  The head he struck at did indeed screech and recoil when his blade cut in, but the other two came in around on his left.  There was a moment for him to regret that he had somehow forgotten about the other two dangers, and then they bit down-

                A moment later, Saturos noticed that his arm was still attached and none of the rest of him had been ventilated, either.  Looking down at the surprised and frustrated hydra, he noticed that its fangs were being kept from touching his skin by the red aura, which was itself a blunt and harmless thing.

                "Of course," said Agatio.  "Some Mars power gives strength to attacks or defences, Karst just mixed the two and weakened the Pyrodra's attack."

                "Brilliant insight," Gerhalt said, without a trace of sarcasm.  Yet.  "Care to try to kill it now?!"

                "Rolling-" Agatio began, his arm outstretched, and then the Pyrodra's tail smashed into his ribs, crushing his breath away.

                "Fine.  Fume!"  Fire rolled along Gerhalt's arm, eventually leaping off the end and taking on draconian shape before exploding against the creature's side.

                "This isn't working!" Saturos yelled to the others, his sabre dancing against the Pyrodra's tough hide.  "Can't you melt it or something?"  The Pyrodra, realising that its fangs were no longer effective, took a new approach to its attacks, and wrapped one of its longs necks around Saturos.  Incredible heat rose around him as the hydra used its burning body temperature against him, as Agatio had warned it would.

                "Meteo-" Agatio began again, but Karst tackled him to the side, saving both of them from a free head's next roasting burst.

                Myrilia was confused, but the more she tried to find an answer, the more confused she got.  The battle raging before her brought up plenty of emotions- annoyance at her inability to help, fear for her friends, and a certain relief that she wasn't seen as enough of a threat to the hydra for it to have started attacking her.  But strongest at all was a hatred for this monster that controlled Mars power… a very cold hatred.  And that was causing some very strange things to happen in the depths of her mind.

                Saturos managed to pull an arm free, his sword with it, and stabbed at the joint of neck and body on the central head.  The tip managed to force its way between a pair of scales, and though it couldn't drive much deeper, the unexpected sting made the hydra shriek.

                "I don't know how much more Psynergy I can throw at that thing…" said Karst, weakly, and for a second Menardi almost believed that her sister really was less than thirty years old.

                "Don't worry about it," Myrilia murmured, walking between them toward the Pyrodra.

                "Myri?  What are you doing?" asked Menardi.

                "What I can," she replied, and didn't slow her pace.

                The heat was beginning to sear Saturos and the smell of smoke was rising from his thick clothes where they touched the Pyrodra's forge-hot scales.  He couldn't stab any harder, he certainly couldn't cut any deeper... what a fate for a Mars Adept, to be burnt of all things…

                "Saturos," said Myri, almost nonchalantly, "I know you're not a master Adept, but call up all the Mars Psynergy you can- you're going to want it to keep warm."

                Saturos began to laugh, though he choked, too, and it was not a laugh with any sort of humour in it.  "Warm?  Warm is the problem… aah…. AAAGH!"  The Pyrodra's scales were nearly glowing now.

                "Frostburn!" Myri shouted, raising an arm, and knew she had found her Psynergy.  To her sight, the moment she spoke, all the heat in the world showed itself to her eyes.  Gerhalt, Agatio, Karst, and Menardi all glowed, as did the Pyrodra, especially brightly, and ever-more Saturos.  But her Psynergy was changing that.

                The Pyrodra's body heat was fantastically high, but not too much for Myrilia to handle.  It drained away, seeping into the snow, into the air, into the earth, anywhere but the hydra, anywhere but Saturos.  Slowly he realised that the burning was gone, though his injuries remained.  With a sigh of relief, Saturos opened his eyes, and a new cold surrounded him.

                "What the-" he began, and his teeth chattered.  Heeding Myri, he focused on Mars, on the power that was supposed to be in him, in that elusive Psynergy.  It didn't work so well, but it probably kept him alive.  When Myri lowered her hand at last, the hydra was stiff and covered in a thin layer of frost, while the snow for ten feet in all directions had been melted completely, and the revealed grass was steaming.

                Gerhalt swung his axe in a high vertical arc and half-chopped, half-shattered the neck around Saturos, catching him before he could fall but trying not to touch the burns.  "Karst!" Gerhalt yelled.

                "I'm coming!" she answered, running to them.  "I wish I knew Glow, but I guess none of us are in great condition anyway.  Get closer," she told the others, and the six of them nearly huddled together near the rigid hydra.  "Aura!"  Red lights flashed and sparks flew into all the Adepts, mending their wounds and refreshing them.

                "Karst, are you okay?" asked Agatio.  The girl swooned a little, but kept her feet.  "Too much Psynergy."  Agatio shook his head discerningly- if anything was annoying about him, it was his tendency to act like he knew at lot more than he did.  "Don't use any for a while, just rest up.  Jacia's probably going to need some of your help when we find her, too."

                During their clash with the Pyrodra, they had nearly forgotten the reason they were out here, and now it came rushing back.  Saturos, whose burns had vanished in the flurry of red stars, stood first and started towards the mountains again.  The others were only a step behind him.

                In those very mountains, the creature they sought was examining its wing.  Not so good, not after the struggle with those Proxans the night before.  Deciding not to risk things, it removed the wing and set about making a better one.

                "I don't mean to be insulting, really I don't," said Menardi.

                "Oh, well then, that makes it all better, doesn't it?" Myrilia snapped back.

                "Look, it just wasn't what I expected from Mars, okay?"

                "I have been waiting for years to find out why it is that I can't use Psynergy like everyone else, and now I've found that power that you and your sister throw about like… like snow or something, and I get this!"  Myri raged on.

                Since they were inside the thin forest already, and nearing the mountains, Agatio decided that he'd rather not have any more Pyrodras coming down on them, and since Pyrodras could hear a person's heartbeat at twenty-one-point-six feet away, they were currently very likely to be very lunch very soon.

                "What's the problem?" he asked, jogging a few steps to come up between and behind the girls.

                Myri was fuming, and looked to be nearly Fuming.  "I've been waiting for this day my whole life, and now-"

                "I heard that part," Agatio reported.  So did a few Lemurians, I'm betting, he thought, but was definitely too smart to say that aloud.  "But what's the actual problem?"

                Myri speared Menardi on a thermal-lance glare.  "She said I used Mercury Psynergy."  Myrilia held out an armfor inspection.  "Does this look like the hand of a Mercury Adept?"

                "It's okay, Myri, you're blue and we can all see that," said Agatio, patting her hand, which was (like the rest of her) the colour of a cloudy sky after the sun set.

                "She froze that hydra solid," Menardi said, helplessly, not wanting to anger her friend any further, but obviously feeling it couldn't be ignored.

                "It was still Mars Psynergy," said Karst.  That got everyone's attention; it was the first thing she had said since casting Aura.  "A long time ago, when the north was still warm, plenty of Mars Adepts could do the same thing, moving heat from one place to another.  It's just very uncommon these days, probably because there are so few of us left."

                "Hey, guys, I think I've found it!" Saturos shouted excitedly.  He was the furthest ahead, and had just sprinted lightly up a ridge in the foothills of the mountain.  The others moved quickly to join him, and as they reached the top, Saturos added, more seriously, "Although now that I think about it, I kinda hope I haven't."

                "Oh yeah.  Definitely," Menardi agreed.

                The six of them were staring at a cave in the mountain, sheltered by an overhang and sunken into a small valley, so that anyone who wasn't nearby and at the same level wouldn't have glanced at it a second time.  Possibly more importantly, it was at least fifty feet tall, and even more across.

                "Maybe it's just a cave.  No reason every cave has to have a dragon -or whatever- living in it," said Gerhalt, tried to hide the hopefulness in his voice.

                "No," said Myri.  "Look, there are broken stalactites all along the edge.  Those don't fall off for no reason- something big broke them."

                "Stone lasts forever, it could have been an earthquake a hundred years ago-" Gerhalt insisted.

                "And lots of ice shards, like maybe the cave froze over and it's been broken open recently so that something can get in… or maybe out," Agatio pointed out.

                "There's no reason that warmth last week couldn't have weakened just the wrong part of a big wall of ice and made the whole thing crack and fall in on itself," Gerhalt retorted.

                Saturos leaned forward, looking more closely at the broken ice and snow.  "I'm pretty sure that's a footprint-" he began.

                "Look, I'm trying to help here!" Gerhalt snapped, and then realised what he had said.

                "This was your plan," Menardi reminded him, one eyebrow raised in menacingly inquisitive expression.  Gerhalt's green skin turned slightly brown when he blushed, and nodded.

                "Oh, whatever," said Saturos.  "It's my adventure and we all know it.  Let's go, or we'll never know for sure if there's anything to be afraid of or not."  He ran down the slope, across the patch of ice chunks, and into the cave.

                "Did you know it was his adventure?" asked Menardi as they walked into the shadows.

                "First I've heard," said Karst.

                "I can't help but notice that we are following him," said Agatio.

                Jacia awoke to a dagger of pain driving into her right temple, blood down her arm, and one leg completely numb.  This, she classified as 'good news' quickly, along with not being dead, but only because the 'bad news' category was completely filled with the behemoth nearby.  They were in a huge cavern and she still felt cramped just being near the thing.

                There wasn't much light, but when she noticed that the creature's outline was still obvious to her, Jacia realised that it was coming from the ice itself.  Had to be Mercury Psynergy at work somewhere, no normal frozen water would shine like a moonlit lake.

                Truthfully, it wasn't all that huge.  The dragon -it had to be a dragon- was perhaps forty feet tall as it was standing right now, and some of that was a long neck.  It did have large wings, though, as well as strong clawed arms and legs, all of which faintly glowed.  They had to be covered in ice, and Jacia wondered for a moment if she wouldn't be frozen over herself eventually.

                It seemed to her like a personal ultimate hell.  She would be entombed here, locked in an icy prison for all eternity, watched over by an ice dragon, surrounded by ice and the power of Mercury.

                Jacia wasn't thinking especially clearly.  As far as she knew, Puelle and his friends were dead, and no one in Prox even knew that she was alive- they might not even have found the others by now.  It's hard to say whether or not what she did next helped Saturos and his friends, or doomed them.  This is a point where destinies turn…

                She screamed, and in that scream was all the fearful anger of a Mars Adept who believed herself dead in every way except to stop moving.  A Flare Storm exploded around her.

                The scream echoed down the tunnels of the cave until it reached Saturos and the others.  It filled them all with the terror of a great fear confirmed, and for a second they all wanted nothing more than to sprint back to Prox.

                This is a turning point, said Mars to himself, and though they all heard, none of them noticed the words.  Saturos shook his head once, quickly, and broke into a run.  Deeper into the cave.  He half expected to be the only one to go on ahead, but then Menardi passed him, and the footfalls of the others stayed close behind them both.

                The dragon turned from its work to look at Jacia, almost confused, and certainly not happy about the shockwave of fire she had just released.  It began to focus a ray of icy power to finish her- she had seemed too badly injured to survive, the night before.

                "Oh, no you don't," Myrilia growled as they skidded and slid to a halt at the end of the cold tunnel.  "Frostburn!"  This time she worked in the reverse of that attack in the hydra battle, forcing warmth from anywhere she could find it into the dragon's gathering cold.

                Entirely fed up with heat, it breathed chill air at the Proxan Adepts, who were nearly overwhelmed by the sight of such a massive creature.  It seemed too huge to be real, simply unstoppable, and armored in oddly luminous ice.

                With dual crashes it slammed a claw into the walls on either side, and from them giant spears of ice grew at the Proxans, so fast they were like lances carried by knights on horseback.  Most of the kids dropped, except for Menardi, who simply took a step back and blasted both of the spears with Fire Psynergy.

                "Brilliant!" Agatio hissed sarcastically as water from the melted points splashed over them.  His clothes started to stiffen quickly, and it took some effort to unstick himself from the frosty stone.  "A very creative form of refreshment!"

                "You could help instead of making smart remarks," said Menardi.

                "At least he's talking more," Gerhalt pointed out, scrambling to his feet.

                The ice dragon began lashing at them with its ice-covered claws, making the Proxans leap and roll just to stay alive, let alone cause any damage to it.  Saturos occasionally struck at its claws while he dodged, but even his deepest cuts didn't hurt it.  In fact, he only ever seemed to slash at ice.

                Karst had made her way around the edge of the cavern and found Jacia, who was looking better after having Aura cast upon her a few times.  "What are you doing here?" she managed at last.

                "We're here to save you.  It seems to be working, too.  I'm really rather impressed," said Karst.

                "The dragon…"

                "Don't worry.  We took out a Pyrodra on the way here, you can't tell me we can't distract some big frozen lizard long enough to get you out of here," Karst assured her.  "Come on, let's see if you can stand."  But Jacia refused to go anywhere, even though with Karst's help she managed to stand upright.

                "That's not a lizard," Jacia insisted.

                "Whatever, dragon.  Let's go."

                "No, not a dragon either," Jacia went on, still slightly dazed.  "There's something very strange about it, something in its Psynergy.  Not right at all, but I can't focus well enough to see it."

                "I'll tell you what's wrong, it's a Mercury dragon.  That's about as unnatural as hot chocolate that's less than half chocolate," said Karst, trying desperately to get Jacia moving.

                It was Gerhalt who made the discovery.  Two, in fact, because it began with the rush of battle unlocking a new power in his mind.  With a triumphant call of "Planet Diver!" he launched into the air and swept down upon the dragon with a fiery glow about him.  There was a flash at the point of impact, where he struck the dragon's left arm near the shoulder- and the entire clawed limb shattered into steaming wreckage.

                There was no wound on the dragon's side, only flat scales that looked perfectly natural.  Snarling, the monstrous reptile waved its other arm (a motion that also filled the air with cracking sounds, now that they were listening more carefully) and a blue glow erupted from its side.  A second later the glow was gone, but a chunk of ice was attached and starting to grow into what looked like an arm.

                "It's…" Myri began, and dove into her heat-sight.  Now that she looked more closely, there were patches of uneven heat, as though deathly cold parts had been attached to a slightly warmer column-like shape.  "It's a snake!  It's just a snake with arms and legs and wings made of ice!"

                "This is going to be tricky," Saturos remarked to Gerhalt.

                "Hot damn," he agreed.

                "Cold damn."

                "Karst!" Menardi snapped at her younger sister.

                "I was just correcting him."

                "Not exactly a Fusion Dragon, then," said Saturos.

                "I told you there were no dragons," said Gerhalt and Menardi at the same time.

                "You were just trying to get us to come along!" Menardi snapped.

                "You would have left Jacia alone out here!" Gerhalt shot back.

                "I'm starting to think I am alone out here, at least with sense," Jacia mumbled, staggering over to them.  Before anyone could shout 'you're okay' and tackle her, the creature that Saturos was now thinking of as the Cold Fusion Dragon finished its new arm and practically fell upon the Proxans, its fangs glistening and icy claws glittering.

                "Heat Kiss!" Karst shouted again, her fiery hearts limning all its sharp edges with a dulling red light.  This didn't stop the dragon, which was slightly brighter than a Pyrodra, and knew that huge jaws were good for crushing, too.

                The impact of its red-lit arms slammed Saturos, Menardi, Agatio, and Gerhalt against the walls, pinned between frozen claws and struggling to escape.  With them delayed in what felt to Saturos like a highly terminal way, the Cold Fusion Dragon tried its fangs on Myrilia.  She was at a loss- there probably wasn't enough heat in all the North to call against this creature.

                Jacia, however, was older than the rest of them, and a skilled Adept at that.  With all the conviction she could muster, she raised the arm that felt less like it would fall off at any moment and shouted "Heat Wave!"  A long blast, like a huge fireball that someone had grabbed and stretched, leapt from her arm and burned against the dragon's head, melting off its horns and scorching its hide.

                "I don't suppose you could manage a few more dozen of those," said Karst, but without waiting for an answer, started helping Jacia toward the exit from the cavern.  Menardi had managed to get in enough air to speak, and everyone knows how devastating Proxan women can be with a single word.

                "Fireball!"  Flaming spheres rained on the Cold Fusion Dragon's arms, causing it to leap back in fear with water streaming down from its reduced limbs.  They were released just in time to see Karst and Jacia leave the cavern, and so decided to follow rather than remain to trade blows with a creature the size of a few houses.

                The dragon didn't take the time to repair itself, but instead followed them as quickly as it could through the passages, trying desperately to keep up.  More than once it breathed a jet of frost at them, only to see the Proxans dodge into an alcove or a small crevasse in the floor, letting the cloud pass them by harmlessly.

                At last they ran out from the cave's mouth and into the white-lit day of an overcast sky.  The dragon's patience was explained at last, as it stretched wings that could not possibly fly and rose above them, moving faster than any human could hope to outrun.

                "Anyone want to take those wings off?" Myrilia shouted.  Menardi and Agatio did their best, but the dragon moved too quickly, and every blast they launched sailed off into the sky.  The only visible effects were when Agatio's Rolling Flames punched small holes in the clouds for a few moments.

                "We – aren't – going to – make it – back – to Prox – like this," Gerhalt gasped, and Jacia nodded, struggling beside him and holding on for support.

                "What are you talking about?" asked Karst.  "I already healed Jacia of anything fatal-"  A column of blue slashed the ground beside them, and the snow was covered with a layer of ice like a solid, shallow river.  "Oh, right."

                "I don't think I know how to deflect Psynergy…" Menardi said, a little worriedly.

                "I don't know if Mars power even can," said Saturos.  "But I'm not going to let that thing stop us when we're on the final run.  Agatio, come on!"

                "Do what?" he asked, and then Saturos grabbed him by the arm and sprinted ahead.  "I need you to make it angrier."

                "Angrier?  What, you want me to tell dragon jokes or something?"

                "Actually, I heard the strangest one about Mars Adepts and a lantern last week," Saturos remarked, leaping on autopilot over a fallen tree, and then jumped back to reality.  "You've got to have something that's more accurate, come on."

                "Well… uh…"  Agatio looked to the others, still behind.  "Hey, guys, stop for a second!"

                "Are you insane?" Karst snapped.

                "Sounds good to me," Gerhalt wheezed, stumbling to a halt and nearly slipping on another freeze-blasted patch of ground.

                The Cold Fusion Dragon swept in again, saw that its quarry had paused to catch their collective breath, and so also took its time in preparing a blast to end the chase.  Correcting for the wind from the northwest and within its usual killed-by-sheer-cold radius, it prepared to exhale and was smacked upside the head by a giant fiery dragon shape, which then exploded.

                "WHOA!" Saturos shouted in approval.  "You didn't say you could do that!"

                "Didn't know I could," said Agatio.  "How do you like that, frost-face?  Now that's a dragon!"  The Cold Fusion Dragon spiralled toward the ground for a few moments before recovering its wits.  Unfortunately, Agatio's Rising Dragon hadn't damaged its wings, and the creature was still agile in the air.  On the other hand, Saturos got its wish- the ice dragon knew who had cast the blast at it, and intended to paint the walls of its cave with his blood.

                It swooped down on them while the others got the hint and started for Prox again.  Saturos stood his ground until the last moment, then shoved Agatio down and jump, closing his eyes and hoping he caught hold of something scaly…

                The feeling of mighty winds trying to take him apart like the layers off an onion was Saturos' first hint that he had managed to hold onto the Cold Fusion Dragon.  He opened his eyes, blinked off the layer of frost that immediately formed from the tears the wind caused, and decided he'd have to do this by feel.

                Slowly the young swordsman crawled from the creature's side to its back, which wasn't really any better, except that both his ears started to feel equally like icicles being driven into his head.  He risked a quick glimpse and saw that they were about halfway between Prox and the cave.  Not good enough.  He'd need other Mars Adepts' help to take this thing down, and couldn't wait for them to run this far.

                The dragon was angry enough at being seared by Agatio's last burst of Psynergy.  When Saturos stabbed it in the back of the neck -though its scales were similar to the Pyrodra and he couldn't drive the blade far- that didn't improve things.

                Saturos felt rather proud of himself when the dragon swung its head around to snap at him, and in doing so accidentally veered to the right.  He swung to the side and it twisted around the other way to try to grab him, causing it to turn around again.  Pleased by his ingenuity in steering, Saturos managed to weave his way farther and farther toward Prox, and didn't lose any limbs as he did so.

                The whole time, a strange humming started in the back of his mind, building as it flew and he rode.  Saturos had never quite felt anything like it before, but when they cruised past the edges of the Adept city, he recognised one small part of the sensation.  It was like those times when he managed to use Psynergy, if not precisely the same…

                This is the way.  This is the only way.  The words repeated in Saturos' mind, as though they were trying to reassure him, though he couldn't imagine what he had to be reassured of.  He didn't know what Mars was planning.

                The dragon began releasing its cold-breath on the buildings as they flew by, instantly creating a dome of ice covering the roofs of more than one house, and turning the open grassy space at the city's centre into a skating rink.
                Somehow, even with Psynergy ice-wings flapping on either side, a dragon twisting underneath, and high winds making a valiant attempt to flatten him into a kite, Saturos managed to stand on the dragon's back.  Not for long, but for just enough.  He raised a hand.

                "Break!"

                It might have disturbed Saturos to know that he was channelling Mercury power, but at that moment, watching the creature's forged parts explode into a million times as many parts as there were stars in the sky, the main thought in his head was: Whoa.  I gotta find out how this works.

                Then everything went to hell.  There was more whipping wind, this time in a highly vertical direction that terrified him more than the sight of the creature's ice breath.  Then his lungs were bashed empty by the impact, which was a lot softer than he expected.

                Saturos scrambled out of the massive snow drift he had created by Breaking the dragon's armor just in time to see it crash- into the Hall of Prox.  The giant silver-blue serpent froze the side of the building, but that wasn't nearly enough to save it.  The wall shattered, and the serpent crashed down to earth again.  Almost.

                It crashed into the Caldera, and red light blazed from the ruined hall.  The white clouds overhead rolled like a thunderstorm was beginning, but they didn't last long.  The Caldera itself seemed to leap into the air, Mars' own finger stretching into the sky.  The clouds vanished, or fled to the horizon, the flame died out, and all that remained was the blackened skeleton of a terrible beast.

                Saturos was aware that the other Proxans were gathering around him, equally astonished by what had just happened.  He wondered vaguely what they would do to him for destroying the Caldera… oh Mars, he had put out the eternal fire…

                It was the only way.  The words echoed in his head again.

                "There you are," said the elder, parting the crowd and striding over to Saturos.

                "Menardi, and Karst, Gerhalt, Agatio, Myri… and Jacia, we found Jacia, they're all outside the city, to the northwest, they'll need help, you have to help them, oh, please, I didn't mean to do that, I didn't know it would happen," Saturos babbled.  The elder pointed at a few Proxans and indicated that they should make themselves useful finding the other children.

                "Come with me," said the elder. 

                "He's toast," he heard someone whisper, though not quietly enough.  Saturos followed in silence out of the hushed murmurs of the crowd, to the smaller Proxan sanctum, and into the elder's private chambers.  He motioned for Saturos to take a seat by the fire, and did so himself.

                "Well, then, we'd best get started.  If you're going to light the four Lighthouses and save Weyard, you're ruddy well not going to do it with Mercury Psynergy," said the elder.

                "What?  But I just-" Saturos began, shocked.

                "That will sort itself out in time.  Be thankful I dragged you away before anyone could start berating you.  Just try to look chastened when you go home later, and we won't need to speak of it again."

                "The Caldera-"

                "Wouldn't have been extinguished if Mars didn't think it should be so.  Now, let's see about something simple.  Flare, perhaps.  And not a word about how tired you are, if you can't learn when you're tired, you're not the one we want after all."

                "He was right," Saturos wheezed, ten years older, standing on the slopes of Mount Aleph.  Rain pelted down around him, and Menardi was standing nearby.  The trees provided little shelter, but were better than nothing, and he would even take rain happily now, compared to the forces unleashed inside Sol Sanctum.  If he would ever be happy again.

                "Who was?" asked Menardi, clutching her bleeding arm.

                "The elder.  Back in Prox, on the day I killed that ice dragon.  He said the Caldera wouldn't be extinguished if there wasn't a purpose.  There was.  Mars wanted to show us that we were becoming complacent.  That we couldn't afford to stay home."

                "Maybe it would have been better if we did," she said, and choked.

                "Gerhalt and Myri," Saturos sobbed, though he looked back at the mountain with only fury in his eyes..  "And Jacia… maybe you're right, Menardi.  But I won't let this be the end of it."

                "We've lost them, Saturos, there's nothing we can do."

                "I know.  But for them, if nothing else, I swear I will find the secret to Sol Sanctum."

                "You won't be alone," Menardi promised.

                Saturos only nodded, and would have fought to keep control if he didn't realise that his tears would hardly make a difference in the torrential storm.  "We'll be back."

                "Those two kids back there… do you think maybe we shouldn't have…"

                "Trust me, Menardi, we did them a favour by knocking them out.  Otherwise they'd end up like us, a couple of people losing friends a long way from home."  Menardi stepped beside him and took his hand, just because neither of them wanted to think about being alone right now.

                "We'll be back," she agreed.