Self-Reliance
Felix struggled to get out from under the thick sheets that held him immobile. "Let me go!" he screamed.
"It would be so much easier if you allowed me to cast Ply," Alex said. He was leaning against the inside of the doorframe.
Saturos and Menardi sat on the bed beside Felix, watching him writhe. Menardi occasionally tighthened the sheets on the bed to make sure that Felix couldn't escape.
"No, no, you can't cast Ply," Saturos said. "He got himself sick, now he can make himself better!"
The ship was moving over the water at a leisurely pace, keeping a constant north-by-northeastern route. Though Saturos usually manned the tiller, Menardi could turn the ship on her own if needed. Before they had forced Felix into bed, they had made sure that the sea ahead was clear, though it had already been several hours since then. The moon was rising over the vacant sea as Felix squirmed beneath his blankets.
"All that you're going to accomplish is to make him vomit all over himself again," Alex said. "He's done it twice already. He's obviously caught a touch of the flu."
"He's obviously caught a touch of the flu," Saturos mimicked, twisting his voice so it was much higher than normal. He shook his head and said in a normal tone, "We knew that. He had pneumonia just before we landed on Kalt Island. He probably still has that in his system as well."
Alex raised his eyebrows, something he had been doing fairly often in the last few hours. "Stomach flu and pneumonia. That could be dangerous. Look, Saturos, one casting of Ply, that's all I ask--"
"No."
"He'll only get sicker! If you let me use Ply even once it will ensure that--"
"I said no."
Alex frowned. "Fine then, if you want to deal with a mortally ill Venus Adept, I suppose that's your problem, not mine." He turned, flipping out his cape behind him and walking out onto the deck of the ship. Moments later, Felix did indeed vomit all over his blankets.
"Another new blanket, Menardi," Saturos said. Menardi handed him one, looking idly out the cabin door. After Saturos had replaced the old blanket, she carried a bucketful of bile-reeking, soiled blankets to the galley, where she would soak them in hot water to wash out the vomit.
"If you'd just let me go to the side of the boat--" Felix started, freeing himself from his blankets enough to sit up. One of his gloved hands swiped his mouth clean of his bile.
"You, whelp, got yourself sick by swimming in the sea to save that fool Kyle," Saturos interrupted. "You can make yourself better as well. Cast a Cure spell! You have enough Psynergy to, and you know it, don't you?"
"Y-yeah. . . ."
"Then cast it! It'll make you better in no time flat! I'm not going to let Menardi or Alex get you out of a situation you got yourself into! Learn to take care of yourself. A day will come when Menardi and I will not be there to do your fighting for you!" Saturos leaned forward and rested his hands on Felix's shoulders. "You must learn to rely on your own strength," he continued, his voice slightly calmer. "While you are with us, Menardi and I will do all the fighting. I'm quite sure we'll be able to handle almost anything that comes our way. But what if we are separated? You must know how to handle a sword, how to use your Psynergy as a weapon, and how to heal yourself and your allies." He leaned back again, folding his arms expectantly. "Well, go on! Do it!" he said, gesturing slightly.
Felix nervously clasped his hands together in a prayer-like position. "But what if I don't get it right?" he asked. "I've only cast it once or twice before."
Saturos' eyes were relentless. "Then you will cast it again and again until you get it right."
Felix swallowed and closed his eyes. His whole body began to glow with golden energy, the color of Venus. The energy flow washed over him as he softly said, "Cure." The energy split into many tiny golden beams, flowing into Felix's body, then subsiding. Felix opened his eyes and looked at Saturos.
"I'd say you did it just fine," the Mars Adept said in a rather gruff tone. "Good job." He stood and walked out of the cabin, leaving Felix alone.
"You should feel honored to receive a compliment from him," a voice from nowhere said. Blue energy shimmered in the air, and Alex suddenly appeared on the foot of Felix's bed.
Felix stared at the older teen. "Where did you--how did you--"
Alex smiled. "I can teleport at will, remember?"
Felix recalled Alex saying something like that on Kalt Island, and nodded numbly.
"Now, let me take care of the rest," Alex continued. "You only know the basic-level Cure, and that's not enough by far to take care of both pneumonia and the flu. Hold still."
"But Saturos said--"
"Do you think I really concern myself with what Saturos says?" Alex asked, shaking his head slightly. "Saturos is blinded by pride, and refuses to believe that a Mercury Adept so much younger than him could possibly be as strong as I am. Now hold still." Alex's tiny fairy appeared in the air, and he whispered, "Pure Ply." The energy flooded Felix's veins, and he felt like an immense warmth was overcoming him. After the fairy vanished, Alex gave Felix a slight smirk.
"I'd best be going now," he said. "Menardi thinks I went to get her some laundry soap. If I'm gone too much longer, she'll wonder. Now, get some rest. It will help you recover." The blue energy shimmered around Alex again, and he was gone.
Felix shrugged and laid back in bed. What he wouldn't give to be back home, playing with Garet and Isaac, teaching them how to use their machetes, to go nab food from the inn's kitchens, to chase the stray cats and dogs around town. . . .
Jenna.
To see Jenna again! He didn't want to imagine what she was going through. She was only a year younger than he was, and they had been very close. In fact, he had ended up in the river by shoving her out of the way of a smaller boulder that had tumbled down Mount Aleph's slopes. Did she blame herself? Did she want to die? What had happened to her?
Felix fell asleep with thoughts of his younger sister running through his head.
"I only sent him to get laundry soap," Menardi muttered, prodding the soaking blankets with a stick. "What could be taking him so long?"
Alex materialized behind her, a small jar in his hand. "I apologize," he said. "I was looking in the wrong cupboard for a bit."
She jumped and let out as light yell, then whirled to face Alex. She put her hands on her hips and scowled at him. "By the Gods, what is wrong with you? Don't startle me like that! Ever!"
Alex's expression was the portrait of innocence. "Well, I just thought since I took so long to find it, I would teleport down here."
"Teleport my foot! You scared me out of my wits!"
"I was only trying to hurry."
"Don't," Menardi yelled, "do that again!"
He set the jar down and gave Menardi a sweeping bow. "Of course not, my queen."
"What was that"--halfway through her question, Alex shimmered with Psynergy and vanished-- "supposed to mean," Menardi finished in a mumble.
Saturos was standing at the wheel, slightly turning the ship toward a more northern route. Rocky reefs lined the waters ahead, but a small passage hid itself between the rocks. That was the route to Prox.
"Are we coming along all right?"
Saturos, like Menardi, jumped slightly, and his hands jerked the tiller very quickly out of surprise. He heard Menardi shriek from below decks, and vaguely hoped that the sudden movement hadn't started Felix vomiting again.
Alex stood behind Saturos, his blue-green eyes slightly wider than normal. "Are all you Mars Adepts this jumpy?"
"What, you mean you did this to Menardi too?" Saturos panted, glancing back at Alex.
"Yes, and she had a reaction remarkably similar to yours. Are all you Mars Adepts the same, or is it just you two?"
"Can you blame me, Alex, if you startled me a bit?"
Alex blinked at Saturos. "Oh, dear! I frightened the great Saturos, did I? How on earth did I manage that?"
"Go to bed, you wretch," Saturos said. "We'll be in Prox by morning. With any luck, Felix will have recovered by then. I only hope he's not still vomiting."
Alex smiled. "I'll be going to sleep, then. Good night." He vanished into thin air, making Saturos shudder.
"How I wish he wouldn't do that!"
Felix tumbled out of his cabin and immediately wished he had donned his cloak. The boat was docked at the edge of an ice-encrusted river, while snow whirled through the sky, hitting his face harder than a fistful of pebbles. Saturos and Menardi were using one of the longboats to haul crates down to the ice-encrusted shore, while Alex teleported all over the ship, picking up and dropping his cargo on the way.
"Are you ready to go?" Alex was suddenly at Felix's side, grinning at him.
"It's so cold!" Felix said, rubbing his bare arms with his gloved hands. "Let me get my cloak and I'll help unload."
Alex vanished, then reappeared with Felix's cloak in his hands. "I'm afraid you're a bit late for unloading, though," the Mercury Adept said, handing Felix the garment. "We're just about done. But you'll have to carry your fair share to Prox. Saturos and Menardi are leaving most of their supplies on the ship to take care of later. It's a different type of cargo you and I will be carrying." Alex put a hand on Felix's shoulder. There was a great rush of air, and Felix suddenly found himself beside the boat, with Saturos and Menardi. He stumbled slightly, shaking his head to try to make the world stand still again.
"If he vomits again because of what you did . . ." Saturos' voice had a warning tone in it.
"He won't. He just needs to take a minute or so to regain his sense of balance. It even happened to me the first time I teleported."
Saturos looked at Felix, who was swaying to and fro like a thin reed in a hard wind. "Right," he said as Felix's swaying finally slowed to a halt. "You and Alex will be hauling that into Prox." He jerked one thumb toward a heaping pile of blankets on a long stretcher. "It's not that far, so I've no doubt you can handle it."
Felix, having straightened the world again, walked over to the blankets to take a closer look. Under the thick covers, he saw the faces of his parents and Kyle, all three of them looking pale and drawn.
He looked up at Saturos. "Will they be all right?"
"Of course they will," Saturos snapped, rubbing his forehead with two of his slim blue fingers. "Now just take it! Prox isn't far, and the more we wait, the colder it's going to get!"
Felix and Alex lifted up the stretcher and followed Menardi and Saturos northward. Felix gazed up at the sky as he walked. No sun was anywhere in sight; the whole northern lands were obscured by angry grey clouds that flung out their snow and hail in thick sheets.
"So it's true," he muttered. "There really isn't any sun in Prox."
There was a crowd of people assembled at the village gates. Felix hesitated, but Alex kept on walking, forcing him to as well. The Proxans all looked fairly similar to Saturos and Menardi; their skin was in shades of green, blue, or pink, with an occasional citizen bearing tones of orange or violet. Their hair ranged in any color imaginable, from black to flaming orange to hot pink. All of them had long, pointed ears sweeping back from their cheeks, and all of their eyes were red.
"Menardi! You're back!" A pale pink-skinned girl pounced on Menardi, wrapping thin arms around the blonde's waist. Her hair was a dark magenta, and her eyes were flaming red. "I missed you! What took you so long?"
"Karst, not so tight, I can't breathe!" Menardi gasped, pushing the younger girl back a bit.
"We saw your ship from here," a green-skinned man said. His hair was bright orange, and his eyes were a dark red.
"You didn't have to come greet us, Puelle," Saturos said. "We were actually somewhat hoping to surprise you. Where's the elder?"
"I am here," a gruff, slightly raspy voice said. The crowds parted to let through a chubby man with thick grey hair and weathered green skin. He leaned on a short wooden cane. "Saturos, Menardi, it is good to see that you have returned." He looked at Alex and Felix, who had set their stretcher down on the ground. Felix was busily tucking the blankets tighter around his parents and Kyle. "But I see you have brought some guests with you, and returned mysteriously short of your original twenty." The chattering crowd suddenly grew very quiet, and the elder asked in a heavy voice, "What has happened?"
Saturos winced and looked at the ground. "There was . . . a trap in Sol Sanctum," he murmured. "Raknohl and"--his voice seemed caught in his throat for a split second-- "Nephtal tried to move a statue to open up the door to the true Sanctum. When they did, though, the mountain became a living nightmare."
"Mount Aleph erupted, and storms swarmed over the whole village," Menardi continued, looking down at Karst as she spoke. "All eighteen of the others were trapped in the Sanctum. Only Saturos and I escaped the volcano's fury."
"And as for them?" Puelle asked, nodding toward Felix, Alex, and the unconscious Valeans.
"Except for the blue-haired one, we found them drowning in Vale's river as we passed," Saturos said. "I didn't want anyone else to die because of our mistake. But the tall man--that one, with the short hair--found out who we were, where we came from, what we did, and he refused to calm down. Cursed people from the North had triggered a storm which nearly destroyed his entire village, nearly killed him, his two friends, and their son. He became a bit hysterical. I can't say I blame him, however. If foreigners had come here seeking something and nearly destroyed this village, I would have reacted in much the same way. Anyway, Felix is a Venus Adept. He's the brown-haired boy, there."
"A Venus Adept?" Karst asked, looking up at Menardi. "So he can cure, and make earthquakes?"
"Not very well," Menardi said. "They didn't teach him much in Vale."
Felix pretended he hadn't heard the remarks about him and nodded to Alex. The two picked up their stretcher again.
"And as for the blue-headed one?"
"Alex? He's a Mercury Adept. We found him on Kalt Island. They'll both be useful for getting in the Lighthouses," Saturos replied.
"Excuse me," Felix interrupted, "but these people need to see a doctor. Kyle's sick, and I think my mom and dad might be, too."
"Let them through," Puelle said. "Mekisha, you take care of them."
A golden-haired woman nodded and gestured to the two boys, who followed her weaving path through the snowdrifts to a small wooden cabin and vanished inside. The village elder followed, waddling slightly and having trouble with his cane.
"You arrived back just in time," Puelle told Saturos and Menardi. "Tomorrow is the Sun Festival."
Menardi blinked. "Already? Is it a little early this year?"
"No, no," Puelle said with a chuckle as the crowds dissipated and returned to the village. "You two have been gone for longer than you realized. Tomorrow is the Festival."
"I'm going to play on the rocks all day," Karst said, looking up at Menardi. "What about you?"
"Aren't you a bit old to be playing on rocks, Karst?"
"You're never too old for that!" Karst protested.
Menardi looked up at Puelle. "We must speak with you later," she said. "About Alex, Felix, and the Valeans."
"Yes, that is a pressing subject, isn't it?" Puelle said with a nod. "For now, however, rest. Eat. You look like starved rats. We will hold ceremonies for your companions at nightfall."
Menardi bowed her head slightly. "Yes," she said, "yes, of course. Come, Karst, let's go home." She and the magenta-haired girl vanished into the village.
"Puelle, we are deeply sorry," Saturos said. "All the village's finest warriors dead--we tried to save them, Puelle--"
"Save your breath, Saturos," Puelle interrupted. "If you believe for even an instant that I blame you for the incident, you are mistaken. It was merely a trap. None could have foreseen what happened." He ran one thick hand through his shaggy orange locks. "On a lighter note, what did the people of Vale think of your message?"
Saturos gritted his teeth and looked at Puelle, his red eyes hardened with rage. "They are fools! I told both their Healer and their Mayor what was happening, but they didn't listen! They wouldn't believe a word Menardi and I said, despite the proof we had. We"--Saturos swallowed in midsentence-- "we had to break into the Sanctum, like common burglars, Puelle, because the Valeans absolutely refused to help us. I never thought I'd have to stoop to the level of a thief, just to save our village from the rift!"
Puelle sighed and shook his head. "I worried that it would turn out like this. If we could reach the Shamans, or find our way into Lemuria, maybe they would help."
"But they are not living in death's jaws," Saturos said. "No. I think we must do this alone. If they react in the same way as Vale did, then we will only increase the worldwide hatred of our Clan. We cannot take that chance, lest we be hunted down."
"You are right," Puelle mumbled. He suddenly looked very tired. "I will see you near the Lighthouse at dusk," he told Saturos.
Saturos bowed and followed Puelle into the village as the snows swirled about him in the wind.
The pyre blazed ferociously, illuminating the dormant walls of the Mars Lighthouse and throwing shadows all over the white landscape. The snows had subsided, and the clouds began to part slightly in preparation for the Festival. Black smoke billowed through the icy air, leaving a sharp burning odor behind it.
Felix didn't understand why he and Alex had been made to come stand in the snow and watch a ceremony that had nothing to do with either of them. It was not their Clan who had died in Sol Sanctum. So why was he being forced to stand out here, shivering and still slightly ill?
Saturos and Menardi stood on either side of the younger Adepts, gazing into the blazing fire. Saturos had removed his armor and streaked his face with blood-red paints. He wore a thick black tunic with a heavy gray cloak wrapped around him, and his headband was gone to let his pale hair flow with the wind.Menardi's face was stained with grey and black paint, and she wore a simple black wool dress. Her blonde locks had even been streaked with the dark face paints to leave her hair in a wild grey mess.
Puelle stood on the other side of the fire, a pile of cloths before him. He clapped his hands once, and the already-silent crowds directed their attention even further toward him.
"We are here today to remember those we have lost in the search for the Elemental Stars." Puelle's voice was very heavy and commanding. "In an attempt to save our village, Prox, twenty of our finest warriors were sent to the city of Vale to hold a conference with their mayor and ask for their assistance. The Valeans refused to accept our pleas and turned us away. The twenty warriors, determined to save our village, sank to the level of burglars and attempted to steal the Stars, since they could not receive them willingly.
"There was a trap in the Sanctum of the Elemental Stars," Puelle continued. "Eighteen of the warriors died in the fiery rage of Mount Aleph. We must thank our father Mars that even two warriors were able to make it back to us." He gestured to Saturos and Menardi.
"We will always remember the sacrifice of our brethren," Saturos said, staring into the fire.
"We cannot forget the blood that they have shed to ensure our village's survival," Menardi added.
"Eighteen of our finest men and women died tonight,"Puelle said. The people of Prox were softly crying; one woman had fallen to her knees as she sobbed. "They were your husbands and wives, brothers and sisters,sons and daughters," Puelle continued. "We will always remember them and what they have given to try to save our village." He picked up one of the cloths. "Since we do not have their bodies to burn, we will burn cloth instead to free their souls from this world's suffering."
One black cloth was tossed into the fire. "For Raknohl."
A man fell to his hands and knees, pounding the icy ground with one fist and screaming in anguish and torment. A pale-skinned woman tried to comfort him, but his screams turned to sobs.
Another cloth went up in flames, this one also black. "For Limilai."
A family of blue-skinned villages huddled together in a sort of group hug, quietly crying together.
A third cloth, tinged with blue. "For Zhenika."
A forlorn man fell to his knees, clutching at a ring on his left hand and shaking with his constant tears. His hair cascaded over his red eyes, which were reddened even more by his uncontrolled sobs.
A red cloth this time. "For Actzir."
A girl about Jenna's age leapt forward, falling to her knees just inches away from the flames. "No! No! You're not dead, big brother, you're not dead! You can't leave me!" she screamed, reaching out toward the flames. An older woman pulled her back just before her fingers met the raging heat, and the girl shrieked and sobbed.
Felix suddenly saw Jenna, standing over an empty grave. No, three empty graves. Isaac and Dora were standing over a fourth. All three of them were crying, and Jenna was shrieking the exact same words as that little girl who had just been dragged away.
Cloth after cloth sent a pillar of smoke into the air. Finally, Puelle lifted up the last piece of fabric, an aqua-green scrap of wool. "For Nephtal," he said, tossing it into the fire.
Saturos had turned around and was embracing a shorter woman with the same skin and hair that he had. Both of them were crying, though Saturos' tears remained silent while the woman's flowed with her choked sobs and cries.
"It's all right, mother, I'm still here," Felix heard Saturos say through his thick tears. "I'll always be here."
And Felix realized that he, too, was crying with the villagers. Everyone had lost someone, something in the disaster. Felix had no right to compare himself to them, and he knew it now. Now he understood that they were the same as him, his parents, and Jenna.
Because he had watched that little girl crying.