Sorry for the lack of updates but inspiration is low and so are chapter titles. Not to mention all those Christmas prezzies were impossible to resist. Then there are my school mock exams (crap name, or what?) to do, so chapters will be few and far between (as my maths teacher says). Please note that the start of the chapter is just a short note on some stuff that happened but wasn't important enough to have its own chapter. Also note that this is the first chapter that will have a brief (very brief) appearance from the GS characters we all know and love.

Disclaimer: I don't own Golden Sun unfortunately. I do however own Daray and his faithful Saturn Djinn. Enjoy.

A New Sun

Chapter 7: Crossings

By Daikar

After their brief (that word sure is popping up a lot) encounter with Polaron, the insane Neptune Adept, the five courageous, young Adepts cured the poison he had inflicted on them at the Sanctum in Kalay, bid farewell to Master Hammet and Layana and continued on their way to Lalivero. Taking a piece of advice from a fellow traveler, they took a shortcut through Gondowan Cave, which had been impossible to go through from Kalay's side but was now a shortcut from Kalay to Tolbi, thanks to some adventurers (I wonder who…). They briefly stopped in Tolbi to heal up, stock up on healing items and buy some new weapons, before continuing on to the continent of Gondowan. They spent a night at Gondowan pass before heading off again. After walking for what seemed like miles they finally came to the village of Suhalla on the outskirts of Suhalla Desert.

"Finally! It's Suhalla! I thought we'd never get here." Daray said falling on his knees.

"We've only been walking a couple of hours! And we rested for a night before that!" Alexis said sharply.

"Yes, well, you weren't awake that whole night on guard duty. We really need to do it in shifts or something." Daray said.

"Okay, okay, we'll sort that out later. Now that we've finally reached Suhalla Desert it's only a matter or crossing it before we reach Venus Lighthouse, and just beyond that is Lalivero. The question is; is there a quicker way of getting there than crossing the desert?" Lilithan said.

"Well, according to this map I borrowed from some guy in Tolbi, there's a mountainous area east of here, and it looks like there might be a way through it." Daray said pointing at a map.

A.N. It actually shows a gap in the mountains on the map in the manual but there's none in the game.

"Well, lets take a vote on it. Who votes we go through the desert?" Nerrissa said. No one so much as twitched.

"Well then, it looks like we're going through the mountains." Daray said.

* * *

Meanwhile in Lalivero;

"It's off to Lemuria!"

"Perhaps that is where we will find Sheba!"

"And Felix and Jenna too!"

"And I'll finally get to see the ocean"

With that the ship began to sail off into the ocean.

* * *

Night had begun to fall on Gondowan by the time the adepts reached the foot of the mountain. They paused for a moment to survey their surroundings before splitting up to find the gap in the mountains. Minutes later they all returned to their starting point.

"So, did anyone find the gap?" Daray asked.

"Assuming no one else did, the answer is no." Lilithan said and nobody disagreed.

"There should be one, it shows it on the map!" Daray said.

"Since not one of us found it, there obviously isn't one, is there?" Alexis said.

"Obviously there must be some mistake on the map. There may have been a landslide since the time this map was drawn up, or something like that." Kith suggested.

"That must be it, but that leaves us with a problem; how are we going to get to Lalivero? The mountain is too big to climb across and it'd take us ages to cross the desert, and we don't have that much time." Daray said.

"We will have to try and find a way through the mountain. A passage of some sort." Lilithan said.

"Or! Or we could try destroying them mountain with our psynergy!" Daray proposed.

"Don't be so ridiculous, none of us are Venus Adepts, and they are the only adepts that would have the power to destroy a mountain." Kith said.

"There must be some other way, maybe the Djinn?" Nerrissa suggested.

"Djinn wouldn't hold enough power for something like that. Not to mention we only have three Djinn between the five of us." Alexis said.

"Alexis is right the Djinn don't have enough power, but if they summoned Uranus, Solus and Pluto their power would be enough to create a way through the mountain." Kith said.

"When did you become an expert on Djinn-related topics?" Daray said smiling.

"Actually, Kith has a point, the Gods of Psynergy do hold a tremendous amount of power." Alexis said.

"I say go for it!" Lilithan agreed.

"I'm not sure, we don't know of anyone who has ever summoned them before. We have no idea what aftereffects there might be. You mightn't even be powerful enough to control their power. I don't think we should do it." Daray said.

"Don't worry. If anything happens we'll have you and Lily here to help. But you might want to stand back." Nerrissa said.

"With that settled, when everyone's ready, concentrate on your Djinn and their power. Then use that power to bring forth the Gods of Psynergy." Kith instructed.

Silence fell around them as Kith, Nerrissa and Alexis focused all their strength into releasing the powers of the Djinn within them. Time passed with no apparent effects, but then Nerrissa began to float into the air. Moments later she was followed into the air by Kith and Alexis, as they floated upward golden beams of light shone down on Nerrissa from somewhere above. She then became encircled in a sphere of this light as similar beams of silver and lilac shone down on Kith and Alexis. Nerrissa then shot straight up into the sky and a blinding flash of golden light emanated from her. Then in her place stood (or hovered/floated) Solus. This same process was repeated for Kith and Alexis until…there floating above Daray and Lilithan were three glowing figures. Sensing the great power these three beings had, both Daray and Lilithan were speechless.

"We have been summoned here by the wielders of the Djinn. We will do as they wish then depart again." They said together.

Silence fell once more as they gathered their strength. Then as quickly as they had appeared they thrust themselves towards the mountain. There was a huge explosion and rubble flew at Daray and Lilithan from all around. Once the dust had settled they could see the remains of the mountain (the remains of the specific area they were trying to get rid of). They looked around for their companions. Feelings of anxiety and despair washed over them, their friends were nowhere in sight.

"I knew we shouldn't have done this. I knew it was a mistake, I should've stopped them." Daray said fearing the worst.

"Don't go all panicky on me. For all we know they might have just been brought further on to Lalivero. The gods didn't come back this way after they removed this part of the mountain, they just went straight on to Lalivero, so maybe that's where the others are." Lilithan said.

"I suppose you're probably right. If they are there we'd better get moving. There is still a way to go before we reach Lalivero." Daray said and together the two of them headed off to Lalivero in search of their friends.

* * *

Somewhere on the leeward side of the mountain; (my geography teacher would be so proud)

"Ohhh, my head…"

She forced herself to get up. She looked around at her fallen companions and decided she had to get them up.

"Guys! Get up guys, it's Alexis. We have to try and find the others." Alexis said.

Kith and Nerrissa stirred. Fighting the urge to stay on the ground they got to their feet.

"Did we do it? Did we make a way through the mountain?" Nerrissa asked drearily only half recovered.

"I'm not sure. But I don't see any sign of Lilithan or Daray." Alexis said.

"Judging by the completely different surroundings I'm guessing that we're on the opposite side of the mountain." Kith said.

"Yeah, that's what I thought myself. I was wondering, do either of you remember anything about what happened?" Alexis said.

"I can't remember a thing. The last thing I remember was I was focusing on Sundrop and its powers but then everything is a blur." Nerrissa said struggling to remember.

"Yeah, it's the exact same for me, except I wasn't focusing on Sundrop's powers. I'm not even sure of what happened, as far as I can tell Uranus and the other gods took over our being." Kith said.

"I suppose that would explain us having no memory of what happened after we began the summoning process. But now we have to try to find the others. It's getting dark and the two of them won't be able to fight off all the fiends on their own." Alexis said.

"Well what are we doing wasting our time talking then? Let's hurry and find the others." Nerrissa said.

* * *

It was totally dark now and Daray and Lilithan, weakened from the constant onslaught of monsters and fiends, were slowly making their way towards Lalivero. But it seemed to them as if they would never make it there. Each time they began to pick up speed they were attacked.

"We have got to find somewhere to take cover soon, we're totally overwhelmed by all these fiends." Lilithan said.

"I know what you mean. If it hadn't been for all those potions and vials you were carrying in your pouch we'd have been downed ages ago. When our quest is all over you should consider becoming a healer in a Sanctum." Daray said.

"Thanks, I might consider doing it sooner than that, the way things are going at the moment I think I'd like to stay in the next Sanctum we come to. At least it can't get any worse than this, we're on our own, being attacked constantly by fiends and monsters and we've run out of potions, this is the worst it could get." Lilithan said.

They continued their hike through the area that used to be covered by mountain. Almost suddenly storm clouds began to amass above them. Then, as if the fates were against them, a downpour began.

"Great, you had to go and say it, 'at least it can't get any worse' that's the same as saying 'I hope I get struck by lightning' it can always get worse, and it usually does." Daray said.

As he said this a bolt of lightning struck a few feet ahead of them.

"See!"

"Whatever happened to mister optimism, this is so unlike you. Maybe we should just light a fire and camp here for the night." Lilithan suggested.

"Uh, it's raining in case you've forgotten. The fire would be put out before we got it started, besides it's best not to stay in one place during a thunderstorm. If we can find shelter we could stop, but we're better off trying to find the others." Daray said.

So they continued on, trudging through the rubble which had now become mud. The ground wasn't the only thing that was wet, their spirits were dampened too by the dreadful weather.

"If you think about, this rain isn't totally bad." Lilithan said.

"How do you figure?" Daray said.

"Well, all this water around the place might strengthen the power of my psynergy. I use deep-water psynergy, and if this weather keeps up pretty soon this place will be pretty deep with water." Lilithan said trying to cheer Daray up a bit.

"That's one good thing as opposed to, oh, how many bad things?" Daray said.

"Oh, about eleven counting those three orcs, two kobolds and warrior bee." Lilithan said getting ready for yet another battle.

'Daray lunged at the warrior bee slicing it in two with his sword. But then from both sides of him two of the orcs decided to play sandwich with him. After these blows he struggled to stand.

"Daray, look out!" Lilithan shouted as a kobold ran at him.

"Cloak" Daray disappeared leaving the bewildered kobold swinging his sword all around him.

"Siren" a beautiful maiden appeared and began to sing a sweet, soothing melody, which lulled two of the orcs to sleep and relaxed everything else.

Daray took advantage of their drowsy states and his invisibility to attack the kobolds.

"Prevent them from attacking with some psynergy." Daray ordered Lilithan.

"Whirlpool" the water that had been gathering around them since the beginning of the storm now began to form into a whirlpool around the kobolds.

But the active orc managed to break through the whirlpool and bashed into Daray. The force of the orc's charge made Daray lose his concentration and he was visible once more. Severely weakened and visible Daray was completely defenseless.

"Evil Mist" with his last ounce of strength Daray conjured the dark mist to weaken his enemies. One of the kobolds screamed in pain and dissolved into nothingness.

"Daray, you've got to get up, I can't hold them off on my own." Lilithan cried to him.

The orcs, now awake, charged at her but Lilithan dodged them.

"Low Tide" using the last of her psynergy Lilithan drenched the orcs and the kobold with water. The last kobold dissolved.

"Now what?" Lilithan said as a bright light began to glow in the distance, "Another group of fiends who want to attack us, well let them attack." '

* * *

Going back in time a little bit to see what the others had been doing. It had just begun to rain.

"We have to find them quickly, before this rain gets really bad." Nerrissa said.

"How are we supposed to find them? It's pitch black and now it's raining, it'll be impossible to see through the rain." Alexis said.

"If only our psynergy could help us!" Kith said.

"That's it, Ki-Thian you are a genius." Nerrissa shouted.

"Wow, you're using my full name, it must be a real good idea for you to do that." Kith said laughing.

"I'll use my psynergy. Guiding Light! Lead us to our friends." Nerrissa said. A small bright golden light appeared. It waved to and fro a bit before heading off ahead of them at lightning speed. "All we have to do is follow this light and it will lead us to Daray and Lily!"

"Great, but if it continues at that pace we won't be able to keep up with it." Alexis said nodding after the light, which was now a few feet away from them and still going fast.

"Whoa, slow down a bit. You'll be of no use if we can't see you." Nerrissa said. But she needn't have said it because the little light was so bright it could be seen even from miles away.

So the three travel companions followed the light. For ages they followed it, then finally it seemed to stop and let them catch up to it.

"Why has it stopped? Are they over there?" Kith asked.

"I'm not sure, I've never used it to locate people. Only to find my way home when I got lost." Nerrissa said.

The light seemed to be excited about something. It kept dancing about in its place. When they finally caught up to it they looked around but they saw…

"Nothing! There's nothing here!" Alexis exclaimed.

"Calm down Alexis. Look it keeps moving slightly forwards in that direction. They must be just down there." Kith said.

"Where? There! All I see are some orcs fighting." Alexis said.

"Yeah, and there's something there, lying on the ground." Nerrissa said pointing. "Now the puddles are all, sort of, attacking the orcs."

"That makes no sense. Water doesn't att-" Kith began.

"Lilithan!" they all shouted finally coming to the realization that they were watching a battle between some orcs and their companions.

"Which means that thing on the ground must be Daray. I think he's been downed by the orcs." Alexis said.

"We'd better hurry to help them." Kith said.

* * *

'Lilithan all alone in the fight dug her hand into her pouch and pulled out a small claw. This was her last chance if it didn't work she was doomed. She threw the weasel's claw into the air and instead came down three piercing gusts of wind right at the orcs. This enraged the orcs. Then she heard three voices not so far away.

"Light of Life"
"Blade Flare"

"Snow Storm"

As these words were uttered a single shining silver blade drove through the orcs. Then a storm of freezing snow raged around them. A bright golden beam of light shot at Daray it absorbed him in warmth and he got to his feet energized.

"Thank goodness you found us. I thought we were done for." Lilithan said to the rescue squad.

"You're lucky we got here in time. Now lets finish these orcs off!" Kith said.

"Freeze, I call upon you, come forth and release your power!" Alexis beckoned. Then in her hand appeared the small ice blue Djinni. Then the power of the Djinni was unleashed and blasts of ice shot at the orcs, destroying all but one.

"Ha ha. Let me finish this. Slash, I call upon you, come forth and release your power!" Kith beckoned. Then as before a small Djinni appeared in his hand. It was small and silver, with a rounded sort of body, pointy ears and a short furry tail. It then shot out of Kith's hand and struck the orc, killing it.'

"Where were you guys, and, what the hell took you so long!" Daray roared.

"As far as we can tell, after the summoning we were whisked over the mountain. But other than that we can't remember a thing, strange huh?" Nerrissa said.

"Not really considering what happened." Lilithan said.

"What do you mean Lily?" Nerrissa said.

"After you began to summon the gods you all went into some sort of trances, then you began to glow and then in your places were the gods. So it makes sense that you wouldn't remember since you weren't technically there." Lilithan explained.

"Of course, that makes sense, I suppose. Now that that's all cleared up we should get moving towards Lalivero." Kith said.

And they did, a lot easier this time. With the five of them fighting together they were better able to handle the constant attacks. They traveled through the night and as the sun was rising above them they saw something sparkle on the horizon.

"What is that, it keeps shining in my eyes, I can barely see where I'm going." Alexis said.

"Is that water? We're not that close to the ocean, are we?" Daray asked excitedly.

"No, but if you look at your map you'll notice that there is a river running between here and Lalivero, we'll have to cross it to reach the town." Lilithan said.

"So, what are we supposed to jump the river or swim across it?" Alexis asked.

"Aww, I thought we could go for a dip in the ocean, but I guess a river will have to do." Daray said only slightly disappointed. "Last one in is a Sun Adept!"

"Hey, what's wrong with Sun Adepts? I'm gonna drown you for that." Nerrissa said and chased after Daray.

As Daray and Nerrissa ran to the river the others walked slowly and looked at their surroundings. Eventually they reached the river where Nerrissa and Daray were messing about.

"Come on in guys, the water's great." Nerrissa said.

"If you don't mind I'd rather not." Alexis said.

Daray got out to join the others.

"Don't be such a spoil sport, it's fun. Chill out, here feel it." Daray said and pushed Alexis in before jumping in himself.

"You're going to pay for that. Frost!" Alexis said and the water just around Daray froze.

"Hey, don't be mean. It's freezing cold now, I'll catch my death." Daray said indignantly.

"You're the one who said to chill out!" Alexis laughed.

"Actually, this gives me an idea. For those of you who don't fancy a splash in the river, Alexis can freeze the water into a sort of bridge, but" Daray began, "you'll have to hurry 'cos the ice melts pretty quickly."

"That's a good idea, I'm not opposed to getting wet but it's more practical to walk across the ice." Kith said.

"Frost!" Alexis cast the psynergy and froze a path wide enough for three people to cross the river.

So they crossed the river and pulled a reluctant Daray out of it, and continued on to Lalivero. Not too long later they finally reached the entrance to the place where they'd been longing to see since they left Vale so long ago.

"Well, it's about time!" Daray said.

End of chapter 7.

Now that they've reached Lalivero what quests await them? Obviously, or at least it should be obvious, they're going to have to find a way to catch up to Isaac and crew's ship, but how? Review and keep reading to find out. Oh and to hnilmik: I couldn't remember if you started out with Djinn so I'll have you discovering one soon. For anyone who wants to see it, there is a picture of a Sun Djinni on this page: