Chapter Two: All You Need Is Luff
"I just don't get it," said Crystal. "Everywhere feels normal except over that wall." The seventy-two Djinn were staring with considerable confusion at the wall the Adepts had scaled just a few minutes earlier. They remembered that much, but nothing from the moment they crossed over.
"Why would we have left them?" asked Balm.
"Not intentionally," Scorch said, certain.
"You don't think… they could be dead…" mumbled Gasp.
"No," said Bane, old memories stirring darkness in his mind. "No, you'd never forget your Adept dying. There's no blackout. It's all very clear." The other Djinn were silent.
"Well, that's good," said Echo, rather brightly. Silences made him nervous. The other Djinn stared at him, except for Bane, meaning that a mere seventy elementals had just turned their gaze on him.
"What did happen, then?" asked Luff.
"If any of us remembered, we'd have said so by now," Gel pointed out.
"And that's going to stop me from asking?" growled Luff.
"Doubt it. Not much has stopped you from complaining in the last few millennia," muttered Torch. "Just barely avoid Apocalypse-by-army-of-the-undead-and-generally-unpleasant-people? Kept whining. Lighthouses go out, throwing a shadow of dying Psynergy over the land? More whining. Finally find heroes to save the world, and by the way, they do? Complaints from dawn to dusk and dusk to dawn."
"Torch, shut up," said Fury. "You're not helping."
"Everyone chill a bit," said Tinder, getting scattered giggles from the younger Djinn. "I mean it. This is serious, and if we want to get our Adepts back, we can't be fighting like this."
"Too much time spent around speech-making humans," muttered Salt.
"And not enough spent by you," Tinder snapped back.
"Why are you the leader?" demanded Wheeze.
"Since when is she the leader?" demanded Bane.
"No Mars Djinn's going to lead us while I'm conscious!" growled Serac. Balm sighed and focused inwards, trying to ignore the sounds of the other Djinn and gather Psynergy. There was no water nearby, it would take a lot of power to do something like this, but there wasn't any other quick solution…
When the massive wave had spread out into the world's thinnest pond, every Mercury Djinn found themselves under severe scrutiny, all suspects in the mass soaking.
"Go ahead, Tinder," said Balm.
"I haven't been knocked out yet," Serac grumbled, but she didn't go on.
"Look, if they aren't dead and we can't feel a thing over that wall, maybe it's because there's something strange that keeps us and our powers out of there? Maybe even all Psynergy, which would mean that our Adepts are in serious trouble, so let's do what we were born for and help them. Arguing amongst ourselves just gives more time for bad things to happen in," said Tinder. "How would you like to find out what your Adept dying feels like, Serac?"
"I already know!" Serac shouted, and Tinder drew back. "It haunts my very existence!" She closed her eyes and took a few deep, steadying breaths. "I won't let it happen again, either. You're right, Mars or not. Let's get in there and find our Adepts."
While the Djinn were discovering precisely how hard it was to get into Lunpa, the darkness in Isaac's head was slowly fading to make room for the pain, which stated very clearly at the beginning that it intended to be a big part of his life for the next couple of days. There was already quite a lot of it, and it was multiplying like a times-table seen through a kaleidoscope.
"How is he?" asked a voice. A friendly voice. One he had known for years… Jenna. That's it.
"I don't know for sure. But I don't think the arrowhead cut too badly. It was just some kind of toxin that dropped him. Smells like a Sleep Bomb, doesn't it? Probably refined and boiled with sap, like the Kolima used to make to fend off wolves." That was another voice, and even if it wasn't his favourite sound in the world, Isaac would have known it, because he didn't know any other healers that good.
Slowly, doing his best to ignore the way air molecules caused him to ache but finding it strangely difficult, Isaac rose to a sitting position. His eyes adjusted from the dark of unconsciousness to the dark of the room he was in, and decided that it was a cell. The rough stone walls, thick iron bars and heavily locked door all suggested this from past experience. Adding to the general surreality of the day -because the day Isaac considered losing to a bunch of armoured thieves anything less than paranormal was the day he decided what he really wanted was to be a Jupiter Adept- was a sign. It hung on the wall opposite the cell, which was mostly dank stone, and had this to say:
Your chances of escape are about as high as your Psynergy levels, you pathetic losers. Yeah, I'm talking about you, Isaac of Vale.
The one benefit to having just returned to the realm of the nearly-upright was that his thinking hadn't had a chance to become especially cluttered yet. So, rather than trying anything strenuous and possibly embarrassing, Isaac focused a bit of power and tried to cast Cure Well on himself. He didn't get even a little spark of light, the type of thing that might suggest he was simply very low. Isaac had no Psynergy left.
He crawled over to Mia and Jenna. "How is everyone?" he asked softly.
They turned sharply, not expecting him. "You're nearly the last to wake up," said Mia, and Isaac was a little surprised that she didn't seem happier to see him. A quick kiss on the cheek, even just a hand on his shoulder would have meant something. He reached out himself, but Mia moved on to check Garet.
"Weird," Jenna commented. In the distance, a droplet of water fell and echoed in a properly cavernous manner.
"What?" asked Isaac, too quick to be natural.
"You've never been a good liar, Isaac. What's up with Mia?"
"I can't imagine," he answered, truthfully and helplessly. He looked down at the Adept Mia had been diagnosing. Even in the darkness, a big guy with blue hair was easily recognisable. "Any more than I can imagine how they got Picard. What happened to him?"
"Mia said this thing is a crossbow-dart, a kind of weapon that was supposed to be very common on Angara a couple of centuries ago, when the world was… what did she say… in decline. The Mercury Clan knew a lot more about the sealing of Alchemy than she thought, she just didn't know they did. Apparently things were pretty wild while stuff started to crumble," said Jenna.
"That was way more than you needed to tell me," Isaac remarked. Jenna went slightly red. They both knew that she started talking a lot when she was scared. Not the kind of concern you get in battle, but the real bone-deep fear of the helpless child in the night.
"Ivan and Sheba woke up fast. Maybe being younger meant they recovered better than the rest of us," Jenna suggested. "Anyway, they can't use Mind Read and it's freaking them both out. They're over in the corner, talking."
"Just talking?" asked Isaac.
"Yes."
"We're in a cell, badly hurt, without Psynergy, they're in a dark corner, and they're still just talking," Isaac listed, making sure he understood.
"Maybe they really don't have secret crushes."
"Oddly enough, I'm starting to think you're right. Almost disappointing, really."
"Now you're babbling, Isaac."
"Oh, quiet."
"I am being quiet. …Why am I being quiet?"
"Whispering just felt natural, I guess," Isaac whispered back. "What about Felix?"
"You didn't notice?" Isaac looked around and saw a deeper shadow against the wall near the door, one roughly the size of Felix, if he was sitting in his I-am-not-really-in-this-world-so-don't-bother-me position. "I think he's blaming himself for getting taken out so fast."
"I thought he was over that sort of thing."
"About as much as he's over the last battle with Agatio and Karst," Jenna replied, a bit sarcastically. Isaac nodded gravely. He had no way of knowing what they were, but the defeat of the Flame Dragons, who were simply trying to save Prox and even the rest of Weyard, preyed heavily on his mind to this day. Isaac suspected it always would, and he really couldn't blame him for it. It was healthy for a hero to have at least one victory he almost didn't want in the back of his mind.
"Any good leads?" asked Isaac, even more quietly.
"Nothing. Strong bars, no Psynergy, no keys on rings on the other side of the wall, not a single sleepy guard in sight, and entirely devoid of hidden passageways," Jenna reported.
"How do you know that?" asked Isaac, looking puzzled.
"I tapped stones for about half an hour. Nothing slid back, revealing a mysterious tunnel that let in ominous red light or strange sounds or anything."
"This is the most boring cell I've ever seen," said Isaac. He looked at Mia. If they couldn't go anywhere, he might as well find out what was going on.
"How can there be nothing?" asked Bane, annoyed.
"We've been searching as thoroughly as sixty-eight Djinn can search, Bane," said Wheeze. "There are no secret doors, no cracks in the wall, and no caves that might happen to lead deep into the heart of the fortress."
"The old ways are dying out, I tell you. Might as well have a dungeon cell with no secret passages," said Fury, shaking her head.
"Or a supreme weapon without a tiny glaring flaw that's fortunately possible for the hero to notice and exploit while it's just being prepared to use," Sleet suggested.
"Or an archvillain not having a secret vulnerability like being terrified of mirrors-"
"Wait," said Sap, cutting the others off. "What about that tunnel the Adepts used the first time to sneak into Lunpa?"
"Sealed," Fever reported, one eyelid twitching as his sanity fluctuated a bit.
"That's going to stop us Djinn?" demanded Forge.
"Not bloody likely!" screamed Fizz, charging off into the trees.
"Zephyr, go get her," said Luff, frowning. "Where is the tunnel, anyway?"
"This way," said Fever, ricocheting off a tree as he started toward the cave. The other Djinn followed, wondering if they were going to be attacked by monsters at any moment, as happened to the Adepts so often, but, strange as it sounds, creatures tend to stay away from what appears to be a calm stampede of more than seventy powerful elemental beings.
The tunnel was right where they had left it, many months ago, but the iron gate inside was not. Instead, there was a huge pileup of massive rocks that silently screamed 'I am in your way and there's nothing you can do about it'. Then they laughed rudely.
"Oh, I'll show them!" Iron promised, rushing at the collapsed wall.
"You'll what?" asked Smog. Because, while Venus Djinn might get such ideas about rocks, they were pretty well alone in that category. Fortunately, the phrase 'unleash the fury of the Djinn' became a phrase for a very good reason, and after a minute or so of furious Psynergy-shouting, the rocks had been shredded, which is quite the feat when facing granite. Of course, Granite facing granite is no contest, so the others weren't too surprised. What happened next was a different matter.
The tunnel was absolutely dark to those with normal sight, but to Djinn who could sense stone, or wind, or heat, or the water that permeated everything, it wasn't exactly a difficult path to follow. Unfortunately, just at the blackest point, when no light was reaching them from either end, something very strange happened. Everything went black. Again. Well, yes, everything already was black, but it didn't bother them until their element senses went dark too.
"Hold up. I can't see a thing," said Echo. "Where are you?"
"You're not the only one," Kite called out. "No one move, I don't want this getting crazy."
"Can you see anything, Bane?" Luff whispered, not much liking speaking to the Djinni, but having no choice, since Bane was his only senior.
"Just barely," Bane replied. This was a blatant lie, but the others were unnerved enough to latch onto it like a drowning Golem thrown a life preserver. "It's pretty fuzzy," he added for good measure.
"Oh, give up on it," Crystal snapped, disapprovingly. "Our Psynergy has been blocked."
[Author's Notes] My thanks to all have reviewed (I feel so wanted) and extra thanks to people who are just about to review. You're going to, right? …Right?