Chapter 3
Ivan stared blankly down
at Isaac, not fully registering what was happening. He watched the red
liquid soaked in the mud, coloring the earth the shade of terra cotta.
He felt himself grip his new glaive and pointed it at Isaac.
Kill him* the voice from
inside ordered Ivan, who was merely a mindless zombie forced to follow
his every command. Ivan was only a pawn to his will.
*No.* Ivan painfully forced
the thought, trying to fight against the dark force growing within him.
*You defy me?* The voice
grew stronger in his mind, as if trying to scare Ivan into doing what it
wanted.
"Faythe, you're job was
to take control of the Jupiter Adept, not to kill anyone." An unknown voice
said to the shadowy spirit growing within Ivan's mind.
Faythe was startled by the
voice and began to falter," Alex, I should have known."
A glowing light emerged
before Ivan, forming into a human Body. Rings of white and blue encircled
the growing light. When the light faded it revealed Alex. "I'll repeat
myself, leave Isaac alone." Alex stared down at the leader of the group,
who was now lying unconscious on the ground in a puddle of his own blood.
The warrior who had defeated
Saturos and Menardi on top of the Venus Lighthouse, now completely at his
mercy. "Come out of hiding Faythe." Alex said boldly, unafraid of the dark
spirit. Alex waited for him to appear, but Faythe remained silent. "I'm
not going to hurt you Faythe. Neither is Isaac or Ivan. I just want to
talk to you face to face that's all."
"What do you want? Why can't
I kill him?" Faythe asked, appearing in front of Alex. Faythe wore an aura
of power around him like a cloak. His golden eyes glowed subtly in the
rain, his silver hair hidden under the hood of his cape. He held out his
weapon, and intricate staff made of silver and gold, glaring at Alex mistrustfully.
Alex smiled at him. Faythe
was much younger than Alex, and new to the group. Faythe, despite his young
age, was special. He was a Spirit Adept. "Saturos and Menardi wanted Isaac
alive if possible." Alex explained.
"Alive? Why?"
"Haven't you been paying
attention at all Faythe?" Alex moved a strand of his blue hair out of his
eyes. "Isaac is the leader of the group that's been following us. Without
him, they're nothing. And Saturos and Menardi wanted him personally." Their
leaders assumed that Garet, Ivan, and Mia would not be able to complete
their task without their leader at hand. They thought that once they remove
one of the Adepts from the group they would be rendered useless, but that
may not be the case.
"What if I don't want to
take him back?" Faythe's eyes narrowed.
"You'll regret it," Alex
drew his sword.
"No!" a woman dashed out
of
the tree cover and placed herself between Alex and Faythe, her arms outstretched
and glaring at Alex with bright silver eyes, her brown hair quickly soaked
by the rain. Another special adept, a Metal Adept, by the name of Kreesha.
"Don't hurt him!"
"I won't if he'll just follow
orders," Alex backed up a step, he wasn't overly fond of Kreesha.
Faythe folded his arms.
"Fine, we'll take him back." he motioned Ivan by a simple nod to retract
his weapon.
Ivan obeyed in an instant
acting just like a mindless zombie.
"You're tired," Kreesha felt Faythe's
fore head with the inside of her wrist. "I'll help, here."
She held out one hand, and
liquid metal encircled Ivan's wrists. The twin rings solidified into thick
silver manacles, the symbol of the fire clan in gold. Faythe's eyes glowed
for an instant, sealing the spell. When he was done, he looked tired indeed.
"Take Ivan back, I'll handle Isaac." Alex waited for Faythe to nod, "I'll
come back in a second."
Within a matter of moments,
Faythe used his Psynergy to teleport with Ivan and Kreesha. Alex sighed
in relief, happy that Faythe was at least not listening to him.
He turned his attention
toward Isaac and knelt next to him. "Good, you're still alive." he muttered
softly, hoping Faythe wasn't in the area. "You're wounds are deep." he
cursed. He knew the ways that the body worked, and how wounds could affect,
he was a healer, after all. "Ply." Alex silently whispered to himself as
his hands began to glow a soft azure like an angel's. He put his hands
over the deep wound. The skin that was damaged seemed to meld together
as if it were some sort of cloth being sewn, "That'll have to do it for
now." He said making a weak smile on his face knowing that Isaac would
be fine, eventually. Or at least alive until Menardi and Saturos saw him.
Isaac breathed in deeply,
groaning in pain. He was regaining consciousness. At least it was some
sort of sign that he was okay.
"I'm sorry." Alex muttered,
picking him up. "I have no choice."
Alex began to glow with
blue and white light. Isaac, being in physical contact with him, began
to glow the same color. Rings of Psynergy encircled him, and he concentrated
on where he was teleporting, and was gone.
***********************************************************************************************
Garet paced back and forth, muttering something under his breath that
no one could understand. He was worried sick about his best friend, hoping
he would return soon.
"Garet, it's not your fault."
Mia tried to comfort him, but by the way Garet seemed to ignore her it
didn't seem like she was helping the situation in the least bit. "Maybe
Isaac just went out for a walk or something."
He stopped and glared at
her. "Sure, he was only gone four hours ago. He said he'd be back soon.
Something's wrong." Garet trailed off into his own thoughts, thinking about
the different scenarios that his best friend may be in, some scenarios
resulting in serious injury, even death.
"Isaac can take care of
himself. He's fine." She tried again to help Garet, trying to get to him,
but Garet was known to be thick headed, and it was hard to change his mind
on certain matters.
"No he's not Mia! Something's
wrong. What if he got hurt out there?" he was silent, thinking about the
worst. "What happens if he's he's-" He was cut off by Mia.
"Garet, listen to me..."
Garet cut her off. "No Mia,
you listen. I've known Isaac ever since we were little kids. I know Isaac
too well. He's hurt badly hurt. He would never take this long. Even Ivan
wouldn't be out for this long. Something happened to them. I'm going out
to look for them, and there's nothing you can do to stop me." He told her
everything flat out, he did know Isaac the best out of everyone and knew
his patterns. Maybe Mia was right, but Garet needed to assist his best
friend in whatever situation he might have gotten himself into. He walked
over to where his cloak, armor and weapons were and started to put them
on.
Mia put her hands on his
trying to stop him. "Garet, it's too dangerous. It's pouring rain out there.
I already have two friends out there, I don't need to lose you too."
"I'll be fine." Garet pulled away, trying to be bold and brave, also
loyal to his friends, "Isaac's in trouble. Just let me help him, Mia."
"Fine. Then I'm going with
you." Mia glared at him and placed her hands on her hips as if to say "whether
you like it or not." Garet stared at her in amazement. "Really?"
"If it means that much to
you, yes." She was the cautious one out of the two, she didn't want anything
to happen to him.
"We need to hurry and find them. If anything happens to Isaac, I don't
know what I'll do." Garet admitted as he handed her cloak along with her
weapons and armor.
***********************************************************************************************
Isaac groaned, slowly becomming aware of his surroundings, "What happened?"
Isaac said, feeling groggy. His head was pounding and he couldn't concentrate
properly. He was confused wondering how he wound up from finding Ivan to
be wherever he was.
"So, you're finally awake."
A unknown deep voice said.
"Where am I?" he asked quietly
as he slowly sat up. Isaac placed his hand on his chest, feeling the wound.
"What the-" He cut himself off, wondering how all of this happened, and
wondering how he could not remember any of it.
"I wouldn't move if I were
you," the voice was still unclear.
Memories began to flash
back like a flood. Small shards of what had happened before the whole encounter
with Ivan. They slowly came together, like pieces of a puzzle. Had Ivan
really attacked him? Isaac opened his eyes to reveal: "Alex!" he began
to back up, only to meet with bars behind him, and groaned realizing he
was contained within this cell.
"I though I told you to
stay still." Alex smiled, looking surprisingly gentle, almost like Mia
after she healed a serious
wound.
"What did you do to Ivan?"
Isaac demanded.
Alex frowned. "I didn't
do anything to him. Don't worry, no harm will come to him, depending on
how much he cooperates," The gentleness on Alex's face was replaced by
a smirk.
"Harm?" he glared icily at him.
"He's under a temporally
spell." a female voice answered. Isaac looked over in the direction where
the voice was coming from to see a dark figure approach them. He couldn't
make out her face in the dim light.
Isaac turned. "Who are you
and what have you done to Ivan?"
"My name is Kreesha. We
need Ivan to work with us. Faythe just separated his soul from his body
for the time being. No harm will come to Ivan as long as he cooperates."
"Faythe?" Isaac question
being confused about this whole situation, not understanding most of it.
He didn't even know who she was, and it seemed Alex was the only one he
did know. Isaac stared at the boy next to her. He couldn't have been the
one, could he? He looked even younger that Ivan. His silver hair shimmered
in the shadows. Isaac would not underestimate anyone because of their size,
even though Ivan was small he had strong Psynergy attacks, so this 'Faythe'
might have been small, but have immensely powerful Psynergy.
"Where's Ivan?" Isaac demanded.
"That's none of your concern."
Kreesha answered.
"What do you want with me
and Ivan?" Isaac now just wanted some answers. Then figure out some sort
of plan of how to solve whatever mess he was currently in.
"We don't want you," Isaac's
attention turned towards Alex. "An old enemy does."
Isaac cocked an eyebrow.
"An enemy?" Chills began to run up his spine.
"We need Ivan to get us
into the Jupiter Lighthouse."
"We can't get into it without
a Jupiter Adept."
Isaac froze. *Saturos and
Menardi? They couldn't still be alive, could they?*