Reviews:

Skarecrow- Yeah, I thought I got all of them, but I recently changed all the Piers's to Picard. Guess I missed one. The Stone of the Sages thing surprised me too when it didn't appear. Maybe the story will explain that more later....Muhahaaa....Thanks for reviewing bud!

Cerise- Though sometimes I like to consider myself a genius, I know I'm giving way more credit to myself than I deserve. Glad you are liking the story so far and many thanks for taking the time to review.

Master of Reality- And of course my faithful reviewer who prevented me from posting in utter embarrassment with zero reviews. A couple of words from you was all it took to make this author happy. My thanks is beyond words. And now just for you, here's Isaac and co.

Disclaimer: Don't own Golden Sun or any of the characters.

Chapter IX

- A Step in the Right Direction -

The Wind Chaser circled around the water to where Poseidon had retreated until the crew were sure that the danger was gone. The Chaser then hovered to the side of the Tolbi-bound vessel, extending a plank to connect the two ships. Picard then walked across clutching the mighty Trident by his side. In his wake, four strong-looking Lemurian men closely followed.

"Troubled seas already?" Picard asked sarcastically after approaching the adepts.

"Indeed," Felix replied, playing along with a face of unmistakable seriousness. "Though if we didn't have an acquaintance who so pleadingly begged to take the Trident home with him, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"A weapon of such craftsmanship should never be in the hands of a Venus adept. They would simply poke their eyes out."

"And a Mercury adept could do better?"

"A trident is a weapon of finesse and as we all know, Venus adepts are not known for such prowess. But in the hands of an artist, the trident can quickly and decisively pierce the heart of your enemy before they can pierce yours. Essentially, I have done you a favor by allowing the Trident to work its beauty through an able catalyst."

The two stared at each other without a word but could not hold straight faces any longer.

"Picard!" Felix said, arms wide open. "Good to see you again you old scalawag!"

"Same to you old friend!" Picard laughed as they both gave a quick embrace.

"So what in the world are you doing here?"

"Saving your life if I recall correctly."

"But how did you know where to find us?"

Before Picard could answer him, Jenna and Isaac approached the two to greet their Lemurian companion.

"Hey you," Jenna said smiling, wrapping her arms around his neck. "You didn't stay long last time you came to see us. You going to this time?"

"Well it seems that I may have no choice since you all have gone and made a nemesis out of a spirit."

"As I understand," Isaac commented, "Poseidon was de-spiritized, wasn't he?"

Picard grinned and extended his hand to him. "De-immortalized yes, but a spirit just the same," he said as they both shook hands. "And since we're on the subject of greetings, who are your friends?"

Isaac looked at Sean and Ouranos to of whom Picard was referring to. "A fellow adept and his companion," he replied. "Sean here kept us alive until you came along."

Sean looked unfazed by the compliment but nodded his head in acknowledgement. Picard could of only imagined what had transpired before he arrived, so he decided to take Isaac's word for it.

"You have my thanks, Sean, for sometimes my friends don't realize the extent of the danger they put themselves in."

"It was nothing," Sean replied. "Besides, that monster was not just attacking all of you, but the ship as well. I plan on winning Collosso this year and I don't plan on anything getting in my way."

"You have my thanks just the same," Picard said as Sean and Ouranos retreated below deck.

Felix watched the two leave with a slowly developing contempt, but averted his gaze in full knowledge that despite Sean's ego, he had saved all their lives.

"So tell us, how did you know where to find us?" Felix repeated to Picard.

"I was told."

"What?" Jenna asked in surprise.

"Yes, I was told by someone."

"Who?" Felix questioned sharing the bewilderment of his sister. Right when he asked this however, the four Lemurians that had accompanied Picard of the Wind Chaser stepped aside to reveal a sixth party. Felix looked at the girl before him as his heart skipped a beat. She was not a girl at all, but in actuality a young woman whose features startled him. Her hair had grown well past her shoulders since the last time he saw her. The eyes however, retaining the blue wonder he was always used to seemed undeniably melancholy. Felid hadn't seen her since Isaac and Jenna's wedding twelve years ago. She had grown from an awkward young girl into something exotic, as if her beauty wasn't of this world. This meeting was inevitable, but he expected it to happen in Lalivero. Sheba had once again caught him off guard...

It had been two months since Sheba had been taken from her family in Lalivero. Saturos and Menardi now held her captive after they had secretly stolen her from her prior captor, Lord Babi.

The party rested in silence as the Venus Lighthouse towered high above them. The two fire adepts eventually retreated into their separate tents leaving Sheba and Felix by themselves.

"You're different from them, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am."

"But you still follow them! Look, they are asleep and if were quick about it, we can escape! You don't have to stay Felix, let's go!"

Felix chuckled. "As a prisoner, you are in no position to try and make your captor escape with you. Second of all, I would rather die than let you flee. This is why Saturos and Menardi sleep so soundly tonight, for they know this."

"But why?" Sheba asked desperately. "Why do you follow their destructive paths?"

"I do not follow anyone. I simply just have the same goals as they do."

"And what are their goals? To pillage, kidnap and plunder?"

"Girl, you do not understand."

"All I understand is that you are in the wrong crowd, and for what reasons I intend to find out."

"What are you going to do, mind read me?"

"Maybe I will."

"If you can free yourself from those shackles and can get close enough to do so, please, be my guest."

Sheba scowled at him and struggled hopelessly to try and move from where she was. She let out a scream of frustration as she fell hard to her side. Unable to put herself upright, she stopped trying as tears silently rolled down her cheek. The moon was full and its shimmer transformed her tears into sparkling sapphires. Without a sound, Sheba turned her head away from him so that he wouldn't see her crying. Felix sighed, for he had caught a glimpse of he shimmer, and reluctantly decided to walk over to her. He stood above the girl and looked behind him at Saturos and Menardi's tents. Kneeling down, he pulled a key from his cloak and unlocked the shackles binding Sheba's hands and feet. Two tear-stained eyes looked sorrowfully into his.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice broken and soft.

"You won't run," Felix replied, ignoring her question.

"Only because you have intrigued into knowing why you're taking these off me."

Felix grinned. "Then I guess that's that. I'm going to sleep."

Sheba wiped the tears from her eyes and crawled to where Felix was lying down. She sat down next to his head and looked at him.

"Why are you really here?"

Felix opened his weary eyes and gazed upon the heavens reminiscently. He didn't know why he was about to talk with this girl, but for some reason, it felt so right; him a prisoner of the duty he had sworn himself to, and her a prisoner bound by shackles. Regardless of for whatever reason, he spoke anyway.

"Have you ever felt that the world was just to massive for one person to really make a difference in?" he began. "Just to massive to let your fate be controlled by your own will alone and not by the cosmic pull of everything else?"

"I'm a female, fourteen-year old prisoner," Sheba smirked. "I think it's safe to say that I'm feeling pretty helpless right now."

"Then you know the feeling?" Felix asked, cracking the smallest of smiles.

"Yes, I do."

"Then imagine the feeling of being freed from that marginal existence, enabling you to be more than fate originally intended for you to be. Imagine the feeling you would have, if you could change the world."

"It sounds amazing, Felix."

"Yes, and believe it or not, you play a role to that.

"I play an important part to your feeling?" Sheba said looking at him expectantly.

Felix hesitated. "Yes, in a way. Because with you here, I can trust more than a blind hope."

"I don't follow," she told him, utterly confused.

He sighed as he averted his gaze from the sky and turned to the girl beside him. The warmth she gave off was intoxicating.

"As you shouldn't," Felix said to her. "I can not tell you the details of our quest, for Saturos and Menardi wish it and I would never betray them. All I can tell you is that two worlds are at stake here, mine, and ours. But as long as you are with us though, we can save them both."

"You're speaking in riddles, Felix. What world of yours are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry, Sheba, I can say nothing more."

With that, Felix turned to his back to her and closed his eyes. Sheba scooted closer to him and laid down behind him, breathing softly on his neck.

"You will have to go back to your shackles," Felix whispered. "There will be trouble for the both of us if you don't"

Sheba ignored him. Instead of answering him, she got up and crawled to the side Felix's head was facing. Laying down directly in front of him, she gazed into his eyes.

"Didn't you say that if I got close enough, you would let me read your mind?" Sheba commented tenderly.

"I lied," Felix replied, his heart racing.

"Fine then, I won't. But I still need to know something."

"You know what I can and can not tell you."

"No, it's something else that words have nothing to do with. If you'd let me, I'd like to do a different kind of mind read on you. A mind read that would let me feel what you feel rather than me seeing your thoughts. The mind isn't just a place for facts, you know, but also the place where we begin to understand our hearts. You see, as long as I am a prisoner, I have no choice but to accompany you on this journey. But if I was to understand the passion you hold in this quest, I could gauge your character well enough to allow me to want to follow you willingly, even without these bonds or Saturos and Menardi. To be honest, I have no real reason to return to Lalivero. Faran isn't my father, and the rest of his family isn't mine. I have been longing to leave forever, and this might be the pursuit I want to join. But no matter how much I want to be part of something outside my old life, I will not follow a madman's quest. You have to let me Felix, please."

"I don't like the thought of you seeing all of my emotions."

"Oh, don't worry," Sheba assured him. "I would only experience the ones that encompass this quest. If I start to feel something other than that, you would know immediately and could break the link at your digression. Please, Felix. I really want to follow you, and this is the only way I can truly know who you are."

Felix knew that what Sheba wanted to know wasn't too much to ask. He thought of the great armies of the past and the great generals that led them. The soldiers had the right to know the passions guiding their commanders. Passion in an essence was all that humans had. Felix could not deny Sheba to understand his.

So he nodded as a smiled formed on Sheba's lips. She told him to lift his head so she could place both her hands on each of his temples. He complied and then rested his head on her hand. Her palm was cool to the tough and her breathing was slow and steady across his face. She closed her eyes.

Felix felt her enter his mind. The intoxication he had felt when Sheba was close to him seemed to increase ten-fold as she swam freely in the sanctuary of his emotions. He felt her examining the feeling he had felt when Saturos and Menardi had saved him from the storm waters of Vale; examining the loyalty that he held for them, and the pain of leaving all his friends and his younger sister. He watched as the faceless characters transferred to Sheba, the emotions resonating instead.

The shock of seeing Gaia Rift for the first time came next, as feelings of dread and hopelessness flooded into his mind all over again; the thoughts of the world crumbling all around him leaving him dispirited and unnerved. The he felt the sense of duty when he discovered what had to be done to save Weyard. The task would be long and the prospect of it was dreary, but it also led to the feeling he was trying to describe to Sheba moments earlier; the realization that he could change the coarse of the world, the feeling of life's infinite possibilities flung wide open to you.

"I feel it now," Sheba whispered, instinctively moving closer to Felix's face.

A scourge of anger then surged through him as Sheba received the emotions he had felt when Saturos and Menardi threatened to imprison his parents and Kyle if this mission was not successful. He watched his thoughts turn to the horrible deeds done by his companions, the slaughter of so many innocents all because they had gotten in their way at the wrong place, at the wrong time. But he also felt the justification for their actions. Their town was at the brink of destruction and all that they knew and loved was at stake. He had long since understood this sympathy. Sheba soon did too.

Their connection was unmistakable now. The transfer of feelings was becoming faster and more pronounced the longer the link was held. Felix for a second opened his eyes to see Sheba's face inches away from his. He closed them again as another surge of passion touched his mind. He remembered seeing his sister for the first time in three years in the Sol Sanctum. Behind his mask unknown to her, he remembered thinking how pretty she had become, and the joy he felt at the sight of her face. Never had he felt so happy, and never had he loved someone so dearly then at that moment. Sheba felt this radiating love and could not help but shiver, only to be warmed by the close proximity of their bodies. Everything she had just experienced with him was echoing madly inside her soul and mind as she involuntarily edged even closer to him. He wasn't a madman, she knew this for sure. His drive, his will and his constitution all helped her understand what Felix was living and fighting for. The love he had let her feel was so genuine and resolute.

Felix opened his eyes to find Sheba's lips on his. Startled, he almost tore away from her, but the ambience of the moment couldn't of felt more right to him. So instead, he surrendered and soaked in the kiss.

He had found himself caught off guard only to realize that what he had been protecting was better off unguarded, and unshrouded to the forces beyond his control. For the wonders of passion can never be controlled by the will of man, just as the sensations can never be fathomed until so wonderfully experienced.

But then Saturos stirred within his tent.

The two broke away from each other instinctively. Without another word, Felix turned away from her as Sheba returned to her bonds. They caught a glimpse of each other one last time before they feel asleep beneath the fading midnight moon.

And there she was.

"Sheba?" Jenna gasped in surprise.

"Hello, Jenna," she answered ethereally, her tone sounding unusually distant. "Isaac, Felix. It's so good to see all of you again."

"Sheba was the one that old me that you were in danger," Picard informed the adepts. "She even hired her own crew and a ship so she could reach me in Lemuria."

"But how did she know in the first place?" Felix inquired.

Isaac gave him an odd glance. "She's right in front of you, ask her yourself."

Their eyes met. Sheba ignored Felix's unmannerly reference to her in third person, and began speaking before he could mutter an apology.

"A vision, That's all it was."

"A vision?" Felix echoed curiously. "Since when did you start having visions? I know that future sight is a trait associated with Jupiter adepts, but during all the time we traveled together, you never once had one."

"Well, in twelve years it's easy to miss something," Sheba stated impassively.

Felix's heart lurched at the tone of her words. They weren't angry, but they had no joy either. They were just simply, lifeless.

"Now if you would excuse me," Sheba said starting to head back to the Wind Chaser. The voyage has made me very tired and I wish to rest a bit. I will see you when we reach Tolbi."

With that, she walked slowly as she boarded the vessel and disappeared beneath the deck. The adepts looked at each other bewildered at the state of their old friend. Then they turned to Picard who wore a face that suggested he had no idea what had happened either.

"What was that about?" Jenna asked as she uneasily watched Sheba board the Chaser.

"She was like this when she contacted me in Lemuria," Picard replied sullenly. "I wish I could tell you."

Felix was uneasy about Sheba as well, but he knew that the situation would clear up with time now that he would be accompanying them. For right now, they really needed to move on.

"Sheba mentioned Tolbi?" he said breaking the gloomy aura floating above the party. "We have the Wind Chaser now, so why don't we just head to Lemuria on that."

"We shouldn't leave the passengers alone after what just happened," Isaac refuted.

Picard nodded his head in agreement. "Indeed, and also I would like to visit Tolbi myself."

"What for?" Jenna asked him.

"To broaden my horizons per say. Just recently I mastered teleportation and..."

"Thank Sol!" Isaac interrupted raising his fist in the air. The journey ahead of them had just been cut dramatically by Picard's few words. Isaac let out one large and obvious sigh of relief as he looked at his companions who were all staring at him with smirks on their faces. "That's a good thing guys, come on! Why are you looking at me like that?"

"No reason," Jenna replied with a devious sparkle in her eyes. "It's been a long day, and well, it just seems that the day's events have dealt serious blows to your self-control. Maybe you should take a nap, or something."

Isaac smiled. He had just been given what was coming to him since they left New Vale.

"Come here you," he said laughing, reaching for Jenna's waist as he pulled her to his lips. Jenna giggled as she pretended to try and punch him away.

"Yeah, so anyway, what about this teleportation?" Felix asked Picard.

"Well," he explained throwing smiling glances at his two friends, "in order for me to teleport somewhere, I have to of already been at the destination. Tolbi is probably one of the most important non-adept cities in all of Weyard so it would most likely be a good idea for me to have full access to it for whenever the need arises."

"Good thinking," Felix said.

"Yeah," Isaac agreed between a kiss. "Excellent ide..."

"Then I guess I will see you at Tolbi docks my friend," Picard said extending his hand to Felix, grinning madly at the two.

"Yes, until then."

--------------------------------------------

Tolbi docks was never as busy as you would think it would be, considering the large population concentrated nearby. The Karagol Sea was once Tolbi's main food source even, that is until a mountain exploded hurling several purple unidentified flying objects into the sea; this in turn causing all the marine life to go crazy, unbeknownst to the general populace of course. Only a few brave fishermen dared to fish in its waters now, leaving them and the Kalay Ferry Service the only owners of ships. The once bustling harbor now laid mostly empty, harboring little but moss and barnacles.

Both ships made dock and extended their respective boarding ramps to the ground. Picard and Sheba walked off the Chaser and waved behind them to the Lemurians on board. The ship then pulled in the ramp and hovered back to the Karagol.

"Whoa whoa, wait a second!" Felix shouted at the ship which was already well out of earshot. "Picard, where are they going?"

"We're teleporting, Felix. Remember?" Sheba said letting off the smallest of smiles at his pathetic facial expression.

"I can take multiple people as long as they are all touching," Picard said refraining from laughing at his expression as well."Yes, of course," Felix said in a gruff voice. "Yeah, that makes sense." Everybody laughed.

The party approached the town to exactly how some of them remembered it. People everywhere, shops around every corner, men hard at work training for Collosso, and of course standing out above the rest, the gorgeously elaborate palace of the late Lord Babi.

"Wow!" Adrian said staring in disbelief at all that he saw before him. Never before in his life had he seen such architecture. He quickly made a mental note to include this in the Venus Parchment, that is, whenever he got around to it.

"That's the palace I was held prisoner in for a while," Sheba told Adrian while crossing one of the many busy streets. After becoming acquainted at the docks, the two had been deep in conversation ever since.

"And then you were taken again by Saturos and Menardi?" Adrian recalled from an earlier story. "That's bad luck Sheba. Who gets kidnapped twice?"

"I have no idea," she shrugged. "But it all worked out in the end."

After walking the many twists and turns of the town's streets, the party eventually arrived at Tolbi fountain indicating that they were in town square.

"Well," Picard said, "I guess this is as good as a place as any. Form a circle and take each other's hands so we can teleport to Lemuria."

But before Isaac could take Jenna and Felix's outstretched hands, a structure he did not recognize caught his eye. The building was gargantuan, and almost rivaled the size of the Collosso Arena. Why he hadn't seen it before, he didn't know. The foundation and walls were circular, and shielding the interior from the elements was a giant dome.

"What is that?" Isaac said completely amazed with the design

The others looked at the building in similar awe, but turned back to Isaac pleading him to join hands. Right when he was about to comply, someone behind answered.

"That is the future, my friend."

The adepts turned around to see the face of none other than Iodem, mayor of all Tolbi, and lead founder for the construction of New Vale. Words were beyond them, but the party managed to utter a few greetings. He was graying, but other than his hair and his beard, he still looked fit enough to be a soldier.

"You haven't aged a bit!" Isaac said after overcoming the shock of conversing with one of the most important men in modern Weyard. "You don't have any of Babi's Lemurian draught stashed away somewhere do you?"

"No, I'm afraid I don't," Iodem said laughing heartily. "That would a tragic spin to his death though, wouldn't it?"

"I'll say. So what were talking about earlier, about the future?"

Iodem smiled as if he thought he would never ask. "Walk with me Isaac. Your friends can join us too for they are just as much apart of this as you are."

The Venus adept turned his head to his friends who all gave him noncommittal shrugs.

"Lemuria isn't going anywhere," Picard reasoned. "We have no immediate reason not to go with him."

The others nodded their heads in agreement as they joined Isaac and the enthusiastic mayor.

"Excellent," Iodem exclaimed flashing a very diplomatic smile. "Follow me."

Isaac couldn't believe how big this building actually was. They had been walking for half an hour in plain view of their destination but somehow the path became longer and longer. The structure was situated well on the outskirts of town, most likely because of its sheer size. Whatever the case, the walk was long and they were already tired from navigating the busy streets of the main town. But as they pressed further, evidences of an entrance came into view. Isaac's mouth dropped open.

The entire structure was lined with vaulted atriums, one level after another of white, marble, vaulted atriums! They were even positioned in a circle! Isaac couldn't imagine how the building held together, especially with that massive dome on the roof.

"Iodem!" he whispered in awe. "This is brilliant!"

The mayor smiled widely at his creation. "It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Hall of Order."

The adepts let the name sink in with the wonder laying right before their very eyes. Not one of them could deny that this was a masterpiece.

"Can we go inside?" Felix asked now taking a keen interest in the structure.

"We're still under construction," Iodem replied. "But I think I have enough clearance to get us in for a quick peek!"

Chuckles erupted from the adepts as they followed him through the entrance.

For the second time since they met up with Iodem, words were beyond their grasp. thousands of seats laced each level in a pyramid like fashion, all surrounding the inner floor which consisted of a circular stage, and several two-men desks circling around it. Above the stage, a large hole could be seen in the dome that allowed light to shine down on the speaker. The Hall of Order was even more impressive inside than out.

"What do you think?" Iodem asked.

"It's beautiful," Jenna answered without a second thought. "I've never seen anything like it before."

Felix turned to Sheba who was looking very uneasy. "What's wrong?" he whispered to her.

"Nothing."

"My question is what is it for?" Isaac asked, thoroughly intrigued by the craftsmanship, but completely confused with what purpose the building could hold.

"Ah, I thought you'd never ask," Iodem replied. He gazed fondly at the room and then returned his attention to his audience.

"Many years ago, a kingdom once thrived. All of Weyard was ruled under one banner, and no other banner existed to oppose them. The great king that united our world was said to have been the wisest, and shrewdest man ever to take the throne. His people loved him and supported his conquest into its completion. The day he died, however, anarchy enveloped. The people held no loyalty to his heir, so in turn they were uncontrollable. An uncontested rebellion arose, and in two-month's time, the monarchy was overthrown. Luckily for Weyard, the leader of the rebellion was a wise young revolutionary. He proposed the mayor system for all of cities involved to maintain order with the absence of a central government. The system was a success, and is still widely used today. Moral of the story, a government can not last if it belongs to a supported select few. So that's why I am in the process of introducing a new concept to our world, a government that belongs to the people exclusively. If everyone's voice is heard, they will naturally develop a personal tie to their ability to govern and can keep their wits about them when a new leader arises. How will this happen you ask? Well, the people will be the ones deciding who leads them, by a voting system. All the government processes will be screened through this system, and any one who wishes to participate is welcome too. The Hall of Order was constructed for this sole purpose, to provide the means of gathering all these people to make this democracy work."

"Democracy?" Picard said raising an eyebrow. "This is the system my kin use in Lemuria."

"Your Senate has been the inspiration of this entire project," Iodem stated. "I had heard rumors of common sailors finding the lost city. So I decided to send some myself. The reports of your advanced government were incredible."

"Our democracy only works because of the people that compose the Senate," Picard retorted quickly. "They are the oldest, and wisest of us all. And lastly, and most importantly, we have a small population. Because of our small size, the elders can appropriately provide in the best interests of all the people. You wish to provide for all the people of Weyard? That's impossible Iodem, humans are not natural creatures of politics. They are too selfish for that, and their desires are too scattered to be looking in the best interests of their fellow men."

"Maybe, sir Lemurian, but I will not give up my pursuit based on the frivolity of the human nature. We must learn to conquer ourselves, and this democracy will help us do this."

The two started at each on edge.

"But I did not invite you here to discuss politics," Iodem said breaking his stare from Picard. "It is again my pleasure to inform you that mayors from all around Weyard are coming here, for the first ever convention to plan how we are going to make this government work. The convention will be held after Collosso this month so more people will have a chance to witness this historic event. You all are personally invited, and I hope to see every one of you there. Now, I am afraid I must get back to work, so this is where I take my leave. Feel free to explore the Hall of Order as much as you'd like."

Before Iodem could turn away, Felix caught his gaze with an eager look. "Uh, sir?"

"Yes Felix, what is it."

"Are mayors from the adept cities coming?"

"Yes, of course. Four months ago I sent emissaries carrying formal invitations to all the cities. Prox, Contigo, New Vale, and even Lemuria. Oddly enough though, none of the emissaries have returned. But I'm sure they will in time. Any other questions Felix?"

"No that's all."

"Then I bid you all farewell."

The adepts waved the mayor off, and turned to each other amazed at what they had just heard.

"Can you believe this?" Isaac asked his friends. "This a huge step in the right direction for our world."

"Maybe it is," Picard agreed. "Maybe it isn't."

"What do you think Sheba?" Jenna asked her friend who had been silent ever since they had entered the Hall.

"I am worried that something happened to those emissaries."

"Yes," Felix said nodding his head. "That worries me too. Four months is more than enough time to reach those destinations, including the return journey."

"We should probably look into that Isaac," Jenna said to her husband.

"We'll see what we can do," he replied. "A lot can happen to a non-adept in four months. I have a feeling we're not going to find much if something did happen to them, but we'll try."

They looked at the Hall of Order one last time. In one month, history was definitely going to be made here. Not one of the adepts could deny this. Picard just hoped that Iodem was right, and that people could overcome their nature by democratic means.

"In light of where we are," he said shifting his thoughts from politics to their own ordeal, "I think now would be an appropriate time for us to leave."

"Finally," Adrian piped in, who was on the verge of dozing off. Politics definitely wasn't his thing. The party laughed as they approached the lighted stage in the center of the Hall of Order. Standing around the small platform, sunlight dancing in between them, they joined hands.

"To world peace," Jenna said a little to excitedly.

Felix and Isaac snickered.

And then they were gone.