"Where do you come from?"
"A small hamlet near to Guardia Castle."
Isaac looked puzzled for a long moment before turning towards his new companion. "Where?"
"Guardia Castle; in Guardia. You've had to at least heard of it." As Isaac shook his head in denial, the spiky headed hero strove to establish a common geometry. "Porre? The dragon isles?"
"Sorry, I've never heard of any of them." Isaac frowned and looked at his djinn who were currently sitting calmly on the ground. "We're on Weygard - our world. Some major cities are Contigo, Loho, and Prox. Vale and Imil, are fairly well known villages, even if not major commerce centers. But you haven't heard of them before either." He finished his statement abruptly as he noticed Chrono shaking his head.
Wearily the boy joined him on the ground. With his legs crossed and his chin resting on his hands, he looked quite dejected.
The djinni edged closer to the stranger, regarding him with a curious gaze. Quartz popped up on Isaac's shoulder and frowned at his brothers. Flint jumped back in surprise, and Crystal gave a start - though it was somewhat exaggerated by the tiny figure.
Chrono's head jerked upright. "What's the matter?"
The two djinn on the ground began to sputter and look quickly back and forth between the two boys. Isaac quickly became confused at their reaction. "What is the matter with you guys? It was just a simple question."
Flint continued to sputter nonsense for a half second longer before he shut up entirely. Crystal looked on worriedly as the silence extended on for longer than a minute. Finally the djinni perched atop Isaac's shoulder broke the silence.
"Why don't you two just go ahead and say it!" Exasperation was evident from the tone. "He's not from our world. Simple as that. Or he wasn't; there's something funny going on right now as I'm sure we all have felt." A nod from the two humans confirmed this conjecture on his part and the tiny figure jumped to the ground to confer more easily with his brothers.
Both fighters looked at each other and shrugged. This was going to take a while.
The wave converged on the tower and covered it. Imil lay next in its path, its fury undiminished.
Except that it had. To the outside observer, the wall of water seemed almost to stand still for a moment before continuing to converge on the Lighthouse. It could almost be believed that the stone of which the tower itself was constructed was absorbing the tidal wave.
Inside the Lighthouse, Mia rested her hands on the statue of the goddess as she strained in her greatest task to date. Behind her, her apprentices joined hands and strove to lend her their focus as well. Sweat rolled down their backs at the strain that they had undertaken. Jenna stood back and watched with awe at the power being generated in this one place.
With painstaking focus, Mia began to gently let flow a stream from the base of the Lighthouse even as it continued to absorb the water from the tsunami. The great wave was beginning to diminish in its size even now, though the trio was wavering from the strain.
"Jenna," Mia managed to gasp out, "add fire here - make steam."
The girl blinked twice before grasping the plot. Nodding in understanding, Jenna joined hands and let the fire begin to weave throughout the strands of water psynergy that abounded. Focusing in on one particular strand, she brought her own psynergy to bear and watched in mental satisfaction as it seemed to stream upward. With a start she found her body straining under the adverse conditions. Gritting her teeth she continued.
Outside, steam began to rise from the top of the Lighthouse, even as the wall of water dissipated into nothingness. Coming into contact with the cold upper atmosphere, clouds formed and snowflakes began to drift gently downwards.
Mia felt the water begin to recede on its own, and slowly what remained in the elemental stone. Pale, she sagged forward onto the goddess statue. Jenna caught the twins as they staggered forward, nearly collapsing after the ordeal. Being young, they recovered much faster than their elders, so Jenna was forced to support a fainting Mia outside of the tower, Justin and Megan leading the way. The twins stopped in awe at the first glimpse of the great fluffy snowflakes. Jenna merely arched an eyebrow in Mia's direction. The blue haired girl lightly shrugged, the most movement that she could manage.
"Well, granny did say it was going to snow today."
Glenn blinked as the landscape before him changed and he found himself inside a castle. The courtyard around him buzzed with activity as a steady stream of people entered and exited the grounds. Soldiers milled around with the common people, tending to the newcomers and leaving to continue on with the search for survivors.
Nervous fingers played with the hilt of the Einlanzer as Glenn tried to piece together just what had happened to him. Nearby a soldier stopped and called over to him. "Hey, are you going to stand there or come and help?"
Surprised, the dragoon blinked again before replying. "It would please me to be of assistance. Lead on good sir."
Following in the wake of the soldier, Glenn paused occasionally to listen in on the hurried conversations around him. From them and the evidence along the way, it soon became apparent that some kind of flood had happened to a seaside village. Efforts were being made to find people and get them into shelter. That being a part of the expedition that he now found himself a part of.
The dragoon sighed at the nagging thought at the back of his mind that he should know where he was. Maybe after things began to settle down he could ask someone for the location. Or perhaps it would come to him. He shrugged and continued on after his guide into the disaster zone.
Garet awoke with a start on the beach. His head pounded something fierce and he felt sore all over. Raising to himself to hands and knees, he suddenly choked and began to cough up water. When the episode finally ended, he opened his eyes and gazed around. Waves continued to lap up on the shore, bringing bits and pieces of the ship up to land.
For a long moment he stared wildly around him. There was no sign of any other survivors.