-An Antagonist's Tale-
-Chapter Three - Alex's Story-

"You can't leave Imil now, Alex! The epidemic is at its height, we need you more now than ever!" A teenaged girl cried out to a shadow in the evening light.

"I'm sick of healing. Once I light Mercury Lighthouse I won't need to be cooped up inside any longer healing people all day. I hate it. If people didn't throw themselves at the snow every winter this wouldn't happen."

The girl's turquoise hair blew out behind her as she ran after the disappearing figure. "I beg of you Alex, don't leave. This isn't what the Mercury Clan is here for. We are healers, not searchers of power."

"Get away from me, Mia. I don't want to have to hurt you."

But Mia continued to follow him.

In a flash of blue light, the adept was blown back into the snowdrift, out cold. Alex, realizing what he had done, picked up his former partner and carried her back into her house. Resting her on the bed, he would think to himself as he left. 'I am weak.Why do I continue to care for her?'

His thoughts carried him out of the snowy north and into the Bilibin cave. Ignoring the threatening cries and howls from the monsters around him, he would set up a small camp near the other, much warmer end. Though it was still winter and very chilly, he was from Imil and thus used to much colder weather. Removing his several layers of woolen clothing, he lay down on the frosted-over grass and looked up at the midnight sky. He soon drifted off to sleep.

He awoke the next morning with nothing but the wilderness around him, and a soft rustling in the bushes. Removing his sword from its sheath, he carefully approached the source of the noise. He softly poked it with the tip of his sword. A look of shock came across his face as a hand grabbed onto the bulk of the sword and helped the rest of the body up.

"Ah, that was a good rest. Wouldn't you say so, Kari?"

A second body rose from the leaves. "I might if you didn't take the whole blanket for yourself, Rai."

Alex looked from the boy to the girl, and then started to speak. "Um. May I ask what you're doing here?"

The boy, Rai, spoke first. "We're headed to the town of Vale to meet up with the rest of our party."

"We're thieves from the northernmost town in the world, Prox. But we won't take anything from you. You don't seem to have anything worth stealing." Said Kari.

"Going to Vale? That's where I was headed." Alex replied.

Rai raised an eyebrow. "Really? Don't tell me you were going for the Elemental Stars, too?"

"Actually, that's what I've been after for a while. I only managed to escape my duties as a healer as of last night, I'm not turning back to that ever again."

"You seem truthful. Do you think he could come with us?" Kari questioned Rai.

Rai thought to himself for a moment. ". I don't see any harm in it. I'm assuming you're from Imil, that's the only town through this tunnel."

Alex nodded. "I'm used to the cold, so if we wind up back in Prox I'll be almost immune to the temperature."

Kari and Rai then gathered what little things they had brought with them, and Alex put his belongings in his traveling pack. And the three of them left to head north, to Vale, to Mount Aleph.