Mini-Isaac: Hello, everyone! Did you have a nice Winter Break? Good! Because we don't go back to school until the tenth!

Quartz: Stop teasing the audience! Some of them might actually have a longer vacation!

Mini-Isaac: Shut up! (grabs Quartz) class changes to Chibi Isaac

Chibi Isaac: Wow! I'm a kid now!

Ms. Mia: Yes, and it's time for your English class.

Chibi Isaac: Awwww!

Chapter 2

"Ugh, what's with these people? They're so rude!" The fifth person since I entered the town to curse me out just walked around the corner. 'It's a good thing I'm feeling nice today, otherwise this city would be 100 ft. underground by now.' I walked along the path, heading for where I remembered the library was. 'I am surprised that I'm taking this so well. Being about 2000 years into the future I mean. I guess after all the strange things on our journey, I'm sort of used to weird things happening. Ah, here we go.'

The Contigo Library was definitely bigger than I remembered. It was about 10 stories now, and covered one whole street block. I crossed the black path that I heard to be called a 'street' while looking to make sure no 'cars' were coming. Very strange names, I know. Anyway, I entered the building and went up to who I think was the librarian. "Excuse me, ma'am, could you please tell me where the history section is?" See, I'm polite, unlike some people…

"Fifth floor, northern half." I thanked her and headed toward the stairs, which were conveniently behind her. From the stairs, I got a better look of the inside of the library. I never knew that you could have so many books in one place, let alone have that many books in existence. But then again, there were 2000 years' worth of books added to how many there were when I was living. Gee, now I'm sounding like I'm some sort of ghost. Maybe I am; no one should be able to have lived this long, asleep or no.

I made it to the fifth floor in one piece. It took me about five minutes or so before I found the adept section. There was one whole bookcase full, and about three people in front of it. I'll start at this end, since I'm right here. Let's see… Sinergy for Dummies? How to spot a Djinn? A tourist's guide to the 4 Lighthouses? What kind of books are these? I would like to know what happened to my friends, not delve into information that's probably false. Let's see what Basic Attack Spells says:

"Float"- to float an enemy into the air, or anything else for that matter- Start with your legs exactly 24" apart. Your legs must be exactly two feet across or the spell will not work. This is an Air spell, obviously, so if you aren't an air magician you can't perform this spell. Start chanting the following: Al aire vas tu! with the focus process on page 24 until successful.

Okay, for one thing, it's called Lift. The position of your legs doesn't matter in any spell, it's a water spell, not an air spell, and you don't chant some foreign language I've never heard of I'm not insulting Spanish! Don't take it persnally!. These people mustn't know anything about PSYNERGY after all. So, I put the 'spell book' back on the shelf and looked for something more…historical. I still wanted to know what happened to my friends; since everyone keeps referring to us adepts as an ancient civilization, the others must have dwindled out not long after I, well…left. And, our 'journey' had to be documented somewhere. How could it not have been?

I still haven't found anything, and I've looked through a good ¾ of the books. I appear to be in the djinn section, as these books detail how to 'spiritually prepare yourself' in order to be worthy of the presence of a djinni. There were 'affirmed documentations' of djinn sightings and visions of the djinns in their 'perfect human form.' Pitiful.

YES! I finally found a book that might have what I'm looking for. How could a book entitled The Fall of the Adeptian Soceity not have the…well…the fall of the adeptian society? Let's see…Twenty years had passed since Felix the Great's successful crusade to light the lighthouses. He was now a father of 3, and uncle to 6. Wow, Jenna must have been busy! His notoriously fiery sister, Jenna, had settled down with one of Felix's contemporaries, Garet, who had accompanied the two on their quest. Jenna and Garet?! Who would have thought that they would have gotten together? They were most likely to kill each other than like each other last time I checked. Garet, as you know, led the other team in the First Crusade which at first was against lighting the lighthouses, but then joined with Felix and Jenna to light the last two lighthouses. Hold on. I led the other team. Where would they get that Garet led us? Most of their friends did not think Jenna and Garet would have made a good couple. But, they were brought together on the infamous second crusade. Here's an excerpt from Jenna's diary telling about it:

"We've been away for so long, just Garet, Felix and I. And diary, it's frightening how close Garet and I have become. My brother mans the helm of the ship all day, so Garet and I only have each other to keep us company. He helps me get my mind off of how depressing this mission is…"

As you know, Jenna's diary is the only resource we have of the two worldwide journeys made by the last of the adepts. Everything else, including the ruins of their city, west of present day of Vault, and part of the book, was destroyed in the Purgings, which is where we are headed right now. Purgings? And Jenna's diary was all they had? I'll have to find a copy and read it. Hold on, what second crusade?

As I stated before, it was twenty years since the First crusade, eighteen since the end of the second. Their town was flourishing. The normal people of the world, however, finally realized the power these pagans were having. Most of the people were scared of them because of their so-called 'powers.' No one could dare resist them. They were living in a world of fear. Finally, they warmed up to reason and the fact that the adepts' power could not and did not exist. 'Excuse me? Excuse me? What are you talking about our powers did not exist?! They were real enough to me! And I can prove it!'

At this point, I decided to use a little bit of psynergy just to make sure I was right. I looked over at the guy next to me, who was reading a book about djinn. He had a small cut on the back of his hand. I silently cast Cure on him. The cut vanished in a flash of green light. See! Psynergy does exist!

A large army from just about every major city gathered in Vault and marched on the city. They stormed their village, and destroyed everything. The adepts tried to use their power, but couldn't, as it didn't scientifically exist. Some claimed to wield the earth, but were, instead, cleverly placed on known fault lines where earthquakes happened to occur at the time of the invasion. The villagers were taken hostage and burned or drowned. For the next ten years, the world went on a rampage to get rid of any and all persons who claimed to have even the slightest bit of magical prowess. …………what? What? Twenty years after I left, they went and…murdered everyone I knew and loved?…I was beyond irate at this moment. The people of the world didn't hate or fear us! Why would they think that?

Some of the methods used by the ancient peoples of this world were pretty harsh. There were numerous accounts of physical, mental and sexual abuse towards these adepts. They were venting their anger and fear. One very nasty description was of a certain 'healer' that lived in what was then Imil. …Mia… The woman was stripped down naked, taken advantage of by no less than seven men, sliced heavily across the body, and was abandoned out in the middle of nowhere to freeze and/or bleed to death slowly and painfully. While most of the methods used against the adepts were harsh and outright barbaric, I can honestly say the adepts deserved it, being pagans and all….

clatter shake shake "Earthquake! EARTHQUAKE!" "FIRE!!" "RUN!!" Let them run. I have a few words for whoever wrote this book…let's strip, rape, bleed and freeze him, and see if he likes it! I was wildly flinging spells around in my rage, which explained the tremors and flames, but I didn't seem to notice until a small, familiar voice piped up.

"You know, there are lots of valuable books in this library. If you destroy them, you'll have to pay for them. At least, I think you are the one casting psynergy. I wouldn't know. There haven't been any adepts for awhile."

I popped out of my anger to look around for the voice. That voice sounded soo familiar, and it knew I was an adept! But, there's no one around! All I see is some couches, a Venus Djinni book stop, shelves of books…wait a minute, Venus djinni book stop? Upon closer inspection, I could see it wasn't a book stop; it was my best friend…

"FLINT! Am I glad to see you!"

"Excuse me? How did you know who I am? Have we met? You seem familiar, somehow…"

"It's me, Isaac!"

"…Isaac? ISAAC!!" He then proceeded to give me the Djinni version of a glomp, which still managed to knock me down. "How long has it been? Two thousand years? You haven't aged a day, are you a ghost?"

"I don't know that myself. I feel pretty solid, though."

"Where have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you! Us, Jenna, Garet and Felix…"

"Wait a minute…is that what the second journey was about? Searching for me?"

"Yes! We searched the entire planet for you! Every cavern and forest, every field and mountain, thinking you might be there…"

"Oh. I'm so sorry you didn't find me. I think I was sealed in the Venus Lighthouse for these past years. I'm still wondering if it just an accident, but I'm not sure."

"Anyway, it's good to have you back, Isaac!" He jumped onto my shoulder, and then I got up (remember, he knocked me down). I had no idea what to do now. "I wonder how well you're going to fit into this society. Usually, it's not a good idea to start out by burning down their library." I looked and saw that he was right. Almost all of the bookcases were set on fire from my fit of rage. I think I should get out of here if I don't want to become roast Isaac with a side of braised Djinni.

"Flint, where are the other djinn? Maybe I could go there and look after them. It must be depressing, having the whole world think you're human…"

"I know! Can you believe it? These people have the audacity to think they're better than everything else! Anything, if it's spiritual or beautiful, must be in human form! Ugh. Anyway, they're hiding out in the ruins of Vale. We take turns going out into the world and looking around. Let's go. You still have the teleport lapis, right? It's been missing, so we naturally thought you used it to go somewhere…"

"Uh, well, I kinda did. Anyways, to the ruins of Vale it is." I raised the teleport lapis and we were away. OH by the way, maybe I should explain how we really cast spells, not some fictional junk in those books. It's quite simple, really, only certain people can do it, though. All you do is concentrate really hard on what you want accomplished, and then say the name of the spell. For example, I am concentrating on the river that I know flowed through New Vale. Then I say "Teleport" and we're off.

Not exactly what I was expecting. There were only about one foot high walls in some places. The ground was all black and gray with ashes, like nothing could ever grow back again. The wall remains were the only things left, that and the skeletons. I don't particularly care for that kind of undead creatures. I get creeped out easily when it comes to those kinds of things. Sheba was absolutely fascinated with them. Maybe that's why she got the Tomegathericon.

"Flint! You're back! And who's that with you?" We were suddenly surrounded by a mob of 71 djinn glaring daggers at me. Not exactly the welcome I was imagining. The Jupiter Djinn were attempting to read my mind.

"Please, Gust and Haze, I'd appreciate it if I kept my thoughts to myself, thank you." That shocked them. Not only could I tell that they were casting a spell, I also knew their names.

"Who are you? That scarf…it looks familiar…" Of course, my trademark scarf went with me everywhere. I was famous for it. No matter what disguise I wore, all I needed was my scarf to tell it was I.

"Don't worry, Corona! This is Isaac! I finally found him!" Flint decided to clear up the confusion. I was greeted with first puzzled looks all around, and then realization hit them. I ended up at the bottom of one big huge djinn glomp, which hurts even from such little guys…I'll be feeling that for a long time.

"Ow, OW! Okay, get off me, please." They got off of me, but then I was bombarded with the usual cascade of questions. "Where were you?" "Jenna was looking for you! Why didn't you let her find you?" "Where were you?" "How did Flint find you?" "WHERE WERE YOU?"

"One at a time, please. I was sealed in the Venus Lighthouse for all this time. I'm starting to think it wasn't an accident, and I was supposed to be here. As for the others, I was locked up in a long sleep that didn't feel so long. I couldn't have known about Jenna's journey to find me. Flint found me in the library at Contigo. I was researching what happened to everybody."

"Wow! We searched there, but not hard enough, obviously. But now you can live here with us, and we won't be so lonely anymore! We've been living here for a long time, with no one but us! They didn't touch your house, believe it or not, as no one was living there. We've been keeping it nice and tidy for your arrival."

"My arrival? You knew I was coming back? How?" I was being pulled along by the djinn over the familiar path, but not familiar landscape.

"The Wise One told us. He said you'd be coming back when the time was right. Apparently there's something about right now that you need to be here. Anyways, here we are!"

I looked at my house, it's just like I remembered it from before I left. There was dust everywhere, but it was relatively intact. "Thanks, guys. But what am I supposed to do? I can't stay here all the time. The Wise One said I was here for a reason. I need to find out why."

"Hmmm…" It's actually pretty funny watching a djinni think. They look so cute…okay; let's stop thinking like a girl, Isaac. "I've got it! You can go into Vault! It's nearby, and it's a pretty large city. You can pretend you're a normal citizen and go to school and gather information and news…"

"School? I thought I was done with that!"

"Well, nowadays, children need to go to school until they are 18, at least. Most go for more. Something called 'college level education' is required for any job. It's crazy. Half of the stuff you learn you don't need at all. But, what can you do. It's the law of the land, now."

"Aw man!" I kicked the ground, which only resulted in a huge storm of dust engulfing the entire room.

"Sorry. I suggest you go into town now and register yourself. The sooner the better!" The djinn looked like they were enjoying my suffering. Screw them. I hate this new world. Did I mention that, yet?

"…I have to get something, first. I'll be back as quickly as I can." If I was going to live here now, I'd better bring my stuff from the lighthouse like my Sol Blade, my pouch with my stuff, the bag with my money, my Sol Blade, the new era clothes, my Sol Blade…yep, that's pretty much it. I wish I could just take my Sol Blade and stuff it down the throat of whoever made so much school. Oh, and that author. I'll have to do something about him as well. And I'll have to pick up a copy of Jenna's diary while I'm at it. Maybe there's something in it, a clue or whatnot that can help me figure out what I'm supposed to do.

I've been teleporting a lot today, haven't I? I appear at the aerie and then I head down the corridor to where the room was. I picked up my Sol Blade from under the bed, strapped my pouch and bag of money as a belt and wondered how I was going to carry all the clothes in the closet to my house. There must be at least 50 outfits in here! Hmm…I've got it! I'll only take 7 outfits at a time, enough for a week. That way, I avoid all this trouble and doing laundry! Yes!

After a quick stop at the house to drop off my stuff, I headed into Vault. Definitely bigger than I remembered. And much more…built up. Everything was concrete, like Kalay was. I headed past what seemed to be a marketplace or shopping center. Each store had its own building, and they were right next to each other. I headed past one store that had strange black boxes with one side made of glass. Something appeared in them. It was a woman! Why was she trapped in all the boxes?

"Don't worry, that's a TV. It's the main form of entertainment for these people. The woman is actually far away. An image of her is then sent and shown in the boxes." The small voice in my ear surprised me, and I turned to find Flint hanging in my scarf.

"How can watching someone else far away be entertainment, stowaway?"

"Well, this appears to be a news station. They give out news and information. Some times, they have special plays called movies that are very exciting. And some shows are about real live. It's pretty interesting, really."

"Now you're sounding like Kraden. But hey look, isn't that the library where we just were in Contigo?"

"Hey, yeah it is! Let's listen in!"

"First on channel 17 news is our main story and breaking coverage. An earthquake with a magnitude of over 9.7 magnitude hit downtown Contigo and devastated many buildings. As you can see from this live footage, the area around the Atteka National Library was the hardest hit."

"Wow, Flint! What could have caused all that destruction?"

"Uhhhh…you, perhaps?"

"What?" Now, I don't mean to brag, but I am pretty good with psynergy. Not as good as Ivan or Sheba, but I'm way ahead of Felix at least. But look at all those buildings knocked over like dominoes! It looks like a war zone! There's no way I could have done that! Could I?

"Here's expert seismologist Dr. Daniel Springs to help explain this unprecedented event."

Some old dude came up on screen. I could swear he looks just like Kraden! "Thank you, Lori. Now, this earthquake was of magnitude 9.7 on the Richter Scale. This is unheard of. The highest ever was 9.1 off the coast of Hesperia 67 years ago. Also, Contigo is not anywhere near any known fault lines. This earthquake was not only the strongest in history, but in an area that hasn't had an earthquake in perhaps ever. We have triangulated the epicenter to be exactly underneath the Atteka Library. You can be assured that we will research the area and see what exactly caused this earthquake."

"See, Flint, he said it was the worst earthquake in history! I couldn't have caused it! Even though it happened right where we were, right when we were there…and it 'scientifically' couldn't have happened…and I did cause some tremors…" He was just staring at me. "Okay, okay! So maybe I did do it! What are you going to do about it?" I guess I don't know my own strength if I did all that absently in my anger. I wonder what would happen if I cast a focused spell?

"And now for our other main story that is just as shocking. Some tourists just having a good time exploring the Venus Lighthouse claimed to have been attacked by a demon! Let's go to our on the spot reporter Jeff Ridgely. Jeff, how exactly could they have been attacked by a demon?"

I froze. It was talking about me, again! I managed to make two front-page news stories and it's only my first day!

"Well, Lori, this group of tourists behind me…" Those were the tourists from the aerie! "…had made it to the aerie when something happened. There was another person with them that wasn't there when they started. From what we can ascertain the person was teenaged with glowing red eyes and dark brown hair. He apparently had a long and crooked sword with him. He tortured them endlessly physically and knocked them all out. When they came to, they were here, about 1 mile from the lighthouse. Normally, their story would be taken as a hallucination if it weren't for one thing. That's right, Lori, there appears to be some invisible force field extending about 3000 feet in every direction from the lighthouse. There are many trained specialists trying to break the field, but so far it has proven to be impenetrable. This is clearly a dangerous situation. We'll get back to you if there's any success…" It wasn't invisible. I could plainly see a psynergetic field encasing the lighthouse like a dome. But, of course, only adepts can see psynergy…

"Ohhh Isaac! You wouldn't have anything to do with this now would you?" Flint had a remarkable parental voice. You know that tone of voice they use when the both of you know you're in serious trouble. That voice.

"But, Flint! That was a biased account! I obviously don't have glowing red eyes! And my hair is dirty blonde! I didn't torture them, honest! But that barrier…" I had expressed deep remorse about how the people were treating the lighthouse…maybe I absently cast it unconsciously? Great, it's bad enough I'm 2000 years into the future, now my psynergetic power is overwhelming, and I have no control over it.

Basic Recap: Just for any confused persons out there, here is a brief footnotes version of what has happened so far. Out of desperation, Isaac went to Venus Lighthouse. There, he found a strange bedroom where he spent the night. It only felt like one night to him, but in reality 2000 years have passed to the equivalent of present day Earth. The others did not know where Isaac was, so they went on another mission to search the world for Isaac. They couldn't find him. Some paranoid people of the world claimed the adepts were devil worshippers (which we know they are not) and attacked them. They destroyed New Vale, and the world went on a rampage, killing any who expressed supernatural powers, similar to the Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials. Needless to say, they killed all the adepts except for the one that was sealed away. Isaac woke up, and not liking to the idea that the lighthouses were tourist traps, teleported the tourists off the aerie and unconciously set a barrier around the lighthouse. At Contigo, he learned what happened, and again subconciously triggered an earthquake. If you are wondering about the distorted facts, all the modern people have of the adepts' civilization are artifacts and legends, which obviously can be tweaked and not translated correctly. Hope that helps!