This is my Second Attempt at a GS Fanfic, the previous being an utterfailure. But me and my muse(s) got together and started hammering away at it with Monkies, and came up with an excellent rewrite (with a relatively new plot).
I don't own Golden Sun. If you don't know that you should probably be dead. And this would be a game, not a story.
And a shout out to Sunruner, a fellow author and muse, for her help and stuff. Without her this story would likely not exist. We think.
Sunny: bows Thank you, thank you.
Angel Of Chaos
By CobaltDragon
Chapter 1: New Worlds
"From saving the world to delivering party favours," moaned Felix to Piers as he spun the wheel to starboard, "Our work is never done."
Piers nodded in agreement as his ship skimmed over the forest, shifting his weight from foot to foot in an anxious dance.
"Yeah, but it's for the Festival of Lights, and even Lemurians tell tales of it, or at least in our more active moments we do. Besides, you'd be dying of boredom back in Vale if you hadn't come!"
Felix shrugged, swerving the ship to miss a tall tree and sending the ship into a quick ascent to dodge the subsequent birdy goodness that spewed forth from the branches. Rain pelted downwards from the ominous night sky, and Piers was privately enjoying the fresh feeling it instilled upon him.
The ship was quickly returned to its original heading, darting towards the lights of Vale.
"That little gravestone for Karst was nice…" Piers noted, his mind alert for any threat to his precious ship.
"I keep telling you Piers, she's not dead! My parents survived, so why wouldn't she?" Felix said, his voice considerably louder than he had meant. "I'm sorry. It was nice of Puelle to provide that reminder."
"Felix, I agreed with you. I'm a healer more than a warrior and I could swear somebody like Karst wouldn't succumb to that. But remember what Kraden said about dragons; it takes a tremendous amount of energy to transform like that, and she wasn't as close to the beacon as we were."
"Piers," Felix replied, "It's not just that any more. I keep seeing her, like in dreams and stuff, and in Prox when we picked up those kegs of ale I swear that I could sense her presence somewhere in the wasteland."
There was little conversation as Felix guided the airship down into Aleph River, pulling it into the port they'd built. Piers and Felix continued discussing the matter as they assisted some of the Valemen in loading assorted barrels and cases onto carts.
"Tell you what," Piers said, "Let's take Kraden and your parents and go for a trip to Prox!"
Felix nodded, and then fell quiet as they followed the caravan of supplies down a well-worn dirt road. After they finished the delivery, he and Piers stopped at the Inn for a late-night dinner. Jenna was working behind the counter, earning a few gold pieces for reasons Felix had been unable to weasel out of her. It was definitely a much more sedate way of earning gold than usual for Jenna.
"Beef Stew, on the house," Jenna said as she slid a pair of wooden bowls in front of them, "Enjoy boys."
The two adepts dug in hungrily, the steaming brown gravy flowing freely over the mashed potatoes. After a while Jenna sat down beside them and ate a little bit of stew, talking to the pair about their journey. Eventually she got up to tend to a few late arrivals, allowing Felix and Piers to slip off and head to their respective houses to sleep.
It was dark. His bunk was shifting and rolling slightly, and a raw scent pervaded the dim room. Slowly his eyes were adjusting to the light, the only source of which was a small candle hanging from a wall bracket. After a moment, Felix stood, but quickly took a seat on the hard mattress as the floor shifted.
He put his head in his hands and waited for the dizziness to subside, but to his chagrin it did not. The ache in his head slowly stopped its insistent pulsing, allowing him to think clearly.
"Okay Felix, think. Rocking floor, salty smell… Ship! I'm on the- but how? What the hell is happening?"
The last thing he remembered was falling into the river and calling for help. It had been a loose rock, he remembered, coming back from retrieving something stupid off of the deck. He'd been confident and sure one moment, and hanging on for dear life the next.
"Good morning sleepyhead!"
Felix looked up as a girl with red hair strode into the cabin. He blushed and covered himself with a blanket as he realized that he was not clothed.
"Don't worry silly, I won't look! I just came to see if you were awake. Your clothes are over there, on that stool. We had to dry 'em out pretty good, but they should be fine now. If you need me, my cabin is down the hall."
She turned to leave, but Felix stopped her.
"Wait… Um… What's your name?"
"Oh, me? I'm Karst," She gave him a reassuring smile. "Who're you?"
"Felix. My name is Felix."
"Alright then."
Karst turned and left, shutting the door.
"By Gods Saturos, give a girl some room!"
He sized her up, and dismissed her comment; speaking gruffly.
"Whatever Karst. Learn anything?"
"Kid's awake. Says his name's Felix."
"Felix huh? Give Felix some time, then introduce him to his situation."
"You're the boss," she said, nudging him aside, "Or the boss's whipped boyfriend, whatever you think."
He smiled, passing off the insult. "Damn lucky Menardi's your sister. I've killed for less than that."
"Oh yeah?" Karst asked, turning, "That must've been a pretty big glass of ale."
Saturos flinched.
"You've got your sister's wit. Now get on deck and relieve the Navigator."
Felix listened to the exchange, his curiosity roaring like a caged lion. He pondered the possible situations he could be in, extremely worried that he was in danger, dead, or both. Only the feel of his clothing convinced him that it wasn't the boat to hell, as if that was proof enough. As he pulled his shirt on, he noticed a large bruise on his arm that had been only lightly treated with a balm. He pressed his right hand lightly to the injury and relaxed as an earthy warmth spread through his body.
After a moment the bruise disappeared and his vested interest in self-preservation had been sated. He leaned back against the wall and let the rocking of the ship soothe his tumultuous soul. After a while he stood again and steadied himself on the deck, having decided to talk to Karst. Her cabin was deserted, and he was stumped until he remembered that she was up on deck. He began to climb the increasingly slick wooden steps to the cold overworld above.
Jenna sat by the streambank far from Vale, passing a small woven bracelet around her nimble fingers. The sun was merrily shining into the green clearing, and the Masamune was glittering beside her. There were teardrops evident on the radiant blade, the indented carving of two dragons near the hilt glowing.
It was cold here, near the mountains, and even Jenna's natural warmth didn't seem to be heating her for some reason. Birds were fluttering about lightly as she let another tear roll down her cheek.
A lonely flower was wilting slowly beside the running stream. Jenna plucked it from amongst the blades of grass, as if to follow a time-honored tradition of "loves me-loves me not"; but then reconsidered and lightly placed it inside her vest.
She finally decided that she didn't feel cold, and rather was beginning to get warm in her armor. Jenna stripped to her silk undergarments and stepped into the stream, rippling the crystal surface as she dove in. The water around her warmed slightly, even in the swift stream.
The pure water washed away her tears and gently reminded her that she was here for a reason. It was painful to imagine the nights she, Isaac, and Garet had spent on this very shore. Laughing, sharing, competing. Nestled so close to Isaac…
Last time they had been here Garet had been held up and couldn't come. They had come so close, so very, very…
Jenna had always heard stories of the kiss from the older girls. The kiss. The one so perfect it hurt. It had certainly been more than a mere brush on the lips or cheek they had shared before. Then a week later she had been torn from him, taken from Isaac like nothing but a teddy bear.
But the next time she saw him, the girl Mia had been with him like some sort of replacement, like a well-dressed harem girl.
But it didn't hurt. Wasn't it supposed to hurt? Like a knife to the heart, the older girls had said. Before she'd been sure that they would wed, but now? She had reached a conclusion more frightening than painful.
She was falling out of love with Isaac.
Sheba had read his mind once they'd teamed up in Contigo, and all the while he slept with the blue concubine in his arms.
As far as either of them could tell the couple had not shared beds, but Jenna was amazed to find that he now only viewed her with a more brotherly love than any.
Jenna fluttered through the stream, her long auburn hair flowing behind her toned body like a candle in the wind. She had grown taller, now an even 5'11", and she was extremely fit. It wasn't like she couldn't find a man, but just that she had no desire to. She was Eighteen now, and her mother had spent a great deal of time upon her return trying to get her to wed somebody.
Once she tired of frolicking in the water Jenna pulled herself out and stretched out like a cat; sensuous and beautiful, laying on the grass to dry.
"Felix, wake up."
Felix slammed a down pillow over his head.
"Not now; good dream, good dream, good DREAM!"
Somebody, whom Felix could only assume was Piers, was standing silently by his bed. He cracked his eye open and snuck a peek. Yep, Piers.
"I warned you."
Felix ignored him and tried to recall his dream, his eyes tightly shut. For some reason he'd been dreaming of his past, when he'd first met Karst. Except his mind kept tacking on dirty endings, a detail Felix found kind of embarrassing.
"Seriously Felix, last chance."
Wet. Grade 'A' psynergy.
"Dammit Piers!"
"Hey," responded the Mercury adept, "I warned you."
"Whatever. Since I'm up, why don't you explain what was so pressing?"
"Well, it's past noon and almost time for the Festival of Lights."
Felix shot up and began pulling on clothing.
"Oh man oh man oh man – can you hand me those boots – I promised I'd help Jenna cook her – if you could hand me those … thanks – stew for the feast and she's gonna be sooo pissed – and the sword – shitshitshitshitshit!"
Piers shrugged. "Not really. Garet went to find her for the festival and-"
"Find her?"
"Yeah, she wandered off," Piers glared, "and anyway, Garet went to find her and found her lounging half-naked by the river. Poor kid's gone and barricaded himself in his room and won't come out until you promise not to kill him. Neither he nor Jenna seemed to concerned about anything but you giving them both a severe asswhooping…"
He looked at Felix sideways.
"Dude, you ran one tyrannical ship around here."
Felix finally removed his boot from his left hand and slipped it on, cackling.
"Yeah, keeps the kids on their toes. Let Garet know that he's been shown mercy today, and I'll talk to Jenna."
"Roger, mein fuhrer."
Felix punched Piers on the arm good-naturedly.
"I don't care what that means, don't say it again."
"Fine then. I'll go tell Garet. Talk to you later!"
Piers strode out of the room, closing the front door quietly as he left. Felix stood up and did a quick check. Everything was in order, so he wandered down the hallway to Jenna's room. Lightly he knocked on the oaken barrier.
"AUGH IT'S SATAN COME FOR MY SOUL!"
"Haha, very funny sis. I just wanted to let you know that I'm not going to kill you or Garet for your perceived sins… this time. Oh, and if you decide to come out from your shell, I'll be downstairs preparing your contribution to the feast."
Jenna's door cracked open slightly.
"Hmm… no drawn steel, this is good."
The door opened further.
"No evil demons ready to wrench my soul from my body."
Before she could say more, Felix grabbed her by the sleeve and drug her downstairs. They quickly set about cooking Jenna's patented Beef Stew, which had become a local favorite. Over the course of the preparation several townsfolk stopped by to admire the rich smell of Jenna's cooking and talk to Felix about the finalizing of the Festival plans.
Finally the sun began its decent from the sky and the town began to come together for the Festival of Lights.