Sole Dorato: Lui Restaurarà

by Tafkae

Chapter Two: Gaia Falls

The next morning, Alex was awakened by a young green man he'd never seen before. "Wake up. The Elder wishes that you be present."

Outside the sky was already quite light, despite the early hour. Thanks to having spent his entire life in the far north, Alex was used to unbearably long days during the summer, but still, it had clearly been light out for hours, and that seemed a bit ridiculous. Shivering even through the thick coat the doctor had given him, he trudged through the snow to the Elder's home.

Inside, in the large meeting room from before, the Elder was seated in the usual place. Interestingly, Saturos and Menardi had taken the place of the old men from the last time, both seated in what seemed like a very formal way to the Elder's right. The old fellow greeted Alex as he entered. "Ah, there you are, young sir. Do have a seat," and he gestured to the cushions on his left. Alex nodded and sat cross-legged on one of them. "The reason I called you here is I think this pertains to you," the Elder continued. "We are discussing the plans for a second expedition."

Menardi nodded. "We don't have much. It's been established more than once—" she glared briefly at Saturos, apparently he'd been complaining "—that our original plan should have gone off without a hitch, had it not been for the late Tragus' inability to keep his hands to himself."

"So are you just going to use a repeat of your original plan, then?" said Alex.

"Not exactly," said Saturos with a smirk. "We can do more or less the same as before at Sol Sanctum, assuming we don't bring any screw-ups along like last time. But the new plan is a little different once we actually get to the lighthouses."

"As you probably know, only an adept of the same element as the lighthouse can open and light it," Menardi began. "Thus, the Mars Lighthouse is the easiest for us, partially because it's just a few miles away, but also because – well, Alex, did you wonder why we call ourselves the Fire Clan when we live in a frozen wasteland?"

"I had wondered that," said Alex truthfully.

"It's because every last citizen of Prox is a fire adept," said Menardi. In demonstration, she outstretched her hand and it burst into flames.

Alex raised his eyebrows. "That makes sense. Wow, that is convenient, then."

"Yes. But it's less convenient when we come to the other three lighthouses. For the Jupiter Lighthouse, we need a wind adept. For the Venus Lighthouse, we need an earth adept. And for the Mercury Lighthouse, we need a water adept."

"Which would be me."

Saturos and Menardi nodded. "We've had an incredible stroke of luck lately," said Saturos. "First you come to us in a shipwreck, and then we find an earth adept who won't be missed because he's presumed dead."

At this Alex felt a pang of obligation, and decided to play devil's advocate for a bit. "Are you sure Felix is an earth adept?" he asked.

The others paused. "Not… exactly," Menardi admitted at last.

"Vale's made up entirely of earth and fire adepts, so it was a fifty-fifty chance," said Saturos. "He's from Vale, so he's undoubtedly an adept, either way."

"But what if he turns out to be, say, a fire adept? Or even not an adept at all? Anything's possible," he defended, noting the increasing aggravation in Saturos' face.

"Well," said Menardi, before Saturos could bark something out, "if he's not an earth adept, then we simply don't need him."

"So you'd send him home?"

At this Saturos laughed aloud, and Menardi chuckled, as if he'd just suggested they dress up in chicken suits and run through the streets singing children's songs. "Let's put it this way," said Saturos, calming a little. "He's already presumed dead, so no one will even notice if we drop the 'presumed.' Get it?"

Alex's chest seized up. "You'd kill him!" he exclaimed, horrified.

"I never said that," said Saturos. "But it is the best way to keep him quiet. Just by bringing him here, there's an extremely high chance he'll connect us to the raid and the eruption, if he hasn't already. If his people find out that we – that anyone – was responsible for those events, we'll never be able to execute a second raid at all."

"The entire city is xenophobic and paranoid," Menardi added. "It was hard enough getting into Sol Sanctum when they had their guard down. It would be almost impossible if they had any idea we were coming."

"Whatever the case, he obviously can't go back," Saturos finished. "And I don't intend to keep him around if he's no use to us."

Alex thought for a moment. "Would you kill me if I decided I wanted to go back to Imil, at this point?" he asked slowly.

"Probably not," said Menardi. "No, you could go back, but we'd definitely come for you when we arrived to light Mercury. It doesn't matter to Imil whether we raid Sol Sanctum or not, and even if it did, they wouldn't be able to do anything to stop us."

"Not that I want to back out," Alex added. "It's just good to know I still have a choice."

"How long do you plan to wait before retrying the mission?" the Elder asked in a low, gravelly voice.

Saturos looked to Menardi, who sighed. "At least a year and a half. Maybe more."

"A year and a half!" exclaimed Saturos.

"People died, Saturos!" shouted Menardi. "They won't forget that quickly. If no one had died, I would say six months at the most. But grief lasts longer than anxiety. They won't forget the people who died because of us."

Saturos sighed a groan.

"Point taken," said Alex gravely. "But what do we do in the meantime?"

Menardi shrugged. "You can do as you like, though I'd rather you stay in Prox where we can keep an eye on you."

The Elder interjected again. "Alex, you did say you would help us wherever possible, did you not?"

Alex blinked. "Yes, something like that."

"Good, good." The old man nodded. "Well, you've proven yourself an exceptional healer; perhaps you could show our few how it's done."

Saturos chuckled. "Good idea. You ask those girls to heal a paper cut and they'll burn your arm off."

"No one asked for your opinion," said Menardi indignantly.

"I'd be happy to," said Alex, though it wasn't the only reason he wanted to remain in Prox. Either Felix stays here, or they kill him. His fellow outsider had no chance at all of returning home, no chance to go back to his sister. It wouldn't be fair to Felix for him to leave.

"Good! So it's settled," said the Elder.

Saturos and Menardi looked at each other, nodded, and got to their feet. Unsure of how to act, Alex stood with them. "The healing house isn't far, anyone can tell you were it is," Menardi told him. He didn't miss the implication that she didn't want to bother. "By the way, thank you for your suggestion," she added as an afterthought.

"My suggestion?"

She nodded and smiled. "We're going to go find out whether or not bringing him here was wasted effort."

As they left the room, Alex's face fell uncomfortably. This won't end well, he thought.

Felix was roused from a turbulent nightmare by a hand roughly shaking his shoulder. Unsure for a moment of where he was, he instinctively slapped the hand away and, in his frantic struggle to get out of the covers, he stifled a curse as his head struck the headboard.

Where – the inn. Prox. Cold. YOU.

The hand belonged to Menardi, who didn't look particularly overjoyed to see him; a blue man (Saturos?) stood just outside the door to the room. "Get dressed and get your ass outside," the former snapped, then turned, left, and shut the door gruffly behind her.

They were waiting for him outside the inn, in the middle of the large, open, snow-coated town square. He jogged to approach them. "What is it?" he asked.

Menardi stepped back a few paces. Felix had just enough time to wonder why she was doing that, before he glimpsed a blue fist heading for his face. He ducked in barely enough time to avoid the punch, but then found himself taking a knee to the gut instead. Winded, he rolled away and struggled to his feet, trying to catch his breath.

Saturos waited for him, laughing. "Come on! Try it. I'm wide open."

Felix knew better than to give in to the taunts. Instead, he braced his feet and held up his fists defensively. Saturos rolled his eyes. "All right, have it your way."

In the blink of an eye, he was right next to Felix again, arm outstretched. Felix dodged, saw an opening, and aimed a blow for Saturos' stomach. It never hit. Saturos caught his fist and twisted it painfully, dragging the rest of his body with it. Felix's cry of pain was stifled as the Proxian's other hand caught his upturned chin and drove him into the ground headfirst. Passers-by who had stopped to watch cringed.

Saturos laughed and stepped triumphantly around his prostrate opponent. But Felix didn't stay disoriented for long; he quickly pulled his leg back and kicked Saturos hard in the kneecap. It wasn't a great hit – really he only clipped it – but it threw Saturos off balance long enough for him to get back on his feet. Saturos growled and flexed his knee a couple times, enough to make sure it wasn't damaged. "Lucky shot, kid," he snapped. "But I swear, if you throw your hands or feet at me again—"

Felix was shocked to see a large fireball appear in each of Saturos' hands. "—I will burn them off!"

His first thought was Holy shit, he's a fire adept!

Quickly regaining his balance and his composure, he started circling to stall for time, and thankfully, Saturos followed his lead, though still holding the fireballs. What's this guy trying to do? I met him not five minutes ago and he's already trying to kill me?

No, that can't be it. He's definitely a lot stronger than me – if he wanted to kill me, I'd be dead. Then it hit him. That's it – he's trying to badger me into doing something specific…

"If you throw your hands or feet at me again."

Felix's eyes went wide with the realization. He's trying to force me to use Psynergy against him! He had promised himself he wouldn't do so, but right now it didn't look like he had much of a choice.

Suddenly, Saturos got tired of going around in circles and lunged across the diameter with a yell. Hardly thinking, Felix dropped down and rammed his palms into the ground, and at the same time an earthen pillar erupted from the ground under Saturos' feet, sending him flying. Felix turned, not wanting to expose his back to his opponent, who had (not surprisingly) landed in a shoulder roll and was already upright again. However, he didn't look like he was going to continue the fight; actually, he was clapping very smugly. "Nice… very nice. That's all I needed to know."

"What do you people want with me?" Felix demanded.

Menardi's voice chimed from behind him, startling him. "That was all for now. Just go about your business, and we'll talk to you later. Come on, Saturos."

Saturos joined her and they began to leave. Felix glared indignantly at their backs. "So I'm an earth adept! What does that matter to you?" he shouted after them.

Menardi turned and chuckled. "In due time, Felix. In due time."

Then they were gone.

"Promise me you won't fight him again for a while," said Alex. "I'm going to have my work cut out for me at my job as it is, it sounds like."

Felix hesitated; he hadn't even sat down yet. He was at the healing house because that's where he'd been told Alex was, not the same reason anybody else was there.

"Want me to…?" the healer suggested casually.

Felix shook his head. "No, don't bother. It's nothing."

"Alright," said Alex as the other man sat down at the other end of the bench from him.

"So you've got a job?" Felix asked.

Alex nodded. "It's a teaching gig. I'm going to take four young, untalented fire adepts and turn them into seasoned healers. Or at least, everyone says they're untalented…"

Felix blinked. "Fire adepts can be healers?"

"Don't ask me. I'm not even sure I'm qualified for this, but it's something to do at least." He stood up and stretched out his back. "They'll be here any minute. Do you want to sit in or something?"

"I don't know." Felix shook his head. "Menardi said to 'go about my business.' I don't have any business. What does she want me to do?"

"I only met her yesterday myself," Alex pointed out.

"I know, I know." Felix sighed, annoyed. "I don't even know why I'm asking you."

"Well, I'm not Proxian. That might be why. To be honest, I'm a little anxious talking to people around here yet, too," he explained. "But I think we'll all get used to each other relatively soon. Hopefully in time for—"

He stopped, suddenly realizing he'd almost said too much. Felix didn't fail to notice. "In time for what?"

Alex shrugged. "I don't know. It'll be a while."

Felix stood up. "They've let you in on something they're not telling me, haven't they."

"No! Of course not," Alex lied.

"Why am I even bothering? You're as much of a foreigner as they are." Not giving Alex a chance to respond, Felix stormed out of the healing house, passing four young Proxians who were coming in.

Alex got up, about to follow him, but was stopped by one of the girls, who turned out to be Menardi's sister that had met them at the boat. "Hey! Are you supposed to be our teacher or something?" she demanded.

He stopped and looked at them. The sister (he couldn't remember her name offhand) was the oldest of the four girls; of the other three, one was blue and not too much younger than her, and the other two, both pink and apparently twins, were probably about eleven. "Ah, hello!" he greeted them, just as the door slammed behind Felix. "You're … Karla, right?"

"Karst! It's Karst!" She stomped her foot loudly to emphasize her name.

"Karst, right. Sorry," Alex chuckled, still watching the door. Then he wrested his attention away and clapped his hands once in well-faked enthusiasm. "Well, Karst and friends, I guess we'd… better get straight to it, eh?"

After briefly stopping to ask someone for directions and then almost being detained by a pair of especially mean-looking Proxian guards, Felix finally got to enter the large meeting room of the town's Elder. The old man had apparently been sleeping and recently awakened, judging by the frequency of his yawning. "Well, hello, young man, you must be the foreigner Saturos and Menardi told me about," he said groggily.

Felix bowed tersely, trying to be polite in spite of his distinctly impolite mood, and proclaimed incisively, "Sir, I would like to go back to Vale."

The Elder took a deep, audible breath through his nose, and didn't answer right away. Unsure of how to interpret his silence, Felix elaborated. "I'm well enough to go home, there's no reason for me to stay here, and – and my younger sister is waiting for me! I won't hide that I'm worried sick—"

"No, no, I can understand why you would wish to return," the Elder piped up suddenly, motioning for him to calm down. "But, uh… how can I put this." He stroked his long beard, thinking. "No, there really isn't another way to say it. We can't allow you to leave," he said firmly.

Felix frowned, surprised and confused. "What do you mean? Why not?"

The Elder shook his head slowly. "It's complicated, son."

"What's so complicated? I – I know your people saved my life after the eruption, and believe me, I'm grateful, but there's no reason to—"

"Well, that's just it. If your kinsmen were to learn of our involvement at Sol Sanctum—"

"Wait, what involvement?" Felix demanded. "Involvement at Sol Sanctum? What does that mean?"

The Elder halted, realizing he'd slipped. Felix set his eyes firmly on the old man's, determined not to leave until he had some answers. The Elder seemed to notice his resolve, and sighed. "Nothing. Nothing, that is not what I meant to say."

Every muscle in Felix's body tensed. "Saturos and Menardi – they were in Vale when Mount Aleph erupted! What were they doing there? You sent them to Sol Sanctum, is that it?" He stepped forward. "You sent them to Sol Sanctum and they set off an eruption that killed my parents!"

The Elder took a deep sigh; his calm attitude made the situation even more infuriating. "Sir, while I am heartily sorry for what happened, we could not have known…"

"Couldn't have known what?" Felix snapped. "Couldn't have known that Sol Sanctum is full of deadly traps? Couldn't have known that one misstep can bring the whole mountain down? Anybody in Vale could tell you that!"

Obviously distressed, the Elder closed his eyes and turned them away. "Now is not a good time to explain … right now, nothing could make you understand. I will … explain everything, but at a later time. I am very sorry." He rested his forehead in one bony, green hand and waved the other slightly in dismissal. "Please go. Just for a bit. I must collect my thoughts…"

Felix started to refuse, but the Proxian guards escorted him (a bit gruffly) from the house before he could get the words out.

Once outside, he slumped against the side of the building in a snowdrift. The snow was falling harder than it had been this morning, but he really didn't care. Right now, he didn't care at all.

Saturos and Menardi. The names danced mockingly in his head, making his blood run hot despite the cold. Saturos and Menardi killed my parents. Saturos and Menardi kidnapped me and won't let me return home. Saturos and Menardi left my sister alone.

Jenna… He closed his eyes. It must have been only a few days ago that he'd seen her, but it seemed like forever. Was she all right? Had she been hurt in the landslide at all? Had she been on the bridge that was washed away? He couldn't remember. Menardi had said they hadn't seen her, so he decided to take her word at least on that point… Jenna was all he had left now. And he was all she had left.

But he wasn't there to be there for her.

Saturos and Menardi.

Suddenly enraged again, he jolted to his feet. It didn't matter how strong they were. He was going to find them and tear the earth out from under them.

And Alex would know where to find them.

"This isn't working!" the blue girl whined. "I don't feel a thing."

Alex scowled at himself. He'd been trying to explain the healers' trance to them, but it had been a half hour already and they'd made no progress at all. "All right, all right. I told you, I'm the exact opposite of a fire adept, so I don't have the slightest idea whether your way of healing works the same way as mine."

"Then why are you even here?" said one of the twins. "Anyway you're supposed to be teaching us healing, not this weird meditation garbage!"

"Now, look here—"

"This is such a waste of time," said Karst, getting to her feet. "I'm out of here."

Alex groaned. "Karst, please come back. I'm trying my best, but a tower isn't built overnight. Especially without plans."

Karst rolled her eyes exaggeratedly and was about to retort when Felix burst through the door, letting in a swirl of snow as he did. "Alex!" he shouted angrily. "Where are Saturos and Menardi?"

"What do you want to know that for?" Karst snapped.

"Oh, come on—Felix, I told you already—" Alex stood up.

"I don't care. I don't care! It is their fault, all this is their fault. My parents are dead because of them, Alex."

"What?"

"They broke into Sol Sanctum, they set off an eruption, they won't let me go home—"

"Where did you go just now?"

"I talked with the Elder."

"He told you everything?"

"He told me enough. Obviously not as much as he's told you. Now where are they?"

"Are you trying to say you're going to try and kill my sister?" said Karst haughtily. "Sounds like fun! I'll sell tickets. It's always a good time watching an outsider get his ass handed to him."

Felix almost snapped, but Alex thrust an arm between him and Karst. "Both of you, please! Felix, believe me, nobody meant any harm—"

"I don't care what they meant! What matters is what they did!"

"Would you calm down!" Alex shouted before he was finished, trying to yell over his voice. It worked; Felix fell silent except for the sound of his breathing. Alex sighed. "Felix, I really don't know what to tell you, except… please don't try to fight them. They don't consider you irreplaceable."

"'Irreplaceable'?"

He moved closer so he could speak more quietly without the girls overhearing. "This is no time to get yourself killed. You may get another chance later on. Trust me, I don't like them either, but right now there's not much out there in the way of options."

"What're you mumbling about?" said Karst. "Hey!"

"Nothing that concerns you, young lady," Alex replied, backing off. "Why don't you all head on home? I'll try to have something better set up for tomorrow."

The other three girls left quickly, obviously grateful to be gone, but Karst hesitated in the doorway. She turned back to the two foreigners. "You guys don't really know why my sister went to Sol Sanctum, you know," she said derisively. "You can never really know until you've seen Gaia Falls."

Before they could figure out an answer to that, she was gone.

"Sis, Felix wants to kill you," Menardi heard from the door as it closed.

"Took him long enough. So the old man finally spilled the beans?" she sighed, not looking up from her book.

"That's what he said," replied Karst, entering the room and hopping onto a comfy chair, where she then maneuvered so she was sitting upside-down with her head hanging off the seat. "He's out to get Saturos too, but I think he already knows better than that."

"One would hope so."

"It's gonna be hard getting him to help you, you know," she observed.

"I know," said Menardi. "But it's not as if we need him today. As it stands, I wouldn't be surprised if he chose death over helping us if we asked him right now."

Karst yawned and stretched. "Oh, I don't know about that. He really doesn't seem like the type."

At this Menardi chuckled and lowered her book. "And you never seemed like the type to judge by appearances. What's your point?"

"Are you insinuating I like him?" Karst protested, visibly annoyed.

"No, I'm insinuating you find him attractive. There's a difference."

"Well, you're dead wrong," she grunted, getting off the chair with a sort of backwards somersault. "They're all the same, those people…they don't know anything. We're the ones living at the end of the world. They don't know what it's like…"

Menardi straightened up. "What did you just say?"

"I said they don't know what it's like, living here."

Suddenly, Menardi set down her book, swiftly crossed the room, and tightly embraced her sister, who yelped. "Karst, you've just given me a wonderful idea," she said. "Would you like to come along?"

"Come along where?" asked Karst.

"Gaia Falls," said Menardi to Alex and Felix a few minutes later. "Karst said you wanted to see it. I'm willing to show you the way. Coming?"

"Only if you're not," said Felix.

Menardi sighed. "Look, I am trying to give you some justification. Once you see it, you can begin to understand why we had to do what we did, and I think that may assuage your grief at least somewhat…"

Felix still kept his clenched fists tightly closed and did not respond. While waiting for his answer, Menardi turned to Alex. "You should see this too, Alex, in case you were having any second thoughts."

Alex nodded. "Of course. I'm very eager to find out what it is."

Just as he finished, Felix lifted his head from his chest and took a deep breath. "Fine," he said. "I'll come and see it."

It was even colder outside the town than in the streets, partially because the wind picked up the further north they walked. At first nothing was visible through the snowy haze, but as they walked, the red shape that Alex knew as the lighthouse began to come into view. Felix, however, didn't know it, and asked.

"No, that's not Gaia Falls," Menardi replied. "It's the Mars Lighthouse. You can see Gaia Falls from the base of the lighthouse, so that's all the farther we're going."

The Mars Lighthouse? Felix thought in disbelief. One of Vale's most gruesome legends involved a set of four lighthouses named for the elements, which supposedly still existed but which he, of course, had never seen, this being his first time away from home. These lighthouses had never been intended to guide ships; it was said that they held the keys to whatever terrible thing rested beneath Sol Sanctum.

Apparently, this was one of those lighthouses. His throat tightened, and he swallowed to clear it, but it didn't work.

Alex kept his eyes fixed upon the lighthouse as they approached it. It looks almost the same as the one back home, but red, he thought. I wonder if it's laid out the same inside, too. More than once he'd explored the Mercury Lighthouse, trying futilely to figure out how it worked. He even knew the way to the top by heart, but not how to start the beacon… or at least, he hadn't known then. At any rate, his expeditions had come to an abrupt end when Mia sealed the place up behind his back.

Just thinking about it got on his nerves. Gah, I know she did that just to annoy me.

By now the haze had thinned, but he noticed the sky was beginning to darken. He trudged faster to catch up to the two Proxians ahead. "Menardi! We should really start heading back, it's getting dark."

To his discomfort, Menardi laughed. Karst crossed her arms. "It's summer, moron! It's still at least six hours till dark," she remarked snidely.

"We're almost there," said Menardi. The base of the lighthouse, situated at the top of the next ridge, was clearly visible now in great detail. Two draconic statues guarded the entrance, rather than the two maidens that guarded the now-blocked door to the one in Imil, Alex noted. Felix really didn't know what to make of it.

Menardi and Karst didn't lead them to the entrance, though, but around the side, to the point where the land leveled off. The older sister finally stopped and motioned for the two men to catch up. "There," she said, pointing into the distance as they crested the hill. Both of them looked, and were stunned.

Below them, the plain stretched on for another mile or two before abruptly ending – and nothing started where it stopped. All that could be seen was a sudden, deep darkness. The wind was blowing harder than ever now… and come to think of it, it had been southerly to begin with, hadn't it? The snow was hardly touching them now; it seemed the gale was pulling it all northward before it ever had a chance to reach their shoulders.

Felix especially was deeply unsettled. The blackness was more like… blankness. The feeling it radiated was more like an utter lack of feeling. Somehow he innately knew that what he was looking at was more, or less, than just a veil of darkness.

"What's out there?" said Alex, awed.

"Nothing," said Menardi.

"Absolutely nothing," repeated Karst.

Felix's legs finally refused to support him anymore and left the job to his knees. There was a part of him that wanted to know what this had to do with Sol Sanctum, but right now it was the last thing on his mind. There's really nothing out there. This is where the world ends. Why couldn't he handle the idea? He'd known there was someplace where the world ended, but had never imagined it like this. He was a controller of earth – anywhere there was earth, he was in charge. But beyond that cliff, there simply wasn't any more earth, and he felt utterly … helpless.

"See that?" said Karst, gesturing at a red line that started at the back of the lighthouse, ran through the snow and off the edge, and extended far into the blackness, fluttering in the wind. "That's the tape that measures how far away the Falls are. The end of the tape is where they used to be, about thirteen years ago."

Alex nodded. "I see… so they're getting closer…"

"Yes," said Menardi. "Every day we lose a little ground. One day the decay will extend all the way to Prox, and it will swallow it." She pointed to the current point where the tape met the cliff. "We predict it'll reach the lighthouse within twenty years. And once it swallows the lighthouse… well…" She shrugged. "That's the end of the world."

Felix looked up at her, shocked. "What? That can't …"

"Do you know why this is happening, Felix?" she asked. "Why Gaia Falls is inching closer like this? It's because of what's hidden in Sol Sanctum."

"I … I don't understand…"

"Inside Sol Sanctum are four elemental stars, as we call them," she explained, holding up four fingers. "And around the world are four elemental lighthouses. Each star lights one of the beacons. Once all four are lit, though, that's when the real prize can be found."

"The real prize?" said Alex. He hadn't known there was something after the lighting part.

"The real prize," Menardi replied, nodding. "Once they are lit, Sol Sanctum will open, and we can restore the land. But if we wait much longer…" She waved up at the lighthouse. "If this tower is consumed, then nothing can stop the decay. Prox will be destroyed, and after that, so will the rest of the world, I imagine."

Felix stared at her for a moment, then back out at the blankness that faced him. The end… of the world…? It was like a waking nightmare, and he suddenly felt an intense desire to leave. He staggered back to his feet, hesitated a moment, and then turned and broke into a run down the hill. "What're you doing?" Karst shouted after him. "You'll just get lost!"

Alex was about to raise the snow and trip him (the only way he could think to stop him off the top of his head) when Felix tripped on his own and went sprawling across the snow. When he took a while to move from there, Alex ran to catch up with him; Menardi and Karst followed, but in no such hurry. "Are you all right?" said Alex when he'd gotten within earshot again.

By now Felix had sat up again, but didn't show any intention of standing. "You all right?" Alex repeated, drawing up next to him.

"I… I don't believe it. I won't believe it," Felix muttered, not looking at him.

Alex laid a calming hand on his shoulder, but he shook it off. "I don't know what to tell you, Felix," he said. "I don't like it either, but you saw it as clearly as I did."

"No. It's not true. It's not… I can't…" He tried to restrain a sob, but failed; a few more followed it.

"Are you crying?" Karst moaned as she and her sister caught up with them. "Good Lord, a grown man—"

"Shut up, Karst," Alex and Menardi snapped in unison. Karst fell silent. "Come on, Felix, let's go on back," said Alex, pulling him standing. Felix didn't resist. Numbly, he followed them back to town, pressing through the cold south wind now at their faces.

Thank you all for your reviews! They brighten my day.

MK. This is a fanfic, not a walkthrough. Gamefaqs has some good walkthroughs.