Disclaimer: I didn't make and/or currently own the rights to Golden Sun, so there!
Chapter 6: The Hammet Files and an Adept is Discovered
"Hammet?" Lady Layana, his wife of thirty-plus years, cooed soothingly, "Hammet dear? There are some young men and women here to meet you…"
With a groan, Lord Hammet of Kalay opened his eyes and slowly willed them to focus on the face of Ivan, who was watching him eagerly. Hammet smiled weakly before trying to sit up, there was a visible grimace.
"No Your Grace!" yelped the doctor/priest who was sitting opposite of Ivan, "You mustn't move! You know that it gets worse the more you move!"
Hammet turned slowly but deliberately to glare at the doctor. "Thing will have come to a pretty pass when I can't even greet my own son! Silence!" he boomed, seemingly with more power than he ought to have.
"My dear son," Hammet said kindly as he turned back, "I've missed you so…" He reached out and embraced Ivan warmly.
"So have I Father," Ivan said, "And you too Mother…" Lady Layana smiled and joined the group hug. The family stayed as such until Hammet began to cough.
"Father!" Ivan exclaimed before Hammet recovered and smiled again.
"I am just fine my son," Hammet said, "Now let me see your friends here!" Ivan stepped aside.
"My, my, my!" Hammet said with a sly smile, "If it isn't the young hero Isaac of Vale himself!"
Isaac unsheathed his sword, placed the point onto the ground, and kneeled, "It is my honor Your Grace Hamm…"
"Oh please Isaac!" Hammet chuckled, "To you and your friends, I will be known only as Hammet! And take that sword out of the floor! I just had them cleaned you know!"
Isaac appeared to loosen up, "You're still your happy lively self Hammet," he said with a smile, "It's good to see you again."
"As it is to see you again," Hammet replied smoothly, "Uh-oh! What's this?! My Isaac! You've seemed to have an angel behind you! It's the fair Mia of Imil! How kind of you to grace this home with your beauty!"
Hammet's greeting had achieved its intended purpose. Mia's face was blood red as the rest of the room chuckled and Mia stood stumbling for a response.
"It's nice to see you too Hammet," was all she could come up with.
The others got similar greetings as well, and there was much merriment all around, and when he got to Jenna…
"Ah, as well as famous or at any rate notorious Jenna herself!" Hammet said, "My, my…It looks like the gang's all here then! With such good adepts around now, I'll be fine for sure! The entire party of the Heroes of Weyard!"
"I'll just leave then," said a wall.
It left the group dumbfounded for a moment before Jenna recognized the voice.
"Oh." Hammet said, "Who is your new friend? He seems to be a bit shy."
Mitch was dragged out of the safety his corner and thrust into the light. Hammet looked up.
"I suppose you're the cause of my very recent unrest problem then?" Hammet said with a smile.
"I don't understand sir,"
"Hammet, friend, Hammet. Well, I've heard rumors that you saved our heroes' lives yesterday?"
"I…err…suppose that is true s…err…Hammet,"
"And is it true that you killed four score men and a half a dozen dragons, all in the name of Love, Justice, Honor, but mostly Love?" Hammet asked curiously.
Mitch stood for a second, assembling this newsflash before he remembered.
"When the Truth is shoved through the romantic dreams of a young woman," he said smoothly, "It tends to get a bit…warped…"
Hammet laughed heartily, "Right you are my boy! And now, you are Mitch, the mysterious black-clad Knight of Valor, and Love of course…"
"This has something to do with my being…what is it… 'Hot' doesn't it?"
Mitch groaned. One downside to being a Ranger was that so many of the local girls found you so…interesting. One thing that really confused him was that he was 'Hot'. He felt comfortably warm at the moment, with the fire crackling happily in the fireplace…
Meanwhile, with Jenna within earshot, the local temperature rose by a few degrees as Jenna seethed in jealousy and plotted revenge, as many 18-year old girls did when their boyfriends (or at least crushes) where complemented even the slightest bit by another girl. She felt Mia place a restraining hand on her shoulder and she bit her tongue. It started to bleed…
"I should have this poison gone in a few days," Mia reported, giving Jenna a very stern look, "It's psynergetic in nature and it's a tricky compound on top of it, you'll be fine Hammet,"
Lady Layana sighed in relief, "That's the first bit of good news I've heard in days…"
"An adept wants me dead…" Hammet said bluntly, "Hmmm…This is dark news…"
A ringing bell interrupted them, and Hammet clapped happily.
"But now's the time to eat," he said, "Let's go!"
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Dinner passed without incident, unless you count the time Isaac had accidentally propelled a carrot across the table at a freak velocity and almost stapled Ivan to the wall, or the time when Jenna had been a little too enthusiastic about lighting the dinnertime candles, resulting in a quick changing of tablecloths and the removal of a few molten forks…
We could go on for quite a while about this, but it should suffice to say that things got spilled, Jenna flirted a lot, and Garet had gotten severe brain-freeze in the wake of a bet.
Any questions?
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After dinner, the party reassembled in Hammet's study, where Hammet leafed through the day's paperwork and sighed.
"They say there are two things you can count on," Hammet said, "Death and Taxes,"
"Which one's worse?" Ivan asked.
"Taxes," Mitch said quickly, "Death doesn't happen every year,"
Laughter resounded through the large room and Hammet grinned.
"My, Mitch is somewhat of a wit I'd say," he said before being helped into his chair, "The business of politics never ends, true enough…I should have stayed a traveling merchant…"
Everyone stayed silent as Hammet looked at a piece of paper in a special corner of his desk and signed it. "It seems we have a bit of a problem," he said, "With someone trying to kill me and all. Mia, you said that the poison was psynergetic in nature?"
Mia nodded, "That's right,"
"Grave news…Do you fellows have any suggestions?"
"It could be to the new flourishing of Alchemy," Ivan said, "With the lighting of the Lighthouses and the rising of the Golden Sun…maybe something else happened, maybe the poison was a natural occurrence? Out of the excess energy?"
"It's certainly a possibility," Hammet replied, leaning back, "Possibly. What element was the poison in line with Mia?"
"What?"
"The element," Hammet repeated, "You know, which of the four elements,"
Mia looked worried, "I…I couldn't tell…"
"Could it be a criminal organization? They might have something to do with it..." Isaac suggested.
"I doubt that," Sheba responded, "It's going to take at least 2 generations before normal people develop their Adept powers,"
"They could have hired an Adept…"
"Possible, I suppose..."
They remained silent for a moment before Jenna coughed in Mitch's direction.
"Hmm?" Mitch asked, looking up, "Yes?"
"You've been awfully quiet,"
"Have I?"
"Um-hmm, is something wrong?"
"No, I just have this feeling…" Mitch said, "Nothing to worry about…"
"What kind of feeling?"
"Just…a feeling…"
"Is it your psynergy?" Jenna asked.
Everyone stared at her, "Mitch is an ADEPT?!" Ivan asked.
"No, I'm not," Mitch replied, "She's just joking, right Jenna?"
"No!" Jenna said, pointing an accusing finger, "I'm serious! When you where hanging off of that log in the river! I saw your eyes! They where red! Mitch, you are a MARS Adept!"
"How can I be an Adept if I don't know what an Adept is?" Mitch asked.
"You…don't know what an Adept is?"
"No, why?"
"You've never seen any of us cast psynergy?"
"No."
"But what about when Jenna almost blew up the table during dinner a few minutes ago?!" Ivan asked.
"I've been wondering about that…"
Jenna shook her head, "Oh Mars…Me and Garet are the Mars Adepts here, so I guess we'll show him how it's done, right Garet?"
"Yeah, that's cool,"
Mitch cringed in apparent pain, "Damnit! My head…"
"Mitch?! What's wrong?!"
"Err…nothing's wrong Jenna, nothing…"
"It damn well doesn't look like nothing!" Jenna yelped, "You've just bumped your head on that wood shelf! Come on! Let me see it! Ah, You're bleeding! Hold still…" Jenna again casted another potent healing psynergy. The bleeding stopped, but the headache went on.
"Thanks Jenna," Mitch said, "I'll just take an aspirin or something…I'm going to bed everyone, g'night,"
"Come to think of it YAWN we should be getting to bed as well," Isaac said. There was a basic agreement. G'nights where exchanged and everyone was shown to a room…
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Jenna opened the door to her private room. It was bigger and nicer than she had been expecting, with its own fireplace a huge comfy bed. It even contained its own mini-library, although all Jenna really liked to read was Felix's Private Journal and her collection of Mars Adept Girls Monthly. She wasn't very bookish at all, being of the mind that it was more deadly to swing a sword at one's enemy rather than recite poems at it.
"G'night Jenna," Mitch said from her door. Jenna jumped in spite of herself.
"Oh…Mitch…I didn't see you there," Jenna said, wiping her forehead.
"I hope you'll have a nice night,"
"That was sweet of you to say,"
"Was it? I thought I was just being courteous,"
"You where, thanks,"
Mitch nodded and turned to leave.
"Hey Mitch?"
Mitch turned around to see Jenna playing nervously with her hands, "Hmm?" he asked.
"What do you think of those other…err…" it pained her to mention it again, "…girls…"
"What other girls Jenna?"
"Y'know," Jenna said with an anxious grin, "…the ones that…where…err…remember at the Inn last night?"
"Oh…" Mitch sighed, walked in, and sat at the foot of the bed. Jenna followed. "…them…"
"Y…yeah…"
"Personally I think they are all nice and pretty young women, all worthy of friendship," Mitch said thoughtfully. Jenna looked as if her where about to cry, "But they're all so immature…" he added hurriedly, "With the stalking and all…"
Jenna didn't know what to think, "But are you…interested…in them…any of them…?"
The answer felt like it took forever to reach Jenna's ears…
"No,"
Jenna gasped in relief. Thank you Mars!
"I'm…glad…" she said.
"Where you jealous?"
Normally Jenna would have shouted "NO! I'M SURE AS HELL NOT JEALOUS!!!" before storming off and probably blowing up a perfectly innocent tree that just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, but this time it was different. The room was dark, lit only by the stars and the moon...and Mitch's gaze was so sweet and affectionate…she couldn't help but sheepishly squeak out, "A little maybe…"
"Don't be," Mitch said softly, "I really don't like people who stalk on me, y'know?"
Jenna giggled nervously and nodded, "Yeah…I thought so…"
"You don't stalk me, do you?" Mitch asked with a playful grin. Jenna responded marvelously.
"I don't have to; we're together almost all the time anyway,"
"So true…so true…"
They shared a laugh, and Jenna was grinning wildly, all suspicions gone.
"Good night then" Mitch said.
"Yeah," Jenna replied, "Good night,"
When Mitch had gotten to the door, Jenna said, "Mitch?"
"Yes Jenna?" Mitch replied without turning around.
"I hope you have a nice night too,"
"Yeah…"
"Mitch?" Jenna asked, suddenly concerned, "Is something wrong?"
"No…good night Jenna…"
"Does your head still hurt?"
"A little bit Jenna…thanks for the concern…g'night…"
"If you can't sleep because of it, feel free to barge in,"
"I will Jenna, thank you,"
"Are you sure you're okay?" Jenna asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes."
"I worry about you Mitch,"
"Good night Jenna,"
"Good night Mitch,"
The door was closed with an almost imperceptible click.
Jenna watched the door in the darkness for a long moment before she changed into her nightgown. She felt herself sink into the comfy bed as she got in it…
"A Mars Adept…" she said with a smile, "I thought so…He's a little YAWN dense though…he didn't even kiss me…good…night…"
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