A/N: Since I had written everything from before with incorrect information, I had completely redone this entire chapter. Be warned, there are spoilers for those who still had not completed The Lost Age!

Chapter 3

I felt cold. Very cold. Pain was throbbing in my head and I felt extremely weak. I heard whispering in the distance. Or was it close by? I couldn't really tell through the fog in my mind.

I felt a hand on my forehead. Slowly, I opened my eyes, hoping it was Mother, but saw instead a strange looking old woman. She smiled softly at me; her unusual red eyes portrayed a kindness in her.

"Are you feeling all right, dear?" she asked in a gentle tone.

In awe of the lady's appearance, (pale blue skin, graying red hair and pointed ears), I was speechless. I had a sudden feeling that I was not in Vale anymore. Although it was dark within the room I was in, the meager amount of light from a single candle was enough for me to see that I was in a cave-like place.

"W-Where…" was all I could croak out.

The lady hushed quietly and reached for a bowl of water on the table beside my bed.

There were footsteps approaching and I heard a familiar and welcoming voice. "Felix? Is he awake?" my father asked. A shadow loomed over the woman but when I eyes adjusted to the dark light, I could see it was indeed him.

I drank the warm water offered to me and cleared my throat. "D-Dad," I said, grateful to see him again after…

Suddenly, I was confused. I did not know where or how I came to be. Quickly, I sat up but soon fell back when a wave of dizziness struck me.

"Stay in bed, son," I heard Father address me. "You haven't fully recovered yet."

Fully recovered from what? I wanted to say, but found that I was too exhausted to speak.

The old woman chuckled beside him. "Neither have you. You need to rest too, my dear," she said to my father.

Father lightly laughed. "I'm feeling fine now, but I will get more rest later."

"Dad," I moaned, after I regained some strength. I looked at my father, seeing nothing but a blur of his face. "What… happened? Where are we?"

There was a short pause. "It's not important right now. Get some more sleep," he finally answered. Even though I was not entirely capable of thinking clearly, I knew that something was wrong. "I'll leave you –"

"Wait, Dad," I called out, trying to raise my hand to stop him but discovered that I had no strength to even lift a finger. He waited for me to continue. "Why… Why won't you tell me? Where's Mom? Where's Jenna?"

"Your mother is sleeping and you should too. I'll… I'll tell you everything once you get better. I promise." I heard him turn to leave.

"Wait," I said, stopping him once more. "What about Jenna?" I blinked tiredly at his shadow when he did not answer me. "Dad?"

He hesitated. "Jenna is… safe," he replied, but his tone was not steady like before. Instead, it shook with a hint of sadness. "She's safe in Vale, Felix."

"In… Vale?"

The lady by my bedside hushed softly as she placed a hand over my eyes. "Get some rest, my dear," she had said as I felt a soothing warmness emanate from her palm. All the pain disappeared as I slipped away from consciousness and into a slumber.

-0-

"Isaac, Garet, and Jenna," Kraden addressed his students with a polite smile. "Today, we will determine what kind of an Adept you are."

I cocked my head to the side. "But I already know what I am," I exclaimed to the old man. Garet gave me a sideways look while Jenna… she continued to stare at the ground in front of her.

It had been a year since the incident. Much had changed in and around Vale. Jenna, having lost her entire family, now resided with the couple that ran the inn. They were more than happy to take her in as their own child.

Jenna had been taking the whole incident very hard. It was like part of her had disappeared along with her family. No more was she bright and cheerful and making fun of Garet did not seem to be one of her favorite things to do anymore. She had believed that she was completely alone…

Many villagers tried to raise her spirit by giving her gifts, but that did not do any good. It only made her depressed. Garet gave her a flower every day, hoping she would feel better sometime soon. I knew she did not want to be pitied so the way I could cheer her up was to be with her everyday.

I kept reminding her that she was not really alone because Garet and I were still with her.

'We're your friends, Jenna,' I told her as she quietly cried beside the remains of her home.

'Yeah,' Garet agreed, placing a hand on her shoulder. 'We'll always be here for you. You'll never be alone.'

It had seemed like she did not hear a word we said. But when she pulled both of us in a hug, I thought wrong. 'You guys…' she sobbed. 'Don't ever leave me…'

'We promise,' I told her, holding back my own tears.

Garet tightened his embrace. 'We'll never leave.'

I guess I had felt the same way as her but to a smaller scale. The absence of a father had made me feel lonely as well. Although I still had Mother with me, I couldn't help but feel alone whenever at home.

Sleep was barely part of my life. I always had dreams – nightmares – of the horrible incident. The memory of it would not go away. It was not only the incident that wounded me deeply but the unexplainable event that took place after witnessing the tragedy. I had remembered… meeting someone when I left for help. Who it was, my memory would not tell. But I knew, deep down inside, that who I ran into was important. Why? I didn't know… And for not knowing the reason made me frustrated whenever I looked back into the past.

A few months after that day, an old but wise sage named Kraden came to our village. Hailing from an unknown town called Tolbi, he had introduced himself as a scholar in search for information and facts on something called 'Alchemy' (which I had soon learned was somewhat similar to Psynergy). His research had led him to the village of Vale where he wanted to further study Alchemy for Sol Sanctum was somehow linked to it.

However, the villagers did not allow the old man to enter the Sanctum; not just yet. He had to show that the villagers could trust him. So in exchange, Kraden had promised to share his knowledge of Alchemy to anyone in the village.

Education, he had called it.

What was surprising was that Kraden had never heard of or seen Psynergy before and was overwhelmed with excitement when he saw one of the villagers perform a simple skill such as opening a door without touching the knob itself.

He had once said that the world consisted of the four Elements; earth, fire, wind and water. Coinciding with the elements were beings known to be called 'Adepts' that were able to wield special powers of each element. There were four types of Adepts that existed in all of Weyward; Venus of the Earth element, Mars of fire, Jupiter of wind and Mercury of water.

I was awfully interested in Kraden's knowledge of the world that I took up his lessons on Alchemy when many of the villagers were skeptical of his beliefs. Garet came along for he had shown a great interest as well, while Jenna… the two of us made sure she came to keep her company.

Sitting before the sage's newly refurbished cottage, (which the Mayor had lent Kraden), I, along with Jenna and Garet, watched the old man chuckle softly at my reply. Lightly, he pushed his spectacles up the bridge of his nose and looked at me with curiosity.

"Do you now, Isaac?" he asked amusingly. "Can you show me what type of an Adept you are?"

Rubbing my head in embarrassment, I nodded. "Yeah… Well, I can make grass grow," I replied in shame, for I could only perform such a weak Psynergy skill.

However, Kraden seemed intrigued by my answer. "Indeed, do show me your ability."

I frowned at him, but insisted on showing my skill to him when he gave me an assuring smile. "Well, okay," I mumbled as I pulled some grass out of their roots to form a dirt hole.

I felt Jenna and Garet staring at me from both sides for they had never seen me use Psynergy before. Drawing in a deep breath, I placed my hand over the soil and closed my eyes in concentration. Mother had told me once that Psynergy came from within your heart. To summon it, you had to call for it to aid you by focusing your feelings and thoughts into the power.

That was what I tried to do. I quietly called forth the power of Venus within me and directed it to the earth below my palm. Gasps were heard when I felt the energy leave my hand.

"That's so cool, Isaac!" Garet cried in awe. I opened my eyes, expecting to see nothing but grass at where the dirt hole once was. However, instead of blades of green in the dirt, there were tiny flowers.

I blinked in confusion before realizing that my Psynergy was improving… at a slow pace. Jenna brightened up and smiled at what I had done. "Amazing!" she said, eyeing the white flowers with her auburn eyes. "I wonder if I could do that…"

Kraden stepped closer to us and leaned over to take a better look at my creation. "Well done, my boy! That is quite impressive," he praised. "There is no doubt that you are a Venus Adept." Standing back up, he patted me over the shoulder. "If you continue to use your Psynergy daily, you could develop your power into stronger forms!"

When Kraden had finished that sentence, I tensed up, realizing what he had said. Psynergy…

I needed to train my Psynergy so that someday I would be strong enough to protect everyone. My fifteenth birthday was coming near, so it was time that I – no, we learned to use it.

I glanced over at Garet who was now poking at my flowers while Jenna picked at them. "Hey guys," I began, catching their attention. "We should start training together."

Jenna's expression faded from happiness to sadness. "I don't know how… I don't even know what Adept I am," she said. The duty of teaching her Psynergy had once belonged to her parents. I knew it was hard for her to go on and accept the fact that neither her father nor mother could pass on their skills to her.

Gently, I nudged her and offered a small smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure Kraden can help, right?"

The wise sage nodded. "Why, yes! Determining an Adept of a particular type is quite elementary," he explained. "Take Garet for example."

"Huh?" The redhead looked at Kraden and blinked.

"Garet, do tell me about your family. Your mother and father… could you tell me what types of Psynergy they use?"

The boy looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging. "I can't really tell…" he answered meekly. "All I see them do is move stuff around. Not like how Isaac's Mom can grow fruit in her garden."

"Hmm, I see. Interesting." Kraden nodded, amused at Garet's comment.

"Oh, I know!" I exclaimed, having to remember something. "I've seen your sister light a candle once with her hand."

The redhead pondered at that and nodded. "Oh right, that time you were over for supper…"

"With that I can assume you are a Mars Adept, Garet," the sage proclaimed.

Dark brown eyes gleamed up at the old man. "Are you sure?" Garet asked. "Because… now that I think about it, my grandpa once told me stories of how he could shake the earth and mountains with his Psynergy when he was young."

Kraden seemed puzzled by the boy's remark. "Your grandfather is capable of Venus Psynergy?" he pondered. "That's quite fascinating." He slowly paced back and forth in thought. "It seems that the people here in Vale are of either Mars or Venus Adepts."

He continued to pace, thinking deeply and mumbling quietly to himself. I mentally laughed at Kraden. Many times he would completely forget about us whenever he fell into his 'pondering state'.

Jenna nudged me with her elbow. "Do you think I'm Mars? Or Venus?" she asked in a whisper.

I shrugged at her. "I wonder if you can be both…" I suggested with a grin.

"That would be cool," Garet replied, nodding at the thought. "Anyway, since Kraden's doing that again, wanna go train our Psynergy? Isaac, you're teaching us."

"Yeah, Isaac," Jenna agreed, showing me my flowers she had picked. "Teach us how to do this."

Grinning cockily, I stood up. "Sure… but I'll probably be bad at showing you guys how," I said truthfully.

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Jenna assured as she rose to her feet. Soon, her smile faltered into a sad one. "I… I want to be able to show everyone that I'm strong so they'll leave me alone."

"Jenna…" Garet murmured, frowning at the girl. "What do you mean?"

"What I meant was… everyone always gives me that look whenever they see me. It's not like I want to be pitied."

"Well, neither do I," I said, casting down my stare to the ground. "Everyone acts differently around me too, but…" I gave my friends a confident smile. "I don't want that. So let's go show them how strong we can be."

My friends returned my grin with their own. "Let's do it!" they cried in unison.

The three of us turned to Kraden. "Master Kraden," I called out, but he did not seem to hear me. "We're gonna go now. We'll see you tomorrow!"