Chapter 4: The Golden Reunion

An intense bright light hit the sky once more as the Golden Sun was finally upon all. Was this what Piers meant when he said "when the time is right"? Riko pondered for a moment, until the tips of her fingers felt a sudden burst of energy that rushed throughout her body.

This was a small miracle of the Golden Sun that had shone over the entirety of Weyard, including through the thick fogs of Lemuria.

She knew this was the right moment to send Coral back to Piers with a letter. Djinn are usually not utilized this way but since they are more intelligent in comparison to other animals -such as birds- Riko sent Coral off with a letter written by her to inform Piers of the situation and how they should meet up again.

Piers's perspective: Jupiter Lighthouse

"I never thought I would help save the world like this," Piers says, looking across the sword in his hand.

"I knew what I was doing the moment I raised my sword."

The team had beaten the Doom Dragon who had appeared to have been Isaac's father and Felix and Jenna's parents all along. After Piers and Mia ran out of Psynergy trying to heal the parents, Piers noticed a small blue light traveling close towards him. It vanishes as it touches him and a letter appears in his hand. He knew it was from Riko but he waited to open the letter, he had to make sure to send his friends home to Vale before returning to her.

The time finally came to read the letter right before Piers set off on his ship again. He sat at his table and carefully opened the letter, already seeing words written through the paper from the light of his window, he was eagerly wondering what Riko had written to him.

The letter wrote:
Dear Piers,

I hope this letter finds you well. I'd just noticed the light of the Golden Sun shining above everything and I felt it was the right time to send you a signal through this letter since it may be a fair chance for me to leave Lemuria. I believe it's most appropriate to head over to the docks once I've received Aurora back, as confirmation that you'll be arriving to pick me up. Again, thank you for everything, you're really saving my life here.

Kind regards,

Riko

He felt a rush of warmth all throughout his body as he placed his fingers over his mouth as if he were hiding the smile that crept onto his face after reading her letter. He grabs an ink well and his feather to begin writing a letter back to her. With the letter written, he handed it to Aurora and sent her off back to Riko.

Piers: Even though I'm banished from Lemuria, I'll just be going back to help a friend, surely the King will understand, at the very least.

He sets sail one last time on a voyage to the city he once called home.

Riko sees a bright light glimmering towards her as she instantly embraces the warm fiery creature into her arms almost within a fraction of a second.

"Aurora! What have you got for me there?"

"A letter from your boyfriend!"

Riko blushes and wants to scream at Aurora in shock and embarrassment but she contains herself and reaches into her inventory to grab out a bag of ~Spicy Djinn Chips~ for Aurora.

"All right, hand it over, my little monkey."

Aurora snatches the whole bag and drops the letter in time for Riko to catch it.

"Oh! Piers!"

She tears the envelope in a swift and skilful manner to reveal the letter Piers had written to her.

Riko, it's me Piers!

I did get your letter, and I just wanted to tell you that I was banished from Lemuria the last time I'd returned there. The reason being because I'd broken the laws of Lemuria by leaving it twice.

Regardless of the consequences, I will return to try and help you find your mother, then we'll sail you home.

Get ready for a little adventure!

Piers.

Riko smiles from ear to ear at Aurora, who is messily crunching chips, then looks back at the letter.

"Well, this is our ticket outta here, Aurora. We'll head to the docks as soon as the guards are gone, surely they can't be there all day…" she knew there was an opportunity for her to head to the docks once the guards had left at night.

She waits until nightfall for the guards to leave before she cautiously reaches the docks to wait for Piers.

Before she knew it, she saw a ship turning the corner to sail into the docks. She ran up to the pier to board the ship.

"Hey you! Stop!"

An angry and desperate voice suddenly screams.

Oh no, the guards are back?! She's got no time to turn back so she jumps onto the ship and Piers notices, so he runs over to catch her in a twirled hug.

"Hey Riko," he says with a smile after putting her down.

Her expression changed from a bright smile to a panicked look.

"T-the guards! We gotta go now!"

"Alright, let's go."

Piers headed straight back to the tiller to steer the ship out of the docks until they were successfully out of sight.

He steered skilfully past the Sea of Time, except for the last whirlpool that shook the ship and caused Riko to fall over.

"Sorry… er, thank you."

She spoke with nervousness in her voice and embarrassment in her eyes while her cheeks glowed pink.

"It's alright, it can happen, these waters are rough."

He carried in a bridal position before realizing it, both their eyes widened a fraction before he put her down and took the tiller again to sail out into the open sea. She stood by him before he spoke.

"So , are you going to tell me how you got into Lemuria undetected? Rather… why is it that you were there in the first place?"

She looked out at the open sea and took in the freedom that filled her heart when the wind blew at her hair.

"I was hoping that my hometown had a clue as to where my mother could've gone. That book I showed you didn't give me any answers… It was just talking about a prophecy regarding the being that Aqua Rock would appoint with some new… powers?" She looked sadly at him before averting her gaze to await his response.

"Take it from someone who's lost loved ones and still found the secrets of the world, I've actually been to Aqua Rock and there's nothing wrong with having your heart set on going somewhere to do what you think is right for your own quest." He laid a hand on her shoulder and furrowed his eyebrows with a smile as he said it.

"I believe I was chosen to learn the Psynergy 'Parch' when we reached the heart of Aqua Rock."

She looked up at him with brightly lit and curious eyes.

"So, you're saying we could go to Aqua Rock?"

"Yes, I want to help you in any way that I can," he said with a soft smile that warmed Riko's cheeks.

"It's something I could do before going back home to Fern… let's do it, Piers."

"Um.. Who is this Fern I keep hearing about, if I may?"

"Oh, he's my adoptive father, but I only call him by his name because of age since he's a Proxian," she explained without hesitation as he nodded in comprehension.

"I should mention that my ship can fly now after the long journey with Felix's crew."

"Woahh, can we fly it together?"

"Of course. Just stretch your arms out like this and focus all your Psynergy onto the ship."

"Like this?" Riko stretches her arms out in front of her and closes her eyes to focus; the ship then begins to float just above the water's surface.

"Perfect! I'll steer, just keep it up!"

"Piers? What happened while you were gone? I just… didn't see it fit to leave so soon after such a tragic loss… but I'm sure you had your reasons." She walked over to stand near him.

"It's a very, very long story, Riko, but the short version is that I helped Felix and his friends light the remaining Lighthouses to summon the Golden Sun to save Weyard from decaying endlessly."

"The degradation of alchemy… You saved the entire world." She stared at him in awe before looking down at her hands and understanding what that warm tingle that shot through her body was when she saw the sun rise in Lemuria.

"Tell me everything, Piers."

"... Everything?" He sent her a concerned look as he furrowed his eyebrows and scratched the back of his head.

"The story of how you saved the world with your friends, everything!" His smile was enough to tell her that he was willing to share his story with her.

They conversed a lot more on their way to Aqua Rock; he told her about all the towns, Lighthouses, boss fights and all the Psynergy that everyone learnt along the way.

She tried her best to process everything he told her but could only understand so much since she's solely studied alchemy without any real-world exploration.

"Oh my… I've been studying alchemy for quite a bit of my life and I could never figure out the entire phenomenon on my own," she explained.

"It is hard to believe something you can't see, so that's quite understandable, it was the reason the King let me out of Lemuria to map out parts of the world. We then decided it was best to stay close to the ground as the Golden Sun was upon," he smiled but he noticed Riko's skin color growing paler and her eyes flickering closed.

"That… sounds like more than the hero's journey, Piers..." she said weakly, her expression turning into fatigue.

"Riko! Are you alright?! It might've been too soon for this… " he stops the ship to check on her. He turns around to realize that she'd fallen over abruptly and laid still for much longer than he was expecting, the only thing he could do was let her rest so he lifted her up to rest on his bed.

He rested a hand on her forehead, then down her right arm before he used 'Ply' to heal her. Nothing was working, so he waited for a long time. Riko was burnt from overly using her Psynergy too much and too quickly beyond her limit.

It began getting dark so he lit a few candles to keep the room lit. He placed a wet cloth on her forehead behind her bangs, hoping it'll cool her down from what seemed like a high fever. Eventually, he decided to rest next to her after depleting the last of his Psynergy to heal her.