Chapter II

The Night of Reckoning

All of Isaac's possessions were left behind in their rush outside. He had stopped only to put on his boots and cloak, and to grab his weed-cutting machete, as his mother urged him out of their house.

Outside, the storm was fierce. The rain fell as stinging little bullets, and the strong, howling winds whipped the rain about and made it strike them from every angle.

Isaac's father waited just beyond their front door, a hood drawn up over his head. He stared up at the mountain, looking worried in a way Isaac had never seen.

"Will they be able to stop it?" Dora asked him.

Kyle shook his head. "No. They can hold it back. Hopefully long enough for everyone to get to the town square."

"What happened? Why is a boulder falling?" Isaac asked.

"A bolt of lightning struck the mountain, and a large boulder was broken loose," Kyle said. "It hasn't come free yet, but the Great Healer says it is only a matter of time. It's the size of a house, he said. They don't know what part of the village it will hit, but it will definitely do a lot of damage on its way down." Kyle hesitated, like there was something else he wanted to say, but he did not.

Isaac considered that. Everyone was taking refuge in the town square, but if they didn't know where the boulder was going to hit, then what made the town square safe? It was the farthest part of the town from Mt. Aleph, but it was also open and filled with buildings. Everyone there would be huddled together in the inn or out by the Psynergy Stone. If the boulder went there, a lot of people would die…

Isaac didn't want to think about that. He was sure the mayor and the Great Healer knew what they were doing.

Kyle was turned away from them, looking at the river in the distance with a grim expression.

"In that case, we need to get to the town square quickly," Dora said. "Come on, Isaac. We need to move fast-"

"Go on without me," Kyle said suddenly. "I'm going to go around and make sure some of the other villagers are alright. Garcia's family in particular."

"Kyle…"

"I couldn't possibly take shelter knowing there are others who might not make it."

"In that case, I'll go with you," Dora offered.

"Nonsense, you need to get Isaac out of here…"

"Isaac doesn't need us, he's old enough," Dora said. "He can take care of himself, right?" She turned to her son, expecting a response from him.

"That's right!" Isaac told them. "I'm not a little boy anymore. I'll be fine. I can get to the town square by myself."

Kyle considered for a moment. Then he smiled, looking a bit proud, and said, "Very well. Just be careful and be safe, alright?"

Isaac nodded. "I will."

"Go straight to the town square," Dora told him. "No detours. The mayor will be there with all the other villagers. Do as he says."

And then Kyle and Dora took off into the stormy night. Kyle turned back and glanced at his son one last time before they both vanished into the darkness.

"Okay…" Isaac said to himself. "Get to the town square. Piece of cake. I was just there a few hours ago…"

He started off, making his way through the heavy rains and the black night. The downpour had transformed the usually soft dirt into mud, and it wasn't long before his boots, cloak, and pants were covered in it.

He made slow progress. It was difficult to see, and the weight of the muddy cloak and boots made each step a trial. Climbing up the small hills was far more difficult than it usually was, and going down them he found himself slipping and stumbling more than once.

Isaac knew from books and traveller's stories that most towns were settled on flat land. Vale was unusual in that it was right at the base of a mountain, and different parts of the town sat at different heights.

He encountered no one else on his way towards the square - it would seem most of the other villagers had taken shelter already. Perhaps the others had been warned earlier. How long had it taken his family to find out? The mayor's house, which wasn't far from his own, had been empty, so they must have gone at least a few minutes before Dora had woken him. Why were they so late in getting to safety?

He would have to ask his father once this was all over.

Isaac was nearly at the town square. The river that ran through the centre of town was not far, and as he ran past it he heard the sound of the water flowing with a violent intensity. The current was strong - far stronger than it had been half a day ago when he had met with Jenna and Felix on the docks. The water was overflowing, the rain making it rise more and more with each minute. If it continued like this, some of the houses near the river at the edge of town could be flooded by the overflow.

Suddenly, Isaac thought of Jenna and Felix. Their house was right beside the river, closer to it than anyone else in the village. And Kyle had mentioned being worried about Garcia's family - he was Jenna and Felix's father.

Isaac hesitated. His parents had told him to get right to the town square and take refuge with the other villagers. But if there was danger enough to Jenna that both his parents left him be to go see to it…

He turned around and went back. He searched for the small bridge that crossed the river, and after a few minutes, he managed to find it. As he ran over it, he noticed just how close the water was to the wooden planks he was running across. Usually there was a few metres of distance between the bridge and the river. Tonight, it was so close that if Isaac got down and reached over the edge, he could dip his hand in the water.

The rain continued its brutal assault on the town. Water dripped down from Isaac's bangs and the tip of his hood. He wiped it away to clear his vision, just as he cleared the last hill and saw Jenna's house.

Immediately, he knew something was indeed wrong.

He saw five figures standing out at the docks - four adults and one child. As he drew closer, he made out the red hair colour of Jenna and her mother, Jasmine. The other three adults he realised were Jenna's father, and Isaac's own parents.

Felix, however, was nowhere in sight.

He knew his parents would be angry at him for coming back, but now Isaac was truly worried. He started to run, and just like before, he jumped and cleared the gap from the riverside to the docks. The others gave a start when he landed.

"Isaac!" Kyle exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I… I was worried about Jenna and Felix…" Isaac looked to Jenna, who was standing right by her mother's side, looking very small. Her lips trembled a bit at the mention of her brother.

Kyle said nothing. Dora stared at Isaac for a moment, and looked as though she were about to scold him, but her husband looked her in the eyes and shook his head, and she said nothing.

"Where is Felix…?" Isaac asked, half-dreading the answer.

Everyone turned to the river, where downstream a large tree was overturned. Through the thick darkness and the heavy rain, Isaac could just barely make out the form of Felix, his lower half submerged beneath the water. His arms were wrapped tight around a branch, and it was clear he was struggling each moment to hold on against the powerful current.

"What happened?"

"H-he fell in the river…" Jenna sobbed. "It-it's all my fault… I dropped my ruby in the water and he tried to grab it…"

Felix's father paced, a worried look on his face. His mother held her crying daughter, shedding a few tears of her own.

"The gods blessed us by breaking that tree," Dora said. "Without it, Felix would never have made it…"

"He might not make it yet, if we don't come up with some idea," Kyle said in a firm voice. "Think, everyone! Felix can't hold on to that branch forever."

"You can't use Psynergy to pull him out?" Isaac asked.

"Kyle is the only one whose Psynergy is strong enough…" Jenna's mother pointed out.

"But I'm drained," he said. "We passed by Kraden's cottage on the way here and there was monsters there, trying to break through his door. We fought them off but I used too much Psynergy doing so. And then there was a man collapsed by the fence… If only we'd gotten here a few minutes sooner…!"

"The most my Psynergy can lift up is household objects," Dora said. "Felix is so far from us, and the river is flowing so fast… I might be able to hold him up for a few minutes, but there's no way I could lift him out of there…"

"Perhaps someone could climb onto the tree and pull him up onto it?" Garcia suggested.

Kyle considered that for a moment, but shook his head. "The rain is too hard and the bark will be treacherous. The distance from the top of the tree to where Felix is at is too far. Anyone who goes on that thing would be more likely to fall into the river themselves… and they might not be able to grab a branch like Felix was. No, we can't risk that."

"So what options does that leave us?" Garcia asked, impatience slipping into his voice.

Kyle frowned. "If I had all my Psynergy, I could maybe manipulate the tree itself… move it closer to us. Felix could reach out and climb back onto the dock… Yeah, that might work."

"Why not just lift Felix himself, and carry him to the edge of the river?"

"It would be too hard to get the Psynergy hand in the right spot to pick him up like that," Kyle said. "And if I applied to much pressure, I could crush him in its grip. Or not grab him tightly enough and lift him up just enough to drop him back in the water. No, it would be easier to move the tree itself - I don't have to worry about hurting a tree. But to do that, I'll need to recharge my Psynergy…"

"Then you need to get back to the town square and use the Psynergy Stone!" Jasmine said.

"Can Felix hold on long enough?" Kyle asked.

"We have no other option," Dora said firmly.

Kyle considered for a moment, and then said, "I'll go and return as quickly as I can. Isaac and Jenna, come with me."

Kyle went to the door and entered the house, motioning for them to follow. Isaac did so, and after some encouragement from her mother, so did Jenna. They passed through the house and left through the front door, and after a moment, Dora emerged as well.

"You're taking Jenna as well?"

"She'll be… safer there than out here."

There was a hesitation in his voice, and after a moment, Isaac understood the real reason for it. He did want them to be safe at the town square… but more than that he didn't want them there if the plan didn't go through. It was a slim chance that they would be able to save Felix, and he didn't want Jenna to see her brother drown if they failed.

"I'll go to the edge of the river," Dora said. "I'll be closer to Felix, so if his grip slackens I can use my Psynergy to hold him up for a bit."

"Good idea," Kyle said.

"Hurry back, please."

"I will." Kyle leaned in and gave his wife a quick kiss, and then started off. Isaac and Jenna hurried after him.

Isaac looked to Jenna as they ran. She had stopped crying, but her expression was wracked with guilt and worry.

"He'll be alright," Isaac reassured her. "Your brother is tough. Felix will survive this, I promise."

"It's my fault this is happening…" she said in a faint voice.

"Don't think like that. Be strong for your brother."

Kyle glanced briefly back at them. He ran fast, his long legs carrying him in strides the two teenagers struggled to match.

"Felix will be fine," Kyle said to the young girl. "If all else fails, I'll jump in the river myself, grab him, and throw him out."

Isaac asked, "You can really move that giant tree all the way over to the dock?"

"Yes. With all my Psynergy I can do that." His voice sounded certain, but Isaac saw a betraying frown. Perhaps he wasn't so sure.

"When we get to the town square I want you both to stay there," Kyle said. "Alright? Go where the other children are and stay there. Listen to what the mayor tells you."

Isaac grew silent for a while, feeling like he had failed his father in not going straight to the town square in the first place.

"Are you angry at me? Because I came back?"

After a moment, Kyle answered, "No. I was worried for your safety. I had hoped you would have gone right to the town square and just been safe there. But I can't be angry at you for being worried about your friends… or wanting to help them."

Reassured, Isaac let out a sigh. He glanced at Jenna, who managed to return a very small smile.

Everything would be alright, he told himself. And he believed it.

They finally arrived at the town square to find it in a disorganised state. People ran here and there, shouting things to one another. A few people were gathered in groups, talking in hushed voices at the corners of the buildings. Some people were on bended knee by the Psynergy Stone's pond, in prayer. A few were wounded, and were being tended to by a single healer, as the others were up at the sanctum trying to hold back the boulder's fall.

Isaac also spotted two people in each other's arms, crying beside a shrouded body. His heart nearly stopped. It was their child. Somebody had lost their child to this disaster.

He glanced at Jenna, but thankfully she did not appear to have seen it.

The mayor stood outside the inn, and beckoned to them as soon as he saw them. "Kyle!"

"I'm sorry, but there's no time," Kyle said quickly. "Isaac and Jenna here can tell you what's happening."

And then he took off towards the Psynergy stone, leaving Isaac and Jenna beside the confused mayor. Isaac explained the situation with Felix, while Jenna stood beside him, silent.

"I see," the mayor said, suddenly looking worried as well. "Well, there's nothing you children can do. Best head inside, get out of the rain. Garet's in there, with the other children."

They did as they were told, and went inside the inn. They found most of the village's children there, including Garet's older sister Kay, and his younger brother Aaron. Kraden sat by the fireplace, a bandage wrapped around his forehead, but with a warm smile as he told some kind of story to the children.

"Just stay here," the mayor said. "Everything will be fine."

He went back outside, closing the door behind him.

Isaac quickly searched through the mass of kids for the familiar sight of Garet's spiky red hair, but he didn't see him anywhere.

"I don't see Garet with the other kids," Isaac said. "The mayor just said he was in here…"

"Maybe he's upstairs," Jenna suggested.

"Upstairs? But why would he be…" Isaac trailed off, as a thought came to him. Something he hoped wasn't true, but half-expected was.

He took Jenna's hand and started up the stairs. "C'mon." Nobody seemed to notice them, as everyone was either listening intently to Kraden's story, or already asleep from the boredom of it.

They went upstairs and went right to the room where Isaac had, just a few hours prior, hid under the bed from the foreigners. Isaac threw the door open, and found Garet there, pulling things out of a wooden chest. His cloak was already on his back.

"Garet what are you planning on doing?" he demanded.

"I'm going out to the river," Garet declared, totally undeterred by their sudden arrival. "I've been listening to my grandfather's conversations from up here. I heard all about what's happening with Felix. He might need my help!"

"Garet, don't be an idiot!" Isaac said. "What could you possibly do? None of us can use Psynergy! There's nothing we could do to help, all any of us would do is get in the way and worry our parents."

"No, I can help! I have a rope!" Garet exclaimed.

"A rope…?"

"Yeah, see!" From beneath his cloak, Garet produced a heavy, coiled rope. "What if your father can't move that tree? In that case, this rope could save Felix's life! But if we just stay here and do nothing, then he'll definitely die!"

"Garet!" Isaac exclaimed. As tactless as usual. He looked at Jenna, half-expecting her to be in tears again, but instead she looked determined.

"He's right," she said. "I can't just sit here while my brother's in danger. If there's anything we could possibly do to help, I want to go!"

"Awesome," Garet said. "This window here is still unlocked…" He went over to the window and pushed it open. A strong gust stole in, making his cloak ripple behind him. "Whoa!"

"Guys, wait! We shouldn't just go out like this…!"

"Don't forget, he's my friend too!" Garet said. "We'll just keep our distance. If they need our help, we'll run down and give them the rope! If they can save Felix without us, we just turn around and sneak back in through the window. What can possibly go wrong?"

Usually when Garet said that, there were a huge number of things that could. In this case, though, Isaac couldn't think of anything to counter with, so he bit his lip and watched as Garet pulled himself through the window, awkwardly manoeuvring himself onto the tree outside.

Once he was through, Jenna moved to follow after him. She glanced back at Isaac. "He's my brother, Isaac. I can't just stay here and do what I'm told and hope everything turns out alright. It's my fault this is happening, no matter how much everyone tells me it isn't. If there's anything I can do, even if it probably won't make a difference, I still have to do it."

"I suppose you're right…" he muttered. Still, the whole thing felt like a bad idea.

"Are you coming?"

"Of course."

A few minutes later, the three of them were back on the ground outside. The rain was still pouring, so they each drew up their hoods and crept off into the darkness, away from the town square. It was dark enough that they didn't even have to make a great effort to stay unseen.

They said nothing as they ran, back up and down the same muddy hills as before. Isaac was sure his mother would be quite furious with how filthy his clothes would be after all this was over.

"Why didn't they just think to try using a rope in the first place?" Isaac wondered aloud. "I'm sure that would have been easier than using Psynergy to move that huge tree."

"Perhaps they didn't have one," Garet suggested. "Or maybe they never thought of the using something mundane like a rope when they have Psynergy? Adults are weird like that. We kids tend to be more imaginative."

"The only thing you're good at imagining is ways to get in trouble." Still, Isaac considered his idea. It seemed odd of his father, who yesterday had insisted on doing chores with one's own hands, wouldn't think of using similar methods to save Felix. Maybe they did have a rope, but it couldn't reach or something.

They eventually spotted Jenna's house in the distance, and heard the sound of the raging river before they saw it. They kept behind the tree line, and got close enough just to see what was happening, just as Garet had said they should.

Kyle was back at the docks, along with Garcia and Jasmine. Dora was still at the edge of the river, as close to Felix as she could be, where thankfully the overflowing waters had not peaked. Felix was still there, clinging tightly to that tree branch, but from the way Dora was kneeling in exhaustion, it would seem she had used her Psynergy once or twice to keep him from going under.

"He hasn't started yet," Jenna muttered. "Why hasn't he started yet?"

But then, as though in response to her, he did. Kyle raised his hands, and an intense glow surrounded him as his mental energy swelled. A ghostly hand with no arm appeared in the air before him, hovering slowly over to the huge tree that clung to. The ghostly hand grabbed on to the long trunk, and loud, audible cracks were heard as it tightened its grip.

And then the hand began to drag the tree back towards the dock. Felix held on for dear life, the intense shaking nearly enough to knock him loose, on top of the current of the water he was still half-submerged in. Very slowly, the distance between Felix and the dock shortened.

"Wow," Garet said. "Your dad really is an amazing Adept. My dad can barely move a empty box…"

Isaac was awed more than any of them. He had seen his father use Psynergy once or twice, to make a plant grow, or to move something out of reach, but to grab such a huge fallen tree and be able to move it at all was incredible. The power needed for that was beyond anything he had ever seen. It was likely more than anyone else in the village could muster.

He felt like he was witnessing one of the great Adepts of the Lost Age performing a miracle.

This continued on for several very long minutes. The ghostly hand kept its grip tight on the tree, its fingers leaving deep impressions in the bark, but it did not loosen even a bit. Kyle strained to maintain the movement, looking exhausted from where he stood on the dock. But he did not stop - not until the huge tree was only a few feet from the actual dock. Only then did the hand cease its effort, and vanish into the air.

As soon as the hand was gone, Kyle stepped back and fell down on his knees, exhausted. Felix's parents moved past him and knelt by the edge of the dock, reaching out to their son.

Carefully, Felix slowly let go of the branch with one hand, and reached out as far as he could. His mother and father grabbed onto his wrist, and they appeared to count to three, before he let the branch go with his other hand and grabbed onto them with both hands. They both pulled back, and finally, Felix was pulled out of the river. The three of them collapsed on the dock.

"They did it!" Jenna exclaimed. "They saved him!" In her excitement, Jenna rose up from their hiding place and started running down the hill towards the house.

"Jenna, wait!" Isaac called after her. She ignored him, and he said under his breath, "What happened to 'heading back in secret if they don't need us'?"

"She's just happy her brother is safe," Garet said.

At the edge of the river, Dora was clapping, too tired to get up and join them at the docks. She hadn't noticed Jenna running towards her. Over at the docks, Felix's mother was helping him up. He was trembling violently, likely chilled to the bone from being in the river so long. Felix's dad and Kyle exchanged some words, and shook hands.

"They're gonna have a heck of a time getting that tree out of their front yard," Garet said with a grin.

Isaac was about to say something in response to that, when he was cut silent.

There was a great rumbling sound.

"Look out!" someone shouted from somewhere. Isaac spotted one of the sanctum's healers, his face covered in blood, running down the stone steps towards the house. "The boulder is falling!"

At once, the jovial atmosphere was dead, and panic broke out. Everyone turned and searched for the boulder, not knowing where it was falling from. Dora spotted Jenna, and was on her feet in a second. The rumbling sound only grew louder each second, so loud it was deafening.

And then they saw it, rolling down the hills, in a direct path towards the house.

Dora grabbed Jenna and pulled her away from the river.

Immediately, Isaac realised there was no chance for them to get away. Still, in his panic he felt like he could possibly do something. That he HAD to do something. He tried to move, but his feet slipped under the mud and he tumbled down a long hill, into the woods.

Garet shouted his name as he fell.

He heard a unbelievably loud crash, and the sound of something massive breaking the surface of the river.

Several moments passed, and the panic died. Isaac climbed to his feet, covered from head to toe in mud and so soaked from the rain that his clothes weighted more than he did. He half-walked, half-stumbled his way over to the edge of the woods, where he collapsed on the ground next to a tree. He was now at the bottom of the hill, a few hundred metres from the house.

At the edge of the river, Dora and Jenna were also on the ground, sitting in several inches of water splashed up from the boulder. Garet was probably still up at the top of the hill where they had been hiding.

The others, however…

The dock was completely gone. The huge broken tree, which his father had spent all that time moving, was shattered completely, only a few small pieces still scattered here and there on either side of the river.

Felix… Both of Felix's parents… And Kyle…

They were nowhere to be seen.

It took him a few moments to process it. What it meant.

In a dreamlike state, Isaac couldn't bring himself to believe it. It didn't feel real. He started walking down the edge of the forest, following the river downstream. Some part of him believed that if he looked, he'd find them all somewhere, floating in the river, miraculously still alive… in spite of the fact that they were all most likely crushed like insects under that huge rock.

No. They were all dead. His friend was dead. Both of Jenna's parents were dead. And his father, the man he respected and idolised so much… was dead.

He stopped walking, and collapsed on his knees. He just didn't have the strength to go on.

Isaac sat there, everyone else too far away to see him, and took it all in. He didn't cry. Somehow, he couldn't. He just felt numb. Empty.

He heard a voice muttering somewhere not far from him.

"…such a powerful storm. We were fools to underestimate the powers of Alchemy."

A female voice answered, "It was not yours or my foolishness that got them all killed. Why they assigned him to lead this mission I'll never understand… Damn fool just ran in and started moving statues without even checking for traps…"

"I'll bet you're thankful I talked you out of bringing Karst, hmm?"

"Hmph. I suppose you win that one. So what do we do next? Return to Prox empty handed, with all the others dead?"

"We have no other choice. We cannot make another attempt. Not on our own. We need to be better prepared next time. We cannot afford another mistake…"

"Isaac!"

Garet's voice rang out in the distance.

"What was that? A villager?"

"I thought they had all taken refuge…"

Isaac saw two figures emerge from the shadows. They wore thick cloaks with the hoods drawn. They both stopped not too far away, and stared right at Isaac.

"Just a child," said the male.

The female answered, "We cannot leave any witnesses. They cannot know we did not leave. They cannot know what we did."

She took a few steps towards him. Isaac could see on her back a huge scythe, but she instead drew a short blade from her waist. For some reason, the thought of running did not even come to him. His legs were so heavy from the rain and mud he knew he could never get away.

"You must forget everything you heard, boy," she said, drawing closer to him, one step at a time. "But don't worry… we'll help you forget."

There was a brief flash of lightning, and Isaac caught a glimpse of her face. Her eyes glowed, the yellow slits of a cat. These people were not human.

Isaac found his hand moving down to his belt, where he had his weed-cutting machete hidden beneath his cloak. He knew he couldn't fight these people. They were far stronger than he was. But he still would.

"Isaac!"

A second call from Garet. He was closer now.

"You can silence him, sure," said the male. "But what could he possibly know about us? A corpse will raise more questions than anything he could say."

"Do you really think that?" the woman asked.

"Yes."

"Then we throw him in the river," she said, sheathing her knife. "A casualty of the storm…"

"Isaac!"

Garet wasn't far now.

"Are you going to drown everyone in the village to keep the secret? What does it even matter if they know it was us? They made it more than clear we cannot do this the easy way. Tonight's blood is on their hands, not ours. Why should we change that?"

"Hmm…" The woman considered this for a moment, and then said to Isaac, "If you ever speak, I'll cut that tongue of yours right out of your mouth."

She turned away from him and then she and the man both took off down the hills, jumping down the small cliffs with incredible speed. They travelled downstream, towards the end of the river, and were soon gone from Isaac's sight.

Isaac stood there, unmoving. He'd hardly heard anything they had said. All he'd realised was that the woman had wanted to kill him, and the man had talked her out of it.

These people… they were the ones from the inn. The ones he'd hidden from beneath the bed. He'd thought they had left. Everyone did. But they hadn't.

The storm and the boulder were not random forces of nature. Whatever it was in Sol Sanctum that they had wanted, they had tried to take it with force, and had triggered the retaliation of the gods. And now, Isaac's father and Jenna's whole family were gone because of them.

And yet… he knew he could not go after them. He remembered that force of dread he had felt at the inn, and he understood what it was. It was the same force he'd felt from his father when he was moving the log. The force of Psynergy.

But those two radiated it at all times, and in an amount that dwarfed what Kyle had produced. That could only mean one thing…

Those two foreigners were as strong as the Adepts of legend.

He heard wet footsteps running towards him. He turned to see Garet.

"Isaac! There you are! Your mom and Jenna are going back to the town square. We need to go there, too. It's not safe out here…"

Isaac nodded.

Garet stared at him, confused. "What's going on? Was someone here?"

He shook his head. What point was there in telling anyone what he knew? What he had seen? If he told the villagers of those two, and that they had tried to steal something from Sol Sanctum and triggered that storm, what would result of it? Would the villagers form a posse and try to hunt them down in vengeance?

Nobody could stop those two. There wasn't a single Adept in Vale who could possibly hold a candle to either of them. All that would earn them was more death. Too many had died tonight already.

Jenna… in one cruel moment, she had lost her whole family. Isaac would need to be there for her. What if that woman was true on her threat? What if she came after Isaac for telling others about them? He would just get killed too.

He joined Garet, and the two of them made their way back to the town square, where Dora and Jenna were waiting. They would be in terrible pain after their losses. He would have to be strong for them both.

Isaac would keep silent.

A/N: Garcia and Jasmine are (as I'm sure many of you already know) the names of Felix and Jenna in the original Japanese versions of the games. I can't remember which story it was, but I once saw a fic use those as the names of Felix and Jenna's parents. I liked it, so I've since adopted it as my headcanon, since we never get actual names for them.

I did use the name Jasmine for a very different character in my other story, the Persistence of Loss. There, is is the name of Jenna's grandmother, so I guess that means that the two stories does not take place in the same universe, as it would be weird for Jenna's mother and grandmother to both have the same name...

I cut out that nameless guy that you find at the Psynergy stone and take back to save Felix. Instead of introducing someone who serves no real purpose to the story and never shows up again, I decided to give his part to Isaac's father instead. We don't get to spend a lot of time with Kyle before his death, so I wanted to flesh him out as much as I could before he exits the story.

And no, Kyle isn't some legendarily powerful Adept. The Psynergy he was using to move the tree was just a normal casting of "Move". He's just powerful by the standards of the people in Vale, who are all largely untrained in Psynergy. In game terms… I would say he's around level ten or so.

Also, I always thought it was odd that Garet was at his house by himself, trying to move that chest out in the storm. Did his family just abandon him and save themselves? I mean, it is Garet, but still… That's why Garet is already at the inn in this story.

In his review of the previous chapter, Droory brought up the detail of the storm occurring right after the Proxians leave Vale, and how suspicious that should look to the villagers. Most of them, I think, wouldn't make the connection, because to them it would just seem like some crazy random storm. Only the Adepts of the sanctum would know it was not natural, and they would be aware that the storm was the result of a failed attempt to steal Sol Sanctum's treasures, rather than a successful one. As far as they know, all the Proxians died in that attempt, so they would think the whole affair was over.

This will be addressed, though, but not until somewhat later in the story.

That's about it, as far as explaining the decisions I made. I hope the changes didn't turn anyone off to the story.

Next chapter: Time Skip!