Chapter III

Three Years Later

Though there is always pain in the aftermath of loss, the passage of time heals wounds. Like the flow of a clear river, the suffering gradually washes away, and although it is never entirely gone, life nonetheless goes on. The serenity of Vale was a great comfort to those who had lost, like the warm embrace of a friend. The green grass, the warm breeze, the blue water, and the calm, quiet tranquillity of a simple life. It was as like a small piece of heaven, and over the course of three years, the peace washed away the pain of those who had been taken away.

Isaac, now a young man of seventeen, made his way over the rolling hills of his home, passing houses and villagers busy with their own various tasks. The spring day was one of perfect temperature and weather, a far cry from the storm of that tragic day.

Though he did not often think of the tragedy these days, he found his thoughts returning to it of late. The reason was clear enough to him. Jenna's seventeenth birthday would be on the morrow, and it would be the third she would have without her brother or parents.

Isaac had been lucky enough to still have his mother. However, Jenna had been forced to go live with her grandparents, whom she had never been particularly close to, and still was not. He thought back to those first few weeks, when her loneliness had been so great that she would often sneak out at night and come to visit him, sleeping chastely beside him in his bed.

On the day after the tragedy, Isaac had found Jenna sitting at what remained of the docks, weeping as she clutched a fist-sized ruby she had found in the mud. He had gone to her, and let her cry into his shoulder for hours. Not a word was said between them. As the weeks passed, he continued to find her at that graveyard that had once been her home, tormented by guilt and the pain of loss, and always in tears. Each time, he offered her the only thing he could - his comforting arms.

But of course, time healed all wounds, and gradually the tears died and Jenna began to smile again. Isaac continued to find her at those docks, but there were no more tears, and no more comforting embraces. Instead, they would just sit there for a while, staring at the water or the stars.

One evening, he found Jenna at the docks, and thinking nothing of it, he had gone and sat at her side. She broke the usual silence, however.

"Isaac," she had said, with a small smile of mischief. "Close your eyes."

"Why?" he had asked.

"I have a surprise for you."

So he had closed his eyes, and awaited Jenna's gift, even though he'd known what it was the moment he'd seen her smile. Blind, he had felt her hands on his shoulders, heard the sound of her moving closer, and even felt her breath ticking his lips, just before it happened.

From that night on, their meetings had not been quite so innocent.

Isaac continued on, and found himself at the ruined docks. As expected, he found Jenna there, waiting for him. She turned at his approach, twirling in hand a strand of her fiery red hair and smiling in a very girlish way. It was a side of herself that she would show to no one but him.

"I trust you haven't forgotten what tomorrow is?" Her voice teased him.

He could play on her level. Faking confusion, he replied, "Err… Did we have plans with Kraden?"

Jenna narrowed her eyes. "We do. Today."

"Oh. Uh… I guess tomorrow must be… Uh…"

Her hands on her hips, Jenna stared at Isaac with a flat expression. Her eyes slowly narrowed a bit more.

"Of course I haven't forgotten your birthday," Isaac said quickly, half-fearing that she would remind him before he could answer. Were she to do that, nothing he said could convince her that he had only been pretending it had slipped his mind. As much as Isaac enjoyed teasing Jenna, for the reactions she would give him, there were dangers involved.

One needed to be cautious when they stood close to a fire.

"That's good to know," Jenna said in a chastising tone. The amused twinkle in her eyes betrayed that she was in on the game.

"Don't let me off the hook just yet," Isaac said. "I still haven't found anything to give you…"

A wiser man would have kept that to themselves. But Isaac valued honesty above wisdom.

"You don't need to get me anything," Jenna told him, looking quite humble. Isaac knew Jenna was not humble - she did expect a gift. She was playing on his guilt.

"I'll have to find something in the market tomorrow morning," Isaac muttered. "We'll be in Sol Sanctum all afternoon, or we'll be in front of the Great Healer, trying to explain why we caught sneaking up the mountain. Either way, the market will be closed by the time we get back."

Jenna frowned, looking a bit worried, but trying to hide it.

"Don't worry, I'll get you a present. I'll figure it out, somehow. Once we're done with Kraden's business in the temple."

Jenna laughed, and said, "Well, I'm eager to go see Sol Sanctum. I mean it'll probably just be a bunch of old statues and stuff, but it's still exciting to go somewhere we've never been allowed, huh? So many relics… I hope Garet doesn't break anything. I don't think we could handle Kraden's reaction."

And then, it was as though a light bulb went off over Isaac's head as he remembered something.

"Damn," he cursed. "I forgot something important. I was supposed to fix the roof of my house today. It entirely slipped my mind until just now."

"Will that take long?"

"It's just three small holes. It'll take me longer to walk from here back to my house…"

If he'd only remembered, he could have taken care of it on his way to see Jenna.

"If it's no big matter, couldn't you just put it off?"

"I promised I would get it done." He never broke his promises. Jenna knew that, so she knew not to insist on him putting it off.

She chewed on her lip for a moment, thinking. "Alright. I'll go see what Garet's up to while you get that done. Knowing him, he's probably forgotten about the trip altogether."

Unlike Isaac and Jenna, Garet had expressed no desire to see what was inside Sol Sanctum. When Kraden had told them about the trip, he had yawned and rolled his eyes and asked what the point was.

Isaac said a quick goodbye to Jenna, and ran back up the hills towards his house.

The point of the trip, as Kraden had explained, was to inspect the ruins of Sol Sanctum firsthand, rather than relying on second-hand accounts that were centuries old and possibly inaccurate. Kraden had only gone to Sol Sanctum once, a decade before, with the Great Healer and his apprentices. The trip had been brief and rushed, and the scholar had not been able to make as many notes as he'd wished.

He told them that he'd been planning to sneak back in for a while, but the monsters in the ruins made such a thing impossible for a defenceless old man like himself. With the help of his three students, sneaking into Sol Sanctum would be possible, and he could go deeper into the ruins, and learn far more than he had all those years ago.

Kraden would get in a lot of trouble if the Great Healer should find out that he planned to sneak into the forbidden temple. But the three teenagers would never have betrayed Kraden by telling anyone - though they were frequently bored to tears by his lessons, they considered the old man a good friend, and they were eager to help him in this way that only they could.

Garet muttered something about how much he hated flowers, and then gave a strong push with the strength of his will and mind. The ghostly hand before him pushed hard against the stone slab, which weighed far more than a human being could move with physical strength alone. Garet's physical efforts were multiplied by the power of his Psynergy, and gradually the huge block began to move.

Several days before, he'd been training his Psynergy, pushing the heavy stone around, when he had caused it (entirely by accident, of course) to slide down a hill and tumble right into one of his sister's small gardens. Needless to say, the flowers were ruined.

Upon discovering it, Kay had come to him while he was enjoying a pleasant meal with his family, and screamed and cried and made a good show of things. Needless to say, her tears cast a villainous cloak over him, and their parents had ordered him to get his training stone out of Kay's garden.

Unfortunately, to get the stone out of the garden, Garet had needed to push it uphill. Despite explaining the impossibility of it, Kay had told, "You should have thought of that before you pushed it into my garden in the first place." As though he had done it on purpose!

But, by some miracle, he was nearly done.

"Just… a little more…"

Garet groaned and strained with effort, much as he did when he had eaten far too much and couldn't finish a shit in the outhouse. With this last effort, the stone was pushed those last few feet and Garet felt the resistance of gravity cease as the stone was no longer on a slope.

He let out a long sigh and walked down to the bottom of the hill, taking a seat next to Kay's ruined garden. As he caught his breath, he examined the crushed flowers. It actually didn't look too bad, he figured. Most of them weren't even uprooted.

"Figures…" he said under his breath.

Hearing the sound of small hands clapping, he looked up to see a boy about half his height, with a dishevelled mop of hair just as red as his own.

"Sup, Aaron?"

Garet's younger brother ran up to his side, excitement lighting up his young face. "That was amazing!"

"I suppose so. I mean, I am pretty awesome, but this was just potatoes." Garet tried not to sound too short of breath as he said that.

"When can I learn how to do that?"

"When you grow up."

"I'm not a little kid anymore! I'm old enough to start Psynergy training!" Aaron protested, stamping his foot down and looking very young as he did so.

"Haha!" Garet laughed. "Trust me Aaron, you'll always be the 'little' one. You were just unlucky enough to be born last."

"Mom and Dad might have another kid."

Garet considered that for a moment. There was no chance. His parents already had a few greys in their hair from the three children they already had. His father was set to become the next mayor once his grandpa passed on, and they wouldn't want to take on any more responsibility.

"So how do you move stuff with your mind?" Aaron asked.

"You gotta dress up in fancy clothes, buy it some flowers and a drink, and then ask it very nicely. If you're lucky, maaaybe it'll budge a few inches for you."

"Hmph," Aaron sighed, crossing his arms.

Garet let out a sigh of his own and looked out to the distance, towards the river.

There was a brief flash of movement.

Garet blinked, not quite sure he'd actually seen what he thought he'd seen. No… he was certain. He had seen it.

"Aaron, wait here for a minute."

His younger brother watched him with confused eyes, but did not argue or disobey, as Garet started off towards the river.

As he drew closer, the figure standing there came into view. A heavy green cloak hung from the stranger's shoulders, with its hood drawn up, obscuring their features. They leaned against the wooden railing of the bridge, their head bowed enough to further hide any facial features, but they faced in the very direction Garet had come from.

"Are you a traveller?" Garet asked as he took the first few steps onto the bridge.

A slight tilt of the head was the only indication that the cloaked person was even acknowledging him. After a long moment, during which the mystery figure seemed to be thinking, they finally nodded in response to the question.

"I'm Garet, the mayor's grandson. Have you introduced yourself to my grandfather yet?" Among travellers in Weyard, it was considered proper manners to introduce oneself to the mayor when passing through a town.

As Garet greeted this person, he held out his hand. The stranger hesitated for a moment, then reached out and shook Garet's hand. They wore tough, cracked leather gloves.

As the mayor's grandson, he got to meet most of the travellers who came through Vale. He would definitely have remembered this person. "So… have you met my grandfather?"

"Introductions have been made," the traveller answered in a quiet whisper.

As they answered Garet, they looked up just enough for Garet to see a painted mask beneath the hood.

"What's with the mask?" Garet asked.

The stranger looked away slightly. "My face is not one many would enjoy seeing." Their voice still did not rise above a whisper.

This person was probably covered in scars or burns, Garet thought, feeling pity. Perhaps their voice was damaged as well, and they could only speak in a whisper.

Garet very nearly asked if they were a man or a woman, but even he had some tact.

The traveller had not asked how Garet had moved the large stone slab up the hillside, so they must not have seen it. They must have reached the bridge some time after Aaron had shown up. It was forbidden to allow outsiders to see Psynergy, so when anyone was staying there, all the villagers were to be careful when and where they used their powers.

"Well, I hope you're enjoying your time in Vale."

"We won't be here much longer."

And then, quite abruptly, the stranger turned and started off. Garet watched as the traveller quickly made their way down the path, disappearing within the rolling hills of the town, and he wondered what he had said or done to irritate this person so.

As he thought about it, he heard a voice call his name from a short distance behind him. He turned, expecting to see his little brother approaching, but instead he saw Jenna.

"There you are," she said. "I went to your house to find you, but your sister scoffed and stormed off when I asked where you were." Garet didn't need to see her frown to know how Jenna had felt about that.

"Eh, she's just mad at me," he said, scratching the back of his head and giving his best defusing laugh. Jenna's temper was not a fuse he wanted lit.

"Who was that you were talking to just now?"

"Just a traveller, I think."

"Well, c'mon," Jenna urged him. "We have to go get Isaac back at his house. Honestly, all this running around…"

"Uh… what for?"

Jenna stared at him, eyes narrowed. "Have you forgotten what today is?"

"…your birthday?"

A confused Garet could only watch, helpless, as Jenna burst out laughing.

Isaac wiped the sweat from his brow and looked down at the repaired roof tile in front of him. Two of three holes were patched.

"How are things coming?" Dora called from below.

"It's nearly done!"

Dora was in a good mood today, which was something Isaac was always grateful for. Isaac's mother, in contrast to Jenna, had hid her tears following the tragedy, and kept a strong face for her son. Dora raised him as best she could - though he had always been closer to his father, she withheld no affection from him. In fact, the tragedy served to bring them closer than they had been before.

Isaac was so grateful towards her for this, that he felt the need to help her shoulder some of her burden. He'd worked hard since Kyle's death, taking upon himself all of his father's work, as well as his own.

Adding to that his training in Psynergy, and Isaac had endured a staggering burden for the past three years. He would often return home in the evenings exhausted, going right to his room and collapsing on his bed, too drained to stay awake. Physical work was tiring enough, but using up one's Psynergy reserves left one spent in both body and mind. Jenna and Garet trained their Psynergy as well, but Isaac took it a step farther, and worked himself until he simply could not go on.

Dora sometimes questioned his devotion to his study of Psynergy. She'd once spoken to him of it, asking him if his desire to become a powerful Adept stemmed from guilt over the tragedy of three years past. She thought that Isaac regretted being unable to save Felix, and thus indirectly responsible for Kyle's death. He'd smiled and assured her that was not the case.

It wasn't a lie, though it certainly was the tragedy that urged him to train so hard.

In truth, it was those two figures from the forest. He could still remember the incredible power those two bore, and how feeble even his own father would have been against them. How hard had those two trained in whatever strange land they hailed from? What was it that made them so powerful?

While Isaac was nowhere near as strong as they were, he knew he was no longer the helpless child he had once been.

He drove the last nail in.

"It's finished," he said, standing up.

"Hold on a moment, I'm coming up."

A few seconds later, Dora pulled herself up from the ladder and onto the roof of their house. She examined the roof, nodding approvingly.

"Good job, son. You patched it nicely."

"It's not just going to break again if someone steps on it, will it?"

Dora frowned. "I sure hope not."

A moment later, they were off the roof, and Isaac was leaning against the house, cooling down from the fatigue of work. His mother emerged from the house and handed him a glass of water.

"Thanks," Isaac said, taking the drink and swallowing half of it in one gulp.

"You took off in such a hurry this morning, I was worried you'd forgotten all about the roof."

"Ehehehe…" Isaac muttered nervously, scratching the back of his head.

"Where did you go off to?"

"Well… We have something to do with Kraden. Part of our studies…"

"Oh?" Dora said, raising an eyebrow. "It's not often you seem so excited to go listen to him drone on about Alchemy. Field work, perhaps?"

"Er… something like that."

Isaac felt like he was being interrogated under Dora's inquisitive stare. If she asked him directly, he couldn't just lie about it - not to his mother.

Dora then smiled in a knowing way. "Or perhaps it wasn't Kraden you were so eager to see?"

Isaac nearly let out a sigh of relief.

"Perhaps it was a certain young lady? One whose birthday is tomorrow?"

"I guess you got me there…"

Isaac looked over towards the river and saw two red-haired figures approaching.

"But still, you came back to fix the roof?" Dora asked.

"Yeah."

"You're so reliable, Isaac," his mother said, smiling. "You're so much like Kyle was when he was young. I'm sure he would be proud of you."

Isaac returned her smile. He always had his doubts, feeling like he wasn't living up to his father's memory. But if his mother believed it, he knew it was true.

"Well, I've kept you long enough. Go have fun with your friends and get into whatever trouble it is you're planning."

"I'll try to keep things from getting too out of hand!" he assured her, waving back as he ran.

"Don't stay out too late!"

Kraden seemed oddly perturbed.

He paced back and forth before the front of his cottage, muttering to himself and scratching his bearded chin. He didn't even notice the trio as they drew near him.

"…too specific. Far too specific to just be a guess. But how could it be possible? Nobody has-"

He then noticed the three teenagers at the corner of his vision, and turned around to greet them.

"Ah, good morning children."

"Kraden, it's nearly noon," Jenna said.

"Really?" The old sage's eyebrows rose up in surprise. "Hmm… I must have slept in."

Something in his voice betrayed that that wasn't true. And they all knew he was an early riser.

"Kraden, what were you talking to yourself about just now?" Garet asked.

"Ah, nothing important," Kraden said, waving his hand dismissively. "Well, are you all ready? You all have what you need?"

They nodded. Each one of them had some kind of weapon on them - Isaac carried his machete, while Garet had a wood-chopping axe on his back, and Jenna had a knife on her belt. Kraden had told them well in advance about the monsters in Sol Sanctum. Vicious creatures had a tendency to gather in places where humans rarely went. When Kraden had first visited Sol Sanctum all those years ago, a large rat-like beast had leapt out from the shadows and tried to attack his group. Thankfully, the sanctum's Adepts were well-trained, and they had used their Psynergy to easily strike down the monster.

Many villagers believed that their safety was the reason why entry to the temple was forbidden. But Isaac and his friends were aware that it was only half of it.

Part of the reason why Kraden hadn't been able to sneak into Sol Sanctum until now was for this reason. As a frail old man with no Psynergy himself, he would be helpless against any monsters that came after him. But in the company of three young people, each trained in Psynergy and armed with steel, he would be fine.

Isaac asked, "So what exactly is the goal of this trip? You've been a bit vague about it. Are we just sneaking into Sol Sanctum so you can get a better look at things because you were rushed last time?"

"Partly," Kraden muttered. "But there's a bit more to it than that… I uh, I want to go all the way."

Isaac blinked, not certain he'd correctly heard that last sentence. "Uh… what?"

"The elders were very clearly keeping secrets," Kraden explained. "I could tell there were certain things in the temple they didn't want me to see too well. They told me that the rooms we saw were all that had been uncovered. But I knew that was a lie. There were ways further into the sanctum - parts they didn't want me to see. I want to know what it was they were keeping hidden… and why."

Jenna frowned. "If the elders are keeping something secret, I'm sure they have a good reason for it."

"Perhaps," Kraden muttered. His eyes were far away. "But there have been many in the world who have had great power in their hands, which they decided to keep to themselves, purely to preserve that power. Ignoring the possibilities of helping others and making the world a better place." As an afterthought, he added, "Or… so I have heard."

"More stories?" Garet asked.

"There are always more stories," Kraden assured him. "Which is why I need to see the inside of Sol Sanctum, free of the censorship of the elders. I know there are stories in there, just waiting to be discovered. There are those who say that Mt. Aleph was the point from which all of the world was created. Sol Sanctum could contain the greatest stories of them all."

Jenna shrugged at this. "Well you know we're always eager to hear more of your stories, Kraden."

"Excellent," the sage said, smiling warmly and completely missing Jenna's sarcasm. "I trust there are no other objections?"

"I already promised I would help," Isaac said.

"Eh, I don't have a problem," Garet added. "Seems like a fun way to kill a few hours."

Isaac knew Garet was full of it. Yesterday, he could hardly contain his excitement at the thought of breaking into the forbidden temple and seeing what was inside - a sight he'd been denied all his life.

Garet would be excited to break into a cookie jar that he had been allowed to eat from a day ago. He just loved breaking rules.

"Then we should get moving before the day grows any later," Kraden said. Suddenly he jumped up in the air. "Ah! Just a moment, I've forgotten something!"

Kraden darted back inside his cottage, the wooden door slamming closed behind him. Isaac and his two friends exchanged confused glances for a moment, until Kraden stepped back outside a moment later, stuffing something silver into his pocket.

"Alright," he said, out of breath. "Let's go to Sol Sanctum!"

Kraden lead the way, the three teenagers following him with varying degrees of enthusiasm. They ended up engaging in conversation fairly quickly, the mood jovial despite the large taboo they were breaking and the potential consequences of it, were they caught.

The three young Adepts did not notice Kraden's worried glance at the woods behind his house.

A/N: Ugh… This chapter was a real bitch to get done. Apologies to everyone following for the delay. I never know what to write about when there's nothing going on. I hope the content of this chapter didn't come off too expository.

I hope it isn't too obvious who the masked man is. I'm sure anyone who is reading it on this site has already played the games, but I'm still trying to keep the story accessible to people who haven't. So it isn't some kind of huge, game-changing plot twist when the mask comes off in Sol Sanctum, but it should still be believable that the characters are surprised it's him. Thus, the drawn hood, and the quiet voice. In the game, I just can't buy that Jenna is standing right there if you go to the inn and talk to him, and doesn't realise that that's her brother.

I took out the encounter with Saturos and Menardi that occurs just before the gang meets with Kraden. In this changed version of events, it just wouldn't work. Isaac knows who they are, and what they are after. Knowing that they were back in town would mess everything up :/

Next chapter: Sol Sanctum!