Disclaimer: I still do not own Golden Sun.

Ring the bell! Flint demanded impatiently.

I mentally sighed. Flint, I'm working on it, all right?

I was at the bottom of the ladder leading to the bell tower. I glanced nervously up. The tower seemed taller than I'd remembered.

Don't be a scaredy-cat! Vine taunted.

I sent him a mental glare. Don't you start with me.

Flint's right, Granite put in. Ring it already!

You're not afraid to fight two super-powerful Mars Adepts to save your precious Jenna, but you won't climb a ladder? Quartz asked skeptically.

I sighed again, aloud this time. I was alone. Flint had assured me that Sap shouldn't be a problem, that the second I rung the bell he'd come. Fine! I'll do it! Why do I need another Djinni, anyway? All you four ever do is gang up on me!

Reluctantly, I put one hand on the ladder. It creaked. I took a deep breath and started up the ladder. It wasn't so bad as long as I didn't look down.

I rang the bell, but instead of Sap rushing towards me, the Djinni dashed over to a cliff. I spotted a cave exit nearby.

I climbed down the ladder and felt great relief when the ground was under my feet again. I started off towards the mayor's house.

The white-haired mayor was speaking to Ivan as I entered. Garet and Mia looked up.

Garet smiled, made a talking motion with his hand, rolled his eyes, and jerked his thumb towards the mayor. Mia looked furious. Luckily, neither Ivan nor the mayor saw this exchange.

I understood Garet's sign language-the mayor was a windbag and Garet wanted me to rescue them. I rolled my eyes in reply and cleared my throat loudly.

The mayor looked up. "Oh, yes, it's young Isaac! How are you?"
"Fine. I came to, um, get my friends." I answered.

"You're leaving so soon?" he asked.

Garet grinned fervently, nodding his head. Mia elbowed him gently. "Stop," I caught her murmuring.

"Well, no." I replied truthfully. "But we have a little, erm, situation with the Djinn."
The mayor nodded like he understood. "I see. Well then, go on! I hope the rest of your stay in Vault will be pleasant. Please visit again before you leave!"

As soon as we left, Garet made a face. "Thanks for saving us, but you should have said yes!"

Mia gave him an exasperated look. "No, he shouldn't! But...yes, the mayor did talk...a little too much." she admitted in a guilty tone.

"What's the 'situation' with the Djinn?" Ivan asked.

Garet paled. "You didn't insult them, did you?"

I shook my head hastily. "No. But see, Flint wanted me to get Sap. So he told me to ring the bell, and I did, which just scared Sap over to a cliff. There's a cave exit near there, and I wondered if it was a tunnel."

Ivan looked over to the tower thoughtfully. "Hmm. Maybe. We better look all over."

And we did. We searched in the prison first. The bandits had escaped. Ivan was very upset.

"What if they try to steal from another town?" he worried.

I laughed. "Don't worry, Ivan. We've been to practically every town in Angara. Wherever they go, they'll hear about us, and I doubt that'll make them want to steal from those places. We beat them up once, we can do it again."

Ivan didn't look convinced. "Are you sure? I know they must have grown stronger..."
"But we've grown stronger!" Garet put in. "Mia's joined us, and just think of all the battles we've faced since those bandits."

Ivan still didn't look sure. "I guess so..."

Next, we searched the inn. The Sanctum. The well. Basically everywhere. Until we came to the only place we hadn't searched.

"A graveyard?" Garet repeated skeptically. "A graveyard? Don't you think that's going a little too far?!"

I sighed. "Garet, it's the only place we haven't tried."
"Garet, give it a chance!" pleaded Mia.

"We don't even know if we can get to it." Ivan pointed out sensibly. He'd recovered from his earlier worries. "There's a dog standing in the way."

Garet leaned over. "Shoo!"
I laughed. "It's not going to work."
Mia walked over to the dog and scratched it between the ears. Suddenly the dog leaped up. He pranced on two legs, trying to get at Mia's pack.

"What could he want in there?" she wondered, opening it. The dog sniffed inside eagerly.

"Oh, that food the mayor gave us," Mia realized, breaking a piece of bread off. She tossed it as far away as she could. He leaped after it.

Ivan walked into the center of the graves. "I have an idea," he breathed. And then he was gone.

"Ivan!" Garet, Mia, and I called simultaneously.

"I'm okay!" His muffled, but unmistakeable voice seemed to be coming from beneath our feet. "I'll come back up."
A moment later, he reappeared.

"What did you do?" Garet wondered in bewilderment.

Ivan was covered in dust. He rubbed it off. "Reveal."

Ivan walked forward and took my hand, and Mia's. Garet grabbed hold of both our hands, and soon our small circle was standing in the middle of the miniscule graveyard.

Ivan closed his eyes and concentrated. I could see wisps of Psynergy floating in front of each of us. I looked down. Below us was a ladder.

"We've got a bit of a problem." Garet remarked.

I shook my head and let go of Ivan. I still hung to Garet. Slowly, I began climbing down the ladder.

I blinked my eyes as they adjusted to the dim light. I could easily see why Ivan had been covered in dust. I doubted anyone had used this tunnel for many years.

I blinked again. Garet came down next. "Dusty, isn't it?"

I nodded. Mia climbed down. She sneezed.

Ivan was the last. After we were all clustered in the small room, I gestured for the others to follow and walked on.

We finally reached a dead end. There was a door, but a rusty gate closed it off. Ivan inspected it. "Maybe I can blow it off with a whirlwind?" he suggested.

"No," Mia spoke up. Two heads turned to look at her (Garet already was). She pointed to an imprint on the floor, shaped like a flame. Then she pointed to one of the two torchs. "Simple. We move the torch onto that imprint."
"Simple for you," Garet muttered. "I'll bet fifty coins Isaac and I will have to drag that thing over there."

Mia sent him a hopeful look. "It's not too far..."

I sighed. I knew the looks of Mia, now, in addition to Jenna. This one was the one that always got Garet, the pretty-please-with-sugar-on-top. It was almost identical to the one before Jenna's most convincing, the winning death-glare. Mia didn't have one of those, but she did have an exasperated-and-slightly-angry one that was pretty bad.

Garet sighed, too. "All right, we'll do it."

Mia smiled gratefully. In her own way, I thought wryly, she can be as commanding as Jenna can be.

Garet and I walked over to the torch. Pushing and pulling, we managed to slide it onto the imprint. The rusty gate slid into the wall.

The next room had several water puddles. Mia and Garet simply froze them so we could walk on.

In the next room, we faced stairs. I led the way down them, desperately hoping they led to the Djinni.

Instead, they led to another rusty gate and torch. But this time we were on the wrong side of them.

After returning to the higher level, we started up another set of stairs. To meet an angry monster.

I took a step back, almost slipping down the stairs, as the bear glowered down at us. But Garet was ready. "Vol-"
I held a finger over my mouth. He nodded, and a volcano erupted beneath the angry bear.

It growled, but this time we had all readied. Before I could call Flint, however, Gust spun forward.

Pick me! Vine demanded.

All right, I thought absently. Hey! Wait! What do you-

But before I could finish my question, Vine had already zipped forward. He weaved around and between the bear's legs. When it tried to swat him with one of its huge claws, Vine had already used a float-joy on it. The bear made confused growls as it floated in the air.

Vine zipped back to me. "I Tangle foes to reduce agility," he answered smugly.

I heard a familiar yawn. Sure enough, Mist was floating over to the bear sleepily. The air filled with fog and I was blinded for a moment or two. When the mist cleared, the bear was laying fast asleep on the floor.

I rushed forward and lopped its head off. We continued on.

The next room was filled with water.

"I could swim it," Mia offered.

I shook my head. "No, we better stay together. If we can't find another way, we'll return." It was strange, I thought, how making decisions now came like second nature. It wasn't any easier to make them, but I didn't wait for someone else to say something before I stammered something out.

We returned to the large room and climbed down a (thankfully short) ladder. And then up another short ladder. I was beginning to tire of this cave and wished I'd never told the others about Sap.

Bored, I glanced at Ivan, who, as always, had his face buried in a book. He glanced up every minute or two to make sure he wasn't drowning or something. "What are you reading?"

Ivan looked up wildly, then calmed down. "Oh...um, A History of Weyard." He held up the huge volume he was holding, and not for the first time I wondered how he carried them along with him. "Did you know that Vault was founded by Adepts?"
I shook my head. "But we never saw any there."
"It's because Vault has been a town since before the Adepts even thought of founding Vale. But at the prospect of an all-Adept city where they didn't have to hide their Psynergy, the Adepts left to go to Vale." he explained.

"Makes sense," I remarked.

"Imil was founded by a Mercury Adept named Imilia of the Apojii Islands. She-"
"Imil was founded by a Mercury Adept?" Mia repeated. "A female Mercury Adept?"

Ivan nodded. "Yes. She was, in fact, the sister of the founders of the other Adept cities at the base of each lighthouse. The home of the Jupiter Adepts, Contigo, was formed by Tyran of Shaman Village, a Jupiter Adept himself."

"I didn't know siblings could be different kinds of Adepts," Mia remarked.

"I didn't, either," Ivan admitted.

Garet grinned. I knew why. Finally, he knew something Mia and Ivan didn't. "I did."
Mia gave him an incredulous look. "You did?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Jenna's a Mars Adept, but Felix is a Venus."

Ivan blinked and continued, "Lalivero was formed by Lillian of Mikasalla, and Prox by Maronaff of Tundaria."
"Why are they all from different places?" I wondered.

Ivan shrugged. "I guess their parents traveled a lot. Anyway, the four siblings had a fight...the exit!"

I looked up immediately. Sure enough, the sunlight was pouring in. It never could have been as welcome, I thought. We climbed up the steps to see Sap...gone.

I groaned. "Don't tell me we came all this way for nothing."

"Don't give up yet." Flint encouraged, appearing on my shoulder. "Sap! SAP! It's Flint! SAP!"

The Djinni looked out shyly. "Flint?"
"Yes, come on out!" Flint called.

Sap slowly walked out from behind the tree. I was half afraid the rest of the Djinn would pop out and scare the-I couldn't believe I was thinking this of a Djinni-poor little thing. But Flint had apparently told them of Sap's shyness. "Are-are you Adepts?"
I nodded. "Yes, we are."
"Are-are y-you my Adept?" he stammered.

I nodded again. "Yes, I am."

"You-you won't hurt me, will you?"

I shook my head gently. I couldn't believe I was feeling sorry for a Djinni.

He brightened. "Flint, will you show me around? Won't this be great?"
All of a sudden, I didn't feel so sorry for him anymore.

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