I realized why I hadn't yet uploaded that last chapter was because I hadn't finished typing it up. Yeah, I'm a genius like that.
Warnings: Excessive dialog. I also keep forgetting that the whole point of this quest is to save the world.
Pairings: Blink-and-you'll-miss-it sort-of hints of Alex/Mia, but maybe it's just me. The same for Garet/Ivan and Garet/Mia. You're not going to see unless you're looking. Isaac/Felix.
Rating: G.
Notes: Saturos and Menardi couldn't care less about learning to sense other types of psynergy. Saturos is reckless. THE LIGHTHOUSE, AT LAST. (Gosh, I'm a lazy bum for taking so long.)
---
How To Nearly Lose A Life
---
"So he tells us about the curse, then decides we're not allowed to go?" Garet fumed. Ivan paced furiously several feet away from him.
"We have to go get your friends anyway, though, right?" Ivan said uncertainly.
Felix sat in contemplative silence for several minutes, planning out the group's next course of action. "Flint," he said at last, "what would our route be after Mercury Lighthouse?"
"To go south, sir. We would pass by Kolima on the way," Flint replied dutifully in its gravelly voice.
"Then we'll stop and do what we can in Kolima on our way back. If what everyone says is true, and the people are really trees, then a few more days' wait shouldn't matter," Felix resolved.
Ivan stopped marching abruptly. "Do you guys sense something?" he asked. Felix and Garet glanced at each other and shook their heads.
"Sirs, Sap is on its way back," Flint said. "Sap may have found something."
A voice echoed up the inn's hallway. Felix opened the door to their inn room, as the inn's patrons scattered to avoid the strange creatures hopping through the inn. "Sirs, sirs, we's found a windy djinni!" Sap called. Forge and a small purple-blue djinn with wings followed Sap mutely.
Felix swung the door open wider, causing the three djinn to nearly collide with it. A woman several feet away shrieked as the wind djinni eagerly fluttered toward Ivan, cooing in delight at finding a Jupiter adept.
"Sirs," Sap said happily, "this windy djinni is Gust."
---
"There was really no need to kick us out just because of the djinn," Garet grumbled as he poked at the fire with a stick. Felix suspected he was probably keeping it going with psynergy more than the wood, but he wouldn't complain as long as it kept them warm.
"At least we got our gold refunded," Felix pointed out reasonably.
"My apologies, sirs," Sap said, looking at the ground pitifully. It would have fidgeted if it had arms.
"It can't be helped," Ivan told it, patting Sap's head consolingly. "We did not know that we would be kicked out." Gust cooed, ruffling its wings discontentedly. "It's not your fault, either," Ivan said, petting it as well.
"Well, at least this way we can get a better start in the morning," Felix commented cheerlessly. He had chosen a spot a good walk north of Bilibin.
---
"By Mars, it's freezing!" Jenna said. She pulled her flimsy brown tunic tighter and wished for trousers like Isaac's.
Isaac stopped walking to rummage through his pack, producing an ugly, tattered cloak a few minutes later. He jogged to catch up and held it out for Jenna. "Here."
She took it gratefully, muttering a sincere "Thanks," and pulling it on over her tunic. It only went to her knees, and while it helped at first, darkness was beginning to descend upon them already, and the temperature around them was beginning to drop.
Alex teleported by to check on them once the Valeans fell asleep. "You'll be walking two more days at this rate. If you can get the others moving faster, you might make it by night fall tomorrow," he estimated. "Careful not to slip on any ice." He still looked too tired to be walking with the rest of the party. There had been some rowdy guests at the inn the night before, but the problem had been taken care of.
---
Ivan shivered and pulled his cloak shut against the wind and cold. "It looked a little less daunting back when we were standing at the edge of the cave, don't you think?" he asked, looking over the frozen expanse of land.
"Put us on standby, sirs. Our power can help keep you warmer," Flint suggested. The three adepts pick up the djinn, allowing their powers to meld.
"Not Gust, sirs," Sap squeaked, hopping to Ivan's side. "He's a windy djinni, too colds!" Ivan nodded and pulled Gust back out of his psynergy flow, absorbing Sap instead. He carried Gust, and finding that doing so helped a bit as well, though not as much as Sap.
Gust cooed and nudged Ivan's arm. Ivan looked up to see that Felix and Garet had already begun moving.
---
Saturos felt that his party was making good time, certainly better than he had expected. Definitely better than days previous. The sun was setting already, but he could see the town of Imil close by. There was no point in camping out again if another hour's walk would get them there.
The glow from the houses looked warm and inviting to the Valeans, though Saturos and Menardi didn't seem to even be aware of the cold. They were both dressed in the same light armor as they had been from the beginning of the quest.
A thought occurred to Jenna. "Do they have a clothing store in Imil?" she asked.
"Of course," Alex replied. Jenna gave a small start, then turned around.
"You could give a little warning before you magically appear!" she replied indignantly. Isaac tried to suppress his laughter.
"You could learn to sense others' psynergy," Alex replied reasonably.
Jenna huffed a little angrily. "I can, thank-you-very-much."
"No, you can sense Mars psynergy. You should learn to sense other psynergy as well," he corrected.
"You can do that?" Jenna replied. Alex nodded. "Oh. Will you teach me?"
"I suppose I could," Alex allowed.
Kraden walked a little closer to Alex and Jenna as Alex explained how to sense psynergy of a foreign element to one's own.
They reached Imil just as the innkeeper began to close for the night. He let them stay, insisting that the weather was too cold, and business too slow to go around shutting out travelers. The Valeans were relieved, the Proxians could have cared less. Alex politely thanked the inn keeper and promised that they would take the available rooms while the innkeeper's wife and other guests slept.
---
Felix, Garet, and Ivan camped out somewhere between the cave north of Bilibin and the snowy town of Imil. They huddled, back-to-back and set the djinn out so that they could keep watch for monsters. Most of the northern creatures were not nocturnal, but they had seen a Mauler prowling after the sun had set.
Felix and Garet talked to Flint and Forge and had them arrange a ring of fire around the party. Or, at least, that had been the original plan. A ring of fire was a bit much for the fire djinni without Garet's help, and he was unable to keep up a good flare in his sleep.
The plan dwindled down to Flint growing what he could, mostly dry, twiggy excuses for plants, and Forge lighting them up. The party had four little fires going before they went to sleep, and they left Flint and Forge to keep the fires going through the night to keep themselves warm and the monsters away.
---
The Proxians and their hostages made for the lighthouse at dawn. Alex moved ahead of them, having dressed and teleported out while everyone else was rubbing the sleep out of their eyes.
Kraden remained incoherent, and Jenna was in a foul mood for having to wake up so early, but Isaac woke up amiable enough.
They reached the lighthouse in good time. Isaac waved to Alex, who waved back. Everyone took their time reaching the entrance. Alex had already done something to the door to unseal it, and once everyone was through he sealed it back.
Saturos and Menardi hesitated.
"Is that going to be enough to stop them?" Menardi asked skeptically.
"As long as they don't find Mia, yes," Alex replied easily.
"But that's not going to stop Mia," Saturos said. "And she is just going to let us walk through and light the lighthouse?"
"Ah, I see your point," Alex replied thoughtfully. He unsealed the entrance again, and allowed Menardi to go back through and wreak havoc on the entrance. A burst here, a burst there, and done. "Isaac, can you use your abilities to move that statue in front of the doorway?"
Isaac glanced at Jenna, who looked torn. She wanted to see her brother again, but she wanted to make sure that she could see her parents, too. She nodded reluctantly.
Isaac went to the entrance and moved a statue over to block the entrance to the lighthouse.
"There," Alex says. "Satisfied?"
"Well, actually," Menardi began, a creative look on her face. It was a foreign expression for her, and Alex didn't much like it.
After a brief explanation, Alex sighed the Sigh of the Eternally Patient Martyr and teleported away and back, a Lizard Man in tow.
Isaac and Jenna glanced at the beast worriedly. "They'll be fine," Isaac told her. Jenna nodded, but didnn't seem to be convinced.
---
Felix, Garet, and Ivan sat in the inn, resting a bit before they set out for the lighthouse. The sun was no longer high in the sky, but they still had a few hours before sunset.
"So, that girl," Garet began conversationally.
"What about her?" Felix replied. The innkeeper's wife brought them all steaming mugs of hot chocolate.
"She had psynergy," Garet said.
"Yeah, and…?" Felix mumbled, lifting his mug of hot chocolate to blow on it.
Ivan took a sip of his, burnimg his tongue. "Ow, ow, ow! She healed didn't she?" he commented, fanning his mouth. Ivan set the mug down, glaring at it balefully. Gust hopped up on the table and began to fan it with its wings.
Felix nearly spilled his hot chocolate. "Stop that," he told Gust. Gust looked down in embarrassment (or something like it) and used one wing to lightly fan the top of Ivan's cocoa.
"Yeah," Garet replied. He took a big drink of his hot chocolate, then reacted much like Ivan. "Owowowow – she's not a Venus adept, though, is she?"
Felix shook his head and took a small sip of his hot chocolate. "No she wasn't. Probably a Mercury adept." Sap looked at the mug in wonder. It sniffed the air and seemed to fall back in ecstasy from the smell.
"Well, we don't have a Mercury adept, and you can only cure so much," Ivan pointed out.
"He's right," Garet added. He took a hesitant sip of his cocoa. "Aww, I can barely taste it!"
Felix rolled his eyes and did a minimal cure in the general direction of Garet's face. He did one for Ivan, too.
"Thanks. She probably knows something about the lighthouse, too," Ivan mumbled thoughtfully.
"That could be helpful," Felix said at last. "But we still don't know where to find her."
Suddenly, a blue flash of light washed over the room.
"I bet that caught her attention, let's go," Garet replied, grabbing his cloak off the back of the chair.
"Sap, find Flint and Forge and tell them to meet us at the lighthouse," Felix instructed. Ivan downed what he could of the hot chocolate and followed, Gust flying after him.
---
The girl from the old couple's house was standing outside of Mercury Lighthouse when they get there. She fretted about a statue blocking her path into the lighthouse.
"I know how to fix that," Garet boasted. He walked past her and moved the statue with ease. Felix rolled his eyes, and Ivan looked on interestedly.
"Could I learn how to do that?" he wondered aloud.
"I have no idea," Felix replied.
The Mercury adept, and there was no mistaking that due to her unusually-colored hair, a firm cerulean, thanked Garet hastily, then hopped to the entrance, muttering something as she used her psynergy to unseal the doorway.
"Hey, Felix!" Garet said from in front of them. Felix and Ivan casually caught up. "I think she just mentioned Alex."
Felix raised an eyebrow. Alex had had blue hair, and none of them could sense his psynergy, it would make sense. "All the more reason to catch up to her, then."
---
Isaac and Jenna trailed behind the rest of the party, silently worrying about their friends trailing behind. Ahead of them, Saturos and Menardi wreaked havoc randomly. Mostly Menardi would use burst or something similar, and occasionally they would run into a monster or two and she would use pyroclasm or something equally destructive. The result was that by the time Alex felt the faint presence of a much weaker group of psynergy users, the Proxians were up several floors and down quite a bit of psynergy.
"Isaac, be a dear and move that statue over there," Menardi said mockingly. Isaac moved a statue of a pretty maiden carrying a water jug in front of where Menardi had bursted out a good bit of narrow pathway. He made sure that the statue was within range of move, should Felix or Garet happen to pass through.
Some more walking proved that Saturos and Menardi were not exactly prepared for complicated tricks and traps to work around. Isaac and Jenna figured out how to get past the pipes, and Alex had to ply a statue to get everyone across the water.
---
"I think I can feel Jenna's psynergy ahead of us," Garet said. Forge, and his new djinni friend, Fever, followed him. Sap was trying to chat up Fizz, Mia's djinni, several feet behind the rest of the party. They had caught up about midway through the battle against the Lizard Man guarding the lighthouse.
Felix nodded. He had been able to sense Isaac for a while now. They were definitely getting closer to their friends.
"Treasure!" Ivan said suddenly, pointing to a treasure chest. Felix and Garet followed him through a waterfall to see that there was, indeed, a treasure chest at the end of an otherwise empty room.
"I'm not sure, I get a bad feeling from that thing," Mia said.
Garet shrugged. "If it's not any good, we can sell it. Nothing to it."
Of course, it turned out to be a Mimic. Afterwards, Mia saved all of her I-told-you-so's until Garet could walk again. It took a good bit of psynergy to heal him, and everyone else, up.
Even better, Felix thought sarcastically, the trip turned out to be a dead end. Jenna and Isaac were almost out of range again, too. The psynergy armor in the real chest under the other waterfall made it a little better, but the fact he was soaked from having to walk through waterfalls at all kind of killed any bonus to his day that the armor might have added.
---
Jenna sat down to watch the Proxians push around pipes, trying to get a statue to fall to the floor below. She sat, and waited, and stayed there doing nothing at all exciting whatsoever until she could feel Garet's psynergy in the distance, getting stronger. The boys were getting closer. She reached out with her mind, like Alex taught her and managed to detect a friendly warmth – Felix and his earth-based psynergy, a cool, refreshing psynergy, water, she suspected, and a hard-to-catch psynergy. It took Jenna a moment to realize that this must be what wind psynergy felt like.
Isaac sat down next to her, after a while. He tried to wring out his scarf, but gave in rather quickly. They would probably just have to walk through yet more waterfalls, soon. At least the lighthouse was warmer than outside. There was no wind, for one thing.
Jenna took pity on him after a while, and she used the quick-heat manipulation of air she figured out on the way up. All those lectures on manipulation of her surroundings were going to be put to use, and Isaac wasn't the only one who could come up with his own special brand of psynergy moves.
After all that, Menardi started wreaking havoc on the lighthouse floors again, though she did wait until after the door in front of them was closed again.
Alex disappeared for a bit around then, to make sure that Felix and Garet and whoever they had brought along had to work to get the statue to open the door, as well, she supposed.
Isaac wondered why they hadn't just had Alex stand on the button while the rest of them went through the door, but he really wanted to see Felix again, and the more time the Proxians took, the more likely that became.
---
They pick up Sleet in another room full of waterfalls. It was nearly as big as Flint, and once they fight it, Sleet agreed to join the party, and Fizz began to talk after that. Mia was entirely thrown off by the fact that her trusted companion could now speak. She claimed it was like hearing a cat talk, to which Ivan replied that cats are much more dry and sarcastic.
Several floors later, the party came up in front of a statue. Mia used play, and the waterfall in front of them began flowing up.
---
Psynergy crackled through the air. Mia looked fully refreshed, but Garet looked far from it. She used a ply on him, then on everyone else. She didn't look as if it had even affected her.
There was a blue light washing over everything, filling the air with a certain quality that made their shadows look like they were underwater.
"We're too late!" Mia cried.
"Felix!" Jenna called. Felix turned to find his sister and Isaac standing on one of the lighthouse's elevator platforms. Kraden and one of the foreigners there, too. Menny or Marda or something, Felix thought.
Isaac waved casually.
"Oh my, they're still alive!" Menardi frawled. "You came all this way to save Jenna and Kraden?"
Felix was about to say "Isaac, too," but Garet was faster, yelling, "We came here for the elemental stars!"
"Oh, did you hear that? They came to stop us. I suppose we have no choice, we'll just have to stop them," Menardi said coolly.
Jenna moved forward to stop Menardi, but Isaac grabbed her. "I know," he whispered, "but we can't do anything."
"Menardi, wait," another voice interrupted. The other foreigner, Saturn or something, stepped out from behind the giant glowing orb.
"But, Saturos–" Menardi started. Saturos stepped toward the group and made a speech that Felix didn't really hear, something about throwing their lives away. It was the same, arrogant load of crap he might have expected.
"Are you going to fight them alone?" Menardi said incredulously.
"He can take them," Isaac told her confidently. Jenna looked at him furiously. She lifted a hand to slap him across the face, as loudly and angrily as she possibly could, and then she got it.
"I can't even feel the end of Saturos' psynergy," Jenna pointed out, which, she realized, was a lie. The Mercury lighthouse must have put a damper on Saturos' power, because suddenly she ccould feel the end of his psynergy. It was vast, but four-against one odds should be a match for him. "You can feel Garet's strength, can't you?" Jenna reached out for the others and found that suddenly, the cool, refreshing psynergy she had felt before was a torrential flood of psynergy now. It was like comparing a little bubbling brook to a powerful river.
"I can't expect you to just leave our hostages alone," Saturos continued, gesturing to Isaac, Jenna, and Kraden.
"Well, that is true," Menardi replied hesitantly.
"Besides, I want to know how much they've grown."
And then Menardi rolled her eyes and scoffed. Of course. "Are you sure about this?" she asked one last time. Of course he was, the arrogant buffoon.
"Leave me be, start the journey to the next lighthouse," Saturos replied. He was already gathering psynergy for a strong opening attack.
Menardi pushed the Valeans further into the elevator to make room for herself. "Let's go already," she said exasperatedly. Jenna giggled.
"They shouldn't have followed us," Isaac mumbled to himself.
"Felix, Garet! Don't die!" Kraden shouted as the elevator descended.
"Oh, that's encouraging. He couldn't give us a 'good luck' or a 'be careful' it had to be 'don't die,'" Garet muttered, taking a defensive stance.
---
Felix, Garet, Ivan, and Mia won, but only barely. Ivan was unconcious, and Garet and Mia were only barely able to stand. Felix shouldn't have been able to by any standard, but the thought that Jenna and Isaac were so close drove him on. They could still catch up to the others if they hurried. He doubted that Saturos was carrying the elemental stars. Alex or Menardi probably had them.
Alex stepped out from behind the orb of light. Mia recognized his voice before he revealed himself, though. Felix might have been impressed if he weren't beginning to get the feeling that Alex was the sort of guy for big entrances and stupid things like that.
He babbled about the power of Mercury lighthouse until Mia called him mad. Eventually he got around to explaining about the lighthouse weakening Saturos because it was crackling with water-based psynergy, and Saturos was full of fire-based psynergy.
Saturos got up at last.
"But-but, we beat him!" Ivan protested.
"No, the lighthouse defeated me," Saturos insisted. He slowly made his way to Alex's side.
"I was merely stalling until Saturos regained his strength," Alex admitted.
"You were just buying time! That's not fair, Alex!" Mia protested feebly. Alex deflected her words with a smile, then turned to help Saturos.
It looked like the sort of well-practiced argument they might have had as children. Felix could see Alex cheating at things like hide-and-seek by waiting until Mia came out of hiding.
Garet shouted something at Saturos and Alex, a protest about them leaving after all that while Felix was considering Alex and Mia.
"Just what are you going to do, finish him off?" Alex replied coldly.
Garet hesitated, then shook his head. They could all tell that while he was reckless and rash, he was not a murderer.
Alex teleported to the side of the elevator.
"What? He warped? Does that mean you can do that, too?" Ivan asked, turning to face Mia.
"No, even Alex didn't have that power before," she replied, confused and a little afraid.
"Ah, well, I can't stay the same Alex you knew forever," he replied shamelessly. "It seems my ride has returned while we were speaking. And so, I bid you adieu."
"Wait, they still have the elemental stars!" Ivan shouted.
Saturos grinned. "Nah, Menardi has them. You don't think that I would go into a battle with those things, do you?"
"Ah, you still have the Mars star, right?" Alex said.
Felix nodded reluctantly. "Of course."
"I appreciate your honesty," Alex replied. And then he was gone. He warped Saturos and himself to the elevator and it left. "I shall see you the next time you try to take the elemental stars from us, then."
"I look forward to our next battle," Saturos said on the way down.
"Well, they could be worse enemies," Ivan commented.
"How?" Garet deadpanned.
"Alex could have fought us, or Saturos could have just pushed us off the side of the lighthouse."
Felix laughed. "Yeah, they could be worse. At least we didn't have to fight Menardi."
---
"…I don't deserve to be a healer," Mia said morosely. Everyone's attention snapped to her. "I couldn't even stop them from lighting the beacon. I've failed my clan, failed my duty…"
"That's not true! We can still beat them!" Ivan insisted.
"That's right. Only three more lighthouses to go. And we have the key to the last one," Felix added confidently. He pulled the Mars star out of his pocket.
Mia stood up, her confidence renewed. "Let's go after them now! What's the matter? We should hurry!"
"'We?' You're coming with us?" Garet replied, puzzled.
"Of course she is, come on," Felix said, moving to Mia's side. The djinn hop off of their chairs and join them.
"Okay," Garet said, a little uncertainly.
They dropped some gold in front of the innkeeper, and then they were gone, a fresh bottle of mystical lighthouse water in their pack, and enough confidence to get them across the frozen wasteland again.
---
A/N: I realized as I re-edited this, that Garet talks like he already knows who Alex is, despite my utter lack of a proper introduction for Alex. Um. I'm going with the idea that they heard about Alex from some other non-Mia villager, and connected him to that weird Mercury adept with the eyebrows that travels with Isaac, Saturos, and Menardi on their own. /fail.