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Golden Sun: Dark Element: Chapter Three
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Ivan began to groggily wipe the sleep from his eyes. Something had woken him in the night, again. It had been ages since he'd had any predictions…so what had awakened him?
He huffed a small sigh. It had been a someone, he knew it. Was it Sheba? She had no need for him in this late of night. Nor did Hama…
'Ivan!'
That answered his question, it was Sheba's voice calling his name.
'Ivan!'
He groaned, putting his hands to his forehead. All he asked for was sleep; could that be so hard?
'What?'
'I…I need your help.'
'For what?'
'Please,' she whispered to his mind, 'Hurry to the Sanctum!'
"Why me?" he said aloud when the link had been severed. Had Felix collapsed yet again? All her problems seemed to fall into his hands. Anger began to swell. She had confided in him when she had trusted no one else because of their common bond, yet now, she would only speak with him if she needed help.
She had lost all interest in friendship. His heart also burned in anger for the rest of her loyal friends.
She had announced only recently that she would leave for Lalivero with Vale's resurrection. She had explained that she wished to spend these last years with her friends before the journey home. It wasn't her leaving that infuriated him so.
She spent such long hours looking after the sick that she had no time for her friends. Now that Felix had fallen ill, she never came down from the Sanctum that rested on the highest hill in Vale.
She practically lived there now. The only people who ever saw her were Mia, Felix, and the occasional sickly.
Ivan slumped back into the warmth of his bed. He too had planned on leaving, yet now...he had fallen in love with the quaint town.
With the rebirth of the town almost complete, he wondered if he would ever want to return to Kalay. He gazed out the window at the falling rain. Piers had already left, and now Sheba was about to follow...
"She is my friend," he muttered, sitting up. He reached for his small green cloak and threw it around his shoulders before leaving his door to make the long hike up the hill in the pouring rain.
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Sheba was forcing her way in. This was no place for her. She couldn't see this monster. She couldn't see this terror that he placed on her and his other friends.
Maybe he did deserve that looming death, after all.
No, he mustn't think like that. He wasn't that bad of a person, was he? Sure, he was a little selfish, and a tad bossy but…this wasn't him.
He surly didn't deserve death, did he?
Of course not. If anything good were to come of this dream, he would study it. Maybe then he might be prepared in the near future.
His dream body laughed coldly at the Sheba in front of him, "You can't kill a god, stupid girl!"
"No!" she yelled, "But you can seal them away!"
Could he reach her? Could he help her somehow?
His question was answered before the thought even finished.
Not this time, he heard a voice from some echoing part of his mind. Not this time, before dark unconsciousness took him yet again.
An eerie twilight filled his vision as he opened his eyes.
Still dreaming. Damn
He found himself on his back, gazing into an endless white sky. A man's face looked over him, "Get up, Felix," he said, his voice harsh and gruff.
Before he could think it, "I can't move," came from his mouth. He had control of his own body!
"You can move," said the man with tired silver eyes, " get up, boy." Felix propped himself up on his elbow before taking the man's gloved hand. Though his silver hair melted into the twilight, his black clothes greatly contrasted the eerie whiteness around him.
One wore all black and had long cascading silver hair.
But this man was not the same. He did not have the same air about him. The word imposter came to his mind for no reason at all. Felix released his grip and backed away, "Who are you?" he demanded.
The man sighed. Though his features glowed of immortal youth, he looked to Felix as an old man near death. Despair reflected within the dull light of his once fierce eyes, "My identity is of no concern," he said curtly, " I only matter at this point as an aid to you."
"Aid? How are you an aide with this-" Felix through up his arms in accusation, " this chaos going on around me? How am I to trust you? How do I know you're not just some voice in my head? How is this helping?"
The man chuckled, " This is not my doing!" he said.
Felix dropped his arms to his sides and with a look of despair watched the dark clothed man begin to speak, "All you need to know is that you are no longer the only one fighting this...illness,"
He glanced up at the sky as if wondering if 'illness' was the best choice of word, "This will only get worse if you do not take what I am about to tell you seriously."
"The threat to your ability to fight this off are your friends, the others like you, especially the one called Isaac."
"Isaac?" Felix asked. Why would Isaac be a threat to him? The two adepts had put aside their differences a long time ago.
"Just listen," the man said impatiently, "They hinder you ability to keep this to yourself. They cannot be nosing about while you handle this. If you don't include your friends, this will go away quietly." Felix nodded, yet felt uncertain. Why handle this alone? The man seemed to sense his resiliency to his ideas.
"Do you need proof?" The dark one asked.
"Of what?"
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"Sheba, please, you must stop this." Ivan grabbed her wrist and pulled it away from Felix's forehead, "This is stupid."
She pulled her hand away from his, "If you aren't going to help, then leave me alone."
"Sheba, please!" Beads of sweat stood out on her forehead and her breath came in quick bursts. She had never broken into another person's mind with so much resistance.
Ivan understood her care for the Venus adept, but...she was being ridiculous.
Not to mention destructive. She could kill him if she pushed hard enough, and even if she didn't, there was still his mind to think about. Breaking his mental barrier could mean breaking his mind.
"There's a reason he doesn't want you in there, Sheba," he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away again. She twisted away from his grasp and smacked his face with her free hand.
The closest of friends, and yet he could not talk sense into her. Her affection for Felix and her concern for his health had been pushing him aside for weeks. If Ivan could not convince her of her mistake, then who could? Jealousy fought with his concern for Felix's life. They had never been very good friends anyway...
He knelt beside her and brought his hands level to hers. What else could he do but sit back and watch? He reasoned with his choice as the tips of his fingers began to glow soft purple.
"I'm sorry, Ivan," she said, "Thank you."
Felix hit his knees and brought both hands to his forehead. Gasping in pain he glared up at the dark one.
"I hope you understand, Felix, that they do nothing to help you," he said, watching the endless glassy sky.
Glass breaks and shatters.
That same echo of voice had yet again floated through his thoughts. He too looked up in time to find it crackling and crumbling. He heard the scream of the fragile sky and watched as shards fell from above.
"The wind adepts are not the only ones trying to break in," said the man, "remember what I have said, because the next time you slip away from your physical self...."
His tired silver eyes pierced Felix's core with a hidden contempt, and seemed to be thinking of how to carefully word his threat, "you may not have strength enough to fight what would like to take it from you."
Stop them before it breaks
Felix stood and stumbled backwards. Despite the pounding scream in his skull, the voice soothed him and he trusted it.
You have the ability
Truth had been spoken and he felt with confidence that he could fight the caving glass ceiling of sky. He lifted his palms to the sky and concentrated on the braking glass.
"What are you doing?" the man asked him, nearly shouting.
Felix did not reply, nor did he take his eyes from the sky.
"You can't do that!" The man watched him as his fingers began to glow with a nearly transparent light; not orange as in most cases. But confusion would not settle on Felix because he knew what he had to do.
He closed his eyes, reaching for Sheba's probing hand. The man yelled again, but Felix could not hear him. His attention was elsewhere. The moment he felt Sheba's energy, he clasped it with his power and like a slingshot, pressure mounted on the string of energy he had sent out. With perfect timing, he released the tension in the string, pushing both him and Sheba from the trappings of his inner mind.
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His eyes flicked open, a brown stare meeting his.
"...?" These were his first few thoughts upon waking.
"Glad to see you're back to your old self," Jenna said sarcastically before her face cracked in to a wide grin. Same old Felix; the only one to ever produce ellipses in thin air.
Ever so expressive.
He began to sit up and when he had finished struggling under the mass of covers, he leaned back against the headboard, "How long..."
"I thought you were comatose," she said cheerfully, throwing back the shades. A sting of white light hit his eyes before he hurriedly shielded them with his hand.
Snow.
"Snow?" he asked, looking up at her rosy face.
She smiled at him with sad eyes. Jenna hated snow just as much as Felix hated bodies of water ("Not people," he would explain often to Piers or Mia, "rivers and such things.") They both had their reasons.
The battle atop the lighthouse...the howling wind and the wicked snow obstructing the warriors view. It stung their faces, and the cold cut through their heavily layered clothing.
The water gushing around him, threatening to pull him under. His arms, sore from hanging on to their only hope of safety. Would drowning be long and agonizing or swift as sleep?
Pain and death.
"Jenna..." The two siblings locked eyes knowing exactly what the other was thinking.
"Stop it Felix, I'm trying to cheer you up."
"Ugh," he groaned, "It's not me! You're the one who looks like she needs cheering."
"Oh, stop it!" she said laughing, "I was going to tell you that you slept through Fall, but you got so serious so fast that you ruined the whole thing."
He started to laugh too, "How long have I really been sleeping?"
"It's only been a few days," she looked out the frosted window, "A freak storm moved in from Imil, I think."
"It was a peaceful sleep."
"Hm?" she turned to face him.
"No dreams," he said, "I slept without dreams."
"For the first time in...?"
"A long, long time," he answered, "The first time in years," even before those distracting predictions.
"That's good," she said solemnly turning back to the window.
"Yeah," he said, "it's good." But he knew it wouldn't last.
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The man with unnatural bluish hair paused, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. He had misjudged his ability with the teleport stone. He looked down at the purple rock, rolling it around in his palm. His psynergy was spent. He sighed and gazed around at his surroundings, noticing a town similar to one he remembered from a few years past.
"Vault." Piers said with conviction, "I suppose I'm walking the rest of the way."
He smiled at the thought of seeing his dear friends again, "Ah well."
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END OF CHAPTER 3
You enjoyed it, didn't you? Come on, you know you did. You also know that you want to review, too. You might at well do it then, since you're thinking about it.
See you in the next chapter. ~riais