All right. This chapter's a little shorter than I planned, but it turns out I'll be busier than I thought this summer, so I'm not sure how much writing I'm going to get done in the next couple of weeks. I'd originally planned for this chapter to cover 80% of the journey to Vale, but I realized that that would be ridiculously long, which would mean you wouldn't get a chapter till around September. Plus, my original plan was to have each member of the party come and talk to Felix so you could get a look at the relationship dynamics on the ship (and to poke fun at the canon's tendency to have every character voice their opinions in rapid succession). I've decided that as fun as it would be to harass Felix, you probably don't want to read 7 conversations in a row in the same room. So I've decided to do a bit of shifting, so that some conversations take place in Vale, and some conversations (like the one between Karst and Agatio below) take place earlier.

* Edit 8-8-11: I edited the chapter so that the two scenes are clearly separated.

Deep inside Angara's northern forest, two dark figures hunched around a small, flickering fire. At first glance, it appeared to be a slightly oversized campfire, but if one were to look within the flames, one would be hard pressed to spot what exactly was burning. The fire had no wood at its base, no twigs, no leaves, not even a handful of dry grass. The flames simply flowed out of a small patch of dirt, like an underground stream that had found its way to the surface.

Agatio leaned back against an oak and let what little heat the fire provided wash over his skin. He'd hoped that the southern lands would be a bit warmer than this. True, Angara's winter was much milder than the weather in Prox, where any exposed water froze within seconds and fist-sized hail was a regular occurrence. But the Valeans had made Angara sound like paradise, a fertile land where the air was hot as steam and you could walk outside with only one shirt. They'd failed to mention that such weather only lasted a quarter of the year.

For most of Agatio's life, he'd assumed that a country's weather was unchangeable, and that whether the days were sunny or snowy depended on where you were born. Alex had tried to explain that in the lower continents the weather depended on time as well as place, and that they were headed south during "fall", when Angara was growing colder. Karst, of course, had called the water adept a twisted liar, assuming that Alex was playing on their ignorance for his own amusement. Agatio hadn't believed the water adept either until he saw the leaves start falling from the trees.

The winter had been nothing to worry about, of course. The humans had called it one of the worst in ages, but they were so frail that even a foot of snow scared them into hiding in their houses. Then again, as a Proxian his scaly skin was thick enough to withstand all but the coldest temperatures, so Agatio had no way to tell if the humans were simply being cowards or if their flesh really had been in danger of freezing off. All he knew was that this so-called winter had been the warmest weather he'd ever known.

Still, it was a bit of a disappointment to walk into a forest full of unpetrified trees ripe for the burning and then discover that the wood was still wet from the melting snow. Thankfully, all Mars adepts needed to make fire was a bit of psynergy and concentration. Karst had been on edge for days, so Agatio had gracefully allowed her to be in charge of the fire's upkeep.

Actually, he was surprised Karst hadn't asked him to switch shifts yet. True, she was only making a small campfire, but they'd been resting for several hours now and the fire hadn't even shrunk. If Agatio had tried to use psynergy for that long, he would at the very least have a headache. Then again, Karst had always found the cold more irritating than Agatio did, so maybe draining her psynergy was more comfortable for her than sitting in the snow without a heat source.

"Agatio?" Karst spoke to him from across the fire, her legs spread out in front of her.

He stuck his hand out towards the flames. "All right, I'll take over."

"No, no, I'm fine. I was just wondering…" She flung her head back to look at the grey sky. "How long do you think it'll take for us to make it to the Northern Reaches?"

"I guess probably another month. That's how long it took us to get from Prox through the Goma Range, so it makes sense that we'd take about the same amount of time to get back." Agatio watched as the snow melted around Karst's fingertips. That answer hadn't satisfied her. "But then again, Prox isn't where you want to go, is it?"

Karst turned her head back towards Agatio, her red eyes reflecting the light of the fire. She didn't look angry, though, which was good. Ever since their defeat at the Jupiter lighthouse, Agatio had had to be very careful when he brought up anything to do with Isaac and his little cronies. Karst hadn't taken Felix's betrayal very well, and had developed a habit of burning whatever was nearest in order to keep her anger at manageable levels.

"No. It isn't."

Actually, both Karst and Agatio had taken extra care to avoid discussing any plans beyond "going north". Technically, their mission was over. Felix had taken the Mars Star and was headed to activate the last lighthouse. The Valean threat had been neutralized, as Isaac and his friends had been converted to the Proxian cause. As long as no other obstacles arose, their combined power would be more than enough to save the world. All that Karst and Agatio had to do was return home and let Alex's plans fall into place.

"Alex isn't going to like that," he chided.

"Then he can have the grave next to Isaac's."

Agatio smiled in spite of himself. He wouldn't mind taking a part in that. Most of Prox considered the water adept to be their savior, the man with the scheme that would restore their lost empire. But Agatio knew better. In Prox, he'd been humble and cooperative, but once they'd left the confines of the village, Alex had treated him and Karst like dogs, brutes to set against his enemies rather than people with the ability to think. He cared nothing for Prox, as long as his pawns completed his agenda. And Agatio suspected that Alex's agenda wasn't entirely in Prox's interests.

"So where would these graves be located?"

Karst's eyes flared. "Deep in the core of the lit Mars star. Just like Menardi and Saturos."

"You want to fight them at the Mars lighthouse?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Is that a problem?"

"Well, it's just…" Agatio paused. He had been about to say that it was probably bad luck to fight the adepts there when their last battle in a lighthouse had gone so badly. But he knew Karst wouldn't take that remark too well, so instead he asked, "Shouldn't we wait until they finish their task first?"

Karst clenched her teeth into a grin. "You mean my sister and Saturos's task? The one the elders had to blackmail Felix into helping us with?" She leaned forward. "Come on, Agatio. You've known Felix for three years. Do you honestly think that twig could master the Mars Lighthouse? I'll be surprised if he survives the trip."

"And if he does? What would you do?" He hated bringing bad memories up for Karst, but he had to know. He couldn't afford her getting second thoughts like on Jupiter Lighthouse.

Karst stopped smiling. "If he gets in my way," she mused, staring into the fire, "I'll kill him."

"Are you sure? You two were close, as I recall."

"That's why I said if."

The two watched the flames lick at the air. Agatio cleared his throat. "Wouldn't it be easier to wait and ambush them when they returned to Vale? Less defenses, less risks."

"Sure, if we knew where it was. That would be better, actually. Show them what it's like to watch your home crumble around you," she muttered, leaning back. "But it's a hidden village. It's not going to be on any maps."

"What about reinforcements then? We could head back to Prox, tell them-"

"You don't have to come if you don't want to." Karst stared at him from across the fire, her head tilted lazily to one side. Her body was loose, but it had a tense aura around it, as if her muscles were struggling to stay relaxed.

Agatio felt a prickling heat rise in his chest. "Don't insult me," he found himself snarling. "Saturos and Menardi were my closest friends. We may not have shared blood, but we were still family. I want to see those brats burn just as much as you do."

Karsts' eyes narrowed. "Then why the excuses?"

"They're not excuses! They're just…thoughts." Agatio tried to think of how he could explain what he was thinking. He wasn't lying when he said he wanted revenge. And he knew that as long as he and Karst didn't hold back this time, they could roast every last one of those little traitors into ash. But…what if something happened during the battle? What if they killed all eight of those kids, but died in the process? It was highly unlikely, true, but then again, they'd thought victory had been certain back on the Jupiter lighthouse as well. Only a handful of fire adepts in the world were strong enough to climb the lighthouse, so the Mars Star would likely be lost for years if they failed.

He wanted revenge. He wanted it with his whole body. But he wasn't quite prepared to risk the world to get it.

"Look," he explained, "I'm just saying a lot's at stake. There's eight of them now, so we have to take them seriously."

"You think I don't know that?" she shouted, slamming her hand into the snow. "The humans have always had the upper hand. That's why we need to fight them at the lighthouse. Our psynergy will be strongest there, and we know the terrain."

He blinked. He hadn't realized Karst had thought that far. He certainly hadn't.

She flashed him a satisfied grin. "Now who's insulting who?"

Agatio felt himself relax. It was nice to know Karst hadn't completely lost herself to rage. She was still thinking things through. "All right, all right. I can see you've thought a lot about this. But how are we going to catch up to them? We're fast, but I don't think we can outpace a flying ship."

Karst leaned forward and began tracing figures in the snow. "We don't have to. From what I hear, Isaac is notorious for getting sidetracked. He'll probably visit two or three villages before he gets anywhere important. If we head straight towards the lighthouse, we should make it there in time to set up an ambush."

"Or…"

She looked up. "Or?"

"What if we followed them to one of these towns? We wouldn't have the elemental advantage, true, but two of those brats are also Mars adepts, so I don't think that would help us too much. Plus, we'd get our revenge much sooner." And if we failed…the Mars Star would be in a place our allies could actually reach.

Karst stared down at her lines in the snow. "True…but how would we know which town they were in?"

Agatio grinned. "They travel in a flying ship. Somebody has to have seen them."

She paused for a second of thought, and then retraced her lines. The campfire shrunk a little as her attention focused on the snow in front of her. "So we'll ask around the local villages. See if anyone's spotted them."

"If no one has, we'll go straight to the lighthouse," he added.

"But if they have, then we'll go to the town," she said, shoving her finger into one of the circles she drew. "Wait until they're plundering the town or blackmailing the mayor or whatever those traitors do for fun…" The campfire withered a bit further, and the snow around Karst's finger began to melt. "Then we'll take back the star, raze the ship, and kill that scarfed bastard once and for all!"

The campfire disappeared, and the snow around Karst's finger went up in a puff of steam. The grass that had been frozen underneath the snow was now smoldering. She smiled. "Yeah, I like that plan."

Even before he knocked on Felix's door, Isaac had been expecting trouble. A little bit after lunch Isaac had asked Picard how Felix had reacted to the news that they were traveling to Vale, and Picard had scrambled up an apology, saying he hadn't quite gotten around to mentioning it and could Isaac tell him instead please? Judging from Picard's nervous rambling, something must have happened between him and Felix, but Picard didn't seem upset per se, so Isaac decided to leave well enough alone.

Apparently Felix wasn't in the best of moods, and Isaac doubted he'd be happy to learn that the group had made such a decision without him, especially since he and Isaac had agreed in Contigo that they'd make all of their important decisions together as co-leaders. But honestly, Isaac didn't know what else he could have done. It wasn't as if he could have paused the vote to go wake up Felix. Besides, just because Felix was a co-leader didn't mean Isaac had to ask permission for every decision, right?

Felix would understand. He might sulk for the next few days, but even he wouldn't grudge Isaac for taking charge while he was sick. Most likely he'd just drop a chilly reminder not to make a habit of making decisions without him and then shrug it off and get down to business. Once Isaac explained where they were headed and why, he doubted Felix would put up too much of a struggle.

What he hadn't expected was for Felix to refuse to go to Vale altogether. It didn't make any sense. Felix had been away from home for four years. Isaac thought he'd be the most excited out of everyone to have an excuse to visit. Didn't he miss Vale? Didn't he want to see everyone at home?

Though his friend tried his best to keep a straight face, Isaac could see that the answers were yes. But rather than acknowledge the questions, Felix sat up on his bed and asked one of his own. "In case you don't remember, the last time I was at Vale I didn't exactly leave on the best of terms. Do you really think it'd be a good idea for me to return after I've stolen the village's most precious artifacts?"

Isaac felt his eyes grow wide. "Is that what you were worried about? Felix, no one would blame you for that. I'm sure once we explain how the Proxians blackmailed you, everyone at home will forgive you." Felix raised an eyebrow. Isaac continued, "They're your friends, Felix. They'll be happy just to know you're alive."

His friend's mouth twitched into a wry smirk. "Wasn't that implied when you and Garet told everyone I helped steal the Elemental Stars?"

Isaac winced. "Sorry. I didn't mean to ruin your reputation. I was just so shocked to see you there with Saturos and Menardi that I had to tell people." He sat down on Picard's bed. "I thought since you'd shown your face that you didn't care who knew."

Felix shook his head. "That's what the mask had been for. So that everyone would still think I was innocent and, well…" His smile grew harder. "dead. But Saturos and Menardi decided it'd be 'safer' to have me reveal myself as a traitor. That way if I tried to escape, I'd have no one to turn to for help." His gaze shifted away from Isaac's. "At least, that's how I understand it."

The two sat there staring at the floor, listening to ship's walls creak. After a minute, Isaac gave up trying to think of something profound to say and simply replied, "Well, it didn't work."

Isaac saw his friend look up out of the corner of his eye. "What I mean to say is, I…I did hate you at first, but-" He winced. "Er, not hate. I had profound dislike, or disappointment, or…I don't know." He shook his head. "The point is, it didn't last forever. Garet and I never wanted to fight you, even when we thought you were a traitor. And as soon as we found out what was going on, we were more than willing to help." He flashed what he hoped was an encouraging smile.

Felix sighed. "Yes, but I had to save your lives first in order to convince you I had good intentions."

"Well you did kidnap your own sister," Isaac snapped. "What were we supposed to think?"

The two sat in silence, holding each other's gaze. They didn't clench their jaws or ball their fists; they simply sat very still and locked eyes as the ship rocked ever so slightly back and forth. Isaac looked away first, hunching his shoulders and mumbling, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

Felix interrupted him. "No, it's my fault. Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. I was just trying to make the point that I don't believe the people at home will forgive me as easily as you think." He slid his legs over the edge of his bed so that his feet were planted on the ground. "I just want to be careful. It's going to be hard enough to convince the townspeople to hand over Vulcan's Greaves without adding my issues into the mix."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, unless Vale sent some more adepts out to hunt me down, you, Garet, Jenna, and Kraden are the only people who've been outside the village in years. None of them have seen the world like you and I have. They don't know the state it's in. They think all the other villages are just as happy and prosperous as Vale, and that Alchemy's some evil, world-destroying force that they can lock away forever. They want Alchemy to disappear. That's why they hid the Elemental Stars."

Isaac crossed his legs and frowned. "I know that. I used to think that way too, remember? But the maps are proof that the world is dying without psynergy. Once they see the maps and hear our story, they're sure to cooperate. They want to save the world just as much as we do, after all."

The other adept opened his mouth to say something, but then set it into a thin line.

Isaac leaned forward. "Felix?" His friend didn't respond. "Felix. Do you know something?"

His friend closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them, staring intently into the space between the beds. "Back when I was traveling with Saturos and Menardi, they told me a story." He glanced at Isaac, who nodded for him to continue.

"Four years ago, Proxian envoys came to Vale and told our council of elders that the world was dying. They said that in order to save it, they needed the council to hand over the stars so they could reignite the lighthouses. The council refused, accusing the Proxians of using trickery to try and take the stars for their personal gain."

"The envoys came again and again, but the council turned them away each time. Finally, Prox's council decided diplomacy was futile, and that if they were to save the world they'd have steal the stars. They sent their best warriors to infiltrate Sol Sanctum, but since the warriors had no one to guide them through the temple, they set off a trap," Felix looked up, "which caused Mt. Aleph to erupt."

Isaac didn't know how to react to that story. Prox had been Vale's enemy since ancient times, so of course the council of elders wouldn't trust them with the Elemental Stars. But surely they would have guessed that the Proxians wouldn't stop at a simple 'no'. If they'd posted sentries around the Sanctum, or warned the townspeople to be on the lookout for thieves, they might have stopped Saturos and Menardi from ever entering the Sol Sanctum. The Proxians would have never set off the trap. Mt. Aleph wouldn't have erupted. People would still be alive.

"Are you sure Saturos wasn't playing with your head? Feeding you stories to make you think he was the good guy?"

Felix nodded his head. "I thought that too at first. But when I watched his face as he told it...that was one of the few times I'd ever seen him openly angry." Felix looked up. "I'm not sure if you remember this, since you only talked to him a handful of times, but Saturos was the kind of person who was always smiling. Especially when he was lying."

Isaac remembered. During their battles, Saturos always had a loose, carefree smirk on his face, as if he and Isaac were chatting over dinner rather than stabbing each other in the chest. Even the man's corpse had worn that insanely wide grin, all the way down into Venus Lighthouse's core.

"I'm not saying I'm good at reading people," said Felix, "and maybe I'm just being gullible, but when Saturos told me that story, it…sounded true."

As much as Isaac hated to admit it, the story sounded true when Felix told it too. The two sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts. Isaac leaned back. If he listened hard, he could just hear the waves past the groaning of the ship's wood. The sound made his body feel heavy, and if Felix hadn't been watching him he might have laid down on Picard's bed and taken a nap. But there was still some business to take care of first before he could rest.

"All right, but what about Vale?"

Felix jolted out of whatever thoughts he was having. "What?"

"I mean, whether or not the council already knows about Weyard dying, we still need to convince them to give us Vulcan's Graves." Isaac sat back upright. "Or do you want me to go into Vale with the others and get the artifact without you?"

Felix sat up, eyes wide. He looked almost eager, if such a word could ever be applied to him. "Would you?"

Isaac blinked. He'd meant for that line to be sarcastic, but Felix looked so hopeful that he wasn't quite sure he should take the offer back. "All right, but what should I tell the townspeople about you? Should I say that we still haven't found you, or that you're dead, or what?"

Felix's face fell back into its usual guarded stare. "Whatever you think is best."

"What if something happens? How will I contact you?"

"I'll be guarding the ship. Just send one of the Jupiter djinni to come get me."

Isaac bit the inside of his lip. "I don't think we're going to be able to afford to send djinni every time I need your opinion on something."

"Then don't." Felix looked down at his feet. "Sorry, I know this is a lot to ask. But I wouldn't insist if I didn't think it was the right decision."

Isaac pushed himself off the bed. "You're sure you want to sit this one out?" he asked, more for formality's sake than any doubt about what the answer would be.

Felix nodded. "From now until we leave Vale, you don't have to ask me about a single decision. You can make them all yourself." He grinned, more openly this time. "Try not to make too many bad ones."

Author's comments:

1. Wikipedia is sort of vague on capitalization. Of course it always capitalizes Elemental Stars and Elemental Lighthouses, but when it refers to just "stars", it waffles between capitalization and lower case. I'm going to consistently use lowercase when talking about lighthouses and stars in general, because that makes for easier reading. If I ever refer to the stars in the sky or to beach lighthouses, I'll try to make the meaning clear via the context.

Agatio doesn't sound too intellectual in this chapter. In canon, he does use the word "ragamuffins", but I can't write that word with a straight face, so instead I just tried to make it clear that he's not just a musclehead. Because while a hulking dragon man is intimidating, a hulking dragon man who can outsmart you is scary. And villains need to be scary.

3. I say Felix has been gone for four years because I'm assuming his travels have taken over 12 months. Three years in Prox plus one year on the road equals four years from home.

case you couldn't tell from the fact that I've added Vulcan's Greaves, this story falls into sort of a parallel canon. I picture this happening just before Felix and company head to the lighthouse. In this story, Felix stole back the Mars Star from Karst and went on his way. If I'd left the star with the Proxians, they would have gone on to the Mars Lighthouse as planned and we wouldn't have any villains lurking around for shenanigans in Vale. Also, in this story the Valeans are consciously guarding the Elemental Stars. Wikipedia tells me that in the canon, none of the villagers knew what was in the Sol Sanctum and they simply guarded it to thank the gods for giving them Psynergy. I don't remember if that's accurate or not, but it doesn't matter because I'm not writing in that canon.

I don't want to say that I'm making everything up, because I'm not. Things like the Proxians trying diplomacy with Vale really did happen. In other cases, like Saturos and Menardi's reasoning for making Felix take off his mask, you should assume that you're reading a particular character's perspective on events, which is an addition to the canon's perspective. The Proxians' primary reason for making Felix reveal his identity was still to provide "insurance" that Jenna would be safe, but they also wanted to ensure that Felix wouldn't have a chance to team up with Isaac and turn against them. And some things, like the Proxians not understanding the concept of seasons, are total guesswork. If you're confused as to whether or not something's canon, ask me, ask Wikipedia, or use common sense.

(FYI, the dancing villagers weren't from Izumo. I'd considered it, but in the canon Felix and his party give all the credit for the dragon-slaying to Susanoo, so it wouldn't really make sense for the Izumo villagers to hold a party in their honor.)

next chapter will have action, I "promise". And by promise, I mean predict, but with slightly more guilt involved if I'm wrong.

4. Thank you, everyone who reviewed! Your reviews are the carrots that keep me on the finger treadmill that is my keyboard...and prevent me from writing atrocious metaphors like that one.