I'm SUCH a procrastinator. Been meaning to update this for months, and every time I've sat down to write, something else has distracted me. But here I am. Ehe.

Disclaimer: I don't own Golden Sun! If I did, money would not be an issue!

Several hours had passed, and still she lay in the dying sun. Her throat was parched, and her eyes were stinging, but her mind was reeling so much that she hardly paid attention to her physical pain. Jenna lay in the grass, staring at the sky, as watching the city only seemed to fuel her extreme emotions. She'd long since stopped crying, but her emotions were delicate.

Jenna acknowledged the human-shaped shadow that passed over her, but dismissed it numbly. The grass next to her seemed to shuffle, before settling and emitting a sigh. Jenna closed her eyes, not wanting to engage in conversation. She knew exactly who it was – he hadn't stopped tailing her since her kidnap. He seemed to understand her wish for silence, and for a few moments, they lay side by side in the soft grass.

Suddenly the silence seemed too much for her. Clearing her throat, she could hear his attention shift; he was listening intently. Truthfully, she didn't know what to say – her mind was a jumble, and all she wanted to do was fill the gaping silence.

"The river," she commented. She heard him turn his head to look at her. "Some sort of poisonous weed floats around in it." Her voice was flat and emotionless. "It snagged my mother once."

She could feel his bewilderment as to where she was going with the story. Jenna didn't know why she was talking to her kidnapper about her mother. Stockholm syndrome, perhaps? Whatever it was, he was intrigued. "Hmm?"

"She had to hop around on one foot for days. Her ankle was four times its usual size. Her mother lost her voice from yelling."

He allowed a small chuckle to escape from him. The positive sound woke her from her stupor, and she finally turned her head to face him. "You're telling the truth, aren't you?" she asked, already knowing the answer. Slowly, seriously, he nodded his head.

Jenna let out a large sigh, releasing a lot of the pent-up emotion, and turned her head once more to look at the sky. "I don't know what I expected," she muttered. "My mother talked about Vale so many times, but now I'm here I can't seem to accept it."

"Well, it's real," said Isaac, who was feeling a little useless and didn't quite know what to say. He was slightly relieved that she was opening up to him instead of screaming at the top of her voice, but he had a suspicious feeling that it was the emotions talking, and the real Jenna would never reveal such personal feelings. "It's all here, including the poisonous weed." He smiled slightly, and leaned over. "Don't ever tell him I told you, but Felix got stung by the same weed. He couldn't walk for days. We had endless fun stealing his clothes – he couldn't catch us to get them back."

So the dark one is called Felix, Jenna registered that in her disorganised mind. She allowed herself a mental picture of the tall, angry man chasing a light-hearted Isaac, and smiled slightly.

"Aha!" Isaac clapped triumphantly and sat up, grinning and pointing at her. "So your face does have the ability to create a smile!"

"Well, picturing that brute in a compromising position is enough to make me laugh out loud," Jenna commented, remembering Felix's vile temper and rough handling.

Isaac smirked. "Not a fan of Felix, then? He's a softie, really. He just didn't really like the idea of coming with me when we went to Imil."

"He didn't?" Jenna felt her intrigue rise, and she sat up to meet his eyes. "Why was that?"

"Oh, Felix had his reasons," Isaac shrugged lightly, but failed to meet Jenna's eyes. "I don't think he was amazingly interested in Imil's affairs, and the idea of a long journey didn't appeal to him." He shrugged again. "'Course, my mum persuaded him to come with me."

Jenna managed another smile at the thought of Felix cowering under Isaac's mother's hard gaze. Having experienced her temper first hand, Jenna could even manage the slightest bit of sympathy for Felix. She couldn't help noticing that the question had made Isaac slightly uncomfortable. Sensing her doubts, Isaac changed the subject.

"So, now you've learned we're not cold-blooded abductors, is there anything you want to know? About the city, or you could ask my mum about her Highness."

Isaac stood, and held out a hand to help her up. Jenna refused the help, but she stood and followed him back to his house, where his mother was cooking something that smelled unlike anything Jenna had ever had before. She inhaled the aroma, and was hit with a strange sense of déjà vu.

"My mother," Jenna suddenly said, "you address her so formally. But she hailed from Vale, and was only royalty in Imil. This was her home. What changed?"

Isaac's mother halted her actions, and turned to face the young princess. "Rules," she stated simply, her eyes angry. Jenna frowned.

"My mother...?"

"Oh, no," Isaac's mother laughed fondly. "Your mother was quick to inform us that we should treat her as we always had done. She hated the formalities that came with her title, especially in her homeland. It was when he discovered who she, and you, was that the King enforced a rule that all royalty should be respected and addressed as formally as we do now." Her face darkened, and she stirred the contents of a pan so vigorously that she spilled some over the top. Cursing, she turned her full attention back to her cooking.

Jenna couldn't suppress a smile. Isaac's mother seemed to remember her own with a similar fondness. "You knew my mother well, didn't you?"

"Oh, yes," Isaac's mother's voice grew warm again. "We were quite the pair. We used to sneak up to the temple in the dead of night, and get a good telling off the next morning." She chuckled and shook her head. "I often wonder what would have been different had she stayed in Vale."

Jenna was silent. She knew her mother was at her happiest in Vale, but had she not left for Imil, Jenna would never have been born. She chewed her lip and forced the topic onto something else. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name, Mrs...?"

"Dora, just call me Dora," the woman said cheerily, stirring the same pan.

Her head was still a muddle of emotions later on after a hearty (and still oddly familiar) meal. Jenna played absent-mindedly with the corner of an old cloth placed on the table, staring into the distance. Since she'd arrived, she'd heard nothing but good about her mother, and the stories seemed to tally with her own mother's memories. She sighed heavily – she honestly didn't know where to place an opinion.

"Supposing I did believe you, and I'm still not saying that I do," Jenna began, not looking at Isaac who appeared to be staring at her intently, "what would be your next move?"

Isaac considered an answer with a furrowed brow and slightly tilted head. Finally, he said, "Well, the priority is to keep you safe. After that... well, we're not sure. I think some think we should send someone to Imil to try and negotiate, but others think it's too dangerous."

"And after that? Should the negotiations go to plan..." Jenna found her throat was constricting, "would I have to go back?"

Isaac heard the change in her voice, and heard the subtle fear she was trying to hide. He shrugged, trying to lighten the mood. "Not if you didn't want to. It would be completely up to you, though I'll bet Imil would need its rightful ruler back."

Jenna scoffed. "They probably believe I am dead. My father would have had to come up with a good enough reason as to why my mother and I suddenly stopped appearing in public."

An uncomfortable silence descended between the two. Jenna sighed. "I don't want to go back there," she said softly. "My father will no accept me for who I am, and I refuse to help him rule over a city which has been mislead."

"Wouldn't the people deserve the truth?" Isaac pointed out. "If you didn't go back, then they'd always believe that you died, and always believe that pure Mercury blood is better than all others."

He had a point, but it didn't help matters. She did not want to return to a caged life. If she even kept her life. Her father would be so angry that he would most likely have her executed, and she definitely didn't want that.

"Where would you go?" he continued. "You don't have anywhere else to stay. Does that mean you would stay here, in Vale?"

She could hear the slight hope in his voice, and wondered why he cared so much. He'd obviously cared enough to go and rescue her from Imil, and cared enough to talk stonehearted Felix round to the idea. Jenna made a non-committal noise and shrugged lightly. "Perhaps," was all she said, truly having no idea. Vale was lovely, and her mother had spoken of it with such love, but could she bear to be so happy in her mother's hometown when her mother couldn't enjoy the same happiness?

"I'm going for a walk," she stated, standing up and wondering whether fresh air would help to soothe her headache.

"Again?" Isaac chuckled. "You sure do like your exercise, Princess. Want me to come with you?"

"No." She caught the hurt look he gave off, but she could tell whether he was joking or not. "No, thank you, I will be fine on my own."

"Whatever you say," he shrugged. "Your room'll be ready when you get back."

She nodded and headed out of the front door, feeling Isaac's eyes on her as she walked out. Was he truly concerned about her? Or had everything he told her a lie to make her stay? Did Vale have a grudge against Imil and kidnap her to get back at her father?

"But a whole town wouldn't do something on this scale," she said to herself.

Jenna found her familiar spot by the tree, and lay in the cool grass, watching the stars blink back down at her. She couldn't gather her thoughts together in a logical sequence, and the more she tried, the more painful her head seemed to grow. Finally, she gave up in a huff of impatience, and closed her eyes, breathing deeply.

"You should be inside." A coldly familiar voice interrupted her thoughts, and Jenna snapped her eyes open to see Felix towering over her, looking at her disapprovingly. Rising to the challenge, Jenna stood and tried her best to meet his eye level. He was certainly tall – she was naturally tall for her age – and his dark features only made him seem more intimidating.

"Why?" she asked, glaring at him. "Afraid I'll get used to freedom? Worried I'm homesick and longing to be locked up again?"

"This is our city, not yours, and you don't have the right to go roaming it as if you own the place."

"At least I don't strut around like a huge, menacing shadow. Got something to hide, or do you scare people for a hobby?" Jenna retorted, feeling her blood set alight.

Felix tried a different tack, feeling his own blood start to boil. "You ungrateful bitch. Vale rescues you from a non-existent life and gives you food and shelter here, and all you can do is complain."

"How dare you address me like that!" Jenna's voice doubled in volume, sending a dog in a nearby house into a barking frenzy. "And I will remind you that not only does this city have a strong link with Imil, my mother used to live here. She called this place her home, and so if I decide I wish to explore it then that is my decision and mine alone!"

"Your whore of a mother can't have loved it too much here if she rang off with the king from a foreign land," Felix spat, feeling horrendously angry.

Jenna reeled. How dare he speak of her mother like that. "You bastard," she seethed, taking an unconscious step toward him. "You never knew my mother. You never met my father, and you never knew the measures he took to seduce her, so don't you dare-"

"Don't I dare what? Tell the truth? Did you hold your mother in such reverence that she couldn't possibly do any wrong?" Felix's tone grew mocking, yet remained stony. "She never told you what she left behind when she ran off with that noble prat, did she?"

"She left a life she had grown tired of and made a future. She made history, and she made herself happy, and it was all down to her. My father did nothing to help her, and she still built a life where finance was nothing to worry about, so she could concentrate on the people who mattered to her most!"

Felix shook his head, and his eyes grew darker than his normal chocolate brown colour. Jenna felt her heart contract – she'd never known how her mother had truly lived apart from the glowing stories she'd been told. Her mother hadn't been hiding something, had she?

"No," he said dangerously. "No. Your mother never had others' lives at heart. If she had, she would not have done what she did. She would not have abandoned the one person who needed her more than anything."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jenna spat, suddenly feeling afraid.

Felix was eerily calm, but Jenna could feel a radiating anger coming from him.

"I am talking about her son."

Oh dear. What's Felix talking about? Find out in the next instalment!