Chapter 4: Prox

Lune found himself surrounded by darkness. He wasn't entirely sure if he was sleeping, or unconscious, but his senses seemed to start functioning, slowly but surely. He felt somewhat warm, a contrast to the frigid temperatures he experienced in the northern lands. He wondered if he was no longer in the north, but then he felt something else. He was lying down, somewhere soft, and was covered by something. Was he tucked in his bed? The fabric felt... different, somehow. Someone else's bed, maybe? He tried to move, and then he felt a splitting headache that kept him from moving, his face wincing in pain. His facial expression probably caught someone's attention, because he heard someone talk afterwards. A man's voice.

"I think he's waking up." He muttered, and soon after, came a woman's voice.

"I'll go tell Felix." A door opening, then shutting closed. It was then that Lune realized, the darkness around him was because his eyelids were closed, and he slowly opened them.

The first thing he saw was the source of the voice. A silver-haired man with red eyes, sitting on a chair by Lune's bed, observing him with what seemed like concern, before cracking a faint smile as their eyes met. It was then that Lune noticed his other features. Pointy ears, the slightest hint of a sharp fang behind his smile… his skin looked bluish and somewhat scaly, too. Lune's face betrayed his surprise, and it appeared didn't go unnoticed by the man, who arched an eyebrow at him, but elected to ignore it for the time being.

"How are you feeling?" He asked Lune, which prompted him to stop looking at the man's features and focus on how he felt.

"I'm… feeling okay, I think." The headache seemed to have gone as quickly as it came. He smiled, a bit uncertainly, at the man, slowly sitting up on the unfamiliar bed. "Thanks for the concern. Where… am I?"

The man's smile faded a bit, giving way to a more concerned expression. "You're in Prox. My house, specifically. Me and some friends found you unconscious inside a ship yesterday. It looked like you sailed through the northern route, but…" He trailed off, giving Lune enough time to talk.

"Oh, yeah! I was sailing from Imil through the northern route. I've been exploring for a while." Lune smiled, but the man hummed in thought instead.

"…That's what's strange. If you came from Imil, I doubt the locals could have told you, as the northern route is difficult to see from there, but the northern route… no longer exists." The man stated, which prompted Lune to blink in confusion.

"But… I came from there, didn't I? I was-" He was cut off by another headache, clutching his head in pain, as the man worriedly edged closer to Lune. That's when he noticed he had bandages wrapped around his head.

"Does it still hurt?" The man asked, placing a hand carefully atop Lune's head.

"My head hurts… I… can't remember…" Lune muttered. "When I try to remember how I sailed the northern route, I just can't… what happened to me…?"

The man frowned slightly. "You probably have memory loss. I'm not sure what happened to you, but we found you suffered a minor head injury." He carefully examined the bandages, then nodded to himself and let go. "It did not look like a severe wound, though… maybe you fell down and hit your head."

"Maybe… I really can't remember." Lune closed his eyes in thought. "I remember being in Imil, then departing for the northern route… I saw the Gaia Falls… but I can't remember anything else. Next thing I know, I'm… well, here." Lune opened his eyes again and motioned to the bed with a shrug.

The man nodded slowly. "Hmm, is there anything else you don't remember? Your name, where you came from…"

"I do, my name is Lune." After a pause, he looked at the man for a moment before asking. "Incidentally, you are…?"

"Ah right, introductions, I forgot." The man chuckled. "You can call me Saturos."

Lune nodded with a smile. "Pleased to meet you, Saturos, and thanks for the help."

"Don't mention it." Saturos waved his hand nonchalantly. "Back to your memory…" He leaned forward, observing Lune. "What do you remember about Vale?"

"Vale?" Lune raised an eyebrow. "I… don't think I've heard of it before."

Saturos slumped back on his chair with a sigh. "That's… not good. Felix said you were from Vale, so this means-"

"Felix?" Lune interrupted him, prompting a surprised look from Saturos. "You know Felix?"

Saturos blinked a few times, processing the question. "Well, yeah, as a matter of fact. So you don't remember Vale, but you remember Felix, huh…"

At that moment, a knock came from the room's only door, and a woman's voice from outside, the same one as before. "Saturos, I brought Felix."

"Come in, Menardi, it's open." Saturos replied, and the woman, Menardi, slowly peeked into the room as she opened the door.

Lune observed in her similar features to those of Saturos, with pointy ears, matching red eyes, and seemingly scaly skin, but hers had a pinkish hue to it. She made her way in and waved at Lune, who waved back at her.

"See, Felix? He's doing okay." She called back to outside the room with a smirk, prompting Felix to enter, and Lune to slowly sit up a bit on the bed.

Lune noticed that Felix had grown quite a bit compared to when he last saw him. He figured that, next to Menardi, he would've barely reached up to her waist if he'd seen them together back home, but now, he was easily level with her shoulder. His hair had also grown a fair amount, and he'd wrapped part of it in a small ponytail.

Part of Lune's mind resented something about his thought process, but he didn't have the time to dwell on it, as Felix had quickly closed the distance between himself and the bed and thrown his arms around Lune for a tight hug. "I'm so glad to see you again, Lune…" He quietly muttered as Lune wrapped his arms around him in return.

"Likewise, Felix." Lune chuckled. "I'm… kind of at a loss for words, you look so tall now!"

Felix let go and pulled away from the hug, giving him a small grin. "Yeah, sure, you're still the tallest, I'll bet!" He remarked with a light punch on Lune's arm. "You, however, haven't changed a bit in a year, huh?"

Lune blinked a couple times. "Oh… has it really been a year?" He hummed thoughtfully, glancing around him for a moment. Then he noticed Menardi and Saturos looking at them, the former had moved behind Saturos and casually wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her chin atop his head and grinning, while Saturos had a slightly annoyed, but nevertheless genuine smile.

Upon noticing his gaze, Menardi spoke up. "Don't mind us, go ahead! It's rare to see Felix this excited." She giggled, prompting Felix to look her way, then blushing furiously and looking away.

"I'm just glad to see my friend again… it's not that weird, is it?" Felix pouted. "He's been unconscious since we found him yesterday, I was worried…"

"Of course not, it's just nice to see you happy for a change, you know?" Her grin melted into a gentle smile.

"I guess…" He rubbed the back of his neck, laughing awkwardly. Saturos was the next to speak, clearing his throat.

"As nice as it is, however, before you two catch up, you should know that…" He began, before noticing that both Felix and Lune were looking at him, but glancing up now and then. "What? Is something on my…?" He trailed off in realization. "Right…" He sheepishly glanced up at Menardi, who was still resting against him. "Menardi, if you could please…?"

"Ah." As if a switch had gone off, she let go of him and stood up straight, giggling bashfully as she grabbed a chair to sit by his side. "Sorry, sorry. You were saying?"

Now that all three had his attention, he sat up straighter on his chair. "I was going to say, Felix." His gaze fell on the boy, who nodded. "Before you two catch up, I was talking with your friend Lune, and…" His gaze moved to Lune. "He appears to have some kind of memory loss."

Felix's eyes opened wide, his gaze moving between Saturos and Lune. "Memory loss?! But… you did remember me, didn't you…?" He stared at Lune.

"Yeah, of course I did!" Lune hastily nodded. "But… I feel like something is off…"

"That's right." Saturos continued. "He does remember you, but…" He glanced from Felix to Lune. "Like you mentioned before, you don't remember Vale, do you?"

Lune could see the shock in Felix's face when he nodded. "Not at all. I don't recall ever hearing what that is… Is it a place?"

Felix looked down, muttering quietly. "It's our home… we grew up in Vale…"

Lune blinked in confusion, then seemed to realize something. That is why something felt off about his thoughts earlier. "When I think of home, I… I remember you, Felix. I also remember Jenna, Isaac, and Garet. I remember your families, and Kraden, and…" He paused, then sighed. "…And that's it. I can't remember anything specific about the place we lived in, or…"

"What about your own parents?" Saturos gently suggested, but Lune just shook his head in response. The Proxian let out a long sigh. "Well, there you have it, Felix." He paused for a moment, pondering for a bit before continuing. "Our best bet would be to bring Lune back to Vale, maybe that would help with getting his memory back, but…"

Felix nodded. "Right, we can't return yet…"

That got Lune's attention. "Wait, why can't we? Is the weather bad for sailing, or…?"

"I mean, when is the weather good around here?" Menardi dryly chuckled, earning a tiny smirk from Felix and Saturos. Lune, however, tilted his head, prompting her to point at a nearby window. "You can see for yourself." She smiled wryly as Lune leaned forward on his bed to get a better look through the window, and saw what looked to him like a raging blizzard.

"That's… a lot of snow, huh…" He looked back at Menardi with a nervous smile, and she gave him a grin in return.

"Today's blizzard is somewhat mild, even!" She exclaimed in feigned amazement, getting a chuckle out of Saturos.

"That's part of it, as you can probably imagine. But there's more to it than that…" Saturos trailed off. Lune nodded, expecting him to continue, but the Proxian sighed instead. "For now, you should rest a while longer. You're still recovering from that head injury."

Lune had to admit, he was right. The back of his head still stung quite a bit, and being reminded of the injury made him wince slightly, slowly laying back down on the bed. "Yeah, you're right… I should probably rest."

"That said, you and Felix feel free to catch up!" Menardi chimed in, getting up from her seat and grabbing Saturos' arm to help him up. "It's close to lunchtime, so we should be preparing lunch."

"Oh, yeah, it's about that time already, huh." Saturos muttered to himself as he let Menardi guide him to the door. "The kitchen is within earshot of the room, so just speak up if you need something, alright?" He managed to call back to Lune as he was practically dragged out.

"Okay, thank you for your hospitality!" Lune replied with a smile. Once the Proxians left and closed the door behind them, however, he tilted his head. "...Wait, shouldn't the door stay open?"

Felix chuckled and shook his head. "People in Prox have really good hearing, they'll be able to hear us if we call them." He moved to sit on the chair Saturos was just using, then pointed at the window. "Besides, with the blizzard outside, it's best to keep the door closed so the heat doesn't escape. That's what Saturos usually says."

Lune nodded. "That's fair enough." After a pause, he continued. "So, catching up… how have things been?"

Felix chuckled. "That's what I should be asking! But… let's see…" He put a hand on his chin in thought. "I believe it all started about a month after you departed. There was this huge storm that hit Vale…"

Meanwhile, a single, seemingly disembodied eye in an unseen corner of the room was observing Felix and Lune from behind what seemed like a small rift, or gap, in reality, delimited by purple ribbons at the edges. Through the rift was a strange space, a featureless world between boundaries, where a single, familiar woman floated alone, her eyes closed, and yet perceiving the same sight as the eye that was observing the two friends.

"He looks to be doing well, despite everything." She mumbled to herself, letting out a small sigh. "The situation back then escalated a little quickly…"

She reminisced back to when Lune had been sailing through the so-called "northern route". She had been observing unbeknownst to him from the crow's nest as he sailed close to what he called "Gaia Falls" when talking to his diminutive companions. At first glance, it looked like a rather wide waterfall, but she was not entirely familiar with it. As the northern route seemed to lead towards it, but Lune seemed to be about to turn back, she manipulated the boundary of sleep and consciousness to cause Lune and the two djinn to drift off into sleep, letting the ship head towards these Gaia Falls to follow the northern route, as she was admittedly curious as to how a sea route would lead a ship through a waterfall.

What shocked her, then, was that beyond the waterfall was not a landing point through which the route continued. Instead, she found herself looking at… nothing. The name Gaia Falls, she would figure out later, was very true to its name, spanning the entirety of the world, and was all that separated this realm, Weyard, from total oblivion.

She panicked a little, then, and opened a massive gap to rescue the entire ship from a grim fate, and let it safely land on the shores nearby where she assumed the northern route originally led, the town of Prox. But in the process, the unconscious Lune suffered the head injury he was now nursing in bed, and the concussion had caused him to suffer memory loss.

Her thoughts lingered on the apparent lack of a northern route in this world. How could an entire section of the ocean just vanish? And why were there gigantic falls that led to nothing but a gaping void?

For a brief moment, she entertained the possibility that this place, Weyard, may be in some ways similar to her own homeworld... but as she pondered this, a small, paper doll materialized next to the woman in a small puff of smoke. This prompted her to open her eyes, letting her vision of the bedroom and her own thoughts fade to the back of her mind as another woman's voice came out of the doll, giving the voice her full attention.

"Pardon my interruption, Lady Yukari." The voice politely began. "But it seems odd that you would look into this person so much."

The woman, Yukari, let out a giggle. "Yes, I suppose it does seem strange to fixate this much on someone from a different world." After a pause, she continued. "I am simply curious as to how a youkai was born in this world of humans…"

Felix and Lune's conversation carried on past lunchtime as Felix recounted the events he lived the past year, with Saturos and Menardi joining them again in the bedroom shortly after cleaning everyone's plates.

"So..." Lune began after a pause in Felix's story. "You've been training your psynergy under Saturos ever since he and Menardi rescued you, your parents, and Isaac's father." He could vaguely picture Felix and Jenna's house in his mind after he mentioned the boulder that fell on them, but most of his memories of Vale were still a blank.

Felix nodded. "Yeah... we were lucky that nobody lost their life in that storm, but..." He looked down, his expression full of worry. "Jenna was left all alone... she and Isaac probably think her family and his father died..."

Saturos shuffled closer to Felix's seat, wrapping an arm around him. "I'm sorry things had to go this way... if we hadn't tripped that trap in Sol Sanctum, the storm wouldn't have taken place."

"It wasn't your fault, Saturos." Felix glanced at him with a tiny smile. "You were just trying to keep the people of Vale from harm." He glanced at Menardi. "Thanks to the two of you, nobody died that day."

"I still wish we could've done better, though." Menardi grumbled, crossing her arms in thought. "We could have begun lighting the lighthouses by now…"

"Lighthouses?" Lune inquired, tilting his head.

"Not the regular kind." Saturos shook his head. "There exist four special lighthouses in Weyard, one for each element of Alchemy, keeping all of Alchemy sealed." He gently let go of Felix to point somewhere out the window. "One of them is right outside Prox, the Mars Lighthouse, sealing the element of fire."

"I see…" Lune nodded as he stared outside for a moment, trying to see past the blizzard, then looked back at Saturos. "But… lighting them? That almost sounds like you'd be—"

"Breaking the seal?" Saturos finished for him with a wry smile. "That's… because we would be doing exactly that." Lune looked like he was about to say something, but Felix spoke first.

"Lune, did you… see the Gaia Falls on your travels?" Felix asked with a concerned frown.

"I… do remember seeing them a few times, at least…" Lune said with uncertainty, wondering why they would come up now.

"Here in Prox, we… live close enough to them to tell how far apart we are from the edge of Weyard." Saturos continued, his voice tinged with worry. "Every month, we measured the distance from the coast on the northern route to the Falls."

Lune's eyes widened at that. "But you said the northern route no longer existed…"

Saturos nodded. "...Each month, we saw the distance grow smaller and smaller. Four months ago… that's how long it's been since it stopped existing."

"Then, you're saying that… Weyard is shrinking?" Lune asked slowly.

"That seems to be the case, yes." Saturos pulled out a small parchment. "We believe that, in sealing Alchemy many years ago, Weyard was deprived of its lifeforce… its sustenance, if you will." He looks up from the parchment to Lune. "When a creature is deprived of sustenance, it starves, and the body… starts eating at itself. Weyard eroding away is much the same."

"That's… I feel like I was… taught differently…" Lune muttered.

"Isaac's father and my parents said Vale's teachings mentioned none of this." Felix added in a low voice.

"Vale is at the center of Weyard." Saturos sighed. "And on top of that, most of the townsfolk don't venture out, do they?" Felix nodded in response. "You simply… didn't know."

"Vale's teachings…" Lune repeated Felix's words, then looked at Saturos in realization. "Wait, is this why we can't go to Vale?"

Saturos nodded with a slight frown. "That is precisely why, I'm afraid. The Proxian group that came with me to Vale was… forced to enter Sol Sanctum without the permission of Vale's elders. We tried to talk to them, but they simply did not budge on their stance of protecting the seal on Alchemy…"

"And because of the storm we inadvertently triggered inside Sol Sanctum…" Menardi continued, letting out a long sigh. "...Surely they suspect we were the cause. Imagine how they would react if we showed up again, with Valeans in tow. They may believe we're holding you hostage."

"That is… a fair point." Lune conceded with a frown. "But… don't you still need something from Sol Sanctum?"

"Yes… the elemental stars." Saturos nodded, reading from his parchment again. "Four spheres pertaining to each of the four elements, used to activate each lighthouse and break the seal."

"And these elemental stars are in Sol Sanctum, right?" Lune put a hand against his chin in thought. "So… wouldn't you have to come back to Vale anyway?"

"We do need to, but… we should probably wait for a little while until we're prepared, and…" Saturos paused with uncertainty, closing his eyes. "...and hopefully they will forget about us until then."

"In the meantime, I really should learn to use psynergy…" Felix muttered, looking down in thought. "Otherwise, we'll have trouble getting into the Venus Lighthouse."

"What do you mean, Felix?" Lune asked, perplexed. Saturos cleared his throat instead to get his attention.

"You see, from what we've learned here in Prox about old scriptures and exploring the Mars Lighthouse, it would seem that someone aiming to climb the lighthouse to the top, where the elemental stars must be placed, one needs to be in company of an Adept of the element matching the lighthouse." After another look at his parchment, he shows one part of it to Lune, depicting what looks like a giant dragon head looking down a hallway clogged with ice chunks with its maw open, and some sort of pedestal behind it with a lit flame. "The inside is filled with puzzles meant to be solved with the psynergy of one such Adept, probably as a further failsafe by the ancients who placed the seal in the first place. This particular one, for example, requires a psynergetic flame to activate the dragon head's mechanism, which would send a giant fireball down the hallway and clear the ice."

Lune observed the drawing with his mouth hung open for a few moments. "Wow… and that's all inside Mars Lighthouse, isn't it? So Venus Lighthouse must have similar puzzles."

"Exactly." Saturos nodded, folding the parchment and putting it away, then pointing at himself and Menardi. "The two of us are Mars Adepts, so we can clear any puzzles in our local lighthouse, no problem. But only Felix and Kyle are Venus Adepts, and Kyle has been a little reluctant in helping us out, so Felix is our only option for now."

"Kyle… that's Isaac's father, right?" Lune turned to Felix for confirmation, who gave him a nod. Lune hummed in contemplation for a moment before his face lit up. "Oh! Couldn't I help instead?"

"Oh, maybe you could!" Felix chimed in cheerfully. "You're basically Venus and Mars all in one!" He hummed for a moment. "Is there a proper name for that...?"

"Oh, I think so!" Lune nodded. "I've been told it's called Sol Adept."

Saturos arched an eyebrow at the exchange. "Sol Adept, huh… I don't think I've heard of one before, but I believe they existed in ancient times, according to those old books I've read. Yeah, it might work." He slowly nodded with a faint smile, but it faded after a few moments. "Wait… Menardi, wasn't there a passage in one of the old books about…?" He turned to his partner, who stared back at him for a moment, then let out a small gasp, standing up from her chair to search a bookshelf on the corner of the bedroom.

"Right, there was something about–" She cut herself short as she pulled out a rather thick book with a golden cover. "Ah, here it is!" She moved back to her chair and opened the book somewhere in the middle, Saturos leaning closer to help her look for the passage.

"I think it was the same chapter that talked about the lighthouses… there!" Saturos pointed at a specific part of a page before Menardi flipped to the next. "It's rather vague, but it does say that the lighthouses' puzzles will only respond to an Adept with the one element that matches them…"

"If I can use two different elements, couldn't that mean I can access both Mars and Venus Lighthouse…?" Lune asked uncertainly.

"Perhaps…" Saturos sighed. "Or it could mean you would be unable to access either of them. Like I said, it's vague, but… I wouldn't put it past the ancients to have set some kind of countermeasures in place so that those wielding more than one element cannot access the lighthouses at all." After flipping through the book a bit more, he stops somewhere near the end. "It does seem like the seal on Alchemy was put in place to stop those who would use it to amass power for nefarious ends, from what the book mentions, so it would make sense if such countermeasures existed."

Lune's shoulders slumped. "That's a bummer…" He slowly perked up again, looking at Felix. "But… maybe I can help teach you psynergy instead!"

Felix's eyes lit up. "Oh, that would be perfect!" Menardi let out a small giggle, prompting Felix to look her way as she closed the book, leaving it on her lap.

"Definitely better than having Saturos as a teacher. A Mars Adept teaching a Venus Adept sounded like a recipe for disaster, anyway." She gently put an arm around Saturos' shoulder, who rolled his eyes.

"Ha ha, yeah laugh it up…" Saturos pretended to pout as he gave Felix a faint smile. "That should work fine, yeah. I'm just glad you'll get a better teacher than me, Felix. And a childhood friend no less, right?"

"I wouldn't say I'm that good at teaching…" Lune chuckled nervously, scratching his cheek. "I promise to do my best, though!" As he said this, he felt two small presences within him pop out and land on either shoulder.

"I'll help, too!" Pewter chimed in cheerfully from his left shoulder.

"And I'll… cheer you on!" Glare added, somewhat clumsily, from Lune's right shoulder.

"Thanks, you two." Lune smiled at them, but his smile faded as he looked at Felix, Saturos and Menardi, who had a rather surprised look. Menardi's arm had even fallen off Saturos' shoulders. Felix was the first to speak.

"Uh, who are these…? New friends of yours?" He inched closer to try and poke Pewter, who squeaked in surprise and floated up to rest on Lune's head after being poked.

"Yeah, I sort of… met them during my travels, you could say." Lune nodded, causing Pewter to bob back and forth atop his head a little precariously.

"Those… are Djinn." Saturos finally spoke, standing up and leaning towards Glare, observing them curiously. "They're said to have existed before the seal on Alchemy was placed, but after the seal was erected, they supposedly all vanished…"

"Yeah, we stopped sensing our friends a very long time ago…" Glare nodded sadly. "From what you all were discussing about, it sounds like all of them were also sealed…"

Lune gently picked up Glare and petted its head softly. "Do you think Djinn will return to Weyard if the seal is broken, Saturos?"

Saturos stood straight after Lune picked up Glare, placing a hand on his chin. "It's definitely possible. They existed in the golden age of Alchemy, surely releasing Alchemy will unseal them, too."

Pewter tumbled down Lune's head to his hand, twirling around Glare. "Did you hear that!? We'll finally get to reunite with everyone at long last, Glare!"

"It's been so long, but we finally know where our friends are!" Glare happily twirled around Pewter in return, the two dancing happily as Lune chuckled, observing the pair with a smile.

Inside the gap in reality, the voice talking to Yukari gasped in shock. "But if that world doesn't have youkai…how did a tanuki end up there? Was he really born in that world?"

Yukari opened her fan, covering her mouth with it as she idly observed the scene in the bedroom, her gaze focusing on Lune. "It seems that way, yes. I will be asking for your help tonight to aid me in bringing him to Gensokyo in his dreams, Ran."

"Understood, Lady Yukari." The voice, Ran, agreed, but after a pause, she hesitated to add something else. "Incidentally…"

"Hm?" Yukari tilted her head at the doll Ran was using to communicate. "Is something wrong?"

"It's just that…" Ran trailed off for a moment before continuing. "Something feels off about the moon in this year's Harvest Moon Festival."

"Hmm…" Yukari hummed and opened a second gap in reality, not to Weyard this time, but to her home world, Gensokyo. Through it, she saw in the night sky what Ran was talking about. Instead of the usual, pure white hue the moon usually had, this night it looked like a sinister purple color instead. "A fake moon? Who would make something like that?"

Ran timidly chimed in. "Should I talk to Reimu about this?"

Yukari shook her head, closing her fan. "No, I'm sure she already intuits something is wrong about the moon. I'll go talk to her myself, this may require a little outside help to resolve. Can I trust you to handle everything with our new tanuki friend in my stead, Ran?" She pointed back to the original gap, at Lune.

"Yes, I will make sure tonight's dream brings him to Gensokyo." Ran affirmed resolutely, though her resolve faltered slightly after a pause. "...This won't cause any further complications for the fake moon incident, will it?"

Yukari giggled coyly in response. "Who knows?" Afterwards, she closed both gaps and opened a new, larger one, showing a shrine where a certain shrine maiden in red and white was eyeing the night sky, but her attention shifted to the gap as Yukari passed through it, closing it behind her and leaving Ran's doll behind in the world between boundaries. After a moment, the doll burned up and let out a large puff of smoke, revealing a woman with fox ears hiding inside a white hat, and a white and blue dress that did nothing to conceal the nine large fox tails behind her.

"What a strange night this will be…" Ran sighed as she prepared to follow Yukari's instructions.

To be continued...