Like, Ohmigod, like, Chapter, like, seven! Shoes!
Nathaniel and Sheba
IOE: Yoooo, readers! Ignira writing, instead of your mother, and the San Francisco trip was post-poned, though I have no idea when it will be now. Thanks for reviewing, Fehize. (Looks around to make sure the evil story-deleters aren't looking) And yes, I like Call Me When You're Sober, but Broken is the best. That's an interesting guess about Nathaniel (love his name), but no cigar. (Gives Ferraris to everybody who reads and encourages them to review so angsty Ignira doesn't come out)
Fehize: TURN YOUR GOOD MUSIC ON! I HATE THIS SONG!
(Flotsam, who secretly produced it, runs off crying)(I'm not gonna name it so I can save Disclaimer time)
Hsu: Let's just get a move on…and a muzzle. (sigh) Disclaimer: Ignira of Esperon does not own Golden Sun. Leave her alone.
Garet groaned.
"I'm tired of waiting; let's just go get the kid. We've got a cult to catch," he said.
Felix shrugged.
"Why not?" he asked.
To save time, Ivan decided to just teleport them to where Nathaniel was, but they might land on a worker, so he asked Sheba to do it and pulled out the lapis from his bags.
The female Jupiter Adept nodded, and took the lapis when he offered it.
"Teleport," she said quietly, and the swirling colors came and went, leaving them in very short walking distance of a large hole in the earth. The sounds of picks hitting metal should have been in the air, but instead, there were shouts. Ivan recognized two of them: Nathaniel and Piers.
The Adepts rushed over to the edge of the hole to see several angry miners yelling and pointing at Nathaniel, who glared at them and was standing erect with Piers in front of him. Ivan noticed that there were shattered bits of shiny rock everywhere, and a little hole in the ground. He guessed that the miners had found the rock to use for the Babi Lighthouse Star, and that Nathaniel, being Lemurian and fearing invasion of his beloved home-land, had destroyed it.
"Looks like they're in a nasty fight," said Sheba matter-of-factly.
"I wonder what happened," said Mia, putting her hand over her mouth.
"Let's see what we can do," said Garet, and he walked over to a ladder nearby and climbed down into the mining area. Jenna and Sheba looked at each other and followed him. Felix thought for a moment and decided to follow as well. Mia, Hamma, and Ivan stayed behind.
Ivan noticed his sister staring at the fight, and caught her swirling blue aura, which proved that she was reading their thoughts.
She blinked.
"Well…"
Ivan turned to her.
"What's wrong?" he asked. She looked at him.
"You are right, but…I don't think that Nathaniel's Lemurian. It popped up without me looking," she said, revealing that she had read her brother's mind, "He is adamant about protecting his home, even though he believes it isn't his."
Ivan looked down in the mining area to the young, blue and silver-haired adolescent now explaining to Ivan's friends what was going on.
"That is strange…." he said.
"What? Nathaniel isn't Lemurian?" asked Mia, who had been watching the argument.
Hamma looked anxious.
"Maybe, but I'd rather not gossip…" she said. Mia's eyes widened in alarm.
"Oh no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I…" and then she began to apologize to Ivan's sister, who smiled knowingly and forgave her, and then they began to speak about other things.
Ivan saw that the fight had ended, and the Adepts were making their way up the ladder, forming a queue in front of it. The miners set back to their work with unpleasant looks on their faces.
The Adepts then made their way back to Ivan, Hamma, and Mia. Jenna, Felix, Garet, and Sheba all seemed to have the same expressionless faces. Piers looked furious; Nathaniel looked defiant.
Piers took a deep breath.
"Where are we starting to look for the Order of Olympus, Felix?" he asked.
"Vault," he replied.
"Let's go to the ship, then."
Sheba, Mia, Nathaniel, Hamma, Garet, and Jenna all sat in the cabin. Garet and Jenna seemed much less seasick in the cabin than outside of it. In fact, their faces weren't green, and they could speak without wretching.
Sheba enjoyed the silence in the room, but Jenna, who was next to her, seemed uncomfortable with it. Sheba became annoyed with the constant fidgeting beside her, so she decided to bring up a conversation.
She decided to start with Nathaniel, with him being the least known about, and needed something that wasn't insensitive, yet good for talking about….
"So, Nathaniel, how did you learn Psynergy?" she asked. The boy was looking at the ceiling, his head resting in his hand.
"Piers did, when he saw me studying it in the library," he said, not looking at Sheba.
"Interesting. Does your aunt know Psynergy as well?" she asked.
"No. She…can't." he said, shifting his head a little.
"Is there a custom in Lemuria against women practicing-" Jenna began to ask, but Nathaniel answered before she could finish.
"We in Lemuria do not live by such pathetic laws. My "aunt" is incapable of using Psynergy or being affected by Alchemy. It's some sort of illness or curse," he said rather angrily.
The way he said "aunt" struck Sheba as strange, as though she wasn't really related to him.
"Geez-it was just a question," muttered Jenna, and folded her arms.
The door to the cabin opened, and Piers entered.
"I need to rest. Nathaniel, if you would please replace my position for a bit," he said. Nathaniel brightened at hearing those words, said something so fast that Sheba couldn't understand it, and rushed out the door, dust following him.
Piers blinked and sat where the young man once sat.
"Piers," said Garet suddenly, "Is Nathaniel adopted?"
Sheba's eyes widened in surprise at the immense insensitivity and blunt of her friend.
Piers rubbed his eyes and lay back. He stretched his arms.
"Not exactly officially. The boy's unconscious body was found a few years ago by the sea's edge. We don't know how he ended up there, or how a young boy managed to get across the Sea of Time, even conscious. We estimated his age, so that's why we say he's fifteen now," said he.
Sheba listened intently. So Nathaniel was like her. Found unconscious after doing something that should have killed you. Not knowing your age, where you're from, or even who you are.
She remembered waking up to see a man standing over her with a tray, saying something to a plump, old lady. It was nighttime; she could see from the window next to the bed she was in.
The man blinked seeing that her eyes were open.
"So she's awake! Hello, little one! You gave us quite a fright, falling from that high and living to tell the tale! You must be hungry. Here," he said, and set down the tray on her lap.
She sat up and looked around the little house she was in. It had a straw roof, and there were pots and pans all over the wall. The woman near her bed gasped at seeing her face.
"What a beautiful child!" she exclaimed, "God-like hair, and the most glittering Emerald eyes!"
She blinked Her stomach hurt..
"Thank you, ma'am," she said, and began to eat.
"What is your name, Sheba Yuna?" asked the woman.
She stopped eating and her mouth opened. Everything seemed to pile on top of her all of a sudden, and she began to cry.
"I don't know," she wailed, "I don't know!"
After the man and woman consoled her, the man spoke:
"Would you like a name, Sheba Yuna?" he asked kindly.
She cocked her head.
"Yes, but what's that? Sheba-what?" she asked. The man and woman smiled warmly.
"'Child of the Gods,'" replied the man. She thought for a moment.
"I like 'Sheba.' It's pretty. Can I be Sheba? What are your names, man and woman?" she asked, not knowing what else to call them.
"What a fine name, 'Sheba', 'Of Gods.' My name is Manya, and this is Faran. If you'll let us, we can be your mom and dad, seeing as you can't remember." Manya said gently. Sheba nodded as she bit into her food. The thought of being all alone with a name, but no parents was too sad. These people were kind enough; of course they could be her parents.
But Manya had died soon after that. And after overcoming her sorrow, Sheba began to wonder. Who were her real parents? How had she falled form the sky? Who was she really?
Those questions had never been answered, even though she had been all over the world, secretly searching for who she had been.
Sheba's thoughts were interrupted as Jenna asked a question:
"So why does he call her 'aunt'?"
"Because he doesn't like the idea of her replacing his real parents," said Piers with a sigh. Sheba could tell that he was really tired.
"The poor boy," said Mia sympathetically.
"I know how he feels," said Sheba quietly, "He must feel very alone, not knowing anything about himself."
Mia and Jenna looked at her with sympathy.
Piers sighed.
"Yes, well, he would spend a great amount of his time alone in either the library or the graveyard, so I just decided to teach him Psynergy. That's why he sort of looks up to me, and why he's a little more social now. Please don't mention to him what I've told you."
The Adepts nodded. Sheba frowned and looked out the window, staring at the beautiful sea. She wondered if Nathaniel had fallen from the sky as well, as though they had both come from somewhere in the sky-heaven perhaps, or maybe he was from another mysterious corner of Weyard.
Ivan entered the cabin.
"Sheba, I'm very tired. Could you…?"
She nodded.
"Sure." and got up, leaving Ivan behind, and climbed up to the Crow's Nest.
High Priest Charon waited patiently on a bench in the candlelit hall, reading a book. The bench was near a closed door, from behind which, a loud voice was speaking, and the words echoed in the hall.
"I think that finishes it up for today. May the Gods watch over you," High Priest Triton's voice echoed, and then there were sounds of people replying something, and getting out of their chairs.
High Priest Charon closed his book. The door opened, and several people exited, a few stopping to bow to Priest Charon and greet him. He nodded, and strode into the room, where High Priest Triton was descending from a podium, where he had been speaking to his followers. The room had a small window, from which sunlight came in through. There were seats with desks everywhere, and a bookshelf behind the podium that High Priest Triton was coming down from.
High Priest Charon bowed, and once Triton had descended, he returned to bow.
"High Priest Triton, I was just wondering…have you yet discovered what exactly happened to the boy…Isaac, when we tried to eliminate him?" Charon asked.
Triton shook his head.
"I've spent a good deal of my time in between teaching and praying studying in our library, but I have as of yet found nothing," he said.
"I have found nothing, nor has High Priestess Phoebe or High Priestess Miranda. This is quite a mystery, isn't it?" Charon asked. Triton nodded.
"In time, the Gods may guide us to the answer, if we are destined to know. Is that all?" he asked.
Charon shook his head.
"The friends of Isaac. They were able to wield the elements. Should they hunt us out of revenge…."
Triton shook his head.
"They've no clue. And even if they managed to make it to Tolbi, there is still the fact that we have our own secret underground system for caution of lynching. It will be like we were never here," he said.
Charon nodded and bowed.
"Yes, of course. Thank you for your time," he said, and Triton bowed as well. And then Charon left.
As soon as he was in the hall, he noticed High Priestess Miranda walking towards him. She held a very thick, very old book in her hands. High Priestess Phoebe was following her. When they were close enough to Charon so that they could speak, they bowed, despite the weight of the book inconveniencing the bow of Priestess Miranda, who said:
"I have the answer. I found it in one of our oldest of volumes. Do you have a moment? Is High Priest Triton available?"
Charon nodded, and they all entered the room that Charon had just come from.
Once they saw Triton, they all bowed, and Miranda explained that she had found the answer to the previously unsolved question. Triton told her to set down the book on one of the desks in the room.
Miranda did as she was told. The cover of the book had ancient writing on the beaten, purple leather cover, and opened the book. She flipped through the yellowed pages with ripped ends here and there. She stopped at a page with a great amount of writing and a sketch on the page next to it.
The sketch had four circles attached to a narrow oval with a map of Weyard inside of it. The drawings of the continents looked different than the modern map. Charon figured it was because old-fashioned mapping was less advanced than the cartography of today. He also noticed that there were four different circles attached to a different narrow oval with a map that had similar continents to Weyard, but were slightly different.
Inside of the smaller circles were symbols. Each one had a symbol for a different god of Olympus: one for Aphrodite, one for Ares, one for Zeus, one for Hermes, one for Poseidon, one for Hades, one for Ouranous, and one for Chronos.
"What…?"
"Apparently, there is another world, similar to Weyard. Here, in this world, the dominant powers of existence are Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Mercury. In this other world, the dominant powers are Neptune, Saturn, Pluto, and Uranus. If all of these holy powers are together, they can be used to get from one of these worlds to the other." explained Miranda.
"Why would this be…?" pondered Triton, his hand under his chin as he leaned over to see the book.
"We do not know. But this explains why Isaac was not killed. I've read several books on Alchemy. Alchemy is all four of the elements together. The overflowing power in Isaac is Alchemy, but I do not know how he managed to obtain this without perishing. When we all attacked him with our blessed tokens and they were all trying to destroy his existence by using his own power against him, they were combined, and so became a portal, and he disappeared." said Phoebe.
"So, he is wandering in this other world…. If he still has Alchemy inside of him, there is still danger." said Triton.
"Should we try to find a way into this other world, or let it be their problem?" asked Miranda.
"I say let it be their problem. Whether they live or die in this other place is none of our concern," said Charon. It was ridiculous. Those people could save themselves, and if they couldn't, it wouldn't affect Weyard, would it?
"What if he finds a way back to Weyard?" asked Miranda.
"We can find him, and finish the job we started. This could also prove useful. We have some high-ranked priests and a priestess who worship the Gods of the Elements, yes? If the allies of Isaac find us, seeking revenge, we can simply transport them or us to the other world for safety. They can bless an item with their god or goddess' power, and we'll be ready," suggested Charon.
"That sounds like a good idea, but…something doesn't feel right about it," said Phoebe anxiously.
"I like it. High Priestess Miranda, if you would please summon Priests Kakeru, Aubrey, Craig, and Priestess Maia," said Triton. Miranda bowed, and the others bowed back. She left the room.
The ship stopped, and Nathaniel heard a clunk. He looked over the bow to see that there was an enormous rock in the middle of the river. The ship couldn't go any farther. He dashed to the cabin and opened the door.
"Either we get off here or we hover over this rock in the middle of our path," he said.
"Do you know where we are?" asked Piers.
Nathaniel shook his head. Piers rose from where he sat, walked to a chest, opened it, and pulled out a map. He gave it to Nathaniel.
Nathaniel unrolled it and inspected the Angara continent. He followed the river he suspected they were on, and estimated where they were now.
"We're near the Lamakan Desert and…a temple. They aren't far away," he said.
"That's Master Hamma's temple, isn't it?" asked Garet.
Hamma and Ivan nodded.
"Let's visit it, then. It will be very short, I promise. I just want to see how things are running, and maybe prepare a meal for you all. You must be hungry," said Hamma. Jenna and Garet nodded.
Nathaniel shrugged. Why not? But what would happen afterwards?
"Should we just fly over the rock, then?" he asked.
"That should do the trick," said Mia. The others nodded.
"Alright, let's go," said Felix, and they left the boat. Piers took the black orb with him, and they walked and walked until they saw the temple. After a little more walking, they were on the temple grounds.
But something didn't feel right to Nathaniel. The place felt deserted. There was no one walking around. He noticed a cobwebbed basket by a pond.
"Where is everyone?" asked Sheba.
Hamma narrowed her eyes and hurried into the temple. She threw opened the doors. The company followed her.
Once inside, Nathaniel looked around. There were shelves with a few items on them, and a meditation carpet on the floor. The candles on either side of the door he had just come through were unlit, and the incense burner in one corner of the room looked like it hadn't been used in a while.
Master Hamma looked around.
"What in the name of Jupiter!" she cried, seeing a crate over the meditation rug.
"Move," said Felix sternly, and a ghostly hand shoved aside the crate.
Master Hamma threw up the meditation rug, revealing a trapdoor. She opened it and climbed down the ladder under it. Ivan followed her. Nathaniel could see by his face that he was alarmed.
Sheba and Jenna climbed down after them, and then the rest of them, leaving Nathaniel above ground. He looked down into the depths, and heard Master Hamma.
"What has happened? Awaken, awaken!" she cried.
Nathaniel climbed down the ladder to see three incredibly thin boys blinking open their eyes and sitting up. He could see their ribs and their jawbone. They had been trapped down here and starved. But why?
When one of the boys had his eyes open, he gasped when he saw Master Hamma, and wept over her feet.
"Hamma-sama! Thank the heavens! We are saved!" he yelled.
Hamma turned to Ivan. He nodded, and climbed up the ladder. Nathaniel wondered if he was getting water. The other boy had his eyes fully open, and wept upon his master's feet as well.
"Who trapped you down here? Where are the others?" asked Hamma, brushing the dirty cheek of the boy with her hand.
He looked up at her with wide eyes.
"The others trapped us down here. They're gone," he said.
"What!" exclaimed Sheba.
IOE: And so it ends! Oh-cliffhanger!
Feizhi: (holds next chapter hostage in exchange for good music) Grr!
Hsu: Dammit, Feizhi!
IOE: No, there isn't a 'thing' going on between Nathaniel and Sheba…or is there? They do have a lot in common…and poor kids. Well, please review! Toodles!