[[Alex has a very particular set of skills.]]

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Chapter 4

Priceless, Part 2

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King Paithos could not hold still. First, he had been tapping a finger. Then he had begun restlessly jostling his leg on the ball of the foot. He needed to stay at his throne, to be available and easy to find for all information coming and going in the search for Prince Amiti. But the nerves! The pure terror and anxiety of a loved one going missing, much less the disappearance of a child, was simply too much. The only thing he could do as king was to sit on a throne and wait. It was maddening.

What's more, he had seen the shimmer in the air in that hallway, and he wasn't sure if that made him feel better or worse. As limited as his knowledge of Adepts and Psynergy may be, Paithos still only knew of one Adept who was capable of coming and going in a blink. For the last five years, a part of him had worried that the Adept would return to steal Amiti away. Had it finally happened? There was little he could do, if it had. For all of Paithos' attempts to prepare Amiti in the event he needed to find his way home, would it prove to be for naught? Would he see his dear nephew again? The Adept would surely keep Amiti safe, right? But what if the Adept wasn't the one responsible? Then was the Adept helping to find Amiti? Would the Adept return the boy after?

Paithos was a king, and yet there was nothing more he could do for the time being. Much like a night five years prior, all he could do was sit, and wait, and hope, and pray.

-o-o-o-

Adepts. Of course they would hire Adepts. Prince Amiti was rumored to have been born through the power of pure Psynergy. Of course they would hire gods-be-damned Adepts.

Alex was furious. At Sana, at the scribes, at the mayor, at the emperor, at the thieves, at himself. He was shaking with it. He had been in the game long enough. He should've known there would be safeguards. Should've known there was always a catch.

He tightened his hold across the back of the prince's head and shoulder reassuringly (To the boy? To himself?). Even with years of frequent returns to Ayuthay, watching the prince grow and learn from a distance, it struck him now just how small the child huddled against his side still was (but not nearly as small as the baby he had held only the once).

"Your Highness." Alex spoke so only the prince would hear. He could feel the prince looking up at him, away from the brutes. Alex kept watch for the both of them. "There is a bridge. Guards will be there soon to take you home. When I say, run for that bridge. Follow the road on this side of the river back to your kingdom. Do you understand?" The child didn't speak, but Alex felt the nod under his arm. "Good." He hesitated, at last adding, "You have been very brave, Your Highness. Your mother would have been proud."

"What—?"

Alex raised his voice to address the bandits. "Using Psynergy to kidnap children?" He studied what he could see of his opponents. One self-assured Venus Adept and her two goons: one tall and lanky, ill-suited for physical confrontation, the other short and of medium stature. Lovely, they'd sent a regular cliché to do the job. Alex smirked behind his mask. He could handle this. "Have the thieves of Lunpa truly fallen so far?"

The woman raised an amused but curious brow. "What makes you so sure we're from Lunpa? Or did you forget the city of pirates just east of here?"

"Ah, that is true. But for all his faults, Captain Briggs knows where to draw the line. That so-called 'leader' of yours, however…" Alex didn't miss the ripples of red energy beginning to creep around the aforementioned lanky one. Make that two Adepts, then. "Let us just say, he has a history."

It was little effort to extinguish the two fireballs thrown their way. A wave of the hand, a splash of water mid-air to block the path, a mist of steam dispersing into the desert night. Amateur. The clay spike that followed was cast aside by a slanted barrier of ice. Child's play. Another fireball, another cloud of steam. Sloppy.

Alex's turn.

With an upward flick and twist of his free hand towards them, the air shimmered. It twisted with the gesture, the limited moisture in the desert pooling and swirling and crystallizing, slow at first and gaining speed. In a matter of seconds, the alarmed bandits found themselves encased in a translucent dome of jagged ice.

Alex didn't need theatrical gestures to cast his Psynergy. He did love a bit of flair, though.

He released his hold on the child at his side, once again giving the boy a nudge in the right direction. "Go now, Your Highness." He turned his own body to fully face the enemy. A glance over his shoulder revealed the prince had barely moved out of reach. "Now. Run!" The prince, wide-eyed and startled and still hugging Alex's cloak tightly around himself, jolted and gave a stiff nod. Then he was off. Running away. Away from danger. Away from protection.

Away from Alex.

Something cracked, and Alex's attention snapped back to the dome. Lines in the ice spread like veins from an orange red light within.

Alex doubled down on his hold over his element. These weren't natural-born Adepts. Fully enclosed in their prison as they were, they likely couldn't connect with their element on the outside to strike back. Alex simply needed to keep them contained and unable to attack long enough for the prince to safely get clear, then he would be able to properly deal with them. These thugs had no idea how outclassed they were—

The bands of blue around his raised fist shuddered.

…Perhaps they did have one advantage.

Alex, in his hurry, had not rested since leaving Sana. He had used almost his entire supply of Psy Crystals to reach Ayuthay, each crumbling in his grip as the energy was absorbed. All but one of the remainders had been used to catch up to the kidnappers.

Alex was, simply put, exhausted.

"—you now see the limits of your power—"

Alex hissed a sharp intake through his teeth. Shut up. The glow of Mars Psynergy burned brighter, and his arm shook with the effort to counter. At last, a resounding CRACK rang through the night air, accompanied by the sound of crystalline shattering. Time was up.

The bandits hadn't fully emerged through the wisps of flame and steam before vines shot out of the ground, lashing around Alex's still raised arm. It jerked downwards, thorns biting into flesh through the layers of sleeves. He bit back with a blade of ice to sever the binds. Immediately he doused another ball of flame approaching from the upper right, his blind spot. The steam created by the last second save washed down and around him, obscuring his view of the enemy.

That was when something exploded at his feet in a blast of purple, something that wasn't Psynergy. Something that filled Alex's mind with dread and his gut with a void.

The world tilted. His breath caught.

No. No, no no no.

Alex knew this feeling.

—gaping abyss in the sky that crackled and hummed with static—

He knew the destruction that accompanied this feeling.

—shingles and debris whisked away as though in a storm and Adepts collapsing and no no no no NO!

Another vine snapped across the left side of his mask, sending him stumbling in the other direction. Alex swore. If he lost his good eye to these morons, he thought wryly, not even the Underworld would be able to save them. He'd figure out the hows later, if needs must. For now, the steam had dissipated, and through the vertigo he saw and felt columns of fire spewing up from the ground in a line towards him. He narrowly dove to the side in time to get clear of the blast attack. But the trail didn't stop once it had passed. No, it kept going, and Alex again felt the world tilt and freeze for an entirely different reason.

AMITI!

Alex didn't think. One instant he was on the ground in a battle. Then… he blinked. He blinked and he was wrapping around the boy mid-run. He blinked and he was enveloping Amiti in a barrier of dark robes as a shield of raw Psynergy flashed into existence around them. They fell to the side, narrowly dodging the worst of the attack as heat and flame shot up. The force sent them tumbling and sprawling over the ground.

Alex blinked through the haze as awareness slowly returned. He was face down in the sand, feeling raw and drained in a way he hadn't felt in a decade and a half.

He really hated déjà vu.

"—ster Adept? Master Adept?!"

Someone was urgently shaking his arm. No, let him rest. He'd dig himself out of the mountain again. He simply needed to rest first.

Wait.

What?

"Master Adept!"

The world was still spinning in Alex's head as he pushed himself up by his forearms with a grunt. His hair fell around his face. He shifted one arm to brush it aside, but froze in the gesture. His fingers didn't touch the familiar rough surface of painted wood. They touched too-tight skin, interlaced by smooth but jagged divots. That… wasn't right.

"Please, Master Adept! Get up!"

Alex coughed. Right. The prince. The kidnappers (the Hel had they thrown at him?). His ma—

His mask.

"M' m'sk…"

How elegant.

Alex kept his head bowed low, casting his gaze this way and that as he searched the best he could through the curtain of turquoise. No one had seen his face in over five years. He wasn't about to let that change now, of all times. At last he spied it not far off, and his already limited vision narrowed.

It was broken. They had broken his mask. It had split in two along the same path where the vine had struck earlier, the pieces only connected by an azure, silk ribbon.

"…will fit much more comfortably than that string you have…"

"…just some paint I had sitting around…"

First, these bandits had kidnapped his—her child. Now they had broken the mask that bore her handiwork, and directly endangered her child. The final dredges of his Psynergy reserves stirred. It reached out into the world, running along the sands to pinpoint the threat approaching from behind. Alex winced as he shifted again. It took effort, and his left arm stung as it bore his weight, but he was able to reach into a pocket at his side.

Alex didn't need theatrics to cast his Psynergy. And frankly?

He could work just fine without that flair.

The last Psy Crystal crumbled.

-o-o-o-

The instant word reached the palace that the prince was returning, King Paithos was out of his throne and hurrying down the stairs at an unroyal-like pace. His late father would have frowned upon it, but Paithos had little mind for image right then.

"Where is he? Where- Amiti!"

"Uncle Paithos!" The boy squirmed until the guard carrying him was forced to set him down, at which point Amiti ran straight for his uncle. He nearly tripped over the bundle wrapped around him, but Paithos dropped to his knees to catch him and pull him into the tightest of hugs. "I'm okay, Uncle Paithos," Amiti mumbled into his shoulder, and oh, as if it wasn't difficult enough already for Paithos to hold back a sob of relief. "I'm okay. My Adept found me."

What?

"Your Majesty." The captain of the palace guard stepped forward after conferring with the lead of the search party. "The three culprits have been apprehended and are being escorted to the prison now for questioning. According to his Highness, the Prince, they appear to be from the town of Lunpa, and two are in possession of Psynergy. They are being kept appropriately restrained."

Paithos didn't miss the murmurs and looks among the guards, but he dismissed it for the time being. He had a nephew to escort to the healers. It was only as Amiti chattered away while the Great Healer looked him over that Paithos realized he perhaps should have paid more attention to the behavior at the time.

"Amiti, please, slow down. What do you mean the mask broke?"

"It broke! It was two pieces, and and and I handed it back to my Adept after he knocked out the bad people. He put the pieces together," Amiti's hands came together as though holding two pieces of something, "and it glowed and it was solid again!"

"Did you see this Adept's face?" Amiti shook his head. Paithos probably shouldn't have felt as disappointed by that as he did. "What happened after?"

Amiti frowned in thought. "He said I was my mother's son, and then the light was purple instead of blue…" The boy ghosted a hand over the left side of his face. "…And then I was at the bridge and the guards showed up. The bad guys were still asleep, though. And tied up. But the bad Adepts were extra tied up. And it was with ice. I think the guards think I did it…"

Paithos' gaze was drawn to the dark travel cloak balled up and hugged to Amiti's chest. It had been removed so that Amiti could be examined, but he had refused to let it go completely yet. At first, Paithos had assumed it belonged to one of the guards who had found the boy, but Amiti had all too eagerly told his uncle exactly where the article of clothing had come from.

There were going to be some serious rumors later, if the guards believed a five-year-old boy had bested two grown Adepts and their accomplice.

The Great Healer stepped back and bowed to the king. "His Highness is in perfect physical health, your Majesty. Not a scratch on him. Will there be anything else, Sire?"

Paithos shook his head in the negative. "No, that will be all." As the elderly healer began to walk past him for the door, Paithos quietly stopped him. "Wait. I believe I can trust your discretion about what has been discussed here?"

The healer gave him the amused, knowing look of one who was no stranger to keeping secrets. His dear sister had always found it funny as a fellow conspirator. It had always unnerved Paithos, both as a child and as an adult. "Of course, your Majesty."

Paithos did not like secrets. He did not like lies. Yet here he was, continuing to do exactly that. The irony was far from lost on him.

-o-o-o-

There was a novelty to sitting on a sandy beach with the tide rolling in. Alex savored it. Never grew tired of it.

Imil's coast had been primarily comprised of rocks and pebbles and jagged fragments of shell, with sheer drops and frigid waves that crashed and raged and reached for any soul who strayed into range. The beaches surrounding Ayuthay were different. Gentle slopes of smooth sand led to lazy waves and warm waters beyond. Alex would forever be in awe of how both shorelines overlooked the same Great Eastern Sea, and yet were complete opposites. He could sit on the sands for hours, just out of reach of the tides, while the roar of the waves washed over his mind and everything inside it.

Alex shook himself. He had work to do, and one more item had been added to that list. He inhaled deeply as he lifted his mask. The repair had bonded the pieces of wood back together with Venus Psynergy, but there was little he could do for the lingering crack that ran like a scar across the paint. He would need to find another day-to-day mask, regardless. The scribes he had frozen in Sana had undoubtedly outed him as a traitor by then, especially if word got back that the kidnapping had been foiled by a Mercury Adept.

But disappearing again wasn't a matter of huge concern. Searching the bandits, however, had revealed quite the interesting stash of items. Some he recognized, while others matched descriptions he had heard in passing. But the egg-shaped device carried by the non-Adept, with more hidden in the skiff that had been pulled onto the beach? The mottled purple brown one that seemed to match the retrieved pieces of what had been thrown at him in the desert? That was new. Which, honestly, wasn't entirely a surprise. As much as Alex worked to keep up with current research, many countries had been experimenting with Psynergy-based items over the last decade and a half. It was impossible to keep up with all of them, though most countries tended to have signature traits in their developments. Except…

The town of Lunpa, to Alex's knowledge, had never been involved in such experiments. They generally preferred to use the results. Now, where would the likes of a Lunpa thief come by such a thing? Granted, it had been a number of years since Alex had last been there, but he couldn't imagine much had changed under Dodonpa's rule.

How old were those children of his by now?

The metal in his hand was warped. Twisted. As though the darkened shell had begun to burst outward, then had just as quickly been sucked inward. An explosion and implosion combined? A burnt, silver-colored mechanism was attached to one side, likely the trigger. Whatever the device, most of the shell was now this mangled mess in his palm. Alex had found a few more loose fragments in the sand, and one piece of shrapnel had embedded itself in his lower shin. He hadn't even noticed until he'd gone to scratch the spot.

Alex dug a small blade under a torn edge of the metal and gently straightened it. He didn't trust his ability to safely disarm one of the intact weapons. But maybe, if he was careful, he could still examine the spent mechanism from the one that had been used on him. From there, perhaps he could begin to trace the source.

This… device… or whatever it was… it had somehow drained him of his Psynergy. He knew of monsters that were capable of such things, but this? This was a man-made weapon. A weapon to be used against Adepts.

A weapon that had just been used in the kidnapping of a small boy.

A boy rumored to have been born through the power of pure Psynergy.

—gaping abyss in the sky—

—Adepts collapsing in the streets—

Alex straightened the next shred less carefully than the first.

Yes, those grandchildren of Donpa's were surely old enough by now. Their father had had his turn. It was time for a change in power in Lunpa, right after Alex paid a visit to a mayor in Sana.

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To Be Continued

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[[Anakin: Sand is coarse and irritating and gets everywhere.

Alex: Sand is so great. I really like sand. ^_^

Sigh. Another E3 done, another year of only getting a new Mario sports game from Camelot, with no word on Golden Sun or any other original IP. Camelot, why do you forsake your RPG fans so?

Alex's masks and the reason for them are covered (ha!) more in another chapter, possibly the next one. As for mentions of the Mourning Moon, well… As far as I'm aware, we only hear of one happening previously in-game. Yet they know that it happens once every ten years? So, of course, I had to make tribute to the Angst Gods by assuming the worst. As in, "What if Veriti and Ayuthay were Alex's chance at a redemption arc, and the universe instead went, 'Ha! No. Massive vortex only you can deal with go brrr.'" I have my own head-canons on Alex's history and motives, and there is one I settled on as the setup for this story. But in general, I want to try leaving the details vague-ish enough to fit as many variations as possible. I might consider a side story that goes more into it, if the plot bunnies choose to strike.]]