A/N: My first story in this site narrates the life of an OC I created a long time ago, which stayed in hiatus for years before I finally got the motivation to get back to writing (and rewriting) the whole thing. It's not anything amazing, but it's mostly here for archival pruposes anyway, so if you stumbled upon this silly little story, go ahead!

Prologue

Mt. Aleph, a dormant volcano situated at the center of Weyard. At its foot, the town of Vale resided.

All of Vale's houses sported simple designs: White walls, except for joists, doors and windows, which retained the natural color of the wood they were made of, and roofs covered with straw. The village itself was divided in various plazas, and a small river coming from Mt. Aleph went through most of them, except the lowest plaza, and then changed its course to the west, where the nearest edge of the continent was. In the lower plaza, there was a small lake with a set of rocks in the middle, with a taller, purple colored rock standing out above them. The entrance to the village was also on this plaza, but said entrance was always closed, for what the inhabitants thought was a good reason.

Vale's residents held a special power called 'psychic energy', more commonly known as 'psynergy'. An ability fueled by the spiritual power of the person's mind that allowed one to conjure magic based on the four elements: Earth, Fire, Wind and Water. Those capable of using psynergy were known as 'Adepts'. Thus, all the residents of Vale were Adepts. But, as far as they were concerned, the only Adepts in all Weyard were them, the residents of Vale. And for decades, they had been following strict rules regarding their abilities and their town. First, strangers couldn't be allowed into Vale. And second, Valeans couldn't use psynergy in public during the rare times when they did have visitors, which usually were mostly merchants, or when a Valean went outside of town, something that barely anyone did, despite the rules never specifying anything about the matter.

One day, however, an old man from outside arrived and settled down in Vale. Why was he allowed to stay? And what could he be looking for? The town's elder would have a meeting with the rest of Vale the day after to answer these questions. But those answers would only raise even more questions in the mind of a certain young man, and it would prompt him to pay a visit to this new resident...

"...And that's why he will be staying in our village." The elder concluded. He had gathered most of Vale's residents in the lower plaza, except for the children and, of course, the old man. The latter was now in one of the upper plazas, getting used to his new home.

"But..." A brown haired man started. "Didn't he tell you he wanted to study Sol Sanctum?"

The elder nodded, stroking his long, white beard as he recalled the old stranger's words. "Indeed he did, Kyle." He answered. "But I assure you, he means no harm to Mt. Aleph's shrine. However, that doesn't mean we'll let him enter Sol Sanctum just like that."

"Will you have a meeting with the Great Healer?" The man, Kyle, asked. The Great Healer resided in a small chapel in the highest plaza of Vale, the place nearest to Sol Sanctum.

The elder nodded once more. "We will discuss the matter of letting him enter the shrine. Even if we decide to let him in the end, it will most likely be just very brief visits, and never without escorts." After a pause, he continued. "If you wish to tell your son, Kyle, go ahead. The same goes for everyone else." A few families nodded and made acknowledging sounds as a response. After that, the elder turned around and left for the chapel, the only audible sound for a moment being the soft rustling of his green robes.

Kyle and a blonde woman, presumably his wife, returned to their home, as did everyone else. One young man, however, stood still by the lake, arms crossed in deep thought.

The young man was wearing an orange shirt, blue jeans and brown boots, with a yellow scarf wrapped around his neck. His unkempt, brown hair barely moved by the blowing of the wind as his green eyes darted from where the elder had gone to where the new resident was, though his left eye had a dull, unfocused gaze. He was quite tall for his age, or so he'd been told, and had been allowed to attend the elder's meeting.

Oddly, he had been called for the meeting, but his parents had not. All adults should have been summoned, so he wasn't sure why they did not receive the summons. At that moment, however, his mind was firmly focused elsewhere. "I'm curious about what that new resident is like..." He muttered to himself as his gaze followed the town's path up to the higher plazas, and in the direction of where the stranger's house should be. It couldn't be seen from there, as the upper plazas stood in high cliffs that could only be accessed through stairs made of stone that connected one plaza to the next.

"Surely mom and dad won't mind if I take a quick peek." He nodded resolutely, running off to the upper plazas.

The old man's house wasn't in one of the main plazas. They had given him a house that stood west from the second highest plaza, partially hidden by a few trees, but it seemed that the old man didn't mind taking residence in that house.

The young man thought about this as he made his way to the house and knocked on the door. As it opened, the resident greeted the visitor with a smile.

"Oh, what can I do for you?" The old man asked.

He wore a blue shirt partially covered by a brown piece of cloth over his shoulders. Attached to the cloth was a white cape that reached down to his legs. A similar material with two different shades of brown covered anything below his torso completely, tied to his waist by two cotton sashes, one red, the other yellow. The scrolls and books in his house, coupled with the clothes he sported, indicated that the aged man was a scholar. His white hair and beard, proof of the decades his body had experienced. Despite that, his blue eyes, partially hidden behind his glasses, showed great vigor and determination.

"I... kinda wanted to ask you a few things, mister... uh..." The young man began.

"Kraden." The old man finished for him with a kind smile. "Call me Kraden. If you wish to talk, you can come in, if you want." He motioned for the young man to enter.

"Thanks." He accepted, entering the house. Like all other houses in Vale, the interior design was pretty simple. The walls and floor weren't painted; like the joists one could see from outside the house, they conserved the natural color of the wood they were made of. As the boy entered the house, there were wooden tables at both sides, fitting below the windows and filled with various scrolls and books. On the opposite wall, the boy could see a chimney and stairs leading to a second floor. But what caught his attention the most was what seemed like a brown, semicircular piece of furniture in the middle of the room. Upon closer inspection, he noted that it had a couple of metal tubes behind it that connected to the floor, as well as two perfectly round holes that expelled light and heat from inside. "Hey, is that a... forge?" The young man asked doubtfully. The shape was slightly off from what he remembered a forge looked like, though.

"Hmm?" Kraden walked up to him after closing the door, following his gaze to the furnace. "Oh, I guess it does look like one, doesn't it?" He chuckles softly. "It's not the kind that a smith would use, but function-wise, it is basically a forge. I was thinking of having one of these built in the house after moving in, but I'm glad to see that the house you kind people provided me with already had one. What impresses me the most is that it's exactly the type of furnace I need for my studies." His voice denoted happiness as he looked at the forge, then turned to his visitor. "Would you be so kind as to tell me who lived here before?"

The boy took a moment to recall what he knew about the house before Kraden arrived. He remembered seeing it from afar a couple times a few years back, passing by it when playing with Valean kids. However, he never really got to see anyone coming in or out of the house, and the thought of seeing it for himself never crossed his mind. He shook his head at Kraden. "I'm afraid I can't. This house has been empty for as long as I can remember."

"Is that so?" Kraden blinked a few times, as if wondering about something. "How old are you, anyway?"

"I'm, uh..." The young man fumbled with his words for a moment.

"Hoho, I'd put you at twenty-one, if I had to guess. Am I close?" Kraden chuckled for a moment before stopping, his eyes widening a bit. "Oh, please excuse me, I tend to ramble a bit sometimes. I should be the one answering questions here, not making them."

"Oh, no, it's alright!" The young man said. "I kinda barged in here without warning, after all."

Kraden laughed heartily. "Oh, it's no trouble at all, I assure you." He waved his hand dismissively. Kraden turned out to be more friendly than the young man had thought at first. "So, what exactly did you want to know from me?" Kraden eventually asked his guest.

"Well, um... Now that you ask, I'm not sure of where to start." The young man scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Is it true that you want to study Sol Sanctum?"

"I do." Kraden nodded. "As you probably noticed, I'm a scholar. I, like many other scholars under the service of my lord, am dedicated to studying Alchemy."

"The combined force of the four elements..." The young man muttered. "Earth, Fire, Water and Wind... Combinations of these give shape to everything around us... I read that once in a book a friend of my parents lent me last year."

"And a very accurate book that was. You're spot on!" Kraden grinned, excited to chat about Alchemy. "Indeed, Alchemy is known to be the force that gives shape to all of Weyard. Yet, the concept of Alchemy itself still holds many secrets. That's one of the reasons why my studies brought me here."

"But... why Sol Sanctum?" The young man asked. Sol Sanctum was a shrine that went deep within Mt. Aleph, revered as a sacred place by Valeans for many decades, or so he had been told. But he failed to see the connection between Sol Sanctum and Alchemy.

"Before continuing, please allow me to ask you something." Kraden's eyes observed the young man with some kind of expectation. "Are you an Adept?"

"Huh? I..." He hadn't expected such a question, and didn't know whether he should answer it or not. 'Kraden's now a resident of our village, so... he's technically not a stranger. It should be fine to tell him, right? And besides, if he knows what an Adept is, there's no use in trying to hide it from him.' The young man finally answered with a nod. "Yeah, I am."

Truthfully, he still wasn't sure of exactly what kind of Adept he was. Those who were born Adepts traditionally had a specific alignment with one of the four elements, meaning their psynergy was restricted to one kind of element-based psynergy. Those aligned with Earth were called Venus Adepts; Mars Adepts were proficient with the Fire element; Wind psynergy users were known as Jupiter Adepts; and Mercury Adepts were those talented with Water. The young man, however, had only begun to learn how to use psynergy fairly recently, but he had been able to use both Earth and Fire psynergy during practice so far. He really couldn't think of an explanation for that.

The scholar nodded slowly. "Just as I thought. And if my studies are on the right track, everyone else in Vale is an Adept as well, are they not?"

"Yes." The young Adept replied.

"And as you probably know, the only Adepts born in this region are Valeans. That's why Vale has strict rules regarding strangers such as me." Kraden continued.

The boy just nodded. Kraden certainly knew a lot about Vale for someone coming from outside. 'Maybe that's just part of being a scholar.' He pondered.

"Now, why do you think Adepts are born here in the first place?" Kraden asked.

"Uh..." The young Adept crossed his arms, trying to come up with an answer. How should he know that? 'Let's see, Alchemy is composed by the four elements... Oh! If we Adepts are born with certain affinities to those elements...' His eyes widened with realization. "Could it be that Adepts are born in places where Alchemy is most concentrated?"

Kraden nodded energetically. "Exactly! However..." He calmed down a little. "...that doesn't quite answer my question. What could be the reason for Adepts to be born here, specifically?"

After blinking a few times, the young man let out a soft gasp. "You mean..."

"Yes." The scholar nodded again, motioning for the Adept to follow him to a nearby window, through which they looked at the towering mountain crowning the town of Vale. "Mt. Aleph, or more specifically, Sol Sanctum. It's a fact I've been able to confirm together with my fellow scholars after years of studying Alchemy. In this continent - no, in all of Weyard - the place acting as the biggest focal point of Alchemy is somewhere within Mt. Aleph." He turned away from Mt. Aleph to smile at his guest. "And the inhabitants of Vale are living proof of my studies."

"I-I see..." The Adept muttered. "So that's why you want to study Sol Sanctum...?"

"In a way, yes. I have some more... personal reasons, but I'd rather keep those to myself." Kraden smiled sadly. "Sorry, even an old scholar like myself isn't allowed to ramble quite that much."

The young man shook his head with a tiny smile. "No, it's fine, don't worry about it." After a pause, he continued. "So, when do you plan on going to Sol Sanctum?"

Kraden sighed at the question. "I'm sure the elder won't allow me to study it for quite some time. After all, I'm still somewhat of a stranger according to your town's rules. But, until I'm allowed to enter Sol Sanctum..." He aimed a smile at his guest. "Maybe I could persuade you to show me around your town?"

"Sure, I don't see why not." The Adept nodded with a smile to match the scholar's.

They exited Kraden's house and started walking towards the nearest plaza. As they walked away from the house, however, Kraden stopped, causing the young Adept to glance back at him.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe I caught your name."

The young man smiled nervously at Kraden's statement. "Ah, right, I completely forgot about that. My bad." He extended his hand for a handshake. "My name is Lune."

Kraden gave the Adept a firm handshake and a smile. "Pleased to meet you, Lune." After that, Lune and Kraden resumed walking as the Adept started showing the scholar around Vale.

To be continued...