fic: Every Happy End chapter three
Jan. 30th, 2009 06:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bonnefoisTitle: Every Happy End
Fandom: Golden Sun
Day/theme: January 14th / some mad hope (late)
Rating: PG-13 for later parts
Summary: Ivan returns to a rebuilt Vale five years later with much on his mind. Eventual Isaac/Ivan, sideline Garet/Jenna, Felix/Piers, Sheba/???
Wordcount:+ 5,368 in this installment, 14,582 total
A/N: and by November, I mean January! To be fair, I had most of the chapter written up, but had one part that had to be rewritten And I had to readjust a plot part and then there was Christmas...
As always, For LinLin ~
IV.
Time had changed little. Ivan wondered, not for the first time, why he had returned. At heart, even with many years, he felt just as young; a fifteen year old with all the same fears and anxieties. He had meant to lay old feelings and ghosts to rest, but if anything they had changed little. The wishes that he had thought had fallen to embers burned brightly again.
A part of him wondered what he had hoped to accomplish by returning. He should have buried those memories, those faint touches of first love to starve and disintegrate out of existence. He would barely notice the dust.
But Ivan knew that he couldn’t have lived that way, constantly looking backwards to a past growing more golden and enshrined every day. He couldn’t marry or live his life a monk when his gaze was always backward.
He tried not to think of Isaac’s touch or how well he had fit within their quiet household. He pushed thoughts of family or tethers aside just as he folded up his clothing and smoothed over his bedspread.
Ivan felt a gaze upon him and turned around to find Isaac staring at him. He had leaned against the doorway. The sun caught in his golden hair almost lovingly, it fell over Isaac’s face and pooled about him in the spilled light from the window.
“Breakfast is ready,” he said.
“Thank you for telling me...I’ll be down in a minute,” Ivan replied.
Isaac nodded, but didn’t leave immediately. Ivan felt the gaze at his back and swallowed. His preparations became robotic. When he turned back to go downstairs he couldn’t look Isaac in the eye.
–
After breakfast everything was still shrouded in a morning mist. All the sounds of morning had begun and flitted about him. Dora hummed in the kitchen as she washed the three empty bowls. Ivan had offered to help but this time she had smiled and refused. Ivan wandered away.
Near the door Isaac stared out at the gauzy tourniquet of fog wrapped over the houses. When Isaac turned he softened; it was not precisely a smile, but something close to it.
“Do you have a minute? I have something to show you.”
Ivan followed out into the wall of mists.
“Take my hand, you’ll lose the way if not,” Isaac said.
Ivan gulped and took the offered hand.
The something was a far up the ridge, quite far from the other houses yet still within the limits of Vare. It was a still place, silent and untouched, the kind of place where someone could sit for hours and bask in the secludedness of it all. It was the perfect place for contemplation, for meditating and training.
“I want to build here,” Isaac said. “For my own home.”
The grass seemed more lustrous, the flowers deeper and shaded by an alcove of trees. A small stream passed through, it was an offshoot of the pool at the center of Vare. It was a shelter, a peaceful abode that was apart from the town yet close enough to not be isolated.
“It’s beautiful...” Ivan said.
“....I’d hoped you’d say that.”
Ivan was surprised, it hadn’t crossed his mind that Isaac would ever need even the slightest validation from him. Isaac had opened his mouth as if to speak, but all he’d gotten out was Ivan’s name before was cut off by the barking of a dog.
A small spotted dog ran through, chasing a poor orange striped cat. The towheaded boy, Jimmie followed at a close distance, calling the dog back to him.
“Ivan–”
Ivan loved the sound of his name on Isaac’s lips. Loved their shared tastes and how it felt like home whenever he was with Isaac. He loved it too much
“I-I should get back,” Ivan said.
“I suppose you should,” Isaac replied.
When they walked back the mists had faded into the air and there was no excuse for hand-holding. The distance between them felt farther somehow.
--
Garet was never opposed to getting out of a little work. So with the return of his former comrades, the first thought was how to get them into nailing boards and carrying things so he could be off napping somewhere.
It wasn’t that he was a total slacker, it was just that his hand was killing him and it was asking a lot to have Isaac cast cure on him about every hour or so. If Isaac was as sick and tired of building as Garet was, he certainly didn’t show it.. Isaac was like that though, perfect son and hero. It wasn’t that Garet was jealous, it surely couldn’t be enjoyable – Still, it got annoying at times. Perfect Isaac this, hero Isaac that. Sometimes Garet just wanted to see Isaac be the one to fall on his prat and be laughed at for once.
But Garet never dwelled long on these thoughts. Isaac was his friend. Pratish perfect heroism and all. Garet would fight death for him and had. Garet let nothing get between them nothing.
And of course, it wasn’t Garet’s place to question a tradition (even if his father was mayor) and Garet had to follow it, but sometimes he just wished Vare would employ more carpenters. It wouldn’t really be demeaning if he just paid some guys. They did it everywhere else and it didn’t make them any less of a man. Or Men.
Garet sighed. If he waited anymore, Jenna would get mad at him again. She was in good spirits ever since Sheba had come, but Jenna was mercurial and storm clouds always lay in her horizon.
–
Piers could not help but be amused by the sight. Garet floundered under boards and desperately tried to use move psyenergy on a particularly heavy plank. It fell down upon him and smacked him in the head in the process.
“Aren’t you going to help him?” He said.
“The point of the trial is to finish it yourself,” Felix said drily.
“I helped build yours,” Piers responded.
“That, is another thing entirely,” Felix said. He sipped his tea which was about the same color as the strands of hair that wove down his face.
Piers chuckled. “You’re so stubborn.”
Felix didn’t bother to respond to this one, it would be merely stating the obvious.
“I think they’re a good match,” Piers said. “They’ll make each other happy.”
“Before or after they kill each other?” Felix replied.
“Not everyone can get along like we do,” Piers said.
He hadn’t meant to broach this subject. It had simply fallen out without thought. Out in the air it seemed almost an uncomfortable thing, as if he had touched something that was best left to unspoken subtleties.
“Especially with Jenna in the picture,” Piers amended. “She’d even find a way to fight with Isaac, I bet.”
“Indeed,” Felix said.
Through these years Piers hadn’t agonized over their details. They simply were. Friends, comrades, he never sought to find the line. He hadn’t asked when Felix had asked him to help build his house or all the times they had traveled over Weyard together after the Lighthouses had been lit. He didn’t ask now, even if the question had awoken within him recently. What exactly were they?
--
Days passed and Ivan felt warmed by the calm atmosphere of Vare. It felt so calm that it was hard to imagine that just a few years back it’d been in shambles.
With them there, the work went slightly faster. Garet’s house began to look like more than a few scarce bones and more like a home. Walls were put up with thick insulating straw to drive back the harsh chill of winter. Piers even eventually convinced a very begrudging Felix to come and help. He worked side by side with Garet on several times.
In truth, Ivan never got the sense that Felix disapproved of Garet entirely. That didn’t stop him from being generally morose and quiet – that was just how Felix was any day of the week. In all the admittedly short time he had traveled with the other group, Ivan had never seen Felix crack a smile even once.
By comparison Isaac was practically genial. But then, to Piers or Sheba, even Isaac might seem unapproachable compared to Piers. Ivan smiled as the thought crossed his mind.
--
When the heat of the day came, Garet for once took the non-lazy path and worked on. He stripped down out of his sweat-soaked shirt and joined Isaac in their hot sweaty half-naked work together. Ivan had to leave early as his face grew very red and he was prone to dropping things and staring very determinedly at the wall. Garet figured he was overheated and told him to leave it to us men which was kind of awkward in retrospect, but at least it was Ivan which meant he got to live.
So they set to hammering and finishing up the house and that was about when Garet learned an important lesson: women (or at least some of them) found shirtless carpenters hot. After the third woman stopped by just to chat, Garet started to get a clue and did some chatting of his own. After that he thought this carpentry job wasn’t half bad. It wasn’t since he’d come back a hero since he’d gotten this much attention from the ladies and it was a nice feeling.
A nice feeling at least until Jenna came up and was smiling.
Nothing was more frightening when Jenna smiled like that. Except when Sheba smiled like that, or some combination of them both smiling sweetly at the same time. Then prophets had a foreboding of doom and people huddled in their houses for fear that the world was ending.
“Oh, Hey– Jenna, I didn’t expect you–”
“Oh really?” she said.
“Yeah, really,” Garet chuckled, it more less humor and more a nervous tic.
“Garet,” Jenna said in her sweetest voice “I would like to talk to you. In private.”
“Uh, sure Jenna, Just let me–”
“Now,” she said.
Garet dropped his work and followed after her.
--
“Aren’t you going to do something?” Piers said.
“And have Jenna kill me?” Felix retorted
“Good point. Still, there should be a healer around. It’d be a shame for him not to survive”
“You’re the Mercury Adept,” Felix said.
“You’re her brother. Also, I know for a fact you know Cure,” Piers said.
Felix sighed. He moved to follow them, but not before he gripped Piers’ hand.
“In case I need backup,” Felix explained gruffly. “You know how she is.”
Felix’s gloves prevented any actual contact of skin, but it was still oddly comforting to have their fingers aligned and met like that.
--
They’d done some work, some – hardly enough for Jenna and Garet’s mother’s liking.
But it was an initiation rite to drink brew while procrastinating on a building project and Garet took the drink of manhood with relish. Isaac had already gone home, and Felix had been called away for some reason by Jenna. Piers suspected it involved a Serpent Fume in some form or another.
Piers had stayed here with Garet. For one, even as he was always welcome at Felix’s parents house, it grew awkward without Felix there. By this time he should be perfectly at ease with every part of his friend’s life, but there was a sort of unsaid unease about Felix’s parents. They thought of and did not say the questions but Piers saw and didn’t know how to reply.
So he stayed with Garet, it was something of a tribute to his almost-family, to keep their probably future son-in-law from falling off a cliff in a drunken haze (provided Jenna didn’t kill him first).
Garet leaned against the side of one of the newly raised walls, while Piers chose to rest on his knees with his legs folded under him.
“What if it falls over?” Piers said.
“Then this will be a good test before we put the roof on!” He laughed and took another gulp of the brew. Piers was still only sipping his drink. At this rate he’d have to stay mostly sober to ensure that one of them could walk the other home.
“Soon enough I’ll be living here with Isaac,” Garet said. “We should raise our glasses to the future!”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Piers said.
“Hmm... House, friends, drink – Nope, I think I’ve got them all,” Garet replied.
“Really?” Piers said. He gave the same eyebrow raised Are you sure? / You’ve got to be kidding look that he’d learned to give Garet. He’d often seen the same expression on Isaac’s face.
“Pretty sure, what else could I be missing?”
He almost outright said Well, Jenna for one but Piers thought that for once he could hardly say anything. But as Garet’s friend, even only a vaguely traveling friend who knew him only by association, it did seem something of a bad thing to do to let Garet run headfirst into a metaphorical brick wall repeatedly. Even if running headfirst into metaphorical brick walls was Garet’s specialty.
Piers took a few more sips and set it aside. He wouldn’t ask for a refill, he probably wouldn’t even finish his glass. He’d had hangovers before and didn’t feel like treading that water again. He hadn’t inherited his uncle’s legendary iron stomach, that was for sure.
“Remember that celebration in Vault after everything was over?” Garet laughed. “You disappeared with Felix about halfway through, I’m surprised you guys aren’t married by now.”
Piers choked on his drink. He coughed and sputtered as the alcohol burned through his body.
“What?”
“I said Jenna and Isaac were dancing that time, I’m surprised they aren’t married yet.”
“Oh, I thought you said– Er, nothing,” Piers said.
“Really though, what were you and Felix off to anyways?”
“Uh, just talking...” Piers said. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, I thought maybe you were teaching him about some top secret Lemurian hero stuff. You’d share with me if you were, right?”
“There’s nothing I can really share and even if there was, I don’t think it would work. The elements are rather ah, opposing,” Piers said apologetically.
“Oh yeah, I forgot,” Garet said.
“–but you said you thought Isaac was after Jenna?” Piers prompted again.
“Well isn’t he?” Garet said. Garet seemed more tipsy now, and Piers wondered how much alcohol he’d consumed. Garet laughed, in almost a non-sequitur act and Piers took that as the answer to his unsaid question.
“I don’t think so. Why would he wait five years without making a move if he wanted to marry her?”
“Isaac tends to think things through slow. He’d take his time with these things. Besides, Jenna likes him and she’d definitely get anyone she wanted,” Garet said.
“So you’re standing aside and waiting for Isaac to make a move?” Piers said.
“We’re best friends, he’d definitely do the same. We’re practically blood-brothers from that one time we both scraped our knees in the pools.”
“But if she liked someone else,” Piers started carefully.
“Well then they’d be a lucky man, but I’d feel bad for Isaac,” Garet said.
That was about the point that Piers gave up. He began to see Felix’s frustration with Garet, but not from the eyes of a brother. Perhaps not an overprotective brother, but one who none the same had to watch his sister crying tears of frustration over her rather oblivious intended. And that was when she wasn’t burning things to the ground.
“Hey Piers, when are you gonna get married?”
Piers cleared his throat. “That’s a good question.” One he didn’t quite know the answer to or even where to begin with. Piers searched for an exit from this topic. Garet was quite easily diverted from shaky topics. In Piers’ opinion it was one of his best qualities.
“Say, how did you get that burn? Do you want me to cure it?”
And so Garet launched into a telling of how he got that large scorchmark on his back. The answer was predictable, the worst thing was that Garet couldn’t seem to see the cause of her wrath in the first place.
--
Sheba could announce her presence when she wanted but just as often she'd sneak up and scare the living daylights of her next victim. Ivan had no question as to wether she did it on purpose.
Ivan had been clearing his mind, focusing and breathing. It was only a hint of the practice regime he'd had during Contigo, but the winds here weren't as strong. Vale was higher up, a place of earth and fire. It was harder to breathe here and even harder to focus with the rocky disturbances.
He had been attempting to blank his mind despite the stinging of the limestone and clay and silt about him when he felt hands on his shoulders and his mind being invaded again.
And who else could it be but—
"Sheba!"
"You aren't going to tell him?" She said.
"I–"
She leaned in and pressed her forehead to his, searching even deeper through his mind. He flinched as she dug up all his recent fears and anxieties and even the memory of the night by the psyenergy crystal.
"You walked all this way just to chicken out? This is really boring."
"But—"
She crossed her arms and smirked. "If you don't tell him, I will."
Ivan gulped. He had no question of whether she was joking or serious, he definitely knew the answer to that one.
"You better hurry up. I'll make it juicy if you don't get moving. I wonder if Isaac knows how he looks in your mind. You know naked."
--
The sun was headed down and Jenna and Sheba lounged about the sepia courtyard. Colors pitter-patted gently over the stones, staining them pinks and golds. Isaac stood at the edge, neither relaxing or interacting with the girls. He waited, but for what was unclear.
“Where is Ivan anyways?” Jenna said conversationally. “I haven’t seen him in hours.”
“Hmm, I wonder,” Sheba said.
Jenna giggled. “You’re always so mean to him. Do you have a crush on him or something?”
From the corner of her eye Sheba noticed Isaac’s jaw tighten. It was faint, for his expression was the same stoic Venus Adept type that Felix was. She’d have almost have missed it.
Hmm, now thiis was interesting.
Sheba couldn’t keep herself from smirking as she started sowing a few seeds of her own.
“Well we are one of the few remaining Jupiter Adepts about. It’s pretty much demanded that we marry and go at it like rabbits to ensure the continuation of our blood.”
“Sheba!” Jenna laughed. “You’re horrible.”
“I bet kissing him would be just like kissing a girl.” Sheba spoke as if she had experience on that matter.
“Probably would,” Jenna said. “He’d probably actually get a clue unlike Mr. Genius over there.”
“You should burn sense into him.”
“Already did,” Jenna said. “Didn’t work.”
“Then there’s always plan B – dragging him into the closet and kissing his brains out.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” She grinned with a hint of mischief. “Sooo, you and Ivan, huh?”
“He is rather sweet, and with really soft skin and hair...”
Sheba took a sideways glance at Isaac. There was some kind of nervous tic at his left eye and his jaw was clenched so hard it must have been painful. Now this, this was almost as fun as teasing Felix had been. Not quite as good as teasing Ivan, but not many people proved as pokeably fun as Ivan was.
“I’m still jealous that his hair is so soft,” Jenna said. She balanced her chin thoughtfully on one hand. “I haven’t seen hair that luscious since Alex.”
“I remember him,” Sheba said. “He was amusing. Much more fun than those two Proxians.”
“If by ‘amusing’ you mean a betraying creep then yes, he was very amusing”
Sheba shrugged languidly. “Well, he hasn’t been seen in years anyways, so it hardly matters.”
V.
As the light faded Ivan pushed past the limits of Vare. Each step away was to a serene place where he could continue his meditation without interruptions, especially of the Sheba verity. Isaac’s building place was what first came to his mind, but it would be impossible to be detached in a place where every patch of grass would whisper Isaac’s name.
From the slanting sides of the ruins of Mt. Aleph were cracks and crevices of all kinds. Even natural caves had managed to escape the destruction. Most everyone knew that the ruins of Mount Aleph was a dangerous spot, one to be avoided. Children claimed in haunted. Water dripped deep inside, and sometimes deep at night, howls of pain came from inside the depths of the ruins.
Ivan certainly wouldn’t have gone back there, his memories of the place were still too fresh. It had only taken a peculiar sound to draw him closer after he finished his training.
A girl in pigtails sobbed before the ruins. Her brown pigtails bobbed up and down as she tried to wipe the tears from her puffy red eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Ivan asked.
“Spot ran in and Jimmie ran after him,” the little girl sobbed. “A-And they haven’t come back!”
For this, he couldn’t afford to wait. He was small enough to follow through, and powerful enough to not be helpless at whatever dangers might lie within.
“Go get Isaac, Felix and the others,” Ivan said.
“B-but what about you?” She wailed.
“I’ll be fine... Go on!”
Ivan closed his eyes and focused on a point so pure, until the world faded away around him. Grass and trees became little more than bright spaces of color and energy around him. He saw without seeing through the earth, the greatest opposite force to his element of wind.
Flame and Water could be bent, but earth was solid and unforgiving. It took all his power to sense deep within an a faint energy, a heart that still beat–
Ivan took a breath and ducked into the crevice. He was barely small enough to fit within the sharp intercepting edges. It was a tight fit. Ivan pulled himself down, deep into the veins of the earth. It was rocky here, he gripped the earth and pulled himself down, to whatever lay in the ruin of Mount Aleph. His skin scraped against the sharp stones and rough edges of the ruins. It was like the teeth of a monster that were slowly rending their prey.
As he went deeper below the surface he heard rumblings and the fear soured and congealed within his blood. Ivan had always been a bit claustrophobic. He’d kept quiet during the times when they’d had to duck deep underground where the air was damp he’d remained quiet and huddled into himself until it was all over. And Ivan remembered those times. Even with the terror rising, clawing inside him, he fought on. It was one weakness he didn’t want to admit to.
And yet he remembered things being pressed into his hand with a gruff here. Little things, nuts, herbs, an elixir, once after he’d been blinded. Even once he’d handed over a delicious, buttery tasting kind called a Hard Nut.
They could have been coincidental, but Ivan didn’t think so. Had his shoulders trembled enough to be noticeable? Had his voice shaken ever so slightly when responding?
It had grown so dark that he could barely make out the shapes with his eyes opened, but if closed, the brightness prevailed and he could focus on the shades of the prevailing energy. Even as it was all stones here, they emitted a faint pulse of light just as the plants and trees. With this he could almost make his way as it steadily began to incline. When the cavern finally hit even ground Ivan gasped as he pulled himself across the floor, and finally opened his eyes again.
It had been hollowed out, and yet it looked unnatural. Ice glistened and an eerie white light filled the place, making all carved out place visible.
It hadn’t seemed that deep.. Ivan thought.
The room interconnected with another which showed more signs of life. There indentations carved into rock here, scratches made on the walls all in a rhythmic order of lines.
Like someone recording the passing of days.
Ivan studied the scratches for a moment. If it was in fact a calendar, then this would have been almost five years– five years stuck under the earth, in a cold dark place desperately clawing in their entombed state–
Ivan wrenched himself from that living nightmare and forced himself to walk to the door of what looked to be the last of this enclosure.
This room was the brightest of all of them, it was like staring at the sun reflecting over snow, like looking into the source of light itself.
Long blue hair that was like a rising mist, so thin and fine it looked almost white. Those cold, calculating silvery blue eyes. The almost smile, a smirk really–
Alex.
He held the dog in his arms, tight enough that it couldn’t escape. It wriggled and whimpered and let out a sharp bark at the sight of Ivan. And not far from him, looking up was Jimmie himself.
“Alex... What do you want?! What did you– What did you do to him?!”
“This thing? I saved it from certain death.” He inclined his head towards where a bit of broken rock had fallen in the middle of the path. Ice crystals held up a small portion of it, just enough to have saved the dog.
“Then, if you’re not mean then why won’t you give him back?” Jimmie wailed.
“Oh, I’ll give him back. Merely, I require a payment. I saved your pet, now you will bring something for me. Fair is fair.”
“What kind of scheme is this of yours?!”
“Don’t label me that ‘stereotypical generic villain’ so easily. It’s demeaning,” Alex said. He scoffed and brushed away invisible dust from the shoulders of his tunic as if dusting off Ivan’s inferior opinions along with them.
“Everyone wants power, from the smallest insects to the grandest kings. I just had the drive to take it,” Alex said. His lips pursed, as if in bemusement or remembrance, which Ivan couldn’t tell.
“Tell me, Ivan, did your hero Isaac tell you everything?
“Well— No...”
Isaac had always been silent about many aspects of their journey. He wasn’t one to comment needlessly on things, that was Garet’s job. He rarely complained about their journey though Ivan had always sensed a sort of burden, a weariness. He had tried to ease it in small ways, but then Ivan was hardly more than a child, and still very fragile and weak– All too often it had been Isaac who had been doing the comforting and the saving.
Even if things weren’t said, Ivan had liked to believe that they held a bond of trust that was unique, apart from simple friendship.
“Hm, so you mean to say that Isaac didn’t tell you about the great power he inherited, and kept all to himself? Isn’t that rather selfish that he didn’t share it with the rest of you?”
He hadn’t mentioned a thing.
“I trust Isaac...more than anything. If he hid whatever he received, then he had a good reason for it. Maybe the Wise One picked him as a keeper for whatever this is.”
.“Perhaps, perhaps,” Alex said dismissively. “Here’s the deal. I’ll let the boy and the pet free if you lead me out of here. Agreed? Break the force field and I’ll leave this horrid place and let you alone.”
“Force field? There’s no force....” Ivan said.
Alex muttered about the damnable deity figures and rocks, and stared at the thin air as if he saw something deeper within it. Ivan stared too, but saw nothing even when he focused the energies of reveal upon where Alex looked.
“It’s small, you won’t be able to slip though,” Ivan said.
“I’ve grown stronger in this five years,” Alex said. “The very limits of power can be harnessed when one has seen death’s face that close to them and felt it’s breath on their neck.”
He focused on the tunnel and the brilliant frostlight gleamed through the cracks of the tunnel. A wave of ice exploded – for that was the only word for it and forced the cavern into a much wider sparking cavern encrusted in ice.
“Don’t slip,” Alex said. His was sardonic, teasing even.
Ivan placed one foot upon the ice as a test. He carefully tried another step only to find himself jerking backwards and suddenly lying on the ground staring dazed at the ceiling of the ice cavern.
Alex smirked. “Perhaps I should lead.”
.
Ivan pushed himself up from the cold. He was still a bit pained and dazed, and when Alex took Ivan’s hand, he didn’t fight it. Alex’s hand was completely devoid of any kind of warmth as if he was some living dead pacing the confines of his tomb.
Ivan himself took Jimmie’s who held his precocious pup tight with the other arm. With that they began the ascent of the ice-road again.
Alex’s power over the ice was absolute. He walked on it as if he was its master and god. The ascent for him was easy, but for Ivan and Jimmie, it was as if Alex was their sole savior in this cavern To let go of his hand was to fall into the deep abyss. To let go was death and no return from the depths of this cold, dark place.
They took shaky steps for what seemed like years up that cavern. Ivan squinted at the bright moonlight, but Alex looked at it like a long lost lover. He drank in the sights of the outside world, one which he had not seen in so many years, like it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“Now, your part of the deal is done. Spot, Jimmie, you are free to go.”
“However–“ Alex said. “You are not going anywhere.” Alex placed a hand on Ivan’s shoulder and Ivan could feel the cold seeping through his material and into his skin.
“What? You promised!”
“I’m not keeping your forever. Don’t flatter yourself, you’re not that appealing,” Alex drawled.
“Well neither are you,” Ivan snapped back.
“Really? How inhospitable. Is that how Vale treats all guests?” Alex said.
“It’s Vare now. They renamed it after the rebuilding process– And that’s beside the point,” Ivan said.
“Is that so...?” Alex said. “Well, the more you know.”
“What do you want with me?”
“Oh, we’re just going to have a nice long talk while we wait for others. Tell me, has the world changed much while I was gone?”
One stolen teapot and two cups later jasmine tea steeped. Alex rested his chin on his hand and feigned interest as Ivan went into deep detail about the most mundane possible things he could think of. After his third take on how long it would take for paint to peel Alex cut in.
“That’s all nice and well – but tell me, what do you know about the Golden Sun?.”
“Nothing, I’m afraid,” Ivan said coolly.
“Ah? Then pull up a chair. I’ll enlighten you.”
--
ufufu, to be continued...
Fandom: Golden Sun
Day/theme: January 14th / some mad hope (late)
Rating: PG-13 for later parts
Summary: Ivan returns to a rebuilt Vale five years later with much on his mind. Eventual Isaac/Ivan, sideline Garet/Jenna, Felix/Piers, Sheba/???
Wordcount:+ 5,368 in this installment, 14,582 total
A/N: and by November, I mean January! To be fair, I had most of the chapter written up, but had one part that had to be rewritten And I had to readjust a plot part and then there was Christmas...
As always, For LinLin ~
Time had changed little. Ivan wondered, not for the first time, why he had returned. At heart, even with many years, he felt just as young; a fifteen year old with all the same fears and anxieties. He had meant to lay old feelings and ghosts to rest, but if anything they had changed little. The wishes that he had thought had fallen to embers burned brightly again.
A part of him wondered what he had hoped to accomplish by returning. He should have buried those memories, those faint touches of first love to starve and disintegrate out of existence. He would barely notice the dust.
But Ivan knew that he couldn’t have lived that way, constantly looking backwards to a past growing more golden and enshrined every day. He couldn’t marry or live his life a monk when his gaze was always backward.
He tried not to think of Isaac’s touch or how well he had fit within their quiet household. He pushed thoughts of family or tethers aside just as he folded up his clothing and smoothed over his bedspread.
Ivan felt a gaze upon him and turned around to find Isaac staring at him. He had leaned against the doorway. The sun caught in his golden hair almost lovingly, it fell over Isaac’s face and pooled about him in the spilled light from the window.
“Breakfast is ready,” he said.
“Thank you for telling me...I’ll be down in a minute,” Ivan replied.
Isaac nodded, but didn’t leave immediately. Ivan felt the gaze at his back and swallowed. His preparations became robotic. When he turned back to go downstairs he couldn’t look Isaac in the eye.
–
After breakfast everything was still shrouded in a morning mist. All the sounds of morning had begun and flitted about him. Dora hummed in the kitchen as she washed the three empty bowls. Ivan had offered to help but this time she had smiled and refused. Ivan wandered away.
Near the door Isaac stared out at the gauzy tourniquet of fog wrapped over the houses. When Isaac turned he softened; it was not precisely a smile, but something close to it.
“Do you have a minute? I have something to show you.”
Ivan followed out into the wall of mists.
“Take my hand, you’ll lose the way if not,” Isaac said.
Ivan gulped and took the offered hand.
The something was a far up the ridge, quite far from the other houses yet still within the limits of Vare. It was a still place, silent and untouched, the kind of place where someone could sit for hours and bask in the secludedness of it all. It was the perfect place for contemplation, for meditating and training.
“I want to build here,” Isaac said. “For my own home.”
The grass seemed more lustrous, the flowers deeper and shaded by an alcove of trees. A small stream passed through, it was an offshoot of the pool at the center of Vare. It was a shelter, a peaceful abode that was apart from the town yet close enough to not be isolated.
“It’s beautiful...” Ivan said.
“....I’d hoped you’d say that.”
Ivan was surprised, it hadn’t crossed his mind that Isaac would ever need even the slightest validation from him. Isaac had opened his mouth as if to speak, but all he’d gotten out was Ivan’s name before was cut off by the barking of a dog.
A small spotted dog ran through, chasing a poor orange striped cat. The towheaded boy, Jimmie followed at a close distance, calling the dog back to him.
“Ivan–”
Ivan loved the sound of his name on Isaac’s lips. Loved their shared tastes and how it felt like home whenever he was with Isaac. He loved it too much
“I-I should get back,” Ivan said.
“I suppose you should,” Isaac replied.
When they walked back the mists had faded into the air and there was no excuse for hand-holding. The distance between them felt farther somehow.
--
Garet was never opposed to getting out of a little work. So with the return of his former comrades, the first thought was how to get them into nailing boards and carrying things so he could be off napping somewhere.
It wasn’t that he was a total slacker, it was just that his hand was killing him and it was asking a lot to have Isaac cast cure on him about every hour or so. If Isaac was as sick and tired of building as Garet was, he certainly didn’t show it.. Isaac was like that though, perfect son and hero. It wasn’t that Garet was jealous, it surely couldn’t be enjoyable – Still, it got annoying at times. Perfect Isaac this, hero Isaac that. Sometimes Garet just wanted to see Isaac be the one to fall on his prat and be laughed at for once.
But Garet never dwelled long on these thoughts. Isaac was his friend. Pratish perfect heroism and all. Garet would fight death for him and had. Garet let nothing get between them nothing.
And of course, it wasn’t Garet’s place to question a tradition (even if his father was mayor) and Garet had to follow it, but sometimes he just wished Vare would employ more carpenters. It wouldn’t really be demeaning if he just paid some guys. They did it everywhere else and it didn’t make them any less of a man. Or Men.
Garet sighed. If he waited anymore, Jenna would get mad at him again. She was in good spirits ever since Sheba had come, but Jenna was mercurial and storm clouds always lay in her horizon.
–
Piers could not help but be amused by the sight. Garet floundered under boards and desperately tried to use move psyenergy on a particularly heavy plank. It fell down upon him and smacked him in the head in the process.
“Aren’t you going to help him?” He said.
“The point of the trial is to finish it yourself,” Felix said drily.
“I helped build yours,” Piers responded.
“That, is another thing entirely,” Felix said. He sipped his tea which was about the same color as the strands of hair that wove down his face.
Piers chuckled. “You’re so stubborn.”
Felix didn’t bother to respond to this one, it would be merely stating the obvious.
“I think they’re a good match,” Piers said. “They’ll make each other happy.”
“Before or after they kill each other?” Felix replied.
“Not everyone can get along like we do,” Piers said.
He hadn’t meant to broach this subject. It had simply fallen out without thought. Out in the air it seemed almost an uncomfortable thing, as if he had touched something that was best left to unspoken subtleties.
“Especially with Jenna in the picture,” Piers amended. “She’d even find a way to fight with Isaac, I bet.”
“Indeed,” Felix said.
Through these years Piers hadn’t agonized over their details. They simply were. Friends, comrades, he never sought to find the line. He hadn’t asked when Felix had asked him to help build his house or all the times they had traveled over Weyard together after the Lighthouses had been lit. He didn’t ask now, even if the question had awoken within him recently. What exactly were they?
--
Days passed and Ivan felt warmed by the calm atmosphere of Vare. It felt so calm that it was hard to imagine that just a few years back it’d been in shambles.
With them there, the work went slightly faster. Garet’s house began to look like more than a few scarce bones and more like a home. Walls were put up with thick insulating straw to drive back the harsh chill of winter. Piers even eventually convinced a very begrudging Felix to come and help. He worked side by side with Garet on several times.
In truth, Ivan never got the sense that Felix disapproved of Garet entirely. That didn’t stop him from being generally morose and quiet – that was just how Felix was any day of the week. In all the admittedly short time he had traveled with the other group, Ivan had never seen Felix crack a smile even once.
By comparison Isaac was practically genial. But then, to Piers or Sheba, even Isaac might seem unapproachable compared to Piers. Ivan smiled as the thought crossed his mind.
--
When the heat of the day came, Garet for once took the non-lazy path and worked on. He stripped down out of his sweat-soaked shirt and joined Isaac in their hot sweaty half-naked work together. Ivan had to leave early as his face grew very red and he was prone to dropping things and staring very determinedly at the wall. Garet figured he was overheated and told him to leave it to us men which was kind of awkward in retrospect, but at least it was Ivan which meant he got to live.
So they set to hammering and finishing up the house and that was about when Garet learned an important lesson: women (or at least some of them) found shirtless carpenters hot. After the third woman stopped by just to chat, Garet started to get a clue and did some chatting of his own. After that he thought this carpentry job wasn’t half bad. It wasn’t since he’d come back a hero since he’d gotten this much attention from the ladies and it was a nice feeling.
A nice feeling at least until Jenna came up and was smiling.
Nothing was more frightening when Jenna smiled like that. Except when Sheba smiled like that, or some combination of them both smiling sweetly at the same time. Then prophets had a foreboding of doom and people huddled in their houses for fear that the world was ending.
“Oh, Hey– Jenna, I didn’t expect you–”
“Oh really?” she said.
“Yeah, really,” Garet chuckled, it more less humor and more a nervous tic.
“Garet,” Jenna said in her sweetest voice “I would like to talk to you. In private.”
“Uh, sure Jenna, Just let me–”
“Now,” she said.
Garet dropped his work and followed after her.
--
“Aren’t you going to do something?” Piers said.
“And have Jenna kill me?” Felix retorted
“Good point. Still, there should be a healer around. It’d be a shame for him not to survive”
“You’re the Mercury Adept,” Felix said.
“You’re her brother. Also, I know for a fact you know Cure,” Piers said.
Felix sighed. He moved to follow them, but not before he gripped Piers’ hand.
“In case I need backup,” Felix explained gruffly. “You know how she is.”
Felix’s gloves prevented any actual contact of skin, but it was still oddly comforting to have their fingers aligned and met like that.
--
They’d done some work, some – hardly enough for Jenna and Garet’s mother’s liking.
But it was an initiation rite to drink brew while procrastinating on a building project and Garet took the drink of manhood with relish. Isaac had already gone home, and Felix had been called away for some reason by Jenna. Piers suspected it involved a Serpent Fume in some form or another.
Piers had stayed here with Garet. For one, even as he was always welcome at Felix’s parents house, it grew awkward without Felix there. By this time he should be perfectly at ease with every part of his friend’s life, but there was a sort of unsaid unease about Felix’s parents. They thought of and did not say the questions but Piers saw and didn’t know how to reply.
So he stayed with Garet, it was something of a tribute to his almost-family, to keep their probably future son-in-law from falling off a cliff in a drunken haze (provided Jenna didn’t kill him first).
Garet leaned against the side of one of the newly raised walls, while Piers chose to rest on his knees with his legs folded under him.
“What if it falls over?” Piers said.
“Then this will be a good test before we put the roof on!” He laughed and took another gulp of the brew. Piers was still only sipping his drink. At this rate he’d have to stay mostly sober to ensure that one of them could walk the other home.
“Soon enough I’ll be living here with Isaac,” Garet said. “We should raise our glasses to the future!”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Piers said.
“Hmm... House, friends, drink – Nope, I think I’ve got them all,” Garet replied.
“Really?” Piers said. He gave the same eyebrow raised Are you sure? / You’ve got to be kidding look that he’d learned to give Garet. He’d often seen the same expression on Isaac’s face.
“Pretty sure, what else could I be missing?”
He almost outright said Well, Jenna for one but Piers thought that for once he could hardly say anything. But as Garet’s friend, even only a vaguely traveling friend who knew him only by association, it did seem something of a bad thing to do to let Garet run headfirst into a metaphorical brick wall repeatedly. Even if running headfirst into metaphorical brick walls was Garet’s specialty.
Piers took a few more sips and set it aside. He wouldn’t ask for a refill, he probably wouldn’t even finish his glass. He’d had hangovers before and didn’t feel like treading that water again. He hadn’t inherited his uncle’s legendary iron stomach, that was for sure.
“Remember that celebration in Vault after everything was over?” Garet laughed. “You disappeared with Felix about halfway through, I’m surprised you guys aren’t married by now.”
Piers choked on his drink. He coughed and sputtered as the alcohol burned through his body.
“What?”
“I said Jenna and Isaac were dancing that time, I’m surprised they aren’t married yet.”
“Oh, I thought you said– Er, nothing,” Piers said.
“Really though, what were you and Felix off to anyways?”
“Uh, just talking...” Piers said. “Why do you ask?”
“Oh, I thought maybe you were teaching him about some top secret Lemurian hero stuff. You’d share with me if you were, right?”
“There’s nothing I can really share and even if there was, I don’t think it would work. The elements are rather ah, opposing,” Piers said apologetically.
“Oh yeah, I forgot,” Garet said.
“–but you said you thought Isaac was after Jenna?” Piers prompted again.
“Well isn’t he?” Garet said. Garet seemed more tipsy now, and Piers wondered how much alcohol he’d consumed. Garet laughed, in almost a non-sequitur act and Piers took that as the answer to his unsaid question.
“I don’t think so. Why would he wait five years without making a move if he wanted to marry her?”
“Isaac tends to think things through slow. He’d take his time with these things. Besides, Jenna likes him and she’d definitely get anyone she wanted,” Garet said.
“So you’re standing aside and waiting for Isaac to make a move?” Piers said.
“We’re best friends, he’d definitely do the same. We’re practically blood-brothers from that one time we both scraped our knees in the pools.”
“But if she liked someone else,” Piers started carefully.
“Well then they’d be a lucky man, but I’d feel bad for Isaac,” Garet said.
That was about the point that Piers gave up. He began to see Felix’s frustration with Garet, but not from the eyes of a brother. Perhaps not an overprotective brother, but one who none the same had to watch his sister crying tears of frustration over her rather oblivious intended. And that was when she wasn’t burning things to the ground.
“Hey Piers, when are you gonna get married?”
Piers cleared his throat. “That’s a good question.” One he didn’t quite know the answer to or even where to begin with. Piers searched for an exit from this topic. Garet was quite easily diverted from shaky topics. In Piers’ opinion it was one of his best qualities.
“Say, how did you get that burn? Do you want me to cure it?”
And so Garet launched into a telling of how he got that large scorchmark on his back. The answer was predictable, the worst thing was that Garet couldn’t seem to see the cause of her wrath in the first place.
--
Sheba could announce her presence when she wanted but just as often she'd sneak up and scare the living daylights of her next victim. Ivan had no question as to wether she did it on purpose.
Ivan had been clearing his mind, focusing and breathing. It was only a hint of the practice regime he'd had during Contigo, but the winds here weren't as strong. Vale was higher up, a place of earth and fire. It was harder to breathe here and even harder to focus with the rocky disturbances.
He had been attempting to blank his mind despite the stinging of the limestone and clay and silt about him when he felt hands on his shoulders and his mind being invaded again.
And who else could it be but—
"Sheba!"
"You aren't going to tell him?" She said.
"I–"
She leaned in and pressed her forehead to his, searching even deeper through his mind. He flinched as she dug up all his recent fears and anxieties and even the memory of the night by the psyenergy crystal.
"You walked all this way just to chicken out? This is really boring."
"But—"
She crossed her arms and smirked. "If you don't tell him, I will."
Ivan gulped. He had no question of whether she was joking or serious, he definitely knew the answer to that one.
"You better hurry up. I'll make it juicy if you don't get moving. I wonder if Isaac knows how he looks in your mind. You know naked."
--
The sun was headed down and Jenna and Sheba lounged about the sepia courtyard. Colors pitter-patted gently over the stones, staining them pinks and golds. Isaac stood at the edge, neither relaxing or interacting with the girls. He waited, but for what was unclear.
“Where is Ivan anyways?” Jenna said conversationally. “I haven’t seen him in hours.”
“Hmm, I wonder,” Sheba said.
Jenna giggled. “You’re always so mean to him. Do you have a crush on him or something?”
From the corner of her eye Sheba noticed Isaac’s jaw tighten. It was faint, for his expression was the same stoic Venus Adept type that Felix was. She’d have almost have missed it.
Hmm, now thiis was interesting.
Sheba couldn’t keep herself from smirking as she started sowing a few seeds of her own.
“Well we are one of the few remaining Jupiter Adepts about. It’s pretty much demanded that we marry and go at it like rabbits to ensure the continuation of our blood.”
“Sheba!” Jenna laughed. “You’re horrible.”
“I bet kissing him would be just like kissing a girl.” Sheba spoke as if she had experience on that matter.
“Probably would,” Jenna said. “He’d probably actually get a clue unlike Mr. Genius over there.”
“You should burn sense into him.”
“Already did,” Jenna said. “Didn’t work.”
“Then there’s always plan B – dragging him into the closet and kissing his brains out.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” She grinned with a hint of mischief. “Sooo, you and Ivan, huh?”
“He is rather sweet, and with really soft skin and hair...”
Sheba took a sideways glance at Isaac. There was some kind of nervous tic at his left eye and his jaw was clenched so hard it must have been painful. Now this, this was almost as fun as teasing Felix had been. Not quite as good as teasing Ivan, but not many people proved as pokeably fun as Ivan was.
“I’m still jealous that his hair is so soft,” Jenna said. She balanced her chin thoughtfully on one hand. “I haven’t seen hair that luscious since Alex.”
“I remember him,” Sheba said. “He was amusing. Much more fun than those two Proxians.”
“If by ‘amusing’ you mean a betraying creep then yes, he was very amusing”
Sheba shrugged languidly. “Well, he hasn’t been seen in years anyways, so it hardly matters.”
As the light faded Ivan pushed past the limits of Vare. Each step away was to a serene place where he could continue his meditation without interruptions, especially of the Sheba verity. Isaac’s building place was what first came to his mind, but it would be impossible to be detached in a place where every patch of grass would whisper Isaac’s name.
From the slanting sides of the ruins of Mt. Aleph were cracks and crevices of all kinds. Even natural caves had managed to escape the destruction. Most everyone knew that the ruins of Mount Aleph was a dangerous spot, one to be avoided. Children claimed in haunted. Water dripped deep inside, and sometimes deep at night, howls of pain came from inside the depths of the ruins.
Ivan certainly wouldn’t have gone back there, his memories of the place were still too fresh. It had only taken a peculiar sound to draw him closer after he finished his training.
A girl in pigtails sobbed before the ruins. Her brown pigtails bobbed up and down as she tried to wipe the tears from her puffy red eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Ivan asked.
“Spot ran in and Jimmie ran after him,” the little girl sobbed. “A-And they haven’t come back!”
For this, he couldn’t afford to wait. He was small enough to follow through, and powerful enough to not be helpless at whatever dangers might lie within.
“Go get Isaac, Felix and the others,” Ivan said.
“B-but what about you?” She wailed.
“I’ll be fine... Go on!”
Ivan closed his eyes and focused on a point so pure, until the world faded away around him. Grass and trees became little more than bright spaces of color and energy around him. He saw without seeing through the earth, the greatest opposite force to his element of wind.
Flame and Water could be bent, but earth was solid and unforgiving. It took all his power to sense deep within an a faint energy, a heart that still beat–
Ivan took a breath and ducked into the crevice. He was barely small enough to fit within the sharp intercepting edges. It was a tight fit. Ivan pulled himself down, deep into the veins of the earth. It was rocky here, he gripped the earth and pulled himself down, to whatever lay in the ruin of Mount Aleph. His skin scraped against the sharp stones and rough edges of the ruins. It was like the teeth of a monster that were slowly rending their prey.
As he went deeper below the surface he heard rumblings and the fear soured and congealed within his blood. Ivan had always been a bit claustrophobic. He’d kept quiet during the times when they’d had to duck deep underground where the air was damp he’d remained quiet and huddled into himself until it was all over. And Ivan remembered those times. Even with the terror rising, clawing inside him, he fought on. It was one weakness he didn’t want to admit to.
And yet he remembered things being pressed into his hand with a gruff here. Little things, nuts, herbs, an elixir, once after he’d been blinded. Even once he’d handed over a delicious, buttery tasting kind called a Hard Nut.
They could have been coincidental, but Ivan didn’t think so. Had his shoulders trembled enough to be noticeable? Had his voice shaken ever so slightly when responding?
It had grown so dark that he could barely make out the shapes with his eyes opened, but if closed, the brightness prevailed and he could focus on the shades of the prevailing energy. Even as it was all stones here, they emitted a faint pulse of light just as the plants and trees. With this he could almost make his way as it steadily began to incline. When the cavern finally hit even ground Ivan gasped as he pulled himself across the floor, and finally opened his eyes again.
It had been hollowed out, and yet it looked unnatural. Ice glistened and an eerie white light filled the place, making all carved out place visible.
It hadn’t seemed that deep.. Ivan thought.
The room interconnected with another which showed more signs of life. There indentations carved into rock here, scratches made on the walls all in a rhythmic order of lines.
Like someone recording the passing of days.
Ivan studied the scratches for a moment. If it was in fact a calendar, then this would have been almost five years– five years stuck under the earth, in a cold dark place desperately clawing in their entombed state–
Ivan wrenched himself from that living nightmare and forced himself to walk to the door of what looked to be the last of this enclosure.
This room was the brightest of all of them, it was like staring at the sun reflecting over snow, like looking into the source of light itself.
Long blue hair that was like a rising mist, so thin and fine it looked almost white. Those cold, calculating silvery blue eyes. The almost smile, a smirk really–
Alex.
He held the dog in his arms, tight enough that it couldn’t escape. It wriggled and whimpered and let out a sharp bark at the sight of Ivan. And not far from him, looking up was Jimmie himself.
“Alex... What do you want?! What did you– What did you do to him?!”
“This thing? I saved it from certain death.” He inclined his head towards where a bit of broken rock had fallen in the middle of the path. Ice crystals held up a small portion of it, just enough to have saved the dog.
“Then, if you’re not mean then why won’t you give him back?” Jimmie wailed.
“Oh, I’ll give him back. Merely, I require a payment. I saved your pet, now you will bring something for me. Fair is fair.”
“What kind of scheme is this of yours?!”
“Don’t label me that ‘stereotypical generic villain’ so easily. It’s demeaning,” Alex said. He scoffed and brushed away invisible dust from the shoulders of his tunic as if dusting off Ivan’s inferior opinions along with them.
“Everyone wants power, from the smallest insects to the grandest kings. I just had the drive to take it,” Alex said. His lips pursed, as if in bemusement or remembrance, which Ivan couldn’t tell.
“Tell me, Ivan, did your hero Isaac tell you everything?
“Well— No...”
Isaac had always been silent about many aspects of their journey. He wasn’t one to comment needlessly on things, that was Garet’s job. He rarely complained about their journey though Ivan had always sensed a sort of burden, a weariness. He had tried to ease it in small ways, but then Ivan was hardly more than a child, and still very fragile and weak– All too often it had been Isaac who had been doing the comforting and the saving.
Even if things weren’t said, Ivan had liked to believe that they held a bond of trust that was unique, apart from simple friendship.
“Hm, so you mean to say that Isaac didn’t tell you about the great power he inherited, and kept all to himself? Isn’t that rather selfish that he didn’t share it with the rest of you?”
He hadn’t mentioned a thing.
“I trust Isaac...more than anything. If he hid whatever he received, then he had a good reason for it. Maybe the Wise One picked him as a keeper for whatever this is.”
.“Perhaps, perhaps,” Alex said dismissively. “Here’s the deal. I’ll let the boy and the pet free if you lead me out of here. Agreed? Break the force field and I’ll leave this horrid place and let you alone.”
“Force field? There’s no force....” Ivan said.
Alex muttered about the damnable deity figures and rocks, and stared at the thin air as if he saw something deeper within it. Ivan stared too, but saw nothing even when he focused the energies of reveal upon where Alex looked.
“It’s small, you won’t be able to slip though,” Ivan said.
“I’ve grown stronger in this five years,” Alex said. “The very limits of power can be harnessed when one has seen death’s face that close to them and felt it’s breath on their neck.”
He focused on the tunnel and the brilliant frostlight gleamed through the cracks of the tunnel. A wave of ice exploded – for that was the only word for it and forced the cavern into a much wider sparking cavern encrusted in ice.
“Don’t slip,” Alex said. His was sardonic, teasing even.
Ivan placed one foot upon the ice as a test. He carefully tried another step only to find himself jerking backwards and suddenly lying on the ground staring dazed at the ceiling of the ice cavern.
Alex smirked. “Perhaps I should lead.”
.
Ivan pushed himself up from the cold. He was still a bit pained and dazed, and when Alex took Ivan’s hand, he didn’t fight it. Alex’s hand was completely devoid of any kind of warmth as if he was some living dead pacing the confines of his tomb.
Ivan himself took Jimmie’s who held his precocious pup tight with the other arm. With that they began the ascent of the ice-road again.
Alex’s power over the ice was absolute. He walked on it as if he was its master and god. The ascent for him was easy, but for Ivan and Jimmie, it was as if Alex was their sole savior in this cavern To let go of his hand was to fall into the deep abyss. To let go was death and no return from the depths of this cold, dark place.
They took shaky steps for what seemed like years up that cavern. Ivan squinted at the bright moonlight, but Alex looked at it like a long lost lover. He drank in the sights of the outside world, one which he had not seen in so many years, like it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“Now, your part of the deal is done. Spot, Jimmie, you are free to go.”
“However–“ Alex said. “You are not going anywhere.” Alex placed a hand on Ivan’s shoulder and Ivan could feel the cold seeping through his material and into his skin.
“What? You promised!”
“I’m not keeping your forever. Don’t flatter yourself, you’re not that appealing,” Alex drawled.
“Well neither are you,” Ivan snapped back.
“Really? How inhospitable. Is that how Vale treats all guests?” Alex said.
“It’s Vare now. They renamed it after the rebuilding process– And that’s beside the point,” Ivan said.
“Is that so...?” Alex said. “Well, the more you know.”
“What do you want with me?”
“Oh, we’re just going to have a nice long talk while we wait for others. Tell me, has the world changed much while I was gone?”
One stolen teapot and two cups later jasmine tea steeped. Alex rested his chin on his hand and feigned interest as Ivan went into deep detail about the most mundane possible things he could think of. After his third take on how long it would take for paint to peel Alex cut in.
“That’s all nice and well – but tell me, what do you know about the Golden Sun?.”
“Nothing, I’m afraid,” Ivan said coolly.
“Ah? Then pull up a chair. I’ll enlighten you.”
--
ufufu, to be continued...
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Date: 2009-01-31 12:20 am (UTC)sexyevil little mindreader.(also, yay Alex 8D)
(and Garet wants an invitation to Piers and Felix's marriage XD )