Holding her chin in a hand propped upon the deck's railing by her elbow, Maewen inspected the Mercury Star in her free hand. As near to a perfect sphere as she could tell, the orb glowed coolly in her gloved hand. It had more weight than its size suggested and what felt painfully cold to most of the others was merely cool in the hands of a Mercury adept from Suimilitara, though it would begin to hurt even for her if she held it for another few minutes. Despite embodying the essence of water and ice, the orb felt neither wet nor slick, and Maewen would be hard pressed to describe what exactly it felt like. The girl gave a small sigh and grudgingly returned the star to the small mythril pouch that normally held Drake's Proxian ship's Black Crystal when the ship was not in use. She enjoyed holding the star for the empowering feeling it provided to Mercury Adepts like herself, especially after the dousing of the lighthouse's beacon had seemed to sap all the energy from her earlier. Almost as if by suddenly losing such a great source of energy, it desperately hoped to replace it by drawing from any other nearby source of similar energy.
Overhead clouds that normally would have produced snow, instead began a slow drizzle, though a little Mercury psynergy caused the falling drops to slide around Maewen's robes and fall to the deck. Despite the precipitation, the horizon was clear and Maewen wanted to watch the remainder of the sun set on her first night away from home. At least, the first night she did not intend on being back at home by morning.
Her mother would be worried sick, and Maewen regretted not having the chance to stop by the sanctum or even leave a note with someone about where she was going. Or what had happened, too. What had happened...
The lighthouse's shuddering became more violent and more frequent to the point where Maewen feared whatever villain above who was causing them intended to shake the lighthouse down on top of them. Head injury tended to, the remainder of Mael's injuries were surprisingly light for such a fall. Mostly minor scrapes and bruises, and nothing more fatal. That would have to do. With Mirian's help, she moved Mael off of the pile of debris and settled him off to the side of the room where the other Mercury Adept agreed to watch over him.
"As prickly as those two have become, I think I'd rather stay out here. It's probably more dangerous down there, too. Go on, they'll probably need a water adept or they'll get stuck. Again." In contrast to her words, Mirian peered rather longingly at the door way at the far end of the pool through which 'those two' had disappeared. There was no doubt about who 'those two' were, and the only thing keeping Maewen from agreeing with the other woman was the sinking suspicion that Maewen herself was to blame for their... friction.
Maewn approached the pool and after a moment's consideration, about whether it would be more effort to freeze a path or to try swimming that distance in her heavy robes, she jumped rather ungracefully into the water. To her surprise, unlike most of the water in the lighthouse, this pool was rather warm, and the girl hesitated before pulling herself out of the water into the cold air at the other side. A quick clap with psynergy to force the wetness from her robes and she set off at a quick pace after the boys.
Just as Mirian had predicted, Maewen found the two in the next room, seemingly another dead end, pointedly standing as far from the other while pretending to ignore each other at the same time. Sparing only a concerned glance at both boys, Maewen focused on the room itself. This was new territory for her even and it was a puzzle just like the numerous others in the upper floors. An inscription in the center upon the far wall drew her eye, and though she could never read the Leumerian's native script, she had inspected enough of it throughout the lighthouse on previous visits to identify the markings for the water element.
"This.. this means... fire." Maewen glanced to her right where she had not heard Drake approach to study the writing over her shoulder. He pointed to a set of markings directly next to the ones she had identified as water. The only other feature of note within the room was a small hole in the center of the floor, barely wider than her hand, which, upon inspection, appeared to connect to an indistinct body of water underneath that very room. A few markings in Leumerian script around the duct matched the lettering Drake had identified as meaning 'fire,' but.. that didn't make sense. A fire puzzle in the water lighthouse?
The room must have been underground because the shaking from above felt dampened slightly. Nevertheless a particularly violent tremor reminded the Maewen that they were running out of time. The gaping hole that Mael fell through would lead anyone descending the lighthouse right to them! She turned quickly to Drake, but Rayl spoke before she could put together what she had been thinking.
"This says fire, too, doesn't it?" The question was distinctly aimed at Maewen, but Drake nodded, scowling at the hole though he probably wanted to aim it at the other boy. Rayl did not wait for a response though. "So we might as well use fire on it then." Once again, Drake nodded, still scowling. Then set his feet around the opening.
"Stand back, who knows what this will do." Drake warned quietly and the two others took a few steps away. Scowl faded to a look of pure concentration and when he raised his hand above his head, it sparked and ignited into a roaring flame that twisted and raged around his fist. Then in one swift motion, he thrust the conflagration downward and flames rocketed downward into the opening. Immediately the room felt warmer, and warmer. Almost to the point of feeling hot. Drake continued to pour fire into the hole and Maewen fidgeted when it seemed like nothing else was happening. Then the wall began to move.
The far wall shuddered suddenly, and the stillness of the other three walls distinguished it from simply a tremor the three adepts had almost become accustomed to feeling (much to Maewen's dismay upon realizing). The wall began to rise steadily, and with it, a section of the floor in front of the wall. When it finally stopped moving, a door way leading to a descending staircase had appeared. Carelessly, Maewen wiped sweat from her face on a sleeve as she approached the stairs hesitantly. Sweat fell off the other two as well; the room had become like a sauna! With the intent to keep going, Drake ceased pouring fire into the hole and began to straighten from his half crouch, but the doorway grated and quickly began to fall down again to the room's original state and Drake was forced to resume dumping fire into the hole again with a choice selection of... creative language. Sweat was clearly visible sliding down the sides of his face, though Maewen thought it was more due to the effort than the heat.
"Go! Get the Star! We can't wait much longer, you know that. It.. seems I have to stay here." Drake growled through his teeth. Maewen watched Drake, concern and worry painted on her face clearly reflecting her feelings. Drake glanced at Rayl perhaps for the first time since entering the room. "Take care of her." Rayl paused to watch Drake for a moment, looking grim, then nodded took Maewen firmly by the wrist and pulled her away, towards the door.
"If you don't keep this open till we get back, then I'll have Maewen to myself." Rayl's voice was not loud, and he did not turn back to look at Drake or Maewen when he said it, but both of them heard clearly. Drake jerked a bit, flames wavered before resuming their steady flow into the hole. Maewen stared at Rayl, face feeling as hot as Drake's flames. What had possessed him to say something like that!? Rayl was probably thinking the same thing because his face also colored and he hastily towed her down the stairs behind him.
Neither Maewen nor Rayl spoke during the descent, and the stairwell was not very long. Soon the path opened into a vast room, the far end carved like many others in the lighthouse in the likeness of a serene woman, hands folded together with palms upward just below her bosom. The room had no ceiling, or rather there was a gaping hole in the ceiling that opened upward as far as Maewen could see. From that expanse above fell a bar of light that alighted on the woman's palm. This must be it. Maewen thought. That light must support the beacon! We made it before those other people. Now we just need to take the Star and... Maewen froze. Images flashed through her head. The lighthouse in ruins meant that the Hermes fountain would cease to flow. The only other Mercury Adept in town at the moment was her mother, but how else would taking the star affect her home? Would it affect Mercury Adepts else where, too? Could she bring herself to take that from them? What right did she have?
Footsteps resounded about the room, bringing Maewen back to the moment. Rayl had taken a step forward. Just one. Then another. It looked like he was walking through jelly, each step slow and deliberate, with more effort than it should have taken. Helplessly, Maewen watched as he drew closer to the the pillar of light, until he was there. A trembling gloved hand reached out and FLASH! Rayl jerked his hand away suddenly. From there, everything happened so quickly, it was almost a blur.
Rayl grimaced and with his jaw set reached to make another attempt. It hurt him! Maewen thought with a jolt! She took a step. It suddenly felt like she was surrounded by a torrent of water, though she saw none! It first swept around her, almost playfully, then drew her in. It was all Maewen could do to keep on her feet as she slid across the stone floor up to the pillar and stumbled onto the carved hands of the Goddess. As soon as she touched the stone hands, the water feeling vanished and all she was aware of was Rayl and his hand approaching the pillar of light in slow motion, determined to see this through no matter how much pain it cost him. Why? Because of her? Did he not want her to try for fear of it hurting her? Or was it more simple than that? This was not what he had set out to do, but this was the responsibility that had been thrust upon him. Upon all of us. Power is not good or evil, it is the wielder who determines that and there was no doubt in Maewen's mind that what was hunting for this power from the aeria was evil. If she left the star here, that evil would cast her aside, might even...(gulp) kill her! And then use this power for worse things than she could make herself imagine. And it would be her fault for leading them down here.
An inch more till Rayl's gloved hand would reach the pillar again, still moving as though every power in the lighthouse was resisting him, fighting him and him fighting back. But the lighthouse wasn't fighting Maewen. Whether because it was already occupied with Rayl or because it shared it's affinity with Maewen, the Mercury Adept moved freely and only some of the sluggishness of time at that moment was adrenaline. She pushed past Rayl and thrust her hand into the pillar to find... no resistance. Almost none. The pillar felt to her like a tranquil waterfall, if waterfalls flowed upward instead of down. Before she knew it, her hand had folded around an orb, one that pulsed steadily in contrast to Maewen's racing heart. With a jerk of realizing what she had done, she extracted her hand from the beam and with it, the Mercury Star. The pillar of light/water shuddered and suddenly snapped upward, disappearing beyond view in a blink. A moment later, Maewen heard a distant crash, a roar of water.
Rayl stood there looking at where the beam of light had been, seeming as stunned as she was. At the sound of the distant crash, he blinked. His eyes widened in realization and he once again, hastily, and somewhat roughly, took Maewen's hand opposite the one that held the Mercury Star and began desperately towing her towards the door. The roar of water rapidly grew louder until it was nearly deafening. Stumbling along behind Rayl, Maewen hazarded a look above, and instantly wish she had not. A solid wall of water descended upon them, and crashed against the floor no sooner than Maewen was a step into the stairwell. With no where else to go, the raging torrent swept the two adepts up the stairwell and gushed violently out of the doorway into the next room, where Drake was scooped up before he even realized what was happening. Clutching the Mercury Star desperately to her breast, Maewen held her breath and hoped the current did not crush her against a wall or other stone construct that made up the lighthouse and hoped that the others were okay as well. Suddenly, she bumped roughly into a hard stone surface and the waters seemed to calm somewhat. Squinting through the water, she identified light above her and began to swim awkwardly towards it.
Maewen gasped for air as she broke the surface and was rewarded with a mouth full of hair. Coughing and sputtering, she groped around for a solid surface of some kind, and finding one, she clumsily hauled herself out of the water, or at least mostly out. The floor in the hall she had emerged into still had several inches of water covering it, but it was shallow enough that she could collapse on it and regain her breath and her senses a bit.
When she finally felt rested enough to at least sit up, she was met by the sight of an older man she had never seen before in a crimson and black tunic and blood red cloak extracting himself sourly from a sizable pile of debris. Their eyes met and neither party moved until a gauntlet shod hand suddenly burst from under the water and grabbed at the flooring where Maewen had been laying. The man snarled and lunged forward with surprising agility for what looked like his age and a dragon of fire leaped from his outstretched hand, scorching straight at Maewen. Maewen flinched, her hands instinctively covering her face and the Mercury star in those hands pulsed suddenly snuffing out the dragon just inches away from roasting her. Dropping her hands again, Maewen saw the man in crimson stagger as if he had suddenly been slapped, and in a moment of panic, Maewen cast out her psynergy.
She was not sure what exactly she had intended to do, but it certainly was not what happened. The water flooding the room below surged once more and carried Drake who had been trying to pull an unconscious Rayl from the water into the hallway and rushing down towards the other man. Maewen jumped slightly seeing Drake and Rayl caught in the surge, and did her best to use her psynergy to extract the two while keeping the crimson clad man pinned with water.
It mostly worked and as soon as Drake could draw breath again, he called hoarsely "Freeze him and run!". Maewen did just that. Once again the Mercury star over amplified the power of her psynergy and instead of simply freezing the block pinning the man, all of the water as far as she could see froze on the spot. Shivering, Maewen carefully unformed the ice around her legs and bottom that had still been sitting in water during the flash freeze and when she spotted them, Drake was using his fire psynergy to do the same for himself and the still unconscious Rayl. Hauling the Venus adept onto his back, Drake slowly staggered down the hall opposite the man with the crimson cloak and Maewen cautiously followed. One slip on this ice could be fatal especially given how exhausted everyone was. Maewen glanced furtively over her shoulder before passing around the corner at the end of the hall, but the man who had attacked her had not yet stirred from his icy prison.
They made their way down and out of the lighthouse with out any further event. Outside they found the blue haired man Maewen had saved earlier, whom she later found out was named Saito, carrying a still unconscious Mael and a rather ruffled looking Mirian. While traipsing back to Imil, Maewen clumbsily shared what had happened with Mirian, Saito, and Drake, all the parts that each person had not been there for. Within sights of the gates to the town, an explosion from the lighthouse stopped everyone in their tracks.
"I'm surprised that held him that long." Drake muttered wearily. Maewen stared at him, surprised to hear something even remotely like sarcasm from the Mars Adept at a time like this.
"If that's the case, we must definitely hurry. I have a boat we can use to leave Imil, we surely cannot stay here." Saito sounded calm despite the chaos he had suddenly found himself in the midst of. At least someone still had their wits about them, Maewen thought dryly.
"I, too, have a ship." Drake added. They began to walk hurriedly again and Drake had to pause speaking to catch his breath occasionally. "If we set sail in different directions we may be able to lose him." No one had to ask who "him" was. "Either way, we cannot afford to delay. If we are still in the town when he gets there, he won't hesitate to burn it to the ground." Saito nodded grimly. Suddenly, Drake would not meet Maewen's eyes. "Maewen, will you bring the Mercury Star and come with me?" It was barely above a whisper. In that moment, she had no voice left, she merely nodded in acquiescence.
"If Maewen is... going... then... I'm going too.." followed by a groan and a thump as Drake dropped Rayl and the latter shakily rose to his feet. "If... If I let her go like this, then err my grandfather would never forgive me..." The Venus Adept made an effort not to look at Drake and instead peered at Maewen, then the lighthouse in the distance, and then at his feet and muttered softly "I'd never forgive myself..."
"If you can spout that kind of talk, you can walk on your own." Drake grumbled under his breath.
There had been no time for anything else. Saito left Mael at the inn with some coin that would cover his stay until he re-woke, and then took off to the miniscule harbor. Somewhere along the line, Mirian disappeared as well. Rayl couldn't find his wallet, but his house and the sanctum were both opposite the direction Drake had moored his boat. Maewen, Rayl and Drake had practically run directly to the harbor.
The rain grew more intense and lost in reverie, Maewen hadn't noticed the sun fully below the horizon now, despite having spent the last few minutes staring in that direction. The Mercury Adept gave a sigh and tucked the mythril pouch into a pocket in her robes, one usually reserved for books. As sure as the rain streaking down wet the planks of the ship, Maewen had found herself on what could only be described as an adventure. Who knew what would happen from there but from the queasiness caused by the rocking of the ship over swells, she felt far from excited about the prospect. Rayl and Drake were both inside the ship's cabin and Maewen turned from the railing to join them and figure out what was next to come.
Overhead clouds that normally would have produced snow, instead began a slow drizzle, though a little Mercury psynergy caused the falling drops to slide around Maewen's robes and fall to the deck. Despite the precipitation, the horizon was clear and Maewen wanted to watch the remainder of the sun set on her first night away from home. At least, the first night she did not intend on being back at home by morning.
Her mother would be worried sick, and Maewen regretted not having the chance to stop by the sanctum or even leave a note with someone about where she was going. Or what had happened, too. What had happened...
The lighthouse's shuddering became more violent and more frequent to the point where Maewen feared whatever villain above who was causing them intended to shake the lighthouse down on top of them. Head injury tended to, the remainder of Mael's injuries were surprisingly light for such a fall. Mostly minor scrapes and bruises, and nothing more fatal. That would have to do. With Mirian's help, she moved Mael off of the pile of debris and settled him off to the side of the room where the other Mercury Adept agreed to watch over him.
"As prickly as those two have become, I think I'd rather stay out here. It's probably more dangerous down there, too. Go on, they'll probably need a water adept or they'll get stuck. Again." In contrast to her words, Mirian peered rather longingly at the door way at the far end of the pool through which 'those two' had disappeared. There was no doubt about who 'those two' were, and the only thing keeping Maewen from agreeing with the other woman was the sinking suspicion that Maewen herself was to blame for their... friction.
Maewn approached the pool and after a moment's consideration, about whether it would be more effort to freeze a path or to try swimming that distance in her heavy robes, she jumped rather ungracefully into the water. To her surprise, unlike most of the water in the lighthouse, this pool was rather warm, and the girl hesitated before pulling herself out of the water into the cold air at the other side. A quick clap with psynergy to force the wetness from her robes and she set off at a quick pace after the boys.
Just as Mirian had predicted, Maewen found the two in the next room, seemingly another dead end, pointedly standing as far from the other while pretending to ignore each other at the same time. Sparing only a concerned glance at both boys, Maewen focused on the room itself. This was new territory for her even and it was a puzzle just like the numerous others in the upper floors. An inscription in the center upon the far wall drew her eye, and though she could never read the Leumerian's native script, she had inspected enough of it throughout the lighthouse on previous visits to identify the markings for the water element.
"This.. this means... fire." Maewen glanced to her right where she had not heard Drake approach to study the writing over her shoulder. He pointed to a set of markings directly next to the ones she had identified as water. The only other feature of note within the room was a small hole in the center of the floor, barely wider than her hand, which, upon inspection, appeared to connect to an indistinct body of water underneath that very room. A few markings in Leumerian script around the duct matched the lettering Drake had identified as meaning 'fire,' but.. that didn't make sense. A fire puzzle in the water lighthouse?
The room must have been underground because the shaking from above felt dampened slightly. Nevertheless a particularly violent tremor reminded the Maewen that they were running out of time. The gaping hole that Mael fell through would lead anyone descending the lighthouse right to them! She turned quickly to Drake, but Rayl spoke before she could put together what she had been thinking.
"This says fire, too, doesn't it?" The question was distinctly aimed at Maewen, but Drake nodded, scowling at the hole though he probably wanted to aim it at the other boy. Rayl did not wait for a response though. "So we might as well use fire on it then." Once again, Drake nodded, still scowling. Then set his feet around the opening.
"Stand back, who knows what this will do." Drake warned quietly and the two others took a few steps away. Scowl faded to a look of pure concentration and when he raised his hand above his head, it sparked and ignited into a roaring flame that twisted and raged around his fist. Then in one swift motion, he thrust the conflagration downward and flames rocketed downward into the opening. Immediately the room felt warmer, and warmer. Almost to the point of feeling hot. Drake continued to pour fire into the hole and Maewen fidgeted when it seemed like nothing else was happening. Then the wall began to move.
The far wall shuddered suddenly, and the stillness of the other three walls distinguished it from simply a tremor the three adepts had almost become accustomed to feeling (much to Maewen's dismay upon realizing). The wall began to rise steadily, and with it, a section of the floor in front of the wall. When it finally stopped moving, a door way leading to a descending staircase had appeared. Carelessly, Maewen wiped sweat from her face on a sleeve as she approached the stairs hesitantly. Sweat fell off the other two as well; the room had become like a sauna! With the intent to keep going, Drake ceased pouring fire into the hole and began to straighten from his half crouch, but the doorway grated and quickly began to fall down again to the room's original state and Drake was forced to resume dumping fire into the hole again with a choice selection of... creative language. Sweat was clearly visible sliding down the sides of his face, though Maewen thought it was more due to the effort than the heat.
"Go! Get the Star! We can't wait much longer, you know that. It.. seems I have to stay here." Drake growled through his teeth. Maewen watched Drake, concern and worry painted on her face clearly reflecting her feelings. Drake glanced at Rayl perhaps for the first time since entering the room. "Take care of her." Rayl paused to watch Drake for a moment, looking grim, then nodded took Maewen firmly by the wrist and pulled her away, towards the door.
"If you don't keep this open till we get back, then I'll have Maewen to myself." Rayl's voice was not loud, and he did not turn back to look at Drake or Maewen when he said it, but both of them heard clearly. Drake jerked a bit, flames wavered before resuming their steady flow into the hole. Maewen stared at Rayl, face feeling as hot as Drake's flames. What had possessed him to say something like that!? Rayl was probably thinking the same thing because his face also colored and he hastily towed her down the stairs behind him.
Neither Maewen nor Rayl spoke during the descent, and the stairwell was not very long. Soon the path opened into a vast room, the far end carved like many others in the lighthouse in the likeness of a serene woman, hands folded together with palms upward just below her bosom. The room had no ceiling, or rather there was a gaping hole in the ceiling that opened upward as far as Maewen could see. From that expanse above fell a bar of light that alighted on the woman's palm. This must be it. Maewen thought. That light must support the beacon! We made it before those other people. Now we just need to take the Star and... Maewen froze. Images flashed through her head. The lighthouse in ruins meant that the Hermes fountain would cease to flow. The only other Mercury Adept in town at the moment was her mother, but how else would taking the star affect her home? Would it affect Mercury Adepts else where, too? Could she bring herself to take that from them? What right did she have?
Footsteps resounded about the room, bringing Maewen back to the moment. Rayl had taken a step forward. Just one. Then another. It looked like he was walking through jelly, each step slow and deliberate, with more effort than it should have taken. Helplessly, Maewen watched as he drew closer to the the pillar of light, until he was there. A trembling gloved hand reached out and FLASH! Rayl jerked his hand away suddenly. From there, everything happened so quickly, it was almost a blur.
Rayl grimaced and with his jaw set reached to make another attempt. It hurt him! Maewen thought with a jolt! She took a step. It suddenly felt like she was surrounded by a torrent of water, though she saw none! It first swept around her, almost playfully, then drew her in. It was all Maewen could do to keep on her feet as she slid across the stone floor up to the pillar and stumbled onto the carved hands of the Goddess. As soon as she touched the stone hands, the water feeling vanished and all she was aware of was Rayl and his hand approaching the pillar of light in slow motion, determined to see this through no matter how much pain it cost him. Why? Because of her? Did he not want her to try for fear of it hurting her? Or was it more simple than that? This was not what he had set out to do, but this was the responsibility that had been thrust upon him. Upon all of us. Power is not good or evil, it is the wielder who determines that and there was no doubt in Maewen's mind that what was hunting for this power from the aeria was evil. If she left the star here, that evil would cast her aside, might even...(gulp) kill her! And then use this power for worse things than she could make herself imagine. And it would be her fault for leading them down here.
An inch more till Rayl's gloved hand would reach the pillar again, still moving as though every power in the lighthouse was resisting him, fighting him and him fighting back. But the lighthouse wasn't fighting Maewen. Whether because it was already occupied with Rayl or because it shared it's affinity with Maewen, the Mercury Adept moved freely and only some of the sluggishness of time at that moment was adrenaline. She pushed past Rayl and thrust her hand into the pillar to find... no resistance. Almost none. The pillar felt to her like a tranquil waterfall, if waterfalls flowed upward instead of down. Before she knew it, her hand had folded around an orb, one that pulsed steadily in contrast to Maewen's racing heart. With a jerk of realizing what she had done, she extracted her hand from the beam and with it, the Mercury Star. The pillar of light/water shuddered and suddenly snapped upward, disappearing beyond view in a blink. A moment later, Maewen heard a distant crash, a roar of water.
Rayl stood there looking at where the beam of light had been, seeming as stunned as she was. At the sound of the distant crash, he blinked. His eyes widened in realization and he once again, hastily, and somewhat roughly, took Maewen's hand opposite the one that held the Mercury Star and began desperately towing her towards the door. The roar of water rapidly grew louder until it was nearly deafening. Stumbling along behind Rayl, Maewen hazarded a look above, and instantly wish she had not. A solid wall of water descended upon them, and crashed against the floor no sooner than Maewen was a step into the stairwell. With no where else to go, the raging torrent swept the two adepts up the stairwell and gushed violently out of the doorway into the next room, where Drake was scooped up before he even realized what was happening. Clutching the Mercury Star desperately to her breast, Maewen held her breath and hoped the current did not crush her against a wall or other stone construct that made up the lighthouse and hoped that the others were okay as well. Suddenly, she bumped roughly into a hard stone surface and the waters seemed to calm somewhat. Squinting through the water, she identified light above her and began to swim awkwardly towards it.
Maewen gasped for air as she broke the surface and was rewarded with a mouth full of hair. Coughing and sputtering, she groped around for a solid surface of some kind, and finding one, she clumsily hauled herself out of the water, or at least mostly out. The floor in the hall she had emerged into still had several inches of water covering it, but it was shallow enough that she could collapse on it and regain her breath and her senses a bit.
When she finally felt rested enough to at least sit up, she was met by the sight of an older man she had never seen before in a crimson and black tunic and blood red cloak extracting himself sourly from a sizable pile of debris. Their eyes met and neither party moved until a gauntlet shod hand suddenly burst from under the water and grabbed at the flooring where Maewen had been laying. The man snarled and lunged forward with surprising agility for what looked like his age and a dragon of fire leaped from his outstretched hand, scorching straight at Maewen. Maewen flinched, her hands instinctively covering her face and the Mercury star in those hands pulsed suddenly snuffing out the dragon just inches away from roasting her. Dropping her hands again, Maewen saw the man in crimson stagger as if he had suddenly been slapped, and in a moment of panic, Maewen cast out her psynergy.
She was not sure what exactly she had intended to do, but it certainly was not what happened. The water flooding the room below surged once more and carried Drake who had been trying to pull an unconscious Rayl from the water into the hallway and rushing down towards the other man. Maewen jumped slightly seeing Drake and Rayl caught in the surge, and did her best to use her psynergy to extract the two while keeping the crimson clad man pinned with water.
It mostly worked and as soon as Drake could draw breath again, he called hoarsely "Freeze him and run!". Maewen did just that. Once again the Mercury star over amplified the power of her psynergy and instead of simply freezing the block pinning the man, all of the water as far as she could see froze on the spot. Shivering, Maewen carefully unformed the ice around her legs and bottom that had still been sitting in water during the flash freeze and when she spotted them, Drake was using his fire psynergy to do the same for himself and the still unconscious Rayl. Hauling the Venus adept onto his back, Drake slowly staggered down the hall opposite the man with the crimson cloak and Maewen cautiously followed. One slip on this ice could be fatal especially given how exhausted everyone was. Maewen glanced furtively over her shoulder before passing around the corner at the end of the hall, but the man who had attacked her had not yet stirred from his icy prison.
They made their way down and out of the lighthouse with out any further event. Outside they found the blue haired man Maewen had saved earlier, whom she later found out was named Saito, carrying a still unconscious Mael and a rather ruffled looking Mirian. While traipsing back to Imil, Maewen clumbsily shared what had happened with Mirian, Saito, and Drake, all the parts that each person had not been there for. Within sights of the gates to the town, an explosion from the lighthouse stopped everyone in their tracks.
"I'm surprised that held him that long." Drake muttered wearily. Maewen stared at him, surprised to hear something even remotely like sarcasm from the Mars Adept at a time like this.
"If that's the case, we must definitely hurry. I have a boat we can use to leave Imil, we surely cannot stay here." Saito sounded calm despite the chaos he had suddenly found himself in the midst of. At least someone still had their wits about them, Maewen thought dryly.
"I, too, have a ship." Drake added. They began to walk hurriedly again and Drake had to pause speaking to catch his breath occasionally. "If we set sail in different directions we may be able to lose him." No one had to ask who "him" was. "Either way, we cannot afford to delay. If we are still in the town when he gets there, he won't hesitate to burn it to the ground." Saito nodded grimly. Suddenly, Drake would not meet Maewen's eyes. "Maewen, will you bring the Mercury Star and come with me?" It was barely above a whisper. In that moment, she had no voice left, she merely nodded in acquiescence.
"If Maewen is... going... then... I'm going too.." followed by a groan and a thump as Drake dropped Rayl and the latter shakily rose to his feet. "If... If I let her go like this, then err my grandfather would never forgive me..." The Venus Adept made an effort not to look at Drake and instead peered at Maewen, then the lighthouse in the distance, and then at his feet and muttered softly "I'd never forgive myself..."
"If you can spout that kind of talk, you can walk on your own." Drake grumbled under his breath.
There had been no time for anything else. Saito left Mael at the inn with some coin that would cover his stay until he re-woke, and then took off to the miniscule harbor. Somewhere along the line, Mirian disappeared as well. Rayl couldn't find his wallet, but his house and the sanctum were both opposite the direction Drake had moored his boat. Maewen, Rayl and Drake had practically run directly to the harbor.
The rain grew more intense and lost in reverie, Maewen hadn't noticed the sun fully below the horizon now, despite having spent the last few minutes staring in that direction. The Mercury Adept gave a sigh and tucked the mythril pouch into a pocket in her robes, one usually reserved for books. As sure as the rain streaking down wet the planks of the ship, Maewen had found herself on what could only be described as an adventure. Who knew what would happen from there but from the queasiness caused by the rocking of the ship over swells, she felt far from excited about the prospect. Rayl and Drake were both inside the ship's cabin and Maewen turned from the railing to join them and figure out what was next to come.
Rayl seemed to have just finished talking when Maewen entered the cabin and took a seat at the table where the two boys discussing plans.