As Lina and Kraden explored Sol Sanctum, they found a stone Minotaur head with one eye made of some red gemstone and the other an empty socket affixed to a wall. After searching a few of the earlier rooms, Lina found a gem about the right size and shape stuck in a wall. She removed the gem and returned to the dragonhead and placed it in the eye. The wall that the dragon heads was on slid open.
"Yeah. A simple puzzle. Maybe too simple," Lina muttered, as the two went further into Sol Sanctum.
Occasionally foot long spiders attacked them, but after Lina froze a number of them, they stopped coming. After a bit, the two came to a dead end. A stream of water was running through and separated Lina and Kraden from a row of statues. Lina bit her lower lip and examined the room, she noticed scrape marks on the stone floor with the statue.
"Lina? What's the matter? There has to be a way to the inner sanctum," Kraden said.
"I think the statues can be moved, but it doesn't look like I can get good leverage on the other side to move them."
Kraden shook his head. "Lina, you forgot one of the new Psynergy that you learned. The one called 'move'."
"Oh," Lina said and scratched her chin. "I'm not sure, but I'll try. I'm still getting used to the idea that I can now see spells that are supposed to be invisible."
Lina concentrated and a ghostly hand appeared in front of her and moved the statue she was facing. She repeated the process with the remaining three statues and she explored each room. She found another Minotaur head with one gemstone eye. Searching through one of the other rooms, she found the gemstone key and opened the door to the other side.
As they went through the second door, Lina shook her head. "Okay. There is a bit more to these puzzles than simple searching. You need certain powers to open them up. But, it still seems to simple."
Kraden frowned. "We're not at the inner sanctum yet."
The two entered a room with the picture of a sun on the ground. Kraden was excited and looked around, while Lina studied the room.
"I feel something isn't right. I wonder where that door goes," Lina muttered.
She left the room and entered an empty room with a picture of a crescent moon painted on the ground and a set of stairs going upwards.
"Now we're getting somewhere."
"Luna Sanctum?" Kraden said, as he entered the room. "This is odd."
"There seems to be some step going up."
The two went up the steps and Lina rolled her eyes upward. There was another picture of a crescent moon and statues holding a curved horn were surrounding it. An examination of the statues, showed the horn had some sort of mirror inside of it. A bit more searching showed that there were four beams of light pouring down from the ceiling at each corner of the sun diagram. Lina looked down and noticed the scratches on the floor.
"More moving statues?"
"I'm going to go downstairs and see what happens," Kraden said.
Lina nodded and started shoving one of the statues. She shoved the northwest corner statue into the light beam and saw part of the moon turn into the image of a sun. In the lower room, Kraden saw one corner of the moon become a sun, when lighting started flashing.
"This must have been what.... I have to stop her!" Kraden shouted, as he ran up the steps.
"Lina! Stop! You almost triggered a trap. I think it was this trap that caused that storm three years ago."
"I thought this was way too easy," Lina said with a smile, as she moved the statue out of the light beam.
"There has to be a way to disarm the trap," Kraden said.
"I know. I'll search in the other room," Lina said.
Kraden nodded and left to stand in the Luna Room. Lina saw an opening off to the west and went in. She saw two more of the statues holding horns and a statute of a woman holding a giant stone sun coin over her head. Rails that prevented anyone getting close to them blocked off all the statues. In front of the sun-coin statue was a strange rock.
"Okay. I see. Unless you can move stuff with your mind at a distance, you can't disarm the trap. Things are getting a bit more complex."
Lina used Move to shove the horn holding statues into the light beams and as the two shone the reflected light onto the rock. The rock vanished, leaving a deep hole. Lina used Move to pull the sun-coin statue into the hole and watched it drop. She quickly returned to the room with the four statues and moved them into place to cause the sun symbol to replace the moon symbol. She went downstairs and saw Kraden looking at the new Sun Room.
"This is it? Seems like a lot of work for just changing a picture," Lina said.
"I want to see what happened to the other Sun Room," Kraden said.
The two headed back to the first Sun Room and saw that it had become a new Moon Room. A glowing beam of light was shining from the north wall. However, the three people in the new Moon Room took Lina and Kraden's attention.
"Jenna? What are you doing here?" Lina asked is surprise.
"I'm trying to keep you from getting banished from the village," Jenna said.
"Now Jenna, we have to make sure that nothing has been disturbed here."
"Saturos and Mendari?" Isaac asked. "We were heading to your home, when we encountered them."
Kraden nodded. "Yes, they said that they had been in Sol Sanctum. We're just making sure they haven't disturbed anything. We're going to head into the inner chamber to make sure."
While Kraden was talking to the trio, Lina examined the beam of light and stepped in front of it. She put her hand in front of her and blocked the beam. She walked forward and put her hand over the hole that the beam was coming from. She vanished in a beam of light.
"Lina!" Jenna shouted and quickly put her palm against the wall frantically.
Her hand also covered the beam of light and vanished.
"Teleportation," Kraden said. "Cover the light beam with your hand and you get transported into the inner chamber."
Kraden put his words into action and vanished as well. Isaac and Garet shrugged and followed suit. The five of them appeared in front of a glowing wall of light and were standing on a strange blue crystalline rock. Other rocks of the same substance were scattered around the area. Looking down, the rocks seemed to be floating in space, due to the way the perfectly still water was reflecting and not reflecting light.
"Look over there," Kraden said, as he pointed.
Lina looked and saw a statue of a woman holding a greenish-brown orb. She searched the area and saw three more statues. The orbs they held were lavender, red, and light blue.
"Those are the Elemental Stars," Kraden said with a lot of excitement in his voice. "The Mercury Star, Venus Star, Jupiter Star, and Mars Star. I want to examine them up close."
Kraden headed forward and started slipping around. Lina and Jenna caught him and pulled him back to safety.
"The Stars look like they're fine," Jenna said. "Let's head back."
Lina shook her head. "The only way to make sure is to take a good close look at them. They could actually be wooden or metal balls that have been covered in a very thick coat of paint."
"Let Isaac and Garet go after them," Jenna said. "You've done enough work."
Kraden pulled out his small package he took from his house and handed it to Isaac. "Those are mythril bags. After you get each Star, put it in a bag. I came prepared for this."
Isaac nodded and took the four bags and hopped from stone to stone, with Garet following him, to the statue holding the Mercury Star. After removing the star and putting it in the bag, some of the blue rocks raised up higher to form more stepping stones. They repeated the procedure to the Venus Star and headed over to the Jupiter Star. Lina bit her lower lip and started searching around.
"It's too easy," Lina mumbled.
Due to her distraction, Lina didn't feel the presence of three people appear in the inner chamber until one of them put his hands on her shoulder.
"What? Who?" Lina said, as she looked up.
Lina saw Mendari was holding her, while Jenna and Kraden were being held by Saturos. Since Lina could get a good close look at the two, she noticed the pointed ears that each had and the scales that covered their arms.
"Oh great, being held by hostage by lizard elves," Lina said with a lot of sarcasm.
"Quiet you," Mendari hissed.
Saturos looked at the two boys and smiled. "Since you've been so nice as to retrieve the Elemental Stars for us, just hand them over."
Lina tensed and prepared to fight her way to free herself, Kraden and Jenna, but a whisper from Kraden halted her.
"Lina, I know you can hear me. Jenna once told me how sharp your hearing is," Kraden whispered in a voice so low that the person right next to him could not hear his words. "Let it happen. They want to light the lighthouses. I don't know why, but they do."
Lina's shoulders slumped in acceptance, as another person came through the glowing wall of light. The person was wearing brown trousers, a green shirt, and had a blue cape dangling off his right shoulder. He was also wearing a mask.
"This should convince you. Show your face," Saturos said.
"Do I have to?" the newcomer said.
"That voice sounds familiar," Jenna mumbled.
"Do it, Felix," Saturos said.
"Felix?" Jenna asked in a trembling voice.
Felix growled, but removed the mask. He was man a few years older than Jenna that had dark brown hair and brown eyes.
"No. It can't be," Jenna whispered in a trembling voice. "How...?"
'Felix? That was the name of Jenna's older brother that was killed in that storm, but how can he still be alive?' Lina thought. 'Why is he helping these two?'
"I guess we have no choice," Garet said.
Isaac nodded and started hopping towards the group. Suddenly a young man with long blue hair appeared in front of Isaac and smiled creepily.
"Hello. I will take the Elemental Stars from you, if you don't mind."
"Huh? Who?" Garet said. "There's another one?"
"Oh yes. This is Alex from the town of Imil. He joined our quest to light the lighthouses. Hand him the Elemental Stars."
Isaac sighed, but did so. Alex took the three bags and teleported over to Saturos and Mendari. Lina's eyes narrowed as Alex gave the 'captives' a bright smile.
'I would have felt him trying to sneak up on me, even while distracted Felix and the others don't radiate the same sort of menace.'
Saturos took the bags from Alex and looked at them. "There's only three here. Where's the Mars Star?"
Lina calmly pointed to the statue holding the Elemental Star, as she scanned the area.
Saturos smiled. "Isaac, you and your friend go retrieve the last Star. All fours Stars for our captives."
Isaac didn't say a word, but he and Garet did as Saturos said. About three seconds before Isaac put his hands on the last Star, Lina saw a group of three statues on rails.
"Isaac! Don't touch it! The trap hasn't been disarmed!" Lina shouted.
It was too late, Isaac pulled the Mars Star from the statue and the entire area started shaking. The blue crystalline stepping stones turned red, as magma stared seeping up from the cracks under the water.
"They just triggered a volcano," Lina whispered in horror.
"What's that?" Mendari shouted.
Numb, Lina looked to where Mendari was pointing and saw a floating stone orb about six feet in diameter. It had a single eye and was floating from area to area and staring down at the magma. Rings of light surrounded it, as it telekinetically shoved the magma down back into the cracks.
"That must be Vale's protector: the Wise One," Saturos said. "Its power is incredible."
Lina let her senses judge how powerful the Wise One was and the blood drained from her face.
"Shinzoku," Lina whispered in awe. "That thing could probably fight Hellmaster and Gaav at the same time."
"We can't stay here," Mendari said. "We'll have to flee or die. Let's go."
"But the Mars Star," Saturos said.
"If those two survive, they will chase after us," Alex said.
Saturos smiled. "I see."
Saturos shouted towards Isaac. "If you want to see your friends again, bring the Mars Star with you! Otherwise,...."
Mendari pointed at the wall of light and stared at Jenna, Kraden, and Lina. "Get in."
"But Isaac and Garet,..." Jenna objected.
"They'll follow. Now get in."
Jenna reluctantly went into the wall of light and transported away. Mendari followed and Kraden was the next to go.
"You as well. You have a knack at figuring out traps," Saturos said. "Even though we do have a Water Adept, your mind will be useful."
Lina did not raise any objections, since she didn't want to face the Wise One. She entered the wall of light, followed by Saturos and Felix. Alex looked in the direction of the statue that held the Mars Star and gave an amused shrug.
"Oh well. Things should look up after we leave," Alex said with a smile. "Farewell Isaac, son of Dora and Kyle and you Garet of the largest family in Vale."
Alex whistled a happy tune, as he entered the wall of light.
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(Posted Sun, 16 Apr 2006 08:28)
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