Well, er, damn. I do believe the last update was in January, wasn't it? …er, January last year. Sorry, guys. A lot of nasty stuff's happened at home, and this school year's been even more of a bitch than the last one. However! New chapter! (this makes me feel so glad that I keep coherent notes and plans of each chapter…and the story as a whole…)

Having recently re-read all of this story, I've noticed some rather heinous spelling mistakes. I'll probably be reuploading several chapters with mistakes removed and (hopefully) separation lines added, seeing as my computer's finally starting to behave properly in regards to them.

Anyway…let's see what's going on with the Seekers, shall we?

Knowledge

Seer quietly thanked the gods that there were only three Mars guards as he whipped his rapier out of its sheath and leapt at the nearest one. The guard hadn't quite prised the last of Wings' icicles out of his arm; not expecting the sudden attack, he stumbled and went down hard, face-first, with the Jupiter boy atop him. Seer hesitated – to kill or not to kill? – and was promptly flung aside by another of his adversaries, crashing into the verdant undergrowth in moments and, he found when he rolled to a stop, getting plenty of scratchy twigs caught in his hair. Gripping the rapier tighter, he sprang to his feet and rocketed back into the fray.

When he got there, he narrowly missed an unwanted collision with Isaac as he aimed for the back of the second guard harassing Wings. He jumped, letting his momentum guide him, smashed the man over the head with his blade's pommel, and skidded to a stop amongst a cloud of yellow dust. Reaching for his psynergy, Seer made a cutting motion with his sword. A gust of wind cleared a pathway through the blinding dust cloud, and, feeling more of his power bubble up from his core and into his body, he darted forward.

This time, the guard was a little more prepared for Seer's attack…

…but not quite prepared for the boy to slam into his torso, yell "Storm Ray!" and cram his opponent full of lightning.

Satisfied the man was completely immobile, Seer left him spread-eagled on the ground and went to aid the others. Although, truth be told, he thought as he watched Isaac deal with his enemy by shoving him up against the nearest tree and throttling him, I don't think he really needs much help. But…I wasn't expecting him to be so…ruthless. He'd seen Isaac fight before, of course – against the hydra, on some minor excursions – but in a battle against actual Mars Clan members…

He remembered something from a conversation he'd had with Sheba a few days ago. "Of course we hate them, Ivan. Wouldn't you if they did so much stuff to you? Thing is, Isaac is Isaac, and his hatred is…refined." He'd asked her what she meant. She'd shrugged. "Hm…it's about as easy to explain as it is to explain about why my brother's the way he is. Don't worry. It'll be useful, sooner or later."

If this is sooner, he thought, I don't want to think about what later will be like.

Isaac finally let the late guard drop to the floor, and turned to smile at Seer, baring a couple of teeth. "Well, that wasn't too bad," he commented, slightly out of breath. "D'you reckon Wings is done yet?"

Seer didn't even have to reply, instead just nodding in the direction of the Mercury girl trudging uphill towards them. Even from that distance, both boys could see the blood spattered over her clothes and staff.

"She's not much of a fighter, but Angelicals tend to have strong stomachs with regards to blood," Seer said. Exhaling sharply, he gestured in Wings' direction with his rapier. "Kibombo's in that direction anyway, the sky's…" He glanced up. "…clear, for now, and we've got plenty of time before sundown. Let's get a move on."

…but that had been hours ago. How many exactly they didn't know. What they knew was that the twisty dirt road to Kibombo was infested with guards and powerful, exotic monsters covered in navy blue fur, and that they were incredibly lucky it was a bright night. Blearily swiping grime off her face, Wings didn't bother suppressing a yawn. Just how far was it to Kibombo…?

She paused and stretched for a moment, watching the other two continue walking. With a sigh, she followed in their wake, eyes occasionally drifting to the star-studded sky or the dense jungle (dark, twisted and menacing) they were bound to reach in a little while. Odd, she thought after a while, didn't Mariner say it would only take a couple of hours to reach Kibombo? Wincing as the image of Mariner's wrist, dripping with blood, flashed before her eyes again, she bit her lip. Maybe him getting better…isn't really true? I'm sure the Revealer said he'd been posted in Gondowan before…

But he'd made such good progress in barely a month! It was as if the amnesia had never happened, as if he'd been the same ever since they'd first brought the trio from the Venus Clan aboard the ship. And since Sheba had found those painkillers, Wings had kept a wary eye on Mariner and hadn't seen him touch a single one. It was…miraculous. Too good to be true. Not even the Great Healers among the Angelicals could produce anything like that.

So she was nervous…

And, she contemplated, frowning at Isaac's back, why's the road crawling with Mars guards? I thought Mariner and the others were going to create a diversion for us, to clear the way…

It was another twenty minutes before they finally caught sight of the Gondowan town, nestled snugly at the foot of the northern mountains and half-covered with tangled tropical forest. Kibombo was lit up by countless torches; together, the tiny flames produced an orange glow that made what little of the town could be seen appear menacing, casting thick, black shadows across buildings and transforming the massive, bizarre statue at the back of the town into an ugly, horrifying monster. At some point in the past, the statue had meaning. Now that Kibombo was Mars property, it was considered a useless idol.

"Finally!" Seer exclaimed. "I almost thought we weren't going to make it at this rate."

Wings snatched her eyes away from the eerie town. "We're not there yet," she reminded her companion. She caught herself turning her head this way and that. Butterflies churned in her stomach. "We shouldn't celebrate until we get there. Something's…not right."

"Oh. I thought I was gonna be the one to say that," Isaac said. Jupiter and Mercury turned to frown at him slightly. The boy's voice had been…blank. He sighed, glancing back at them. "What happened to that diversion? That's what I wanna know."

"Well…" Wings groped mentally for an explanation. She didn't particularly want her thoughts out in the open, where they'd be vulnerable to Seer's scrutiny and Isaac's increasingly gloomy outlook on the evening. Some worries she had to keep to herself, just as she had hoped to keep some secrets to herself…

Seer shook his head at her poorly-disguised concern. "Let's look at it this way: we're not far from our destination now." He gestured broadly at the fire-lit town down in the valley. "Isn't it better if we manage to get the documents without the diversion being necessary?"

The words hung in the air like slivers of diamond. He didn't need to look at his long-time partner to see the mix of emotions battling it out on her face, instead focusing on Isaac. The Venus boy seemed to consider the idea for a moment, toying with the end of his dusty scarf with a light frown on his features, then shrugged.

"Doesn't make much difference to me. They can take care of themselves – I know that for certain. And it's not like there's anything we can do about it, so…"

With a little shudder as the older boy walked past him on his way down the hill, Seer ran a hand through his mop of hair and flicked his gaze towards the clear heavens. I really hate it when the other Isaac appears. He makes me wish I'd never opened my mouth in the first place. Beckoning to Wings, who was still battling with her thoughts and evidently shocked by Isaac's coldness, he began the short trek downwards.

Just like the Angelical girl, he kept seeing Mariner's bloody wrist in his mind. And since he'd been party to Wings' private knowledge of the mystery-shrouded man's life, Seer had started to draw the conclusions his friend was too frightened to make.

Knowing that the diversion hadn't happened didn't bode for good conclusions.

Shit. Shit.

Felix's body protested as he dragged Mariner's unconscious form another few feet through the all-encompassing jungle. The path he'd taken was plain to see – ferns and grasses had either snapped or been squashed flat beneath his boots and the comatose man's heavy body – and he knew it was dangerous. The jungle was combed by Mars with infinite precision on a strictly regular basis, and these Mars left no stones – not even the tiniest – unturned, no movement unnoticed, and no tracks un-followed.

The wide channel of jagged broken fern stems, some smeared with blood, was a gift he couldn't afford to give them. But he had no choice in the matter – he was the one with the strength to drag the inert Mariner. Sheba might have grown up in the Venus sector, but she was physically too weak and too small to shift a fully-grown man almost a foot taller than she was and with muscle to spare.

He had to get the leader back to the ship. As darkness had set in, clawing its way across the landscape with insatiable hunger, they'd had no other option. Mariner had shown no signs of awakening for several hours as the sun blazed overhead and made the very air thick and syrupy, and Felix's rudimentary knowledge of healing psynergy wasn't enough to completely stop the bloodflow from the gash on the older man's forehead and the deep slits in his right wrist. They'd torn off strips of their clothes to bind the wounds, but the blood only leaked through over time. It wasn't right. Even they knew that blood clotted.

"Ow – fuck it!"

He'd bashed his head on a low-hanging branch. The gnarled limb leered at him from the shadows when he glared at it. Biting down hard on his lower lip to stop insults and more curses from spewing out, Felix hauled on Mariner's arms again and heaved him another several yards back through the shadowy forest towards the path, before toppling backwards into the ground, hard, courtesy of a black, twisted tree root. Winded, Felix could do nothing for several seconds but stare at the gap in the dense canopy.

Lightning, sharp and blinding, flashed across the night sky.

A smile picked at the corners of his mouth, unwilling to let his pride go without being shown. Sheba was doing well. She'd done well the moment she'd started to practise her psynergy, and especially well once offensive matters had been brought into it, but…still. She was his sister. No matter how capable he knew she was, he'd always be proud of her when she proved it.

Even if he was paranoid that somebody, soon, would read through the ancient legends, think, and uncover the secret he and Isaac had spent so long protecting…

That incident with the lump of stardust had been too close. Far too close. He didn't care; the next time the others wanted to take a daytrip into the Venus mines, he wasn't letting his sister go under any circumstances, no matter how suspicious it looked. To protect this sister, he was going to keep that secret until the day he died.

He was not losing two.

The resolve solid in his mind, he struggled to his feet and heaved at Mariner's bulk again.

A diversion was a diversion, Sheba had decided, and late was better than never. Of course, this was, technically, an even more important diversion than the (non-existent) original, and as she was alone…well, she had to make it as big as possible, so she did actually have the chance to escape, to dash back through the jungle towards her brother and the ship. Besides that, the other three were doubtless worrying – or, at the very least, Wings would be. Licking her lips and reaching for another tendril of psynergy, Sheba ran the idea through her head again. No. Wings would definitely be worried, if what Sheba recalled about their conversation about painkillers was enough to go by, and would only get worse when she returned to the ship.

If she returned to the ship.

Breathing deep, Sheba felt the psynergy pool in the palm of her hand. It always felt soft, as if a mound of down had settled there and nestled into every callus and line, and it never seemed wrong. She may have come into her powers late, but it was so natural to her she barely noticed. She did chuckle whenever she took off her armlets and saw the Clanless mark on her left forearm, though. The Mars couldn't tell every person's elemental alignment…

She snapped her eyes open and released the psynergy, the name of the spell lost in the tremendous winds that suddenly wracked the landscape, tearing at her hair and clothes indiscriminately. The strength of the gusts forced her eyes shut again as she revelled in the rawness of the power she'd unleashed; when she'd first discovered it, shortly after their arrival in Gondowan, her brother and Isaac had cautioned her not to use much of it, just in case. Letting so much go at once was fantastic.

In the middle of the gale, she found the strength to open her eyes once again and admire her handiwork. She was standing on a cliff above the main road, about a mile or so from Kibombo, and in the starlit night the view was amazing. The wind tore at the forest behind her, occasionally sending whole branches crashing into the undergrowth as they were ripped from their tree trunks. Before her, the dust on the road was whipped up into the air and spread across the panorama. Turning her head, Sheba focused on the town. It had only been visible because of torchlight; under the influence of her windstorm, the lights blinked out.

That should be enough to get their attention. Sheba put her fists on her hips and nodded approvingly. But…well, it could just be passed off as a normal gale. A bit more lightning won't hurt, will it?

Pursing her lips, she reached for the necessary psynergy. With a little smile, she clapped her hands together and rubbed them forcefully for a few moments. Static crackled between her palms when she pulled them apart.

Sheba settled her shoulders, widened her stance and thrust one hand up into the air.

Once again, lightning split the night sky.

"You mean you know nothing about the Seekers?"

Garet paced the room that somehow existed at the very bottom of the tree trunk. The 'holy tree' of Kolima was vast; it jutted up into the sky for at least a hundred feet, and was so wide that its inside would easily take the palace's infirmary. It was also almost completely hollow, yet somehow still managed to have a number of…well, floors, up and down the inside of the trunk.

In the darkest recesses of the ancient trunk lived a being called Tret. Well, Garet thought, technically Tret's the entire bloody tree, but for some reason we can only talk to him here. Sighing, he glanced up at the ceiling. Tret was supposed to be some kind of ultimate source of information on everything; that was why Saturos had ordered Jenna and Garet to go there. The First Lord had assumed the old tree would know something about the Seekers.

As Jenna had discovered, he was one hundred percent wrong.

Tret's face wrinkled into an expression of deep sorrow. "Hroom…I'm afraid so. Things tend to pass me by, these days."

"But they've existed for years!" Jenna said, her exasperation clear in her voice. She shook her head. "This is ridiculous. Everyone knows they exist and the trouble they cause. How come you're acting as if this is the first time you've even heard of them?"

"I know of little beyond the river to the south. Perhaps their interests do not lie here?"

Garet carefully kept his back turned and pretended to be interested in some markings on the wall. He really didn't want to catch the brunt of Jenna's irritation. She'd been trying to get information out of the tree spirit – waelda, or whatever the word is – for a good couple of hours now, and her lack of success was obviously getting to her. Just as well she's an inspector rather than an interrogator. No way would she be able to handle it. Straightening up, Garet stretched his arms above his head in an attempt to ease the stiffness in his back. You'd have to be able to turn yourself into a rock if you were an interrogator. He ran through the thought again, his face and arms falling. His broad shoulders drooped. …like Kay.

It was nearly two months since she'd been taken by the Seekers – by accident, most eyewitnesses seemed to believe – and Kay's absence was sorely felt in the palace. The First Lady missed her immensely, although she refused to show it in public, and lost her temper more often. Having been on the receiving end of one of her tongue-lashings, Garet couldn't help but feel sorry for Menardi; the woman's anger was much greater, much more bitter than before. Kay had meant a lot to the First Lady. She'd taken the kidnap personally.

Garet had…coped. What was left of his sister had barely recognised him, in those last few days. To be completely honest, it had hurt more during that time than now. He'd known she didn't want to become like the other Lords and Ladies, almost untouchable emotionally, but he hadn't known what to do about it. He'd let it stew, nervous of making a mistake and pushing Kay further from him and closer to becoming a lizard.

And then, once the interrogation of the Venus Seeker had begun…she went.

No more Kay. Just the Third Lady.

Even before the Seekers took her, Garet had completely lost his sister. He had lain in his infirmary bed as Jenna told him the news of Kay's kidnap and shed a few tears, partly because his sister had gone but mostly because he'd finally been told. It had finally sunk in. He could, at last, accept that which he had wished, begged, prayed to be false. The thing he had desperately wanted to not be true.

His sister was gone.

No more of that. It sounded like Jenna had calmed down at last, so Garet turned to look at her and the tree spirit again. Neither was speaking, but Tret's face was festooned with an impressive frown and Jenna was rubbing at the back of her neck. Taking advantage of the conversational lull, Garet ambled over to his friend. A gentle touch on the shoulder made her look up at him. He smiled broadly. "Everythin' okay?"

Jenna rolled her eyes. "If only. This spirit knows nothing of the Seekers."

"For which I am deeply sorry," Tret rumbled. "It sounds most interesting. I shall have to keep a better eye on things in the western part of Angara. Hroom!"

Reaching inside his satchel, Garet rummaged around for a few moments before pulling out the scroll the First Lord had presented him with, a little over two weeks ago. Garet undid the cord that kept it sealed and unrolled the parchment, glancing over their instructions with a frown. He didn't like the fact he'd been made to climb a whole load of trees and then fall down the middle of one for nothing. Surely there had to be something they could get out of the old tree…

"Oi, Tret?" he asked after a while, "What do you know about Acolytes?"

The tree spirit hroomed again. "An acolyte is a follower, normally of a religious group. Do you mean to use me as a dictionary, master Adept?"

"Garet!" the guard retorted. "An' I know what an acolyte is. It's just…" He frowned at the scroll again, paying more attention as he read over the section on what the Seekers appeared to be looking for. "Uh…okay. The Seekers are looking for information on something called the… Elemental Acolytes. Ring any bells?"

Jenna folded her arms. "You'd better not keep us here any longer than necessary, Garet. I want to be out of this trunk as much as you do." She was not impressed with the uncooperative waelda, and was glaring at Tret balefully as he appeared to think deeply on something. "Well?"

"The Elemental Acolytes were created in the early days of psynergy, when the first Adepts began to appear," Tret said slowly. His frown deepened. Closing his eyes, the tree spirit said nothing for another couple of minutes.

The inspector tapped her foot on the wood beneath her feet. "Get on with it."

Trees cannot shrug, but Tret's facial expression was close enough. "Such a rush. Very well. Hroom!" A few rotting leaves fell from the floor above and landed on Garet. The tree spirit paid him no attention as he struggled to get rid of them. "It is said the Elemental Acolytes were created to balance the power of the elements, long before the Elemental Lighthouses were built, after there was some sort of battle in the early days of Weyard over the control of something with immense power that fell from the heavens. The Acolytes were immensely powerful, and spent all their time focused on mastering their power over their respective elements. When they were ready, they went to the summit of Mount Aleph and became statues; vessels and locks for their elements."

"Statues?"

Jenna retained more of her composure than Garet. She fixed Tret with a look that said 'I don't believe you'. "Of course, because humans naturally turn into rocks."

"Marble, I believe," Tret commented, completely ignoring his visitors' disbelief. "But it was then that the elemental upheaval settled and humankind flourished. It allowed them to build the Lighthouses and create their great empires. The Lighthouses held firmly in place what the Acolytes started." He made the shrugging facial expression again. "The Acolytes were still needed, though. They stopped any one element from becoming more powerful than the others."

Garet was shaking his head. "So how come the Mars Clan is so much more powerful than the other Clans, if these Acolytes exist?"

"I did say it was a legend, master Adept."

"Garet!"

"But," Jenna said quietly, "aren't legends based on a grain of truth?"

The waelda raised his eyebrows at her. "Indeed. And the end of the legend is that hundreds of years ago, somebody smashed three of the four Acolytes. Would that not explain why your Clan has such power?"

"It would," Jenna replied grudgingly, eyeing Tret with distrust. "But, as you said, it is a legend. And it would mean that the Empire is wrong."

"There are many things wrong with Mars' petty Empire," said the tree spirit. "Whether or not its actual existence is wrong…hroom!" His eyebrows shot up in his face. "Who can say? Legends are legends. In my experience, it is best to at least pay them some attention."

The Revealer's pen darted across the parchment, leaving a message barely legible. Speed was of the essence, and Seer would be there to interpret her handwriting if necessary…

Mariner,

I made a terrible mistake in bringing the Mars Lady here. Delighted and fascinated with Kraden's new discoveries, I failed to keep an eye on her – and worse, on him. The girl went to the summit of Mount Aleph and must have touched the stone dragon, activating it and allowing him to exert his power over it. It must have done something to increase his own power, because he came down from the mountain, picked up his bags and left, his job unfinished. And all the while, his face wore a horrible smile.

If he is strong enough to overcome the binding on him, then I would be very afraid. He is hunting again, Mariner, and we both know what for. Finish your job in Gondowan and return to Atteka as swiftly as you can – at least there you and your squad will be safe, and we can work out a counter-attack plan.

Whatever you do, you must not return to Angara. I will make my way to Atteka with the Mars Lady at once, and we shall rendezvous in Contigo.

Revealer

P.S. I beg you, Mariner, to tell me why things are as they are. You are our greatest asset and we cannot afford to lose you. You know.

The streets were thick with Mars guards, who all seemed to be running up and down the town and searching houses with an alarming degree of competence. Despite the wind putting all the lights out, the guards had rapidly worked together and lit the torches again; they even carried extras, some of them lit, as they peered into dark corners and shoved their way into houses.

In a natural alcove at the foot of a small cliff surrounding the town, three Seekers huddled together and prayed they wouldn't be found. There was too much light for Cloak to be useful for more than thirty seconds, and they had no idea where they were meant to go. Seer and Wings had both thought that Sheba's distraction would've drawn the Mars guards away – the howling gale the Jupiter girl had whisked up was so crammed full of psynergy it should've drawn guards from all over central Gondowan.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the Gondowan citadel had arranged a night raid on the town of Kibombo, and the guards liked getting their assigned job done before they risked anything as dangerous as investigating the cause of an immense psynergetic storm.

"They knew most of the townsfolk were Seekers," Seer muttered, feeling sick. "Gods…how are we going to get at the information with the town like this? The guards will probably seize the scrolls and put the whole town into lockdown!"

"Keep your voice down," Isaac said. "I dunno about you two, but I really don't wanna get caught here. We've gotta figure something out…"

The two of them continued whispering to each other intently. Wings watched them, uncertain of what to say; somehow, being trapped in the town reminded her horribly of the layers upon layers of snow that had covered her head, once upon a time. There was nowhere to go, and they couldn't move.

She suppressed a shudder. Remembering that had reminded her that…ugh. The second round of shuddering she was unable to control, and she bit down hard on her lip as her body trembled. She wrapped her arms around herself until the shaking passed. Thinking about him… of course, yes, she was safe from him, but still…

"Pst."

Wings shook her head at herself as the trembling faded. She hadn't been that bad for some time.

"Pst. Hey! You!"

She sat bolt upright, wary. Somebody was trying, very quietly, to get her attention. She let her eyes scan the area. From where she was, she couldn't see anybody in the shadows nearby, and there didn't appear to be anyone near Isaac and Seer. Licking her lips, she turned her head to look over her shoulder.

"Yes, you! Mercury girl!"

Turning round fully, Wings stared at the bare rock. "…hello?" she whispered.

The owner of the voice sighed. "Up here!"

Finally realising where the voice was coming from, Wings looked up. On top of the cliff, a young man – perhaps a bit older than her – squatted, staring down at the three Seekers through dark, scrutinising eyes. Wings could see his face was daubed with paint, and on top of his head perched a mass of red cloth that may have been a turban.

He scowled at her. "Well, get the others, too, girl!" The scowl became a glare when she didn't move for a few seconds. "You're the Angaran Seekers, aren't you? You're late! And I now have to get you to where the scrolls are hidden in the middle of a Mars raid." His eyes hardened yet again when Wings' mouth dropped open at his bluntness. "Get on with it!"

Mouth still open, eyes still fixed on the Kibomban youth, Wings reached out vaguely with one arm and flapped her hand about until she smacked Seer on the shoulder.

"Useless," muttered Akafubu.