Disclaimer: Golden Sun and all characters belong to Camelot.

Characters: Felix, Kraden, others.

Author's Notes: Le gasp! A non-Fire Emblem fic from me? Pretty much. When playing through both GBA installments of Golden Sun again, the mechanics start begging me to explore them and try to find out how they work in-universe, and the only way I know how to do that is by fanfiction. I'm not sure yet whether to make this a series in order to keep my page neat, or to post everything I come up with as separate fics because other than that they all try to explore game mechanics.

Felix had thought it would be the same as always. He meant, he'd done this eight times before- he was used to it by now. The second he'd put his hand over the critter he was holding and absorb its power into his body, he'd feel something akin to an electric shock as his Psyenergy increased in amount and power. It was nothing new, and he was prepared for it.

And yet, when he shut his eyes to set the Venus Djinni, what he felt was less of an electric shock and more of a punch to the stomach. He doubled over, provoking a scream from the women in the company. Around the same moment, he felt Isaac grasping at his shoulder in vain. His Psyenergy lashed out violently, the impact knocking the younger Venus Adept away from him. Falling to his knees, he managed to catch his fall but not to get back up.

As he clawed at the snow, he desperately tried to detach himself from the Djinni whose setting had caused this to happen. He didn't know what had gone wrong, but the surging of his blood –or was it his Psyenergy? He couldn't tell- was enough to make his heart pound in his throat with fear. Deaf to his companions' cries, he tried to focus, but to no avail. The pain and the fear made it impossible for him to put the Djinni on standby.

He spotted movement to his two o' clock. Remembering who had stood in that spot, he managed to look up. "Don't!" he shouted, sounding a lot more hostile than he had wanted to. Sheba froze in her tracks, although she seemed to understand why he didn't want her to come closer. She was a Jupiter Adept and what had struck Isaac had very clearly been Felix' own Venus Psyenergy, which she was naturally weak to- he didn't want to see what would happen if he inadvertently attacked her now.

It took him a good few minutes which added up to what felt like an hour, but finally, finally, he regained his senses and his head stopped pounding. He realized he was breathing heavily, with his hands dug deeply into the rather hard snow under their feet. A little bewildered by this, he pulled them out and sat up on his knees, using one hand to stroke his hair back.

"W-what happened?" he heard Jenna ask. Silence fell over the group as Felix brought up one shaky hand to wipe away the thin trail of blood that had formed at the corner of his mouth. Apparently, no one could answer his sister's –very good- question. Felix himself turned his head towards Kraden. If anyone knew, it would be the scholar. If not, Isaac would have to ask one of his Djinn.

Kraden cleared his throat, apparently to give himself some time to devise a theory. "Well," he then began, "Echo has told us that Djinn are capable of enhancing an Adept's Psyenergetical strength, which is why we've been going out of our way to collect as many of them as we could." He looked over at Isaac, who nodded in agreement. "If I had to guess, Felix' violent reaction to Mold is the result of his strength being enhanced beyond the limits of what his mind can handle."

"Isn't the power of the mind unlimited though?" Ivan asked.

Sheba shook her head as Felix got up. "There's no limit to how we can apply Psyenergy to influence the world around us… but there's certainly a limit to how much power our minds can handle." When everyone turned to look at her, she turned a little red with embarrassment and nervously fiddled with her hair. "At least, that's what I think that means…" She quickly changed the subject. "Are you okay now, Felix?"

When she put her hand on his wrist, and didn't get rejected by his Psyenergy, Felix nodded, the corners of his lips curling up ever so slightly. "Yes, I think it's passed. But if we come across any more Venus Djinn, Isaac is going to have to set them to himself."

"I agree," Kraden said. "And in fact, I think it'd be best if none of you set more than nine Djinn at once. It appears that's the very limit of how much you can handle." Felix knew well what the scholar meant. He, too, was not looking forward to seeing what a tenth Djinni would do to the mind of an Adept. It had been implied that Psyenergy had been what had mutated local wildlife into monsters. Heaven forbid an Adept like Isaac or Piers became feral and turned into a monster.

On the other hand, it was tempting to see just how powerful his Psyenergy could become as he added more Djinn. He had survived the ninth one, and it seemed his power was calm now. Still, Kraden would never let him take the risk. Slightly uncomfortable with his own apparent willingness to take it, he pulled his cape more tightly around him despite not being that cold. He was grateful when Isaac broke the silence. "We should press on."

"Yes, of course…" Jenna agreed, "Mars still has to be lit."

"Let's go, then," Felix said, having regained his strength far enough to barge past Ivan and Piers in the general direction of the fourth and final Lighthouse. He didn't want to think about this right now. And besides, the Lighthouse would give him an excuse to see just how powerful his Psyenergy had become. Surely the pain from before would prove to have been a small price to pay.