Yet another AU that has been in my documents folder for ages, incomplete. Finishing up old fics… It's a combination of good and embarrassing to see the improvement.

It's one of those fics where I had a concept, and I wanted to see what would happen because of it. Maximum amount of Luke and Ion being cute and people being competent were the other priorities.

Chibi!Pickpocket!Luke, though… Also Luke and monies is always cute. Financial Investor!

Another factor in me getting this finished is that I recently played Recettear. Capitalism, ho!

Oh: yes, the tenses get confusing at a couple of points. It's deliberate. The idea is to convey the feeling of Lorelei's nature as the fonon of time (the planet's memory is past, present, future, all combined and all equally valid at once) causing Luke to sort of… Slip into a mindset of eternal present. For Lorelei in this there is essentially only one time and it is NOW, so when Luke has key moments that involve his power the memories of them can be experienced the way Lorelei views things: not so much remembered as relived. Most of the story is past tense, these parts are present.

Sadly, the most recent backup I had of this file didn't get as far as Cheagle Woods. Going to have to rewrite it. Ah well.

He doesn't understand why it works at first, only that it does. 'How' is mostly a matter of instinct, ever since the day a week after he came to the manor that he was so thirsty and couldn't figure out how to get across to Guy that he wanted some water, not a toy or a piece of dry toast. Guy had to know the word, he would recognize it, so he'd finally stopped trying every single word he could remember and garbled fragments of half-remembered ones and tugged at Guy, in the same way he pushed when the headaches started because he didn't want the pain.

It had been a moment of anger and need, and he'd regretted it right after Guy fell to the ground when what Luke tugged out of him left him momentarily empty. Half-panicked, he'd 'looked' over what he'd taken to try to figure out how to put it back in the same instant he copied the word for water and other words.

He'd managed to stick him back in okay, but then Guy had looked at him and been so afraid that it was also a reflex to make him forget what happened so he wouldn't be afraid anymore. Guy was his only 'friend' (he knew the word now: servant wasn't the right word at all) and seeing Guy tremble, so very afraid of him? He hated it. Hated it.

He hadn't done anything with that power for awhile afterwards. Everyone had been so excited that he'd remembered how to talk, but that meant that they were not pushing for more progress and he hated to disappoint them. They were always disappointed with him.

This time he was more careful, and just sort of touched Guy when he was helping him stand up and keep his balance, not tugged but felt what Guy was remembering when he walked, ran, jumped, put Luke's clothes on…

After that Van had started to come by more often, since his student would be able to resume training, and emboldened by his success Luke had reached for Van's combat techniques. After Guy's reaction Luke had kept this a secret, knowing from the fact that Guy had been afraid that this had to be scary, since Guy was so brave. He didn't want to scare people. So, he wouldn't suddenly know everything, he decided, he'd just learn things quickly, although he'd remember the techniques Van had already taught him right away. He'd be able to impress someone for the first time if he learned things the first time Van showed him!

Between silverware from Ramdas and Ancient Ispanian from his tutor and many others Luke had gotten good at this. He'd learned about amnesia, and knew that normally people knew how to walk and talk even though they didn't remember the details of their lives, and that trying too hard to give reminders could mess up their memories.

Because of that he'd never reached for anyone's memories of Luke. He might never recover then.

He'd been so careful since what he'd done to Guy: none of them had even felt it.

That was why it was such a shock when Van reacted instantly, throwing him to the ground with his sword at Luke's throat. "What was that?"

Van thought this was dangerous? An attack?

Luke only thought that part after the fact. He'd never been attacked before in his life, and Van was serious. He would get an explanation out of Luke, or kill him, or maybe even both. So pulling Van the way he had Guy so he fell to the ground as Luke moved out of the way of the falling sword was another bit of instinct.

He'd gotten Van's techniques in the initial touch. Now he had other questions, urgent ones, that he looked for in Van's knowledge about the world (personal memories were private).

How had Van detected that?

Seventh fonist, descendant of Yulia Jue.

Seventh fonist?

User of the seventh fonon, made up of the other six plus memory particles.

Since this was memory, could Van do it too, read and copy the memories of others since he was a seventh fonist?

No. No human had this amount of control. Even the Fon Master could only read the fonstones Lorelei had created.

Lorelei?

The sentience of the seventh fonon, the entity Luke and his replica shared the frequency of.

Replica?

Himself. He wasn't the real Luke fon Fabre.

What?!

Now Luke looked at Van's memories.

When Van regained consciousness with no idea why he had blacked out while training the replica, 'Luke' was gone.

"We do look alike. No wonder Van was able to fool everyone."

Luke whirled, clutching the sword he'd taken off some bandits. Behind him stood him. The replica. Wearing Luke's clothing. "You!"

The replica raised his hands to ward off Luke's anger and stepped back. "I don't want to fight you. I want to take you home. They're all worried about you."

"…What?"

"Van put me there and told everyone that I was you with amnesia. They were so worried and they wanted you back, but I couldn't remember, I couldn't be you for them and they missed you. Then I… Found out what Van had done." The replica was keeping something back. "So I want to take you home, so Guy and Natalia and Mo-Suzanne," that was right, she was Luke's mother, not his, "can see you again."

Luke was still two days on foot from Baticul. "How did you find me?" How had he gotten out of the house, for that matter? Luke knew very well that security had to have been ramped up.

"Hyperresonance. Our power." The power Van had been after. "It took me awhile to find you. I'm sorry. I ended up in the core first. And…" the replica paused for a long time before slumping. "I can't get us back to Baticul that way. I don't have a target and I'm not good enough to do this without a big one yet. I'm still figuring this out even though Lorelei explained a lot."

"Lorelei?" The replica had talked with Lorelei?

"The person we're isofons of. The fonon sentience. I was trying to find you because I knew you should feel like me, but Lorelei's bigger than you and more like me since replicas are all seventh fonons like he is and humans aren't. So I kept ending up in the core and eventually I gave up and started talking to him even though he was the one who kept giving me headaches. He's actually really nice, though!" The replica sighed. "Um… What do you want to do?"

"I want to go home." That was all he could want at the moment.

"Yeah, but how are you going to do that?"

"Walk, or stow away on something. The same way I got this far."

"Really?" The replica was impressed. "Wow! The world is big, and that's really far! I've never been out of the manor before this, well, not that I remember. Can I come with you? They stopped looking for you when Van gave them me, so I owe it to you to try to help you get home, at least. I'm sorry I didn't bring anything, I left right after I found out and I didn't think to bring any food. I have my practice sword, though, and I can use fonic artes."

"Wait a minute. You can use fonic artes? Van said you shouldn't even be able to really talk yet."

"It's because of our power. I was thirsty, and I couldn't think of how to ask, and I found out that I can control people's memories. Lorelei said it's instinct and I was lucky it just happened, since it's not something teaching would help."

"So you stole someone's memories of how to perform fonic artes?"

"Yeah." The replica scraped its boot in the dirt. "Van. He felt me doing it, and attacked me, and that was what made me find all of this out."

"Van is in Baticul?"

"He was seven hours ago. I vanished, and while he was there. So I don't know what they'll do about that. When you get there you can tell them what happened. But… Please don't tell them about me?"

"Why not?"

"Replicas can sort of just vanish sometimes. If they don't know that you met me they'll think that's what happened. I think that's the best thing."

"Why?"

"Because they're your family, not mine. I'm just an imposter, they won't let me stay and father and the king would have to have me locked away or killed so I couldn't impersonate you again. Guy and Natalia and everyone, they'll think I'm a monster or something since I'm not human. I don't want to have them look at me like that." The replica's arms were wrapped around himself as he started to cry. The difference between the reasonable words and the anguished voice was so huge Luke could tell that this was a way of talking the replica had copied from someone else., someone who rarely cried. "So I'm going to go away once you're home and safe."

"What are you going to do?" Luke found himself feeling sorry for him. It was like looking in a mirror, he'd been that miserable many times since he'd been kidnapped.

"Lorelei said I could stay, at least for awhile." The replica tried to smile. "Don't worry about me. You're the one who was kidnapped and had his replica data extracted, which is really dangerous, and nearly had his family stolen by a fake, and…"

Luke patted him on the shoulder, in lieu of anything else to do. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, it's Van's," the replica pointed out as he hugged back. "I hope everything turns out okay. I'll, I'll help you get home and then if you want to talk to me I'll show you how."

"What should I call you? Wait, do you have a name?"

"No, not except Luke, and it's yours."

"Um…" Luke tried to think. "Luke and Lorelei are L names. Luke means light, Lorelei means murmuring rock, or singing world. Lance sounds cool. It means land, as well as the weapon, but I think if you want to stay fighting with a sword we should pick something better."

"Shouldn't we get going? Stronger monsters come out during the day."

"Yeah, you're right." Luke let him stand up. He didn't want Luke to name him? Or was it that he though he shouldn't have a name right now, wasn't worth the time to pick one out? "Cheer up. I'll be home soon, and then I'll probably be under house arrest while you get to live in the core with Lorelei. I kind of want to trade back places."

"No. They're your family, and they love you. You need to go home to them. I won't take your place, it's not right." The replica swung wide around an area, and Luke recognized the signs of someone avoiding a monster even though he couldn't make one out in the darkness brightened only by Luna and the fon belt.

His replica was really determined to do the right thing. "Leal."

"What?"

"Leal. It means faithful."

"Leal." His replica looked at him and smiled. Luke found himself smiling back and wondered how long it had been since he'd exchanged friendly smiles with someone. Probably not since he last saw Guy before he was kidnapped. "Thank you." It clearly meant a lot.

"It's nothing."

They stopped by a stream awhile before dawn. As Leal soaked aching feet (he'd never walked further than across the mansion) in the cold water Luke drew random patterns in it with a stick, more to erase his reflection than to play. "I don't know if I should go home," he confessed.

"Why not? Guy and Natalia love you, and Suzanne too."

"You didn't say Father or Uncle. Do you know about why Van made you?"

"Akzeriuth?"

Luke nodded.

"Oh." Leal frowned. "Well… Lorelei can't just erase that. He's bound to keep the Score going, the pact Yulia made. But Van knows a lot about the stuff the Order has to do to keep following the Score the way they want. I don't think we can break the Score, not yet anyway, but we could look for loopholes."

"Loopholes?"

"Yeah. Like Van wanted to have it be me instead of you by making my name be Luke fon Fabre. Oh, that's something! Changing a name and identity would count as destroying yourself. It has to be a real, serious change, though. We couldn't just rename Akzeriuth and get out of it that way. Well, we have seven years to work on it." Leal smiled at him. "I was made to save you, anyway. So I'll help save you. I like you and I don't want Mother to be sad or Natalia to cry anymore."

"Natalia cried?"

Leal stared at him. "Of course Natalia cried! I only knew her for a couple months and I know that she loves you very much. People cry for people they love, or have to work very hard not to cry, anyway."

A couple months. That reminded Luke of how very young Leal was. He did a good job of faking ten, Asch's age and the age he looked, but even if he'd copied how to act from people the way he'd copied how to talk (a lot of Leal's mannerisms reminded Luke of Guy, now that he thought about it), he was really an infant. An infant who had just found out that his home wasn't his.

Luke had seen babies, and they were awful brats. He'd been glad he couldn't have a little brother. A normal baby would have kept Luke's family to himself. Leal truly was very honorable. Luke owed Leal, he decided, for this. What could he do to repay him? Leal was right, Luke's family would have him killed even if Luke begged for them to let him stay. So he'd have to be family for him. And it looked like Lorelei would too. At least Leal wouldn't be homeless and abandoned the way Luke had feared he would be.

Although that was less important than the fact that Van kidnapping Luke had made Natalia cry. By his honor, there had to be vengeance for that as well as what he'd done to Luke himself.

Also, Luke was hungry. "Do you know how to fish?"

"No, I never had any reason to copy it from someone." Leal was, in a roundabout way, asking permission to copy it from Luke so he could help catch dinner with that look.

"I think I'll show you." There was a flash of hurt in Leal's eyes. "I don't mind you looking in my memories if you ask permission first, but normally people learn things by being taught. If you want to make friends you're going to have to learn how to learn things the normal way, because they'll think it's weird if you suddenly know them."

"Guy was scared." Oh, so that was why Leal was so worried by Asch's reaction. He was afraid he would be hated for this power the way Luke was seen as a weapon for his.

"Does it hurt?"

"I kind of tore him out of his body by accident the first time I did it. Other than that, Van was the first person to notice me doing it."

"Could you do it so I can see what it's like? And can you give memories as well as taking them?"

"Yes, and make people forget. Should I do it now?"

"Now." Luke closed his eyes to focus.

The side of him Leal was on felt more… there wasn't really a word. It wasn't just Leal's body heat. There was a hesitant sort of feeling that was probably the equivalent of a poke. Luke knew what the seventh fonon felt like, but there weren't really words, and this was different from casting an arte or having one cast on him. "I'm done," Leal told him.

Luke opened his eyes. "No, that didn't hurt. So… Do you want to start fishing?"

"Sure! I'll go find a walking stick!" Leal ran off to find his own makeshift fishing pole and started to braid his hair into a line as Luke set himself up in a likely spot with some monster meat that he'd had wrapped in leaves to save and use as bait. It was sort of beeflike, but he wouldn't want to eat it if he had another option. Luckily the fish were biting and they did.

Having someone else with him, especially someone who knew how to heal, made a big difference. Before Leal came he'd been just trying to survive, but now it felt like a camping trip. Leal told him how everyone was doing and he told Leal about how they'd gotten that way. It made it feel real, somehow, that he'd escaped and was going home. Home was still there. Leal had kept it waiting for him and even if he hadn't been able to bring Luke back to Baticul just like that he'd brought home to Luke.

Leal, Leal was family. Like the twin brother, or baby brother, he'd never had.

But Leal couldn't be family to Luke's family. They'd kill him, they really would. Mother and Natalia would back Luke up, but there was no way they would let Leal stay with Luke.

So they ended up camping outside Baticul when they got there, so they could rest up. "Wow, it's really pretty." Leal had no memories of anything outside the manor: he'd only learned how to make his memories stay clear instead of fading away because his brain was so new and hadn't gotten the hang of it yet when he'd learned how to copy other people's memories. He didn't remember with his brain, he remembered with his fonons.

"Can you get away safely if we go into the city and the guards recognize us before we get to the manor?" Luke asked. "Since we're here, I want to show you Baticul."

"Sure, and if I can't Lorelei will call me to him." Leal looked excited, but, "Wait. Don't you want to go home?"

"Of course. But it would be a better idea to find out what's going on then to just walk right in. Van might be there, or who knows what. We should go find someplace the White Knights don't go where there's a lot of gossip. Hey! Come on, I'll show you the Coliseum. If you can figure out how to disguise yourself, then if they let me get out of the manor maybe we could meet up there sometime." The Coliseum was great fighting practice: they wouldn't be able to refuse him that if he got good enough.

"Sure!"

Which was how they ended up eating really unhealthy food (Leal's first taste of fried goodness) and watching the fights while talking about the artes and tactics of the participants with the man in the next seat over. Discussing sword styles allowed Luke to steer the conversation to Van (he was a Duke's son, he knew basic politicking skills like that), who was in the dungeon awaiting a representative of the Order of Lorelei to come by and review what was going on.

If Van was in the dungeon it should be safe to go home.

The lifts to the noble and military levels were guarded. Luckily, the royals knew a secret way. "Come on, let me show you how to get up to where the manor is." Maybe they could figure out a story for Leal, or something? He didn't want to say, 'this was the boy who found me,' not when they looked almost identical. That was asking for it. But if Leal grew his hair out, dyed it, something, learned how to copy an accent, maybe Chesedonian, then maybe…

And then they were there, and Luke didn't want to say goodbye. "Can I talk to you? If you and Lorelei can talk to each other?"

"Yeah! Could I show you how?" Not give him the memory, actually do it.

"Go ahead." Luke closed his eyes and felt Leal reach out, then put a hand on Luke's forehead.

"Your fon slots: we're isofons but human slots are sort of… I think it would be a lot easier if I tune them to Lorelei's and my frequency. Otherwise, you're going to have a really hard time hearing me when I want to talk to you and I'm going to get headaches from the dissonance."

"Tune my fon slots?"

"It'll make you a lot better at fonic artes, and Lorelei let me see how to do it without hurting you. It'll only take a second."

"Go ahead." Luke didn't really feel anything but Leal's presence, which had already been there, and everything suddenly becoming less blurry. Yes, this would make fonic artes easier.

Can you hear me?

Yes. Good, now we won't have to be separated.

If you call for me, be careful. You'll probably get Lorelei by mistake a lot, and Lorelei's in pain. If you connect to him the pain will leak across for a moment until he connects you to me. Leal leaned his forehead against Luke's. So be careful.

How much does it hurt? Oh, so that was how the memory power worked, although it was a lot more natural for the two of them. He'd have to be careful doing it to other people. I'll be fine.

Alright. Luke felt Leal almost close this link before strengthening it again. Please, let them think you didn't see me. That it was probably a replica and it must have vanished like the other ones did, back to the fon belt.

I don't want to, but I will. If they think you're still alive they'll look for you, and it'll be really hard to figure out a way for you to come and see me.

Leal hugged him. Let me know how it goes, okay?

I will, as soon as they let me get a moment. His father and the king would insist on questioning him to make sure he wasn't also a fake, then his mother and Natalia… You get out of town, they might search it to see if Van's agents were tracking me.

One was. I made him go to sleep before I showed myself to you.

Thanks. I don't know when they'll let me out of the mansion again. Luke sighed, feeling Leal's own sigh brush against his face. At least we can talk this way.

Yeah. Well… I'd better go.

I'll talk to you tonight, Luke promised. He didn't want to say goodbye.

I'll be waiting. Leal pulled himself loose and stepped away from Luke. Their opening eyes met and then they looked away. Leal focused and an instant later he was gone.

Luke hadn't gotten very far before guards started pouring into the upper level's courtyard. "A hyperresonance has been detected! Spread out and…" Luke walked right up to the commander and removed his hood. "Lord, Lord Luke? Is that really you?"

"Yes, although given what Van told me you shouldn't rely on my face to tell you that. Take me to my father, I need to tell him what Commandant Grants is up to as soon as possible!"