A/N: The Hymmnos greeting was intended to be: I sincerely wish for mutual peace and understanding with you

I may or may not have constructed that Hymmnos sentence correctly.

The next chapter would be about Tom. Which may take a bit more time.


The first few aircraft to arrive, a few hours after the Tower appeared, were military fighters. They circled in a large holding pattern around the Tower, staying well out of radio interference range. Multiple nations had sent aircraft, of varying capabilities and numbers. The situation was tense, but at least hostilities between the different nation's militaries were unlikely. Everyone had been briefed to stick with their countrymen and avoid potential clashes.

The three hundred kilometer circle drawn in the ocean with ice was also respected. When the floating continent was flying near the service ceiling of most aircraft, it put into perspective just how powerful the aliens were. The older planes couldn't even see the upper surface of the land. Provoking whatever was in the Tower was not high on the list of anyone's priorities.

The USA group arrived first, a quartet of fighters, three tankers and a pair of early warning and control aircraft, launched from a supercarrier group in the Atlantic that was also making its way to the Tower at top speed. Pushing their service ceiling, the early warning aircraft had circled around the three hundred kilometer exclusion zone to try and get pictures and scans of the floating land as well as the Tower.

Despite radio interference, a software filter was hastily assembled to get some at least some radar information.

What it painted was worrying.

Inside the exclusion zone, the weather systems detected were distinctly abnormal. Clouds were in the wrong strata, temperature and humidity was more akin to sea level conditions than the expected rarefied atmosphere.

Most damningly, the top surface of the continent looked inhabited. And temperate. Somehow.

Initial pictures had been met with outright disbelief. There was a major city on the continent near the Tower, one flying city somewhere below, one city even further up on the Tower itself. There was also an even higher flying mini-continent that also had a city. The main landmass held farmed land, villages and towns as well. There was an entire country up there.

Radar returns had also picked up possible aircraft between the cities and the Tower, even if the flight profiles were all too slow. They were even slower than propeller airplanes from the first world war! The aircraft did not leave the bubble of altered climate however, so there were no opportunities to get better information beyond specks in a camera.

The source of the indiscriminate radio energy could not be localized beyond a general section of the Tower somewhere above the stratosphere. Not to say that other sources weren't present everywhere along the Tower, but the main one was up there. Measurements had tentatively placed the source to be the same place as where the freezing beam had originated from.

The Tower itself also had interesting features. Pictures of the entire profile had been taken from all angles, the purpose and design of obvious functional modules debated and analyzed over and over again. The most baffling was of course the giant trio of golden horns, for what purpose that the flaring bell shape was required no one could understand. That couldn't possibly be a giant instrument, right?

The primary metal-like material that made up the bulk of the Tower's structure was also a point of contention. Scientists argued that no material could possibly withstand the compressive forces generated by a hundred kilometer tall, mountain sized Tower. Yet the Tower was standing. Some tried to calculate its density from how the Tower reacted to wind, but the climate bubble appeared to abrogate that entirely. The Tower did not bend with the wind. Trying to estimate the weight from the deformation of the sea floor measured by sonar returns gave the Tower material a ridiculous density of barely more than air. Then again, there was a continent a third the size of California flying at ten kilometers with no apparent support, maybe the same process was applied to the Tower?

Analysis of the various radio energies emitted by the Tower did not yield any obvious digital traffic. Some frequencies were obviously communication, just from the traffic patterns, all analysis indicated that the radio frequencies were not carrying all the signal. And the signals were all analog. Some frequencies might have resembled radar but were not sweeping detectors, instead more resembling broad spectrum jamming. There was no obvious radar tracking of the military aircraft assembling around the Tower either.

In the end, the only conclusion was that the aliens were a mystery.


Many hours of circling ensued, less well equipped groups had to be rotated out from the lack of fuel. The US group stayed in place and was only added to, tankers ferrying a constant stream of fuel to feed the network of observers. Satellites passing close had been diverted, not too far, and gathered more pictures and information.

Radio telescopes, ground and sea based radar, even sonar stations, were all listening to the aliens' signals. Hoping find a way to communicate.

It was around twenty hours after the Tower appeared that the first obvious return signal was received. Someone from the lower flying city was pinging the US early warning craft with a mirror of its radar emissions.


The Tenba offices were a beehive of activity. The sea had to be tested for toxicity and diseases, the planet itself had to be explored, the human-like native they had picked up had to be healed and secured.

Ayano looked up as yet another engineer burst into the Tenba command center in Firefly Alley. "Madam, the lower frequencies! The noise in the atmosphere! It's communications and sensors!" the young man bounced excitedly, she gestured indulgently for him to continue, "sometime after we arrived, the number of signals began to increase. Some of these frequency signals appear to be targeted, sweeping over the Tower and Wings of Horus periodically. Some are targeted, they're like torchlights!"

So the natives were trying to find out more about the Tower. Only to be expected of course. "But communications? How can such limited frequencies communicate anything?" she asked him.

The Tenba engineer chirped back, "their precision and localization is much better than ours. Limited to a few frequency bands, communication signals are composed of multiple channels that use frequency modulation to convey information. I believe they use a binary format. Don't ask us to decipher it, without knowledge of their protocols, it's impossible. "

"Any chance they'll be able to receive ours?" Ayano asked.

The man wiggled his hand uncertainly, "Symphonic power does have frequencies in their range, they'll be able to see some of the dynamic D-waves with their equipment but they won't be able to pick up the entire spectrum. No way they'll listen in with just that. But that's not to say they won't build receivers later, especially since the Grathnode Discs would be broadcasting symphonic power over a good portion of this planet. They could eventually analyze it and build their own symphonic power sensors since we're constantly providing an example. "

Eh, not important. The natives reverse engineering a symphonic sensor when they didn't employ symphonic power would be too far in the future. The Grathnode Discs would never be turned off anyway. How their civilization survived without symphonic power was a mystery that had Ayano licking her chops. It had the smell of a profit opportunity.

"What are those sensors of their seeing?"

"Surface scans, general shape and position. Not much more than that," he replied, "it functions by receiving the reflections. Just like shining a light really. "

"Can you build a communicator using their frequencies?"

He shook his head, "our symphonic power are all amplitude modulated. I might be able to design and grathmeld something simple, but we can't match their complexity in the frequencies. I'm sorry, we never optimized those bands because those D-waves are used for short ranged and protocol initialization only. Frankly, most of our H-wave based communications can't even talk to them. "

"Then how about copying one of their signals? We could mirror say, their sensor airships bands and just send it back at them. Hopefully, we can establish some sort of communications protocol so we can tell them to come pick up their guy and arrange a meeting. "


The mirrored radar signals followed the aircraft around, pinging it with an exact copy of its radar emissions whenever it sent anything.

Hypothetical First Contact folders had been dusted off and made ready, so when something on the Tower began to respond, the Contact team assembled in the Pentagon immediately started to flash prime numbers at the aliens.

It took a few tries before the aliens realized they were supposed to continue the pattern. Some exchanges on each of the radio frequency bands took the aliens yet more time to work out a multiplex signal. Then eventually, after thirty hours of trying to establish some method of communication, a raw audio signal had been established and calibrated with musical scales. Along the way, the alien signal had suddenly become more complicated in fits and starts, as if they were refining their radio equipment every few hours.

The difficulty of the whole process had assuaged fears of omnipotent aliens descending on Earth. From all appearances, the aliens were not geniuses compared to humans. It was becoming apparent that the aliens had sufficiently advanced technology, rather than being superhuman in general.

"Greetings from the peoples of Earth," said the Contact team's male speaker. Chosen to speak what they were told to by the team, to keep the voices constant, the man and woman were distinctly nervous, though none of it appeared in their voices.

"Was Zweie Ra Enne Knawa en Falfa Eazas Yor. The people of Sol Ciel and Metalfalss express our greetings in peace. Ar Tonelico Administrator Eolia greets you. " came the first alien voice on Earth. The first part was distinctly musical, as if the speaker was singing, unlike the second half which was in a different language and much more formal tone.

Cheers and high fives in the office was interrupted with the realization that the speaker sounded like a teenage girl. Indeed as the alien speaker appeared to pass off the actual talking to someone else, who repeated the greeting's first two sentences then "Metafalica Administrator Frelia greets you", it was a different girl's voice. Then the third alien speaker sounded like an older man, who did not sing and was the actual person to start the process of communication.

What if the aliens were not actually aliens but humans after all? That was the question that occurred to everyone there.

Anthropologists, linguists and diplomats immediately pounced, while the Contact team continued to try to establish a protocol for images.


A grueling week of back and forth attempts at translation later, a very basic understanding of the grammar and vocabulary had been established. Communications were now sent through a satellite instead of a military plane.

Video of the "aliens" had proved they were no such thing. They were perfectly human, if of an ethnicity not found on Earth and a foreign dress culture. The two girls who made the first greeting were always present and they opened every session with the same snatch of song. The song language had not been part of the otherworlders' translation efforts and so the meaning was still unknown. The best guess was that the song language was a traditional or ceremonial language.

The white and green themed girls also seemed to be strangely placed in their hierarchy. They had the most ornate clothing, including slightly transparent wing-shaped attachments for the green girl. Everyone in the video was always deferential and respectful to both of them. But they were not in command. But still made suggestions that were always taken seriously. While three leadership figures had been identified, the two teens were still an enigma, outside their obvious ceremonial functions.

Still, they were much easier to read than the politicians doing the actual talking.

The otherworlders had called themselves Ar Cielans when asked about their planet. But the shadowed expressions, refusal to answer questions and the way that the label was always applied to themselves in past tense implied some very bad news and a possible reason why they had come to Earth. Reassurances had been given that the Ar Cielans had no hostility and sought to further understanding and open trade, along with a lack of any moves to leave their area, meant that the military had been stood down to a lower alert level. Still watchful of course.

The 'claiming' of the ice perimeter was explained as an anti-tsunami measure. The explanation that the Ar Cielans had to prevent the tidal wave caused by their arrival engendered a hope that peace was truly possible. It appeared that the otherworlders were at least trying to stay friendly. The whole area was in international waters anyway, so it still served as a conveniently established boundary that the UN could agree to. The Tower being able to send giant freezing beams within that range and possibly beyond was a strong claim to that territory after all.

A multinational delegation had been flown in from the United Nations to the American supercarrier heading to the Tower. A meeting date had been established for two days later at the rapidly melting ice perimeter, when the American navy group would reach the area. No one else had dared to go past the ice floe yet, even if the Ar Cielans appeared friendly.

So it came as a complete surprise, at least to those not in the know, when a wizard was shown and introduced on camera and the delegation was asked to take him back.

They had tentatively agreed but apart from identifying him as a British citizen, they had not mentioned the wizarding world to the Ar Cielans. Who knew what those crazy magic users might do.

The more astute noticed that the words used to refer to the wizard had the same root as the name for the song language.


Shurelia frowned as the latest communication session ended with yet another country wanting to make contact. Their understanding of the local language called English had improved far more than the natives did in understanding Cielan due to the presence of that one intruder in questioning. The natives of course had no understanding of Central Standard Note. Cloche's government was also compiling a Pastalian to English translator, with the according restriction on exposure of New Testament of Pastalie. They were not about to teach the locals to interpret Song Magic when they still could not trust them.

The world called Earth was reminiscent of Ar Ciel in many ways. The environment was ideal, reducing the load on the Musical Corridor greatly. It held a patchwork of many different countries, some of which were unfriendly to each other. The tension between the USA and Russia reminded Shurelia of Sol Ciel and Sol Cluster. Down to the way they dragged smaller nations into their conflict.

The fact that they were getting an inside view to how one of the countries, Britain, worked, from interviews with the captured intruder, was not mentioned. The diplomats had not provided anything beyond the most general of details, so none of the Ar Cielan governments had felt the need to show off their advantage.

The complete lack of symphonic technology was puzzling. From what Shurelia knew of the global population and sophistication of the most developed countries, the natives were on par with Sol Ciel's middle days. Her historical study when she was still young had run through that peaceful period when symphonic power was a well used field that supported civilization but not sophisticated enough to destroy the world yet. This civilization should have discovered and made use of dynamic H-waves by now, the easiest to manipulate portion of symphonic power.

Especially when there were people who did employ magic, dynamic H-waves, like the trio who had attempted to hack Tower security to gain entrance and teleported away after one was captured. How such a situation, magic users without magic technology, could have happened was puzzling and none of the people in this Dimensional Transfer team had reasonable answers.

There was also an unstated threat behind some of the bigger players' actions. Not anything concrete that their diplomats had mentioned of course, but Shurelia and her sister Frelia had both felt that the locals had a hidden trump card behind their confidence. Shurelia just hoped it wasn't a weapon, or if it was, that card wouldn't destroy the world like Ar Ciel had.

She suppressed a shudder. May this world never see the horrors she had.


The ICW continued their useless debates as MACUSA proceeded to listen in on the muggles' effort. There was no need to proceed with a risky, potentially hostile contact operation when the muggles were doing it for them. Though whether they should reveal themselves to the Tower was a moot point now.

All scrying and divination efforts had failed to gather any details. There was just too much magic near the Tower to let such attempts work. Divination was a pretty fragile discipline anyway.

So far, the wizards of the Tower had not revealed the existence of magic to the muggles, instead letting the muggles figure out for themselves just how the obvious Tower abilities were accomplished. Why not was puzzling when the Tower wizards clearly did not have any such thing as a Statue of Secrecy. Just the Tower's existence was enough to conclude that. One did not build impossibly high towers supported with magic if one wanted to stay unnoticed.

The few days into the contact had most of the ICW thinking that the Tower was also going to avoid telling the muggles about magic and breathed a sigh of relief. Dumbledore had felt it necessary to point out that if the Tower knew the muggles did not have magic, then not telling the muggles was expected.

No one had believed him. They had all wanted to think that the Tower was not going to jeopardize the Statute of Secrecy, because there wasn't very much they could do about it if the Tower decided to do so. The encounter with the security golems had been shocking to their confidence.

The three cursebreakers were not the best fighters but they were decent enough. And the fact that four golems and a painting had driven them off was humiliating and proscribed any possible ICW intervention. Even if ICW could scrape together enough forces to attack, even if they could somehow win, it would only be at extremely high cost. Member nations would sooner balk at the cost in money and lives than commit to any sort of operation that might see a war start.

And there was still the beam to worry about. If the magical field being projected, that was even now still detectable, was the extent of the range of the Tower, and ongoing research into the field hinted that it was, that meant the Tower could fire that beam at nearly half the wizarding ministries in the world. Never mind the smaller settlements and magical wilderness zones. From the effect it had had on the ocean, the conclusion was that even if a ward could be designed to specifically counter that beam, the Tower beam was so powerful it would blow past any possible defence and could instantly destroy whole cities.

It was only Dumbledore's counsel that the Tower had no motive to use it, nor any idea where the wizarding communities were, that had prevented a riot in the ICW chambers when the alarming report on the Tower's capabilities had been given.

Talk about a big stick.

So for now, the ICW would watch and wait for an opportunity to introduce themselves.

It was quite the shock, not quite of the same flavour as the muggles', when the Tower wizards had presented Tom to the muggles for collection, mistakenly believing him to belong to the British muggles.