Asch didn't wake up in his room at the side of his bed. He was in a bed: he almost expected that, since Guy had been there, but he knew his bed and this wasn't it.

His mouth tasted like his own blood. He played possum but finally, hearing no one, opened his eyes to find himself in a deserted high nobility guest room with his equipment at the foot of his bed along with a letter. A letter addressed to him and the others (strange that Luke's friends were 'the others' now) in a handwriting he recognized.

The door was open, the message that he was free to go. He scrambled to get prepared for battle: first things first, after all.

Then he read the letter.

Damn him!

Luke!

Asch. I'm so sorry.

Why didn't you kill him on sight!

I wanted to find out what was going on, and he pretended he was a victim, and he told me that you had a fon slot seal… I know, I should have. A too-long silence. I'm sorry.

You… That sorry didn't change anything, didn't do more than state the obvious. Of course Luke was sorrowful, so was Asch. Was dwelling on their mutual misery and self-blame going to improve anything? At least we can still stay in touch. We'll find a way out of this.

Alarm resonated in him, dimly. Asch, we can't. If you try I have to stop you no matter what. I don't have a choice, not any more than I did with the Score. Luke didn't want to have to kill him. Luke didn't want to have to kill him, Luke was so desperately alone and longing to be able to be here with them and Luke's focus was on not wanting to hurt the one that had failed to guard him.

Was he telling the truth about you forcing him to stop lying?

Yes.

Well, that's a victory. He managed a smirk, although only a brief one. And there's nothing protecting his miserable life?

No.

Then he was right. This pact was his death warrant, the instant he forced you to sign it. Asch found the Key of Lorelei next to his own sword and hefted it.

He left it? Luke at first seemed to find that surprising and then appropriate. Asch, you can use it to remove the rest of the fon slot seal. Touch the Jewel.

Asch did as directed and found that the seal did in fact disperse from the fon slots in his hand. Thank you. He touched the back of his hand and what bare flesh he had to the Jewel and decided he would do the rest later.

There's a bit of a loophole that isn't cheating. Luke couldn't cheat: the Score had been a forecast as well as or perhaps more than a compulsion. The problem had been disrupting his forecast. This was a pact to do certain things, or to be precise prevent certain things. I could speak to people through you, since we have the same frequency. Although Luke didn't know if Asch would permit that. He certainly hadn't let Luke take control of Asch's body while Asch kept Luke's in a coma after Akzeriuth.

Of course I'll let you say your goodbyes.

Thank you.

I owe it to you. He also owed Luke Van Grants' head on a platter. Is there any way for a pact to be mutually withdrawn? If both of you were to agree to get rid of it?

If there was, the Score wouldn't have been valid.

Asch should have realized that.

Luke was so worried, hovering, Asch his only window to the world and friends he loved. Like a kicked cheagle locked outside in the rain, nose up against the glass of a window. Asch had never seen such a sight (and neither had Luke, despite what the others said about his mistreatment of Mieu), but while he wasn't Tear he couldn't leave Luke like this. Come here. Luke let Asch pull him in this time, instead of being ambushed after fainting. Then, Asch had been keeping Luke at arm's length, doing it both to taunt him and to keep him divided enough between the two bodies to be unable to gain control of either of them, especially without any knowledge of how this worked. Now, he let Luke nestle into aching, empty places inside that seemed to have been waiting for his return.

Luke was so grateful. Although that didn't make the top three most heartbreaking things about this day. Or had it been more than a day?

He tucked away the letter, put on the Ultimatus, his usual sword now that he wasn't limited to standard issue, held on to the Key of Lorelei and strode out into the hall.

A country estate this close to Baticul should not be so completely deserted.

He had to get back to the city to report. This was expedited by a patrol of White Knights turning out to be one of several search parties looking for him under orders from the Kimlascan Empress. The title situation had been complicated, but Natalia was the Empress of Kimlasca, Peony was still the Emperor of Malkuth, and their heir would be the Emperor of Kimlasca and Malkuth, which came first most likely depending on which country's native was addressing him. All that nonsense had always bored Asch to tears.

Although what was forcing him to keep his composure was the mourning that resonated from Luke, the desire to touch as well as look out through Asch's eyes. He'd let him do that, take control. He'd let him do it often.

With all that was running through his head, perhaps Asch could be forgiven for being ambushed despite Luke's sudden feeling of distraction and cry of warning. His White Knight escort was quickly on the ground and he found himself staring down a woman in light green with a very large sword, another swordswoman in blue, and an archer and shield-carrying fonist both also wearing light green. The trio wearing the same color looked enough alike to be sisters.

They're not sisters. They're Sylph. I wasn't the one who came up with the idea of having multiple manifestations. Undine used to have another, called Celsius, but there aren't polar ice caps anymore. Luke was very, very worried. And he wasn't the one with the weapons pointed at him.

So she would be Undine? Artwork usually depicted her in much less clothing. Both of them, actually. Or all four? He'd never heard of them depicted like this. Of course, he'd never heard of them showing up in person, not since before the Dawn Age. Are the others waiting in the wings?

Efreet, yeah. He's never picked out a human form, so he won't show up unless they decide to stop being subtle.

Taking out an entire patrol of White Knights isn't exactly going to go unnoticed.

They're not dead, just unconscious.

"Ahem." It probably wasn't the best idea to ignore women that angry who had swords pressed to his throat. "Our little brother was crying." And there would be payback. "He's gotten himself suckered into some pact again and won't tell us the details. But apparently you know, so you will now tell us." Or else.

Asch could feel Luke trying to talk to them, which was greeted by a, "Shut up," from one of the other women in green, the fonist. "We let you spend two thousand years in the core, even when having three levels of atmosphere tripled our work and we had to separate out like this to keep up with it, last time. We're not going to stand by and let you be miserable and make the rest of us miserable again."

"Lorelei," the archer chimed in. "I know you care about them, and we're willing to try to keep the bodies to a minimum," a meaningful look was given to the fonist, "but we hate seeing you like this. Obviously a pact's a pact, but a little brother is a little brother." End of discussion.

"I have the letter the person who made the pact left, if I could reach into my pocket to get it." Not a good idea to make sudden moves when faced with soldiers of this competence with this sort of advantage, and that was dealing with 'mere' humans.

"Hand it over," the sword-Sylph ordered.

Undine took it, and handed it over to the archer, whose eyes flickered over it before tossing it back. "I'm Yutis," the archer introduced herself. "My other selves are Sephie, the swordswoman, and the fonist is Fairess. Undine's decided to go by Siren. Undine and I are coming with you. Fairess is going back to the fon belt because someone has to get the work done," and given that it seemed reasonably obvious that the tornado had been Fairess' doing Asch was quite happy that she would be making herself scarce, "And Sephie, who has seniority, will be working with Efreet, Gnome, and Rem to track Grabby down." Which was obviously a far more choice assignment than running the shop or dealing with humans.

Grabby? One who would seize glory. Vandesdelca. Not a bad nickname. Luke?

Um… He should have watched his wording too. I had to go here and stay here, I can't let myself be summoned or go down there myself, I can't 'place myself at risk' by being here, and I can't let there be another Score. On the other hand, my fonic artes are allowed to stay working, I'm specifically prohibited from restricting anyone's free will, which means I can't stop you from planning things, and I can talk to you.

That means if someone gets you down here in a way that you can't prevent so you aren't 'letting' it happen and you aren't at risk then you can stay?

Well, risk levels can be tricky… Luke managed to convey fake innocence. Sylph and Undine are sort of the family lawyers. Sylph's good with words but being the Heavenly Messenger means she can't stand lying. They can do it, but they hate it. Undine's always been slippery, though. Efreet kept getting himself caught up in ridiculous pacts. It wasn't just Luke. Slyph used to like people a lot more, but then the miasma happened.

While they were talking, the sword had been removed from Asch's neck and the swordswoman and fonist had blown away, turning from human to clumps of green fonons to those same fonons spread out enough to be indistinguishable from normal wind. Undine had flooded the ground and the water, if it was water, was causing the knights to come to.

Why do Sylph's aspects have such distinct personalities?

The same way Lorelei and Luke did. We were separate and had different experiences, although we were the same person underneath, so when we merged back together I'm one now. Sylph's the same way, although she did the separate aspects thing less so that 'Luke' would be different from 'Lorelei' and more as a side effect of having such different responsibilities. Fairess was the air fonons in the core and caught up in the Planet Storm, the ones mostly used for fonic artes, Sephie's the regular atmosphere, and Yutis was the miasma. They had different jobs, so that made them act differently over time. Fairess was around me the most, and so she's the most determined not to let that happened again. If I hadn't made them promise… but by the Score, I had to. He'd been forced not to go for help.

Yutis was the miasma? He eyed her carefully as she stood there with utter confidence that the White Knights, who were looking to Asch for orders as they revived, wouldn't dream of attacking her. That confidence itself was what was keeping them from doing it, for now.

Well, someone had to keep it separate. That's why she has arrows. Poisons and plague strike people down suddenly, without an enemy being close enough to kill to defend yourself. So arrows are an old symbol for that. Oh, Sephie says you should say that Yutis and Siren are other god-generals, which is true even if they're not part of the Order.

Your Order.

I've been avoiding thinking about that part. It was embarrassing. They don't want people thinking they'll start showing up again. This is a special case, and if people keep trying to summon them then eventually they'll learn how to.

I can understand that.

After a brief 'explanation' from Asch, Yutis acted with impeccable formality. Every military organization had different types of salutes and other means of identifying members: Yutis might have been channeling Legretta. No White Knight who had dealt with Asch, Tear, or a high-ranking Oracle Knight while on duty wouldn't have fallen for it. "My apologies: we thought you might be disguised agents of Lord fon Fabre's kidnappers, since we had tracked him to a deserted Kimlascan manor that would have had a guard of your size, meaning exactly this amount of White Knight uniforms could have been stolen from it."

"That's understandable, General Yutis." Normally it wouldn't be, but this appeared to be a state of emergency. "Do you have any idea what happened to the guard detail there?"

"None, I'm afraid."

"What were Fon Master Anise and Empress Natalia's orders for me?" Asch asked.

"We have a flare that we can send up to request a pickup by airship. Or, if you think secrecy would be safer, we are instructed to help you sneak into the city undetected."

"What's the situation in the city? Is there some reason to believe we could be attacked while waiting for an airship?" He looked around at all of them.

"After yesterday's turmoil, the citizens are alarmed, and it's difficult to tell what is understandable and what might be attempts by saboteurs to cause trouble." That had been the wedding's problem all along, and this would just have exacerbated it. "Sir, is it true that Viscount Luke has returned?"

Why are you surprised they want you back? You saved the world, Luke. "That's a complicated matter that I need to debrief to their majesties and the Fon Master on." Which statement wasn't, as Asch intended and the knights' commander picked up on, a no.

"If I may, Senior General Asch," Undine, aka Siren spoke up, "Could I suggest a strategy?"

"Go ahead."

"It's highly likely that the ones responsible have taken refuge in the abandoned factory. The ink on that message indicates it was written no more than four hours ago, and while searches of carts and houses would certainly be rapidly accomplished by the White Knights the strange monsters resident in the factory require more elite forces that would take time to assemble, especially due to the high security necessary for their majesties. It would provide an excellent temporary refuge until a break in the web of searchers were to appear. Such a break, or at least a lower number of search parties, would occur as soon as you were found. If we were to send up that flare, dress one of them in your uniform, and give you the non-uniform gear we brought with us in case it was needed, then head to the exit of the factory and hide, we could lull them into a false sense of security."

"Make it look as though the search has died down in the area surrounding Baticul and tell their Majesties to send a party into the factory from Baticul to flush them out?" She's good.

Since her powers are the best counter to Efreet's she used to get summoned a lot by whoever was fighting the people who had summoned him.

How many thousands of years of military experience did these two have?

"Not right away," Undine cautioned. "It's also possible that they're hiding in or heading towards the Baticul side to lose themselves in the crowd. If they don't leave from this side within a few hours of the flare, then I would suggest that we enter from this side to flush them out."

The knight saluted to apologize for arguing with such a high-ranking officer. "General Siren, Asch has been requsted to head to Baticul as soon as practical."

"The factory is a route to Baticul, is it not?"

"Are you suggesting that General Asch isn't capable of making it through the factory? Not to mention that I doubt there is a more discreet route into the city. Conducting a search would kill two birds with one stone." General Yutis' tone was disapproving instead of Siren's polite way of pointing out that the knight had failed to take something into account. The lower ranks should think things through before arguing with superior officers. "Your decision, General Asch?"

"One moment." Luke, can you ask if they have some reason, besides logic of course, to think that Van's there?

They can't sense him. He actually did have a fon slot seal. Both Luke and Asch were well aware of the extent of Van's dedication, but that was on the order of letting himself get imprisoned in Baticul. Of course, Luke had been responsible for him getting out of there that time as well. But if Yutis gets close enough someone breathing that she can't reach the fon slots of is enough of a giveaway. Going through the factory should be a thorough enough sweep, even if it's a quick trip. She can't do it in a crowd or over a large area: there are too many people and monsters. But the factory's small enough and shouldn't have any other humans to confuse her.

"Let's compromise," Asch suggested. "If they're worried about being found, then strange people entering the factory might flush them out, or at least rattle them. If we were to travel though rapidly, in disguise, doing a cursory sweep, then if we're captured en route their Majesties will know where the criminals are hiding, if they're not there we have a secure and secret route to Baticul, and if they are there and avoid us then the fact a search party was mobilized that rapidly could disrupt their plans, especially if we allow them to overhear that we're just a scouting group, perhaps marking a direct route to help future search parties avoid getting lost." That was one of the main hazards of the factory. Even if the rare strong monsters didn't appear, bounty hunting parties could be unable to find their way out until they ran out of supplies. "That gets us there faster than sitting in wait would."

The two exchanged a glance, and nodded.

"Do you have message paper?"

"Of course sir." The White Knight handed it over and Asch quickly scribbled a note. The part that took longest was figuring out what to put in. On the one hand, they need to know about Van. On the other, they'd go ballistic. And he also needed to let them know what variety of fake the god-generals Anise would be surprised to find she'd suddenly acquired were.

After Asch changed into his disguise (although the color, red-gold, could have been a bit less appropriate to Lorelei), a White Knight of Asch's size had been instructed on how to get into his, and the groups parted ways, it was time for some questions. Above all, "Is there any way to force either of you into a pact?"

Undine snorted. "Not now," Yutis answered. "We destroyed all the artifacts that could be used for it and texts describing how to do it long before the dawn age. The Catalysts could perhaps be used on Rem and Shadow, but there's no accompanying fonic arte for them and they're not going to be foolish enough to create one. Not that Lorelei was really being foolish," this prompted another snort from Undine. "Oh, hush. We all created artes like that at least once, and he put better restrictions on his than any of us did. A single family line, only those from it who understood what they were doing, and only those that loved the world and him. So much better than random temple looters, sister dear."

"Van loved the world?" And Luke? Or Lorelei, at least? Asch's skepticism showed.

"Love." What could you do? "If I had a thunderstorm for every million humans who have been killed because of that emotion, I could have made the miasma Gnome's problem."

Were there even a million humans on Auldrant? In the fantastical Dawn Age, perhaps, but Asch couldn't imagine a world in which humans were as common as monsters.

"In any case, as Lorelei informed you, if Vandesdelca removes his second fon slot seal he will be able to detect him, and if he does not, then if I'm close enough and there aren't a mob of other humans around for him to be lost in then I can."

"Second fon slot seal?" Those things were incredibly expensive. Dorian General Grants did have a supply, though, and much of his equipment had never been recovered. That did explain it. Use one to try to deceive Luke, remove it to use the Grand Fonic Hymn when Luke's guard was down, and then activate another one. "Of course."

"Speaking of which, why is the one on you still mostly active?"

"I didn't want to take the time to use the Jewel while the White Knights were there. If they'd known about the seal it would have been much harder to carry out this plan."

"What does the Jewel have to do with it?"

"What do you mean?" Was there an obvious way to remove the seal that both he and Luke had missed?

It appeared so. "You do realize what the body you're using is, right?"

"Obviously not, Yutis." Undine had gotten quite far ahead while they talked. "They didn't understand that Luke was our brother. Of course he doesn't know what he's got. It's been how long since we manifested? Not to mention that their Order was working to wipe out the real truth. He'd have to be an idiot to not realize this back when we were walking around, but nowadays even that Jade you find so amusing missed something as 'obvious' as our little brother's nature."

"Oh, right. I am out of touch." Yutis seemed to find this embarrassing. "Asch, when you moved into Luke's body you brought your personal fonons in but nothing actually left. Lorelei's self is in all seventh fonons, he just stopped manifesting through those. You're a… is there a modern term?"

"I don't think so."

They were already at the abandoned factory's entrance?

Sylph is very fast, and she's also good at not making people notice.

You haven't spoken up in awhile. Was Luke doing well?

I've been setting some things up. They asked me to explain this, since they don't really know enough about how people today view things. Sylph knows the language, since she conveys words, but there's a difference between what words mean and how they're heard. Which Lorelei was better at. You're still you, but you're in my body. The body of a fonon sentience. So it turns out I didn't have to do that to remove the seals. Do you want me to get rid of them now?

Please do.

Asch could feel his fon slots open up, and it was the same feeling as when a blindfold was removed. Thank you.

That worked a lot better. The base fonons in that body don't have the ability to feel pain. What a relief!

Feel pain?

Luke was silent.

You didn't have to do what to remove the seals?

I transferred them to myself. It hurt, but I've had worse and I just healed it right away.

Luke had been through a lot, Asch knew, so saying he'd 'had worse' left a lot of ground to cover.

Feeling Asch's reaction, Luke tried again. It mostly just stung?

Mostly?

Asch… And now Luke was the one who wasn't happy. It's not that I don't appreciate the thought, but it's getting on my nerves that everyone's being so overprotective. Yes, I know I got suckered into a pact. So what? It's not rare. In the old days no one would have had the time to show up in person for it. I've been in two bad pacts and Sylph's been in twenty, and she's the smart one who gets called on the second-least after me. It would have been great if they'd woken me up before Julia did so I had the benefit of their experience, but they didn't. It would have been great if you'd come home, taught me, protected me, and been my big brother when I was a baby and needed it, but you didn't. You're trying to make up for lost time, and guess what? That time is lost. I'm not a baby anymore, you missed your chance to baby me, so stop it. I'm not going to let your guilt tripping cause me to be constantly looked down on like this.

That speech seemed to have been given to both parties, since Yutis and Undine paused.

Van undid his fon slot seal almost a minute ago. He's in the Zao Ruins sephiroth. I have the ability to keep all of you out of there and him inside it, and that is how I'm going to handle this. Like it or not. Killing him, interrogating him, whatever, won't change the pact and you know it. I am the one he hurt, not any of you, so go home! I let you come because you said you wanted to help me, but taking this over is not helping, it's controlling, and I've had more than enough of that from him!

Yutis, arms folded, seemed to be smiling with wry approval. Undine was as inscrutable as the still waters of a deep pond.

It was almost a shame to have to bring up a practical issue when something like this was going on. Luke? How did Van get all the way there this quickly?

Hyperresonance. He unsealed his fon slots, I got a lock on him, I sent him there and sealed the doors behind him. I also unlocked the staff quarters. The food supplies, well, they were stale back then and they won't be any worse now. Emergency rations, stockpiled preserved foods, since the miasma was killing most of the crops.

What was it like back then? In the semi-mythical Dawn Ages.

I really don't know where to start. You aren't going to object to what I did with him?

Would you listen?

Listen, yes. Talk about it, fine. Be ordered around, not fine. Although I might not be so calm about this if I hadn't figured out another loophole. The next part was, Asch could tell, directed at all involved. I'm creating a place for my friends to stay when they visit me in the fon belt.

Are you mad? The demigod, perhaps, but humans? That was a new speaker. Asch would guess Efreet.

Although Asch's mind was mostly busy picturing Guy's reaction to this.

Listen, you…

"Well," Yutis tapped her belt thoughtfully. "If that's settled, I'm going to Keterberg. There's a casino giving out replicas of sacred weaponry, including my bow, as prizes. That might be fun."

"You're staying in the human realm?" Undine seemed carefully neutral, yet unsurprised.

"They're making great leaps without the Score's interference, and the last time they had a renaissance without us getting ourselves involved we ended up with the miasma and the Score. Avoiding being coerced into destroying continents or slavery is one thing. None of us want another Volt. But leaving them unsupervised clearly doesn't work any better than micromanaging did."

"Perhaps. The planetary arte's glyph requires watching."

"A job for Celsius?" Yutis guessed, smiling slightly. Then she frowned, looking at Luke through Asch. "Lorelei, there's a reason we separate ourselves into pieces for company. Getting attached to humans is like getting attached to rainclouds. They might be pretty, they might be useful, but they're not something you can rely upon and there has to be a rainbow."

Luke didn't answer, just tightened, in some way, his hold on Asch. It wasn't confining, just that Luke didn't want to lose him, would hold on as long as he could. The feeling was returned.

Yutis shrugged, feeling that her advice had been given and that was the end of it. "Asch, you will receive a sign of our favor as soon as we come to a consensus."

Say thank you, Luke prodded him. That's a big deal.

"Thank you, your…" How did one address a fonon sentience?

"Your divinity. A short version of my title is Heavenly Messenger Yutis, Spirit of Wind." She waved at Undine. "She would be Maiden of Mist Undine, Spirit of Water. Efreet and Rem care about titles, and Fairess and Sephie aren't happy, so I'd be polite if I were human." Undine was already walking away, and Yutis waved once before following. They were out of sight in a step.