pushes update out the window after fighting with it for six months because of repetitive-to-game plot-establishing scenes


Astor's manor was rich in the way that only desert palaces could be - fountains and lush gardens wouldn't have drawn comment in Baticul, but in Chesedonia, the water involved in maintaining them was an extravagance only massive amounts of money could bring. Even given that most of them were still desert plants - little else could survive the heat - it was more greenery than the rest of the city combined. While the sun poured down the same way as in the rest of the city, the mere presence of water made it feel cooler, and of course it was genuinely cooler once the mist of the fountains blew into their faces.

Ion set the pace up the steps, being more affected by the heat than the rest of them due to his weak health. He was the one Astor would be willing to do a favor for on such short notice anyway, since Daath's support was the only reason Chesedonia hadn't been claimed by one country or the other in the last few centuries. Upon recognizing the Fon Master, servants ushered them inside, directly to Astor's opulent office. Astor himself was pale enough that it was clear he never left that office, with a large turban and a sharp mustache.

"Fon Master Ion!" he greeted enthusiastically, completely ignoring the rest of their group. Luke was content to let him, and seated himself on a plush couch beside Anise. "I wish that I had known you were coming - I would have prepared a grand welcome! A feast, and a party, and - "

"It's fine," Ion interrupted him gently. "We're trying to keep a low profile. I only came to ask a small favor."

"Name it," Astor said, his voice losing volume but none of its intensity. "I am always glad to be at your service, Fon Master."

"It's this fon disc," Guy said, pulling the item from where it had been carefully wrapped inside his jacket. "We want an analysis of the data, if you could."

"Of course!" Astor replied brightly, barely even turning to Guy before clapping his hands loudly to summon a servant, who carried the disc off to whatever corner of the manor held the machine to analyze it. It would be some hours before the analysis was complete, so Ion told him the address of the inn they were staying at so that the results and disc could be delivered in the morning. After that, amazingly, they escaped Astor's manor after only a single round of refreshments, odd-looking fruits that the others seemed to actually find refreshing but which Luke was all too happy to discreetly feed to Mieu.

They dispersed to their rooms after arriving at the inn, which left Luke alone with Guy - save Mieu, who curled up on a pillow to sleep off his meal. Luke stroked the sleeping cheagle's ears absently, watching the window but not really seeing it.

"Worried about what they're going to find on the disc?" Guy asked, sitting on the other bed across from Luke. Luke smiled weakly at him.

"A little," Luke said, because that was as close to putting a name to his worry as anything.

"Relax," Guy said. "It's not like we told them the disc had to do with you."

"Not worried about Astor and his servants," Luke corrected, mentally adding, or at least not much. "I'm worried about what kind of data they took from me in the first place. And why? What's so special about me?"

Well, he knew part of the answer to that, now, when he reflected on it for a moment. But Guy didn't know anything about the hyperresonance, and just gave Luke a concerned look.

"You're worried about the first time, too, aren't you?" he asked, and even though it was an incredibly neutral way of phrasing it, Luke still shivered.

"I was in the machine a lot longer, then," he said, trying to avoid gritting his teeth. He started to reflexively squeeze one of Mieu's ears, but the cheagle made a sleepy sound of protest that called Luke's attention to what he was doing. He folded his hands in his lap, instead. "And I still don't have any idea what it was for."

Guy nodded. "I guess anyone would be worried. Do you feel any different?"

Luke thought about it, then shook his head. "Not really. A little like my ears got unclogged, but that's it." That wasn't quite the right way of describing the sensation, but it was as close as he could come.

"Huh. Well, if you were going to get sick or something, it probably would have happened by now," Guy pointed out. He pulled his shoes off and climbed all the way into his bed. "I'm going to get some sleep. Don't stay up all night stewing about it, okay?"

"I'm not going to stew," Luke muttered, but Guy just rolled over and faked being asleep, no doubt hiding a smile. Luke smiled back at the blond's shoulders, before reaching up and turning out the light.


The fon disc was returned the next morning, along with the analysis in a neatly tied bundle of papers. There wasn't time to give it much more than a passing glance - most of it was a wall of numbers that didn't have any meaning to Luke. He stuffed the last bite of his breakfast muffin into his mouth instead and followed the others down towards the port.

Luke and Guy brought up the rear, Luke with Mieu attached to his shoulder and Guy with the bundle of papers under his arm. It was a little strange for Luke to walk through the city and not be recognized everywhere; the streets were much busier than Baticul's would be at this hour, as people tried to take care of their business before the worst of the heat set in.

It was only the parting of the crowd that gave Luke enough warning to dodge the streak of a person who came flying out of it. At first, all he saw was the flurry of black coat, and it took him a too long moment to realize that the attacker was standing on their hands and had kicked the papers out of Guy's grasp instead of using their fists. Only the glimpse of green hair and the size of the body allowed Luke to recognize Sync the Tempest.

Though, to be fair, I had a concussion last time, Luke thought. He wasn't particularly glad to see that his impression of Sync's speed was not the result of his head injury.

The disc and papers went flying in separate directions - the disc slid across the sand in a way that would certainly scratch the data irreparably, and the papers landed near Luke's feet. Sync made a grab for them, and Luke didn't think he would react quickly enough - but he didn't have to. A puff of fire shot past his ear at Sync's face, and Mieu's distraction forced the God General back long enough for Guy to sweep the papers into his arms.

"Hand those over!" Sync demanded, rushing at Guy. Though Sync wasn't holding a weapon, Luke saw a slash appear on the arm Guy was using to hold the papers. Whatever the arte was, Guy flinched and gripped his arm in pain with his free hand, but he kept a grip on the papers. Luke didn't bother drawing his sword, but aimed a punch at Sync to get him to back off a step.

"Get to the ship!" came Jade's voice from ahead of them, and if it sounded like an order, it at least galvanized Guy into motion, the blond standing straight and rushing forward. Luke tore after him, one hand on his shoulder to keep Mieu steady.

Luckily, it seemed that while Sync was fast at a sprint, he didn't have the ability to keep up an extended chase. By the time they arrived at the docks, even Luke was well ahead of him. The Kimlascan soldiers had somewhat wide eyes underneath their helmets as the group approached. "Shut the gates!" Luke shouted as they approached! "Don't let anyone onto the ship after us!"

The soldiers, to their credit, didn't hesitate when they got the order. The gates down to the docks slammed shut practically on Luke's heels, startling the few people who were already waiting to board. Jade and Anise were making short work of the ticket check ahead of him, so Luke barely had time to catch his breath before they were making their way onto the deck.

Once there, he sat against one of the low walls that served as railing. Anise and Ion dropped into place on either side of him, all three of them breathing hard. As soon as he felt like he could speak again, Luke lifted Mieu into his lap and started to aggressively scratch the cheagle's ears. "Good job. He would have gotten the papers if you hadn't been there."

"Mieu..." The cheagle's whine was mostly one of pleasure, though whether it was at the praise or the scratching was hard to tell. "Thank you, Master."

"They must have wanted the data from that disc really badly," Tear observed, coming to stand near them.

"Well, it's the only copy now," Guy said, adjusting the papers in his grip. "Getting thrown into the sand like that? Fon discs are delicate instruments - " Luke braced himself for one of Guy's fontech lectures. " - there's no way there's anything readable on there now."

"They may have wanted to deny us the data as much as they wanted it for themselves," Ion pointed out. Jade, the last to make his way over from the gangplank, nodded.

"That's certainly possible. Guy, if you would?" Jade extended a hand, and Guy passed over the documents without question. The colonel opened the cover and started flipping through the pages rapidly. "Hmm..."

"What is it?" Anise asked, just a hair before Luke himself got the question out. He frowned at her. She stuck her tongue out at him over Ion's shoulder.

"It seems to be isofon research." Adjusting his glasses, Jade flipped a few more pages. "Lorelei's fonon frequency comes up frequently... Luke, do you know your frequency?"

Luke stopped stroking Mieu's ears, blinking. "No. Why would I?"

Jade shrugged with the arm that wasn't supporting the papers. "Just an idle thought, nothing more."

Luke frowned. Something about Jade's reaction seemed off, but he wasn't able to put his finger on it before Anise spoke up. "Doesn't that 'fomicry' technology have the power to create isofons?"

"No," Jade said swiftly. "Replicas created with fomicry have their own frequencies; you can't create an isofon that way."

"Huh," Guy said. "Sounds like you've kept up with the research, Jade."

"You could say that." With that, the colonel folded the notes closed and tucked them under his arm. "I think that's all I'm going to get from a quick skim, but I'll keep them overnight and let you know what I find."

"Sure, it sounds like you understand more than the rest of us anyway," Guy agreed. A few nods passed around the group as they split up and started heading for the ferry cabins.

Luke lifted Mieu to his shoulder and stood, but not before noticing that Ion hadn't even made a move to get up. He was staring after Jade with a funny expression on his face. Luke cleared his throat and offered a hand to help the Fon Master up. "You okay?"

"Oh!" Ion looked up at him with his usual smile, seemingly pulled out of his reverie. He took Luke's hand and stood. "Yes, I'm sorry. Let's go inside, before Anise gets worried."

"Wouldn't want that to happen," Luke muttered, though mostly in good humour, before heading into the cabins himself.


Baticul came into sight the next morning, and once it did, it would have taken the entire army to pry Luke away from the deck, even with the ocean breeze chilly enough that Mieu opted to retreat into one of Ion's wide sleeves. The city was a blurry, distant cone at first, but slowly took on more shape and color, with the outline of the castle at its peak, above colorful flags and the slow trundle of early-morning railcars.

It might have been the most wonderful sight Luke had ever seen, at least at that moment. It certainly ranked within the top five.

At the port, they were greeted by several officers of the military (including one General Cecille, who Luke had seen around the manor a few times paying visit to his father - he gave her a nod of recognition). All of them were quite surprised to hear Jade introduce himself, and Luke thought for a moment that someone was going to pull arms, having an officer of the Malkuth military in their midst. In spite of the offer to be escorted back to the manor, Luke insisted on accompanying the group up to the castle proper for a formal introduction to his uncle.

"This is so cool!" Anise exclaimed as the railcar carried them up from the port towards the city proper. "Look, Ion, you can see forever up here!"

"Don't lean out so far," Luke scolded her. "Not only will you fall out, but you'll upset the car and then the rest of us will, too." Children in Baticul learned that lesson young, but Anise was from Daath and had apparently never been to Kimlasca's capital before. At least Ion was being his reserved self and staying in his seat beside Tear on one of the railcar's benches.

"No way!" Anise said. "They wouldn't put royalty in something so unsafe, right?"

"The royalty knows how to act to avoid upending the car, Anise," Jade observed from the back, where the two guards Luke hadn't been able to dismiss stood, flanking the Colonel as though they expected him to whip out a weapon and assassinate Luke at any moment. (Luke was only mostly confident that they were wrong. He'd sat at the front of the car.) "And if you did so, it would be poor repayment, since I do believe we only narrowly avoided arrest back on the docks thanks to him."

Anise pouted, but did at least pull back from the railing, to Luke's relief, though she swung her feet beneath her seat with childish energy. "Stupid Mohs," she muttered, ignoring the look Tear shot her at the words. "This has gotta be his doing. He's always in and out of Baticul."

"I'm sure the Grand Maestro wouldn't jeopardize such an important effort for the peace," Tear said, in the controlledly even tone that Luke was starting to recognize as something that was actually a sign of annoyance.

"Even if the Score called for a war?" Guy asked, the tone of his voice slightly sour, in a way that probably no one but Luke knew him well enough to recognize. The words were enough to draw him stares from everyone save Jade, who was as unaffected as ever.

Tear, in particular, looked somewhat horrified at the idea. "The Grand Maestro would never - the Score is the path to peace and prosperity!" she protested.

"It's not uncommon for one nation to prosper after a war," Jade said casually. "At the expense of the loser."

"Prosperity for everyone," Tear added, shooting him a glare.

"Relax, Tear," Luke cut in. "I'm sure Guy's just worried about how much trouble we've already run into, right?" This last was with a slight glance at Guy, one of the sort that meant don't contradict me.

"Yeah," Guy agreed, wisely. "Just... Tensions are already high, you know? And we've had enough delays."

Tear seemed to accept that, at least for now, though after that conversation, no one seemed to want to talk further. Luke leaned back against the guardrail to watch Guy for a moment. Even though he had gone back to the smiling, fade-into-the-background expression he put on in front of the rest of the royal family, there was something about those words that nagged at Luke.

The Score predicted everything - of course that would include wars. But Luke had always thought that the Order would use that to minimize the damage, the way Ion was trying to do. The idea that someone would look to cause a war because the Score said so...

It made him more than uncomfortable. Putting his eyes back on the city and his thoughts back on more pleasant things, Luke scratched at Mieu's ears while they waited for the railcar to reach its destination.

The silence didn't last long, however, when Luke realized the railcar on the wiring opposite them - going the other direction, back down towards the port - was occupied only by three familiar, hatted figures. "Hey!" he shouted, catching the attention of the rest of the car. "What are theydoing here?!"

Across the gap, the three thieves heard his shout as well, all of them turning to look at Luke's car as the two passed each other. The woman waved cheerily at them. "Sorry, kids, we're busy! Play with you some other time!"

"Stick around and I'll show you playing!" Anise yelled across the gap, leaning entirely too far over the railing again. Luke made the executive decision to grab her collar and yank her back in.

"I don't think so," the short, fat man said, drumming his cane in his other hand in a distinctly threatening way.

"You're a little young for the kind of games Noir plays," the taller man agreed, with a lewd sparkle in his eye that made Luke nearly lose his grip on Anise. Thankfully, by this time, Tear had joined him in yanking her away, setting their car slightly swaying.

"See you some other time~!" the woman, Noir, called as the two cars moved out of each others' range. Luke waited a little longer before releasing Anise, who folded her arms in a pout.

"I'll show her who's too young to play," the girl muttered, to which Luke felt his ears go faintly red. Tear coughed politely.

"I don't think you should be worrying about that right now, Anise." If anything, Tear's words towards the other girl just increased the level of pout.

Ion reached out and patted her shoulder gently, which had no effect at all. "You'll understand someday, Anise."

Frankly, Luke thought Ion was entirely too young to understand it himself, but he supposed you had to allow the Fon Master a certain amount of leeway.

"Master Luke?" called one of the guards from the back. "If those people have troubled you, we can put out a warrant - "

"Don't bother," Luke said, shaking his head as he sat back in his seat. "They'll just disappear again, like they did in Chesedonia, I'm sure."

"They sure do move around quickly," Guy agreed. "Even if we assume they left Chesedonia that night, their transportation must be as fast as the ferry to have gotten here ahead of us."

Jade hummed agreement. "The Dark Wings have been causing problems off and on throughout northern Rugnica for years. They're quite good at slipping out of nets, as you saw when they destroyed the bridge to put a stop to the Tartarus." The last was directed at Luke and Tear.

Luke nodded. "Still, it seems suspicious that they would get here at the same time we did..."

"They're probably just looking for new targets, since they can't get back into Malkuth right now," Guy observed. "Don't worry so much, Luke."

"I'll try," he muttered, as the railcar rattled into the station.