Disclaimer: Tales of the Abyss and all characters therein do not belong to me. That honor goes to Namco Bandai. This story is for fun only, and I do not profit from it.

Nederim

Chapter 11 / Skyline's End

"Followed our wind to shape the course; had a blueprint, we are in mid ocean." – Edenbridge

Natalia:

I hope this letter finds you well. I apologice for the lack of updates, but rest assvred that Luke and I are vnharmed and should be in Baticul earli Gnome Decan. We will be leaving Caitzur Naval Port tomorrow, Undine Decan 42.

Cassia tapped the pen against the paper a few times, wondering if there was anything else she should put in the letter. Jade told her that it was fine for her to write letters to the princess so long as the mission was not mentioned, as it was top secret. She didn't want to bring down Natalia's hopes on Luke's memories or worry her about what happened at Choral Castle, so she opted to leave that out. If she asked about specifics, then Cass would inform her. Figuring that was good enough, she wrote her name carefully at the bottom of the paper and left it with the innkeeper, who said he'd send it off first thing.

There was no shopping to be done in the port, which left Cass with nothing to do aside for go into the inn's room and sleep the rest of the day away. They'd leave for Chesedonia in the morning once the ship was repaired, and from there they would be on the final leg of their journey to the capital. She was almost sad for it all to be over. Malkuth was certainly beautiful, and she spent more time out in the fields than she had in the three years she was in Baticul. Early in the morning they boarded the ferry; the boat ride being as uneventful as the one she took there so many weeks ago.

Cass didn't pay much attention to anything that was going on around her as they made their way to the Kimlascan side of Chesedonia. She was too busy trying to look at everything, thinking that maybe she would see something and remember something. Instead, all she did was bump into a few shoppers and get yelled at while she tried to apologize. Apparently Luke almost lost his wallet to a group of theives, but luckily Tear was paying attention to the whole thing, unlike Cass (who was solely here to find and watch over him) who didn't notice until people began to shout. The trio of thieves identified themselves as the Dark Wings—supposedly that was supposed to mean something to Cass but she had never heard the name until now—before they ran away. Aside from Cass's absentmindedness and Luke's near robbery, they crossed the Malkuth border into the trade city and entered Kimlasca safely and without incident.

The ferry wasn't quite ready to leave, so the group had an hour. Jade suggested they stop by Astor's, the leader of the Merchant Guild who acted as a sort of mayor over the city, to get the fon disc from Choral Castle analyzed. There wasn't much else to do aside from shop (which no one but Anise seemed to want to do), so everyone went into the large mansion.

It wasn't as difficult to meet with Astor as Cassia would have thought. Princess Natalia was busy throughout the day, with only a few hours every other day to spend however she wished. She was only the princess too—while Cass didn't know much about His Highness's days, she knew that he had to fit in twice as many appointments as his daughter did. Despite being a somewhat placebo mayor for the trading city, he apparently had no other appointments to attend to and they were seen just a few minutes after taking their seats in the waiting area.

Astor was a nice, cheerful gentleman that clearly loved not only his citizens, but anyone that would happen to travel through Chesedonia without ill intentions. He already knew Jade, but made sure to engage in pleasantries with the others in the group, offering drinks and whatnot, before getting down to business. At the colonel's behest, Guy handed over the fon disc, and Astor looked it over quickly, before handing it off to one of the men stationed in the room. The nameless man carried it through a door as Astor said, "It'll take some time, but please make yourselves comfortable." And so they did.

The others all engaged in some sort of conversation for at least a few minutes, but Cass spent the time thinking about nothing and completely ignoring those around her. She thought she heard her name a few times, but without even considering that she dismissed to idea and let her mind drift aimlessly in a sea of blank thoughts. After some amount of the time door opened loudly and Cass jumped, earning a not-so-subtle giggle from Anise. The results were handed over in a rather large binder, and so they headed to the Kimlascan-side port.

A soldier in the familiar red armor of Kimlasca greeted them as the crossed over, but that relief of being back in her "home" country was cut short when Sync came out of nowhere, went straight for Guy. The swordsman was able to jump out of the way before Sync landed a hit, managed to keep a hold on the fon disc analysis. The blond only received a small cut on his arm from the attack, and he lost the fon disc itself, but apparently that wasn't important anymore. Guy made a dash for the port, and everyone else followed right behind, wanting to get out of the port before the God-General could get an opportunity to steal the analysis from them. Sync chased them to the port, but thanks to Luke's rudeness, they got the ship out of the port before Sync was able to get on.

They all sat together inside of the ferry's largest room, which looked like it was made for meetings. Tear didn't bother healing the cut Guy received—it was small and shallow and not really worth the effort to heal. Jade skimmed the documents that Guy saved, and Cass was eager to hear about what was on them. It would answer the question of the mysterious machine and she was curious as to why Luke was on it.

After a moment, Jade read the results of the fon disc out loud. "It's isofon research," he announced, red eyes moving rapidly over the papers. Then he listed off a bunch of numbers. "This is Lorelei's fonon frequency."

"Iso… fon?" Cass repeated. That didn't sound familiar at all.

Tear explained. "Lorelei is the name for the aggregate sentience of the Seventh Fonon—sound. Its existence is still hypothetical, unlike the other six fonons. Fonon frequencies are like fingerprints: no two frequencies are the same." Cass nodded to herself. She knew that. "Isofons are two entities that have the exact same fonon frequency. These don't exist unless created artificially."

…

She knew that?

Everything Tear said about Lorelei and fonon frequencies was familiar, like she heard it before somewhere. But she knew Luke's tutors never said anything about it before, not even when they learned about fonology. Was it something she learned… from her father? Or the other two people she remembered? Or someone else she didn't remember yet? She wanted to ask about it, but had no idea what to even say. What question would she even be able to ask when Tear explained so succinctly?

"The fomicry experiments that were conducted a few years ago were able to create isofons. It's kind of like a copy machine, isn't it, Colonel?" Anise asked.

Jade shook his head, eyes remaining on the papers. "No, replicas created through fomicry are mere imitations. They may look identical, but the fonon frequency is different."

"I have… a question," Cass stated, trying to say something before people changed the subject to something different.

There was a long pause. "Jeez, if you have a question, just ask it already," Luke said.

She was still trying to think of a question. She opened her mouth and then closed it, once, twice. Anise shot her a look that might have been a mix between amusement and concern but Cass couldn't really tell. "Are you okay? Cass?"

"What? Yes, I'm… okay. Nevermind about the question. My apologies."

The conversation ended shortly after, so Cass decided to leave the room and head up to the deck. She liked being on boats, she decided. It was quiet and she was surrounded by the ocean. It was calming, and the fact that she was alone up here meant that she could think without being bothered by anyone. Throwing caution to the wind, she decided to sit on the railing and stare out.

A prickle of déjà vu shot through her as she looked out at the never-ending blue expanse, and she wondered if she maybe lived close to the ocean before she lost her memory. It felt sort of familiar, just staring out at the water and thinking, and she had never done it before while she was in Baticul.

This trip certainly brought up more of her past that she would have initially thought. She had a dream that might have actually been a memory—one of the few she had that she could actually make out sentences and faces and remember once she woke up. Then there were little bits and pieces of information that were familiar. Everything about Lorelei and fonon frequencies, she knew it in the same way she knew that language; at a deep, intrinsic level as if she was born with that knowledge. Cass knew it better than she knew her own name, it was something she never forgot.

But why? She wasn't a fonist, Imri told her she couldn't have been before she got amnesia what with the state of her fon slots. Why was it so important to her past? Maybe she was a researcher? She didn't feel like she was smart enough to be in that kind of field, even with her memory loss.

She couldn't come up with an answer that struck her as more true than any other theory, and that bothered her. She was fine without remembering—she was making new memories—but now that her previously hidden past was coming back up, she didn't want to just go back into a position of not caring. She was on the cusp of knowing who she was, she could feel it. It was closer than it ever was before and she wanted to grab hold of the past she had nearly given up on ever having again.

She needed paper. Her thoughts were becoming jumbled in her head and she wasn't able to organize them. But the chances of her being able to find enough paper to put her thoughts into something that even resembled an organized mess was slim. It would be the first thing she would do on her own time once she returned to Baticul.

Guy joined her out on deck after a while. She asked him about the analysis, if he knew how it related to the fon machine it was taken from. He shrugged and said that he figured it was something used to try and create isofons. She nodded, only half in the conversation. Whatever the God-Generals were doing with that machine didn't seem like it worked, so she didn't want to put too much thought into it. He didn't mention anything about Sync either, so Cass didn't bring it up. When he asked her if she remembered anything from Chesedonia, Cass almost asked him what he meant. It was close to where she was found but it didn't help her at all, and she told him that much.

"Are you doing okay, though?" he asked. Cass furrowed her brows at him and tilted her head, not really understanding why he was asking that. "You just seemed sort of out of it recently. Back at Astor's and in the meeting hall."

She remained silent for a moment. There wasn't anything new, and she didn't really see the point in making him worry when there weren't any new developments in her problem. "I was clearing my thoughts back in Chesedonia. I apologize if you were trying to speak with me. And…" she shrugged halfheartedly, "I knew about fonon frequencies and Lorelei. I'm not sure how—we didn't learn about those subjects."

"Well, hey, that's something!" he replied, flashing a bright grin. "It might not seem like something right now, but you've been making a lot of progress recently. That information could be really helpful down the line."

Cassia shrugged again, "That is true," she acknowledged, turning back to the sea. After a moment, she asked, "You know a lot about vacation spots, correct?"

He looked curious but nodded. "Yeah, I like reading about them. Why?"

"Do you know of a place by the ocean with… relatively high elevation?"

Guy put a gloved hand to his chin and frowned in thought. She had asked a similar question once before, before she knew her name, but even if it was just sensations like the salty wind on her face that was familiar, it was still something that might help. She didn't normally like to bother people with her memory problems, but Guy seemed more than willing to help piece things together with her and they wouldn't have much to do on the ferry anyway.

"Maybe Radessia, by the Meggiora Highlands, or the northern coasts of Padamiya, near Daath?" he suggested. "Hey, you think that you could be from Daath? That's where the Order of Lorelei is. Yulia's teachings are really prevalent there, so it would make sense that you would know about Lorelei."

Cass hummed thoughtfully. "That is possible… I would likely need to go there to see for myself."

Guy laughed a little in response. "Might be a bit hard to get that much vacation time from Her Majesty, though. Sylvana has some mountains, too, but I think the coasts are mostly ice, not water."

"Ice?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Sylvana is the northernmost continent, so it's pretty much always covered in snow and ice. Does that ring any bells?"

She looked at him, confused for a second. The ferry rocked violently right as she opened her mouth to answer and Cass nearly fell off of the railing and into the water.

Guy looked like he almost had to consider getting close and helping her back up, but luckily he didn't need to when she gripped tightly onto the railing. "Something must be attacking! Let's go find the others."

The pair met up with the rest of the group on the way below deck. They were heading up, so nothing was wrong down there, so they rushed back up to see find out what happened. It was a God-General Cass had only seen briefly, but despite not knowing much about him, she remained on guard. She knew now that, when it came to the God-Generals, appearances could be deceiving.

The white haired man in the floating armchair cackled as they all appeared at the front of the boat. He spread his arms out in a grand gesture, the sun glinting maliciously off of his glasses. His large, open-lipped grin had a mad quality to it, and the collar that Cass at first thought looked silly somehow didn't seem quite so amusing now. "Listen, you ignorant savages, and you shall hear my beautiful name!" The way he spoke seemed really over the top, and Cass raised an eyebrow at him dubiously. "I am the most graceful member of the Six God-Generals, the one and only, Dist the—"

"Well if it isn't Dist the Runny!" Jade finished.

The man slammed a fist onto the armrest of his chair, nearly snarling at Jade. "The Rose!" he yelled. "R-O-S-E, rose! Dist the Rose!"

"You mean Dist the Reaper," Anise corrected.

Dist grimaced. "I refuse to accept that name! It's rose. ROSE!"

Cassia crossed her arms and frowned up at him. The sun made it difficult for her to look at that angle. "Is there a problem with Reaper?" she asked. "It has more presence than Rose. And it seems more befitting for a God-General."

"No one asked you, you little-!"

"I have to disagree with you, Cass," Jade interrupted Dist again, this time completely ignoring him. She turned her head to look at the colonel and could hear the man in the floating chair growl from his spot. "It may not sound as intimidating, but Runny is the most suitable title for him."

"Could we get back on point here, guys?" Luke asked, exasperated. "How do you know him?"

"I'm in the Oracle Knights," Anise answered, "so… But how do you know him, Colonel?"

Dist flipped his hair and spoke in the place of Jade. "I, the genius Dist, once counted the duplicitous snake Jade amongst my friends."

Cass tilted her head to look at the snake in question. Dist didn't really seem like… someone Jade would associate with. Then again, what did she know?

Jade fixed his glasses and smirked. "Which Jade is that? I don't know any Jades with such poor taste in friends." Dist started to snarl again, but Jade was quick to replace the smirk with an easy grin, clicking his tongue in disapproving 'tsk' sounds. "Careful now," the colonel chastised. "You know how your nose runs when you get mad."

Dist threw an arm out dramatically. "Enough of this! Now, hand over the fon disc data."

Jade raised it with a smile. Dist swooped down and grabbed it out of Jade's hands, started to gloat only to halt once the man in blue informed the God-General he had already memorized its contents. Dist's face turned bright red and his features twisted in anger. After digging through the interior of his jacket, Dist pulled out a small fon machine. Pressing the button on it, he summoned a large robot, causing the deck to shake from the sudden weight.

Despite its intimidating size, it short circuited quickly when massive drops of water from Jade fell down on it.

Dist must not have thought that through.

Dist ran off once his machine was destroyed. To be honest, Cassia didn't really know if he was a God-General and had to ask Anise and Tear to confirm it. Compared to Arietta and Sync, Dist didn't really seem to fit the mold they created for the title, but apparently he did.

The ferry arrived in Baticul's port shortly after that… confrontation. General Cecille and Commander Goldberg greeted the group at the harbor, introduced themselves, and everyone else did the same. As Jade introduced himself, General Cecille's expression changed into one of shock. "You're the Jade Curtiss…?!"

"You taught me a painful lesson in our battle in northern Chesedonia, General Cecille," he said pleasantly.

Cass inhaled sharply as the two continued to talk about the battle. This was the same General Cecille that helped Natalia bring her to Baticul? And Cass hadn't even said anything, not to thank her or anything. If it wasn't for Cecille's and Natalia's compassion, she would have been dead so long ago. And Jade was there, too? She didn't know that. He said that Malkuth didn't have the technology to give people amnesia, but that didn't mean he wasn't the reason she suffered from it.

"…Then I shall send General Cecille to inform His Grace, Duke Fabre. If you would, General Cecille."

Cecille nodded. "Yes, sir," she said and began to walk away.

Cass frowned. She didn't even say anything! Pursing her lips, she turned towards everyone, bowed slightly. "I apologize," she said, straightening back up. "I have to… attend to something now that I am back… It's been a pleasure." It was a poor good bye, but some things were more important than a proper one. Most of the people she was with she would likely see in these next few days around the castle, given their mission.

"Excuse me, General Cecille!" Cass called out, rushing out to the aircar the woman was standing in. It hadn't moved yet, and Cass had enough time to enter it before it began its ascension to the top tier of the city.

"You were with Luke and Colonel Curtiss, weren't you?" General Cecille asked. "Is something the matter?"

Cass nodded. "I was, but… I don't know if you remember," she started, "but my name is Cassia Brightwing. You helped Princess Natalia save my life after the Battle of Northern Chesedonia. I wanted to thank you." She clasped her hands in front of her and bowed deeply to the general.

"Ah, so you're the girl Captain Carnelian has been training," she said. "There's no need to thank me. Any soldier would have done the same."

Cass disagreed, but didn't do so out loud. She didn't think Jade would have helped her if he was the one to find her three years ago. "Regardless, I am incredibly grateful. And I apologize for taking so long to thank you in person." There was a short pause, before Cass chose to fill it again. "Imri—Captain Carnelian has done a wonderful job training me. Did you instruct him?"

The general laughed softly. "Hardly. Of course he went through basic military exercises, but he seems to prefer to fight in the way his father taught him."

Cassia nodded again. "I see. Do you know if he's busy at the moment? I was hoping to thank him after I report to Her Highness. I wouldn't want to disrupt him if he is otherwise occupied."

"Unfortunately, I don't," Cecille replied. "The captain hasn't been in the capital for a bit over a month now. Other duties to attend to."

Cass didn't bother asking what he was doing or where he was now, figuring that it wasn't necessary for her to know. If he wouldn't be returning for a while, she could always ask Natalia if she could know where he was, so they could exchange letters. Once more, the attendant thanked the general for her help, but Cecille once again waved off her words. Before she knew it, the aircar arrived at the top tier of the city and the general and Cassia went their separate ways. Cass hurried to the maid quarters for her uniform before she went to find Natalia. The uniform probably wasn't necessary considering she just arrived, but it was more of a force of habit than anything else.

She wasn't at the archery range like she usually would be at this time, but Cass didn't waste any time finding one of her coworkers that would hopefully know the princess's whereabouts. She was cleaning the princess's room like Cassia usually would be doing, and she turned around, ready to yell at the intruder for barging in.

Amber's bright eyes widened, and in a flash her arms wrapped around Cass's body and she rubbed her dark face against the older woman's. She winced, not liking the feeling. "Cassia! You're finally back!" Amber pulled back sharply, narrowing her eyes again and grimacing, holding Cass at an arm's length. "And you smell awful! What have you been doing? Rolling around with rappigs? You're messing up your uniform by wearing it when you smell like a trash can."

It wasn't as if Cass didn't have more uniforms to wear, and she personally didn't think she smelled too bad, but she decided to leave that subject alone and let Amber win. "I apologize; it was a force of habit. I'll clean up when I have the opportunity." And who knew when that would be? She had to find Natalia, get her thoughts in order, and maybe do some of her old duties around the castle. Surely she could be of some assistance somewhere. "Amber, do you know where Her Highness is? I have to report to her about Luke's… disappearance."

Amber wrinkled her nose. "You're going to see her smelling like that?"

Cassia blinked. "I'll… keep my distance. However, my filthiness is not of import—informing her about her fiancé comes first, wouldn't you agree?"

The blonde's attempt to console her coworker didn't seem to work, and the maid's frown deepened. But even she would be able to ignore propriety if it was urgent news. And, to Natalia, this was urgent news. "Promise to clean yourself right away. I won't be able to sleep at night if you smell like that." When Cass simply nodded, Amber sighed dramatically, "Her Highness is taking care of Duchess Fabre. She fell ill when the Young Master vanished."

Cass nodded again. "Thank you, Amber. I will clean myself as soon as I have the time." Without another word, Natalia's attendant left the room, ignoring Amber's yells of "Yeah! You better! Or else Baticul will turn into the cesspool you smell like!" After arriving , the maids at Fabre Manor eventually managed to bring Natalia to Cass and they went outside to speak in relative privacy.

"Cassia! I did not expect you to see me so soon after your arrival," Natalia said. "Though I would have thought you would have sent more letters. You should have kept me more informed instead of just a few messages!" she paused. "Did everything go smoothly after your final letter?"

Cass nodded and began to give Natalia a more detailed report of these last three months. She left out some things she knew would worry the princess, such as Luke's short kidnapping at Choral Castle, but for the most part told her everything, including the reason for Jade's presence here. It was the first Natalia had heard of a possible peace treaty, but she was confident that her father was already aware.

She listened carefully to Cass's debriefing before she excused herself to attend to Lady Suzanne. The blonde hoped she would feel better soon.

At Amber's request, Cassia cleaned herself before returning to her room for her journal. Her friend stopped by, informed her that, since no one knew exactly when she would be back, she didn't have any specific tasks for the next week like she normally did. There was just typical duties she had to take care of for now, and that meant most of her time was to herself for the next few days. It would certainly be a nice way to adjust back into her normal life.

When it came to organizing her thoughts about isofons and fonon frequencies and Lorelei, it took much more effort than she initially thought it would. After pages upon pages of scribbling in multiple languages, she finally came to this 'conclusion':

Fonon frequenci: unique trait

Isofon: exact duplication; same fonon frequenci

Aggregate sentience: manifestation of fonon

?

And she could not, for the life of her, figure out how these things tied together. No matter how long she stared at the paper, trying to come up with some connection, nothing happened. She couldn't even think of how she knew some of these things. It didn't make sense and she was frustrated and downtrodden about hitting another wall when she was so close. At least, she figured she had to be. There just wasn't anything she could do at this point, though. Maybe if she waited a little before thinking about it again there would be some sort of obvious connection.

One day passed after she returned to Baticul. No matter how much time she spent wandering the halls of the castle and moving between Fabre manor and the castle, Cass didn't catch sight of any of the people she met in Malkuth. She saw Guy and Luke briefly, but Ion, Anise, and Jade were nowhere to be seen. Cass thought that Tear would have already left the city to accomplish that mission she was on, and the other members of the Order and the Malkuth colonel would likely leave within a few days. She was a little disappointed that she left them so quickly; that wasn't a proper goodbye and Cass felt they all deserved better than the poor excuse for a farewell she gave. There wasn't anything she could do now though, and if she was good at anything, it was putting her past behind her (at least that was her strong point before memories started to tease her, luring her into a sense of complacency, as if her past would be revealed at any moment).

The day of easing back into her routine was rather calm, especially compared to the last few weeks of adventure and everything that was happening before she left Baticul, until a furious Natalia showed up when she was supposed to be busy.

"I have another task for you, Cassia," she announced while Cass was picking up the princess's room. She shifted all the objects into her arms as she straightened up, taking care not to drop anything.

"How may I assist you?" she asked.

"Father won't allow me to travel with Luke to Akzeriuth!" she explained. Cass wasn't aware that there were plans for her fiancé to go somewhere outside of the manor. Had his parents and His Majesty finally decided to let him leave? "I cannot think of a better way to show that the Kingdom of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear wishes to form this treaty than its princess helping those Malkuthians in need."

So it was about the peace treaty? Why was Luke going? Cass asked as much and Natalia told her Luke was going to be a goodwill ambassador to the country. Akzeriuth, a small mining down in eastern Malkuth was experiencing trouble with a miasma and needed assistance evacuating to Kaitzur.

"I still… do not understand how I can help you with this," Cass told her uneasily. She was rather upset and Cass hoped that the princess's mood wouldn't worsen.

"I was able to convince Father and the others to allow you to travel with the group in my stead, as my representative."

Cass blinked at her. "Isn't that… what Luke is?"

Natalia waved off her question. "That is not of import. What is important is that I managed to involve you. After all, I will not be able to join the cause without your assistance."

The maid opened her mouth to reply then closed it again. "I don't understand."

"You will be leaving in two days' time. Before you exit the city, you must convince everyone to travel through an old factory near the main entrance to Baticul, rather than going through the gate. I will be waiting there, and from then you will help me become a member of the group."