A/N: I am not dead! Just a little overwhelmed at the moment. My teachers thought it was a good idea to bury me up to my ears in schoolwork. And they all planned big stuff--presentations, tests, the mile run--all on Thursday! What? Hahah.

--

Ion held the flightstone in his hands, feeling the densely concentrated Third Fonons within the object. Against the cool gray of the stone there were blue and green phrases carved in Ancient Ispanian, fonic verses perhaps to grant the flightstone greater power, like the Sorcerer's Ring. It was hard to believe that a stone of this size could power an entire airship like the Albiore and perhaps more. But the aircrafts were probably equipped with fontech designed to amplify the flightstone's effect.

Ion had no problem understanding how fontech worked, even if he couldn't understand the fully complex specifics. What he had trouble understanding was why Luke was asking him to hold the flightstone for the others--Tear and company--next time they came to Daath.

"Luke," Ion said--for in the safety of his room there was no danger of being overheard; the room was soundproof to the outside hall, "why don't you just return to them yourself? Everyone's been worried sick!"

Luke scratched his now wig-less head--the aforementioned accessory had made it itchy--leaning on Ion's desk, the red wig splayed on the tabletop. It was strange to see Luke wearing Asch's uniform, though it suited him well.

"So worried as to replace me?" Luke replied bitterly.

"Luke ..." Ion said sadly, eyes downcast. "You know they meant no harm." Indeed the others meant no harm--they meant only to save Auldrant from its current crisis! And if that meant taking Asch as a passage commander in Luke's absence, then so be it. But even though Luke knew this, it must have been difficult to accept, especially since he'd already been left behind once before.

"But that doesn't matter now," Luke said in his usual tone. All bitter and coldness left him. He seemed deflated of resentment. "We still need to figure our next move."

Ion left the study to the other room. He wrapped the flightstone in a silk cloth, depositing it inside a drawer next to the bed. He returned to his study to find Luke talking quietly with his companion, Lloyd. The one who had rescued him from the cathedral, the one who had freed him from Van's cage. The one with whom Luke joined instead of his companions--his friends. Ion found it fishy that Luke couldn't trust his friends after months of traveling and fighting together, and yet he teamed up with this absolute stranger?

Ion couldn't understand what was going on in Luke's head. It must've been his imprisonment. If only he hadn't been abducted at Tataroo Valley--if only Ion had been stronger--

"Hey, Ion." Luke said, turning toward the young Fon Master. "What other passage rings are there?"

Ion stepped up to his desk, fingertips lightly ghosting over the polished oak of the top. He stared at the red wig, at the scarlet tendrils splayed over the desktop.

"There are ten planetary fon slots. Yulia made the passage rings for all of them, although some are weaker than the others. The major ones are Mt. Zaleho, Mt. Roneal, Meggiora, the Radiation Gate and the Absorption Gate. The Gates' Daathic seals have already been removed."

"We need to plan our next move," Luke repeated, addressing Lloyd rather than Ion. This irked Ion a little bit, though he doubted Luke meant to snub him. Luke grabbed the wig and placed it on his head again; Lloyd reluctantly resumed his new hairstyle. "Let's go to the library."

-

The library was filled with restricted materials pertaining to the Dawn Age, the passage rings and Sephiroth in particular. About the passage rings they learned little that they didn't already know but for the two weaker passage rings that were put in a supportive role in supporting the land under the stronger ones--one of which was right underneath Baticul.

"Y'know Luke," Lloyd said under his tower of books, "you said we needed a descendant of Yulia to operate the rings?" He pointed to a passage in one forbidden text that cited Yulia had entered her own genetic information in the passage rings' control panels.

Luke, who had been buried up to his arms in books, abruptly stopped, slapping a palm on his forehead, brow furrowed. "Damn, I did!" They had no descendant of Yulia among them. Luke drummed his fingers on his stack of leather bound volumes, thinking. There might well be other descendants of Yulia, but there was just no time--he paused.

"Teodoro," he offered somewhat weakly.

Ion almost laughed out loud at the statement. Teodoro was a good mayor and leader, but he was by no means fit to travel, let alone run around the world and do such dangerous and taxing work. Besides, Tear's brother already was in severe danger by doing what he did--to put her grandfather in the same mortal risk was very well a stab to her heart. Luke did not like seeing Tear in pain, even less to be in pain he had caused.

"The truth is," Ion began, moving the books they already skimmed back to their shelves, "you need only a Seventh Fonist or a potential one to keep the panel open. A descendant of Yulia is required only to operate the ring normally--which we won't need to do, considering we're using hyperresonance."

Luke let out a deep sigh, relieved that his mistake was not of particularly large magnitude.

"I'd offer to help--" Ion began, but Luke cut him off.

"No." He said firmly. "You already use too much strength to open the Daathic seals."

Ion assumed a mildly cross expression. He gathered books in his arms, walking over to Lloyd's spot at a table and dropping the books before Lloyd with quite the audible thud.

"I thought you'd say that." Ion brushed dust off his robes. "But Lloyd is a Seventh Fonist."

There was a heavy and profound silence as Ion's words sank into the films of dust covering books long untouched by human hands. Luke leapt from his seat, slamming his hands on the table.

"Why didn't you say so?!" He demanded, half miffed, half gleeful. Lloyd waved his arms before him as if to ward off an oncoming demon that threatened to choke him with his own large intestine before throwing him off a cliff.

"I-I've never studied much fonology," he stammered, possibly because of Luke's sudden outburst. "The most I know are the fields of fonons you taught me."

"Man, what are you a hick?" Luke asked irritably, rubbing his temples. True, he didn't have much room to talk, but even way out in the most distant corners of the country, in the most rural of places, any person worth his salt would know even basic fonology. Though now that Ion mentioned it, Lloyd did project some small amounts of Seventh Fonons, although not very many since apparently Lloyd had never used Seventh fonic artes before--not consciously, anyway. A fonist of any kind who regularly cast fonic artes would emit their fonon types at great amounts. Residue from the fonic arte leaking out the fon slots, if you would.

"All right," Luke donned a wide grin. Again he would have to teach Lloyd, but the casting of fonic artes and learning to harness the fonons' powers was more of a hands-on activity, and Lloyd had proved himself tremendously adept at learning hands-on. Luke picked up a book from the stack Ion put on the table, and upon seeing the title, he smiled. It was a copy of the same On Fonology title that Tear had given Luke in Yulia City.

The next few hours were spent with Luke and Ion tutoring Lloyd on the usage of Seventh fonic artes, healing ones to be precise. Lloyd already had a good grasp on gathering fonons and channeling them, only he hadn't used them to heal wounds before. The lessons in basic healing artes involved Luke inflicting small injuries on himself (such as scratches and paper cuts, etc) and allowing for Lloyd to heal them. The act of healing was the same, only with more fonons for larger wounds. Some Seventh Fonists were more adept at healing multiple people at once, others tended to focus best on one person at a time. It seemed Lloyd, like Natalia, was the kind of healer to do best on one person at a time.

During the little tutoring session, Ion suggested that Luke might well learn some fonic artes, too--the ones Jade used were too high of a level for him, so Luke decided, as much as he didn't want to, to learn Asch's fonic artes. He wouldn't learn them all in one sitting without any actual practice, though, but with time and persistence Luke would be able to use fonic artes. In the meantime he would keep up with his fields of fonons.

Lloyd had learned the most basic healing artes of Natalia's caliber--Heal, Recover, and Dispel. Luke would have liked for Lloyd to learn more, for he was the only healer around, but they did not have the leisure time.

"Are we done yet?" Lloyd asked irritably, healing over what felt like the millionth paper cut on Luke's hand. Paper cuts were never fun; how Luke could continuously give them to himself was beyond him.

"I think so." Luke answered, nodding. "We're gonna have to dress lightly now."

Both Lloyd and Ion shot Luke questioning looks, but the latter already had an idea what the noble meant. Luke saw the inquisition in Ion's eyes, and he nodded yes.

"We're going inside Mt. Zaleho!"