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 21 / Unleashed

"Time is just a concept and always the first thing to fade… Years are cruel—they break us, bringing on decay and despair; awareness and perception: Something we can never repair." - Epica

"Woooow! That is so cool!" Levi gushed, metaphorical stars filling amber eyes. The black fabric of his pants was bunched up in his small hands, his knuckles a lighter color than the rest of his hands. Likely the effect from the partial explosion Cassia created with her arte.

There was too much of something she couldn't control—too much fire when she should have gathered solely Sixth Fonons. Something was off in her technique; something was keeping her from being able to take in only the type of fonon she desired. She couldn't handle the Fifth Fonon, but for some reason she still managed to draw in enough to ruin light artes.

Levi thought the explosion was cool, though, so instead of mentally berating herself then and there, Cassia pushed the negativity from her mind and expression, instead fixing a smile upon her face and gracing her friend with it. "Thank you," she replied sincerely. It had been so long since she had received such a genuine compliment from anyone, even her father. He had a tendency to praise only if he felt she deserved it. An arte like the one she just cast definitely wouldn't have fit those criteria. "Dad was still trying to help me before he left, but I don't really know what he is saying sometimes…" Her final word ended with a light sigh, and Cass made herself comfortable on the ground next to the silver-haired boy.

"He's still teaching you, though," Levi pointed out. "Mother says I need to learn from her instead, because she can use Seventh Fonons and he can't."

He entered the lab with a knock and no confirmation that he should enter. He'd been in here often. While it first started with a few times a month last year, the frequency of his visits increased exponentially over the last month.

Levi didn't know what was going on—not everything, at least—but what he was aware of was exciting. Just being in the laboratory of Dist the Reaper filled him with a sort of joy, a glimmer of excitement was permanently in his ochre eyes while he was here, regardless of what he was working on or the unfortunate company he had to keep.

The door slammed shut and locked automatically: they wouldn't want some random Oracle Knights to get in here. The sound clashed violently with the white noise of machines whirring, the hum of cooling systems, and the occasional click of ones and zeros activating and deactivating various pieces of fon machinery. The mechanical orchestra won—its persistence and unyielding nature easily overcoming the jarring crash of the door and faint click of the lock—and the lab once more fell into relative silence.

Until Locrian Colonel Dist peaked out from behind one of the monitors. The white screen of the system glared on the lenses of his glasses, giving him that fitting 'mad scientist' expression that did not fit with that ridiculous collar he insisted on wearing.

Nor did it fit with his next sentence.

"Leviiii! This is incredibly urgent!" Dist exclaimed, swiveling his chair over to the Scorer and abandoning his spot at the computer. "Why did it take so long? None of the others could find you!"

"Conductor Dist," Levi greeted, completely ignoring the insistent tone of voice the God-General used. It didn't take him that long to get here. Once Dist utilized the fontech he made and gave to Levi for situations like this, it was just three minutes. "If it was that urgent, you should have just gone straight for the messaging system. Most of the Oracle Knights here are idiots." Why bother to invent something like this if he wasn't going to even use it?

"I suppose you have a point," Dist pouted. "However! There are more important matters at hand. That conniving, duplicitous, backstabbing…"

Something about Jade the Necromancer.

How surprising.

Of course this was the "urgent" matter.

"…Imperial Forces to once again trap us in his web while he escapes. We aren't sure where he slithered off to, but Legretta believes he will return with a plan and help within the week."

Levi had absolutely no idea what Dist was talking about, except that Jade was involved. He'd spent enough time with the God-General to know by that that not paying attention occasionally was fine; Dist had a habit of repeating important information for dramatic effect. "What would you like me to do?" he asked.

"Training hasn't worked so far, is that right?" The Scorer opened his mouth to reply, but apparently that was actually a rhetorical question as Dist spun his chair around. "Before leaving to Belkend for our research, the commandant decided it would be best to tell that friend of yours anything that would help her remember those artes."

"So you just want me to talk to Cass? What about Jade?"

The chair spun around again, quicker this time. Dist's gloved hand clenched around the fabric of the chair's arm. "He'll be back within a week! I know him better than anyone, and I know he'll have the Jade Gang as support to kidnap the Fon Master and princess. Your orders are to stay away from the headquarters and open areas; await further instructions in the meantime. It's likely your role will need to be carried out ahead of schedule."

Ahead of schedule.

That was the one thing Levi didn't want to hear. He was close, so close, to fulfilling his mother's wishes. And of all people, it was Jade that was going to ruin everything. It was like entry into the Second Division required being slighted by Jade the Necromancer sometime in life, whether it be past, present, or future.

Whatever. He could complain about the Necromancer with good company sometime later (never). Right now, he needed to keep Cass from knowing that Princess Natalia and the Fon Master were back. Dist would come up with a plan that would take him and Cass out of Daath, and Levi felt like he knew what it would entail.

"Understood," was all the Scorer said before turning on his heel and heading out of the lab.

Cass should be sparring with someone out in the training grounds right now, but he didn't want to head there right away. He needed to pick something up first before he interrupted. Levi's quarters were a few minutes away, and his path brought him to his bed. The mattress was lifted into the air and placed back not a second later, but not before the two items that were hidden beneath were removed.

"Okay… I think I get it," Levi said slowly, rubbing his temples as if warding off a headache. "You're thinking about… what you think a fonon is? So for wind, you just think about wind? Is that right?"

Cass considered his words, comparing them to what she just said. It was certainly more concise than her explanation. "Yes, that's correct," was Cass's reply, and Levi's shoulders released the tension she hadn't been aware they held until that moment. The boy closed his eyes and dropped his hands from his forehead, taking a moment before talking once more.

"That's the issue," he told her. "Fonons are a combination of elemental properties and sound. You seem fine with the elemental part of them, but since you aren't a Seventh Fonist, the sound part is what's difficult, right?" At his question, the girl nodded somberly. "You need to feel the vibration too. That's what really distinguishes Sixth from Fifth Fonons. If you gather fonons you can't control, you'll seriously hurt someone!"

She knew that. She knew she couldn't use Fifth Fonons and she knew she couldn't distinguish them from Sixth Fonons. Cass didn't understand why, and her father was gone—had been for a month now—so she couldn't ask him about it. Sonel could only use Seventh Fonons, and… they didn't get along, so Cass couldn't ask her.

"Mother doesn't get home until dark today, so let's practice!" Levi decided, giving her a wide, toothy grin. "Put my fonon frequency in your Markings first, then I can help you until sundown!"

"Hey—wai—tch—stop for a second!"

Sync seemed like he was having fun.

And while he might usually find someone trying to square off against this particular God-General mildly amusing at best, this wasn't necessarily a time that Levi did. He wasn't getting attacked, thank Lorelei—he was a Scorer, not a fighter!—but he didn't exactly want to die due the overwhelming area his artes effected.

Another arte rocked the area, and even though he was a good distance away from the fray, Levi could still feel the overwhelming power behind the fonic arte. This one cleared debris in the air much quicker than the one before it, artes of the Third Fonon usually did that, and with the air clear he could make out a lanky figure that wasn't Sync, running away as if her life depended on it.

And, seeing as how it was Sync the Tempest, it probably did.

But that wasn't the point of this practice match. Cass was supposed to be focusing on casting artes in combat now, not running away. She might be able to gather fonons again, but clearly she still sucked at it, otherwise she would be casting every once in a while instead of never.

Sync didn't listen to the lowly Scorer. He raced towards the girl again, leaving another trail of dust in his wake. Cass had turned towards the God-General this time, facing him resolutely despite the fact that he was so far out of her league. "She needs to learn to cast in combat, that's the whole reason Van even brought her here!" Sync shouted, apparently having decided now would be a good time to have a conversation: while delivering a punch to Cassia's right shoulder. She leaned to the left, taking a solid step backward at the same time and avoided his blow.

Cass was unarmed, yet despite the disadvantage she still managed to think clearly. The God-General followed his punch with a lightning-fast sidestep toward her, nearly fast enough that she stumbled backwards out of sheer surprise. She held her own, dodging a roundhouse kick and suddenly reaching out, grabbing onto one of the cords on his uniform that hung from his arm.

The blonde crouched down and tugged, hard, trying to knock Sync off balance.

It was a strategy the God-General must have encountered before, because despite all the effort Cass put into her attack, Sync didn't fall. No, he grabbed the cord and yanked on it, his strength overpowering the girl's easily. The energy threw her off balance, and she was forcefully removed from her crouch, stumbling low to the ground in the direction of her opponent.

She was back in his range of attack, and the Scorer simply stood and watched as he delivered another kick, this one making contact with her face and knocking her back a few feet. She scrambled to her hands and knees—eyes shut tightly—but she didn't get to her feet. Her face was covered in blood from the blow, but it was a head wound and Sync wasn't giving it his all, so it probably looked much worse than it actually was.

The God-General finally moved, approaching her slowly and languidly—a sharp contrast to his onslaught just seconds before. Levi couldn't hope to figure out what was going through Sync's mind at this point, so instead he focused his frown on Cass. She was still on the ground.

How could someone be so stupid? If she was done she needed to say something.

Cass was clearly too out of it to verbally surrender, so Levi took it upon himself to end the fight now that it didn't seem like Sync was going to attack anytime soon. He made his way into the clearing, towards the God-General, ready to yell for the end of the spar, when he realized he missed something important.

The Scorer cursed internally, hastily gathering Seventh Fonons. He hadn't realized that Cass was actually going to cast an arte! Levi couldn't feel the wind fonons—the ones from Sync's earth fonic artes had overwhelmed his senses since that was what he was familiar with. But Cass could, and she had been making use of the God-General's last fonic arte.

He hadn't heard the fon verse—the sharp decrease in residual fonons was what gave her away. "Photon!" Cass yelled, finally releasing a fonic arte of her own. A basic arte, but definitely packing enough of a punch for Levi to cast Barrier and avoid any damage. Sync was close enough to benefit from the Scorer's arte, so ultimately all of the effort Cass put into her spell was for naught.

Sync stayed put, crossing his arms over his chest and staring down at Cass who was still on the ground. Levi sighed loudly, making his way over to the girl and offering a hand. "Get up," he told her. "You have too much work to do still."

The blonde looked up, met Levi's eyes before closing her own and wiping the blood away on her sleeve. Reaching up, Cass gripped the offered hand tightly, and he hoisted her back to her feet. Quietly she thanked the Scorer, then turned her attention to the God-General who was already making his way back to the cathedral without a word. She watched him silently, a frown on her lips, before the sensation of a healing arte brought her attention back to the Oracle Knight beside her.

"Your arte took too much time for being a basic one," Levi told her, making his way back to the cathedral. She didn't follow after until a few steps later. "How're you gathering fonons? You're probably doing it wrong."

She didn't reply. In fact, when he looked back at her, she was standing in place again. It didn't look like she would be moving anytime soon, either. Levi scowled, marching back to Cass and flicking her forehead. She winced at the contact, but the fact that she didn't even move until after just proved how out of it she still was. "If this is about how Sync beat you, you need to get over it," Levi said. "He's a God-General, and apparently he's always like that."

Cass blinked twice before shaking her head. "It's about Sync," she admitted, "but I expected to lose; I've fought him before…" He didn't ask when because he didn't necessarily care, but the way she trailed off made him stay silent so she could finish thinking and speaking. "He's a replica, isn't he?"

Levi's eyebrows disappeared underneath his bangs at the question. Of everything he could have expected Cass to say about the God-General, this was certainly not it. "A replica?" he repeated, disbelief lacing his words.

"I saw his face once… months ago," Cassia continued. "He looks like the Fon Master, too much so to be his twin, I think… I know replicas exist. Is Sync a replica of Ion?"

Working with Dist on his experiments, Levi knew much more about fomicry than most, even in the military. The conversations he had with Commandant Grants were few and far in between, but between those, Dist's loud mouth, and just observing, the Scorer was able to put two and two together. There was clearly some replication of Fon Master Ion that happened in the past few years. He wasn't aware of the extent, but the evidence was obvious. Why else would Sync wear a mask, after all?

Cass had always been very observant and introspective. If she saw Sync's face—much more than Levi had—then this was just the nail in the coffin to his idea. He didn't answer right away. Instead, he countered with another question. "Would it matter if Sync was a replica?"

Her lips pursed and instead of answering right away, Cass seemed to think over his question seriously. Finally her legs moved, and they made their way back to the cathedral as she continued to think. "I don't like replicas," she finally admitted once the pair reached the second floor. She fell silent once more as they continued to another staircase, and just as Levi was about to ask 'why,' Cass spoke up again.

"They aren't… real, I suppose… They're like landships."

This time it was Levi who stopped walking.

What the hell did that mean?

Cass looked back, probably because the Oracle Knight stopped walking this time and she didn't want to get lost again. Upon seeing his expression, Cass tried again. "I mean…" she started slowly, trying to organize her thoughts in a way that would hopefully make more sense. "If you replicate a landship, you have twice as much destruction." She paused, looking at Levi again.

With his brow wrinkled and eyes betraying the utter confusion he felt, Levi had nothing to say in response except, "…I have no idea what you're trying to say, Cass."

"My apolo—uh, I'm sorry. Let's continue; I'll gather my thoughts."

And so, with one more flabbergasted look, Levi turned away and started to make his way back to the eighth floor of the cathedral, the older girl trailing behind him. She was slower this time, but that was because she was obviously thinking really hard about how to actually say something coherent and meaningful.

By the time they arrived on the seventh floor, Cass emerged from her thoughts, something vaguely resembling a triumphant grin on her face. In reality, she just looked slightly more pleased than usual. But Cass wasn't exactly overly-expressive. Never had been.

"To begin, I like trees." Levi had to take a deep breath to keep himself from physically bashing his head against the wall at her explanations. He couldn't stand this! "If you were to replicate a tree," she continued, completely oblivious to the Scorer's torment, "the replicated tree just seems to be a replacement for the first tree. However, the first tree was fine; there was no need for the second tree. It isn't fair to the original tree.

"With inorganic replicas, like landships… if there were more landships, then they would hurt more trees."

Levi exhaled loudly, finally reaching Cass's room and opening the door. They entered and he shut the door before pressing his palm to his forehead. The more pressure he put on his head, the more deep breaths he took, the better he felt. "So what you're saying is," he began, "with organic matter, you feel that the replica is a replacement that isn't needed. And with inorganic matter, you don't like replicas because… they hurt trees. Is that right?"

"Yes, that's correct," Cass confirmed solemnly. "Organics… people, in particular. They should not be replicated. It seems like an attempt to replace a human with an object. It isn't the same, nor is it an acceptable substitute."

The Seventh Fonist could see where she was coming from, and he figured she was talking about that kid Dist kept yelling about. The name escaped him, but he was travelling with Colonel Jade Curtiss last he heard. Apparently not anymore or else he would have also been kept in the Oracle Knight HQ.

While Levi's views on replication didn't agree with Cassia's, he wouldn't say anything about them. To him, replicas were beyond interesting: the pinnacle of research that he strived to have a larger role in. At the moment it was just basic fontech and formulae, but if he could actually perform a fomicry experiment…

He never would have been interested in this stuff beforehand. While his current engineering ideas were great time-consumers, they all seemed so… lackluster in comparison. It was part of the reason he was placed in the Second Division Oracle Knights, and why he worked so closely with Dist the Reaper on whatever Commandant Grants was planning. The details were never really expounded on, but…

Every scientist dreams of doing a fomicry experiment at least once. And he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that fomicry was involved with Commandant Grant's plan.

"I get what you mean now, but to answer your question I have no idea. It's not like I really talk to any of the God-Generals except for Dist," Levi replied nonchalantly, "and I don't even see him that much." And he didn't. While he had been spending more time in the lab, the Scorer couldn't do much more than basic work on the fontech. Dist was the one creating everything, and rarely did he ask for assistance.

"I see," was all Cassia replied with, taking a seat at one of the chairs in her room. She gestured for Levi to take the only other chair, and so he did, pushing aside a pile of opened envelopes and unsent letters. "Why did you interrupt my training? I thought I was improving…"

"You are," Levi assured her, "but Commandant Grants needs your help soon. And I'm here to help you help him. I want to talk about that bit of that fight I saw first, though. How're you gathering fonons?"

The Scorer steeled himself for another horrible explanation, wishing that healing artes could work on migraines.

"You helped me with this before, is that correct?"

… Today was certainly full of surprises.

"I remembered, I think… when we were younger," Cass continued. Her expression was blank, but her usually unfocused eyes were scrutinizing the boy across the table. It made him vaguely uncomfortable. "I had trouble distinguishing Fifth Fonons and Sixth Fonons, and you told me to feel the vibrations."

"Uh, yeah, that's right…" He could barely even remember that, but he must have been young at the time. Cass had nearly four years on him, so it would make sense that she remembered this when he couldn't. Even if it was just a dream and never happened, Van wanted her to remember things, so Levi wouldn't shoot her down about this.

"It was after Arietta helped me and we visited her ligers…" The blonde paused, closing her eyes and instantly allowing the Scorer to relax. After a short moment Cass brought a Marking glyph out in the open. "This one is yours?" she asked, and after a quick glance the teen nodded, easily recognizing his fonon frequency written among the three in the glyph. "I remembered, so I've been feeling the vibrations of fonons… it's difficult, but getting easier every day."

"Your eyes were closed when you cast Photon," Levi said. "Don't do that; your eyes are the biggest fon slot in your body. Your arte could have been quicker and stronger." Thinking back to the amount of time she spent gathering fonons for the arte, and the power behind a dumb novice arte, he realized that if she just paid attention to her body, she would be fine in terms of casting fonic artes again. Could probably easily cast mid-level fonic artes in the time she spent on that Photon if he was being honest.

"Sounds like if you keep that in mind, you're solid!" he exclaimed, lips twitching upwards into a smirk at her confused look. "Now, Van wanted me to help with your memory, so go ahead—ask me anything."

Anything.

There was so much that Cass wanted to ask, and she didn't even know half of the questions she wanted answers to. Was there a limit to how many questions she could ask? Maybe topics? Levi did say anything, but surely he couldn't mean anything. There was always something that was off limits, something people refused to talk about regardless of how open they seemed to be about everything else. She thought she was close to Luke, for example. But that didn't stop the replica from keeping its plans to itself and destroying a city.

She glanced out of the window, trying to gauge the time of day. Levi looked like he was making himself comfortable from across the table, so she assumed that he was planning on being in here for a while. Not wanting to keep him waiting, Cass asked the first question that popped into her mind. "How do we know each other?"

The Scorer made some sort of acknowledging sound, nodding in response. "That's always a good place to start," he replied. "We grew up together. My mother was very close to your family and you aren't too much older than I am, so we would play together when we were younger. I'm sure you know this already based on what you said, but once we got older we'd help each other with fonic artes and whatnot."

That was a good question to start off with—it opened up the possibility of many more questions. Where should she go from here? She could ask about her family, about Kano and Calomel, but there was a good chance that he wasn't familiar with her parents; he did say he was younger than she was. Cass considered her options and what Levi would know for a moment before deciding. "Where?" was her one word inquiry.

Levi stuck out his tongue for a brief second, looking around her room with a furrowed brow. "Can I write on these?" he asked, picking up a blank piece of paper she had on the table. "You don't have a map, so I'll draw it out," he continued, still waiting expectantly for a reply. When she nodded in confirmation, the Oracle Knight picked up the pen and began to draw a rather accurate map of Auldrant.

Her eyebrows rose as she watched him draw. He did it so easily, not even pausing to consider how each landmass looked. And it ended up looking just like any map she could remember looking at. "Right here," Levi said once he finished. Turning the paper so his north arrow pointed away from her, he gestured to one of the larger islands in the Central Ocean. It stood just off the western coast of Rugnica, close to where the Malkuth capital was.

"Yesod: The Home of Spirits, part of the Malkuth Empire. Completely incorrect name, by the way, but that's what history does. Half is wrong, and the other half is mostly right but completely embellished."

The Malkuth Empire? She was born in Malkuth? That wasn't something that was entirely important now, but it was still nice to know. Cass wouldn't have known what to think if she discovered this before chasing that replica around Auldrant. Regardless of her nationality, the second part of Levi's statement confused her. Not taking her eyes off of the map for a moment, she asked, "What do you mean?"

"Here's the thing," Levi started, his voice rising in volume. The sudden change startled the blonde's attention away from the paper and to the person in front of her. As he removed the cap and placed it back on multiple times—almost like he was trying to keep himself occupied—the Scorer continued. "There's no 'spirits' in Yesod. It's basically all mountains and used to have a few fishing villages along the coast until a few years back, when everything got swept away by that tsunami. Anyway, the only reason it has this name is because of Yulia. Or, rather, what the world made of that story."

Van clearly wasn't joking when he said he would help Cassia remember her past. Levi had made a point to stay away from her, whether he was busy or just intentionally avoiding her she didn't know. It didn't seem like he minded her company at the moment, but he was here because of Van. And she had already learned so much.

Yesod was her home. The short description Levi gave her fit with what she remembered stressing over years ago. There was a plant that she recognized, but even with help she wasn't able to pinpoint the location it grows in; she only knew the climate.

Cinnamomum. Thrives in medium-high elevations in relatively dry climate. Mountainous terrain would match this description, depending on what side of the mountain the plants were on. It fit with her previous knowledge, so Cass decided to ask something else.

Before she opened her mouth, Levi decided to speak. "Do you know the story of Yulia Jue and her ten disciples?"

She knew of Yulia, but she still felt confused. "It's Yulia and the Seven Sages… isn't it?" Cass didn't know. When she learned about this with Luke, she only remembered seven of Yulia's followers being mentioned. Where was he getting ten from?

Levi smirked. "Nope, it's ten. Two died and one betrayed Yulia. All of them weren't classified as sages because of this. Here, check these out." He paused, digging into his Oracle Knight regalia. It was a moment before he pulled his hand back and gently placed two objects onto the table, right on top of his map.

A brown gem and a green one. Neither was large, nor were they the same shape. The brown one was unpolished and was surrounded by pieces of different rocks and minerals, giving it a very rough appearance. Its luster was beautiful—glimmering with the way the sun streamed through the window and onto the table—but overall it was best described as uncut and unpolished. The green one was the opposite: cut into an oval but with no visible surfaces. It was rounded, but refused to roll on the table.

She didn't have the opportunity to ask what they were, even though the brown one looked so incredibly familiar to her.

"Do the names Lugus Micah or Lugus Bres sound familiar?"

Cass shook her head.

Levi leaned back in his chair, rolling his shoulders before stretching his arms slightly. "There's still an hour or so before I have to go do other things. How about story time, Cass?"

NOTE ABOUT NAMING: CASSIA & YESOD

Cassia: This might have been pretty obvious after awhile, but her name follows the Malkuth naming scheme of minerals and plants. Originally she was just "Cass," from the mineral cassiterite. But, like Natalia, I thought it was too short. Cassia is a type of cinnamon, of the cinnamomum genus of plants. Some types of this plant DO grow in the mountains. So it fits both the plant (Peony, Gailardia) as well as geology (Jadeite, Nephrite) bill. I mentioned before that my names have something Biblical about them. Cassia is mentioned in Proverbs and other books, mostly for incense smells and stuff.

Yesod: Malkuth cities (and the empire itself...) are Sephirot (branches) in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life (like Yggdrasil in Norse mythology). Yesod is known as the foundation for the tree. Supposedly, Kimlascan cities are named after the Qliphoth, which are the "shadow" of the Sephirot branches. Yesod isn't actually in the game, but why not do something with those islands in the Central Ocean?

there's a ton of really cool naming conventions in abyss lmao i just go overboard...