Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing. I don't know how long I'll keep up these quick updates; I'll probably slow down pretty soon, but I do intend to continue. Frankly, it really confused me that I couldn't find other fic tackling this subject. At the end of the game, I was sitting there staring at the TV going "but... but... but... THEN what happens?"

In case anybody is wondering, yes, I am pulling the political system of Tethe'alla out of my ass. I am also assuming that there are a lot more people in Tethe'alla than you see in the game. I figure that there's towns and villages all over, but they're Not Important To The Plot Of The Game. No point in strewing the map with dozens of tiny little towns with no subquests, no plot points, and weapon stores about as well-stocked as the Iselia general store. But they've got to be there, I mean, it's the flourishing world, surely they've settled more than a few cities! In Sylvarant, on the other hand, I've assumed that all towns are shown on the map, and that the rest of the population lives in tiny hamlets of a few farming families, or on isolated farms all by thier lonesomes.

Also, "Duke" is a really weird word when you write it over and over and over. Duke duke duke duke duke. Duke!

By the way, does anyone know if the king of Tethe'alla has a name mentioned in the game? I haven't seen his name mentioned anywhere, and I'm thinking maybe I should give him one, because it's kind of weird to keep calling him "the king".

The next morning was spent in another enormous meeting with the king. Lloyd attended again, but didn't speak for the entire three hours it was held. Some representatives of the Church of Martel announced that they considered the possibility of a marriage between Zelos and Colette to be a potentially positive force, but that the issue needed further study. They also announced that the Churches of the two worlds would be forming into one, but there were serious doctrinal issues to be discussed first, which were of course affected by the recent revelations of the nature of Cruxis. Lloyd found his attention drifting as the priests pontificated.

Then they were back on the subject of how to rule the united world. Apparently, in Tethe'alla, most land had been under the control of some duke or other, but the dukes only actually owned fairly small pieces of land. The rest was under the direct control of more minor nobles, who answered to the dukes. Of course, the extreme changes in the land meant that very few people were in the same places in relation to each other. One consequence of this was that some Barons' and Earls' holdings were now far away from the land of the dukes they had formerly answered to. In some cases, farms (or parts of farms- while most buildings remained intact, the same could not be said of fields) were now also far away from the barony they were from. This meant that borders would have to be re-drawn, land re-assigned.

The dukes, for the most part, were rather agitated. Regal's ownership of the Lezareno company let him be much more relaxed about the matter; his income didn't depend much on the lands he held through being Duke (except Altamira itself, which nobody would dispute was his). The rest, though, saw any reduction in land they controlled to be a catastrophe. And, of course, the cities of Sylvarant were wary of being put under the control of any duke. The lower nobility also feared for loss of lands, and were worried about who's control they would be under now. Some were optimistic about their new positions, since the upheaval had landed them far away from dukes they had struggled under.

It was agreed upon by all that they needed better surveying before any decisions could be made; a representative from the Katz Exploration Company eagerly offered their assistances, for a price.

Lord Couglier offered the suggestion that perhaps the cities of Sylvarant could be given areas of control similar to those of the dukes. Zelos gave his support for this idea immediately, and he was followed by many other nobles, as well as by the representatives of Sylvarant. It was, however, very much opposed by many of the dukes.

This conversation occupied most of the meeting, which once again was ended at noon. Colette and Zelos immediately left with the church officials, and Lloyd could see Raine and Genis speaking with some other half-elves. Sheena was nowhere in sight.

"Lloyd."

Lloyd turned around to find Regal standing there. It was still kind of strange to see Regal without shackles on, and dressed in finery to befit his status. Presea stood next to him. "Oh, hi Regal, hi Presea."

"Would you care to have lunch with us?" asked Regal.

"Sure," said Lloyd.

Regal led them to a small restaurant in the upper-class quarters of the city. They were immediately given a table in a little alcove, which afforded a moderate amount of privacy.

"I hear that you wish to go on a journey to destroy all the exspheres," said Regal.

"Yeah, that's right!" said Lloyd. "I dunno, I was thinking of starting soon. I feel so useless here. But I'm not sure where to begin..."

"The destruction of undeveloped exspheres should be our first goal," said Regal. "This will ensure that there are no more victims, and there will be less resistance to this than to destroying exspheres that people are using."

"Huh, I guess you're right," said Lloyd. "Presea? Are you okay?"

"The exspheres... are lonely," said Presea. "But I do not know if they wish to be destroyed."

"Oh," said Lloyd. "Huh. I guess I hadn't... really thought of that."

"It would be dangerous to leave undeveloped exspheres accessible," said Regal. "We could attempt to seal them somewhere inaccessible, but I fear that destruction is the only truly safe end for them."

"Yes," agreed Presea. "There must be no more victims."

"Yeah," said Lloyd. "So, most of the undeveloped exspheres are in the Toize Mine, right?"

"That is correct. However, many of them may exist in other places. The Desians probably have some, for example."

"And that's exactly the most dangerous place for them!" exclaimed Lloyd.

"Indeed."

"So how do I start tracking them all down?" Lloyd wondered.

"The Lezareno company has records of exspheres sold; they may be a useful place to start."

"But... even after all the undeveloped exspheres have been destroyed... It's still not right to keep using the exspheres we have now!"

"Yes. Though I suggest that you not destroy your own exsphere right away. You may have need of it."

"Yeah, Raine told me that already," Lloyd said.

"On the subject of exspheres used on machines, the existing, exsphere-dependant infrastructure should be replaced using non-exphere technology, before we destroy any of those exspheres."

Lloyd blinked. "Uh... okay, gotcha. I think."

"The Lezereno company will be heavily involved in the development of exsphere alternatives," Regal continued. "With the increase in available mana, it may be worthwhile to attempt to replicate some small-scale magitechnology."

"But wasn't magitechnology what caused the Giant Kharlan Tree to die?" asked Lloyd.

"Only after extremely heavy usage of mana for war," said Regal. "Though the details are lost forever, it seems that the ancient civilizations used magitechnology for thousands of years before the war. It was devices such as the Mana Cannon that killed the tree, not transport vehicles and warp pads."

"Huh," said Lloyd as thier food arrived.

They were all quite hungry after the long meeting that morning, so they didn't talk much as they ate. Now that he was sitting across from Regal, instead of at the other end of the table, Lloyd noticed that Regal still kept his hands together, as if they were still shackled, most of the time.

"Yes, it is strange to get used to," Regal said when Lloyd mentioned this. "After so many years of working with my hands bound, I hardly know how to use them now that they are free of each other."

After lunch, Regal and Presea left; the king was holding a smaller meeting, just for the dukes of Tethe'alla. Once again, Lloyd had nothing to do that afternoon. This time, he wandered around Meltokio, not that it was new to him anymore.

He was watching a small group of children playing in the square when one of them approached them. "Hi," said the small boy, "will you play with us?"

"Sure," said Lloyd, since he didn't really have anything else to do. After a couple rounds of tag, a small girl asked him, "What's your name?"

"Lloyd. Lloyd Irving," he responded.

There were gasps all around. "You're the one who defeated Mithos and planted the great seed!" one of them said.

Now they were all crowding around him and asking him to tell them the whole story. "Uh, gosh, okay. Let me sit down somewhere first, okay?"

So he started telling them the story of his journey, starting from the very first day. An ever-growing crowd of children sat at his feet.

"Hey!" one of them said, as he was describing to Sheena's first appearance. "What are they doing here?"

"They" turned out to be a few small half-elf children. "Why shouldn't they be here?" asked Lloyd.

"Because.. because they're half-elves!" the boy said. The half-elves were already slipping off.

"Hey, you guys, come back, it's fine!" Lloyd yelled after him. Then, addressing the boy, "Haven't you been paying attention? My best friend, Genis, is a half-elf! Why do you think he can do all that magic?"

"Yeah, but Mommy says..."

"Well, I say that half-elves are people just like humans are, and if you don't think you should treat them just like another human, you can just leave!" Lloyd stated loudly.

The boy glared at him, but sat down without saying anything.

The half-elf children stayed near the back, but looked at him in awe as he continued his story.

By sunset, the children were being called in to dinner and Lloyd had only gotten as far as meeting Zelos. He promised them that he would return the next day, then made his way back to Zelos's mansion.