Coffee. Where was the fucking coffee? That was the first coherent thought to cross Loren's mind upon waking up. That and a heavy resignation towards passing out. Again. He sighed and sat up while shoving aside the thick blankets Sheridan had no business having. He didn't care if it got really cold at night; he didn't need two comforters and a quilt. He did pull the blankets back into place once he'd gotten up, however, because there was no excuse for leaving behind a messy bed.
That done and with his clothes brushed into alignment, Loren meandered out of the inn and in the general direction of coffee. He found a small café tucked into a corner around the bend and he counted his lucky stars as he ordered the largest size they had. While the caffeine did little to suppress his fatigue in the long run, it did allow him to last longer than three hours outdoors. He didn't care if it meant sleeping for insane hours as a result. He didn't know what he was going to do when he followed the Fon Master's plan, though.
Loren stepped into the meeting hall with a sigh, climbed the small flight of stairs, and dropped into the nearest chair. No one else was there, strangely enough, but there was a tiny little creature that was content to roll itself along the length of the table. At least, until it noticed him.
"You're awake!" it squeaked at him and he nearly choked on his mouthful of extra sweet coffee.
"You talk! Why do you talk?!" he sputtered after forcing himself to swallow, "Cheagles aren't supposed to talk!"
"I'm Mieu!" it introduced, ignoring his question altogether, "Luke's my master. He helped my tribe and I got this ring so I could go with him! It helps me do lots of things." Alright, so it didn't ignore him. He put 'talking' under the list of 'things this cheagle could do' and left it at that. He also got the sense there was a lot missing from the story but he decided not to push it.
"Right, talking cheagle with the fancy ring, got it," he said instead then took a long drink from his cup. It didn't last as long as he'd have liked, though, 'cause that Anise kid came charging into the building while shouting his name at the top of her lungs and, really, did he have to travel with these people?
"Anise," Jade's smooth and slightly admonishing tone managed to curb the stream of reprimands and concerns that Loren hadn't bothered to listen to as the girl turned to scowl at the colonel. He smiled in response and she huffed. Then he looked to Loren as he stared balefully at them over the rim of his cup.
"Did you have a nice nap?" Jade asked and Loren tensed, "it's nearly dinner time, did you know? You've slept the whole day away it seems." Yes, he did know it was almost dinner time. The setting sun was a very nice thing to wake up to; it meant no sun in a couple hours.
He didn't say that though. No, he just looked away and stared at the table instead.
"Loren!" Anise smacked the table then poked a finger in his face, "if you're going to be traveling with us, you need to tell us when you need a break. None of this…" her arm flailed towards the bathroom door as she struggled to find the right words, "silence and forcing yourself to move!"
Loren grit his teeth and leaned away from her hand. "I apologize for troubling you," he told her as he let his cup rest on the table, "in truth, I am not accustomed to being out of doors. My travels from Daath to Baticul to Sheridan drained me further than I had expected and I'm sorry that you had to deal with the repercussions of my oversight." What the hell was he doing?
"Geez, no need to get all formal," Anise crossed her arms, "just promise you won't do it again. We don't need you hiding things from us, too." Her expression faltered for a moment and Loren rose a brow slightly in question though the girl seemed disinclined to answer. He looked away to stare at the opposite wall as he brought his cup to his lips and took a drink. Then he nodded.
Jade walked by with a chuckle and a pat to the top of Anise's head. "Glad to see you've cleared that up," he stated then sat in the chair he'd occupied that morning and set Ion's tome down in front of him. "Now, it sounds like you have quite the predicament there, Loren," the man peered at him over his glasses.
Loren didn't have any time to do more than blink before Jade was dismissing the topic. "You can tell me all about it later," he said as he laced his fingers on the table, "the girls will be back with food in a bit. Anise, can I send you off to reclaim Guy from the warehouse? Take Mieu with you."
"Yessir," the girl saluted then scooped the cheagle off the table and bounced out of the building. Loren sighed, absently tapping the side of his cup as he slouched in his chair. There was a moment of silence where he breathed and Jade stared before it was broken by the colonel.
"You are not complete." Or not. Of course the man would make sure they were alone.
Loren stared at the ceiling and the fan that slowly rotated. "No."
"Extreme fatigue due to outdoor exposure and a rather… disappointing disability. I'm not too far off the mark, am I?"
He closed his eyes. "No."
"Yet, everything else is almost perfect. You were the closest they got without having to sacrifice. You had the basic knowledge, his mannerisms," Jade paused. Loren watched him out of the corner of his eye. "You have his drive," he finished and Loren swallowed, straightening up to drain the rest of his coffee.
"Drive means nothing when I don't have the ability," he muttered as he all but threw the paper cup on the table. He focused on it as it tipped over and rolled away and frowned when it curved back towards him.
"And yet, you still followed the same path. You both entered the Order to get close to the man who cursed you and both of you are waiting for the perfect time to end him." Loren's gaze snapped to Jade's and the man stared evenly back.
"The Fon Master said you could help me," he told him and Jade smiled.
"He is, for all his youth, amazingly perceptive," his eyes gleamed in the dim light, "our goal is the death of Van. The death of Tear's brother and the death of your creator. You come with us and you'll have your revenge. All you need to do is stay truthful and rest when you're supposed to so you don't end up holding us back."
Loren breathed. He took in a long breath, held it for a few seconds, then slowly let it out. "You have a roundabout way of showing your concern," he finally said. Jade said nothing and Loren sighed. "Fine."
Ion stared at the envelope on his desk and his name that was scrawled upon it in a hurried attempt to stay neat. The letters were obviously from Teodoro's hand and while he knew Yulia City would be the first he'd get a response from; he honestly didn't expect to receive it less than 24 hours after the initial note. Hope blossomed in his chest as he picked up the letter from the mail pile and he made quick work of the envelope to get at the words within.
It was short and to the point, obviously something written between the matters outlined in the letter itself. Ion's eyes darted between three key phrases as his grip tightened on the paper. Flash of light, new Daathic seal, and a request for immediate assistance. His eyes closed as he took a deep breath and set the letter down. This was it. This was lead he was looking for. Now he just had to wait for the others to get back.
He stepped around his desk and slowly sat in his chair. A sheet of paper was pulled in front of him then his quill taken from the inkwell. A confirmation with a short explanation for delay was written then he sat back and waved the feather over the ink for it to dry. The quill was dropped back in the well and the page pushed a few inches away before he crossed his arms on the wood and let his head rest on top.
He took a deep breath and slowly released it in an effort to get the urgency that flowed through him to dissipate. It would do him no good to get himself worked up. He straightened with another deep breath and looked at the letter. Another one to Jade would be ideal but he highly doubted the party was still in Baticul and he didn't know where they would've gone afterwards. Unless...
He grabbed the rest of the letters from the inbox and shuffled through them. Yes, here we go. A quick scan revealed they had made it to Sheridan after nearly being arrested in Baticul. He wondered how far behind them Loren was and if he knew they were there. Perhaps a letter to him as well.
Decisions made, he pulled another sheet forward and got to writing. He sighed at the end of it, staring at the two new letters next to the first then glanced to his bedroom doorway and the dim light that casted through it. The sun had almost finished its decent. The letters would have to wait until morning. He hated waiting.
Dinner was more rowdy than it needed to be with old people making lewd remarks and teenage girls collectively deciding to hound on the new guy and be the cause of said lewd remarks. Loren was decidedly unimpressed despite the fried chicken he had been presented with. If anything, he figured it was a pre-emptive measure to make sure he didn't get too mad at them. He refused to admit that it had worked and half cursed the shared trait that allowed them to make such a move. So what if they all liked chicken, it was damned delicious.
By the end of it, the girls had calmed down and Loren had relaxed somewhat on the silent treatment he had started part way through. Pots and pans were stacked on the cart to be taken back to the house and plates and silverware were cluttered in the sink off to the side. Only Loren still had his as he nibbled on the remaining strips of chicken.
"So, what do you have?" Anise burst as Natalia made her way back from the bathroom, "anything new?" She was watching the book as Jade thumbed through it, her impatience clear.
Jade hummed and nodded as he finally settled on a page, "It seems the cause of the Qliphoth's liquefaction lies in the core."
"The centre of the planet," Natalia muttered as she sat, turning in her chair to face the colonel, "where memory particles form?"
"Yes. It should be at rest but it's vibrating violently," he tapped the page as if it would clarify his train of thought, "that's likely the cause of the liquefaction." Guy peered at the paragraph around Jade's hand but found nothing that connected to the man's deduction.
"So, why didn't the people of Yulia City do something about the core shaking?" Tear asked as Guy leaned back, shaking his head in bewilderment. Loren frowned and dropped his chicken before shoving the plate away.
"Was it not in the Score?" he crossed his arms and leaned on the table, ignoring Tamara as she took the plate to the sink.
Jade shook his head, "No, but that wasn't the main reason. The main reason was that the shaking is cause by the Planet Storm." He focused on Tear and she straightened at the unexpected look, "The people of Yulia City likely didn't have any idea that the Planet Storm would cause the core to vibrate and, in fact, it probably didn't. But over a long period of time, distortions developed, and the core began to vibrate."
"Even Dr. Southern-Cross didn't predict the core's vibration…?" Natalia's head tilted as she brought her finger to her lips in thought.
"The only way to stop the shaking is to stop the Planet Storm," Jade continued as if he hadn't heard her, "but stopping the Planet Storm would drastically weaken both fontech and fonic artes. The passage rings supporting the Outer Lands would also stop completely."
"Then there's nothing we can do…" Everyone seemed to sag in their chairs at Anise's words. Loren stifled a groan as he rubbed at his forehead.
A smirk touched at Jade's lips, "Actually, we just need to stop the core's vibrations while maintaining the Planet Storm."
"We can do that?" Multiple people spoke at once and Loren didn't bother trying to figure out who it was.
"This text contains some ideas," Amusement glittered in the colonel's eyes. Loren glared at him.
"But it was sealed away because it contradicts Yulia's Score?" Tear guessed. A rather obvious guess, but a guess all the same.
"Correct," Jade nodded and flipped to another page in the text, "all we can do is fix the liquefaction and lower the Outer Lands. Granted, we will need to reconstruct the fon machines from the text." He looked at Tamara, Iemon and Aston out of the corner of his eye as he turned the book towards them, "That's where you three come in. You all should be capable of something like this, yes?"
There was a clamour as the researchers hurried forward and Guy scrambled to get out of the line of fire. Exclamations about "Class I" and "Class M" were tossed out along with something about losses and wins and Loren had to sigh at their actions.
He waved his hand to get the blond's attention, rolling his eyes as the man clearly tried not to laugh. He stood up and brushed himself off before straightening the chair he had knocked over in his rush to get out of Aston's way. Then he settled next to Loren and leaned close to hear the redhead's question.
"What's the deal with... this?" Guy's smile stretched into a grin and Loren tensed.
"The rivalry between Sheridan's 'Class M' and Belkend's 'Class I' is practically legendary to the people that know of them and with something of this calibre, there's no chance that they'll let the opportunity to get the one up pass them by," he explained. Loren looked at him in disbelief and Guy shrugged.
"So, these two groups of old people will fight tooth and nail in order to get ahead?" Really? Did this really happen?
"It's come to that in the past, yes." Guy gave him a helpless smile as his eyes were drawn to the trio that had already begun to pull out pads of paper.
"Damn." Guy chuckled and patted Loren on the shoulder.
"Don't worry. They'll get the job done."
Loren didn't say anything to that.
"Alright!" Tamara clapped her hands together and the men silenced instantly. Loren blinked at the suddenness of it. "This is going to take a bit of fine tuning. We'll need to measure the frequency of the core's vibration before we do anything else."
"How do we do that?" Mieu asked from his perch on Tear's head.
"By inserting a measuring device through a passage ring into a Sephiroth Tree," Jade answered, "which means we'll need a Sephiroth that we haven't lowered yet." Loren frowned, trying to think of the ones that weren't the first and last.
"Aside from the Radiation Gate and the Absorbtion gate, I don't know of any others," Natalia pointed out, verbalizing his own thoughts. Jade shook his head.
"I doubt they'll be good for measurements as they're the start and end points for the Planet Storm," he explained.
"Shall we ask Grandfather in Yulia City?" Tear suggested and Anise straightened in her seat.
"We could ask Ion, too!" she added, "Plus, the Sephiroth with be closed with a Daathic seal so we'll need to take him with us anyway."
"True," Natalia agreed as Tear nodded, "to Daath, then?"
"It sounds like a plan," Guy stood with a stretch then scratched the back of his head, "also, it's a bit of a stretch but he might have information on Luke, too." Right, Luke. He'd almost forgotten about him.
Loren sighed and stood from his own seat, mirrored by the others around him. "Are we leaving tonight, then?"
"That would be best if you don't mind, Noelle," Jade decided with a look towards the young pilot.
"Not at all!" she straightened from where she was leaning against the wall and giving her family weary looks. A grin spread across her face, "Honestly, I'd rather not be here when their frenzy starts."
"A wise choice," Jade nodded then made for the exit. "Let's be off, then. We have no time to lose if Guy is right and the Fon Master does have information for us. "
Singing… Soft. Soothing.
Lov… …ng clear.
…Who is singing?
Darling chi… …ue.
Chi… Child? Drifting.
Adored child of … …ee.
I can't hear…
Ion woke early the next day though not because he particularly wanted to. The knowledge that he needed to do something the next day kept waking him at odd hours of the night, most likely in an attempt to make sure he got as much done as he could. So he resigned himself to getting up at 5.30 in the morning and seeing what he could occupy himself with. After delivering the letters, of course.
Said missives were held loosely in one hand as he slowly descended the tower, knowing it wouldn't make much of a difference if they left in five minutes or fifteen. His other hand lifted to cover a yawn, wishing he could've gotten more sleep. He blinked blearily at the elaborate walls and the ever-slanted ceiling between his fingers as he rubbed at his face. Maybe he could've lasted another hour in bed.
There was nothing for it, though. He had already reached the door at the bottom of the staircase. He was through the door and on the glyph in short order, sighing as he materialized on the ground floor and made his way to the main hall.
There were few people occupying the room when he entered, not that there were ever many to begin with, but the ones that were made the papers in his hand moot.
"Oh," he gasped in slight surprise, looking at the letters before shrugging and smiling lightly at the situation and making his way forwards. Most of them were dead on their feet, a couple of them having decided to drop to the floor and lean against the wall.
"Wouldn't the Inn make a better resting point than the floor of the front hall?" he greeted with a small laugh, giving the entire party a cursory glance for anything out of the ordinary. Guy was leaning against the wall, arms crossed and head bowed and clearly not paying attention to anything. Anise was on the floor some ways to his right and Natalia and Tear were trying their hardest to remain alert.
"Fon Master," Jade nodded, the only one that seemed to have more energy than the rest of them combined, "Anise had suggested her family's rooms instead. 'Why waste gald when there's already free beds' was her reasoning." He gesture to the brunette that had all but collapsed on the floor and was snoring faintly, "As you can see, she didn't quite make it. At any rate, we were planning on meeting you later this morning after some of us had gotten some rest. I didn't expect you to be up before the sun."
"It's not by choice," Ion admitted with a tired smile, "nerves kept waking me through the night."
"Nerves?" Jade echoed with a raised brow, "I'll take that to mean you heard something, then."
Ion hummed an affirmative and raised the letters to show the colonel, "I had actually written to you last night about it but it was too late to deliver." He handed the one that was intended for the man over and slipped the others in his robes. "By the way, did you happen to meet a man named Loren?"
"Ah, we did indeed," Jade answered as he broke the seal and scanned the words inside, "an interesting find you made there. How did you manage to come across him?"
"He quite literally ran into me, actually. I figured you might want to know about him."
"An astute observation," Jade agreed then gave him a sharp look. The letter was refolded and held up as a signal of a change in topic, "I want to see you resting before you take on this new seal."
"I won't object to that, Colonel," Ion smiled, tilting his head slightly, "I'll probably be sleeping again by mid morning now that you're here."
"It matters not if you sleep though that method is probably best. I'll be making sure you don't overtax yourself," the man warned just as the sound of a door closing echoed loudly in the hall. The pair turned towards the noise as Guy was jerked from his doze and the women stood just a little bit straighter. Anise remained dead to the world.
"Loren," Jade called to the man steadily making his way towards them, "I was starting to think you had gotten lost."
"It's been a long time since I last got lost down there," the red head returned, giving the colonel a rather annoyed look before he looked to Ion. "Good morning, Fon Master," he greeted only to receive a reprimanding stare from the other. He sighed and resisted rolling his eyes. "Good morning, Ion," he amended.
"Good morning, Loren," Ion accepted then eyed the top of his head, "I see you've misplaced a part of your uniform."
Loren's hand ran through his hair at the comment, "I believe I left it in Baticul. I was a bit distracted when I got there." He shook his head let his hand fall, "Anyway, I thought we were meeting at the Tatlin's quarters?"
"It seems Anise fell short," Jade nodded to the girl, "if you would be so kind as to grab her, then we could all make our way up." Loren gave him a flat stare to which he got a benign smile.
"I don't know how the others put up with you," he said finally before he turned and did as the colonel suggested. Anise grumbled as she was lifted but she quickly went back to snoring. Ion sent her a fond smile then turned to Tear and Natalia. The relief was evident on their faces, the pair clearly eager to be in a bed and they followed closely behind Jade and Loren.
"Guy," Ion prompted, the blond the only one to not notice everyone else leaving. Guy jerked upright, immediately rubbing his face to wake himself further.
"Fon Master?" he spoke between his hands and Ion chuckled.
"The others are moving. I think you'll find it better to sleep in a bed than against a wall," he said and Guy gave his own laugh.
"Yes, thank you," he nodded then stretched his arms over his head as he trailed after the rest of his party with Ion at his side.
Darling child of sound…