Okay, here we go. This chapter is mostly a bit of an info dump, if I'm being honest. However, it sets things up for some of the major plot points in AEtT, so most of it's pretty important. Though, I love how Kairi apparently decided to ditch her brain-to-mouth filter for the morning here. If you need any proof, just look at the quotes.

"Just blurt it out, why don't you?" –Luke

"Subtle as a brick wall this morning, aren't we?" –Dark

"You sure that's the only Ion replica we've missed? There were seven of them, after all." –Kairi

Chapter 10.6 – Divergent
Part 89

Reighn sighed as the attention was once again turned back to him, and not in a joking manner. "Right... I take it you've done what you can to find out about the Clans already, yes?" he asked. We nodded.

"We talked to Miyagi a bit, and dug up what we could, but aside from some tiny bits and pieces here and there, we've got basically nothing," Guy said. Reighn nodded.

"I'm not surprised. This stuff is roughly three thousand years old, after all. Anyway, how much do you know already?"

"There were six Clans, each Clan safeguards one of the seals used to bind the first six fonon sentiences, and the spirits used to initiate each seal were of the opposite element of the sentience sealed," I said.

Reighn nodded. "That's a rather condensed version. Any details?"

"The spirit of earth who bound Sylph was called Alvess," Asch said, his tone indicating that was all he was going to add. Reighn gave him an odd look, and I rolled my eyes.

"Guy's grandfather performed a blood adoption with their father."

"Just blurt it out, why don't you?" Luke deadpanned as everyone, including Reighn, stared at me incredulously.

Dark snorted. "Yeah. That's Kairi for you."

Reighn's expression slowly shifted from shock to relief. "Oh, thank Phaïe..." He shifted back and fell over.

"Um... Reighn?"

"Van adopted Zion when he was still a kid. Thanks to Ion and Florian still being alive, that leaves the Fende seal with two Heirs in addition to Tear, who will have to take up the mantle of Clan Head now that Van's dead."

"You didn't mention Sync..."

"Adopted by Cantabile, and therefore adopted out of the Clan," I said, answering Ion's question. I looked over at Reighn. "I take it Zion's been adopted out as well?"

He nodded. "Ryndor. Danté and Dark only took his last name for a lack of anything better." He took a deep breath. "Which just leaves Seth as Heir once Kairi takes over as the Head of Balfour, and me and Aerith."

"Miyagi's the current Head of Darigan, but he's getting old, and he's gonna hand it off to either me or Danté eventually," Dark said. Reighn shrugged.

"But he's an established Head. He can decide his successor, so long as his chosen Heir hasn't abdicated. And I hate to say it, but I'm fairly certain it'll be you," he said.

"What about Asch and Kairi?" Luke asked. Reighn looked confused, and I sighed.

"We're dating."

"Subtle as a brick wall this morning, aren't we?" Dark commented. He got another rock thrown at him for his troubles. This one hit him in the arm.

"So? Since Kairi will be Clan Head, so long as Guy doesn't die before they get married, assuming they eventually get married, Asch will marry out of the Gardios line into Balfour. It gets more complicated if Guy is dead or suddenly decides to abdicate, but otherwise it shouldn't be a problem."

Asch sighed, apparently relieved. So was I. It was headache-inducing enough trying to figure out what was going on with everything else. Asch and I didn't need another hurdle thrown into our relationship.

"So, about Clans and the seals they guard..." Reighn started.

"Fende guards Shadow, Cecille guards Gnome, Gardios and Sylph, Aurelius and Undine, Balfour and Ifrit, and Darigan has Rem."

Reighn gave me a curious look, and I shrugged. "Energies follow the path of least resistance. If the fonons are gonna flow one way, Energies of the same type will tag along."

He sighed. "Well... She got it in one. Do you know the names of the other five spirits?" I shook my head. So did everyone else. "In order of the sentiences they seal: Yda, Syal, Alvess, Myno, Phaïe, and Havaam. According to what I've found in the archives, it should actually be possible to summon the spirit of the opposite element to the one binding the sentience whose seal each family guards..."

"So you should be able to summon Phaïe, and I should be able to summon Myno?" I asked. Reighn nodded.

"Yeah. There's not a lot of information on it though, so I'm not sure how to go about it."

"Mind you, there is a scroll missing."

Everyone's eyes shot up to the girl who was just walking over. "Aerith?" Sync asked. The girl nodded, and it was no wonder. She was a far cry from the God-General I'd last seen in Daath. Her hair was longer, and starting to curl just a bit at the ends. She was also wearing a full-length pink dress instead of the long top and shorts deal she'd had with both her previous outfits. The little pink flower pin was back, too.

"So, what? Now that Reighn's the Clan Head, you're defecting from the God-Generals?" Luke asked, suitably wary. Aerith shot him an icy look.

"Grand Maestro Mohs had three goals when he joined the Oracle Knights at age fourteen. See the Score fulfilled, shift the ultimate power of the Order of Lorelei away from the Fon Master, and eradicate the remains of the Clans," she said, looking around at everyone else. "He sanctioned the attack on Hod hoping that Gardios, Fende, and Aurelius would all be destroyed in one fell swoop. His trap for Dark? Absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he was an assassin. And he didn't know about Seth. He thought the Balfours were done for when Nephry married out." She paused and glanced at Guy, then Natalia. "And Cecille is a lot less stable than we thought."

Reighn grimaced. "But still less likely to be lost than Aurelius or Balfour right now."

I sighed. "Oh boy... Well, at least now we know what you were up to. Still, what's going to happen now?"

Aerith sat down with a frown. "Now? Now we have to get the Clans sorted out. Darigan and Aurelius are the only two with established Heads right now."

Seth and Jade exchanged a look before glancing at me, and I rolled my eyes. "Alright. How do we go about doing this?"

Aerith shook her head, and Reighn sighed. "Not here... Come on..." he muttered, standing up. The rest of us followed him, with the exceptions of Ginji and Noelle, who offered to wash the dishes while we were gone.

Reighn led us to the cliff wall and then through a natural-looking crevice. It didn't take long for it to widen into a small cavern. There were four archways here, three with seals that looked like the Daathic Seals on the sephiroth, and one that was open. I could spot candlelight down the open one.

"Kairi?" I looked at Reighn, who was standing next to one of the seals. He waved me forward, and indicated that I put my hand on the seal. It lit up, and I frowned at the hiragana that covered it. Reighn frowned.

"That shouldn't... Unless..." He glanced back at Jade. "There's a reason you insist on people not calling you by your surname, isn't there?"

Jade looked startled, then looked at me and stepped up next to me. I removed my hand, and he placed his there instead. The hiragana was different this time.

Reighn then told him to shift his hand to the right. The barrier dissolved immediately.

"Adopted out, but not acknowledged," Reighn muttered. "If you want Kairi as Clan Head, you'll have to abdicate," he added a bit louder. Jade looked down at me, and I crossed my arms.

*What do you want to do?* I asked.

*This isn't exactly something I wanted to get caught up with, but I'm not sure I want you to have to bear this, either,* he said.

Aerith sighed. "Do you two want to poke around with the scroll on lines of succession first?" she asked. "I'm not sure if that's why you two are acting weird, but I thought I'd offer."

Jade frowned and gave me one more look.

*I'd already resigned myself to it. If you'd rather not deal with it, I'm okay with it. I know you don't want this,* I said.

*You're sure?*

I gave him an irritated look, and Reighn sighed. "Really, you two?"

I smirked. "What? It's handy for having private conversations when there are a lot of people around."

Jade sighed. "And it's a lot harder to lie when she can feel my hesitation..."

I nodded. "He'll abdicate."

Reighn rolled his eyes. "That's nice to know. You two, Seth, Flick and Asch, follow me. There's not enough space down here for anyone else."

He turned and stepped through, and those of us he'd named followed him. Aerith took up almost a guard's stance, and it was no wonder why.

There was plenty of space for everyone. The problem was in the way the fourth and fifth fonons moved around Asch and Flick, more Asch than Flick.

I hissed out 'stop' in Japanese as I shoved at them, and the fonons twisted, then started dancing around as if to mock me.

All of a sudden, the fourth fonons dispersed.

"Jade, you're still the Heir of Balfour. With the mess it's in, you have to disperse the fifth fonons," Reighn warned.

It took him a moment to do so, but the sudden lack of support from the fourth fonons had made the fifth fonons hesitate long enough to be safe.

Asch looked over at Reighn, wide-eyed. "What was that?"

Reighn's expression was solemn. "A defense mechanism put in place by the Clans when they built this place. Aurelius and Balfour share a branch, so Aerith, Jade, Seth, Kairi and I can come in here without triggering it. You could walk into the branch shared by Gardios and Cecille without any consequences right now, if you wanted," he said. Jade inhaled sharply.

"That's why you told the others to stay behind."

Reighn nodded. "Two Clansmen to an 'invader', and the fonons can be dissuaded from attacking. Since Asch and Flick are involved with Kairi and Seth, I thought they'd like to be here."

"And Aerith knows about it, so she's keeping the others out," I said. Reighn nodded.

"Yes. Now then... Aurelius is down that way, but Balfour..." he said, waving distractedly to his left before leading us down a passage on the right. It didn't take us long to reach our destination, and I gasped.

"Oh... This is beautiful..." Flick murmured. I nodded, speechless. She'd said enough to make the point, anyway.

Red, orange, and gold seemed to dance all around us. There were hints of green here and there in some of the yellows, and bits of violet and even blue in part of the red.

And it was warm. Comfortably warm, to me, though Reighn and Asch looked a bit uncomfortable. I knew Asch preferred the cold, so it didn't really surprise me.

"Is that... glass?" Jade asked, looking at the swirling patterns that covered the walls. Reighn nodded.

"Yeah. Ours is in shades of blue, and the glass isn't as delicately fluted, but it's similar. I'm gonna guess it's the same in the other two branches," he said.

"You're gonna guess?" Asch caught his wording. Reighn shrugged.

"Well, unless Tear and Dark take me into that branch, or you, Luke, and Guy let me come with you into the Gardios/Cecille branch, that's all I can do. Remember, the defense mechanism works against other Clans, too," he said, giving Asch a pointed look. "Actually, it's more active against other Clans. And I'm not in the mood to die, thanks."

Jade walked over to the far wall. "Reighn... is this...?"

The rest of us joined him, and Reighn nodded. "Clan register. It updates automatically. As you can see, you, Kairi, and Seth are the only three listed."

Reighn reached out and tapped the sheet of red glass twice. The hiragana disappeared. A moment later, it was replaced with the fonic alphabet.

Reighn then talked Jade through abdicating, which was followed up with telling me how to claim the position as Clan Head.

Before we turned around to leave the sanctuary, I took one last glance at the glass.

Kairi Balfour – Head

Seth Balfour – Heir

Jade Balfour – Abdicated

Once we stepped back out of the passage that led down into that branch, we noticed two things.

Tear, Natalia, Dark, and Ion were nowhere to be seen, and Guy was leaning up against the wall near the only seal that hadn't been removed now.

"I take it Aerith explained the defenses?" Reighn guessed.

Luke snorted. "You're a terrible liar." He looked over at Asch. "Guy and I were waiting on you. You ready?"

Asch glanced at me, then nodded, and Guy nodded as well before turning around and placing his hand on the seal. After unlocking it, he headed down into the cavern, Luke and Asch following after him.

Dark, Natalia, Ion, and Tear returned first.

"Hey, you're back," Dark said. I nodded.

"What'd the sanctuaries look like?"

Tear smiled. "Beautiful... I never knew glass could be twisted like that, but it was gorgeous."

I smirked. "We'll have to share our memories of all the different sanctuaries sometime."

Natalia nodded. "Yes. Dark's and Tear's were both beautiful, but..."

"You're more a fire, earth, and wind girl," I finished. She giggled and nodded.

"Hang up a sec, what do you mean 'share our memories'?" Aerith asked. I shrugged.

"I can create these little force fields that project memories to everyone inside. Natalia and I did it a few times just to keep ourselves entertained after Danté kidnapped her, and she's asked me to do it again a couple times since then to help explain things," I said.

"Is that the same as what you did earlier?" Reighn asked. I nodded, and Dark raised an eyebrow.

"Earlier?"

I smirked. "Reighn now understands my references to Tales of the Abyss."

"Hey, you mentioned that back in Akzeriuth!" Anise said. I grinned.

"Yup."

"Are you going to explain it to the rest of us?" she asked.

"Not yet."

Reighn sighed. "Just don't wait too long. I've no doubt Zion will use it as leverage if you do."

I rolled my eyes. "I doubt it. He only knows about Earth."

Now everyone was giving us weird looks, except for Sync, Jade, and Dark. I was suddenly very grateful for the uncreative name of my home world.

By the time Asch, Luke, and Guy got back, the silence was quickly becoming awkward.

"Well?" Reighn asked.

"Asch is listed as the current Heir under me as Clan Head," Guy said simply.

"Miyagi has me listed as Heir," Dark added. "Danté hasn't abdicated, but..."

Tear nodded. "And Ion is noted as my Heir. Also... We missed an Ion replica. His name is Valon... and from what I was able to find out, he's currently in Grand Chokmah."

I blinked, then raised an eyebrow. "You sure that's the only Ion replica we've missed?" I asked. "There were seven of them, after all."

Tear shrugged. "If he's not, the others have been adopted out."

Fun Fact: So. Valon. Valon belongs to Tony/Marluxia of Avalon, by the way. Anyone who's read Bloody Nightshade should recognize him. Anyway. I had no intention of having him in this story. Whatsoever. But I've been trying to beta-read for Tony for a while now—we're both so busy that basically nothing gets done, but he doesn't really care much, and I am actually doing stuff here and there, so it works out—and I guess Valon decided to come vacationing in my head? Um, well, whatever. He's here. He's not going to be here long.