Some more time-skipping...

"So... I've got tomorrow afternoon off. What do you say we—Oh, is that for me?" –Kairi

"That was a dark, evil sound... I pity the poor fool who brought it out of you." –Sync

Chapter 11.2 – Dances With Death
Part 91

I smiled as I looked over the group in front of me. Twelve men and women had survived all five rounds of my testing, out of a total of forty-eight. Only one-fourth had survived, all eight who had noticed my initial hint among them.

"You've made it through four weeks of some of the strangest shit you've ever had to deal with, I'm sure. And for once, I'm not about to tell you it's going to get worse. Given this week's exercise, I've gotten permission to excuse the twelve of you from tomorrow's drills. Take a couple of days to wind down a bit," I announced. Everyone looked relieved, though a few still looked wary of me. "Starting Lunaday, everyone joins the Third Division for standard drills. Afterwards, I'll hand out assignments. Only about a third of you will be out on an actual assignment at any given time. The rest of you will be working on fake assignments here in Daath to keep your skills sharp."

Everyone seemed to understand the logic in that, so I nodded once. "Alright. You're all dismissed. Enjoy your break." I got a lot of 'thank you's', and then they were gone, walking off and chatting among themselves.

"Never thought you of all people would make such a good leader. They really look up to you now."

I looked over at Asch and smiled. "You and me both. I was always a pretty good talker and a pretty good thinker, but I never really took well to the attention."

He stepped over and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

Most girls, who were as sweaty and dirty as I was then, would have pulled away. But... Well... Asch was sweaty and dirty, too, and damn it, at that moment, I didn't give a lot of shits.

"So, I hear someone had a bit of a bandit problem on his way in from drills," I said as we started walking. Asch sighed.

"Yeah... Half of the idiots panicked on me... This is what I get for thinking they were doing well..."

I giggled. "At least one of us has cooperative little minions. Well, except for Hue... He's just... Hue." Who, being Ari's little brother, had to cause me as much grief as possible without compromising anything, of course.

Asch smirked, and we walked in silence for a while. It had been a couple weeks since we'd been able to have some alone time. I'd been away on a training exercise from hell, and Asch had been dealing with new recruits. But we'd known this would be a problem, even if only one of us had been working with the Order.

Actually, with both of us here, we were more likely to get time alone here and there, given that I usually stayed away from Daath otherwise.

"So... I've got tomorrow afternoon off. What do you say we—Oh, is that for me?"

The poor kid running past paused, glanced at me, and smiled. "Yup! I was wondering when you were getting back. Here you go, Miss Kairi!" he said, holding out the bundle of mail cheerfully. He then ran off to find the next person.

"Dear Gods, you got enough mail?" Asch teased, poking the admittedly large stack.

I swatted at his hand playfully, glancing to see that I had at least one letter a day for the entire week I'd been gone. "Shush. Between Jade, Peony, Nephry, Natalia, Dark, Seth, Flick, Selenia, and Noir, I get a lot of mail. Oh, and Suzanne. You and Luke should probably write to her... She's always asking about you... Oh boy. Wasn't actually expecting that, but I'll take it. Happily. I hope..."

"What?"

I lifted the envelope so he could see the sender.

"And Badaq Oakland is...?"

"Natalia's birth father... Otherwise known as Largo the Black Lion."

Asch came to a sudden halt. "Largo is...?" I nodded. "And he wrote you a letter?!"

I shrugged. "Returning mine, actually. I asked Din to see if she could find him. Since the return address is Din's stall, I'd say she succeeded." I turned and walked off, leaving Asch to stand and stare at me in shock.

When he finally did catch up, I felt a flicker of déjà vu that I had to shrug off.

"So, who else do you have letters from?" Asch asked.

"Jade, 'Jade'..." I put the second Jade in air quotes, and Asch rolled his eyes, apparently as amused by Peony's antics as I always was. "Ah, your mother, Dark, a rather thick one from Flick, oh look, this one's actually from York, Seth... Where did Miyagi find out my room number?"

"I'm gonna throw a wild guess on Flick," Asch said as we neared the God-Generals' rooms. I sighed.

"Probably... Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh?" Asch echoed curiously.

I showed him the formal envelope from Nephry, and he paled. "Uh-oh," he agreed.

We stepped into my room—formerly Arietta's—and I grabbed the letter-opener sitting on my desk, carefully opening all but Nephry's formal letter with it. That one had a wax seal that Asch had already opened.

"Oh boy... Cantabile's gonna love this..."

I stepped over and glanced at the fancy card in his hand. Then I smirked. "I'm sure she will... Since I'm certain Jade's gotten one too."

Asch rolled his eyes. "Her timing is terrible."

I shrugged. "I don't know. We've been having trouble getting to that dance. And I've got the Third Division worked out. It's not for a couple weeks yet, anyway. You've got time to get the new recruits under control."

Asch sighed, then handed it off to me. "I'm gonna go take a shower. Were you wanting to do something tomorrow afternoon?" he asked. I smiled.

"Picnic? Aramis Spring? A little sparring while we're at it?"

Asch looked amused. "Sounds much more interesting than my original plans. Meet out at the Fourth Monument at one?"

I smiled. "I'll be waiting."

Asch left to go take his shower, and I headed off into the bathroom for one of my own. Once the majority of the filth was gone, I plugged the drain and switched taps, letting the hot water relax my tense muscles. This last training exercise had almost ended in disaster more times than I cared to count.

Once I decided I was done soaking, I stepped out, found a nightgown, and sat at my desk. The letters—and Nephry's invitation—were set aside, while I pulled out some rather official stationary and started writing. After the rather long report on the training exercise was finished, I sat it aside and pulled over my letters, laying them all out and glancing over them.

Now... whose did I want to read first?

I ended up pulling Largo's free from its envelope first. I couldn't help it. I was curious.

It didn't take me long to go through it. Once I finished reading, I pulled out a piece of paper and started writing. My response was amused and insistent. I folded it up once I was done and set it aside. On to the next one, now...

Dark was next, then Suzanne, then Miyagi. I pulled out York's after that, then had to start searching for something in my wing pack. I'd totally forgotten about our project... Once my reply letter and the last two papers for the project were folded up, I opened Peony's letter.

I outright snorted when I read the first paragraph.

Well, it certainly explained the sudden party invitation from Nephry. Though I'm not sure Jade would appreciate it. Especially if he was as clueless as Peony thought he was... Though, knowing my brother, he probably wasn't.

I had to pause and smile then. I'd grown up an only child, and here I was, younger sister to two and older sister to another.

Once I'd gotten over my amusement, I pulled out Jade's letter. Sure enough, he suspected Peony and Nephry were up to something, and was asking me if I had any details. I smirked . How much to tell him...?

I chuckled and wrote my reply letter.

"That was a dark, evil sound... I pity the poor fool who brought it out of you," Sync said as he walked over. I frowned.

"Door!"

Sync finally seemed to notice the... ahem... state of undress I was in, and he ran back and closed the door without an argument. "So, now whose mind are you screwing with?" he asked.

"You, Asch, Jade... You know, the usual."

"Is this about the party?"

"Jade knows Nephry and Peony are up to something, just not what," I replied. "I gave him a hint."

Sync made a face, then shook his head. "Oh well, that's not why I came here. Ion wants to know if you can bring Tear up to speed. It looks like she's still interested in the Intelligence Division."

I shrugged. "Next month, maybe? I'm trying to get Hue to come out of his shell a bit more before I give him that promotion we talked about last week. He's pretty good. I want him in a position to handle things if we have to run off again, but if Tear comes back before he gets promoted, she'll be put in that spot."

Sync grimaced. "And since Tear would probably get dragged off as well if that happened, you can't put her in that sort of position. Damn. I never even thought about that."

I shrugged. "Rialle's all prepped to cover for Ion and Reighn if something happens, that's why she never actually submitted the transfer request. Cantabile can deal with the First and Second Divisions, and Luke and Aerith are basically co-leading the Sixth Division right now, so if one of them runs off, the other's got it handled. Honestly, I think you're the only one who isn't prepared for shit to hit the fan... Which is part of the reason why I'm currently in the middle of negotiations with Largo."

Sync froze, stared at me for a long few minutes, then sat down abruptly. "You're not joking..."

I shrugged. "Well, that's part of it, at least. Did you know Van's allies scattered after his death? Arietta's working with the Council, Dist and Rhunön are fucking around with replica data, Legretta is operating as a mercenary in Malkuth, and Largo's gone back to guarding caravans in the Zao Desert. Since that puts him in Chesedonia pretty regularly, I asked Din to deliver a letter." I reached over for a specific piece of paper. "I got this back while I was out on that exercise." I held out the letter, and Sync took it.

It took Sync about twenty minutes to absorb the contents of the letter. Meanwhile, I started reading Seth's letter. It was filled with all sorts of things he'd seen since leaving Tataroo Valley... including a caravan escort who looked just like Largo. I found that part rather amusing, at least. There was also an added apology at the end for the length of Flick's letter.

"Largo is Natalia's father?"

I nodded as I started skimming through Flick's letter. It looked like most of it was the contents of Seth's letter, but in greater detail. Though, there was a sheet of paper with random strike arte ideas for even more randomized people, and another sheet asking for copies of some of my recipes. Apparently she was getting tired of the same six things over and over again.

"Does Natalia know?" Sync asked.

"No. I warned her that her father wasn't exactly an ally before I sent the letter to Largo. I'm trying to get Largo to write her a few letters as Badaq before I drop the bomb on her that they're one and the same," I said.

"Man, and here I thought you writing letters all the time was just you being weird. Now I find out you've been working overtime..." Sync muttered. I sighed and let Flick's letter drop to my lap.

"Between me, Reighn, Cantabile, and Ion, you're being run ragged. Rialle's doing what she can to alleviate the problem, but she's one girl. And I didn't expect you to notice the rest of us setting up contingency plans, so I started working on yours for you." I paused here and bit my lip. "Besides... Of all the God-Generals... Aside from you and Asch, the only one whose death really left a bad taste in my mouth is the one I'm trying to redeem here. Largo deserves a second chance."

Sync looked skeptical. "He seemed pretty stubborn about following Van's idea of eliminating the Score."

I shrugged. "His daughter was substituted for the princess because the Score said she would be. His wife killed herself in her grief. So for him, it's like his wife and daughter have both been dead for... eighteen? nineteen years? But Natalia wanted to know about her birth family. She's been exchanging letters with her former nanny, her grandmother, since returning to Baticul. Since I know where her father is... I just thought I might try to patch things up."

"And you think Largo will come back?"

I sighed. "If what Levi and Alex said is true? Legretta's just waiting for Zion's next move. She's kinda like Danté right now—working with them, but not in the mood to deal with them. Dist is doomed to be arrested eventually, given all the shit in his files with the Malkuth military. And if Arietta wasn't willing to stop the Southern Clan, she's... Not going to help. At all," I said. Sync frowned.

"And on that subject... Twilight's coming back from Baticul... When, exactly?"

"Dark said he'll be on the next ferry in, which should get here tomorrow evening. Asch and I'll go pick him up."

"And Asch got volunteered because...?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you? We're going on a date."

Sync turned an amusing shade of pink, stood up, and walked out the door without another word to me... though he was nice enough to leave Largo's letter behind. I chuckled at his reaction, picked up the letter, and went back to reading the others I'd received.

I found a letter from Levi as well, and sighed as I read through it. Since he was stationed in Engeve and Alex was in Grand Chokmah, between the two of them and Selenia, I had eyes all over Malkuth.

Reighn was good at this, but he'd admitted to it being difficult keeping up with everything. So I'd told him to worry about Daath and Kimlasca.

Which was why I was dealing with this particular letter.

Once I was finished reading, I decided I'd write a response in the morning. I was going to sleep this irritation off. No reason to be snippy at Levi for telling me what I'd wanted to know, anyway.

I fell asleep that night with a mind that was racing, trying to reconcile the location of a large fonstone with Order of Lorelei records.

I failed.

Fun Fact: Asch and Kairi's relationship is panning out much the same as mine and Nathan's... There's a comment somewhere around here about us going fishing...