Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of the Abyss.
Chapter 19
Sylphday, Gnome-Decan 42, ND2019 – 5:50pm local time (Ispanian Peninsula)
Florian listened to his friends debating where to go next as he lay in his bunk in the Albiore's crew cabin, below the flight deck. It had been Ion's bunk, which Florian wasn't entirely happy about, but there were only eight beds, stacked two by two, with four on each side of a narrow aisle. Forward of the crew cabin was a tiny, cramped water closet on one side and, across from it, a door to the aircraft's outer deck. Aft of the crew cabin was the galley, which was a small kitchen with a bolted-down table and cushioned benches, a sink, a stovetop, a cooler, a few cabinets, and not much else.
He was still dizzy, and the motion of the Albiore didn't help settle his queasy stomach. At least he was lying down, which was better than sitting or standing. Florian hadn't dared to claim Luke's bunk, above Jade's; Luke was too important, and invading Luke's reserved space seemed wrong. He didn't want to replace Luke any more than he wanted to replace Ion, but there weren't any other beds available, so he had opted for Ion's bed underneath Guy's. Anise, Tear, Natalia, and Noelle's bunks were on the opposite side of the aisle. Each bunk had its own curtain which could be closed for privacy. Florian's was currently open so that he could hear the conversation around the table in the galley.
"I think we should go to Belkend to have Florian checked by a doctor," Anise was saying. "I'm really worried about him!"
"I doubt that a doctor would be able to do anything useful," Jade replied. "As I said before, either Florian will recover, or he'll die. By the time we get to Belkend, one outcome or the other will have occurred. There's nothing to do but wait and see. After we re-supply in Chesedonia, we should head to the next Sephiroth immediately."
"The Zao Ruins are close to Chesedonia," said Guy. "We should start there since the ruins are less dangerous than Mount Zaleho or Mount Roneal."
"What about Saint Binah?" Tear asked. "Shurrey Hill is even less dangerous than the Zao Ruins. We've saved Engeve, so the world's food supply is no longer at risk. But Saint Binah produces most of the world's medicine. We should secure that area next."
"But the Zao Ruins are closer," Natalia argued. "And I'm worried about General Cecille."
"No," Florian called out. "We need to go to Mount Zaleho. I have to get to Efreet!"
There was a brief, startled silence from the galley.
"Why Ifrit?" Jade asked at last. "Do you know something about the volcano that we don't?"
Time to confess, Florian thought. He took a deep breath and said, "...Yes. I know it's my fault the volcano erupted. Efreet asked for my help, and I said I couldn't. I didn't understand what was going on, back then, but I do now."
"Whaaaat?" said Anise. "Why were you talking to Efreet in the first place? Wait... Florian! Did you find the secret passage in the Fon Master's library and go through the fonic glyph there?"
"Yes. I'm sorry. I didn't know it led to Mount Zaleho. I thought it would take me somewhere else in the cathedral, the way the other glyphs do."
"You idiot!" yelled Anise. "You didn't try to read the Score from the fonstone there, did you?!"
"No, of course not!" Florian snapped. Anise had never called him an idiot before. It hurt, even though he knew he had done something stupid. "Why would I do that? The Score is useless now!"
"Oh, thank goodness," Anise said, with a sigh of relief.
Florian was confused. "Anise? What's the matter with that fonstone?"
"Nothing, Florian. Never mind."
"So, you heard Ifrit's voice while you were in Mount Zaleho?" Tear asked. "What did it say?"
"It called me 'Innocent One,' the same as Sylph did, and it said, 'Help me, I'm trapped here. Come to the passage ring,'" Florian recalled. "And it said, 'It hurts. Hurry.' I got scared. I told it, 'I can't help you! I'm sorry!' and ran back to the fonic glyph. And then the volcano erupted."
"Yikes," said Guy.
"Interesting," Jade mused. "Is that why you asked Sylph whether a high concentration of fonons was painful to a sentience?"
"Yes," Florian replied.
"That's strange," said Jade. "Fonons can only become sentient when they are concentrated. I wouldn't expect there to be such a thing as too many fonons for a sentience."
"Perhaps it's because the sentiences are trapped by the passage rings," Natalia suggested. "Sylph and Ifrit – is it Ifrit, or Efreet? I've never been certain. In any case, both of them used the same word. Trapped."
"I wonder what they meant by that," Tear murmured, almost too softly for Florian to hear.
"Maybe the passage rings are interfering with their fonons somehow?" Guy offered.
"Possibly," said Jade. "I suspect the only way to learn more about the situation is to ask one of the sentiences directly."
"I have to go back to Efreet," Florian insisted. "I have to fix the mistake I made. Please, after we're done in Chesedonia, take me to Mount Zaleho!"
Silence from the galley.
As Florian began to marshal his next argument, Guy spoke up. "Well... hell with it. If Florian says we should go to Mount Zaleho, then I guess that's where we'd better go."
Author's note: The crew space on the Albiore, in my imagination, is based on the camping trailers and sailboats I've traveled in. So if you've ever been in a camping trailer or below-decks in a moderate-size sailboat, you can picture the Albiore's crew cabin and galley more or less the way I do. Also, motion sickness when sailing or flying is really miserable! Poor Florian...
I'd planned to post only two chapters this weekend, but I needed to stop fiddling with 18 & 19. Luckily for my readers, most of my chapters are pretty short, so even with 4 in one day, they're not too hard to keep up with...I hope.