A/N: I made a few edits to Chapters 22 and 23, based on some of the things I've learned from Baby Kat Snophlake – nothing that changes the plot, just a few more scene-setting details. Thank you so much, Kat! Thanks also to guest reviewer Silver for your ongoing feedback and encouragement.
Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of the Abyss.
Chapter 24
Remday, Gnome-Decan 45, ND2019 – 3:15 pm local time (Padamiya)
Anise tiptoed into the crew cabin, careful not to make any noise in case Florian was asleep. She set Tokunaga, still wrapped in her tabard, next to her pillow. Then she tiptoed over to Florian's bunk to check on him.
Florian was lying on top of his blankets, with his robes twisted around his legs as though he had been tossing and turning. His eyes were open, but they looked dull and slightly glazed. His face was flushed, and his hair clung to it in damp strands. Catching sight of Anise, he smiled weakly.
"Florian," Anise murmured. "Are you okay?"
"I'm too hot," Florian complained. "I feel like I'm still inside the volcano."
"Do you have a fever?" Anise asked worriedly, setting her hand on Florian's forehead. "Aah!" she exclaimed as her hand reflexively jerked away from the scorching heat. She frowned and touched his forehead again with just her fingertips. Even though she was wearing gloves, it was like touching something that had just come out of a hot oven.
"What's wrong, Anise?" Tear asked. She had stopped in the cabin doorway to give Anise and Florian some space. "Is he feverish?"
"Not just feverish," Anise replied. "He's too hot to touch! Tear, help!"
"Too hot to touch?" Tear repeated, her brows drawing down in puzzlement. "Let me see, Anise." She gestured for Anise to step aside, then felt Florian's forehead. "Ouch!" she gasped, pulling her hand away quickly.
"I told you so!" Anise snapped. She took a deep breath to regain control of her temper. "Tear, can your healing artes cure a fever?"
"Sometimes," Tear replied. "But I doubt they would help Florian at the moment. He isn't injured, Anise, or suffering from an infection. He's overwhelmed with Fifth Fonons. Couldn't you sense it?"
"...Oh," said Anise, feeling stupid.
"How interesting," Jade called from the galley. "The excess Third Fonons from Sylph made him dizzy, and the Fifth Fonons from Ifrit are making him too hot. Based on those observations, we can assume that whenever Florian makes a pact with a sentience, the effect on him will depend upon the element of that sentience. For example, I would expect that when he forms a pact with Undine, he will feel cold afterward."
"Then what will happen to him with Shadow, Gnome, and Rem?" Anise asked, as she sat down on her bunk.
"Hmmm. I suppose we'll find out after he makes those pacts," Jade replied. "There are several possible effects I can think of offhand, but there's no reason to borrow trouble by dwelling on those possibilities. If he recovers from the pact with Ifrit in a day or two, as he recovered from Sylph, I'm certain that he can recover from Undine, Shadow, Gnome, and Rem. I'm more concerned with whether we can find Rem anywhere."
"Yes," Tear said, nodding. "None of the problems we're investigating seem to be related to the Sixth Fonon. But we should focus on stabilizing Undine, Shadow, and Gnome first. Worrying about Rem at the moment is borrowing trouble, too."
"Oh, dear. It seems you've caught me," Jade chuckled. "Shame on me, I suppose. I must be getting confused in my old age."
Anise giggled, despite her worries, and Tear smiled. Florian, too, huffed a brief laugh.
"Well, in any case, lunch will be ready soon," said Jade. "We'll have just enough time to eat before we arrive in Daath."
"I'm not hungry," said Florian. "I just want to cool off..."
"I'll bring you a cup of water," Tear reassured him. "It won't do anything about the Fifth Fonons, but it might help you feel a little better."
The stone-paved front steps of the cathedral in Daath were cracked and slightly buckled, but the building itself looked nearly the same as it always did. The eight bracing structures that arched out over the city, giving the unfortunate impression of the cathedral as a giant spider, were undamaged as far as Anise could tell. A few of the windows were broken, with jagged holes where their colorful mosaic images should have been, and the cathedral grounds were littered with shards of broken glass and shattered roof slates. Anise squinted, trying to spot any cracks in the stone walls or other telltale signs of dangerous structural damage.
"Anise, be careful," said Natalia. "If you keep looking up at the cathedral instead of watching your step, you'll—"
"Aaah!" Anise yelped as she stubbed her toe on a cracked, uneven stair and fell forward. With the damaged, tabard-wrapped Tokunaga occupying her arms, she had no way of catching herself. She landed hard, hitting her chin on one of the steps above and skinning both knees as she slipped back down two stairs.
"...trip," Natalia finished. She sighed and shook her head. "Honestly! Anise, when are you going to learn some common sense?"
Guy, who had been at the front of the group as usual, turned back to help Anise get up. "You okay, Anise?" he asked, as he held out his hand. Anise nodded, took Guy's hand, and scrambled back to her feet before picking up Tokunaga again. The puppet seemed to be no more damaged than before, but her tabard was all dirty.
"Thanks...Guy..." Anise huffed, slightly out of breath from the adrenaline spike. Her initial panic at falling was turning into anger at Natalia. She hated being nagged, especially when the person nagging her proved to be right. She wasn't sure who was worse, her parents or the princess.
"I suppose I ought to heal you," Natalia relented, with another sigh. "O soothing light..."
"I don't need you to—" Anise started to argue.
"Heal!" Natalia finished. The scrapes on Anise's knees and chin disappeared, leaving her skin unmarred, as though nothing had happened.
"Thanks," Anise said grudgingly.
"Thank you, Natalia. And Guy," Florian mumbled. He was so weak now from the fever that he was staggering. Tear, who was wearing kitchen mittens, guided him carefully up the stairs, ready to catch him if he lost his balance. At the top, she shepherded him through the ornately-carved doors and steered him to the right, with everyone else following.
The inside of the cathedral seemed dark and gloomy after the bright sunshine outside. The group paused at the set of five fonic glyphs inscribed on the floor next to the staircase that led to the upper levels of the cathedral.
"Let's divide our efforts for the time being," said Jade. "Tear and Anise can escort Florian to his room. I'll go directly to the Fon Master's library and start searching for any information relevant to the passage rings. Guy, Natalia, I trust you'll both be coming with me?"
"Sure," Guy said eagerly.
"Wait," said Natalia. "We also need to speak with Grand Maestro Tritheim. Perhaps I can go with Florian and watch over him once he's resting, so that Anise and Tear can find the Grand Maestro."
"Anise would know where to find him better than I would," Tear pointed out.
"Tritheim will be more likely to listen to you than me," Anise replied. "So let's go together, after Florian is settled."
"Hmmm," said Jade. "I was hoping to have some ideas before speaking with him, but yes, I suppose that would work. Once you've found the Grand Maestro, please bring him to the library. It would probably be most efficient to discuss the situation with as many of us together as possible. In fact, Tritheim may be able to assist us with our research."
"So, long story short, Natalia will stay with Florian while the rest of us talk to Tritheim in the library. Sounds like a plan," said Guy. "All right, time to research some ancient fontech! See you later!" He dashed up the stairs.
Jade sighed dramatically. "Oh, to be so young and energetic again. Tear, Anise, I'll see you soon. Natalia, thank you for volunteering to stay with Florian. If his condition worsens, let us know immediately."
"Understood," said Natalia.
Anise, Tear, Natalia, and Florian stood on the large, white fonic glyph in the center of the set. The last thing Anise saw as Tear activated the glyph was Jade turning toward the staircase. A few seconds later, the three girls and Florian reappeared at the matching glyph on the top floor of the cathedral. Together, they entered the hallway that led to the Fon Master's chambers.
Anise still resented the fact that Florian had been given Ion's rooms and Ion's clothes. It wasn't fair to Florian or Ion. So many people in the Order saw Florian as a replacement for Ion. But no one could truly replace Ion, her Ion, the Ion she had failed to protect. She had betrayed Ion to Mohs in order to save her parents, and yet Ion had still told her as he was dying, Thank you...for everything...My most...cherished...
She blinked her stinging eyes rapidly to hold back her tears, and bit her lip as another memory surfaced: Ion saying to Luke, There are plenty of replacements for me, and Luke retorting, You're the only Ion that went to the Cheagle Woods with me.
Ion... Anise thought. I'll look after Florian. I won't fail him the way I failed you...
Natalia held the door to the Fon Master's office open for Florian and Tear. Anise trailed behind them, feeling more miserable with every passing second. She watched as Tear guided Florian into the Fon Master's bedchamber and folded back the blankets on Ion's bed. Florian flopped down onto the soft mattress and kicked off his shoes, dropping them both over the footboard. It gave Anise a strange feeling; Ion had always removed those shoes carefully, one at a time, and set them side-by-side near the head of the bed.
Tear took off her kitchen mittens and set them on a small table in the corner, next to a cup and pitcher. "I'll fill this with fresh water for Florian," she said, picking up the pitcher.
"I'll go with you," said Natalia, "so that I'll know where to refill it. Tear, I have a favor to ask. I can stay with Florian for a while, but if you could come back at midnight and watch him until morning—" The rest of her words were cut off by the bedchamber door closing.
Anise leaned against the wall next to the window. She clutched Tokunaga to her chest, the way she always did when she felt unbearably sad. It wasn't quite the same, with him wrapped in her tabard, and she sighed as she thought about how, along with everything else she had to deal with right now – Florian, Tritheim, and researching the passage rings – she also needed to repair her beloved puppet.
"Anise...?" Florian asked weakly. "What's the matter?"
Everything, Anise thought, but she didn't answer out loud. Too many things were wrong. Florian was sick, Auldrant was in danger, Tokunaga was broken, the Colonel was hiding something again, her parents were in Yulia City without her to keep them out of trouble, and Ion was gone forever. She wanted to curl up in a corner and cry her heart out, but she didn't want anyone else to see her like that.
"Anise...?" Florian asked again.
"It's okay," she said, swallowing hard around the lump in her throat. "It's going to be okay."
"Anise... I'm sorry for worrying you. But..."
There it was again, the I'm sorry for worrying you that sounded exactly like Ion. She was so tired of Florian saying and doing things that reminded her of Ion, all while wearing Ion's clothes, living in Ion's rooms, talking with Ion's voice, smiling with Ion's face...
"NO!" Anise shouted angrily. "No buts! Either you're sorry, or you're not! Don't try to lie to me, Florian!"
"Anise...!" Florian protested, struggling to sit up.
"You're not sorry at all! You—you just want to be a hero, don't you! A knight in shining armor! Well, I've got news for you: I hate knights in shining armor! Bugger knights in shining armor!"
"Um... I still don't know what that means, Anise. What exactly—?"
"Ugh! You're not even listening!" Anise interrupted him. "If you really were sorry for worrying me, you'd quit making these stupid pacts, go back to Yulia City, and stay there!"
"Well, I can't go back to Yulia City now. I made a promise to Sylph and Ifrit. I have to keep it," Florian argued.
"Why?! So that you won't lose their power? Florian, you are SO selfish! You're going to die if you keep making pacts with the sentiences! Fonon separation, remember?"
Florian glared at her. "Don't call me selfish, Anise! I'm not doing this for myself, I'm doing it to help the sentiences and prevent more disasters, so that no more people will get hurt. Guy said there's no proof that making pacts will kill me. And even Colonel Jade isn't sure."
"Weren't you listening to him, either? The Colonel said that your fonons will almost certainly separate sooner or later!"
"He said they may separate. But they may not. And he said that if I recover from Ifrit, I'll recover from Undine, Shadow, Gnome, and Rem."
"Damn it, Florian!" Anise snarled. "I already lost Ion! I'm not gonna lose you, too!"
Florian reached behind him, snatched his pillow, and flung it at Anise. He missed, but that didn't deter him. "I'm not Ion's replacement, Anise!" he snapped. "I'm Florian! You always tell people, 'Florian is Florian,' whenever people talk about me and Ion. But you were lying, weren't you! You still see Ion when you look at me, just like everyone else does!"
Anise felt as though he had slapped her in the face. "That's not true!" she exclaimed, shaking her head – but in her heart, she knew Florian was right. How does he know? she thought in despair. I've always tried to hide it. I've always tried to see Florian instead of Ion. I tried so hard... "Florian, please, don't say things like that!"
"I'm not here just to be your second chance!" Florian shouted. He was getting out of breath from the effort of arguing with her.
"Second chance!" Anise shrieked. "You son of a—!"
The door swung open. "Anise, what's going on in here?" Natalia demanded. She marched into the room, somewhat impeded by the chair she was carrying. Anise recognized it at once as Ion's desk chair.
Tear followed Natalia through the door. She set the pitcher back on the table and turned to frown at both Florian and Anise. "You should be resting, Florian," she said. "Lie down. Anise, why were you yelling at him like that?"
"Why was I—?!" Anise yelped indignantly. "Why, you—! All of you! You people are idiots!" She stomped across the room and yanked the door open. "I HATE YOU ALL!" she howled over her shoulder as she exited. She slammed the door as hard as she could. Then she ran – out of Ion's office, down the hall, through another door, and back to the fonic glyph. She warped to the ground floor and sprinted up the stairs, heading for her family's room where she could lock the door and cry without being seen.