Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Phantasia, or anything else involved with the Tales series that's mentioned/referenced/has a fonon sentience/summon spirit stolen from it in this fic. Namco, Namco's Tales Studio, and everyone else with an actual trademark/copyright owns it. I'm not making any money, please don't sue me, no infringement intended. I need my money if I'm going to be able to buy the Tales of the Abyss anime I've heard rumors about.

Okay. First fic in the fandom, I've logged 100 hours but this was written after the characters mugged me while half-asleep and the sentence structure's probably screwy plus the voices do not meet my standards. Post-game, sticking prettymuch with canon although given all the easter eggs I probably contradicted text in a library somewhere or something.

The fonon sentiences are based on the summon spirit versions in other games. The sylph trinity with Yutis are from Symphonia: there's a bow names Yutis available at the Casino which I'm getting as soon as I get Jade's title that makes the chips cheaper. Undine's appearance is Phantasia, Rem is angelic in Legendia (own it, would be playing it but Tales of the Abyss needed a second playthrough stat).

This is post-game, using the information from the sidequest which reveals that that was Asch with Luke's memories, not Luke at all, and born from, wait a minute, this is the defintion of a fonon sentience, and according to it it's a clump of that fonon large enough to think with the right frequency... Luke's a seventh-fonon-only replica, he's got Lorelei's frequency, the equivalents of the fonon sentiences in other games have MPD all over the place... Luke is Lorelei.

Sweet! He's not dead!

Alright. He picked himself up and tried to dust the snow that had drifted into the cave off his clothing. It was a futile effort, especially since there was a snowstorm outside. Oh, wait. He could do fonic artes now. Well, not actually fonic artes, no, but hymns. So getting rid of the snow and keeping it off him was… He whistled once, and after that sort of kept singing on the inside. He'd had to learn to do that before once, because people thought it was pretty weird when someone was singing four different songs while carrying on a conversation.

Oh, hey, he could fly! That was going to make everything much easier. He could just hop over the mountains to Keterberg instead of having to wait for the current Albiore. Or one of the Albiores. He bet Guy had one. No, wait, hyperresonance. His first experience with it was teleporting.

Hey, he was getting the hang of this pretty quick. Of course, Luke had gone from blank slate, with neurons that had missed the age at which humans were supposed to learn to walk and talk, to a half-decent fake adult within seven years despite being sheltered by everyone, no matter if their intentions had been good or bad. Guy had apologized to him for sabotaging his learning, and that was, well, Guy, and he'd been there for him more than his supposed family.

And Lorelei had gone from raw sentience to someone able to fake humanity decently well in ten days, so he wasn't inherently dumb.

A large enough cluster of fonons would become an incarnation of the sentience. The majority of the replicas hadn't had enough to do more than match the intelligence of their original, and frankly neither had Luke (Asch's intelligence, that was). But he had a lot more fonons now, and access to Lorelei's memories, although there wasn't a real distinction there. Luke wasn't Asch, even isofonic replicas weren't originals for humans because of a lot of technical stuff. Asch had all seven types of fonons, Luke had only one, the seventh. And a collection of seventh fonons with Lorelei's fonon frequency was Lorelei. That was how the whole fonon sentience thing worked. There had been two of them floating around since Luke was forcibly separate, but the same person.

He thought he might want to go with Luke, as a name. Unless Asch his actual replica had done the smart thing and taken it back. Oh, right! Asch deserved to know that he was back. Hey, Asch!

Silence.

Oh no. Asch, you had better not be dead! I did not let you move into my body so that you could get it killed!

This time there was a response, the sort of indeterminate noise made by someone really shocked and trying to figure out what to say. Dr… Rep… Luke? Asch didn't seem to know what to call him.

Luke works. Unless you want it back? It was yours first. It's better than Lorelei. I mean, I'm a fundamental element of existence, I don't have a gender as Lorelei but I'm male right now and I don't want a girl's name. So if you want it back I can come up with something, like you did.

You're alive? Asch just seemed shocked, not knowing what to think yet.

Yeah. Didn't Jade figure it out?

He was the one who had to explain to Tear that you were gone for good, that there wasn't anything left of you but memories in my head.

Wait, you have my memories?! Oh, yeah. Right. It does work that way. Can you still do normal fonic artes?

What does that have to do with anything?

Asch, it's important. Deadly seriously so.

Yes, I can.

Phew. I didn't save you for you to not be you. If you can still do normal fonic artes then you must have brought your first through sixth fonons into my body with you, which means you aren't me. Thank my older siblings.

What's going on? Okay, now Asch was starting to act more like his old, grumpy, resentful self.

Someone tried to re-do what Dr. Grant did. Weird how over the years 'Dr. Julia Grant' turned into Yulia Jue. Of course, Tear's family hadn't wanted to broadcast that they were descended from the most famous person in the new history.

Luke surveyed the bodies with, well, not satisfaction. The seventh fonon was so apt to be used to heal and protect for good reason, and he'd always hated that people had to die. Still, it was a good thing they'd been stopped. Only this time I know better than to give blank-check favors to people. She'd just wanted to know how to save her world. She hadn't wanted this, but he'd had to keep his word once the contract was made. The best prediction of the future one-seventh of the universe could make. Man, it had been hard to figure out a way to outsmart himself. They summoned a bunch of the seventh fonon to the planetary glyph, and here I am. Where are you, anyway?

The throne room in Baticul. Wait, they tried to summon Lorelei and they got you?

I know! That's why it's weird that Jade didn't figure it out. I thought he was going to be the one to bring me back. I think I'd better just head over there before they think you've gone even more crazy.

Wait…

He should have waited. When he appeared, he found himself in the middle of a scene that rendered him just as wordless as his words had rendered Asch.

There was a wedding, a royal wedding. Natalia's wedding. Officiated by Anise. Tear, who he managed a smile for, was the maid of honor. The best man was Jade. Guy was a groomsman. And so was Asch.

Natalia was getting married to Emperor Peony? Well, it made sense, combining the two kingdoms, but what the… His shocked reverie was interrupted when Jade, taking his role as best man a bit too traditionally, stabbed him in the gut. Or tried to, he adjusted the water-keep away at the last microsecond. Why would Jade attack Luke on sight?

Oh, he didn't look like Luke. He'd manifested the way he'd appeared back then. Better fix that.

Okay, sudden shapechanging wasn't going to make Jade less suspicious.

"Wait, he's really Luke!" Asch raised a hand, head clearing. Oh damn, he'd given him a headache, hadn't he? He was still new at this and he'd probably been shouting. "Or something." Okay, that part didn't help matters much.

"Luke is dead." And Jade was going to figure a way to take apart the person who dared impersonate his lost… friend? Oh, and played on Asch's feelings.

He was in so much trouble. "No, it's him, it really is him!" And he found his arms full of Tear.

"You're right." Jade put his spear away. "I'd recognize that hopelessly brainless look anywhere."

"I come back from the dead and you…" His reflex response was finally overridden by laughter. "Same old Jade. Who are you calling brainless? I thought you'd figure out how to bring me back within a year, and I wind up summoned by some ex-Order members wanting a replacement score. Have you finally gone senile, old man?"

"Replacement score?" Anise, amazingly, was all business.

"Luke!" Luke had to brace himself when he was tackled by ring-bearer Florian. Great to see the kid was still holding up, he'd been worried when it started to take this long that he'd be dead before Luke figured out how to manifest or Jade got his act together. He took the opportunity to stabilize him enough he could use Daathic fonic artes safely.

"Luke!" Natalia cheered.

Peony was laughing with delight and poking Jade in the ribs.

Guy was hanging back a bit. "Uh, Tear…"

"Oh." She blushed. "Right."

Tear dislodged herself, Florian stayed where he was, and now he didn't have to approach Tear to do it Guy punched Luke. "What took you so long!"

"Blame Jade!"

"My my my. I thought you might have finally outgrown pinning the blame for your own mistakes on others." Jade had gotten his composure back.

"Hey, Dr. Balfour, define a fonon sentience." Luke folded his arms.

Jade blinked. "A collection of first through seventh fonons large enough to possess a mind attuned to the correct fre…" He blinked again. And again. "Is this how all of you feel all the time?"

"Hey, Jade. Who are you calling really stupid?" Anise folded her arms.

"Why did you think I would possibly think that you were really stupid, as you put it?" Jade managed an innocent but not really look.

"I've dreamed of seeing that look on his face for years!" Peony was laughing so hard he had to brace himself on Natalia. "Luke, I'm making you a Malkuth nobleman. Jade, realizing he's been an idiot? Priceless!"

"I thought you'd bring me back, so I was focusing on getting everything under control. Then I looked at the time and wondered what was taking you so long, so I started getting to work on it. But I've never manifested from scratch before so I didn't have a clue how."

"That was what was causing those odd resonances!" Anise breathed a sigh of relief.

"Actually, that was them trying to figure out how to summon me."

"Wait, summon you?" Guy seemed to have finally started paying attention to the aspects of this conversation other than that this was his best friend Luke and he was finally home.

"Luke was a manifestation of Lorelei all along." Jade adjusted his glasses. "That would explain how a fonon sentience could possibly be so unwise as to pen the score."

"Hey, I'd only been dealing with humans for a year and three months, I can't break a pact, and Yulia didn't watch her wording. I made that pact to give her a way that was certain to get rid of the miasma and keep humanity from dying out, not to predict everything down to the weather! But yeah, you're right, I didn't think it through." He sighed. "Wait, weren't you guys getting married?"

He saw the dawning realization. The ceremony!

"Nice going." Asch had gotten to his feet and put his hand on Luke's shoulder, tugging a bit.

"Yeah, sorry, I still need to work on thinking things through."

Yulia's descendant smiled in relief. "I'm just glad you're back." Tear had found Florian's padded box, dropped to greet Luke, but the rings didn't seem to be in it.

Luke fixed that casually, then winked at a surprised Tear and let Asch pull him to the side. Luke had needed to study this, and the fact that he'd known it by instinct had actually made it harder. The way other people did fonic artes just wasn't how it worked for him.

"Luke, change," Asch muttered.

Again? Oh, this was what he'd been wearing when he'd died. Nowhere near formal enough for Natalia's wedding. "Thanks," he murmured back once he'd decided that he had to still have a right to viscount regalia, the same that Asch wore. Wait, Asch was in viscount clothing? He had to smile. At least he'd managed to get his family back.

"I owe you." It wasn't just that, though, wasn't just debt. When I woke up, I didn't know who I was for awhile. I remembered every time we met through two sets of eyes. I thought we'd merged, or I hoped we had even though I knew better even before Jade gave me a second opinion. You wanted me to live so much you didn't mind… I treated you like that and you still… Asch hadn't been able to understand it, shaped by a father who knew he was doomed and Van's false care.

I wasn't Luke. I wasn't you. But you were born because of me and I was born because of you. Of course we're family. Of course I didn't want you to die. Of course I wanted us to be friends, brothers.

I was born because of you? The score?

No. I promised Yulia a plan that would save humanity certain to succeed. Certain despite humanity's rage against fate, despite my own horror at what I had done. I boxed myself into a corner, Lorelei did. I couldn't outmaneuver myself, and none of the others cared. It wasn't until later that I realized that I could use the 'Light of the Sacred Flame' part of the prophecy to give you my self as well as my power. A human wouldn't have the power, but what about someone like me who had different experiences, thought differently? They might have a chance at finding a way. I didn't seriously think I'd be able to break my own prophesy, it was mostly desperation and wanting to suffer with all of you even if I couldn't do anything else that made me become Luke, but I did it and it worked. He'd never been prouder of himself then in that moment.

So I was just your ashes.

Don't say that. It's not true. You were why I was able to save everyone. You taught me how to be human, not just a force. Humans fight the inevitable, forces know better.

I taught you? Asch doubted that.

I was with you until this replica was created, a body entirely composed of seventh fonons, and my changed self was drawn into it. I didn't know what I was missing, but I missed you.

Asch had Luke's memories. He couldn't argue with that. Luke had felt alone in what should have been his family's house, the same way Asch had felt alone in the world without them. Because Asch, not the fon Fabres, had been Luke's family, his shelter from the strange and cruel world.

I'm sorry, they both thought at once, and had to smile inside. Stop apologizing! That shared thought was deliberate.

I guess I did rub off on you. Asch, looking back, didn't think that was a good thing. Jade did say that it was weird that we had such similar personalities.

Yeah. We weren't treated alike by our family, which blew the theory he had out of the water.

And I thought being compared to you was an insult to me.

Don't say that.

I know, and he did. Is that why it feels like…

Like we're complete, we can relax now?

It feels like I was missing you, and now you're found and I can stop worrying. You feel like you were lost and worried, and now you're found.

Weird, huh. Home should be the fon belt. But I don't have anything in common with any of them except for being the same type of being and they're not you guys.

I'm sorry for threatening to hurt them to make you shut up and not make me feel guilty for what I was doing to you, Asch apologized. He'd clearly been wanting to say that for a long time. It had just been a passing 'conversation' in Ortion Caverns, but what Asch being willing to threaten that had meant to Luke… It had hurt, and now he had Luke's memories Asch knew what his striking out at fate had done to someone who had been innocent.

Although could Lorelei be called innocent of any of it?

The closest thing you had to them were the other god-generals. Of course Asch hadn't understood. But why… Luke glanced meaningfully at Natalia.

She'd spent all that time trying to get you to remember so that she could meet me again, and all that time I was alive and I didn't let her know. You were trying to be me for them, and even though you didn't know you weren't me you still felt that the person they loved wasn't you. That really made Asch sick. Luke had been a kid, and…

Now do you get why I imprinted on Vandesdelca like a baby chick? If it weren't for Guy, he would have been the only one who actually gave me any guidance. The others babied me, and they all got what they wanted. Well, maybe the reason he saw me was just that he knew I wasn't you. But…

I understand why you called him Master Van now.

He was trying to destroy the world, but he was still my father. Foster father, creator, teacher, family. And he was Yulia's descendant. Anise giving a sermon? His mind was boggling enough to offset any possible boredom.

Were you in love with Yulia?

The same way I'm in love with Tear. The closest thing he had to a mother, a teacher, a guide. Someone who would tell him when he was being an idiot, noble or god: it hadn't mattered to either of them.

So that's going to end up like Natalia and I. Asch explained, knowing how the sight of Natalia and Peony had shocked Luke. I'm not Luke. She thought she had the best of both worlds, that she had you back and that she had her childhood sweetheart, and I care a lot about her but she was the one that ended it and it was the right thing to do. I wasn't either of the people she thought I was, and she was right. I was trying to be that kid, I was trying to be you, and I thought I was in love with her but when she forced me to face up to it, I don't know who I am and I didn't know if I was in love with her. It hurt her, but it hurt her more to have to deal with the fact that all I really wanted to have with her was a delusion, not love.

Maybe I should pick another name too. Luke was both of us, not just one or the other. We both are him but we both aren't. Crux fon Fabre? Does that sound good?

Crux? What does that mean?

It's from a language that was ancient in the Dawn Age. It's a constellation called the Southern Cross. Dr. Luc Southern-Cross was what I called myself back then.

"It's better than "Ashes of the sacred flame."

The flame wouldn't exist without those ashes, and there were still embers. I mean, who else can use hyperresonance but you? I wouldn't let just anyone have that power.

Asch declined to comment. Anise kept that promise to Ion she told you about, she's the head of the Order of… she's the head of your order. That was going to take getting used to. I'm a god-general still, Anise wouldn't let me retire, and so is Tear. There were a lot of people who wanted to copy the scam Sync pulled, only they had to make up a fake score and it's been easy enough to prove they're invalid. Jade's not technically a member of the Order, but he's the representative for Malkuth the way I am to Kimlasca.

There were some people who wanted to have a real score, not a fake.

So much was going on that Asch hadn't caught that, not really. He sucked in a breath.

I took care of them. I'm not going to let that happen again. He was a god now: he could find ways out of killing. Hopefully.

I'm not getting a headache, Asch reported, changing the subject and moving his shoulders testingly. But I feel tired. Is it a side effect of this?

You're not me, but you're still my isofone. How to explain this? Look at Florian.

The replica was a study in contrasts: both utterly excited and trying not to fall asleep on his feet. He's entirely made up of seventh fonons and he's a fon master. That's as sensitive to me as anyone but you can be, and I had a very rough fifteen minutes.

You're tired? The seventh fonon is tired?

Not so much tired as… Yeah, tired. What with the score, being trapped in the core, Van, Luke's entire life, Replica Hod… I had a lot to fix. The celestial harmonies are still pretty disrupted. The dissonance was what was giving Luke those headaches and Lorelei the all-over aches. Then I had to take physical form, break a binding spell using the planetary arte, and I want to find out how they knew about that, and remember how to think like a human. When I'm in concert, the resonating power means it would take… I can't think of anything that would make me tired except fighting my siblings when I'm healthy. When I'm not, I get dissonances and counter-resonances cancelling out or using up a lot of my power, and I end up tiring myself out.

Ouch.

Yeah. I wanted to have a big party while I was still awake, but they arranged their party first. How much longer is this going to take?

Five hours. What did you expect, it's a state wedding.

…

Can't last that long?

No. Damn it. I need to let the body go to sleep so I can focus on getting everything straightened out. I could force myself to stay awake and focus, but if I did eventually the power drain would make me lose hold on the body and it would disperse.

You're not disappearing again, you just got here. Asch caught Tear and Jade's eyes, nodding at Luke and then at the exit. Luke, amazed at the rapport they now had, mimed tiredness. Tear looked concerned even after Luke reassured her while Jade nodded minutely. Come on.

You can stay, I can… He'd be mobbed if he tried to leave by himself without the protection of Asch's glares. I can use hyperresonance to get to the field where you showed up? It was an amazingly easy target.

You can't get to your room?

I can't figure out where it is relative to here well enough right now, he confessed.

Friends don't let friends use fonic artes while suffering the contamination effect.

Friends? The tiny thought escaped Luke, and he felt ashamed. Asch had said that they were friends now, he shouldn't act so amazed by it. It was distrusting Asch.

You have lots of reasons not to like me, let alone trust me. Asch tugged him to the side as Anise briefed Natalia and Jade poked Peony.

I don't… not like you. Luke liked Asch. Wait, that didn't make any sense.

Come on, let's get you home.

Home? Why not a guest room in the palace, Luke wondered. That would be closer, and less awkward.

They're all full, and so are the inn and even the manors' guest rooms. You can use my bed. It's just as much yours as mine.

Okay. Sylph's going to yell at me, I shouldn't have gotten myself this messed up. I need to take better care of myself, or there are going to be babies born with three heads…

… Asch was going to ask if Luke was serious but then realized that yes, he was. This was still hard to get used to. Did you have a choice?

Not really. I had to manifest to stop them. But I should have been paying better attention and prevented myself from having to do that to stop them.

Don't let it happen again.

Luke nodded as they made it out and were joined by a group of half white knights and half oracle knights that escorted them through the crowd to the manor. There are so many replicas here. I'm glad they made it.

Made it? Asch snorted. Of course we honored their sacrifice, and yours. Anise gave them a huge chunk of Padamiya.

Anise had given away Order lands? Money-grubbing Anise had? It's not that, I was worried that they'd destabilize before I got here. Like what happened to Ion, only Ion was made to be stable enough to read the score and use Daathic fonic arts, at least a bit. They weren't, and since they're natural seventh fonists if someone made them heal too much they could end up like he did.

Some of them did. You can prevent it?

I already did for Florian. I'll get the rest done when I can.

Don't push yourself.

Yes, mother.

There was silence then.

Luke knew why. He wasn't going to blame Jade or himself for it. There was nothing he could have done. His fonon could heal surface wounds, poisons, even death, but like the best doctors his parents could find had been unable to do anything about his headaches even he didn't know how to fix a body turned against itself. His mother's medicine had been a poison, meant to kill the rogue flesh faster than it killed her. In the end, it had been a race against time and he'd lost.

You didn't want to send me to get the mushroom. Not alone. You wanted to help her, you wanted to come with me. And you didn't even ask to come with me. Remembering how he'd treated Luke was making Asch hate himself again, and Luke didn't want that.

You would have said no, and what mattered was getting her the mushroom as soon as possible. Luke had been there with her for years. Asch had deserved a chance to do something for her, even if it was yet another rejection of Luke.

I'm sorry.

Don't let it happen again? Luke echoed Asch's previous answer to this sort of dilemma, half-jokingly.

I won't. Asch's response was serious, an oath, and Luke's breath caught in his throat. How lonely were you in the core? I know how lonely you were here. Now. They walked through the gates and through the door that had once been the limit of Luke's world.

He couldn't keep the words from coming, the memory of those two thousand years of helpless imprisonment etched so deep that only Luke's vibrancy let him feel that this was real. He should be Lorelei more, he shouldn't drown himself in memories that weren't that happy either and try to ignore the reality of what he'd been through, but it was better than remembering near-endless despair. I was alone and all I had to look forward to was the murder of a world for the sake of a new one, knowing that it and all the pain that came with it was and would be my fault.

And then…

"Master Asch?" Ramdas hurried forward. "Is this, is this, Master Luke! Welcome home!" He bowed, and it was strange to see Ramdas let gladness override his well-trained formality. "It's good to see you alive and well."

"It's good to see you too." He went over and shook his hand, insisting on it.

"Can I get you anything, Master Luke? We still have all of your clothing and other possessions, and the kitchen staff has been helping prepare for the banquet, so there's any sort of food you might like, just say the word."

Oh, food. Right. "Water would be fine." He'd probably better start with the easy stuff. "I just got back and I need to rest up, could you bring it to Asch's room?" If that was okay with Asch.

"Our room," Asch reminded him. It was traditional for Kimlascan nobles to have their children of the same gender share a room, in preparation for military barracks and noisy husbands, even though unlike most people they could afford having multiple rooms.

"Right."

"At once, Master Luke." Ramdas signaled a maid as Luke went over to the memory circle and focused. That was taking a bit of a risk, but it meant that if his body destabilized he had a record of what it had been like to use to restore it. He hadn't been able to use his memories of his body as Luke, they had been scrambled in the fallout of his release and death.

"Come on," Asch called, and Luke followed obediently. He just knew Asch's smirk was due to reminiscing about how he wished Luke had been this obedient (to him instead of other people) before. "Do you think you'll be awake in time for the banquet?"

He checked the time. "It's not even noon yet." And it wouldn't be a royal banquet if it ended before three in the morning.

"Just checking." Luke hadn't yawned yet: Asch did it now. Luke had better get to bed before Asch got even more of it via resonance. As it was, he was going to need to catnap for a bit if he wanted to be able to stand upright during the procession, let alone walk. "You're going to fall asleep in your uniform?"

Oh, right. Not that he actually cared, but he didn't want to get Asch's linens torn or anything.

He heard Asch talking his clothes off the normal way and opened an eye.

"Move over." Asch poked him in the side when he was in nightclothes.

Normal people shared beds all the time, even with perfect strangers. There was only so much room at inns, and often a peasant family would all share the same bed. Luke, even on the journey, had usually slept alone because, "I thrash around and kick people in my sleep." Side effect of not sharing a bed as a child the way Asch had, even if only with Mother when Father wasn't home, and getting bad habits. Normal people had trouble sleeping alone. Luke had been kept awake at first by Tear's breathing in the same room, Jade had faked snoring to make his life miserable, and Anise snored no matter what anyone did. Unless he exhausted himself during the day, and that had happened a lot, especially at first, he could be up half the night. He'd been a brat back then, and being a sleep-deprived one hadn't made it easier on anyone.

"You look too drained to move a muscle." Luke contradicted him by rolling over, obeying Asch's request.

"You're right." Except for breathing and so on, but his body was doing that automatically, thank goodness.

"Go to sleep," Asch ordered, climbing in next to him, and it was what Luke had always wanted. Someone who knew what he was, saw him when they looked at him, and didn't despise the childlike fool or fear the god's power. Since Asch knew what he was getting into (how could he not?) Luke gladly fell asleep.

In the instant that he did Asch's half-shut eyes opened as he became almost completely awake. Almost. "He wasn't kidding about the resonance." True, he'd been run ragged with preparations for the last few weeks, but he was a god-general, he was used to that.

He remembered Tear teaching Luke (no one had ever taught him: they'd thought Van was) how to feel fonons with his fon slots, to hear them. This close, his well-trained senses could hear a dreaming song from Luke now that he wasn't fighting off a drowsy one. Lorelei's exhaustion was far more effective than even Yulia's first fonic hymn.

A happy song, a song of mending things and full of hope for the future. Aware of fonons or not, no one could be unaffected by this. Other than the Grand Fonic Hymn, he couldn't think of a more well-omened song for Natalia's wedding.

The Grand Fonic Hymn. Symbol of Yulia's pact with Lorelei. Tear was going to sing it at noon.

He had to get back to the cathedral.

The mysterious group that had summoned Lorelei attempting to create a new score might have been smart enough to do it while the Order was occupied with the wedding and its security, but surely they hadn't anticipated this, use of the planetary fonic arte or no.

Surely not.

Well, they couldn't have predicted Luke breaking free and coming here (not Lorelei doing that, at least, unless they had figured out what Jade hadn't). However, everyone knew that Tear, the only person in the world capable of it, had been planning to sing the Grand Fonic Hymn. Asch had never been religious, and was there a point in praying to Luke for Luke's sake? He'd never been good at looking after himself, as Luke or as Lorelei.

Thank the gods that there were six more of them. Surely one of them had to be sensible. Luke had mentioned Sylph…

Judging from the screaming he heard the instant he left the soundproofed manor and saw the fonon tornado bearing down on the castle that was causing it, that prayer might not have been the best idea.