The Space Between Us
Chapter 1: Laxus
Laxus walked into the guildhall purposefully. He never felt entirely comfortable going in there if he was honest, especially on his own, there were too many people looking was how it always seemed; too many expectations as well. It was impossible for him not to be noticed, so he had to fake it.
He found Bickslow and Ever anyway without needing to look very hard and sat down with them thankfully. He had no idea what he had done that had made him feel so exhausted.
"Would you like a drink Laxus?" Mira called from behind the bar.
Laxus looked up at her with his eyes narrowed. What did Mira know? But she was smiling, just like always.
"That would be great, thanks Mira," he called back, managing to grin at her.
Mira was all right. She was beautiful, a goddess. But then all the women in Fairy Tail were something to look at. There were goddesses sat at every table, like wallpaper.
"Are you OK Laxus?" Mira asked. She was at his elbow suddenly, holding a huge foaming tankard and smiling in that fairy dust way she had.
"I'm fine," he said grinning again. "Just tired for some reason."
"That's our Laxus," said Ever. "He just woke up from such an energetic dream he needs a nap."
Mira laughed like a tinkling bell sending all other sounds into the background before she glided away and Ever got back to the conversation she had been having with Bickslow. Ever was a goddess too. She had always wanted to be queen of the fairies and even though she never would be, she came close. Laxus leaned on the table in front of him and watched her tease Bickslow over something stupid he had done, her eyes sparkling with energy and cynicism. Laxus wasn't listening to what they were saying. For some reason the words didn't seem to want to penetrate his head. Bickslow was giving it back but he obviously didn't care much, he was slouched back and laughing. Nothing was wrong. Nothing was any different from usual, except…
"Where's Freed?" As soon as he said it Laxus knew that was what had been bugging him. Where the hell was Freed?
"No idea," said Bickslow comfortably. "Haven't seen him in days."
"What do you mean, you haven't seen him in days?" Laxus was awake now, sat up straight.
"Lighten up man," Bickslow said laughing. "Freed's around somewhere. Just go look for him if you want him."
Laxus threw Bickslow such a savage glare that Ever sat up too and put a warning hand on his shoulder. "Hey," she said. "What's with you?"
"Nothing, I'm sorry." He closed his eyes and thought. "I haven't seen Freed since we got back from Baron's Farm. How long ago was that?"
"It was six days ago," said Bickslow. "It's about time we found a new job. We don't need Freed. I mean I like the guy and all, we go way back, but you could hardly call him a party animal."
"Congratulations Bickslow. You have yet again missed the point with divine precision," said Ever. "I haven't seen Freed since Baron's Farm either. It's strange that he hasn't been around, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything."
"Maybe he went on a job on his own, you know, be a hero, surprise everyone," said Bickslow.
Laxus got up from the table abruptly. He couldn't handle Ever or Bickslow just at that moment. He realised the person he really wanted to talk to was Freed, blast him.
"Has Freed been in?" He went to the bar to try to get some actual information.
Mira frowned and thought. "No," she said. "But he never does come in here by himself. You'd be more likely to find him in the library."
"You're right. Thanks. The library is the obvious place, unless he went on a job by himself." Laxus was needled by what Bickslow had said about Freed going off on his own. Would Freed really do that?
"I don't think he did," said Mira. "But I can easily check the book." She went to get it and Laxus stood leaning on the bar feeling restless, his weariness from before completely forgotten.
"He's not on a job," Mira said, twinkling. "So he must be around here somewhere! And look, I've saved this one for you; it's got Thunder Legion written all over it."
xxx
The job was certainly entertaining, and challenging enough that Laxus was able to forget everything else while they were up in the mountains fighting the lightning giants. But it took a long time to get back; there was no transport except walking most of the way and when they finally arrived home two days of sleeping seemed necessary.
Laxus woke up and wondered where he was. For a moment he wondered who he was, but then he remembered and smiled. Two days of sleep gives you two days of dreams, the kind of dreams that seem to go on for ever; dreams of massive raging giants throwing thunderbolts, Bickslow laughing his crazy laugh, Ever flying through clouds and Freed… Except Freed hadn't been there.
There weren't many people in the guild hall. Laxus had no idea what time it was but it obviously wasn't a meal time or any kind of drinking time. And Freed was there, sat on his own in a patch of sunlight. Laxus felt dizzy suddenly, he hadn't eaten anything since God knew when so maybe that was it. Freed had taken his coat off, which he hardly ever did and was staring thoughtfully at nothing, looking completely relaxed and prettier than ever in his perfectly white shirt.
"Hey," Laxus said.
Freed looked up and his face changed from thoughtful and relaxed to its more usual wary expression.
"Where the hell have you been?" Laxus sat down slowly; he was still stiff from fighting.
"Nowhere really," Freed said. "I'm sorry. Did you need me to do something for you?"
"No!" Laxus banged his fist on the table making Freed jump. "I didn't want you to do anything for me. I wanted to talk to you because you're my friend. I looked for you and I couldn't find you. You went away for days and didn't tell anyone anything about it; you still won't tell me anything…"
"I didn't mean to go anywhere," Freed said. He was looking away. "I went for a walk to think about some things I… And somehow I just kept going and ended up a long way away. I'm not even sure how it happened." He turned his head back toward Laxus but still didn't look at him. "If you really want to know, I'm thinking of leaving Fairy Tail."
"Why would you do that? You can't!"
"You went on a job didn't you? I got back four days ago and Mira said you'd gone on a job with Bickslow and Evergreen. She said you were looking for me and I was surprised but…"
"Of course we looked for you! We didn't even go straight away; we waited a whole day for you to not show up…"
"But the point is, you went without me and it made no difference did it? What could I have done had I been there that would have helped against lightning throwing giants? I am no use to you."
"That's a load of crap."
Freed frowned. "I don't mean it like that," he said. "I don't like fighting, Laxus, I never have. I'm starting to think I might not want to be part of a wizards' guild any more because fighting is all we ever do. I want to use magic in a different way."
Laxus' stomach suddenly gave a loud growl and Freed laughed. "Sounds like thunder," he said. "Shall I go and find you something to eat?"
"No," Laxus said, hauling himself up. "I'll get something myself. You can sit here and think about a different way of explaining all this to me because right now I'm not buying it."
There was nobody behind the bar. Laxus went through to the kitchen and found some bread and meat, he didn't care what he ate. He picked up a knife and stood staring angrily at the sunlight glinting off the blade. How could Freed be sitting there so calmly talking about breaking up the Thunder Legion as if it meant nothing? Laxus felt like hitting him. It wouldn't be difficult to hit Freed hard enough to make him see sense but wasn't that what Laxus always did? Hit it hard, then hit it harder? And if he thought about it at all it was pretty plain that Freed was anything but calm. There was something else going on behind all this.
Eating helped. Laxus finished his food and washed it down with a large tankard of ale watching Freed the whole time. Freed had put his coat back on and sat biting his lip, saying nothing.
"You said you needed to think about something," Laxus said. "And you said you wanted to use magic in a different way. What did you mean?"
Freed hesitated. "I had an idea," he said. "Well, a series of ideas really about a kind of transportation magic I suppose you might call it, but it's more complicated than that. I'm not sure I can explain it very well yet and anyway, I expect you wouldn't find it interesting."
Laxus leaned back and laughed. "You don't think much of me do you?" And he laughed some more at Freed's reaction. "Oh, I get that you think I'm some kind of unconquerable hero, all muscular and handsome, you're not the only one who thinks that. But you also seem to think I'm stupid."
"I don't think you're stupid!"
"You think I'm too stupid to understand your 'complicated' ideas. Either that or I'm not a good enough friend to trust with them. I'm not sure which of those is worse to be honest."
"I just thought you wouldn't be interested…"
"I'm not stupid Freed, and I do care about you. Whatever this is it's important enough to make you want to leave Fairy Tail and break up the Thunder Legion so you are going to tell me about it."
xxx
The sun had long gone down and the stars were out. Laxus wondered how that had happened so fast, but then his brain was broken, so how could he possibly know? It turned out he was too stupid to understand all of Freed's crazy ideas but he had caught hold of enough to know it was bigger than anything he'd ever heard of before. Folding space. He'd thought he understood it when it was being explained, but now it seemed to be smudging at the edges. And then there was all the part about the magic entering another dimension and making routes to places in our world; how did that work again? The thing he remembered best was just Freed and how he had been so alive with those ideas, so radiant. That expression he'd had on his face when Laxus first saw him in the guild hall back whenever it was came out again and smiled.
"I'll show you if you like," Freed had said.
People started turning up in the guild hall looking for food so they had left and gone out into the open country to the west in the beautiful sunshine.
"Lend me some magic and I'll bring Shriya Village here."
"What do you mean, lend you magic?"
Freed laughed. "I need an external power source to make it work; you're perfect for that you have to admit. Hit me with a lightning bolt."
"I'm not doing that; it'll knock you on your ass."
"No it won't. Come on!"
Freed always looked different with his dark eye shining, confident and mischievous standing in the circle of his enchantment.
Laxus threw a bolt of crackling energy at him and the world seemed to shimmer. Then suddenly something rushed toward them like a runaway storm, a huge thing that unblurred and became a village; the whole of the village of Shriya. Houses and people, even the birds in the air, all there overlaying the countryside around them like a shadow, but also real enough to touch and know.
Laxus had looked at Freed to see him seeming to hold on somehow in a huge focused effort and then finally letting go, falling to his knees as the village rushed away again.
"If you'd stepped into the village you'd have gone with it when it went, or the people there could have stepped over to us and stayed. You just have to set up nodes and the range is limitless with enough power, at least, I think it is." Freed had got up again and let his hair fall back over his lovely face, somehow suddenly the loveliest face Laxus had ever seen.
And what was he supposed to do now? Seemed like Freed was about to leave Fairy Tail for good just when Laxus wanted him to the least.
xxx
"What do you want Laxus?" Makarov asked.
"I know it's late but…"
"No, no, it's fine, come in. I'm still up. Do you want a drink?" Makarov was in his nightshirt.
Laxus followed his grandfather into the room wondering whether this was a good idea. "No, I…"
"Well you want something, that's clear. Come on, sit down for heaven's sake and spit it out!"
Laxus sat. And he accepted the drink he'd said he didn't want. "I was wondering if…" He drank, and the drink sent a fire down through him. "I need some relationship advice," he said gruffly.
"Relationship advice? So you've decided to settle down at last!" Makarov appeared delighted. "Who's the lucky girl?"
"Not a girl."
"Oh," Makarov's enthusiasm vanished like a blown out candle flame. "So you're talking about Freed."
"How could you know that?" Laxus looked up and the expression on his grandfather's face made him wonder how many other people knew. "I'm not really into guys, or at least, I wasn't, but…"
"I don't care what you're into Laxus," Makarov said. "Women, men, donkeys, watermelons, but whoever it is, you need to be careful; you're too powerful for ordinary people. That young man, he's not strong enough for you."
"Is that what you would have said if it was a girl?"
"If it were a girl it would be some random infatuation, over in a matter of weeks, or it would be someone like Mira and then I'd say fair play. Laxus, I can't tell you what to do but you came here to ask my advice. Leave Freed alone, you'll hurt him."
"I love him."
"Of course you do! You love all of your team; I've heard you say it more than once."
"Freed's different, he's…" Laxus found he was unable to put his feelings into words. Freed would be able to; he'd be able to write those words in the air and make them fly into everyone's hearts. "You don't know him."
"I certainly do know him. He's a member of my guild. I know him better than you do because I have perspective and you do not."
"Did you know he was planning to leave Fairy Tail?"
"No!" Makarov raised his considerable eyebrows in surprise and then frowned. "Why would he do that?"
"He says he's tired of fighting. He's got all these ideas about folding space using other world magic and he wants to go away to study at the University of Magical Technology."
"Does he now?" Makarov smiled and poured himself another drink. "And why shouldn't he?"
"I've just told you…"
"But if he wants to go, what can you do about it?"
"I haven't told him how I…"
"Laxus, think about what you're saying. Why did you come to ask my advice about all this? Why not Evergreen or Bickslow, or Mira?"
Laxus felt suddenly trapped. He didn't know the answer to his grandfather's question. He sat and glared.
"You say Freed wants to go away from here, and he has good reasons to want that. And you say you plan to tell him how you feel about him, how you think you feel about him. What do you suppose he will do then?"
"He'll stay," Laxus said grudgingly.
"And let me ask you something else. You went on a job last week with the Thunder Legion but Freed didn't go, did he?"
Laxus shook his head.
"And while you were busy fighting giants, did you think about Freed at all? Did you even remember his existence? Be honest!"
Laxus shook his head again. "I understand what you're saying," he said, "but…"
"It's hard," Makarov said gently. "When you are a dragon slayer, when you have that power, it's hard not to use it to make people do what you want. You have to learn to let them go."
Laxus swallowed the rest of his drink and stood up. "All right old geezer," he said. "Thanks for the advice."
"Wait a minute," Makarov said. "You've worked it out now haven't you, why you came here? You're not stupid my boy, though you often pretend to be. I know you're too proud to talk to any of your friends about these kinds of things but it's not just that. You knew exactly what I'd say because you know it's right. Don't you?"
"I said thanks for the advice Gramps," Laxus said over his shoulder on his way out of the door.
"Why do we make things so difficult for ourselves I wonder?" Makarov said to no-one but himself.
Chapter 2: Freed
It was another beautiful summer day but Freed couldn't manage even to feel warm, sat upright in the crowded train with Laxus lolling against his shoulder. Laxus was asleep because Freed had written a sleep spell on him to save him from eleven hours of hell on the journey to Chamomile. Now Freed was in his own hell, travelling all that way with Laxus practically lying on him. Laxus was heavy. And he didn't smell so great at such close quarters.
The countryside loped past the window and slowly integrated itself into houses and streets, becoming a town, no, a city. Great tall buildings leapt up all around and the train began to slow, juddering and jerking along while people got up and gathered their possessions to depart. Almost everyone it seemed, was getting out into this city; the city of Juniper. Laxus stirred and mumbled something.
"What did you say?" Freed asked him, but Laxus was still firmly asleep and dreaming. He turned about on the bench seat where there was now an abundance of space and curled up the other way round, leaning against the partition.
"Thank you," Freed said to him. He got up and stretched and the train began to move again, unsteady at first and then seeming to gain confidence. Freed settled in his own corner to watch Laxus sleep and try not to cry. He had planned to use this journey to find out what it felt like being properly away from Laxus since being with him had become so utterly unbearable. Now Laxus had decided, for whatever reason, to become a travel companion and Freed wasn't going to find out anything until it was too late.
A travel companion who is either asleep for the whole journey or throws up all over you isn't really much of a travel companion however nice to look at. Freed pulled the letter from his pocket and read it again, renewing his sense of unease. The letter was from the dean of the University of Magical Technology and though it commended Freed's ideas as 'interesting' and invited him for an interview, it didn't say anything about him being enrolled as a student. It could mean everything or nothing. Freed stared at the Fairy Tail mark on the back of his hand and felt suddenly ashamed. How could a Fairy Tail wizard be thinking like that?
"Is it all right if I sit here?" a hesitant voice asked.
Freed looked up into the sweet face of a girl who had dark curly hair and round hazel eyes. "Of course," he said. And he smiled at her, thought he didn't feel like smiling. It had been nice to have the little compartment to himself for a while and he never felt truly comfortable around girls. Still, he supposed, people in trains generally ignore one another.
"Are you going to the university?" She sounded so surprised. And Freed was too, for a moment, until he realised he was holding a letter with the University of Magical Technology crest emblazoned on it in full colour.
"Yes, do you know it?"
"I live there," the girl said.
Freed became instantly alert. "You're a student?"
The girl nodded. "Yes I am now, but the university has always been my home. My grandfather works there you see. He's the dean. Are you coming to study with us?"
"I don't know. Your grandfather has invited me for an interview, but I've no idea what will come of it."
The girl smiled and her eyes sparkled; she was very pretty. "Oh, Grandpa wouldn't bother to talk to you if he wasn't interested in your magic. What do you do?"
xxx
Laxus stirred and grimaced. "What did I eat?" he asked uncertainly.
Freed had actually managed to forget Laxus was there. He had forgotten where he was entirely for the last however many hours he'd spent talking to the girl, Emily, about magic. He had never talked with anyone that way before. All those ideas he always had and kept to himself just seemed to spill out effortlessly and make perfect sense to her. And her thoughts and impressions were even more fascinating. Time had flown. It was almost night and the train was rattling through a new city, slowing down.
"How did it get dark so fast? What did you do Freed?" Laxus was disoriented and angry. He lurched to his feet and staggered about the compartment, forcing Freed to get up and hang on to him.
"We're about to arrive," Freed said soothingly. The train was stopping.
Emily had gone quiet and sat looking out of her owl-like eyes, small and scared. Freed smiled at her apologetically, but he couldn't find the words to explain. "I hope to see you tomorrow," he said.
"Yes. It was nice to meet you," Emily said and she scurried away before Freed could even think about asking such sensible things as what place and time they might meet.
"Who was that?" Laxus asked. He was coming back to himself and didn't want to be held on to any longer. "She was cute, I think."
"She's a student at the university. We got talking." Freed didn't seem to feel like saying any more.
Laxus raised an eyebrow. "Not like you to chat up pretty girls on trains."
"I wasn't…" Freed coloured up in embarrassment.
"If you say so." Laxus flung an arm round him. "Come on. I don't know about you but I'm starving."
xxx
The dean of the University of Magical Technology was a tall thin man with no hint of humour about him at all. Freed looked at him and wondered whether he might end up like that himself some day, maybe he already had. He let his gaze slide over the man's tight lips to his long white hair. The lips were moving; the dean was saying something and Freed had no idea what it was. After last night he could think about nothing but Laxus which was exactly what he had been afraid of.
It had been more than magical to be spending an evening in a foreign city alone with Laxus, even if it was also unbearable, like being torn apart. Laxus smiling, so irrevocably handsome and so typically irreverent.
"So, do you have anything to say young man?" the dean asked in his wheezy voice.
You're a Fairy Tail wizard, remember, Freed told himself. "Yes," he said. "I've been doing some research into folding space and I think…"
Perhaps he didn't explain it very well. He certainly babbled. And the dean didn't say anything the whole time, simply sat without moving and without anything resembling an expression on his face, making it harder somehow.
"I see," he said in the end. "It's an interesting subject, I agree, though I'm not sure you bring anything new to it."
"But it works," Freed said rather desperately. "With the interdimensional power shift you can control the axes and actually move the place you want to go nearer to you. I know it works because I've tried it."
The dean smiled then, his thin mouth moving up and transforming his face into an entirely different shape, though not exactly a pleasant one. "Young people are always in so much of a hurry," he said. "This idea may have merit, but I can assure you, you are in no way qualified to test it out properly. Yet. There is plenty of time! It takes many years of study to become a great academic and you are only just beginning."
"You mean I can study here?" Freed was amazed.
"Of course!" The old man's awkward smile had faded away and his face settled into a vague frown. "I would hardly have brought you all this way just to send you off again. Yes, go and find the bursar. You will need to sign things and so forth I expect." He got up from his chair and disappeared through a different door to the one Freed had come in by.
Freed sat and wondered whether his interview was over. He certainly hoped it was. He looked around the high ceilinged room at the books on the shelves and the elegantly framed diagrams on the walls and he noticed a thin wisp of red smoke creeping though the air.
"You'll have to get rid of that sword though." The dean's voice was suddenly back in the room, somehow seeming to come from a variety of directions and giving Freed the distinct impression he was being spied upon. He jumped up.
"Weapons of any kind are forbidden in the university. Good day to you!"
Freed found he had drawn his sword, without thinking about it. But the voice was gone now, the air was clear again and he felt like a fool standing ready to fight in an empty room.
"…frightened of girls. But I wasn't there, so I don't know for sure." Laxus was sat sprawled on a bench talking to the girl from the train, Emily, laughing.
"I can't believe you're in a wizard's guild, you didn't say anything about it yesterday," Emily said, looking up at Freed as he came along the wide corridor towards them. "Laxus says you can fly! Can you really?"
"Yes I can, but not for very long," Freed said, slumping down beside Laxus.
"What happened, did he throw you out on your ear?" Laxus sounded concerned, damn him.
"No. I'm in, or so it seems." Freed pulled himself together frantically. "He just didn't like my ideas."
"Don't be fooled by Grandpa," Emily said. "He's an old grouch when he doesn't know you. He must have liked you if he's invited you to join the university in the middle of the year, he almost never does that. Come on, I'll show you around!" There was something different about Emily today, she didn't seem nearly so small and shy as she had, but then, she was in her own territory, perhaps that was all it was.
"I have to find the bursar," Freed said uncertainly.
"Oh, she'll be having her lunch by now. She always has an enormous lunch that goes on for ages. Come on, you have to see the library. It's the best library in the whole of Fiore!"
xxx
The University of Magical Technology was hundreds of years old, a collection of pale stone buildings with walkways and quadrangles between them, and beautiful gardens as well, made more beautiful by the slanting summer sunshine that poured down from the heavens. The library was incomparable, vast and filled with unknowable ancient wisdom. Freed found he ached for it almost as much as he was lost between the worlds of his two companions. The Emily of the day before, the first person he had ever met with whom he could truly converse about the subjects closest to his heart, and Laxus, his favourite person in the whole world. The sunlight seemed to fade all of it out and soon enough they were inside again, in the dark foyer of the magnificent Farleigh building where the university administration was housed.
"Sign here." The bursar was a wide woman with too many teeth in her mouth to make her smile entirely friendly.
Freed picked up the pen to sign the paper and suddenly felt cold, cold enough to put the pen down and straighten up, listening. Emily was telling Laxus about the meanings of the symbols in the stained glass windows and Laxus was pretending to be interested. There was nothing unexpected going on, it was just a new place; a strange time. Freed picked up the pen once more and signed quickly. And as he wrote his name with the usual flourish that cold came back, and with it iron bars seemed to close in all around him, iron doors clanging shut and echoing. But it only lasted a moment, less than a second. And it hadn't been real. There were no iron doors; there had been no sounds. It's my imagination, Freed told himself.
xxx
"I think I like her," Laxus said. "Kinda."
"Hmm." Freed was barely listening, sat at the desk in his new room engrossed in a huge volume entitled 'Magical Stability in Derived Worlds' while Laxus lounged on the bed. The dean had been right, Freed knew nothing.
"Are you going to be at this all night?"
"No, I'm…" Freed looked up, suddenly mortified at the thought that Laxus was there today, but he wouldn't be by this time tomorrow.
"I think she likes me," Laxus went on. "I'm thinking maybe if you're being all studious me and her can go out somewhere and perhaps I'll get lucky."
"You and who?" Freed found himself snatched away from Darvalian and its derivations to the reality of a small college room filled with Laxus.
"Emily." Laxus sat up on the bed and yawned. "I was just saying that I liked her, nothing serious, but, you know... She said she'd meet us at a bar in town, The Stag, but it's pretty obvious you're not going anywhere. So it'll just be me and her, that all right with you?"
Freed sighed. He wanted to be with Laxus. It was really the only thing he wanted, but to be with Laxus and somebody else, a girl Laxus said he liked was just a form of torture. And anyway, the book in his hands was like a spell itself, he was entranced. "You just please yourself Laxus," he said, "like you always do."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Laxus snapped back.
"Nothing. Forget I said anything."
"Too late." Laxus slammed the door on his way out.
Freed looked back at his book but he couldn't see any of the words in it because his eyes were filled with tears.
Chapter 3: Laxus
It was raining and Laxus felt as if he deserved it. He knew he had made Freed cry and even though that was part of the plan he couldn't help feeling like a snake. And he wasn't even sure he was doing the right thing. What did the old geezer know anyway?
"Laxus!"
Laxus looked in the direction the voice was coming from, surprised. He wasn't anywhere near his destination yet, wasn't even sure if he was going the right way, but here was Emily already. He hadn't really thought much about Emily before, too busy obsessing over other things. She came out of the dark shadows under the buildings and looked up at him from enormous hazel eyes with her brown hair in wet curls around her face and Laxus smiled automatically.
"Where's Freed?" she asked.
"He's reading a book. Apparently that's more important than either of us." Laxus laughed. "I apologise on his behalf. You'll have to make do with just me."
"Oh!" Emily looked a little scared. She was an unusually pretty girl, Laxus found himself noting without it meaning anything to him at all.
"I don't bite," he said kindly, offering her his arm.
"Oh, of course not! I'm just being silly." She took his arm and steered him though the rainy streets to a small bar near the river away from the most crowded part of the city. The bar was full of twinkling candles and peculiar mismatched furniture, but there were very few people inside.
"I like this place," she said. "It's quiet. I don't suppose it's the sort of place guild wizards usually go."
She was right. There were a few grey-haired academics talking about things Laxus couldn't hope to understand from the snatches he could make out of their conversations, nobody young or the least bit interesting looking and only this shrinking violet of a girl he was supposed to impress somehow. It was going to be a long night.
xxx
"The bar is closing now," the austere person behind it informed Laxus.
"Make that two then," Laxus said. He was already drunk enough really, but he could handle it. He took the two mugs and hurried back to their table.
"Tell me more about the lacryma," Emily said. "I want to understand it properly."
It wasn't anything to do with her being pretty, even though she was, or him being interested in her, which he wasn't, except… There was something about her, something that chimed. It was the way she reacted to what he said, asked the right questions, listened. Nobody had ever listened like that. It was bewitching. Laxus found himself falling further and further into it, and talking. Surely he had never talked so much? And it wasn't about personal things like family and friends, but magic, that's what he'd ended up talking about for all those hours. His own magic and how it worked, where it had come from, how he felt about it. He tried to think back over all the things he had said and wondered if he ought to have been telling any of it to someone he barely knew.
"I need to lock up."
That austere person was stood at his shoulder suddenly and Laxus woke up a little. What was he supposed to be doing again? He found he couldn't bear for his conversation with Emily to end. "Can we…" he hesitated, "go somewhere..?"
"All right," Emily said. "We can go to my room at the university if you like."
Laxus found his heart was pounding as they scurried though the streets under all that rain. It was really pouring now and the dark clouds threatened thunder. It's only what I planned, Laxus told himself. If he could stay out all night and especially if Freed knew he was with Emily then it would work. Freed would hate him and he could go home and feel proud of himself for doing the right thing and following the old geezer's advice. But that wasn't really what was compelling him so purposefully towards the university buildings. It was something else doing that, making him feel sick too. He couldn't wait to get out of the rain and begin talking with Emily again where they had left off, to gaze into those huge hazel eyes and to find out what would happen next. Gramps knew him, it seemed, better than he knew himself.
Emily wrenched open the massive doors and they both stood in the echoing hall, laughing because they were so wet.
"This way," Emily said and they were off, rushing along corridors and down an elegant marble staircase. And on again, though narrower passages, down more stairs, down and down. It was hard to see where to put feet without falling and Laxus struggled to keep up.
"Are we going to the bottom of the world?" he asked.
Emily laughed. "No, not quite." She opened a great wooden door and Laxus followed her into a stone-walled hall with a magnificent vaulted ceiling lit with flaming torches.
"This isn't your room…?" Laxus had been expecting such a mouse-like person to live in some kind of mouse hole.
"No, you're quite right, it isn't," Emily said, turning and walking away across the flagged floor towards a honey-coloured lacryma crystal stood on a pedestal, the only object in the entire room.
Laxus followed her without thinking and suddenly an enchantment sprang up around him, stopping him dead with shimmering words in the air on all sides.
"This is Freed's magic!" Laxus was angry suddenly, between being bewildered and inebriated. Had Freed planned all this as some kind of joke? But when did Freed ever joke? "All right Freed, I'm sorry, let me out."
Emily turned round and smiled shyly. "It's Freed's magic, but he didn't make it. I did. Freed told me all about his magic yesterday on the train, enough so I could take it and use it myself."
Laxus felt a massive wave of exhaustion wash over him, and then another. He could hardly think straight. "Where is he?"
"I expect he's in his room. That's where you said he was."
"What's all this about?"
"I don't have to tell you that," Emily said quietly. "There's no need for you to know."
"All right." Laxus was fading. He sank down to the floor. "When are you going to let me go?"
"I'm not," Emily said. "And you won't get out. This enchantment is draining your magic power because we need it for the university. I'm sorry." She began to walk away.
"Wait!" Laxus called after her. He could feel his power disappearing with all his physical strength and his ability to think as well. He lay on the floor and listened to Emily's footsteps get quieter and quieter until they were gone.
Chapter 4: Freed
Third lecture of the day. The first one had been fascinating, illuminating and wonderfully inspiring, or at least, the first half of it had been. The route from there went through confusion, frustration and despair and beyond that there was nothing but giving in and letting it all go. Freed was hopelessly exhausted, having spent most of the night reading bottomless books and wondering whether Laxus would come back. At least all these lectures had stopped him thinking about Laxus. Laxus hadn't come back. Laxus had gone home, probably, and wasn't that the best thing that could have happened? Laxus should never have come to the university in the first place.
Freed leaned back and let the room fade away for the time being. It was useless trying to follow what the lecturer was saying, there was enough to think about already, too much really. Freed let his gaze roam idly over the beautiful arched ceiling of the lecture theatre and it came to him somehow that the ceiling wasn't real. He could see through it, even though it was surely made of wood and stone, to where dark clouds hurled down smashing rain. He sat up alert and awake and the ceiling came back into focus, perfectly solid, but the feeling of it not being real remained. Sure enough, if he looked at it obliquely, it was clear the ceiling was an illusion, and most of the wall behind that skinny old lecturer too.
But that lecturer was packing his notes away by this time and the students getting up to leave, beginning to talk to each other about ordinary things like dinner plans, except, now Freed had trained himself to notice it, he realised that half of them were illusions too. How strange that he hadn't seen it before. There was no time to investigate further though. Those students might be setting off for their dinner, but Freed had a fourth lecture to attend. He wondered if he would be able to stay awake for it.
Another lecture theatre across the other side of the university with barely enough time to get there, but Freed still couldn't help noticing that walls and trees and even whole buildings along the way were magical illusions. The east lecture theatre was smaller than the one he'd been in before. It was in the oldest part of the university, dark and austere, entirely real and completely empty.
Freed was surprised to be there before anyone else, but he knew he hadn't made a mistake with his schedule. He climbed the rake to the top to find a seat.
"There's no need for you to be so far away, Mr Justine." It was the dean's voice.
Freed looked around in surprise, since he hadn't heard anyone come in.
"There's nobody here but you and me, come closer." The dean was there all right. He came around the lectern smiling his unpleasant smile.
"I didn't expect…" Freed came down and dithered.
"How could you? Please, have a seat. It is a little unusual to have a lecture for one, but I have something I need to ask you, you see."
Freed sat down, uncomfortably, and the old man settled beside him on the bench, but he didn't seem in any kind of hurry to ask his question. Freed looked around helplessly. The old lecture theatre was real, but elements of its décor were not. It seemed apparent that the university was not all that it pretended to be but he could think of no way to begin a conversation about it.
"Frankly, I need to ask you to explain how to set up nodes," the dean said.
"Set up nodes?"
"In order to fold space," the dean sounded irritated, "you need to set up magical nodes in the places you intend to move. That's the only part we don't understand."
"It's not difficult," Freed said slowly. "But it is hard to explain. You need to go to the places of course. I suppose I could show you, but…"
The dean laughed a rather humourless laugh. "You won't be able to do that I'm afraid. I need you to tell me, or tell Emily, since you already told her everything else so eloquently. Then we can get started."
"Get started folding space, you mean? But you said…" What had the dean said? Freed found he couldn't properly remember. "Even if you like the idea, it isn't complete. I don't know how to manage the power requirement for a start…"
"Of course you do." The dean had stopped smiling and his face looked grey instead. "Emily has a great talent for listening, you have to agree surely? And in addition to that she can recreate anybody's magic if she has found out how it works. You told Emily all about it."
Freed remembered exactly how he had managed to fold space between Fairy Tail and the village of Shriya; he had borrowed some of Laxus' magic. And suddenly he was on his feet with his sword drawn. "Where is Laxus?" he demanded.
"I seem to remember saying something to you yesterday about that sword. Weapons are not permitted in the university."
"And yet I still seem to have one." Freed felt like a guild wizard all of a sudden; a feeling like coming home.
"You may as well put it away. You will not be able to hurt me with it any more than you can leave the university."
Freed fumbled in his mind for a spell and darted forward, slashing his blade through nothing but a column of red smoke.
"You cannot hurt me I said." The smoke swirled through the air and reassembled itself into the shape of the dean. "You may be a gifted wizard and you will most certainly be an asset to this institution, but you are rather naïve Mr Justine. Not only have you told all your secrets to my granddaughter, but you have also entered into a soul-link contract with this university and with myself as well."
So that strange cold he had felt when he signed his name yesterday had been real; it had been a spell. "Where is Laxus?" Freed asked again.
"Now your soul is linked to the university you will not be able to leave the buildings, but you will be able to see them as they really are."
"The university is falling apart, I've seen that already. Half of it isn't even real."
The dean nodded. "That's why we need you and your ideas. Frankly, we need money. We have already sold folding space, or at least, we've brokered a deal for it. But you have to tell us how to set up nodes."
"I don't have to tell you anything."
"My dear Mr Justine," the dean sighed. "Your friend Laxus would make an excellent power source for the technology, but we could easily find another given time. We don't exactly need him."
"Laxus is a dragon slayer. He is one of the most powerful wizards in Fiore. If you want to use his capture to manipulate me you will need to prove it is not a fallacy."
"Brute strength is never a match for intellect. I thought you would have known that, since you have chosen to give up fighting for a living and become an academic. Your beloved dragon is in a cage and I can assure you I am more than happy to show him to you."
Chapter 5: Laxus
Laxus woke up disoriented, and aching from having lain unconscious on a stone floor for who knew how long. The torches on the walls were burning lower and some of them had gone out. He felt pathetic and weak as well since his magic power had been completely drained and as fast as he could renew it, was being drained still. He shouted and found even his voice was weaker than it ought to have been; it echoed and died. Moving around caused the spell to crackle into visibility and the golden lacryma glowed faintly making Laxus wonder if his lost magic was being collected there.
But then the sound of footsteps roused him alert; two people coming. He got ready to shout and then thought better of it. That small amount of energy might be worth saving.
"Laxus!"
Neither of the people were Emily, but one of them was Freed, beautiful Freed looking paler than ever in the dim light, his one visible eye red-rimmed and bloodshot. But this was Freed's magic, so…
"Hey," Laxus called. "You can get me out of here, can't you?"
"I don't know, I…" Freed frowned, leaving his companion behind and walking across the floor towards Laxus.
"I wouldn't touch that if I were you, young man." It was that tall thin man, the dean, Emily's grandfather.
Laxus wondered who Emily's grandfather was in all this, but only for a second because when Freed reached the spell cage and held out his hand to touch it the whole enchantment came alive with a massive song of amassed lightning that flung him away across the room to crash down small and still on the stone floor.
"Freed!" Laxus screamed. There was no lightning on his side of the enchantment and he wouldn't have cared if there was. He pushed against it and battered at it but it would not move, of course.
"Your friend is alive," the dean said in his creaky old voice. "He'll wake up in a while but he won't be able to break that enchantment and I have other things to do."
Laxus listened to the sound of footsteps going away, again. There was nothing else he could do. He lay on the floor and watched Freed, all the way across the room in a heap, for any sign of movement.
It was hard to stay awake, even harder to stay focused, watching for movement minute after minute, trying to count those minutes, losing count. Freed moved.
"Freed!" Laxus called softly. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, I…" Freed dragged himself up and tottered across the room. He wasn't all right. His left hand was burned black and he had blood in his hair. He sank down to the floor on the other side of the enchanted wall. "How about you?"
"This enchantment's drained all my magic. I can't even think straight to be honest, but that doesn't matter because you're going to get me out."
"I don't think I can," Freed said.
"Don't be an idiot!" Laxus didn't want to shout at Freed, but what other choice did he have? And besides, Freed was being an idiot. "It's your magic isn't it?"
"In a way it is." Freed sat with his head in his hands, hair tumbling everywhere. "But I don't know what she's done with it. I'll have to read it all and work out where it starts and then I suppose..."
It might have been hours later, Laxus wasn't sure. Being drained of magic made his whole body ache and itch and he felt so weak he could barely sit up. He wasn't sure if he was awake or asleep most of the time. "What are you doing?" he shouted angrily, unable to stand it any longer.
Freed didn't respond. He seemed to be doing nothing, kneeling on the floor and staring into space, taking no notice of Laxus at all. Laxus rolled over and lifted himself up to see better. Freed was making a magic circle that spread its purple light all around the enchantment and crept towards it slowly at first, then faster until the new spell met the old and sparks flew. The whole cage lit up with electricity for a moment and then fizzled away to nothing.
The spell lifted like a release of gravity and Laxus felt euphoric for a moment, but he still had no magic. He rushed to Freed and hauled him to his feet. "Come on!" he said. "I can smell lightning."
"Give me a minute," Freed said. "I'll catch you up."
Laxus opened his mouth to argue, momentarily outraged by Freed's insubordination and then he remembered that it wasn't like that any more. "All right," he said. There was plenty of lightning outside, he could feel it as well as smell it. It wouldn't take long to get charged up and then he could come back and fix everything. He hurtled off out of the door without even looking back.
Chapter 6: Bickslow
"What's your problem?" Bickslow growled. He had never been a morning person. It wasn't even morning, not really. It was still dark.
"Shut up and come on," Evergreen hissed, pulling at his arm. "I got a message. We need to go. Now!"
Bickslow let himself be pulled. "What do you mean, a message? From who?"
"Freed. And I said shut up. I don't want to wake anyone else up if I can help it."
Bickslow stopped in his tracks, bringing Ever up short. "How did you get a message from Freed in the middle of the night?"
He was fed up with Freed. Freed had decided to ditch the Thunder Legion, to ditch the whole guild and go off for no reason. And he'd taken Laxus with him which was worse.
"He sent me a spell, said he needs our help. Come on!" Ever whispered. She obviously hadn't wanted to talk about it but to just rely on Bickslow being half asleep so he'd follow her. And she was determined. She pulled hard and Bickslow had to snatch his arm away.
"That doesn't make any sense. Freed's in Chamomile isn't he?"
"He can't be. He has to be here somewhere to send words like that. 'Help us,' that's all it said. I don't get it either, but 'us' has to mean him and Laxus doesn't it?" It wasn't like Ever to sound so edgy, she was totally spooked.
"All right," Bicklsow said. Anxiety was something he'd learned to control and dispel a long time ago and he could feel the calming presence of his babies hovering at his shoulders, keeping quiet because they knew, far better than people.
And they didn't need to go far. They stumbled along the corridor, through the door to the hall and everything was suddenly all wrong. There was nobody there; even Cana had gone to bed finally, but there was a strange darkness, half of the room was taken up by it. It was as if another place had opened up in there, a new dimension, dark mostly but there was some light. Bickslow squinted into it; a golden lacryma crystal glowed and thin veins of crackling electricity flowed from it to a figure stood there. It was Freed, heaving in breaths, pointing his sword at the guild hall floor, his hair flying all about him.
"Come and stand behind me," Freed said looking up.
Bickslow hadn't had time to think about getting properly dressed; he wasn't wearing his visor and for a moment he found himself caught staring into Freed's eyes and into his soul, but then Ever pushed him roughly forward and the two of them plunged into the darkness.
It was definitely another place; it had different air, a different smell. And anyway, as soon as they had crossed over Freed lifted his sword and the guild hall seemed to be sucked away. Bickslow found he was shocked, seeing his home disappearing so fast, leaving him in a cold, dark place that seemed somehow like a dungeon.
"What's going on, man?" he turned to Freed, but that was no use. Freed crumpled up and fell to the floor. "Hey!" Bickslow knelt down and shook his friend's shoulder.
Ever made some light. "Seems like we were too late," she said. Freed was out cold and pitifully dishevelled, tattered and burnt.
"There's something up with his soul too," Bickslow said.
"What? You mean he's been taken over?"
Bickslow shook his head. "No, not that. It's more like a kind of desperation, like it's imprisoned somehow, but I don't really know; I didn't get much of a look. Where do you think we are?"
"No idea, but we're not in Magnolia."
The room they were in was huge, entirely empty and cold, with no windows and barely any light, just the glimmer of one or two torches burning on the walls; it had the feel of an underground cavern, but the door was open at least.
"Let's get out of here," Bickslow said.
Chapter 7: Freed
"Laxus?" Freed asked uncertainly.
"Guess again," said Bickslow.
Freed had been trying to work out which way was up and what was moving, but then it all changed anyway. He closed his eyes and let it, opened them again when he was more sure and found he was lying on a floor in a dark corridor and Bickslow and Evergreen were both there looking at him.
"Do you know where Laxus is?" Ever asked.
"No, but he'll be outside. He went looking for lightning after they drained all his magic."
"They drained his magic? Who did?" Ever demanded.
Freed didn't have the strength to explain. All that stored electricity from the lacryma coursing through him had taken him to pieces and his burned hand hurt like crazy. Still, it had worked, he'd managed to bring Bickslow and Ever to the university, even if he couldn't exactly remember doing it. "The people here," he said vaguely.
"They must have some mad skills if they can bring Laxus down," Bickslow said. "We'd better find him, no?"
"Laxus'll be all right." Freed sat up slowly. "Bickslow, I need you to do something for me."
"You mean fix up whatever happened to your soul? I can try. Look at me."
"He called it soul-link magic." Freed found himself falling into Bickslow's eyes. "I've never heard of it before."
"Me neither," said Bickslow steadily.
"Who did?" snapped Ever. "None of this makes any sense. You're not telling us anything!"
Freed didn't respond, he was lost. Bickslow's face was hidden so much of the time, it was a jolt to remember how handsome he was, how startling looking with his strange tattoo and his whirlpool eyes drawing you into another world.
Bickslow suddenly turned away and it was as if something between them tore in two, painfully. "I can't get it," he said. He put his hands over his eyes. "Urgh! There was someone else there, or the trace of him anyway, and a place. But it was too far away. I'm sorry."
"The dean," Freed said quietly.
"I'm going to find Laxus," Ever declared. "If there's someone here strong enough to imprison people's souls and drain their magic…"
"Wait." Freed caught Ever's arm and used it to pull himself unsteadily to his feet. "They tricked us," he said. "I don't think they're all that strong really and Laxus won't let her trick him again. You have to trust him." He glanced around, wondering where they were. Not in that dungeon room any more so they must have carried him. This corridor was level, not sloping, and the walls were panelled with a light coloured wood. They had to be in the Newsome building.
"If we go to the place you saw," he asked Bickslow. "The actual place I mean, will it work there?"
"I don't know." Bickslow was still kneeling on the floor with his hands over his eyes.
Freed pulled off his tie and tried to tie it around Bickslow's face one handed, but he couldn't do it.
Ever took it from him. "Hey, what happened to your hand?" she asked.
"Nothing." Freed shoved the hand into the front of his coat out of sight and pulled Bickslow up. "Come on, it's this way," he said.
Chapter 8: Evergreen
Ever was too confused to be able to do anything but follow. What's wrong with me? She wondered. She should have given Bickslow enough time to put his visor on at the beginning of all this. She glanced at him but he seemed all right now his eyes were hidden away, smiling and focused. Freed was in a much worse state, though he was forging ahead. She could understand really; he didn't have the energy to spare for explaining, there was no time, but she resented it anyway. She realised she was angry. This is what happens, she thought, when the Thunder Legion gets split up.
And after being underground so long, threading through endless passages, they finally burst out into the open air and the crashing rain, a wide green between anonymous towers. The sky was lit up with flashes of lightning and thunder rolled.
"Where's Laxus?" Ever found she needed to shout over the exhilarating electricity that filled the air.
"He could be anywhere." Freed was gasping for breath, but he only stopped for a second. "We need to go in here." He dashed into another doorway, another building.
"This is the place," Freed said.
Bickslow nodded and pulled the cloth from his face. Ever caught a glimpse of his spiralling eyes and was glad of her glasses protecting her from that strange magic. She had no idea what they were doing but they seemed to know, standing face to face, staring into each other's eyes.
"Ah, there you are Mr Justine." A quiet, self-satisfied voice crept out of the darkness.
Freed whirled round, breaking the link.
"And who are these people? I don't believe they have permission to be on university property." The man was thin and old with white hair and a grim face.
Freed ignored the man's words but kept his eyes on him. "This is the dean," he said loud and clearly. "I can't use my magic against him since he has linked my soul to his and to this place, but I believe that means he can't hurt me either."
"Then you would be wrong," the dean said and he threw a spell at Freed in the form of a bolt of red smoke.
"Babies!" Bickslow yelled and as fast as that those strange little puppets whistled through the air to block the spell and send the smoke shooting off in five different directions.
"Soul magic," the dean said. "How interesting." He held his hand up and pushed the air, sending a vibration through it you could see because of the wisps of smoke that still floated all around. And Bickslow's babies screamed in unison and fell out of the air.
"What did you…?"
Ever glanced at Bickslow as he sank to the floor in apparent despair but she didn't have time to process what she saw. "Fairy machine gun!"
It was just a light show to get his attention. Freed had said these people weren't very strong. She took off her glasses just in time to catch that man's eye and in an instant he was a stone man and as such no further threat at all.
"What happened?" she demanded.
Bickslow was on his knees amongst his fallen dolls. "I don't know," he said slowly.
Those puppets were supposed to be expendable. The bodies might be destroyed, but the souls couldn't be; they would go on to find new bodies and live again. Only this time something was different.
"They're gone," Bickslow said in a voice that didn't believe what it was saying.
Ever didn't know what to say. She looked over to Freed and realised he wasn't paying any attention to Bickslow; all his was taken up with something else. A girl stood in the doorway. A girl with enormous dark eyes, all wet from the rain standing frozen, staring.
"What have you done to grandpa?" the girl asked.
Chapter 9: Freed
"Emily."
The girl walked into the hall where everyone was stock still, watching her. Even Bickslow looked up from his broken dolls. She was so small, and she looked so sad.
"You took Laxus," Freed said. "But…"
"She took Laxus?" Ever sounded incredulous.
"Ever, wait," Freed said. "I need to understand it properly."
Emily had been so important. The way she had listened on the train that day, it wasn't just that no-one had ever listened like that before, it was that Freed hadn't known that anyone could. Now he knew. "I know about the university," he said softly. "I can see it now, how it really is." He could see the walls crumbling, the door that wasn't real at all and the roof that ought to have been leaking.
"I love learning," Emily said, her eyes lighting up. "I loved listening to you, learning from you. You have such a gift! We haven't had anyone like you at the university for years and years, not since the last one…" She looked away, ashamed.
Freed felt sick. Who had 'the last one' been? And what might have happened to him? "But it was your grandfather's plan," he said, it was half a question.
Emily nodded sadly. "Of course it was. You don't understand what it takes to run a university like this. Nobody does! The king and the government, they think we don't need support, but we… Well, you say you can see it. We have to make our own money, to fix it."
"But you can't carry on like that now."
"Yes we can!" Emily said, looking up out of pleading eyes. "You're still here. I need the university so I can learn, but everyone in Fiore needs it too. You need it. We can make money from folding space and build it back up like it used to be. And you can have other ideas; we can sell those too."
"It's misuse of magic. The magic council won't allow it."
"The magic council don't know about it and they won't find out." Emily said. "Do you really think grandpa is stuck in that stone statue over there?"
Freed looked round at the statue, as if looking at it would tell him anything.
But Bickslow was looking at it too. "There's no soul in there," he said. "The old man's gone."
Freed turned back to where Emily was inching away towards the door.
"I took your magic, remember?" she asked. "You told me all about it and I took it and used it to trap your friend. The unconquerable Laxus; he told me all about his magic too, he couldn't stop telling me."
Freed saw the lightning crackling in Emily's hand, spreading along her arm and all around her, but he did not seem able to think or move at any useful speed. The lightning bolt hit him so hard in the chest he was thrown though the air to smash into the opposite wall, a real wall. Everything turned white, then red as he flew, and landing didn't seem to happen at all.
Chapter 10: Laxus
The lightning was astonishing. Laxus climbed the tallest of the buildings around the quadrangle and called it to come to him, to strike him with its fury as he stood up in all that rain and the wind as well. The sound of thunder roared in his ears and rattled his brains as the electricity engulfed him. It was only then that he began to seize handfuls and consume it, filling himself to the brim with that magnificent energy; it was perfect.
And when he was finally satisfied he stood and roared, on top of the world, an unstoppable force once more.
He leapt to the ground and his head whirled, getting itself back into order. He couldn't remember at first where he was and what he was meant to be doing; everything had gone so hazy. His focus had narrowed to nothing but a single beam of light falling on that one thing; the need to replenish his magic. He stood still in the rain and let it come. And when it came it was all Freed. Freed crying, Freed struck by lightning, Freed burned, Freed making a magic circle and setting him free…
And where was Freed? Now Laxus had his full power back he realised it was easy. He could smell Freed, faintly, but it was enough. He bounded off in the right direction.
The door was open. Laxus reached the doorway in time to be blinded by a flash of light. Was it lightning? He saw Freed fly, but not the way anyone ought to. "Freed!" he cried out.
And that girl was stood there, Emily, the one who had stolen and copied Freed's magic, crackling with lightning. She had stolen that too! Laxus seethed with rage and aimed a bolt of his own at her. She might be able to take his magic and use it, but she would never defeat him, the idea was absurd! She could never defeat him, she could only be destroyed.
Except she was not destroyed. Before the lightning could touch her she was engulfed in a wreath of red smoke; smoke that appeared instantly, from nowhere, and then coiled away leaving nothing, no girl, not even a hint of her.
There was no way to make chase, no sense of where the smoke might have dispersed to. Laxus stood staring at the place where Emily had stood, where there was a stone statue of that old man, the dean, slowly crumbling and turning to dust. And when he looked wider he saw Evergreen standing still in her nightdress, as bewildered as he was himself, Bickslow kneeling on the floor with his head in his hands and Freed…
Laxus ran. Freed was lying in a pile under the wall where he had been thrown, not moving, but breathing. Laxus rolled him over and pulled his hair away from his face; Freed was so stupidly beautiful. "Hey," Laxus said. "Are you in there?"
Freed coughed and groaned, then smiled. "Yes, I'm…" He opened his eyes and a look of surprise stole over his face. "Bickslow!" he called. "The spell's broken. When the old man disappeared it let go, so he must really be gone. Does that mean…?"
"What?" Bickslow sounded utterly dejected and Laxus finally thought to wonder what was going on. How had Bicklsow and Ever got there so fast from Magnolia?
But Freed was struggling to get up and Laxus couldn't let him; his chest was horribly burned and still smoking. "You're not going anywhere," Laxus said, holding on.
"What?" a tiny, high pitched voice enquired.
"What?" asked another voice.
"Babies?" Bickslow said uncertainly.
"Babies, babies!"
Laxus looked up, incredulous, to the sight of Bickslow's strange little dolls sailing up from the dust-strewn floor to begin a dance in the air and Bickslow himself standing up and turning around and around to watch them in the rain.
"Hey, you're back!" Bickslow called, his energy entirely restored. "Hey Freed! They came back; they all did!" He bounced over and stopped short. "Oh man! Are you OK?"
"I'm all right," Freed said, closing his eyes again.
"What do we do now?" Evergreen asked.
"What do you think we do?" Laxus asked. "We go home to Fairy Tail. All of us."
Chapter 11: Freed
"I can't," Freed said.
"Crap," said Laxus. "I've had it with all this independence now. You tried it; it didn't work out. You're coming with us."
"I left the guild," Freed said, "and I joined the university. The dean and Emily have gone now, but who's to say they won't come back?"
"You don't need to worry about that. The magic council will keep an eye on them."
Laxus was still holding on to him; an arm round his shoulders, and it was too much. This had all been about making space; a space between him and Laxus. It had always been easy to watch Laxus from a distance. Freed couldn't stop the tears falling down his face but he tried again anyway. "I don't even have a guild mark any more." The skin on his left hand was all burned away, and the guild mark along with it.
Laxus laughed. "Gramps'll get you a new one, no problem," he said. "Hey, don't cry. I hate it when you cry."
And Freed felt himself begin to spiral into unconsciousness, like something inside him decided to let go. "You're not listening," he said. "You never listen."
Laxus was going to take him back to Fairy Tail. There was nothing he could do about that now, but it didn't mean he had to stay there. He might not be an academic but… He let the figures in the foreground blur away and looked at the building, the ruin of a building that everyone could see now with the rain falling through it. He would come back and fix it. Set up folding space and make it work properly so the university could be rebuilt and then… He couldn't make any of it seem to matter in that moment, lying in Laxus' arms with his friends around him. He closed his eyes and floated away.