Woo! The sequel to Tablet and a Tome is up. At last! I hope you enjoy my expansion on the world of Fairy Tail as I introduce another kingdom by the name of Lancet. If you have not read Tablet and a Tome, I suggest you at least take a quick looksee at it. Please, enjoy my new OCs and new Love Square!

Why a Love Square and not a Love Triangle? Because I don't like odd numbers, that's why!

Prologue

Kingdom of Lancet

House of Thorns

His forehead leaned against the window as he stared down at the piece of parchment between his fingers. The coolness of the glass kissed his skull, and he couldn't believe it. It couldn't be true. Had it been anyone else he would have laughed, but... it wasn't anyone else. It was her, the woman he held dearest in his shadowy heart.

His pale hand laid flat against the cold window in his office. As he gritted his teeth he tried to think of better things, happier things, but he just couldn't do it.

The order had been sent out. Her life was in danger. Those bastards were at it again, and he was the only one who could stop them.

He'd tried to keep her safe. He'd been the one to send her away to Fiore after he'd finally found her. After all those years of keeping a silent vigil over her life, his hand was about to be forced. He was forced to make a decision. Her life or his throne.

Isaac let loose a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding then pulled himself away from the window. It was time for change. It was time to end this senseless slaughter.

The last of the Lancet household stepped to his desk and pulled out the mask he'd kept stowed away just for this kind off occasion. His most trusted guard, his confidant, turned from his position at the door to look at his master. "Is it time Sir. Isaac?"

The black mask that only covered one eye and the majority of Isaac's face melded to his skin. Isaac gave a short nod of his head. "It is time, Urian."

Isaac took out the elegant cloak from a sliding wall in the back of his closet. Once he'd secured the article of clothing with a black alexandrite, he motioned for his guard to follow him. "Secure the room," Isaac explained. "I want no one to know of our disappearance. Is my regent in place?"

Urian looked up from the crystal orb in his hand then nodded. Once he'd placed a rune on the door, he followed his master out the secret escape.

This was the only house in all of nobility that held mages. It was the only nobleman's house that was connected to the Magic Railroad, a secret passageway that consisted of homes, tunnels, docks, and wagons to sneak mages out of the country and to freedom.

There was so much strife and infighting in the kingdom of Lancet, a kingdom where mages were hunted down like common quarry. Isaac had been the only nobleman permitted to know anything about the Magic Railroad, and there was a reason for that. He was the only mage in nobility. It was his and a certain woman's destiny to liberate the country from the Magical Massacre that had been going on since he was born. Tonight, it seemed liberation would begin.

Now, to cross the ocean…

Masquerade Ball

Kingdom of Fiore

Magnolia Marketplace

Adamine let out a laugh when Evergreen held a dress up to Adam's body. She, Mira, Black Pearl, and Ever had all decided to go shopping. Actually, no. It was more like Evergreen and Mira had kidnapped her from her bed she had in Freed and Bickslow's shared apartment then drug her shopping. Black Pearl had woken up to realize Adamine wasn't in the bed with her, and her chibi sized canine had sniffed them out before finding them at the bazaar. Which Adamine had to agree, was quite bizarre.

Never before had Adamine seen so many different dresses in one tiny space. There were all kinds of delicious foods from all around Fiore and surrounding countries, but Adamine hadn't gotten a chance to try any of the tasty treats because of the two fashionistas duking it out over what Adamine should wear to some masquerade ball.

A particularly delicious scent wafted past Adamine's nose, and she paused before two hands snatched her wrists. She was drug away before she could even get a glimpse of what foreign meal had just passed by on a waiter's tray.

Secretly, she was craving food from her kingdom, Lancet. Adamine may be the runaway princess of that kingdom, but she still missed the food. Biscuits, gravy, macaroni, and other wonderful comfort foods she used to enjoy. She hadn't had Lancet food in twelve years, if she counted the seven she spent froze on Tenrou.

Black Pearl snickered, "Should I go find you something?" The chibi Hellhound had transformed into what she called her Mortal Soul. She had three souls in her body. One was a Hell Soul that made her a demon. Another was her Heaven Soul which made her chibi. The last was her Mortality Soul where she was a tall canine warrioress.

Adamine gave an eager nod. "I want something from home if you can find it," she requested, being drug to another dress stall. Pearl gave a nod then a salute before ditching into the mob of people that had filled the Agora type structure.

Mira Jane chimed, "We should find something for Pearl to wear too! I want her to go with Panther Lily to the ball. They would look so cute together!" The Demon Take Over Mage turned to Adamine who just gave a strained smile. "What do you think, Mina?"

"Sure. Great. Mira, we've been at this since morning. Can we take a break, please?" Adamine felt a chill in the air then noticed Evergreen snarling in her direction.

"No!" her best friend snapped. "I want to find you the perfect outfit since you refuse to go with anyone as a date!" Evergreen tightened her hold before stopping to look at a beautiful dress trimmed in purple.

"That's only because no one ever asked me," Adamine countered and stood there reluctantly waiting for the disaster that would be their dress decisions. Ehhhhhhhhh. She hated thiiiiiiiiiis. She just wanted to eat. Laxus had promised her that he would figure out how to make her favorite breakfast dish if she kissed him. Well, she'd kissed him. Where the hell was her food?

"The only reason you don't have a date is because the hulking brute that I chose for you is too chicken to ask you. He says it'll ruin his man pride or something like that," Evergreen complained.

Mira Jane laughed, "The guy I asked to take Mina said the same thing. Instead of using man pride he said, 'I ain't doing any girlie shit like that'. It's such a shame because they would make the best couple."

Each girl had copied the deep tone of their male's voice, and it caused Adamine to snicker. The smile was short lived when two ball gowns were tossed at Adamine in the same time.

Mira Jane had chosen an electric yellow, silk ball gown with a sweetheart neckline. Evergreen had picked out a black velvet gown with a tight corset bodice. It split open between the thighs to reveal a white skirt. There was purple lace that tightened at the back of the corset.

"Do I have to?" Adamine whined. Before she could say much more both women gripped her biceps then tossed her into a dressing room with the dresses hanging on either side of her.

"We'll pick a few more out for you to try on, so don't go anywhere!" Evergreen explained with a sweet voice that suddenly had Adamine's gut falling to her feet. A few more. Adamine knew what that meant. Millions. With Mira helping. Gazillions.

"Why me?" she cried dramatically and feel to her knees in front of the mirror.

Black Pearl snickered when the sound of Adamine's howl hit her perceptive canine hearing. After seeing exactly what the women had been picking out for Mina, Pearl already knew who was pinning for who. It was a love triangle. Laxus versus Bickslow.

Pearl knew who she was gunning for. It was the man who had helped her out the most when Adamine's life was in danger. Fingers crossed and a prayer sent to Adamine's mother dragon Firmalione, Black Pearl continued on her quest for Lancet cuisine.

Laxus gawked when he saw his grandfather standing on his chest. He didn't know whether he should be surprised or not when Makarov held up the poster for the Masquerade Ball being held this Halloween. Before Makarov could get a word out, Laxus snarled, "I'm not going. Don't be Mira and try to convince me either."

Instead of tossing Makarov off him, Laxus just rolled over to put his pillow over his head. He didn't feel like this. Mira Jane had already tried to convince him to ask Adamine to go with him. He didn't know where she got the wild hair he was into the Adamantine Dragon Slayer.

Sure, she was tough. She had a body that could send a man to his knees, and she had a fiery determination that set his hormones aflame when they trained together. Yeah, he also wanted to be the one to ticket in on her V card, but he'd never made any of those notions public. It was plain stupid for them to think he was into the… sexy, innocent girl who had her first kiss given by him only a few weeks ago…

He felt like an idiot when he thought that his gramps would let the topic drop at that. He couldn't even muster a surprised expression when he was drug out of the house in his boxers.

Freed sat on the couch and waited. He'd been up since six this morning. He should have known better. His roommate wouldn't be even remotely awake until twelve; then he wouldn't be fully functional until two. It had been pointless for him to get up so early, but old habits were hard to give up. Freed was tempted to go into his boot camp routine, as Adamine and Bickslow so eloquently titled it, and wake up the Seith Mage unconscious in his darkened bedroom.

He was just about to do it until he froze with his hand placing a bookmark in a novel Adamine had gifted to him when he'd told her she could live with him as long as she liked. The Seith Mage Freed had been awaiting ran his hands through his Mohawk and appeared to be looking for something.

"Adam's up?" Bickslow wondered. His eyes settled on the made and tucked away Murphy bed that had been installed twelve years ago when they had met Adamine. "Where did she go?" he questioned, hiding his interest with a nonchalant tone.

Freed knew better though. A sly grin tried to creep up his face, but he just said, "She went shopping with Evergreen and Mira. The both of them had decided to pick her up a dress for the masquerade ball on Halloween. No one ever asked her to go with them, so Mira and Ever wanted to cheer her up by helping her dress shop."

"She wanted to go to that stupid thing? I can think of a million more entertaining things to do on Halloween than go to a dance," Bickslow mentioned, grumbling the words as he entered the kitchen to stick his head in the fridge. "She'd better not have ate all the… Ah! Ha! There's my precious!"

Bickslow withdrew some of Adamine's homemade pancakes that had been leftover from when the two had the munchies after a late night drinking session of her favorite rum. He used a simple spell to heat them up then withdrew some syrup to pour all over the fluffy pancakes. After cutting some of the stack of five, he let out a moan of delectable pleasure. "Girl may not be very lady like, but she can made a damn good breakfast," he explained.

His body flopped gracelessly down on the couch, and Freed snapped his book shut. "Bickslow, have you considered going to the ball?"

"Ah, man, don't give me this talk. Ever already asked me to take Mina. You two keep saying she wants to go, but I know that she'd rather draw comic characters and eat food. Unless there's gunna be a fight, she wouldn't even think of going," Bickslow explained with a mouthful of pancake. He was revealing more about his attraction to the slayer than Freed had originally noticed. He paid quite a lot of attention to the young woman. Interesting.

Freed gave a quiet moment to take that information in. "I know that Laxus thinks it's a waste of time, and I'd hate to bother him with such a trivial task. That leaves you and Adam. Since I'm taking Lisanna, I want someone to go on a double date with us. It would make the night less… awkward." Freed blushed. There was honesty in his words as always, but he was having to tiptoe around his personal code to convince Bickslow to take Adam. He needed to do this carefully else Bix would call his bluff.

The plate Bickslow had fixed for himself was gone in seconds, and he leaned back to snicker. "Nervous around Lisanna, eh? I'm surprised you didn't ask Rufus," Bickslow taunted, playing with the man's sexuality.

Freed blushed deeper. "I-I have my reasons for that!" he countered, getting flustered. Everyone thought Freed was at least bisexual. It was something that he kept to himself due to his reserved nature. Not everyone needed to know his business. B-besides Rufus lived so far away…

Bickslow snorted. "I'm sure you do. You know, your sexuality doesn't matter. Do what you want and quit being so stiff all the time. You don't cut loose enough." He rose up from the leather couch and crossed his fingers behind his head. "I'm not going to go to that pointless Masquerade Ball, but I may hang out with Mina that night. She's still new and doesn't know about Magnolia. There's a haunted house I want to check out outside of town. That'll be better than a dance. She can't dance anyway."

Freed finally let his grin slide up his lips. Taking advice from Bickslow was an odd position to be in. It was usually the other way around. After placing his book into the shelf, Freed decided he had some things to speak about with Evergreen. They were going to have a slight change of plans, but she was still going to need a dress.

Adamine looked at herself in the mirror. The outfit was actually… freaking adorable! Behind the curtain of the dressing room, she did a three sixty. The dress was short and scarlet red with a brown leather corset that matched the lacrima she was forced to wear to keep her powers in check. Adamine loved the playful way the dress flared out. Whenever she spun it allowed for a feminine twirl that made Adamine actually feel like a girl. It covered up her plump breasts while allowing a V of cleavage that Adamine was comfortable with before making small sleeves.

She felt that whenever a woman did wear clothes it should cover since that was the purpose. The way that Lucy and other women in the guild dressed just didn't make sense. If you wanted to be naked then just go naked. Don't even bother with the clothes. Oh, well. Normal people just didn't make sense to Adamine.

"Come on, Adamine!" Mira encouraged.

"Yeah! I want to see!" Evergreen exclaimed.

The dress had been the only one both women had agreed on. It was no wonder they were all so eager.

Suddenly shy, Adamine mentioned, "It makes me feel girly and pretty. I don't know if I like it or not…"

"It's supposed to make you feel girly and pretty. Just show us!" they cried in unison.

"I… I'm not sure."

The two girls let out a groan. She could just imagine them leaned back of the couch in the dressing room. Adamine was about to unzip the dress when the smell of grilled catfish caught her attention. Pearl announced, "I finally found some Lancet food!"

Like a starved animal, Adamine launched out of the dressing room to snatch up the to-go box in her loyal companion's hands. Pearl didn't even look surprised when Adamine opened up the box. The Hellhound just admired the sheer joy in Adam's expression before she sucked the food up like a vacuum.

"Food. Of course, how could I forget? Tempt her with a steak and she'll come out of hiding," Evergreen moaned with a hand on her forehead. She cracked open one eye then gasped.

Mira had the same slack jawed expression on her face when she caught sight of Adamine's appearance. She looked positively striking! All they had to do now was suit her up in some strappy leather shoes and some fishnet hose. Of course, they had to do hair and makeup, but those supplies were already purchased. Yes, this was going to be fun indeed.

Now, I know that this chapter isn't high action, but that will come later. I wanted to start out with humor and a slight tension with the introduction of Isaac and Urian. Since Adamine has no clue that her head is on a chopping block, I needed to start it out quiet.

Please, review my work. I love suggestions on what to do next.

Oh! Did anyone notice my historical references? They're not that hidden, but I want to know if any of you made the connections.