Chapter 2: Answers
Gray followed the servant up several flights of stairs until they stopped in front of a large door. The man opened the door and Gray entered. As soon as he stepped inside, he came almost nose to nose with a brown haired youth.
"Thank goodness you came." the boy said gleefully, grabbing his hand and shaking it.
"Are you the king?" Gray inquired, he wouldn't have guessed it, the boy couldn't have been older than sixteen.
"You can call me Erander." he said, dropping the ice mage's hand.
He sat down on a nearby chair and motioned for Gray to do the same. Taking a seat, Gray noticed that they were in what appeared to be a large office.
"We have much to talk about, but first let me apologize about your earlier treatment. If I had know when you would arrive I would have sent someone out to greet you."
"Don't worry about it," Gray said stiffly, not knowing how to act before royalty, "Why do you have a law like that anyway?"
"It wasn't my decision to keep mages out of the country, but right now I don't have the power to change it."
"What do you mean you don't have the power? I'm no expert on how governments work but Isn't something like that in the king's jurisdiction?"
"It's not that easy."
"I see..."
"You must be tired from your trip." Erander quickly moved to a new topic, "Would you like anything to drink? I can get you whatever you like."
"I doubt I'll be able to relax until I find out what is going on. From what I can guess your in some kind of trouble?"
"You're right about that. We need your help, Gray. I need your help and this country needs your help." The boy said, his tone was serious and his eyes were pleading.
"I'll help if I can. But you need to tell me what's going on."
"Yes, I'll explain everything. You see there is a growing evil that is slowly seeping into Isvan and it seems to be nearing it's peak."
"A man downstairs told me something like that."
"Grim?"
Gray nodded.
"Yes, he's our resident expert on such things. He tells me it's a form of dark magic and that the only way to counter it is with magic of our own. Unfortunately, all the mages within Isvan are either working for the enemy or aren't strong enough to be of much help."
"Why is that? I know Isvan was never very populated by skilled mages, but there were at least a handful of legitimate guilds around."
"It hasn't been like that in at least ten years. Now no one will even admit to being a mage for fear of being shunned." Erander said in exasperation, "The people have become incredibly hostile towards mages. No one trusts magic anymore. It was hard enough for me to convince the court to let me bring you here."
"But why?"
"It started with a demon named Deliora. I know you're familiar with that monster. It was your master after all that finally put an end to its mindless destruction."
Gray nodded.
"Unfortunately Ur was lost after that and it seemed that after that great mage fell all the dark mages that had been hiding until then found the courage to come out and practice their devilry out in the open. They banded together and built up the black market for forbidden magic, using this weakened country as a processing plant and shipping their spells and potions throughout the continent. It grew steadily and now there is more black magic in Isvan than anywhere else in the world. Because of this people no longer knew which kinds of magic they can trust and so they didn't trust any. Now mages are treated like scum but that's not the only side effect of all this. This evil, this darkness, seems to be feeding off of the dark magic and seeping into the hearts of my people. It's corrupting their hearts and filling them with hate."
Gray remembered the glares that had greeted him when he entered the city and nodded. Hearing the king's story had put an ache in his heart and he wanted nothing more than to help however he could. He could see the rage building up in the man and realized that he too was becoming angry. But something still confused him.
"I understand what's going on now, but why did you send for me? Aren't there other more powerful mages you could have asked for help?"
"It's because you're the only one that I think these people might be able to trust." the king said.
"Huh? For what reason?"
"For several actually. The first being that you are originally from Isvan, but you left this place before the dark mages emerged. So your homeland is Isvan but you're not one of the dark mages that is corrupting it. You're also the disciple of Ur, who is still highly respected, even now. There's also the fact that you use ice magic. Ice is very familiar to our people, since we're constantly surrounded by it, so I don't think they will be as afraid of it as they would another kind of magic."
"I think I get it."
"Plus, I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit. I hear you're one of the most powerful mages in the West" all serious seemed to suddenly drain out of the boy when he said this.
"What?"
"They say you single-handedly took down a dark guild when you were ten and that slew a thousand within thirty minutes."
"That sound more like Erza than me. And I'm not even sure that's even true for her." Gray mumbled.
The boy didn't seem to hear him. "Come on, Gray. I know you'll be able to help save us. We need someone like you now more than ever."
"Like I said, I'll help you out if I can."
"If you're truly willing to help then there is something I need you to do" Erander said, all mirth vanished and his serious composure was back.
"And what is that?"
"You belong to a guild right? Fairy Tail, if I remember correctly."
Gray nodded.
"For this to work I'll need you to cut all ties you have to that guild."
Gray's mouth fell open and he stared at the man as if he had just asked him to cut off his own head.
"This won't work if your loyalty lies anywhere else." he explained, "The people won't be able to trust you fully. Not only that, but this is the only was I was able to convince the council to let you stay here in peace. If you don't do this they may end up forcing you out of the country or worse and I doubt I will be able to do anything to stop them. So, will you do this for me Gray? For your country?"
Gray just stood there for a moment dumbfounded. "No." he finally managed to choke out.
"What? Why? I though you wanted to help. Is it really such a sacrifice for you to leave your guild?"
"It is." Gray said, standing up. "I wouldn't expect you to understand, but Fairy Tail is my family. They've always been there for me and I could never leave them."
Erander hung his head, and held his hands out towards the ice mage.
"Please, Gray." he pleaded, his voice cracking, "I don't know who else to turn to."
Gray looked at him and was shocked to see that the boy was shaking. A few tears traveled down his face and fell off his chin.
"You just don't get it." Erander chocked as he wiped away the tears and looked up at the ice mage, "I'm at a complete dead end. No one will listen to me, all they do is argue all day. I wasn't ready to be put in charge yet, not when things are like this."
Realization suddenly dawned on Gray. "You're not the king are you."
Erander shook his head. "I'm the king's first son the prince."
"Why am-? What's going on?" the ice mage was completely baffled.
"Please don't tell anyone, if word got out it would just make things worse for me. I'm only taking over until my father recovers."
"I- I won't tell anyone. But what's wrong with the king?"
"He's gone mad. It seems everyone around here has to an extent, but he's been affected the most. He doesn't even recognize me as his son anymore and thinks I'm an enemy who's trying to take his throne." the boy explained, holding back the tears that threatened to fall again, "We had to lock him up for his own safety and ours. Please, Gray, you have to dispel this horrible darkness, then I'm sure my father will return to normal."
The ice mage just stood there, still taking it all in. Isvan was now kingless and descending into chaos and he was expected to fix all of this on his own? There was no way he could do it. He was only called here because of this boy's misplaced expectations. Sure, he could help, but not if that meant quitting the guild. He couldn't leave his family, he couldn't bear to face life alone. He remembered the horrible he had felt when his family was killed and again when Ur died. He couldn't face that again. There was no way he could fight without Fairy Tail.
"There's also another reason why you would have to leave your guild."
"What is that?" Gray asked, but he didn't want to know, he didn't care anymore. He wished he was back home and had never come to Isvan in the first place.
As Erander explained the final reason the ice mage felt his stomach turn. The information only proved to deepen his conviction.
"I'm sorry." he said when the boy had finished, "You're going to have to find someone else.
The prince let him leave. When he was gone, he let his head collapse into his hands, letting out a ragged sigh.
"I got to say lady, I don't think I've ever seen someone drink as much as you before."
Cana grinned at the bartender's words and brought a barrel up to her lips and downed the rest of its contents. She through the empty container next to several others and rested her head on the bar counter.
"Are you finally done?" the man asked, still looking impressed at the stack of empty barrels.
The mage didn't answer. The world was beginning to swirl around her as the alcohol started to take effect. Since there was nothing else to do while she waited for Gray to get back, she had spent most of the time around the local bars, getting more drunk than usual. She didn't feel quite herself after Gray left and was hoping the strong drink would get her mind off of how worried she was.
"Geez, why an I so worried about that fool anyway?" she mumbled to herself.
"Did you say something?" the bartender asked.
"Just talking to myself." Cana replied.
"I'll be closing up soon so you'll need to start heading home."
Cana raised her hand in a thumbs up sign to show him she understood, but stayed where she was for several more minutes. Finally she pulled herself up and staggered out of the establishment. The girl stood in a daze at the exit for a long time, trying to remember which way the inn was. Everything looked so different in the dark. A gust of cold wind brought her back to her senses as it nipped at her face. She pulled the hood of her new coat over her head and began trudging in what she thought was the right direction.
As she shuffled her feet along the cobblestone road her big two suddenly collided with a loose rock. She hissed in pain, losing her balance and tumbling forward. A pair of arms reached out and grabbed her inches before her face was smeared across the road. She blinked and looked up in confusion.
"Hey Cana, having a little trouble staying upright?" Gray teased as he helped to steady her.
"Gray? But you weren't suppose to get back for another two days."
"I'm sorry. Were you having too much fun without me?"
"Hardly, even the alcohol is cold around here. Please tell me we can go home now."
"We can. I'm as anxious as you are now. We can head out in the morning, but first let's get some sleep. The inn's this way, isn't it?"
Cana nodded, then clutched her head as the movement suddenly made the world spin faster. The ice mage slung the girl's arm around his shoulder to give her support and they headed off. She having trouble putting one foot in front of the other and Gray was almost dragging her.
"This is too slow." the card mage complained, "Why don't you just carry me?"
Gray grudgingly let Cana climb onto his back, then stood up and began walking.
"So what did the king want?" Cana murmured, resting her head on the other's shoulder.
Gray hesitated before answering. "He... wanted me to quit Fairy Tail and work for him."
"What?" the news was enough to wake Cana up from her half sleep.
"You refused right?" she asked almost too quickly.
"Of course."
"Good." the girl laid her head back down and closed her eyes.
"I'm not going to leave Fairy Tail just for something like that." he reassured her.
There was a moment of silence between them the rhythm of the ice mages breathing slowly lulled the drunken girl to sleep.
"I was worried you might." she said, just before nodding off.
"Huh?"
"Leave Fairy Tail I mean. When you left I got worried."
"You don't have to worry. I'm not leaving Fairy Tail."
He repeated it again more to himself this time than to the other, his voice full of determination.
"I'm not leaving Fairy Tail."
A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed. Now to answer some questions y'all had.
Yes, Ray, Gray is a devil slayer in this one. I'll probably end up taking some creative liberties when it comes to this new magic since we don't know much about it yet.
AsDarknessSpreads, I did some research and if you look at the page they have for Earth Land on the Fairy Tail wiki it states that Isvan is "A country located west to Fiore." and that's all I could find. There's very little information on that place. The only other thing we know for sure is that it's where Gray's home town was located and where Ur lived.
Update next Friday. See you then.