Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Anu: Well, it looks like you have finally returned.

Authoress: I had finals. Couldn't update between studying and worrying and taking them.

Erik: *studies* Well, she isn't lying...but she has had time to post since then.

Authoress: *pauses*...*runs*

Chapter 3: The Weakness of the Siren's Song

August 30th, X785

Anu's 1st P.O.V.

I smiled as I walked down the streets of Dawn City. It had been almost two months since Eden and Pitch had joined our guild and I felt like everything was moving in the right direction. Even though missions were still in short supply from the Council...since most people wouldn't give missions to a guild where they didn't have access to the roster list, we were still keeping afloat thanks to contacts that I made during my time before creating Jackal Fang. Taking jobs that were posted outside of the purview of the Council was not illegal. However, they were highly discouraged since the senders of the jobs were not background checked.

However, I only allowed my guild members to take those kinds of jobs from the outside sources that I knew very well. Some came from ex-dark guild mages who needed help but couldn't get a request sent through the Council. Others were sent from people who had gone against the Council, or some rich family in Fiore who had sway with the Council, to reject official requests to go through.

I had just had one last week from an old friend of mine, who was named Bella Don, to take down some thieves that were pestering the town of Gummy. Yes, the name of the town was actually Gummy. While Bella Don herself didn't live near there, a friend of hers had contacted her saying that they couldn't get an official request through because this friend, who was the mayor of the town, had rubbed Gran Doma the wrong way so the request wasn't passing the Council. So, since she heard that I had started a guild, Bella Don had forwarded the request to me in hopes that my guild would take it on.

Eden, Pitch, and Sawyer had readily taken the request. They were actually due back at the guild tonight. I would have to call and make sure that everything went smoothly with that.

Speaking of Eden, I was glad when she had agreed to become the temporary leader of the fifth team for the guild. While she refused to name the team yet, since she wanted more members on the team...including the leader, I was just glad that she agreed to form it. Five was a reasonable number of teams for now and I hoped that,

I flinched as I accidentally bumped into a girl with long blue hair. "Sorry about that miss."

The girl turned to me and I saw a slight look of worry in her pink eyes. "It...it's alright."

Before I could ask this girl what was wrong, however, the girl quickly continued on her way and, before I could gather my wits and figure out what was wrong with the girl, she was gone. She seemed upset by something but it would be strange if I just ran after her and tried to figure it out from her now. She didn't know me and it would be strange for a man who looked bedraggled, like I did, to press any sort of information out of her.

But, I didn't like knowing that someone was unhappy and I hadn't tried to fix it. I needed more information on this blue-haired girl. But, while I had many sources of information, not many would be able to tell me about this girl. A person, or being, would have to know Dawn City extremely intimately to have that sort of information about a person who even I could only give a small description on.

Thankfully, however, as I moved toward the Lethal Shield Tavern, I knew that I did have one contact who would be able to help me find this information out. While officially the mayor of Dawn City was in charge of the running of the city, it was known to everyone in the city that nothing was done without the knowledge of the organization known as Equinox. Equinox was not a criminal organization, but they didn't exactly play by the rules that the Council of Era or the royal family of Fiore set up. A good way to describe Equinox would be to say that they were professional mediators. They gathered all the information that they could and they used that information to make sure that things were being run fairly and justly.

Of course, given how the Council could work at times, that didn't exactly go over well with them and so Equinox and the Council were normally at odds with each other. Thankfully, I could count the leader of Equinox as a friend of mine and, if anyone near Dawn City had the information that I needed, it would be him. Thankfully, the headquarters of Equinox was here in Dawn City so I could visit them tomorrow morning since it was already getting late.

I allowed those thoughts to move to the back of my head as I entered the Lethal Shield. Behind the bar, I smiled and nodded toward Elgor Trannyth, who was the barkeeper and innkeeper of the Lethal Shield.

When I had first looked into the area around Dawn City as a base for my guild, I had come to the Lethal Shield to rest and find out some information. The other hotels in the city had been full due to a geological conference going on in the city at the time and so the Lethal Shield had been my only hope. I had gotten my room from Elgor and had gotten a drink when a rather annoying guard named Vicron Marcos came up to the bar and tried to pick a fight with me. Before I could do anything, Elgor had shown why many locals, as I found out later, called him Elgor the Swift. Elgor punched the guard to the floor and put him in a daze while coming around to the other side, wiping his hand on the rag hanging from his pants.

Vicron had threatened to ruin Elgor, since Vicron was of nobility, but Elgor had just laughed and said that Vicron wasn't the first idiot who threatened that and he wouldn't be the last. Then, Elgor had kicked Vicron out of his bar without any hesitation...literally.

"Anu, it's been some time since I saw you in town." The lavender haired, orange-eyed barkeeper greeted me as I walked up to him.

"Sorry about that Elgor. Been keeping myself busy as of late." I responded to him with a little sigh.

He, in turn, poured me a whiskey and I put the necessary jewel in front of me before he spoke. "Getting that guild of yours together...right?" I nodded. "So, how's that actually going for you?"

I took a sip of my whiskey. "It's going better than I could have hoped. We became official back in April and, as of now, there are six members."

"Six?" He repeated with surprise. "I'm guessing your first five were the ones you wanted from the start, but you already added another member?"

"Yep. She joined almost two months ago. Will be two months on September seventh. Her name is Eden and she's been a real asset to the guild." I then took another drink. "However, I am now on the constant lookout for more members."

Elgor nodded. "Glad for you Anu. It seems like you are getting closer to having that large guild that you wanted." He then poured some more whiskey into my glass as I finished the first, and I put the necessary jewel on the counter before he continued. "Just to let you know, Equinox has been on edge lately."

"What do you mean?" I was now paying very close attention. Elgor was also a friend of the leader of Equinox and, since he lived and worked in town, he would have better access to this kind of information that I needed. That was especially since I planned on going to Equinox tomorrow.

In return, Elgor leaned closer to me so he wouldn't have to talk as loudly. "It's Crypt Veil. They've gotten some new members lately and those new members don't understand the understanding that has been settled between Crypt and Equinox. Just make sure to watch yourself while you are in town." I gave him a look at that to which he responded. "I know you can watch yourself Anu. Just try to not make the tension any worse. Our friend told me to be careful about who I toss around for the time being since Crypt Veil's people know that we both know the leader of Equinox."

That made more sense. So, I shot down the rest of my drink and put down money for one night stay before saying, "Sounds like a plan. I just need one night Elgor. As much as I would like to stay up and talk some more, I have to call my guild and let them know my plans and let them know that I'm not going to be back when I said. I'll see you tomorrow my friend."

Elgor handed me the key to my normal room, which was the suite that faced the main street before he nodded. "Very well Anu. I'll see you tomorrow."

I hopped down from the stool I was sitting at and made my way up to my room. Once I was there, I prepared myself for bed and, once I was sitting on my bed, I took out my communication lacrima and connected with the one at the guild. It took a few pulses before Macbeth picked up on the other side. "Master Anu, I am going to assume that you will not be joining us tonight?"

Nodding, I answered him. "Correct Macbeth. I was held up in town longer than I thought today. Have Eden, Pitch, and Sawyer arrived back at the guild?"

There was a crash in the background before Macbeth sighed. "Yes, I believe that they just riled Erik up and he is now chasing the three of them."

"I'm glad that they returned safely," I responded to that. "However, Macbeth, I do wish to inform you that I have some things to check up on here in town tomorrow and I am now looking at a later time to arrive at the guild. Maybe by dinner depending on how long this takes."

Instead of Macbeth responding to that, however, the lacrima view on his side moved for a second until it was focused on Sorano. "Master, you better not be trying to get out of that paperwork that is starting to pile on your desk. I don't care how long you take there in Dawn City, most of it will be waiting for you when you get back."

Well, I hadn't been thinking of that yet but I guess there was no point in trying now. "Alright, Sorano. No, I guess there is some tension between Equinox and Crypt Veil and, as the representative guild for Dawn City, I would like to see if there is anything I can do to help. Plus, there are some other bits of information that I would like to run down that might take a little time. I'll be ready for paperwork when I get back." I promised her. I really hated paperwork.

She gave me a hard look at my rather unenthusiastic response. "You better. We'll keep the guild in one piece until you get back Anu." She then seemed to hand the lacrima to Macbeth before walking off.

Macbeth, in turn, shook his head before returning his focus to the lacrima. "Master, we will expect a better explanation about what is going on when you return."

"Of course. Goodnight Macbeth, and tell the others I said goodnight to them as well." I responded to Macbeth before ending the call. After the lacrima went dark, I put it away in the drawer in the nightstand next to my bed before I turned off the lights and laid my head against the pillow. So much to accomplish tomorrow and so little time in a day.

August 31st, X785

Paralex's 1st P.O.V.

I hummed to myself as I sat in my receiving room. On the table next to me, a cup of white tea steaming. Instead of drinking the substance, however, I found myself thinking. Over sixty years I had been alive, yet I looked to be only in my late twenties to early thirties. Of course, being half human and half demonic helps with that.

Yes, my father had been a simple farmer; hardworking and never taking what didn't belong to him or what he didn't work for. My mother, however, was an empusa demon. She came upon my father during a harsh time and he made a deal with her. If she would produce a child with him, then she could feast upon him. Seems like a grotesque sort of arrangement but both my mother and my father knew that he was dying from a death curse that had no cure for humans. So, my mother agreed to the deal and, after she gave birth to me, she devoured my father. When I was old enough to understand this, she told me and I understood.

From how my mother described my father, and how his relatives did, he was a man who did not like waste and, for a creature like my mother to need food and since he was dying, it seemed wasteful to deny her a meal.

While I thankfully did not pick up on my mother's dietary necessity, I did discover that I craved for another thing; knowledge. I wished to know all that I could about everything that I discovered. That was what caused me to start my organization; Equinox. I had learned about law and order, in its truest sense, and found that the governing bodies around me did not follow law and order as they should. So, I created my organization to be a truly neutral party that could judge events fairly.

Of course, my organization was used for more than just law and order. Information was a currency that we worked in greatly and I found much pleasure in spreading that information to those that had earned my favor.

However, no matter how influential my organization would become, I would always wonder when I would finally die. I could sense my own mortality but I was unsure as to when I would perish naturally. It was one of the great mysteries in my life that I cherished.

"Paralex, sir," I turned as one of my subordinates...Brett Lawson, spoke as he entered the room with a panicked look on his face.

With the troubles we had been having with Crypt Veil lately, I was slightly worried as well. "What is it?" I questioned him.

It did not take long for Brett to speak. "Sir, a black dog was spotted in the building earlier and we haven't been able to find it."

I felt relief when Brett reported that and simply waved him off while saying, "No need to worry about the dog, Brett. I find that most dogs, especially mutts, pop up eventually. That is especially if they are hungry."

Brett looked confused at my casual tone at this but nodded. "Yes, sir." He then backed out of the room and shut the door.

Once the latch of the door clicked into place, I picked up my cup of tea and took a light sip before leaning my head back against my chair. After the taste of the tea started to travel down my throat, I glanced toward the shadows of the room. "Alright, you can come out now my friend."

It wasn't long until a black dog...a jackal to be more precise, walked out from the shadows and approached my chair. Once he was in front of it, the jackal started to morph until a man with familiar golden animalistic eyes stood in front of me. "You are one to talk about mutts Paralex. However, it is good to see you." Anu Biskaln greeted me in a somewhat normal fashion.

Though it had been some months since I had seen the transformation mage, I felt like it had only been yesterday. "Anu, my friend, it is good to see you. How has your guild been doing?"

The man smiled back at me with a knowing look. "We are growing slowly but surely. As of now, we have six members...plus one exceed, not including myself." He then paused and smirked. "Though, I guess now is a good time to thank you for allowing me to buy the property rights to the valley."

What? When I heard that my friend was looking to start a guild around my home territory, I had to be involved and make sure that he got what he needed. Of course, I was slightly surprised that Anu had been able to make the connection between me and his being able to by the land that his guild was on. I had gone through quite a few proxies to keep some separation between Anu and myself on this. But, I guess the old dog still had some good tricks.

So, I smirked back at him and took another sip of my tea. "You are welcome Anu. But, a thank you is really not necessary. Your guild will be beneficial to me in the future so the investment that I have made in your 'Jackal Fang' will be quite worth the cost." I then paused as a question about why Anu was here today suddenly came to my mind. "Of course, I am curious about something Anu."

He looked surprised at that. "Really? I hope I can help you."

I nodded. "Quite. I am curious about why you have come sneaking into my residence today? I must admit that the timing has me very curious."

Anu looked like he didn't care like he was caught. "I wish to find out a couple pieces of information and I knew that you would be my best source for answers."

Well, this was interesting. Anu usually didn't go to me directly when he had a question. He enjoyed the thrill of the hunt too much, normally, to do so. Something big must be going down for him to ask about this. "I will try to help the best was that I can my friend."

He nodded. "Thank you. The first thing I wish to know is what is causing the tension between Equinox and Crypt Veil?"

"I am assuming that you have talked to Elgor." I commented to him, which he nodded at before I continued. "For the past two weeks, the new members of Crypt Veil have been starting to upset the local shop owners and citizens as well as visitors to Dawn City. I wish for Dawn City to be a welcoming place to all who come, and for those who work and live here, and having this cause of trouble will not help that. I have been unable to reach their leader due to him having been out of town until early this morning. However, before I called him I received an unexpected visitor."

"I see." Anu simply commented before seeming to go into thought.

However, I couldn't allow my friend to go too deep into thought. "Anu, I believe that you said there was a second bit of information that you wished to garner from me."

Even after that Anu seemed to take slightly longer than normal before he responded. "Yes, there was. My apologies for the delay Paralex. I have had much on my mind lately."

"I will have to visit your guild sometime soon so you and I can talk about your thoughts more in-depth." I propositioned.

He smiled at that. "Yes, I couldn't agree more." He then got down to his second point that he wished to ask me about. "Paralex, what can you tell me about a rather tall, young girl with long blue hair and pink eyes?"

Ah, so he was interested in knowing more about her. Very interesting indeed.

Anu's 1st P.O.V.

"Now that is a very interesting subject, my friend." Paralex responded to my question with a knowing look.

Thank everything that Paralex seemed to know about who I was talking about. Of course, how many tall girls with long blue hair and pink eyes could be in this city?

...On second thought, I might not want the answer to that.

But, responding to Paralex's response. "So, you know her?"

Instead of answering in the positive, like I thought he would, Paralex shook his head at that. "I do not know her personally. I have not even been introduced to her. But, I do know much about her and her situation." He then took a sip of his tea before motioning me to sit. I turned and, not to my surprise, a chair was pulling itself up to me. Paralex dabbled in some magic, telekinetic magic, and moving a chair was something simple he could do. But, to the best of my knowledge, he didn't practice his magic much.

Once I sat down, I looked to my friend. "Any information you can give me on the girl will be most appreciated Paralex."

He nodded once before starting. "The girl's name is Melody Sirenaid and she comes from a very old family with very deep blood ties. These blood ties, however, are a part of the reason that she looked upset to you. Long ago, in her family's bloodline, there was a blood tie with the mythical beings known as sirens. While most would think that the sirenic blood would have been diluted in the family line as each generation moved further away from the original sirenic heritage, that is not the case with siren DNA. Siren genes are very dominant in a bloodline and even the one time shows extreme consequences."

"What does that have to do with Melody?" I guided my friend to the path I needed him to be on. He could go on extreme tangents if I didn't control the conversation.

And he knew that.

Paralex sighed slightly at that. "Unfortunately for Melody, she got hit twice with the gene. The two humans who conceived her did not realize that both lines had sirenic ancestry in them until after Melody was born. Before that revelation, however, the tradition in the family was to give away their first child because the first child is the ones that are supposed to be most affected by the sirenic ties. After that, the other children would only show minor abilities from the sirenic ties."

"But things changed with Melody having been conceived from two bloodlines?" I questioned him, though I really didn't have a question about what his answer was going to be.

"Yes." Exactly what I thought the answer would be. "Not only did the two adult humans never conceive again, for fear about what they would create, but they were desperate to get rid of their young daughter. In my view, it was almost a blessing to the child to be placed in permanent indentured servitude to Crypt Veil. Dark guilds, if they knew the ancestry behind Melody, could use the child for any number of unspeakable deeds."

"However, a life of indentured servitude is not one that a person can enjoy forever." I added onto the end of that.

Paralex nodded. "Yes, and I have tried to buy the contract binding Ms. Sirenaid to Crypt Veil for quite some time. But, there is only so much that I can do and so much time I have at my disposal while helping the rest of the city." Paralex then paused before he gave me, what looked like, a very curious look. "But Anu, why do you wish to know about Melody?"

I wasn't going to delay in answering my friend and so I let a smirk come to my face before I spoke. "Simply? I plan on relieving her caretakers of her."

Paralex's smirk matched my own before he leaned back in his chair and gave me a studying look. "Well, this is quite an interesting development. Very well. If you are so determined to go to Crypt Veil, then please act as my mediator and see if you can't convince their leader to restrain his newer members from messing with Dawn City and the area around it."

I turned from him and nodded before saying, "Well, I do owe you one for the information you just gave me." I then went to pull on my magic to transform. However, before I did, I looked over my shoulder and made eye contact with Paralex. "Thanks for that by the way." I then transformed into my jackal form and jumped out an open window before running down the street.

Following the scent trail that I was faintly getting from the girl from earlier, I made my way to the west side of town and, soon, I found myself in front of a building that looked like a fortress. I couldn't see any windows to gain access to the inside and I doubted that there would be any doors open. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long to figure out a way in as a couple of younger men came out of the front doors. From the smell that was coming off of them, they may have had a bit too much to drink.

"Hey...look at that dog. Looks like some kind of wolf." One of them said.

Wolf? That was almost insulting. I was a jackal thank you very much! Instead of reacting to that, however, I instead darted around the two and rushed through the doors. I could hear the shouts of confusion coming from the two and, from the sound of unstable but fast footsteps behind me, they were trying to catch me. Ha!

In no time, I followed Melody's scent until I came to a set of large open doors. While there were people in front of them, it was easy for me to jump over the people in this jackal form and, once I cleared them, I transformed back into my normal self and stood in front of the leader of Crypt Veil, Nero Justinian. He gave me a strange look, one that I really couldn't identify, before the six foot two man stood in front of his chair. Next to him, I noticed Melody Sirenaid was standing there with a surprised look on her face. "And what can we do for you today?" I could tell by the tone in his voice that he wasn't happy that I had barged in like this.

So, I figured I had better get some balance back into this situation. "My apologies for the abrupt and unannounced entrance. I was not sure how to gain an audience with you correctly and I am afraid that my time is rather limited today. May I please ask for some of your time?"

A discerning look spread across Nero's face before his face returned to neutral as he nodded. "Of course, I believe Crypt Veil may have to inform our contacts on the correct procedure to contact us." He then sat back down. "Now, what brings you to our humble headquarters?"

Straight to business. Figuring that it would work better in my favor to start with the business issue that Paralex asked me to take care of, I started to speak. "There are two things that I wish to discuss with you today. The first is by request of Paralex, the leader of Equinox. He has received reports of some of the newer members of Crypt Veil causing trouble for people who live in and visit Dawn City. He wishes to know if these new members have forgotten the agreement between Equinox and Crypt Veil."

I had to admit that Nero was very well taught in keeping his thoughts off his expression and so he nodded. However, the answer that came out of his mouth was not the one that I was expecting. "I see. Well, I am not sure whether this information is accurate or not. I may have the answer for you depending on your second inquiry for Crypt Veil."

Clever man. He didn't want to give out any information until he knew about all the reasons that I was here. Well, better give the man what he wants. "This second topic is a personal one." I then moved my arm until I was pointing in Melody's direction. "I have come today to acquire ownership of any and all contracts binding Melody Sirenaid to Crypt Veil."

Reactions around the room told me that I definitely ruffled a few feathers with that statement. Oh well. He did want to know the answer. I didn't tell him that everyone was going to like it. A glance at Nero told me that he seemed to be debating my statement in his head. I could almost feel as his eyes studied me thoroughly. However, I didn't continue to watch as I took a quick glance to see Melody's reaction.

The long blue haired girl looked shocked at my sudden statement and I could see the confusion in her eyes. Couldn't blame the girl, really. I doubted that she heard that kind of sentence every day and, with the history of her past that I had from Paralex, the notion that someone even wanted her might be throwing her for a trip.

"I don't understand why you would wish for her. Melody is well taken care of here and her safety is guaranteed. Her own family cast her aside, practically threw her at us and wished to never have any contact with her again. If her own flesh and blood did not wish for her, then why would a complete stranger wish for her?" Nero questioned me back.

Oh, he was good. However, I knew almost immediately how to answer. "Firstly, I must correct you. The people who gave Melody to you were obviously not her family." I heard some snickers from those around me but I continued. "Flesh and blood do not decide family. A family is made up of those who you are extremely close with and who you can lean on during the good and hard times. A family does not give up on each other because they are a little different. Secondly, I have no doubt that you treat her well and that she is safe with you. However, she is a human and a change in her surroundings might be beneficial for her."

For a brief second, I thought I saw amazement flash in front of Nero's eyes. However, the second was too brief so I couldn't be sure. "I see." Nero then seemed to contemplate on something before saying, "You interest me. How about we make this interesting? Since you did not offer me money for Melody, though I do not doubt you would pay it if I offered this to be resolved so, I will give you the chance to have Ms. Sirenaid's contracts moved over to you. But, this will not be easy."

I nodded in response. "Of course. What must I do to gain ownership of the contracts?"

A brief smirk appeared on Nero's face before he continued. "One of my newer members is quite adept at transformation magic, as it seems you are able to use the magic as well. So, you are to fight my mage and, if you are victorious, then Crypt Veil will relinquish the contracts binding Melody Sirenaid to us."

The young woman in question still looked surprised as I let a small smirk quickly slip on my own face as I nodded. "Very well. This may prove to be quite fun."

A pompous laugh coming from my right caused my eyes to flicker as a young boy stepped in front of me and, after a quick bow toward Nero, turned toward me with a cocky expression on his face. "I have to fight this old fossil? I'll try not to break you too bad old man."

Old? I wasn't even forty yet. There was no way that I was going to let this young brat get away with calling me old. "I hope you can put your fighting were your mouth is." I shot back to the boy as I got myself tense.

The boy smirked like I was bluffing before speaking. "Beauty before age."

"So that's me in both situations? Not much choice for you." I taunted him back.

In turn, the boy snarled before he turned into a tiger. A fierce roar came from him as he launched at me. In turn, I dodged him before turning myself into a lion and roaring my own challenge. Just because I was a master at specifically canine transformations didn't mean that I couldn't hold my own even in a cat fight.

The two of us clashed and, while the boy tiger was able to land a few light hits on me, I was able to deal a large amount of damage. This, in turn, caused the boy to change into a hippogriff and strike out at me. I flinched as the hoof made contact with my side. That hurt more than I thought that it would. However, two could play the mythical creature game. Dodging one of the boy's strikes, I changed into a griffon and used my lion paw to rake against the boy's wings. He didn't take kindly to that and was able to land another hoof against my other side. While I had seen many openings that I could use to kill the boy, that wasn't how I lived anymore and avoiding those openings was what was causing me to get injured.

I stole a quick glance at Nero and Melody and, while Nero looked intrigued at the fight between the two of us, Melody looked torn and upset. Why did she look like that? "Please, stop this. I'm not worth all of this pain."

Shoving the boy back for a second, I turned into my human form for a moment and addressed her. "Please Ms. Melody, don't take away my fun. I haven't had this thrilling of training in quite some time. Of course, I haven't faced a fellow transformation mage for many years." She looked shocked at my response but nodded.

Turning back to the boy, I watched as he sat up his hippogriff body and snapped his beak at me before he changed again. However, he quickly turned as he ran toward me and I knew that I needed to react quickly. From what I could see in the first second of the transformation, I knew that he was changing into a velociraptor. Not a creature that was easily dealt with by room-sized creatures. However, I didn't want to kill the boy and, if I did change into another velociraptor to face him, then I might accidentally do that due to the instincts the creatures had.

So, I went off of instinct and let the image of the first dinosaur that could hopefully do some damage to the velociraptor fill my head completely before I ran forward and slid under the boy, much to his surprise before I changed into my chosen dinosaur. I let out a hiss and let my neck frill expand and rattle as I let out a warning to the boy. But, he didn't get that and, with surprising speed, he launched at me with his claws extended. Pure survival instinct kicked in and I let out a spit of the paralyzing venom stored in poison glands in my mouth. Even as the poison flew, I turned into my human form and ran toward the boy velociraptor. When I took my first step toward him, he let out a howl as the poison hit his scaled skin and he immediately turned back into his human form.

"It burns!" The boy yelled out.

"Water mage now!" I yelled as I came to kneel by the boy before addressing him. "Yes, it burns. Just feel lucky that it hit your shoulder and not your eyes or you would be in even worse trouble." The water mage then knelt down by me and I motioned to the boy's shoulder before saying, "Keep a gentle but constant shower of water here for twenty to thirty minutes. Can you do that?"

The boy nodded and started to work on that.

A sound of a single clap caused me to focus my attention on Nero as he stepped down from in front of his chair. "My congratulations to you my friend. If I am being honest, I wasn't sure if the boy there would survive fighting against you. Of course, if you would have killed him then, in my book, you would have lost."

I raised an eyebrow at that, as some questioning mutters started to fly among the non-injured members of Crypt Veil, and focused more on Nero. "You believed that I would have killed the boy?"

"Anyone fighting against you should have that worry in the back of their minds...no?" He shot back.

"Maybe the old me. However, I left that life behind and I am the guild master of my own legal guild now." I answered him back.

"What is he talking about boss and what do you mean?" I heard someone ask from behind me.

At that, Nero looked at them all before motioning to me. "Here in front of us is a past member of the assassin guild Death Head Caucus and a legendary transformation mage...even at his young age." He then turned his glance back to me. "This is Anu Biskaln and, from the little information I was able to gain about him when I heard he was running a legal guild around here, he was quite deadly and accurate. Tell me Anu," Okay, now he was back to addressing me. "how many openings did you find when fighting Adrian there that your past self could have used to kill him?"

Well, he did want to know and I was in a giving mood. Plus, this might deter the newer members of Crypt Veil from causing trouble if they know I will be in town somewhat regularly. "At least thirty, though I stopped counting the extremely obvious ones after our first transformation set was done."

"Very good." Nero stated with a smirk as he sat down on his seat. He then motioned to Melody. "Since you have won the fight, I turn over ownership of the contracts binding Melody Sirenaid to Crypt Veil over to you, Anu Biskaln." He then paused. "As for the other issue, I will contact Paralex and let him know that he shouldn't have to worry about my members causing any more issues for people who are in or around Dawn City. That is especially since you are very good friends with Paralex...and I hope you will soon become a friend of mine as well."

I smiled and took the papers from Nero before saying, "I look forward to it." I then motioned for Melody, who still looked surprised, to follow me. She did and, once we were a good ways away from the Crypt Veil building, I stopped and turned to the girl whose life I had just turned upside down...and hopefully for the better. "Miss Melody," I started.

But, she stopped me with a shake of her head. "Melody. Please." Her voice was soft but audible quite clearly. Also, I could hear a slight undertone of desperation in her voice.

"Very well." I agreed with her. "Melody, I know events today may have been...unexpected for you. To be honest, before you ran into me yesterday, I was not expecting events to unfold as they did."

She seemed hesitant, and I noticed a glance go to the papers still in my hand, before she said, "They...were surprising and unusual, yes." She was being careful and I didn't want this kind of friendship with this girl.

So, I let out a sigh before continuing. "Melody, please. I think you may have the wrong idea about how events went today. I did not challenge Crypt Veil for this contract to keep these papers." Her face grew slightly more worried when I said that. So, I moved my hand inside my cloak pocket before continuing. "I wanted to make sure that these could never be used to imprison you again." I then opened my magic flame starter and activated it before moving it toward the papers in my hands.

Instantly, the magical fire enveloped the papers and, in just a few seconds, the flimsy pieces of paper that were binding Melody Sirenaid to a life of servitude were but a distant memory. Her pink eyes were wide with shock as the last piece of paper burned away. "You...why? I...I don't...understand." She seemed confused and in shock as she spoke that to me.

And that meant that an explanation from me was necessary. "As Nero introduced me as, I am Anu Biskaln. I am the guild master of the Jackal Fang guild. I can attest first hand that being forced into one place to work for others is not the kind of life one wishes to live. While my own circumstances were due to choices I made, yours was not. You can not help how you were born or who gave birth to you. You were forced away because of something that you could not control. I would be doing my guild a disservice if I did not take action. You are free to do whatever you wish with your life now. You can go wherever you wish and, as long as it is within the law, you can do whatever you wish as well."

"I...I don't know what to do. I never thought this day would come." Melody started, tears trickling down her face as a smile appeared. "I mean, of course, I would fantasize but I brushed most of those ideas away pretty quickly. I'm not sure where I would start though." She seemed hesitant while saying that last bit.

Hopefully, I could help this girl since I did mainly force her onto this path, whether she was ready or not. "I am here to help however I can. If you wished it, you could join my guild in a heartbeat. If you wished to go to,"

"Really?" I was startled into silence as her joyful tone hit me. It was almost like her own joyfulness was spread to me. It felt like I was on a euphoric high that I never wanted to come down from and it had thrown me into shock. When I continued to stare at her in shock, she seemed to realize something and snapped her fingers. Instantly, I felt the euphoric high that came before suddenly vanish before Melody spoke. "Sorry about that. I have quite a few branches of sound magic at my disposal but I really haven't had a chance to work with them at all."

Wait...she… "You're a mage?" I asked her slowly, just in case I misheard her.

In turn, Melody nodded. "Yeah. That little bit there was a part of my sound seith magic. I can send the emotions I am feeling to someone else through the sound of my voice. There are other aspects of my magic as well but I am still working on them." She then seemed to grow slightly nervous before she continued. "Anu...about your offer...to join your guild that is...did you mean that?"

"Of course I did. Is that what you want?" I asked her. Was I really about to gain yet another member in this first year?

It seemed so as she nodded enthusiastically. "Yes sir. One of the fantasies that I held onto when I was with Crypt Veil was to someday join a magic guild and learn to control my magic and help others! Oh, I would be so honored if I could join your guild! Please?" She asked me with wide eyes.

Well, what else would my answer be? "Of course Melody. Welcome to Jackal Fang! We'll get you your stamp when we get back to the guild. It will take us some time so you can tell me what you wish to about yourself and I can give you the heads up on your new guildmates."

And our conversation for the time walking to the guild was filled with information flying between the two of us. I was so enraptured in our conversation that I didn't realize that we had arrived at the doors of the guild until I noticed that we had stopped walking and Melody was staring in front of us with wide eyes. So, I looked as well as she said, "Wow. Those are big doors." Yes, they could be a bit intimidating.

"Well, I hope that they will be the doors to the new home of many more mages to come." I responded to her before I opened the doors. The first thing that caught my sight was that everyone was sitting at the bar...or standing behind in Sorano's case, and they seemed to be in deep conversation about something. While I was curious about what that was, I knew that I had to introduce them to their newest guild member before they all started asking questions. "Jackal Fang, let me introduce the newest member of our guild; the sound mage Melody Sirenaid!"

Immediately, and slightly to my surprise, Erik was the first one to walk up to us...well more specifically up to Melody, before he held out his hand. "The name's Erik, second generation poison dragon slayer mage, for right now captain of one of the teams here at the guild...though none of us have named our teams yet except for Richard since we really don't have enough members on any of them for us to name them yet. Would you like to be the first member of my team?"

She just joined the guild and he was already asking her to be on his team? This seemed very fast, especially for him, and I was about to say something along those lines when Melody spoke first, a small smile on her face. "I would like nothing better. Thank you." She then took his hand in hers and they shook on that.

...Well, that was unexpected. "Master you better get upstairs and start that paperwork!" Sorano yelled at me.

...And that was expected.

Anu: *tiptoeing away* I think I can make it.

Sorano: *appears* Anu, get your ass back into that office. You have paperwork that needs to be done.

Anu: *whines* But we have to celebrate our new member!

Melody: *innocently* Isn't there paperwork that needs to be filled out for the Council telling them that I am a new member?

Anu: *looks betrayed* Et tu Melody?

Sorano: *headslaps* Now dog!

AN: And here is the next chapter! I hope you have all enjoyed this chapter! I am sorry for not keeping up with updating like I hoped but I did have finals and they tried to kick my butt. But, I got the better of them!

So, with this chapter, we meet the sound mage Melody! She is a little nervous now, and she won't be the most active of the guild, but I'm sure there will be things for her to do. Her relations, which I am not getting into right now, aren't exactly the nicest family in the world. They will be characters that might pop up in eventual Fairy Tail stories, but for now, you get to enjoy the black sheep of the Sirenaids!

Next chapter isn't as ominous as it seems to be from the title. Yes, there are sad moments but those are a part of life. So, speaking on next chapter, here are the next couple of chapter titles!

Chapter 4: Death

Chapter 5: Guiding Light

Chapter 6:... (next time...and that may be sooner than you expect!)

Alright, so that is all for now. Leave a review if you would like, even to drop a hi at me. Until next time though, TTYL! *thinking about the holidays*