Hawk

Chapter Seven

She looked at her hand (Her. Hand.) and watched as her fingers began to fade. Juvia's magic was hard to focus. Or rather the foundation of that magic transferred through Juvia's blood was hard to focus.

'Fingers,' she thought, 'you are fingers on a hand on an arm on a shoulder on a torso connected to another arm, two legs, and a head that is LEVY! You will remain fingers!'

Her skin tingled with her power. It was her power now. Born of the blood of others, she – this new she – was a child, newly risen. Her power incubated in the life-creating Word.

"Levy."

"Yes, Gavin."

"Your first followers have come. Greet them."

She lifted her chin. STEEL sharpened, and her WINGS rustled in their two-dimensional confinement. "I am a god. I am not required to greet mortals."

She was a god. Gavin had made it so. It was remarkable how much she could see. Could know. She had only two eyes, but the Word told her the thoughts and actions of all those near her.

Gavin shifted in his chair. The back of her throne showed only a glimpse of her blue hair, which was fuller and more radiant than it had been only a day earlier. He wanted to see her face. Needed to gauge her emotions.

He flexed his fingers to test his power. Pen in hand, he verified that the charm on her throat still tied him to her. A small rune, and he gave her a measure of pain, not too-

She grit her teeth as her throat burned. Her attitude had angered him; she knew that, but she had been made a god, just as he desired. Attitude, she reasoned, was necessary.

- much, but enough to remind her of his dominance.

She was more assertive than he had expected her to be – especially after only two transfusions – but he could use that.

"You are right, dove. Forgive me." He stood-

And Levy switched her focus to those poor peasants kneeling between the various statues she had created. But for one, they were strangers to her. That one, however-

His eyes saw gray and gold. The gold before him shined, and he reached for it. He needed to touch it, and to be a part of its glory-

"Come," she told Hibiki Lates. "With me, the expanse of knowledge is infinite. The reach of your power will grow, deepen. Your archive will encompass history to predict the future."

"Yes, Lady."

"Give yourself to knowledge, to the Word, and it is all possible." Gavin had, after she accepted the transfusion from Juvia, provided her with speech after speech that she could use on those people who came before her, but she liked none of them. Instead she used simpler ideas of growth and betterment.

Not everyone wanted to rule the world, whatever Gavin believed.

"Yes," Hibiki said. "I give myself to the Word."

"MINE." She spoke the solid script word with pride. She was beginning to see the idea of taking followers differently than Gavin did. He would see them as slaves. She believed they might be more like her Fairy Tail partners Jet and Droy. Subordinate. She led, but she also supported them, as they in turn supported her.

Using the Word just made the contract a little more formal. And permanent.

A feather drew itself on his cheek. He felt a rush of warmth enter his body. Satisfaction filled him. And pride. He had done something good. Was now a member of his most valued-

Hibiki's thoughts were of no use to her. She gave her attention to the rest of the group. Those strangers. None of them had much in the way of strength, but that meant she did not have to offer them much to bind them to her.

"SYMPATHY." The chain on her thigh glowed, and she wrapped the word around her people.

They gazed upon her face, reveling in the pulse of common thought and connection. She called to them in a voice that was inescapably moving. He wanted – and she asked – the bindings of that – she in her great – how could one-

Nineteen minds pushed in on her, so Levy let go of the words that filled them. She could read their stories at a later date. Gavin was growing impatient. She could feel it through the pulse of the maroon circle on her chest.

She now had a group of twenty people. Twenty to start. That was good, but it wasn't enough to satisfy Gavin-

Where, he wondered, could he find better-

-who wanted her legend to grow and grow and grow, and with it his own.

"Hibiki. You will stay with me. The rest of you will return to your home towns. You will write of the Word and the woman, the god known as Levy, who commands it. MISSION." Despite the complexity of the word and order, she did not cough. No blood speckled her mouth. She smiled.

She smiled and her brother did not fault her for it.

'Should have thanked Juvia,' Levy thought. But then she would have had to wake her up, and Gavin wouldn't have liked that.

"MISSION," she said, nineteen times in total. Feathers adorned nineteen more cheeks. "I will bless with gifts those who bring me words. The greater the word, the greater the gift."

All but Hibiki bowed. He walked to her, going on one knee to the left of her throne.

"BENCH." She spoke for him, a gift for future service, so that he would not injure his knee. A small gift, but-

- it was a gift from one he greatly revered. His heart swelled as he took his seat next to his god, filling in a-

"Gavin. Send them home."

Her brother made no reply as – one by one – her followers disappeared from her temple.

After they were gone, and she turned to address her new disciple, Gavin realized that she ordered his actions, and he had complied. That was not acceptable.

"Dove," he spoke to the back of her head. She did not turn; though, her tone was tame enough.

"Yes, Gavin."

"Decide on a plan of action. Who will your third transfusion be? I picked for the first two, but I believe that you now understand your place. You will chose the third, and I will judge your choice."

It irritated Gavin that she continued to face away from hi-

Levy discontinued her reading from her brother's story. There was nothing surprising there. It made sense that he was beginning to resent and fear her growth.

"I will consider candidates carefully and give you final say, as is only proper, brother." The runes on her throat tingled, but she felt it as pleasure. Good. She needed to keep him happy.

He was all she knew of love.


In their first two days together, Gavin had left her alone only to sleep. On the third, it seemed he was going to be more lax.

She would, he knew, stay within the confines of his temple. He had other concerns that needed addressing now that she was obedient. There were preparations to be made for the next-

And he was gone. He did not bother to tell her where he would be or when he would return.

Which opened a world of possibilities to a new god without a master.

The temple was quiet, with only her – and Hibiki, who was silent. Looking at the man, Levy smiled again. It was getting easier to do, and she found she enjoyed it. Cautiously, aware of Gavin's, Levy attached SYMPATHY as well as PROTECTION on the man. It was inevitable that she would displease Gavin again, and when she displeased him, she hurt. She did not like that. The possibility she was beginning to consider allowed that the pain could be shared, divided. By sharing, she could lessen the effects on herself.

She did not like being in pain.

She pondered over the tiny plan, which was in no way a rebellion, for several hours. Gavin returned in a blink, and seemed immensely pleased with whatever he had accomplished.

"Dove."

"Yes, Gavin."

"You need to rest, now. I will send you back to the house. Your servant will remain here. Tomorrow, you will tell me your choice for the third and final transfusion, and we will devise a miracle or two to spread the myth of the god Levy."

"Yes, Gavin."


He commanded she 'rest.' For Levy, she often 'rested' with a book in bed. There were books in her room, but she had read them all as a child, years ago. Reading one of those would be frustrating, not restful.

There were books in her Father's study. Gavin's study. Books about magic. Her magic. How they did what they did to her. Learning about herself seemed restful. Not having to worry about others, just studying her own self. Restful.

She wasn't defying Gavin. She repeated the thought over and over and over as her throat and chest tightened. Not defying. She was a god of Language. Words. She needed to know herself in order to follow Gavin's will. And it would help her relax. As Gavin commanded she do.

The tension in the beguilement charm and the maroon circle of dependence eased. The circle on her chest warmed until she felt pleasantly sleepy. Almost slow. But she was still interested in relaxing with a book or two. Or three. Or more.

She left her room to visit what would always be her father's domain. No matter what Gavin said, this was the place her father lived, away from the dungeon. And even she had some power in the dungeon. Power to hurt. Though, it was borrowed power, much like what she lived on now.

Oh.

That made sense. Father had been doing this to her, too. The dungeon wasn't just about stealing power from her brother's blood and pain, controlling her brother or Father controlling her, but also about her learning what it was to control.

And it was there, as a child, in that place that she learned how to own a small space of power, all her own, in the middle of a room designed to confine and control her.

Interesting.

The room was cold. Books lined the walls, but those she ignored. The ones on the desk and floor were the books Gavin focused on, so they were the books she went for first.

Each book was annotated. Extensively. Cross referenced in her father and brother's hand. Their script writing was almost identical. Sloppy, unlike her own, which was not only legible, but also beautiful. Which was good; a god of words should have handwriting superior to that of most others.

She went through three books – making use of the old glasses she found in the top desk drawer – before she found what it was she was looking for.

Long-term effects.

It did not make sense that Gavin, who so obviously desired control, domination, would put that control in the hands of another. (She did not think Gavin was wrong, she only wanted to help Gavin. She was not disobeying Gavin. She was not rebelling by asking questions...) Even if he was pulling the strings of that other. The hand on his throat gave him some amount of her godhood, but it was still her voice and her power that were needed to make it all possible.

She was the one being called 'god.'

A prideful man – and Gavin was certainly a prideful man (a prideful man that she loved very much) – would not be able to keep the status quo for long. He would need life to turn further in his favor. Thus, there had to be a trick somewhere in this ritual.

The phrasing of the effects of power theft through blood transfusion was complex, and not exactly easy to translate into a simple list. As best she could tell, Gavin was doing the process properly:

Three transfusions were recommended, four if the donors or receivers were especially weak, spread out over seven days. The closer the donor was in blood and power, the safer the procedure would be. But, of course, since the goal of the spell was usually to expand power, similar or equal magics were rarely the case.

If the blood and power were different, the spell became dangerous. As was only logical, the greater the difference, the greater the danger. To the point of being fatal. The clearest statement was that the long-term effect was death. And by 'long-term,' the book seemed to mean 'really, really quickly.' 'Long' only in the fact that it was an effect that came at the end of life... that effect BEING the end of life.

Within two months of the first transfusion.


Author's Note: Soooo … who else MAD fangirled over the last manga chapter? Cuz I probably woke my neighbors screaming when the page loaded. My cats probably thought I was losing my mind. Y'all who are just doing the anime. Missin' out. SOOO much.

SPOILERS:

Not JUST a Gajeel fights chapter, not JUST a Levy and Gajeel chapter, but a chapter in which LEVY is the savior and GAJEEL is our damsel in distress character. Good googly. I might print it out and hang it on my wall.

END SPOILERS.