A/N - Sorry for the delay! Had some writer's block issues with Tempus Fugit, but those have been mostly hammered out, so we're going full speed ahead! Not a whole lot to say beforehand, though there will be quite a bit to say afterwards! In the meantime, thank you to Derpulies and animexxfreakxx for the reviews!
Derpulies: Oh, yeah, I've been following your work since the early days! And I totally feel your pain about manga revelations necessitating rewrites, ohmigosh. That's one of the big concerns with writing a fic for a story that's not done; with my luck, some magic will come across that will render the Constructions or any of my other magic types completely moot and everything I have planned. I guess I got lucky in that regard with Soul Eater in that I started writing Tempus Fugit loooong after the anime ended. Anyways, I'm really glad you like the story, and I hope you enjoy what's to come!
animexxfreakxx: Well, it wouldn't be as interesting if Brandy just sort of followed along with the canon adventures and didn't contribute to the story or have her own adventures, would it? After all, if the reviews for Tempus Fugit have told me anything, it's that people like my fics most when they're fleshing out the world in their own way. But yes, I have loads of Skin Deep-specific story planned. Triad's Foresight isn't there just for set dressing.
DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the intellectual property of Hiro Mashima. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time.
Chapter Eight - Beyond the Doors
"Watch your step."
"That's the fifth time you've told me that in the past twelve minutes. I'm fine, Master Torhearth, just please keep leading me. I need to focus."
"Right. Sorry."
Working with the Twin Scouting Ravens was always a complicated task. She wasn't seeing through her eyes, but through the eyes of both ravens, which meant she was seeing both what Huginn was seeing and what Muninn was seeing ten feet away. As if having to process images from two different angles at once wasn't disorienting enough, she could still hear and feel what was going around her body to a limited extent. It was enough to cause complete sensory overload if she wasn't carefully, and was why she was relying so much on Emmett to keep her steady.
"So where are you?" Emmett asked, his voice quiet.
"Two or three rooms ahead, I think. There's a pressure plate not too far ahead, so keep an eye out for that. It covers about half the floor, so we'll have to go along the walls."
"You've been making sure to keep an eye on the entire room, right? I don't want to trigger something on the walls."
Brandy nodded her head. At least, she thought she did; it was hard to tell, with her senses spliced like this. "I've got Muninn on floor-sweeping duty while Huginn checks the walls. I haven't seen any false bricks or anything like that. Do you see the pressure plate yet?"
"Yeah. Come on, this way." The pressure on her shoulders shifted as Emmett led her towards the wall. She reached out and felt around until she felt the cold stone underneath her fingers and used that to help guide her forward as Huginn and Muninn moved to the next room. "There's nothing in the next room, not even a cobweb. It's weird; this pressure plate is the only trap I've seen in this entire place. Why wouldn't there be- Aaaaugh!"
"What? What is it?" She could hear Emmett's panicked voice in her ear, but she couldn't respond; it was all she could do to not scream in pain again.
Something was wrong. The energy in the room that Huginn and Muninn was in had changed, turning into a powerful tug that drew the Construct towards the ground; or, rather, where the ground should have been. Brandy managed to force Muninn's head to turn to face the floor, and she saw a huge gorge split the room in two, sinking into an unfathomable blackness that the Construct was being further dragged into. No matter how hard she willed it, the Twin Scouting Ravens couldn't fly away from the pull. They, along with her, were being pulled into the darkness.
Through her pain, Brandy managed to gasp out, "Huginn and Muninn! Return!" Her head swam as her vision suddenly snapped back to her body, and she staggered forward. Emmett caught her, helping her steady herself as two stream of ink came rushing in through the far door, underneath her cloak, and back into her shoulders. "Magic Concealment Ink: Activate," she panted, leaning against the wall for support. "Damn it…"
"What happened?" Emmett asked. His brows were furrowed together, and his brown eyes were dark with concern.
"There was some sort of… gorge? canyon? It was in the room after the next. There was something strange about it; it radiated this weird energy that dragged down the ravens, they couldn't fly away. I'm surprised I managed to get them back at all." She slid to the floor, drawing one of her knees up and resting her forehead against it. "I guess we figured out why there aren't more traps."
"Because they don't need another trap," Emmett finished. "It might be some sort of old gravity-based magic. The wizards of old were incredibly powerful; they'd have to be, to build this place." He ran a hand over his tanned face, letting out a frustrated groan before slamming his fist into the wall. "Damn it. All the soldiers in the world wouldn't be able to deal with something like that. I think I would have preferred traps over this."
"Yeah," Brandy winced. "Me too. I don't think the Eagle will be able to fly us over that; it'll just get pulled in, same as the Ravens. Though, maybe…" She frowned as an idea came to mind. It wasn't the best plan, but it was all she had to offer, and they needed to cross that gorge.
Emmett looked down at her. "What?"
"If we can't fly over the gorge," Brandy suggested, "maybe we could build our way over. You know how resilient Frigga's webs are. I could use it to weave us a pathway across and then reinforce it with my own Solid Ink. It wouldn't hold forever, but it would give us a chance."
Emmett seemed to consider this, his expression dark with reluctance. "Not that I don't trust your magic, kiddo," he said eventually, "but if whatever magic is powering the gorge is strong enough where you almost lost the Ravens forever - which, need I remind you, would have cost you access to the rest of your Constructions as well - do you really want to risk it?"
"Do you have a better idea?" Brandy challenged.
Emmett hesitated. "No," he admitted. "All right. This mission was supposed to be a test of your skills as a Construction wizard. Let's see how strong you've gotten."
The two Construction wizards maneuvered around the large pressure plate in the middle of the room and quickly progressed forward, moving into the next room. As they drew closes to the room with the gorge in it, Brandy could feel the tugging sensation again, faint but still there, slowing her movements to where every step felt like a struggle through molasses. Whatever sort of magic this is, she thought, it's old, probably as old as these ruins themselves. And powerful. I hope Frigga's webs will be able to withstand it long enough for us to cross. Once again, she couldn't help but feel a small sting of resentment for her mother for not using her talents to provide direct assistance. What, you'll warn me about an obviously-skeevy jerk, but not about the extremely powerful magic that could actually kill me? Real nice priorities, Mom.
They entered the room with the gorge, and now that she could see it with her own two eyes as opposed to the eyes of Huginn and Muninn, she could see just how impressive it was. It was a remarkably clean slice through the earth, untouched by time; Brandy figured that if she somehow had the power to push the two sides of the gorge together, they would fit against each other perfectly like pieces in a puzzle. It was also endlessly dark; the sides of the gorge dropped into pitch blackness far sooner than they should have, leaving what looked like pure voice in its place. The tugging sensation was stronger than ever, and she had to dig the heels of her boots into the ground to keep herself from sliding towards the gaping maw. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Emmett gritting his teeth against the force of the gravity magic. "That's… really strong, okay," he managed to gasp. "Are you sure Frigga will be able to hold up? Remember, if you lose one of your Constructions in that hole…"
"I know," Brandy said. She could only call forth one Construction at a time, and she had to return one to its original state before she could call another. If Frigga fell into the gorge, retrieving it would surely be impossible, meaning that she wouldn't be able to return it to her skin and, subsequently, wouldn't be able to call forth any of her other Constructions. She was gambling her primary magic on this one plan.
It better work.
Pulling her overcloak aside, she lay her hand against the bare skin of her left thigh, concentrating her magical energy. "Magic Concealment Ink: Dispel." An elaborate tattoo of a spider began to appear on her thigh, its spindly legs standing out against her dark skin.
Before she could actually call the Construction forth, however, Emmett held up a hand to stop her. "Wait a minute," he said. "Let me do something first." He slowly knelt down, still fighting against the pull of the gravity magic, and placed his hand against the cold, smooth stone of the ground, and a gray magic circle sprung up around his fingertips. "Construction Focus: Stone Soldiers!" He called. "Come forth, Stone Infantrymen!"
The room rumbled as Emmett's magic spread throughout it, and one by one, stone soldiers bearing swords and shields began to rise from the floor, four on each side of the gorge. This was the full extent of Emmett's powers as the Stone General of Fairy Tail, and even after knowing him for so many years, it never failed to impress Brandy. While she (and most other Construction wizards) could only summon one blueprint at a time and only one Construction pre blueprint, Emmett was bound by no such restrictions, able to create as many copies of as many Constructions as he needed for any given situation. Most people were shocked to learn this about him; "This guy is that powerful of a Construction wizard?" they would stay with jaws dropped and eyes wide. "But he looks so ordinary!"
And he did. But he was also a former member of Triad's Foresight, and Triad's Foresight was very discriminate about the sort of wizards they allowed in their ranks.
The eight Infantrymen settled into being and dropped to one knee in unison, driving their stone swords into the ground in order to anchor themselves against the magic of the gorge. "There," Emmett panted. "Use those as anchors for the bridge."
Brandy nodded, her expression settling into a hard mask of determination as she called her magic forth once more. A black magic circle sprung to life at her thigh, and she cried out, "Construction Focus: Ink Tattoos! Come forth, Frigga the Weaving Spider!"
The ink burst from her skin and took shape as it hit the ground. With sharp yellow splotches lining its abdomen and a set of eight deep orange-red legs, Frigga had the appearance of your typical orb-weaver spider, if orb-weavers were the size of large dogs . It chirped and clicked its mandibles in alarm as the force of the gravity magic hit it and it began to slide across the ground towards the gorge. Brandy reached out and grabbed it, clinging to its abdomen in an attempt to keep from losing it forever. "Frigga!" she shouted. "I need you to weave a bridge over that gorge for us! Use those soldiers as an anchor!"
Frigga chittered in understanding and got to work. Shifting around as best it could to get a good vantage point without slipping out of Brandy's grip, it opened its mandibles wide and spat out a steady stream of thick, webby black ink. Not technically biologically accurate, Brandy mused, but thirteen-year-old me didn't know that when she made the blueprint. Frigga was one of her most reliable Constructions, because what she lacked in firepower she made up in versatility. Frigga's special talent was to use a type of ink-like webbing that instantly hardened in a manner similar to Brandy's own Solid Ink to build simple structures that could either be a help to her or a hindrance to her enemies. Plus there was the intimidation factor; giant spiders were scary, even if they couldn't actually do any sort of harm.
After a few minutes (there were several instances in which the webbing fell into the gorge before being finished), the bridge was finished, a thickly-woven net of solidified ink that stretched across the gorge, tethered by webby ink-ropes secured to each of Emmett's Infantrymen. "It's holding," Brandy said, letting out a sigh.
"Maybe," Emmett muttered. "I don't like the way it's sagging near the middle."
"It'll be fine. Frigga, return." Frigga melted into ink and disappeared back into Brandy's thigh, and relief crashed into her like a tidal wave. Her magic was safe, for now. "Magic Concealment Ink: Activate." Brandy pushed forward towards the makeshift bridge, beckoning for Emmett to follow her. He did, albeit a little more reluctantly. As the two wizards reached the bridge, the pull of the Gravity magic grew stronger and stronger, until even standing became a struggle. Brandy's skin became to itch at the sensation, a familiar sense of disquiet growing at the back of her mind. "We'd better hurry across," she muttered. "Something might happen if we don't get away from this magic quickly." Emmett caught onto the implications of her words and nodded, and the two of them stepped out onto the bridge.
The webbing bowed and swayed underneath their weight. Brandy wobbled back and forth, struggling to keep steady and upright as she took a few hesitant steps forward. Crossing a bridge made by Frigga was generally an easy enough task, but with the gravity magic pulling everything down, she had no idea which steps would keep her safe and which ones would tear the whole thing apart. Emmett, who was both larger and heavier than her and thus more affected by the gravity magic, had an even tougher time, each step he took being slow and measured. Every inch close to the center of the gorge led to them both feeling heavier and heavier; by the time they reached the midway point, Brandy could hardly breathe. This has to be the point where the magic's effect is strongest, she thought, wheezing. It can't possibly get any worse than this.
Despite his weight, it was Emmett who reached the other side first. Guess the height advantage he had also meant his steps were longer as well. He took the last step and practically collapsed against one of the Infantrymen, clinging to its stone form as an anchor. Brandy was almost there, as well. Just a few more steps. She pushed forward, ignoring the way her skin crawled underneath the weight of the spell trying to drag her down. Just a couple more. Her boot came down on the webbing. Just one more…
Rrrrip.
Brandy felt herself lurch as the webbing below her gave way underneath her. She had barely more than an instant to process what had happened before she began to fall, and as the reality of her predicament hit her, her heart all but stopped. She reached out as the darkness began to rise up around her and she dropped down. But it was too late, she couldn't reach the ledge in time, she was falling, and who knew how long it would take before she reached the bottom, if there even was a bottom, maybe there wasn't, maybe she would be falling forever, until she starved or dehydrated or killed by something even worse lurking within the unfathomable depths-
"I got you!"
"I got you!"
Ten-year-old Brandleif flinched and drew further in on herself as a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her sobbing form, pulling her against her teacher's chest. "I got you, sweetie, you're safe," Emmett whispered into her ear as he rocked her back and forth in an attempt to sooth her.
"No, I'm not!" Brandleif cried, shaking her head furiously. "It's not gone, it's still here, it's going to come back! Mister Torhearth, I'm scared."
"I know, Brandleif, I know," Emmett assured her. "But you're going to be okay, we're going to make sure you're okay."
"How do you know that?!"
"Brandleif." Emmett took a hold of her small shoulders and turned her to face him. His expression was soft, his lips tilted upwards into a gentle smile. "I promise you, I'm not gonna let you get hurt again, okay? And neither is your mother. We'll take care of this, I promise. I got you."
A calloused hand wrapped around her wrist, halting her fall before it even really started. Jolted out of her state of shock, Brandy looked up with wide yellow eyes to see Emmett above her, holding onto her for dear life. The Infantryman he had been clinging to earlier was now clinging onto him, its arms wrapped tightly around his waist as he leaned into the abyss. He's using his soldier to keep himself from falling after me?
"Now!" Emmett shouted, and the Infantry got to its feet and began to back up, pulling Emmett and by extension Brandy out and away from the gorge. Feeling her feet touch the ground again felt like the life had returned to her body. Her knees grew weak, and Brandy wobbled as Emmett let go of her hand and pried himself from the arms of the Infantryman anchoring him. "Thank you," he told the soldier. "Stone Infantrymen: Return." As his Constructions melted back into the ground, he turned back to face her. "That was a close one. Are you oka-ooof!"
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before Brandy barreled into him, throwing her arms around his chest with a strangled sob. Her hands her shaking wildly; scratch that, her entire body was shaking. It was a wonder that she can't collapsed completely. "Whoa, hey there," Emmett said softly, stroking her dark hair. "It's okay, kiddo, I'm here, I got you. I told you, I'm not going to leave you to fend for yourself."
"Yeah." Brandy's words were muffled by the cotton of Emmett's shirt. "Yeah, I guess you did say that." She pulled away, sniffling and wiping her eyes. "Sorry, I just… I guess I sort of got a bit freaked out there."
"I'd be more concerned if you weren't a little freaked out, after what just happened," Emmett quipped. He looked at the gorge. "I guess the magic was directed further out towards the entrance. The magic isn't as strong on this side." He was right; the tugging sensation was still there, but it was greatly diminished. "Still, I hope that there's a back door someone around here. I don't care how secure Frigga's webs are, we're not doing that again."
"I won't fight you on that," Brandy muttered, scratching at her arm underneath her cloak. "I feel like my skin's going to start falling off if we don't get out of this room and onto the next one."
Emmett nodded before turning to face the gaping maw of a doorway that lay ahead of them. "You weren't able to see into the next room with the Ravens before the gravity magic started kicking it, were you?" he said.
Brandy shook her head. "Nope. After this, we're going in blind."
"Well, I guess it's better than sticking around here," Emmett sighed. "Come on." He began to stride towards the door, and after a brief moment to steel herself and stop the shaking of her hands, Brandy followed suit.
"Well. This is… something different."
There had been a couple more rooms past the gorge, and all of them had been consistently empty. Brandy was starting to wonder who would make a building this grand and not even put things in it. Sure, the Triad's Foresight guild hall was needlessly opulent, but at least there was, you know, actual furniture in that. This was just… emptiness.
At least, except for the final room. Unlike the past rooms, which had all been relatively rectangular and similarly-sized, this one was a round, completely massive amphitheater, with benches filling the room and circling a single tall pedestal raised in the center. From up above, a beam of light shone down upon the pedestal from a strange, luminescent crystal, lighting the room with an eerie glow. A strange, cold aura filled the room, not unlike the sensation they experienced first entering the ruins. "What do you think this was used for?"
"Dunno," Emmett muttered. "Maybe someone wanted to show off? Keep on your guard; I don't like the feel of this room."
"Right." Brandy drew some ink forth from one of her pouches and shaped it into her Solid Ink halberd, holding it close to her body as they moved forward. "I don't see anything in here. Maybe it's empt-"
An indistinct form shot past the two wizards, so fast it was little more than a blur. "Crap!" Brandy yelped, brandishing the halberd in the direction the blur had gone. "What was that?!"
The form rushed by again, so close that Brandy felt her hair ruffle against her chin. It sped to the pedestal before stopping underneath the makeshift spotlight caused by the crystal, and she managed to get a look at it. It was a strange tapir-like creature about the size of a large cat that floated in the air, with clawed, tiger-like paws and a short tail with long, flowing fur. Its face was twisted into a bizarre mockery of a grin, and each breath it took resulted in a puff of strange white gas billowing from its long snout. "It's a Baku," Emmett muttered. "Don't breath that gas; if you do, it'll be able to invade your mind."
And given Brandy's circumstances, that was the last thing she wanted to happen.
The Baku giggled and danced through the air, spinning in circles around the pedestal before turning its attention back on them and charging through the air again. Brandy managed to raise her halberd in time, blocking it and sending it spinning away. Shaking its head as if to say "ouch, that really hurt!" it pouted at her and charged again, this time aiming for Emmett. Covering his mouth and nose with one hand, he ducked down just as the Baku soared past him, slamming his other hand into the floor. "Construction Focus: Stone Soldiers! Come forth, Stone Archer!" A stone soldier armed with a bow and quiver full of arrows sprung from the ground and immediately took aim at the Baku, letting the arrow split the air as if it were made of wood and feathers and not pure stone. The Baku dodged it and slipped into the darkness beyond the light of the crystal with a manic giggle. "Damn it!" Emmett muttered.
"I'll call the Ravens back!" Brandy declared, banishing her halberd back to her pouches and reaching for her shoulders. "They'll be able to spot it and drive it out."
"No!" Emmett said. "I don't want your attention split right now. If you're focused on looking through the Ravens, you won't be able to avoid its breath if it sneaks up on you."
Brandy hesitated. "Yeah," she said, with a reluctant nod of her head. "You're right. We'll have to draw it out the old-fashioned way, then."
As it turned out, they didn't need to draw it out at all. A faint giggle from behind her caught Brandy's attention, and she turned around to see the Baku shoot up from the ground, grazing her face as it passed by her and leaving behind another white cloud as it did. Brandy couldn't help but let out a gasp of surprise as it shot past, and ended up inhaling a deep breath of the gas. It tasted off, like a cloud of chalk dust that cloud to her throat and caused her to double over in a coughing fit.
"Wait!" Emmett's voice was laced with panic. "Brandleif, don't-"
Whatever he was about to say, it was too late. Agony split through Brandy's head like a lance, driving her to her knees with an anguished scream. A few flashes filled her mind, nondescript images against white-hot pain, and amongst it all was a faint giggling as her thoughts grew blurrier and blurrier. She couldn't even feel the ground beneath her anymore.
Before her mind could be completely overwhelmed however, there was another sensation, an all-too-familiar voice piping up from the darkest recesses of her subconscious. A single word was spoken.
No.
A/N - And here we meet the third out of Brandy's tattoos, Frigga the Weaving Spider. Out of all six of her tattoos, Frigga is the only one where the link between name and form aren't immediately obvious. I wanted to keep a Norse theme, but I also wanted to have a spider, and there aren't a whole lot of spiders in Norse mythology. I stumbled across a painting by John Charles Dollman entitled "Frigga Spinning the Clouds," and the association with spinning/weaving and spiders was enough for me.
Flashbacks are going to be a pretty significant part of this story, as a lot of Brandy's character development comes from her relationship with her mom, her dynamic with Emmett, and whatever it was that happened that got her sent to Fairy Tail in the first place. The one we got in this chapter was just a glimpse of what was to come. And yeah, Emmett is basically Team Dad of this story. Like I mentioned before, not a dynamic I get to write a lot, so I'm excited.
Would you believe I most all of this arc figured out before I decided what sort of creature was in the ruin to begin with and why? Yeah. Me, master of outlines, not properly outlining a subplot. Of course, this subplot came about on shorter notice than the rest of the story, so it stands to reason a little bit. The Baku in this is actually a little bit different from a mythological baku, which will become more apparent in the next chapter. So, after the arc is over, do a bit of googling if you want to see where the similarities begin and end. (Also, in case the Baku sounds like a Musharna from Pokemon, that's because Musharnas were also based off of the baku from Japanese mythology. The more you know~)
This arc is gonna be a bit longer than I originally planned, but should still end next chapter if all goes well. Either way, Chapter Nine will be out shortly; in the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!
-Diana "Nocte"
