Chapter 9
The Dragon Queen
"...no, that's impossible. The former queen died with the child," Millianna said, keeping her team mate behind her. "Everyone knows that, the king said it himself."
By now, the Rune Knights and the rest of the Royal Guard had gotten back on their feet, awaiting orders. Millianna, along with Rogue, stood before them, acting as the barrier between them and Glacia. Sting, on the other hand, was on standby next to the "princess", Frosch, and Vóreia.
"So he did...when news came that the city where the late queen had been residing was destroyed...by Acnologia himself," Arcadios said with a dark expression.
Hearing the name of the black dragon, Glacia's hands balled up into fists, trying to keep them from shaking.
"So Acnologia destroyed an entire city, but what proof do you have that makes her the princess?" Rogue asked, eyes narrowed.
"Blood."
From the Rune Knights, a man walked past Lahar holding a file. "Remember me?" the medical officer asked, a question directed at Glacia.
Realization finally dawned on her, just this morning she had given her blood for examination. "That blood test..." she murmured. The mages in front of her turned around.
"Glacia," Millianna said slowly. "What happened when you were taken by the Rune Knights?"
So that's where she was, Rogue thought, thinking back to this morning.
Glacia pulled on her arm, looking away. "I used to be part of Imperial Snow, the guild that tore itself apart from the inside out. Everyone who was—or used to be—part of the guild was taken in for questioning when they were found. I was asked if I knew what became of the darker half of Imperial Snow, and I was free to go."
"But..." Her hand balled up again. "Just as I was leaving, the medical officer said they could make a cure for—well, this," she said, indicating her frozen state.
"And they needed your blood for that." Millianna turned back to the medical officer. "Were you lying back then?"
The officer held up his hands. "What I said was true. I was trying to develop a possible cure, but just as I had the results for her blood type, the King of Fiore appeared before me."
"What does that have to do with any of this?" she asked furiously.
"The king said that he hadn't been feeling well, but it wasn't the sort of sickness that simply latched on to someone," the doctor said, ignoring the cat-themed mage. "So I had to withdraw some blood to know what the problem was."
"I had the results, and just as I was about to prescribe a treatment for his anemia, I stopped. I had placed the king's results next to hers, and their blood was the same." The medical officer stopped, seeing the expressions on their faces.
"And then you tested their blood?" Vóreia prompted.
"And it was a perfect match," the officer said.
"Even if the blood matched, she wouldn't have been legit," Millianna said. "The king divorced the former queen before his child was ever born. That's what the entire kingdom was told. "
"'Till death do you part.'" Arcadios took center stage again. "Aren't those words just wonderful? The king never divorced the former queen. Her late majesty died before the divorce could ever take place, thus binding their marriage for all eternity."
A small thud sounded behind Millianna, and she knew that Glacia had fallen to her knees, unwilling to accept the truth.
Arcadios shook his head. "I suppose you wish to hear the entire story?"
"Years ago, the king had married the daughter of a lord's family. A shining jewel, he once said—"
"No need for flattery," Sting snorted.
"And then they concieved a child," Arcadios continued. "And all was well...until the day he learned he had married a mage."
"Generations of royal blood, suddenly tainted by magic," he said. "At once, the king had tried to divorce, even abort the child—"
The last part caused a chain reaction among the mages. Millianna's tubes spun around her wrists, Rogue had a hand waiting on his katana, even Sting scowled, wondering why they had such a thing.
"But it was already too late," Arcadios finished. "So the king decided to wait it out, just until the child was born. And her late majesty decided to stay in the city where she was born."
"But there were complications." The Cherry Blossom Holy Knight Squadron Chief glanced beyond the barrier of mages.
"Acnologia," Rogue said monotonously.
Arcadios nodded. "The military was dispatched to find any survivors, but all they ever found was blood, ruin, and death. And the late queen's body rested in a collapsed structure, crushed by the rubble."
"After her majesty's funeral, the king was devastated. It then became his sole desire to see Acnologia destroyed."
"So you see," Arcadios spread his hand. "The girl behind you is none other than her royal highness, Glacia Patin Laviné, Princess of Fiore. And I'm afraid his majesty wishes to see his daughter."
On shaking limbs, Glacia stood on her feet. "And if I refuse?"
Arcadios's face darkened. "Miss...the entire Royal Guard has been assembled here. Take note that if you or anyone else here attempts to aid you in resisting, we have the full might of the Rune Knights at our command."
The entire world could've stopped there. Before Glacia could make a choice, Sting had done something unexpected.
He laughed.
Rogue cast a sharp look at the blond Dragon Slayer, but to no avail. Sting pulled out of his state, a smirk crossing his face.
"So let me get this straight," Sting sneered, glancing from the knights and enforcers to Arcadios. "It takes the entire Royal Guard, and Rune Knights, just to get one princess? Doesn't that say something about our country's military strength?"
"When his majesty sets his sights on something, he will do whatever it takes to get it," Arcadios said, making a hand motion to the enforcers. "And meeting his daughter happens to be his priority."
The Royal Guard took an offensive position.
"And have you asked the princess what she wanted? If she even wanted to meet her so-called father?"
Arcadios opened his mouth—
"He's right."
All eyes converged on the spot where Glacia stood. Whatever fear she had before was replaced by confidence.
"Y-your highness?"
"So it may be the king's orders, but he never told you when it had to be carried out, did he?" Glacia questioned.
"Well—"
"I will not leave tonight, not when everyone here is sleeping."
Regaining his composure, Arcadios bowed his head. "Tomorrow, then. By noon, the Royal Guard will escort you to Mercurius."
The horses departed the street, followed by the Rune Knights shortly.
Sting let out a breath. "Thank goodness they weren't here to arrest me."
"They might as well have arrested me," Glacia murmured, walking back towards the hotel. Before she ever reached the door, the manager ran out, pale-faced.
"Is it true?" he asked, catching his breath. "That you're...the princess?"
Vóreia and Frosch looked at each other, the former shaking her head. Hesitantly, the young girl nodded.
The manager bent down to one knee. "Your highness, it is an honor to meet someone so humble!"
Unable to sleep, Rogue turned over, now realizing what was missing: Frosch.
He sat up, scanning the room for his Exceed when he saw Sting in the same position, staring out the window, his back to Rogue.
Just as his feet touched the floor, his partner spoke up. "You, too?"
"I'm going to find Frosch," Rogue said, putting on one of his armored boots.
"Find Lector for me?"
Denial. One of the hardest phases when you were traumatized. And of all the people it had to hit, it was Sting.
"He's not coming back, Sting."
"He will. He's just trying to find us right now." Within the frame of the window, Mercurius could be seen. They were on the fourth floor. "Remember that castle we found in Iceberg?"
"The ice castle?" Now it sounded like Sting was spewing random thoughts running through his mind.
"Lector said he wanted to go back there again."
Night had spread its cape across the sky.
A fine veil of mist hovered in the mountain air. However, due to its density, it could easily be mistaken as fog.
A soft melody echoed throughout the peak, a haunting tune that beckoned anyone towards it.
If one were brave enough to walk through that fog—without the fear of suddenly finding themselves walking off of a cliff, then they would have found where the tune had resonated.
Just beyond the fog, a large castle could be seen. But it was no ordinary castle.
It was a beautiful castle made of ice, built with Gothic architectural design, set with a wall surrounding it and towers at the corners. Just beyond the wall's entrance, a vast ice-covered courtyard could be seen, with the exception of a small, wooden cabin that gave off the aura of having been abandoned.
From there, three entrances into the castle could be seen. One in the northern direction, another to the left, and the final one to the right. North, east, and west. The southern entrance led back outside.
The singing resumed, this time from the north. After going through a long hallway, the throne room was visible.
A large room that could have served as a ballroom, delicately carved steps made of ice with a landing that appeared to have been made for a giant creature, and ice statues lining the walls. A wall length ice mirror could be seen on the wall of the landing, reflecting the images of the occupants in the room.
An ice-blue dragon with a white abdomen continued sewing her shedded scales together, singing that low melody as her project took shape.
A small human toddler stood at the foot of the steps in front of a salvaged canvas, painting a picture of an aurora at night. Or at least tried to.
Lightning crashed outside the walls of the castle, causing the small human to drop her paint brush and hide under a blanket, shivering in fear.
The dragon laughed, bending down to bring herself close to the blanket before lifting it up with one claw. "It's just lightning, little one."
"B-but it's so loud," the human child mumbled.
"Is this how a princess hides from everything that scares her?"
The toddler scowled, lifting herself off the ground to face her foster parent.
"I'm not a princess! I...am...a...DRAGON!" she yelled up to her dragon parent.
The dragon merely chuckled. "That's right. You're a dragon." Though the blood of her race said otherwise. She tied off the project as the last scale had been sewed on, snipping the whisker with her claw.
Before the child could ask what she was doing, the dragon had spread the sewn scales over the girl's shoulders.
It was a beautiful light blue cloak, complete with a hood and fastenings at the neck, made from her shedded dragon scales and the whiskers that kept the project from ever falling apart. Although the scales were stronger than diamonds, the cloak felt impossibly thin, almost fluid.
"It's perfect!" The child said, spinning around, the cloak swirling behind her.
For once in her entire life, the Ice Dragon Arcticana grinned. Not the cruel smirk she showed to her enemies before she killed them, but a genuine grin filled with humor.
The cloak was too big for her.
Knowing that her daughter would outgrow a cloak made for her tiny size quickly, the dragon had planned ahead, making it so that it would fit her well into the human child's adult years.
"Happy birthday, Glacia," Arcticana said.
The child, Glacia, stopped and stared at her foster mother in surprise. "You remembered!"
Glacia sat in the lounge on their floor. More like she stood outside on the balcony, a door away from the warmth of the hotel.
Did she already know who I was? She thought, feeling the evening wind blow her hair. Is that why I grew up in a castle?
Glacia shook her head. No...her castle was there even before I was born...but still...
"Mermaid-san?"
"...you should be asleep, Frosch," she said.
The froggy Exceed set himself on the balcony next to her arms. "Fro couldn't sleep. "
"At least you can sleep."
"...Fro doesn't understand."
"And you don't have to," Glacia mumbled, burying her head in her arms.
"Fro wants to know why Mermaid-san looks like a kid."
"It's best if you don't know."
Taking one last look at her, Frosch flew back inside.
The moon shined down on the city, bathing it in its silvery light. Mercurius could be seen from where she stood, looming ominously.
Wings flapped next to her. "Can't sleep?"
"You know I don't sleep, Vóreia."
"You took the news well. Even when the man said the king tried to abort you."
"...I'd be lying if I said that didn't make me cry."
"You didn't shed a tear though," Vóreia pointed out.
"..."
"...you can't cry either?"
"...I'm not heartless...it's just...no matter how much pain I go through...or how sad—or angry—the tears never come out." She hung her head. "I guess it means...I lost my humanity a long time ago."
Vóreia flew away, but as she prepared to go back inside, something stopped her.
"Glacia?"
"Hmm?"
"Didn't you say once that you never intended to find out who your real parents were?"
"...I didn't lie..." Glacia murmured behind her. "...Back then, I meant it."
Silence was her only answer.
She already went back in, huh?
"How much did you hear?" she said out loud.
"...every word," came the answer. "And you need to come up with better answers. "
Glacia bowed her head, looking down on the street below as the Shadow Dragon Slayer stood next to her on the balcony.
"You should be sleeping."
"Unfortunately, I don't sleep."
"And you don't cry either."
"The Ice Dragon never cries."
"But you try to."
An awkward silence passed between the Dragon Slayers. Neither of the two said anymore, but Rogue knew he had hit the nail head-on.
"...as soon as I learned how to walk...all I ever remembered was a dragon that was relentless in raising me into a weapon instead of a person..." Glacia mumbled.
"Aren't you exaggerating?"
She shook her head. "She was cold-hearted...but then, if she really was..."
"She would have eaten you, wouldn't she?" Rogue finished.
Her small hand balled up into a fist. "...I..." Her voice betrayed her heart, threatening to break with it. "...I hated her...and she hated me...we couldn't stand to be in the same area together...but then...after that night..."
Her entire body shook as she remembered waking up that fateful day, unable to find her foster mother in their castle. She remembered calling for her, running through the east and west wing where the skeletons of her prey lied.
I wanted...to say sorry...
She remembered tripping as she ran out in the courtyard, trying to cry but unable to. Back then, it was painful even to cry.
All I ever wanted was to apologize to her...
Something warm brushed her cheek. A second later, Glacia saw one of Rogue's hands pulling away...with water on the surface of it.
Water?...no, tears... Glacia rubbed her eyes, a small river flowing from one eye.
"Even a person like you has a reason to cry," he said, almost inaudible if not for their enhanced senses. "If you can feel remorse...or even regret...and even cry as a result of it...then I assure you, you're just as human as the rest of the people in this city."
Smirking, a tall figure walked away from the lounge, retreating to his room.
"Rogue..." The door to the room closed, footsteps could only be heard. "There were plenty of other fish in the sea..."
The green eyes of Sting Eucliffe glowed in the darkness of the room, holding amusement. "But how the hell did you catch a mermaid?"
The moon shown its light down on the summit of the snowy mountain. Large, reptilian blue eyes could be seen glowing in the darkness of the cave.
Finally, they found what they were looking for...but it was not what the dragon expected. A young man was holding her foster daughter close to him...and her daughter was crying.
The dragon growled dangerously. "Disgusting," she hissed, pounding one of her arms down on the cave floor.
On that mountain, a glacier broke off and tumbled into the frozen lake, shattering the ice that covered it.
"I raised you better than that, Glacia," Arcticana spat.
The wind had blown through the mountains, carrying its cold breeze across the sky.
"...show yourself," she said, narrowing her eyes.
Whatever she had sensed, it laughed. "I would if I had a body."
"And you are?"
A small light floated across the night and appeared in front of Arcticana. "Call me Zealconis, the Emerald Dragon."
"...leave this place. You've already outlived your time."
"Has your resentment to Skiadrum's choice grown to the point where you won't even allow either of your children to be together?"
A snarl broke through the air, causing another glacier to slide off of the mountain. "What do you know? What makes you think you know of us?! You're just a soul! You're dead!"
"I am a soul that remained for centuries, unable to rest," the voice of Zealconis said. "And I know more of what happened between you and Skiadrum than you think. "
"I suggest you rest now," Arcticana spat. "Before you regret not having entered heaven earlier."
"What can you do? As you said, I'm a soul."
"You have an ulterior motive for coming here."
"That child of yours...you do realize what will happen to her...yet you chose to do nothing...you ran away..."
Arcticana's eyes narrowed, glinting dangerously. "Leave."
"Is it also for that reason that you won't allow them to be together?"
Silence filled the cold mountain air between them. The soul of Zealconis had hit the nail dead on.
"It's already too late now, isn't it?" Zealconis floated over to the southern edge of the mountain. "They've already realized it...but they refuse to accept it...after the Dragon King Festival...after Acnologia claims his queen...Glacia will no longer be able to recognize her friends."
"Leave now! Move on, enter Nirvana, whatever souls do!" Crystalline claws scraped the icy floor, destroying it in the process.
"I won't leave that easily." The ball of light floated away from her, soaring through the sky. "I look forward to our next meeting, Arcticana, the Ice Dragon...consort of Skiadrum the Shadow Dragon."
"BEGONE!"
I'll say this for the last time...and this counts for all future chapters: I do not own Fairy Tail.
I wanted to fit Zealconis into this somehow...and I had originally thought of Grandine talking to Arcticana...so a few edits here, and then it was done. Also had to edit parts of chapter six and chapter eight to make this fit.
Surprised by the reason why Arcticana kept mentioning Skiadrum? What was the meaning behind Zealconis's words?
