~Levy~
I stretched as I stood up, looking around the cluttered room. The guest room looked like a miniature library, even just after only three days of my being there. I was finally off of bed rest, and I had managed to convince Gajeel to let me go to Deidre's house for the afternoon.
In my time off, I had finished reading the book I'd found while in the ancient library with Gajeel nearly a month before, and I was eager to tell Elijah what I'd discovered about the light pen. And hopefully encourage him to give it to the council, I thought, remembering the use the book had described for the pen. In all reality, it shouldn't exist.
"Good morning, Gajeel," I smiled, meeting him in the kitchen. Lily was setting the table as Gajeel finished cooking eggs and sausage.
"Mornin' Shrimp," Gajeel grunted.
"You look completely recovered," Lily told me, returning my smile.
"I'll still need the bandages for a few more days, but all of my magic energy has returned," I said. "Since it's back, my wounds don't feel as bad as they did, and they should heal faster, too."
"You're still not allowed to do anything too physical, though," Gajeel said, piling the food onto plates on the table.
"I know," I sighed, taking my seat at the table. "Geeze, you're as bad as Jet and Droy, fretting over me."
"It's because I care about ya," Gajeel huffed.
"Th-thanks," I answered, stupidly. Hearing Gajeel say something like that made me incredibly flustered, so I busied myself with adding syrup to my pancakes.
"You'll be taking the twelve o'clock train to Deidre's today, won't you?" Lily asked.
"Yeah. I promised to go have lunch with her at a little café in town she likes, and then we're going to continue her training."
"You shouldn't be using your magic," Gajeel frowned.
"I won't," I reassured him. "I usually only have to show her once and she catches on quickly. She's a natural with Solid Script magic." I frowned when Gajeel and Lily exchanged a small glance, but chose not to question it.
"I should go pack my bag. My train leaves in about twenty minutes," I said once we had finished eating and cleaning up the kitchen.
"Are you sure you wouldn't like one of us to accompany you?" Lily asked, following me to the guest room.
"I'm sure," I told him, bending down to scratch his ear. "I honestly do feel a lot better. Besides, the doctor said short train rides after three days would be alright, didn't he?"
He nodded. "You'll be returning here again tonight, right?"
I paused after slinging my bag over my shoulder. Would I? Since I was pretty much recovered, I didn't need help doing anything. So, it would be fine to go home. Part of me, however, felt sad about that. I liked staying with Gajeel and Lily. I always had someone to talk to, and the two of them were a lot of fun to be around. Don't kid yourself, Levy. Being around Gajeel all day every day is the real reason you liked staying here.
"She's staying here until those bandages come off," Gajeel said, startling Lily and me. He stood in the doorway, his arms crossed. "It won't hurt to have her stay a few extra days just to be safe."
"Alright," I nodded.
"Shrimp, I know you think you're fine, but—wait, what?" He stared at me, bewildered. "Alright?"
"That's what I said," I told him, going passed him and heading for the front door.
"You aren't going to argue about it?" He asked.
"It wouldn't do any good," I said. "So, I'll stay until the bandages are off."
"Okay then," he nodded.
"I'll see you two tonight," I waved, walking towards the train station.
The train ride felt longer than usual, thanks to the annoying ache in my side. A lot of movement seemed to irritate it a lot, so I was glad when the train stopped and I could get off of it.
"Levy!" Dee smiled, meeting me at the train station. "How was the trip? It didn't bother you too much, did it? I could have come to you in Magnolia; it wouldn't have been a problem."
"It was fine," I reassured her. "I wanted to get out of town, anyways. I was getting a bit stir-crazy only being able to go to Gajeel's house and the guildhall the last few days. It's only a twenty minute train ride, so it went by quickly."
"If you're sure," she said, taking my hand and leading me back towards her house. "Daddy was setting up a surprise for you back at the house. I can't wait for you to see it!"
"What kind of surprise?" I asked curiously.
"I can't tell you that," she giggled. When we reached the front door, she pushed me in front of her. "You go in first."
"O-Okay," I nodded, opening the door and going inside. A loud bang caused me to jump, and Dee laughed excitedly behind me as confetti fell through the air. "What's all this for?" I asked, looking at the balloons and confetti.
"It's a get well party," Dee announced. "We couldn't do it while you were really injured, so we waited until you were well enough to ride the train. I even baked a cake."
"You shouldn't have done all this," I said, touched that they had gone through all the trouble.
"Nonsense," Eli chuckled, placing his hand on my shoulder, "you were nearly killed, after all. Your recovery is something to celebrate, don't you think?"
"Let's have cake!" Dee led me over to the small cake with yellow icing. It had "Get Well Soon, Levy!" written on the top in pink icing, along with pink-icing flowers.
"It's cute," I chuckled.
"It tastes even better than it looks!" Dee winked. She cut me a piece, smiling eagerly as I took a bite.
"It's good!" I told her.
Her smile widened as she cut pieces for herself and Eli. "Gajeel told me you like chocolate cake, so I hoped he was right."
"Gajeel told you that?" I asked.
"Yeah. He answered immediately, too, when I asked him. It was actually kind of cute." Heat creeped up neck as she winked at me.
"Don't tease the poor girl," Eli scolded. "Her and Gajeel's relationship isn't any of your business, Deidre."
"Gajeel—Gajeel and I don't have a relationship," I stuttered. "We're just friends."
"Sure you are," she smirked.
"We should get started on your training," I said, knowing my cheeks were probably scarlet. "You can go through all the spells you know before we go to lunch."
She stuffed the rest of her cake into her mouth, cheering. "I've been practicing all the spells you taught me! I'm getting really good at them!"
"I can't wait to see," I grinned, allowing her to drag me to the back yard.
Like she had said, she had practically mastered the basic spells I had taught her. Things like fire, snow, and rain were beginner's spells, and she had picked them up the first week I had begun teaching her. More difficult ones which required more magic energy she was proficient in, but could always use more practice.
After a couple hours of her showing me what she had been working on, she stretched her arms and sighed loudly. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving! How about some lunch?"
"Lunch sounds wonderful," I agreed. "I'm excited to eat at this café you keep talking about."
"You'll love it! They have the best Paninis and tea!"
We talked about what spells she would learn next as we walked to the café. "What about some defense spells?" She suggested. "I know I said I didn't want to learn anything too advanced, but I think a few basic ones wouldn't be too hard."
"I can teach you some easy ones for now," I nodded, "and once you master those, we can move on to more difficult things if you'd like. I should be fully healed by then, so I'll be able to train with you."
"Really?" She asked, her eyes practically sparkling with excitement.
I chuckled. "But first, let's eat lunch."
We ordered our food and drinks, Dee talking excitedly about learning more Solid Script magic. "If I can master the shield spell, then I'll have a good base," she was telling me as she ate her Panini. "So maybe next I could learn something like that fire heat spell that you can do. The one that makes the blue fire!"
"That one is a little harder to learn, since it's more of an attack spell," I told her, "so we should probably work up to it. If we're focusing on defense spells for now, another good one to learn is solid script hole. It drops your opponents into a hole and gives you time to escape. Once you master it, you can even close it with your opponents inside, trapping them."
"Wow!" She gasped. "That's amazing! Would you show me?"
"Maybe in a couple of days," I grinned. "I was ordered by doctor Gajeel that I couldn't use much magic until my bandages came off. He's afraid it will strain my injury and it'll reopen."
"You get to have your stitches removed tomorrow, don't you?" She asked.
"I do, but Gajeel has been fretting over me like that since I got back from the hospital. I think he blames himself for what happened, so he wants to make sure I recover alright."
"What exactly happened? Gajeel told us you got stabbed by a magic-cancelling dagger, but he didn't tell us how."
"We were attacked by a Solid Script user, once who worked for someone from Gajeel's past. He told us he was supposed to capture Gajeel for his master, but Gajeel isn't sure that was his real plan. He thinks he was just testing him, to see what his strength is like now. As we were fighting him, he appeared behind Gajeel, getting ready to stab him. I didn't have time to react with a spell, so I pushed Gajeel out of the way. That's when he stabbed me and disappeared.
"After that, Gajeel rushed me to the hospital. The doctor said it missed any vital organs, and he was able to stitch me up. I bled quite a bit, though, and I would have been in a lot worse shape than I was if Gajeel hadn't been able to run so fast."
"No wonder Gajeel's acting so concerned," Dee said, setting down her empty tea glass. "I'm sure he was scared to death all those hours he had to wait for the doctors to finish patching you up. And since the man was going for him, it's understandable that he would blame himself."
"I know, but I wish he wouldn't," I sighed.
She placed her hand over mine, smiling kindly, "he cares about you. Whether he's ready to admit it or not, he really does. I've never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at you. And he never used to be so caring and considerate of anyone as he is you. Back when I was little, he was always so cold and distant. Sure, he warmed up after a while, but it took a long time before he would even smile. It all seems to come to him so naturally when he's around you."
"You really think so?" I asked, wondering if that were really the case. My heart fluttered excitedly in the hope that she was even the tiniest bit correct about Gajeel's feelings. Sure, he cares about me. He's admitted that himself, but is it anything other than just how friends care for each other? I prayed it was. No matter how skeptical a part of me remained.
"How about it?" Dee grinned. "Want to get back to training?"
"We have a lot of work to do if you want to begin learning defensive and offensive magic," I said. "I hope you're ready to work hard."
"Of course!" She laughed, skipping towards her house. "Come on!"
"Slow down!" She chuckled. "I'm still injured, remember?"
She came to a sudden halt, grabbing my hands as she met my eyes, "we both have to get a lot stronger, because there are things we need to fight to protect."
"Yeah," I nodded, a little confused by her sudden seriousness. After a moment, she released me and continued her skipping, chatting animatedly about her training.
That was strange, I thought, wondering what she had been talking about. What does she want to protect? I shrugged, telling myself it wasn't any of my business. I had fun teaching Deidre Solid Script magic, and she seemed to have fun learning it.
"Keep practicing the shield spell," I instructed as we entered the house. "Try to get the word as tall as you. The larger it is, the more it will be able to shield you from. But you also have to be careful; sometimes you spread out the magic to increase the size of the word, instead of increasing the amount of magic you put into it. If you don't put more magic into it, the magic in the word will be much weaker because it's trying to cover a larger area with that little amount of magic. But, if you put more magic into it, it will stay just as strong as your smaller shield spell. Does that make sense?"
"The stronger or larger the word, the more magic I should put into it," she said, summing up my explanation.
"Exactly. Give it a try, and I'll direct you."
We continued practicing until the sun began to sink. I knew Gajeel would worry if I didn't get back soon, so I told Dee I would need to be heading home. She agreed, saying she needed a break herself. She was covered in sweat, and looked worn out from all of the magic she had used while practicing, so we promised to pick up the next day where we had left off.
"I'm going to head to the shower," she told me. "I'll see you tomorrow!"
"See you tomorrow," I repeated.
"Heading out so soon?" Eli asked, handing me the rest of my cake to take back with me. "Here, you can share this with Gajeel and Lily."
"Thank you. It means a lot," I said.
"Don't mention it," he smiled. "It's the least we could do. You've livened up this boring old house quite a bit since you started teaching that magic to Deidre."
"Oh, that's right!" I gasped, remembering the book on ancient solid script magic. "I wanted to tell you what I learned about that light pen."
"The one you kids brought me from that job a while back?"
"That's the one. I took a book from the library's ruins that described the pen and what it was used for."
"What did it say? Anything interesting?"
"I think you should hand it over to the council."
He frowned. "Why's that?"
"Because it isn't an ordinary light pen. It was created by a doctor in one of the earliest villages in the country. He used solid script magic, and became enthralled in the never-ending possibilities of being able to create things merely by thinking of the right word. According to the book, he was obsessed with it, and was convinced that the magic made him like a god because he could create anything. He even believed he could create life, just by using enough magic."
"Life?" Eli's frown deepened. "That's impossible."
"I know. Everyone knows it's impossible to create a life with magic, it simply can't be done. Soon, he realized this as well. However, he eventually transferred his obsession onto something else—something more dangerous."
"And what was that?" He asked.
"The light pen. It can only perform one spell, and if the council knew about it I'm sure they would destroy it."
"What does it do?"
I frowned, remembering the descriptions I had read of all the testing the doctor had done to perfect the spell. All the lives taken.
"It can bring someone back from the dead."
(Thanks for reading! 3 Only a few chapters until the end! And things will be getting serious in the next chapter. ^_^)