XXXVII.
"You want to challenge Miss Heartfilia for her gate keys." It wasn't so much a question than Kaleb trying to wrap his mind around what his mage had just said.
"Yes." Hestor nodded.
Kaleb forced himself not to lean back and pinch the bridge of his nose. Years, it had taken years of key hunting to get Hestor's magic stabilized so the Sisters of Ammat stopped devouring his soul followed by months of healing sessions at the Citadel to reverse the all the damage their unchecked magic wreacked. All of that had been worth it though. Hestor wasn't the easiest person to get along with – everyone had baggage – but he was powerful, talented and incredibly versatile. The man had had the benefit of studying not only at the Academe Celestine in Bosco but also at the temple of Mehturt in Stella where he was originally from so his knowledge about the secrets of Celestial Spirit Summoning magic was unrivaled.
It was only last week Kaleb had serious thought of adding Hestor to his personal team; yesterday about looping him into the plans for purging the Steel Council.
When he told Lucy to keep up the ruse she'd started at the Skyport except during one on one interactions he'd forgotten one important thing. Hestor. He should have realized the featherhead routine would have offended the man on a fundamental level – if only because it perpetuated the sigma that Stellar Summoners were weak and useless – which would prevent seek out Lucy ever.
Well fuck, he thought. "I appreciate you've decided to ask for my permission even though we both know that since Miss Heartfilia is not a member of White Sea you needn't have bothered. That said I would very much prefer you take some time to get to know her better and think about all of the consequences this could have before you act. Things aren't always what they seem."
"I've seen enough to know that she treats her spirits like slaves." Hestor replied calmly.
You're the only one then, Kaleb thought before changing the angle of reasoning. "What about your magic?" Hestor's conviction that he knew better than everyone in this matter could practically be heard without White Sea's Guild Master using his power; a very real downside that came with just how knowledgeable he was.
"I plan on sending all of the keys to Dean Kalperdean for storage until a compatible holder can be found."
"You know as well as I do there isn't anyone else."
"Staying confined in the Celestial Realm is hardly a punishment."
"You're not really asking my permission are you?" Kaleb sighed finally giving in and slumping back in his chair.
"She is here as your guest. It seemed only polite to let you know my plans though this shouldn't affect her magic levels so Zen will be just as…protected," he practically hissed. Her power levels without even trying unnerved him. Just who the hell did she think she is letting suck a gift stagnate?
"Hestor, Miss Heartfil-…Lucy is acting. She's not really like what you've seen here at the guild."
The disbelief was obvious on Hestor's face, his thoughts apparent without listening in via his magic. His celestial mage thought he was mentally touched when it came to Lucy and there was literally nothing Kaleb could say to change the man's mind.
"Fine, don't believe me but at least take her aside, talk to her first."
"Is that an order Master?" Hestor's jaw was clenched in obvious frustration.
Light save me from holder class mages, Kaleb internally swore. The whole lot of them were overly sensitive to anyone questioning their skills or judgement. He understood, had programs worked into the mission request system so many caster mages took jobs often with compatible holder mages to try and weed out the natural prejudice non-magic people seemed to perpetuate that Holder mages were somehow lesser than Castors.
None of that stopped those Holder mages from always jumping to the wrong conclusions.
"No. You've admitted to keeping your distance so you could judge impartially. I'm only saying you're not seeing the full story. What you do with that is up to you."
Hestor nodded then turned to leave the room.
"Your boy there is all sorts of fucked up inside you know that right?" Cobra droned striding into the office through the now open door from where Hestor exited.
"He's actually much better. It's just seeing everything he hates, everything people automatically assume about him, in an actual person that's set him back." Kaleb's lips twitched in humor as Cobra made himself at home in his office without even asked, had bypassed the bullshit small talk to "reacquaint each other" neither of them needed.
"Don't I fucking know. Tink was fucked up for a long time too, had these crazy shifts in her soul songs from all of her spirits vying for her attention. Wasn't until she contracted Libra, Pisces and Ophiuchus that her magic settled."
Cobra still remembers the day when Sorano just showed up at Fairy Tail an absolute mess. She'd just found out that Yukino was dying. The healers didn't have a fucking clue why her magic was bleeding her life but without another celestial summoner with contracts in place to compare her to they had no template to compare her to. So, Sorano had come to beg Lucy to undergo days, which turned out to be weeks, of extensive testing to try to help save her sister.
Of course Tink went, didn't even stop to think about the girls' night she would miss or conflicts in her schedule with her publisher. Yukino was dying and all Tink cared about was she might be able to help.
A month later one of the healers finally isolated a genetic marker in Tink that was missing in both Yukino and Sorrano. When the sequence triggered when Tink summoned one of her spirits her magic literally flowed from her heart then through Earthland before the gate formed instead of directly through the heart, the standard in both holding and casting mages.
Her body was just overwhelmed by the strength necessary for the spells required to open transdimentional gates; it was like going all out for every bit of magic she used, no one could stand up to that.
It took all of 2 seconds after the bomb dropped before both Yukino and Tink were clinging to each other sobbing both recognizing what that meant. The next day Tink took the weakened Yukino and her sister to a grove where she summoned each and every one of her friend's keys so Sorano's little sister could get all emotional and say goodbye before she took on their contracts promising to try and find a way they could visit their prior keyholder without the threat on her life.
Cobra had to go kill several somethings after.
Still though, he couldn't deny the sounds of both women's souls were significantly better once all the contracts were transferred to Tink. Nor could he deny the significant growth Tink made in her life after that day, how she matured and became significantly less flighty. Her soul was calm, steady, anchored. It was around then Cobra finally made her his kin.
"It wasn't until Hestor found Sef's key 4 months ago completing The Hall of Two Truths that he went through something similar," Kaleb mused hearing what Erik hadn't said. "I'm surprised Lucy didn't need Aquarius' key for her to stabilize."
Until just now he hadn't known what Hestor went through was common among their kind if not to quite the same extent; the Sisters of Ammit were significantly more blood thirsty and dark than any of the other spirits he's encountered. Kaleb also hadn't known they could be genetically different either and now he had to make a call to Dean Kalperdean to put a halt to their plan of trying to teach summoning to other types of celestial mages until they were screened.
The idea was to try and expand the endangered magic by finding mages compatible to the various gate keys and train them but it wasn't worth the risk of those people dying if they gained any proficiency and power.
Fucking secrets of the Celestial Kingdom and their genetically based magics. It's all well and good if their parents are alive and can teach them but where's the contingency plan? How was he supposed to help if he was continually shut out like this? His own brother was the first Archangel mage born in 800 years and the whole family was scrambling to try and help Zen with his lost magic.
"The Stache granted Lucy Aquarius' magic when he gave her the ability to use the Star Dress spells." Cobra shrugged swiping a shortbread looking cookie from Kaleb's desk. He shared the frustration with Kaleb about the secrets though. Fuckers were locked down even soul deep prevent mage like his from hearing it even when Tink was intentionally thinking about it with him around; she had promised not to speak about it to anyone who wasn't her "One" not think.
Kaleb chuckled at the memory playing through Erik's mind of the feisty little blond laying into the Celestial Spirit King about ridiculous rules and censoring her thoughts without her permission.
"Stache Face? She calls him Stache Face to his face?" he laughed harder.
"There's a reason she's my kin." Cobra smirked wickedly before biting into the cookie, eye rolling back as he moaned in delight.
"Stellan Honey Biscuits," Kaleb purred. "My aid Thane pops over Wednesday mornings to pick some up fresh because he knows I'm addicted."
Cookie finished, Cobra eyed the one hanging between plump lips before closing the distance.
Fuck it's been too long.
Agreed. Kaleb answered deepening the kiss.
End of Chapter
Alright the drama is picking up. What will Hestor do? How will Lucy react? Join us next week for the next installment of Acceptance!
LOL. J/K! I hope it doesn't take me a week to update but I couldn't resist pushing this like a TV drama. Anyone else out there watch Kdrama's or really Asian drama's in general? Currently watching Love 020 which I think is a Chinese drama. All the character's are computer science majors at the same university playing a popular computer RPG - like WoW but since I'm not a gamer I could definitely be wrong. Anyway, nerd flirting and all the awkward makes me giggle.
Now to business. As you all know Desna created the titillating Pradesh family and many of the other OCs in this story. What I should point out is that Nightmare Senshi has adopted Hestor and did the bulk of character development work on him and the Hall of Two Truths with Desna so he is her little Prickly.
Much Love, Blas