Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Pairing(s): Natsu Dragneal x Zeref

WARNINGS: Slight AU , Shounan ai (boy/boy pairing); you have been warned so don't like, don't read


Firelight and Shadows

By V. Shalyr


Scroll XLVI: A Place for Ghosts

Storm Clouds

The coach bumped and trundled along the road, the sound of its wheels sloshing through the mud mixing with the constant rumble of the storm and the thud of the horses' hooves as they plowed steadily if slowly onward. The curtains had been drawn across the windows, but it was too dark outside for them to see anything anyway. Even though it was still early afternoon, the heavy storm clouds completely blotted out the sun and turned the day to night. Now and then, a flash of lightning would illuminate the world beyond the coach's walls and set the edges of the curtains ablaze. Even without a Dragon Slayer's nose, Zeref could catch the distinctive smell of rain and damp earth.

The Black Wizard turned a page of his book as he listened to the storm. The interior of the coach was lit dimly by a single yellow light fixed in the middle of the ceiling. He and Natsu were tangled up on the seats on their side of the coach, which was a relatively spacious and well upholstered vehicle. The Dragon Slayer was asleep with Zeref's head tucked under his chin and an arm draped loosely around the dark-haired wizard's waist. His warmth and the steady rise and fall of his chest were lulling Z to sleep, but every time he started to doze off, his mind would flash to the book he'd stowed in their travel bags and he'd snap back awake.

The book he'd taken from the castle.

Z sighed quietly and forced himself to concentrate on the words on the page in front of him, neat rows of black text against ivory parchment. What was this story about again? Oh, right. It was an explorer's account of an island that supposedly moved around. He wasn't sure if it was supposed to be fact or fiction and the narrative was a little slow at times, but it was interesting enough to distract him from his troubled thoughts.

Lucy, Wendy, and Gray were all sleeping soundly on the coach seats opposite them, and the two cats were curled up amidst a nest of blankets in one of the overhead luggage racks.

Erza and Jellal had chosen to remain in Crocus for awhile longer rather than return to Magnolia with the rest of them. They hadn't explained their plans in detail, but they all strongly suspected that it had something to do with the theatre troop that would be holding auditions in the capital city for their next production.

Outside, another flash of lightning split the sky and thunder boomed.

Good thing they had decided to go with a coach on the way home instead of walking. The downpour showed no signs of easing up any time soon. In fact, it seemed to be growing heavier by the minute. Z wondered if there were any rest stops nearby. Surely the horses and the coachman could use a break from this weather as well.

.

A Conversation in the Dark

"You came here? You know this place is closed this time of year."

"I know, but this storm is bad. I can hardly see two feet in front of me."

Zeref opened his eyes. He'd felt the coach stop but hadn't thought anything of it until he heard the voices. The driver was talking to a woman by the sound of it.

"I... suppose you're right," she said, "but it's not that simple. This... well, there's a reason I close up this time of year. This isn't the kind of place most people would want to stay at right now."

"It's got to be better than getting stuck out on the road in this deluge. If we're unlucky, the coach might throw a wheel or the horses might hurt themselves. I got them good gear from this wizard I know, but I don't think the protection spells she put on it will stop them from tripping up or catching a cold if we keep going like this. Besides, all my passengers are wizards, and I'm sure they've dealt with all kinds of strange things."

The woman relented. "All right. You can all stay until this storm passes, but don't say I didn't warn you. Take your coach around back to the stables and I'll send Koichi to help you with the horses."

"He's still here?"

"Of course he is. Why wouldn't he be?"

"No reason, I suppose. Strange lad though."

"As I said, this can be a strange place. He fits right in."

"Right. Of course. Forget I said anything, it was disrespectful of me. Thank you for your hospitality."

There was a pause followed by the sound of the driver getting back on the coach and urging the horses forward once more. With a creak, the coach began to move again, leaving Zeref to wonder what that conversation had been about.

.

Rest Stop

"I had no idea there was such a nice inn out here," Wendy observed, brushing her long, navy hair out of her eyes and looking around the brightly lit foyer.

The hardwood floor beneath their feet gleamed, and a fire burned merrily in the marble fireplace beside a cluster of plush couches, their fabric covers patterned with holly leaves. Combined with the wood paneling on the walls, they created a warm and almost cheerful atmosphere.

"It is nice," Lucy agreed, covering a yawn. "I wonder why it's so quiet."

"I don't know. It's almost like we're the only ones here."

Which was strange because this place was huge. Then again, it was raining pretty hard and this inn was kind of out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe they were just having a slow day.

Before the two girls could really start to wonder about this, the proprietress returned. The wavy hair that framed her face was completely silver, but she didn't appear to be that old, perhaps in her mid thirties or so. She wore plain brown trousers and a loose tunic with an owl embroidered near the hem.

"I apologize for keeping you waiting," she said. If you would please follow me, I've prepared rooms for you on the second floor. Your friends will be just down the hall."

The two wizards thanked her and followed her across the foyer, down a hallway past several closed doors, and up a flight of stairs. Instead of pictures, there were mirrors hung on the walls at regular intervals, each one set in a simple wooden frame.

"Lunch is taking awhile to prepare, I'm afraid. This inn is usually closed at this time of year," Erice explained, "so we're a little short staffed."

"We're sorry for imposing on your break," Wendy said.

The older woman sighed, but then offered them a warm smile over her shoulder. "It can't be helped. It's our job to offer shelter to travelers after all. I just hope your stay with us is... uneventful."

After she had left them in their new room with a stack of fresh towels, Lucy sat down on the bed closer to the door and frowned.

"Did that seem weird somehow to you?"

"Yeah, sort of," Wendy agreed. "I wonder what she meant by uneventful?"

The two girls looked around the room, noting each piece of furniture and decoration. Everything from the twin dressers to the writing desk and the vase of fake, yellow flowers in the corner seemed perfectly ordinary.

Well, whatever happened, at least they had shelter and a hot meal. They might as well enjoy it.

.

Subdued

Lunch was an unusually subdued affair. The storm continued to rage on the other side of the large dining room window, but the intervening wood and glass filtered out most of the noise. What remained was a muted rumble that only served to add context to the silence within the building, making the quiet more pronounced.

The guild wizards sat around the single rectangular table that had been set up for them, making their way through bowls of stew and platters of bread and cheese. They were the only ones in the dining room, which had room for six other tables just like theirs. The clink of the silverware against porcelain felt unnaturally loud, and the fact that the chairs at all the other tables were still placed upside down on the tabletops emphasized the reality that they really were the only patrons at the inn. In addition to the slightly awkward atmosphere, they were all still a little drowsy from the morning they had spent in the coach—not to mention all the celebrating that had been going on in the capital in the aftermath of the dragon attack. They weren't sure where their coachman had gone off to, but he seemed to be on familiar terms with the proprietress, so perhaps they were having their meal together with the only other two members of staff—a soft-spoken young woman and a boy of at most eleven years.

"Do any of you have one of those clothing manikins in your rooms?" Gray asked at last, setting down his empty soup bowl.

"Clothing manikin?" Wendy repeated. "Do you mean those wooden dummies that people use to model clothes?"

"Yeah, those."

"No, I'm sure I'd remember if there was one of those things in our room," Natsu said, halfway through his second helping of stew. "Why? Is there one in yours?"

"Why do you think I asked?"

"It was kind of creepy, you know?" Happy chimed in, shivering. Erice had agreed to let the cats use the extra bed in Gray's room after she heard them speak and understood that they weren't pets.

Their teammates mulled this over.

"That is a little strange," Z said finally. "Have you asked if you could remove it?"

"Yeah, she told me to put it out in the hall, so I did. Still, I was just curious if you guys had the same, uh, decoration, or if it was just us."

"It looks like it was just you," Lucy said. She stirred her stew with her spoon, suddenly not quite as hungry as she had been before. "Maybe the last person who stayed there was a tailor."

"Maybe."

The Ice Wizard sounded doubtful, but since the manikin was technically no longer in his room, he supposed it didn't really matter. It wasn't like innkeepers weren't allowed to have strange tastes in decoration.

"It's the masks in the room next to ours that I think are weird," Natsu told them. "There were a ton of them all piled up in neat stacks on the desk."

Happy nibbled on a piece of cheese then asked, "What were you doing in the room next to yours?"

"Looking for a room with a bigger bed."

"Oh."

Carla set the teacup she had been using as a soup bowl down on its saucer. "Have you all noticed the mirrors?"

"You mean how many of them there are?"

The white cat nodded at Lucy's question.

"That's right. Don't you find it strange how there aren't any paintings, just mirrors? And why so many?"

"Actually, I did see a picture," Wendy offered. "There's one in our room—an oil painting I think."

Carla gave her a frown and she added hurriedly, "Not that that makes the mirrors any less unusual. I just thought I'd mention it."

"Maybe the people who book rooms here like to look at themselves a lot," Natsu said jokingly. "I know it's strange, but I don't think they're that big a deal. Nothing here feels dangerous."

His companions took a moment to consult their own senses and instincts and finally nodded their own agreement. They'd been through enough battles and dangerous situations to know what they felt like, and this place didn't feel sinister. Eerie, perhaps, but not menacing.

So in the end, they were just overreacting after all, being edgy and high strung after the crazy battle they had just had only days before. Yeah, that had to be it.

Maybe.

.

Unsettled

Z turned the oval mirror in its stand on the desk so that the silvery surface faced the wall. He wasn't entirely sure why he did it except that he wasn't used to seeing reflections of himself everywhere. There was also a tall, rectangular mirror tacked onto the closet door that he'd carefully hung a bed sheet over and another small, oval mirror on the nightstand that he'd put into an empty desk drawer.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Natsu asked, shutting the room door behind him and eyeing the white bed sheet masking the closet. Z had wedged bits of the cloth between the mirror's frame and the wood of the closet door in order to keep the sheet in place.

"I'm fine. They were just... starting to bother me."

"If you say so. Let me know if you change your mind."

Natsu set the silver tea tray he had been carrying on the edge of the desk.

"Erice insisted we all bring some 'calming tea' to our rooms with us. She even put some in a bowl with a lid for the cats since they'd have a harder time using a teapot. She said it helps people sleep. I'm really starting to wonder about that conversation you overheard."

Z picked up the willow-patterned teapot, tilted the lid up and sniffed its contents cautiously.

"Do you think it works?"

"Don't know. You can try it if you want, but I think it smells a bit funny."

Zeref sighed and set the teapot back on its tray. It did smell a bit funny, even to him. Of course, a lot of herbal brews smelled a bit funny, but still...

"You didn't get any rest at all on the coach, did you?"

"Not really." Z sighed and glanced towards the window. Beyond the trickles and droplets of rainwater that clung to the other side of the glass, the world outside was pitch black. He walked over and pulled the curtains closed.

"I know something's been bothering you. I wish you'd tell me what it was."

"I will once I've figured it out myself."

Z felt bad about worrying him, but he wasn't ready to deal with his own confused feelings yet. He suspected that he knew the source of the unease and that straightening it out would involve possibly facing or doing some things that he didn't want to face right now. Maybe he was just running away again, but really, they'd just survived another near-disaster and he wanted to believe that they deserved a respite. In addition, he was used to having years to think through decisions and make up his mind about things.

In the meantime, he would just manage feeling generally unsettled.

"I'm going to take a bath," he announced. He retrieved the stack of fluffy ivory towels that a member of the staff had left in the armchair then added, "You're welcome to join me." Distract me?

The underlying question went unvoiced but not unheard. It wasn't an unusual request for him to make.

Z turned on the bathroom lights and looked for somewhere to put the towels where they would be most likely to stay dry. He could practically hear Natsu debating with himself whether to pursue the subject of his troubles or let it go for now. Z was fairly confident that he would choose the latter. After all, they hadn't had much time to be alone together since the dragon attack. It would be extremely unlike the Dragon Slayer to let this opportunity get away, which suited Z just fine since he really needed something else to think about.

This wasn't the time or the place for philosophical discussions about guilt or responsibility.

.

Small Disturbances

Wendy wasn't sure what had woken her at first. Quite honestly, she'd been sleeping fitfully since returning from the city in the sky and still hadn't managed to reclaim a normal and regular sleep pattern. Sometimes, it was because of dreams—confused and fragmented—that she strongly suspected were memories. Most of the time, however, she had discovered that she'd simply become a much lighter sleeper, like a person might if she'd spent a lot of time somewhere dangerous. Any unexpected little sound or out-of-place smell could disturb her. Tonight appeared to be one of those times.

Footsteps. That's what it was.

They were very faint, and probably the only reason she could hear them at all was because they were coming from the ceiling right over her head.

Lucy's quiet whisper came to her from the room's other bed.

"Are you awake?"

Wendy turned her head on the pillow to peer through the dark in her direction. There wasn't much light, but she could still make out the Celestial Wizard's wide, very awake eyes. There were definite advantages to being a Dragon Slayer.

"I am." Wendy paused then ventured, "I wonder who's up there."

Lucy was quiet for a long minute.

"I went down to the kitchen for some water earlier," she said finally. "Erice was there. She told me that everyone else was asleep, and that if we needed anything, all their rooms were on the ground floor by the dining room."

Wendy turned this over in her mind.

"So then... who's up on the third floor? I thought we were the only ones staying here right now."

"Maybe she went upstairs to do something?"

They fell silent and listened to the footsteps. They were slow and measured, and they moved back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... They didn't pause, didn't speed up or slow down or go anywhere.

It wasn't really what either of them would consider a threatening sound, but it was... weird. And the longer they listened, the weirder it seemed in the way little things did sometimes in the dark and the not-quite silence of the night.

Finally, both girls sat up. Wendy reached out to turn on the lamp on the nightstand between their beds and Lucy reached to pour them each a cup of Erice's tea.

Maybe it was nothing, but lying awake all night listening to quiet footsteps from the floor above was not a pleasant prospect.

.

Ghost

The storm was still going full tilt when Z woke the following morning. He kept his eyes closed, listening to the howl of the wind outside and the drumming of raindrops on the windowpanes and the walls and the roof one floor above. It was a steady, rhythmic, and soothing sound, or it was from the perspective of someone curled up in bed with nowhere to go. Natsu was still asleep and, content in the knowledge that they would probably not be expected to resume their journey, Z focused on his own breathing and tried to go back to sleep as well.

It almost worked—would have worked if it weren't for the sudden feeling that he was being watched. The certainty, unlikely and illogical though it was, seized his senses and wouldn't let go. He opened his eyes, stamping down the responding sense of alarm because that would just cause a whole host of other problems, and surveyed the room, dark save for the slivers of light that edged the door that led out into the hallway. It was a futile effort. There wasn't nearly enough illumination for him to actually see anything, even if there was anything to see... or was there?

His gaze landed on the brass stripes that adorned the lampshade by his side of the bed. The polished metal caught and reflected what little light there was, and within its mirror-like surface, he glimpsed movement. It was blurry, but in the reflection, there was definitely someone standing by the door. Z stared for a moment then glanced cautiously to the corresponding spot by the door.

Nothing.

He looked back at the lampshade.

The figure was still there. It tilted its head and lifted a hand to rub the back of its neck as though embarrassed. Then it turned and vanished through the door without opening it, except of course it hadn't opened it because there wasn't actually anyone there. Right?

Behind him, Natsu stirred, disturbed by the sudden tension in his partner's body.

"What's wrong?"

"I think I might be going mad," Z replied in a conversational tone.

"Yeah?" Natsu yawned. "What makes you say that? I'd say you're one of the sanest people I know."

Sure, Zeref could be mentally unstable and extremely emotional about it, but he was also, for the most part, super rational.

When the Black Wizard didn't reply right away, Natsu woke up a bit more and took stock of their surroundings before asking with sudden suspicion, "Was someone else here?"

The hairs prickled on the back of Z's neck.

"I... didn't think so."

"Strange." Natsu frowned. "It smells like someone else was here."

Okay, so maybe that meant he hadn't imagined it and his paranoia wasn't getting the better of him. That was good. Z would really prefer not to go mad. His sanity was very important to him—and to everyone around him for that matter.

On the other hand, that meant that someone had been in their room. Someone he hadn't been able to see and who could walk through walls. This wasn't necessarily that unusual in a land full of wizards, but... he hadn't sensed any magic.

"Natsu, I think I might have just seen a ghost."

.

Manikins

The manikins had multiplied.

There were now two of them instead of one, and they were seated facing one another on two of the armchairs in the second-floor lounge not that far from the room Gray shared with the two winged cats. The three of them had been on their way to the staircase and—hopefully—breakfast and glanced into the sitting area as they passed it only to be stopped in their tracks by the sight of the two wooden dummies. There was a chessboard on the low, square table between them, and from the position of the white and black pieces, a game appeared to be in progress.

"Do you think it's supposed to be a joke?" Happy asked from Gray's shoulder.

"If it is, then whoever did it has a pretty strange sense of humor."

"I'll say. Seems kind of creepy to me."

"I wonder..." Carla trailed off and flew ahead towards the stairs, only when she reached them, she went up towards the third floor instead of down towards the first. Her two companions exchanged curious glances then followed her. After all, no one had explicitly told them that they couldn't look around up there.

When the Ice Wizard reached the top of the steps, he noticed that the first few doors on either side of the hallway had been pushed open. Carla wasn't in the first room they peered into, but a wooden manikin was. It sat on the bed with its back propped against the headboard and a number of pieces of paper spread across the bedcovers around it. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that the papers contained lines of poetry. There had to be half a dozen poems at least.

"Okay," Gray said slowly, moving on to the next room.

This one had a manikin in it too, arranged at the desk with a pile of puzzle pieces before it—some of them fitted together to form the lower left corner of a picture.

In the room across the hall, a manikin sat in a rocking chair by the window, which had its curtains drawn to either side so that they could see the storm-tossed landscape beyond. The rocking chair was rocking gently, and this manikin wore a mask. It, or rather the mask, was smiling.

"Almost all the rooms up here have one," Carla announced, flying back to join them. "I highly doubt it has anything to do with decoration or humor."

She landed on the floor next to Gray's feet, and her companions looked down into her uneasy brown eyes.

"Is it any of our business though?" Happy asked, voice sounding small against the muffled backdrop of the storm. "I mean, no one's being hurt, right? And we're guests here. They took us in with the weather being as bad as it is and gave us food and everything."

The other two considered this. Carla's tail twitched uncertainly. The tomcat had made some good points, but... the fact remained that they were currently staying under this roof, and as long as the storm continued, that wasn't likely to change.

Right. They had other friends waiting for them downstairs. There was no reason they had to tackle this alone.

.

Weirdness

"Z thinks this place is haunted," Natsu informed them, stifling a yawn. "It's either that or he's losing his mind. We both prefer the first option."

Next to him at the dining table, his partner was staring into the silver surface of a small, oval mirror that he had brought with him from their room. He was too busy turning it this way and that and frowning at whatever he saw—or did not see—to add his two cents. Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't listening, and after Gray had told them all about the manikins, he lifted his gaze from the mirror to inquire, "Are the hallway walls lined with mirrors up there too?"

The Ice Wizard's brow furrowed with the effort of recollection. "I think so, but I can't be completely sure. We were more interested in what was in the rooms."

"And none of you have seen anything out of the ordinary in the mirrors in your rooms?"

There was a general negative.

"I see."

Z looked back down at his mirror, and Wendy asked cautiously, "Um, so do you see something right now?"

The Black Wizard didn't answer right away. Instead, he leaned to the left then to the right, trying to examine every corner of the large dining room in the mirror's reflective surface. The rest of them watched him do this in silence and occasionally took a bite of oatmeal or scrambled eggs when they remembered that they were supposed to be eating breakfast. When he stilled abruptly then shot to his feet and hurried to the dining room entrance to look down the corridor, the other wizards hesitated for only a second before rising to follow him. He didn't say anything, just pointed towards the right, his finger moving from mirror to mirror as though following something that was moving away from them.

The others thought they saw a flicker of... something, but by this point, they were all looking so hard for any signs at all that it could have been their imagination.

Wendy wrinkled her nose and turned to ask the other Dragon Slayer, "Was there always the smell of cigar smoke here?"

"No," Natsu said slowly. "That's new."

They were all still crowded in the doorway when Erice emerged from the kitchen next door with a fresh pot of coffee. She stopped when she saw them and raised her eyebrows.

"Is something wrong?"

Natsu was the first to answer. "Yeah, you could say that. It's really none of our business, but we'd really like an explanation for all the weirdness if you've got one so that we don't feel like we're going crazy. You know, like if this hotel is haunted or something."

The proprietress rested the laden serving tray on her hip and pursed her lips.

"Are you sure you want to know? Most people I've met prefer to ignore anything unusual and chalk everything else up to coincidence. They find it easier to sleep that way, and it looks like you'll be stuck here for at least another day or two."

"I guess we're not like most people," Gray replied. "We prefer to know what we're dealing with."

"They're not dangerous."

"All the same," Wendy said, "it's really hard for us not to think about it. Please?"

Erice sighed, hefted the serving tray and walked towards the dining room. They moved to let her pass, and they could hear her muttering to herself under her breath.

"I told him it wasn't a good time. And they were being so cooperative about staying out of sight too." She set the tray with its silver coffeepot and empty mugs down on their table then raised her voice. "All right. I'll explain while you finish your breakfast."

.

Shelter

It had started, like so many things in life, at a crossroads. A literal crossroads though, not a metaphorical one, located not too far from the inn. Erice had been on her way back from a nearby town, her wagon loaded down with supplies. Come to think of it, it had been raining quite hard that day too. She'd thrown a tarp over the goods in the wagon, but she'd still been worried that they would spoil and urged the horses onward as quickly as she dared with the dirt of the road turning quickly into mud.

Later, she would realize that she shouldn't have been able to see the old man through the rain and the fog of her own anxiety.

"I invited him to weather the storm at my inn," Erice said, the corners of her lips curving upward at the similarities to their current situation. "He seemed surprised but relieved too, and I gave him a room for the night. He declined any food or drink, but he did ask for a rocking chair to be placed by the fireplace—if it wasn't too much trouble."

She looked into the opaque brown depths of her coffee, and her gaze grew distant and sad.

"He spent all evening in that rocking chair, watching the other guests go about their business, and whenever I had time, I'd stop by to talk with him. When I asked him what he was doing out in the rain, he told me that he knew he had to go, but that he didn't feel ready yet. He didn't want to leave this place on a sour note. After all the other guests had retired for the night, he called me over and thanked me, told me that his stay here had given him a pleasant memory and he felt strong enough to resume his journey. I didn't really understand what he meant until the next morning when the other guests remarked on how strange it was that the rocking chair by the fire never stopped rocking even though there was never anyone in it. Someone else referred me to an exorcist."

"So the old man was a ghost?" Lucy asked, the first of the wizards to speak since Erice had begun her story.

"I'm sure of it, yes. I looked through the newspapers of all the nearby settlements afterward and found his obituary, which was dated several days prior to our meeting. He passed away in the hospital after a long illness. No one in the hospital knew if he had any family, and he stopped receiving visitors awhile before. I thought... that he must have been very lonely when he passed away. It's easy for the elderly to feel forgotten. Society doesn't always make a place for them, and people often don't look after them the way they should. And while I'm sure the doctors and nurses did their best, hospitals aren't generally cheerful places. That old man was the first ghost I've ever met—at least that I know of, but he was followed by several more. I don't know if it has something to do with where this hotel was built or the nature of some of the people who have worked here, but one incident led to another."

Erice let out a long, deep sigh then smiled. "As I've said before, our job here is to shelter travelers. We get all kinds of people on the roads, and I decided after a dozen or so similar incidents that for these two weeks at least every year, this would be a place for ghosts, a place for one last pleasant memory to send them on their way into the unknown. Good memories, even memories as simple as a peaceful evening by a warm fire, can steady us and give us strength—or so I've always thought. It's important for people to have such things to look back upon. Since I made that decision, we've been getting more and more spirits passing through here every year—even more so after Koichi came to stay with me. He has a knack for seeing and speaking to ghosts. Most other people need a little luck and a lot of help."

.

Restraint

Now that the living guests knew about them, the ghosts showed no restraint. They abandoned any attempt to conceal themselves and passed by in ones and twos to scrutinize this group of famous—or possibly infamous—wizards.

"Why do I feel like we're the odd ones?" Gray asked, angling the mirror he had borrowed from Z so he could watch the elderly couple staring at them from the dining room entrance and whispering to one another. Or at least he thought they were whispering. He could see their mouths moving, but he couldn't hear a sound. They could have been yelling at the top of their lungs for all the difference it made. Their images within the silvered glass were rather blurry too, and that didn't help.

"They do outnumber us," Wendy pointed out. "I think I might have liked it better when I didn't know they were there, especially since we still can't see them."

By early afternoon, however, they had more or less grown used to it. There wasn't much they could do with the rain pouring down outside like it never intended to stop, so they took turns playing board games with the ghosts and telling them stories about the guild. They perfected the art of walking down hallways while staring fixedly to one side so they could watch the mirrors for any spirits in the way, and the hour before dinner found them engaged in a rather unusual rendition of hide-and-seek. It was probably one of the only versions of hide-and-seek were seekers pulled open desk drawers and peered into empty coffee mugs to see if there were people hiding inside. It was certainly... memorable to lift the lid of a music box and witness—with the assistance of a small mirror—a person unfold herself from inside, her entire form shaking with unheard laughter.

And really, it was that silence that was the one thing they never quite got used to. Even though the hotel seen through mirrors was bustling with guests and full of their conversation and good cheer, none of them could actually hear a word. Not even a squeak or a distant echo. And it was that silence that made it impossible for them to forget that their fellow patrons were not of their world. That while they were all travelers, these silent men and women were embarking on a journey very different from their own.

And it was hard, much more so than any of them would have liked to say, not to wonder how these people had come to be here. How each of their respective lives had ended.

"If all regular guests were like you, I might consider keeping this place open year round after all," Erice told them, her voice warm with approval as she joined them around their dining table. They were halfway through dinner and the last dish of roasted potatoes had just been brought out. "Or hire a bit more help at least. It can be difficult to manage with just the three of us."

"You could always put out job requests to some of the wizard guilds," Lucy pointed out. "You know, just for the duration of these two weeks. I'm sure some people would be interested."

"Maybe I should." Erice pursed her lips in thought. "But it's not just a willingness to put up with ghosts that I'd be looking for. I'd want people who can be thoughtful and welcoming. Are those things potential clients normally put in job requests for wizard guilds?"

"Not really, but it's not like there are any rule against it." Lucy hesitated, but her curiosity got the better of her and she asked, "Um, you don't have to tell us if you don't want to, but... have you ever had any malevolent ghosts? Or ghosts that—you know, like in some stories where they want people to do something for them before they can move on?"

"You mean like the ghost in a murder mystery?" the older woman asked, amused. "No, all our ghosts have been perfectly ordinary people who probably lived more or less ordinary lives. Are there other types of ghosts out there? I would imagine so, but I doubt they would find their way to this hotel. As I see it, this place is a way station for spirits who are technically ready to move on but need something extra to calm their nerves. I've always believed that good experiences give us a kind of strength, like the way memories of home can make us feel safe. A lot of our guests just want some reassurance that even though they're moving on, they're not alone and won't be completely forgotten."

Z set his fork down carefully on his now empty plate and stood up.

"I'm going to see if I can make dessert," he said, excusing himself and vanishing towards the kitchens.

Erice glanced after him, startled by the abruptness of his departure. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Nah," Natsu assured her, wolfing down the rest of his own food and rising to his feet as well. "There are just some things that he finds it hard to deal with sometimes. It's best if you just treat it all like business as usual. I'll go see if he needs any help. Dessert sounds great."

He found his partner in the hotel's well-stocked pantry, staring at shelves upon shelves of everything from fruit preserves and sacks of flour to a variety of spices Natsu couldn't even begin to name. The Dragon Slayer waved a hand in front of his face and raised his eyebrows when half a second passed before Z reacted and turned to look at him.

"Do you think... memories are enough?"

"Sometimes, they have to be," Natsu said. "So what do we need? I assume sugar is a given. I smell coco powder too, just so you know."

It took a moment for Z to recollect his thoughts from where they had wandered off to and focus back on the task at hand.

Still, the Dragon Slayer thought, it was just as well that by noon of the following day, the rain had finally begun to show signs of easing up. This wasn't the kind of place where he wanted Z spending too much time.

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Ghost Hotel Staff

Lucy's abbreviated guide to helping out at Lady Erice's local hotel for ghosts...

One, never assume that you are alone. This prevents you from accidentally embarrassing yourself.

Two, keep a small mirror with you at all times. A hand mirror that fits into your pocket will do. If you need to ensure that you are speaking to someone or that you are not being watched by someone, this is an invaluable tool.

Three, work hard to develop or maintain a sense of humor. Ghosts do not get to interact much with living human beings and enjoy playing tricks on them. Most of them can't move objects larger or heavier than a wooden chess piece. However, some are strong enough to animate wooden dummies and scare the living daylights out of you.

Four, rooms with manikins are occupied. If a spirit moves in, remember to install one.

Five, remember where you leave the manikins. They can make unpleasant surprises, especially if their last animator leaves them somewhere strange.

Six, ghosts love a good story as much as anyone, maybe even more. Come prepared to share. Storytelling sessions at night by the fireplace with snacks are a great way for both staff and spirit patrons to enjoy a warm, friendly, and memorable evening.

Seven, if you sit in a chair and an inexplicable shiver runs up your spine, get up and move to another chair. You probably just sat on a guest.

Eight, if something startles you, take a moment to think before you attack—er, react. Observe and listen first. Ghosts can't really hurt you, and the furniture didn't do anything wrong.

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Wonderings

Four days after they sought refuge from a storm at a haunted hotel, the wizards set out once more on the road towards Magnolia and home. Eventually, conversation would pick up and the increasingly warm weather would lift their spirits. But at the beginning, looking back at the multistory building through their coach windows, each of them found themselves wondering—just fora moment—about the future. Lucy wondered if, when it was her time to go, she would feel the need to come pay Erice and her hotel a visit herself. Wendy wondered how many of the patients she had treated, the ones who had not made it, had ended up here on their own journeys towards closure and reconciliation. Gray wondered where his teacher's soul was now, if Ur now wandered the ocean waves or watched over him from another world the living could know nothing about. The cats wondered how long their kind lived on average, since they didn't have many other winged cats to compare themselves to. Z wondered if that other journey was one he would ever embark upon himself, and Natsu, watching the shadows behind his eyes, wondered what he could do to ensure that their futures remained intertwined.


TBC...


AN: Let's see, in response o some questions...

Yes, I wanted to imply that Z used demon-related magic to get the keys. I was thinking about one of the spells it mentioned for him by Hades, which was supposed to be able to make inanimate objects into living things for a time. It wasn't terribly detailed or clear on how it worked or what it might work on, so I took the liberty of imagining.

The Tartaros arc... I have to admit that I also think it would be interesting, but I haven't decided whether I'll be tackling it yet or not. I found the demons a little hard to understand. I mean, I got that they wanted to find Zeref, but I didn't really understand why. Yes, he's their creator, but so what? There would have to be a satisfactory, fleshed out answer to this question before I could even begin to reconstruct them as characters and rethink the arc for the purposes of this story. Maybe I was just missing something, but I also didn't understand what the demons thought they would accomplish by getting rid of magic and wizards. For instance, was it essentially a case of species superiority complexes? That might be workable, but it also clashes with the fact that Zeref is still, when you get down to it, a human being.

If people have ideas, I'm open to hearing some, but at the moment, I have other plans for the next major event.

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