XXXVIII.

Lucy hummed in contentment as she turned the page of the Archangel text she was reading. The subject matter was dark, towards the end the magic had an extensive history of abuse and murder all too often of the Archangel mages themselves but with Freed by her side, his long elegant fingers toying with the skin of her thigh lightly pressed against his, this was a dream come true.

Her chest still ached, worry for Vander still thrummed just below the surface but with the Rune mage's presence at her side it was much easier to cope with.

They were no closer to figuring out what had created the marks and the weird bond they shared. All the books they'd been able to copy at the Archive, while giving Lucy a lot to consider about her magic, gave next to nothing about Shadowquip or Demon magics. That's why Lucy had cracked open the Archangel book in hopes that she could find something that either helped Zen or explained why he didn't react to her in the usual way.

Lucy felt a light pressure on her shoulder and looked up meeting dark unfamiliar eyes.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Are you Promised?" his deep voice rumbled as a gentle smile tugged his lips.

Freed's grip on her thigh tightened when Lucy hesitated to answer. It wasn't because she was even considering joining the man for even a second, she was more than happy with her budding relationship, but answering truthfully would lead this man on and she didn't want that either.

Letting one of her hands settle over Freed's under the table Lucy smiled softly at the man.

"I anticipate I'll be Promised very soon," she decided to say hoping he caught her meaning.

"Lucky them." He reached down and clasped her free hand brushing his lips over her knuckles as he bowed accepting her polite refusal in a way Lucy still wasn't used to.

Lucy barely heard the tell-tale chime of one of her spirits opening their own gate over the blood pounding in her ears from unseen nimble fingers doing decidedly naughty things.

"We'll share pleasure with you." Gemi's slightly rougher voice chimed.

"You are very sexy!" Mini added as the pair of small blue doll like bodies floated around the stranger.

"Oh ummm…" the man was at a temporary loss for words. Lucy couldn't blame him for that. Her mischievous spirits had a way of keeping people off balance.

"Gemini," she warned but they just giggled and combined to transform into her. Well, into her in a towel because Lucy could never catch a break to save her life even more so now because it seemed the man had finally recovered.

"You stay looking like that and we've got a deal," his gentle smile turned wicked as Gemi-Lucy "accidentally" dropped their towel.

"Why me?" Lucy sighed rubbing her face after they disappeared in one of the privacy booths.

"While I hesitate speaking for one of your spirits I would guess it is simply because they enjoy being you and found that mage attractive." Freed chuckled letting his fingers draw her attention back to where he wanted it, on him.

"If you're not careful I'm going to make us both 'indecent' in front of everyone here," Lucy said biting back a moan. It was the only thing she could think of saying that might stop his assault on the apex of her thighs since he didn't care for overt public displays of affection preferring subtle teasing while in company.

"I think it might just be worth it to keep the wolves away," he responded but did move his hand back but still resting proprietarily high on her leg.


Hestor stormed out of his Master's office torn between doing what he knew to be right immediately or actually talking with that woman before challenging her if only to appease Master Kaleb such was the respect Hestor had for the man.

His guildmaster had done so much for him, especially this past year, even when Hestor hadn't been able to share much about why finding the keys for the Brothers of Ma'at was so critical. Once he'd almost caved, drawn to the brightness and addictive thrum of Kaleb's magic but Ammit had warned him to be sure of his choice in the nick of time.

As a Celestial Summoner he could only share the secrets of his magic with one person and while they didn't have to be a long-time committed lover or spouse, big secrets tended to get in the way of healthy relationships so it was wise to reserve the information until after he was in a committed relationship. Since he wasn't even sharing pleasure with the beautiful man it would have been foolish to speak.

Still, Kaleb was asking too much this time. Celestial spirits needed their individuality and independence to thrive just like humans and that was difficult to do when their keyholders treated them like slaves and from what he's seen so far that was how she was treating them. But, when all was said and done, it cost him very little to have a short conversation before he took those keys from that good-for-nothing mage.

Turning the corner Hestor looked out over the main hall looking for his prey in time to see what had to have been Gemini transform into their blonde master and walk off naked with one of his guildmates.

Unacceptable! This needs to end now. Sending her spirit off in her place to share pleasure because what? She couldn't be bothered and doesn't know how to politely say no? he ranted internally completely overwhelmed by anger and disgust.

Hestor seethed as he moved quickly to confront the despicable woman already planning on making her suffer every indignity he could possibly imagine before making her cower and beg for her life. It would almost be worth the drain of calling forth the Hall of Two Truths to deal with her but ending one of the ancient lines when there were so few left would weigh too heavily on his mind.

No, he would humiliate her, strip her of her keys then tell her exactly why he'd done so. From there he'd let Kaleb or Zen, anyone with more patience, work with the woman. Maybe, just maybe, she wasn't a completely lost cause and her line could be salvaged.

"You," he sneered having arrived at his target at last. "I challenge you for the right of your keys."

Lucy turned and met ice blue eyes as harsh as they were cold and immediately bristled. She could feel the darkness of his magic and while that alone wouldn't have caused her to judge him negatively – Erik, Freed and Vander all had dark magic and were very dear to her – this man was a celestial summoner challenging her for her spirits out of nowhere, calling them keys like they were feelingless tools. She wasn't surprised, the number of mages that challenged her during her search for Aquarius when they found out she had the Zodiac's keys was high even though none of them could actually use them. They were all the same power hungry bastards that thought she was helpless and there was always some pretty hefty bounties out on the rarer gate keys.

"No." Her tone was arctic as she stood shoulders squared and feet planted ready for a fight. "Like hell would I let a greedy unfeeling person like you even near my spirits let alone gamble with their lives."

Had Hestor not been lost to his fixed resentment and prejudice he would have paused at the way she reacted wondering if he'd miscalculated somehow. Instead he ignored whatever drivel came out of her mouth past no and hissed, fists clenching at her obstinate behavior.

"You have little choice. Sending your spirit off like they were sex slaves…"

"What?" Lucy exclaimed more confused now by this man's behavior because that decidedly deviated from the power-tripping bastard script. "I would never!" she defended completely affronted then her mind made a connection. "What Gemini, what any of my spirits choose to do when not fighting by my side is their own business. The lot of them could come down here right now and I wouldn't mind. They are my friends and I only want them to be happy!" She screamed before her world tilted, strong arms wrapped around her out of nowhere as her magic pulsed making her dizzy as spirit after spirit showed up each smiling brightly as they spread out among the gob-smacked on-looking mages of White Sea.

"Easy there Princess," Zen's now familiar baritone helped ground her enough she was able to requip the anchor keys she'd invented so her spirits could use them to stay in the mortal world drawing ethernano directly from the air and earth instead of using her magic. It was part of how Lucy was able to let Yukino spend time with her previously contracted spirits without being completely drained and useless for an entire day, which given she was an active mage was a dangerous state to be in frequently. She'd just never experienced such a mass visitation all at once before so hadn't been prepared.

"Thanks for the save," she smiled eyes locking briefly on Freed to confirm she way ok before turning in the Archangel's arms now ignoring the bewildering silver haired man who looked as confused as she felt.

I'll probably have to talk to him eventually to settle whatever misunderstanding we have but now…

"When did you get in?" she looked up and smiled brightly.

"I walked in in the middle of your righteous rant." He smirked as she pouted. "I know Hestor can be…prickly but he's a good guy. Like a hedgehog. You know what set him off?" Zen asked because Lucy's speech had been defensive which meant it was likely Hestor started the confrontation.

"Closest I can tell he saw Gemini walk off with someone to the privacy booths and jumped to conclusions but forget about that. I have something you need to see." Lucy excitedly pulled Zen back to her table to show him the tome on Archangel magic.


Hestor didn't know what was happening, rather how it was happening. All of these spirits out at the same time and the blonde seemed to brush it off after pulling out strange looking keys he'd never seen the like of his entire life. How was that even possible? He was the foremost knowledgeable celestial summoning mage in all of Ishgar! His entire life he's studied not only at The Academe Celestine but also with his decidedly fucked up family at the Temple of Mehturt where only he as the only known inheritor on celestial summoning magic was even granted access to ancient texts most people didn't even know existed that pre-dated the Holy Wars!

It wasn't for nothing that he seemed arrogant given what he knew and the sheer amount of power he wielded. It was confidence.

But this woman, this single insignificant woman was destroying everything he knew as fact by having so many spirits out at once without even blinking.

More than that however was how happy all the spirits looked. There was a maid chatting up Rowan, bear-sized wolves and a snowman looking creature wrestling with Beck, a ginger flirting it up with an entire table of people, what had to be Lyra examining the instruments near the stage, Taurus – he was pretty sure given he was a big ass ax wielding bull, ogling some of the more adventurous women in the guild and this large flower up by an unfamiliar man and Master Kaleb among others.

None of this made any sense. Had he been wrong? Had Kaleb been right saying she'd been acting the whole time? But why? He'd watched her whenever she went out even by herself and she always acted in the same air-headed manner. Why would she do that?

He obviously was missing something and if there was something he hated it was being kept in the dark.

"Excuse me?" a young tenor voice pulled his attention and he turned around and froze, eyes almost bulging at the sight. A young man, short and almost painfully thin stood there, black raven like wings hugging his slight frame and an almost identical looking young girl at his side. Both pairs of onyx eyes locked hopefully on him.

"Corvus," he said, the name coming out much more breathy than he'd prefer.

"We are though Princess likes to call me Corva so we know who she's talking to," the young girl said her voice lower than he'd anticipated.

"She…" he cleared his voice. "Lucy is contracted to both of you?" What he would give to be contracted to just one. Growing up he remembered reading about Corvus and their magic, remembered thinking how being able to fly and create illusions would be the ultimate freedom and how much he wanted one of the silver keys ever since and now here there was two Corvus spirits but both were already spoken for.

"When Princess saved us from that evil man we asked her to keep us both until another good master could be found to take one of us on," the boy said as he fingered his dark feathers still not really comfortable around the man, men in general really. It took time for that trust to build. He'd taken the brunt of the abuse from their previous master to shield the other spirits the man had.

"I've been watching you since Princess came to White Sea and was wondering, would you mind becoming my keyholder? Princess has been wonderful switching between us but we want our own Master and Corvus doesn't like men. Not that I blame him," she rambled a little before cutting herself off completely embarrassed.

"You want me?" That's all Hestor had heard, the rest of it could wait until he had her key in his hand and knew this was all real and not some crazy fever dream.

"Yes please," she said both hands coming out with the small silver key lying flat on her open palms.

"And your master is ok with that?"

If Corva thinks you're good people I have no objections. Though, if I find out you hurt her you won't live long enough to regret it. Hestor heard her voice in his mind, eyes cutting up to see his busy-body Master smile and wink at him.

"Oh yes." Corva nodded.

Hesitantly he reached for the key, fingers brushing her little hands, magic thrumming together as the contract formed and he couldn't help but smile as Corva slammed into his body and hugged her back idly noting how he dwarfed over her.

He wasn't quite sure when all of Earthland changed around him to give him what had to be one of his favorite days ever but he'd take it without question…at present. Later he could corner Kaleb or Lucy and get some answers.

End of Chapter


Here I was, all intent to have them fight it out then WHAM! Celestial spirits suddenly showed up as I was writing and a fight no longer seemed appropriate. Le sigh. Them's the breaks I guess.

On a happier note, I've pretty much finished the writing of this story and only have the final chapter read throughs to get through before they are up and posted so this next week should see the final chapters posted. Finally got a bit of my writing mojo back so figured I'd try and get this out and finished for those of you stuck bored at home. My ability to help others through this trying time is sadly limited but hopefully this helps?

Stay Safe!

Much Love, Blas