*August's POV*
I held the letter in both hands, reading and rereading the outside of the envelope. It had the guild hall's address, and my name. There was no return address, but I knew where it came from. A post box about twenty minutes from Justice Valkyrie's northern outpost. And there was only one person there who would be sending me fan mail.
"When did this come in?" I asked master Makarov, who was making his way calmly to his desk.
"Just now," he said, "I brought it right to you."
"So Violet doesn't know about it then?"
"No," the master said evenly, "She had already left for Lucy's when it came in."
Good. the farther she was form this the better.
"Is there a reason you don't want her to know?"
I took a deep breath, trying to calm the flash of anger that those words had given me. I found it quite easy to adjust to many of Fairy Tail's standards after we had been found out. But there were still parts of the guild that put my teeth on edge. The master was one of them.
He had a tendency to ask questions that I was sure he knew I didn't want to give the answers to. I always tried to find polite ways to deny him the information, but after four days, of the same song and dance I was starting to lose my nerve.
"If Takashi has sent me a letter," I said, avoiding the question, "Then it's not good for any of us."
He took a breath as if to say more, but fell silent as I ripped the envelope open. I had been expecting an angry letter, or perhaps even a new order from the master of Justice Vacancy, instead a communication lacrima feel onto the desk in front of me, starting a call without my permission.
In a flash I scooped it up and moved to the other side of the room, so that all that could be seen was a blank wall behind me. I pulled my sleeve down, hiding the scar that was left behind when I'd removed my guild mark. "Get out of sight," I ordered the master, "lock the door."
He did as I asked.
The call connected, and I was face to face with Takashi.
As my superior officer, he spoke first. "Well, look who it is," he said. He appeared to be sitting in his office. A place that I had grown to despise. "I thought you were never going to answer."
"I only got the letter today." I said, "You didn't have to send it by snail mail."
"Well I wasn't going to jump on another train now was I?" Takashi asked, "I don't get paid for babysitting."
I considered making a witty remark, but thought better of it. I had to delay Justice Valkyries attack as long as possible. "I'm glad that I waited to get home before opening this." I said, careful to keep my voice even. "What if one of the targets saw this? You should have sent it to our personal address."
Just as I said it, I remembered that I had not been checking the mail at our apartment. For all I knew he had tried that first. I would just have to blame it on the postal service.
"Well I just assumed that that rat hole would be like a second home to you now," Takashi said, "After all, I never did get my result."
"That's because they're keeping it quiet." Already the pieces of the lie where coming together.
Takashi leaned forward, but I couldn't tell if it was because he believed me or because he didn't. I prayed it was the former.
"Keeping it quiet?" he repeated.
"The Salamander is a public figure." I said, "the guild wants time to mourn before informing the outside world. And I believe there might be another reason. There have been rumors floating around about trying to get revenge on the killer."
"Do they know who that is?" Takashi asked, suddenly interested, then, "Where's Violet?"
"She's safe." I said, "she's still at the guild hall. She pretended to be close to Natsu, so she needs to seem broken up about it."
"Was is her kill?"
"Yes."
I briefly explained the plan that we had formed to kill Natsu, leaving out the part where it didn't work out.
"Amazing…" Takashi nodded, "give Violet my crongragualtons. That was a great one-hundred."
"I will." I said, "I'm sure she'll be honored."
"Do you have any plans on how to move forward?"
"A few," I said, "but we need to gather more entail first. Everyone is on their guard considering what happened."
"Yes, yes, of course." Takashi nodded. "I will definitely report to my father about this."
That was good news at least. He had bought the lie. For now.
"This is an important job. Once it's all over, Justice Valkyrie will be held in higher regard than ever before. You're doing good work."
"Thank you." I nodded. I knew that this was high praise coming from Takashi, so I had to treat it as such.
"Well, I'll go ahead and let you go," Takashi said, "I'm sure you have a funeral to help plan. But remember to destroy evidence of this communication, and expect more in the future."
"I will." I nodded.
And then the transmission ended.
I took a deep breath as tremors began to rack my body. There were so many things that could have gone wrong just then. So many ways that I could have been caught in a lie.
And there were more transitions to come… how long could I keep this up?
The master must have noticed my distress, for he stepped closer to me, reaching out as if to comfort a scared child. Is that what I was to him?
"August?"
I swiped the pager up from the desk and threw it onto the floor so hard it shattered. I stared at it for a moment, and then the rage took hold of me again, and I crushed it to dust with the heel of my shoe.
The master took a step back. I had been careful to control my violent outbursts when I was being watched. But there was only so much I could take. I was sure that Takashi had believed my lies, for if not he would have taunted me with the ridiculousness of it all. But despite the temporary success, I knew I had only managed to dig myself in deeper. The longer I drew this out, the worse it would be when everything hit the fan. But I had no long term solutions. I had nothing, least of all time.