"I'm glad I was right about you being here."

Jade flinched upon hearing another voice from the other side of the room but relaxed when she saw it was only Evergreen. Lacey excitedly grabbed her godmother's glasses off her face and ran towards Evergreen, wanting her to play too. While the mage happily swooped her up and let her babble, the look she gave Jade set quite a different tone. It took her a moment to figure it out, however, given how damn blurred Evergreen was in her vision and, with an exasperated shake of her head, Evergreen set the little girl down and tapped the glasses in her hand. Lacey only giggled, not quite understanding what she meant.

"You know," Evergreen said, guiding Lacey back towards Jade. "She can't see three feet in front of her without her glasses, so I'd put those back on hers before she walks into anything."

Jade scowled at her blurry form. "Not in the mood, Ever."

"Jade!" Lacey hugged her godmother tightly and slammed her glasses back on her face with a smile. "You see me now."

Jade smiled. "Yep," She said, tapping the little girl's nose.

Evergreen looked between them and then sighed. "I have questions for you, Jade," She said quietly. "It's about your mother."

"Of course it is," Jade pulled off her pearls and handed them to Lacey, whose face immediately lit up in excitement. Then, she finally looked back to Evergreen. "Just get it over with."

"It's more about what could have led to her being targeted, other than just being a member of the Magic Council," Evergreen said hesitantly, only going on when she was sure Lacey was paying no attention to them. "What happened to your brother had been years before then, and same with your father. I just….I can't help but wonder if those are somehow connected."

Jade ran a hand nervously through her hair. "I wonder that too," She softly admitted. "But, to be honest, I never really saw much there. Nothing…"

Evergreen eyed her nervously when she trailed off. "What?" She pressed.

"It's nothing," Jade said quickly. "Just...a bit of an odd memory. It occurred to me that my mom had once said she had been married about five years before she had married my father and had me….but she would never tell me much more than that and I had pressed her on it for years. Even a few weeks before she had...disappeared I had tried to get her to talk about it but nothing. I suppose what happened must have been terrible...or just not worth mentioning. To be honest, I really don't know."

Evergreen's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "That's a bit strange."

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't," Jade shook her head. "To this day, I don't think I'm ever going to know and I'm just glad she's alright...I really thought she was gone."

"You all did," Evergreen sympathetically patted her shoulder. "But it's over now, and things can return to the way they were. I'm sure that's what she wants as well."

Jade quirked a smile. "Since when are you so nice?"

"I've always been this way," Evergreen innocently replied. "And, besides, I've gotten used to you over the years. Certainly helps that I work with your husband now."

Jade rolled her eyes. "Not that you and Sieg are known for getting along well."

"Now, now, that's not quite fair," Evergreen replied. "He and I just have….some disagreements. If you feel the need to be concerned about anyone, be concerned about Mest. I'm sure Cana could tell you any number of stories of the arguments he and I have gotten in."

Jade eyed her nervously. "I'm going to hope you two have never tried to attack each other."

"Not since we've both been on the Magic Council," Evergreen muttered. "Before then? That's up for debate."

"Sparkles!" Lacey giggled and hopped onto her godmother again, trying to wrap the pearls around her. "Sparkle sparkles!"

"She's a cutie," Evergreen sadly noted. "I just hope she can stay this innocent for awhile."

"It's more than just this," Levy said, holding the necklace up in her gloved hands. "Gajeel and I are almost certain there's more to it. The question is, what. Of course, Ivan escaping from prison likely had something to do with looking to reestablish himself as a powerful, dark mage, but the truth is we don't know much more than that. And, of course, we can't be certain that he was, in fact, the same man who sourced this necklace but, whomever it was, they clearly meant for it to harm Hisui, if not kill her."

Hisui flinched. "And this was...how long ago exactly?"

"About a week," Levy shortly admitted.

Laxus tensed. "Well, then," He said, reaching over to reassuringly squeeze his wife's knee. "Is there anything else we should know?"

Levy sighed. "To be honest, we don't know much," She said, rubbing her neck. "Because there's just too many shifting factors. This is really the only new thing since what Gajeel and I told Toma a week and a half ago. I just….I saw it and immediately recognised it. That's why I told Arcadios...and that's why he handed it over to me."

Hisui tiredly buried her face in her hands. "I'm so glad nothing happened…" She said quietly.

"I am too," Laxus lightly rubbed her back. "I don't want to know what could have happened, especially because…"

He trailed off upon the doors to the drawing room opening. Toma stepped in, his brow furrowed and an unusual weight and anxiety to his step. Arcadios followed shortly behind him, and Levy handed him the necklace almost the second he stepped in. The White Knight closed the doors, the necklace in one hand, and frowned as he examined it. There certainly was a pulse of magic energy radiating from it, something which only seemed to make it feel heavier. Unnerved, he set it down and stood near it, refusing to let it be touched even the slightest bit. There was something deeply wrong with it, and, though he could not tell what it was, to say the very least it was troubling.

"Thank you for keeping an eye on this….situation," Arcadios said, nodding shortly towards Levy. "It seems his majesty was right to trust the expertise of you and your husband."

Levy glanced towards the antique. "Regrettably, we haven't got much to go on."

"We'll be monitoring the situation closely in the city," Toma told her. "Especially with the knowledge of Ivan Dreyar's escape from prison. I would tend to agree with your assessment that he would be the most likely person to be behind this. Of course, if he is in the city, he has concealed himself well."

"That would be one of his specialities," Arcadios noted. "We have seen as much before. However, all things considered, I do think it best that the queen and her husband not leave the palace. It's far too dangerous."

Laxus sighed. "For once, I won't object to that. The last thing I want is for 'Sui, Lacey, or the baby to be in danger."

"Yes, exactly," Hisui said nothing when Laxus pulled her tighter into his arms, almost as if he were afraid something would happen right then. "Laxus, I'm alright."

"I know you are," He whispered, briefly letting his fear for her show. "I'm only worried, that's all."

"I am too," She said softly. "But we're okay right now."

Laxus stared at her for a few seconds, kissed her forehead, and then let out a small sigh.

"Alright," He said, calmly looking back to Levy and Arcadios. "Anything else we should know?"

"I haven't got anything else," Levy said, awkwardly adjusting her rather heavy bag on her shoulder before pulling off her gloves.

"There haven't been any new reports on the matter with regard to your father," Arcadios put in. "But we will keep an eye on the situation."

"That is all we can do, I imagine," Toma turned to his daughter and son-in-law. "I'm sure you two are more than exhausted, please, take some time for yourselves. I'm sure your daughter would appreciate seeing you two as well."

Laxus kept his hand tightly entwined with Hisui's as they stood up, and, the second they saw their daughter, he vowed again to never let his father hurt them.

January 3rd, X792

Ivan -

We found the last few locations of former and current members of the Magic Council and have begun our strikes against them. With Era being our first target, hopefully quite a few of the current members will be taken out at once and we can address predominantly the former members. For any that survive - provided any of them do - I suggest we attack them quickly without giving them much time to think. Within a few weeks, we will likely have obliterated the majority - if not all - of the Ishgar Magic Council. We have a few other things planned in tandem with your work, but it is unlikely those will interfere with one another. For now, this is merely an update.

We do, however, have a few questions regarding the recent partnership you have formed with the leaders of the Alvarez Empire to the north east of Fiore. While, of course, we are not against any efforts that would destabilize the kingdom as it would be quite useful to our own ends, we require a bit more information about exactly who will be involved and when with regard to your plans. Of course, as some of these may very well not be of your own design, we do not expect you to have enough to clue us in on everything. However, without sufficient explanation, we cannot proceed in our partnership.

As well, we would like to know if you have any special instructions for any of our targets. I understand that you particularly want to silence one person in particular due to them being the mother of your son and his half-sister, but this is something you have been quite silent on and, frankly, I need to know more if we are to execute this properly.

That being said, we also will require -

Ivan didn't even bother to look at the other two pages attached to the letters. He knew their contents all too well and didn't see much point in looking over them again. Of course, he knew now that addressing the issue of Laxus' mother had not worked out and that she was still alive; a wrinkle in his plans, if any, but not the worst thing he saw facing him in the upcoming weeks and months. Angrily, his hands began to tighten around the papers as he recalled catching that one Fairy Tail mage finding what he had laid aside when he had breached the palace. He knew, ultimately, that although he had been foiled in harming the queen, he now knew the broader internal layout of the palace and would be able to plan better with that knowledge in mind. Nevertheless, vitriol boiled in him, and he knew that Laxus would know by now. It disgusted him, how protective Laxus was of Hisui, but Ivan knew there was no use dwelling on it. She and their damn child were the center of his life, and Ivan viewed them as his son's weakness.

But, still, what was contained later in these pages were not something he ever wanted his son to know about. It would only make his own plans more difficult, because Ivan knew full well that Laxus, if he found out who his mother was, would turn to her and his half-sister. That, Ivan feared, would be disastrous to his plans.

"At least she'll never breathe a damn word of this."

Ivan tossed the three-page letter into the flames, watching the messy, handwritten words crumple and writhe under the heat and might of the flames. He had absolutely no doubt in his mind that, no matter how much it weighed on her and no matter what else she knew, Laxus' mother would never breathe a word on the subject to him or anyone else. His half-sister would never know, and neither would anyone else in the family. Ivan knew he had played it well when he had taken Laxus. Yes, his son had only been two years old and had never been able to recall his mother, but Ivan had never forgotten. After she had remarried and had her two other children, he had begun to threaten her again. Her husband, too, was no longer an issue and had not been for quite some time. She had seen then and one other time that he had no issue in killing the people she loved in order to secure her silence, and Ivan was quite prideful of his mastery. He had done it better than anyone else could have.

Of that, at least, he was certain.