Mest resisted the urge to gag the second he and Cana stepped into the small shop, the smell of burning incense all but attacking him when he stepped in. Sure enough, looking over a tarot spread, the woman they had been following for the better part of two hours was there. Up close, she seemed almost too odd for words. Her face was mostly covered, but they could clearly tell that she was quite pale, almost sickly so from what of her face and hands were visible, with dark blue eyes and greying black hair that peaked out from under the layers of fabric that obscured her. She looked up at them, scanning between them, before fixating on Cana, who she motioned to sit down. Mest sat down beside her, discomfort twisting in his stomach that he swore had nothing to do with the overpowering smell of incense and the heat in the room.

"You seem to be quite curious," The woman spoke in a low voice and took Cana's hand, her knobbly fingers running over the lines on her palm. "With an aura of pure intrigue. Hard to pin a color on it….but that man with you is a deep green. A healer."

Cana smiled. "He certainly is."

"Now…" She glanced suspiciously towards Mest. "What have you come to seek?"

"There's a man in my family who recently escaped prison," Cana carefully replied. "I'd like to know where he is. I want to meet up with him. It's been far too long since I've seen him. See, he's….my uncle. My cousin will probably be unhappy if he finds out about this, but…."

"Hm…" The woman eyed her up and down, and then lowered some of her scarves to reveal her face. Mest intensely studied her features out of the corner of his eyes. "There are not many prison escapees out there...not of note, that is. Was he...by chance….high profile?"

Cana nodded. "Extremely high profile. See," She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial tone. "He's the king's father."

The woman took in a sharp breath. "I need not consult the cards for that," She said coldly. "He is here in my home. I shall summon him for you. I'm sure he'll recognise you. After all, you are a member of his family."

Cana tensed. Fuck, fuck, fuck, she thought. We're going to get fucking murdered, aren't we? How shitty is our luck?

Mest looked to her the second the woman slipped out of the room. When they heard footsteps approaching, he swore under his breath and clenched his fists beneath his robes. This, he was sure, would not end well. Sure enough, when the curtains shifted again, the woman was not there and, instead, the imperious figure of Ivan Dreyar was before them. He narrowed his eyes at Mest, and, when his gaze settled on Cana, his features darkened considerably. Cana felt her entire body go cold, wanting to run but feeling completely unable to do so. Still waiting for the fight, Mest prepared himself, willing himself to be quick enough to extradite them from what he was sure would become a quite dangerous situation. His fears, however, were disturbingly misplaced.

"So," Ivan said darkly. "The wench told you some lie about your half-brother being your cousin? I'm surprised she told you anything at all. She knows better….or, should I say, knew."

Cana swallowed hard. "Yes," She said, looking down at her hands and too antsy to say anything more.

Ivan snorted. "Interesting that your husband isn't with you. Who's this? A new companion? Did you grow tired of the stuffy Council member I heard you married."

"This is merely...my escort," Cana lied. Mest looked up, shocked, but nodded. "My husband is still in Era."

Ivan raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? Well. Apparently Siegrain isn't as oblivious as I've always assumed."

Cana blinked, her mind reeling in confusion. Why in the hell would he think I'm Jade? She and Laxus aren't related...are they?

"Sorry to bother you," She finally said, standing up quickly. "I merely needed to know the truth. Laxus….tends to...distort things."

Ivan laughed darkly. "That he does. Do not breathe a word of this to him."

"Of course," Mest put in before Cana could say anything else.

They left in almost a blur, more relieved than they could ever remember being when they returned to their hotel room, with far more questions than they had any answers to.

"The last thing I expected when we took this job was to become involved in tryin' to take down a potential threat to the royal family," Gajeel took back a long sip of beer before sighing and looking over towards his wife. "Really, this is insane. Takes me back, too."

Levy briefly met his gaze. "Yeah," She agreed. "It's disturbing….but all too familiar."

"What's even crazier is that my mom…" He trailed off and shook his head. "When Siegrain called...well, my first instinct was to think I'd gotten into some trouble. To find out she's not dead...that she survived…"

"It's a good thing," Levy smiled. "Oh, Gajeel…" She tapped his nose affectionately when she noticed he was struggling to not cry. "Hey, she's fine. It's better than we ever could have thought."

"I know, I know," He smiled. "Sorry, Lev," He forced himself to laugh. "It's been a long time since I've gotten emotional, huh? Good thing the kids are asleep, then."

Levy lightly kissed him. "You know I don't mind it. You've never had to hide in front of me, even if you were a tough ass nails dick when we first met."

Gajeel raised an eyebrow. "Just be glad I don't chew on nails and screws anymore."

"Don't lie," Levy teased. "I caught you chewing on one of our old car keys just the other day."

"Was I supposed to let it go to waste?" He rolled his eyes. "Be practical, Lev. Some things have too much utility to be thrown out. I'm still Black Steel Gajeel, the Iron Dragon Slayer. I just have kids and a wife now…..and don't do crimes anymore."

Levy laughed. "That's one way to phrase it. But don't worry. I'm not concerned."

"Good," He said, leaning back against the chair and gesturing to the multiple scrolls spread over the desk. "Now, what the hell were we supposed to be doing? Last time I looked, it seemed like half of these were old alchemy scripts and the others were just royal nonsense."

Levy playfully mussed his hair. "Royal nonsense?" She repeated. "Really?"

"Well, that's what it is to me," He shrugged. "I sure as hell don't know how Laxus puts up with some of that shit. He must really love Hisui."

"And I thought that had been pretty obvious to everyone for years," Levy shook her head with an amused smile. "I'm sorry, Gajeel, but you're pretty late coming to that observation. He's more than once proven he'll do anything for her. He's even fought his own father over it."

"Fair enough," Gajeel put up his hands in mock surrender. "But, to be fair, his father's always been a douche. I worked with him at one point, if you'll recall. God, that was hell. Ivan's the most self-righteous piece of shit I've ever met. He seemed to really hate my mom too, though I was never sure why. No one seemed to know anything about it. Probably was related to her being on the Council. I bet he was aware she woulda been more than happy to have put him under arrest."

"Yeah," Levy trailed off briefly in thought. "That would make sense. Ivan never has been a fan of law enforcement. He probably trusted you because of your criminal history, and he probably assumed your relationship with your adoptive mother wasn't great….which, while I know it was strained at times, was simply not true."

"Ivan's a real creep," Gajeel agreed. "Though I will say mom got real quiet any time I ever tried to ask her about him. Said all that information was 'classified.' She shut it down that way every time. I just thought it was weird...although I guess she didn't know I was spying on him."

Levy sighed. "That's probably fair."

Gajeel nodded thoughtfully but, finally, gestured back to the scrolls again. "Should we get back to work?"

"Probably," Levy said, sitting down beside him and putting on her glasses. "Alright….so where exactly was I in the translations…."

"It's been quite a long time. It was quite the pleasant surprise to learn you're still alive, Bella."

Belno raised an eyebrow, rather taken aback hearing anyone use that nickname, much less Makarov. He glanced up, eyeing her for a moment and taking a sip of his beer. She eyed him critically, though she knew she was far too tired to be annoyed. Of course, she had not expected him to ask her to meet him in downtown Crocus late at night, but, then again, he was as aware as she was of the shock her return had been. It would be counterproductive to risk someone noticing them and a million questions arising. Still, it was also uncomfortable. They had scant spoken in the years leading up to her disappearance, and, before then, they certainly had not discussed anything pleasant. Those matters in and of themselves had always brought up terrible memories, memories of loss and violence.

"I know we haven't always been on the...best of terms," Makarov eventually broke the silence, awkwardly clearing his throat. "But I -"

"Enough, Makarov," She said shortly. "You and I both know exactly why I was so willing to make time to speak to you in particular."

He nodded grimly. "Yes, I'm afraid we both do."

She watched him with narrow eyes for a few seconds. "How are Laxus and Hisui?" She finally said. "I heard of Ivan's….escape. I can't imagine that's easy on them….him especially."

Makarov glanced around them and lowered his voice when he spoke. "They're alright. Shaken, but alright. Of course, they're worried about their daughter and he's especially concerned because she's with child, but they're fine."

Belno sighed. "He's been protective of her for years. Ever since they first started seeing each other just before the X791 Grand Magic Games…."

"And then only a year later things went terribly wrong," Makarov finished. "Not for them, but for all of us."

She paused briefly, and then shook her head. "I suppose I should ask: does Laxus know?"

"About his mother?" Makarov frowned. "No. He's been rather persistent about finding out who she is in recent years, and Hisui has certainly increased that, what with trying to find information via records. Still, they have not found anything….yet. The only people who know are us and Ivan himself. I haven't told his younger sister, nor have I told his adopted brother even though he's a member of the guild. Interesting that they're both Dragon Slayers, though. I know that's simply a coincidence, but, still, it's strange to think about. He even knows his younger sister and she's always been a close friend of his wife's. It's almost -"

He stopped short when she deftly raised her hand to silence him.

"I don't like it, but he's better off not knowing," Belno sent Makarov a pointed look. "I sincerely hope you haven't forgotten the threats Ivan made with regard to that matter."

"I have not," Makarov replied. "But he's not a child anymore, Bella. He has a family, and he's more than capable of defending himself. Does he not deserve to know? Do none of them deserve to know?"

"This is not a matter of whether or not they deserve to know or not," She said, an unusually nervous edge to her voice. "And I refuse to put anything past Ivan. I figured out a long time ago that he was behind the attempt on my life. That was personal."

"I know," Makarov said, sounding dejected. "But, with Laxus...you're his mother. He should at least know. I almost told him, Gajeel, and Jade after your disappearance, you know."

"Ivan's done enough damage without us giving him what he'll think is a reason to cause more," She countered, scowling in an attempt to mask her confliction. "I am not going to do anything that could put them in danger. They've all suffered enough because of him...and I refuse to be responsible for that being exacerbated."

Makarov furrowed his brow. "What happened between you and Ivan was terrible, but it won't happen here. They're all adults, now, and adults more than capable of defending themselves. Consider the security about the palace. Laxus and Hisui are more than protected, and so is their daughter."

"You cannot guarantee that," Belno shortly countered. "And I don't even know where to begin with telling them either."

"Bella, at least consider it," Makarov all but pleaded. "This is too serious to dismiss...especially now."