Standing By
Lady Countryrose
Ch. 3
After a long day at the guild hall. Where Hermione met a guild fill of new friends. She was tired. Lucy led her out of the guild, following the waterway. Before facing a small two-story cottage.
Lucy gave her an award-winning smile. She shrugged her shoulders. "Welcome to Château de a Luce." Lucy giggled softly. "No one, not even my team, can enter. Not unless I wish to. There are Runes covering the property preventing anyone from entering."
Hermione had learned earlier. That Lucy's team used to crash into her home, daily. That or getting herself kidnapped, due to living alone.
"Once, I had gotten this place, I had asked Freed to set up the Runes."
"How do the Runes work," asked Hermione. Following Lucy into the house. After seeing a flash of symbols, just as the door closed behind her.
Lucy gave a thoughtful look. "What I understand from Freed was. Runes are a set of rules, anchoring a spell in place. So I worded it that none should enter, not unless invited. So no creature or person can enter. You are the only person I have allowed, other than myself."
Hermione smiled, "Thank you for doing this for me, Lucy." She had taken a deep breath. "I would have been lost. Not knowing where to go."
After a small tour of the house. Lucy led Hermione to a bedroom. Where she found a bed and a small shower, in an in suite.
"This is the master bedroom. I love baths too much to use the bedroom. It's yours while you live here. I'll ask Virgo to get a set of clothes made for you. Until we have funds to go shopping."
Hermione's head was swimming, trying to catch up with what Lucy was saying. "Virgo?"
"My spirit, I am a Celestial Spirit mage. I summon spirits to aid me." She smiled as she held up her keys. "My closest family, I have. I keep track of days they wish off. So I don't misuse them. I hate keyholders that misuse their contracts."
Before Hermione had heard the last bit. She would have argued about slave work. But hearing about contracts and rewarding days off. It was enough to quiet her tongue. Knowing, after seeing house elves loving work, she had learned her lesson the hard way.
After Lucy left Hermione. She had gone and taken a shower. Only to find her cursed 'Mudblood' carved onto her arm, was gone. She was shocked, but happy to see it gone. After Ron's sister-in-law had stated, there was no way to heal or hide the curse word. But it was gone.
'It must be the guild mark. It's the only thing I have that's new. It may have the kind of magic to write off the word.'
Once back in her room. She saw a purple silk set of shirt and shorts, sleepwear. Putting them on, before going down to the living room. Where she was met with a cup of tea and a slice of cake.
"I thought you needed a treat after a long day, you had."
Hermione smiled before sitting down next to Lucy. "Thank you, but I think I had a long year." After they had their treat. Lucy managed to get Hermione to talk about her year.
"And you're alive?!" Lucy was shocked after Hermione's long-winded story, about her year on the run. "Don't tell any of the dragon slayers about riding a dragon."
She shook her head. "Not even Natsu. He would be so upset. He misses Igneel."
"Was Igneel, his Dad or something," asked Hermione.
Lucy shrugged her shoulders. "He might as well have been. Since Natsu only remembers him, long before coming to Fairy Tail."
Hermione asked Lucy, "What are your spirits and what do they do?"
"Loke or Leo, the leader of the Zodiac. A lion, with the power of stars…" Then she went on with the rest of them. Even told her about her lost spirit, Aquarius, and how she lost her.
Hermione glanced down at the empty tea cup. "Sorry to hear you lost your second mother. But isn't there a way to get her back?"
Lucy nodded with a small smile. "I have to wait for the Spirit King to forge a new key for her. Then I would have to go hunting for it."
"I'll go with you," Hermione stated, with a termination in her voice.
"Thank you."
From that moment, the two went to their own bedrooms for the night. Allowing sleep to take them away.