Chapter 8: Tucked Away, In A Boring, Lumpy Pouch
With renowned determination, Serena marched to the guild, her friends trailing behind. Despite Mariam's resolute reasoning that her investigation can't be based on just gut feeling - which Serena knew was right - she only sped up her pace, leaving her friends behind in the dust.
Dramatically with a flourish, she opened the doors and scanned the guild to find her victim. Hiding in the back, she found her and marched right over before a hand stopped her. Mariam met her eyes with her steel glare. Serena looked away and pinched her features, but continued to walk over.
Xavier finally caught up with them, trailing close behind an aggravated Mariam and caught up with Serena.
"What's in your bag?" Serena demanded, slamming her hand down to the table. The now named victim - Farah, the one from before - who was giving a once-over, her hands curiously crowding her pouch. "It's a pouch, and also, you can't go up in people's business," The mage shot back furiously. "Well, you hid something important from this investigation that could help us and solve it. I'd suggest you let up your little pouch up to us, and we'd let you be. Got it? Good," She said, mockingly.
The mage only narrowed her eyes in disgust and straightened up to meet Serena. "Uh, no. Not happening, short stuff," Farah shot back. There was a tense silence, buzzing back and forth between each woman. Mariam breathed a sigh and walked over, easily pulling each out. "Sorry about my friend over here, but I'm asking nicely. Would you please let us take a look at your purse?" Mariam pulled out her nicest smile and put on her most pleading eyes. The mage was unmoved by Mariam's display, opting to just give out the purse to let these people leave her alone.
"I- I just need to hold out, ok?" Farah stuttered, holding the lumpy purse to her chest. "Sure, sure, whatever you need," Mariam waved away. The mage took a deep breath and held out the purse, unclipped it, and...
There, all tucked away in the boring pouch, was the 12 Golden Gate Keys - the legendary, Zodiac keys.
Serena breathed out a sigh of amazement, stumbling back. "They're gorgeous, Farah, oh my goodness." Serena brought her hands to her mouth. "I thought they were extinct and were lost by... gosh, I forgot her name, but lost about 700 years ago," Mariam said, impressed by the sheer amount of power the woman must-have. Xavier came to look and as well, was impressed by the Golden keys.
"Hope you can finish your investigation.. and stay safe," Farah said, tucking the keys away and putting them back on her chain. The group didn't hear the last part, they were too busy outside.
"See! I was right! The ghosts we encountered last night must be Team Salamander! The ghost that tried to touch Farah's pouch must've been Lucy Heartfilia - it's always been said she loved her spirits so she must've been entranced like we were to see them!" Serena yelled, happily jumping up and down.
"But how do we know it was Lucy? How do we know it's Team Salamander that's haunting the guild?" Xavier said, picking at his sleeve. Mariam sniffed. "Well, I mean, I agree with Xavier, there were many key holders from when Lucy died. But-" Mariam stopped, mentally rewinding history to refute Serena's claim. But she couldn't. There were very few key holders besides Lucy Hartfillia and even fewer who held as many as 3 at once.
The only person to come close to that was Yukino Agria, who held exactly three. She was supposedly offered to take Harttfilia's keys but refused, saying that the spirits would refuse to leave Lucy's side. Once that was decided, the spirits sporadically placed themselves around Fiore - some going outside of Fiore, onto Alvarez - and many couldn't locate them. So, they were incredibly rare to find. Agria's spirits joined them once she retired at the ripe age of 89, and they haven't been found in exactly 700 years. How Farah had managed to find all of them was beyond Mariam - though she did have a clue it might have to do with the fact she could be in Hartfilia lineage, considering all Hartfilias' have been celestial mages - but that was a topic for another day. And the bond of Lucy and her spirits was legendary, it would only make sense it would be her.
"I- I agree with Serena. It has to be Lucy Hartfilia, there's no other person," Mariam said, stuttering. Xavier gave an incredulous look between both but bit his lip and gave in. "Fine, I guess. Where to go from here?"
"The library," Serena and Mariam said.
The library wasn't a true library. More of a large temple. Like you'd expect for a goddess.
Nonetheless, they ventured in, to find a light pink-haired man organizing shelves way bigger than his size. Serena let the giant door close with a large bang, alerting him of the group's presence.
Sauntering out of the shelve, made him have a much clearer view of himself, and Serena could tell he was wearing a white, button-up shirt with blue dress pants along with boat shoes. 'Nicely dressed,' Serena noted.
"Hello, and good morning! I'm Aran, nice to meet you," Aran held out a hand to shake and Mariam took it, placing herself in business mode. "I'm Mariam Ester, the one besides me is Serena King, and that's Xavier Light. We're here looking for stuff on Team Salamander if it's not too much of a bother," She sweetly said.
Aran bit his lip, his eyes darting to the left. "I think they're all in the back, hopefully, this will not take long," He waved to them to follow him and Aran led them through the giant, marble hall of books. Mariam felt a strong urge to pick up the nearest book but Xavier put his hand on her back before she could bolt.
Meanwhile, Serena was enjoying Aran's stories of Team Salamander, finding them so interesting. "You know, 'Salamander', 'Titania', and Gray used to destroy everything on missions. Wendy and Lucy used to try to stop them, but it was fruitless. Imagine if they lived in this era, how much crap they would give to Queen Ema. Haha, I'd like to imagine them trying to talk their way out of her majesty's cold punishments," He said, his laughter reverberating against the high arcs of the library.
"I'd like to meet them, someway. I think my favorites are Lucy and Gray, they sound cool," She admitted, shaking off the imaginable scary faces of Titania and Salamander, given last night's encounter. It didn't go I noticed by Aran, who watched with great interest.
"You mentioned you and your friends are paranormal investigators; I'm guessing you already had an encounter with Scarlett and Dragneil?" Aran said, looking up to the sky. Serena stayed silent but then nodded. "Yeah, unfortunately, they're pretty scary. But we don't know if that's them or someone else, though," Serena said, bashfully. Aran made a low, understanding hum in his throat.
"Oh look, we're here! Congrats everyone, you've time-traveled!" Serena looked with great interest at all the glass boxes, holding apparently something old and legendary. Most books were in the form of leather-bound pieces of parchment miraculously still together. Others in a folder set off to the side. And were all in their little safe places, that being either modern cardboard boxes or glass boxes set with the top security.
Aran strolled over to a list on one of the bookshelves, reading the list until he found what he was looking for. He then gestured for the group to follow and Serena, Mariam, and Xavier shared a determined look.
They followed the pink-haired man until they hit a section called Fairy Tail in the Late 700's. It was the most filled section from what Serena could tell. Aran pivoted and faced the little crowd, rubbing his hands with excitement.
"So, where'd you like to go first?" He said. "Wherever is the most important," Serena affirmed. Aran took a quick look behind him, surveying the books, and an idea popped into his head. "Ah, we'll start with Alvarez War! Serena said you were right over there, so we'll skip over the actual war afterward!" He said, joyfully.
The group followed him closely to a desk, where the books he grabbed from shelves. Aran opened a book called The Aftermath: Alvarez Volume ll. He thumbed through carefully, then finally coming to page 32, titled Chapter 2. Serena found herself dizzy from all the words piled onto the page, and, not going unnoticed by Aran, read out loud to the group.
"The war ended once Acnologia was defeated via the dragon slayers (Wendy Marvel, Sting Yeclife, Gajeel Redfox, Rogue C., 'Salamander' Dragneil, and two unnamed others). From an unarmed mage, we presume her name is Meledy, says... "'the world had [cracked]..."' Ok, we don't need that- oh, here we are! Ahem, "Two mages that have names that have been almost washed from history [Titania and Salamander] had been hurt by their respective battles: Titania against Irene, the Nation Wrecker. And Salamander against the Godliest Terrors Known to Man, Acnologia and Zeref. Based on the diary of Lucy Hartfilia, she said the two had full body casts and wouldn't wake up-"
Serena slapped her palm against the table, frightening Aran from his sentence. "Where is Hartfilia's diary?" Serena demanded. The librarian closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry, Serena, but only those with permission from the members of the Society of Lost History or me can touch it. Maybe later, but you can't now," He said. Serena fell back in silence. "I- Fine. Continue, please."
"Where was I? Oh yes: "... said the two had full body casts and wouldn't wake up for days; the two had drained out their energy and magical reserves, which left them in shock. It was only after a week did they wake up, tackled immediately by fellow teammates and guildmates Lucy, Gray, and Wendy. The five would go on to perform at the Fairy Tail Guild's Annual Performance of Fantasia, as Saviors of Fiore and later on (with the Queen at that time) Queen Hisui's Crocus Parade. Salamander and Marvel also joined in with Yecliffe, Rogue C., and Redfox to do a couple of songs as the Dragon Force."
"Dragon Force? Saviors of Fiore? I'm confused?" Xavier cut in. "Well, Fairy Tail does a celebrations parade at the end of every October, to celebrate the harvest season. However, because the war was so devastating and crippling, Queen Hisui wanted to just take a moment and just enjoy their win... that's in her words, anyway," Aran explained.
"So, she asked the guilds to comply and bring over some mages to do this. That's why Rogue and Sting are there, even though they're in Sabertooth. All the guilds brought all mages and they all danced together. Some were grouped with random people, others in special groups like Dragon Force (which was cutely named for all those in the group being dragon slayers!)" He said, his excitement growing.
"But what about Saviors of Fiore?" Mariam asked. Aran nodded and continued, "I was going with that next. So, the Saviors of Fiore thing was because Salamander and Titania defeated heavy players of the war (Irene, Acnologia, and Zeref). Lucy and Gray helped rewrite the book of E. N. D, which stopped the demon from adding more chaos to the already impending war. And Wendy helped Salamander defeat Acnologia and also aided Titania with defeating Irene. All of them had heavy hands in ending the war, that's why all five are called the saviors. Any more questions?" Aran asked.
Serena looked back at her two teammates, judging their expressions, and gesturing for him to continue. "After the two parades, everything went back to almost normal and the mages continued. Until x812, with the war with Crocus. Chapter 3: x812... That's where it stops," Aran looked back to the three.
"Really? Are you sure? There are no other sources on Team Salamander?" Serena said, worryingly. "Well, there's more around here on the shelves but you're not allowed to touch them. But you can look at this poster from Fantasia." Aran gestured to a painting of a parade float, with five standing atop. "No! You should let us see them!" Soon, Serena busied herself with arguing with Aran, much to his "delight".
Meanwhile, Mariam stepped closer to the poster and studied it. One blonde; one redhead; one pink-haired, surprisingly enough; a black-haired; and another with multicolored hair, blue. With costumes that all matched their magic type, Mariam noted. Beneath, was their names. The poster was old, though, and had way too many scratches and crevices to read a few things properly. The pink-haired and red-haired were Titania and Salamander, who, Mariam saw, used Fire magic and Requip. Whose name was cut through by a little scratch but Mariam, just knowing the mages a bit by now, noticed the keys and thought back to the statue? Lucy Hartfilia. The other two were 100% Wendy Marvel and Gray Fullbuster, who respectively used some form of Sky magic (?) and ice magic.
"Tell us how can we learn more?"
WHOO! I'm back! Hello, I'm not dead! Man, it's been a while, hasn't it?
I had just been super busy with other stuff and didn't get a chance to write! But now that I doI'm free!
So, this chapter was interesting huh? I've always wondered what happened between that year break and I feel like it would've been pretty safe to say there would've been so many parties. This is just my actual headcanon though. Also, name changed, huh? He he, well, um, considering that these mages are over 100 years old, their names are probably modified. Considering how many crevices were in that poster, I'd say so.
Anyway, have a niceday/night and I'll see you in the next chapter! Bye~!