Chapter Twenty Eight - Porlyusica

In front of me was an odd house out in the woods.

When I say 'house', I really mean 'hollowed out tree a hermit thought was a good place to live in'.

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Go away!" came an angry old voice.

"Porly, it's me!" I said.

The door opened and Porlyusica stared at me. "Don't call me that."

I rolled my eyes. "I wanted to talk to you about a few things."

She held the door open farther and let me walk in. "Well?" she demanded.

"Oh, calm down. You'll be happy to know that I can make the potions perfectly now," I told her.

An eyebrow rose. "You used them?"

I nodded. "Yeah, when I was training."

"And how did that go?" she asked.

"Well, that's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about," I said. "First, I was fighting earlier, and my magical power kinda…well, it would have kept running, but some sort of shock went through me. I was hoping you could give me a check-up."

She nodded and started doing a bunch of things that I didn't understand. "What else? I know this isn't the only reason you bothered me."

I chuckled. "Well, Makarov knows now."

Porlyusica, who was from Edolas, could tell I wasn't originally from this world, even if I do have a magical container and she doesn't.

"Good, you should have told him from the start." She froze in her machinations, before she started up again, running around and grabbing things. "You are a very, very lucky girl, Eleanor Rigby."

"What?" I asked. "Why?"

"Because you caught it early."

"Caught what?" I asked. "You know what's wrong with me?"

Porlyusica paused. "Yes. To put it simply…you have too much magical power in your body. If you can't drain it, you'll die."

Too much magical power… I was reminded of Ultear. She had that problem as well.

"So what do we do?" I asked her.

Ultear had obviously survived. Though I didn't fancy getting tortured by those psychopaths and Brain.

"Magical Overload is a difficult thing to handle. There's some potions we can use as a substitute for now, but we need something that will restrain your magic. And simply locking it away wouldn't do. It's not like we could just use magic-inhibiting cuffs or anything. You need something that actively drains the magic from your body."

"For how long?" I asked.

She shook her head, passing me a potion, which I started drinking. "I'm not quite sure. I don't think Gildarts's stopped until he reached his mid-teens. It could be four or five years, at least."

I finished the potion, then handed the empty bottle back to her. "Gildarts?"

She nodded. "Yes, Gildarts had a bit of trouble with magical power. Honestly, it's one of the reasons that most people wait to teach their children until they reach a certain age. The only exception being Slayers, as their bodies are actually biologically changed to sustain more of their power."

I paused. "Does that mean the rest of the kids are going to get this, too?" I screeched.

"It's possible," Porlyusica said. "It depends on the type of magic, and the person. If they're born with the magic, they usually don't need to worry."

Well, that crossed out Juvia, Bickslow and Evergreen. Laxus was safe because he was a slayer. But Cana, Levy and Freed were still a possibility.

"However, if they're not born with it, they need to be monitored."

"You said magical cuffs that actively drain magic, right?" I asked.

She nodded.

I requipped some of the ones from my requip space. "Like this?"

She froze as she took it in. "Where did you get this?"

I shrugged. "A magical store? An archeological site? I don't even know anymore."

She took it and nodded. "Yes. This is the type of thing that would work. You'll have to wear this for years, though. Over time, you can slowly start taking it off, and increase the amount of time you're not wearing it. That should help your body adjust faster."

"I don't know if you've heard about the Grand Magic Games," I said, clasping it on my wrist. "But Fairy Tail will be competing, and I would like you to come. If not to watch, then at least to stay in the hospital wing so you can help if we get hurt."

She raised an eyebrow. "You kids are competing?"

"Yes," I said. "Including me. Can I still do that with this?" I held up my wrist.

She nodded. "Yes. I suggest you take off the bracelet a few minutes before you perform. It will probably help to let your body refill natural for the games, and burn out your power that way. But you need to be careful, Elle, or you could get really sick. You can't use too much power at once. Also, I suggest you stop using those cards. Those might have triggered this as well. Meditate everyday, with the cuffs on. Don't take it off or use those cards unless it's an emergency. While it actively drains magic, you'll still be able to use it, just on a much smaller level - enough for you to keep teleporting and requipping items as often as you do."

I nodded. Don't take off the bracelet, continue meditating and training with it on. Keep away from the cards unless it's a life or death situation. Make Cana and everyone else stop using the cards, and if I know that I'm going to fight, take the bracelet off a few minutes before. "Alright. Also, Laxus has motion sickness, so I was wondering if you'd be able to make a potion or patch that would fix that for him. It's really just a matter of restoring his equilibrium."

"I see." She nodded. "Very well, child, I will work on developing something for him. Is that all?"

"Well…one more thing..." I paused. "Do you promise that you won't hit me with your broom?"

"No," she said. "Spit it out, child."

"Are you Laxus's grandmother?" I blurted.

She got a look of shock on her face, before she sighed. "Yes, I am, actually. How did you know?"

"It was honestly just a guess," I said. "You came to this world at a young enough age to join Makarov on his team. In addition that, Makarov was in his sixties when Laxus was born, so that's a huge range of time for when Ivan was born. So I was wondering."

She sighed. "Honestly, it's probably my fault that Ivan turned out the way he did. If Makarov and I had married, then maybe he would have acted differently."

"Don't be ridiculous," I said. "Being stuck between two parents in a loveless marriage would be even worse for him. Nature and Nurture are split in half, fifty/fifty, on how they affect someone's personality. He could've turned out exactly like this, even if you had raised him together."

She took a deep breath. "It wasn't exactly loveless – I cared about that idiot very much, and I still do. And who knows, maybe if we had done it properly, we'd even be together. But we were drunk one night, and it was never really supposed to happen. After I got pregnant, there was just a lot of distance between us."

I nodded. "I see. Does Laxus know?"

She shook her head.

"You should tell him," I said. "He'd be happy to know."

"We have nothing in common," Porlyusica said.

"You're nakama," I said. "You'll find something in common."

After I left Porlyusica, I went back to the training room and spoke with Cana.

"Are you alright?" she cried.

"I'll be fine!" I calmed her down. "Don't worry. But Porlyusica told me how to find the signs, and we need to find a way to monitor some of you guys so the same doesn't happen to you, alright? Or so we can catch it, and you don't get sick. And remember - no more of the Recycle Cards."

Cana calmed down and nodded, and slowly made a card for herself, Levy, and Freed. Since Juvia, Bickslow and Evergreen were born with their magics, they were alright. Laxus had his lacrima, and Porlyusica said that they didn't really show up after the ages of ten or eleven, anyway. Which also meant that Reedus should be fine.

We finished the cards and I put them in my requip space so I could monitor them. I gave myself a mental note to make one for Lucy soon. Virgo said that Lucy's bloodline was really good with Celestial Spirit Magic, but I didn't know whether or not it counted as being born with it.

I sat at a table to rest and popped out the keys I found at Galuna Island.

After trying to simultaneously read The Moon Maidens, which was the book Virgo gave me, and also fight hand to hand (with Phoenix reading aloud and me fighting Corvus), we realized that it would be better for me to do it on my own time.

So I put aside all of the Stellar things I wanted to do, and focused on my training.

Sitting at one of the tables, I spread out the keys and requipped Spirit Compendium.

I had found four keys at the island, and it was time to find out what they were.

The first one had a bunny on it, and I quickly matched it up to Lepus, the hare, which seemed to be along the likes of the Canis Minor spirit - a spirit that was usually kept as a pet.

One of them I immediately moved to the side, because I couldn't tell what it was – it simply looked as if had chains on it.

The next one was the weirdest fucking bird I have ever seen (I think it's a bird), and I pinned it as Apus, the Bird of Paradise, because I honestly had no idea what the fuck it was. Apparently it was good for illusions.

The next one looked a lot like the second one, actually, and, oddly enough, it had a bit of a black outline on it.

Quickly, I returned to the book, and read over something I had originally missed;

If the spirit is starred*, then it will have a black outline surrounding the symbol. This is because they're regarded as Legend Spirits.

Legend Spirits.

Suddenly, I knew what they were.

The one with chains I quickly matched up to Andromeda, the Chained Princess, who was apparently very adept at Trap Magic.

The last one, which had footsteps on it, I matched to Orion, the Hunter, who, like the Hunting Dogs, was extremely good at tracking. However, it also said that Orion worked best with his dogs (Canes Venatici) and that if one was to summon both, they could find anything.

I raised an eyebrow and requipped them to their storage place, adding them to the list of spirits I (and Lucy) had keys to.

I switched out Spirit Compendium for The Moon Maidens, and settled in for a read.

It didn't take me long to see what it could do.

There were multiple parts to being a Priestess of the Moon, and I could already tell which sister would probably excel at certain parts.

There were spells a bit like Urano Metria, from an offensive distance. It was easy to tell that this would probably be best for Angel – or Sorano. She didn't like to get her hands dirty.

Yukino, however, would probably go for the most common (and most useful) type of magic – Moonlight-Make.

It was exactly what it sounded like – a type of Maker Magic, like Gray's.

Honestly, considering that you can solidify light and use it as a weapon, it doesn't surprise me that the same could be done for moonlight.

But there were a few extra bonuses with it – concentrated power of the moon is great for Dispelling. If used correctly, Moonlight-Make (or Moon-Make, for short), can easily dispel an opponent's spells.

As I said before, Sorano would rather stand back, and not get her hands dirty, which is why long distance spells seemed good for her. In addition, if strong enough, one could make an 'army' of spirits out of pure Moon Magic – like how I can make golems with one of my Earth Spells.

Yukino, though, was fine with getting down and dirty – she had done it before, and was fine with doing it again, and she was quite skilled at hand to hand. So I wouldn't be surprised if she utilized that.

"Do you have any questions?" Corvus asked, popping up beside me.

I shook my head. "No, I've got the gist of it. And I think this will suit them well, too."

"And the keys?" he asked.

"I'll admit that the Legend Spirits had me stumped for a bit, but I figured it out," I admitted. I requipped out one key. "This is Apus, right?"

Corvus nodded.

"Why are there so many birds, anyway?" I asked, requipping the key and the book away. Even though this was something I would normally be fine with, I could start to feel the drain on my magic, and understood what Porlyusica had said about the bracelet.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that," Corvus said.

"How's Phoenix?" I asked in a soft voice.

Corvus sighed. "He's doing better, and he might recover a day sooner, so you'll be able to see him-"

"Next November," I finished. "Or somewhere around there."

Corvus nodded. "Yes. And he's researching the Celestial Library to see if there's any way to reverse Zeref's curse."

I smiled. "Tell him thank you."

He disappeared and I was left staring at the training room.

"So, what exactly did you want to talk about?" Levy asked.

"Your progress," I said. "I want to talk over what happened while I was gone, and see how you've improved. Have you tried any of the things I asked?"

Levy nodded. "Yeah. Gildarts, Macao and Wakaba took us fishing earlier this month, and had the group of us use our magic to try and catch the fish. I'll admit I had a little trouble at first, but I got pretty good at making up spells on the spot! It's still harder the first time, and it takes about half as much more magic to cast it, but I've gotten the hang of it."

I smiled. "That's good. The better you are at adaptability, the easier it will be."

Levy smiled.

"Have you been practicing the other spells?" I asked.

Levy nodded. "Yeah, I have the regular list of spells down. Though I'm not quite sure how you came up with some of these attacks, they're really effective."

"Which one is your favorite?" I asked, smiling.

"I really like Solid Script; Eggs," Levy admitted. "It's really fun using it on the adults, especially because they're not really sure what's going on when that happens."

I smiled. "Yeah, I thought that one would be fun. Have you been trying out a lot of prank spells?"

Levy nodded eagerly. "Bickslow has been really helpful for that, too! Papa had some pretty good ideas as well, and I had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for spells with them. Some of them are really effective, and simple, too."

"That's nice," I said. "Good job, Levy. And you've been meditating as usual?"

She smiled. "Yep!"

"Cool," I said. "Can you send Juvia over next?"

As Levy left and sent over Juvia, I requipped one of my lists for her and started crossing some of the things off. I didn't expect all of them to complete everything I had on these lists, but they were mostly things I thought could help with their training. I was also trying to get this generation to focus a lot more on actually using their brains.

"You wanted to speak to Juvia, Onee-sama?" Juvia asked, coming up.

I smiled at her. "Yep. Sit down, Juvia. I wanted to ask how you were progressing in your magical attacks."

Juvia beamed, ignoring the chair across from me and sitting by my side. "Juvia's Water Lock spans twenty feet! Juvia can only hold it at that size for two minutes, however."

I stared at how. "Wow. That's just...how the fuck...that's really impressive, Juvia."

"Thank you, Onee-sama!" she said eagerly. "Juvia has worked on expanding her attacks and on fighting multiple enemies!"

I chuckled and ruffled her hair. "I know I already said it, but wow, Juvia, that's really impressive. While I can do a little of a handful of elements, none of that is anywhere near as impressive as your progress."

Juvia blushed.

I smiled at her. "Send over Cana next, please."

Juvia went back to her meditating and Cana sat across from me. "Hey, Elle-nee-chan!"

"Hey Cana. This is about the cards I asked you to make when I was away," I said.

Cana nodded. "Yep, I've made them all!"

I was surprised at that. "Even the Memory Cards?"

Cana nodded. "Those were the hardest - and most of the cards are only prototypes now - but I really wanted to get that one done. Dad said he'd share memories of my mom with me through them, so I worked really hard. I've been trying to find a way to hook it up to a lacrima, but for now, it just projects the memory across a wall."

I smiled. "That's great! Perfect. And how quickly can you make a card?"

"In an emergency situation, it takes somewhere between thirty seconds to a minute," she said proudly. "And it depends on the card I'm making."

Cana already had sets of cards for all of her spells - this was only if she had to develop a new card in the middle of battle, because she had an idea. She had plenty of copies for all of her spells in her requip space.

"That's great," I said. "You can send Freed over next."

Eventually, I had finished going over everyone's progress while I was gone, and was left looking around the training room. We still had another five hours or so.

"Hey, Master," I said.

He looked up from his paperwork. "Yes?"

"I'm going to destroy part of the floor. Thought you ought to know."

He sighed. "Why, Elle?"

"It's for training," I said. "Have you ever heard of a balance beam?"

He shook his head.

I smiled and got up.

The kids (including me), were all extremely strong magically, enough so that we could probably easily go on jobs. But now it was time to spend time on our bodies, instead of just trying to land right. Especially because the GMG were coming up.

I went over to a barely used part of the room and said, "Hey, guys, I've got something new for you."

They all finished up what they were doing and came to my corner.

I knelt on the ground and concentrated.

Two thin beams solidified into rock, and slowly rose up, one higher than the other. There was about two feet in between them.

Underneath, I hardened the supports, all the way down to the basement. Then I softened the floor surrounding the balance beams so it wouldn't hurt as much if they fell.

"What's that?" Laxus asked.

"This," I said, climbing up on the shorter one. "Is called a balance beam. It helps with your balance."

I stretched on the beam and stood on one foot. "We've all trained our magic very hard, and now we need to start training our bodies. For now, I want you guys to practice your sense of balance. Your job? Walk across this beam without falling off."

"That sounds easy," Laxus scoffed.

"A lot of things sound easy, you damned tsundere," I said, "but it's not as easy as it looks, unless you're already magically nimble. First, you will practice walking across this. Then running across this. Then you move to the higher one. And then you jump back and forth."

I leapt to the higher beam, about a foot higher and about two feet away from me, and managed to land on my feet.

I was aiming to land on only one foot, but I already knew I had to work on my balance.

I mean, at least I didn't miss, and break my nose or something by jumping too short and slamming my face into the beam.

The beams are hard.

I should know - this is the second time making them.

"These beams are pretty hard, so be careful," I told the kids. "I made them by solidifying the earth. Also, I managed to soften the ground a bit underneath you, so if you fall, it won't hurt that much. Understood?"

They nodded, and I (completely and utterly showing off) did a roundhouse off the higher beam and landed on the floor.

My feet kinda hurt, but I showed no sign of it, and the kids looked at me with stars in their eyes.

Yeah….awesome older sister image is reinforced!

After all, Gildarts just totally trumped me earlier, so I had to do something.

Honestly, roundhousing (or cartwheeling) off of a balance beam is a lot easier than most of the things you can do on it. It's easier than jumping from one balance beam to another, and it's easier than doing a regular cartwheel and trying to get your feet to land further along on the balance beam. Going from the beam to the ground is a lot easier.

After some of the things Corvus made me do, roundhousing off a balance beam was a cake walk.

"So," I said, straightening up. "Who wants to go first?"

A few hours later, I had a written assessment of everyone's skills.

In order from youngest to oldest…

Levy had a very odd sense of balance. She couldn't walk across the beam without falling off, but when she tried running, she zipped across. Her sense of balance was a lot stabler the faster she was moving.

Juvia was a complete conundrum, because she didn't really have a sense of balance, since she was made of water. Even when she practiced turning herself completely solid, she was unable to find her 'sense of balance'.

That being said, there was no chance of her falling off of the beam. If she ended up coming off, she would easily maneuver her body into a new position. She could walk across the balance beam perfectly, but she didn't really have a sense of balance.

For instance, if you try to push someone off a balance beam, they would normally wave their arms and try leaning backwards and forwards so they don't fall.

Juvia didn't have to do that. She could just change her legs and end up in the same place.

So because of this, it seemed she had a perfect sense of balance, when really she didn't know what balance was at all.

It gave everyone a headache just thinking about it.

So now I need to come up with something new for her to do...

But moving on…

Cana, like Levy, was much better when she moved faster. Unlike Levy, though she tended to be pretty nimble and balanced in the first place. Cana was the type of person who could easily jump from one beam to the other, and make it look like she was slowly hopping across, gliding through the air.

I was extremely jealous.

But when Cana moved fast, she wouldn't even use both feet. She would jump from one to the other, only setting down one foot before she was off again.

Something tells me she'll be pretty fine, so I need to find something else for her to do.

That was when I decided that I would eventually just make a bunch of gymnastic shit, but moving on.

Evergreen was not very good at her balance. She wobbled easily and fell off several times, and moving faster didn't help – it just made her slip, or fall off quicker.

So I reassured her, told her we'd work on it, and that she'd mostly just practice landing with her wings, which were made when I was gone.

But she would still try to get better balance, just in case.

Freed was horrible at balance, unless he was moving very, very slowly. His back was nimrod straight, and because of that, he had to calculate his precise movements. Trying to be fast, or nimble, only shut him down, and, like Evergreen, he fell off the beams many times.

Bickslow surprised everyone by how easily he moved around on the beam. I honestly don't know who was better at this – Bickslow or Cana. It could go either way. He could move extremely well, and ran across the beams as if they were his own personal jungle gym.

Which made me want to make some bars, next.

Laxus, who didn't want to go, was last, and only got up because I made him.

And he was doing an absolutely horrible job until I told him, "Try using your lightning body."

And then everything switched. Laxus became amazing at balance, and was practically flying. Even when he stopped using his lightning body, he still remembered it, and did a pretty good job running around on it.

And during the whole time Reedus just stayed far, far away from the balance beam, preferring to draw our attempts rather than attempt himself. For now, I just sighed and accepted it, but in the future, I wanted him to be able to get the hang of it.

So in order from most proficient to least…(for the kids, because I honestly stopped paying attention when Macao and Wakaba tried to do it and one of them tripped and landed in a split on the beam) the list is…

1. A tie between Bickslow and Cana

2. Me

3. Laxus

4. Levy

5. Freed

6. Evergreen

And Juvia was just an oddity I couldn't even put on the list.

Afterwards (because I didn't want to build the rest of the gym today), I took them through a series of stretches.

Both Juvia and I were able to do a perfect split. Cana was close, but not quite there. Levy and Evergreen gave up pretty quickly, and Freed didn't even attempt. Bickslow almost managed to do it, which was impressive, and Laxus just shook his head, though I have the feeling he'll probably try it in private, like the stupid tsundere he is.

Reedus tried a few positions, as long as he could still draw in them, and it turned out that he was pretty flexible.

It wasn't long before it was nearing evening, so we ate dinner together and headed our separate ways.

As I teleported away and got ready for bed, I couldn't help smiling.

When I was younger, we would pass a gymnasium on the way to school. I eventually got curious and snuck inside, watching what they would do.

And I was jealous. I was so so, jealous.

But now I had a gymnasium, with my family, and it was going to be even better.

The only problem was…I didn't know how to make a trampoline.

I took gymnastics when I was younger (I fucking loved that damn trampoline), and for me, the easiest part was always getting off the beam, once I actually had the courage to do a cartwheel. I used to be scared I would miss the beam entirely and dive head-first into the ground.

I know that this was kinda a filler chapter, and there will probably be a bit more fluff and filler before we can move on to the 1ST ANNUAL GRAND MAGIC GAMES!

Anyway, as for Magical Overload - there was no real name on the internet so I made it up. Ultear got it when she was around Elle's age (Ultear's age isn't on the internet either, dammit), and I thought it would make a good connection on why so many people waited until around their pre-teens to learn magic.