Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Fairy Tail
Progress towards gaining the next key to Zeref's revival was slow. Meredy had been waiting each day to receive the order to join Ultear on her infiltration mission, but that order never came. Instead, Hades had given her other tasks that seemed almost pointless at the surface level. Once she started showing progress with her combat skills, he'd ordered her to study a book on some lost spell that had nothing to do with her magic.
"You are going to learn to master this spell. It should be easier for you to learn than it was for Ultear, given your specialty."
Blinking, Meredy had focused on him. "Ultear learned this?" His nod of affirmation was all she had needed to approach the task with a new sense of purpose. The spell itself was a mental distortion spell. Technically, she supposed it would fall under the broad category of telepathy, but this had a few added elements to how the manipulation was supposed to work. It was flexible and results varied depending on the caster. However, the one consistent thread was that the spell would manipulate the target's memories as needed to give them a never-ending drive to accomplish a singular goal set by the caster.
She had learned the reason for the spell during Ultear's following check-in with the guild. "Master, I request that you grant me permission to take a brief trip to the tower today. It has been months since I last refreshed my spell and I can sense its power is weakening."
This was the first time she'd learned of Ultear's secondary long-term mission, which Hades had now passed on to her. With the initial spell in place, casting it again was far simpler. It wasn't about adding new intent to the target, but more so about strengthening the existing spell. Since Ultear was undercover in search of Deliora's book, Meredy supposed it was getting close to time to strengthen it yet again.
This was why she was here, actually. Distance made things difficult, so while the airship hovered out of sight nearby, Meredy was climbing her way through an old creepy tower. Considering there were so few people working on building the structure, she didn't really have concerns with running into anyone. All she needed to do was get close enough to renew the spell on Jellal. Then, she could turn around and leave.
She found him close to the top of the tower, where the structure was still in the process of being built. The building required enough separation and walls that Meredy could still assume that their group was separated on that floor even as they worked. She stopped to sense for their magic as soon as she neared them, just to confirm that fact. Their distinct magical auras were gradually becoming more familiar to her the more she came to this place - finding Jellal's was always the easiest, just due to the nature of the curse placed upon him.
"I see we have an intruder." The blue-haired man stood up, turning towards her with a smile. "However, this is within the realm of my predictions. Conflicts always arise as the game draws to a close and we certainly are nearing the end of this task." The man stepped closer. "Pesky interferences such as yourself are child's play for the likes of me. I'll make sure you cannot interfere with our plans to bring true freedom into this world."
Meredy silently stared at him with a bland expression. Did he really think grand speeches like that were frightening? He was far from scary when compared to things Meredy had seen as a child. "Be quiet." Holding out her hand, Meredy took a deep breath and focused on the far less familiar spell she'd been using lately. It was still a struggle to reach outside of her usual branch of magic, but it was getting easier with each use.
A pink magic circle glowed in front of her. Per usual, Jellal activated his magic, glowing yellow and bolting upward to dodge. However, this curse wasn't that sort of spell. Once the circle faded, Jellal's magic stopped and he dropped like a rock from the sky. His eyes went glassy and unfocused, staring at the ceiling as he began to ramble after a moment's pause. "Zeref…I will bring you back, I promise…"
Leaving him to deal with whatever hallucination that had triggered, Meredy spun around and hurried back down from the tower. Pulling a lacrima from her pockets, she activated it to contact the guild. "Eh, Meredy? What do you want, kid? Make it quick and don't waste my time," Zancrow ordered.
"My task is complete. I'm requesting transport back to the airship."
The god slayer snorted at her, before storming off. "Sure, whatever. Let's get moving so I can get sent on my mission next," he said. Meredy only had to wait a few moments before a glowing light blinded her. When she opened her eyes, she was back on the ship, with a wizard giving her a quick bow before hurrying off.
She watched the lower-ranked member for a moment before turning towards Zancrow. "Thank you. What mission did Master give you anyway?" Zancrow wasn't good for much unless they wanted complete destruction in the process.
"One of the satellite guilds thinks they can defect from our protection! They're tryin' to make a play for power, according to Hades."
"I see. So, another guild to wipe out then."
Zancrow's grin got wider. "Hell yes. They're gonna learn the wrath of a god soon, I promise you that."
A familiar churning sensation in her gut made Meredy pause. Taking a slow breath, she focused on ignoring it. That guild was nothing to her, after all. All of them were strangers and worrying over them would be ignoring Ul's advice. "Then I suppose I am to go retrieve Ultear's next report?"
"Dunno, I didn't ask." Zancrow shrugged. "You could join me if you wanted, though. Just don't make it too quick for me if you do, alright? No repeats of the last time!"
Last time she'd gone with Zancrow to punish one of the guilds that served them, he'd started a fight without even discussing a plan with her. He'd barged in, flames flying everywhere immediately. Not wanting to delay and give him a chance to play with the wizards, Meredy had simply focused on bonding as many of the apposing wizards as possible before using Meguility Sodom to force them all to suffer through enough pain to pass out.
Fights like that had made one thing clear about most foes she faced. People still looked at her and saw a weak girl. That bit of underestimation usually was enough to give her the upper hand, once she took advantage of it. Still, it didn't mean she wanted to fight. Logically, it saved time if they could perform certain missions through stealth instead.
Looking over at Zancrow, Meredy frowned. "I'll check with Master first then." Giving him a quick nod, she turned towards the door to enter the interior of the ship. Walking through the dark halls, Meredy made her way to Master's office. She knocked on the door before walking inside and kneeling before Hades.
"Master, I have finished ensuring Jellal will continue with the construction of the R-System per your request." She kept her head lowered, kneeling at the base of a desk where Master was working. "What will be my next task?"
"Efficient as always, Meredy." Hades smiled, getting up and walking over to her side. "I think you might just be ready for your first independent mission after all of this." Meredy blinked, lifting her head in surprise. The man had his hands folded behind his back, watching her. "Everything is in place for us to retrieve the last of the keys before the year is over. Therefore, what we next need to manage is locating Zeref's current position."
"Locating him?" Meredy frowned. "Have you not already discovered his whereabouts? It shouldn't be that difficult to locate a man who has been sleeping for centuries."
"Ah, I suppose you've not heard the details well enough. When we say the keys will awaken Zeref, we mean it will awaken his magic." Hades walked to stand in front of the desk, gazing intently down at the papers he'd been writing on. "With it, he will be able to accomplish anything, including bringing about the world we desire. I know he will be able to."
Nodding, Meredy slowly rose to her feet. "Very well. Then I will begin researching into his history to find patterns in his former behavior."
"History will only tell you so much." Hades sighed, shaking his head. "I will ask that you follow up on leads personally, to confirm his whereabouts before bringing your suspicions to our attention. Do not simply guess the most logical place this time, Meredy - confirm he is there first."
Meredy nodded. "As you wish." It would be less efficient, but she would not let him down. He had not given her an independent task yet and she was going to prove that she was strong enough to be the seventh member of the Kin of Purgatory. She was the youngest to receive the position in the entire history of the guild. It was true that the others looked down on her, but she couldn't blame them. She had been a weak child, but now she had grown up. She was thirteen now, despite people often assuming she was at least three years older than that. Meredy wasn't going to make the same mistakes and lose her family again, even if it wasn't nearly as affectionate as her original one.
She returned to her room, intending to gather some belongings to make her mission more efficient. The guild did lend out a limited number of magical rings to assist in exploratory missions like this. While it was limited, the magical item was enchanted to offer a certain number of uses of a teleportation spell. The user simply had to know where they wished to go and channel magic into the ring. Meredy typically would have used one for the trip to re-curse Jellal, but one of the maintenance crew on the ship had teleportation magic this time. So, Master had wanted to save the charges on the rings.
Slipping one on, Meredy grabbed two more to keep as backups in her pocket. Then, she retrieved a small pouch of jewel to cover any expenses on her mission. Everything else was unnecessary and would would only slow her down on her mission. Perhaps a change of clothes would be nice, but she wasn't anticipating being gone for too long. In the event that she was delayed, she could return as needed. Nodding and satisfied with packing light, Meredy glanced at the ring and debated her first destination. With a faint smile, she realized exactly what she should do prior to starting her mission - get advice from Ultear. So, she imagined the beaches of Galuna Island and activated the spell.
Having visited before, Meredy quickly made her way around the village on the island. Routing around the place, she found the path towards the temple instead. About half way to the place, she ventured off of the main path, towards the forest on a short detour. She crouched down once she spotted a familiar boulder, bracing her hands on the surface and leaning against it to shove it aside with a grunt. Underneath, a change of clothes and a mask rested to disguise her as one of 'Zalty's' companions.
She began to shrug off her robe when a rustling in the bushes made her freeze. Crouching behind the boulder to hide, Meredy quickly thought through her options. Footsteps confirmed that this was likely a person, too loud to really be an animal. "Hmm. Interesting." A small comment came from the person when the footsteps paused. Then, they continued on as if that interesting thing had bored them instead.
Curious, Meredy tried to peek out towards the side of the boulder at the intruder. He appeared to be a young man with dark black robes, covered by a flowing white sash. The man did not turn to notice her at all, intent on his path towards the temple. He must have been one of the cult members of the group Ul had infiltrated then. She needed to be more careful, or else she'd risk blowing Ultear's cover before Meredy even got to start her own mission.
Keeping quiet, Meredy quickly changed into the disguise left behind for any wizard sent to retrieve Ultear's reports. With the mask on and robes disgusting her figure, it would become difficult to identify her as a man or a woman. All that people would notice was the similarity in style to Zalty, making them part of the same village that was looking for revenge against Deliora according to their backstory. With a black mask, decorated with red lines and two horns jutting upward, combined with the massive block of yellow fur to hide her actual hair, Meredy just saw the rest of the clothes as overkill. The mask alone was enough to blend in with Zalty, but she also traded out her standard red robes for the dulled gray ones to meet Master's expectations.
She entered the temple calmly, making her way into the main chamber where the Cold Emperor usually sat making his plans with Ul's assistance. She'd never really cared much for him, but she supposed he was a means to an end for them to get their hands on Deliora's book. As expected, both of them were there, though surprisingly with the addition of the young man from the woods.
"—doing? You can't keep wandering off without any warning!" The cold emperor was berating the young man as she entered. By his side, the man only had a faint smile of amusement at his commentary.
"Why does that concern you? My presence holds no impact on your efforts these days. Your followers can handle the ritual, so why should I keep myself trapped in this temple with nothing better to do?"
"Because every person helping makes this go that much faster!"
"And I don't want it to go faster." The man crossed his arms over his chest. "I haven't gotten my answers yet."
The ice wizard groaned. "I don 't think I'll ever understand your motives. If you didn't want this to happen quickly, why did you even bother attempting that massive fire as your first suggestion?"
The man shrugged. "Curiosity, I suppose. Finding another example of the spell seemed like it would be a simple matter, but I cannot say I've encountered it again." His eyes flickered over towards Meredy. "Regardless, it appears as if your newest advisor has a visitor." There was a faint smile on his face as he watched her.
Turning away, Lyon blinked as he only just realized her in the room. "Damn it! Don't just barge in here without any warning."
"My apologies." Meredy gave a quick bow. "I meant no disrespect. I merely wished to check in with Zalty regarding the progress of our mission against Deliora."
"It is on schedule." Lyon narrowed his eyes at the young wizard by his side. "Despite some people being less than motivated to actually work, we still have made the expected progress towards melting the ice."
Zalty smiled, quickly moving from Lyon's side to step closer to Meredy. "Indeed it is." She clapped a hand on Meredy's shoulder. "Please, I can give you more information over here. I would hate to inconvenience the Cold Emperor by forcing him to wait through our rather uninteresting reunion." Zalty looked towards Lyon for confirmation.
"At least one of you understands respect." The man nodded. "Leave me. Return when you are finished and make sure your friend is sent on their way when you are done."
"Well, it seems as if I should let you calm down…" The other man was already speaking in response to Lyon's irritation. Ultear was quickly guiding her away, leaving his voice fading in the distance behind them.
"What are you doing here? I thought Master was sending Rustyrose this time."
Meredy shrugged. "I wanted to see you."
Letting out a sigh, Ultear shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. "Soft as usual, I see. Well, I suppose what's done is done." Shaking her head, Ultear took a seat on the ground. "The good news is that I have indeed located Deliora's book. Finally, after all of this time, I've managed to get that much closer to what we need."
"That's perfect. Now that you know where it is, you'll be able to grab it and return." Meredy smiled at the prospect. Now, it'd be Ul's turn to go out and find her for reports back to Master.
"It won't be that easy." She nodded towards the entrance they'd come from. Someone had built in make-shift doors to the temple, covering them with misfitted wooden boards in an attempt to create some degree of privacy in this area of the temple. "Black, the wizard you saw before, has it. And he seems rather fond of leaving it in his requip space - I only saw him pull it out once and it vanished after he took a quick glance at something written inside."
"You'll figure something out, Ul. You always do."
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" Ultear glared at Meredy. "Especially not here. You never know who might be listening."
"Sorry." Meredy looked over towards the door with a frown. Then, that frown deepened as she sensed a faint magical energy coming from it. Walking towards it, Meredy grabbed the board and slid it aside. Stepping into the hall, she glanced in both directions to try and catch whoever had been using magic on it. At the end of the hall was Black with a pen and a book in his hands.
Looking up with a smile, the man tilted his head. "Please don't be another idiot that wants to pick a fight because of something as small as this. I assure you, I only want details for my own use." He rose to his feet, closing the book for a moment. "I am rather impressed that you sensed the spell, though. It is not often used and doesn't leave much of a magical signature when cast."
Ultear stepped out as well, standing tall as she approached him. "You know nothing about us. I assure you, if you tell anyone—"
"Oh, I really could care less if Grimoire Heart has an interest in Lyon's little side project here." Black interrupted her words. "All I wanted to know was your real purpose for being here. Now that I know that, I am satisfied and can continue with my research in peace."
"You just found out that I'm planning to steal from you and your response is that you're just going to keep researching?" Ultear stared at him, while Meredy frowned.
"What else would I do?" The man tilted his head. "The only thing I could theoretically do to stop your attempts of theft would be to willingly hand the book over. Since I have no intentions of doing so, that means my current plans should not change."
It made an odd sort of sense. Still, Meredy shook her head. "No, your plans should change. You are aware now that someone will interfere, therefore, it is wisest to come up with countermeasures for an attack."
"Should it come to a fight, I will be prepared." The man shrugged. "Still, I suppose that has only answered half of my questions." His gaze turned towards Meredy. "She is attempting to steal Deliora's book. You, however, went against your master's orders to come here. Exactly what is it that you want with this project?"
"That is none of your business." Meredy stood tensely, prepared to activate her magic if necessary. Yet, she couldn't get a read on this guy - making a connection with him would be difficult since it didn't seem like he had any sort of emotional attachment to either of them. "If you already know so much about our guild, then I imagine your best guess is enough to theorize why I am here."
"Since one of you is here for a key and it has been nearly a century since the search began…well, I suppose you're here to perform research as well." Black smiled. "Did you come after hearing the rumors of the monsters on this island? Were you hoping to find demons willing to answer your questions?"
"Enough." Ultear shook her head, shooting Meredy a glare. Then, she returned her gaze towards Black. "Don't interfere in matters that don't concern you and we'll offer you the same courtesy." She took a step closer. "As far as the rest of our plans go, care to tell me why I shouldn't start trying to take that book by force right now?"
"Because it wouldn't help you." Black smiled at her. "Truly, do you think I'd decide pulling a book out would help me at all in a fight? It might serve as a distraction and I suppose some might be a bit uncomfortable if I were to throw it…but really, the combat-usefulness for a book is rather pitiful. I'd rely on other magics in a fight and your best outcome would be knocking me unconscious."
"Or killing you. If you're dead, anyone with the right skills could access your requip space," Ultear suggested. Meredy looked over at Ultear, the plan already forming. Grimoire Heart had access to some skilled requip wizards - someone would have the needed talent to free that book from Black after he was gone.
"I suppose you could try." Black shrugged. "I still am of the mindset that even if that outcome is more preferable for you, it is not one you would be capable of achieving."
"You think I'm above murder? That I wouldn't follow through on it?" The time mage asked.
"I have my reasons for my beliefs," Black looked over at Meredy. "Try the village for your research, if my theory on your task is accurate. At the very least, they have some interesting books regarding magic to read through even if it doesn't relate to your goals."
"I never said what I was doing."
"But I know what Precht is doing and you did tell me to draw my own conclusions about your goals here." The man tilted his head. "Actually, that does make another thought come to mind. Would your guild happen to be in contact with any powerful ice-make wizards?"
"That information is of no concern to you," Ultear said.
"Not even if I'm willing to make a deal?" The man smiled over at Ultear. "For the right agreement, I could be persuaded into letting go of the book. However, to do that, I'd need a means of pursuing my research without it." He stepped closer. "Dark wizards are often fanatics, willing to sacrifice anything for the cause. I would have an interest in such a wizard with ice-make magic…should they be willing to cast the same spell that has trapped Deliora for me."
"That's not an even exchange. A wizard capable of casting such a spell would be incredibly powerful, as you should know." Ultear shook her head. "You'd need to offer more than just that."
"I see." He looked over at Meredy. "Is it enough to entice you to confirm the existence of such a wizard? If such a wizard exists, I am still open to negotiations."
"Grimoire Heart has the resources to find one for you, should you prove to be useful to our cause." Meredy saw little harm in informing him of that.
Letting out a sigh, the man shook his head. "I see. Then I suppose it is best for me to simply continue being patient with Deliora." He looked over at Ultear. "Please, find a time to speak with me alone should your guild locate such a wizard before I find one. My offer will still remain open until then, along with my willingness to negotiate the exact terms of our deal."
With that, the wizard teleported out of their sight. Meredy stared at the spot he'd just been, before turning towards Ultear. "I…I'm sorry. I had no idea—"
She held up a hand, shaking her head. "There's nothing to be done for it now. Admittedly, I do think that finding a way to take his deal might be for the best however." She sighed. "I've never once seen him in a fight and he rarely uses magic in front of any of us. That spell on the door is one of the first spells I've seen from him." She paused. "But he is versatile. The ritual freeing Deliora was one taught to this entire cult by him. I don't know exactly what his limits are, should I start a fight."
"Be careful then." Meredy hesitated, letting out a sigh. "And he is right, you know. Master gave me a mission that I wanted to tell you about." Ultear looked at her, the mask hiding her expression. "We're close enough to having all of the keys that he wants to begin the search for…him."
"Are you saying Black managed to guess your goal correctly?" Ultear's hands dropped to her sides, her tone sounding startled.
Nodding, Meredy bit her lip. "He knows more about us than he should." She stared down the hall for a moment, before turning back towards Ultear. "Do you think I should follow his advice for the time being? I had originally planned to just inform you of my mission and ask for your advice…but there is certainly a lot that needs to be done for this task."
"The village is peculiar, so I suppose it wouldn't be a bad place to start." Ultear frowned. "Be careful if you do go. There are some official guid wizards in town in response to some job. I haven't seen much of them around the island, but you don't want to seem too suspicious."
After a pause, Ultear reached into her pocket and tossed Meredy another charmed ring. "Use that if necessary. It's the same charm that's been disguising me for my time here - just picture the disguise you want and channel your magic into it. At least then, if someone learns where you came from, you'll still be able to get away without issues by dropping the disguise."
"Thank you." Meredy smiled over at Ultear. After a moment of hesitation, she jumped forward and pulled her into a hug. "I'm really glad I got to see you." Ultear was stiff as usual from the hug, but she did give Meredy an awkward pat on the shoulder before she let go and stepped back. Now, she just had to go to the village and see what they might know about the black wizard of legend.
I hope you enjoyed a bit more on Meredy for this chapter! I can't say I've ever really written with much of a focus on Grimoire Heart so this is definitely a bit of a new perspective for me. Admittedly, their activities are still not quite the main focus...but it is different to try and highlight anything major going on with their guild for the time being. Feel free to review and tell me what you think!