The Scars That Make You Whole
By CrimsonStarbird
Breaking the Boundaries of Life, Final Part
-How Far the Sky Reaches-
One Year Later
If someone had asked the Celestial Spirit King, embodiment of space and time and manifestation of the bridge between World Magic and human consciousness, to design himself a palace in the physical world, it would have looked a lot like the new development outside Magnolia.
Not just because it was big enough for a giant, or regal enough to be mistaken for a palace, or because it shone gold by day and silver by night, lanterns like stars swirling in new constellations – though it was all of these things, and proud of it.
Even more importantly, though, it seemed the two tenets of World Magic were embedded in the very architecture: all of space is here, and all of time is now.
Stepping through that inviting archway was akin to stepping out of linear time and into a place unbound by such mundane concepts. At first glance, the entire campus was seeped in the classical style: the sweeping arches, great domes, and red-gold columns that had been favoured by the ancients for their temples, revived by the scholars for use in the great Academies, then fallen from grace when the Academies had. For four hundred years, such architecture had existed only in myths and museums… until those designs had at last been uncovered, dusted off, and used to house not a tribute to the past, but the most advanced facility in the world.
Automatic doors fit snugly within dry-stone archways. Great halls in which an ancient philosopher might once have lectured to the nobility of his age had been precision-engineered for perfect acoustics and comfortable seating; the exclusive dusk of the hallowed halls was banished by huge windows and lighting systems recommended by optometrists.
It wasn't supposed to be anachronistic. It was supposed to be practical. A visitor who looked beyond the obvious clash of old and new might also see gothic vaults, baroque contrasts, and art deco precision mixed in, each style appearing right where it was needed.
Nothing was excluded. Nothing had been overlooked.
The classical façade was an inherently Fiorean style, but it incorporated architectural theories that the designers had never heard of until they began collaborating with the Alvarez team. It was the impenetrable practicality of the palace at Vistarion, without the obligation to be imposing; it was the elegance and grandeur of Mercurius, without the requirement of noble birth.
It belonged to both and neither; to all eras of history and to none. It was not a revival so much as an amalgamation: the best of the past and the best of the present, coming together to make a future entirely their own.
That was the third fundamental tenet of World Magic.
We are, ourselves, infinity.
At first glance, the building complex could have been a temple, yet it had not been built in the honour of some extinct deity, nor any concept as nebulous as life or magic. It was for humanity – for them and them alone. For peace and prosperity, and for the best that they could be.
The bastion of a new era.
There had never been anything like it before, although hopefully there would be again. If all went to plan, this would be the moment that the anthropologists of the future pointed to as the moment things began to change.
Of course, the anthropologists of the future couldn't have been further from the mind of a certain Celestial Spirit mage, who, utterly oblivious to the era-defining magnificence all around her, hovered at the edge of the ornamental lawn and fretted.
It was that time of day between afternoon and twilight, when the lamps ringing the courtyard had been lit but the sky had not yet yielded to them, and the faint stars were beginning to take an interest in the world below. Within that sculpted courtyard, anyone who was anyone moved deliberately from group to group, greeting friends and thanking colleagues to a background choir of bubbling conversation, clinking champagne glasses, and roaring success.
Every single person there that evening had a right to be proud of themselves.
Unfortunately, it seemed that no one had mentioned this to Lucy, who was skulking behind the same pillar that had hidden her since the party had started.
Beside her, Levy folded her arms. "Lucy, you are being ridiculous."
"I'm being completely reasonable! It's this whole situation that's ridiculous!"
If Levy had another pair of arms, she'd have folded those too, but she had to make do with her best reproachful look. Which, admittedly, had improved remarkably following her stint in the Rune Knights.
Lucy immediately found herself on the back foot. "Look at who's out there," she argued, waving her hand at the gathering beyond the pillar. "The Queen of Fiore. The Emperor of Alvarez. Half the Magic Council, more than half the Wizard Saints, not to mention the Chancellor and Director of-"
"You are on first-name terms with most of those people," Levy pointed out archly.
"Whether I know them or not doesn't matter! The point is, they're all incredibly important, incredibly powerful individuals who have much better things to do than listen to a speech from a nobody like me!"
"Well, this is a whole new level of ridiculous," Levy stated. "You are not nobody. You are the former Master of Fairy Tail-"
"Yes, the second most useless Master after Gildarts, and even that's debatable."
"The mage who managed to tear a hole in the universe that we still haven't been able to fix-"
"I don't know what's worse: that you consider that to be one of my greatest achievements, or that I can't even technically take the credit for it."
"The one who defeated Acnologia-"
"As part of a team!"
"The one responsible for stopping the whole Alvarez War-"
"Yes, by unwittingly getting into a relationship with the emperor! It's not like I did anything clever, and besides, it only worked because no one really wanted to fight in the first place!"
Levy huffed out an exasperated breath, waving her hand at the party that Lucy was continuing to pretend didn't exist. "Lucy, this entire thing was your idea!"
Now it was Lucy's turn to fold her arms. "I had a stupid idea, and a lot of very influential, very capable people indulged me."
"Because you convinced them it was worth doing! It might not have happened without them, Lucy, but it wouldn't have happened without you either. All those powerful people out there – they don't just want to hear from you, Lucy. They expect to."
A strangled whine battered against the confines of Lucy's throat. "This is exactly why I'm moving to another continent."
"Oh?" Levy's ears pricked up at this. "You finally committed to the Hundred Year Quest, then?"
"Yes, we did," Lucy answered, more than happy to jump on the change of topic. "We filed the forms with the Council last night. The whole team's going – me, Natsu, Happy, Carla, Erza, Gray and Wendy."
"When?"
"Four weeks' time. We wanted to let things settle down here first… not to mention how difficult it was to find a boat captain who was willing to take both us and Gray's crates of throwing axes without believing we were illegal arms dealers."
"I thought Gray was starting to be able to use magic again?" Levy wondered.
"Sort of. He's really good at freezing things, but he's struggling with the finesse of Ice Make. To be honest, given that not even Zeref thought he was going to be able to use magic again, just coming that far is a huge achievement. Still, with how dangerous the Hundred Year Quest will be, he wants to keep his options open… and besides, he's having a lot of fun with his axes."
Levy grinned. "You know, it sure is a coincidence how many unique enchanted throwing axes have appeared as rewards for really trivial missions in the past few months. If I didn't know better, I'd say someone with a penchant for creating experimental magical artefacts has had a bit too much time on his hands."
"He feels responsible, Levy," Lucy told her ruefully. "He's the one who stabbed Gray with the cursed sword, even if it did save his life. It's cute how he thinks he's being subtle. Also, he has had way too much time on his hands."
"Yes, and unless you get out there and talk to your fans, that's not going to change any time soon," Levy reminded her, with a playful shove. "Seriously, Lucy. What's the worst that could happen?"
"She's got a point, Lucy," another voice interjected. "No matter how badly it goes, at least you can be certain that you're not going to get arrested."
Spinning round, it took a moment for Lucy to connect the voice which spoke only semi-flippantly about being arrested with the well-dressed man behind them. Jellal looked like he belonged at a social event like this – but then again, Lucy supposed, based purely on the gown she had bought for the occasion and the gilded invitation tucked into her clutch bag, so did she.
Levy greeted him with a smile. "Jellal! I didn't know you were here."
"I was lurking behind the other pillar," he told her. "But this pillar looked more interesting."
"Where's the rest of your guild?" Lucy inquired.
He rolled his eyes. "They left me a note saying that, on balance, they had decided the invitation was probably a trap, so they were leaving me to go in on my own."
"Can't get the dark mages these days," Levy sighed, patting his shoulder.
"Oh, honestly," Lucy sighed. "Jellal, Queen Hisui is not going to summon your guild to a place like this under the pretence of an official pardon just to turn around and throw you in jail! It goes against everything that this event stands for!"
Levy seconded, "Besides, what about that employment contract you signed last week? You can't run a course on identifying dark artefacts from a jail cell!"
"Yes, but I don't think I can sue for breach of contract from a jail cell either."
"First of all, you totally can. Let me know if you ever need a lawyer – Gajeel has some excellent contacts. And secondly, even if this was all just an elaborate plan to arrest you, it's the stupidest one I've ever seen. You have far too many allies here."
"I know," Jellal acceded, smiling faintly. He turned to survey the guests milling on the lawn with a slight unease that Lucy actually found reassuring. "Speaking of dark mages, do either of you know if Jerome is here?"
"He's not," Levy answered at once. "He tried, but they wouldn't let him out."
"How long did he get, in the end?" Lucy wondered.
"Ten years. He was too high up in Avatar to walk away, despite the public pressure; they did him for complicity in the destruction of Bishop's Lace. That being said… Savod is currently leading an ingenious campaign to have him re-tried as a political activist rather than a dark mage, and it's got a lot of momentum behind it. If he's successful, the sentence could drop as low as two years, one of which he's already done."
"Savod…" Lucy turned the unfamiliar name over in her mouth, trying every letter with suspicion. "He wouldn't be…?"
"Avatar's former haunted radio, yes. He needed a new identity with his new body, and as it turns out, he's not particularly creative. Not when it comes to names, at least. Criminal law is another matter entirely. I knew I should have worried when he started downloading all those true crime podcasts straight into his little radio brain."
"He's not a very nice man, is he?" Lucy sighed.
"No, he's not. But he's not a bad one, either. He joined up with Avatar because Arlock promised him a body; now that he has one, he's had to re-assess his reasons for staying with them. Broadly, he's of the view that he could have been helped a lot earlier if society took a more liberal view of light and dark magic… and it's not exactly altruistic, but he's identified a problem in society, and he's trying to address it through legal means, even though it no longer affects him. Plus," she added offhandedly, "he owes me a colossal favour in return for his new life, and it'd be difficult to cash in on that if he were in prison."
"Sometimes I'm not sure how you're not in prison," Lucy pointed out dryly.
"Because I spent a year as a Rune Knight and I know how they operate," Levy joked. Then again, from the knowing glance she exchanged with Jellal, former member of the Magic Council and highly successful escaped convict himself, it might not have been that much of a joke. "But that's enough about me, Lucy. We were talking about why you were evading your responsibilities."
"I'm not evading anything!" she protested. "I'm just…"
"Not used to public speaking?" Jellal offered sympathetically.
She gave him a helpless look. "It's just not the kind of thing that I do!"
"That's not true," Levy contradicted. "I think what you mean is, it's not the kind of thing you do for yourself. Remember the Guild Master elections? You had no plan, no campaign promises, and no clue what you were doing – and yet you stood up, made a speech, and got yourself elected. Remember who you're doing this for, Lucy."
"Yeah, and next time he can bloody well do it himself," she muttered. "I don't care what the doctor says about sensory overloads and taking it easy – if he can accidentally walk into the guildhall in the middle of a brawl and not have a panic attack, he can definitely give a speech to a very polite crowd who admire him."
"But you can't?" Levy asked archly.
Lucy gave her a withering look.
"Lucy," Jellal interjected, "you do realize that even if it was common knowledge that he was alive, they would still want to hear from you, don't you?"
Lucy gave him a withering look, too, and then threw her hands up in the air. "Alright, alright, I'm going. I hate both of you."
Despite her best attempts to sneak through the crowd, a hush fell across the lawn the moment Lucy set foot upon the podium. Her last hope went up in smoke. They really had been waiting to hear her speak.
She swallowed.
It echoed in her ears like someone thumping a microphone.
"Hi," she began, nervously, instinctively, before remembering exactly where she was and who she was talking to. "I mean, uh- esteemed guests, patrons, friends, colleagues – it is my honour to welcome you here tonight. I'm humbled by this opportunity to speak to you all. In fact, since I'm also participating in the exhibition matches tonight, that's two opportunities to make a fool of myself in front of you in one day."
Polite laughter.
It made her feel a little better; like the crowd was on her side.
And they were, weren't they? Just like Levy said, she knew almost everyone here, just as she'd known everyone who had assembled in the guildhall for the elections.
At the front of the crowd, Queen Hisui twirled a champagne flute between slender fingers, waiting expectantly for this ordinary mage to continue. At the other side of the lawn, Emperor Invel – who most certainly had better things to do – watched her as sternly as ever. She knew what lay beneath the ice his job required; she knew he judged her strictly only because he believed she was capable of so much. Over his shoulder, Director August offered her an encouraging smile. Levy gave her a thumbs-up from where she and Jellal were lurking at the back of the crowd; having caught up with them at last, Erza and Gray waved.
Natsu… well, he wasn't paying attention to anything that wasn't the buffet – and his friends let him, because he usually wouldn't be seen dead at a social gathering like this, and was only here because Lucy had asked him to come. The sight of her best friend totally ignoring the formalities, her own speech included, made her smile. That, more than anything, was what assured her that there was nothing unusual about this situation – nothing for her to worry about.
"I want to tell you a story," she began, giving the audience her full attention at last. "A story about a man you have all heard of. To some of you, he was a leader, a pioneer, an architect who forged the greatest empire our world has ever known from the dust of a ruined continent. To some of you, he was the most frustrating trading partner in history, who singlehandedly wriggled out of more peace treaties than most countries will ever see. To others, he shirked his duties, delegated critical jobs, left far too much up to those around him, and yet always seemed to be there right when he was needed."
She saw a grimace flicker across Invel's face; the poor man was probably having flashbacks.
"To some of you, he was an inspiration for all the right reasons – to fight, to try, to push against the limits of what magic could do. To some, he was an inspiration for all the wrong reasons. He was a man who lived so much of his life in darkness and misery, and to those who sought justification for their sins, or validation for their resentment, or freedom for the thoughts society would gleefully condemn them for having, he was a figurehead, a promise made by the leaders of dark guilds to secure a loyalty they couldn't otherwise afford. Nor was it only dark mages who abused his reputation in such a way. The Magic Council needed a villain just as much as the dark guilds needed a hero."
Unease rippled across the crowd at that. Without even looking, she could pinpoint its source – half the members of said Council; the odd Rune Knight Captain; the ones who had supported this project because public opinion was behind it, not because they believed in it.
To her surprise, she felt a surge of power within her chest. They had to listen, now. They had to hear the other side of the story.
"To me, he was so many things," she admitted. "Enemy, employer, unwanted houseguest, questing partner, teammate, friend…" When she made the mistake of meeting Levy's gaze, the letter mage mouthed back the word 'friend?' with a wink, and Lucy had to fight not to laugh. "He saved me more times than I could count, and in the final battle, he gave his life to defeat Acnologia, to protect those he loved, and to put an end to the Dragon Wars that had cast their shadow over his entire life. It was the nature of his curse that he would be many things to many people, Emperor Spriggan, the Black Mage Zeref… and only in the end did he surpass them all, to die as the man he had always wanted to be."
This time, she actively sought out those who disagreed; speared them with her gaze in the fading of the twilight. "It is a terrible thing, that we can choose how we live, but not how we are remembered."
Then, more cheerfully, she continued, "But I don't want to use this opportunity to tell you about a man you already know. I want to tell you about a man you don't. Because, before he was the Black Mage, and long before he was Emperor Spriggan, he was just a boy, born into an age of fire and devastation. And that's the part the history books won't tell you."
A sharp motion drew her attention as swiftly as it would have done in battle. Natsu was paying attention to her now, and she almost wished he wasn't. He was giving her the most accusatory glance he could manage with his cheeks stuffed full of salmon canapes: you should have warned me that you were going to do this.
And she would have done, if it had been in any way planned. But, having spent entirely too much time thinking of ways to get out of this engagement, and not nearly enough thinking about what she was going to say during it, she hadn't known what she was going to do until she stepped up here.
"When he was a child, his parents and brother were killed by dragons. He didn't swear revenge against dragonkind. He didn't give in to hatred or despair. He took up his position at the Mildian Academy of Magic with nothing but hope for the future. There, he both studied and taught. He made revolutionary discoveries and built on the discoveries of others. He volunteered in the hospital. He researched how to reverse dragonification, a project which would one day prove to be Acnologia's undoing. He argued for the theoretical possibility of time travel, laying the foundations for the future research that would make it real. And all the while, he took the study of the One Magic further than any before him… for he believed he could use it to bring his brother back to life. Then catastrophe struck."
No one spoke. No one dared. Yet she could feel, with the instinct of one who did this for a living, the scrabbling of the words that no one was saying against the too-polite lips of those she didn't know: no surprise, if he was trying to breach that old taboo.
Carefully, she continued, "Until that point, his experiments had been cautious, even reverent. This was the greatest mystery of all, and it ought to be approached with care. Yet there were others at the Academy who thought that some mysteries should remain forever mysterious; that there was some knowledge humankind did not deserve. They threatened to throw him out of the Academy unless he gave up his life's work. So, backed into a corner, he did the only thing he could: he attempted to invoke the One Magic without having finished his research. The effects were devastating… and, I believe, well-known to history."
After all, if there were people on that lawn who hadn't known the name of the Mildian Academy of Magic a year ago, they certainly knew it by now.
"Three things were lost in that catastrophe. The first was the horrific loss of life that occurred that day. The second was the loss of knowledge, when the lay authorities, terrified of what might have been unleashed within the Academy's walls, torched the complex and all the treasures within. But it is the third that continues to cast its shadow over us, four centuries on: the loss of a way of life. Within five years, not a single Academy of Magic remained on the entire continent.
"When the great Academies fell from grace, so too did the study of magic. Once, people had travelled from across the world to combine their knowledge. Afterward, disclaiming any association with the old Republic of Letters was often the only way for academics to avoid persecution. Publication ceased. Communication ceased. Ambition ceased.
"In a world being torn apart by the mad dragons, the Academies had been bastions of sheer freedom – sanctuaries where knowledge could be pursued for its own sake. Without them, magic became nothing more than a tool for war. A tool with consequences no one was now bothering to investigate, as an entire generation of Dragon Slayers learnt too late, when they lost their minds and bodies to their own magic."
She remembered what Zeref had sworn to her on the night he had told her his story – how, even knowing everything that had happened as a result of his decision to reach into the One Magic that day, he still believed he had been right to do it – and she closed her eyes.
"On that day," she said, "fear won."
Her gaze ran over the crowd, noting who looked confused and who looked thoughtful. "It was fear that had caused the elders of the Mildian Academy to limit the study of magic – and the catastrophe only seemed to vindicate that fear. Ever since then, magic has been split between that which is light and that which is dark; that which is acceptable and that which is forbidden. Today, it is secular law which sets down what we may and may not seek from magic, but those in control are driven by the very same fears as those superstitious scholars. Fear of the consequences of true magic. Fear of what we may find there. Fear that it may be greater than them."
Biting back a smile, she didn't know why half the audience looked so surprised. She was a member of Fairy Tail, after all.
"When I say that we are still feeling the aftershock of the Academies' collapse, I mean that there is no systematic study of magic, only people who do it for a hobby." Her gaze flicked to Levy, who held her hands up almost defensively, and she had to fight back another grin. "The only people who use magic on a regular basis are the guild mages. And don't get me wrong, guilds are great – and I'm not just saying that as an ex-Master! Guilds take the wonder that is magic and apply it to achieve practical ends. But, for all the good that they do in society, they don't advance magic itself. They don't advance our understanding of this world we live in.
"When I say that we are living in the shadow of those ancient mages, I mean that, when we think of great magic, we think of the remnants of our ancestors – like Nirvana, like the Eclipse Gate, like the ancient rituals Avatar tried to recreate. Nothing we have today can match them. The rarest, most sought-after, most highly respected treatises on magic are still ancient tomes! Why have our modern textbooks not surpassed them? Not because people today aren't as smart, but because there's no support available for someone who wants to write one – no funding, no opportunities for anyone who wants to make a career of magic outside a guild.
"When I say that we are still reeling from their fall, I am thinking of all the geniuses of magic in recent times who turned to dark guilds, unable to get the backing needed from the Council and their fellow mages." Hades, Arlock, perhaps even Brain. How would their research endeavours have been different if they'd lived in the Age of Academies? If they'd been guided rather than threatened, encouraged by their peers rather than ostracized by them?
"I am thinking of my friend and his independent guild, who constantly do the right thing, but are condemned as villains because the knowledge they use to do it is deemed illegal by the Council."
Jellal dropped his gaze to the floor, embarrassed, as if to say that there was far more to it than that.
"I am thinking of people who don't have magic, but who find it fascinating nonetheless. Unable to earn a living in a mage guild, but having nowhere else to go, is it so surprising they would turn to a dark guild to pursue their passion?"
Levy had told her that Jerome wasn't present, but there were enough supporters of his here who would understand the reference.
"I am thinking of those who don't want to be told what they can and can't study. I am thinking of those who know that labels can't make magic good or evil, and that as many crimes have been committed with so-called respectable magic – and without magic at all! – as with that which we call 'dark'. I am thinking of those who are offended that ten politicians in a stuffy room get to decide objective right and wrong for mages whose lives are a million miles from their own. I am thinking of books that have been banned, of individuals that have been villainized, of an entire era of history that has been erased from society's memory, all for that fear!"
Realizing that she was bordering on an inappropriate volume for the venue, Lucy took a deep, calming breath. She had spent far too much time listening to Zeref.
And yet she was the one who was standing here, who raised her head, who addressed the crowd like she'd stared down Acnologia: "That ends today."
She gestured around the lawn. "We stand in a place that defies the concept of international borders. We stand in a place where thought will be free, guided by wisdom and experience and example instead of impersonal laws. We stand in a place where anyone with the courage and the dedication to further our collective understanding of magic will be welcome.
"Over the past year, we in Fiore and our partners in Alvarez have made a joint investment in the future of our world. I want to thank each and every one of you here tonight for your time, your generosity, and your expertise. It is because of you that we stand on the brink of a revolution."
At last, she turned her gaze from the crowd, and up towards the sky. The sunset had lingered to hear her out, and the constellations pressed up against it impatiently, a congruence of blue and gold crowning the new era.
But at the meeting-point of earth and sky, where the heavens pressed a kiss to the dome of the Academy, there was a figure silhouetted against the sunset, out of sight of all below. His robes undulated in the breeze like a banner of black and white. Although he was too far away to see, she knew he was smiling, and so was she.
Remember who you're doing this for, Levy had suggested, and maybe none of this would have happened if she hadn't met him, but this was about so much more than just him. It was about everything she had learnt – about the world, about her enemies, and about herself. It was about a victory achieved through peace, and a future that looked a little brighter for everyone. It was about Anna, and the silver-gold acorn buried at the heart of the central courtyard, where it would be nurtured and studied for generations to come.
The words came to her so easily because they were the words of her own heart.
"Today, we take back our heritage," she vowed. "It is therefore with great pride, and far greater humility, that I now declare the Sidereal Academy of Magic to be open."
They had cheered when she'd been elected Guild Master, too, but it had nothing on this, and there wasn't even enough free champagne for anyone to be drunk yet.
There was one thing the Sidereal Academy of Magic had that its predecessor didn't. In fact, if anyone had so much as mentioned the idea in the Mildian Academy, they would likely have been met with derision. However, the point wasn't to emulate the past, but to learn from it, and adapt its lessons to their own age.
That was why the building at the rear of the campus housed a full-scale fighting arena.
Inspired by the gladiatorial arena that still held pride of place in Vistarion, the pale stone building contained tiered seating surrounding a flat battleground. To the naked eye, that was it: simplicity itself. It had slightly more vantage points built-in for referees than its forerunner had, a nod to the less brutal motive behind its construction, but in style and atmosphere, it looked exactly like that ancient arena would have done in its heyday.
Only when it was in use did the magical technology incorporated into it become apparent. Runes embedded in the foundations could throw up an impenetrable shield in front of the spectators far faster than a human could react to danger. Lacrima completely hidden within the stone projected live footage of the action onto screens. Although the top of the arena was open to the sky, beneath the floor there lay an ingenious new invention. At the push of a button from any of the referees' seats, it would absorb any and all magic within the arena bounds, instantly dispelling any spell or attack in progress while leaving the competitors unharmed. The arena may have been smaller than Domus Flau, but it was a lot more technologically advanced.
In fact, the arena was so safe that convincing any Fairy Tail mages to try it out had been a nightmare. They thought it sounded boring.
That aside, the arena truly was a masterpiece of magical engineering. So admired was it that it was little surprise its designer had incorporated for himself a private box with choice views of the battlefield below.
Then again, perhaps it was surprising, because its designer was also the last person who would be interested in watching two people batter each other into submission.
As evidenced by the fact he currently had his face buried so deeply into his book that it looked like he was trying to use the covers as earmuffs against the roar of the crowd.
Even Levy – the only other occupant of the private box – thought this was a bit much, and she'd read Treatise on the Symmetry of Magic three times in three different languages.
"I can't believe you brought a book to this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition match," she remarked.
"I can't believe you didn't."
"That's because I'm here to cheer on my friends."
"Well, that's precisely what I'm not doing. I wouldn't want anyone getting the mistaken opinion that I am associated with any of those barbarians."
Levy fixed him with a dubious look. He completely missed it, thanks to eight hundred pages of Eridanian runes, but it was the thought that counted. "So, let me get this straight. Your girlfriend and your brother, two of the most powerful mages in the kingdom, the duo who took down Acnologia himself, are about to face off in the match of the century, and you're not interested in seeing which of them is going to win?"
He turned a page as nonchalantly as one could turn a page filled with incomprehensible alchemical diagrams. "I already know who's going to win."
"Who?"
"If it's one round, Lucy, because Natsu will underestimate her. If they're doing best of three, she'll win the first, he'll win the second – because he'll have the measure of her by then – and she'll win the third, because she'll have deliberately underplayed her abilities in the second round and he can't think as far ahead as she can."
"My money's on Natsu," Levy told him.
"Prepare to lose it, then." Another page rustled disdainfully. "Why are you here, anyway?"
"Lucy asked me to keep an eye on you."
"I don't need babysitting," he pointed out. The book lowered a little, revealing black eyes sharp enough to slice deeper than any paper cut, although they softened almost as quickly. "I've almost entirely recovered, Levy. There is no need for you – or Lucy – to still be worrying about me."
"Oh, I know that. But Lucy was worried that you'd get bored and leave before…"
Levy tailed off, swallowing.
"Before what?"
"Uh…"
Fortunately – or perhaps unfortunately, depending on who was asked – there came a knock, and the door to the private box swung open. "Am I in the right place? I was told Block A-"
Silence.
Granted, this wasn't unusual when the Emperor of Alvarez walked into a room. If they weren't frozen in place by respect, they would be by his magic.
There was, however, nothing usual about the way two of the three individuals involved were staring at each other, one in utter shock and one in utter dread.
"My work here is done," Levy squeaked, and fled the room, and probably the continent.
The present and former emperors of Alvarez stared at each other. It wasn't a dramatic silence. It was all that remained when sense and reason and causality had fallen away.
"I am going to skin that girl alive," Zeref muttered. "And then I'm going to use her hide to bind a trashy romance novel, just to shame her for all eternity…"
If Invel heard, he gave no sign of it. "You're alive."
"Apparently so."
"You're alive."
Zeref heaved a sigh, closed his book, and set it aside. "Go on, then." He gestured to Levy's still-warm seat in the way another man might have selected which of these three axes he would like to be beheaded by. "I suppose it was foolish of me to think I could hide forever."
Invel was wide-eyed and shaking; there were cracks racing through the pond's frozen surface, and the shore was infinitely far away. "You- you left me in charge of an empire that was falling apart, in the aftermath of a war you started for your own selfish reasons, with a decimated government, a vengeful Fiore, and no formal mechanism of succession – and I turned it around! I did it for you! For the nation you'd built! And all this time, you were hiding out here, still alive?"
"It's… a little more complicated than that."
"It'd better be!" Invel's howl drowned out the first clash of magic from the arena below. "I thought you were dead! I saw you die! People don't come back; no friend of yours would ever be foolish enough to try that again!"
"I thought I had died, too," Zeref admitted. "If it helps, I haven't been not-dead for very long."
Maybe it was his solemnity that did it; more likely, it was Invel's better judgement finally taking a stand against the avalanche of his emotions. He took the seat that had been offered to him, and continued in a much quieter voice. "How…?"
"I don't know for sure; I don't think we ever will. August's best hypothesis is that Irene attempted with her last breath to fulfil the debt she owed me. She had devised a spell, you see, which should have been able to remove my… soul, my self, whatever you want to call it, from my body and place it into a new one, thus freeing me from my cursed body and my immortal life. At the time, it failed, because my curse was possessive, vindictive, and infinitely powerful. But as I lay dying, my body was self-destructing, my curse was destroying itself… and we think her final spell caught my life, my soul, and sealed it within an artefact Lucy held. I could be brought back, because I never truly died."
Invel was silent again. Like the thousands of spectators in the coliseum, he stared at the Dragon Slayer and the Celestial Spirit mage fighting down below. Unlike them, he wasn't interested in the fight beyond its use as an excuse to not have to look at the man beside him.
"So," he said, too much finality and too much ice. "August knew you were alive."
Cautiously, Zeref nodded. "He and Lucy figured it out pretty quickly, and they brought a few others in to see if Irene's spell could be reversed."
"And Fairy Tail? They know too?"
"It wasn't really feasible to keep it from them, given, well, me and Lucy. That's not to say they like me much, but most of them are willing to tolerate me for her sake, which is more than I could have hoped for, after what I did."
"I see," Invel said. "And when, exactly, were you planning on telling me?"
Zeref wet his lips. That was a mistake, as they immediately began to ice over. "I wanted to tell you. I really did."
"So, you didn't have to be tricked into this encounter by two people you trust, then?"
"I… there just never seemed to be a good time."
"In an entire year?"
"It wasn't as much time as you think, believe me. It took a good six months for them to work out how to reverse Irene's spell without killing me in the process."
"Natsu cremated your body," Invel commented neutrally. "I watched him."
"I know. This isn't my real body – my flesh-and-blood, human body. It's a construct of magic."
For the first time, Invel's eyebrows twitched in something other than anger. "You're a demon?"
"Yes and no. I'm alive, as myself, because I always was alive – there's no book somewhere making it so by runes and magic. However, my physical form comes entirely from magic. In a sense, I am the opposite of Natsu, whose body was human but whose soul was created by my magic. This body of mine has two distinct advantages over my real one: first, it isn't cursed, and second, I am rather competent with the magic that makes me. It only took a week or so for me to work out how to get this body to age normally."
"I see." Again, that perfect neutrality.
"It was hardly an easy transition, from not-being to being," Zeref confessed. "I don't remember anything from when my soul was sealed away. I don't think I even was. But, philosophical conundrums aside, I went from six months of nothing to being real again in an instant. It was not pretty, even before one factors in the not-inconsiderable magic power that I had to re-learn how to control."
Even Invel couldn't entirely suppress his shudder at that thought, and Zeref nodded in agreement.
"I was hardly myself at the time. My memories – my very sense of identity – returned in fits and starts over several weeks. Most of my time has been taken up with rehabilitation; I couldn't have helped you in Alvarez. I still experience sensory overload sometimes in large crowds, or I would have participated in the opening ceremony earlier."
He waved his hand around the private box, indicating the walls separating them from the rest of the crowd – and the slightly modified runes to those in the ordinary stands, capable of dimming light and sound as well as magical energy.
If Invel was impressed, he hid it very well indeed. "And yet, through all this rehabilitation, you still managed to find the time to work on the Sidereal Academy behind my back."
"Not really. In fact, Lucy went out of her way to hide the project from me for at least a month. I think she felt as though it was something I was supposed to do, so she felt guilty that she'd already got eighty percent of it sorted without me."
It was the first genuine smile Invel had seen from him in this life. There was something newly tender to it.
Zeref continued, "Yes, I have had a little involvement behind the scenes since then, but it would have happened without me. It's Lucy's project, and yours, and August's, and Queen Hisui's, and everyone else who was out there earlier… you're the ones who changed the world, not me. In four hundred years, the thought of reviving the great academies never crossed my mind. I had accepted this world's fate as inevitable. It was Lucy who stood up to it."
"You had more than enough time to build this arena, though, didn't you?" Invel accused. "These enchantments have your fingerprints all over them."
"True. Natsu demanded it, in place of four hundred years of missed birthday presents. They built it to my specifications, and I enchanted it. One of my finest pieces of work, if I do say so myself. It's nothing short of an abomination against magic that they're using it for blood sports."
"Hardly," Invel scoffed, gesturing to the two best friends fighting in the arena below. "From what I hear, this is the equivalent of a handshake in Fairy Tail."
"Quite so," Zeref conceded, with the faintest of smiles.
There was a moment of quiet, as they both watched the battle without watching it.
"You're going to teach here, aren't you?" Invel asked, but it wasn't really a question. Not to anyone who knew the first thing about him.
"Professor of Light and Life. Lucy came up with the name as a bit of a joke, and it stuck." Again, that smile, which only seemed to have grown warmer as the emotion ebbed once again from Invel's voice. "I'm also to sit on the board of trustees, although that's just because I'm the only person alive with any experience of running an institution like this. I don't particularly want to be involved in the governance of the Academy, let alone to be the one in charge. I've had enough of that for a lifetime."
"And you don't think the authorities in Fiore will take issue with a supposedly dead villain running their great peace project?"
"Well… me being alive isn't exactly a secret, as such. Fairy Tail have told their allies, of course, but they also elected to tell the Queen and the Magic Council as soon as they knew, rather than risk having it come out at some future point when the Council have forgotten their indebtedness to Fairy Tail for Acnologia's defeat and the war's end. You're right; they're not happy about it, and I don't think they're going to make life easy for us. However, they also unanimously agreed that it would be best for the majority of the population to go on believing that the Black Mage Zeref is long gone. Just as it is best for Alvarez to believe that Emperor Spriggan died saving the world from Acnologia. This way, we all get to start over. The fact that I don't deserve this chance won't stop me from making the most of it. I owe that much to those who stood up for me."
"I see."
For some reason, the longer the battle dragged on for, the louder the crowd became. More desperate combatants meant more risks, which led to more excitement, perhaps. Neither of them could see the appeal.
Suddenly, Invel said, "I've never seen you so happy."
"I have been granted a wish I never even dared to make," Zeref told him sincerely. "I am alive beyond the point where I should have died by the kindness of several people who should never have forgiven me. I have the freedom to research magic, and to teach it, in an Academy once thought lost to time. I get to be right here as a new age begins – I get to be part of the world that has surpassed me. And, most impossible of all… I get to do it alongside the people I love."
"You told me, once, that you liked being Emperor of Alvarez. Was that just another lie?"
"It wasn't a lie. I did enjoy it. But, at the same time, it was always a form of escapism. I did it because it helped the mental balance which kept my curse in check. I don't need that any more – and Alvarez doesn't need me, either. I've taken it as far as I can, and to truly flourish, it needs to grow beyond me. All I want is to live quietly, far from the games of gods and kings."
Invel asked, acerbic, "Is that why you never came to see me? Because you feared I would emotionally blackmail you into taking up your old position again? Because you were concerned that you would see what a mess I was making of your legacy, and be forced to intervene?"
"No. I… no."
"A letter would have done."
Zeref stared at his hands and said nothing.
Maybe the fight was still in a gripping deadlock, maybe the entire crowd had packed up and gone home; they didn't know and didn't care.
"I mourned you," Invel murmured. "For an entire year. Sometimes it felt as though the only thing that kept me going was a promise to a dying man… and promises do not make for good company."
"If it helps," Zeref tried, "I wasn't exactly planning to die-"
"It doesn't help."
"Okay."
Space so vast and silent stretched out between them.
Invel said, "An apology might, though."
Zeref gave him a startled glance, black eyes that wavered and blue-grey ones that never would again.
After a moment spent considering the words, Zeref offered, "I am sorry for running away from you for so long."
Invel mulled this over for a moment, and then gave a single nod. "Well, then."
"For what it's worth, I think you're doing an incredible job as emperor. I was sure that either peace or our empire would have to go after my actions, but you've managed to hold onto both of them. I know that the Academy was Lucy's idea, and that August was the one dealing with the logistics, but you were the driving force behind it. You're the reason for my happy ending. I won't ever forget that."
There were a lot of things Invel could have said to that, but none of them were adequate, so he did not try. "Thank you."
"Have you found your Chief of Staff yet?"
"Still looking."
"I thought as much. You look tired, like you're taking it all on by yourself." There was a pause. "You'll know when you find them, Invel. You'll just know. And just like that, the future will fall into place, and the vast open sky will be nowhere near as daunting."
"For me, perhaps. They, on the other hand, won't have the faintest idea what they're getting themselves into."
"Yes, and if you treasure your sanity, you won't tell them."
Invel snorted. That moment didn't last, either. "I guess this is goodbye, then."
"Invel, you do realize you can come and visit me at any time, right?"
Until that moment, Zeref didn't realize how much he'd missed those incredulous looks these past few months. He added, a smile touching his lips, "I know, my timetable of classes for the upcoming year does look rather busy, but I'm sure I could squeeze you in."
"Sometimes, I despair of you," Invel told him bluntly. "At other times, I am reminded that the peace between our nations rests heavily on the success of this project, so I suppose I should schedule in time for the occasional visit to the Sidereal Academy as a show of support."
"I would like to see you too," Zeref smiled.
Invel got to his feet, casting one careless glance down towards the arena floor, which became stuck there, having finally seen something to catch his interest. "It seems the battle is over."
"Oh?" Zeref also stood, stretching like a cat, enjoying the suppleness of his body before mortality caught up with it. "I suppose I should go down there and congratulate Lucy on her victory, then."
"That would be an interesting conversation, seeing as how she lost."
"What? She lost? That's not possible!"
"Natsu didn't underestimate her," Invel shrugged. "It seems he respects Lucy a lot more than you respect him. I would say it's a habit you need to break out of, but I think a few classes full of students as precocious as you will sort it out nicely."
At long last, a smile slipped through his frozen exterior, brief as the sunlight dancing on the frozen waves and a hundred times more beautiful; forgiveness and understanding and a promise that, now that their roles were over, it was okay for them to just be friends. "Goodbye, Zeref. Enjoy your retirement."
Zeref smiled in full. "I will. See you round, Your Majesty."
One Month Later
The departure of Team Natsu on the Hundred Year Quest was only about the fifth most exciting thing that happened to Fairy Tail that morning.
There was nothing like starting the day with a moment of panic, thanks to Brandish of the Spriggan Twelve kicking open the doors. War or no war, there was something timelessly fear-inducing about an incredibly powerful mage bursting uninvited into a guildhall, dragging a bound prisoner along the floor behind her.
Until they realized who she had captured, that was.
"Oi! Watch where you're dragging me!" Cana huffed. "Don't think I won't sue the Alvarez law enforcement! Gajeel tells me that claims for harm suffered in custody are worth a lot of money with the right lawyer!"
Brandish ignored her as easily as she ignored the assembled guild, who appeared to have abandoned their breakfasts in favour of demonstrating their best bemused expressions. She marched straight up to Elfman at the counter and held out her hand.
Gingerly, Elfman placed a foil-wrapped shape on her waiting palm.
"And one for Mari," Brandish stated.
Without a word, he handed her another.
She unwrapped the corner of one, taking in the sausage and scrambled egg and fiery sauce of a breakfast burrito. It was the daily special, and the guildhall already abounded with the smells of grease and calories, but she closed her eyes anyway and nodded approvingly.
Then she folded the foil back over, slipped both into her satchel, and passed the end of her prisoner's rope to Elfman. "Pleasure doing business with you," she said, and then, because explanations were a hassle, she turned on her heel and walked out.
As a normal level of chatter returned, Levy made her way to the very corner of the guildhall, where a certain person was having breakfast. Zeref didn't spend much time in the guildhall – mostly because, as he put it, he had an actual job – but when he was around, he liked to sit in the corner and pretend he was only there for the food. Which wasn't difficult, since between Elfman's cooking and Mira's direction, the pub was almost as profitable as the guild work these days.
Levy dropped into the chair opposite him and gestured towards the bar, where Elfman was cutting a grumbling Cana out of her ropes using an oversized cleaver. "I really hope I'm missing something here."
Rather than answering, Zeref followed her gaze over to the bar. "How'd it go, Cana?"
"Brilliant!" She gave him two thumbs-up as Elfman lifted the ropes over her head. "Made it halfway across the Fjord of Silver Skies on a jet ski before Brandish caught us. Man, Alvarez has some really beautiful scenery. One day I might even go there for some reason other than to commit crimes against the state."
"Well, that did literally nothing to put my mind at ease," Levy muttered.
Zeref's lips twitched into a smile. "Yesterday was Alvarez's monthly Kidnap the Emperor day."
"Still not helping."
"It started a few months ago, when Cana went to visit Invel and was surprised to find he wouldn't see her without an appointment, despite her best attempts – and those of pretty much everyone who works for him – to encourage him to spend a bit more time away from his desk. Invel told her point-blank that the only way he would ever not turn up for work in the morning would be if he was physically incapable of doing so. Cana took it as a challenge."
Levy's head fell into her hands as she once again reconsidered her choice of friends.
"So, every month or so," Zeref continued, "Cana travels to Vistarion with a pair of magic-suppressing cuffs in her handbag, breaks into the palace, and drags him along on some adventure or other until one of the Twelve manages to rescue him."
"The poor man," Levy remarked. "How has Cana not been, you know, executed yet?"
"Because everyone who knows Invel agrees that it's good for him," Zeref responded neutrally – too neutrally. "Both as a person who works too hard, and as an emperor whose experience of the world is a little too narrow for the diversity of his empire."
Levy considered this for a moment. "Well, that explains how she manages to consistently break into a heavily warded palace without being caught."
This time, there was nothing apologetic about his grin. "I spent three hundred years constructing the wards around that palace. They are entirely bespoke and incredibly complicated, and it'll be another hundred years before anyone gets to the bottom of how they work and is able to take control of them away from me. Until that moment, if I want to let a Fairy Tail mage in to liven things up a bit, I will."
"Even retired, you're still going out of your way to cause trouble for Invel," Levy sighed, and then tapped her finger on the table. "Just out of curiosity, is there a law on who the Emperor of Alvarez can marry?"
"No," Zeref answered. "But I wouldn't be surprised if he makes one, just to be on the safe side."
Levy threw back her head and laughed.
Time passed relatively uneventfully for Fairy Tail – which was to say there was only one brawl, which Mira put an end to; one case of someone accidentally releasing the balloons meant for the questing team; and one more brawl over whose fault it was, which Mira let Alegria put an end to. Alegria was having a lot of fun being co-Guild Master with Mira. Still, when the Magic Council had tried to object that Fairy Tail couldn't possibly have multiple Guild Masters at once, even if they did only have one body between them, it had been Mirajane Strauss – gangster extraordinaire and Queen of the Underworld in both meanings of the word – who had corrected their misjudgement.
Zeref got out a book.
Levy, trying not to appear too envious of his foresight, looked at her watch. "We can't have a send-off party without the people we're supposed to be sending off! Are they going to get here any time soon?"
"Don't count on it," Zeref yawned, turning the page.
"Why not?"
"Because, at some ungodly hour this morning, Lucy and I were woken by Natsu hammering on the door like the world was ending, all because he'd forgotten to buy anti-motion-sickness lacrima for the voyage. I pointed out that they could just buy some at the port, but Lucy said that they weren't cheap, and pretty much all their working capital was already tied up in supplies for the journey. I said I would give them the money if Natsu would just go away and let me go back to sleep. Unfortunately, Lucy then got all fired up, and said that the quest had already started, and this was their first challenge, and accepting help was akin to admitting defeat… so, long story short, they went to round up their team for a pre-Hundred Year Quest quest, and I've not seen them since."
"What job did they take?"
"Delivering Magnolia's post," Zeref informed her. "So, we're probably at war with Bosco by now."
"Look, just because one of Lucy's jobs happened to trigger international war doesn't mean it's likely to happen again."
"I wouldn't put it past her," he sighed. "It's mornings like this that make me look forward to moving into the Academy."
Levy raised her eyebrows, a very serious curiosity bubbling up beneath the good humour. "You're going to live at the Academy?"
A nod. "I am entitled to living quarters there as a professor. I just haven't needed to take them up yet."
"Surely you don't need to now," Levy countered. "I don't believe for a second that Lucy would kick you out of her flat just because she's not here."
"She isn't. I simply don't feel it would be right to stay there without her. Besides, this way she's able to sublet her flat while she's away… which means that when she returns from the Hundred Year Quest, having inevitably spent the king's ransom of a reward on undoing whatever damage to the fabric of reality her team has caused in the process, she'll have a little pot of money waiting for her, so she won't feel guilty about relying on me to not starve to death."
Before Levy could protest against this utter lack of faith in Team Natsu, the doors to the guildhall burst open, and in walked the man himself. Leader of Fairy Tail's strongest team. Vanquisher of Acnologia. The last Fire Dragon King.
With chicken feathers in his hair, mud dripping from the end of his scarf, and his trousers in tatters where the stitching had lost a fight with a guard dog.
Natsu raised his fist to the sky and proclaimed, "We have returned victorious!"
To deafening silence from the guild.
"You do realize the Hundred Year Quest hasn't started yet, right?" Gajeel checked.
"Yeah, but now that I've got this, the quest itself is gonna be a piece of cake," Natsu grinned, holding out his brand new anti-motion-sickness lacrima, and prompting at least three people to try convincing Mira not to let this man represent their guild abroad.
Meanwhile, having tactically chosen to enter through the side door, a slightly less dishevelled Lucy slipped into the seat beside Zeref. "Ugh," she sighed. "We've not even started yet, and I already need a drink."
"What happened?" Levy asked.
"Let's just say that the guard dogs at the Bosco border have some nasty fangs on them, and leave it at that."
"Bosco?" Levy echoed.
"I told you so," Zeref shrugged.
With a sigh like she was auditioning for a pantomime, Lucy rested her forehead on the table. "Can I have a new team, please?"
"You could," Zeref said, "but think about how much less fun that would be for the rest of us. It would deprive us of reliable entertainment."
"I feel so loved," she sighed. Zeref obligingly patted her on the back, and she wanted to lean into it, but refrained. He wasn't one for public displays of affection, let alone around the guildhall – the guild was still getting used to him, and he didn't want to flaunt it any more than he had to. Lucy respected that, even if she did think she should be allowed on today of all todays.
Natsu bounded across to them with more enthusiasm than a Dragon Slayer about to undertake an intercontinental journey by boat had any right to have. He gave Zeref a brief nod – which, coming from him, was practically a hug, and a testament to the effort he had been putting in to overcome the residual hatred of his demonic self – and then slammed his hands down on the table. "Come on, Lucy! We'll miss the boat!"
"What about the send-off party?" Levy objected. "We've got balloons and everything!"
"It'll have to wait until we've returned triumphant! We're only here to say goodbye – five minutes, then we're outta here, Lucy!"
It was the height of summer, and a bluer sky had never been seen. Lucy found herself wondering if she'd be able to see the same limitless heavens from the soil of another continent. The constellations would be different, she knew, but the daytime sky seemed somehow larger without them; somehow great enough to encompass the infinity of their being and still have infinite promise left over.
Before she could step out from the shadow of the guildhall and join her team, a gentle hand touched her wrist. She turned and Zeref was there: quiet, private, an infinity of his own within his starry eyes, and all of it overflowing with the emotions he tried so hard not to show to anyone but her.
She had tried hard, too, to be nothing but positive towards the Hundred Year Quest. It had been a far-fetched dream of hers ever since Natsu had stolen that S-Class Galuna Island mission and she had tagged along – and after the guild's reunion and the resolution of the Alvarez War, it had started to seem more and more like it was within their grasp. Today was the first step towards realizing that dream.
It had been easy to support the idea when it had seemed that Zeref was lost to her forever. It had been nice to have something to look forward to, something to hold on to, when their attempts to untangle Irene's final spell had yielded failure after failure.
But then they'd succeeded. For a few precious months, she had been able to share her life with her guild and the man she loved, as the window for commencing the Hundred Year Quest had drawn closer and closer… and now that the time had come, she couldn't help wishing she had set her heart on something a little closer to Magnolia.
Something that wouldn't have taken her so far away from the love she had only just got back.
She was excited for the Hundred Year Quest. She really, truly was, and the last thing she wanted was for her team to think they were forcing her into it. She wasn't the only one having to bid farewell to a significant other, and they had all taken it in their stride. She had to look as cheerful as they did; to seize the opportunity with glee; to act as if following her dream didn't mean leaving her heart behind.
"Oh, Lucy," Zeref told her fondly. "Do you think I don't know what it means to have two consuming, contradictory passions? To know that becoming the person you were always meant to be means giving up a fundamental part of the person you were?"
Tears pricked immediately at her eyes. He saw straight through her, like he always did. Her walls, her emotional controls, her cheerful face – they all meant nothing before him, and she had never been more grateful for it. Seeing that empathy reflected back at her made her feel it was okay to be sad, just a little.
"You're forgetting one important thing," he continued. "The Hundred Year Quest is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you pass this up, in the best case scenario, you'll reach old age without a second chance ever crossing your path… and in the worst case scenario – which is far more likely, given what I've seen of your team – your friends won't survive it without you."
He was smiling at her rush to defend her team even before she'd found the words for it. "The thing is, Lucy – I'll still be here when you get back. It's not a choice between one and the other, between your adventures and me. I'll always be yours, no matter how long it takes for you to return."
Impulsively, she whispered the words she'd not found the courage to say in a whole month: "Come with me."
"I can't," Zeref said, with that same gentle smile. "I'm needed here. The first year will define the Sidereal Academy. Whether it blazes a path for us through the heavens or is crushed between the wheels of time will be decided in the next few months, and I have to be here for that."
"I know," she murmured, because she did. He had his dreams and she had hers, and the fact that they were different wouldn't stop either of them from pursuing them. But she'd needed him to hear it. She hadn't said it on the eve of war, she'd got back in her airship and flown away and accepted their end as inevitable, and she would never let that happen again.
"Besides," he added, "one quest with you is enough to last me a lifetime. I'm not immortal any more, remember? My poor heart won't be able to take the stress."
She laughed, cried, entwined her fingers with his. "I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you, too. Don't forget the lacrima I gave you. I don't know how far the signal will reach, but while it lasts, you can contact me at any time."
"I'll keep that in mind. If we come across any ancient magical runes we need interpreting, I'll be sure to give you a call, so that you can put Levy on."
"Very funny, Lucy," Zeref said, in a tone of voice that suggested he wouldn't find it funny at all; she smiled at his familiar pride and loved him for how close he had become with people other than her.
"I'll come back to you," she blurted out. "As soon as I can. I love you."
"I know," Zeref said, to all three. "And, Lucy…"
"What?"
He didn't answer straight away. Perplexity drifted across his face; she might have been a particularly tricky piece of semi-intangible calculus, if not for the fact that no problem of mathematics had challenged him that much for several centuries.
"Zeref? Are you okay?"
"Mm," he frowned. "I was going to ask you to be careful, but then I remembered that you were a Fairy Tail mage, and therefore trying to apply any kind of due care or reasoned logic to your actions would probably make you implode. Then I was going to tell you to survive, but you're already better at that than anyone else I know. Then I was going to ask you not to go looking for trouble, but I know I'd be wasting my breath. Then I was going to wish you luck, but with your skills, you don't need it. Then I thought I'd make you promise to come back to me victorious, but I already know you will. So, as you can see, I find myself entirely without anything poignant to say at the moment of our parting."
And then he brightened. "Instead, I'll say this: bring back something interesting for me, won't you? A book in a forgotten language, a magical artefact of unknown provenance, a cursed relic of an ancient civilization… you know the drill."
"Deal," Lucy grinned.
As she pulled him into a hug, immediately relaxing into his familiar embrace, she heard him whisper in her ear: "And good luck."
"I thought you said I wouldn't need it," she teased.
"That one is for putting up with your teammates for several months on end."
And just like that, all her sorrow was gone. She wasn't leaving any part of herself behind – she was simply entrusting it to the one she loved for a little while. She was a guild mage. A hero. She would always seek adventure, and he would always be here for her when she returned.
Different, in all the ways that didn't matter.
Her lips met his, gently fierce. If only for a moment, she had prayed, the first time they had dared to cross that line and accept the way they felt about each other. Back then, a moment was all she had believed was possible – all she thought they could dare to snatch from the jaws of fate.
And yet the moments had kept coming. Once they found the courage to fight for what they had, not tragedy, not war, not even death had been able to stop them.
Their every touch was proof that hope mattered.
That love mattered.
That people were more than what circumstance tried to make of them.
Their pain did not define them. Tragedy did not preclude happiness. Their scars did not mean that they could never again be whole, for what was a scar but a sign that they were hurt but not broken, a landmark on the map that had brought them here?
It didn't matter how far the heavens seemed above them. It didn't matter how hungrily the winds of time and prejudice tore at the walls of the Sidereal Academy of Magic. It didn't matter how long the Hundred Year Quest took them, or how terrible the dangers they faced.
They were alive. They were free. They were together even if they stood on opposite ends of the earth. Life was magic, and somewhere within each of them, all of infinity lay waiting to be uncovered. They would overcome anything the world could throw at them.
A/N: And we're done. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the story! After 750k+ words, there was no way I was going to let them get away without a happy ending, so I hope it was worth it.
It's been quite a journey for sure. This story has been running almost-weekly for nearly two years... but for me, it has been four and a half years, from writing to editing to finally sharing it with you all. I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has favourited, followed, and especially reviewed this story. When you commit so much of your life to something, that interaction means so much, and I don't know how I would have got through it without your support, so thank you!
Although this was my big alternate take on the final arc, there are still a lot of elements that it doesn't cover. The focus on Zeref, Lucy and Anna meant that a lot of other relationships, such as Zeref and Natsu, Erza and Irene, Gray and END, and even Acnologia and his backstory either took a back seat or didn't appear at all. These are all potentially fascinating relationships which deserve a story in their own right, rather than being crammed into this one. And honestly, even in 750k words, I've barely explored a fraction of what I want to with Zeref. He's just such an interesting character and I have no doubt he'll appear again.
What I'm trying to say is, I'll probably be back at some point in the future with another story. I'm just not sure when yet. It's fair to say that Scars has taken a lot out of me, and my life is in a very different place now to how it was back when I started writing this fic in September 2017. So I don't know when it'll be, but if, when the time comes, you're still interested in Fairy Tail, maybe we'll meet again! In the meantime, I'll probably still be around, so if you ever want to talk Fairy Tail or plot ideas, just drop me a message!
Thanks again for all your support, and for seeing this story through to its end! ~CS