chapter three: the eighth planet from the sun
The four mages, plus blue cat, met at the train station early the next morning before the heat got too intense. Natsu was raring to go right up until he stepped foot on the train, where he promptly collapsed on top of Lucy in a pale, heaving mess. Miyako, acting as team lead, had secured their tickets and a private compartment the night before, and assisted Gray in dragging their dragon slayer to their seats.
She chose to sit next to Gray, although the two did have to play rock-paper-scissors for the window seat (Gray had won, but Miyako smugly pulled rank and the ice-make mage conceded, more amused than anything).
"Lucy-san, I have a request, but you don't have to accept," Miyako said after the train pulled out of the station.
Lucy tilted her head in askance, arms curled around the celestial spirit she'd introduced as Plue, her nikora, or canis minor spirit. "What is it, Miyako?"
"Well, as I believe you already know, I'm a researcher, and my primary study nowadays is lost magics. While not technically lost, celestial spirit summoning has been bordering on extinct among mages for decades," Miyako said in what Gray liked to call her 'Professor Dreyar' voice.
The older blonde nodded along, a small furrow in her brow. "So, you want to study my magic?" she asked curiously.
"I have a number of questions," Miyako admitted. "And I would love to observe you summoning a spirit with my mage glasses."
"What are mage glasses?" Lucy asked. "The ones you're wearing right now?"
Miyako's hand automatically went to her reading glasses, which she kept secured on a golden chain around her neck. She shook her head. "No, these are just my reading glasses. My mage glasses allow me to see magic in the air and bodies around me," she explained.
Lucy's mouth formed an 'o'. "I've never heard of something like that before."
"That's because Miyako invented them," Gray said, sounding proud. "She's probably the smartest person in the whole guild."
The researcher's cheeks pinked up a bit at the unexpected praise. "Hardly," she denied. "Freed had to help me with the runes. They're just as much his baby as mine."
"So," Lucy pressed. "If you wore them while watching me summon a spirit, you'd be able to see my magic interact with my keys?"
Miyako nodded with a small, excited smile. "Exactly."
"That's actually really cool!" Lucy said enthusiastically. "Sure! I'd be interested to know what you'd learn from the process."
"It's so boring, Lushy," Happy whined around the fish he'd packed as an early snack. "She made me use my aera over and over again, hours of just flying in circles!"
Miyako scowled in the cat's direction. "First of all, I gave you a nice salmon for your troubles. And second, I asked you politely to activate your aera a total of three times, and the entire process only took an hour. And you're the only flying cat I know, was I supposed to not be interested?"
Musical giggling reached Miyako's ears, and she stopped glaring at Happy long enough to notice it was Lucy laughing at her. Her fellow celestial mage was grinning. "This is the most I've ever heard you speak, Miyako-chan," Lucy said. "You're kind of adorable!"
Again, all the blood in her body fled to her cheeks. Gray was smirking in her direction. "She is, isn't she?" he agreed, reaching out and ruffling her hair. "But she likes to pretend she's all tough like her brother."
"I am!" Miyako protested loudly. "I mean-!" she broke off and sighed. "This is why I don't talk to people."
"Well, I like talking to you," Lucy said kindly. "What questions did you have?"
She immediately perked up. "Really?" she asked. When the other blonde gestured for her to get on with it, Miyako hurriedly retrieved her journal and pen from her bag. Still, she hesitated. "You don't mind, Gray?"
Gray shook his head. "No, it's not a bad idea to get to know the newbie's magic if we're going to be working on a team."
"Great!" Miyako poised her pen above the page she'd already written a number of questions on, glasses perched on the tip of her nose, and she zeroed in on her target with astute eyes. "Can you explain the process of making a contract with a spirit? And in your answer, please touch on what would happen if you were to breech this agreement?"
For a moment, Lucy blinked at her in surprise. "Oh wow, you're really prepared! Okay, well, first of all, the contract between spirit and summoner is super important. It's the time where we flesh out the terms of summoning. Their strengths, weaknesses, and preferences, and the times they are available. Each gold key is unique, but a silver key spirit could have any number of contractors, and they have lives of their own, so it's important to stick to the terms of the agreement. For example, I'm only allowed to summon my strongest spirit, Aquarius, on Wednesdays, but I can also only summon her from a water source, and she's very picky about what kind of water I use. Depending on how severe the breach in the agreement is, I could potentially lose all my contracts."
Miyako nodded, taking notes in short hand. "You have several keys," she observed. "Is it ever difficult to keep track of your spirit's availability?"
"You're not the only one who carries a journal!" Lucy said brightly. After a moment of rummaging in her purse, she produced a small, purple notebook. "I have them memorized, but if I ever need a quick reference, I have it all written down here," she explained, flipping through a few pages and holding them out for Miyako and Gray to see.
Gray whistled lowly. "That's a lot of information," he commented.
"Yup! I'm pretty lucky though. My spirits are my friends, and a lot of the time they're willing to help me out outside of our contract," she said proudly.
"What spirits are you contracted to?" Miyako asked curiously.
"She has a scary fish, and a big cow, and a crab that ends all his sentences with -ebi!" Happy chimed in, counting them off on his paw.
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Those are my three zodiac spirits. Aquarius the Water Bearer, Taurus the Golden Bull, and Cancer the Great Crab. But I'm also contracted with Crux the Southern Cross, Horologium the Pendulum Clock, Lyra the Lyre, and little Plue!"
The impromptu interview continued until the train pulled into the station at Hargeon, and Miyako was practically vibrating with excitement, not just about the upcoming job, but also everything she'd managed to glean from Lucy.
Lucy was very stimulating company, and she reminded Miyako a bit of Mirajane and Freed, so it was rather easy to feel comfortable in her presence, despite her usual reticence around new people.
"So, how are we actually getting to the island?" Gray asked as they left the train station.
He had Natsu, who hadn't revived from the long train ride, thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The incapacitated boy was moaning about boats.
Miyako checked her watch. "I called ahead and arranged for passage on a merchant boat. We set sail in about an hour."
-O-
"What do you mean you're no longer willing to take us to Galuna Island? I spoke on the lacrima yesterday to a man who assured me you could grant us passage to any of the islands off the coast of Hargeon."
Despite her petit stature and the fact that she wore clothes more suited to a high academic than a mage heading out on a dangerous job, Lucy thought Miyako cut an intimidating figure. She was shorter than Lucy, but she carried what little height she had well, and even with her chin titled up to glare at the weathered sea-captain, she still managed to look down on him.
The captain must have agreed with Lucy because he twisted his cap in his hands as he explained nervously, "That lad you spoke to is still wet behind the ears. My men won't sail those waters, and you'll be hard pressed to find any sailor in this port who will. They say the island is cursed, lassie!"
"Yes," Miyako said flatly. "That's precisely what we're here to investigate."
But the captain shook his head again. "Sorry, lassie. I can't help you," he said before he lumbered back up the gang plank to his ship.
"Looks like we're swimming!" Natsu said brightly. "Let's go, Happy!"
"Don't be even more of an idiot," Gray said scathingly. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, but he didn't look deterred. "Miyako-chan will figure it out."
Miyako hummed thoughtfully. She brought her hand up to shield her eyes against the sun glaring off the water and peered around the dock. "I'm sure there's at least one sailor in this port worth his salt."
It was funny, Lucy thought. Miyako was the youngest of their lot, but Gray, and even Natsu, seemed to recognize her authority and put faith in her to solve their problem. Her particular brand of leadership was different than, say, Erza, who was stalwart and inspiring, but lacked tact in certain areas, and was blunt in all the ways her swords were not. Miyako had already proved herself to be thoughtful, steady, and tactically minded. Lucy felt just as safe in her presence as she did in Erza's.
Her musings were cut short when a voice called out, "Sorry, did I overhear correctly? Are you four here to lift the curse from the island?"
A man with olive skin was loitering in the water on a small boat. He had a bandana wrapped around his head, a broad forehead and sharp cheekbones. Around his shoulders was a cloak cinched right up to his neck.
"That's correct," Miyako answered.
The man made a sound like the air had been punched from his lungs and then said hurriedly, "Get on board."
His vessel was not nearly as mighty as the merchant ship. The boat that bobbed on the water was nothing more than a skiff with a motor, and Miyako looked at it doubtfully. "She looks like she'd break apart the second we hit rough water," she commented. "That's not a boat suited for the deep sea."
"She'll hold up," the man disagreed. "And, besides, you won't find anyone else but me willing to go to Galuna."
"I suppose we have no choice," Miyako admitted. "Very well. What is your name?"
"Bobo."
Miyako held her hand out, but Bobo hesitated. She did not question his reluctance, and instead lowered her hand and dropped into a polite bow. "I'm Miyako, and this is Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy. We're Fairy Tail wizards. Thank you for having us on board, Bobo."
The five of them began boarding, but when Lucy lowered herself onto the damp, wooden bench and the boat wobbled beneath her, she couldn't help but glance back at the safety of the dock. Why exactly had she agreed to come on this dangerous S-Class mission again? Mira had literally just explained how perilous they could be last night!
"Don't tell me you're having second thoughts," Gray's deep timber questioned teasingly.
"No!" Lucy denied quickly, shaking her head. "I'm just… worried about Natsu, you know, throwing up on me."
Gray looked at her like he knew that wasn't quite true, but was kind enough to let it pass, and even chuckled at her joke. "Just point him over the side of the ship."
"Not funny!" Natsu moaned.
The pinkette was already draped miserably over the side of the boat, and they were still tied to the dock. Miyako was the last to step on board, but when she got settled in the cramped space, they launched from the dock. Natsu began heaving immediately and Lucy cringed.
They sailed for a few hours in peaceful silence. But eventually, Happy ventured to ask, "Do you have any fish?" from where he was perched at the bow, peering at the deep water with hungry eyes.
Bobo didn't answer. His back was turned to them as he steered them through the open water. Night had fallen and the moon was a silver disk above the gentle waves. Lucy could spot many of her constellations twinkling down at her, and she took some comfort from their presence. Finally, Bobo said, "I was once a citizen of that island. I ran away from the curse."
Miyako's eyes lit up, and Lucy wasn't shocked to see her journal and pen all but materialize in her hands. "In my research I couldn't find many specifics about this curse. There are vague accounts of ships going missing, but there aren't any corresponding reports," she said.
"If you go to that island, misfortune will befall you," Bobo said gravely. "Can you really undo the curse?"
Lucy felt a shiver run up her spine at his tone. On the water, it was cool, and the salty breeze licked at her neck uncomfortably. But Miyako sighed minutely, snapping her journal shut. "I have yet to see any substantial evidence that there is a curse," she said challengingly.
Bobo reached up and grabbed his cloak with his left hand. When he pulled it aside, Lucy gasped, and scrambled into Gray's chest. He placed a calming hand on her arm, but Lucy felt the tension in his muscles. Bobo's right arm wasn't human. It was demonic, that was the only way she could think to describe it. Scaly and deep purple, ending in a claw instead of a hand.
"The Demon curse," he said.
"Mister, your arm," Gray almost stammered.
Miyako already had a new pair of glasses perched on her nose and a furrow appeared in her brow. "Fascinating," she murmured.
"You- you don't mean-" Lucy swallowed hard, finally tearing her gaze away from Bobo's arm, but she remained unable to finish her terrible thought.
Bobo pinned her with an intense stare. His eyes were dark as the churning water beneath them. She breathed a sigh of relief when he looked away. "You can see it now," he said, pointing out to the water. "That's Galuna Island."
There was an inky smudge far off in the distance, but its peak was glowing brighter than a star, making it visible. What was that? Lucy wondered. A lighthouse? She turned back to ask Bobo if he knew, but faltered when the man was nowhere to be seen. "Where'd he go?!" she yelped, eyes frantically searching the water for any sign he'd fallen in.
"Did he go overboard?" Gray demanded, doing the same.
"There was so splash," Miyako said calmly. "If a man his size was to have fallen in we would have heard it."
"He disappeared!" Happy cried out
Suddenly the boat lurched, and a roaring consumed Lucy's ears. Before she even turned around, she knew what was happening.
"O-oi!" Gray exclaimed.
Lucy looked over her shoulder and screamed.
"We're gonna be engulfed, hold on!" Gray shouted.
She reached for her keys, fingers instinctively brushing against Aquarius's, but it was only Tuesday and she bit back a curse. Then, something heavy connected with side of her head and she briefly knew pain before her vision was consumed by black. As she lost consciousness she vaguely heard Miyako's voice shouting something, but before she could figure out what, she was gone.
-O-
"Miyako, if you can control water, why didn't you just stop the wave?"
Miyako scowled at the whining cat as she helped Gray pull Lucy and Natsu further to shore. The blonde was bleeding sluggishly from a shallow cut at her temple, likely made by debris from the ship breaking up. As she rummaged in her bag (thankfully spelled to be waterproof- she would not risk water damage to her precious journals) for her med kit, she said, "It's July. Neptune's powers are weakened in July. The best I could do was us not drowning. Don't complain."
Natsu made a weak sound of protest when Gray dropped him in the sand. "S-spinning," he murmured in his state of half-consciousness.
"We're not spinning anymore!" Gray snapped.
Miyako carefully cleaned Lucy's injury, and affixed two butterfly bandages to help keep it closed. When she finished her work, she lay back on the sand and breathed out. This was not an auspicious start to the job. But, she was sure she'd learned another important piece of the puzzle from Bobo when she'd put on her mage glasses and examined his arm. Now, how did it fit into the larger picture? She couldn't help that she smiled.
"That face never means anything good," Gray said jokingly.
"Just thinking," Miyako replied smoothly.
The ice-make mage lay down next to her, and Happy curled up in the space between their bodies. It was late- early, she corrected herself when she realized the moon was no longer high in the sky and dusty pink light was spilling up over the horizon. Natsu's body was in denial that they were on solid ground again, and Lucy was still unconscious.
"We should rest here until morning," Miyako murmured, her eyelids already growing heavy. It had been a long day of travel. The sand was soft, and Miyako's butt was so sore from sitting on the hard, wooden bench on the boat for hours on end.
Gray made an agreeing sound in the back of his throat.
"We arrived!"
Miyako jolted awake, yanked from an uneasy slumber by Natsu's voice. She hadn't even realized she'd fallen asleep, and she groaned when the late morning sunshine hit her still-closed eyelids, and her vision was washed in crimson.
"Let's go explorin'!"
"Aye, sir!"
She pushed herself into a sitting position, and carefully rubbed at her eyes, wary of the all the sand that had stuck to her salty skin in her sleep.
"We're here on a job, flamer!" Gray bit out waspishly.
Finally, Miyako managed to pry her eyes open. The sky was the color of Happy's fur, and said cat was flying tiny, victorious circles around Natsu's head. Gray was pushing himself off the beach, dusting the sand off his pants and looking just as happy to be awake as she felt. Neither of them were early birds.
"We're lucky that wave washed us ashore!" Lucy said.
Miyako automatically turned at the blonde's voice, pleased to see her awake and alert, and looking no worse for wear.
"That wasn't luck- that was Miyako-chan," Gray told her.
"Really?" Lucy queried, glancing at the fifteen-year-old curiously.
The heavenly body mage was gathering her bag up, and shot Lucy a small smile. "We should probably start walking. We made it to Galuna, but the village is farther inland yet, and the chieftain is the one who made the job request."
There was some grumbling about more travel, and complaints of hunger (some of their provisions had not survived their marooning), but the Fairy Tail mages eventually got walking.
The island was covered in a dense, tropical forest, but luckily, there was a well-trodden, if not slightly overgrown, path for them to follow. It was humid, but the roof of the forest at least prevented most of the direct sunlight from beating down on their skin. Maybe after this job Miyako would have a tan and her jīchan would stop harassing her about being so pale. The bugs were probably the worst part of the experience- the constant, low-pitched buzzing was maddening.
"Miyako-chan," Lucy said when the sun was just starting to dip below the horizon again.
"Yes?"
The older blonde swatted another bug out of her face. "I just realized, I don't know what your magic is," she said. "Is it related to water? Gray said you helped us get to shore."
"Not technically," Miyako answered. "I'm a heavenly body mage. It's magic that allows the caster to draw power from celestial bodies. Our magics are actually quite similar in that regard, Lucy. I use the planets, but I know of another heavenly body mage on the magic council who uses meteors and stars. Neptune helped get us safely to shore. However, its power is weakest in July, otherwise I would have been able to prevent us getting shipwrecked completely."
"Cool!" Lucy said. "So, Jupiter?"
"Lightning and thunder," she replied. "Not as powerful as my brother's though."
The celestial summoner was quiet for a long moment as she digested the information. "Neptune is the sea, Jupiter is thunder… So, Uranus would be the sky, and Saturn the earth… but what about Mars, Venus, and Mercury?" she listed off on her fingers.
Miyako glanced over her shoulder, smiling brightly. "Why am I not surprised you're so familiar with classical mythology? I can draw on Mars for strength, Mercury for speed, and, Venus, well, it's called charmspeak, but I don't use it."
Lucy frowned, "What's charmspeak?"
"It's a form of hypnosis," Miyako answered reluctantly, turning away. "It makes people very… suggestible."
"Oh," Lucy said. Then, more understanding, "Oh."
Gray chuckled lowly. He'd taken the lead, not by choice, but because he was the tallest he was the designated spider-web sweeper, clearing the path for Miyako and Lucy who shared a similar squeamishness for arachnids. "It was a hoot when she learned that," he told Lucy with a devious smirk. "She had no clue when she was using it for, like, three months. And she was ten."
"A ten-year-old with the power to get whatever she wanted whenever she wanted with no control over it?" Lucy asked with dawning horror.
"One time she told Natsu to shut up and he couldn't speak for two whole days!" Happy chimed in. "It was a great two days."
"Hey!" Natsu said loudly.
Miyako was blushing. "It was a long time ago! I said I was sorry. Oh, look at that!"
Up ahead, there was a break in the trees, and in the distance were the walls, made up of thick logs sharpened to points, of a fortified village. It was a lucky spot. The sun had gone down during their conversation, and the clouds that had rolled in at some point during the day blocked what little light they would have been granted by the moon.
Natsu scented the wind with a twitching nose, and punched the air in his excitement. "Alright! Civilization, and they're cooking! I'm starving, let's go!" he shouted, before running up ahead, Happy flying close behind.
However, as they got closer, it became apparent the natives were not waiting to welcome them with open arms. A huge sign on the front entrance declared 'keep out', and Natsu grumbled, "What do they mean 'keep out'?"
"Excuse me!" Lucy said loudly, hand cupped over her mouth. "Please open the gate!"
Barely a moment with no response went by and Natsu grinned devilishly and said, "Should we bust it down?"
"Absolutely not!" Miyako snapped.
Luckily, a second later, a voice called back, "Who goes there!" and the five mages looked up to see two men with spears leaning over the edge of the parapet.
"We're Fairy Tail mages!" Miyako replied, raising her voice. "Our guild should have called ahead to let you know we took the job."
There was some indistinct murmuring before the second man shouted, "Show us your marks! All of you!"
They all complied, Miyako struggling for a moment to unbutton the collar of her blouse and shift the upper part of her dress to reveal the heather grey mark on her shoulder. Another moment of hushed whispering, and then, the gate began rumbling and lifting up from the ground.
"It's like we're entering the mouth of a giant monster!" Happy said cheerfully.
"Please don't say things like that," Lucy hissed back.
Miyako stepped forward. "Let's go."
*leans in close to the mic* yes, yes i did borrow charmspeak from heroes of olympus.
~ calliope