Romeo continually came back to me for a story almost every time he saw me. I was just lucky that my font of creativity was seemingly endless and that some stories were longer than others.
"Say, Princess." Loke asked one day, in a rare moment when he didn't have women fluttering around him. "You've told Romeo at least half a dozen stories, but how many do you have in your head altogether?" Loke was another blessed soul that didn't treat me like a child. Not intellectually anyway.
I thought for a bit...
I had worked my way through Beauty and the Beast, the Jungle Book, Cinderella, the Swan Princess, adapted versions of all three Toy Story's, and was currently starting the Wizard of Oz. Each story had become more and more popular.
But how many stories did I know altogether...?
"I'm going to take your silence as 'a lot'."
"That's probably for the best." I agreed, forcibly yanking my magic away from investigating Loke's past. I had caught a glimpse of it only twice in any great detail, and that was enough for me to know that it was Loke's story to tell and not mine to pry into.
Loke holding a green haired woman by the wrist with an icy look in his eyes. His hair was a little longer and shaggier, he wasn't wearing his sunglasses and was dressed in an elegant suit coat. A pink haired girl with tiny curled horns on her head vanishing in a soft flare of light. The indomitable feeling of rage and anger on the sheep-girl's behalf. The green woman was angry. She slapped Loke and gave him a harsh order.
Loke didn't listen, instead he just turned and walked away, bitterness surrounding him even as determination set himself against what the rules dictated for the sake of doing what was right.
The green haired woman was named Karen. The sheep-girl was named Aries. Karen didn't call him Loke, but Leo.
Two of the names set me off on a quest inside the unending well of information inside my head.
It came up with identifying Leo and Aries as members of the Zodiac, the Golden Celestial Spirits that some wizards could summon. Their stories extended for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Leo/Loke, quaking and crying in frustration and guilt as death and blame resonated around him. Karen was nowhere to be seen or felt. Her story was over.
I could formulate that Loke/Leo had once worked very closely with Karen and Aries. He had intervened when Aries was in trouble at Karen's hand. And that somehow left him being blamed for Karen's death. I didn't see whether he was at fault or not.
After a look like that, I tried really hard not to look further into Loke's past. He had only been here for about a month, so I guessed, with some sadness, that once he worked out what my magic let me see, he would start to avoid me in hopes that I wouldn't trip over the skeletons in his closet.
I turned back to my writing, the lines of my personal script coming quickly and easily now. I started humming softly to block out the errant thoughts that might formulate some unwanted illusions around me. It wasn't dangerous, just kinda distracting for me and everyone else involved.
I was toying more and more with how my Story Magic could play out. It meant I could flip back through someone's past almost indefinitely given some focus. Natsu and Happy had volunteered as my guinea pigs for that. I only managed to go back as far as him meeting Igneel before I hit a wall. It wasn't nothing, it wasn't like when I reached the beginning of Happy's life when he hatched. It was just a long dark corridor that I couldn't get through or see anything in before I ran out of magic power.
But stories had certain cues or red flags that indicated of what could happen in the future. Foreshadowing if you would. But when I had voiced this idea, to my surprise, it was Cana that answered me.
"Leave telling the future alone for a while, Fae." She said, tossing back another mug of booze. "For me with my cards, it's relatively easy but I don't get any real specifics out of it. What you're doing could be a lot more precise, and could cost a lot more magic power. More than you have right now."
Makarov agreed with a huff.
"Cana is quite right, Fae. Seeing the future is a dicy business, even for those with the proper inclination to do so. If you want to experiment, I have no objections, but you must be extremely careful. And, I want you to develop your magical core some more before you attempt it."
He had handed me a fractured lacrima about the size of a marble. By channeling direct magic power into it, I could start to mend the cracks until I had a whole, usable piece again. By draining my magic into it, I would expend my power and my young body would see that my current strength wasn't sufficient and would compensate by opening itself up a little more to draw in larger amounts of ethernano. In this fashion, I would be expanding my overall reserves and speeding my my recovery time from magical use. But the interior of the lacrima was clouded with damage and I knew that I would be a long time in getting the whole thing crystal clear once again.
With that stipulation in place, I decided to try something a little more personal.
I could read other people's past without even trying in some cases. Did that mean I could read mine as well? Could I find where I came from?
For all that my head was filled with information, stories and conditioned knowledge, with emotion connected to all of it, trying to remember anything past waking up in Porlyusica's hut was blanketed in white fog and unreachable. At least under my own power.
I was currently writing out theories on how to go about this. Delving into one's own mind was a common enough practice for wizards. Only when you tried to force someone else's mind did the Rune Knight's start to sit up and pay attention.
I could...feel when a theory was sound and when it wasn't. It just resonated as right to me or wrong. A complete, well written story or if there was something false in it.
So wrapped up in my humming, I barely noticed when something began to weave its way into the song in my head. Almost in a trance, I turned over a new sheet and began to write...
"Laxus is coming back?" Natsu's heated roar made my hair ruffle as he peered over my shoulder, effectively shattering my meditative state. I looked down at what I had written.
Newcomers are being brought to the guild today by Laxus and Freed. How the heck had that...?
"What are you talking about flamebrain?" Gray called from where he was eating lunch. "We don't know when they're coming back."
"Fae said so! She wrote it down right here!" The Fire Dragon Slayer yelled, lifting and brandishing the paper for the whole hall to see. I felt myself blushing, and stretching up.
"Natsu, give it back! I don't know what I was thinking, it's probably nothing!"
-vVv-
Less than an hour later, Laxus came in with Freed beside him, and they were followed by two strangers. One boy, one girl. The boy had a thick wrapping of bandages around his eyes and the girl had dark sunglasses that concealed her eyes completely.
"Freed-sensei!" I cheered, pouncing and hugging the green haired male happily. He blushed in embarrassment as the two newcomers looked at him askance while Laxus just smirked.
"Ah, hello Fae."
"I didn't know you liked being called 'sensei' Freed." Laxus's remark made Freed blush all the more even as he patted my shoulder.
"Freed, I finished everything you left me! Is there something new I can do, please?"
"Wait until Laxus and I have spoken to the master." He placated me, "Gather up everything that you've been doing and show me afterwards, alright?"
"OK!"
"So who are you supposed to be?" The girl inquired, her tone icy and snobbish. Freed's hand rested on my shoulder as he turned towards her with an equally cold tone.
"She's my student." I heard the distinct warning of 'Back off, don't even think about it' in his words. Another thing that was getting stronger with the people I knew well. Hearing subtext and what they meant instead of just what they said. Thing was, I usually only heard it when their meaning was already so obvious that the whole point was moot.
"Brat, these are Evergreen and Bickslow." Laxus said with a careless gesture to the pair behind him. 'They're mine now'. "They're gonna be joining the guild." I beamed a little cheekily.
"So does that mean you're finally gonna have a team to do damage control for you, Laxus?" He glared down at me and I didn't feel even a whisper of genuine threat from him.
"Don't push your luck, brat." I just giggled before letting go of Freed to bow to Evergreen and Bickslow.
"It's nice to meet you guys! Laxus is strong enough that he doesn't really need help finishing jobs, just someone to keep him from going overboard so he doesn't have to give back all of the reward for the jobs!" This comment made several of the onlookers laugh. It was a common enough event for all S-class wizards to be too strong for their own good. Thus far, only Gildarts was beating Laxus in terms of extra property damage. Laxus picked me up by the shirt and deposited me back at my table as he walked forward.
"That's enough outta you!" I just cracked up as he lead his team forward along with the rest of the guild who was listening. I could see Erza was sitting on Natsu to keep him from picking a fight with Laxus and the newcomers before they were officially inducted.
The Thunder Legion. I blinked hearing how definitive the voice was about naming their little group, but then I smiled because it fit...
They're the Thunder Legion. Laxus had brought Freed to the guild, too, when his Dark Ecriture was kicking up a fuss. Applying runes to himself directly was something his Eye Magic let him do, though the details of why it was possible escaped me. Then again, to the rest of the world, turning oneself in a dark demonic monster would probably be considered far than just a mere 'fuss'.
-vVv-
I wondered vaguely just what growing up in Fairy Tail was doing to my psyche even as I dodged a stray bolt of lightning. It only took out a three foot section of the wall, so it probably wouldn't have hurt all that bad even if it had hit me.
The Welcoming Brawl was in full swing and the newcomers were doing very well for themselves. Most of the younger powerhouses weren't skilled enough to fight with their eyes closed to avoid having their limbs puppeted by Bixlow, or being petrified by Evergreen.
They are getting way too into this... I decided as I sat under a reinforced table with my paperwork. I had gathered it all up, but then I'd taken another look at Natsu and decided that having a study session with Freed would have to wait until after the brawl.
From what I had observed, both their powers revolved strongly around being able to see their opponents. Evergreen needed eye contact to turn someone to stone. Bickslow needed much the same.
I couldn't blind the others without giving the newbies an even bigger advantage. But I might be able to do something about Evergreen and Bickslow...
I took two long, narrow strips of paper and began to write in tiny lettering.
Obey instruction. Fly like birds. Render target incapable of seeing.
The runes were sound and the intent was correct. I carefully tied the matrix together to keep the magic energy cycling through the linked runes, so they would last for longer than 30 seconds.
The papers shifted and spun themselves into tiny, impossibly intricate and lifelike birds that crouched in my hands, waiting for instruction. I brought one up to my lips.
"Your target is the newcomer: Evergreen." I whispered. I then tossed it up and it took flight, zipping straight for the female who was in the process of turning three guild members to stone. I mentally guided it through the dangerous territory until it reached its target, unraveling into a long strip of paper that wound itself around her ankle, then slithered up to her eyes. In the chaos of combat, it went unnoticed by her until it was too late.
I got very swift confirmation that it worked when the twenty or so people that she had petrified returned to their normal states and she let out a piercing scream. Erza took her down easily while she was distracted.
"Evergreen is down!" She called, making those fighters that were blundering about with their eyes closed open their eyes.
Satisfied that my idea had worked, I primed the other bird.
"Your target is the newcomer, Bickslow." I murmured, sending it flying.
This bird went for his head, unraveling and blending in perfectly with the mess of bandages that Bickslow had pulled down to use his magic at fullest capacity.
The brawl was soon over and I celebrated quietly under the table, very pleased with myself. It was the first brawl I had participated in. I tried very hard to keep a straight face even as people started to wonder what had caused the pair's magical eyes to fail them.
"Very nicely done, Fae." Came a familiar voice from over my head. I peered up and saw a very proud looking Freed gazing down at me. "You've improved tremendously." I just grinned in answer.
-vVv-
I was reading as I walked to the guild hall dorms when I saw Mystogan.
I felt myself brighten and jumped up to race after the wandering S-class mage even as he made for the shops that he frequented to restock his travelling supplies.
"Mystogan! Mystogan!" He had only been back twice since I first met him. But true to his word, he always did his best to answer any questions he hadn't been able to give me good answers to on his last visit.
He turned up and I saw his eyes crinkle into a smile as I jumped from the top of the wall to land beside him.
"Hello Fae. I was wondering where you were when I stopped at the guild hall."
"I was at the bookstore." I said, showing the book I had been reading.
"And likely tearing your way through everything they have in stock."
"Only about half of it." I objected. "They've got a bunch of biographies that I'm not interested in, as well a bunch of law books, and cheesy adventure stories."
"Oh? Your taste has evolved so completely in the scant three months since I last saw you?"
"Nah, I just read all of em already!" I replied to his teasing with a bright grin. It was true. I had blitzed through the vast majority of the book store within a few weeks. The shop owner had restricted me to only standing and reading for about an hour at a time. The poor man was half convinced that I was wearing Windreader glasses with the rate that I blew through books.
"You certainly seem to be entertaining yourself though." He remarked, reaching out and examining the book I held, a large doorstopper volume that I had to hold with both hands. "'Ancient Civilizations and the Origin of Wizardry?'" He asked with raised brows.
"It's interesting!"
"Fae-chan, most eight year old girls would be working their way through basic chapter books and not breezing through literature most adults wouldn't read willingly."
"Most eight year old girls don't live in Fairy Tail." I replied blandly. Mystogan smiled and ruffled my hair. I couldn't helped the flash of images I got as my Retrocognition kicked in.
Mystogan looked down at a little girl with dark blue hair who was beaming up at him with joy. No judgement, just curiosity and trust.
"Ne Jellal-nii san? How far are we going to go today?"
"Not much farther, Wendy."
I was getting better about not reading people's past unwittingly. But if they touched me, it was like their life stories were jumping out at me.
"That's true." Mystogan admitted. "So, you're that invested in your book right now?"
"Yep!" I saw a wry sparkle in his eye as he looked down at me and pulled something thin and rectangular out of his bag-
"That's too bad. I thought you'd be interested in-"
"EEH!?" There was no label on it, but I recognized the way it. "A rune syllabary!?"
"Correct. I had thought that given how much you always complain about not having a good way to store your runes and needing to recall them all from memory that this might interest you but-"
I threw myself into a tackle hug that knocked the big bad S-class wizard to the ground.
"Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou!" I cheered squeezing him as hard as I could.
A rune syllabary was an indispensable magical tool for anyone developing a script. It was a rectangular piece of specialized lacrima about as big as an adults two hands. Once you input the individual parts of your script, you could write in Common, and have it automatically translated. And if there were multiple options for a suitable translation, it would pull up a list of options that could be applicable. They were also far too expensive for me to even think about getting one for years yet.
He ruffled my hair again, either smothering a laugh or struggling to draw breath.
"You're welcome, Fae-chan."
-vVv-
I returned to the guild hall to find a brawl in full swing. But to my bewildered surprise, it was Freed who was right in the thick of things and looking like a rage monster. He hadn't used his forbidden spell, a self transformation, but he was close... I was still clutching the rune syllabary to my chest and trotted over to where my stuff was situated. Laxus was sitting nearby, eating and watching the carnage unfold.
"So...what set Freed off?" I asked, spotting that Bickslow appeared to be Freed's main target.
"Bickslow's just learning what buttons he can push, and which ones he shouldn't." Laxus said, taking a deep draught from his mug.
"That doesn't answer my question..."
-vVv-
"So who's the little brat I keep seeing around? From the way she pounced on you, I'd have thought she was your baby sister or something." Freed's brow twitched at the derogatory term directed at Fae, but he contained himself well. His words only came out through compressed lips instead of gritted teeth.
"I believe I already told you. Her name is Faerun. She is a ward of the guild and a budding Rune Mage." Laxus demonstrated a remarkable amount of foresight and rose to move to the corner were Fae usually sat. It had been designated as hers since she had taken to sticking quill pens, ink jars and sheafs of paper underneath all the tables with some basic runes so she would never be very far from something to write on when the inspiration struck. She was very attached to her corner.
"Really? But you really seemed to like it when she called you, 'Freed-sensei'. Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind it! She might be annoying, but she's cute!"
"He's just mad that she managed to take him down during his first brawl." Cana muttered into her drink. A few nights after the brawl, Fae had been in bed and the Rune Wizard had had one drink too many. Freed had bragged long and proud about how much progress his student was making. Some people had tried to moderate his boasting, only to be informed with slurred pride that Fae had been the one to neutralize Bickslow and Evergreen during their Welcoming Brawl. The Soul Gaze Wizard hadn't taken the news that he had been defeated by an eight year old girl well.
Since it had been made explicitly clear that picking on Fae was a good way to put him on the entire guild's shit list, he had settled for needling Freed.
The Rune Wizard ground his teeth audibly, clearly on the verge of breaking... and Bickslow's grin widened.
"Just think about how that'll be once she's a big girl! Damn, think about all the people that'll be after your little genius protege, wanting her to do their jobs, she'll get famous in no time. I betcha she'll have fanboys too, guys who'll do anything for the chance to touch her-"
"Silence!" Freed roared, his sword coming out, his eye turning black and purple as he channeled power through it and runes flickering to life even as he went after Bickslow.
He didn't say more after that single angry roar, but the thought hung heavy and ponderous in the air for some.
Fae was a cute little girl now. Years away from any sort of development that could lead to unwanted attention.
But that would one day change...
Fae would have boys notice her and she would start to notice boys...
-vVv-
"If you can't figure it out, I'm not saying." Laxus told me gruffly, turning back towards the fight with appraising eyes. I looked at him for a while longer, getting the feeling that whatever he wasn't saying would one day come and bite me somewhere very uncomfortable. I shrugged and looked at the fight, cupping my hands to carry over the noise.
"Kick his ass, sensei!" With my encouragement given, I settled down to start inputting everything that I needed into my shiny new toy for it to really help me out.
-vVv-
It had been two years since I came to Fairy Tail. Since no one had a clue when my actual birthday was, just my approximate age, it was celebrated on the anniversary of my naming myself.
There would be a huge party later, I could read that in the intent in the air almost too easily. Gray and Natsu had annoyed Mira somehow and her punishment was that they had to go and entertain me outside of the guild hall while everyone else got the party ready. And they had to get along.
Erza eventually followed them since they didn't make it ten steps out of the hall before they were fighting.
"You have to be more forceful, Fae." She told me sternly. Behind her, Natsu and Grey nursed smoking lumps on their heads.
"Erza, I'm not that strong." I told her blandly. "I can't exactly write myself more strength without potentially shredding my muscles when they channel force that they aren't meant to." I instantly regretted what I had said as a shiver raced down my back. Brown eyes had never looked more lethal as Erza's gaze glittered down at me.
"I wasn't aware that the exercises I had given you had lost their potency, Fae-chan..." Erza didn't have a slasher smile, but she was certainly mimicking one so perfectly that I couldn't tell the difference. Natsu and Gray had taken refuge somewhere behind me. Cowards!
I swallowed, trying to think of some way out of this...
"This is gross misjudgement on my part." The recently crowned Queen of the Fairies mused, eyes growing distant and calculating. "With your magic power growing by the day it should stand to reason that your old workout routine would give you less and less benefit. We'll have to fix that. But today is your birthday..."
"So I get a break?" I asked hopefully.
"Far from it!" Erza roared. I ducked behind Gray and Natsu, or tried to. Erza snatched me and brought me close into a tight hug that made my skull bounce painfully against her breastplate. "We shall go to Akane Resort's amusement park where we will spend many hours racing, running and generally exerting ourselves! The guild has already pitched in for some tickets to the amusement park, but this way we will both spend the day enjoyably and exercise your body!" I had never seen Erza like this... I caught a flash of her conversation with the master a few days ago...
"Get Fae out of the city for awhile. Something that she'll enjoy, but without revealing our plans for when she comes back."
Erza's heartfelt desire to celebrate my coming to the guild, coupled with the anxious nerves that most people didn't know she had, had resulted in her social awkwardness skyrocketing. It had an inverse relationship with her ability to lie convincingly, meaning she was acting more like she did whenever she tried to act. In other words, stage fright, rambling, etc.
"Erza, that was supposed to be a surprise!" Gray complained. I was caught up in the feeling of giddy childish excitement though.
"We're going to Akane!?" I demanded, eyes shining, hands reflexively clasped in front of me as I looked up at all of them.
"Aye, sir!" Happy enthused, flying out of the hall and landing in my arms. "Happy Birthday Fae!" I cuddled Happy, feeling like dancing on the spot with excitement.
"That was the plan before miss Blabbermouth spoilt the surprise." Gray grumbled, scowling at Erza while Natsu tried to recover from his perpetual motion sickness. Apparently even the thought of roller coasters could make him sick.
"Don't be silly, Gray, we're still going!" Erza said firmly, managing to calm down somewhat, though she was blushing a little with mortification. "I didn't mean to spoil the surprise. I am very sorry, Fae-"
"Stop apologizing and let's go already! We're burning daylight!"
-vVv-
Gray was the one who primarily went with me on the rides, at least the ones I was allowed on with my relatively small stature. Natsu refused to even go near them, and Erza had to stick close to him to keep him from eating the coals out of the restaurant grills and firepits. Happy tended to fly to the top arc of each coaster and gave me a high five as we zoomed by.
"Alright, Birthday girl, let's give the rides a rest for now." Gray said as he carried me on his back away from the coaster section of the park. "You know Natsu's gonna sulk if he doesn't get to spend some time with you today. It means a lot to him that you decided to stick around." I giggled arms around his shoulders as he walked.
"Sure, Gray. But who's gonna keep you from losing your clothes?" I asked as I nudged his hand away from the hem of his shirt.
"It's a beach location in the middle of summer. Nobody's gonna notice it here if anywhere!" And just like that, I knew that Gray would have jinxed himself.
He and Natsu were almost completely grown. And I had noticed a surprising amount of female attention directed at my big brother figures. They were just too...Fairy Tail centric to notice most of it. I didn't want to admit it, but my surrogate guild was pretty clique-y. They could and would interact with other people, but for the most part, we all lived in this little semi isolated world of madness, magic and destruction. But when I had made this observation to Mystogan, he hadn't seemed concerned and simply explained it was a prevalent habit among most wizarding guilds. People who were born with magic just wanted to stay in a place where they knew they belonged.
And while people might notice, admire and even treat some wizards like celebrities, there was still some division and mistrust. There was a reason that the Wizarding Guild Ward program existed. Ordinary people normally didn't have the same capacity for helping a person capable of using magic grow in a healthy or safe environment.
These heavy thoughts were brought to a stop when Gray managed to slip out of his shirt, with me on his back the entire time. How the hell...? Almost a full minute later, I spotted a pair of girls around Gray's age rubberneck after us. Likely gawking at Gray's guild mark.
I remained blissfully certain of that until a few minutes later when they worked up the nerve to approach us while we were getting ice cream and trying to pinpoint where Erza and Natsu had gone.
I didn't really listen as they started to talk to Gray. I had just gotten a reading on them.
"Incoming hottie, ten o'clock..."
"Oh my...it really is my birthday." I shook off the musings of horny teenagers with a shudder. Gray would probably be confused about their attention for a few minutes, then get a clue, and almost instantaneously get awkward. For all that he was good friends with Loke, by now, Gray was the calm one of the duo. And there was something fundamentally wrong with that! Gray didn't do calm!
I glanced back at the Ice Wizard to see that one of the girls was happily clinging to his arm and beaming up at him. There were even sunlight and sparkles around them. I see some weird stuff. It was beyond me how the others couldn't see these violations of the laws of nature. It was kinda like the sparkly aura that surrounded Erza whenever she ate her strawberry cake undisturbed. Gray was actually rather stiff and looked somewhat off put by her touch.
I scanned the sky for Happy as I munched my ice cream and sat on a bench waiting for Gray. Then I saw something trailing fire from the top of a roller coaster...
I squinted, sighed and got to my feet. Erza will get Natsu down. But I'd best be ready in case we have to leave quickly.
"Gray?" The Ice wizard softened noticeably when I approached. I was fixed with the surprised and displeased glares from the two girls who caught onto the very different way he addressed me. He was...borderline polite to outsiders. But I think that to these girls, his attitude had been more of a perk than a real deterrent. But finding out that he could be nice, approachable and even friendly? I shrank a little, widening my eyes and trying my utmost to look like a disappointed, bedraggled kitten. Gray turned and walked a few steps towards me, resting a hand on my aqua colored hair.
"What's up, Fae?" I pointed up even as the girls' glared at me for getting voluntary contact. I'm freakin' nine! Geeze! I bit my tongue and ignored them. Looking hostile would only make this whole situation worse.
"At the moment, Natsu. I think we better find Erza and Happy before they break something trying to get him down." Gray groaned, followed my finger to where the Fire Dragon Slayer was plastered against the front car.
"How the hell did he get up there?"
"We'll probably hear all about it later."
Much to everyone's surprise, we managed to get away from Akane in a timely manner without anyone trying to press charges. A remarkably positive outcome all things considered.
I would swear the guild roof lifted a few inches off the walls from the roar of greeting, warmth and home that slammed into me as I entered.
I didn't stop smiling even once for the entire night.