Erza entered the guild like a super charged thunderhead. Power radiated from her, but she looked calm, controlled and even serene. I was then endlessly entertained as she ripped into guild members who had not performed to her standard while she was gone.
For all that she was harsh and unmerciful in her criticism, Erza wouldn't hesitate to lay down her life for any of us if it came down to it. She was the de facto master in Makarov's absence. And all of us knew that and reciprocated the feeling of protectiveness, even if we might not be as capable as she in carrying it out.
She had just finished quietly terrifying Gray and Natsu into pretending that they got along when she cast her eyes around the room.
"Where's Fae?" I waved, standing on a table to see over the others' heads.
"Right here, Erza!" I was rewarded with a tiny smile that seemed to calm Lucy more than anyone else.
"There you are. Come on over here." I trotted through the crowd as it parted to give me unhindered access to the S-class Mage. I didn't hesitate and hugged her. I heard Lucy's quietly strangled sound of shock as Erza's gauntleted hand rested on my head briefly.
"Have you been keeping up on your exercises?"
"Yup!" I affirmed cheerfully. After the scare she had given me the last time I had been idle, I had been doing my utmost to fulfil what assignments she gave me. Erza when she's trying to be helpful is almost more terrifying than when she's angry. But in spite of knowing fully well that Erza could turn into a terrifying demon when she chose, even having suffered a minor strain of it myself, I just couldn't find it in me to be as afraid of her as everyone else seemed to be.
"Very good. Checking on your progress will have to wait though." Her smile vanished as she looked around the guild hall. "Natsu, Gray, where do you think you're going?"
"Nowhere!" Gray yelped. "Just- sticking together, like friends do!"
"Aye!"
"Why is Natsu acting like Happy?!" Lucy demanded of Mirajane in a hiss.
"Good, because I need your help." I think the entire guild was listening with bated breath and gaping jaws as Erza asked for another person's help for the first time, ever.
She explained about her assignment to investigate Eisenwald, and the requirement that the master had imposed on her to not go alone. And to make sure that whoever she took along would be strong enough to survive without her constant protection.
Gray and Natsu ain't gonna be happy about having to work together... I thought even as Erza handed me a small bundle of cloth. Probably another piece of clothing. Erza had an eye for the stuff, no surprise considering she didn't have the same spacial constraints as a regular person did for what she could have available at any given time. But since she was a fully grown woman, there were some things that she couldn't wear without looking...less than dignified and mature, so she would collect it and give it to me.
Hopefully it's nothing too flashy or ridiculous... Though since I had gotten a very cool wolf hat from her on her last extended vacation, made from real wolf fur no less, I wasn't inclined to complain.
I watched as Natsu, Gray, Erza, Happy and Lucy all set out the next morning.
The next chapter begins. I scrubbed at my ears furiously. I wish it wouldn't do that...
-vVv-
It came as a surprise to absolutely no one that the newly formed team, comprised of three of the most volatile and powerful wizards in the guild plus some extras, leveled the guild master's meeting house.
"It just figures..."
"500 jewel that this is just the beginning!"
"That's a sucker's bet and you know it!" I just sighed, sending a round of drinks scattered down the bar with a murmured 'depulso.'
I was currently poring through my knowledge and logical reasoning. Or at least as much logic as I have given this place... A prank job had gotten Krov glued to the wall. Upside down. People were too busy laughing at him to help him down.
It was all well and good to accept that I had magic and that it worked. But I wanted to know why it worked.
Magic is the reaction of the combined forces of the transformed ethernano inside a wizard, and the lingering power in the atmosphere outside. Because each person is unique, their magic has the potential to be just as unique. Their emotions and experiences shape how they view the world, thus it alters how their magic power will interact with the world. The younger a wizard is when they activate their magical core, the more simple, basic and powerful their magic is. They have less experience, but a lot more emotion. Experience shapes and refines magic, emotion fuels and strengthens it.
So why does my magic work with stories? Why can something as simple as a story have such a tremendous emotional impact-
Oh...right.
...
Stories are meant to do that.
-vVv-
I always thought that lacrima recordings were hellishly expensive so I was a bit confused...
"Can the guild really afford this?"
"Not right now." Mirajane agreed, writing up some suggestions she had received. "But with the way your stories have been gaining popularity, it might very well become a big selling point in the future!" Mira, in a surprisingly business minded move, had gotten the idea in her head to record me as I spoke, and showed my stories, then selling the lacrima to people passing through the city. Doesn't seem...right. It was my magic after all, and selling my magic, just my magic, gave me an uncomfortable feeling. Because just handing out crystals full of magic power is always a brilliant idea!
"Wouldn't it just be easier to set up a broadcasting system with live feed?" I asked, tilting my head. "Sure, the initial costs are higher, but we only have to pay once, and the audience grows exponentially without needing to continually buy new lacrima..."
"Thanks, Fae! Now I can say it was your idea!"
"Wait, wha- Mira!"
-vVv-
Bisca and Alzack came back from their scouting foray a few days later, saying that they had been looking for the master and the team that had accompanied him.
I paused, consciously listening to try and get the most recent news...
"They are currently very hungry, but they're all alright and will be back within a few days." I paused when I got some more updates, but I kept those to myself.
Laxus, Freed and Mystogan will also be in town for a bit.
That was strange though...Where were Evergreen and Bickslow? The three of them didn't like splitting up... It made sense that Freed would stick with Laxus, his crush was painfully obvious. Or at least to me it is. But it still didn't make any sense that they would leave half of their party behind...
Hmm...
-vVv-
Loke really wasn't looking good. He didn't have any girls around him, a rare occurrence, and there was a lot of stewing misery in his story...
I didn't know what to do. I wanted to help him, but I didn't have much to go on. There wasn't anything I could do to make Loke's fate any different...
It was like watching someone with a terminal illness. You knew that they were going to die, and all you could do was sit beside them and try to save your tears for after.
But...I still sat beside Loke, wondering how and what I could do to help him...
"Why the long face, Fairy Princess?" You're dying and I can't do anything. I just shrugged.
"Bored." I lied.
"Well no wonder, Natsu and Gray aren't here. Even Shadowgear's gone out of town. Why didn't they take you along?" I snorted.
"Because Natsu and Gray went with Erza to beat up a Dark Guild and Shadowgear went to work out some upper level curses towards Crocus."
"I've seen you take apart an A level curse in twenty minutes." Loke's voice said he wasn't buying it.
"The last victim had all of their automatic muscular functions switched with their conscious muscular functions." Meaning that the poor guy had to spend all day, everyday, just focused on breathing and keeping his heart beating while his body did absolutely random things, such as eating food that wasn't considered safe, or running into traffic to get to where he wanted to go. It wasn't a good way to live. And it definitely wasn't something that Levy was going to expose me to even if I could read the whole thing at a glance.
"Ouch. So you're here all by your lonesome. Not plotting some new devious way to use your magic?"
"Writer's block." I grumbled.
"Really?" I shifted...How does he always know?
"Fiiiine. I tried to fly again...ran out of magic power, fell a couple stories, Mira nixed any further practice for the day."
"I wonder why...?" I ducked my face to keep my scowl from showing, but was rewarded by a chuckle that had some mirth in it. "Aw c'mon princess, don't be like that. You're so cute when you pout!"
"You're being mean. I don't like you right now." A sly hand began to tickle my ribs and I flinched, biting down a giggle.
"Reeeeally?" Don't look at him. He's making the waggle brow face, don't look at him...! I held onto my composure.
Just a little more. Let's see a smile, Princess. I won't be around to see many more.
"I'm disliking you- more and more." I said, voice hitching when he poked a particularly sensitive spot and with the heartbreaking resignation that Loke was giving off in regards to his fate.
Give me a good memory to go out with, Fae...
"I'll buy you ice cream." I gave up. I tackled the banished Celestial Spirit. His triumph was cut off abruptly when he felt wetness on his shirt where my face was pressed to hide my tears from the rest of the guild.
Loke was a master actor though, picking me up easily, I was still rather short for my age and carrying me outside with a call of explanation to Mirajane.
"Have fun!" She called after us happily. It's so cute that Loke always acts like a big brother whenever Natsu and Gray are out of town...
-vVv-
True to his word, Loke did buy me ice cream, but I didn't say anything, just clung to his hand. As if that would do something, give him more magic power, make him stay longer...
Make it so he wouldn't die.
Loke wanted to die a member of Fairy Tail, his home away from the heavens. No other bunch of people had ever resonated with him like this. Not one of his past masters, or any other associates he had in the Spirit Realm could ever come close to Fairy Tail.
"So why the waterworks, Fae?" Loke asked, looking down at me through his tinted shades. We were sitting on a bench in a park by the sea. It wasn't the beach front, but pretty all the same. And, right now, it was secluded, which was what I needed. This would be difficult enough without gawkers.
I swallowed another bite of ice cream, trying to think of some way that I could broach the subject without freaking Loke out or crying again. My eyes were still a little red.
"You...You know what my magic is?"
"Your stories and illusions." He replied. I bit my lip nervously.
"That's...that was my first instance of magic. But the next time that I deliberately managed to use it, I developed Retrocognition." He blinked for a moment, an uncomprehending look on his face...I steeled myself, aware that I was shrinking a little, shoulders hunching inward.
"In simple terms...the ability to see the past of objects... or people." Loke froze beside me on the bench. I plowed on, hands tightening on my mostly eaten ice cream cone. She didn't...
"I...I tried not to see." I apologized. "The first thing I realized was how much you had been hurt, so I tried not to look. But every time I was around you I just...heard a little more." It was just like Erza's time at the Tower of Heaven and her not entirely dead love for Jellal in spite of everything he had done to her. Or like Gray's devastated childhood home at the hands of a demon of Zeref and his teacher, Ur, quite possibly the best Ice Wizard within the last century, dying to seal it away and free Gray from his revenge focused mindset.
Loke didn't seem to be able to talk, so I did my utmost to fill the silence.
"I saw that you're a Golden Spirit." I whispered, eyes on the ground, already starting to fill with tears. "I saw how many times you suffered because of a bad master." There were far, far too many of these for me to handle. Hardly any of them were cruel, not deliberately, and if they got to that point, Loke...Leo, had always been able to dissolve his contract, force it to end once the line was crossed. But the power drain that caused wasn't something the other spirits could easily do. So Loke had to watch his friends, his family, suffer alone, or grit his teeth and bear the humiliation to try and make their situation better.
I saw him and Aquarius, the strongest of the Zodiac, worry about the rest of their number when they saw their troubles.
"I saw...I saw Karen trying to hurt Aries, and you standing up to her..." I was crying now, tears rolling down my face.
I saw you get banished. I know you're dying.
"I don't want you to die, Loke..."
-vVv-
Loke knew Fae was smart and perceptive. The flash of her ethereal blue eyes across a room could make a shiver crawl down the unwary spine, and she never seemed to miss a thing that went on in the guild or even in the city.
He had...puzzled together that Fae could do something to find out people's pasts, but he hadn't thought that it would be so...so personal for her. All the other examples of Retrocognition he had come across hadn't been capable of tracking someone through an identity change, let alone going back hundreds of years. This wasn't like anything he had ever seen before.
But none of those wizards were Fae. None of them had been surrounded by a loving family and taught to embrace and train their powers. They didn't have Story Magic, whose very nature was to inspire emotion and feeling.
Fae was crying again.
Oh stardust! Loke panicked momentarily, briefly forgetting that this girl had seen his every dark secret.
Including the fact of his oncoming demise.
"I don't want you to die, Loke..." He heard the words repeated as if from a great distance.
Death. Something that his kind were never thought to have to face. They just kept right on existing, passed from master to master throughout generations.
No one has ever worried about me like that. Loke thought, watching Fae curl up, hiding her face in her knees and sobbing. It was clearly something that had been weighing on her mind for quite some time that was only now breaking free...
Because she can see what's coming for me. The banished Celestial Spirit sighed. He may have been damned. But he didn't want to leave tears behind him. Especially not on Fae.
"Hey, come on Princess..." He wrapped an arm around her and let her cry into his jacket. "You'll be fine..." A small hand clutched the green material and she shook her head.
"No...I don't want another person to leave..." He had heard about Lisanna, in whispers for the most part. No one felt comfortable bringing up her death when it still weighed so heavily on her siblings.
"I broke the law, Fae. I killed someone. I have to die to pay for that-" Her fist slammed into his chest with surprising force, cutting him off as his breath went out of him in a rush. Yep! Definitely Natsu's little sis!
"But it's not your fault! I saw it...I saw all of it..." All of it... "I saw the King making the ruling...What's the point of being able to see everything under the heavens if you can't see the truth?" Aside from the earth shattering revelation that Fae had seen the Celestial Spirit king, something no human had done for a couple centuries, Loke was totally cool. (Just how strong a wizard is she gonna be!?) He was always cool!
You have a nine year old girl crying on your chest and it's your fault! You are the farthest thing from cool right now!
He didn't have anything to say that could comfort her.
He was dying, there wasn't anything he could do about that. Even if he didn't deserve it, the Celestial King's word was final. Part of his avoidance of Celestial Spirit Mages was to prevent any of them from suffering Karen's fate due to interacting with him. I can't do anything Fae...I'm sorry. I'm going to die...and all that can really be done is you accept that and move on.
"Not your fault...It's not..." Fae was repeating this like a mantra between sobs, her grief touching some part inside of him that wished to live... That feared death, and the emptiness more than anything.
"My wizard died because of me." He told Fae, stroking her blue-green hair gently. "There's no mercy after a crime like that. Celestial Spirits are supposed to protect our wizards with our whole beings, even to the point of dying for them. It's the law."
"What kind of law doesn't protect it's own people?" The girl's voice was bitter and surprisingly clear, it rang like a gong in Loke's ears.
"A king is supposed to protect his own over all else...Human's die all the time. It's the one thing we can never truly escape. No amount of protection from any spirit will change that. It was guaranteed that Karen would die someday...So why do you have to be punished for it, when you didn't do anything except try to protect your friends? The law is wrong."
The former Spirit gazed down at the girl with wide eyes. But she wasn't done yet.
"People who break the rules are seen as scum...but anyone who abandons their friends, they're worse than scum. There's nothing worse than that...and you...you just wanted to help..."
No one, human or Spirit, had ever called into question that the laws were wrong. Doing so would mean that the King was wrong for enforcing them.
If the law is wrong...what does that say about me?
That he didn't deserve to die. He wasn't supposed to be weighed down by Karen's death. That dark mantle was still pressing down on him, but there was...resistance inside him. Loke was fighting, standing up, trying to push back. Karen is dead. That can't be changed. But...
But facing his death felt very different now.
-vVv-
Loke's arms tightened around me, his emotions ringing with stunned amazement. No one has ever challenged the Celestial Spirit King like that in his memory. It never occurred to him that it was even possible for the King to be wrong. His guilt was still strong, but there was something...different about the way he felt now. Something had changed in him.
There had to be some way for Loke to be saved though...It wasn't right to just have him disappear when he hadn't done anything wrong.
Loke had been dying slowly day by slow day in the human world. It's ethernano couldn't replenish his strength like it would for a human. The only way he could survive here indefinitely was if he bonded with a Celestial Spirit mage-
Lucy. The thought came in the calm, bland voice. Lucy can save him.
I didn't stop crying, but I did let Loke soothe me into stillness again.
"I didn't think you'd be that upset." I glared at him through still stinging eyes.
"You're part of Fairy Tail and that makes you my family." The only family I knew. Why wouldn't I be upset, moron? He chuckled weakly, ruffling my hair.
"Alright, alright princess, don't go looking at me like that." He rose, picking me up as he did so and shifting me until I was riding on his back. "We'd better go wash your face to brighten up those pretty eyes of yours again. I'd rather not have everyone jump me when we go back to the guild for dinner."
"...ok." I was still upset that Loke would value his life so little as that. But...I was certain in what I had heard. Lucy would, somehow, in someway, change Loke's fate.
We were walking through the streets now, The silence wasn't companionable, but it was understanding. Words that we had kept inside had been said and it was much easier to look at him now that it had been before.
"I don't want to set you off again-"
"You won't." I cut him off. "It only came all out like that because it was building up to it since I first heard your story."
"So you're good?" I gave him a flat look which made him wince. "Alright, poor choice of words..." Indeed. I was in no way, shape or form 'good'. Nor was I completely satisfied. But...I was content with this promise for the time being. I couldn't draw on the Celestial Spirit world in any significant amount of strength to give Loke the relief he needed, even if he still possessed his key. And trying to force a summoning gate to open without the key was about a thousand times harder.
Loke was still chewing over something...
"Hey, Fae..." I looked up at him, his orangish hair gleaming in the dying sunlight.
"What is it?"
"If I tell you stories about...Leo...would you keep them alive for me?" I blinked.
"Of course, but..."
"None of the other spirits remember me." He said sadly. "When I was banished, I was taken out of their memory. Made it so as if I never even existed to them." And for that to happen, for the people that he had literally been with since the beginning of creation, for the people that he had been banished for...
Ok...ouch.
Having humans remember him was probably the next best thing he could do. To leave something behind when he finally died.
I took Loke's hand.
"I'll tell stories about the Lion." I promised. "But Fairy Tail will tell stories about Loke forever." His mouth twitched up in an attempted smile.
"You gonna stick around that long to make sure of that?" I...actually considered it.
I didn't even want to think about the measures that would have to be taken for that to even be feasible. In all of my stories, none of the methods of attaining immortality were ever easy, nice or especially good for the person's mental health, but-
"I know that look."
"It's nothing!" A hand came down on my head, knuckles rubbing my scalp painfully.
"Whatever you were just thinking about, forget it, delete it, do something to get rid of it! I don't want my life to be cut even shorter by the master if he thinks I'm getting you stuck on becoming immortal!"
"But all I have to do is-"
"Fae, no!"
-vVv-
Team...Well, whatever the team was called anyway, came back a day or so later. And I still hadn't managed to fly. I was getting closer! I had actually managed to get off the ground with the last few!
"-so help me, Fae, if I have to nail your feet to the ground to keep you safe until Freed can supervise you, I will! Of all the-" Erza wasn't pleased. Neither was Gray, or Natsu. I had gotten about twenty feet off the ground before my rune died out. I was so close!
Lucy was just panicking over the fact that I could even make that much progress at my age.
Master seemed pretty chill about the whole thing. Then again, he hadn't given me the dressing down yet, though anything he said after Erza was finished with me was bound to seem second rate.
And Happy...
Happy was flitting around and pointedly failing to hide his snickers. I shot him a look...
"Get your head out of the clouds..." I muttered, focusing on what I wanted...I was instantly gratified when happy fell to the ground with a clunk and a bewildered look. He strained his wings, but he wasn't budging. Gravity held him in it's merciless claws. Vindication...~
"-Are you even listening to me!?" Oh Dust! My mind latched on my magic and I quickly began speaking, or...quoting.
"'Of all the irresponsible, foolhardy things you could attempt while we're away, let alone something to even partially succeed at. What in the world were you thinking trying to do this alone? Are you even listening to me?'." I hastily rattled off everything Erza had said that I hadn't been paying attention to. Erza didn't get mad at me normally, but holy hell was she mad right now!
"And I have been, Erza, I've just been waiting for a break in the rant to do some explaining." Erza glowered, clearly ready to keep right on berating me. But Makarov spoke up now.
"Now then, Erza. Let Fae-chan explain herself, before you continue to scold her. I'm sure she wasn't as foolhardy about this as you believe." I was too glad that the tirade had been paused to bother being offended that Makarov did think that I had been a bit hasty.
I'll show all of you...
I lifted my arms and showed two strips of cloth tied about my wrists marked with amber rune script.
"These read as reflective cushions." I jumped onto a table and let myself fall off, deliberately not catching myself. Instead of impacting the ground with a hard thunk, I just kinda...bounced with a springy sound and landed back on my feet. "All the tests that I've done with these runes with objects weighing up to 300 lbs and being dropped off the guild hall roof-" Which was about 30 to 35 feet off the ground. "-have produced the same results. I made these and tested all of them vigorously before I tried to use any of the plausible runes I made to fly. I had these on my wrists, and got a whole bunch of straw and cushions to land on in case the runes fail."
The anger I sensed started to drop the more I spoke in a calm, rational tone.
"I...I see." Erza's shoulders slumped. "I...may have overreacted." She didn't seem to notice the multitude of incredulous looks she got from other guild members around us.
"I had thought that that might be the case." Makarov sighed with a satisfied smile. "Erza is correct in saying that it would be best for Freed to supervise your efforts since he is your teacher in this regard and has also devised a successful 'flight' rune array of his own. However, since he is not going to be back for some time, and if you continue to take the proper precautions, I have no problems with you continuing your efforts Fae." My shoulders slumped with relief that I couldn't hide upon hearing that. My entire schtick would have been for nothing. had Makarov banned me from practicing.
"Thank you, master." I gave a wide, relieved smile. I wanted to fly so badly it was ridiculous...
"It's no trouble, Fae-chan. It's clear that you've put a lot of thought into this to ensure your safety." The little old man laughed. "Won't be much longer unlike you're flying around this old place like a little fairy yourself, eh Happy?" Said cat was still struggling to get back into the air.
"Fae! Stop it! Get your spell off of me!"
"It's not gonna last much longer anyway." I assured him. "And it's what you get for being a furry little troll like that." Happy's wings glowed all the more brightly and he strained, upward, actually managing to get a few inches of air. "Stop pushing so hard, otherwise you'll-"
Just like that, my little counter spell wore off ad Happy shot into the air like a bullet from a gun. He gave a terrified yell as he abruptly braked to try and kill his speed, but wasn't fast enough to avoid slamming face first into the ceiling.
This brought on a loud rumble of laughter.
"Oi! You ok up there little buddy?" Natsu looked concerned, but he wasn't breathing fire or angry, so I wasn't worried for my safety.
Happy's reply was muffled in the wood, but...
"Well what didja expect Fae to do? You know how much she wants to fly!"
Happy's answer was still incomprehensible, but his fluttering wings said he felt strongly about what he said.
"Oh let it go, you big scaredy cat, she tried to warn you!" Natsu paused, then snickered... "You should see how ridiculous you look from down here though..."
"He understands that?" Lucy asked disbelievingly, watching the conversation between the two partners and best friends progress.
"Natsu's known Happy for a really long time. Since he was born actually." I explained. "Given how they usually eat, I'm not really surprised by this." Lucy considered this...then sighed.
"Yeah, me neither I guess. These guys supposedly have their own code for burping..."
"They actually organized it into a code?"
"I don't know. Happy claims that they did, but..."
"But Happy likes pulling people's figurative tails." I agreed. "You're picking up on guild life really fast if you can already make that call about him. Half of Magnolia still thinks he's a sweet, innocent kitty cat who can talk and fly." The Celestial Spirit Mage gave me a disbelieving look.
"Him?!" I patted her arm consolingly.
"Uh-huh. Got a couple fishmonger's wrapped around his paw. He only goes fishing with Natsu for the bonding. Where do you think he gets all those fish he always carries around in his little bag?"
-vVv-
The summons for Erza to face the Magic Council wouldn't have come at a more inopportune time. She and Natsu were just getting ready to start their match. And regardless of the fact that Erza would almost certainly win in the end, it would have been a show worth seeing.
Something's wrong. The bland factual voice that told me so much about the world said. I waited for some further evidence to present itself. Some kind of additional clue as to why Erza was so shaken by this notion.
But it was silent.
Completely and utterly silent. Not a whisper of anything else came. I was so absorbed in trying to track down that new information that I completely missed Macao making the switch with Natsu so the Dragon Slayer of our guild could follow Erza to her trial and witness for her. Although, knowing him, he was probably gonna break something along the way.
The entire guild is known for unintentional collateral damage, not just Erza. Her actions were destructive, but her team's intervention also saved the lives of the guild masters and ended Eisenwald as a threat to central Fiore.
Finally! More-
...That did bring up some questions though. Why had Erza been arrested and charged with responsibility? Makarov had been there and the guild master is the one who speaks for his guild in this kind of thing.
I looked across the guild hall at the tiny old man and saw his knuckles were white on the little staff that he sometimes carried around as part of his eccentric outfits.
He doesn't know either. It's worrying him.
He suspects something might be wrong.