The boat was kinda small and cramped with six of us in it. At least Happy was small enough to be carried by an ecstatic Millianna. Wouldn't be nearly that easy to keep a hold of him if he were awake. The big guy, Simon, was carrying me and keeping me out of arm's reach of Erza.
"What all have you seen?" Simon asked me once we were well underway. They had smashed all the other boats they could get their hands on before even coming into the casino after us.
The memories, the story, his story, crashed through my head.
First, months of torment at the hands of their slavemasters. The small consolation the children had found in each other and the elderly man, Rob, who looked after them. Then, the revolt. Erza came back from a 'disciplinary session' sans an eye, Jellal was taken and changed.
Jellal claimed that Erza, who had awakened her magic, had destroyed the boats the other slaves planned to use to escape and trapped them all in their miserable hell. As far as Simon knew, everyone believed him, even those who still called Erza their friend.
But Simon didn't. Simon knew Erza would never do anything like that.
"Soooo...how long have you had this thing for Erza?" I had gotten used to speaking along his telepathic channel and not just broadcasting my thoughts to any listening telepath. But saying this to Simon resulted in what I could only describe as a mental blush.
Simza...~!
For crying out loud, now is not the time! I focused on sorting through the information I had gotten simply by touching the man before I gave an actual date.
"Now that I've been in contact with you for this long, I've seen all the way back to when you were first captured." And only an incredible amount of self delusion was keeping me from breaking down into a jibbering, terrified mess. That and I was pretty sure the big guy was helping somehow.
"And you think the same thing?"
"Of course! And I've seen the story from Erza's side too! Not all of it, sure. I don't like reading into the details of people's pasts unless I absolutely have to. But I did see plain as day that she still feels guilty over having to leave you behind. And scared." Looking at Erza now, it looked as though she was caught up in a traumatic flashback. Her face was pale and her eyes haunted and distant. A nightmare of epic proportions was rocking her.
Erza...
Erza was one of the strongest people I knew. Her sense of right and wrong was unparalleled in its strength, though at times her whims did get the better of her. She was an avid believer of order and discipline and any woe betide any wrong doers that crossed her path.
Seeing Erza this broken and afraid was wrong. She was supposed to be strong, not just powerful, but strong enough to be kind, to not hide her heart behind a suit of armor in spite of what she tried to make everyone believe.
And now she was relieving her time in hell.
"Some one has been keeping the R-system's existence hidden from the Magic Council, otherwise they surely would have found us." Simon began. "I do not know how Jellal has done it, but-" I froze as his face flashed through my head and the connection was made.
There was a new, young wizard on the Magic Council, the youngest one ever if I recalled. He was in Lucy's magazine, the one where the most eligible bachelors of Fiore were listed.
Siegrain. The mysterious recent addition to the Magic Council. Often found in the company of Ultear Milkovich, another record breakingly young council member.
His face was the exact same as the image I had gotten from Simon as to what Jellal looked like.
Were they brothers? I'd need to touch Jellal to be sure, to read his story from his side and see what was really going on.
"What's the matter?"
"Uh...I don't know how in touch you've been with the outside world..."
"Not much."
"Then I know who's hiding this place. Or at least a very likely likely candidate..."
I spent the rest of the trip with Simon, trading information, or stories. The closer we got to the tower, the more my Retrocognition groaned and sent me memories of torture, death and slavery. It was...not easy to deal with.
"I believe I said to bring Erza and Erza alone." The voice was another man's and it sent shivers down my spine. The other's in the boat heard it too judging by their reactions. (Only Erza didn't react though. I guess she hadn't heard it?)
That was Mystogan's voice! Or at least it sounded exactly like him. But Mystogan had never sounded that...harsh, jaded, cynical or cruel.
The fear that Simon had been trying to stave off by talking to me all throughout our trip started to creep in on my mind... Simon's hand tightened marginally.
"Lay off, Jellal. It was take the kid or face a pitched battle." Wally complained. But I could read he wasn't nearly as laid back as he was acting, there was fear in him underneath that false trust. He was fooling himself into trusting Jellal. They all were. They all were convincing themselves, everyday, every step they took, that they believed he was doing the right thing. "Besides, she has magic. Might be useful."
"Really?" He sounded intrigued and not in a good way. "Bring her up to me." We were within sight of the tower, a spiky, tortured looking spindle that stabbed up out of the ocean.
Hate. Pain. Death. Obsession. Pain. Resentment. Painpainpain!
I wanted to clutch my head reflexively as the poisonous feelings rang through my head. I wanted to turn off my magic, do something, anything if it meant that the noise would stop. It was like nails, literal steel nails, scratching over slate, skin, eyes. It was as though every sense I possessed was under attack from this phantom agony.
Years of heartache and suffering were crammed into this tower. It had been built on lies and torture, its history was one of blood and death. Such potent, rampant, pure human evil that I wanted to be sick.
The tears came up without my being able to stop them. My body's automatic response to stress and pain to try and alleviate it in some way. But it wouldn't help. It couldn't. I wanted to run. I wanted to hide. I wanted to wake up back in the Fairy Hill dorms and find the closest wizard I could to make the darkness go away!
-vVv-
Simon wanted to comfort the girl, but knew that would give his intentions away. With Jellal having noticed them and expressed interest in her, his attention would be on them. Since Jellal had been the one to teach Simon his telepathy spell, he couldn't risk trying to speak to her again without being discovered. Jellal had to be distracted with something else before he dared try that.
It wasn't as though he could offer much solace since it was his fault that the child had ended up here in the first place. He had come over to see what was distressing Millianna, and instead of seeing a grown wizard who had been fighting just a girl who hadn't been doing anything but speaking. Though he could admit he saw how the catgirl might think the ethereal glow of pale blue eyes was unnerving. Erza had seen her in his grasp and her brown eyes had hardened to daggers of rage as she demanded that he release Fae. The painful history that tied them all together had vanished in the face of the present need of seeing her safe. The helpless rage, the frustration and despair that he had seen in Erza as she surrendered herself for the girl's sake...
You really care about her. Just like you did all of us. She didn't even look to be ten years old.
He noticed that the closer they got, the more tears leaked out of Fae's eyes and the more terrified she looked. The expression was one that hit home on all of them. Wally and Sho were looking straight ahead, pretending to be stone faced while Millianna looked ever so guilty.
We've existed in this demon pit for almost ten years. It's a fate we all know, deep down, that no one should endure. And we're bringing a child here. We may as well as be our own captors. He could recall his own fright when he was brought here in the dead of night with a boatload of other children. Erza had been among them. Those emotions were being mirrored perfectly on Fae's face and in her silent tears. And it was not an easy reminder for any of them. Wally, Sho and Millianna had thrown themselves into this project, using Erza's betrayal as a shield against their continued pain.
A shield that was useless before the sucker punch that was Fae's tears.
If her magic was as she said and she read or felt the past, then she was being forced to experience every terrible thing that had happened here over the years.
Millianna hadn't wanted to take off her binding spell, not even to replace them with cords. And she had insisted on a gag despite how Erza had growled at them. (Literally growled. Hopefully the attitude would remain for when the time came to fight.) Since she had magic and was an unknown factor, freeing her could very well end up in disaster. It had been Wally who spoke for her.
"She's a kid, Mil." What he didn't say was this: And she's as terrified as we were.
Simon knew Fae had to be exhausted. They had sailed through the night in order to get back here from the shore. And while she had drifted in and out of consciousness, he knew that fear always made sleep little more than a chance for dreams to torture her.
He carried her when the boat touched on shore. He felt Jellal's attention turn towards Erza and then he risked it.
"Sleep while you can, kid. You know your friends better than I do, but I know they'll be here to save you soon."
-vVv-
I woke up in a room that didn't look that out of the ordinary. It was comfortably furnished and by all appearances looked like any hotel room. Green and tan color scheme and simple decorations. A little bland, generic and boring, but nothing shabby or painful.
I sat up in the bed I was in and looked around, somewhat confused.
Ok..definitely remember being held hostage, and taken to the Tower. Erza was here too-
ERZA!
I scrambled out of the bed and raced to the door.
Almost predictably, it was locked.
"Hello, young Faerun." Jellal's voice sounded inside my head. "Ward of Fairy Tail and budding Rune Wizard. I bid you welcome to my tower."
I considered for a moment what the best course of action would be in response to this.
1: Reply bravely. Pro: feel brave for a little bit. Con: amuse the bad guy.
2: Demand answers. Pro: potentially get some. Con: amuse the bad guy.
3: Gibber and cry. Pro: vent some stress. Con: amuse the bad guy.
Let's go with door #4 and ignore him altogether.
Ok, thinking things through.
First. I was trapped in a tower that was filled with guards and surveillance with a traitorous member of the Magic Council on the top floor.
Second: I was not alone, or wouldn't be for long anyway. If I could get to Erza, or the others when they inevitably made their entrance, I would have someone to protect me and cover up the fact that I couldn't fight effectively yet. If I had one of them with me, I'd be more confident about taking someone on. As it was, avoidance would be my best bet.
Third: Materials. It looked like I had anything I'd find in a typical hotel room. And even then, I had to do some evaluation to see what resources I had available.
I was still a little weak and tired, but I wasn't going to stay in the enemy's power for longer than I had to.
I had to get out of this room before I could do anything. I looked around, eyes narrowed. Jellal had known when I got up and started moving around...
"Scanning for bugs or hidden vision lacrima..." There were five in this room alone. I moved about and managed to get my fingers to brush them to learn what they were for. Three cameras, two microphones.
Ok...let's see...Does it matter if Jellal sees what I am doing? I should at least make some effort to conceal my efforts to escape.
The Harry Potter spells had served me well, but that seemed a little too...basic for this operation. That and their purpose could, to some extent, be extrapolated with a bit of knowledge of Latin and a few other languages.
I needed another system of practicing magic...
I settled onto the floor and began to dig through the caverns of my mind for a solution.
Given how much was in there, I found a reasonable solution which should give me the same amount of versatility as my Latin-based spells.
I clambered around the room until I could easily reach one of the audio lacrima.
I cupped my hands around it and focused, calling on my magic to tap into the story and give me that power...
"Hóna neo." Simply translated: 'Hear not' in the Ancient Language of Alagaesia.
I felt the power leave me and heard a faint buzzing sound. I touched it to verify that the spell had worked and was satisfied. I had about three hours until that lacrima was functional again.
I repeated the process with the other audio lacrima and when the time came to block the vision lacrima, I altered what I was saying to 'Ven neo', which meant 'see not' in the same language.
Once I had some privacy, I set to work on my crystal slate to try and work out how much I was up against. The rune syllabary hadn't been taken out of my magically expanded pocket and had, I hope, gone unnoticed. That was the point of an undetectable extension charm after all. That the bad guys don't spot that you have it!
There were many levels in this place. I was towards the top. Floor 37 of 49. The lower levels were crawling with guards and various trained monsters, grimjaws and grimwings primarily. But that also had an exit to the open sea. So that was where the rescue party would most likely enter. Meditating and focusing on where Erza was let me know she was in a cell also towards the bottom.
Either way, it meant I'd have to sneak past a lot of guards or fight them. I'd best be prepared for both cases.
Ok. Something versatile and capable of both stealth and melee...but it has to be suited to my size and skillset. If I try and use something that's beyond my abilities, I could end up crippling myself...
I inspected the food that was laid out, some fruit, a bowl full of nuts, some rolls and water, and munched on an apple as I tried to think of some way, any way, of making this work...
Child hero.
Link! I grinned.
Link was the perfect source for this! As a child and an adult, he had often needed to sneak past sentries or guards when he wasn't capable of fighting them. And when he had to fight, he could very well fight! He had centuries of inherited memories and experience just waiting in the wings!
I hurriedly tapped through my entire runic vocabulary to put together the enchantment before putting it into 'simulation'.
Simulation was the best word to describe the completely bland factual break down of my spells as given to me by the helpful voice in my head. It could tell me what the odds were of it working and, sometimes even, if something was wrong or missing to my set up.
I gnawed on my lip as I looked through everything I had. Trying to frame such a huge story into an enchantment as short as this wasn't going to be easy. There was so much more to Link's abilities that the words never even touched on. I'd need to have the full meaning and context of each word I used in mind...
'Child Link.' Was the linchpin of the operation. 'Child' implied youth, inexperience and constant learning and growing. It was a moderator to allow the enchantment to rest more securely in my frame since I was a child myself. The other half of that was the emphasis on the young age point and capitalizing on the fact that there were many adults who simply didn't notice kids and reflexively dismissed what they were doing as unimportant. I doubted most of the guards had the necessary parental instincts to make this something they would be instantly aware of. (For example, pretty much no one except Master and Macao would readily notice me when I used the word in this sense. Considering how different the two were in power and skillset, I thought it must be the fatherhood thing that made the difference.)
With the name Link, there was attached the instinctive knowledge of sword and shield use, which would be bolstered by my own experience with Erza, a few specific attacks and his unbelievable stamina for a child his age. The various weapons that characterized the series were hard to produce out of thin air, so I had to stick to the basics.
Everything looked airtight. I ran it through the sim and scowled deeply when it came back negative.
The same problem that hadn't let me free Lucy completely back at the casino was prevalent here. The enchantment, despite only being two words long altogether, had too much weighing on it to be usable. It was too complex a concept for me to just speak aloud and have it work. I needed something more permanent.
The only writing utensil I could find was a pencil and that wouldn't help, since I had nothing to write on. There was a knife set on the table with the food. Was I desperate enough to try carving the enchantment into my arm? While it would certainly give the whole thing a big power boost, it would also land me in a huge heap of trouble once the others found out. That and it was a little to permanent for me to want to etch that into my arm. Actually, since 'child' was a primary part of the enchantment, it might end up stunting my growth.
Yeah, find another way.
I didn't get frustrated, yet, I just looked around the room slowly and carefully.
Something permanent, something to keep it fresh in my head. Longer than words. Something tangible to attach it to...
If the issue were condensing it down, then I had already gone through that. The problem would be maintaining my focus on all the details that I wanted to enchant myself with. Not to mention the fact that I would need actual weapons to make the most of my work here. At the very least a sword, which would have to be included in the enchantment so I could wield it properly and preferably a shield of some kind as well...
My eyes fell on the green tablecloth.
I had a sudden burst of inspiration.
The iconic factor of Link in all his incarnations was that he, at some point, would or at least could wear a tunic and a long pointed cap in some shade of green.
I bounced up and set to work, moving the food aside and yanking the cloth off the table.
It was a small table, and since I was pressed for time, I couldn't do much but...
"Diffindo..." I started cutting the cloth into a roughly triangular shape...
With a few other muttered spells, I got thread and started to sew my creation together.
It was a crude object I ended up with. But it would fit well, and was the right color...
I focused on the parody of a green hat that I held.
Link. Hero in all his lifetimes. Born bearing the Triforce of Courage and the one fated to at least once in his lifetime fight Ganon, the shard of Demise who swore enmity between himself and Link's descendants. He is always a Hylian. He is always some shade of blonde. He uses a sword and shield and myriads of other tools in his travels to protect the Goddesses' chosen land.
He is not perfect and will sometimes fail, but he always gets back up and keeps trying.
This story was one that was ongoing. The battle against evil never ended, it only changed. Right vs Wrong, Peace vs War, Freedom vs Tyranny. No matter the odds, keep fighting.
That was what I felt about this story. That was the kind of bravery I needed right now.
Help me.
"Child. Link." I whispered, enunciating it clearly and carefully, packing all of the meanings I attached to this story into those two words and in turn, putting that two word story into the hat I held.
The hat changed as I watched.
It... shifted from a crude, hastily made accessory to a symbol. The seams smoothed from my clumsy stitching into something that looked much better. The raw cloth gained a weathered look and thickened slightly. Looking inside revealed that it was now lined, which I hadn't had the time or knowledge of how to do.
I turned the...magical tool, hopefully, over in my hands, inspecting it with every sense I possessed. I was going to be trusting my life to this thing after all.
One hour until the blocks on the observation lacrima run out.
I sighed, deeming that while it certainly wasn't perfect, it was easily the most stable enchantment I had ever made. And it hadn't taken as much power as I had though either...
Stories gain power as people hear them.
And... I had been telling people stories of Hyrule and the Legend of Zelda... Sure, I hadn't even gotten through the contents of Skyward Sword, but they already knew about Link.
Note to self, find a way to use Lord of the Rings stuff. Since the book was published all over the Fiore, there were be thousands of people who read it!
I slipped the cap onto my head, adjusting it slightly. I jerked my head around a bit to see how attached it was. I even stood on my hands. It remained firmly where it was.
Oh...of course, when do you ever see Link lose his hat?
I was grinning privately as I flipped back to my feet and looked around with new purpose and energy. I had a theme, now I had to see how far I could roll with it!
There was a knife with the food. The hat changed...
A sword was, after all, another part of Link's standard outfit. Few and far between were the moments when he didn't have one when he was on the clock. I picked up the paring knife and with a little focus on the hat I wore...
There was no offer way of describing what I was doing other than saying, I imagined it.
The knife lengthened and gained a second edge. I held a perfectly sized sized short sword in my hands with a functional brown leather hilt and crossguard decorated with a small red jewel. I tested the edge on the table and made a good sized nick. I checked my back and found that a sheath had appeared as well. On my back, angled over my left shoulder, going with my dominant hand.
Well, in the games you do always automatically have a sheath of the right size on hand whenever you get a new sword. Makes no sense, but I ain't gonna argue.
I put the sword away before drawing it and slashing experimentally a few times to get used to the motion. Running through a few more moves, I was pleased to note that the sword was balanced and felt good in my hand. And I noted that the moves were much smoother than I would normally be able to make them. As I had hoped, the enchantment's proficiency was making up for where I lacked.
Ok. The spell works. I have a weapon and some extra help in using it. I still need some form of defense and distraction.
Since my trick with the sword had worked, I decided to get a little more daring. I dismantled the chair in the room, which was thankfully wooden. Once I had the seat by itself, I used the Cutting Charm and etched the Kokiri symbol into it while focusing on on the Deku Shield.
It glowed briefly before reforming itself into the simple device. I rapped on it with my knuckles, thinking.
It would have to do for my escape. I'd have to avoid fire coming in contact with it, and to not tempt fate, I'd probably better not try to take any huge blows with this thing. But it would certainly be a help. And it made me feel more in character, which couldn't be a bad thing considering how this spell was being powered.
Yes, I am making cosplay magic.
There were already straps on the back of the shield. Donning it felt easy and natural, as did stowing it on my back over the sheathed knife turned sword.
This is...looking pretty good. Considering I'd started with nothing, this was a huge improvement. But I was still one kid a long way away from help. I needed more and felt reasonably sure the hat's enchantment could stand up to another outlet...But what could I use that still fit the character?
Besides a sword and shield, Child Link's arsenal included a slingshot, bombs and a boomerang...
I don't have time to BS making those. Something fast and easy...
I chewed thoughtfully on a roll to try and regain some of the magic I had used up in arming myself for my escape.
Most of the unique tools were out of reach. Sure, I had the wood from my destroying the chair to make a slingshot, but that had only been good for killing little monsters such as skulltula and stunning bigger ones. The boomerang was simple in design, but I'd need to sacrifice some concentration to keep it coming back to me the way it was supposed to. And a lapse in focus could cost me too much here
No, best to use the slingshot. It was much more simple.
I have wood to make the frame. I'm don't have anything elastic. I could...potentially make that. But having another weapon that was so reliant on magic just to hold it together, let alone to use it...I have ammo, since there's walnuts with the food.
Nuts. There were nuts that were an early part of Child Link's arsenal.
Deku Nuts! Geeze, forget the slingshot!
Those delightful, useful little explosives that literally grew on trees! I love Hyrule! Land of the man eating plants, talking, floating balls of light and bottomless chasms of death that somehow teleport you back to the entrance of a given room!
I ran my hands through the bowl of nuts, scanning to see which ones I could feasibly use. They may have been intended as something extremely temporary, but I was still going to be asking a lot of the spell.
16 altogether. That'll be enough. I hope...
To my surprise, turning the mixed nuts into Deku nuts wasn't hard. The fact that I was changing their inherent nature from edibles into, essentially, flashbang grenades didn't seem to be taking as much power as the knife into a sword or the chair's seat into a shield.
The closer the base to the desired outcome, the easier the transformation. That made sense. And I certainly wasn't complaining.
I dumped the Deku nuts into my still active expanded shirt pocket. I didn't want my syllabary anywhere near explosives, so I jury rigged a holster for it outside and put together a rough satchel from the remaining cloth to stuff some food into. I didn't know how long I'd be in this tower and better safe than sorry.
The pitcher of water I'd have to leave behind. So I just drained the whole thing.
I just touched the doorknob with the intent to go outside when I was reminded potently or where I was.
In a tower that was built on forced slave labor with a dark shadow covering the whole thing.
Ok, adding another thing to the list.
Fourth: on top of all this, I had the psychic equivalent of a live torture session going on replay inside my head. So all my preparation meant nothing if I couldn't even bear to step outside this room.
Five minutes remaining until Jellal has visual back.
Ok. First priority is to get something up about that so I can function enough to handle the rest.
There were any number of ways of blocking a mental attack. But the method from the Inheritance Cycle had the most detailed description of what was going on. You picked a concept, a word, a phrase, a line of poetry, and you let it fill your mind until it made a shield that protected against external forces pressing in on one's mind. Anyone who tried to read your thoughts or force in new ones would find only the single idea you were focused on.
I closed my eyes, fishing for something that would feel...thematically appropriate. Bastardizing from two poems from the series had the best feel to it.
In the land of Durza/
There lived a man with yellow eyes/
He said, 'beware the shadows/
For the shadows whisper lies.'
I ended up needing to use my syllabary to get it cycling on repeat in my head. The orange band of script wound around my wrist and this time when I touched the door, I only felt a slightly pressure from the dark force in the air.
Here goes nothing...
"Alohomora."
-vVv-
Oh, that's interesting... Jellal thought, brows raising when he lost visual and audio in the room where he had placed the wizardling in to see what she would do and how she would handle herself. She couldn't leave without him noticing, so he settled back to wait until whatever she did wore off. She hadn't destroyed the lacrima, merely blinded and deafened them for a short time. The fact that she had managed to pull that off at her age was...mildly impressive.
He was considerably more impressed when it took three hours for the spell to wear off. She hadn't left that entire time, so he supposed she had been preparing herself while he had been blinded.
Celeste D Faerun. Jellal had noticed her when she became a ward of Fairy Tail, and had dismissed her then. She was too young to be of any consequence. When she was seen in Erza's company, specifically, when Erza started training her, he began to pay a little more attention. He had seen and heard her spin her tales of islands in the sky and a vast, untamed world below. It was a unique approach to a basic illusionary skillset, using words to weave pictures and stories. He couldn't see what she got out of it beyond a boosted reputation for the guild that was taking care of her.
When the lacrima winked back on and showing him the room he had placed her in, he was surprised to say the least.
The teal haired girl had butchered the table cloth and the chair while he had been blinded. And she wore a green cap he knew she hadn't had on her before.
That looks remarkably like the hat her main character wears...
And she had somehow gotten a sword and shield? Where had she been hiding them?
It was the ruined chair that caught his attention. The seat was missing. He couldn't see it anywhere in the room.
Jellal remained alert and intrigued as Faerun opened the door with a murmured word that made no sense, but served to unlock it.
I've never seen or heard of anything like this...
This was fascinating. A private game outside of the one he was playing with the older Fairy Tail wizards. He had been completely unaware of the true extent of the girl's abilities. He doubted she'd be able to do much by herself, but she had surprised him by not crying. Given the state she had been in when she was brought here, he could guess that she had some sort of empathy that made the tower painful for her to be near. But she had either gotten over it, or was blocking it out somehow. The band of orange script around her wrist wasn't readable at this distance, but that probably had something to do with it.
The Dragon Slayer and his companions would arrive in about an hour. Jellal had time to see why Faerun had decided to dress like Link of Hyrule before breaking out of her room. If she were any other child, he would have said it was an immature whim. A girlish fantasy of playing at hero. But with her, given the unknown magical abilities she had shown, he suspected there was something more to it, something he hadn't seen yet...
He sent someone down to inspect the room and bring back news of what was missing.
Most of the food, the knife and the seat of the chair as well as the table cloth were gone. How did she get a sword from that?
She managed to hide from the first three patrols of guards. When they did find her, about half an hour after she broke out of her room without raising the alarm, Jellal sat up.
The second board he had set up with a book and pen figurine as Faerun and plain pawn pieces for the guards took his whole attention.
Faerun reached into her breast pocket and threw something onto the ground that burst open with a flash and and a roar. Jellal blinked afterimages from his eyes even as he heard the pained cries of his guards. When he could see again, he saw that she had drawn her sword and disabled most of the men around her by cutting their legs out from under them. The two that she hadn't gotten to yet were outraged and drew their out staves to try and throw a disciplinary spell at her. He had instructed them to not hurt her, merely subdue her.
Faerun showed no fear. She batted the oncoming attack aside with her shield, two fast slashes cutting both the thigh and dominant arm of the man attacking her. Then she rolled out of the way of the second strike, back and around the remaining man, leaping up a surprising distance to slash down his back. Just enough to hamper and cripple, but not enough to kill.
With her five opponents downed, Faerun turned and fled into the darkened corridors, steadily heading downward.
Jellal laughed.
Five of his guards against one little girl. And it was the girl who was still standing and running.
He still had little idea of how, but she had made a fully functional sword and shield of what was in the room with her Rune magic as well as turned a handful of nuts into stun grenades!
No wonder Brain wanted her...
-vVv-
Normally, I wouldn't have stopped in my retreat for anything, but a few floors down from the "hotel room", my magic flashed some information into my mind.
Millianna's room is on this floor. And that was where Happy would be kept if he was brought only simply to appease her.
I paused for a split second, searching for the cat loving wizard herself but I wasn't familiar enough with her to get a firm lock on her location. But I couldn't call myself a member of Fairy Tail if I left my friend behind if I knew where they were.
Since I had already beaten the guards on this floor, and placed a Silencing Charm on them to keep them from calling for help, I had plenty of time. Plus, if I could get to an open window, Happy could just fly us down to the entrance!
I inspected the locked door with cat's painted on it. I knocked tentatively.
"Happy? Happy are you in there?" I heard a crash inside.
"Fae?! Fae, you're OK! Get me outta here! I'll go nuts if I have to stay in here much longer!"
"Working on it!" I pressed my hand to the door and listened attentively.
Basic Privacy spell serving as a lock. Alohomora wouldn't work then. I'd need something with a little more umph.
I licked the tip of my finger and traced a circle around the lock, focusing on it intently...
"Happy? Get under cover! I'm gonna have to blast the door open!" I put up a Muffliato spell to cover the noise as I said this. No need to advertise where I was even though using these charms all on top of one another would probably bite me hard later.
"Uh-oh..." I rolled my eyes as I heard him scramble away. "Go ahead!"
I stepped back and pointed at the circle I had put around the lock.
Keep all of it...right there... I inhaled and clapped my hands, releasing the energy I'd gathered.
"Bombarda!" The lock shattered in a puff of dark smoke and a bang. I pushed the door open and peered inside, waving a hand to clear the smoke.
"Happy?" A fuzzy blue cat tackled me.
"Faaaaeee! I was so scared and this room is creeping me out!" I saw where he was coming from. The room within was little more than a shrine to all things cute and cat, taken up to eleven.
"It'll be OK. The others're gonna be here soon, and you know nothing can keep Erza down for long! We're gonna be OK!"
"Aye, sir!"
Finding and freeing Happy had been a stroke of good luck. For all that he was a small cat, he was capable of delivering a surprising clout with whatever he had on hand. (Or would 'on paw' be the correct word to use?) Once I thought about it for a bit, it was actually made sense, though. Happy was capable of lifting and flying Natsu around with ease even in the middle of combat which meant he had a fair amount of strength. He was terrifying little monster all told.
I ended up giving him half of my Deku nuts and leaving it to him to distract the guards that we couldn't avoid. We made it down several more floors through a combination of stealth and fighting, disabling the guards I couldn't avoid. All in all, not too bad for an hour's work.
Where am I again?
My magic responded to my perusal of the towers history and my own in relation to it.
Floor 28.
For all that the tower was tall, each floor wasn't that big and I had managed to find stairs easily enough.
"How much further till we reach the bottom?" Happy asked in a whisper as we waited for the latest patrol who had spotted us to race on by on a wild goose chase.
"Almost thirty floors, but I think we have to head into the basement." I whispered, cleaning the blood from my sword with a gesture.
I was getting tired though. From the activity and, more seriously, from the magic drain. For just sneaking around, the hat barely used any magic. But when I fought and had to use made up skills, it drained far more energy. Happy and I had fought or evaded four patrols in total.
This isn't looking good. Equipment wise, I'm OK. Just a couple dents on the shield and nothing I can see on the sword. But I'm gonna run out of magic if I have to keep fighting these guys.
Erza's lessons could only go so far and since swords was not my primary choice of weapon, (Note that I didn't actually own one.) I was relying more and more on my spell and that was draining me faster.
I heard something explode with a roar several floors down.
Natsu has arrived. The bland voice reported in the closest thing I had ever heard to a deliberate deadpan.
And where's Erza?
She has escaped and will soon find the others.
They were all together then. So all we had to do was make it to them!
"Hey Happy, Natsu's here. What say we go and greet them?"
"Aye!"
-vVv-
Gray was mad, furious that they had lost three of their friends to the sneak attack.
The men they had been attacked by had taken Happy, Ezra, and Fae. Happy was Natsu's partner, his funny sidekick and Grey's friend. Erza was his guildmate, friend and occasional minder. And Fae? Her position was lingering somewhere between friend leaning towards little sister. But all were important to him and what's more Gray knew Natsu's protective instincts would be firing non-stop on all cylinders until he was sure that all of them were safe. And that meant his aggression and power levels would be soaring beyond their normal limits, much to the woe of their enemies.
"Where're Erza, Fae and Happy!" The fire eater roared as he swept a large group of guards off of the cat walks to the water below where Juvia made short work of them. Gray assisted him by icing the floor of the walkways over so they had no chance of stopping their momentum once they started moving.
Grey had his own priorities when it came to this rescue.
Erza could take care of herself, and so could Happy, he had been hanging around Natsu for long enough to get pretty good at fending for himself. It was Fae that Gray was most concerned about. She was a kid, the only combat experience she had was her field trip with Mystogan during the war with Phantom Lord. When she'd had had someone to keep an eye on her and make her she didn't hurt herself.
Here, she was alone, frightened and outnumbered. A young wizard could easily push themselves too far. They didn't have the experience to realize where their limits were until they surpassed them.
Finally, they got clear of the guards in the lower level.
"Is that all of them?" Lucy asked, standing ready with her hand still at her keys. Gray reflexively averted his eyes from the curvy blonde. She was his friend, it was wrong and weird to think of her as hot. (Even though it was far safer to think of her that way than Erza.)
"Looks like it. Natsu, you got anything?" The dragon slayer leaned back and sniffed the air.
"All of them were in here a while ago..." There came a soft rumble and a set of stairs extended down.
"What the-?"
"Looks like someone's inviting us in." Gray narrowed his eyes as he regarded the steps.
Ok. Either whoever is in charge of this place is stupid, or confident that we won't be able to mess up his plans too much. While having a stupid enemy would be nice, they usually weren't that lucky.
Whoever's here is not gonna go down easy. He's got Fae, Erza and Happy to use against us if we get too rowdy. We need to find them soon before someone else does so we can tear this place apart.
Erza would almost certainly have broken out of wherever they tried to stick her by now. And Gray was willing to bet that Fae had done the same, despite her inexperience. She didn't let problems stop her for long. And Happy was as slippery as the fish he regularly devoured.
"Well, that's where the scent is going, so let's move out!" Natsu stomped off towards the stairs, heat still rolling off of him in waves. Gray followed, trying to ignore Juvia. For all that she had been an enormous help in getting in, she was kinda creeping him out the more she went on about how they were destined to be together.
"Right. Virgo, are you good to stay out for a while longer?"
"Yes, Princess."
Gray hung back to make sure Lucy and her spirit were between him and Natsu. She was a good friend and a decent fighter, but she was still the least experienced member of their group. He didn't want to see any more of his friends get hurt.
Just hang on, Fae. We're coming...
Gray wanted to see this dark, creepy tower torn down. He didn't like the vibe he was getting. And he wanted to see whoever had kidnapped his friends pay for hurting them.
Just be patient. He reminded himself. Don't rush into things. We can't afford to lose another team member.
-vVv-
I had managed to hide from other patrols. They weren't worrying about one escaped little girl and a talking blue cat. Not with four full-grown and far more dangerous wizards making their way up from the basement. And being pretty noisy about it too.
This part of the tower was different from the upper stories. It was hollow, with a massive ramp on the outside wall that steadily spiraled downward.
In order to haul bulky materials upwards for further construction, the large main path was built up from the bottom. It goes to about the 40th floor before it enters the basement levels and quarries.
On the one hand: it was way easier to just run without needing to hunt down the stairs. On the other: Less cover for when people did spot me. Happy had recommended that we simply fly down. I had had a vision of being shot out of the air in response. We stuck to trudging it out on foot and kept our heads down as much as we could.
The extra space helped a lot as I ducked, dodged and rolled around both magic and staves while Happy went after their heads with a club I had made for him. I sliced at hamstrings and tendons, the sharp magical edge of the sword passing through their thinner armor with ease. I'd never be able to hack through their helms or breastplates and this was easier for me to reach anyway.
"Fae, look out!"
I threw up my shield at Happy's cry and blocked a swipe coming at me from above. The recoil jarred painfully up my arm and the force of the blow caused the shield clip my head, making it ring like a bell. My backhanded counter, moving on instinct and guided by the spell, laid a good sized gash into my opponent's thigh. I fished a Deku nut out of my pocket, whistling to warn Happy as I threw it down and ran clear of the encircling ring of guards. Happy soared over and grabbed me to hurry on down the next few floors.
My head... I was feeling stars swim before my eyes. I glanced at my slate. The enhancement was still functional, but my head trauma had made it unstable, since I couldn't concentrate properly. I heard Happy speaking past the roast of my own pulse
"-e! Fae, you gotta snap out of it, they're gonna catch up! We gotta finish them!" Happy swerved as a bolt of magic hit overhead.
"Get them!" I heard them howl behind us even as we bolted for the next level. There was still a bit of construction material scattered around here and there that I might have made use of had I not been so tired...Thinking was kinda hard right now. Don't suppose if I break a pot I'll find a heart inside or something. I force the nonsensical thought out of my head and drew on a little more magic to let me think again.
I pulled one of my remaining Deku nuts from my pocket and threw it behind us. There were only three guards still chasing us. While they were blinded, Happy ducked down and despised me behind a stack of stones.
Come on! I brought my sword up and to bear, ready to pounce when they came within reach. Roll and slash as they come. End up on the other side of the group. Happy grabbed a 2-by-4 as a weapon and waited, hovering and at the ready.
Then a blur ran by me with a gleam of polished metal and a flash of red hair.
"Erza!"
The woman was in her standard armor and carried two blades. Her face was utterly terrifying as she flew past myself and my current partner and dispatched our pursuers in a flash. As soon as that was down, she dropped her swords and seized me in a tight hug.
"Fae! Thank goodness you're alright..." The strain and stress was going right to my tear ducts. I hate being a kid sometimes. "You're not hurt or anything? They didn't do anything?" I shook my head, still clinging to her, relief choking off any words I could speak.
"Happy! That's a relief, you're safe too. Now that I've found you, we need to leave!"
She wants to end this.
But even without my magic, I could see that just leaving wasn't an option.
"No." I said, pulling back to look at her. "This has been chasing you for too long, Erza. It'll never go away or end if it isn't stopped now. I've been reading this place's history. The tower's almost completed!" Erza's face went pale for an instant. She knew, from years of quiet searching, what this place was meant to be used for.
I got to see the look of terror cross the face of the bravest, fiercest woman I knew.
It was a look that didn't belong there. Not at all.
She controlled her expression quickly, putting on the deliberate commanding face she had worn through our battle with Phantom Lord.
"Then I'll deal with it as soon as you're safe. I'm not letting you get pulled into this anymore than you already are!" She dismissed her swords with a wave of her hand and started to pull me along. "Happy, come along!"
"Hey, listen!" I shook my head slightly as the words grated painfully on my nerves and patience. I checked the boundaries of my enchantment. Did Happy really just say...
Yeah...yeah he did.
Ok. Some bleed over to surroundings when used for a lengthy period of time. Deal with it later, beat bad guys now!
"What is it?" The red haired wizard snapped at Happy. The bleedover seemed to have touched her too.
"Erza, Natsu and the other's are downstairs. Fae said that she felt them come in. You're acting like you've gotta do this all on your own But you don't!" Erza's gauntleted hand tightened on mine for an instant.
"I can't let anyone else get involved..." I pulled her forward, her legs had stopped moving as she wrestled with herself.
"You're a Fairy Tail wizard. They kidnapped me and used me to take you too. By the guild rules, what does that count as?" Erza took several deep breaths as she picked up her pace to a trot.
"A declaration of war with Fairy Tail."
"And fairies never fight alone." I said this as firmly as I could. It was the unspoken rule of the guild; you help your guildmates if they need it. The guild carefully policed all job requests to try and avoid having our members be on opposing sides of any conflict. It meant that our members were expected to put their jobs on hold to assist their fellows if they needed help.
But even with that reminder, I suspected Erza would still try to handle all of this herself. It was too personal for her to simply change tracks so quickly. And, since she still wanted to save Jellal and find some way to bring back the boy she had loved all those years ago, she didn't want to turn this into a war. She wanted to fix him. If she did her duty as a wizard and brought him in, he would be a criminal worthy of the death penalty.
Jellal is under the influence of possession magic.
Well, now. Gotta love the dramatic timing of the voice in my head!