Hi… Sorry. Everything's still shite. But I'm not mean enough to drag it out for too long.
Also, I totally forgot how exhausting writing an accent can be.
The only thing I own is Rhiannon.
Rhiannon shifted them into White Sea's gardens. It took Kaleb a moment to recognize them. Then he thought, I wonder if Lucy's seen them yet. His heart stuttered for a moment as he remembered why he'd tried to escape in the first place.
"How long was I on the island?" he asked, for the first time noticing that the sun had set.
"Three hours."
He sighed. "You couldn't have jumped us to my office?"
"One, I shift, nae jump. Two, I cannae shift intae buildings."
"Why can't I hear you?"
"'Cause when I'm on th' earth, muh mind is as expansive as th' earth. Tis too much, e'en for yer considerable powers."
She walked over to the cobblestone path then gestured for him to go ahead.
Rhiannon's mind palace was a cave with pictures stuck to the walls. What surprised Kaleb was Rhiannon sitting at the end of the cave watching him. That had never happened before.
"Who are you?"
"Rhiannon. Part o' her, anyways."
"You two are split?"
She stood and walked over to him. Circling him slowly. "Hud tae. Hud tae survive. This is whit might've happened tae some o' ye if ye hadn't bin saved." She stopped so that she was looking him in the eye. "Bit then, nae a' o' ye wur saved, wur ye?"
She pushed him into her memories.
.~*~.
Cae-Lum is led by principalities. When Rhiannon was a year old, Baron Jurro was nearly overthrown during a rebellion. Her father was one of many men and women that fought to protect him.
After the rebels were captured and executed, Baron Jurro retreated back into his castle. New whispers that maybe the rebels were right spurred an advisor to urge the baron to make restitutions to the families of those killed or injured defending him. When the financial restitutions became too much, the advisor urged the baron to use his vast collection of magical artifacts.
While magic wasn't banned, there were few who had the magic innate in them. Learning magic cost too much.
To soldiers still serving him, he gave magic weapons. To the families of those that had died, he gave trinkets. To Rhiannon's father, who had been the head of Baron Jurro's guard until he was maimed, he gave a powerful lacrima.
Baron Jurro didn't know what was in the lacrima except that it was powerful and would need to be implanted. Not willing to have the lacrima implanted in himself, he gave it to his soldier. While also laughing because he knew the McKinnon family was too poor to afford the surgery to have the lacrima implanted.
Rhiannon grew up knowing that her parents were scrimping and saving for a doctor to operate on her. When a doctor said that Rhiannon was getting too old to safely operate, the money magically appeared. It wouldn't be until she was older that she'd realize that her mother sold herself to the baron in return for the money for the surgery.
The sense of smell and hearing seemed to appear overnight. The canines came in when she lost her baby teeth. Rumors spread that she was a demon. Between the sense of smell, her hearing, her own cleverness, and a child's inability to know when not to say something, her family was nearly driven out of their homes.
That was the first time Rhiannon learned to shift. It would be a few years before she'd have enough control to find her way back to her parents. Without her, their lives had become easier. Only her mother would occasionally walk out into the woods and seek out her daughter. But even then, Rhiannon was never allowed to stay.
*.*.*
She met Draco quite on accident. She'd learned to sense the vibrations of people and animals through the earth. The dragon spirit was nothing she'd ever heard before and she started looking for it.
"You have one of the lacrimas. I'm glad their plan worked."
"What?" Rhiannon asked.
"Many, many, many years ago, there was a war. The dragons were split. Some wanted to cohabitate with humans, others didn't. Those that sided with humans started teaching humans the magic to slay dragons.
"However, one dragon slayer went mad. And the dragon that adopted him, taught him, was one of the most powerful of all dragons." Draco sighed. "Zodrodal was a fool. His mate, Dalviama, wasn't much better. The slayer, Acnologia, wasn't human and he wasn't a dragon. He hated them both and stopped caring about who he killed."
"Whit does any o' that ha'e tae dae wi' mah lacrima?"
"I'm getting there, impatient hatchling. And speak Caelish. It's easier to understand than your accent. Acnologia's magic was beyond anything we could imagine, and his dragon parents refused to fight him. A plan was created to raise and train five children then send them into the future where there'd be more ethernano. The three surviving parents sealed themselves and Acnologia. Lacrimas were created of dragons on the human side who died. The lacrimas captured their magic and a piece of their souls before they moved on. The lacrima in you belonged to Zothrizel, the earth dragon. He was our tactician."
"If Aconologia was sealed, why do all that work?" she asked, speaking Caelish.
"Because we knew the magic wasn't perfect. In fact, just opening the gate so that the children could come into this time, damaged the seal. My mate chose a slayer only a few years ago herself when she felt the magic of the gate opening."
"Will you have a slayer?"
"I certainly hope so. I've been waiting long enough."
Rhiannon only stayed with Draco a week before the celestial spirit realized that a human child was more work than he'd realized. He taught her how to recognize his signature in the earth and to recognize Nurem's before sending her to his mate.
*.*.*
She'd managed to be with Nurem for a month without any accidental run-ins with the Pradesh children. Normally, Nurem or the earth warned her of their approach.
"Who are you?" a voice asked, startling her out of her meditation.
She jumped and let out a string of Caelish curse words that she was sure her parents would be appalled to know that she knew. Her eyes widened as she took in the appearance of the boy in front of her. He was close to her age and about her height. His hair was black with red streaks and his eyes were crimson.
He's looking for his brother, the earth said.
"Sorry," she said, shifting away before he could react.
She wouldn't stay with Nurem much longer after that. It didn't matter that Nurem said they were all mages. Or that the earth confirmed that. The bruises had healed, but she remembered the stones being thrown. Then the kicks when the rocks refused to hurt her.
*.*.*
It would be a few more years of relative solitude before she'd feel Nurem leave and the presence of a new dragon. In retrospect, she'd recognize her own hubris. That she'd forgotten Nurem and Draco's warnings concerning the chaos dragon.
He found her through her probing of the new magic. He'd nearly killed her in his disappointment that she wasn't stronger. At last second, when he threw her into a tree, she managed to shift away from him.
For a week, he chased each shift. It wasn't until she'd shifted near Mount Zonia, hoping to lose him in the magic of the mountain, that she successfully got away. Since then, she made a point of always having an idea of where he was.
*.*.*
With the resurgence of the Black Dragon, it was time to start moving the chess pieces. She made a home in a cave to stay in one place. There, she started procuring books on Fiorian and Boscan law. Started sketching out a map of where everyone was with the earth surrounding her and providing her answers.
It wasn't time for Lucy to find Draco. When it came time to fight Acnologia, there would need to be a queen of a tatsu. Wendy was too young. Emzadi didn't seem interested. And the idea of Natsu leading the tatsu, which was his right as Igneel's son, made her question whether she'd ever leave the solitude of the forests.
She paid one of Jude Heartfilia's business partners to plant the seed of having Phantom Lord retrieve Lucy. The action, a decidedly not legal one, would disband the guild and leave Gajeel rudderless. Rhiannon was decidedly not a fan of the man currently but could see the potential. As she suspected, so did Makarov. Actually, she relied on his need to know what his son was doing and that Gajeel made the perfect double agent.
Laxus threw her for a loop. She'd thought his need to prove himself to his grandfather would reign in his worst impulses. When he'd ended up in Bosco with Cristoff, she'd never been more relieved.
Wendy's guild baffled her. Rhiannon could feel her thoughts on the guild but there were never any other footsteps but Carla's near her.
The Nirvits are gone.
"Tell that to Wendy."
The battle with the Oracion Seis showed a problem she had no idea of how to deal with. She had no idea of how to pull Cobra from the darkness. Even his comrades, he barely tolerated.
Sting and Rogue had joined the still burgeoning Sabertooth guild. So far, she saw no problems with them.
And then Tenrou happened. She'd paid idle attention while lying in her bed as they progressed through the trials. Even the attack by Grimoire Hearts didn't interest her. Then she heard Acnologia's attack. She heard their fears. And then, nothing.
Acnologia resurfaced a few days later. Half dead.
For a month, Rhiannon barely ate and listened for any sign of the missing dragon slayers. At the sixth month mark, she left her cave and sealed it. There was no point planning a war when half of those meant to fight it were gone.
Especially when Acnologia and Zeref teamed up.
*.*.*
Rhiannon was in Bosco when she felt it. After leaving her cave, she decided to see what pleasures civilization provided. She'd invested in Sudahpah lessons and a formal induction.
Since she'd had her first heat, and through the nature of her magic, she knew who her three potential mates were. The first would mean going home. The second, she'd met. Their similar magic meant that he taught her a lot about the physical ways she could use her earth magic, but ultimately, she left him without ever needing to acknowledge him as a potential mate. The third was Boscan and recommended for her induction. She'd dismissed that outright.
With Zeref and Acnologia making plans to take over the world, she wanted to enjoy life. She used her magic to find gold and build herself a floorless home on a private island in the Grass Sea. She shared pleasure with whoever caught her interest. But just in case, she stayed within a fairly easy shift to her Boscan mate.
She'd been enjoying time in the Stargazer Mountains when she stumbled upon a hiker. He was a mage and attractive, so she asked him to share pleasure. She was halfway to an orgasm when she felt the tree she was pressed against relay the message. The man stumbled when she shoved him away then stared at her to see if she was changing their positions.
"They're alife? 'At's amazing news. 'At's pure barry," she breathed then kissed the man soundly. "I'm sorry. I've gotta gae."
She shifted away without ever getting name and returned to her cave.
She missed most of Neo-Oracian Seis's attack on Lucy. It was kept annoyingly indoors. What she did hear was Acnologia's joy. That worried her. Anything that could make him that happy could not be good for the rest of them.
It was soon after that she stated sensing a new person accompanying him. Emery.
The earth relayed some of what was happening in the Games, but she couldn't sense them herself. She'd shifted to Crocus to watch the Games but Natsu's nose detected her magic faster than she was comfortable with and she ran into the gardens at Mercurius Castle to get back to her cave. It still wasn't time. Lucy couldn't become Draco's dragon slayer until she mastered her stardress.
When the dragons appeared, she shifted to a cliff overlooking the city. At first, it had been because she couldn't believe there'd been dragons. Then, she froze. While she'd gotten a little better at combat, she still wasn't great. And those were dragons. Actual dragons.
"Scared?" Rhiannon swallowed when she heard Acnologia's voice behind her. "I'm not here to kill you."
"Excuse me if I dinnae believe 'at."
"I know what you're planning. You're planning to create a tatsu to take me out." He grabbed her chin to force him to look at her. "Good. I want the fight. And I look forward to destroying that smug bastard's little brother."
Before Tartarus, Rhiannon felt Lucy pushing her magic and the beginnings of her stardress. The Celestial King gave her the final push towards mastery. And it was finally nearly time.
The disbandment of the guild made getting Lucy to Draco a little trickier. Instead, she sent a job request intended for Yukino, know that the celestial mage would tell Lucy. She was pleased that Natsu was out of the way for a while. At Lamia Scale, Wendy claimed Chelia as her mate. Gajeel hadn't made that final push but Rhiannon knew that it would be Levy that would instigate it. Cobra had become Erik through Kinana's and Jellal's influence. Sting and Rogue were finding themselves again after being under Jiemma's thumb for so long. Laxus was grieving the loss of Mira as his mate but recognized Emzadi as a potential. Emzadi, who hadn't been fortunate enough to meet any of her other potentials, had no intention of letting Laxus go. Cristoff was as solid as usual and Rhiannon wondered what his relationship with Lucy would be.
The pieces were finally coming together.
*.*.*
"You screwed up," Nurem seethed.
"I did not," Rhiannon said in Caelish.
"Yes, you did. The celestial realm is in uproar right now."
She focused on the area around the guild. White Sea was in an annoyingly urban area so with the exception of the gardens and the trees that lined the road, there wasn't soil for her to listen from. The trees tried to listen to as much as they could. Trees had weird priorities though.
There was an altercation. They raped the archangel.
"Fuck."
"I told you. You screwed up."
"How did this happen?"
"It's a nature of his-"
Rhiannon started pacing. "I know. That wasn't what I meant. And I didn't screw up. How was I supposed to know that he was a lost Pradesh or that he was an archangel? Andromeda and Cassiopeia were shielding his magic. That's perfect. Not part of this problem but it'll do."
Used to Rhiannon's jumping from problem to problem, Nurem said, "You need to fix this. The tatsu will dissolve before it fully has a chance-"
"I'm working on it. Now shut up."
Nurem watched as Rhiannon paced back and forth as her fingers typed on an imaginary keyboard. As a child, Nurem had advised her to learn archive magic. While, in theory, she did, the knowledge that she gathered from the earth didn't always translate well. Often times, she used her modified archive magic to figure out possibilities.
"I have a plan that has a fifty-two percent success rate."
"That's not great."
"It's better than the others." Rhiannon sighed. Then her expression changed to horrified.
"What?"
"I'm going to have to get involved."
.~*~.
"How are you so close to Nurem?" he asked as they went into the guild. He wasn't sure if the goal was to get him to trust her or not. Under normal circumstances, he might have, but the version of Rhiannon that was in her mind palace gave him pause.
"I make a point o' always knowing whaur Acnologia is. Therefore, I'm th' safest body tae be aroond. An' ye saw. I met her as a bairn." They'd reached his office when she stopped. "Yer faimily is in thare. We'll blether efter. Th' bathhouses wur that wey, right?"
"Uh yes."
He opened the door, trusting her dragon hearing, and walked in. The conversation stopped as the looked at him. Farron was presumably in Pelerno with Zen but the rest of them were there.
"Who's with Lucy?" he asked.
"I was earlier, but she kicked me out. Erik and Laxus are there currently," Cristoff said.
Emzadi walked over to her big brother and hugged him. "We were worried. Are worried. You closed our link."
He closed his eyes and reconnected the mental link he had with his family. There were a few chuckles at his grimace. As soon as his father felt the link reestablish, he started tearing into his son for disappearing like that. Which was then followed by Arman asking how he was doing.
"I'm not sure how I'm feeling at the moment. I want go up there and say she's right. That we can wait. That nothing has to change. But then, part of me knows that it does have to change. That this dynamic can't continue indefinitely."
Something about the Mind Palace Rhiannon was niggling at him. The need for her to lock away a part of herself to survive.
"When was the last time you looked at Lucy's soul?" Kaleb asked suddenly.
"Earlier today," Bickslow asked, confused at where he was going with this. "She's doing better."
"Okay. Look, I'm not going to pretend that it's going to be easy but Cris, Bix, I need both of you to not let the situation change how you treat Lucy. Emi, I know you can't pretend but please don't force Laxus to choose between you and Lucy.
"I met another dragon slayer today. Her name is Rhiannon. She says a war is coming with Acnologia. And Lucy's going to need to be emotionally stable."
"How have we not met her?" Emzadi asked.
"She's a recluse. Her mind is… complex. She's the earth dragon slayer. There's a part of her mind that belongs to the earth and it was hard to navigate what was safe and what wasn't. I chose to err on the side of caution."
"Where is she now?" Cristoff asked.
"Working her way through our bath attendants," Kaleb said after a moment.
"My kind of woman," Vander commented.
"I'm exhausted. You all go. I'll see you tomorrow." Each of his siblings hugged him tight before leaving until only Cristoff remained. "I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?"
"I have a new puzzle to solve. And apparently a war to start preparing for."
Cristoff nodded, knowing that his brother would throw himself into work. Coming up with something that would distract Kaleb had been what they were discussing when he'd entered.
Once he was alone, Kaleb sagged into his chair and didn't fight the tears that escaped his closed eyes. His magic wandered up to Lucy unbidden.
She was sitting in her apartment with Laxus and Erik and just barely holding it together herself. It was only for the sake of the two men with her that wasn't curled up sobbing in her bed. Both men were like deer in the headlights when it came to crying women.
Kaleb considered doing a deeper dive into her mind but knew that she'd sense his presence. She always did. And he wasn't sure he was ready to face her reaction if he was wrong. Instead, he turned back to the problem at hand.
Acnologia, Kaleb thought to himself. The monster in the horror stories Nurem told.