"Perhaps they were being watched so they couldn't say what they needed saving from, which means they could be under the rule of a dark guild. Maybe some type of military type bandits. Someone with enough power to control what goes in and out of the town. The request that was placed on the board might have been the one sent but it was certainly not the one you picked up." Lucy blinked and threw a glance over at the second floor.
"So, the request was spelled to show one thing but mean another?" She asked. Erza nodded again, Gray leaned forwards.
"You mean it could actually have been sent in as something different and when whoever sent the request deemed it safe enough, changed it back to the original request. So the request Mirajane would have recorded wouldn't match up with what we now have." Lucy summarized.
"But why not put what they were up against in the original request if they were going to covered it up anyways? Why hide it?" Natsu spoke up and half the table nearly jumped out of their seats. They had forgot he was there, he had been silent during their exchange.
"I would be lead to assume whoever had control of the village would be monitoring who came and went, same with any object or parcels that left. If they were looking for things that have been spelled, then they would have followed the paper trail back to whoever sent the request for help. It wouldn't have went well for them. If that is true, then it would have been safe to assume they made more than one layer of fake requests. That way, if the first layer was stripped away then they wouldn't look for a second one, they would be lead to believe they had broken the enchantment placed on the request. Once could claim that the magic signature left clinging to the paper was just traces of the first layer meant to conceal the true writing." Erza explained and the group went silent.
"Erza, if that's true, then this village is in a lot of trouble. You should bring that up with the Master." Gray said and Erza rose from her seat.
"I'll be right back, keep this between us for now. We don't want to scare or anger the guild just yet. We're still waiting on member to arrive, let's wait till then." She strode away from them and towards the stairs across the room. A few of the other guild members had seen the group deep in discussion.
"What do you think's wrong with them?" Elfman asked his little sister Lisanna. She lifted her gaze away from her food and looked over towards Team Natsu. They were silent and deep in thought. Occasionally there would be a few words spoken between them but it was hushed and that meant it wasn't for others ears.
"I don't know. I've never seen Natsu that quiet before. Whatever it is, it has to be big. Didn't Miranee say she was calling all the guild members back to Fairy Tail?" Elfman nodded and continued to watch the group have their odd little moment.
"Yeah, something about the Master's orders. What do you think is wrong? Think it has anything to do with Lucy and Natsu being called up to the second floor?" He asked and spared a glance at his little sister. She was frowning and watching them, food all but forgotten.
"I think so, Lucy was even more quiet than normal, she usually argues with Natsu when he gets in her face." Lisanna pointed out. Elfman let out a grunt and thought back to all Lucy and Natsu's fights. That boy was dense, you don't just get in a woman's face like that unless you were gonna kiss her. Elfman frowned slightly before shaking that thought away. Like Natsu even knew what that was.
"You're right. It's probably nothing but I think we should wait till they decide to share, we don't want to disturb them." He nodded to himself and went back to eating, but he kept a close eye on them throughout his meal. They lapsed into silence as they eat.