Friendship: The Symbol
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
"Sometimes a symbol holds more power than the thing it represents."
(Jarod Kintz)
Lucy woke with a start. This dream had been pretty confusing, what with the woman in the golden lake and the stars. And the part about the baby. It did not make sense.
She was about to stand up when she felt a weight on her shoulder and a warmth around her waist. She looked to her side and saw Natsu, whose head rested on her shoulder. His arm around her waist led her to the conclusion that the two must have moved into this embrace in their sleep.
Cautiously she pushed Natsu's head away and removed his arm. She stood up and stretched. The whole guild was scattered around the tables and benches. Every one was asleep.
Except for Levy and Freed. In hushed voices they talked. While Levy had a book open in front of her, her quick reading glasses on the bridge of her nose, Freed scribbled something down.
Lucy did not want to disturb them and looked around. Natsu was still in the same place, his head had lolled back and his arm, the one that had been around her, was resting on the bench. Gray lay on a bench not far away. His face was in a frown and his mouth opened and closed. It broke Lucy's heart to hear him call for Juvia with such helplessness.
She looked around to see where Mirajane was, since she craved for caffeine. The barmaid was fast asleep leaning onto her brother, similar to the youngest Strauss. Lucy did not want to wake her, because she knew the worry for Juvia took a toll on all of them.
Smiling bitterly, she went into the guild kitchen to brew some coffee.
A few minutes later she returned with a can of the hot dark beverage. She had found where Mirajane mixed the ice cafe that were popular in the summer and had poured one cup of it with several ice cubes. She put the iced coffee and the can on the counter of the bar, pushing Cana's arm away before she could touch the can in her sleep and hurt herself, and poured two cups of coffee and brought them, with some milk and sugar to Freed and Levy.
Neither of them looked up but thanked her and blindly took the cups to sip from them. Lucy smiled and turned back to the counter.
She was about to pour herself a cup when she saw Gray. He had woken up and was now sitting upright with his face in his hands.
Lucy took the iced coffee and a cup of coffee for herself and walked over to him.
"Thanks.", he murmured quietly and took the iced coffee from her. He loved coffee, but hated hot drinks so he usually drank this version of it.
"Did they find anything yet?", he asked her quietly and she shrugged as she sat down next to him.
"I don't think so. They seemed pretty consumed into their research when I brought them their coffee.", she explained and he sighed.
"Want to talk?", she asked and smiled sadly when he shook his head. "But you know where to find me if you need an open ear.", she told him and he nodded.
The sat next to each other in silence, nipping at their drinks until Freed put his pen down and Luvy closed the book in front of her and put down her glasses.
Gray was at their side in an instant, demanding information. Freed sighed and told him to rouse the guild. Lucy and Gray woke every one up while the two other mages freshened up a little bit.
Once the whole guild was awake and Wendy had checked on Gajeel and Lily every one gathered around Freed and Levy.
"What did you find out, my children?", Makarov asked and Levy explained.
"We spent some time finding out what the symbol is. It is old and dark magic. A certain form of transportation magic. This sort of magic is often used by larger groups, but can also be used by single people. This explains why the smoke smell suddenly stopped.
"It works like this the person, or people, in question stand in front of the symbol, which they have put there in the first place, and chant the words. A portal opens and transports them to another place, which ever they are thinking about. That can be any where, as long as the symbol is on it. The words are different from symbol to symbol. Unfortunately we cannot seem to follow them this way because we don't know the exact words of the chant. By using one wrong word horrible thinks can happen, either you are displaced completely, or you could lose body parts or even death. Even if we knew the exact words we'd have to know the exact location of the destination symbol or the same could happen to us.", she finished.
Gray grit his teeth. When he heard that this was transportation he had hoped they could find out how to use it themselves. He forced himself to relax when Freed opened his mouth to say something.
"We looked at the symbol a bit closer and were able to identify the runes inside the moon and the star. Its an old language and basically means 'If the moon and the stars become one the brotherhood and sisterhood will rule'. This, in combination with the symbol is identified with two groups of mages.", he explained and Natsu asked
"So basically a dark guild took Juvia?"
"Kind of. But I wouldn't call them guild. They call themselves the brotherhood of moon and the sisterhood of stars. They are cults and, about a hundred or two in the past, this groups were part of an opposition movement to the creation of guilds. They dislike mages who, like us, use magic for our own selves and use their magic only for the sake of their cult or for their respective goddesses. The brotherhood of moon worships the goddess Luna and the sisterhood of stars worships the goddess Stella. The whole of Fiore used to do that, long before our guild was even build.", Freed explained.
"So you think these two cults worked together in the kidnapping of Juvia?", the master asked and Freed thought for a moment.
"Well there are records of them doing so, so I wouldn't think it is unlikely. I think in the whole, these two cults could be working together, but I suppose only one group was involved in her kidnapping."
"I think that would be the brotherhood. I read that the sisterhood never takes place in offensive attacks. We should nonetheless look for both. I think if we find one, we will find the other as well. And with finding them, we will find Juvia.", Levy explained.
"There still are remnants of two temples in Fiore. One is the temple of the moon and is about 10 kilometres North of Hargeon, the other is the temple of the stars and is about the same distance South from Crocus.", Freed added and the master nodded.
"Okay this is the plan. We will have two teams. Team A: Laxus, the Raijinshu, sans Freed since you will be staying here resting, with the Strauss siblings will go to the stars temple. Team B: Gildarts, Cana and Team Natsu will go to the moon temple. The rest will stay here and get ready for a possible fight with the cults. Thank you for your research Freed and Levy you may rest now. The others leave as soon as you can.", the master explained.
Team Natsu nodded at each other and walked over to where Gildarts and Cana sat. Gildarts looked at Gray
"Come on, kid, let's get your girlfriend back."