Chapter two.
A star's quandary.
Lucy placed her hands on her hips, forcing her legs to stand straight while she leaned and twisted her spine back into place from the several stupidly long train rides she'd had to take from Magnolia to Crocus.
The only good thing that came with such a voyage was that she managed to read the green book (which had nothing on magic at all, only going into detail about Fiore's history and some guesses at who Gypsy Mages were), and half of the blue one, which happened to be the continuation, and equally as slow.
It was nice keeping her mind occupied though, and off the twisting roller coaster her stomach was turning itself into each second she moved further away from Magnolia. She had honestly thought she would've thrown up had it not been for her ability to focus on tasks at hand.
It had been surprisingly easy to get on the first train, the one she went on directly after telling her land lady where she would be going for the next year-and-a-half, and followed Makarov's advise on leaving a simple letter for her friends (and one specifically for Natsu...), as well as some money for when they undoubtedly broke something.
Before doing that though, packing had turned out to be somewhat interesting. Saying she had a lot of clothes would be an understatement; one of her hobbies was shopping, meaning she of course had lots of items, but common sense said she couldn't take everything with her.
Of course, she had packed for trips before, but the longest mission she had ever been on was just over two weeks, and unless she enchanted her suitcase, she didn't have anything that would hold all the things she would be taking.
So not knowing what to do, she had summoned Virgo, at least hoping to get started on the long task ahead of them. After the hour it took for them to get everything organized and ready to pack (the maid spirit made menial tasks like that the easiest thing in the world), Lucy had nearly crushed the spirit with her hug after Virgo offered to take her belongings to the Spirit Realm until they reached their destination.
And now, after five hours on the first train, three hours on the second, and four and a half on the third and final, she was standing in the train station's landing in the capital Crocus, the piece of paper with directions Mavis had given her in hand.
She looked around, noting the mid-morning rush of travelers, most of whom looked as bedraggled as she felt. She had left the guild at around seven at night yesterday, meaning now, at nine-thirty in the morning, she had been up for somewhere around twenty four hours.
This was such a good way to start a year of training, bags under her eyes and her feet shuffling against the ground as she walked around a city laden with half-ruined buildings and loud construction noises.
She could feel the migraine coming coming on already...she really hoped she got to wherever Mavis had written down soon.
"Make a left here...down this alleyway until you find an exit to the right, three buildings forward...follow the canal until it ends, and I should...be...there..." Lucy looked up from her paper, feeling her eye twitch and her arm drop as deadweight, dangling at her side as she stared incredulously at the building in front of her. She was way to tired for this. "The palace!? How in your name did this happen, Mavis!? Master!?"
She continued her triad in front of the grand building for two minutes, until an uneasy looking palace guard decided to do his job and walked up to her.
"Eto, um, miss?" He flinched, having just gotten a taste of the killing intent only three people were capable of putting off; Mirajane, Erza, and her. But, unfortunately for Lucy, this guard did not run away screaming like she wanted. Instead, he rushed through the rest of his inquisition. "W-what is your business at the palace!"
Lucy sighed, letting go of most of her irritation, much to the man's immediate relief, and instead dug through the bag at her side for the one form master Makarov had handed her before she left; an official guild notice that the Mage whose name was on it had full support of the guild whose name was it. In this case, Lucy and Fairy Tail.
The guard snapped to attention upon seeing the slip, motioning for several other of his coworkers nearby to open the gate for her, and informing Lucy that he was going to personally send word to the King of her arrival.
After waiting for a few minutes until her guard came back, Lucy realized that it might take a while. So instead of standing outside the already opened gates like a gaping fool, she passed into the castle's domain. Looking around the palace lawn, Lucy spotted what she was looking for; a bench where she could sit and read while she waited.
Taking out her blue book, Lucy rubbed her shoulder in delight. Whoever first said bookworms were weak had obviously never met one as hard core as Levy or Lucy.
Turning over the cover, the blonde effortlessly flipped to the page she had marked with a pink slip of cloth, continuing where she left off with the book explaining - finally - how Gypsy Mages developed and used magic.
It was a rather complex series of events involving, from what Lucy could tell, highly stressful situations where the overpoweringly strong emotions of a person gave birth to - back then - phenomenal events and/or abilities that turned the balance of power.
After such events, the theory stated that the people - after they snapped out of their shock - were strongly reminded of the unexplained things they saw every day in the natural world, ranging from strange mushrooms that grew out of your head if you ate them (to which, Lucy and her team - ex-team had some experience with), to the multitude of abilities that dragons utilized.
It started a whole now era in the use of magic, dozens of more abilities appearing everyday it seemed, until they made yet another connection, only this time to the stars.
This was the part Lucy was looking forward to reading about - the part that might give her hints about how to get control over the Gypsy nature of her magic, since Celestial magic was her element.
Speaking of elements, that reminded her of the water magic she gained by breaking Aquarius's gate key. Maybe it was still a form of Celestial magic? It wasn't originally her magic after all, and she wasn't naturally attuned to water magic, meaning she had no business using it and would have been unable to do so in the first place unless it was a form of Celestial magics...
Lucy shook her head, clearing the partially irrelevant thought from her head. If it was a part of her Celestial magic, than she could apply whatever training she would be doing later to it as well. But first she had to keep reading...
Ok, right, she was at the part where her ancestors started relating things to celestial bodies and constellation?
The book stated that upon noticing the connection the stars had how people felt and what was going on in the world around them, they tried to see if they could harness their unique abilities, leading to the creation of the Twelve Golden Gates (Lucy flinched, feeling bad for her choice, but not regretting it in the slightest), and magics that harnessed the power of the night sky through both action and incantation.
Lucy spent the next ten minutes reading, rereading, and rereading again that chapter and the next two, bitter annoyance building up on top of an exhausted state of mind. She grit her teeth, her murderous intent flaring out once again.
There was nothing on how use the Gypsy part of her magic at all! The only thing that was even remotely helpful was when the stupid book mentioned in passing about the Gypsy Mages using their culture to somehow control the magical energy in and around them.
Lucy slammed the book closed, using it to hit her forehead as a sudden realization struck her. How was she supposed to learn about her Gypsy nature if the only people who had ever used it were long since dead? The book had nothing on the 'how's or 'why's, only talking about a theoretical 'what' that Lucy was only going to believe because it was the only thing she had to got off of, and her first guild master had said it was accurate.
She sighed. Maybe Capricorn would know? He was one of her mother' something trusted spirits, after all, and he seemed to know her magic inside and out...
Hearing the slowly approaching crunch of footsteps on the gravel path leading to and from the palace, Lucy lowered book, eyes and head turning towards the sound. A second later, skull met leather binding for a second time.
Didn't they have butlers and maids to do this kind of stuff for them? Lucy had been somewhat hoping to put off meeting the royal father-daughter duo until later during her stay at their palace (growing up in a mansion with other noble's coming and going for business negotiations all the time, Lucy knew exactly how possible it was for something like that to happen) because the last time Fairy Tail had met the king...
"I hope you're friend's enjoying the crown he took-kabo!" The king cried, protectively holding the new piece of headwear closer to his cranium, eyes darting around their surroundings, as though waiting for Natsu to pop out and take it from him again.
The princess rolled her eyes at her father's actions, and Lucy had to say she looked very different from the last two times she saw her, but then again, both times they were either in life and death peril, or at a formal reception. Either way, quite memorable.
Lucy laughed, a sound that was both tired and nervous. "You don't have to worry, sir; Natsu isn't with me, and he won't be coming later, either."
The king nodded, letting go of his new crown as he got a look at the book she was reading. "Already getting a start on the reading part of your training-kabo? I thought we would start with my entertaining training method-kabo,"
Lucy scratched the back of her head, not sure how to respond to that. "Er...sorry?"
Hisui sighed, pinning both Lucy and her father a deadpan look. "Don't encourage him, please; even if you are one of his subjects, if you ever hear him tell you to join an 'entertaining' anything, ignore him,"
Lucy smiled as the king gave his heir a look that was both shocked and comically-hurt, which was ignored. "I'll see, but it seems like I might have to since you guys appear to be in charge of my training,"
The mood in the air sifted towards the more serious side as both the king and princess straightened. Hisui narrowed her eyes at the book Lucy was holding, and the blonde figured she was trying to see what it was. "That's correct, we are going to be the ones directing your training, since we still owe you personally for stoping the Eclispse project,"
Lucy felt a blush come over her face at the mention of her and her companion's actions during that time. "It wasn't much, really; all the Dragon Slayers did more than Yukino and I..."
Hisui shook her head and the Celestial mage's modesty. "Whatever you say, but we're not going to get anything done if we just stay out here and chat all day. Me and Papa will show you to your room, and I'd say we would have someone help you unpack, but you don't seem to have any luggage..."
Lucy smirked, patting the keys on her belt as she stood up from her temporary seat, and headed towards the awaiting castle. "I have that all settled, so don't worry about that,"
"Good-kabo, but know that as soon as you're done, you're starting my training-kabo!" And with that last declaration, the king marched away in the opposite direction the two girls were going, leaving them in the spacious castle entry way alone.
Hisui sighed fondly, lightly taking Lucy by her elbow and directing her towards the sloping stair case. "Your quarters are upstairs, and just so you know, you'll be in the same wing as my father and I,"
Lucy was a bit surprised that the royal family of all people were letting her, a Mage they had only met three times, maximum, stay so close to them. "Um, Hisui-san, if you don't mind me asking, why are the members of the royal family letting me stay so close by, and going as far to help me train, even if you did owe my guild,"
The green haired girl gave Lucy a thoughtful look. "Well, for starters, as a member of a guild in Fiore, it is unofficially your job to serve the royal family and obey the council, the former of which you demonstrated during the time after the Grand Magic Games," Hisui explained, pausing as they were maneuvered around by a pair of maids, cheery 'hellos' and 'good day, princess' passing between both parties.
"Secondly, it was only due to you and Yukino-san closing the gate when you did that we're even here speaking today," Hisui continued, and Lucy didn't think she was going to let that favor she (supposedly) owed the blonde go anytime soon. "Adding to that, we have the largest Library in Fiore, with more access to that," she pointed to the book Lucy still had in her hand. "Than anywhere else,"
It clicked. "So the reason I couldn't find anything on Gypsy Mages earlier was because all the records were relocated to the palace?"
Hisui nodded. "Yeah, because if people found an 'easy' way to the original magic, it would be chaos. Not to mention, you need to be a direct descendant of the Leading Mage for the tribe to get most of the spells to work in the first place, and that's without adding the cultural base to it that makes the magic easier to use,"
Lucy looked at the book, then back to the princess, one slender eyebrows raised. "You seem to know a lot about this stuff; these books have only just touched on the possibility of the Gypsy culture adding to the outcome of the magic,"
Hisui snorted, then quickly smacked a hand over her mouth, eyes wide as she looked at Lucy. "Please don't tell anyone I just snorted; it's considered rude for the princess to do..."
Lucy made a zipping motion with her fingers over her lips, a knowing twinkle in her eyes as she remembered the stiff manners and customs of the rich and wealthy. Now that was something she had no reservations about leaving.
The royal jade smiled in relief, answering Lucy's question. "Right, so yeah, I've studied this stuff for most of my life, because my mother came from the non-magic wielding part of the tribe. While I can't cast any spells, and you not being able to use very many, we'll probably be more focused on expanding your knowledge on what magic is what and how to counter them,"
Lucy scrunched up her eye brows, taking a second to pick apart and digest what the princess had just said, before giggling, which almost slowly evolved into belly-laughter. Hisui looked at her over her shoulder, confused. "Sorry, but... I would have thought Master Makarov had told you in his letter, since he sent it after that..."
The princess raised an eyebrow. "Told me what? After that what?"
Shaking her head, Lucy thought she should just show the princess instead of explaining it. Holding out the blue book for Hisui to hold, Lucy maneuvered around her bag for its prequel. "I'll show you as soon as I find that book...ah! There it is,"
Flipping the book over, Lucy opened it the wrong way, having found it was after than going through the whole book for a single page towards the back. Finding the sought after page, Lucy gently placed over the obviously runic language that looked somewhat out of place, and pumped a small amount of magic into it.
Lucy had tested this out during her horrendously long train-riding marathon, when she had run out of patience for the book's educational content and needed something to do. Her efforts proved themselves fruitful, as the glowing golden list shot out of the pages, automatically going to her name at the very bottom.
Hisui looked at it, impressed, but not knowing what significance it held, not the reason the Celestial Mage had for showing it to her.
Lucy, seeing this, focused more magic into her hand, moving it over the runes as they now changed to the standard written language of Fiore. Hisui, now being able to what was in front of her, sucked in a sharp breath, taking a startled step backwards.
"T-that...s-so, you are..."
"If you're trying to say that I'm going to be able to learn those spells you mentioned earlier, than yes, yes I am," Lucy said, a bit smug at the reaction she got out of the green haired girl, closing the book, thereby canceling the active spell, and put away both books back into her bag.
Hisui blinked, looking like she was making several mental adjustments. "I'm going to have to rethink your training, now,"
"Sorry, but hey; speaking of training, you never did tell me why you and your father agreed to do it. Train me, I mean,"
Hisui didn't respond right away, most likely gathering her thoughts, so the girls just continued walking (how big was this castle, anyway?) while Lucy waited for a response. "Most of my reasons for helping you train probably have to do with my friendship with your late father, and, once again, earn your forgiveness for letting lose the Eclipse project,"
Lucy nodded, not hurt in the slightest that the princesses loyalties lied with her father, but she did have to resist groaning when Hisui mentioned Eclipse. She put on a strained smile. "I keep telling you, that's not necessary; I didn't do much in the first place, and you only though what you were doing was best for your people,"
Lucy watched as a soft smile graced the face of the other girl, and she was glad to know that she had helped ease the guilt the royal jade had no doubt put herself into. In the companionable silence that followed, Hisui continued leading Lucy to her room in the palace, passing by both maids and butlers as they made their rounds, always giving both girls a friendly welcome.
Suddenly, Hisui stopped walking in front of a large oak door, and the action was so unexpected that Lucy nearly crashed into her. Hisui smirked in amusement. "This is your room then, Lucy-san. If you need anything, I, am in the room right across the hall,"
"Um...ok?" Lucy sweatdropped. This went back to what she had been saying earlier; the royal family's blind trust in her, while highly flattering, was a little unnerving.
Waving to her new hall-mate, Hisui turned around, heading into her own room, and Lucy figured she should get settled so that she could take a nap; while her conversation with the princess had kept her alert and awake, she was still so tired she might just crash while setting her bed.
Pushing past the thick slice of wood, Lucy did a quick once-over of the space where she' debt living for the next year. It was spacious, about the size of her apartment back home, wallpaper the color of fresh-cut pink roses, which she had to admit contrasted nicely with the dark wood furniture and deep red carpet.
Walking into the small seating area placed at the front of the room, Lucy placed her carrying bag down on the low set coffee table. After rolling back her shoulders to get the kinks out, she grabbed a particular gate key.
"Virgo!" She shouted, and a split second later the Celestial maid made her appearance in a cloud of pink smoke, all of her owner's belongings stacked behind her.
"Is it punishment time, hime?" She asked.
"No, it's not!" Lucy immediately yelled, having pre-conditioned her response long ago. "Do you think you could help me get things set up, though?"
The pink haired girl gave a stout nod. "Yes, hime,"
If Lucy had thought that packing the first time had gone fast, she had turned her back for ten minutes to make the bed (which, thankfully she did not take an unexpected nap on), only to turn around and see that the Spirit had already placed her books and nicknacks on all the shelves, and was currently in the process of color coordinating her closest and dresser.
The blonde smiled. She had absolutely no idea what she's do without her spirits, period. "Thanks for your help, Virgo. You can go back when you finish,"
The usually stoic maid's lips tilted ever so slightly at the corners, but Lucy saw it anyway. The spirit bowed. "Yes, hime."
Said 'princess' shook her head. The spirit would never stop calling her that, no matter what she tried, or how much time passed between them. Walking back over to where she'd put down her bag, Lucy moved through it until she found what she needed.
Sitting down on the small sofa that sat across the table from it's twin, Lucy placed the majority of the letters down next to her, the one she believed was from Aquarius in her hands already.
The young Gypsy didn't know how much time had passed before Hisui knocked on her door for lunch, her attention so solely focused on the cards that each one of her spirits had taken the time to write her, even if Aquarius's had been a harsh reminder of her current love life, punctuated with a demand she at least use the water magic brought about from breaking the key. But hey, that was the mermaid spirit for you.
"So did you get everything squared away?" The royal jade asked, once again walking a little bit ahead of Lucy as she lead the blonde to the dining area where they would be served. The king would not be joining them, Lucy had been told, since he had other duties to attend to at the moment.
"Hmm, yeah I did, but I was so wrapped up in reading the cards my spirits got me I couldn't take a nap," Lucy stated, trying to stifle a yawn.
"That's nice, that your spirits send you cards," Hisui said.
Lucy chuckled lightly. "Yeah, but they were worried. It's not like spirits usually send their user cards, but I guess they consider me a friend."
"Why were they worried for you?" Hisui wondered aloud, then quickly scrambled for more words as the blonde sadly averted her gaze. "Ah! You don't have to answer that I'd you don't want to, Lucy-san,"
Lucy smiled a little. "It's fine, Hisui-san. But I think it may be a story for another time. So what part of my training are you in charge of?"
Glad for a change in subject, the princess spoke with vigor. "Well, as you can figure, Papa is going to be in charge of one aspect of your physical training, mainly fighting. And if I know him, he'll make it as entertaining for himself to watch as possible, so you have your work to cut out for you because he loves fighting,"
Lucy giggled, her mind instantly bringing up a picture of her favorite Dragon Slayer and her battle-happy guild. "That leaves what part of my training to you?"
"I have your book study, and the other part of your physical training which, since we know you can actually use the spells I was going to teach you from the books, you're going to learn how to cast them."
"And that means...?" Lucy said, only remembering that casting Gypsy spell casting had something to do with the culture.
"You're going to learn how to street-dance, basically, while wearing traditional Gypsy clothes," Hisui winked, taking amusement from her companion's mortified look, but she wanted to push it one step further. "And I'm sure that your boyfriend will love to see this later when you get back to Fairy Tail,"
Oh, that did it all right. The blonde exploded into furious stutters, her face a glowing red and arms windmilling around her as she stared at the princess in both shock and embarrassment. "H-how, did you know!?"
Hisui smirked. "You have the look of a girl pining over a boy. So, I want to know who. Is he in your guild? Is he from another guild you know? Is he a wizard?"
Lucy let out a helpless laugh. She wasn't at all insulted by her companion's nosiness with her love life; in fact, she understood the craving to act like a girl her own age, worrying about things like boys and shopping instead of one day taking over the Konzern/country, like the heiresses they were/are. And for all Makarov and Mavis had been there for her, they wouldn't quite be able to wrap their heads around that of a teenaged girls'.
"Yes, he's in my guild, so of course he'd be a Mage...a rather powerful one at that..." The blonde trailed off, remembering all the times she had just watched Natsu take down a villain and thought just that.
Hisui looked at her, a calculating look in her eyes. "Powerful, huh? Did he participate in the Games?"
Lucy nodded. "Uh-huh,"
Thinking back to what she had seen of the matches, Hisui knew all the male Fairy Tail Mages to participate in the games were extremely strong. The hint didn't help much, so she tried thinking about the actions Lucy's male guild members had taken where she was involved. Two came to mind.
"Is your boyfriend Grey Fullbuster, or Natsu Dragneel by any chance?" The royal jade asked, noticing the blonde next to her blush harder at the second name. Bingo...she thought. "You're dating Natsu Dragneel, 'The Salamander', Fire Dragon Slay-"
"Shh!" Lucy hissed, clamping one hand over Hisui's mouth as she furtively darted her eyes around the hallway they were in, trying to see if anyone besides her had heard the outburst. She sighed in relief, removing her hand. "We're not dating, firstly. Secondly, even if he did know about how I felt, he has someone else for him already,"
The princess studied the sad expression on the blonde for the next few moments as they made their way down the hall. Then, she thought of something. "He's part of the reason you left to train, isn't it?"
Lucy but her lip, but nodded nonetheless. Maybe in the next few days, or in the next coming weeks she would tell the princess about her plight; but for now, she really just didn't want to talk about it again. Just because she had organized her thoughts and feelings over the event didn't mean she was willing to preach it to the world, and no matter what she and Hisui and been through during the Eclipse Gate incident, she had hardly spoken to the girl for more than and hour, tops.
Noticing that the blonde was still edgy of the subject, Hisui let it drop. Walking in silence, the only time either spoke before reaching the dining area was when Lucy had a question, Hisui felt the need to point out something with historical importance.
Later, after they had been fed and watered (Lucy noted that the food was just as good as the last time she had eaten at the palace), Hisui walked her back to her room so that she might change into something for her first physical training session, stating that she would help Lucy around the castle for the first few days until she got it down herself.
Having changed from her mini skirt and tank top into a pair of Heart Kruez workout shorts and tee, Lucy tugged her hair into a pony tail. She did a mental once over, making sure she had everything ready to go.
Maybe it was because she had never planned to train this seriously for this long in her life, but she felt that the moment she took a step out the door, there wouldn't be any going back. True, she probably have felt that way when Makarov had told her to hold out her hand, or when she had boarded the train back in Magnolia, but for some reason, when she was already dozens of miles from home, did she feel like something was going to happen that would change her.
Key belt?
Check.
Actual Gate Keys?
Check again.
Sneakers and active wear?
Check, and check.
Lucy sighed, realizing that she was stalling. She could go on with this all day, and that wouldn't get her anywhere. Smacking her cheeks sharply, Lucy let the sharp sting clear her thoughts and refocus her attention.
It was too late for her to go back, and here she was, with the royal family of all the people in Fiore being the ones to help her train, with her dithering wasting their valuable time. She was better than that, and she had already showed that when she had walked out of her family twelve hours ago.
"Yosh," the blonde said, her hands fisting on either side of her broad hips, a fire in her eyes that hadn't been there a second ago. She walked towards the door, her mind briefly flickering to the faces of her friends, lingering longest on Natsu's, before she smiled. "I wonder when they'll come looking for me..."
Um, yeah, so to my first reviewer- I am so sorry, but this fanfiction isn't going to either a Sticy or a Rolu fic. I've made changes to the summary so that other readers will know what they are getting into, but yeah, I should have done that before publishing anything. This fanfiction is now labeled as Nalu.
So yeah, on a different note, who's ready for school to start again? Not me; I just got my muse to write back, and I want it to stay for longer this time! Curse you the void of creativity I call my school! Y U BLOCK !? Y!? SO MANY OF US READ IT!
And calm. If you could not tell, I don't always enjoy going to school. But they can't stop me if I write the chapters on an approved program, MUAHAHAHAHA! I shall get you all your next chapter, and it shall have Natsu and the others in it!