Notes: A chapter of nothing but backstory infodumps, whoops. Let me know if you have any questions, I can make another Appendix entry to clarify.
~.~.~
IV. Past and Future
Kama was the last to arrive, earning himself a flinty glare from the Minister of Defense, Darton, as he slipped into the small audience chamber and sealed the door behind him. It was understandable, since Kama had been the one to request a meeting in the first place.
"Now that we're all present," Darton said waspishly, once Kama had joined him and Arcadios in front of the king, "let's begin. What was so troubling that you had to request this meeting?"
"The mission we were assigned a year ago, to investigate the strange reports from the southern coast, and also another long standing mission for the Garou Knights," Kama said, "I can now report their completion. We were finally able to reach it — the phantom tower. Or at least what is left of it."
As the closest Fiore could claim to magic specialists, the Garou Knights were traditionally charged with addressing any strange, magical phenomena reported in the kingdom. Unconfirmed sightings, unexplained disappearances, mysterious lights, unusual weather patterns — all of it was their duty to investigate.
Most of it was just rubbish, of course, but there was no way to be certain. It could be a farmer's wild imagination, but it could also be a powerful monster awakening from hibernation, or an unknown wizard who had crossed the borders, or a relic from one of the old civilizations, or even some anomaly in the natural flow of magic across the land.
Many of those investigations never reached a conclusion. For decades, at least, the so-called phantom tower had been one of those.
"That… folktale?" Darton said dubiously, more wrinkles appearing on his weathered face as he frowned. "Why did you request a meeting about such a small matter?"
"A phantom tower? It has a familiar sound to it, but I can't quite recall what it refers to," Toma mused.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Arcadios said. "There is a rumor of a tower that can be seen sometimes over the southern sea, but there was no record of an island there, and no one could reach it. It's been circling the area for a number of years now, but since it did not present any known threat, we did not put priority on it. There are many unexplained phenomena, after all."
The corner of his lips twitching downward in displeasure, Kama had to nonetheless agree. "The knights at the time confirmed that this tower did appear in the distance during full moon nights," he said. "But they couldn't reach it either. There was any number of things that could have caused it — it might have been an ancient ruin of some sort, from Kuril or even the Yakuma, or a mirage from lingering magic. Things that would have no effect on the kingdom."
So they had left it be, focusing their limited resources on more pressing matters. The king nodded in acknowledgement and gestured for Kama to continue.
"However, about a year ago, we received numerous reports of a bright light off the south coast and a loud sound, like a gong — a magic explosion, based on the descriptions," he said. "Residents in Hargeon, Margaret, the Akane area all described the same phenomenon."
"I recall something like that," Toma said, nodding again.
"We thought it might be something from Bosco, or Minstrel," Darton said, his brow furrowing in recollection. "But our people reported that they were just as confused." His frown deepened. "The Runic Order investigated too. They said there was no sign of malevolent magic."
"They say that often," Kama snorted. "I thought the two things — the tower and the light — might be connected, based on their location, so I had my knights scout the area regularly. After a while, we began to notice an increasing disturbance in the atmospheric magic."
"A delayed effect?" Arcadios guessed, his eyes narrowing.
Kama shrugged. "In a way," he said, but didn't elaborate. "After about a year — that is, a short while ago — we were able to finally get past the disturbance, to the epicenter. There is indeed an uncharted island in the middle of the sea, and the remains of a tower in the center. That light was almost certainly the spell that destroyed it, and the disturbance came from the barriers around the island decaying."
There were several long moments of silence as the other three men considered his report.
"Let me see if I understand correctly," Darton finally spoke. "An unknown group has been present off our coast for years — decades even — doing something we have no knowledge of, and they have now been destroyed by someone else, whom we also have no knowledge of."
"It's so troubling I had to request this meeting," Kama dryly echoes Darton's earlier words, spreading his hands.
Arcadios let out a heavy breath of frustration at his insolence, but the king ignored the byplay. "Are we certain there was someone there?" Toma said. "It might still be just some remnant of the Kuril or another civilization. They left behind many dangerous, unknown things."
"No, there were people there, a year ago," Kama said. "It's hard to tell with the decay and the destruction, but I would guess they had been there for a while before. All we found were bodies, of course. Anyone who had survived left long ago. If there were any barriers against that, they would have fallen first."
He could see Arcadios hesitate, picking up on the implications of his words, turning them over in his mind, and making the same connection, even if it was based more on intuition than any evidence — the implication that there had been someone who had escaped, that those people would have reached land a year ago, and also, the implication that those survivors hadn't been at the tower willingly.
Kama didn't say it, but the shackles on some of the bodies had been easy to recognize.
One year ago, someone who appeared out of nowhere, with overwhelming power and far too much experience in combat… Arcadios's jaw clenched.
"As for the esteemed minister's points," Kama went on, "we weren't able to determine what the purpose of the tower was, or even who constructed it or how. Regarding the identity of the people there... we only found this symbol in several locations."
Reaching into his cloak, he held out a tattered, faded scrap of cloth. Embroidered on it was a symbol roughly in the shape of a V, with a horizontal slash through the middle. From another angle, it resembled the triangular head of a beast, with horns curling up.
"...It's unfamiliar," Arcadios admitted, momentarily pulled out of his musings. The king nodded in agreement.
Surprisingly, Darton hesitated — a rare occurrence for the old hawk. "I've seen it before," he said slowly, reaching out to take the scrap of cloth, "but..."
"This is a troubling matter, of course," the king spoke up, "but whatever this tower was, it's gone now, and we can't even say for certain whether it would be considered part of Fiore's territories, if it is uncharted and in the center of the sea. For this kind of incident, we can report it to the Runic Order and let them sort it out, wouldn't you say?"
Kama stifled a sigh. Tome L. Fiore was a good, kind man and a passable ruler. But his tendency to shy away from problems was the real troubling matter. Sometimes, he could understand Darton's overly aggressive nature, formed no doubt at least in part to compensate.
"There's no need to report it," he said, "the Runic Order just arrived there, a little after us. That's why I had everyone pull out. As for whether letting them sort it out is enough..."
"We will continue to investigate," Darton said firmly. "But there's no action we can take now, and there's no point in causing pointless panic."
In other words, they wouldn't be sharing this with the rest of the court or cabinet. No one protested that, easily imagining the furor, the politicking, and the general nuisance that would follow, without producing any useful results. In any case, it was the outcome Kama had expected and why he had requested a private audience first.
But as they departed from the audience chamber, Kama and Darton exchanged a look — for once on the same page.
They hadn't addressed the minister's final point. The question of who or what had destroyed the tower…
There was one lead that Kama could still try. 'She's probably setting out at this point,' he thought. 'I'll ask after she comes back.'
He wasn't looking forward to it. He might have been callous, but interrogating a little girl was hardly his idea of fun either. Times like these, Kama wondered why he had ever accepted the position of commander.
~.~.~
"Now lift your arms, move them all the way around. Is it tight anywhere? Loose?"
Erza obediently followed Gray's instructions, taking a variety of poses, but her expression showed a growing exasperation. "It's fine," she said. "Just like it was when I tried it on before. You said you were just going to finish the spells. That wouldn't change the size, right?"
"Well, no," Gray admitted, nonetheless continuing to fussily tug at the bindings of her breastplate, "but..."
No longer able to hold back a heavy sigh, Erza stared at him meaningfully. Gray froze, staring back — until he cracked and looked away, a sulky, frustrated expression on his face. "...But I finally made it," he mumbled. "It has to be just right."
With the crown's commissions out of the way, and with his own payment and Erza's increased stipend as a Garou Knight, they had finally been able to make good on Erza's order from months ago — a real set of armor.
Well, calling it a "set" was perhaps going too far. They had settled on just a breastplate, pauldrons and tassets, to cover her torso without weighing her down or getting in her way, since Erza wasn't used to wearing any armor at all yet.
Her small size meant they had gotten the pieces custom made, with Gray giving the specification to better match the spells he would be crafting. Had he done it right? While he had a theoretical knowledge of blacksmithing and armor, he wasn't a blacksmith himself and he had never given specific orders to one before either. He'd tried to listen to the man's input and to explain what he needed well, but what if his goal to make it better for accepting magic had also make the armor weaker somehow? What if...?
Erza cleared her throat pointedly.
Dragged out of his brooding, Gray blinked — and realized he had been staring fixedly at her chest, his hands had been resting splayed across her sides. There was the hard metal plate between them, of course, but... Gray felt a hot flush rise of his cheeks and quickly backed away.
"You made it," Erza said, patting the chestplate lightly, over the place where his shop's sigil had been engraved — at her insistence. "That means it's just right."
She sounded absolutely certain, enough to drive every thought from Gray's mind and leave him staring in bemusement. "...Why?" he wondered helplessly.
Erza huffed. "The things you make have never failed me," she said, like it was something obvious. "They've saved my life. So I know this will too — and this." Reaching over her shoulder, she gripped the handle of the spear on her back — one of the set that the knights had commissioned from more dragon bone, and perfect for hunting the draconic wyverns that still plagued the kingdom. "I'll treat them with care."
"Don't be stupid. They're tools, not decorations. You're supposed to use them," Gray snorted.
"Then I'll use them well," Erza agreed, smiling.
Tentatively, Gray smiled back.
The moment was broken when someone called out, "Hey, lovebirds! Are we going or what? Those wyverns aren't going to exterminate themselves!"
Gray stammered helplessly, red spreading across his face, while Erza turned to glower over her shoulder at the speaker — a tall, thickset man with a bottle clutched between his teeth. Neppa, another Garou Knight, who had been assigned to accompany her, along with a company of Katou Knights that was now waiting impatiently by the city gate. Unconcerned with Erza's sharp glare, Neppa raised one eyebrow.
"I suppose it's time to set off," Erza admitted grudgingly. "I'll see you when I get back. There's... something I need to ask you."
She avoided Gray's gaze, lightly touching the scabbard of her sword with a frown. Without waiting for a response, she turned and hurried away.
Gray watched her go, his eyes also dropping to the sword at her hip.
~.~.~
The sign looked just like Erza had described it, a glimmering silver cross and a vibrant crimson heart.
"Your Highness..." one of the knights who had been sent with Hisui called out tentatively, as she made her way toward the door.
"It's fine," she assured them. "I've sure Master Kreuz's workshop is perfectly safe. He must have protections in place against those of ill will. Please wait here while I talk to him."
She said the last part firmly, with the tone of an order, and the knights hesitated to disobey. The bell above the door also rang just like Erza had described, and the interior of the shop was just as narrow, but a little less bare. More than one high class young lady had sent him a picture of herself in a dress he'd made, and Gray had hung them up for lack of anything better to use.
Hisui supposed he didn't quite understand the implications that had in Fiore. It made him look like a playboy in the making, she thought with an amused smile.
Gray himself was seated behind the counter, but he didn't seem to have noticed her, bell and all. Furious scribbling, interspersed with frustrated muttering, drifted from him as he pored his attention onto several sheets of paper, strewn across the countertop.
Compared to Erza's descriptions, Hisui was surprised to see him able to reach the counter at all. He must have placed something on his chair to raise himself up.
Her smile taking on a slightly devious edge, Hisui kept her footsteps muffled as she crept up to the counter. "...bellflowers, maybe? No, that doesn't work…" Gray was muttering to himself. Close enough now to catch a glimpse of his drawings if she stood on her tiptoes, Hisui saw what looked like the design for a ring of flowers, before Gray flipped the sheet over with an angry sigh. "Then maybe butterflies? Those are pretty, right?"
"Yes, they are," Hisui agreed.
Her smile widened as Gray jumped. He instinctively lunged to cover his designs, which made his chair wobble and nearly topple over. "P-Princess!" he blurted out. "What are you doing here? ...I mean, it's an honor to have you…"
His — and Erza's — inability to remember proper manners until two seconds after speaking their minds never quite stopped amusing Hisui. It was a surprisingly childish quirk for a pair who were mature beyond their age in other ways.
Gray didn't wait for her answer, his expression shifting through hesitation, bracing, and then almost fatalistic determination. "I'm sorry, but," he announced puffing himself up like he expected a blow, "I can't accept another order right now, even from the crown."
"Alright," Hisui assured him simply, and they stared at each other for a moment.
"Are... are you sure?" Gray asked. "Even though you're the princess?"
"Yes. I'm certain," Hisui said, nodding. "If it was for the good of the whole kingdom, I'd insist. But if it's just for me, I'm still only one customer. If anything, Papa and I would prefer if you think of us as just customers. ...That said, I didn't come to place an order."
"...Oh," Gray said.
"I heard from the treasury that you asked to be paid out in silver," Hisui went on, smoothing over the awkward pause. "It sounded very interesting, so I came with the delivery."
"It's here?" Even as he asked, Gray was already climbing over the counter. Jumping off and landing next to Hisui, he hurried out of the shop.
Hisui and her retinue had indeed come with a group from the treasury, along with a cart full of pure silver. It wasn't nearly the full total of Gray's payment, but it had been more than enough to draw surprise at the treasury, especially since Gray had specifically requested it not come from coin.
She watched as Gray directed the men and their cargo around the back of the shop, fussing over the quality of the silver and whether the amount was right. "Are you going to make something out of it?" Hisui asked when Gray finally stood back to let them work.
"Yeah, I'm going to be alchemizing silverite," Gray said distractedly, "for... well, I haven't decided yet, but probably a sword."
"...S-silverite?" It was Hisui's turn to be taken completely off guard. "Like in the stories? Stronger than steel, changing shape with a thought, and so holy it can dispel darkness just by its presence? Like the blessed coin the white maiden gave her lover, which protected him from the black maiden's evil spell? That kind of silverite?"
The torrent of words left Gray staring at her again, but slowly beginning to smile. He was snickering a little by the end, earning himself a look that wasn't quite sharp enough to be called a glare but passed for such with the usually gentle Hisui. "Do you... like fairy tales or something?" he asked.
The princess didn't dignify that with a response. Drawing herself up with wounded pride, Hisui went on, "So I am surprised to hear that you can just... make it, given how incredibly rare it is."
She didn't mean that she doubted his skill or his truthfulness, but Gray choked, quickly losing his amusement. "I've done it before!" he protested defensively. "I worked from purified silver, yeah, but I can make that myself too, it's just an extra step!"
"Ah, that's very impressive, of course!" Hisui hurried to assure him.
Paradoxically, that made Gray's indignation quickly turn into self-deprecation. "It's not that big a deal," he muttered. "I'm just using it because… I can't normally forge a weapon, just craft spells onto one. But silverite can be shaped with just magic, so I can make something directly. And I wanted to… make sure it was just right..."
Hisui nodded. "For Erza," she concluded. It was easy to guess.
Gray glared, but his blush ruined the intimidation factor. "She said the most important thing for her is a weapon that's durable," he went on, pointedly looking away since he couldn't deny that Hisui was right. "But she's always having problems with that because her magic is too strong. Silverite can channel… well, a lot. More than even Erza's magic. Even..." Gray hesitated, changing his mind about what he would say. "Even the power of a god, I heard. That's why they used to make ritual implements out of it."
"Is that why it's considered holy?" Hisui guessed.
"No, it really can disrupt negative energy. Silverite is made from purified silver. Not purified in the sense of fineness," he said quickly, before Hisui could bring it up, "but in the alchemical sense. One of the processes in alchemy is distilling the essence of substances by adding ether to them. Ether is what gives magic shape, it takes on the properties of whatever it's combined with and amplifies that aura. That's what purified silver is — the strengthened essence of silver. And since silver is already strong against negative energy..." a frown passed over his face, "purified silver can even bind a demon for a short while."
"I see, I see," Hisui said, nodding along. "That's why in the Heavenly Records, the white maiden uses a staff of silverite."
"Heavenly Records?" Gray repeated.
"It's a famous old legend in Fiore," Hisui explained. "The story of a white heavenly maiden and a black heavenly maiden, who clashed to determine the fate of a young hero. Their final battle was supposed to have taken place on Mount Zonia… The white maiden used a holy staff made of silverite, which could change shape into different forms and could never be broken, and she gave the hero a silverite medallion that protected him when the black maiden tried to poison his heart."
Hisui didn't mention exactly how many times she'd read the story, or gone to a play of it, or had it told to her when she was too young for either. Or how she'd sometimes imagined herself in the white maiden's place, going on adventures, casting great spells, overcoming darkness…
Just thinking about it was embarrassing. 'It's an important part of Fiore's cultural heritage!' she tried to justify to herself.
"Heavenly, huh…? That could work, maybe," Gray mused, thinking of something. "Hey, could you lend me that book?"
"Which copy?" Hisui asked without thinking. "I-I mean, the royal library has several different versions! It's a very old, popular story, after all!"
She laughed awkwardly. Yes, the royal library had about a dozen copies of the Heavenly Records — all but two Hisui's.
"The one where the maiden is..." Gray gestured uncertainly. "...The most like Erza?"
He edged away from the beaming smile Hisui sent him. "Yes, our Erza is like the hero from a legend, isn't she?" she said. "She certainly needs a worthy weapon! ...More than one even, I'm sure, but exactly how many are you planning to make...?"
They turned to look at the wagon, still half full with crates of silver. "Just one," Gray said.
"Out of all that?"
He nodded.
Magic... was certainly mysterious. "...Can I watch?" Hisui asked.
"No way," Gray refused immediately. "The process is too sensitive. Your magic might leak in and unbalance it." He grimaced, thinking about the sequential exclusion and silencing barriers he'd have to set up before even attempting the alchemization. Keeping his own magic from seeping in wasn't a problem, but there was also that thing...
"My... magic?" Hisui repeated.
"Everyone has some," Gray said. "And you've got more than average. Even if you never use it, it sort of... radiates constantly from you, from everyone. So it might leak into the magic circles. Normally, it wouldn't matter, but this has to be really precise."
"O-oh..." Hisui nodded distractedly, reaching up to place one hand on her chest as if trying to feel the magic supposedly within it.
'I... have magic?' she thought. An awed smile tugged at the corner of her lips. 'I have magic too...'
~.~.~
Long ago, Fiore had been a land ruled by dragons. The place where Crocus was built had been a wild frontier, where no human dared to tread.
That had been then, but that time was long since past. No one knew what had wiped out the dragons, not for sure. The common story was that they had killed each other, in a bloody war that left behind no survivors — there hadn't been a single confirmed sighting of a true dragon in centuries.
But while the dragons were gone, draconic monsters still flourished in the mountains and deep forests. Drakes, salamanders, hydras, and most of all wyverns would often emerge from the wilderness to attack caravans or settlements. The ancient wyrm, the thousand year wyvern that had begun to change, had been one such monster, coming down from the mountains to carve a path of destruction across the kingdom.
No matter what Arcadios or the ministers suspected about the appearance of the wyrm that Erza had fought on the way back from Era — that its arrival was too sudden, that its destruction was too abrupt, that it was simply too similar to the one Arcadios had faced — the incident was treated as only an attack from a monster.
So the solution was simple — a monster hunt.
To calm rumors, both among the public and the court, a mission was quickly organized to cull the wyvern population in the northern mountains and the nearby woodsea.
Since all draconic monsters had an incredible magic resistance — even wyverns, which could not use magic themselves — the duty of facing the dragon-kin had always fallen to the Katou Knights. But given her greater experience, Erza had been also assigned to the mission and the knight squad dispatched — and armed with one of the anti-dragon spears that the crown had commissioned Gray to make with additional pieces of dragon bone from below the castle.
So far, the weapon had proven its worth. She could have taken the wyverns either way, they were no ancient wyrms or ghostly dragons, but the spear cut through their scales and hide as if they were no more than cloth.
Erza cleaned and checked it over meticulously every night when the knights made camp. She had plenty of time to do it — although her superhuman feats and the reality of facing wyverns up close had quelled some of the resentment her "intruding" presence had caused the rest of the squad, the others still left her alone where she sat at the edges of the encampment.
Which suited her just fine, it had been the same while she was still a Katou Knight herself. Erza prefered being left alone. But Neppa, the Garou Knight who had been sent to monitor Erza's first mission in their order, seemed to disagree.
"How many times are you gonna polish that thing?" he asked, dropping on the log next to her. It creaked under his weight and shook, making Erza almost cut herself on accident. "It ain't gonna rust, you know. It's a magic tool."
He received a cold glare that he ignored, taking a long drink from the bottle between his teeth. Among the Garou, Neppa was the best at getting along with outsiders and had the most approachable manner, Kamika and Cosmos's friendship with each other aside. That meant he most often got the assignments for information gathering among the public, anything that required working with other soldiers or knights, and of course overseeing the integration of new recruits.
Thus far, he had spent more time drinking and revelling with the knight squad than paying attention to Erza — at least on the surface. Erza had certainly noticed his assessing gaze when she fought. But this was the first time he approached her.
When it became clear she wouldn't answer, Neppa carried on instead. "It's cute that you want to take good care of the weapon your little friend made," he said, easily guessing her reasons, "but you should probably focus on not being so rough on it instead."
"Rough?" Erza repeated, her attention immediately zeroing in on him.
Neppa made a token effort to hide his smirk behind his bottle. "Oh, yeah. It's a dragon bone weapon, so it's pretty tough. But if you keep going like that, you'll break it in a couple weeks, tops," he said casually.
As a Garou Knight, he had a streak of sadism, naturally, so he could derive some enjoyment from Erza's horror-stricken expression, but the severity of her reaction was odd. Instinctively clutching the spear to her chest, she looked like he'd accused her of making the princess cry.
"So, how about it? Want some tips from your handsome, skilled senior?" Neppa went on, keeping his tone light.
"Yes," Erza answered immediately. Determination sparking in her eyes, she sounded more like she was threatening than asking for help. "Tell me immediately."
Eyebrow twitching a little, Neppa made a point of taking a long drink. ...He regretted it somewhat. He wasn't sure he'd ever felt that close to death before.
"Okay, so here's the thing," he said, smacking his lips as if he hadn't just felt the grim reaper breathing down his neck. "You're going about it backwards. You're strong, so you just decide on what you want to do, and you force it to happen that way. But that's like..." he gestured vaguely, thinking of a good simile and picking something characteristically morbid, "digging a grave with a knife. You might be able to do it, but the knife's going to be dull by the end."
Erza listened to him with almost unsettling focus, her mouth dropping open in realization at the end. "I don't want to make it dull!" she blurted out, completely serious — and aghast.
Nearly choking on the laugh he swallowed, Neppa tried to keep his voice steady, "G-great. So the thing to do is, you have to make sure you use your tools according to their abilities. They're meant to be used a certain way. They have their purpose, what they're good at, but also their limits. So you need to choose your actions to work with that, instead of just doing whatever you want."
He could tell she didn't understand.
"Well, it's like this — you've been killing every wyvern with one blow," Neppa said. "You're forcing that to happen with your magic, right?" Because no one was that good, not at her age and not in general. There was still an element of chance to battles, but she had never had to make two cuts in their entire mission thus far.
"...Yes," Erza admitted. "But—"
"I don't use swords or spears or stuff like that, so I can't tell the details," Neppa spoke over her, "but you need to get a feel for what your weapons can do and work with that. Sometimes, that's gonna mean needing two strikes to win. So you figure out how to make two strikes."
Erza made a face. But she looked thoughtful, if rebelliously so, as she ran her hands along the spear's shaft. "So you don't have to just win," she said. "You have to win with conditions."
"Don't call 'em conditions," Neppa complained. "You're thinking about it wrong. Think of it as having more than one objective. Beating wyverns? One goal. But we've got other goals too. Like not losing anyone. Or getting seriously injured. Or damaging that fancy, probably very expensive spear. It's a routine mission, practically busy work. So the main objective — beating those wyverns — isn't urgent or priority. You have to compromise your weapon or yourself or your comrades? You retreat and try again later." Pulling out a new bottle and uncorking it with his teeth, he added, "Of course, something that's determining the future of the kingdom would be different..."
He took a long swing — he deserved it for all that talking — while Erza turned his words over in her mind.
"...Oh," Erza said quietly. "I see."
It was the same mistake she had made down in the caverns, during her initiation. She thought that passing the test — or what she'd assumed was the goal of the test — was priority, and drove toward that relentlessly. Because she had thought... 'If I fail, it's over.'
That's how it had been before. Failure would almost certainly mean death. There was no room for hesitation or retreat. There was no purpose in doubting or second-guessing. Win. Survive. They were the same.
But it wasn't like that anymore. Even if she failed as a knight, she could still be a mercenary. She should have made protecting herself and Gray her priority. Because losing their lives — that was the end, the real failure. They'd had the option of avoiding dangerous situations. There had been nothing forcing them to fight, not really.
The outside world wasn't like the tower.
'Oh,' Erza thought again, her breath catching as that knowledge hit her again. 'I survived. I made it. I don't have to keep fighting like that.'
She could choose how to fight, when, where, for what goal.
Hugging the spear tightly to her chest, she pulled her knees up and hid her face.
Out of the corner of his eye, Neppa watched her curled up form and hid a sigh. He'd planned to tell her to go socialize more — that was the whole point of joint missions, to build at least some rapport with the Katou Knights. But he supposed he'd let her be for now. The commander and Cosmos hadn't been kidding about her having some heavy past.
Well, they got those kinds in Garou sometimes. It wouldn't the first time their order became someone's home. The kingdom was good to them like that.
If she'd already made a friend, she'd be alright, he thought.
~.~.~
The returning knights were still milling about in the courtyard by the stables, congratulating each other, making plans for what they'd do now that they were finally back in the capital, sharing gossip with those that had not been on the mission. The atmosphere was energized and festive, happy laughter echoing through the knights' wing.
Erza barely managed to escape. In their good cheer, even the men who generally distrusted or envied her had been willing to boast about her victories. Her hair was a flyaway mess from being ruffled so much.
She let out a heavy breath, slumping in relief once she managed to duck inside and successfully flee to the empty corridors of the Garou area. Here, at least, she...
Erza stopped, the muted echo of her footsteps fading quickly into silence.
"You're getting better," Kama commented neutrally as he stepped out of the shadows.
This time, Erza had made an effort not to tense. He was her commander, she reminded herself. Not an enemy. He wasn't waiting for her to fail, for an excuse to dispose of her. Probably.
"Good work on the mission," he went on, even though they had just arrived back and he wouldn't have had time to even ask Neppa how it had gone. "You'll be making a formal report at an audience later, for the ministers and the court. But it's just for show, to make it seem like we're actually accomplishing something..."
The last part was added in a mutter. Kama and the rest of the Garou Knights hadn't been pleased to be recalled to the palace so suddenly, when they were often given much freer rein. The real reason had been to try to prepare for dealing with Alvarez, but there was no action to take on that front either. Things moved slowly, when there was an ocean in between.
Erza nodded indifferently, her lack of concern for ranks and propriety working in her favor, leaving her unintimidated by facing such an audience.
But before she could acknowledge the order and depart, Kama held up one hand to stop her. "There's another matter I need to discuss with you," he said. "You don't need to say anything, and I don't expect you to do anything either. Just listen to what I'm going to tell you."
Slowly, her gaze just short of suspicious, Erza nodded.
Crossing his arms, Kama leaned back against the wall — gathering his thoughts. "Before we were called back because of the Alvarez issues, most of us were investigating a... certain island. It had been protected by strong barriers, so we were only recently able to go there for the first time."
He paused, but Erza's expression was still only focused, with no hint of recognition. Too vague, he supposed.
"Until about a year ago," Kama went on, "a tower stood there."
Ah, there it was. The girl had gone completely still — but he couldn't tell if it was like a rodent in the face of danger, or a hunting cat about to pounce.
"It's gone now, and so is whoever built and hid it," he went on. "We investigated as much as we could, but we didn't find much. But, I can make some guesses. I want you to listen to them... see if they make sense."
He waited until Erza nodded, tension radiating off her. She was dangerous, her magic barely leashed in — but more than ever, she looked like the kid she was too. The fear in her eyes was obvious more obvious now. Kama wanted to sigh. Stuff like this was exactly why he hadn't wanted to be the commander...
"There's always lunatics who experiment with magic," he said bluntly. "And there's always the real whackjobs who take it a step further and experiment on wizards. As sacrifices, as vessels, as just attack dogs... they always do this same stupid thing. They make their magic stronger, and they still somehow think they can control them. Arrogance or insanity, I don't know which."
The disgust in his voice wasn't faked. No matter how much the Garou Knights or even the Runic Order hunted down these lunatics, there was always someone else trying the same thing. It never stopped, the base human greed and stupidity.
Kama's gaze slid back to Erza, watching her reaction.
"If I had to guess, that's what was happening at that tower," he said. By the way Erza's brow furrowed, her lips thinning, she hadn't thought about it, but it made sense in retrospect. "And then, of course, one of their 'experiments' had enough... and with all that power, blew the place to realm celestial." He sighed. "Can't blame 'em, of course."
No, he couldn't blame them, whichever poor soul had finally levelled that hellhole, with its shackled bodies and the heavy aura of despair and hate that still lingered, even after a year. But as a knight, he couldn't just sympathize and let them be either.
Given the size of the structure, destroying it so thoroughly would have taken an anti-city spell. That was the kind of magic only a saint or a demon could use. A loose cannon, in an unknown state of mind, with that level of power... He had a duty to consider them a possible threat.
...If he could even find them.
About the only positive was that Kama doubted it could have been Erza. She was powerful, true, but not quite at that level yet, and she had no talent for range spells.
"Does that sound about right to you?" he prompted, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.
Erza flinched, her head bowed and her expression hidden. But, slowly, she nodded.
He watched her for a moment longer, considering whether to press her for details. Any hint about who had destroyed the tower, how, where they might have gone could be useful... but how likely was she to know anything? Was it worth unsettling her further?
No, Kama decided. Not at that point, not when there was most likely nothing they could do anyway.
"Well," he said, pushing off the wall and straightening, "that's all I had to say. Turn in your weapon, rest up, and get your report ready. I'll have the servants let you know once the audience time is scheduled."
"Wait," Erza called out, making Kama pause. "Was there... was there anyone there? On that island?"
'You don't know?' he thought, frowning faintly. But that would mean she hadn't left after the tower's destruction, with any other survivors. She would have had to leave before, when the barriers were still in place.
Reading something of his confusion in the silence, Erza said, very quietly, "I... fell. I fell into the sea and..."
...Washed up in Fiore. 'Fell... From the top of the tower? This girl...' Kama thought.
"The inside barriers broke a while back, before the outside ones," he said. "So anyone who survived would have left back then."
"I see..." Erza said, her shoulders slumping tiredly.
There wasn't anything left to say after that.
~.~.~
Erza paced nervously in front of Heart Kreuz, stopping to glance at the shop's door every few moments, only to lose her nerve and start pacing again.
She had promised to come talk to Gray after returning, and it wasn't like she could just... not do it. But even knowing there was no choice, Erza was finding it unexpectedly difficult to actually carry through. For once, she couldn't seem to just barge in like usual, full steam ahead.
Because... what would Gray say? When she'd...
Erza shook her head frantically. No, it would be okay. She'd apologize, and Gray would forgive her and... it would be okay. Even if she'd made a mistake, it wasn't the end.
Nodding to herself, she spun to face the door like it was a monster to conquer and strode purposefully toward it. Her hand closed around the handle and she pushed, ready to bang it open like always—
The door didn't budge.
"Huh?" Erza tried again, jiggling the handle and shoving against the wood. It still didn't move.
It was locked. The shop was closed, the narrow window shuttered.
Erza stared at it in shock and horror. It was... closed? Gray wasn't here? Logically, he didn't have set hours, and he often went out to buy something, or to talk to a client. He could have been at the castle, getting a new order, for all she knew. But Erza was in no state to think logically, and her mind immediately skipped to the most ridiculous, terrible assumption.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry I broke it!" she burst out, scratching at the door like a cat that had been left out. "I won't ever do it again! I'll treat everything with care! Please come back!"
Her caterwauling echoed down the empty street. It was a good thing that Gray had no neighbors to complain about the disturbance.
Someone cleared their throat.
"W-what are you doing...?"
Erza turned slowly, staring at Gray — who was staring at her from where he had been returning to the shop, bag over his shoulder.
The sheer, illogical relief in Erza's face froze him in his tracks. "You came back!" she exclaimed.
"I... didn't go anywhere?" Gray pointed out. "Just to buy some stuff..."
"I'm sorry!" Erza steamed on, not even listening. "I'm sorry I broke the sword you made me! Down in the cave, I—"
"I know," Gray cut her off. He sighed as Erza finally paused, staring at him again. "Did you really think I didn't notice? You cracked it against that ghost dragon, right?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," Erza said, fidgeting guiltily. "I should've retreated, but I didn't think... I didn't think I could stop, so..."
Gray sighed again. "It's fine, I get it," he said. Reaching out, he took hold of Erza's arm and pulled her along, around the side of the shop, toward the back courtyard. "I'm like that too," he went on absently. "I always get all obsessed with one thing and stop thinking about the consequences, or if there's a better way, or if if there's something more important. I guess we're both idiots like that..."
Looking at his back, Erza furrowed her brow. Something about his tone bothered her — tired, but also like he'd accepted it. She couldn't put it into words, but she didn't like it. But as she opened her mouth to protest, she found she didn't know what to say.
They came to a stop in front of a stairwell down into what must have been the shop's basement. Letting go of Erza, Gray fiddled with the lock and slowly levered open the trapdoor.
"You didn't do anything wrong," Erza finally said. "I was the one who messed up. Maybe you get too caught in your projects, but you've never..."
Gray shook his head. Gesturing for her to follow, he started down the stairs, into the darkness. Pursing her lips, Erza fell in behind him.
The stairway was deeper than she had expected, their footsteps echoing down and down for a good while before they finally reached the bottom. Below, it was cool and dry, and the shadowed room the stairs opened up into was surprisingly larger than even the shop above. Several magic circles across the floor and walls glowed faintly, giving only the impression of the shapes clustered near the walls — a desk, perhaps, a chair, a large clay pot, a shelf of indistinguishable objects. Several dark openings must have led to passages headed deeper still.
'A catacomb?' Erza thought.
Gray didn't hesitate despite the gloom, making his way to the desk and turning on a small lacrima lamp. He gestured to Erza again and waited until she was standing next to him, his hand resting on a long, cloth-wrapped shape on the tabletop.
"Here," he said, "this is for you. I just finished it this morning."
He stepped back, letting Erza have full view of the strange object. Based on the cross-like shape... Erza quickly but carefully peeled back the pale cloth, her breath catching as silvery metal glimmered beneath the wrappings.
"This is..."
"A new sword," Gray confirmed. "I made it for you. I guess... you could say it's congratulations on your promotion, or something like that."
The sword was a simple, two edged blade made entirely of silver, only the grip dark with a covering and a few lines of inlay running along the blade. It seemed to hum under Erza's fingers, and she wrapped her hand around it without conscious thought.
It was light, and it fit perfectly in her grip. It was just right for her. Without a doubt, this sword was hers.
"You don't have to use it if you don't want to, but I picked out a name," Gray admitted, fidgeting as Erza turned her awe-struck gaze toward him. "I based it on that story, about the heavenly maiden. So it's name is Heaven's Wheel."
The crossguard was in the shape of white feathers, and it certainly felt holy, glimmering in the faint light. "It's a good name," Erza agreed, smiling widely. "I promise, I'll use this one right. I won't let it break, no matter what."
"It doesn't matter, you can break it," Gray said. He smirked a little, puffing up with pride. "This sword is made entirely of silverite. As long as you bring the pieces together and use your magic, it'll always return to its true form. So you don't have to worry about ever breaking it."
He was taken completely off guard when Erza suddenly pulled him into a tight embrace. Squawking in surprise, he flailed for a moment before going still. "Thank you," Erza muttered, her voice thick with emotion.
Gray patted her back gingerly. "No problem. I'm glad to do it," he murmured. "Thanks for giving me the chance. I'm... really grateful to you, you know?"
"To me?" Erza repeated, pulling back.
"Yeah..." Gray hesitated. "You know you were my first customer. You were the first person to give me a chance. You believed in the tools I make when no one else did. And... it's only thanks to you that other people started giving me a chance too — those noble families, the princess, even the king... So I'm really, really grateful to you."
He hadn't been able to look her in the face the entire time he was speaking, and his blush had gotten progressively brighter, spreading across his neck and the tips of his ears. It was a charming sight. Erza's lips curled, her eyes sparkling even as she felt something warm settling in her chest.
"It's the same for me," she said. "I'm glad we met too. I think I only made it this far thanks to you and the things you made me."
Gray shook his head slowly, his expression growing pensive. "I'm... grateful for that too," he said. "That I, that my weapons were able to help you. Because..." He hesitated again, trying to gather his thoughts. "I really... want to make things that do something good. I want to use what Master Ur taught me the right way, not like..."
His shoulders moved as he took a deep, slightly shaking breath. He didn't want to say it. But if it was Erza, who used his weapons... she deserved to know — that they were dangerous.
"The reason I wanted to learn to make magic tools," Gray said carefully, "was because I needed to defeat a demon. It was... for revenge. I studied under Master Ur to make something strong enough. I didn't care how or what method, as long as I could destroy it... And, after a few years, I was able to. I made a sword."
He didn't dare to even glance at Erza, his hands clenching together nervously.
"But... to get that much power, to make it strong enough, that sword... it devoured the wielder's soul."
"Their soul?" Erza repeated without thinking.
Any magic relating to the soul was regarded with deep suspicion at best. Most was outright illegal. Gray had specifically avoided Era and the Runic Order precisely because of that, because there was a very good chance they could arrest him just for having created it, no matter how young or stupid he had been.
Erza didn't know that, of course. Her concern was different. "You, you didn't use it, did you?" she demanded, looking him up and down as if searching for some hidden injury.
"No," Gray said quietly. "I was going to. I wasn't going to sacrifice anyone else. I'm not..." He hadn't been quite that far gone, even then. "I wanted to use it myself because it was my revenge... Once it was ready, I went to face Deliora. But Master Ur stopped me and... she used it instead."
It had been a sword made out of pure silverite too, strong enough to channel even all the light and power of a soul.
That light and power hadn't extinguished even after the battle was over, the demon crumbling to nothing and Ur's body going cold and still without her soul — her soul which had remained trapped within the sword, exuding a freezing aura all around it.
It had originally been nameless, being only a tool of Gray's revenge, but once it had become the last remnant of Ur... Looking across the empty, frozen ruins, he had chosen its name — Ice Bringer.
He couldn't just leave it there, for anyone to find and take. He didn't have a place to hide it. He couldn't bring himself to even try to destroy it. Taking something with a soul into his own body would have been the height of insanity, so Gray had sealed it into his shadow, its power hidden and suppressed by his own soul.
Of course, if his heart ever wavered, its magic leaked out, as it had down in the caverns. Either Ur was still protecting him, or it was a curse he'd have to bear for the rest of his life. Gray wasn't sure which he considered it.
"That's why," he forced himself to go on, "that's why I want to make weapons that will help people. I want to use what Master Ur taught me for good. Even if it's too late, I..."
He jumped when Erza placed a hand on his shoulder, gripping tightly. Their eyes met, and Gray found himself unable to look away from her calm, confident gaze. "Leave it to me," Erza said. "I'll use them well. I'll make sure everyone knows about the amazing things your master taught you to make."
Finally, he managed to tear his eyes away, another blush creeping across his cheeks. "Th-thanks," Gray muttered. "I'm counting on you."
~.~.~
Appendix: Items
White Lily Armor - A magic-infused armor that has been an heirloom of the Fiore royal family for generations. It was created using the dragon bone from beneath the palace and crafted with many protective spells, presented as a wedding gift. It was traditionally worn by a king or queen who took to the battlefield or by their direct representative, but Toma allowed Arcadios, a young knight captain at the time, to use it when he volunteered to spearhead the attack against the ancient wyrm. It undoubtedly saved his life but was heavily damaged in the process. Gray later restored it. This is a canon object, Arcadios wears it during the eclipse.
Dragonclaws - A set of spears Gray made from the dragon bones found beneath Mercurius. As only one of a set, each spear has few properties outside of increased effectiveness against dragon-type monsters. Nonetheless, they are still magic weapons and require a certain amount of innate strength to wield.
Heaven's Wheel - A sword that can be formed no matter how many times it is broken. Since it is made out of pure silverite, which responds to magic, it may have other possible properties as well. Obviously, based on Erza's canon Heaven's Wheel armor.
Ice Bringer - A sword that uses the power its wielder's soul, in the process ripping it out of their body and ensuring their death. The culmination of Gray's search for a way to defeat even a demon. The process and materials he used came from the abandoned lair of a dark magic cult, but it as the strong foundations of Ur's teachings that let him accomplish this feat at a young age. Ur used it to utterly destroy Deliora but died in the process. Since her soul remained in the sword, creating a frozen field, Gray took it with him and sealed it in his shadow. It's named after one of his canon spells. In terms of appearance, it looks like his necklace, which he had used as part of the silver to create it.
~.~.~