The Beautiful Thing About Princes and Queens
by Lady Norbert
A/N: I get so behindhand on my writing projects. I simply have too many of them. But I'm going to get them all finished in time, I promise you.
The timeskip I mentioned is happening now - the story is picking up at the conclusion of the Edolas arc, as will shortly be made obvious. So from this point forward, nearly everything that happens is going to be solely headcanon. I wish we'd eventually find out what becomes of Mystogan and the rest of the Edolas cast, but my guess is that it's pretty unlikely. I hope you enjoy what I decided to do with them! Thanks to Arabella for taking a turn as beta reader.
Chapter Six: Promise Me You'll Never Leave
He smiles up at the sky - a sad smile, heart aching in a way he knows will never heal completely. It takes him a moment or two to realize that he is weeping.
Goodbye, my friends... my Fairy Tail family.
They are gone. The battle against the forces of King Faust is over; Mystogan, or rather Jellal, had been prepared to sacrifice even his life to bring peace to his home world. But Pantherlily and the mages of Fairy Tail had found a different way, a better way. And now they are gone. All the wizards, all the Exceed, every drop of magic that Edolas had ever taken from Earth... gone. Back where they were always meant to be. It took all of the magic strength remaining in his staves to reverse the flow of the Anima, but it had worked. They have gone, never to return.
And he, the lost prince, remains.
Without Pantherlily, he is a little afraid. He has been away for so long, and though the people seem to trust him, he lacks someone to advise him. He picks up a staff, now drained of its magic power; it serves no useful purpose to him anymore, but his hands feel empty without at least one. Turning, he looks out over the crowd that has assembled. Royal knights, members of the Edolas version of Fairy Tail, and regular citizens alike are gaping at him, waiting for him to say something.
He just hopes it will be the right thing.
"The magic is gone," he says. "It never belonged to Edolas; King Faust - my father - took it from the people of Earth for his own gain. Now it has returned to where it truly belongs. But even though we lack magical power... we humans will continue to live on!"
They cheer. He smiles, a bit lopsidedly, unsure of just how to take their praise. To continue, he decides to repeat what he had said to Pantherlily, when trying to convince his old friend to kill him.
"You need a new leader, a new king for this new Edolas that we will build together. I have not walked the paths of this world for a long time; I left, of my own accord, to try to right my father's wrongs. Because I have been gone for so many years, I do not feel that I have the right to lead you. But I leave it to you, a people who have been too long held hostage to fear and terror. If you wish to follow me, I will lead you; and if you do not, if you would impose a different sentence on your prince, I will accept that as well."
He cannot tell from whence it begins. Somewhere in the heart of the crowd, a voice pipes up with the words. They get repeated, again and again, by more and more people. Two words, just two, but they fill him with a sort of unexpected joy he has never felt.
"King Jellal! King Jellal! King Jellal!"
So be it.
There is too much to be done; he cannot consent to the expense and grandeur of a full coronation ceremony. He finds it awkward enough just knowing that he is expected to live in the palace. But there is a crown, and the people want to see him wear it.
Erza Knightwalker is elected to place it on his head. There is something inherently strange about this. As captain of the royal guard, she is the highest ranked individual in Edolas next to himself; but as the killer of so many of the Edolas counterparts to the people Jellal knew and loved in Earth-land, he feels strange accepting the crown from her hands.
Like the rest of the guard, however, she has accepted her punishment - such as it is. He cannot hold them entirely accountable for doing what they were ordered to do by the true criminal, his banished father. They are to take charge of rebuilding Edolas, and they are willing enough.
So Jellal, clean and dressed in a formal robe that doesn't fit perfectly (probably because it was his father's and there was no time to alter it to fit the son), kneels on the stone pavement outside of the royal residence. The crowd holds its collective breath as the captain rests the golden circlet on his blue hair. He stands, wondering if he manages to look at least somewhat dignified. He hopes that the sounds of adulation are a sign that he is doing something right.
The rebuild is a tricky thing. Though Jellal is pleased that there is no lack for enthusiastic contribution in terms of labor and dedication, it is a slow project. There are buildings to refurbish, impoverished people to feed, and neighboring countries who aren't quite certain what to make of Faust's banishment and Jellal's return. The diplomatic emissaries he sends to try to negotiate peace treaties report a sort of cautious optimism, which is perhaps the best way to describe the general mood of his own populace.
He occasionally forgets his own name. He still thinks of himself as Mystogan, now and then, and when someone speaks of "King Jellal" it catches him by surprise all over again.
The palace has been stripped just slightly; circumstances being what they are, Jellal has taken to having the royal knights scour the region for wandering merchants, and to these he sells bits and scraps of valuables in order to help finance the rebuild of Edolas. It's not much. A small gold statue here, a painting there. Every little bit helps, he reasons. The palace staff find him a peculiar novelty; his father's taste for the best of everything is still so fresh in their minds that Jellal's fondness for simple foods and plain garments is just faintly bewildering to them. He lunches on apples and cheese and soft rolls. "I can't ask my people to give up so much for Edolas if I'm not willing to do the same," he says.
Jellal has a great deal to learn, along with anything else. What is the state of the treasury? Who are the kingdom's enemies, its allies? What traditions are most pivotal to uphold, which ones are best discarded? When he is not actively participating in a specific project, he is usually found in his father's old study, poring over books and reports and making meticulous notes for himself. He wants to be a good king; he wants this more than he has ever wanted anything else, even that one desire which still costs him a few hours of sleep each night.
Fairy Tail as a guild has no magic anymore, but they were evidently inspired by Gray Fullbuster's assertion that magic is not what makes them a guild. So they have decided to remain as they have been, in the sense that they intend to remain together. They lack a leader, and have for some time; the Edolas counterpart of Makarov was among those slaughtered by the Fairy Hunter, and Jellal regrets the loss keenly. He could wish for Makarov, or Porlyusica, to offer him guidance.
Perhaps it is not the wisest course of action he can take, at least as far as the murmurings of his heart would suggest, but it is the best one that comes to his mind.
He sends for Mirajane.
It is an uneasy wait for her arrival. He never knew the Edolas version of Mirajane prior to his departure of years before, and since his return he has had no occasion to catch more than a glimpse of her in a crowd. It was barely enough of a sighting for him to even be sure that she was who he had spotted, and the events of the moment had not given him leisure for contemplation. He has learned, through discreet inquiry, that she played a part in the battle for Edolas's freedom, and apparently is an accomplished swordswoman. He hasn't quite decided how he feels about that.
He has also learned that the Lisanna of Edolas was, all along, the Lisanna of Earth-land. She is gone, returned to the brother and sister who have grieved her for years, leaving behind the brother and sister who must now grieve afresh for the sister who was already dead. The details, as he has been informed of them, are scant; just how the switch happened is beyond him. But he can imagine how difficult it must have been for them to let her go.
It is two days since he sent the message to Fairy Tail, requesting Mirajane's presence at the palace. He wonders what she must have thought upon receiving it. To be asked for a private audience with the new king - he supposes that she must be puzzled at the very least. But her response was favorable, and he expects her at any moment.
He elects to receive her in the study, where there are a number of objects on which he can focus his attention if looking at her becomes difficult. He does not know what to expect of her now. No one else in Fairy Tail is remotely like what he knew in the other guild. Wendy, on Earth, was a shy little girl, just barely in her teens; here she is a mature and confident young woman. The Levy he knew was a bookish little beauty with a smile for everyone; here, Levy is boorish and crass, prone to arguing. And Elfman, Mirajane's brother, is in Edolas a sensitive and meek character. Jellal is, truthfully, a little worried about what differences he will find when Mirajane herself arrives. He is not entirely certain that he can look at the face he still loves and know that a completely different person wears it.
But as she enters, and curtsies prettily, something warms inside himself.
"Your Majesty," she greets him in the same sweet voice he knows so well, "I came as soon as I could on getting your message. I hope nothing's wrong?"
"No, not at all." He sits at the desk, and gestures for her to make herself comfortable in the chair opposite. "Things seem to be going well, actually. How is the guild faring?"
"Well, it's very nice not to have to be constantly on the move," she admits. "We're all very grateful to you for everything you've done."
"There's no need to thank me. You've all done more than your share as it is. I'm grateful for how hard you're each working to help rebuild Edolas."
She smiles, that delicate curve of lips that he remembers fondly. "So... what can I do for you, then?"
"I need your help in a different way," he begins. He props his elbows on the desktop, lacing his fingers and putting his chin on them in a thoughtful manner. Perhaps this won't be so difficult as he's been fearing. "You know I've spent the last few years with the Earth-land Fairy Tail guild. I know all of your counterparts there, and with one exception, the Fairy Tail members in Edolas are very different."
She nods, slowly. "I can imagine it must be difficult for you to make that transition."
He glances up at her. "The one exception is you. As far as I can tell, Mirajane, you're just like the Mirajane that I know, except that you don't have magic and I've never seen her use a sword."
A silvery laugh bubbles up from within her. "I see. Well, how can I help?"
"Well, mostly I need - I need a guide, really. An advisor. Someone I know I can trust to help me get to know Edolas and its people, to not make any mistakes that might hurt anyone. And back in the other Fairy Tail, there wasn't anyone more trustworthy than Mirajane... and I think, from what I've heard, that this is true here too."
She blushes, that faint dusting of pink he once provoked in the other Mirajane. This is going to be both horrible and wonderful, he thinks.
"I'll be happy to advise you as best I can," she says, thoughtful. "Really, you're doing well on your own so far. But if you think you do need me - I mean, to guide you - then I'll be here."
He smiles, his joy tinged with bittersweetness.
"I may need to rely on you a lot," he admits. "Stay close to me, all right?"
"Of course."