Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
"Fire lacrimas, eh? I know a thing or two about them, yes. I have more experience with pure fire itself, though." Jellal's voice trailed off as he remembered a fight with a certain pink-haired Dragon Slayer. He shook his head, as if to knock the memories out for the time being, before asking Suji, "What assistance do you require?"
Suji motioned for Jellal to follow him over to the fireplace and stood next to it, gently sliding the sheet off of the mantle. A row of fire lacrimas filled the bottom groove within the fireplace, fitfully sparking every other second. Cracks spiderwebbed across the surface of each lacrima and in parts were split open slightly, allowing the residual heat from the scarlet flame within each lacrima to escape, furthering widening the cracks. A shattered tankard lay strewn about behind the row of lacrimas.
"Did somebody throw a tankard into the lacrima fireplace?" Jellal asked, his eyebrows arching in surprise.
Suji sighed and grumbled, "Yes, and then hightailed it out of the common room. The worker was drunk and thought it would be funny to try and make the flames larger. I bought these lacrimas for their safety feature, however, which stated that they 'had a 99% chance of only cracking when smashed, rather than.. exploding.' Explosions would've been rather bad."
Jellal inspected the lacrimas even further, leaning in to better ascertain how to repair each one. Holding a hand over the row, he willed some of his magic to flow through and envelop each orb. A soft golden light rose from each crack on the lacrimas, pinpointing exactly where they were located. There appear to be more cracks than glass at the moment! Jellal wondered absently to himself. Allowing his magic to stay in place, Jellal turned on his heels to find Suji staring at him.
Suji's eyes were slightly widened as he exclaimed, "You're a mage?"
Jellal mentally smacked himself as he said, "Yes. I can barely do anything at the moment, unfortunately. The.. dark guild where I was held didn't give me very much in the way of food. This is about the extent of my abilities for now."
He was lying of course, since he could feel a larger reservoir of magic flowing through him than there had been just that morning. It must have been the meal he had ate such a short while ago!
Suji grunted, "Ah. Well, in any case, do you think that you can do anything with these lacrimas, or should I send for more?"
Jellal glanced at the lacrimas for a moment before replying, "Yes, I believe that I'll be able to fix them. I could reinforce each one, if you would wish, too. I'll just need one of your tankards."
Suji's face broke out in a grin, his eyes twinkling, "That would be most preferable, Master Sieg! Let me go grab one." Putting his words in action, Suji bustled over to the bar, snatched up a tankard, and walked back to Jellal. "Here you go!"
Jellal took the tankard with an appreciative murmur, waving his hands over the lacrimas again. Suji dragged a chair over and plopped onto it, watching Jellal in fascination. Jellal let go of the tankard and willed it over to the lacrimas, where it hung bobbing in the air. He swept his fingers over the shards of the broken tankard and caused each one to shatter into a pile of dust, then swirled his fingers in the air in a twisting motion. The glass dust rose in response, spiralling into a miniature tornado. Pushing with his mind, Jellal guided the dust onto each one of the lacrimas, their still glowing cracks becoming dimmer and dimmer as the dust melded with their jagged edges and stuck in place.
Twirling his fingers again, Jellal felt something warm once again start to drip from his nose. Wiping it irritably with the back of his hand, Jellal heard Suji shift slightly as he noticed the blood dripping down Jellal's hand. Rising silently, Suji grabbed a clean bar rag from his apron and tossed it to Jellal. Jellal caught it in midair without glancing behind himself and cleaned his hand, the rough cloth quickly sopping up the unabsorbed blood.
"Thanks, Suji. This is the price I pay for trying to force magic to do my bidding."
Suji sighed, his chair creaking as he shifted around on it. "Not a problem at all, Master Sieg. You should probably take a break and recover some more of your health. The tavern can get well enough along without the use of the fireplace for a bit longer."
Jellal turned his head back to Suji and grinned as he said, "If I stopped working on something every single time some minor thing happened to me, I would never get anything done!"
He turned back to the fireplace and concentrated on the fire lacrimas again, pretending not to hear Suji mumble, "Mulish youngster!" Twirling his fingers in a sweeping motion, as if he were following the ebb and flow of the ocean's tide, Jellal willed the unbroken tankard into seven different blobs of molten glass, drawing part of the heat required from the lacrimas themselves. He guided each cherry glass sphere to a separate lacrima and began to fuse them with each other, letting some of his magic flow from him in the form of golden wisps of flame. All of the flame wisps slid through the glass as if nothing were in their way and mingled with the scarlet flame within the lacrimas.
Each lacrima expanded slightly as the glass blobs from the tankard mixed with them, filling in every single crack and reinforcing the previously parchment-thin glass to the thickness of the tankard. Jellal focused a little bit more magic into each lacrima and watched as the two flames within each orb merged for a split second, drastically increasing the temperature. The innermost layer of glass within the lacrimas crystallized, forming a very faint patina that reflected a myriad of colors from the lights in the rest of the common room. Jellal let his magic fade away, already feeling the onset of lightheadedness that had been occurring ever since he had created his body projection. He punched one of the lacrimas with a closed fist and wasn't surprised to hear the clear 'Ping!' of the glass absorbing his blow, gradually fading into silence as a wind chime might.
He turned on his heels and sat down, knees unable to support him after he had been kneeling for so long and drew in a deep, shivering breath. Suji was staring at him in astonishment, eyebrows climbing towards his scalp. He had half risen out of his chair and kept on glancing between Jellal and the lacrimas, as if wondering how Jellal had had the skill level needed to even attempt such a feat. Jellal's eyes were half-lidded as he grinned at Suji, blood beginning to drip from his nose yet again. He grabbed the now pinkish bar rag and covered the lower part of his face with it and attempted to stand.
Suji shook his head as Jellal tipped over backwards, landing with a slight 'thump'. He stood up from his chair and squatted next to Jellal's head, throwing the rag back over Jellal's , he said in a wry tone, "Even I could have told you that that was going to happen, Master Sieg. I think you expended just a wee bit too much magic power."
Jellal groaned, eyes glazed over as he started to drift into unconsciousness. The last sight he beheld before slipping into the darkness was Suji holding an old wanted poster.. with his face plastered on it.
"Have a nice rest, Master Siegrain." Jellal's eyes closed, his final thoughts of scarlet hair.
I like cliffhangers, don't you? -gets pelted by pointy objects-
All kidding aside.. Yay! I managed to write another chapter and actually have some modicum of fun whilst doing so! Let's see if I can manage to get another chapter out this week!
Review comment imahappyperson: Yup, this is currently a Jellal-centered fanfic. Kinda hard to completely obliterate the canon and have Erza pop out of Edolas to join him! =3 Once I figure out where the story is going to end (probably right before the Grand Magic Games arc, I suppose), I might change the main characters involved within the story. For now, though, I'm keeping it as Jellal and Erza (not paired, of course.. I don't want to go against the canon!).
I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Until next time.. (Mebbe this week..?)