To Cast Long Shadows
Chapter 3: Dark Temper
- POV: Lucifer -
The morning brought an end to the rain but not to my disquiet. I'm not sure whether Moore felt the same tension, he seemed like a pretty laid back individual, but then again he didn't really understand the magnitude of what might be happening. The artifacts Edward created, some of them were powerful beyond measure. The thought of one of them in the hands of a Dark Guild sent chills down my spine.
We quickly packed up camp and set out again. The rain had washed away any trace of our quarry but we were in a narrow mountain pass. Unless she had doubled back and passed us in the night there was really only one way she could have gone. We made slow progress at first. All the mud from last night's storm made the winding path treacherous, however once the sun came up and started to dry out the soil the going became much easier and my mood began to lift. 'Ah the sun. How I missed you old friend.' I stretched my arms out trying to take in as much of the glorious warmth as possible. My content must have made it to my face.
"Someone seems happy this morning." I rolled my eyes at the remark.
"I have no idea what you're talking about Moore." I firmly denied.
"Oh come on, you've barely made a complaint since we packed up camp. That's not like you at all. Where's the melodramatic teenage mess that I've come to know and mock?" I flipped him the bird, much to his amusement. "That's more like it. Seriously though, I don't think I have ever seen you smile like that before. It's refreshing and creepy at the same time."
Our banter carried on like that for a while. I'd never admit it out loud but it was nice to have someone to talk to. I had spent most of the last few years traveling alone.
"Hey Moore."
"Yeah?"
"You said you wanted to learn more about your magic right" I continued "Well I think I know a library or-"
I cut off as Aidan held his hand up to stop me. Well that was rude. I opened my mouth to deliver a suitably insulting retort but he beat me to the first word.
"Do you hear that?" he asked, "Does it feel warmer to you?"
"Why would it be getting warmer?" I spat back scathingly. "We're on top of a freaking mountain." Although now that he mentioned it, I could hear a faint noise in the distance. A kind of spitting, hissing noise. Of course that really didn't prepare me for the river of lava that came pouring down the path ahead.
"Oh that's why." I said stupidly, still in shock before my brain kicked in and started looking for an escape. Aidan was a few steps ahead of me and leaping up to a ledge further up on the wall of the pass. I managed to scramble high enough to grasp his hand and he pulled me the rest of the way.
"Are you guys still following me? I know I'm pretty but most guys would've taken the hint by now."
It took me a minute to locate her. She was standing on top of a boulder higher up on the opposite side of the pass. Aidan had already started to move around to flank her. How he planned to get over the river of lava was anyone's guess but I assumed he had a plan.
"Wait a minute, how did you even know we were following you?" I asked, trying to keep her attention on me.
"Really? With how loud you guys bicker how could I not know?" She shot back.
She wasn't wrong. I changed tact "Why do you want the artifact anyway?"
"I'm sorry, is this the "I reveal my evil plan" part? I'm not that cliche."
It was at this point that Aidan chose to enact his plan. He jumped across the lava stream to a rock on the other side. I have to admit I expected something more than that, but it worked. Unfortunately I wasn't the only one who noticed.
The rogue mage quickly half turned to face Aidan, launching a ball of lava at him. He threw up a wall of darkness deflecting it into the river with a loud plop. I cursed before throwing my own magic into the fray. Sunlight flashed from my hand but she nimbly jumped over it, landing on a different rock in the process. God she was agile. Moore followed up sending tendrils of shadow racing towards our enemy. She pulled lava from the inferno below to block them while continuing to avoid my attacks, much to my increasing annoyance.
"Stay still damn it, Solarflare" I pulled down beam of sunlight down on her. It barely grazed her as she spun to avoid it. Aidan however used the opening to close in, jumping up and pushing off the rock face to land next to our opponent. It quickly became a mixture of melee and small-scale magic with me throwing in my own magic whenever I thought it was safe.
For a while it was fairly evenly matched. Aidan was obviously physically stronger then the lava mage but she was pretty damn hard to hit as she danced around our attacks. Time however proved our ally. She might have been better than either of us on own but fighting two skilled opponents simultaneously wasn't something she could pull off for any real amount of time.
She seemed to realize this and quickly pulled a roll of fabric from her bag and threw it past Aidan down towards the torrent of molten rock, before leaping across the lava at me. After just barely missing her with my Godray, I clumsily tried to punch her, hitting air as she kicked my legs out from under me. As I fell however I managed to grab hold of her leg, stopping her escape. Magic wasn't really an option for either of us in this precarious position, but it didn't stop her from kicking me in the head repeatedly. I clung on stubbornly despite the pain and eventually felt her go limp.
"I thought you said you'd be better above ground, but here I am doing all the work." Aidan said as he reached down and pulled me up.
"Melee combat isn't exactly my strong suit. I like to leave that to less intellectually inclined." I shot back. "Did you get the artifact?"
"That's the second time you've made excuses after failing to help me. Are you trying to get me killed or are you just afraid to hit girls?" I couldn't tell if he was being serious or just messing with me.
"If I was trying to get you killed I would have used my full magic while you were stuck in close combat with our enemy. Now to repeat myself, did you get the artifact?"
Aidan's face hardened. He held his hand out over the lava river, a black tendril shot over from the other side of the pass and deposited a roll of fabric into his arms. "Here's your stupid relic." He let it fall to the ground. "Hope it was worth all your effort."
I let out a sigh clearly I wasn't as unobsessed with my past as I had thought.
"For what it's worth Aidan, thank you." I said as my gaze turned from my angry guildmate to the unconscious mage lying between us. "So uh, what do we do with her?"
- POV: Aidan -
The nearest town was about two days from our recent battlefield. Unfortunately with the mysterious woman slowing us down we weren't going to make it that soon.
"And I was hoping for a shower tonight." Our extra guest complained for the third time that hour.
"Will you shut up? One whiny brat I can deal with, I don't need another." I tried to keep my voice emotionless but after 40 hours of whining my patience was at its limit.
"Well if you don't want to deal with me, just give me my stuff and let me go." She tugged on her backpack, which I was wearing under my own. "I swear you'll never see me again."
"No."
"Well how about removing these then." She said, holding her arms out in front of me. Black tendrils of magic tied her wrists together before looping around her arms to her neck and down each of her legs. She'd quickly discovered they would constrict and suffocate her if she used magic or tried to run.
"No."
She moved in front of me and made a pouty face. "Come on. You've already shown you can beat me. I won't bother you again."
"Hence why you've run from me twice now. I don't feel like chasing you down a third. Now get out of my face." I said pushing past her.
"Wanna know something? I like your whole strong, silent attitude and I love strong men." She grabbed my arm and pressed it against her breast accent her point.
"And now you're back to trying to flirt your way out. You'd be better off trying that on Luc, I'd bet he's still a virgin." I raised my voice to make sure the boy ahead of us heard. He merely stuck up his middle finger.
"See he's offering to fuck you." I heard him groan and mutter something. "Are you gonna take him up on that or are you gonna tell us your name and who you're working for?"
She turned away and finally both she and Luc were silent at the same time. Of course, my peace only lasted a few minutes.
"Ok you win. My name is Michelle Moto of the Mermaid Heel guild. Will you let me go now?"
"Prove it. Show me your guild mark."
"It's on my thigh and before you ask, I'm not taking off my pants for you, pervert."
"No need. I already know you're lying. I checked you for a guild mark while you were unconscious."
The look of shock on her face was priceless. And then the screaming started. "You what?! I could have you arrested for that, you pervert! What else did you do to me?"
"Oh so now you have modesty. Just a few minutes ago you were offering yourself to me." My face was so smug right now. Had I been in her shoes I would've punched me as hard as I could.
"But if you really want to know, I checked your pockets, carried you over my shoulder for several hours, and tied you up with the spell you've been annoying me about ever since. Quite honestly I'm a bit surprised you didn't try to imply that I must be into bondge or something in your previous flirting attempts over the last two days." Ok, I'll admit it. That was too much sarcasm.
She looked furious. I decided to cut her off before she could say anything. "I don't know if anything you've said in the last two days was true, but here's what I think about you. You're annoying, manipulative, and now you're a liar on top of it." She tried to interrupt but I kept talking. "I liked you better when we first met. You didn't hide or lie. You can right out and confidently announced your challenge and I respected that. So how about you calm down and have some dignity. I'd rather not remember a good opponent as a whiny brat."
She looked like she was about to respond but then all of our attention was drawn to the sound of rocks rolling down the slope.
Three vulcans slide down onto the path in front of us and two more behind. The biggest one called. "Give us all your food and women!"
"Monkeys again." Luc said before raising his voice. "Do you guys know who you're messing with? We're Fairy Tail wizards." He pulled back his right sleeve, showing his guild mark as a ball of light gathered in his right hand.
The smaller beasts looks confused but Luc had clearly guessed right, the leader immediately started whimpering. "Fairy Tail again? No no no! Please! This isn't what it looks like! We weren't going to attack you! Have mercy!"
"I warned you about what would happen, but here you are. Clearly this time I'll have make my warning a bit more memorable" He promised letting ice seep into his voice.
"Hold on a minute Luc. It turns out we do have a woman we can give them."
"We do?" Luc asked.
"You do?" The vulcan questioned, equally puzzled.
"Yeah, though it depends on her." I turned to meet her dagger-like gaze. "Tell us your real name, who you are working for, and how you knew there was a relic buried in that place?"
"You won't give me away. If you do I could just escape and all the time you've been dragging me with you will be for nothing." Maybe she was smarter then she looked.
"A good point but you lack one key piece of information. My dark magic isn't affected by range. Those little binding your wearing, I can keep that spell active from 100 feet or 100 miles, it makes no difference to me. So how do you suppose you'll escape a group of vulcans without using magic and without being allowed to run away. Well I guess you could try those but you won't get far before you pass out." I paused for a moment, letting her think it over.
"So I'll ask again." I lowered my voice to a more threatening level. "What's your real name, who you are working for, and how did you know it was there?"
There was a very tense moment. Birds chirped, stones shuffled under Luc's foot, I could hear her nervous breathing. Not one vulcan dared to move.
Finally she broke the silence. "Neomi Oliveira. I'm a magical treasure hunter employed by Petyr Johanne. He acquired an ancient journal and paid me to find the sanctuary and any antiques inside."
I looked for any sign of a lie and found none, so I turned to the lead monkey. "I'm sorry, it looks like I won't be giving her too you after all, but I'll let you off the hook this once." The big beast started bowing and thanking me repeatedly "But ONLY if you all leave right now!"
He needed no provocation, running as fast as his legs could carry him. After seeing their strongest member bail on them, the other four quickly retreated.
I started walking again and after a few seconds I realized neither Neomi nor Luc had moved. Turing back to look at them, I simply grinned and said, "I think that went well."
- POV: Lucifer -
It was a small town. It shouldn't have taken me as long as it did to find an inn, but truth be told my thoughts were rather scattered at the moment. It had been a long couple of days and I was still trying to get my mind in order. I didn't know exactly what I expected from joining a guild but it wasn't this. Walking and fighting, so much walking and fighting. And the fighting? I grimaced at the thought. As much as I was loathe to admit it, I had been fairly useless in these last two fights.
'Goddammit.' My foot lashed out in anger sending a rock flying down the path, only to end in loud clunking sound as it bounced off one of the buildings. Startled out of my thoughts by the noise, I looked up at the building I hit. The Red Dragon Pub? Huh. Well that was lucky.
After a brief argument with the innkeep about whether or not we really needed two beds, that by the end of I was about ready to strangle him, I managed to book a room for us. It was big enough I suppose. A couple of beds, some chairs, and a full length mirror sitting in the corner for some reason. I had stayed at better but also at a lot worse. I had done a lot of this over the past few years. Staying in inns I mean.
While I waited for Aidan to come back from dealing with lava bitch, my scholar's curiosity got the better than me. I unrolled the cloth to examine the artifact we had fought so hard for. 'Wait What? Where's the artifact?' My eyes swung back and forth frantically searching.
I was honestly ashamed by the amount of time it took me to realize that the cloth itself was the artifact. My time spent around the likes of my guildmates must be affecting me more than I thought.
I straightened it out on the floor, I took a moment to admire the feel of the fine fabric between my fingers. It was an intricate, pure white cloak, embroidered with silver star patterns along the edges that formed into a larger pattern from the bottom up the center. The physical craftsmanship alone was phenomenal. Say what you will about the arrogance of the Auroi Gladii, they didn't half-ass things. The cloak was attached around the neck by way of a clasp, faced by single piece of onyx inset with tiny silver gems, giving the appearance of a starry night sky. The collar was flanked on either side by the words Ad and Astra.
I hooked the cloak around my neck as I walked over to the mirror, the blindingly white fabrics swishing around my legs. I looked utterly ridiculous. Besides being almost impossible to look at without straining your eyes, the cloak wrapped hung lower than one was meant to, apparently made for someone of greater size. Then came the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway, startling me. I quickly folded the cloak back up, really not wanting to be caught in something so flashy.
My suspicions were proven correct as the room door opened to reveal my erstwhile companion. I assumed by the general air of annoyance things hadn't gone well.
"What happened?"
"She wasn't wanted for anything." he growled as he fell backwards onto one of the beds. "That's the second prisoner I've turned in that wasn't worth jack."
I sighed in acknowledgement. Just my luck.
"So that's the relic we risked our lives for?" He said bitterly.
"Don't be dramatic, you risked your life for a chance at payback and you know it." I joked, trying to lighten up the mood. I nearly flinched from the withering glare I got in return.
"Payback? Where'd you get that impression? She ran from me both times because she couldn't beat me."
There was a short silence after that. I returned to examining the artifact. "What is it anyway?"
"A cloak of some sort." I answered absentmindedly.
"Really?" He shot back with biting sarcasm.
"From the design alone I assume it probably has to do with stars. Starlight probably. Beyond that I can't really say, reflecting it, storing it maybe. It will take some time to figure out for sure."
"You seemed to be under the impression it was dangerous earlier."
"It might have been if it was made by the person I think it was." I retorted, "He was pretty damn powerful. I didn't want anything like that to fall into the hands of some idiot collector or worse a dark guild. I refuse to let them, umph!" I cut off as my vision filled with white.
"Why?" I asked as I glared at the grinning culprit.
"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure it's because I wanted too."
"What are you? Fiv-" The second pillow knocked me off the bed and I sprawled out on the floor.
"Stop that!" I snapped. I managed to dodge the third pillow entirely, grabbed it from where it landed and returned it to its owner at an appropriate velocity.
It was sunset two days later when we finally made it back to Magnolia and guild. We made much faster progress without having to drag around our unwilling traveling companion.
"Home, Sweet Home" Aidan said, yawning as we walked into the guild.
I held back for a minute before entering myself "Home, huh?"
Author's Notes:
This is a collab with my friend Zorn42421 and our first posted work for both of us.
Disclaimer: We don't own the FT, anime, manga, or anything else. If we did, it wouldn't be fanfiction.
Our only goal for it to not be total trash. Non-constructive reviews will be deleted and/or ignored. All other reviews welcome. That being said, I hope you enjoy.
So It's been a pain to get Zorn to write for this story over the months. Worse then that we both agree that Luke and Aidan are both too similar, both being very sarcastic characters. (Though I would argue that's the only similarity between them) He has decided to remake Luc's character in the future to be different, more know-it-all-y. This may or may not effect the next chapter. No promises.
Aidan(Who used to be called Dayln) has had his name changed as a inside joke. Hopefully I got all instances of the old name changed.
Hoping we get more done soon. Chapter 4 promises some backstory, some old friends, and much laughter at Luc's expense. See you then.
Stealthweasle01