Loke sighs.
Gray and Elfman just came back from a job together, and Cana's decided she's tagging along with Lucy from now on. That means Loke's been magnificently abandoned in his weekly hunt for food money twice, and he's running dry on human cash in general.
He could go with his little combination of fangirls, but they're not really useful on a job…
"What's with the long face, Loke?"
He turns to Mirajane with a charming smile. "Nothing at all, Mira-san! I just can't decide on a job, you see… ah, I know. Would you be willing to accompany me on a little stroll along the shores of--"
"No, thank you."
"--instant denial, yeah, expected that much," Loke sighs. Then he catches sight of Lucy sitting on the bar counter and he squeaks , backing up. "Oh! Lucy, you were there?"
"Hey, that was rude," Lucy scowls.
"My bad," Loke says, taking a paper off the board. "Mira-chan, I'll be going on this one. Bye!"
And he runs.
The familiar pulse of Celestial Spirit Keys never fails to unsettle him.
Last night, when Lyra came out to play a melody, her eyes landed on him for just a second longer than necessary. When Lucy asked for any tune that was cheerful, she played a song Loke once loved to hear.
He left the guild hall after that, unable to bear the familiarity.
"But Lucy's quite abnormal herself," he mutters to himself as he turns a corner. He decides to walk the rest of the way instead of running now-- "she has four gate keys. That's a third of us already."
Karen got two golden gate keys after arduous searching, high prices, and relentless effort. She was proud of her gain until the powerful magic made her conceited.
Lucy shouldn't turn out like that.
Aquarius wouldn't let her owner get too proud. She's not as soft as Loke, after all.
"Oh, Loke."
Loke jolts to attention at the frighteningly familiar voice.
He turns around to-- a silhouette a few inches too tall-- "Erza?" he addresses in surprise-- eyes turning up to the weird shadow to see that the woman's holding a huge… monster horn… thing. "Uhm. What is that?"
"It's the horn of the monster I defeated. I brought it home as a souvenir," she says.
"Oh… I see," Loke says, fixing his glasses as he silently acknowledges that this, this is Erza. You do not question the great Erza.
"Are you headed out on a mission?" Erza asks.
Loke folds the request paper and tucks it in his pocket. "Yes. It should be a quick one, though. Right over to Oshibana..."
"It's on the way, then," Erza seems to contemplate on that. Loke has a second to blink before Erza has a hand on his scruff and he's getting dragged back toward the guild.
"Huh? Wait, Erza? Erza-san?!"
"I need to ask a favour of you and Gray, and it's urgent, so come with me."
"I don't get a say in this?!"
"Sorry to trouble you so soon after a job," Erza says as they get settled onto the train.
Loke is going to cry.
Gray gives Erza a polite dismissal of no problems encountered, and Cana grins happily.
They're seated with Cana beside Lucy, who's holding Plue; Erza in front of them, and then Gray and Loke are on the adjacent seats, Loke furthest from Lucy as politely possible.
"Don't worry about it, Erza!" and Cana's wearing her orange jacket over her top. "You're asking for help, after all! What kind of guild would we be if we didn't leap at the chance?"
"So, why's Lucy coming along too?" Gray asks.
Cana beams, a bottle of whiskey in her other arm. "I invited her along! She's a newbie, so she needs the experience, don't you think?"
"I don't mind," Erza says, "I've heard many great things about you, Lucy."
Lucy shrivels up, squeezing Plue in her arms, "I'm not sure what you've heard about me and I'm not sure I want to know."
Erza just nods approvingly. "A humble one, I see."
"How did you come to that conclusion?!"
"Speaking of which, is Loke there doing alright?" Erza asks. "You've been strangely quiet since we've gotten on the train."
"I- I'm fine," Loke shrinks a little further away, "maybe I'm a little motion sick--"
"--oh come on, are you turning into Natsu now? Quit with the excuses," Cana teases him. She turns to Erza with a smug grin on her face, "our resident cutie is scared of our newbie, you see."
"Is that so?" Erza asks, turning to Lucy, "you must have frightened him somehow. Loke, you lack discipline."
"Oh- Uh, my bad, Erza. I will uh," Loke looks away, "...keep that in mind. Yeah."
"But I haven't done anything," she whines, like it's the third time she's gone through this same conversation.
"He's got this thing with Celestial Spirit Wizards, after all," Gray says with a resigned shrug. "Don't let it affect our work, alright?"
"I just wanted to do a job…"
"Speaking of which, Cana," Erza turns to the already flushed-faced girl beside them, "don't you think you're drinking too much in broad daylight?"
"Awh!" Cana whines as Erza snatches the whiskey bottle away. "Stingy," she mutters, then she hiccups.
"You're already drunk!" Lucy says, bringing Plue away from the girl-- then realizing her little Nicola was a little reddish now too. "And you're getting intoxicated just on the smell?!"
"Hey Luuucy," Cana slumps over the girl's lap, "don't you think Erza's being a meanie? I'm the older one here!"
"I'm the more responsible one here," Erza rephrases, "sit properly!"
"No, m'sleeepy!"
Almost as if to disrupt the easygoing mood, Gray clears his throat as loudly as polite could go. When the eyes of their group turn to him, he crosses his arms and fixes an eye on Erza.
"Enough chit-chat, don't you think?" he says. "It's about time we learn what we're getting ourselves into, Erza."
And Erza straightens, just a little.
"Yes, you're right," she admits. And then she begins talking.
About Eisenwald, about the mysterious seal they mentioned, and the criminal actions that will inevitably come out of it if left unchecked.
And Gray reacts with a swear under his breath.
"I saw them on the way back from my mission!" he realizes. "Bunch of vagrants along the mountain road-- they had Eisenwald's mark on them, but we didn't want to pick a fight, so Elfman and I avoided them."
"What?!" Erza jolts. "Was there anyone of note?"
"I'm not sure. They all seemed like small fry from a distance," Gray grimaces, "they did mention the Lullaby more than once, though."
Loke listens with half an ear. Despite his reluctance, he knew he had to take this job seriously. But something just… nags at him, in his head.
Like he was supposed to know more about this-- like this isn't the first time he's heard lullabies and seals and dark guilds go in the same sentence.
"Lullaby…?" Lucy repeats the word, "where have I heard that--"
Just then, Loke jerks forward in his seat, eyes wide with alarm. Swearing to himself about how long it took for him to remember it, he covers his own mouth in aghast.
"What's wrong, Loke?"
"You know something?"
Loke nods, "change of plans. I'll need to cancel my job."
They make it to Oshibana, and Loke runs off first just to get a lacrima call back to the guild. Gray took another lacrima to see if he could reach Clover Station to reach the guild masters' meeting hall-- but the conference has started, and from there no outsiders and no communication lacrima are allowed in, only messenger birds.
"I really can't reach Master," Gray sighs, reporting back to Erza. "Guess we have to do this without him knowing."
"If we had known this a little earlier, we could have sent that information with the letter Mira was about to send," Erza admits, mirthfully, "it's fine. He might not know more about the flute than we do, either."
"Shouldn't we contact the council?" Lucy asks. "They could employ the magic knights, couldn't they?"
"It'll be too late once the message gets past administration," Erza tells her, "the council is the management of magic as a whole, but we're the quickest link they'd have now. We're just wasting time if we wait for them to get back to us."
"And when the old geezers up there fuck up, they'll panic for their reputation first," Gray rolls his eyes. Erza smacks him in the back of the head for language.
"I'm back. Got my job settled out," Loke hustles over, "...wait. Where's Cana?"
The train blares out steam and sets off.
Everyone swirls around in utter horror.
In the train, sleeping in a deceptively dainty manner against the window-- is Cana.
"What's this, a babe?"
Kage approaches her as he travels to the end of the train car-- and he stops, noticing the black Fairy Tail mark she bears at her stomach.
"Oh?"
Just then, Cana rouses with a yawn. "Mhm?" she looks up, her eyes meeting Kage's. She brims into a sweet smile, "oh, aren't you a cute one?"
Kage swallows.
(Well, it's just a girl.)
So he sits down on the seat opposite of Cana with a smile. The girl straightens, tidying her hair with an almost sleepy smile.
"So," Kage says, "Fairy Tail, huh?"
"We have a reputation," Cana chuckles, almost a little bashful.
Kage chuckles back in an almost awkward manner.
But before he could think second on his decision and proceed to escape from this stale air, the train car screeched and Kage, sitting against the direction of the train, was flung out of his seat from the sudden opposing velocity.
Reaching out to stop his crash, he ends up planting his hands right on opposing sides of Cana's face.
When he blushes, Cana just smirks suggestively.
"Oh, aren't you a brave one."
Kage immediately jumps away. "I'm so sorry!" Trying to stave off the embarrassment, he turns away and recomposes himself. "I'll go to another car, sorry to disturb you."
But Cana takes him by the hand.
"Oh, stay a little longer, mister," she sings. "My name's Cana. What's yours?"
"I'm--" he tries not to look at her, and Cana's only increasingly interested. She loved to tease people like this, if only in good fun. But this time, it's a little different.
She works with Loke most, after all. She's built up a good hunch for things like this. It's at its most accurate when she's just a little tipsy.
"My name's Kageyama, but my friends all call me Kage."
Something in Cana's eyes change.
"Well, Kage-kun, won't you accompany lonely little me until the next station?" she smiles. And right on time, the announcement comes on and the train begins to move again. "Pretty please?"
She cuts off magic from the cards in her pocket.
"Are you sure it was fine to let Loke go alone?" Lucy hollers out the window of the magic four-wheeler.
They were chasing after the train now (Erza had pulled the emergency lever and they got chewed out but that's another story) with Erza in the driver's seat.
Loke had gone ahead to scout out Eisenwald's guild building-- after all, they had little time to waste at this point and Loke's the best at espionage among them.
"He will be fine," Erza hollers back.
Gray, seated on the top of the carriage, adds that, "he's got one of these too," he waves about the blinking tarot card in his hand, which, upon closer look, has Cana's chibi face on it. "We just need to meet up with Cana and she can connect us."
When his card abruptly shuts off, he whirls around in alarm.
"Cana's cut off contact!" he announces, and almost immediately, Erza speeds up. Gray yelps when he's thrown back, but he keeps a grip on the tail of the car.
"Something happened, then," Erza says. "We need to hurry!"
"Hurrying's fine, but could you stop splurging on magic?!"
"Let's see… the Five of Swords," Cana grins, showing him the card he'd picked. "You're an ambitious man, aren't you? Are you the kind to be passionate about your dreams?"
Kage's flustered. "Wh- uh, I guess? I mean…" he's unnaturally stiff, straightening nervously, fumbling when Cana leans in just a little closer, arms hooked around his, her chest coming just a little too close.
A conversation turned into another, and somehow, Cana managed to convince him to drag out this conversation with a little fortune telling.
"Oh really? What is it?" Cana sings, turning to him. "I can't help but admire people like that. Boys with dreams– it's so romantic."
Kage sputters. "Oh- Oh! Really," he whispers a bit hopefully. "It's not… that great. I mean, it is… but," he falters. "We do have a plan. Something our guild is doing."
"You're in a guild too?" Cana asks, pressing in, hoping her eyes gleamed with anticipation more than mischief. "A guild effort, huh… it's gotta be something amazing, then! It'll make the papers, won't it?"
And Kage's smile pulls tight. "Yeah… it sure will."
"Oh, don't be a tease!" Cana fakes a whine, putting on her best imitation of one of Loke's fangirls. She takes his hand, holding it between hers, right before her chest. "Just for little old me? Promise I won't tell."
Kage's face burns a great bright red, but he turns away immediately, clearing his throat, evidently trying to restrain himself.
"Tell me about it. I can be anything you want me to be," Cana pleads, kissing his knuckles before winking. "Anything."
At Kunugi Station, the train gets hijacked by Eisenwald members.
"All passengers and luggage go off! This train is Eisenwald's now!"
Kageyama exits the train to meet the members of his guild. "Master Erigor," Kageyama remembers to mention, after he'd handed off Lullaby to the grim reaper, "there's someone I have to intro–"
He turns, and Cana is not there.
"What is it?" Erigor prompts, impatient.
Kage's face falls. "No, just… there was this babe. She said she'd join our guild for the fuck if it's good."
"A babe?" beside him, the members of the guild were enthused at the suggestion.
"Yeah, she was hot…" Kage hurries up the steps, fearing the worst. The train car is empty, and his stomach sinks in dread.
Women were stupid, sometimes. Especially a drunk, horny one.
But the woman he talked to was a fairy.
Cana slips away into the crowd of panicking passengers, shifts her own form into a card, before tucking herself into some cargo as it's thrown out.
All that's left is for a flustered passenger to grab his luggage and carry her right out of the station, the members of Eisenwald none the wiser to the fact that a fairy had come and gone.
With a sigh, she holds up Charm in her cards, watching the magic fade out.
"Only thing I could think of. He was such a cherry," she hides it between the rest of her cards, nodding to herself as a declaration that this little cheeky instance of using outlawed magic is not going to leave this room.
Her brows are furrowed as she recollects her information. She can't handle that many Eisenwald mages on her own, and Kage may have been an idiot, but he guarded that flute better than anything. There was no way for Cana to steal it.
At the very least, she's found their plan. All that's left is to get to Clover Town before they do, and from the way the train abruptly stopped before, Erza is definitely on her way.
She retrieves her Call Card, and a wave of magic brings it to life.
"This is Cana, I need a pickup."
Loke arrives at Eisenwald's building, and unfortunately, it's completely empty. Or fortunately, depending on how you look at it.
Bodies were strapped to the ceiling in some sort of webbing, mummified, horrifically silent. There was no blood– just figures, lifeless and at the edge of a scream, frozen in death.
Loke catches sight of them and frowns.
Twins, a dwarf, a lanky man with dark hair, and someone that looked like a chicken.
Gray had mentioned that they were trying to escape the guild's activities when he'd taken them down. And here they were, recaptured– and executed.
(Gray can never know about this.)
Loke hurries inside. This place was an abandoned mansion, used as a base. They didn't have employees– so in that case, all the paperwork must go through the guild master himself.
Then there's only one place that room would be– the main study.
The door is ajar, so he finds it easily. There are a lot of papers, but he concentrates on the ones on the nearest wall, finding documents on the Lullaby, a map of Fiore– a detailed chart on the route to Clover Town, and the significance of the Lyusica Gorge between them.
It doesn't take a genius to understand where this plan is going.
But what caught his attention the most– and petrified him with the implications– was the fact that there were detailed blueprints of the Council building, all the way down to where the Lullaby was sealed and kept. There was even the schedule of the guard patrols.
This was a plan that was years in the making, and there was no way the general public could've acquired any of this information.
"I find it rather intriguing that you knew so quickly where to go."
Loke bristles, leaping back from the wall, whirling around to face the desk.
A single figure was seated there, cloaked. Their face was shadowed, but from the voice, to the dark lipstick, to the dainty fingers folded over the table– Loke gathered that this was a woman. But the cloak– no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't strain his eyes enough to determine the face underneath.
Magic that affects perception. Darn.
His fists clenched.
"I've worked with nobles before," he offers, trying to steer this into a conversation rather than a fight. "They generally like to put the main study somewhere conspicuous. It's a taunt to assassins, I guess. A show of pride and power."
The woman hums, resting a hand gently against her cheek. "Interesting to note," she says. "So… what will you be doing now?"
Loke's smile is strained.
He can tell, from just standing here– that this woman has an unimaginable amount of magic power. And she can definitely tell that he's outmatched.
He can't even do any obvious moves, or he'll be in a worse situation than before.
"Depends," he offers the options, "does the council know that, uh," he gestures toward the wall of incriminatingly top secret documents, "their information has been leaked? Is this authoritative corruption in some roundabout method of asserting control over the wizard guilds, or do they just have a mole in their midst?"
The woman smiles. "The latter."
"Ah, that's a relief," Loke says. "I don't suppose you'll let me run away now?"
"Oh no, definitely not," she replies sweetly.
Behind him, the potted plant shatters– and when he whirls around, the plant is rapidly growing, roots and vines gorging deeply into the seams of the door, entwining it in cohesive union, fusing into a mix of rotted wood and ancient bark.
"You're not going anywhere."