After their almost week-long journey to the border, the forces of the Teryan Army had nearly tripled in numbers. Soldiers on standby, new volunteers and veterans alike heeded the call and came to offer their strength. They'd now set up camp about three forest-lengths away from Erkar, according to their scouts only five forests away from enemy troops.
"Did you see how many men they had?"
"They were filling at least four fields, I'd say about 10.000, your Majesty."
"Anything else, unusual weapons, creatures, anything that seemed…magical?"
"Less weapons than expected, actually. I couldn't see trebuchets or any siege weapons in general and nothing seemed magical or unusual," the scout reported, which led Lily to sigh in frustration and Gajeel waved his hand.
"Good. You can go."
The scout bowed and left the tent, presumably to rest before he had to return to his post. Lily let out a growl and furrowed his brow.
"Something tells me we shouldn't be the aggressor in this conflict."
"Lily, you know I trust your instincts but as soon as we get over them we can go forward and look for Levy."
"I know you are worried about her, as am I. But Erkar is clearly planning something and we only have 7.000 men at the moment. If we charge them on open fields and they use long-range weapons we lose. If we use tactical maneuvers and the counter them with magic we lose. We need to be patient and wait for an opportunity."
"Levy doesn't have that kinda time!"
"I won't send our men unprepared into battle like that! We don't know where she is, whether she's alive OR IF SHE'S EVEN HERE!" Lily raised his voice in frustration at his stubborn friend. He loved Gajeel like a brother and it pained him to see his friend in such distress, not to mention his own worries about the woman they were looking for. But he was also not ready to let emotions dictate the battles ahead of them. The sudden wakeup call seemed to upset Gajeel even more, as the severity and uncertainty of the situation sunk in once again.
"I KNOW! I know," he yelled, equally frustrated and buried his head in his hands, before continuing, "I just, I'm so worried and it's driving me crazy!"
A burst of energy erupted from the king of Terya and he transformed in an instant. Gajeel had only kept the sharper teeth and metal talons from his earlier outburst, but now the horns, scales and glowing eyes came back, again giving him the more dragon-like appearance. Lily assumed a fighting stance and unsheathed his sword.
"Don't," he said softly and felt instant relief wash over him when his friends eyes widened in realization. Gajeel looked down in concentration and his dragon features slowly vanished, as well as the magical force that was emitting from him.
"Sorry. It likes to come out when I get..uh..worked up." He scratched his head in embarrassment, but Lily gave him an incredulous look.
"It? Look, I know we haven't talked much because you've been out of it since…well, you know what happened, but now we have to. Let's change the subject for a second, clear our heads. Please, tell me; what is happening to you?!" Lily sheathed his sword again and sat down in a nearby chair.
"I can't explain much to you, I only know what my old man told me and it ain't a lot."
"Well, enlighten me then."
Left, right, left, right, left, right, wall, turn around, left, right, left, right, left, right, door, turn around, left, right, left…bed.
Trying and slowly failing not to go insane, Levy had paced her room almost the entire day, before finally collapsing on her bed after the 483rd round. Not that she had been counting.
"Well, I didn't think this room could get any smaller, but it definitely proved me wrong." She laid an arm over her eyes and sighed in frustration. Reading all of the books only took her about three days, since most, if not all of the magical theories were written in a language she couldn't read and the religious texts were abstruse and too full of pathos to read or enjoy longer than a few pages. The only things she liked were the history books, but she had finished them on the first day already and they got repetitive after the first two books. History only had so many events one would write a history book about after all.
She'd even thought about honing her non-existent drawing skills by drawing the view outside or things in her room, but besides the inkwell there was nothing to write with; a circumstance that had also kept her from trying to translate the language the tombs about magical theory were written in.
Pacing made itself an available option of distraction again when she heard footsteps and sat up straight, while silently cursing how much this room had already conditioned her into being excited about approaching footsteps.
She stood beside the bed and smoothed out her dress just as keys started clinking in the door. Swinging open, it revealed the man who she'd met on her first day in Erkar. But instead of coming over to her or even acknowledging her presence he stood beside the open door and straightened his back.
"His Holy Majesty, King of Erkar, Protector of the weak, Eternal knight of Lor-"
A low baritone interrupted him: "That's enough Thevos."
"As you wish, my lord." After that, he finally addressed Levy, "Kneel for your host, King Hades the Eternal."
A shadow filled the doorway and Thevos bowed, while a startled Levy just decided to curtsy.
When she looked back up, the king of Erkar was standing in the middle of her room, looking down on her. He looked different than she had imagined. For instance, he was decades older than she had thought. From the recent developing in Erkar, she'd assumed they would have gotten a new ruler, but that didn't seem to be the case. He had a very long, thin white beard, matching his long white hair and grey tunic, which reached the floor and was accompanied by a heavy, dark grey coat. A large gold crown shimmered atop his head and Levy glimpsed some simple burgundy pants and black boots as he moved towards her while she lowered her head.
"Did you not hear me?! I said kneel!" Thevos hissed at Levy when he noticed her standing, but King Hades waved his hand dismissively.
"That's fine Thevos, she is just our guest for now," he focused his attention back on said guest before continuing, "and it is very good that we finally meet. I was very curious about you, but unfortunately had to tend to urgent matters until now. I am very pleased to finally formally welcome you into the eternal kingdom of Erkar."
"Um, Thank you, your Majesty."
The king seemed very pleasant, his calm voice and friendly demeanor were strangely reassuring and Levy felt herself relax in his presence. It made her wonder was his goal was, she even allowed herself to hope that they'd let her go as soon as whatever task they had for her was completed.
"So tell me, how do you find your stay at my castle so far, Milady? Excuse our methods of acquiring you, but our venerable kingdom is forced to operate in secrecy at the moment. You will have to understand," he commented and sat down on the chair in front of the desk. "Excuse me, old bones aren't what they used to be." He gave her an apologetic look followed by a friendly smile and clasped his hands in front of him.
"It was pleasant so far, thank you. I understand." Levy was still on guard, everything just seemed too easy and the king too nice. Playing with their game, playing the polite, naïve, little girl that is completely entranced by their hospitality was her best option of survival.
"Sit down, dear, no need to damage your bones as well." Levy nodded and carefully sat down on the bed behind her. The king smiled and continued, "I was told that you were inquiring about the reason for your stay with us and I don't intend to keep you in the dark any longer. You see, it has come to our attention, that you are one of the leading experts on ancient languages and we require your skills. You might have noticed that some of the books in here are not translated into a known language."
He made a brief pause, so Levy assumed that he wanted her to say something.
"Thank you for the compliment, your Majesty. Do you mean the magical theories?"
"Ah, I see we haven't made a mistake in acquiring your help. How intriguing, most of your predecessors hadn't even noticed that. The matter at hand is, we direly need these theories to advance our magic abilities, but so far, unfortunately, no one has been able to fully translate them."
"Excuse my question, magic isn't exactly my profession, but my impression was that magic works without translation as well?"
"Well that is simply too dangerous. To use magic means you also have to understand it. What if I wanted to light a candle, but end up lighting you on fire? What if I just want to cut some food, but end up cutting you apart instead?" Levy felt her stomach drop into her feet, hoping he wouldn't notice how her heart practically tried to run out of her chest. It was obvious now, how he tried to intimidate her behind all of the friendly words and pleasantries. She felt like an animal, that was only being fed to make it fatter before slaughter.
"So. Do you think you can help us use magic correctly?"
"Ah, yes, of course I can try translating the books. I cannot promise anything as of yet, but ancient languages are my field of expertise."
She jumped as the man in front of her suddenly got up far quicker than she had expected and hastily got up herself.
"Wonderful. Thevos and the maids will give you everything you need to work. I look forward to your results. Oh and one more thing:"
"Yes?"
"You have two weeks."
With that he and Thevos made their exit, leaving Levy alone once more, her mind racing from an experience that had shaken her more than she'd like to admit.
"Lily? Are ya still here? Can you please say something? Look, I even said please!" Gajeel was getting seriously worried, his friend had been non-responsive for several minutes now, just sitting in a chair and staring into nothing, presumably contemplating what he'd just heard. Finally, he was receiving a nod and shortly afterwards, Lily drew in a deep, long breath, let his face fall into his paws and leaned back on the chair.
"So, let me get this straight…you, my best friend, my king…are a dragon?"
"Not exactly, more like…part dragon."
"YES, BECAUSE THAT IS SO MUCH BETTER!"
Gajeel could almost hear a faint clank from the guards outside of the tent jumping at the outburst of his friend.
"Okay, okay, I know it sounds bad, believe me, I know! I had a hard time with it too! But don't announce it to the whole camp, would ya!"
"How…how does that even happen? The dragons have been dead for centuries!"
"I take it you didn't hear my explanation?"
"Your explanation skills just aren't the greatest. I can piece together most of it from what you said, but...that's possible? Sharing their blood and magic with humans? And why has no one ever heard of that before?"
"It's a secret in the royal families. The five humans who got the power in the first place conquered the lands they built their kingdoms on. To cover that up and make themselves into legends they told no one why they were so damn strong. Apparently there was also some sort of agreement between them, but how and why got lost somewhere. Hell, I didn't even know until my old man told me, just a year before the war."
Lily sighed and stood abruptly, making his way back to the map. "I might need some more time to digest the full impact of this information, but right now we have more imminent things to worry about. How much of an asset are these powers of yours?"
"Can't tell you. They could be useful, they could destroy me, I got no clue."
"But you lived with them your whole life, didn't you learn anything useful during that time?"
Now it was Gajeels turn to sigh and sit in the previously occupied chair.
"Nah, it ain't that easy. See, even though I carry the dragon blood, the magic inside of me has to be trained, like any other magic. I didn't access it since I never needed it. Hell, we planned on it staying dormant forever, so I've never used it."
" So, we know you have a hard time controlling the dragon, but can you assess how strong it is?"
Gajeel just shook his head and for the first time in his life, Lily actually felt the need to bang his head against something. That idiot! No matter how much he loved Gajeel, the passiveness this man exhibited when it came to his issues drove him insane on a regular basis.
"Great." He stated dryly and added a question mark on the notes about their troops he mulled over in his mind constantly.
Like this wasn't difficult enough already…