I give thanks to all you beautiful readers! So, I had originally planned to have this chapter out back around Christmas and we see how well that went. Thank you for having so much patience on a new chapter. You guys are amazing!
Thank you: Chad3spawn, Juvia21, SailorTardis498, Kerippi, and CVBlovesu93 for the reviews! You are amazing!
Thank you Jessifer89 for catching my mistake. I always appreciate any criticism. Here is the updated chapter :)
I do not own Fairy tail even though I am obsessed with it.
This story is based 6 years post Alvarez arc x798.
Clarification just in case it is needed.
'Thoughts will be in italics'
"speaking of course will be in quotations"
Also, I apologize ahead of time for any grammatical/spelling errors as I do not have anyone helping me edit and as we all know, we writers tend to read our work as it is in our brain instead of how it was actually written. I do try to catch things, but some do fall through the cracks. Thank you all for still reading it in all its glory and flaws. :) Also sorry for the rush through the fighting scenes. I've realized that I am not very good at attempting to write fights.
Hope you all enjoy the story
You are my Moon{ }You are my Stars{ }You are the Heavens Rays
Previously from Chapter 5
"You said I was your goddaughter. How could this be if I've never heard of you other than my studies with my tutors?"
"Come join us in the house for Dinner and I will continue my explanation of our family bonds."
Chapter 6
As the group walked through the halls of the home, Lucy looked around at all the professional and silly portraits of the family. Right before she reached the dining room she stopped at a photo that was hanging next to a door across the hall. It was her mother and Garnier in their youth. They looked to be no more than around 16 or 17 years old and in their school uniforms. She knew what Garnier looked like as she had seen photos during her studies. She could never mistake her mother as she was the very spitting image of her.
"Your mother Layla and my late wife Garnier were best friends. They would get together all of the time, especially during their pregnancies and births. You were actually born in one of our guest rooms in this very home. The same room my wife had Farron and Zen actually."
"Probably the same room our very own will be born," Christoff whispered, knowing she would hear him causing a blush to warm her cheeks. He couldn't help how cute she looked when she blushed, making it his mission to see it as often as possible. However, he forgot that his father could catch the barest of whispers with his sound magic and turned to look at his son and god daughter.
"Did I just hear what I think I heard? Cris, is Lucy your mate? I don't see a mating mark on her." He looked the little blonde over. With her wearing a tank top and having her hair up, he should have been able to see the mark clear as day. He's seen Bickslow's mark on his collarbone after his mating with Erik.
"Yes Dad. We are actually eachother's mates. There is quite a bit to catch you up on. We are just not allowed to mate yet, so in the meantime, we are avoiding physical contact."
"I can't wait to hear all about everything. Even more reason to celebrate. I get to see my goddaughter again and now you will be my daughter. Yours and Cris' mothers would be ecstatic to know that you two would be together."
Lucy smiled up at the jubilant man. "I am so happy to be a part of your family and can not wait to meet the rest of your children. I'm sure during my visit I'll be able to learn more about my mother and her best friend as well. It truly amazes me how little I knew about my mother until now."
Arman stretched his arm towards the dining room guiding his children to eat. "Let us enjoy some time together with good food, drinks and conversation. I know Mr. Elan has quite the feast ready for your arrival. All Bickslow told us about you was that you are an amazingly strong and smart mage and that you love minstrel food. He would never give us more details."
The group smiled and filed through sitting around the table filled with delicious food.
"Come on dad. I wanted to surprise everyone with this kick ass tiny lady."
Crossing her arms over her chest she pouted at the seith mage. "Hey I'm not tiny. You all are just overgrown humans."
"Sure Tink. That's why you are one of the shortest adults at the guild too."
"Shut up Erik or I'll tell Virgo to stop giving me those amazing poison tarts you love so much."
The look of surprise took over the poison slayer's face. "But that's not fair, Tink. Those get me so damn high and I need them. They're also great for a boost while we are fighting. Why would you deny your favorite kin that?"
"So I have favorites now? Please I already have too many slayers in my life, and we know I'll just be adding more."
Rolling his singular eye he scoffs, "As if we didn't figure that one out already. You're like a slayer whisperer."
"Damn right and don't you forget it." Lucy smirked with her statement.
Looking at the banquet the chef prepared Lucy felt as though she would drool and make a mess. 'Oh my stars this food looks amazing and I'm so hungry. I can't wait to try everything!'
Lucy piled her plate high just like the other slayers at the table and started to eat. Thankfully the slayers she was with currently knew how to eat like civilized human beings.
"So Lucy dear, I know that Cristoff said you two are not allowed to mate, and that you two are each other's mates? Do you mind clarifying?"
"Well, you may be aware that dragons have always chosen their slayers. Draco swore himself to the Heartfilia line and that the first mage of our lineage that was in possession of his key and could use the star dress ability would become his slayer. Since Tartarus I've been able to use the star dress ability. It was a final gift from my very first spirit Aquarius. She saved my life and because of that her key needed to be broken, to be able to defeat Mard Geer."
"Because I broke Aquarius' key it caused a fissure in my soul. Breaking a contract with a spirit you have built a strong relationship with. That is the cost of summoning the Spirit King to our realm. A substitute summoning."
Pain crossed her face. She always hated thinking about the event, but knew talking about it has helped her heal.
"So, until I can find her key and contract with her again, my soul would not be able to survive a mating."
The group of mages listened intently. Most of the group already knew this due to their conversation with Natsu and what they had seen from Loke, but wanted to see if Lucy would elaborate.
Arman's eyes filled with tears for his soon to be daughter. He knew how much Layla's and Garnier's spirits meant to them and the thought of it had his heart breaking for her.
"My dear, I can honestly say I have never heard of breaking a key, however, I have heard Garnier speak about the star dress ability and that a great loss comes with it. The loss of losing your spirit must have been devastating and I am sorry you had to go through such a terrible experience."
The same sadness was on Lucy's face for only another moment when a fire lit her eyes and a smile took over her face.
"It truly was, but it made me work harder and become stronger. Not only physically or magically, but also emotionally with my spirits. We are closer now than ever and I couldn't be happier."
"Now, I'm not sure if you are aware of who Draco's mate is." A larger smile grew across the blonde's face.
Arman's eyes sparkled. He really did know this beautiful dragon personally.
"I can say that I do. She is Cris' dragon Nurem. She spent many years with our family not only teaching Cris but helping Emzadi with her own dragon soul."
A smile full of the love of a child for their mother overtook Cristoff's face. "She truly is a loving and caring dragon. The very motherly type which comes into a large play as the Queen of all dragons."
"Well, since they wanted their magic to stay together and meld due to the pure compatibility, they decided that their own slayers would be perfect for one another. Acknowledging this, they agreed that their slayers would be mates. Though, if Draco did not have a slayer yet then Nurem's slayers mate would be the youngest living Heartfilia. So either way we were already chosen to be mates even before either of us were born."
Arman looked over to his son as he took in the information.
"I'm surprised that Nurem never told you that your mate would be a Heartfilia."
"Honestly, I think it's because I would have searched for her rather than letting fate lead me to Lucy when we were meant to meet."
Arman nodded and looked back over to Lucy. "I can understand. That is quite a bit to have to deal with so far."
Lucy felt herself cringe. "Actually, there is more. Now being the Starbringer and the princess of the stars, I have been blessed with not only a dragon mate but also a celestial mate. My other mate is supposed to be a mage of the heavens. So I have two mates. The rule about mating is the same with my other mate, I will need to wait with both of them."
Kaleb had his own questions for his brother. He has been keeping a wall up and wanted to make sure that Cris was emotionally handling all of this.
"Cris, how do you feel about the idea of sharing your mate with another person?"
Putting down his fork and thinking for a moment he looked up at his brother.
"I have had plenty of interactions sharing partners sexually in the past, but I am worried that my dragon will have a problem once the other mate comes into the picture. Discussing it has not caused a stir yet so it is hard to say until we are in the moment."
Feeling guilty that she is causing him to be worried about how his dragon will react, she is quick to look over to him to apologize.
"I don't blame you Cris, and I'm sorry that you are in a situation that isn't entirely ideal."
With love in his eyes and understanding in his voice he looks back at her wishing he could comfort her physically.
"Do not apologize for this. I do not see it as a situation, more of an adventure. Just knowing you are my mate has already had me falling for you. I am not saying it is because of my magic, but just getting to talk to you, see your interactions with others, and how you present yourself allows me to know that you are going to be an amazing mate."
Kaleb now turned his attention to Lucy. He skimmed her surface thoughts of how sweet Cristoff is and how much she was already falling for him. Anything deeper that that he hit a wall she put up remembering he is a mind bender mage. It was actually quite refreshing to actually have to ask questions to get the answers.
"And you Lucy, how do you feel about it?"
Still feeling guilty that she is forcing two people to share relationships with her, she took a deep breath to collect her thoughts.
"I don't know. I've always loved the idea of a mate, someone that was meant just for you and you for them. This though, I would never want to force people to share a person just because my magic says they do. I've already had to hurt one person because I did not know I had a mate until I contracted with Draco."
This was new information for the Pradesh men sans Bickslow.
"I'm sorry but who did you hurt already?"
Looking for comfort from her poison slayer he walks over and places his hand on her shoulder and nods at her to continue.
"I was engaged to be married to a fiorian mage named Rufus Lore. He is a memory make mage, and was raised with a similar background as Freed and myself. We really hit it off after the Alvarez war and we started to date. After about a year he had proposed and I accepted."
"We were actually only a few months from the wedding when I had received Draco's key. He was there for the entire explanation and even though both of us were really hurt, he accepted it and was willing to still want to stay in contact."
Bickslow got up next and went to his mate and kin to comfort her as well.
"I remember that day. Both of your souls were crying. With as much as he loved you he was very mature about the whole thing."
"He really was. It's so weird though. Now that Cris and I have met, any feelings I had for Rufus before have vanished. Not that I was still in love with him when we met, but there was obviously still attraction. Now I have no attraction to anyone to be honest."
"That's the mating bond already forming Tink. Since you and Cristoff have been spending time and building the bond, any attraction either of you would have for other people just ceases to exist. It's all about the bond strengthening."
Lucy and Cris took in all of the new information with everyone else at the table and nodded.
Arman, however, wanted to know more about his new daughter's visit.
"So, Lucy dear, what are your plans while you are here?"
"As I had said before, I am very excited to meet the rest of your children Zen, Emzadi and Xally. I have heard so much about them from all of your boys here and am so excited to have such a large family. Though I am as curious as the rest of you to find out the type of mage Zen is. Bickslow told me not even the Academia could figure it out."
"Actually, it is really odd. He use to lose control of himself around celestial mages. It is like a haze came over him when they were close. It wasn't until a few months ago that the tug on his magic completely stopped and he now seems unfazed by them."
Lucy had a literal spit take and accidently spit her drink all over the table.
"I'm sorry. Am I to understand that Zen's reactions with celestial mages just ended? Bix hadn't mentioned Zen even having issues being around celestial mages.
After her comment her face fell into deep concentration and Loke appeared in the room with a shimmer of glitter.
"Princess, it was only a few months ago, do you think it's related?"
"Until we meet him, it is hard to say. When will Zen be back home? I'd like to verify something."
Kaleb tried again to pry deeper into Lucy's mind with a tickle of success. He could see her arguing with the Spirit King but could not make out the conversation. Then poof he was ejected from her mind. He was then met with the very serious faces of Lucy and Loke.
"You are more than welcome to ask me questions Kaleb but do not try to pry into my mind again. I hold information that could be detrimental to the spirit world if the wrong people obtained that information. Not that I could not trust you, I could not trust that your own mind could be penetrated under certain circumstances and that information would be given to the wrong people."
Accepting her denial of his intrusion, he felt he needed to remedy his mistake.
"I'm sorry Lucy. I'm just so used to looking through minds and forget that not everyone should be privy to certain information. If you do not mind me asking, would you tell us what had transpired a few months ago."
"Thank you for understanding that I am unable to say at this time. I am under strict rules to keep this information to myself unless I come across the mage it would affect. Celestial rules, I made a promise."
"And a celestial mage can not break their promise or they would lose their contracts." Arman had chimed in.
"Correct and I love my spirit family too much to give out information that I am not entirely sure of."
Kaleb and Farron nodded in understanding.
"Fair enough." Vander shrugged, understanding that each magic has its own rules that need to be followed.
Lucy kept listening to whispers from Corvus' shadows as she stared at Vander.
"Vander, may I ask you a question? I know this may sound insulting, but I mean none to you, why has your soul not received the barrier around it if you are a shadow mage. Usually on a shadow mage's first birthday they get their soul protected by a heavenly or celestial mage. I'm confident being around Kaleb has helped keep your soul safe, but it must be so difficult to actually be in the shadows for long."
Vander red eyes grew in size with her question. He hardly knew much about his clan and his new sister is asking a question he would honestly not have any answer to.
"Vander's entire clan had passed away when he was a baby. There was a terrible travesty."
"Actually he was only 9 months old when I adopted him, so too young to have gone through the ceremony if what you are telling me is correct."
Tears were forming in Lucy's eyes. She knew the shadows could do real damage if left to their own devices as she has learned how to take control of them herself.
"That explains a lot. The reason I asked is because Corvus had mentioned that your soul is constantly needing to be cleansed by what he hears from his shadows. Would you mind if I attempted to perform the ceremony with his help?"
All of the Pradesh men looked at her in disbelief. Hope filled all of them.
"Can you really do that, save my son from the very shadows he wields?"
With a smirk of pride in his queen, the poison slayer looked at the other men.
"Of course she can. She's Tink. She makes the impossible seem possible and the improbable happen. She literally has helped rewrite the very rules of the celestial and heavenly realms. Making a protection barrier around a soul is probably a cake walk for her."
"It's nothing like that Erik. Celestial and heavenly based magics are pure so barriers created by these magics protect the mage from the shadows taking them and their souls over. It's why shadow mages receive their ceremony at one. To keep not only themselves safe, but others as well."
Vander was in disbelief. He worked so hard all of the time, became the most disciplined mage to exist to keep his soul clean, that at times he almost allowed himself to give up. He was worried that he was getting ahead of himself.
"You've only just met me. Are you sure that you'd want to do something like this for me?"
"Vander I'm about to be mated to your brother, am Kin to your other brother and his mate, and we're god-siblings. Even if you were a stranger that I just got to know, I'd be more than happy to help. I could not fathom the idea of the shadows taking over your soul one day. You are too good of a person with a beautiful heart."
Vander had a hard time hiding the emotions on his face. First disbelief, to worry, to acceptance, and now pure adoration for the little blonde eating in his childhood home and becoming a part of his family. She is giving him the gift to finally allow himself to truly feel safe with his own magic.
"Thank you little star. I don't know if there is anything I can ever do to repay you."
"That's easy, just continue being you. That's all you will ever need to do."
After their meal most of the family had left to their own rooms to retire for the night. The only people to sit in the study to continue talking were Cristoff, Lucy and Arman.
"You are all traveling to the Academia to meet with the Dean tomorrow morning, correct."
"Oh yes, I am so excited. Not only do I get to meet the Dean of the influential Academia Celeste, but I might get the chance to meet a new spirit. A new friend, even if they decide t o find a different mage, I still am so excited to get to know them during our travels."
"The Dean had advised me that he is quite excited to have you visit to help with the key. It has truly stumped him and he hopes that you will be able to help. Who better than the celestial princess."
"I can never guarantee that I will be able to figure it out, but I can promise that I will not give up trying. Anything I can do to help, I will."
After some more small talk, the three mages left to rest for the night before their two hour flight in the morning.