Man… It's been a hell of a long day. The Celestial Mage opened the door to her hotel room quickly. Tired from all the work she did today, Lucy was more than ready to flop on her bed and relax.
The last week and a half, the young mage has been assisting Melody in the Processing Department. The little spitfire moves faster than Lucy could've imagined. After working with her for nearly two weeks, the Celestial Mage never would've thought she had a terminal illness. Melody was a 'wizard' in the processing facility. Lucy never would've thought of all the different things the young woman was doing with this miracle plant.
"What are we cooking up today?" Remi asked the young woman with an eager smile. When she walked into the 'processing room' The Celestial Mage was met with tons of different boxes, powders, and oils. Melody had an eager and excited smile on her face as she got all of her ingredients ready.
The two had created brownies, gummies, hard candies, and chocolates with the rosin from the flowers. What was in front of Remi today, looked like anything but food related.
The smell coming from the room was also different. Unlike the raw plant smell she was used to, it almost was like it was being cooked. "What exactly are you up to back here?"
"I decided to try something new, today." Melody said with a bright smile. While she was moving a little slower today, she was still in great spirits. "I came in extra early to start the process. Mainly because I knew it was going to take a while to get the flower infused with the oil."
"Huh?" Remi's brow raised. As she looked over towards the stove, she noted a pot of simmering water along with a large mason jar in the center. Inside was a liquid of some kind, along with some of the flowers they use. However, they looked more brown than green. The Celestial Mage walked closer to it, giving it a good look. "Is it supposed to look like that? I've never seen it brown before."
"I went back to a tried and true method." Melody noted as she took the lid off the mason jar, giving the contents a small stir. "Instead of pressing the flowers for their cannabinoids, I decided to extract and activate the oils by cooking it in the oven."
The young woman opened the small oven below the stove. As she did so, a toasted flower smell began permeating the room. Melody pulled the ground material out of the oven, placing it into another mason jar. After she did this, she filled it with a clear oil, before placing it in the pot of simmering water with the other jar. "Once the ingredients are activated, they bind easily to fats and oils. This is why I'll place the rosin inside butter, or something similar."
"Why did you put it in oil today?" Remi questioned.
"Like I said, I wanted to try something new." Melody grinned, pulling the finished jar out of the water. "From here, I'll strain all of the plant material out, and begin mixing it with my ingredients.'
The young woman grabs another empty jar, with mesh on the top of it. Pouring the oil slowly, Melody separated the plant matter from everything else. This left a bright green substance in the jar. Smiling brightly, Melody threw away the trash before she gathered ingredients into a bowl.
"First, I'll add some simple Epsom Salts, along with the essential oil that I chose." Melody grabs a large spoon and mixes the two ingredients in the bowl, allowing the oils to waft their scent all over the room. Citrus notes began to permeate the space, causing Remi's lips to curl into a smile. The scent immediately lifted her mood.
"Next… I'll add some of the oil we just made." Melody takes a dropper, adding some of the green oil to the mixture. "From here I'll give it a good mix, then set it on some parchment paper and let it dry."
"So… You just made a soak for people in the bath?" Remi was completely taken aback.
"Sure did!" Melody smiled happily. "The Cannabinoids will attach to the receptors on the outside of your skin. While they won't feel any psychoactive effects, their pain will be relieved."
"How does that work?" The Celestial Mage was blown away.
"Well, the cool thing about this plant is that we have receptors in our brains and bodies that make it work." Melody began. "If these receptors weren't in our bodies, the plant would have no effect on us."
"The receptors in our brains and along our nervous system are the ones that cause that psychoactive reaction. However, there are also receptors inside our bodies, mainly in our digestive systems and on our skin that will take in the helpful benefits of the plant, without giving you a 'high' as most people describe it."
"Wow…You know so much about this stuff… Where did you learn it all?" Remi asked curiously.
"A lot of it was self taught." Melody smiled, a small blush rising to her cheeks. The young woman took a seat, feeling fatigued after standing for nearly fifteen minutes. "After my diagnosis, I did as much research as I could. I needed to make sure my life wouldn't halt just because of my disease. I found that doctors and regular medicine weren't going to work. Even went as far as to go to a 'wizard' doctor. They weren't able to fix the problem, because it didn't have anything to do with magic. However, the older man that I was referred to, talked about a miracle plant. Ever since that day, I've been doing extensive research. When the job at this facility came up, I thought it'd be a perfect time to showcase my skills."
Lucy has been learning a lot about Melody and her condition. In her time off, The Celestial Mage has been doing her own research on the subject. She hated seeing such a bright and talented young woman be crippled by such a debilitating illness.
However, being in the processing portion of the building, Lucy felt as if she was making some groundbreaking moves in her mission. After talking to most of the people in the facility, the Celestial Mage gathered that most of the issues were coming from the flower room. Every time Dico and his friends leave their area of the building, a palatable tension falls over the facility. Lucy has been trying to figure out what it was about him that caused this.
Even Melody has mentioned it to the Celestial Mage. If Lucy isn't the only one noticing it, why hasn't this person been dealt with? Today was the final straw for the young wizard.
"Everything okay, Mel?"
Being in the Processing room with Melody for over a week, it was easy for Remi to pick up on small social cues that she was giving off. Today, the young woman didn't seem to be herself at all. She was constantly in her own headspace, forgetting what she was doing, and even causing messes that wouldn't normally happen. If it weren't' for the flower crew leaving the room seconds before, Remi would've guessed it had something to do with her sickness.
"Yeah…" Melody sat next to her computer, rubbing her temples. "It's just… Some days this place really gets to me."
"What do you mean?" Remi inquired.
The young woman let out a deep sigh. "I love working for this company and everything that I do. It's just…." Melody became silent for a long while.
"Hey… This is a safe space." The Celestial Mage gave her a warm smile. "We can talk [about anything. It seems like you really need this off your chest."
"Hey MellyMel!" Dico's voice rang from the bottom of the stairs. "The guys and I are coming over this weekend! Gotta fix those drippy pipes your man's been complaining about!"
"Yeah, sure, whatever." Melody let out a deep sigh, before putting on a brand new face. A bright smile lit up her features. "Come on, we need to get back to work."
Ever since that moment, Lucy has been trying to get Melody to spill what she was going to tell the Celestial Mage. However, it's been nearly impossible. The young woman has tunnel vision like you wouldn't believe. Melody could hyperfocus on a task for hours. Once she comes back to reality, it's almost like she's a whole different person.
"Hey there, gorgeous." A man purred in the corner, startling Lucy.
The Celestial Mage jumped up, attacking the newcomer. Loki was prepared for this however, blocking every single one of her attacks. This has become a normal routine for them in the last few weeks. "Good try. You almost caught me off guard that time!"
"One of these days, I'll get ya!" Lucy chuckled as she looked at her Celestial Spirit. "What brings you by? I thought Virgo was supposed to be coming today."
"She mentioned something about an errand to run, so I decided to stop by and see if you were doing okay."
The young mage shrugged, a small smile on her features. "I'm as okay as I can be, ya know?" Taking a seat at her desk, the Celestial Mage began looking for a pencil. "I'm thinking I can break the case this weekend."
"Really? How?" Leo questioned, his brow raising in shock.
"Dico has been dropping hints about going over to Rhythm's place. Something about fixing a drippy pipe or faucet. It's the way he's been saying it, and the way she reacts that makes me think there's more to it than just plumbing."
"You could be right." Loki took a seat next to his friend, pulling a second chair to the desk. "The issue lies in how you're going to get there."
"Melody's very friendly. The two of us seem to be hitting it off. However, I haven't been opening myself up very much because for me this is just a job."
"If you open up to this girl, it could give you the opening you're looking for." The Lion glanced at his friend. "Maybe you should invite her out this weekend. That way you could get her alone to ask her some questions. Who knows? Maybe it'll get the answers you've been looking for! Then you could finally go back home."
"Yeah…" Lucy contemplated his words. It probably wouldn't be hard to do so. However, she didn't want to get too close to anyone at Royal Tree. This wasn't her true self. She was silly to believe that this mission would actually help with her problem. All it's done is cause her to miss her friends. Although she was doing interesting work, Virgo was right, there was no real need for her to go undercover for this mission. Hell, they probably didn't even need a wizard for this position.
"You don't sound excited about going home?" Loki questioned. He noticed that his friend hasn't really been herself lately.
"I am excited! It's just.." Lucy tried her best to come up with the right words. "I realized after being here for this long, that I took this job because I couldn't face what was going on in my real life. If I would've just bit the bullet and confronted Natsu at the guild hall, I wouldn't be feeling this way."
"What way?" The Lion inquired.
"Like part of me is missing." The Celestial mage gave her spirit a sad smile. "I know it sounds crazy, but after the night Natsu and I spent together, I've had these strange feelings. I can't get more than a couple of hours of sleep at a time, and when I do manage to sleep, I'm usually dreaming about the him."
"Why didn't you tell us this was going on?" The shock was apparent on Leo's face. "No wonder you've been acting strange, you can't get any sleep!"
"I don't really want a lecture right now…" Lucy sighed. The Celestial mage opened the left side drawer, pulling out a piece of paper. As she did, Lucy noticed that her letters were missing. There were two envelopes at the back of the drawer.
Immediately, the young woman's heart began to pound. Without raising any alarm to her friend next to her, Lucy began to rummage through every drawer, not finding what she was looking for.
WHAT THE HELL?! WHERE ARE THEY?! All the blood drained from the Celestial Mage's face. The young woman began to breathe heavily as she shot up from the desk. She began to frantically turn things over in her hotel room, not finding the letters to her friends.
"Uhm, Lucy. Do you mind telling me what you're looking for? You're starting to act a little crazy.."
The Celestial Mage didn't answer for quite some time. Instead, she continued to throw her belongings around her room. "I had some letters that I wrote. I never had the intention of sending them, but somehow they've disappeared."
Loki felt ice in his veins, knowing exactly what happened to the letters. However, the Lion wasn't sure how to bring it up to his friend. "Uh… Well Lucy, you see…"
"Are you up to this?! Where are they?!" The Celestial mage could feel her blood boiling as she grabbed a hold of Loki's shirt. "I swear, If you-"
"NO NO! Lucy please listen!" The Lion could feel sweat beading on his forehead.
"You have thirty seconds.." Lucy glared at her Celestial Spirit.
Loki scrambled to gather the words. "All of us can see how much you miss your family. We only wanted to help, please don't be angry with us…"
"Fifteen seconds…" The Celestial Mage continued counting down.
"We gave the letters to your friends!" Loki was unable to look at his Celestial wizard.
"Y-you what?"
The Lion took a deep breath, seeing that Lucy's anger subsided. "Virgo noticed all the letters in your drawer. The two of us decided we could get the letters to their rightful owners secretly. Traveling through the Celestial Realm has its perks."
"I was supposed to restrict my contact with the outside world…"
"We know.." Leo begged. "However, Virgo and I could also see how miserable you were. They even wrote you back."
The Celestial mage began to pace back and forth in her room. Part of her was glad to hear they did all of that just for her. However, they disobeyed a direct order! Lucy pulled her keys out of their pocket, finding her key.
"OPEN, GATE OF THE MAIDEN!"
Instead of appearing, a small note popped up in her place. Lucy gripped it in her hands, reading it carefully. "Please excuse my absence, but-" As the Celestial Mage continued reading, her features began showing how furious she truly was. "Oh no she doesn't!" Raising her key into the air once more, Lucy screamed. "DAMNIT VIRGO I OPEN YOUR GATE!"
Suddenly the maiden appeared behind her older brother. She was trembling. "Princess… I know you're mad…"
"You've always wanted to be punished Virgo, well here it is!"