I woke up slowly, breathing in starlight.
We're back in the Celestial Spirit Realm, aren't we?
Yes.
The bed I was in felt divine. And Morgana quietly pinged that there were other people nearby. Some I knew. The party guests I had left behind in my mad dash to rescue Kellye. Wendy and Lucy were seated by my bed, Natsu was seated on the floor. Gray and Erza were chatted quietly in the doorway, Morgana told me Juvia was lurking just beyond it too. Loke was on the other side of the bed, slouched in a chair and resting his eyes for a minute. Happy was curled up by my leg with Carla at my feet, closer to Wendy.
I felt both refreshed and exhausted. The day of hard effort and fighting in the Mortal Realm was being set against the mere minutes that would have passed here.
20 to be exact.
Talk about a power nap.
I let my eyes open and stared up at the ceiling which had what looked like the shifting, colored nebula of a galaxy moving across it, backed by stars and empty space.
How bad was it when Loke brought me back?
There was a lot of shouting. The King ordered a room prepared and a healer secured. He noticed we used Soulfire.
Morgana kept her tone factual and bland, but there was a hint of skillful understatement in her report. I took a deep breath and pushed myself up. My face felt fresh and clean, so I assumed someone had taken off my makeup for me at some point.
"Fae!" Happy alerted first to my movement, fur standing on end as he lunged for me, tiny arms wrapping around my neck and purring so much I would swear my whole bed was vibrating.
"There you are." Lucy said with a watery smile, relief radiating off of her in waves. Gray and Erza were approaching, similarly looking relieved. Natsu was giving me a grin, much improved. But Wendy...
Wendy looked pissed.
She jabbed at my arm, her voice coming out like a hiss.
"You...! Do you have any idea what you did to yourself?"
"Yes. I know."
"Clearly you must not have otherwise you wouldn't have done it! What were you thinking, Fae? I know you too well to believe you weren't!"
The other people in the room, Carla included, looked at the scolding, angry Sky Dragon Slayer as if they had never quite seen her before. Then again, her fully fledged doctor mode had not been quite so practiced before. But years of unruly patients, myself, Kagura, Sting and Rogue foremost among them, had made her lose a lot of that shyness and reserve when it came to taking care of us. I was surprised she wasn't sprouting feathers in precursor to Dragon Force with how worked up she was.
"I was thinking I had no other option, and limited time before an innocent man got screwed over again by someone unworthy of being called his family."
I knew it was vague and Wendy would not budge until she got the full story.
"I want a list of people that you considered for the job before you decided there was no other option."
She had that look in her eye. She hopped onto my bed, pinning down my legs, laced her fingers together in her lap and waited for me to begin. I would tell the whole story, she would pass judgment. And oftentimes, she would agree that I had made the right call given the situation. But I would let her fuss and worry all she wanted to make her feel better.
"Let's back up and start with when you ran out of here."
Gray invited, sprawling on the bed facing me, his leg pressed against mine. He thankfully was still wearing his party clothes, though I could tell from our contact through the blankets there had been some unconscious movements on his part. Erza swatted his legs until he shifted so his shoes weren't on the bedspread. Carla leaned into Wendy's arm, purring softly in counterpart to Happy's fierce rumble to help calm her human down.
"All we saw was that message, and then the next minute you and Loke were gone. And then you were back again only a few seconds later."
The crimson haired woman summarized, dark eyes fixed on mine steadily. Knowingly.
How does she know?
She's seen you like this before when decompressing from something big.
-vVv-
So I told my friends the whole thing from beginning to end. Loke supplemented the story at some points, but largely left me to tell the whole thing.
Lucy flared up when I described how Rilt had broken Hector's contract with Ohdran and nearly killed him. Gray's body temperature dropped, which I could feel even through the blankets, when I told how Dora had died suddenly and senselessly. The celestial metal of the bed frame bent like clay under Natsu's superheated fingers when I voiced that Brain had been involved in the scheme from the beginning.
(The story had to pause there as everyone expressed their own outrage and fury that Brain had somehow escaped from prison.)
And bringing up what Brain had tried to do...
I tried to understate that as much as possible. But I could not fool Erza.
"He attempted a Takeover on you."
She was Mira's rival, and their childhood animosity and friendly competition aside, Titania knew the She-devil intimately. Knew the details of her magic and all the ways it could be abused. She had gone with Mirajane a few times when others who succeeded in Human Takeover surfaced. Or even when Vulcans managed to fully Takeover a wizard and went on rampages.
"He tried to take advantage of my being unbalanced, but he failed."
"Why were you unbalanced?" Wendy's voice was barely more than a whisper. "You managed to stand up to him when you were still a kid. What was different now?"
Brown eyes met blue and the emotions I was trying to bury under ingrained habits were threatening to surge again.
"When I did that, we were in your home. This time-" My throat closed around the words and I had to swallow to clear it. "-this time we were in mine."
Natsu, Gray and Erza all reacted viscerally. The Fire Dragon Slayer's lip barely curled into a reactive snarl, Gray was managing a thousand yard stare while trying to peer into my soul. And Erza looked like she was facing a lot of memories. Juvia broke the silence first.
"Forgive my bluntness, Fae, but...what do you mean?"
The Water Woman had settled beside Lucy when Wendy vacated her seat, dark blue eyes earnest and sincere. Every emotion and feeling she had was felt and expressed with everything. And right now there was a lot of confusion in her as well as a deep yearning to understand.
But Lucy was looking similar. Happy and Carla likewise seemed nonplussed. Maybe even Loke.
My history began when Natsu carried me through Fairy Tail's doors when I was seven. That was all people needed to know for the most part. It was enough. Opening the door to more was awkward, painful. Dredging up old business.
Brain did that. Not us. Talk to our friends.
"I didn't know until I got there myself. But...Brain set his trap in the remains of the village where I was born..." I felt my voice trailing off uncertainly, feeling naked under so many eyes. "My name was Dorathea."
Saying that made it seem real. Transforming me from a friend into a stranger. A name I had held for only two years. Or one that Morgana had held before. But despite it being a barely existent memory, it still seemed to change me.
A hand reached out and gripped mine. Turning it upwards and revealing the guildmark emblazoned on my palm. Wendy tapped that with her hand, lip trembling slightly as she smiled at me.
The reminder and show of comfort made me able to straighten my shoulders, fingers curling around my best friend's hand, and keep going. Plenty of people in Fairy Tail came from toubling backgrounds. And all had found a place here and built new lives using that trauma as fuel. I was no different than then and just because I had more insight about the road my life had not taken did not mean I belonged among them any less.
"Being there upset Morgana a lot because she can remember how we left it. I couldn't do as much magically speaking without her helping direct my focus. Brain was counting on my psychometry working against me, giving him an edge so he could complete the Takeover. Which didn't work out for him like he'd hoped."
"You betcha it didn't."
Natsu joined Wendy on the bed, making it quite crowded now and very strange temperature wise with Gray's cold on the one side and Natsu's ambient heat on the other. Happy snuggled in closer, still purring. The Fire Dragon Slayer wasn't smiling, but there was a glow of pride in his voice.
"You know who you are too well to let that loser sneak into your head."
His arm was outstretched in offering and I reached out and knocked my knuckles against his gently. His view of me, unchanged after years of time and miles of distance, rang like a bell in my head.
Guild. Family. Mine-to-protect.
The last feeling was one I had gotten very familiar with over the last few years from the boys and Wendy. It was a very, very draconic trait to get attached to something and protect it. We who knew them were just lucky that their dragon parents had raised them to connect with people rather than material items like a hoard. I finished my summary, not wanting to linger on rehashing the details. I would need to doubtless repeat myself several more times as Rilt's fullest influence was investigated and rooted out.
"Loke finished schooling the Champion Silver Spirit that he brought along as his muscle. And the Wind Mage surrendered to me. Loke and I used Ohdran's familial connection to track down his uncle. He is the one that got Brain out of prison."
"And what happened to him?"
Erza leaned forward intently at her question. And if I said anything other than what I was about to say, then I could imagine that she would get up and demand Loke take her back to find Brain and hunt him down. And by the glint in Gray's eyes, she wouldn't be going alone.
"His body was already dead. He had no place left to go once I overcame the Takeover."
I didn't want to treat death so lightly, but this was a factual report, and I couldn't regret Brain's death. Not when his survival would have meant the abuse and destruction of my family. Even if Eric blew the whistle on me when he heard him, the conflict to stop Brain would have been brutal.
Morgana showed me some text above Gray's head. Brain's name hovered there, and a line was drawn through it. As I watched, the list started to pan back up. On that list were all the people who had ever bothered me or Fairy Tail while we were gone. There were several Twilight Ogre names on there which had been checked off...
"We took the Wind Mage into custody when he surrendered, brought Ohdran somewhere safe and contacted the Rune Knights. Then Loke and I went and caught Rilt. I broke his Curse, so he couldn't use that to wriggle out of jail."
Wendy's fingers were tightening under mine. She wanted me to get to the point about why I had looked and felt half dead when I was brought back here in Loke's arms.
"Legally there have to be multiple witnesses to make sure Rilt goes away. By nature of his actions, a lot of material witnesses are non-existent and evidence is old and contaminated because no one ever bothered to preserve it, if they even knew what they were looking at. And Ohdran..." I shivered, recalling the feeling. "He was empty. A grown man on the outside, but there was hardly anything inside him. He was practically a vegetable. Every thought and action he committed had to be triggered by his uncle in some way. And Rilt used his name and money from his inherited business in his affairs as well."
Lucy sat back slightly in realization.
"He would have needed to be tried and punished too with Rilt."
"If he woke up, he wouldn't be able to remember enough to know he was innocent. And if he stayed unconscious he'd need care for the rest of his life. I had a way to create enough substance in him to give him a fighting chance to live." I looked at Wendy pointedly. "And I was careful to not do permanent harm to myself. Everything I used to that end can regrow."
And I might very well have to do the same thing for Archer one my soul had 'recharged'. Spending time with family, doing things that built someone up, the things that people called 'good for the soul'. It all actually was. And doing those things over time would replace everything I had used to treat Ohdran.
The Sky Dragon Slayer gave an undignified snort.
"You looked like a ghost when Loke brought you back here."
"Well, yeah. Used a ton of power, temporarily sacrificed parts of my soul, confronted a lifetime of trauma. You tell me if you know someone who looks good after all that."
Wendy smirked.
"I'm going to move for a guild rule to be established that you are not allowed to go anywhere without at least two people. Even having supervision didn't stop it this time."
I swatted her arm, rolling my eyes.
"It doesn't happen every time."
Wendy gave me a sweet smile.
"Iceberg. Both times. And Stella. The curator. And the thing with the weasel in Seven-"
I hissed, slapping a hand over her mouth which made her grin under my fingers.
"I thought we agreed to never speak of that again."
Gray reached out and flicked my hand off of Wendy's mouth. There was a little icon of a pen hovering over paper floating around his head. A mental tug turned the paper towards me. On it were listed various names, some specific, such as Minerva, Brain, and Prince Victor, some vague. Such was the entirety of Twlight Ogre.
"I'm gonna need to hear about...all of this."
He made a vague gesture.
"You've been holding out on us."
Natsu laughed, flashing his fangs.
"I agree with Gray."
Erza was teasing me at least a little judging by the twinkle in her eye. Oddly enough, I think she understood the best out of everyone how things could escalate. And now Lucy and Happy were both looking very eager and curious to hear more.
"It would be wonderful to hear more about your exploits, Fae." Juvia volunteered meekly, then her cheeks flushed a little and I had a split second to dread what she was about to say. "-and about that boy, Sting who comes to see you."
This was met with a chorus of agreement from Lucy, Levy and Erza. And one groan of protest from me for dredging up old drama.
"Juvia!"
The hovering pen and paper over Gray's head started to move again, adding two names to what I suspected was a mental hitlist. And I glared at him.
"Gray, no."
Dark gray eyes met mine impassively. The pen underlined two names on the list, Sting and Rogue, with finality.
Then the talk was derailed as I swatted at Gray with my pillow, landing a strong hit and knocking him off the bed. But through some trick that Gemini had pulled when they made up the room for me, there was instantly another pillow behind me as well as in my hand. I reached back and the process repeated itself.
I grinned.
"I can beat up a SS level threat and still kick all your butts in a pillow fight! Come at me!"
The pillow fight that ensued after this was legendary. And got very rowdy once everyone else realized that there were endless pillows to be had. And in spite of my getting a few new bruises, the whole affair was very healing for me.
-vVv-
Wendy chased the others out to let me sleep a bit longer after we set the room back in order. She assured me that Levy would check my rune work to make sure we didn't end up missing more time back home than intended, and then firmly made me go to sleep. I woke up sometime later with someone moving around my bed, though I didn't get a good look at them in my groggy state.
"What time is it...?"
He had sand colored curls, pulled back away from his face and a short, well groomed beard. His eyes were a light amber color, but looked warm and lively rather than the yellow hue of a wolf or a raptor. And his smile was quite nice too. The kind that you could tell resonated from the heart.
"It's been about 2 hours since your little pillow fight. I have to say, I never thought of using fun to regenerate soul energy."
"I don't get why people think it's just a phrase when they say something is 'good for the soul'."
I grumbled, sitting up. I felt much better waking up this time than before. Sturdy and lucid. Like I could get up and do things again after feeling thin and stretched out. Not quite 'run a marathon' energy levels but I'd say I could definitely complete a normal day.
"Well consider me enlightened."
He held up a sheaf of notes and a pen. Morgana tapped my attention and I went back for a second look. I recognized it and I was right at first glance. But it was still a little surprising to see someone actually using a reed pen. The tip had been sharpened into a nib and there was a lap desk with a firmly affixed ink well at the corner.
Unusual choice.
"What's your name? I don't remember seeing you at the party."
His smile became a little strained but still genuine.
"You can call me Aster. And I don't think there is anyone in the heavens who doesn't know who you are."
Something felt off about how he introduced himself. The name didn't quite fit him. And Morgana couldn't connect him to any of the Silver Clans.
He is actually a Celestial Spirit, isn't he? I don't need to do something drastic?
That will not be necessary and would be highly rude considering he is your attending physician.
"Yay, everyone knows me as the girl who wiped herself out in a few minutes!" I cheered, half heartedly.
"More like the one who spotted one of the Hunters in distress when he couldn't even remember himself and managed to save him."
Aster dipped his pen and annotated a few spots in his writings. His words did make me remember the Hunter Clan member who had helped kick off this whole debacle.
"Hector made it."
"I stabilized him when Sir Leo brought him back. He still has no idea of who he is, but I think I can formulate a treatment for his condition seeing what you did for his summoner."
"I take it that any punitive action has to wait until he gets his memories back."
Sunlit eyes lifted to meet my ethereal blues.
"He will be reprimanded to the fullest extent of Celestial Law for his actions. He is not divested of all responsibility due to the actions of his summoner's uncle."
I hummed.
"I'm glad to hear it. And that he'll be ok. What about the Champion Clansman?"
This made the man crack a grin, a flash of white teeth visible under his beard.
"Sir Leo brought him to me, not too badly beaten. He'll make a full recovery. His pride is going to be stinging for centuries, if his clan doesn't disown him outright for bringing their prize trophy out for an unsanctioned cause."
That was all kinds of interesting, but I felt something tugging in my chest. I lifted a hand to tap against the spot, a hollow hunger that was unfamiliar. Aster tracked the motion with a satisfied look in his eye.
"How do you feel?"
"Best I can call it is 'hungry and not sure what I'm craving' because it isn't food."
I reported, rubbing the spot thoughtfully.
"You've pushed through a lot of energy to regrow your soul to its proper shape and capacity. I would refrain from further experiments with it as a source for at least two mortal weeks to allow it to fully settle."
"So it's replenished but not as strong as it was before?"
"Think of it like blood and plasma. The body can replace the liquid base easily, but generating the blood cells to fill that volume takes a bit longer."
That made sense and I nodded, reaching for my book.
"I know better than to argue with a doctor."
"Miss Marvel has quite a forceful personality doesn't she?"
Aster chuckled, finishing another line of text and setting his lap desk aside.
"Oh buddy, the stories I could tell you."
"I would enjoy hearing them sometime." He straightened, the smile still resting at the corners of his eyes. "His Majesty wanted to speak with you again before you returned home. Something about your conversation being cut short before."
That was definitely something I was interested in as well. Both about Dragon Seed and the Curse of Contradictions. I might even have some additional insight into how to talk with him about that now.
"Do I need a doctor's note to see him?"
"At the moment, the doctor's orders are to eat something, change your clothes, and go to him at a moderate pace. And no strenuous activity for a few days."
I accepted this with a nod.
"Understood Aster."
That made a hint of a smile come out again as he rose.
"I'll send someone in to help you change."
-vVv-
I found Loke waiting outside. He gave me a crooked grin, showing a hint of longer than usual canines. I reached up and poked his cheek.
"What's up with these?"
He waved my hand away playfully.
"I reintegrated the power that was contained in my old skin, so I'm feeling a little more...wild than normal."
Ah, so that's why the Champion is going to be in hot water with his clan. He didn't just swipe a family heirloom, he gambled it and lost it because Loke won the fight.
I looked him over again as I fell in step beside him. Additionally to the longer canines, his hair was a bit more wild and more mane-like. His neat appearance was artfully messed up, missing his tie, the top button undone, and his shades gone leaving hazel eyes unhindered and sharp. And if the skin was as I suspected, an equivalent trophy to the Nemean Lion skin Hercules had taken from his defeated enemy in the mythology I knew... It would have made Loke that much more capable of deflecting and tanking hits.
"It's a good look on you." He gave an exaggerated bow in response without missing a step.
"Your knight thanks you for the compliment, princess."
I snorted into a laugh, unable to help myself.
"Haven't heard you use that bit in years, I thought you forgot about it."
"Not in a million years."
And there was a sobering thought. Because for him, that phrase could be entirely literal. We came to the entrance of the room where the Celestial Spirit King was standing, observing something that was obscured from my sight. Something Morgana tightly clamped down on my magic to avoid me seeing, in addition to him hiding it from my comprehension, so I assumed it was for my own safety.
"Faerun."
I dipped into a small curtsey.
"Your majesty."
"It is good to see you doing well." He gestured a veil of stars aside, a small platform hovering by his elbow descended to where I could step onto it.
"It feels good to be up and mobile again."
The platform didn't have a chair, and it brought me up to where we could speak more easily without either of us straining our necks.
"Our discussion was cut short. I have a modicum of leeway which can be used to help you reach the answers you are searching for. I am honor bound to warn you however, that what you are searching for is forbidden knowledge for a reason. No living being is exempt from the Law that forms our world."
"I understand. I have no desire to cross that line. Only to understand the consequences more fully and how to cope with them in the one case. And for the other topic...I just want to protect my friends."
His head tilted slightly, the white hornlike structure that crowned his head.
"Speak."
"Some time ago, I came across a reference to a process by which a human may transform into a dragon involuntarily. The term that Morgana and I came across was called Dragon Seed."
The Celestial Spirit King hummed, carefully formulating his answer.
"You do not seek to know if it is possible, for you are already certain. Therefore, I may confirm this knowledge. Yes, Dragon Seed can and has caused human Dragon Slayers to become fully fledged dragons."
"I saw the name and felt a connection with one of Lucy's ancestors. How does Dragon Seed connect with Anna Heartfilia?"
"Officially, it does not. I can tell you that Anna Heartfilia was alive at the same time as the last of the dragons in Fiore. And the Heartfilia's were bestowed their name by my decree."
That was information I did not ask for so I tested the offered route cautiously.
"What did they do that made them suit that name?"
The king's head lowered slightly, eyes boring into mine.
"Generation after generation, parent to child, the family nurtured the talent to become Celestial Spirit Mages, and set the standard by which other summoners are held. This exceptional loyalty and love deserved to be honored. For once bestowed, their devotion never wavers."
His eyes drifted away, looking off into the distance. I followed his gaze to see Lucy with the others. She was standing with Juvia and they were both on the verge of a giggle fit as Wendy gave Natsu a thorough dressing down. Erza was waiting her turn, watching with approval as the tiny Sky Dragon Slayer made the taller Fire Dragon Slayer cower before her. It seemed that they had knocked on some door they weren't supposed to. A novelty considering so much of the Palace had been opened to us as guests. I guess Natsu and Happy couldn't resist the urge to snoop.
"Sounds like Lucy comes by her character honestly then."
"Indeed. Long ago, someone very dear to her asked Anna for aid. The kind of aid that I needed to become involved with for though no Law was broken, it would certainly bend them."
The King's face didn't shift overtly, but I could sense something very tired and sad in him at whatever he was thinking about.
"I can tell you that Dragon Seed was tangentially connected with what Anna was asked to do. And the Heartfilia's earned their name over every century between her time, and yours, by honoring her request."
I could tell his mind was elsewhere as he spoke. Something else had drawn his gaze away from me.
"And what was asked is now done."
"Yes."
I digested that for a minute.
Someone asked Lucy's ancestor for help. Something that only Celestial Spirit Magic could be used for. She gave that help, but it wasn't just her who was committed to it. It was generations of her descendants afterwards who were tied to whatever she was asked to do. The last Celestial Spirit Mage in the Heartfilia family was Layla, Lucy's mother. And knowing how much Lucy adored her mother, if she had given a last request or deathbed confession of some kind, Lucy would have seen that responsibility through. And a commitment of that size, one centuries in the fulfillment of it, would have occupied her mind almost entirely. If she had had the duty passed on to her...
Her priority would have been to settle down and start the new generation of Heartfilia's. Archaic it might be, it was a reasonable conclusion. The Heartfilia's were an old family line, but an incredibly small one in recent years. There may have been some cousins, but I doubted there were any blood descendants who also happened to be Celestial Spirit mages to carry on that secret legacy.
The conclusion flicked on in my head.
Layla finished whatever Anna started. And Layla wouldn't have needed to tell Lucy about a family duty or secret because the duty was fulfilled and she was free.
Morgana tested that theory and found a faint echo of truth. Not a whole, firm confirmation because there was too much we still didn't know. I would need to go through some more of Layla's effects, if I could. And pour over the journal Jude had loaned me again. There had to be more information there.
"I think I have enough to keep moving my investigation forward."
"Most would simply ask me what transpired."
I pulled a face.
"I've considered it. But for one, if you were at liberty to tell, I think you would have given a full history of the facts instead of just talking around it. And for another; spoilers."
His chest shook with a rumbling laugh that made the stars dance and the heavens shake.
"I do have one tiny little question about Anna." I held up my thumb and forefinger with a fraction of an inch between them. "What she was asked to do, you had to give approval for. And your position in the universe means that you have a measure of influence and say over the Laws. Or certainly, superior knowledge of them compared to mortals."
He nodded, encouraging me to keep going.
"Which Law was involved with Anna's request? And did she make the request due to her own needs, or did someone else ask her to ask you?"
"Both Death and Time were bent by her assistance. And she did not undertake this endeavor alone."
That made me blank out a little. Both Death and Time? Time was already at play according to Celestial Law thanks to the time dilation between the Celestial Realm and Earthland. But Death as well? That was somewhat shocking. So, who could have asked her, or had the nerve to ask something so big of her that the Celestial Spirit King had to get involved?
I was opening my mouth to ask another question when the floor trembled slightly. I only saw the tremors, suspended on the small speaking platform as I was. But with it Morgana heard a faint, tortured cry... The King lifted his head, turning towards Loke.
"My friend, fetch Asclepius."
Loke nodded, then turned and ran.
But the name rang a bell for me. For Morgana.
Asclepius was, in the Earth mythology that Morgana remembered, the son of Apollo. He was the god of medicine who was killed due to his discovering how to cure death.
He isn't represented in the constellations, is he?
The name itself did not sound familiar.
"Who is that?"
I found myself asking the king. We watched the doorway as Loke ran by, this time accompanied by Aster, who looked to be an unpleasant shade of white. They both paused by the doorway that Wendy had been scolding Natsu and Happy in front of only a few minutes earlier.
Aren't they still in front of it?
The King altered the space so that they would not be disturbed, but Loke and Asclepius could still access the door and what is behind it.
And can I see what is behind it?
"One of my dear friends." He replied in a considering tone. "It would seem someone managed to locate Ophiuchus's key again in the mortal realm. She has not had a contract in quite some time."
Ophiuchus, often considered the unofficial Zodiac. The constellation was formally called the Serpent Bearer. The faint echoes I could hear and what Morgana was showing me indicated that the summon in question was similar to Pisces, who I had seen at a distance. Largely animal shaped, a simply massive snake that was part organic creature in appearance, part automon.
Ophiuchus is the name of the snake, so who is the man that holds her? The constellation is, after all, the Serpent Bearer.
Asclepius.
The legend clicked with Morgana's quiet highlighting of the name that the King had used.
It stated that Asclepius had discovered the secret method to cure death by observing one serpent heal another. The Earth legend stated that this was why snakes shed their skins. They were literally being reborn every time that they did so. It was why one of the symbols of the god of medicine was a snake winding around a staff.
Of course, as with any good myth, this one had ended with death due to Zeus being...Zeus and throwing down a lightning bolt to kill his own grandson. Asclepius was then made a minor god where he could use his talents to serve his divine family so as to avoid giving mankind too much power.
But here, Asclepius was not a Zodiac Spirit. And it was the serpent who was. But every organization of some kind or another needed a healer. Someone who's skill came in looking after others.
"Your majesty." The Celestial Spirit King looked back down at me. "Who of your household...specializes in healing and medicine? Of the Zodiac, there is none that I can think of who fit that description."
"Once there was. But no longer. I believe the entirety of the tale is transcribed in one of the books Leo guided you to. That shall be another invaluable resource to your search for answers, my friend." He seemed slightly amused, glancing around me. "Your intelligence puts you in good standing with many. Save those who treasure these Laws so closely. I fear if our discussion continues as long as both you and I wish it could, I shall not have any secrets left by the end of it."
"Does that mean I can't ask you for recommendations on how to eliminate a necromancer?"
He let out a booming laugh.
"Oh the Powers that Be are typically more than willing to discuss how to stop a Lawbreaker of that caliber! Tell me about your encounter."
-vVv-
I had a lot to think about when we made it back home.
Three days had passed since we initially left. Simon was well and truly buried in the work I had brought to his doorstep when Loke and I caught Rilt. But he still took Wendy's advice and sent me home to rest rather than calling me to dig through paper trails.
"My sister will be quite upset with me if I roped you into this. Besides, your involvement as an investigator is limited as you are the accuser in this instance, as well as a cursebreaker. So the decision was that another party shall take over the investigation, and you will be called to consult in a professional capacity."
I smiled at Simon dryly.
"Kagura has you by the throat for this, doesn't she?"
"She was rather exasperated that all you did was attend a party, but still managed to find some way to get yourself nearly killed and then buried in paperwork." The Darkness Mage rubbed his forehead gently. "Expect a visit from her soon. She got called away for standard Vulcan control in the mountains."
That would either cheer her up a bit to have some monsters to thrash, or frustrate her. Vulcans were not stupid. And they remembered faces very well. Especially the faces of those they considered scary. And Kagura, who had been doing that job for the local mountaineers and travelers for five years now, definitely qualified as scary for them.
"I promise I will take it easy. Study and research only, no strenuous magic, or activity." I would need all the strength I could get when my training partner from hell came back.
And so I was back in my apartment by the time the cathedral bell chimed 7. It was still fairly dark outside, given it was early spring. But I just put on some lamps and got to work. First organizing my thoughts.
I had gotten a lot of information from the Celestial Spirit King about various long term projects and questions I wanted answers to. The thing about Anna Heartfilia and Dragon Seed was carefully recorded and set aside, then I started to transcribe my talk with him about necromancy.
He had needed to be a bit cagey about Tartarus, but I got the impression that they had been active long before anyone realized it. Enough so that the King knew some of their members. And subtly confirmed that they were to a man, very likely honest to goodness, demons. Not a human among them other than Silver.
Pity he is. Devil Slayer Magic would be pretty useful in bringing them down.
Necromancy was a flagrant violation of the law of Death. So Magic would not permit it to happen. You could seance with the departed, invoke them if they were willing, such as what Wendy could do with Milky Way. This meant that the person pulling the revenant Fullbustrer's strings was using a heavy grade Curse. And its use would come with an equally heavy penalty to his own physical durability. This could be offset with other skills, such as better speed or evasion. But he had no ability to use his Necromancy curse to extend his own life. So when he was down, he would stay down. And all those that he controlled would go with him.
'Kill it with fire' seems like a viable option. But how do you fight demons? If there is specifically Ice Devil Slayer magic, then they must have durability on par with a dragon for that to even be necessary.
I wanted to debate and dither over whether or not I should tell Gray about his father, considering the potential anguish it would cause him. But then again, keeping this information from him and then having it be discovered later would destroy the trust we shared as friends. And if he saw him, there would be no mistaking him. They could probably have used each other as a mirror if Silver didn't have that scar.
I wonder who named Gray. Cause it seems like a very dad move to be named Silver and then name his child Gray.
No. I would have to tell Gray somehow. At the very least, Tartarus was using his father's remains. Before we encountered them in a battle where the news could blindside him. Losing focus could be deadly. And seeing your long dead father would definitely qualify.
Morgana shifted slightly. Nothing major, but a small motion. A drifting thought to a barely existing memory.
"And look at this!" Big hands lifted me up and scratchy stubble scratched my cheek as a kiss was laid on it. Light blue eyes twinkled down at me. "My little Dot can't be getting that big can she?"
I know I wasn't remembering the words. I was remembering the feeling. Of being held against someone who smelt of the sea and the wind. Of being childishly, thoughtlessly secure and confident in his grasp because it was Papa. Of being loved beyond measure. Remembering the scratch of a few days of beard growth on my cheek when he kissed me goodnight. Nothing scared Papa, and nothing could scare me if I was with him-
The flood of emotion choked me and I felt my breath leave me in a rush. I dropped my pen and clapped my hands over my mouth, trying to take deep, even breaths. But the floodgates were open now. Every tiny memory that Morgana had been keeping at bay was there. I could feel there was something else she had noticed, but was deliberately pushing aside to focus on my emotional whirlwind instead.
They'd call Dorathea 'Dot' or 'Dotty'. And there was a faint memory of a 'race' to greet Papa when he came home and was still tying up his boat at the end of the dock. Somehow, even toddling along on my tiny legs, I remembered reaching him first in spite of my older, much faster siblings also running to greet him. There was warm laughter behind us as Mama brought up the rear of our little parade. Laughter from the other fishermen, our parents' friends who acted as surrogate family for us.
There were more children than just us four, everyone was coming to greet their loved ones upon their return from the sea. I had been doing this every few days since I was still small enough to need to be carried. They always brought me along as part of the small welcoming party.
Were they bringing me? Bringing Dorathea? On which side of the identity do I stand? Dorathea ended long before Fae began. So why does it feel like Dot closed her eyes for a few minutes and then woke up as me?
Some small irrational part of me was seething with bitterness that I had never even tried to find my birth family when I had been rescued from my abductors. I had just fallen into Fairy Tail's open arms without a second thought about where I came from. Blithely ignorant of people that might still be out there, might be looking for me, worrying for me. And I did nothing to assuage that, didn't even try-
Gana...!
I felt like I was falling, knocked off my feet by those powerful feelings and I hadn't landed yet. I wasn't sure how I got there, but I was on the floor now, back pressed against the leg of my desk. Scooting underneath it blindly, trying to just keep breathing. I wasn't sure how long I was there. To find something that would make me feel anchored. Feel stable-
The flutter of my runic protections over my skin was enough to bring me out of my stupor if only slightly. I came to myself and saw a worried face crowned by ash blond hair hovering just before me. The face came into focus.
"Sting?"
The White Dragon Slayer was breathing hard, as though he had sprinted and I could taste little sparks of his power in the air. He had been pushing himself to get here.
"Are you ok?"
The platitude was there in an instant. The assurance, the mask to put on and just say I was fine. It was what I had done for years and would likely remain the comfortable thing to do for the rest of my life.
But I didn't want to say that. I didn't want to pretend.
I wanted to cry. I wanted to just let it hurt for a little while and have a small pity party without feeling as though I had to be the adult that I had pushed so hard to be seen as.
"Did you know you can miss people you never really knew?"
Why would these half formed memories cause me so much pain? Fairy Tail had given me a fantastic life, never lacking for love or companionship. I had been cared for in every conceivable way. And that fact somehow didn't contradict the fact that part of me wanted to wake up as a tiny baby in a now forgotten seaside town as the daughter of a fisherman. Experience the life that circumstance had denied me.
I can't have my cake and eat it too. What's done is done and Fae would not trade what this is even if-
I strangled that train of thought before my identity could fracture still further.
I am Celeste D Faerun. I chose this life. Me. Mine.
This didn't stop the tears from continuing. Sting was still kneeling before me, looking like he wanted to touch me but was restraining himself from doing so. He threw a quick glance to the side and then his attention was back on me.
"Who are you missing?"
I made myself keep talking, rambling my way through the thorny feelings in my chest and curling around my throat. I couldn't answer his question directly again. It was like there was a massive mental wall right in front of my eyes that kept me from just telling him.
"I know I'm putting words in the mouths of ghosts I don't know and who don't know me, but I still hear them all. Is it wrong to not miss them? Or is it wrong to want them even though they're strangers?"
There came a soft thump and I glanced over to see Lector. The magenta Exceed had pulled one of my blankets off of my bed and was dragging it over to Sting.
That's what he was looking at before. Telling him to grab that.
The blanket was a soft, hand knitted piece of artwork. Something a kindly matriarch of the Potioneers guild had made for me as a 'bonus' for keeping her sons safe on their excursions for ingredients by enchanting their equipment. Having it around me always felt like a hug. Like a lazy dog sleeping before a fire and the playful banter of siblings around a kitchen table.
Sting used the blanket to touch me, wrapping it around me carefully. Lector zipped off and flung another blanket at me from the sofa, this one quilted by the local sewing organization. My friend tucked that over my legs. And then his Exceed friend was trotting off, tail curled up with cheer and purpose, to hunt for more soft things.
"Do you want me to go get someone?"
My grip tightened in the soft yarn around my shoulders at Sting's voice, finding the tiny gaps in the stitches. It was quiet, patient but caring. Not insisting that he be there, but willing to follow my lead. Take cues from me. Listen to anything I had to say. Not touching, because he was guessing correctly that I was feeling too much and even the slightest bit more would make me collapse.
"No. Just...just stay. Please."
He settled into a loose seat on the floor, close enough to touch but not crowding my space.
"I know Fairy Tail and the Rune Knights caught someone big. And there was a reported prison break from Crocus Max. Can you tell me what happened?"
I let out a shaky breath.
"That's not...what this is about."
I waved my hand vaguely at my face, only now feeling the itchy hot skin around my eyes from the tears.
"Do you want to tell me about it?"
I looked up, hesitantly meeting Sting's eyes. I felt weak and vulnerable. I felt like a mess. I had never been like this in front of him.
Well...once. After we were disagreeing over Weisslogia.
That felt awful. Sensing the falsehood, and knowing it was not true but not being able to disprove his presented truth. Because I knew him. Knew that loyalty and a sense of right and wrong was hardwired into his DNA. The last time I had been torn up about something, I had pushed him away. Bodily stopped him from coming anywhere near me. And looking at him now, I knew that if I said the word, he would give me whatever space I asked for. But even as he gave me space, he wouldn't leave. Seven years, he had been coming around, even with the enormous push back from his guild.
He's not leaving. I gave him plenty of reason to and he's still here...And I don't want him to go either.
So I spoke the word that I knew would change everything about how I interacted with the boy sitting just across from me.
"Yes."
He seemed slightly taken aback but he recovered quickly. Sting settled into a cross legged seat across from me with Lector crawling into his lap with another throw blanket. Just waiting for me to begin when I was ready.
Is he happy that I want to talk about this with him?
I am going to let you experience this aspect of normal living like everyone else.
Damnit.
So I took a deep breath again, wrapping a blanket more snugly around my shoulders.
"So, the thing with Zacchus. Rilt."
"The guy who was puppeting a major part of the dark guilds with a memory curse."
I confirmed that with a nod.
"Yeah, him. I won't bore you with those details, I'm kinda tired of going over them again already. The next few weeks are gonna suck so bad..."
Stop evading. No shop talk. Feelings.
I reluctantly did as Morgana prompted and focused on scraping together enough context to convey why I was in this state.
"You heard how he broke Brain out of prison?"
"Yeah, everyone in our guild hall heard about that. Master was pissed."
There was a furious tirade and orders barked to scour the area to make sure there had not been any other escapees. Morgana didn't even give a scathing look at Jemma for that. It was a proper response to the news that there had been a prison break.
"Did I ever tell you how I came to Fairy Tail?"
The White Dragon Slayer huffed a sigh, one side of his mouth curving up in a rueful grin.
"You said that Natsu found you."
And for all Sting was determined to make his own way, my sharing stories about Natsu had been something we bonded over.
"But not where he found me?"
"Just that he found you near the Hollowpike territory."
That gave me pause and I gave him a sidelong look with a crooked smile.
"I know I never mentioned their name because I never thought they were important enough to remember."
The boy across from me flushed slightly, just the faintest hint of a shimmer running over his skin. It seemed like Sting, for all his maturity, still had a part of him that admired Natsu even after all this time. Lector's ears went back, but he remained well behaved and quiet.
"Anyway!"
"Anyway." I agreed, smothering a giggle. "Before that even."
"No, you haven't. You were losing light every day that you were missing your friends. I didn't want to make it worse by asking. I figured if you wanted to talk about it, it would come up."
Ok: that is incredibly sensitive, thoughtful and all around makes me feel like an even worse friend for not realizing just how much crap I made him put up over the years.
"Probably a good idea. Even the little bit that I knew back then, it was a pretty depressing picture."
I glanced over at my atlas on the wall. It was a beautiful, old piece of art that was covered carefully under a thin pane of glass. It depicted the entire land mass of Ishgar and gave vague suggestions of the additional continents of Alakitasia, Guiltina, and the elusive Eastern Continent. It floated off the wall at a gesture from me, coming within arms reach of me. I called my pen into my hand and tapped the coastline right where I had been about three days ago.
"That's where it started. Tiny little fishing town called Wave Crest. My-my dad was a fisherman. I had two brothers and a sister." My voice was shaking, but I made myself keep going. "I was the youngest. I think I got my eyes from my dad. And I know I must have been too young to remember. I didn't have magic to help me remember, but I swear, I swear, I remember what he used to call me even though I shouldn't be able to."
My hand trembled over the spot on the atlas, seeing glimpses of the town as I had seen it and as my magic told me it had once been.
"It's gone now. No one can ever remember it because one man decided his ambitions were worth over 1000 lives. They didn't do anything to him! With how interconnected small towns are, he was probably related to a quarter of the town population. He sold us, like so much livestock, to a Dark Guild. And then wiped out all memory of the place so no one could come looking for us."
I wasn't crying any more as a familiar chilly anger tried to take root inside me. But it had no foundation. There was no quarry to pursue anymore. The emotional payoff of catching the one responsible was hollow. When I had begun this venture, I had no idea where my hunt for the Silence would lead me. Let alone that it would lead me home. But now the matter was resolved with nothing of substance left to do. And that left me full of hate and no place to expel it because Rilt was safely behind bars, toothless without his Curse and his withered husk of Memory Magic. Exactly where I had put him. Because Brain was lying on a slab in a mortuary somewhere, riddled with arrow holes. Exactly where I had put him.
And to make it all the more galling? It wasn't just me they had wronged and who would never see proper recompense for their loss.
"I caught the bad guys. Put them where they can't hurt anyone ever again. But what about those people who didn't survive slavery? How will they get justice when their whole lives just vanished and not even memories are left?"
Indignation also didn't help me. It wasn't the root of my current mood. Without anger or righteous indignation to shield me, I just felt sad again and that hurt so much worse. Anger was a thorny plant I could tear out and use. Indignation was a whetstone to sharpen myself for action. Sadness was a pervasive mist that coated everything. Rotting and rusting the last few days in my memory and even touching my entire life before it. The happiness, the triumph, the sorrow and healing of everything I had ever done was viewed through a dark lens. And no matter how much I tried to wipe it clean and keep those parts of my life unspoiled, it kept coming back.
"I'm one of the only people who has a chance of being able to track them down. And I'm sitting here, being upset that I can't remember my mother's face. Or what it felt like to be held by her."
And now the tears were back again, the deepest emotional wound of all. The wound I had been carrying since I set foot into the past and realized where Brain had led me.
"And hating myself for not really wanting any of it back."
I didn't remember a mother soothing me when I was sick. I remembered Mira and Lisanna taking turns to sit up with me. I didn't remember being teased by brothers, I remembered Natsu teaching me how to throw a punch and not managing to control his own strength. There was no stern talking to from a father, there was being scolded by Freed for recklessness, or Makarov when I acted out. Or Mystogan's deep, deep sigh and rueful fondness. The dim memory I had of a sister was of someone grabbing me from my bed, and running into the night as chaos reigned all around me. And even that memory was overshadowed by Erza plopping a souvenir from a job in front of me. Or Levy and Lucy cheering at the conclusion of a Story Night. The bicker and banter that persisted among a strong family relationship. Or even the fighting and disagreements. The grief and bonds that could be forged out of shared loss and sadness.
Every concept I had of family life was filled by a memory of the people I had met in Fairy Tail.
There came a scraping and a grunt of frustration that made my head come up. Lector had left Sting and was now climbing my shelf reaching for a box of tissues. And Sting-
Sting's eyes were a richer, more resplendent blue than they had ever been before because he was also tearing up.
"Are you ok?"
He shook his head, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand.
"No. Cause you're not."
And tracking Morgana's subtle monitoring of the conversation, Sting had been drawing closer to this point throughout my entire explanation. But what had pushed him over?
Hearing me say that I hated myself.
"Sting..."
"Wait."
He shook his head, accepting the box of tissues that Lector had stolen from the shelf. Luckily without knocking anything over. Sting then offered it to me, the small rune I had scribed on the side glowing faintly, making the tissues feel cool and soothing on my face. We collected ourselves for a moment with Lector's tail twitching in a way that Happy's and Carla's did when they were uncomfortable. (Not Pantherlily because he was too good at suppressing his tells.) But the silence stretched on between us as we composed ourselves a little bit.
"I can say whatever I want and it won't help. You'll still miss them. It doesn't matter how much you had with them. So hold what you do have and believe...that they would want you happy and alive. That they would want you to be loved and cared for by someone, even if it wasn't them."
Sting's voice didn't tremble or waver in spite of his emotional state, the faint thousand yard stare I knew too well. He was thinking about someone who meant a great deal to him.
Weisslogia.
It had been 14 years since Sting last saw his foster father. He was a grand total of five years old when the dragons seemingly vanished from the world. And since our conflict and conclusion about the reality of the White Dragon's disappearance, he had lost a lot of his brashness and never bragged about killing a dragon again. But he had never expressed that he missed him either.
"I don't know what all you are feeling right now. Even with you telling me. Even if you dumped every memory you had into my head, I wouldn't know." our eyes met and there was something incredibly soft in them. Understanding. Patient.
"But I'll be here for whatever you are feeling, for as long as you want me to be."
The rosy hues of the ship Stae started up but Morgana pointedly forced it back into its proper place.
"Even if it's just as a friend?"
The words slipped out before I could stop them. And the wording was...suspect and probably obvious. He rocked back slightly before a grin slid over his face.
"So I wasn't losing my mind. You do know."
My face burned with a different kind of discomfort at the hint of smugness that crossed his features.
"Only for the last two weeks. So I wasn't ignoring you for nearly as long as you think."
I had avoided this conversation like the plague the last time it had come up. And now didn't seem like a good time to go over it either. But it was a more healing conversation. Something light hearted to soothe the ache of previous conversation.
"How is it, Fairy Princess, that you, the hands down smartest and most observant person I know, couldn't tell I liked you. Cause I know I wasn't subtle."
This isn't as scary as I thought it would be.
Sting could be a very dramatic person when he felt like it. But he could also be incredibly easy going. And it was a pleasant surprise that he was more tha latter than the former.
Or he's choosing to react like this to lighten the mood on purpose.
A bit of both.
"My favorite and least favorite answer: magic." I said with faux dramatics and a small gesture that made the blanket around slip down my shoulders. He chuckled, posture loosening as he sat back slightly. Lector was frowning in my direction, ears swiveling back and forth between the two of us as he listened attentively to our conversation. He was apparently taking Sting's words to heart and not engaging with me if he couldn't be civil. That or he was reading the room, something he was pretty good at, and not interrupting.
"I'll take it. And to answer your question: yes."
The call back made me need to pause and think back. And then take a closer look at Sting, wondering if he was faking or hiding something. Just to spare my feelings and let me off the hook.
But there was not even a trace of a lie on his face and Morgana affirmed that he wasn't either.
"Really?"
The blond nodded, not even glancing away when Lector pawed at his hand, and let out a tiny chirp asking for attention that made part of me melt. (The little guy was a brat to me a lot of the time, but dang if he wasn't a cute brat.) Sting batted slowly at Lector who balled up his fists and started pushing and swatting at his hand in a game that looked remarkably like kitten behavior.
"I'm stubborn. And I know how I feel." His eyes flashed up to me with a firm warning. "I'm not asking for you to do anything different than what we've done before. And if you're not ok with continuing that knowing how it is for me, then I'll respect that."
That had to be nipped in the bud quickly.
"Not seeing you for seven months was no more fun for me than it was for you."
The absence had been a different kind of hurt than any separation I had ever had before. And this seemed to please him. His expression didn't change but there was a flicker of shining scales dancing over his cheeks.
"You might be having a not so great day, but you just made mine."
And the little smile he had made me smile too. I really, really wanted to ask how he felt that made that admission that I wanted him in my life mean so much to him. But doing so while not being able to give anything but a platonic response felt cheap and disrespectful.
"I friendzoned you in the most brutal way possible for years."
Crushes are painful when they are unrequited. And he had been living for this for who knew how long...
"It wasn't too bad. It's not like you were gushing about this or that crush you had, or that you acknowledged someone else liking you while ignoring me. You just didn't have room for anyone in your life other than friends. So that made being your friend pretty awesome."
I gave him an incredulous look. Because that was a very different tune than what he had been saying for almost the entire time we had known each other.
"And here you were going on for years about saying how you didn't want to be friends?"
"Had to make it obvious somehow. And I thought you would enjoy the wordplay once you did catch on."
I was about to fire a snarky comment right back at him but then...
"...Ok, I can't say that you were wrong."
"Knew it~"
I used the telekinesis rings to call a throw pillow and smack him in the back of the head.
"Don't get too cocky now. I can still put you on your back in the dirt any day, glitterbug."
His eyes sparkled with humor.
"Ok, I want a free pass on the friendship."
"...go ahead." I was morbidly curious as to what he would do.
That turned out to be a mistake. Sting's grin got bigger and he angled his head just so to look me dead in the eye.
"You already knock me off my feet in more ways than one, Princess."
The pillow slammed into his face to allow me to blush in peace as Lector jumped about three feet in the air in alarm.
"Sting!"
"Permission withdrawn." I managed to get out lightly, quietly writing an illusion to conceal my red cheeks before Sting got his composure back. Things were definitely not going to ever be the same after this.
But I think they'll still be good.
A/N
I could have kept Sting in the dark some more, but I don't want to detract from the big moments of the GMG with one sided ship-teasing.
There will be another Cracked Days series, about 3 chapters worth, some transitory filler, and then we are on to the Grand Magic Games.