Lucy had been very understanding considering I had woken her in the middle of the night.
"Fae, you need to stop spending so much time with Natsu if you're starting to break into my place like he does."
"I didn't break a thing getting in here. Also, I refreshed the security wards on your door and windows. You're welcome. I need to talk to Loke."
This rapid fire series of words was a bit much for her when she was still waking up, but she made a sound between a grumble and a laugh and sat up, rubbing at her eyes. She sounded good natured when she spoke teasingly.
"Sometimes I think I should just sign over his contract to you."
"Lucy, please. I think I found a way to talk to Mystogan again."
That made her wake up abruptly and take things seriously.
"You found a way to make an Anima?"
"No. But when Loke was helping me track down Rilt, he was given permission by the Celestial Spirit king to ferry me around. He could take me anywhere his gate could reach."
"Mom always said that the gates could reach anywhere under heaven."
Lucy reached for her key ring, flipping through them by feel alone even as I turned on her light with a gesture.
"It's a long shot, but I wanted to pass a message to the king if he could grant me permission to pass through Loke's gate again. Only this time-"
"-Have him take you to Edolas." She gripped his key in her hand, sliding it off the special clip that allowed her to separate out individual keys without waving around the whole jangling mess whenever she summoned someone. "I never thought of that ,but you're right. There were plenty of familiar faces in Edolas's Fairy Tail to what we have here. But Loke wasn't there, suggesting there might not be an Edolas-Loke. More importantly, I could summon him there without a problem as long as I had the magic for it." She held out his key, it came off of her ring smoothly brown eyes sharpening as she handled her magic to activate his key and spoke in an authoritative tone. "It can't hurt to ask. Open, Gate of the Lion!"
He had appeared with a chime and a subdued glow, looking unruffled and fresh. He was without his blazer, dressed in just his shirt and slacks. He was looking around to try and see what the reason was for his being summoned. I didn't let him wait for long, grabbing his hands.
"Loke, your gate can take you anywhere under the stars, right?"
He looked down at me, and I guess he read something in my face to not ask too many questions or make comments about my not greeting him properly.
"Yeah. Most of the time we stick around our contract holder because we can't spare the energy to be here."
His story was curiously, cautiously blank in such a way that I knew he was stepping carefully around some portion of Celestial Law. It was easy to forget at times that our friend was an immortal being who would still be around after our bones were dust. And that he had to follow some precise rules to not land us or himself in trouble with eternal consequences.
"Does that include Edolas?"
Lucy spoke the question, bold and direct. And I caught a shift in his expression. A shift behind his eyes that spoke of triumph and excitement.
"Yeah. I've been to Edolas. Time was, there were Celestial Spirit Mages there too. But once they started wrecking their natural magic systems with their ether harvesting, the summoners got too weak to call on us or hold us there. They would have died trying."
"So to prevent you all from being punished for causing the death of a summoner, the King pulled all your contracts with those mages." Lucy finished, not looking as though I had just woke her up moments earlier. She looked intent on finding the answers that she wanted. "I summoned you there, when we were fighting against the Edolas army. Do I need to be in Edolas in order for you to be able to go there?"
Loke's teeth pulled wider in a grin. Morgana caught a stray thought he was turning over from where my hands touched his.
'Almost there.'
"Nope."
I knew I was probably squeezing his hands too tightly. But he returned the pressure with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Could I petition the Celestial Spirit King for a favor...to have you take me to Edolas?"
'There it is!'
His grin pulled wider.
"I could do that...Or, I can take the fact that he's already granted me permission to take you through my gate and just...decide to take a trip that you happen to-"
He was cut off and the breath rushed out of him when I threw my arms around him in a hug with a shout of joy. But he still laughed as he caught me. Lucy was beaming from the sidelines, hands steepled in front of her mouth.
"Thank you!"
The King invited you to take books from the library, anticipating that you might come across the knowledge that the Celestial Spirits could reach Edolas. So he has deliberately not retracted his permission for you to use Loke's gate.
Why does he care?
Morgana's explanation verged on territory that couldn't be accurately put into words.
The Celestial Spirit King was the oldest of the Celestial Spirits. And the next oldest after him was Leo. If Leo was reborn, he would still be there in personality, but all the shared experiences and life would be gone. So this gesture was part of the King's gratitude for not needing to say goodbye to his closest friend.
"When do you want to go, princess? Your driver is ready and willing."
"Right now." I pulled back from Loke to look up at him, feeling myself vibrating with unbridled joy. "If you are ready and willing now, I want to go right now."
"Fae, shouldn't you have some-"
Morgana directed some kinetic control to the spellbook, paging over to the X-balls, or Wendy's revised version of them.
"Never go anywhere without 'em."
Lucy chuckled and raised her hands in surrender.
"Alright. Go off and hop over to another world for a little bit. If you're not back by morning, I'll let everyone know where you've gone."
"Thanks Lucy!"
-vVv-
Loke had told me to hold my breath on the way there. So in one moment, I was in Lucy's room, breathing air full of ethernano, and the next, I was inhaling air that was utterly devoid of it. I was familiar with the sensation of time rolling on in spite of part of me wanting to stop. Slow the moment down.
Mystogan.
It simultaneously didn't seem real and felt very real all at the same time.
The room was dark, and my eyes didn't adjust to it very quickly. But I heard someone moving around.
"Loke?"
Mystogan.
Morgana sounded excited.
"Loke, is that you?"
Loke turned on the lights, tossing a small sphere of light into the air to light up the room and revealed him. I could feel Morgana actively adjusting my worldview as I took in the small differences. His dark blue hair was worn several inches longer. There was a red line on his face from sleeping on a pillow's seam. He looked healthy, and well if bleary eyed from being woken up. A soft thunk sounded. Morgana identified the noise as him dropping a knife he had been holding and now he was staring at me. He looked lost in his own mind, like he was trying to reconcile what he saw with what he knew and it wasn't adding up.
He's on guard for assassination attempts.
And every word I had wanted to say to him vanished. Years of wishing, of imagining, and they were gone. Or too confused and jumbled up. All I could get out was:
"Hello Mystogan."
Emotions played over his face, and he seemed frozen to the spot.
Yeah this is probably a fairly massive shock for him.
And that meant it was time for me to ramble.
"This is probably not what you thought you were going to wake up to. Fair. But I couldn't wait and it is really interesting that the time in Edolas flows at the exact same rate as Earthland, with some minor adjustment for the timezone. Magnolia's equivalent...actually fell into the sea about 80 years ago. Uninhabited, thankfully. Mystogan, please tell me that you're still breathing."
He exhaled shakily, closing the distance with a few strides and lifting a hand slowly to rest on top of my head. The nostalgia Morgana tracked from the gesture brought more tears to my eyes.
Not an exhale, a sob.
"When did you get this tall?"
His voice cracked a little on the last word.
"About two years ago."
I figured it was probably a rhetorical question, but I answered all the same, ignoring the waver in my words. And it did elicit a very wet chuckle as Mystogan wrapped both arms around me.
"You made it..."
I hugged back just as tightly. Morgana was picking up the sensation of years worth of uncertainty and worry. Because the last he had seen me, I had been unconscious and not in good health. The more the Anima pulled magic back to Earthland, the closer I got to outright dying. So Mystogan had been running on nothing but hope for years that I had not only made it home again, but had recovered fully from my near death experience.
"I'm ok. I promise, I'm alright." Loke had better not be making a face right now.
He is. But Mystogan isn't paying attention.
I'm still gonna have hell to pay telling Mystogan everything that I've been doing since Edolas.
-vVv-
It was in the wee hours of the morning that Loke and I arrived in Edolas, coinciding more or less with the time we had left Earthland. Give or take about three hours. I hadn't slept more than a few hours. We had woken Mystogan up, but neither of us were really interested in sleep. And I don't think Loke could get much benefit out of sleeping outside of the Celestial Realm. So we had plenty of time to catch up.
-vVv-
"Former Master Precht was Grimoire Hearts's current guild master?"
"I didn't see how Makarov took that particular reveal, but I can't imagine he took it well."
"Oh good. You weren't on Tenrou."
"Yeah I do know that Makarov decided whatever trial I end up taking for my S-class promotion wasn't going to be on Tenrou. He was very glad when he realized it wouldn't be his problem anymore when he came back.."
-vVv-
"They named her Asuka...She is adorable. And about as big as you were back then."
"She is as cute as a bug, but if you get Alzack started, he won't stop singing her praises for days about how beautiful she is."
"And Bisca doesn't?"
"She's more proud of her aim, which I will admit is very, very good."
"Good for a child?"
"No, legit very good."
-vVv-
"'Kinana'. She has both her name and her life back?"
"All of it. She still gets a little nippy when she's mad. But she is 100% living life as a person, not as a snake."
-vVv-
"Ghosts."
"Yes."
"Honest to goodness, wizard hunting ghosts."
"Yes."
"You went to Iceberg because of some goats and got caught up in a mass haunting of murderous ghosts. And your first response upon knowing they were there was to run towards them?"
"...I wouldn't say it quite like that. But, in essence-"
"Fae!"
-vVv-
"I am still too happy to see you to be concerned about the amount of time you are telling me that you spent in prison."
"I was visiting Eric. You say that like I was arrested. That hasn't happened yet."
"Yet?"
"I can't rule out the possibility that it may happen at some point in the future, so yes. Yet."
"Most people do everything in your power to avoid arrest, not acknowledge it as a statistical possibility."
-vVv-
"How did Oris's trial go? There is a record of a problematic militia member by that name who vanished some years ago. I didn't think he would find a way to get himself in trouble in Earthland."
"The prosecutor had him over a barrel between everything we gave him as evidence and Wendy's standing in the community. The trial was...rather significantly delayed because other inmates kept getting at Oris."
-vVv-
I would happily have kept telling Mystogan everything that had been going on in Earthland. But the sun was rising and someone was knocking at his door.
"Did you have somewhere you needed to be?"
"Technically yes."
He rose from the chairs we had been occupying as I gave him my run down of the last 7 years on my end. I had tried to keep it open for him to speak as well, I wanted to hear about his doings here too, but he had kept the focus on Earthland. Deliberately I felt. Loke was reclined on a sofa, lounging comfortably and leaving us to catch up. The knocking came again.
"Your majesty, you didn't come down for breakfast, are you alright?"
The speaker was a woman, fairly young by the sound of it. Peering just around Mystogan's shoulder, I could see her. Almond shaped brown eyes, dark brown hair and a smile on her face as he answered the door.
She likes him.
Morgana noted, seeing a faint pinkish aura start to build in the back of our mind.
"Risse, I have some unexpected guests this morning. Could you have the kitchens send up three portions? I'll be taking a personal day."
Her gaze flicked over to me and I saw her eyes widen.
"Miss Terra!?"
She looked aghast and Morgana detected trace notes of envy and scandal in her exclamation. I bounced to my feet and moved a bit closer. Mystogan gestured to me to come stand right by his side.
"Not quite. This is Faerun, a wizard of Earthland Fairy Tail and, at one time, my apprentice."
"You haven't officially graduated me so you aren't rid of me just yet."
I reminded him a little pointedly, making Mystogan chuckle as he knocked my shoulder with his.
"So facetious."
Risse was apparently dealing with her shock and a tiny bit of a nearly broken heart with the grace of a consummate professional.
"Are there any dietary restrictions to consider for you, Miss Faerun?"
She asked me directly, though I could tell she really wanted to look around for some sign of this third guest who had not yet been introduced.
"None in particular. Loke?"
"Something with taaos syrup would be lovely."
He sat up, yawning cavernously. Risse's face went pale, her minor crush on Mystogan suddenly eclipsed by whatever surprise seeing Loke brought her. But she held it together and curtsied, rather deeply and hastily, almost losing her balance.
"Right away, my lord!"
"Risse." And yet, despite her obviously wanting to hurry on her way as quickly as possible, she stopped dead at a single mention of her name from Mystogan. "Discreetly please. I would like to enjoy my time with my friends."
She flushed red.
"As you wish, sire."
This girl has got it bad.
Then I noticed she was trying to avoid looking at Loke and that made me have questions.
-vVv-
"Loke is a central figure in Edolas' state religion?"
"I told you I used to visit here before."
" No where in that statement was any mention of 'I'm considered a manifestation of the divine will of the heavens'."
Mystogan tried to not let his laughter at Fae and Loke's banter interrupt. Fae, with her usual keenness, had noticed Risse had behaved strangely upon seeing Loke and had wanted to know why. Which had led to a very interesting conversation where Mystogan got to teach Fae something new.
She got so tall.
Seeing his apprentice again after seven years, when he had partially resigned himself to never knowing if she would survive the trip home, had been a dream come true. Being able to slide back into their usual dynamic, he the teacher and she the voracious learner, was a relief. That time had changed so much about both of them but had not changed them.
She's just as beautiful as I knew she would be.
There were so many more things to absorb just about what had happened while he had been gone. Grimoire Heart, Master Precht, Achnologia, Fairy Sphere. He and Fae had talked for hours and he still felt as though he had barely scratched the surface of what had gone on. And that was all just focused on Fae and her life. She had been the one he worried about the most, but there were other people he had wondered about.
Cubellios, or Kinana as she was now known, Erza, Natsu and Gray, the trio of childhood companions that had been formed long before any team was added to the formal roster. Master Makarov. Jellal-
Who was still using his face and identity in Earthland. And he had yet to speak to the man.
And I think that as though I'll be going back soon.
It had come up in their discussion. How Fae was here in Edolas without building an Anima. The short answer to which was still mind boggling and would probably get her added to the roster of Edolas Saints. The Celestial Spirit King giving this kind of permission? Mystogan had looked into Celestial Spirit Mages when he arrived in Earthland, curious about the facet of his homelands history that was deemed a normal, if uncommon part of life in Earthland. He had found only the barest mention of some summoners being so favored by the king of the heavens that he would speak to them. But to invite mortals to his home, share a meal with them, grant them this amount of freedom...
There is something else afoot. Nothing malicious I'm sure, but it's more than just Fae asking nicely that got her this.
But the doorway Fae and Loke had used to get here was not one that he could pass through. Mystogan was still effectively trapped in this world. He just wouldn't be quite as lonely or starved for hope while he waited for another miracle.
"Muffliato."
A buzzing filled his ears as Fae put up her preferred quick eavesdropper ward with a soft whisper. They had been eating breakfast in privacy, but she must have detected someone listening in. He was unsurprised. True privacy was for someone who hadn't been the target of multiple assassination attempts.
"Mystogan."
There was a certain tone in Fae's voice, a steadiness to her gaze as she looked at him and through him. She was confronting a potentially painful situation and was doing so head on.
"I've been avoiding asking about it because I was happy to see you. But I find it concerning that in all of this time, you've only been asking about what I've been doing. And avoided any kind of detailed answer when I asked about what you were up to."
Of course she would notice.
Fae had been trying to get information on what had changed in Edolas. Her academic self had been very eager and curious to see what fuel had replaced magic in their industry.
"If what I am seeing and not hearing is correct, you are the most eligible bachelor in the world and have generally made life better for practically everyone in the world. You've been the king for seven years, people here practically worship you. So if all your citizens think that what you have done is worthy of all that acclaim, why don't you?"
Of course initially people had left him alone about his choice to not settle down, or pursue a romantic relationship with someone. There was a mountain of work to do to get Edolas running as a functioning not militarized nation. But after the first few years, the questions came in, at first subtly and then more directly: When was he getting married and securing his line for the throne?
As that would be working against what he intended to do, Mystogan had been running out of ways to divert the questions without raising suspicion. But right now, he would trust Fae's spell and her and Loke's discretion.
"Because I have been working since the day they put a crown on my head, to transition Edolas into a nation ruled by an assembly of representatives rather than a single monarch. And I am not unaware of how such a thing would be received after recent history."
He was too popular. There was no getting around that fact. The last man who had tried to kill Mystogan had not ever made it to trial. He had died while in prison. It was nothing that could be proven, but Mystogan and his closest advisors, General Mikas as well as Terra among them, suspected that there had been some shady dealing to see to it. Not as an attempt to conceal who had sent him, but to take revenge because he had targeted Mystogan specifically. The open dissent that had characterized his early years had faded to almost nothing now due to the intensity of social reprisal that would fall on anyone even speaking ill of him. The celebrity life that he had managed to largely avoid as Mystogan of Fairy Tail was now crashing over him in full force.
Someone taking vengeance on his behalf, and circumventing the law that he had passed and worked to uphold did not sit right with him. He saw little difference between that and Faust painting him as a martyr to further his conquest. It was another sign to him that his stint as king had better be a temporary measure. Any child or heir after him would have a literal world of expectations to uphold. That would just be propagating the system he wanted to reform and mislead anyone he did get involved with about his future prospects.
"You want to come back to Earthland?"
She didn't look surprised but the fact that she was even asking said part of her had wondered if he would.
"This land is my birthplace. And I want to do right by it. But my life is in Earthland with you and with Fairy Tail. And it has always been my goal to be able to leave this place behind me and live there."
Loke gave a quiet grin and Mystogan saw Fae's eyes gleam and she leaned forward. A hint of a manic spark in her.
"Does that mean I get to plan how to abduct a king in the next little while?"
It seemed the little girl who hid under a table had grown up and left someone in her place who wholeheartedly embraced chaos for a cause.
"You just work out a way for me to get back to Earthland. I'll handle my exit strategy."
He estimated he would be able to put forward his final motion to switch government power from his hands to a council in a year. If people still wanted a central figurehead, he could implement an elected governor or presiding figure system to work alongside the council. Then he could slowly detach himself from Edolas and other responsibilities over another year.
"I've already got three ideas on how to get you out. How do you feel about deity impersonation?"
He reached over and poked her forehead, bringing her focus back down to the ground before she hatched a scheme that would level the city.
"Get me a way back, Fae, I'll handle the rest."
She pulled a face that was so like the one she had used as a child when she was reluctantly turning away from a line of thinking. He had to laugh at the familiar sight, grateful that flashes of the girl he remembered still existed in this young woman.
"Fine... I don't suppose you've kept any of the Anima blueprints or schematics? That would be a good place to start from."
-vVv-
Two days passed by too quickly.
Mystogan showed Fae the blueprints she asked for. He introduced her to Cirri. Which made Fae start on the environmental integration to bring his Legion to Earthland because she would hate to be left behind. Cirri seemed to understand what Fae was saying, since she gave the girl a strong nuzzle and a maternal croon or approval. The names Fae was mentioning in her ramble meant nothing to Mystogan, but she seemed wholly familiar with. He inquired with Loke, on the off chance that he might know more.
"I'm still trying to catch up with everything that she's done. As far as I can tell, Fae's made waves in multiple facets of media as well as historical and magical research in higher academia. She cracked open the Nirvit scroll while my key was in Fairy Sphere, and there was a lot to work with there. I wouldn't be surprised if she knows these people personally to help introduce a new species to Earthland."
Fae was still musing about potential methods to immunize Legion against Earthland disease without compromising Edolas's system by introducing harmful foreign elements. And Mystogan was content to listen, and take note of some strategies and ideas.
She met his advisors and usual guards. Mystogan saw Sting Cliffside almost swallow his tongue upon seeing Fae happily greeting General Mikas. He was reminded of the look on a young blond boy's face when Fae had first met him in the aftermath of a skirmish with shale imps.
Nope. Not acceptable. Open your eyes and pursue Terra, if she'll still take you. Fae is off limits.
He moved behind him stealthily, taking advantage of his distraction to get into his blind spot. He kept his voice mild and quiet. The typical teaching tone when someone knew better but was still making a stupid mistake.
"Where are your eyes, soldier?"
The young man snapped to attention and he looked sharply at Mystogan. He didn't look too alarmed or chagrined at having been caught staring. He needed a more direct approach.
"Your Majesty!"
He clasped his shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. In the spirit of friendly warning.
"I will dispense with the formality and the pretense, Cliffside. Off limits. Understood?"
His eyes flicked to Fae and then back to the young guardsman. He didn't think he was making that frightening of an expression, but Cliffside swallowed and nodded jerkily. But his eyes darted back to Fae all the same.
"She looks like Miss Faerun."
"She is Terra's Earthland alternate, and was my responsibility in my guild for a number of years. Although, she typically uses Faerun as her given name rather than her last name."
Mystogan wouldn't deny he knew why Cliffside was staring.
Terra had kept her hair in a cute pixie cut, and would usually wear the dignified, slate gray palace official's male uniform and remained reserved around most people. Only showing her real self around those she was close with. Fae cut a very different silhouette with her long hair, glowing eyes and shameless display of her magic and her boldness.
Terra had moved past the painful part of her feelings, though she still had a bit of a crush on Cliffside. As far as he knew, they had a casual sort of friendship right now but it was unclear whether they would ever become more. And yes, Fae had told him about Sting Eucliffe, the White Dragon Slayer. And the parallels were slightly unbelievable to him.
Speaking of Terra, the Edolas alternate of his apprentice walked in, and her face lit up upon seeing Fae. Without any words being spoken, the girls crashed into each other, hugging, laughing and chatting merrily as if they had been friends for their whole lives. Cliffside was now staring, several of the younger guardsmen alongside him, as the lovely strangers greeted one another. They looked more like they were twin sisters reuniting after a long separation. Fae's head tilted at the angle that it usually went when she was reading something new about the world around her. And then her grin flashed out all the brighter as she looked at Terra assessingly. Then glanced at a reflection in the window in which she could see Cliffside gawking at them both. That glance was for Terra, not for the boy and she went slightly pink but otherwise didn't react. Though she had likely told Fae everything just with that.
Oh no.
Mystogan felt the urge to apologize to General Mikas, because he suspected Fae was planning to play matchmaker. If only a little. He might have felt a little bad about condemning the young man to a brutal training regime for the next few days. But...not too bad. He had grown very fond of Terra and if he finally realized the young woman was lovely, then he would have a considerable amount of groveling to do in order to make up for his thoughtless snub some years earlier.
-vVv-
Touring the repaired city would have been much simpler without people trying to pave the streets with flowers or ask Loke to offer prayers on their behalf to the Almighty. The Golden Zodiac Spirit adopted an aloof persona and did not stray very far from Fae's side, always giving her his full attention.
"The King pulled the Celestial Spirits out of Edolas for a reason. If magic comes back and it's survivable for us to return? Then he'll send us back."
Mystogan chuckled, comfortably cloaked in Fae's protective charms so he would not incite any kind of public turmoil, and needled him gently.
"So what I am hearing is that we haven't lost all our magic in the world."
Loke gave him a bright eyed smile, rays subtly shining out from his face.
"You can interpret that however you want, man."
On his otherside, Fae chimed in.
"I do actually have some ideas on how to reintegrate ethernano, or a similar source, back into Edolas. It'd just take a couple of generations. Or...a couple dozen."
"A few years, yeah. My years, not yours."
"I followed your meaning, Loke. Thanks."
I wish I could bottle the anti-eavesdropping wards. Just being able to talk like this without worrying about who would overreact and spread bizarre rumors has been so nice.
-vVv-
Stark, unbridled terror was not a response I expected from most people. But coming from Hughes? I'd accept it. And even lean into it.
"Hi cringy sadist. Did you miss me?"
The man's face matched the white streak in his hair as he tried to put someone else between me and him.
"Wh-why is she here, sire?"
Mystogan raised his brows, face not showing a hint of amusement or confusion.
"My apprentice and any of my Earthland friends will always be welcome under my roof."
"I-I see, you've gotten a lot bigger."
Shoot, he looks genuinely terrified. Maybe dial it back a little?
He is unsettled because you were capable of 2v1 him and an ally as a child and now you're back as an adult with him having had several years to exaggerate and twist the events in his mind.
I took that as a maybe from Morgana.
"That's what happens when time passes! I'm really glad to not have to fight anyone this time. Edolas sky islands are giving me so many ideas!"
And now Mystogan looked concerned. Hughes looked like he was on the verge of passing out. I glanced at my one time teacher.
"Too much?"
"Did any of these ideas make you giggle for longer than 15 seconds?"
You could just say it was too much and leave it at that,
-vVv-
"So, you have a crush on that blond guard, Sting Cliffside."
"...Figures you would catch on. Yeah, I do."
"I'll scope him out for you if you want."
"I'd really rather not deal with him crushing on someone from another world and still ignoring me."
"Is it ignoring or just him not noticing? Because there is a difference."
"He turned me down flat when I told him I liked him."
"...is it suicide or homicide to kill your alternate from another universe?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Because Earthland's Sting Eucliffe is one of my very good friends and he would come in swinging if given the chance."
-vVv-
I am not a matchmaker or a fairy godmother and it is not my job to fix everything.
I am not a matchmaker or a fairy godmother and it is not my job to fix everything.
Can I stop now?
A few more times, just to let it sink in. Terra is in charge of her own life and it is not your place to interfere in it or in her love life.
Alright, I am not a matchmaker-
-vVv-
"Is she the reason why you kept back a copy of the Anima blueprints?"
Mystogan smiled at General Mikas's blunt question after he entered his office. This was the first time he had been back in this room in three days thanks to the unexpected but very much welcome visit from Earthland. Fae had already set plans for her to come back for another visit in a few months. Preparing for the Grand Magic Games would take a lot of her time and focus and she wanted to be able to give her team her best efforts.
"Do you want your team to win, or just Fairy Tail to win?"
"I want certain people to get humbled and the chance to show I'm not just a scholar and playwright, but a cross-career menace."
The fierce gleam in her eye was a refined version of the manic spark of focus in the child Fae's eyes. Mystogan had been grateful that the trait had survived, and worried for what this new drive would get his young friend into. He was sure her capabilities had grown along with her, and she would not willingly get into trouble that she couldn't get herself out of. But at the heart of the matter: Fae had always been an old soul. At this point, the disparity between her young appearance and maturity was not as pronounced. But she was still the same person he knew where it mattered.
"Out of everyone I am acquainted with, I trust her discretion the most."
"You handed the plans for a functional weapon of mass destruction to a 17 year old."
"Words that are nonsense to us alter reality when she speaks them. A lullaby she sang brought down half a dozen men before she had any major experience as a wizard. The secret I devoted my life to hiding? She figured it out within seconds of meeting me. She has tools and knowledge that by all appearances she was just born with that make the Anima look like a child's bubble wand."
The man looked a bit more ragged with every word that Mystogan said. Perhaps he should assure him a bit. If he could. General Mikas's expression of vaguely constipated pain eased.
"Terra is...very similar to Faerun. I know she sees the world in a different way than anyone else. And if you hold such trust in Faerun, even after not seeing her for years, I will do the same."
This seemed like both a small olive branch and a massive concession. The young king gave his right hand, who he knew had spent years neither trusting or liking him, a searching look.
"Keep that up, general and I might get the impression that you actually like me."
"I do, sire. You're the one between us who has been avoiding personal connections with Edolas."
Mystogan groaned, massaging his temple as he slumped into his chair, ready to avoid saying once again why he was so invested in not settling down.
"Just because I don't want to get married-"
"I'm not talking about only that, though it is a good example." The man turned fully towards him. "Just because the country would be at a loss to see you leave us does not mean it would be devastated. Or that anyone would bodily prevent you from leaving if that is where your heart led you."
The monarch sensed this was going to be a different kind of nagging from the man and sat up to give him his full attention.
"That is not the impression I have gotten, General."
"Sire, should you disappear, the nation will revolt to track you down again in a misguided rescue attempt. Or avenge your death if that is what is found to have happened. If it is suspected that you were brought back to Earthland, if you're voluntarily going there is not made well known, someone, somewhere, will find an underutilized genius and pry open the gate between our worlds to find you again."
It seems I was not as careful as I thought. Or this surprise visit was illuminating in more ways than one.
Trusting Simon Mikas had never landed him in trouble before. So Mystogan opted to...not deny what he was saying rather than avoiding it. The man was more than intelligent enough to draw his own conclusions.
"I am not unaware of that possibility."
He glanced through another letter that, in short terms, was another father with enough wealth and gumption to suggest his daughter as a queen candidate. It went onto the stack with the rest of them and the man's name went onto a list of people to keep an eye on.
"You don't seem to be preparing for it."
"I didn't anticipate an opportunity to return to Earthland arising for at least a decade, bare minimum. It took a team of experts more than 40 years to devise the Anima from scratch."
"So you estimated it would take one child 10 years to make any headway on the project?"
"She wasn't starting from scratch. To equate, General, how long would you give Terra to come up with a solution to the problem if she was motivated to see it through?"
The man's one good eye went vacant for a moment before he acquiesced with a nod.
"I see your point, sire. Am I to assume that Miss Faerun will be a frequent visitor then?"
"She said she would be. Plan for her next stay in about a month's time."
"Very well, your majesty."
Now that this had been reached, Mystogan would be able to get updates in real time about where she stood in creating a stable Anima. And he would have to factor that into his current plans so that no one else in Edolas would get any bright ideas. And with their being actual contact between their worlds, there would need to be some procedure in place for those who wished to explore new horizons and move to Earthland. Fae would set up correspondence between himself and her other contacts in Fiore as some neighboring nations to give these prospective newcomers a place to land.
He would have to accelerate some parts of his master plan and pull back on others. But he had more than hope now. Now he knew that home was still waiting for him. A bit different than he had left it. Certainly he wouldn't have the same place in it as he had before after years of absence. He would even consider dying his hair or changing his appearance to return there under a new identity. So long as he could be there again. His guild mark had faded gradually over the last seven years, but it had recently been refreshed by Fae's hand so it was as crisp and new as when he had first gotten it. Mystogan turned towards his work at reforming a nation with a promise to himself.
This mark won't have the chance to fade again. I will be home before it does.
"Now then, we go to work."