Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.
-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-
Arc 3: Learning Magic!
Chapter 8: Secrets of the Tome. Part 1
Year: X752. 32 years till Canon begins.
Cade POV:
7 days left to learn magic.
After Gildarts had finished showing me around the guildhall not too long after Master returned to his office, he stopped to ask me a question "So what magic do you use? I already told you that I use Crush Magic." He questioned as we sat on a bench in the guildhall.
"I haven't discovered my inner magic yet, but I'm hoping to learn magic from this book right here." I said as showed Gildarts Mavel's spell book that I'd been carrying since Makarov gave it back to me.
"Oh, ok." Gildarts looked surprised. "So that's why Master wanted you to learn a spell within a week, I get it now." He said understanding with a nod of his head.
"Why do I need to do it within a week?" I was puzzled.
"Well, non-mages obviously aren't aloud to legally join a Wizard's Guild for obvious reasons. But a non-magic user is aloud to join as long as they can learn to cast magic within a week of joining. If they're unable to, then they have to leave as it's the law." Gildarts answered.
"Ah, but don't worry! I'm sure you'll learn a spell from that book within the next 24 hours I'm sure, you got this!" He assured patting me on the shoulder.
I then opened the spell book and showed the first page that was covered in unintelligible runes to Gildarts, his mouth dropping upon seeing them. "Might not be as easy as that…" I muttered scratching my head.
"What the heck?! How are you supposed to read and learn from that?!" He said in shock pointing at the runes.
I then pulled out the sheet of paper that allowed me to translate the runes one letter at a time. "This allows me to translate the runes on the pages so I can find the right phrase I need to say to remove them from each page, then I can read them normally." I shrugged sighing. This wouldn't be easy.
"But why would someone put magic unreadable runes on their own spell book? I mean, I assume it's not yours right?" Gildarts thought about that, as he looked at me raising his eyebrow in curiosity.
"No it's not mine… it was once belonged to a dark wizard called Malvel. Some wizards got ahold of the book and put those runes on it so that no one can use it again. Until now of course." I finished glancing at the runes again.
"I see… how long does it take to translate each page?" Gildarts inquired back to me.
"I don't know, I mean it took Master a good few minutes to translate it while wearing some glasses that let you read it faster. So I don't really know how long."
"Hey I know! How about you ask Master for the glasses! I doubt he'd refuse you!" Gildarts suggested, him looking proud at the idea.
"Yeah! Why didn't I think of that?! Good idea Gildarts. Let's go ask-"
"That won't work you know." Came a sudden voice from behind the two of us.
As I turned around I got to have a look at who said that, and I was saw that it was a boy who looked about Gildarts age. He was taller than the both of us, and he had black hair and black eyes. He wore a dark blue long sleeved shirt with a very light blue ascot. Below that he wore a pair of dark trousers with boots to match that colour.
"I mean you were talking about Gale Force Reading Glasses right? They need lacrima to charge up before they can be used again."
"Oh. Hey there Ivan, I didn't know you were back." Greeted Gildarts, before turning to look to me. "This is Ivan Dreyar. He's Master's son, he joined a few months before I did." He turned back to face Ivan. "I thought you were sick?"
"I got better." Ivan said dryly.
"Oh… ok. Well what's this about the glasses needing a lacrima to be recharged?!" Gildarts questioned Ivan in disbelief.
"Don't question me like that. I just saw father hold a lacrima next to it and it began to charge that's all." Ivan replied back to Gildarts. He then turned to me. "I guess I'll be seeing you around then… Cade was it?" He said puzzled.
"Yeah, nice to meet you Ivan." I smiled raising a hand to him. Ivan hesitated before taking it and shaking it. Afterwards he left the both of us and left the guildhall.
"Yeah that's Ivan for you… He was just curious about you that's all. Anyway that sucks that we can't use those glasses!" Gildarts huffed in annoyance. "I guess you'll have to do it the old fashioned way then."
"Yeah I guess… I guess I better start now then, can't exactly waste anytime on this." I stood up from the bench and made my way over to the guildhall door. "I'll be back here tomorrow, I guess I'll see you then?" I said to Gildarts.
"Yeah, see you. Oh! Wait a minute!" Said Gildarts as he ran up to me "Can I still head over to you place sometime and hang out with your friends soon? You, me… I doubt Ivan would play with us… oh and that girl from the party! Maybe ask her?" Gildarts said with anticipation.
"Sure I'll go to her house on the way back and ask her, then I'll let you know!" I explained as I left the guild and made my way to Lilly's house. Gildarts waving at me as I left.
Magnolia was a rather rectangular shaped town, with long wide roads that lead you to all sorts of corners in the town. The Fairy Tale Guild was located on the coast of the town. Which was currently behind me.
The centre of the town had Kardia Cathedral which was the towns most famous landmark. Magnolia was a place where anyone could come and stay, as it had a bathhouse, bakery, pool, hospital as well as many other buildings for the townspeople. Lilly's house was located to the east of the town.
As I traveled to Lilly's house I began to think back on everything that happened today.
First I get a surprise recording from my father that was done before I was born. Then I learn about Malvel and Velmal. After that we unlocked his spell book. Next I was offered to join Fairy Tail which I accepted. Finally I'm to learn a spell and demonstrate it to Makarov to not get fired from the guild.
Would I have enough time to decode those ruins? Makarov said it was hard for him to decode back at the manor, so how well would I do in that regard? Questions for later, as now I had arrived at her house.
Lilly's house was a small house compared to the huge manor I lived in. It had two floors with a stone chimney and it had a nice triangular styled roof. In the house lived Lilly and her mother. I knocked on the door and was greeted by Lilly's mother.
"Cade! It's so good to see you!" Her mother said surprised. "Are you here to see Lilly? She's in her room right now." She told me.
"Yeah could I come in and see her?" I asked.
"Of course you can! You've been friends with her for years now, you can come by here anytime you wish." Her mother kindly moved aside to let me in.
The inside of the house was very cosy and snug. I had moved in to enter the living room in which there was the fireplace and a nice couch and tea table in the room. The walls were painted with a nice sea blue colour.
I heard Lilly's mother shout up the stairs. "Lilly! You have a visitor her to see you!"
Just then I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and a few seconds later I saw Lilly step into the living room.
"Caaaaaaade!" She shouted as she ran to hug me, with a big smile on her face.
"Lilly! It's good to see you again!" I smiled, as I hugged her back. "I'm… sorry I haven't been in touch as much recently. But a lot has happened since then!"
"Oooooh tell me all about it!" Lilly asked with interest as she broke the hug and looked at me.
"I'll leave you two alone to talk then." Lilly's mother said chucking she left the room.
"Alright take a seat. A lot has happened recently. In fact all the things I'm going to tell you happened today!" I told Lilly gaining a surprised look on her face.
I then told Lilly everything that happened today, with Master dropping by, the final message from my father, the story of the brothers, the unlocking of the spell book, joining Fairy Tail, meeting Gildarts again, meeting Ivan and of course the one week deadline date in which I had to learn a spell to be booted out of the guild.
Upon finishing my story, Lilly's mouth was wide open in shock of everything she had heard. I was curious about what she would comment on first, but I got my answer quite quickly.
"WOAH YOU JOINED FAIRY TAil!? THAT'S SO COOOOOL!" She yelled out.
'Yeah I expected her to comment on that first.' I thought with some amusement.
"Yup, here's my guild mark." I showed her my left arm with the Fairy Tale Guild emblem on it.
"Awesome! So now you can go on jobs and make money right?" She wondered with excitement.
"Well I don't have any spells to cast yet, so I gotta get to translating this when I get home." I explained raising the book in my hand which was previously sitting on my lap.
"And it's ok to use that? I mean… a dark wizard did write it after all." She wondered nervously.
I didn't plan on saying to everyone I met that the magic I was learning came from a dark wizard's spell book. I was only telling those I trusted who at this point consisted of: Makarov, mother, Gildarts, Lilly, Pierce and Charles.
I was telling Pierce and Charles, as they were servants of the house so they were just going to find out eventually, Mother and Makarov already knew and Gildarts did request to help me out at the guild so I felt like I had to tell him. As for Lilly, I trusted her a lot with other secrets in the past, like the time I told her where the key to the basement was so we could explore it together mainly because I was terrified of going down there alone.
"I think so… my father wanted me to learn the spells inside of it. Plus I think he knew that the wizard that originally made the spell book had redeemed himself in his eyes, so I trust the spells in this book." I answered confidently.
Lilly nodded her head in understanding before asking her next question.
"How do you plan to translate the runes in the book in such a short amount of time?" She asked worryingly.
"I'll take a look at it tonight and head for the guild tomorrow morning, hopefully by then I'll get the first page translated." I said trying to reassure her. She seemed a little bit calmer when I said this, and she then asked her next question.
"So are you, Gildarts and Ivan the only people around your age at the guild?"
"Yeah I think so, I mean everyone else I saw at the guild today looked at least above the age of 18. Maybe I'll see some people my age when I get back there tomorrow." I turned to look outside the window, to see the sun beginning to dip in the sky.
"That's the sun setting now. I'll have to go now Lilly, I'll be sure to come back round soon!" I assured her cheerfully, as I stood up from the couch I was sitting on and picked up the spell book in my hand.
"Ok! Good luck learning that magic! Come back to see me when you do!" Lilly said as I made my way to the door with her following me.
"Thanks Lilly! And… I'm sorry for ignoring you since my father died. You were trying to help me… and I just ignored you." I said in shame looking down at the floor, not wanting to look at her face.
"There's no need to apologise you know. What matters is that you got back up and are ready to get a move on with your life and make him proud of you." Came the voice from Lilly's mother from the top of the stairs.
"Yeah… what my mother said!" Lilly piped up happily.
I felt a little bit emotional upon hearing that from them. "Thanks guys, I really appreciate that." I said looking back up at them, as I smiled kindly at the mother and daughter. "Oh! I almost forgot to say, Lilly do you want to come over to my place with Gildarts one day and play with us?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Please, I've been wanting to play with you two since the party!" Lilly said excitedly.
"Alright I'll make sure to come round and let you know when it's happening! Bye guys!" I waved as I left them to head back to the manor.
By the time I reached the manor it was sunset by now. Assuming I was going to be spending a lot of time at the Fairy Tale Guild, I would have to make sure I leave early enough as we were practically in winter by now, so it will be getting darker a lot faster.
Thankfully it's only a 15 minute walk to Magnolia from the manor and then a five minute walk to the Fairy Tale Guild, so I should have time as long as I'm careful. I knocked on the door of the manor (as I didn't have a key just yet) and soon Charles opened the door to let me in.
"Ah Sir Philipe so good to see you out of the house again! I'm glad you are recovering well." Charles spoke to me with a happy tone. "Dinner is almost out. You and your mother are having spaghetti tonight. Any issues with that?" He asked me.
"No that will be fine Charles, thank you for watching out for me." I thanked him as I entered the house and made my way to the dining hall.
"I wouldn't be a good family servant if I wasn't always watching out for you wouldn't you agree?" Charles informed, as we reached the dining hall.
I nodded in agreement as I took a seat in my chair at the table, there was dozens of seats of course but I mainly liked siting on the right most middle seat. A few minutes later, mother came into the dining hall and took her seat across from me.
"Ah! Cade there you are! I'm glad you remembered what I said and made it back here before dark. Magnolia is a very safe and quiet town, so I don't mind you taking a walk down to the Guild as long as you are back here before it gets dark." She said, reminding me. "Oh yes! Did you become a member of the guild today?!" Her quickly remembering why I had gone down to the town in the first place.
"Yup!" I said as I showed her my guild emblem on my arm. She simply cried out in delight and clapped her hand together.
"Oh that's wonderful! I'm sure you father would be very proud of you right now if he could see you right now." She said back to me, with a nice big smile on her face as she did.
At that point the spaghetti and refreshments was brought in by Pierce and Charles who laid them in front of us. "Thank you, you two. That will be all that I require of you today. You may retire early if you wish." My mother said to them.
Pierce and Charles simply have a small bow before Pierce said. "Thank you M'lady, you are too kind. We shall lock the door when we leave?" Pierce asked curiously towards the end.
"Yes please." Said mother. With that, Pierce and Charles left the dining hall, and headed out the grand hall in which they locked the door. Me and mother then began to dig in to our spaghetti.
"Mmmm, this is always really good! Pierce and Charles sure know what they are doing!" I said happily, as I was taking a break to calm my stomach after eating so much in such a short amount of time.
"Yes they always do. Anyway how was your first day at the guild?" Mother asked me.
"Oh it was really good! I got to meet Gildarts again, he was the boy that came up with Master Makarov on my birthday. We decided to come round here one day to play and hang out. Me, him, Lilly and maybe Cornelia if she's well!" I explained excitedly.
"Oh yes that does sound like fun! I think you would all enjoy doing that together!" My mother approved smiling at the idea.
"Oh there was one other thing. I need to learn a single spell in at least seven days or else I'll be forced to leave the guild." I added in a bit more of a bit more of a nervous tone than before.
"What? But you haven't discovered your magic yet! How are you supposed to use magic? Surely Master Makarov doesn't expect you to translate the pages in that book!?" Mother said in shock.
"Yeah… I have the translating sheet here. Before I go to bed I'll try to translate some of it. Then maybe finish the rest in the morning." I replied back with a grim expression.
"Hmm, not sure if I approve of the whole idea from Makarov, but I guess it would be bad if a non-magic user joined a guild now." I head mother say under her breath, looking down at the rest of her spaghetti.
I then began to eat my dinner again to distract myself from the thought of potentially staying up all night to decipher a single spell page.
When I finished my dinner, and I began to head upstairs to my bedroom, I heard mother say something to me. "Don't stay up too late now! I don't want to see large bags under your eyes in the morning! Ok?" I heard her yell up to me.
"Ok!" I yelled back as I went to my room to take a crack at translating these pages. As I entered my room, I made my way over my wooden desk and placed the book and the translating sheet of paper on it. Before then taking a seat on the chair and pulling it up to the desk. I then opened the book up to the first page and took a closer look at the enchantment runes.
'Ok, from what I remember today, Master translated the front cover using the translator sheet, placed his hand on the front cover, then said the correct verse to unlock it. I guess I just do the same here?' I took a look at the translating sheet.
To put it simply, the founders of Fairy Tail were either really scared of what was in this spell book or they all had a really sick sense of humour. You see there was up to 36 different runes of each page that could appear which represented a different letter of the alphabet or a number.
The issue was there was also different versions of each letter or number that could appear each time. For example there was four different versions of the letter 'e'. This made translating this first page quite the struggle.
As I was slowly making my way through it, I had been writing the phrase on a scrap of paper so I wouldn't forget it. Altogether this page wasn't that inherently bad all things considered.
I was about halfway through and it had only been an hour since I started. As long as I focused and didn't fall asleep I should be fine. The phrase I have to decipher for this page wasn't too long which was a plus. But as I was translating the message, I began to get confused at what I was meant to say.
—
What did the tree do when the-
—
I was quite befuddled at to what this verse was supposed to mean. I was under the impression that all the verses were meant to hold some sort of deep meaningful message behind it. This… didn't look like that at all. I can't see how trees would relate to evil dark magic that may be very dangerous in the wrong hands.
The only positive I could see from all of this was that I was halfway through, so in around another hour I would be able to say the verse and unlock this particular page. The struggle to stay awake was getting to me now, it was around 9:00pm by now and I was tired from all the walking I had done. Nonetheless, I pushed onwards and was able to finish translating the verse. Upon re-reading the whole thing I was utterly stunned by what it said.
—
What did the tree do when the bank closed?
It started its own branch
—
It… was a joke… and it wasn't one that made me laugh either.
'Wait what!? Why is there a really bad tree joke in a very dangerous spell book?! Is this meant to persuade people to stop reading… Wait… Are all the other pages like this!?'
I dreaded the idea of getting even more horrible tree jokes in the coming days. This book was huge! There was no way that I wasn't getting through another verse tonight, I'll just translate this one and see what it has to say.
I put the palm of my hand on the first page and when the purple magic circle appeared I (begrudgingly) read out the joke. Just then there was a bright purple light that came from the page, and when it disappeared I saw that the page had indeed been translated into actual english words that I could read!
—
X680, November
It's been three days since me and Velmal joined Blue Skull. we've started to develop our magic at a really slow pace, but Geoffrey gave us each a tome of magic to take our notes in. I think I'll be using this one as a diary as a well to keep track of what's going on. Blue Skull… isn't a place I would have wanted to go to, but me and Velmal did need the money after all. I mean, without the guild we would still be beggars making our way across Fiore and still be stealing money from other beggars and food from bakers. I may not like the environment and people in Blue Skull, but I'll just have to get used to it. I plan on detailing some of the spells I'll be learning in this book. Apparently Blue Skull has their own library under the guildhall in the basement! I'll probably find something down there that I can start to use to learn magic from.
—
'No way! That page was a diary entry from Malvel himself! And it dates all the way back to X680! He and Velmal joined Blue Skull… for money? Not for evil and malicious reasons? They were beggars before that huh?' I thought with interest.
'This dates back before Blue Skull was destroyed which is interesting. Does the diary pages go all the way up to X684? Argh! I have so many questions and I'm too tired to do more translating tonight!' I thought with irritation, as I stood up from the chair and fell onto my bed. Me simply being far too tired to even get changed into pyjamas.
In less than a minute, I fell asleep with questions from the diary entry flying all throughout my brain.
6 Days left to learn magic.
As I woke up the next day, I quickly changed into a fresh pair of clothes before grabbing the spell book and the translating sheet and making my way downstairs to have breakfast before heading out to the guild. As I made it into the dining room, I saw my mother having breakfast which was pancakes today.
"Ah, good morning Cade! Sleep well?" My mother asked cheerfully.
"Yeah I got a good sleep. I was able to translate one of those spell pages last night." I replied taking a seat at the table.
"You didn't stay up too late did you?" My mother wondered raising her eyebrow at me.
No, I went to bed at around 9:00pm." I lied. I was busy tucking away at some pancakes that Charles had just left for me as he was making his way round the table.
"Hmm ok then, but no later than that understood?" She said a bit sternly. "It's important that a growing child like you gets lots of sleep." She then began to eat at another pancake. After finishing she asked me another question. "What sort of spell was on that page then?" She inquired curiously.
"Oh it wasn't a spell. It was a diary entry from Malvel himself." I said as I finished a pancake.
"What?" Mother exclaimed in surprise. "He wrote diary entries in that spell book? Could I see it?" She asked in curiosity as she turned to look at the book.
"Sure." I said as I slid the book across the table to her. She picked it up and began to read that first page with deep interest.
"You know, I think Makarov at the guild might want to see this." She said as she slid the book back to me. "You should show it to him."
"I suppose, I'll be heading back down today if that's ok with you." I nodded as I finished devouring another pancake. "I think the guild will be a good place to start translating more of that spell book."
"Of course, just make sure you are back here before dark." She informed as she next started to eat another pancake. "Also, are you really going to carry that book with you wherever you go?" As I picked up the book and put it under my arm.
"I'm gonna put it in my jacket pocket." I explained as I shoved the spell book into a pocket in the jacket I was wearing; which was smooth, had a nice red colour with the inside of it being coloured black. It had no hood, which meant that it would be protecting me from the rain. It had pockets on the inside which I shoved the spell book into.
"Ok then. I'll see you later then Cade!" Mother said waving me goodbye as I made my way to exit the manor and head to the guild.
"Hey Cade! How are you?" Came Gildarts voice as I entered the guild.
Most of the other guild members were sitting on benches and were drinking some beer. I could imagine that many of the other members were still on jobs from yesterday. Gildarts was sitting on a bench close to the request board.
"Oh hey Gildarts." I waved as I made my way over to him before taking a seat next to him. "I'm fine, was hoping to get another page translated today as a matter of fact." As I brought the book out of my jacket pocket and put it on the table.
"Wait, you got a page translated? Can I see it?" Gildarts requested with eagerness.
"Yeah sure." I opened the book and showed him the now translated page. Gildarts read it, with his eyes not even blinking since he first started to read it. When he finished, he looked at me before saying: "Wow, I didn't know it was a diary as well. Shame there wasn't a spell though."
"Yeah it's a shame. I was gonna show that to Master today, is he here?" I wondered looking around the guild trying to find the cheerful middle aged man.
"Ah, you just missed him. He left about 30 minutes ago. Something about going to catch up with old friends I think. Sorry about that Cade." He said with a sincere expression on his face.
"Well that's a shame, if anything I can at least start translating the next page." I muttered as I turned to page 2 of the book which was also enchanted. Each translated page of the book was double sided, so the diary entry I got yesterday went onto the next page as well.
There was around 50 thick pages in this spell book, and I had only translated one page so far. "Is there anywhere I can translate this with a bit of peace and quiet? So I can focus a bit easier you know." I directed to Gildarts.
"Well the Guilds basement is a good shout, hardly anyone goes down there. Well that is except Ivan, but I haven't seen him yet today." Gildarts explained as he pointed to the stairs that led to the basement.
"Well I'll head down there then, you want to come and see me translate it?" I said to Gildarts smiling as it stood up from the bench.
"Sure I do! It's not everyday you get to see someone translate some old spell book." He replied as we both went down into the basement.
And thats that chapter done everyone! Now we are onto Arc 3 where Cade will finally go onto to start learning magic.
In this chapter we got to meet a rather young Ivan. I'm sure he'll be a shining example towards children when he grows up… right? Anyway, it seems like Malvel has more than just spells in his spell book… wonder what else is written in his book?
Anyway, that's all from me guys. Hope you liked this chapter and I'll see you in the next one!