Cait Shelter was hidden in the mountains and forests. A natural village of wooden huts and houses, with the animals being the villager's closest source of entertainment. The villagers enjoyed the natural landscape and environment. With a lifestyle reminiscent of hunters and gatherers, Cait Shelter was closer to a hidden nature reserve than a guild, with the center being the giant, wooden cat-shaped guild hall in the center of the humble town.
"Wendy!"
In this guild, everyone was dressed in native American garb and knew everyone, and no one was left out. If Kemu needed a hand with knitting, someone would be there. If Takal needed an extra set of hands for the fishing nets by the river, he'd get two at minimum. Cait Shelter was quiet and close-knit, more so than any other guild in Fiore.
"Wendy! Where are you?"
That's why when the youngest member, Wendy Marvell, a little girl, only seven years old, with a light blue dress and dark blue bob-cut hair, asked to play a game of hide and seek, one of the villagers quickly agreed. Qecha agreed and let Wendy hide in the surrounding forests, barely a few minutes from the guild hall, and started counting. He counted to 100 like he had done ages ago, turned around, and promptly realized Wendy wasn't near the guild hall anymore.
"Wendy! I give up! You can come out now!"
Qecha huffed as he looked around the surrounding shrubbery, his worry increasing as he failed to find any signs of the girl. Qecha looked behind a heavy rock and bit his lip in fear as he could not find any trace of the girl, "Where could she have gone?"
Qecha glanced around the forest worriedly, his eyes trailing to the darkening sky as he turned around. Ready to head to the guild hall and get others to form a search party before it got too dark to see anything, the last thing he needed was the thought of Wendy wandering alone through the pitch-black forests on his conscience.
I'll need to get Raubol and some others before she wanders too far-
"Hello, Mirage. Would you mind pointing me toward the guild master? It's hard to tell all of your signatures apart from a distance," a deep and gentle voice sounded from the air above Qecha, prompting him to yelp as he turned and saw a large, tanned man with a green coat hovering in the air. His blindfolded gaze peered with light as if he could see through Qecha.
"Oh..."
No, he called him a mirage. This man could see through him.
"You're one of the ones the guild master warned us about. Aria right? Is the gloomy one with you?" Qecha asked with a more morbid tone, his stance lax as he looked up and saw the floating man chuckling. His green hat tipped as he spoke formally, "No, my guild master is still in Oak Town. He's preparing for the guild master's conference in a few weeks."
"Must be a busy man."
"Yes he is, but not as busy as your guild master, I take it. I can only imagine the strain such a powerful illusion would put on him," Aria said with a less-than-hidden jab and a more-than-hidden probe, "Especially so long after death."
Aria was slightly disappointed as he saw the mirage shrug nonchalantly, dismantling his little attempt to get more information on the old guild master with old secrets. The swiftness of the mirage's dismissal made Aria quickly decide it was better to end his inquiries lest he scare the guild of ghosts away from loaning their healer.
"Still, I would be grateful if he could speak with me."
Aria offered an apologetic smile and purposefully took a more relaxed stance, a sign of truce. His intentions were well received as he watched the mirage point towards the guild hall with a bland but no longer guarded expression: "Raubol is always in the guild hall; you'll find him there. I'd be grateful if you could wait a bit before talking to him. I need to ask him to help look for Wendy."
Qecha turned and started walking towards the cat-shaped beacon in the center of the small village. His footsteps halted as he heard Aria ask with a thinly veiled curiosity from behind him, "Wendy? She wouldn't happen to be the living girl in the forest, would she?"
Qecha blinked in surprise as he looked back at Aria, who only tilted his head innocently. His blindfold leaked the golden light it always seemed to leak, "I can go fetch her if that isn't a problem."
If Qecha were still alive, he would probably have felt ashamed that he accepted the offer so quickly.
Wendy loved the forests.
They were large and scary to most, but she only saw the memories of Grandneeny and Jellal in them. She saw her mother teaching her magic and showing her the power that wind could hold. She saw the times she and Jellal camped under the stars and watched the night sky. She loved the forest; it was why she loved Cait Shelter; they surrounded it.
"Hello..."
She loved the forests...
"Mr. Qecha?"
She loved them as long as she wasn't alone.
'Snap'
"AH!" Wendy shrieked as she heard a twig snap from the foliage somewhere behind her. Wendy's feet caught in her panic, and she fell clumsily to the ground, a whimper leaving her lips as she glanced back at the squirrel that had scared her. Its small, chubby cheeks were full as it glanced at her before running off into the darkening forest that looked the same no matter how hard she tried to tell the trees apart. No matter how hard she tried to keep track of where she was, all the greenery looked the same; no wonder she got lost.
"I'm scared..."
Wendy sniffled as she pushed herself to her feet, rubbing her leaking eyes as she looked around the empty forest. Her lip quivered as she looked around for any sign of anyone or anything.
"Hello..."
Wendy trembled as her voice echoed back to her, tears welling in her eyes as she walked in a random direction. Her body was on autopilot while she called for anyone to help her, "Mr. Qecha..."
She wished she hadn't wandered off...
"Mr. Raubol..."
She wished she hadn't been clumsy and gotten herself lost...
"Jellal..."
She wished that Jellal would come back. He would find her lost in the forest like he'd done the night Grandneeny disappeared. Jellal was brilliant; he knew how to survive in the woods. He knew so much and cared for her, using his magic tools to guide her through the monsters hiding in the woods.
"I want to go home-"
"Hello, little one, are you, Wendy?" A soft voice broke her out of her fears. Wendy yelped in surprise as she looked up and saw a tall, tan man hovering in the air. His loose green cloak fluttered in the wind, and his green hat hid a blindfolded gaze pointed directly at her, "My name is Aria. One of your guild mates asked me to get you."
Wendy slowly blinked the tears away as she gasped at the flying man, Aria, her automatic response escaping her lips before she had time to stop it, "You're flying..."
"I am."
"It's wind magic..."
"Of sorts, yes."
"Do you know Grandneeny?" Wendy asked, watching as the man tilted his head in confusion. His voice teetering on amused as he chuckled, "Sadly, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting this Grandneeny," Aria felt his lips twitch slightly as he saw the little girl pout in disappointment, "Although, I do have good eyes. I might be able to find her if I know what she looks like."
Aria waited patiently as Wendy blinked slowly, his slight amusement halted as she shifted nervously and mumbled, "She's a dragon."
"What color?"
"White, and she's beautiful! I lost her a year ago, but I still want to find her; it's just," Wendy gulped, glancing at her feet before her thoughts stalled, turning her head to Aria, who was patiently waiting for her to continue. Unable to her surprise, Wendy asked with a hint of disbelief, "You believe me?"
"Of course, you aren't lying, are you?"
"No! It's just..."
Jellal and her guildmates at Cait Shelter had believed her, but the people she had seen in towns never did. Whenever she asked someone during her travels with Jellal, they told her to stop imagining things. It was rare for someone else to believe her without a second thought.
"No one usually believes me..."
Wendy looked down at her feet, her eyes watering before she felt a giant hand gently placed on her head. A simple yet warm voice accompanied the small part, "Then that's their mistake."
Wendy sniffled slightly, her lips inching upwards as Aria pulled his hand back, talking with a hint of gentleness, most likely to cater to her emotional state, "There's something I need to talk about with your guild master that most likely pertains to you. Would you mind letting me fly you back to Cait Shelter? It will be quicker than walking."
Aria watched as Wendy blinked away the tears and the rest of her hesitation, giving a slight nod before she jumped in surprise. Her eyes were wide as a slight breeze of wind circled her feet and held her up in the air; her surprised yet excited expression turned to Aria, who gave a small smile, "I happen to be pretty good at air magic."
"Wow," Wendy exhaled as the air lifted her into the sky, her eyes glued to the passing terrain as Aria flew next to her. He guided the air stream that held her with expert precision, gently flying her toward the cat-shaped guild hall in the distance. Wendy was mesmerized by the sight and feeling of flying, gliding through the night-cloaked air and the dusk-tinged clouds. She felt free, and she was so lost in it that it took her a full minute until she was able to break the hypnosis and mutter with an almost embarrassed expression, "Um... I practice wind magic, too."
"Oh?" Aria said with a slight glance at Wendy, who nodded with a red face, muttering under her breath, "Um... it's Sky Dragon Slayer magic. Grandneeny taught it to me, but she didn't," Wendy gulped, fidgeting nervously as she muttered shyly, "She didn't have the chance to teach me how to fly."
Wendy closed her eyes, bracing herself for the incoming rejection. Her ears flushed as she heard Aria give a small, gentle laugh, "Well, I'm not as strong as a dragon..."
Aria smiled as he saw Wendy blink at him with a hopeful expression.
"But I'm sure I could give you some pointers."
Aria figured the guild master wouldn't be too mad if he took the healer back to Oak Town in the morning.
The sound of the morning train echoed through Oak Town, its screeching halt bringing the attention of residents and tourists alike. The sound of the bustling departures at the foot of Oak Town's grand hill filled the air. The morning hustle and light chatter masked the buzzing excitement of one bright-eyed reporter who had come here based on a hunch and the rumors echoing through Fiore.
"Wow..."
Rumors had been growing that this next generation of mages, these golden eggs fostered after decades of magical development, would eventually become the foothold for Fiore. The murmurs of new prodigies popped up left and right, and the most recent and buzz-worthy event was proof of that. Laxus Dreyar, at the young age of 17, became the youngest S-class wizard in Fairy Tail's history.
"This place is..."
Laxus had become one of the youngest documented S-class mages in Fiore's history. Everyone was waiting to see what his ascension into the elite of the wizard world would mean and if there would be any other hidden gems that would follow in his footsteps. The readers of Sorcerers Weekly were on the edge of their seats to see who the next prodigies of the generation would be and the splash they would inevitably make.
"SOOOOOOOOO COOOOOOOOOLLLL!"
Jason, a reporter for Sorcerers Weekly with unique blonde hair, a pink shirt, and blue overalls, had come to Oak Town to investigate claims of two such mages. Whispers of two teens who had been cleared for B-rank missions and were the youngest members of Phantom Lord since the reign of the fourth guild master. Jason's sources had told him they could slaughter Vulcans without difficulty and didn't struggle to take down minor dark guilds.
"Oh! Is that Phantom Lord merchandise? Oh, and is that the guild hall in the distance!? Wait, wasn't there supposed to be a tower?"
Jason's gut told him that Oak Town was the place to see the next generation's new stars. Phantom Lord, the number 1 guild in Fiore with 3 S class mages under its belt, was the place to be. Jason knew he would get something good out of this place; he could smell his next scoop on the horizon; he just had to make it his. That meant taking his first steps up the hill that held the highest-ranked guild in Fiore and his newest headline.
"OH MY GOODNESS! IS THAT SOL, THE SAND MAGE? THE NEWEST S-CLASS WIZARD OF PHANTOM LORD! CAN YOU TELL THE READERS OF SORCERERS WEEKLY HOW YOU GOT INJURED!"
Jason just had to get there.
A few hours later, after a stellar interview with the newest S-class mage of Phantom Lord, Jason finally reached the top of Oak Town. A castle that rested atop the hill that housed the aged city and acted as a beacon for all who entered, a symbol of wealth and prestige of the top guild in Fiore. Jason had made it to the gates and was ready to see what they had to offer, what his newest interviewees would have to offer in general.
"Here goes..."
Jason smiled as he got his camera and notepad ready, making sure everything was in place as he opened the doors to the guild hall. His eyes sparkled with excitement as he opened the door and the guild firsthand. His eyes were drawn to the mages mulling about, the tavern aesthetic that built up the atmosphere, and the best part, the symbol of Phantom Lord strewn about like a flag on the old stone walls and towering stone pillars. Asserting to everyone that entered that this was Phantom Lord, and it was deserving of their respect.
"Wow..."
Jason felt his heart speed up, his eyes glistening with stars as he trembled with excitement and screamed at the top of his lungs, "SO CO-"
Jason's scream was cut off as he, for better or worse terms, fell through the floor and was greeted with a murky world. His eyes widened as he felt something vaguely move around him, swimming through the ditchwater that wasn't wet for some reason. His first instinct to try and write down what he was experiencing failed spectacularly as he was, for better terms, spit out of the world and into the open air. Jason barely had time to gasp for breath and an opening question before a string of some sort wrapped around his leg, and he was flipped upside down, his hair and camera hanging loosely and his pen and notepad still tightly clutched in hand as he was strung up like a pinata.
OH... MY... GOODNESS!
Jason squealed internally as he was face to face, from an upside-down perspective, with two boys standing on the rafters. One had short black hair and pale skin, piercing red eyes, a lightweight red jacket with a black Phantom Lord symbol on the back that matched the one on his hand, a dark blue t-shirt with a skull, and loose-fitted jeans. Along with a presence that set off Jason's 'does not care what other people think' radar, which was the same as the 'will speak his mind no matter how outrageous it is' radar.
He's going to be a hit with the readers!
Either way, he could already see this one being a star of gossip and buzzworthy interviews in the future.
"Dude, why were you screaming so loud!? Did you want someone to punch you?"
"I don't think he's listening to Vera; he's too busy writing stuff down."
"What the, why... Oh wait, Siegrain, I'm pretty sure this guy is supposed to interview us."
"Really? Sorcerers Weekly is pretty big, right? Aren't they supposed to hire... professionals?"
The other one seemed to be the opposite: shortish blue hair, growing a little ways down the boy's neck and might make it to his shoulders soon, dull brown eyes, and a stylish red tattoo that would easily make his photographs POP for weekly readers. His dress sense was also better than the others, with a thin white frock coat matching his guild mark and a coordinated black dress shirt. His white pants were seemingly stainless, and his demeanor was more of a 'silent' and 'calculated' type. Jason could already see him climbing the ranks in the wizard's hottest bachelor lists in the future.
"I don't like how he's smiling Vera."
"It is a little creepy..."
"Can I drop him?"
"Do you want to attach a sign to him so that people know that they'll die if they hit him?"
"He doesn't look strong."
"Yeah, but Jose cares about image. Why else do you think he had you dress in that thing?"
"I like these clothes..." Siegrain muttered, messing with the sleeves and frock coat with black trimmings on the side. The outfit was tacky and a little formal, but he liked it because it was light and, most importantly, worked well with his threads.
He could change this coat into a winter padding level thickness or a paper-thin jacket, and it wouldn't look any different on the outside. Siegrain would probably keep this outfit after the interview with the strange, slightly creepy reporter. However, the same could not be said for Vera, who burned his dress shirt and suit the second Jose had handed them out, "Really?"
"Yeah, I think I'll keep them," Siegrain said with a shrug, uncaring for Vera's mocking gasp of surprise and maybe betrayal as he turned to the hanging upside-down reporter. Jason's smile was still vast, his hands moving at lightning speed to write notes, even as his head turned red from the blood rushing to his brain.
We should go somewhere else for the interview...
Siegrain didn't want to be the one who had to tell Jose that his reporter died of vertigo.
Wendy was glad she had a spell against motion sickness, or she would've had vertigo from the flight to Oak Town.
Flying is tricky...
Wendy might have considered it flying, but it was more like letting the air carry you, and she wasn't good at it. Aria was a good teacher, but Wendy still had trouble figuring out where to keep her weight. There also was a magic container problem she had been running into since she was too young. Flying was a constant drain on her magic container; it would be a few years before she could do anything reminiscent of what Grandneeny or Aria could do.
But it's so much fun...
Wendy grinned as the air stream controlled by Aria dissipated under her and dropped her on the ground in front of Oak Town's train station. Her feet were a little shaky, from the disorienting feeling of standing on air to standing on a solid foundation. Her legs tripped under her as she fell towards the ground, only to be stopped as a giant hand grabbed her back and pulled her to a stand, "You should be more careful, Wendy. I don't know where we could find a healer for you."
"I'm sorry, Aria," Wendy mumbled embarrassedly under her breath, lowering her head shyly as he patted her head and motioned for her to follow him. Wendy followed quietly as she took in the sights of Oak Town, her eyes wide as she saw the pretty stone houses and the giant stone castle in the distance.
This place is so pretty...
Wendy smiled as she followed Aria to the people she was supposed to heal. Her enjoyment of the scenic landscape halted as a yell came from a cafe near the center of town, "You said what!?"
Wendy instinctively turned towards the source of the noise, her eyes quirking as she saw two men sitting at a table with apparent injuries. One with half and half black and white hair had yelled at the other, a tall and skinny green-haired man with round glasses dropping down his face. The green-haired man, French probably if she went off the accent, held his hands up in appeasement, "Eh? I said I was injured fighting a band of twenty mercenaries! I see no problem with that, no?"
"The problem is that you didn't mention how I helped you fight them off! You made it sound like I did nothing and got injured!"
"...I may have forgotten that part, masseur." Sol yelped as a sword swiped a stray bang off his nose. Sol laughed nervously as he backtracked his previous statements, "I apologize, oui! The thought of a news article about my ventures blinded me!"
"You're gonna be blind, period, if you don't call them and," Totamaru's threat stalled as he felt a hand, large and firm, grab his shoulder with a subtle threat. The calloused and thick fingers digging into his shoulder were light enough to be seen as a greeting but hard enough to suggest that Totamaru would lose the shoulder if he didn't settle down, "No fighting between S classes in public. It's so..."
Totamaru didn't even have to look back to know what was coming next, and with his arm in a sling and the other held down by the gentle giant himself, he had no choice but to accept his fate in the splash zone.
"SAD!"
Totamaru gave a defeated sigh as Aria's tears fell on his head like a stream, dousing him from head to toe as he sat and contemplated life. The ordeal took a few minutes until Aria calmed down and sniffled, wiping the stray tears in his sleeve before introducing the two injured S class mages to their requested healer, "This is Wendy."
Totamaru and Sol glanced curiously at Wendy, who shrunk behind Aria's looming figure. Her shyness only allowed her to mumble a greeting that caught the S-class mages so wholly off guard they forgot about their earlier argument.
"Hello... I'm Wendy, and I... um... a dragon slayer."
Totamaru and Sol were caught off guard by the green light flying from her palms. The light's warmth seeped into their bodies as the little girl inched closer, mumbling shyly as she healed their broken bones without any earlier hesitation or trepidation in her steady hands.
"I can heal your injuries."
They couldn't fight with badass magic in front of the sweet little kid.
Vera, Siegrain, and Jason were on the library's second floor. Jason was on one end of the table with a giddy smile and notepad, ready to start the interview with the two teens across from him. Jason clicked his pen as he began to with an enthusiastic expression, "Oh my goodness! This is amazing! Just fabulous! Ok! Ok! I'm going to start the interview now, but before that," Jason bubbled with excitement as he put his pen to the paper, "Can I get your names and ages, please!"
Vera and Siegrain looked at each other wearily, Vera shrugging as he spoke first, "Vera-"
"No last name?"
"Not that I know of," Vera said with a shrug, inwardly noting that Jason may have some skills as a reporter since he breezed past the topic. Not prodding or making a big deal out of it as he patiently waited for Vera to speak, "I'm 14, turning 15."
Probably...
Vera didn't know his age for obvious reasons, so he had to guess. He figured he was in the last year of tests when he escaped the lab, which would have put him in the ~12 year range. If he did some very sketchy math and factored in his chosen birthdate, he assumed he was born in x764 or x763, and since he preferred to be older, he decided August 13th, x763 as his 'birthday' for his renewed ID.
"Awesome, Vera; thank you for agreeing to the interview. Now, what about you?"
"My name's Siegrain, and I'm 14."
Siegrain had a similar experience; having chosen May 7th and being the youngest to leave the lab, he had an option between x765 and x764 and chose x764. He said it was because he wanted to be in the age limit of Phantom Lord, but Vera was pretty sure it was because Siegrain was petty and didn't want to be two years younger than him. However, Siegrain had a poker face, so he'd probably fall flat even if Vera tried to pry that out of him.
And he still refuses to play poker with Sol and me. What a waste.
Vera sighed mournfully because he had already swindled a crapload of money out of Sol whenever they played at the guild hall, and if Siegrain joined, they could probably clean house. However, that wasn't meant to be, and that dreary realization was only lifted off of Vera's shoulders as Jason commented with a bright smile, "Wonderful! Now, I want to ask you each a few questions to get the readers an inside scoop of Phantom Lord's rising stars! If there's anything you don't want to answer, say so, and we'll skip it. Oh, and at the request of your guildmaster, I will refrain from taking pictures. Is all that fine with you two?"
Jason watched as the two boys nodded, the look in their eyes tilting from skeptical to somewhat surprised at the thoughtful gesture. Jason took the unsaid compliments with a smile and began to ask each of them basic questions, "So Vera, can you tell us what kind of magic you have?"
"Shadow Magic," Vera said with a shrug, deciding that he would instead not go through the tedious process of explaining how his magic was 'Sho' and nothing else. It would probably take a while, and if he were being honest, he'd instead not be made a cover story for having what he considered, at least, living magic, "Just shadow magic."
"Ooh, that's gloomy but effective! You practice anything else?"
"Nope, don't have the talent for it."
"Yet you're still able to go on B-Rank missions! HOW COOL!" Jason yelled excitedly as she wrote down his notes, turning to Siegrain with the same question at the ready, "What about you? What magic do you use?"
"Thread Magic," Siegrain tried not to stiffen under Jason's curious gaze. Siegrain's head lowered as he muttered almost hesitantly under his breath, his hand fidgeting with a strand of loose hair by his neck the entire time, "I use thread magic, but I... I know some others."
"Incredible! You must be very talented for your age."
"I'm decent," Siegrain shrugged as Jason wrote more details. Silently thankful that the next question wasn't directed at him as Jason returned to Vera, "Now, the readers, myself included, have heard rumors that you two joined over a year ago? Is that correct?"
"It is."
"How'd you get around the age limit? Jose Porla is notorious for being a stickler on that front."
"We got lucky; Siegrain and I were fighting a monster near the edge of town, and Jose saw it. He thought we were good, so he let us join early, with the condition that we couldn't make any requests he disapproved beforehand," Vera's half-truths slid through his lips with ease as Jason wrote them down without any hesitation or suspicion. The pencil scratches filled the silence before Jason put it down and looked up with stars in his eyes and a question he shouldn't have asked in hindsight, "Wonderful! So what were you two doing before-"
"Nothing, next question," Vera cut him off instantly, sparing a glance at Siegrain, who seemed all too content to let the topic of 'before Oak Town fell to the wayside. The silent understanding between the two of them was instantly understood by Jason, who nodded and moved along without skipping a beat, "Cool, so I'll ask this one to Siegrain now since I don't want to keep hounding you. What do you think of Oak Town so far?"
Siegrain took a moment to think the question over, tilting his head as he spoke plainly, "Oak Town is nice. It's quiet and fun, to be honest."
"You like the Hallow's Eve festival?" Jason asked with a slight grin, seeing his hunch was spot on as the tension left in Siegrain's shoulders seemed to melt away, and a slight smile graced his lips, "Yeah, it's nice... I was a mummy."
"That's so cool! Last time I went to it, I was a detective!"
"That's not surprising," Siegrain said bluntly, pleasantly surprised that the interview wasn't as stressful as he thought it would be. Jason, as quirky as he was, was good at respecting boundaries and knowing when to let a subject die. Honestly, the entire thing blew by, with the only thing of note happening towards the end when Vera let it slip that he was getting trained by Jose.
"...usually I just go to the riverside or the dead field."
"The dead field?"
"Huh, oh yeah, that's what we call the ring Jose made in the forest for my training."
"Training!?"
Vera thought he saw his life flash before his eyes for a moment. An instinctive dread washed over him as he saw Jason's eyes turn to stars; the scream of utter excitement and disbelief that left Jason's throat nearly popped Vera's ears and almost sent Siegrain to the canvas, "JOSE PORLA IS TRAINING YOU? THAT'S SO COOOOOOOOOOOL!"
Vera winced as he covered his ears. Siegrain did the same as Jason screamed his heart out. Vera spared a glance at Siegrain, who gave him a look that could be summarized as 'fix this' or I'll do something drastic, "Hey Jason, it's not that big a deal-"
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE STUDYING UNDER A WIZARD SAINT!"
"Jason, seriously, I-"
"DO YOU KNOW HOW RARE THAT IS! THE READERS ARE EGOIJG TO EAT THIS UP!"
"Jason, stop-"
"I MEAN, FIRST THE GRANDSON OF WIZARD SAINT MAKAROV, THEN JOSE PORLA TAKES ON A STUDENT!"
"Alright, I give up. Sho-"
"THIS ISSUE OF SORCERERS WEEKLY IS GOING TO BE SO COOOOOOOOO," Jason's very loud, very worrisome ramblings were cut off as he fell into a shadow, the familiar inky liquid. His screams muffled as he was quickly and effortlessly deposited outside the front of the guild, his last view before the door was shut in his face, the shadow slowly slinking back inside. It was so fine-tuned and effortlessly relaxed that Jason could have mistaken it for being alive.
So that's his magic...
Jason took a second to process everything he'd gotten in the stellar interview, his fingers already moving to write the story so he could publish it tomorrow, no, today! He would publish it as soon as possible so everyone could know, "SO COOL!"
Phantom Lord held two prodigies of the next generation as far as he was concerned.
Wendy sighed as she waited in the hallway for Aria to get done reporting the successful healings of Totamaru and Sol to his guild master, a scary man named Jose Porla. Her eyes lidded from exhaustion after using her magic to heal the two S-class mages, but her nerves kept her awake because of her earlier encounter with Phantom Lord's notorious guild master.
He's terrifying...
Wendy shivered as she recalled the first moment she stepped into his office. The way he lounged about like a lion watching a rabbit run into its den, his displeasure from some earlier topic plastered on his face and scaring Wendy further. Wendy may have been overreacting, but it was just creepy. She didn't know if it was his magic or presence, but Jose Porla felt...
I should apologize to him after Aria's done...
Unnerving.
I don't want him to think badly of Mr. Raubol.
Wendy didn't want to be rude, especially not when she was representing her guild, so she was going to apologize as soon as the door opened. She would walk into the office, stop herself from trembling like earlier, stand tall, speak proudly, and say, "Hello shadow, I'm Wendy Marvell from Cait Shelter, and I'm sorry for..."
Wendy paused in her rehearsal as her mind finally clocked the shadow staring at her from the opposing wall. Her eyes wide as she saw it tilt its head at her almost curiously before giving a silent wave that only confused her more, "Uh... Hi?"
Wendy blinked in surprise as the shadow probably gave a smile. It looked like it was smiling before it glanced down the hall, pointed towards it, and then back at her. Wendy had to calm herself momentarily as she connected what the shadow wanted from her, "Um... do you want me to follow you?"
Wendy watched the shadow nod before darting down the hallway and waiting for her at the first turn into the castle's interior. Wendy could only nervously glance at it before looking back at the closed door and gulping, "Uh... okay?"
Wendy had a feeling that if a living shadow was telling her to go somewhere, she should probably listen.
Vera was so glad he didn't have to hear Jason's screaming anymore.
"Hallelujah..."
Vera could practically feel his migraine fading as the noise in the library dropped from explosive to zero. Vera's shoulders slumped as he glanced at Siegrain, who was face-first nearly passed out on the desk. His voice was low as he mumbled into the old oak wood, "I think I need new ears."
"Gonna make a threaded pair?"
"Sure, why not? They'll probably work better than these," Siegrain mumbled sarcastically as he finally got the ringing in his ears to stop. It was a shame; the interview had been going so well before that little slip-up from Vera, who had made it a point not to advertise the complicated relationship between him and the guild master, "So what are you going to do now? People are going to know the guild master is training you."
"You're making it sound like a bigger deal than it is."
"Okay, let me rephrase that. Soon, everyone outside of Oak Town is going to know a Wizard Saint is personally training you," Siegrain said with the bluntness of a sledgehammer, watching as Vera plopped his face into the desk in a similarly despairing fashion. Vera's groan echoed through the quiet library as he accepted that he had unwittingly become Fiore's newest celebrity, and it was too late to stop it. He had already ejected Jason from the premises for the sake of his eardrums, "Ugh... whatever, it was bound to get out eventually."
The only reason it had yet to be turned into a big deal was that the people of Oak Town were relatively reserved; they liked to keep things in the town or out of the city, nothing in between. The little open secret of Vera's training, at least to the citizens who lived near the forest and had the pleasure of hearing his beatings once a week, was kept quiet out of respect for Jose and a general desire to avoid making it a big deal. Barring the Hallow's Eve festival, Oak Town was quiet; no one wanted to ruin that by having reporters running around looking for the new mage with the one-in-a-million chance to be trained by a Wizard Saint.
"Hopefully, the fact that Jason didn't take a picture will keep people from finding me for a while," Vera said with a disingenuous sigh, his eyes catching Siegrain's smirk barely hidden by the table. Vera shoved Siegrain off the chair as he stood up and jumped down the steps to the ground floor, ready to escape the mage bound to be on his heels, "That's what you get at laughing at my pain, Siegrain!"
The sound of a pissed-off thread mage landing behind him was the only answer, prompting Vera to dash out to the library and into the maze of hallways that made up Phantom Lord's castle. He planned to catch up to Sho, who should be heading back after dropping Jason off, to escape Siegrain's rampage, "You're being overdramatic! It was just a little shove-"
Vera's words caught in his mouth as he turned a corner and stumbled into a little kid younger than him entering the library. A startled yelp left the girl's lips as they tumbled to the floor, Vera groaning as he rolled to his back and looked over to make sure the child he inadvertently ran over was all right, "Hey, sorry about that. Are you..."
Vera paused as he caught sight of the bob cut and dark blue hair on the girl's head. His eyes widened as he saw her sniffle and sit up, her wide brown eyes looking towards him with a quivering lip and a small bruise on her forehead. "Okay?"
Vera blinked slowly, his confusion becoming worried as he saw tears streaming down the little girl's face. His guilt at behaving like a total asshole and running into the little girl was put on hold because he had a bigger problem on his hands. One that didn't involve the blue-haired girl crying openly into her hands and more so the blue-haired boy who had just turned the corner.
"Vera! Get back here! I'm going to," Siegrain's rage-induced chase fell to a stop as he got to the scene of the crime and saw Vera on his ass, staring blankly at the little crying girl who had her head in her hands. Siegrain nearly slapped a palm in his face as he looked at Vera with as much disappointment as he could muster, "Seriously? You made a little girl cry? I looked away for a few seconds and-"
"Jellal?"
The girl's voice, shaky and pale, snapped the silence in the air like a knife. Her wide brown eyes, tinged red from crying, turned towards Siegrian with a new emotion on her face. The tears she had been shedding a moment earlier were forgotten as she got up and did the last thing Siegrain had expected her to do.
"Jellal! You're back!"
She ran and tackled him in a hug, crying even harder into his shirt than what she had been doing a moment earlier. The crying from Vera's stupidity had turned to emotional sobs, all directed at Siegrain, who could only watch in a confused and startled silence. His arms instinctively went around the little girl who seemed to be holding onto him for dear life before he turned to Vera, watching the entire scene with an almost guarded expression. Siegrain was unsure what to make of Vera's reaction because only one thought coursed through his mind.
Who's Jellal?
For some reason, Siegrain felt like he was important.