Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or it's characters.
-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-
Chapter 7: The story of Malvel and Velmal
Year: X752. 32 years till Canon begins.
Cade POV:
After Master Makarov stopped crying, the three of us went downstairs to have some tea in the lounge together. To relax a little, considering the three of us had all been crying quite recently. Makarov had wanted to leave to return to the guild, but mother had insisted had he stayed a while to have some refreshments.
The lounge on the first floor was a nice sized room, with a red rug in the middle of the room. There was a stone fireplace at the far end of the room, for when winter would come. There were three couches, each of them just next to the rug in the middle of the room. To the far left of the lounge there was a great clock which had been there since the house was first built.
As we made it into the lounge, we saw Pierce cleaning the fireplace. He heard us coming and turned around to see us, him looking quite happy to see me out of my room.
"Ah Sir Philipe! I'm glad to see you have left your room now. Are you ok now?" Pierce questioned happily upon seeing me, before sounding a bit hesitant towards the end.
"Yes, I'm fine now Pierce. I have Master Makarov to thank for that. By the way, why did you call me "Sir Philipe" just then?" I asked curiously.
"Ah well, with the unfortunate passing of Sir Cobalt Philipe, that now makes you than man of the house." He said as he moved to clear away some cobwebs from the top left corner of the room.
"Huh… I suppose it does doesn't it?" I realised in surprise, as I then asked him a favour. "Could you bring the three of us some tea please?" I requested before sitting down on a couch closest to me.
"Yes of course Sir Philipe." He nodded before exiting the room.
"Well then" Came my mother as she sat down on a couch opposite me. "I'd like to thank you again Makarov for what you did today. I'm… not sure what would have happened had you not came." Mother said gratefully, placing her elbows on her knees so she could cusp her hands on her chin.
"Oh no, it's perfectly fine. I was just making sure your husband's last wish was fulfilled and to try to give you two some closure on all of this." Makarov replied kindly. "Say June, if what I heard from your husband is true before he died, then I believe he was the main way that money was brought into the family am I correct in saying that? If so how do you plan to pay the huge rent in the coming months?" Makarov asked with a bit concern in his voice.
"Well we should be ok through the next four months or so as we have a few million jewel in our treasury that was all saved up from Cobalt's S-Class quests. Until then I'll try to find a decent job somewhere that would allow me to afford to pay rent." She replied with a slow nod.
Makarov nodded his head in response to her saying that. "I wish you good luck in that. I'm sure you'll be able to find a job before then." He said giving her a thin smile. "By the way, there is one thing I'd like to do now that I'm here if you don't mind."
"What is it Master?" I wondered curiously, tilting my head a little as I said that.
"Well, the now former Commander Hugo brought home a gift for you Cade, that was originally meant to be a present for your birthday a few days ago." I looked surprised upon hearing that. Makarov moved to continue.
"Well that item in particular, holds the key to translating and unlocking a certain ancient spell book that your father told me about. He brought it to me a few years back and asked me to examine it to see if I could open it for him. I was ultimately unsuccessful in doing so, but my curiosity for that spell book grew upon first seeing it. So I sought answers, and after speaking to a rather old friend of mine, I learned that the spell book was originally owned by a dark wizard dozens of years ago. His name was Malvel Nickolas." Upon hearing that I gasped in shock.
"Wait… I've heard that name. Didn't he used to work here years and years ago?" I said looking at my mother for answers.
"Yes he did. He and his brother are mentioned in a history book in our library." My mother answered pointing out of the lounge and to the door which led to the library.
Makarov cleared his voice for us. "You see it all began in the year X686 when the Dark Guild known as Blue Skull was defeated by a group of wizards who would soon become the founders of the Fairy Tail Guild years after that. After Blue Skull was destroyed, many of the wizards were either arrested or simply fled to others areas in the kingdom."
"However two young wizards who were former Blue Skull members would chose to redeem themselves by choosing to work for the Philipe family by volunteering to assist in whatever needs they wished in. The two wizards I speak of are of course, Malvel and Velmal Nickolas."
"Malvel and Velmal were not fully trusted by the Philipe family of course given their past, as such they were forced to lock away their spell books in the manors basement and wear anti-magic cuffs. They were also kept an eye on by the founders of Fairy Tail, choosing to observe them at a passive distance. To the founders surprise, Malvel and Velmal committed no crimes during their time serving the family. Due to this, the founders slowly began to lessen their interest in watching them."
"As the years passed all seemed well, until the year X716 when Velmal suddenly disappeared with no trace of him being left behind. What was worse was that his spell book vanished along with him. It had disappeared from the basement when the family investigated his disappearance. Malvel was questioned for information, but the man denied any idea of him knowing his brother was going to disappear that night."
"Two years after that Malvel died in his sleep. Unfortunately history seemed to repeat itself, with Malvel's spell book disappearing two days after he died. According to what your grandfather told your father, a criminal broke into the manor and stole a number of things which included the spell book. Unfortunately the criminal was never found; that was until a few years ago your father ordered the garden checked in fear of giant badgers living under it. While excavating the land there they found a rotted, dead cloaked figure under the dirt."
"The figure had lots of rare expensive items but most importantly he had Malvel's spell book. When the break in occurred years ago there was a case of sinkholes occurring across Fiore – rare I know, but it seemed karma would catch up with the thief as he couldn't see where he was going in the night and fell into the sinkhole which was covered up by earth collapsing around it. Afterwards your father got a hold of the spell book and the rest is history."
"Now did you get everything I said there?" Makarov asked grinning at the both of us.
Myself and my mother were both… struggling to remember everything that had Makarov had told us. I only remembered the key important details that I think mattered. Like Malvel and Velmal, their background, their time at the manor, their disappearances and death, as well as the recovery of the book.
"Well I knew everything about Velmal and Malvel, the spell books, the books disappearing and reappearing, both mages leaving the manor one way or the other." My mother listed, as she counted the things she knew on her fingers.
"I must say though, you knew quite a lot there Makarov. How did you know things like the founders of Fairy Tale keeping an eye on the brothers?" She questioned.
"Oh, I have my sources." Answered Makarov as he closed his eyes and smiled to himself.
"I didn't know our family once held dark wizards and that there was spell books written by them in the house previously." I said recalling the details in my head. "But wait, why did we need an entire other book to open Malvel's spell book?" I wondered in confusion.
Makarov helped me out here. "Well when the spell books were first apprehended when the brother's joined the manor, the founders of Fairy Tail put a special enchantment on each and every page of the book to ensure that no one else couldn use them again. They also made sure to seal the books shut with a similar enchantment to make sure they can't be opened."
"They made two books that could translate the enchantments to remove them in case they ever needed too – though I can't think of a reason why. The first one was given to Master Precht who became the second Guild Master of Fairy Tail. When he passed the guild onto me he left immediately after. The second was given to Mavis Vermillion who founded the Fairy Tail Guild."
"From what I heard from Master Precht, Mavis left a few years after the Guild was founded for unknown reason, her taking the translating book as she left. When Master Precht found her dead body a year later the translating book was missing. Honestly the one we have here could be either of the two, considering that Mavis and presumably Precht have now passed on from this world." Makarov finished, him looking a little sad about the fate of his old master.
Pierce then returned with the tea, which Makarov quickly drank to fix his sore throat from talking so much. It was then that mother decided to speak up, with Pierce leaving once again to clean the library this time.
"Well we have the spell book and the translating book in the storage room upstairs. I could go and get them for you if you want?" She suggested to Makarov.
"Ah that'd be excellent June!" Said Makarov, who was in a good mood after drinking the tea just then. Mother then left to fetch the two books from the storage room, which left just me and Makarov in the room.
"Say Cade." Makarov said to me. "When the spell book is unlocked, I have a proposal for you: Would you be interested in learning the magic inside of the book?"
That took me by surprise, I wasn't expecting Makarov to suddenly offer me the chance to learn magic from that book.
"What!? Hold on Master… I was under the impression this whole time that we were gonna open the book, and then destroy it due to the fact that a dark wizard wrote the spell book. And… I'm not sure I would want to learn magic from a book that was written by a dark wizard, when it was dark wizards that killed by father." I said looking a little grim at remembering his death, as the whole conversation about the two brothers had taken my mind off my father which I found surprising.
Makarov shuffled his feet awkwardly before turning to look at me. "It's good of you to be cautious about reading that book. It's wasn't originally my idea to have you learn that magic you know. It was your father's idea as a matter of fact."
"Wha-!? It was… my father's idea?" I spluttered in wonder. "But… he would have known that Malvel was originally a dark wizard, why would he want me to learn his spells?" I questioned with interest.
"Tell me Cade. Do you believe that any man can be redeemed from the crimes they committed in their past?" Makarov asked, as he turned to look at me with a rather curious expression.
I thought carefully for a while before responding.
"That's hard to say… If I had to give an answer, I think it really comes down to the individual themselves and not the actions they committed."
Makarov bidded me to continue. "I think that they can be forgiven no matter the crime as long as they acted with intentions that put them in an unfair position, like if someone they loved were held hostage."
"I think in other words, I think we can forgive them, but we may never be able to forget what they did." I finished, before then realising something. "Wait… do you think Malvel really redeemed himself and regretted the actions he done in the past?" I wondered, with my eyes widening a little at the possibility.
"You remember when I said earlier that Fairy Tail's founders watched over the brother's to make sure they were up to no good right? Well there was one moment when one of the members was travelling around to visit the head of the manor that day as they were friends with them. But as he was travelling to the front door of the manor, he failed to notice an ex-Blue Skull Wizard preparing a sniper shot from afar ready to kill him."
"But as he was about to take the shot, Malvel jumped in front of the shot taking it to the shoulder. That alerted the wizard who quickly dealt with the sniper with their magic. It was around that point the founders chose to not pay as much attention towards the brothers."
"I do think it's entirely possible that Malvel redeemed himself during his time at the manor, he could have let that sniper kill the founder in which… well things would be very different for the Fairy Tail Guild that's for sure." Makarov explained solemnly at that last part, as he sipped the last of his tea.
I chose to speak up with this new info in mind.
"Well I didn't know that he chose to save a man from dying. That was never mentioned to me by my parents, or in the history books. I mean I don't know why Malvel and Velmal joined a Dark Guild, so I'm not entirely sure I can forgive him…" I muttered back to Makarov.
"Many wizards join Dark Guilds due many different reasons. Maybe they lost faith in the Magic Council, perhaps they were kidnapped at a young age and moulded into a weapon of evil or maybe they just think that by joining a Dark Guild, it will be easier to accomplish their goals - whatever they may be of course."
"Like you said we never found out why the brothers joined that guild, so I have an idea. When we translate the spell book and unlock it, and see if there is any spells that would be deemed "illegal" by the laws we have. If there is some illegal spells, I will destroy the book, if not then you are free to learn the magic inside of it. Does that work for you Cade?" Makarov suggested to me, having now finished his tea.
"Yes that works for me Master." I answered smiling. "Wait… how do you plan to translate and open the whole spell book in such a short amount of time?" I inquired with curiosity.
Now that I thought about it I realised that I had never seen. Makarov's magic before, that did get me think of what he did use. Super Reading Magic perhaps? But before I could continue to imagine what magic he had, he pulled something out of his hoodie.
"I'll be using these!" He said with gusto, as he pulled out a pair of large glasses, holding them up into the air.
"These are Gale Force Reading glasses. They are used when reading something to intake the information you are seeing on the pages at a much faster rate than you usually would. I'll use them to translate the book at a rapid speed." He explained with a smirk, as he twirled the glasses in his hands round.
Just then my mother returned with the two books under each of her arms.
"Here they are, sorry it took so long! It was easy to find the translator but it was a bit harder to find the spell book." She said as she then put the two books on a nearby coffee table. Me and Makarov both stood up to go and see the books in question.
On the left there was an old thick leather tome with a leather strap attached to it, to stop it from opening accidentally. On the right there was a rather dirty black spell book, with strange markings along the front cover, that came to cover the spine of the book as well. The title of the spell book was written in gold and read 'M.N' and underneath it read 'X684'.
"Well no time like the present!" Makarov said as he whipped on the reading glasses and slowly opened the translating book, and bringing the front cover of the spell book close to him. "Now then…" He muttered, as he pulled out a pen and paper from his pocket and began to flick through the translating book while also stoping to take notes every few seconds.
A few minutes into the reading he stopped for a minute to take a break. "Out of all the spell books I've had seen in my life, this is by far the most complex and detailed." He muttered, before getting back to it.
After what felt like forever, he finally finished and closed the book while also removing his glasses, before holding up the sheet of paper he was writing on.
"Now then, this is the complete alphabet of the enchantment language the founders used to put on the book. I believe; if all the information I've gathered for the last few years is correct, then we can use this to unlock Malvel Nickolas spell book!"
"Wait, that entire book was just to learn the alphabet needed to decode the enchantments on the other one!?" Mother said in shock, myself shocked as well.
"Yup! The founders sure were nervous of what was in here." Makarov said as he held up Malvel's spell book. "Well if you don't mind I'd like to start translating the enchantment that protects the book from being opened if that's ok with you June and Cade?" Makarov requested for approval looking at the both of us.
"Well yes I don't mind… but… shouldn't you be back at the Fairy Tail Master?" I said, nervously scratching the back of my head.
Makarov simply waved his hand at me "Oh those kids will be fine, I've only been gone for an hour or so." He said as he put the spell book down on the table as he held the sheet of paper in front of him.
"Here we go…" He whispered quietly, as he placed his hand on the front cover which showed a small purple magic circle as he did. Removing his hand, he then looked at the runes on the circle and back to the translation sheet as he then said.
—
"Spell book of secrets I unlock thee. Spell book of power I unlock thee. Spell book of knowledge I unlock thee. Finally spell book of Malvel Nickolas I unlock thee."
—
As he said that full verse, the runes on the front cover began to quickly disappear, before the whole book glowed a brilliant white colour and then returned to normal as quickly as it happened. Makarov then slowly put his hand on the front cover of the book and opened it up.
The book was now open for the three individuals in the room to see.
The three of us let out a small cheer, as we ultimately done what father wanted, that being to open the book and see what's inside
"You did it Master! Now we can see what's in the book" I cried happily, as I went back to finishing my tea which I had almost forgotten about.
"That we can Cade, that we can." Makarov spoke smiling at me. "But say. It would be a bit inconvenient for me to constantly come up here to translate a single page of the book. As such I have a proposal for you: Would you like to join Fairy Tail?"
Upon hearing that, I almost choked on my tea. I had to double back on what he just said.
"You want me to join Fairy Tail? But I haven't unlocked my magic yet! I'm still a non-magic user!"
"For now that is." Makarov said to me nodding his head. "You see Cade, you may not have unlocked your magic yet, but you are still capable of learning new magic." He continued.
"Well… I know but… I kinda thought it would be nicer to awaken my magic and then learn that one you know what I mean?" I said, a bit sad at having not awakened mine yet.
"Oh I know how you feel, I was the same when I was your age. But I learned that it didn't really matter in the end if the spell I ever cast was from learned magic or awoken magic. What did matter is that I was able to live life to the fullest by learning magic as soon as I could. It turns out that I'd awaken my actual magic at the age of 18!" At hearing that I was stunned. I always thought that you were never going to awaken your magic after ten years.
"Listen Cade, I'm saying that if you don't take action now and stick with what you have in mind, you may end up joining Fairy Tail at a much later date with your awoken magic in which you may regret not joining it sooner by learning a magic earlier on in your life." Makarov told me in a sincere manner.
"By joining a guild you can make new friends and memories that will last forever. Also it would be easier for you to come here and learn what spells are in the book, rather than me having to come all the way up here." He said chucking at that last part.
I thought about what he said carefully, and the more I thought about it, the more I realised that… Makarov was right. It didn't really matter if my first magic was awoken or not, what mattered was making the most of the time we have left. If I did wait to join Fairy Tale when I did awaken my magic, I would be wasting years that I could be spending in the guild itself.
Not to mention… we would be running out of money in the manors treasury. Joining a guild now would be the best way to try to wake sure we don't run out of money in the foreseeable future. Finally there was father to think about. I'm sure he would have wanted me to join now, so I could be having fun now and learning those spells. In the end, the decision was clear.
I grinned before looking up at Master Makarov.
"Master Makarov. I accept your offer to join the Fairy Tail Guild! I thought about what you said and… you are right. It doesn't matter if I wait a few years to awaken my own magic, what matters is that I make the most of time that I have. And I'm sure my father would have wanted me to join as well." I said smilingly happily at him, before holding out a hand for him to shake.
But instead, I was met with Makarov's face tearing up once again.
"Oh *sniffile* that was so nice to hear Cade. I'm sure *sniffle* that your father would be proud of you for joining Fairy Tale right now." He sniffed, before bursting into tears once again.
"Gah! Please don't cry again Master! I didn't mean to upset you!" I said, panicking at once again making a Guild Master cry for the second time today. With my mother laughing loudly again.
A few hours later Makarov and I were standing outside the Fairy Tail Guild hall. It was a big building with what looked like two floors, and it incorporating several architectonic styles: it took on a shape reminiscent of a pagoda, with each floor being smaller than the one below it and sitting on the latter's roof.
The roofs also bore great resemblance to those of real pagoda, consisting of extremely long, arched tiles lined up one after the other and possessing simple curved protrusions jutting upwards on the building's angles. On the highest roof, topping the summit of the building, sat a simple, round and pointed dome.
The roof below the one with the dome, the middle one, housed a large banner with Fairy Tail's symbol on it, held up by a pair of vertical poles. Above the building's large entrance was the name of guild written in large capital letters. Quite the grand building.
"So what do you think?" Asked Makarov looking at me with a smile on his face.
"I think the founders had the right idea." I commented smiling back at him.
Makarov chuckled upon hearing that, smiling back at me after hearing that. "Yes, the building is magnificent isn't it?" I nodded my head at him, agreeing with what he said. "Well then let's go in and make you an official member!" He said happily as he opened the doors to the guildhall.
As we both entered I got to have a look at the guilds interior. The inside was similar to a large lunch hall, and mainly consisted of wood, possessing a parquet floor and a mezzanine held up by wood beams overlooking it. Several long benches and the related tables stretched across its length with a bar. Next to the bar I could see a board with bits of paper on it. I could also see stairs that led up to the second floor, as well as a staircase in the corner of the room that must lead down into a basement area.
At the far end of the main hall, there was a door which I assumed led to Makarov's office. As we walked further in, a few of the wizards sitting on the benches turned to look at me with puzzled looks on their faces. When we reached bar counter, Makarov stopped and jumped on the counter while clearing his voice.
"Listen up everyone! This is Cadewell Philipe, son of Cobalt Philipe who you all knew and loved. Today he will become a member of the Fairy Tail Guild!" Makarov shouted loudly for the whole guild to hear. Upon hearing those last few words, everyone in the guild cheered with excitement and delight at me joining.
"I'm not done yet with the news so all you brats quiet down now!" Makarov yelled a few seconds after the cheering did not subside.
"As you know we no longer have any S-Class Wizards in the guild, so that means the S-Class job board is being closed off until we get more S-Class Wizards. Until that happens you are aloud to access the second floor!"
Upon hearing Master say that, all the wizards in the guild immediately started to run up the stairs to the second floor.
"Come on let's go!" "I wonder what's up there?" "I hear there's free beer." "Maybe there's a secret entrance to something?" "Maybe they missed an S-Class job when clearing the board?!" "Now I can pretend I'm an S-Class Wizard!" "There's gonna be so much space up there!"
"WOULD YOU FOOLS STOP AND LISTEN, I'M NOT FINISHED YET!" Bellowed Makarov, who suddenly grew to a ginormous size towering above everyone in the guild. When that happened, all the wizards in the room practically sprinted back to the first floor to listen to what Master had to say.
Makarov then grew back down to his normal height and cleared his voice. "As Cade is new here I need someone to help him learn the ropes around here, do we have any volunteers?" A few hands were raised, but there was one small hand trying to make its presence known among the others, as the person whose hand that belonged to was jumping up and trying to make their way to the front of the crowd.
"I'll show him the ropes!" Said an energetic teenager as he pushed his way to the front. When he made it to the front I was pleasantly surprised to see who it was.
"Ah Gildarts! Yes, you'd be a good pick as you're around his age. Plus you already know each other so that's a bonus." Said Makarov, as he looked towards Gildarts who was now in front of him. "Alright everyone that's all the news I have to say! Now we just lost our S-Class job board, so it'll be hard for us to stay in the list of top 50 guilds in Fiore, so get out there and make us look good!" Makarov said with determination, and he raised his fist in the air upon saying that.
After saying that, the guild members all ran either to the second floor or to the job board to get a job request. Makarov then smiled and turned back to face me.
"Now then, we need to make you an official member of the guild." He said before using what looked like some wind magic, to pull a number of different coloured stamps towards him which he caught in his hands. "What colour would you like your guild mark to be and where would you like it?"
"I'd like it coloured red… and could I have it on my left arm just here?" I pointed to where I wanted it, that being on the front of my arm."
"Sure can!" Said Makarov as he pressed the stamp on my arm, and when he removed it showed a lovely red Fairy Tail Guild emblem. "And that's you an official member!" He cheered out loud.
"Now then!" Makarov's demeanour completely changed in an instant as he pulled out Malvel's spell book and the sheet of paper that translated it from… thin air? "You have a week to learn at least one spell, else the Magic Council will be on me for letting a non-magic user join my guild! You better start learning well Cade!" He mentioned before quickly returning to his office leaving just me and Gildarts with each other.
"Wha-?… What? How did Master… Wait, I have a week?!" I said panicking at the thought of potentially being kicked out of the guild due to not having learned any spells.
"Oh that was Master's Requip Magic." Gildarts explained to me. "It's mostly used for storage, and he only has a basic understanding of it." Gildarts looked at my spell book with curiosity. "What kind of spells are in that thing by the way?" He finished.
"That is the magic I'm going to be learning. Well as long as there isn't anything illegal in it of course." I said awkwardly at that last part.
As I looked around the Guildhall I began to think about my father.
'Father, I hope you're happy with what I'm going to be doing with the next years of my life. I'm still not entirely confident that there isn't any illegal spells in this book… but you trusted me to use and learn from it. I promise I'll make you proud!'
Well there you have it, that's the end of Arc 2 everyone. We finally got to see the backstory of the two brothers, and now Cade has joined Fairy Tail! Along with that he's also got a young Gildarts to help him and show him the ropes.
Time is now ticking, will Cade be able to learn a spell in the seven day time limit? You'll have to stay tuned to find out.
I do hope that you are enjoying this story and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!