Little question for you guys at the end (that was blown out of proportion but oh well :D).
Lucy was entertaining Rosemary, waiting for the whistle of the kettle when she heard them. With clattering boots, a platoon of Rune Knights surrounded the mansion. One of them rapped at the front door. Of all the times Laxus was out on a walk with Master… And where the hell had Natsu, Happy and Gray gone?
Lucy shrieked when the front door was kicked open. It thundered against the wall.
"Jellal Fernandes!" The captain stepped inside. His face was grim, his tone deadly serious.
Lucy grabbed Rosemary and ran. She wasn't what one could call practised with babies. The last thing she wanted now was drop the poor child while fumbling for her Celestial Keys.
The captain called after her. Whimpering as much as Rosemary, Lucy flew up the stairs. She skidded to a halt at the end of the hallway, right into Erza.
"Lucy—"
"They're here! They're here," Lucy panted, handing over Rosemary.
Erza brought her over to the bed. Jellal had managed to sit up, the worst of his bloodied wounds mending only slowly. Wendy's power was drained from seeing to the Council. The Council who wasn't vouching for Jellal. The Council who was hearing someone testify against him. It was all happening too fast.
Rune Knights noisily made their way up the stairs. The hair in the back of Lucy's neck stood on end. Her hand flew to her belt, indecisive, twitching from whip to keys. Wendy gave a bit of a strangled noise, spurring herself to heal faster, to heal better, but Jellal gestured for her to stop. With his other hand, he rubbed Rosemary's back, hiding her face when the steps reached the threshold.
"Je—" The captain of the Rune Knights stopped dead in his tracks. Another step, and he would have been dead.
The tip of Erza's sword nipped at the man's throat. The blade shimmered in the sun, reflecting the murderous glint in her eyes. Her wrath was tangible. It seeped through skin, thick and boiling, clutched the heart with white-hot claws, a dark aura beating down on the men's lungs like the sun in a desert.
"Lay a single finger on my husband and I will end you."
The captain gulped.
"We will come to the Council in an hour," Jellal appeased.
Erza wouldn't be tamed. The captain took a breath to reply, perhaps have the audacity to make demands, but her wrath strangled his nervous system into a quivering heap of tiny gasps and dried out words. His Adam's apple bobbed against her sword. He retreated on his knees, crawled until out of sight.
Wendy helped Lucy check the mansion, sniffing around for any stray Rune Knights. Upon finding none, they returned upstairs.
"Where did Warrod go?"
"With them," Erza said. Her voice was still sharp, her eyes wary slits.
Jellal heaved himself out of bed. His spine popped, and he swallowed groans of pain with pressed breaths. It thawed Erza out of her fury enough to stand beside him, offer her shoulder to lean on.
"Stay—"
"It's alright." He took a couple of steps to demonstrate. Hardly a limp. He kept his back straight, shoulders back, his arm hanging nearly the same way as the good one. Only his abdomen would ripple with stinging pain every few metres.
Erza bandaged him up to be on the safe side. The five of them went downstairs to eat lunch. Their heads buzzed with speculations, scenarios and fears, but no one dared to voice them. Cutlery clinked. Erza insisted that Wendy took a break, washing up alone while the young Dragon Slayer and Lucy observed Jellal changing Rosemary.
The avenues were unusually busy. The Council had temporarily offered the mansions they possessed to citizens whose houses had been destroyed. Some of those people were yelling their discontent while others raved about the blessing of a beautiful, huge roof over their head, even if they had to share it with former neighbours and strangers. Most of them remained quiet in the wake of their sudden displacement.
Erza couldn't imagine how they must have felt with their homes in a shambles.
The platoon of Rune Knights was waiting at the gates of the Council building. The damage of the west wing was not to be sneezed at. When Fairy Tail drew near, the captain of the Rune Knights flinched. He moved aside, but the guards wouldn't be intimidated so easily. They crossed their spears before Lucy and Wendy could enter.
"Hey!" Lucy complained.
Erza turned back. For some reason that was giving Lucy a queasy feeling, they had let her in.
"They're with us."
"No can do," the guard said in a deep, stern voice. Erza glared at him.
"Wendy healed the members of the Council day and night! You owe her!" Lucy protested. The guard wouldn't be swayed.
Something flashed across Erza's eyes. Lucy had seen it before, back in that room in the tower of heaven. Go, she had told them, this is my battle.
"Erza," Lucy called past the guards, "it's ours." She held up her hand with the emblem of Fairy Tail. Erza stared at it. Her left eye shimmered, but she blinked and lowered her head.
"I know." A smile, a small one. She nodded, and Lucy did too. They would wait. They would not be too late to help this time.
She watched them ascend the rounded stairs, each step a tiny fight for Jellal but he wouldn't let it show, not beyond the slowness of his pace or the quickness of his breath. Erza had Rosemary strapped to her chest, her hand free to take Jellal's. Lucy could see the reassuring squeeze just before the two disappeared and the doors on the gallery rumbled shut.
Flanking them from all sides, the guards spared them no glance or word. Jellal asked them if Erza could wait in his office and they complied. They would stand right outside, he knew.
Accompanying her to the sofa behind the wall of shelves, Jellal brought over a tray with cups, biscuits and sugar cubes. A researcher surprised him by doing as he asked, disappearing to get hot water.
"I can't read the mood."
"Me neither." Erza sat on the couch. "Something's off."
Rosemary made a sound, demanding her father to enter her field of view. He did, having her sniff and slobber on a biscuit.
"About that mission you cancelled the other week… We can do another one."
Erza frowned, astonished. She plucked the biscuit from Rosemary's hands and ate it.
Jellal sat down next to her. "I know I've been asking a lot of you. Staying home, cooped up – you're itching to get out and fight or solve a client's riddle. I'm not all there yet, but once I'm fully healed, and if you promise me to try your utmost not to get hurt, we could look for a request. Maybe in Magnolia. Have Meredy babysi—"
Erza threw her arms around him. Rosemary wailed when being squished, and Jellal winced with pain.
"Sorry, sorry, I just— sorry." Erza stroked Rosemary's head. Her other hand strayed to his chest, feathery atop his wounds, travelling higher, caressing his cheek. "Yes. Let's do that," she said. And she ignored the whispers in the back of her mind, wondering whether there would be a 'later'; if they had the luxury to make plans in the near future. "Then you can teach me that spell."
The researcher reappeared with a pot of tea. Jellal stood. Erza rose to her feet, catching him by his sleeve.
His gaze was adamant. "I won't surrender."
She smiled. "I know. I trust you." Fingers furling around his collar, she made the researcher squeak by approaching Jellal's face until their upper lips brushed. "And if habit kicks in, if the situation demands it and you run, then I will follow you. I will follow you and I will find you no matter where you are."
She kissed him fiercely. His arms wound around her, held her without flinching.
As his lips peeled away, the corner tugged up into a smirk. "We're being pretty dramatic, aren't we?"
"You can say 'you'. You're fine." She scowled. He kissed her again, and she him, and only when the researcher dropped a cup to the floor, flustered, did they leave their bubble and focus on the present.
Jellal's stride down the corridor was a strained one, and yet it brimmed with conviction. He would not worry Erza anymore. He would return to her and Rosemary. He would prove to them that he was innocent – he believed in his own innocence, and unlike before, he was ready to stand his ground.
"Jellal Fernandes," the bailiff said. The bailiff, not Ambrose.
Jellal scanned the room.
Polished marble peeked out from under the most expensive hand-crafted rugs. Their deep purple matched the velvet curtains that were pushed aside from windows six times Jellal's height, reaching all the way up to the curved cathedral-like ceiling. Frescos adorned the ceiling. Where there used to be tales of the Trade Wars and great ancient magicians, there now was the sealing of Eclipse depicted.
A vast acacia table stood in the centre of the room. Like poison ivy, its surface meandered, branched out in swirls for each attendant to sit at. At the head of the table was Queen Hisui. Hair pulled back, she had chosen to wear a crown instead of a tiara. A symbol of supremacy. Behind her stood Arcadios, and to her right sat her retired father.
The Council was there too. Seated down the right side of the table, they didn't look up when the bailiff read out the accusations. The other half of the table was downright ogling. Their profiles within the archive were enough for Jellal to accurately guess their identities.
Closest to the Queen of Fiore was the king of the Pergrande Kingdom – King Farhang. He was of average height, his golden crown inundated with precious jewels. His body reminded of that of a teenager – lean and long, vaguely muscular if you squinted but with a metabolism that kicked any muscle or weight gains right out the window. His face told a different story, wrinkles ploughing deep furrows into the forehead, around his eyes and down the corners of his mouth to his chin like thick lines drawn on a marionette's movable jaw.
The regents of Seven and Bosco looked like twins. As it turned out, they were brothers, one of them having assumed the throne while the other had married the daughter of the former king across the border. The prince of Minstrel – a chubby boy who couldn't be much older than Erza – looked sourly at the second brother. He too had been in the race for the hand of Bosco's princess.
Word of the fight had spread like wildfire. The countries of Ishgar were immensely dissatisfied, to put it mildly, the bailiff explained. Draculos, Wolfheim, Jura and Warrod were keeping their heads low. Had they told the truth? Were they ducking away from the kings' bile that oozed into the air or were they holding their peace about the incident altogether?
"To top it off, a former criminal—"
Queen Hisui raised her hand, cutting the bailiff off.
He cleared his throat. "To top it off, a member of Fiore's Council branch demolishes the city and incinerates part of the building. That latter cannot be seen as anything but treason."
Jura winced ever so slightly. Caelum's Council branch – the man with the green hair and the dwarf – shook their heads in disbelief. They looked sad more than anything, looking at Jellal with impaired hope.
"He will have had his reasons," one of them said.
The other nodded. "He has proven himself a dependable, good‑hearted person in Caelum. Unasked, he—"
"He scuppered this blasted building – unasked!" King Farhang bellowed. "This kingdom has seen its share of destruction at the hands of rogue mages and dark magic. Guild wars, dragon infestations. Fiore is an embarrassment to the continent. It's made us look assailable to any number of outside forces. It started a war with the Alvarez Empire!"
"A war which the guilds of Fiore won," Hisui intervened.
"Is that the way Fiore's monarchy looks at a state of war? Win or lose? The greater death toll?" King Farhang spat. Hisui averted her gaze. Her father patted her hand atop the table. He turned to the king of the Pergrande Kingdom, but the man continued. "It's bad enough that you have a Wizard Saint compete in preposterous, barbaric scuffles for all the country to see, but this—!"
"The countries of Ishgar collectively severed all ties to the Alvarez Empire in X783." The conference hushed when Jellal spoke. "Two years prior, the Alvarez Empire attempted to raid Ishgar of one of its most powerful weapons. The war was not caused by Fiore. It has been seething for a long time without intervention or attempts at diplomacy by any other nation of Ishgar."
King Farhang snarled, flinching as if Jellal had bitten him.
Queen Hisui's eyes shone with gratitude.
"None of which has anything to do with you," the prince of Minstrel nagged. While Farhang had the body type of a teenager, the prince of Minstrel sounded like one. He reminded Jellal of Macbeth when he was younger. "You still wreaked havoc. Mages are dangerous, is what they are. We should put 'em all on a leash, use those padlock chain things. The ones that repress all magic."
"Seal stone," the king of Bosco corrected haughtily. The prince of Minstrel shot him a glare.
"The wizards of this country are all that can keep us safe from the likes of dragons and such," King Farhang rebuked them. "The lack of control Fiore has over its wizards is casting a bad light on them – on magic itself!"
"We should rid ourselves of anyone trampling on our rules," the king of Seven agreed. "Law and order must be feared. The branches of the Magic Council must be feared. There is no place for traitors." He didn't look at Jura and the others, only at Jellal. "I say we make an example of him. Tie him to a stake. Show the continent and Alakitasia that we are not prim when it comes to serving justice."
Jellal had felt the ghosts of chains around his wrists at the mention of seal stone. Now he found himself back in a coffin, crucified, comatose, amnesiac. A year back, he would have chipped a tooth gritting his teeth, fighting the urge to flee. Four weeks ago, he had considered another arrest.
Now his fists didn't ball up and his jaw was relaxed. It felt brazen to be so confident. He wasn't even sure why. Perhaps because he could outrun each and every person in the room with Meteor if he wanted to. Because Erza had said she would support even his most cowardly approach. Or perhaps because he wanted her to see that he was not a coward. That their talks bore fruit; that he had reason to believe in himself.
Most of all, Jellal recoiled from his delirious fever – suspecting Erza of turning him in, accepting defeat.
Like a mountain spring, icy and steadfast, confidence coursed through his veins. It hadn't been a palpable dream, it was reality. It was the reality he had achieved after endless fighting, after agony and separation and a pain throbbing deep within his heart. He was living a life far beyond his wildest expectations. No way in hell was he going to give that up.
The bailiff skimmed the scroll in his hand. "Eyewitnesses saw you rampaging without reason, leaving countless people homeless and frightened for their lives. Do you contest it?"
"Witness-es?" Jellal asked.
The bailiff clamped his lips shut. He adjusted his glasses. "One."
"But there is no opposition," a new voice joined them. From the backroom, a researcher entered, no, not a researcher. An anthropomorphic amphibian Jellal recognised from a different division of the Council: the dungeons. Serena. "Your childish grudges sent one of our own into exile. My colleague – our colleague! – fled from the wayward likes of you, and now you showed everyone just how dangerous you can be."
"A childish grudge, huh?" Jellal raised a brow. Speak from experience? he wanted to add. Serena pursed his frog lips. His slick skin seemed to transpire more slime, runny and grizzly and nervous.
Royal eyes bore into him. The bailiff waited too, glancing from Serena to his scroll to Jellal. The Council remained unmoving. He wasn't sure if they had taken a breath since he had entered the room, much less blinked.
Jellal couldn't know if they had confessed. He couldn't tell the already resentful regents about the rebuilding and destruction of Etherion. He could, but he wouldn't. Jellal would not give them a reason to justifiably call him a traitor, neither of them nor the Council.
"It was to protect the citizens of Era."
"From whom?" King Farhang barked. "And now don't try to hoax us into believing the hokum that the old man was making up. The Magic Council of Fiore could never be beaten by the likes of a single person. We declared them gods, for god's sake!"
"Get those padlocks."
"Seal stones."
"Whatever." The prince of Minstrel waved off. "I've had enough of this back and forth. Why listen to a criminal in the first place? We decide, right? I say we execute him."
"What happened to your padlocks?" The king of Seven mocked. His bother snickered derisively. To the execution plan, no one batted an eye.
Jellal waited for them to stop their quarrel, lest he interrupt a king. He looked straight at Serena. "Can the witness make a statement on casualties?"
Serena began to speak, stuttered, shushed himself as he stumbled over his words. "I-I can. Well, no, but that's not important. This is about wilful, almost sportive mutilation, intentional vandalism! He is unpredictable!" He turned to the royal guests. "Mad! Possessed – just like in the past when he—"
A chair scraped across the marble, tearing at everyone's eardrums. It clattered to the ground. Jura slammed his palms onto the table. "I renounce my approval with the claims made!"
Draculos' chair was quieter, but he, too, stood, casting a long shadow over the acacia wood. "I renounce my approval. Jellal Fernandes is not the offender, but the saviour."
Warrod rose from his seat. "So is Titania."
Wolfheim grumbled something unintelligible. The room closed in on him, waiting, but he did not get up. Eyes flashing to his fellow Council members, he nodded his consent though.
"Fairy Tail stands behind their members, all of them," Warrod said. "It is how we won the war – we, Ishgar, a country six times smaller than Minstrel and more than fifteen times smaller than the Pergrande Kingdom. Our new constellation has much to learn to become an admirable Council, and we will start with doing what is just." He lifted his gaze to a perplexed Jellal. "Innocent."
"Innocent," Draculos, Jura and Wolfheim tuned in. The Council branch of Caelum happily joined their chorus.
"Not innocent!" King Farhang exploded. "And even if he is, you have no right to vote without us."
"They do," Queen Hisui said as calmly as she could with the choleric screeching murder next to her. "They exercise jurisdiction over Ishgar's major magical offences."
"They apparently messed up big time," the prince of Minstrel reminded. The 'old man' having tried to convince them of the accident due to drugs must have been Ambrose. "If it's true, then that's all the more reason to lock him up. He beat your gods to a pulp," he sneered at King Farhang.
"He did." King Farhang's voice had lost its razor-sharp edge. He began eyeing Jellal in a new light, his gaze lingering on the tattoo.
Jellal debated with himself whether to mention Erza. He didn't want the credit alone, but he didn't want to drag Erza into trouble. He didn't want any credit at all, unless it was the number of casualties in relation to the destruction – a number which was apparently zero. He wanted Selena to choke on it.
"He and the Scarlet Warrioress," Arcadios chimed in.
"Scarlet Warrioress?"
"The girl who shellacked 100 monsters," the prince of Minstrel said in his tell-me-about-it sing-song. "That nutso catfight between the three chicks on the fifth day? She beat up the new Emperor of Alvarez – one of the Spriggan 12! Don't you read the news, old man?"
Jellal half expected him to whip out a scrap book. The prince's eyes had come to life.
"Bring her in," Draculos told Jellal.
"Here?" The prince of Minstrel squeaked. His gaze flashed about and his feet kicked excitedly under the table.
Excitement turned into what Jellal found was alarmingly close to soiling his regal pants when Erza was led into the room by three guards. It could have been a dozen and she could have grounded them into minced meat all the same.
The prince of Minstrel seemed to think the same thing. His cheeks were glowing, his chin quivering as he formed unuttered words.
The conference knew too. They wrapped themselves in silence as she came to stand next to Jellal. Until their eyes fell to the bulging strap around her torso.
"Is that…?"
"A baby!" The tiny Caelum representative swooned.
"The baby!" he cried in unison with his colleague. "Did you get our gifts?"
"We included lots of kiwis. My idea."
The kings of Seven and Bosco turned their heads slowly to the Caelum Council members, bewilderment an understatement. The more one had been in contact with Fairy Tail, the more ludicrous their concept of 'normal', it seemed.
"Congratulations again!" Caelum's Council wouldn't feel awkward, flowering with admiration.
"A baby," King Farhang mused aloud. "Her baby?" He looked at Erza. She didn't reply. Jellal almost smirked. If the man didn't have the decency to address her directly, she owed him no answer.
"Yes," Queen Hisui tried to uphold the atmosphere that was discharging of malevolence.
"How strong is the child's magic?"
Jellal and Erza exchanged a glance. "We can't know yet," she said.
"And the type? What kind of magic does it command? Surely, it inherited at least one of your magic types. Which is it?" he asked her.
"We don't know," Erza repeated. "She hasn't shown signs of using magic yet. As for the inheritance, my mother was an enchanter and a Dragon Slayer and while I recently learned a few enchantments, I specialise in Requip Magic and Telekinesis."
"No signs of magic? Is the father not a wizard?"
Erza broke into the most shit‑eating grin Jellal had ever seen on her. "Her father?" Oh, the smugness, the triumph. She was bathing in it. He half expected her to deliver another humiliating comment about pleasure galore like she had during Hara's trial. The purr lacing her tone gave it away to the knowing ear. "Her father is the very man who saved Fiore from an unfinished Etherion's blast." She looked up at him and the self‑complacency melted into affection.
One of Caelum's Council members sighed dreamily. The prince of Minstrel's face was a mixture of blue and red, his breaths gasping merely because of Erza's presence. The way she looked at Jellal added green to the mixture.
"His?" King Farhang scrutinised Jellal more carefully, then Erza. "A child born to the two mages who defeated the Magic Council of Fiore…" He stroked his chin in thought.
Jellal hadn't realised that yet. Neither how Rosemary was slumbering in full ignorance of an assembly of the most powerful and esteemed individuals of the entire continent.
"Does it have his magic?"
"We don't know," the king of Bosco echoed Erza, annoyed. "There's too little empirical research on magic heredity anyway. Chances are she'll get a bit of both or either one or even nothing."
"So then," King Farhang's eyes were drilling into Erza, "if you had a child with the Lightning Dragon Slayer, would it be guaranteed to become a Dragon Slayer? That power, it must be somewhere in your genes, right?"
"Laxus Dreyar is a second generation Dragon Slayer," Jura said pensively.
"And I'm married to Jellal." Erza propped her hands on her hips. She had enjoyed the spotlight, and she loved positive attention on her beautiful baby, but this was going off the rails even for her taste.
King Farhang made a disregarding gesture. "No matter. Hypothetically."
Jellal watched the king warily, the way the man's gears turned almost visibly, his eyes grazing over the Council, over Erza, Rosemary and Jellal. He opened his mouth just when the window shattered with an ear‑splitting crash!
"You're not arresting him again!" Natsu hollered at the top of his lungs. Dropped by Happy, he landed on his feet and one hand. Fire pulsed from his fists, steam rising out of his mouth.
Pillars of ice struck the remains of the window. Gray and Lucy were catapulted in, followed closely by Wendy and Charle. Wendy's stance wide, she had her arms out for an enchantment. Lucy's hand was on her keys while Gray's was already striking the palm of his other hand, clouds of ice emitting readily, threateningly.
Erza gaped at them from behind Jellal's shield.
"What the—" The kings of Bosco and Seven said in unison, one of them swearing hard. The prince of Minstrel had shrieked, now vanished from sight, whimpering somewhere under the table. The guards stood frozen, wobbling towards the table to protect their Majesties.
Jura dropped his face into his palm. Warrod snickered, while Jellal was ready to reprimand Erza should she praise her friends' untimely support.
King Farhang had his staff raised – an odd thing of pitch-black wood and with gems the shapes of pyramids on each end. His eyes widened at the sight of Natsu. He stood. "What is the meaning of this?" Disregarding Queen Hisui, he approached the mages. "How dare you break into the building? How dare you threaten the kings of this continent? Who do you think you are?"
Natsu spared him a bored glance. "We're the ones stopping your oppression and protecting our guildmates." He grinned. Flexing his right arm, the emblem flared red and proud at the bewildered king. "We're Fairy Tail."
What would your tier list of wizards be? (Those alive and 'relevant', seeing as Zeref and Mavis are somehow reborn but not relevant in a sense of fighting any time soon/ever again anymore.)
A couple of my thoughts you're welcome to use/comment on/expand:
- Brandish is OP but not from Ishgar so I'm leaving her out for plot reasons (same with Ajeel)
- Mavis, Zeref, Irene and August aren't around anymore (as mages/at all)
- Natsu is always the strongest for plot reasons
- Erza and Laxus' battle was a tie because he says he was also out of magic, although he fought Kiria before (and Erza only outsmarted brainwashed Jellal after a bit of a battle)
- Jellal beat the Oracion Séis by himself, but then again Meredy's sheer magic power (not combat power which is still great) spanned the entire continent for Fairy Sphere (located them, connected them, maybe contacted them to explain even though she can't use telepathy but plot. Maguilty-sensing her way into people's hearts to have everyone die from magic deficiency – I'm getting off topic here)
- Jellal and the Six couldn't beat August but Gildarts and Cana could
- Natsu and Gajeel's battle was a tie in the 100 YQ but again, main protagonist advantage
- Gray beat the Thunder God Tribe in the 100 YQ
I'm mainly wondering because of the Wizard Saints - writing about their absolutely justified fear of Fairy Tail, Crime Sorcière not shying from a battle against them… who are the most powerful wizards or rather, where does the Council stand? Discuss.
(I should probably open up a reddit account for this...)
Thanks for your contributions :) I look forward to reading them!