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:
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 how long do you think it'll take for you to learn a spell then?"
"I don't know… this is all new to me… Hey, how bad is for me if I don't actually learn magic in time?" I scratched my head with was puzzlement.
Gildarts only frowned, as he answered for me. "Well, non-mages aren't technically aloud to legally join a Wizard's Guild for obvious reasons. You can't go out on jobs and take quests which is a shame really. Though, I guess you could always work behind the bar to help out." I gave a deadpan figuring that my mother wouldn't approve of that at my age.
"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!" Gildarts assured patting me on the shoulder. "You gave yourself that little deadline till the end of the week, right?"
"Yeah." I nodded, before remembering something rather important. I 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. "This isn't the average spell book I'm afraid…"
"What the heck?! How are you supposed to read and learn from that?!" Gildarts questioned in shock, pointing at the runes. "That just looks like an entirely different language to me!"
I sighed, pulling 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. I need to 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 I gotta go through a load of runes to do that…"
"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.
"Huh." Gildarts said simply as he looked back to the menacing runes. "So how long does it take to translate each page using that sheet of paper? I don't think I could last a minute trying to read this."
"I don't know, I mean it took Master Makarov a few minutes to translate a single page. Oh! But he wore some glasses that let you read it faster as he did it. So I don't really know how long." I answered with a frown, crossing my arms.
"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. "That'll make it way less time consuming."
"Yeah! Why didn't I think of that?! Good idea Gildarts! Let's go ask-"
"That won't work the way you think, you know." Came a sudden tsk from behind us.
Me and Gildarts turned around to see who said that. I saw who gave that little tsk, and was surprised by who it was. I saw that it was a young 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. Over that he wore a purple jacket. His lower half was covered by a pair of dark trousers with boots to match that colour. "I heard you talking about using his glasses, correct? Well that's too bad. They need lacrimas to recharge them before they can be used again."
"Oh. Hey there Ivan, I didn't know you were back." Greeted Gildarts with a smile, 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 and at home?"
"I got better." Ivan said dryly.
Gildarts blinked once. "Ok… Well what's this about the glasses needing a lacrima to be recharged?" Gildarts questioned Ivan with disbelief.
"Don't question me like that." Ivan scoffed as be rose his head a little. "I just saw father hold a lacrima next to it one time and it began to recharge, that's all." Ivan then turned to me. "You joined the guild didint you? guess I'll be seeing you around then… Cade was it?"
"Yeah, nice to meet you Ivan." I smiled raising a hand to him. Ivan hesitated, before taking it and awkwardly shaking it. Afterwards he left the both of us and left the guildhall.
"Well, he was… something…" I muttered, not sure what the best word would be to describe Ivan.
"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. That'll take forever though…"
"I guess… May as well start now then, can't exactly waste any time on this. I'll be back here tomorrow, I guess I'll see you then?" I questioned to Gildarts.
"Yeah, see you." Gildarts held up a hand as I stood up from the bench, and made my way over to the guildhall door. Before I could leave through, Gildarts spoke up to me. "Oh! Wait a minute! Can I still head over to you place sometime and hang out with your friends soon? I don't know many people my age. You, me… I doubt Ivan would play with us… oh and that girl from the party! Maybe ask her?"
"Sure! I'll go to her house on the way back and ask her, then I'll let you know tomorrow!" I explained as I left the guild and made my way to Lilly's house. Gildarts waving at me as I left. "See ya Gildarts!"
Magnolia was a rather rectangular shaped town, with long wide roads that lead you to all sorts of corners in the town. The Fairy Tail 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 really 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, so I began to walk in that direction.
As I traveled to Lilly's house I began to think back on everything that happened today. 'Feels like it's been way longer than a single day…'
First I got a surprise recording from my father that was recorded before I was born. Then I learned about Malvel and Velmal. After that me, mother and Master Makarov unlocked his spell book. After that, I was offered to join Fairy Tail which I accepted, before heading to the guild to meet everyone. And now I'm to learn a spell and demonstrate it to Makarov so I don't get forced to work behind the guilds bar…' I thought with a bit of a deadpan. But one major problem was at the constant back on my mind as I walked.
Would I have enough time to decode those ruins? Makarov said it was hard for him to decode them back at the manor, so how well would I do in that regard? How much time would I need? Well, those were questions for later, as now I had arrived at Lilly's house.
Lilly's house was a small house compared to the huge manor I lived in. Maybe that's why she always loved to come over to visit me, instead of having me visit her. It had two floors with a stone chimney and it had a nice triangular styled roof. In the house lived Lilly and her mother. As far as I was aware, her father had never been in her life. I don't know why though.
I knocked on the door and was greeted by Lilly's mother. She looked rather surprised to see me, holding a hand up to her mouth. "Cade!? Wow! You're out of your room! Erm, I mean, It's so good to see you! Are you here to see Lilly? She's in her room right now." She looked behind her, into the house.
"Yeah could I come in and see her?" I asked politely. "A lot has happened, which I think she would want to hear."
"Of course you can! You've been friends with her for years now. So you can come by here anytime you wish." Her mother kindly moved aside to let me in, as I entered the house.
The inside of the house was very cosy and snug. I always liked the design and colour of it. I had moved into the living room, in which there was the fireplace, nice couch and small 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. "Aw, who is it? I was busy with…"
She gasped as she saw me. "Caaaaaaade!" She shouted as she ran to hug me, with a big smile on her face. "You're out of your room! You're ok!"
"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. Like I said, a lot has happened recently. In fact, all the things that I'm going to tell you about have happened today!" I told Lilly gaining a surprised look on her face. She took a seat, as I sat next to her, beginning my story of what had happened.
I told a rather summarised version of everything, starting with Master Makarov 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 personal one week deadline date I set for myself, in which I had to learn a spell, or face some personal failure.
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 with a happy glint in her eyes.
'Yeah, I expected her to comment on that first.' I thought with some amusement.
"Yup, here's my guild mark." I grinned, showing her my arm with the Fairy Tail guild emblem on it.
"Awesome! So now you can go on jobs and make money right?" She wondered with excitement. "Are you going to go as soon as you can?"
"Well… I don't have any spells to cast yet, so I gotta get to translating this when I get home." I explained sheepishly, 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 this magic I was learning came from a dark wizard's spell book. I was only telling those I trusted fully, who at this point consisted of Master 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, and I considered them family. 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. Maybe I could also tell Cornelia when she was feeling better.
"I think so…" I affirmed with a nod. "I mean, my father wanted me to learn the spells inside of it. Plus, I think he knew the wizard that originally made the spell book had redeemed himself in his eyes. If he would have trusted him, then 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. "You only gave yourself that little personal deadline of a week?"
"I'll take a look at it tonight and head for the guild tomorrow morning." I answered with a slight shrug. "By then I'll get the first page translated." I said trying to reassure her.
Lilly 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? That kinda sucks…"
"Yeah, I think so. I mean everyone else I saw at the guild today looked at least above the age of 18 years. 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. "Wow, look at the time!"
"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. "Wish me luck!"
"Ok! Good luck learning that magic! Come back to see me when you do!" Lilly waved 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. I'm sure that made 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, turning to face her mother before facing me again.
I felt a little bit emotional upon hearing that from them. "T-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 that new game with you two since the party!" Lilly said excitedly, jumping once.
"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. I made it back just in time. Assuming I was going to be spending a lot of time at the Fairy Tail guild, I would have to make sure I leave early enough, as we were practically in winter by now, so it would 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 Tail 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 with a smile as he stepped aside for me to enter.
"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 with amusement, as we now reached the dining hall.
"Heh, I guess that may be true… but I'd still like you and Pierce regardless." 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 gave a small bow before Pierce spoke up. "Thank you m'lady, you are too kind. Shall we lock the door when we leave?"
"Yes please." Requested mother. With that, Pierce and Charles left the dining hall, and headed out the grand hall in which they locked the front 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. "You didn't get into any fights I hope…?"
"Oh, it was really good!" I grinned, oblivious to her worry that I may have gotten into any fights. "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 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. "Only good things can come from making new friends."
"Oh, there was one other thing." I said as I folded my arms with a frown. "See, I want to learn magic as fast as I can. But there's no real consequence if I can't, other than the fact that I can't go out on jobs. So I kinda set myself a personal time limit of a week to learn magic."
"Really?" Mother wondered as she lowered her fork to look up at me. "That's… ambitious of you Cade. Are you sure you can handle that much in such little time?"
"I think I'll be ok." I nodded. "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."
"Hmm, not sure if I approve of this time limit you've set yourself, but I guess it would be difficult for a non-magic user to try and earn money in a guild." I heard mother say under her breath, looking down at the rest of her spaghetti as she ate the rest of her dinner.
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. That was something I didn't really consider…
When I finished my dinner, I began to head upstairs to my bedroom. Before I left her earshot, I heard mother yell something up to me. "Don't stay up too late now! I don't want to see large bags under your eyes in the morning! Ok Cade?"
"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. I then took a seat on the chair, 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 Makarov 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. 'How hard can it… oh.'
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 would make translating this first page quite the struggle. But what else was I supposed to do? I didn't have any other ideas of how to learn magic. 'How long am I gonna be doing this translating for? Hopefully not years!'
I began to translate the runes, making slow progress as I worked my through the complex symbols. As I was slowly making my way through it, I had been writing the phrase I was learning on a scrap of paper so I wouldn't forget it. Altogether this page wasn't that inherently bad all things considered. There weren't many issues or problems that I had expected to see, which was nice!
Now 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 9:00 PM 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. It had taken a lot out of me… Upon re-reading the whole thing, I was utterly stunned by what it said.
'What the-?'
—
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 about 50 pages altogether! There was no way that I was getting through another verse tonight, I'll just translate this one and see what it has to say.
(Following what Master Makarov did earlier in the day), 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!
'Wait, what's this?'
—
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 way 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! I'll probably find something down there that I can 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. I hadn't expected to see something like this!
'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.
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 9:00 PM." I lied with a smile. 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?"
"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 nodded 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 with a smile 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 wouldn't 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, leaning over to it.
"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 fatter curious as to the diary entry. "Wow, I didn't know it was a diary as well. Shame there wasn't a spell though. Maybe the next page will have better luck for you."
"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 glum 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 two of the book which was also layered with runes. 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 as he scratched his chin with thought.
"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 offered to Gildarts smiling as I 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. "As long as it's not too boring."
"…" I decided not to answer that for Gildarts.
And that's that chapter done everyone! Now we're 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? I'm looking forward to writing about him, we never go to see much of him in the anime. Anyway, it seems like Malvel has more than just spells in his spell book… I 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!
