Sometimes, Siegrain wondered if dreams were just little ways his mind liked to mess with his thoughts.
Huh...
So far, that's what he believed them to be.
Is this after my practical with Nine?
Siegrain tilted his head as he looked into the sole mirror of the room and glanced down at the heavy bruises that lined his trim torso. The white walls of the lab stared at him as he tilted his head and tried to imagine the pain he used to experience from a beating such as this one.
Yeah...
Siegrain had only fought a few original numbers, 5, 6, and 9. In comparison, Nine was only his opponent a single time before the original ten numbers, the first 'batch' to say, vanished from the lab, suddenly and without warning.
Nine.
All except for him and Seven.
That means...
Siegrain sighed as he walked over to his mattress, counting down the seconds until the door to the lab opened and a small set of footsteps entered the room. The light voice hit his ears with a hint of worry concealed with a playful smile, "Ooh? Nine kicked your ass, huh? Here, let me check it out."
Siegrain tilted his head downwards, not wanting to look as gentle hands prodded his body. Minutes passed before Seven's voice spoke with a resounding breath of relief: "Well, that's good. It looks like no bones are broken."
Siegrain didn't reply; he hummed as he looked down at his hands, cut and hurt, while listening to Seven inject optimism into her voice, "You know you shouldn't feel bad; Nine is a tough opponent. Still kicks my butt most days."
"You guys are pretty even, I'd say."
"Eh, maybe; I still think he's better than me," Seven's voice sounded with a slight shrug, her tone dipping into playful seriousness that meant she was worried, "Hey, let's play a game."
Worried but didn't want to show it.
"We can play Tarantula and-"
"Why do you do that?"
Siegrain glanced back, meeting a set of stunned golden eyes as he murmured, slightly glancing toward the mirror, "I know Tarantula is just a way to train my threads, but why? It's not strong, and I know that now, so why did you bother? Other magic..."
Siegrain had nearly died; he would have died, but he had done more damage when he abandoned his thread magic, "Other magic is so much stronger."
Siegrain didn't understand; he wanted to use thread magic because Seven loved it, but the world slapped him in the face and told him to give up.
"Today, I fought someone strong, and I..."
Siegrain felt like he had lost something he couldn't get back.
"I lost."
Siegeain didn't know if his last attack would have taken out his opponent. It probably wouldn't have since it was the first time he'd used it in battle, but regardless, he was certain Midnight's final attack would have killed him. That was a loss as far as he was concerned. Anything that ended in his death was a loss.
"But other magic gave me better results; it made me better, so why..."
Siegrain couldn't understand why...
"Why did you love my magic?"
Siegrain couldn't understand why that thought made him feel so empty.
"It would be so much easier to leave it behind if you didn't tell me you loved it."
Siegrain's heartbroken words echoed around the room as he glanced back to see Seven looking at him in a quiet silence. Her black hair with blue streaks covered her golden eyes as she leaned forward and hugged him from behind. Her nails dug into his skin, and her head nestled in his shoulder as she murmured, "So you're blaming me, huh?"
Seven's voice was just as soft as he remembered...
"I guess I should have expected this."
It was just as soft...
"I always knew..."
Her voice...
"You were a coward."
It still stung as much as he remembered it.
Mystogan had spent hours looking at that stupid stamp; he was still looking at it when Siegrain woke up in the bed next to him with a small gasp that sounded like he had just drowned.
"Bad dream..."
Mystogan observed as he turned from the stamp that kept staring back at him and watched Siegrain sit up. A single bead of sweat fell from his chin as he stared into space for a few seconds before nodding, "Yeah." Siegrain's eyes seemed to deaden forcefully as if he was suppressing whatever emotions were leftover from the dream as he glanced around the room. His brown eyes stopped on Wendy, who was still sleeping soundly by Mystogan's side.
"Wendy's still asleep..."
His words seemed like a plea to change the topic.
"...she must be tired."
Mystogan was okay with doing so.
"She is," Mystogan replied, accepting the invitation as he ran his fingers through Wendy's hair and traced the bags under her eyes.
"She stopped me from bleeding out after the battle."
Wendy had healed Mystogan from the brink of death; the fact that she had been awake just a few hours earlier was a testament to her strength and resilience. She could probably sleep for days, but he wouldn't be surprised if she woke soon.
"She pushed herself too hard..."
She was stubborn like that.
"She needs some rest," Mystogan murmured as he continued to pat Wendy's head, his fingers twisting through her hair as a way for him to pass the time and get used to his new dominant hand. It would take him a while to get used to only having his left arm, but he would adjust.
I'll have to get used to using my left hand for everything... that'll take a while.
Mystogan frowned slightly as he glanced at his left hand and then at the empty sleeve on the right side of his body. He was mentally trying to get used to the fact that a part of his body wasn't there anymore until Siegrain caught his disturbing gaze.
"There are some prosthetic shops in Oak Town, you know..."
Siegrain spoke numbly, idly watching as Mystogan turned from his empty sleeve and clocked the offer. Mystogan's eyes lit up for a fraction of a second before they dimmed, and he spoke with a shake of his hand and a self-deprecating sigh, "Thanks, but those won't work on me."
It was annoying sometimes.
"The wearer's magic container powers the prosthetics in your world..."
How his body and the magic of this world seemed to hate each other.
"I don't have one of those."
Mystogan glanced over, spotting the surprised and slightly intrigued expression that crossed Siegrain's face. Mystogan hummed in response before he explained the essential inner workings of his Edolian body, "Normally, magic containers form when ethernano enters your body as a baby. In this world with unlimited ethernano, it's a given that everybody would have one."
Mystogan idly held a hand out, the small prickling that came with this world's ethernano bouncing off his skin and an ever-present reminder that he couldn't have access to it: "In Edolas, the wells of magic have long since dried to a trickle. There was a time long ago, millennia ago, when the people of Edolas had magic containers. When the magic was still present, but now none of us have it."
Over the millennia, as ethernano dwindled and fewer people in Edolas had access to it, fewer people were able to form magic containers. That number dwindled until it eventually hit zero, and no one was born with magic containers anymore. There was just too little ethernano in the world, and as the years turned to decades to centuries, Edolians gradually lost the ability to form magic containers.
"Our bodies have forgotten how to form magic containers."
Edolians, as a species, forgot how to take in Ethernano and turn it into magic. It was like their bodies, their skin, considered the Ethernano itself a foreign entity now and refused to let it pass. Mystogan was no exception to this rule. That's why he couldn't use the prosthetic; he didn't have a magic container for the thing to connect to for power.
"That's why I can't use a prosthetic."
Almost no one in Edolas did.
"My body wouldn't remember how to use it."
Mystogan gazed somberly down at his left hand, the bittersweet memories fading as he finished his little lecture and turned to Siegrain, who nodded with a mixture of interest and understanding. Siegrain glanced at the wooden totems in the corner and asked with a vague interest.
"Is that why you use magic tools?"
"It is," Mystogan said, glancing at the two wooden staves in the corner of the room. The sight of his fan and his eye totem without the cloud counterpart reminded him that he would need to rebuild them at some point in the future. "Almost everyone in Edolas uses magic tools; it's our only way to use magic now that our bodies can't utilize it directly."
Mystogan heard Siegrian hum in response. Then the conversation hit a lull as Mystogan glanced out the window, which showed the afternoon sun in the sky. His eyes trailed the forests before he turned back and glanced at the guild mark on Siegrain's hand, a white symbol.
"Hey Siegrain..."
It reminded Mystogan of a ghost, funnily enough.
"What's it like in a guild?"
Mystogan watched as his question reached Siegrain's ears. The Phantom Lord Mage tilted his head back in question before catching the stamp in the corner of the room and giving an understanding murmur.
"A guild, huh..."
It was easy to forget how scary such a simple decision could be.
"It's..."
Siegrain's eyes furrowed as he looked at the guild mark on the back of his hand, trailing the symbol that had become so constant on his skin that he had pretty much forgotten it was there. When he'd first gotten it, he had spent every other day subconsciously scratching it.
"It's odd."
Now, it was like it had become a part of his skin.
"I don't know how to describe it..."
At some point, it was like Phantom Lord had become a part of Siegrain's skin, too.
"It's..."
He liked it there. He liked the sleepy town where all the rowdiness was kept in one place. He liked the castle walls and old stone buildings. He liked the idea of a small town at the foot of a hill, where at any point, you could look up and see the guild atop its peak, standing there like a silent Guardian.
"It's nice..."
He liked the people of that town, the people of his guild. They were his favorite part. Aria's gentleness contrasted with his strength. Conversations with Pause and Doronbo in the guild library which usually resulted in the former getting fed up with the latter. The guild master's rough words and rougher actions had even grown on him; he valued the brutal honesty that never bothered minced words.
"I think..."
He liked hanging out with Vera. He liked it when they were together, and he got to loiter around town. He liked it when they hung out in the library or got lunch after one of them inevitably lost a spar with the guild master and his ace. He even liked their spars, and he usually felt dull about fighting. Not to say he wouldn't do it, but he treated it more as a responsibility at this point.
"I think when I wasn't looking..."
Vera was different; he fought differently than others. Fighting him was like fighting a rabid dog. Siegrain didn't know what would happen next, and if he ever got complacent, he would lose. It's what happened with their lessons from Totomaru, which they hadn't needed in a couple of months at this point.
"I learned to love Phantom Lord."
Vera was interesting, Oak Town was peaceful, and Phantom Lord was harshly competitive, yet all of it was normal to Siegrain now, and all of it...
"I think..."
All of it was waiting for him.
"I think after I'm healed a bit more..."
It took Siegrain nearly dying, a phenomenon that used to be as threatening as a daydream, to realize how much he missed it finally.
"I'm going to go back to Oak Town."
It took him nearly dying to realize how much he didn't want to throw his life away recklessly chasing his brother's shadow. He would still look for Jellal; he would always search for Jellal, but now, after fighting people who had been burned and, at one point, utterly helpless in front of Jellal, it had become abundantly clear that the chances of Siegrain dying once he actually found his brother were too high.
"You asked me what it was like in a guild..."
Siegrain needed to reset, refine, and reform his new magic that had been raw and untrained in the last battle. Then, when he was ready and stronger, he would continue his search, this time with Vera to watch his back. That way, he wouldn't have a repeat of what happened in the forest.
"I think it's like that..."
Siegrain wouldn't take his life for granted anymore; he treasured it too much now. If that meant giving up on his childish dream of thread magic, then so be it. He would kill that part of himself to save the other.
"My guild..."
He could deal with the emptiness in return.
"Is a place I want to go home to."
Siegrain mumbled, his emotions flickering in a bittersweet fondness before he got them under control. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning to Mystogan, who watched with the same intensity on his face. The seconds ticked by as the two stared at each other, both lost in thought, before Mystogan let out a deep breath and nodded, a grateful smile crossing his lips.
"Thanks, Siegrain..."
It looked like a bit of weight had been lifted off his back.
"Can you pass me that stamp in the corner?"
Mystogan pointed towards the wooden stamp on the bed in the corner. He watched as Siegrain nodded and stuck out a finger towards it, only to flinch. A hallowed and bitter expression crossed his face before it passed, and he lowered his hand. He shuffled out of the bed and walked towards the stamp before turning to Mystogan and asking a simple question.
"What color?"
On July 15th, x778, after the midnight battle that took his arm and shook the woods outside of Devi...
"Blue..."
Mystogan, the banished prince of Edolas...
"I want it to match Wendy's."
Joined the ever-elusive guild of Cait Shelter.
To say Wendy was surprised when she woke up and Mystogan showed her the new cat-shaped guild mark on the left pec of his chest was an understatement.
"YOU JOINED CAIT SHELTER!"
To say she was excited, well...
"Eep! I'm so sorry!"
That became abundantly clear when she forgot to control her magic, and her voice nearly shattered a few windows. Wendy plopped her hands over her open mouth, which just refused to stop smiling at the news, as she saw Siegrain and Mystogan cover their ears instinctively. Well, Siegrain covered his ears, but Mystogan only got the left one. The two then shared a wince before glancing at each other and sharing a silent laugh that caught Wendy's attention.
When'd they become friends?
Wendy's morning was just full of surprises. Although she guessed this development shouldn't have surprised her, the two were alike, in her opinion. They were soft-spoken yet strong-willed and confident. Both kind in their own little ways, it made her giddy to know that they were getting along. Her wide smile wasn't missed by Mystogan, who tapped her cheek with an outstretched finger and spoke bluntly, "If you smile too much, your face will get stuck."
"Hey! No, it won't!"
"That's what they all say," Mystogan said with a dramatic sigh, inwardly smiling as Wendy huffed and shook her head. Her wide smile settled towards a soft and fond one because she missed this feeling; she had missed it for months. It ruined her sleep at times and made her extra anxious some days but now, she only felt... warm inside.
He joined Cait Shelter...
She felt warm knowing that one of the people she loved would be a part of her guild.
He's going to stay this time.
Wendy smiled brightly, so brightly she thought she would burst, as she chatted happily with Mystogan and Siegrain. She was bummed to learn that Siegrain was planning to leave for Oak Town once his more severe injuries healed, she still had to treat his arm at some point, but she would wait till her magic recovered a bit more, same with the scars on Mystogan's face. She was even more bummed to learn Mystogan could only stay for a month before he would have to leave again, but it didn't devastate her as much as the last time.
"That's okay..."
Mystogan was a member of Cait Shelter...
"I know I'm too young to help you, but..."
Wendy would be content knowing he would return to the same place she would always return to.
"One day, I want to travel with you again."
The same place that had taken them in when they had no one else to turn to.
"Do... do you think that's possible?"
The guild in the middle of nowhere...
"...I don't know Wendy... it could be dangerous..."
The one that no one knew about...
"But... if you promise to be careful..."
The loneliest guild in the world...
"I'm sure one day we can travel together again."
Didn't feel so lonely anymore.
It was about midday when Raubol returned to check on the three children with Pepe, and the sight he witnessed was one to remember.
"Ooh, is that a new hairstyle I see, Siegrain? Is that a new trend going around Fiore?"
It was Siegrain and Mystogan sitting on their beds, talking casually about magic tools as if they weren't aware of the braids in Siegrain's hair. It was decently long, as his hair went down to his shoulders compared to Mystogan's, which was pretty short, but the sight was still incredible. One Raubol wouldn't forget for the next a hundred years if he stayed around that long.
"Why, maybe I should try it out if it's so-"
"Leave the boy alone, you old drunk. He can wear his hair how he wants," Pepe said with a roll of her eyes, pushing past her childish guild master as she went over to the two brothers—or sort of not brothers if she went off Raubol's lame explanation—before checking their injuries. Her finger trailed the bruises across Siegrain's torso and arm while Raubol began talking with Mystogan.
"So Mystogan, going off how Wendy just dragged Magna off to get flowers by the river with the biggest smile on her face," Raubol smiled as he held a hand out, watching as Mystogan gave a small yet playful sigh and tossed the now blue Cait Shelter stamp, "I take it you took me up on my offer?"
"...I did."
"Wonderful!" Raubol beamed as he jumped up and slapped the boy on the back animatedly, ignoring the surprised grunt that escaped Mystogan as he lifted a mug of ale and screamed at the top of his lungs, "Qecha! Get the beer! We got a new guild member! We're gonna party all night-"
"Shut it, you old drunk! He's injured! No one is partying anything!" Pepe hissed out from beside Siegrain, tossing a nearby pillow at the old idiot just for the sly guild master to jump over it. The springy old man laughed as he skipped his way out of the room, all while clapping his hands above his head in a rhythmic fashion and singing, "Powwow powwow, tonight we dance with the ancestors!"
Pepe sighed as she watched the old man ignore her words and leave, her head turning towards Siegrain to tell him a few things before she left to go make sure the damn fool didn't get everyone in the guild ready for a celebration that was not going to happen, not yet at least, "You're injuries are pretty bad, but nothing lethal. If you're willing to wait, Wendy can heal you later today or tomorrow. Same with you," Pepe turned back to the other blue-haired guest, "Mystogan, right?"
He nodded, and Pepe's tone dipped into something warmer: "Wendy told me a lot about you."
Pepe couldn't begin to count the times she had been the subject of Wendy's old tales about the person who dropped her off at Cait Shelter. A part of Pepe wanted to chew the boy out for making Wendy cry so much over the last year, but she had seen Wendy's expression when she dragged a very unwilling Magna toward the forest to look for flowers.
"Thanks for taking care of Wendy..."
Pepe had never seen her smile so bright.
"Welcome to Cait Shelter."
Pepe smirked as she saw the boy's wide eyes before she turned to leave, waving goodbye as she left the room to chase after the older man and left the two boys alone. The two settled in a quiet silence before Siegrain broke it with a casual observation, "I think you're going to like it here."
Siegrain glanced at Mystogan, watching as Mystogan's lips twitched. He looked down at his chest, glancing a bit at the blue guild mark, the same color as his hair, underneath his tattered robes and bandages before murmuring softly, "Yeah..."
Cait Shelter was a strange place.
"I think so, too."
Mystogan didn't mind that, though, just like he didn't mind Wendy picking flowers to put a flower crown in his hair. She loved to do that back when they traveled, and he had never minded it; it made her happy, so it was worth a bit of embarrassment on his end, "Thanks, by the way, Siegrain..."
He didn't expect Siegrain to offer to braid Wendy's hair when she was worrying about how frizzy it had gotten in the forest. He expected even less when Siegrain offered to let her braid his hair when she noted how smooth it was, "Wendy likes playing with hair, but mine's too short for her to braid."
I'll let mine grow a bit in the future to change that.
Mystogan noted that down for later and conveyed his gratefulness through a slight tilt of his head as he turned to Siegrain, who merely shrugged and played with the braid in his hair in response. His eyes tilted to a wistful gaze as he spoke with a thin hint of emotion, "It's fine. She looked like she wanted to, besides..."
He seemed to be used to that hairstyle.
"I don't mind my hair like this."
Siegrian continued to idly play with his braided hair as Mystogan hummed in response. The two fell into a comfortable silence that was only broken when a frantic rushing of tiny footsteps came from outside. They saw Wendy run in carrying something unexpected, with an excited expression and eager shout, "Mystogan! Siegrain! Look what I found!"
Wendy peeked past the giant white and pink egg she was carrying, the size of her entire head, as she grinned, oblivious to the stunned expressions currently holding Mystogan and Siegrain's faces hostage.
"I'm going to name her Carla!"
It turns out there were two new members who joined Cait Shelter that day.
Pepe's mission to stop the guild master from starting a celebration ended up failing, and a few hours after nightfall, a powwow was organized in the middle of Cait Shelter. Under the stars and in front of the cat-shaped guild hall, members of Cait Shelter got out and danced around a cackling bonfire, singing old songs from centuries past as Mystogan and Siegrain watched from the sidelines. Mystogan was balancing a sleeping Wendy on his back with a single arm after she had danced to one too many songs.
"Does your guild do stuff like this?"
Mystogan asked softly, a faint smile on his lips, as Siegrain spoke from next to him. He was carrying a mug of orange juice because he wasn't old enough to drink, but that didn't stop Raubol from trying to slip him some beer when Pepe wasn't watching.
"No, our only big celebration is the Hollow's Eve festival."
Siegrain's guild didn't have nightly dances celebrating the dead ancestors and their descendants, but they had something close to it. A celebration of the ghosts that linger after nightfall and haunt the living, a reminder that a life not lived to the fullest would carry over, "It's fun..."
Siegrain liked the Hollow's Eve festival. It was funny how that was easier to admit than it used to be.
"You and Wendy should come," Siegrian uncharacteristically offered, glancing over to Mystogan, who turned from the fire with wide eyes. A surprised blink crossed his face before he hesitantly replied, "I don't know if I'll be able to go... I don't control when portals pop up."
If Mystogan was anything, it was responsible. The portals would always come first, but there was a subtle dent to his ironclad rule now—a dent displayed as he gazed at the fire, and his eyes were tinged with a bit of hope and joyful desires.
"But..."
Mystogan seemed a little more willing to feel less burdened by his duties than he used to be.
"If it's possible, I'd like to go." Mystogan murmured thoughtfully as he turned to Siegrain and nodded, his tone tinged with gratefulness, "Thank you for inviting us."
It wasn't a guarantee or anything, but it was sincere, and Siegrain was content with that. He hadn't invited anyone to anything before, and getting a maybe in response to his first invite was good enough to suit his tastes: "That's fine. It happens every year on the last week of October, so even if you don't have time this year, eventually you'll be able to go."
"That's wonderful," Mystogan murmured gratefully, his grin reaching his face as he watched the crowd dancing. With a slight anxiousness, he asked, "Do you think Wendy and I can stop by Oak Town one of these days? She wanted to show me the town."
Wendy had talked for hours about how much she liked Oak Town. It may be rude to impose, but Mystogan wanted to make sure it was okay if they visited occasionally. He already knew that Wendy was planning to visit when she had time, so it felt necessary to make sure that offer was extended to him as well, "I'll pay for our room, and if it's too much trouble, I can only stay-"
"You don't have to pay for a room," Siegrian interjected with a shrug, ignoring Mystogan's surprised and slightly confused expression as he sipped some of his orange juice, "Hotels aren't expensive in Oak Town, but they aren't exactly cheap either. It would be a waste to rent one if you guys only stay in for a week or two.
Maybe it was Vera's cheap-ass tendencies rubbing off on Siegrain, but he didn't see a reason why they needed to waste money on a room. They had enough room in their apartment for a few more; he didn't see it being an issue as long as it wasn't a month-long visit or something like that. Their room would get pretty cramped after a month of four people living there.
"You can just sleep in Vera and I's apartment. I'm sure he won't mind."
Siegrain finished his orange juice, casually looking up to see if his offer had come off as weird or not. He'd never had a friend who wasn't also Vera's friend, so this situation was new to him. Siegrain wasn't used to being the one to make social interactions happen, but he must be pretty bad at it if Mystogan was making that expression.
"What?"
He looked like he'd seen a ghost.
"What did you say?"
Siegrain instantly retracted his gaze, muttering into an empty mug to try and hide the fact that he felt shitty about messing up, "Sorry, you can rent a room if it's that important; I just thought-"
"No, not that. His name. What's his name?"
Siegrain stalled in his words as Mystogan interjected hurriedly and urgently. Siegrain raised an eyebrow as he looked up from his mug and spoke with a confused voice, "Uh... his name is Vera. He's a Phantom Lord mage, too. We're partners... why?"
Siegrain didn't get it, and no matter how much he asked or pestered Mystogan about it through the night, he never got anything out of the stoic prince. So much so that he eventually was forced to give up and chalk it up to Mystogan being a little weird.
"Is that important?"
Maybe it was an Edolas thing.
A/N: Hey guys, just writing since I'll probably take a break for a week or two to write more chapters and this is kind of a natural stopping point. So yeah, hope you guys enjoy, feel free to leave reviews about what you think of the story so far, they help me improve as a writer and I like reading them. Also thanks for the supportive comments, I really put a lot of thought into this story so it means a lot. Hope you enjoy :)