Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or it's characters.
-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-
Chapter 9: Secrets of the Tome. Part 2
Year: X752. 32 years till Canon begins.
Cade POV:
The Fairy Tail guilds basement… wasn't all that exciting. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting…
It had a stone floor and housed several round tables complete with chairs, as well as a number of barrels piled up one on the other and some wooden crates. The walls seemed to consists of cement reinforced with wood beams, and other, coarse wood beams placed vertically held up the ceiling; with smaller ones branching off from them horizontally and connecting them to the walls and to each other. Not a single person was down here.
"Well there you go! The perfect place to focus and translate that spell book." Gildarts smiled, as he sat down on a chair next to a table. I sat down on the chair next to him and sat the book on the table before opening it up.
"It sure is." I said with a dry tone, taking in the calmness. "I suppose the peace would be nice here."
I stuck my head down and began to translate more of the next page of the spell book. It was still annoying to do so, but it seemed to be going by just a bit faster than the last page I translated. There was mostly silence between me and Gildarts, though I could sense that he was getting rather bored. As time stretched on, he asked me question.
"Hey, when you learn how to use magic how about we go on jobs together?" Gildarts suggested said to me, sounding pleased by the Ida.
"Really? Why me?" I asked with confusion, looking up from book and towards Gildarts. He was grinning as he moved to answer.
"Well, me, you and Ivan are the only people in the guild in our age range. I'd be nice to go on jobs with people around that age. I mean… I would go with Ivan… but I get the feeling that he'd rather work alone. Also his magic is kinda creepy if you ask me." Gildarts explained to me, shivering when he mentioned Ivan's magic. "So you in?"
"Well, that's kinda funny you know." I chuckled sheepishly. "Because I was actually thinking about asking you if you'd like to go on jobs together once I get magic." I said smiling at him.
"Woah, really? I guess great minds think alike after all." Gildarts grinned with joy. "I'm sure we'll be a great team together. In fact, our first job could be getting those pages translated till you learn magic!" He said, laughing towards the end of that sentence with me joining him. I trailed that laughter off before Gildarts, feeling like it may take a while in retrospect… "So how are you getting on with the translating anyway?"
"It seems a bit easier than the last one I did, just need to find the right syllable for each rune." I replied back to him, as I returned to translating the spell book. Here I was hoping that I wouldn't encounter another bad tree joke like last time. I looked back down to the spell book and began to get back to it.
As I continued to translate, I began to wonder what I would come across on this page. Another diary page? Perhaps I would finally get a spell this time? Or maybe it would be something completely different - of what, I wasn't sure, but it doesn't hurt to keep an open mind. Gildarts asked me a few more questions about my life before my tenth birthday, and I was more than happy to answer for him. Maybe I should have asked him more questions about himself, but I kept getting distracted by the page below me.
After a few more minutes of reading, I turned back to look at Gildarts to ask a new sort of question. "Earlier you said Ivan's magic kinda creeps you out. What magic does he use?" I said, puzzled at what kind of the magic Ivan wielded.
Gildarts tensed up at hearing me say that, showing a serious look on his face. "He uses Shikigami Magic. It's a magic that lets you turn things into small paper dolls that you can then use for battle or other things like communication."
"What's creepy about that?" I wondered in confusion
"Because I once saw him use it to turn a rabbit outside the guild into a paper doll! The worst part was I think the rabbit may have still felt the pain of being transformed as he was being turned." Gildarts explained as he gave a scowl. "Wish Master would maybe try and insist he uses more objects than animals…"
"Oh… right… I see." I muttered with a skeptic look on my face. "But why would he do that to a live animal?"
Gildarts simply shrugged his shoulders at me. "I asked him a few times after it happened and he just said that he was practicing his magic. I'd maybe try looking for something different, but I guess that's not Ivan's style. Though still, he keeps that up, and someone is gonna complain. I'd hate it if he ends up transforming someone's cat or dog into a little paper doll."
I was rather shaken after hearing what Ivan liked to do to smaller creatures to increase his own power. Did he always do this? 'Ugh… thoughts like that will keep distracting me from this spell page…'
"If I were him I'd just ask someone in the guild to help me with my magic." I said turning back towards the book.
"Well, Ivan doesn't really want help anything he seems to struggle with. He normally spends time down here away from everybody else in the guild." Gildarts sighed after saying that. "I bet he could learn a lot from spending more time with us, but he always declines."
Deciding to put the topic of Ivan out my head, I got back to work deciphering page two of the spell book. It was a bit hard due to the mentions of Ivan at the back of my head, but after around an hour, I finished translating the page and placed my hand on the paper and saw the following message I had to read out.
—
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."
—
Just like before, the page glowed a brilliant purple before disappearing to reveal the true contents of page two. Gildarts looked quite surprised at what he saw just there. "So that's how it works? First time I've seen something like this."
"Yeah. It's hard work, but I guess it's nice to see a message like that after some difficult translating." I answered as I smiled.
'Better that I get a message as nice as that, rather than another horrible tree joke. Seems the founders didn't decide to flood all the book's pages with bad jokes.' I thought to myself, chuckling a little under my breath. Me and Gildarts took a look at the page to see what it said.
—
Basic Enchantment - Kaen
Enchants a non-magical weapon of choice with a basic fire enchantment. The weapon of choice will eventually run out of power and need to be re-enchanted. Refer to the back of this page to learn the technique to use this enchantment.
—
'Huh. That's not exactly what I expected.' I thought, scratching my head in confusion. I turned the page over and saw that the back page referred to instructions on how to focus my magic properly onto an item and give it the enchantment, which in this case was fire. What I found confusing was that I didn't have Fire Magic, so it made me curious on how I could enchant a weapon with fire. 'Do I need to learn Fire Magic?'
"Woah! That's enchanting magic! I hear that's incredibly rare, so you're lucky this book has a lot of spells like that in at least I assume it will." Gildarts said in awe, giving me a slap on the back.
"What can enchantment magic actually do? Other than enchant a single item with fire." I asked in confusion, having to rub my back where Gildarts slapped his hand. It was a surprising strong slap.
"Oh… well, I don't actually know myself. I just heard Master say one time while he was half drunk, that it'd be really good to have an enchantment mage, as they're really powerful." Said Gildarts, as he too looked rather confused. "Maybe he's back at the guild by now?"
"Maybe. Let's go and see if he's back yet." I nodded, as I put the book back in my pocket, before me and Gildarts started to walk back up to the first floor. When we got there, Gildarts asked a nearby wizard whether Master was back or not. We learned from him that Master came back a few minutes ago with his Ivan alongside him. Apparently he was still in his office.
With that question answered, me and Gildarts headed to the door that led to Master's office. Gildarts however stopped at the door. "I'll wait out here."
"Got something you need to do?" I wondered curiously.
"Yeah, exactly that. I'll let you do your thing in there." Gildarts said as he bid me farewell and went off into the guildhall. After he left I knocked on the door.
"Come in." Said Master from the other side.
I opened the door, and I entered his office. When I entered, I was surprised to see Ivan in the room as well. It seemed like Makarov was having a conversation with him before we entered. I figured this, as Master Makarov was staring right at Ivan, with a rather serious look on his face. He then noticed me before turning back to Ivan.
"That will be all Ivan. I have a visitor now so you'll have to leave me now." Master Makarov spoke up, giving Ivan a stern look.
Ivan didn't say a single word in response. He simply stood up from his chair and turned to walk out of the room, taking a quick glance at me before leaving and closing the door.
Upon leaving Makarov simply sighed loudly before muttering something under his breath. He then turned to me, relaxing himself on his chair. "Apologies Cade. I'd hoped you didn't need to see the end of that… discussion between myself and Ivan. Is there anything I can help you with?"
I decided to put whatever may have been happening with Ivan out of my head and get straight to the point. "Well a few things Master, but I think the most important thing is that I was able to translate some of the spell book." I informed the Master. He looked pleased to hear that. "The interesting thing though, is that the first actual page of the spell book had a diary entry instead of a spell." I said as I pulled out the spell book to show him.
"You found what now?" Exclaimed Makarov, in disbelief. "Please could I see it Cade?" He requested with some eagerness. I handed Makarov the spell book in which he quickly opened it to the first page and began to read it carefully.
"My goodness…" His face showed expressions of shock and surprise, as he lowered the book. "This is certainly interesting Cade. Thank you for letting me read it just now."
"There was one other thing Master. I was able to decode page two, and I saw what kind of magic the book has inside of it. I just had a few questions regarding that." I explained as I pointed back to the spell book.
"Oh! Well then let me see…" Master gave the page a thorough look.
"Hmm… Enchantment Magic eh?" He whispered as his eyes widened a little upon seeing the spell. "Interesting… Not many enchantment mages out there. You're… lucky to have found this book. Enchantment Magic is quite powerful." He remarked as he handed it back to me.
"Now then, you had questions about this type of magic, correct? Well, I have to admit that my knowledge on the matter is limited due to how incredibly rare this form of magic is, but I'll still try to help you however I can." Master Makarov added, seemingly anxious by what he had discovered there.
"Well, the first question is that the spell on page two says that I can focus my magic to enchant fire onto a weapon. Well how can I do that if I don't have fire magic? Am I unable to learn the spell unless I learn Fire Magic?" I asked, choosing to get the most important question out of the way first.
"Ah, not at all Cade! You see, the reason Enchantment Magic is so powerful is that you don't need to have certain magic to put a similar magic enchantment on a particular item." Master explained, nodding as I listened carefully. "In this case, you would simply need to focus your ethernano while casting the spell on the item you are enchanting and it would gain an enchantment of that kind. The spell on page two would give you a fire enchantment as you saw." Makarov informed as he began to stroke his moustache.
"So I don't need to learn Fire Magic to use this spell…?" I wowed in awe, muttering under my breath. "Fire Magic that can be learned without Fire Magic… that sounds… powerful."
"A-Ahem." I cleared my throat wanting Master to answer another question for me. "M-My next question is this: The enchantment on page two says I need to focus my ethernano to use the spell. Well how do I do that exactly when I haven't even awoken my magic yet?"
"Ah! Well you don't actually need to awaken your magic to use/harness ethernano that is inside of you. In fact with a day or so of training, you could probably do it." Makarov then held out his hand in front of me. A few seconds later I could feel a strange warm flow coming from his hand.
"This is me doing it right now." He stated. "As for how you can actually get to the point to where you can harness your ethernano, there are a few ways. Meditation is perhaps the best example for you right now as the other options are quite a bit more… dangerous."
"Ok… is that easy enough to do? Like could I do it before the end of the week?" I asked, wondering if I could achieve this before my little deadline ran out.
"No need to worry, it won't take that long for you to learn how to do it. You just need to find a nice quiet area to focus your body at." Master informed waving my concerns aside. "We can talk more about that in a moment. I sense that you have another question for me?"
"Y-Yeah." I said nervously. "There was one more question I had for you Master: Exactly how powerful is Enchantment Magic?" After hearing both Master and Gildarts say it was powerful, I was curious at exactly how powerful this magic was. "What does it do?"
Makarov began to stroke his moustache much more fiercely than he did earlier upon hearing that. "Well, in all my years I've never met an enchantment mage before. But from what I've heard from Master Precht…" Makarov took a deep breath before opening his mouth again. "It's magic that could effect an entire continent if left unchecked."
"H-Huh?" I blurted in shock. "Wh-What do you mean Master…?"
"Enchantment mages can be ranked into three separate classes: Basic Enchanters, High Enchanters and finally Master Enchanters." Master Makarov took a deep breath before he started to explain the class system.
"Basic Enchanters have the ability to enchant items such as weapons, armour and other various objects. They are also able to enchant other individuals with an increase to their abilities such as strength and speed." Makarov began with a nod, his expression hardening as he continued to speak. "Next there are High enchanters. They possess the power to convert solid material into a completely different material. For example turning wood into stone, glass into metal or diamond into ice. Finally and perhaps most frightening of them all, the Master Enchanters. They are able to attach their magic to the environment and alter it to their liking. They can change the weather, the geography of the land, the altitude of the atmosphere. That's not all they can do though, they can also enchant items such as weapons into living creatures."
"WH-WHAT?!" I yelled in horror at what I just heard there. "Change the geography?! Turn weapons into living creatures?! How can this sort of magic exist?!"
"From what I learned from Master Precht, there hasn't been a known Master Enchanter in the last few hundred years." Makarov said in a stern voice. "Perhaps that is for the best, if they have that much power in their hands."
"B-But hold on Master. Malvel's book here has a basic enchant spell on the second page! D-Does that mean I'll find Master Enchantment spells towards the end of the book?!" I wondered in bewilderment.
"I'm… not sure, and honestly, that terrifies me Cade. We need to be careful that this book doesn't fall into the wrong hands now that it's open. Tell me, what have you done with the Translating Tome since I used it to open the spell book?" Makarov demanded.
"D-Don't worry Master, it's locked up in our manor. My mother figured that I'd be best if it remains hidden in there. I don't think anyone will find it anytime soon." I quickly explained to ensure Master Makarov that it was safe.
"Good… As for the spell book, I want you to keep it safe in the manor from now on. Do any translating there, we can't risk it getting lost in Magnolia. Understood?" He ordered. "At least not until you're powerful enough to carry it around."
"Yes Master, of course!" I nodded.
"Thank you. If you ever want me to have a look at the spell book, just come by the guild and I'll come up and see it." He told me, changing his voice back to his much more calm and kind demeanour.
"Thank you for that offer Master. I may need it." I said smiling at him. "Now… I suppose the next thing for me to do is to learn how to focus ethernano to use magic. To do that I'll have to start meditating. I think that be tomorrows job though, mainly because I've got a lot of questions that I don't think either of us can answer." I gave an half laugh in exhaustion.
Makarov chuckled at my comment before speaking up. "Listen to me Cade. It's important that a lot of people don't find out right now that you have an enchantment tome with you. Who else knows about what spells are inside the book?"
"Gildarts was with me so he knows. Everyone that I know personally that isn't in Fairy Tail will probably find out eventually, so that's six people altogether." I said counting in my head.
"Hmmm, good to know. Now then why don't you head back on home and get some rest? I know a good place where you can practise meditation tomorrow if you want to come and try it?" Makarov suggested as I stood up and made my way to the door.
"Sure! I need all the help I can get right now anyway. Thanks for the help Master! See you tomorrow!" I thanked him as I made my way out of his office closing the door behind me.
Stepping back out into the guildhall, I took a deep breath after everything that I heard inside that office about enchantments. It was crazy to think about all that power? 'Could I really do something mad, like move a mountain?' I shook that thought out of my head, choosing to not think about something that huge for now. Looking around the guildhall, I saw that not that many people were in the main hall anymore.
However I could hear some shouting coming from the basement. I was curious about that and made my way over to investigate. 'What's going on?'
When I made it down the stairs, I saw Gildarts in a shouting match with Ivan over at a bench. I began to make my way over to them, and picked up bits of their conversation.
"What were you thinking Ivan?! You're not strong enough yet. Master denying you that is proof of that!" Shouted Gildarts to Ivan.
"What gives you the right to say that to me!? You can't even control your own magic!" Ivan yelled back at Gildarts.
"I can control the easier spells! It's just the harder ones I'm having trouble getting!" Gildarts rebutted back to Ivan.
"Well how about we got outside and-"
"Um guys?" I exclaimed to them as I made it to the table. Both of the boys turned to see me with a bit of surprise on their face. "You know that you two are shouting right? I think some people upstairs can hear you." I informed, hoping to end the spat between the two.
Ivan was a bit surprised to hear that, and stood up from his chair and turned back to Gildarts, and scoffed at him. He then made his way to stairs of the basement and went back upstairs to the main hall. Upon him leaving Gildarts sighed out loud.
"What was that all about?" I whispered to Gildarts curiously. Gildarts just sighed again when I said that.
"When Ivan left Master's office he went to the basement, so I followed him to see what he was doing there." Gildarts then turned to me. "You won't even believe what he asked Master for; he wanted to be put on the list of candidates for the S-Class trials coming up!"
"S-Class trial? That's what determines if you are worthy of being S-Class right?" I said, as I had never really heard of the S-Class trial other than when I heard it from my father's recording yesterday.
Gildarts nodded his head in response. "Yeah, but there's so many things wrong with him asking!" Gildarts yelled, not at me, but rather in thin air.
"Like what?" I asked curiously.
"Well for a start, he definitely isn't strong enough to be S-Class. S-Class wizards are really, really strong. Strength is a huge factor that determines whether you can make it or not. Mainly so you are ready for the S-Class quests as they are really hard."
"Look, I've seen Ivan and I just don't think he's strong enough yet. I mean yeah… I can barely control my own magic, but I know I'm not ready right, so that's a huge difference between us!" Gildarts said as he turned to look at me.
"The second thing is that he asked Master directly about whether he could be put forward for the trials. Because of that, he'll never be put forward for a while as it kinda shows that he is too eager to get the promotion. Master won't chose people who have always wanted the role from the moment they joined the guild." Gildarts continued to explain. "The final thing is that Ivan's only just turned 14 years old! Thats the minimum age required to be valid for S-Class. Even then, I've never heard of anyone getting picked that's 14 during the promotion trial."
"Wow…" I said in disbelief. "Master refused him right?"
"Oh yeah, he was refused all right. He said that he protested, but Master got a little bit more serious and after that happened. Ivan backed down a bit before you came in." Gildarts answered chucking. "So how did it go with you? Got what you needed?"
"Well tomorrow I'll be heading out with Master to practise meditating. That will help me to learn how to focus my ethernano. Then I can start casting spells." I said, choosing to conceal the fact that I leaned that in a few years time, I could potentially start re-arranging the entirely of Fiore for fun.
"Apparently it doesn't matter if I don't have Fire Magic, as long as I focus my ethernano the right way, I'll be able to cast a fire enchantment." I said with hope.
"Cool! So where are you going tomorrow?" Gildarts asked me.
"Oh I don't know, but Master said it's a good place to focus." I explained to Gildarts. "Guess I'll see then."
"Well, be sure to tell me all about it when you get back!" Gildarts said as he stood up from his chair and began to head upstairs, me choosing to follow him. When we got up to the top, Gildarts headed over to the job board.
"Choosing a job?" I wondered looking at them all. "There's so many…"
Gildarts gave a grin in response, not taking his eyes off the flyers. "I'll take… this one right here!" He shouted as he ripped it off the board. "250,000 jewel here I come!" He yelled as he ran out the door of the guild. "See ya when you get back Cade!"
"So how was the guild today? Did you learn a spell?" Mother asked as I made my way into the lounge to relax for a bit. After Gildarts sped off like that, I decided to head home for the day and let my mother what was going to happen with me going out tomorrow to practise mediation. "Meditation? Are you sure?"
"Yup!" I answered with a nod. "This'll be just what I need!"
"Makarov will be with you right?" Mother inquired to me, quite quickly after I nodded.
"Yeah, he'll be with me for the whole day while I'm there." I assured back to her.
"Well, in that case, I don't have any issues with it. As long as he's with you I see no problem with it. He is a Wizard Saint after all." She said relaxing a little.
"A Wizard Saint? What's that?" I wondered in confusion.
"You don't know? Wizard Saints are ranked as the strongest wizards in all of Ishgar. There are ten of them and Master is on that list." Mother answered, being the one to smile this time.
"What!? Really!?" I wowed in shock. Mother simply nodded. "Is that why everyone was staring at him during the party?" I wondered.
"Most likely yes. He was wearing his Wizard Saint robes during the party to look fashionable." Mother said laughing at that last part.
"No wonder uncle Jack felt underdressed." I piped up, with the both of us laughing after me saying that.
As we both finished laughing, my mother asked me another question. "So where are you going tomorrow?" She wondered curiously.
"I don't actually know. Master just said that it would help me learn to focus my ethernano. Maybe a forest?" I said thinking about all the possible places. "Those places are rather calm and quiet."
"Well, why don't you relax for the rest of the day now that you are in. It's a nice day outside, so why don't you go and read a book from the library out there? Who knows you may find something on focusing ethernano?" My mother said smiling as I stood up from my chair and left the room to take it easy for the rest of the day.
Maybe taking it easy would be for the best. After all, I did just learn that I may be able to become powerful enough to the point where I can just stop it from raining whenever I want. I think I needed the rest of the day off after learning about that insane possibility.
No POV, Makarov Dreyar:
Earlier:
"Hmmm, good to know. Now then why don't you head back on home and get some rest? I know a good place where you can practise meditation tomorrow if you want to come and try it?" Makarov suggested, as Cade then stood up and made his way to the door.
"Sure! I need all the help I can get right now anyway. Thanks for the help Master! See you tomorrow!" Smiled Cade as he left the Master's office, shutting the door behind him.
Makarov sighed and stood up from his comfy chair. 'A lot really has happened recently, even though it may not seem like much.' He mussed to himself, pacing a little around his office.
First Makarov found some decade or so old lacrima, that had a message from Cobalt on it for his wife and son. Then after delivering it to them, he was able to unlock that spell book! After that, Cade joined Fairy Tail and was welcomed with open arms, making good friends with Gildarts. Next, Ivan walks in and requests that he be put on the list for S-Class Candidates this year. What was that boy thinking? He's clearly not strong enough, he's far too young and Makarov wasn't even sure if he was planning to host an S-Class trial this year. He had been watching his children's progress for the past few months, but doubt remained whether any of them were ready yet for S-Class.
'There's always next year.' Makarov sighed, coming to a reluctant conclusion. 'Phantom Lord will never let this go away. I can already hear the incoming laughter… hmph, they wouldn't know what a real decision is if it hit them in the face.'
But the surprises didn't stop there. Because Cade then entered and revealed that Malvel kept diary entries in his spell book! Not only that but he had Enchantment Magic as well!
'To think it was Enchantment Magic inside of that book. I can see why you four were so worried now.' Makarov began to pace round his office. He couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if that book actually had Master Enchantments inside of it. 'Those idiots at the council are bad enough as it is now, but if they learned about that spell book… well, I dread to think the ramifications it will bring us.'
A small part of Makarov felt that it was really was for the best that there wasn't any wizards with that power in the world. To have power on that scale… perhaps even the Four Emperors of Ishgar would fail to stop such a threat if it arose – though Makarov didn't plan on saying that in front of them of course.
'I can see why you were afraid, Master Precht.' Makarov remembered back to when his old Master had told the story of enchantment wizards to him - not of Malvel and Velmal, but other wizards in the past who wielded the magic. Precht spoke saying it would be best if that sort of power was destroyed or locked away – which of course he and the others did do in the end.
But here it was now being unsealed.
Makarov grunted as he realised there was only one thing he could do now: There was only one way Makarov could find out whether Malvel had Master Enchantments or not. Tomorrow after dropping off Cade, He'd have to go see a very old friend. Perhaps he would have the answers he needed.
And there you have it everyone that's this chapter done! Next time Cade will be heading out with Makarov to the place that will be good for mediation. Just where will he be going?
It won't be long now before Cade learns how use enchantment magic. Just a few more chapters! Seems like Makarov is a little bit paranoid of this ancient power being unlocked again, who do you think the old friend he is going to see is?
Well, I hope you all liked this chapter, and I'm hoping to see you all in the next one! I'll see you guys then!
P.S – That quote that unlocked page 2 of the spell book was from Helen Keller. Figured I should give credit where credits due.