They flew on the backs of the great blue beasts, the Legion, toward the palace, having been dumped by the portal right in the middle of the Royal City Dozens of guards lined the anima portal. Erza overheard quite a few whispering if this meant the return of magic, and Coco was quick to dispel the rumors.
Still, more unsettling, was the look of familiarity in their eyes. Not the familiarity of the people who'd come through, nor even with magic at all, but with the specific incantation used. Jellal had used the power of the Tower to get to Edolas.
But if the swap worked how it did with Lisanna, it'd be seamless. It wouldn't have torn open so wide a gap.
She stifled her thoughts, keeping them to herself so as to not worry the others. It was a topic for private counsel.
Many of the great floating islands had come crashing down around them. Mountains were born where Erza didn't recall them before. The land was vast, stretching into the great distance as, likely, one block of land. A supercontinent, as it were, not unlike Ishgar.
The royal palace remained untouched, as well as in its pristine state that she recalled it as. A beacon of the future of Edolas, but the city around it prospered as well.
In place of magic, the creatives and intuitive thinkers of Edolas clearly turned their eye toward technology. Steam rose from several machines chugging along the roads or in small apartments. The air wasn't fogged up, but far denser than she remembered. Men and women lumbered in casual working environments.
She was glad, though, that creatures of magic, like the Legion, could exist. Though she supposed they weren't magical creatures at all, they were beings with abilities simply beyond the average beast.
Coco led the group through one of the wide openings of the palace and to the stable where the Legion waited. She patted them all and ordered the stablehands to feed them good, yummy treats. Everyone dismounted. Yukino hesitated by one of them, giving it a trepidatious pat on the head. It sniffed her leg. She blushed and stepped aside, almost bumping into Erza.
"I can gather the other members of the King's council," Coco said. "To help you."
"If you believe such aid is necessary," Erza said from the back of the pack.
"How's that sugar guy doing?" Gray asked.
Coco smiled. "He's quite well. He and I do a lot of the military work that Panther Lily used to help out with. There's not much anymore, but, sometimes the people get restless and we need to help keep the peace."
"And there was that other guy?" Natsu asked.
"Hughes joins us from time to time," Coco said, "but mostly keeps to things going on directly in the city. I don't think he'd be of much help to us today."
They walked through the magnificent castle and were well regarded as such if given a few curious looks.
"They no doubt believe," Erza said to Yukino, "that we are our Edolas counterparts."
"Are they in good standing with Mystogan?"
"I should hope so. They helped him win the throne all those years back."
"And where are they now?"
"I'm not sure."
"You seem to be getting the most looks though, Erza."
Yukino was quite right about that. While the others got passing side glances, Erza received full-on stares, and more than a few gawks. The lingering impact of Nightwalker, then.
But, hadn't Mystogan said that she was of better standing with the people? Perhaps not a full redemption, but she was no longer regarded with such wanton fear or resentment.
They stopped in a wide atrium that split toward two different springs of hot water. Erza felt little beads of sweat rolling down her face.
"Rest here while I gather the others, you all look weary," Coco said.
"Wait," Erza said, grasping Coco's arm. "Time is of the essence, Coco. How's about we let the others rest, and you and I may speak about this together?"
"You need your rest too, Erza," Coco said.
"I'll be fine," Erza said.
"Oh, come on, Erza!" Natsu exclaimed. Gray echoed him and was practically already nude. Juvia, unable to contain herself, tackled him into the spring that was, likely, only meant for the boys.
"I won't keep Mystogan, or Jellal, waiting," Erza said.
"Then allow me to come with you," Yukino said.
Coco raised an eyebrow at the curious newcomer. Yukino joined Erza at her side. Of all the people that really needed to take a load off, it was Yukino. Then again, while Erza certainly had her proficiencies on the battlefield, coercing information out of people was a politician's job.
"Fine by me," Erza said. "Everyone else! Rest up. Once we know what we need, we're on the move."
They split off. Gray managed to fling Juvia into the other room, where she sulked below the waters as Wendy and Carla slipped into the water. Natsu and Happy cannon-balled into their pools. The guards maintaining the room sighed.
Coco guided them out of the atrium and back through the palace to a small conference room, where she sent a courier to retrieve members of the council pertinent to Fairy Tail's mission. Coco, while they waited, rambled off questions toward Yukino, who took the questions on with a straight, if occasionally heartbroken, face.
Thankfully, the quick little girl was nothing if not sympathetic toward Yukino, even moving to sit by Yukino and hold the former Imperial's hands while she spoke about the tribulation of joining and leaving the Empire.
Over the last fortnight and change, Erza had seen nothing but vulnerability from Yukino, and acceptance that abandoning a life that demanded her very soul meant a rough road to its recovery.
While Yukino's story wound down, members of the council approached. Sugarboy was one, nodding his head to Coco and greeting Erza with a degree of reverence. A small, older man, Byro, joined them. He had wrinkles all over, but a soft smile beneath it all, and a long robe covering pretty much his entire body.
They waited for one more, who arrived in a flowing dress unbefitting what Erza had come to expect. Still, she recognized that scar, and that hair, anywhere. Erza stood at the arrival of Nightwalker, who locked eyes with her immediately.
"Well," Nightwalker said, stepping into the room as it sealed behind her, "it truly was only a matter of time, Scarlet."
"Indeed," Erza said. "It's good to see you again."
Nightwalker sneered. "Likewise."
Yukino watched the two Erza's with intent, but not nearly as much engrossment as Coco.
"You're here for your Jellal, aren't you?" Nightwalker asked.
"Straight to the point."
"Any friend of the king's deserves our full attention," Nightwalker said, getting an agreement from the other three of the council.
"So you've seen him?" Yukino said.
Erza took a seat. "Everyone, this is Yukino. On our world, she's a powerful Celestial Spirit Wizard, not unlike Lucy Heartfilia."
"Oh?" Byro asked. "And how is that young woman?"
"Occupied," Erza said. "Things in our world are…not as pleasant as they once were. It's the primary reason we're here."
"Not simply to get Jellal?" Nightwalker asked. She sat with a sigh she tried to suppress. "It'd be reason enough for me to run to Earth-land if our Jellal went missing."
Erza kept her surprise at how open Nightwalker was to her feelings and only her mind. The feelings were quite openly mutual between the two.
"Jellal may be the key to a long-sought victory," Erza said. "Right now, our world is under the heel of the Twilight Empire, the greatest army the world has ever seen, and it seems unstoppable. A year ago, Jellal ran from it, and I'd like to know why, as well as to bring him back and help us fight."
"What happened that this Empire was able to just run you all over?" Sugarboy asked. "I'd have thought you all tougher than that."
Erza blanched. "We…weren't around for all of that. After we left Edolas, we had a small trial on our island. We were attacked but saved at the last second by a powerful spell cast by our first guild master. However, the cost of that spell meant we were asleep for seven years, underwater, or somewhere else, and completely unaware of what happened in our world. In that time, the Twilight Empire formed, attacked, and conquered our home."
"I was one of those Imperials," Yukino said. "This world is a haven compared to our own."
"Jellal is one of the great Wizard Saints of our world, someone with enough power to rival even the best of the Twilight Empire," Erza said, which earned something of a hard look from Yukino. She may not have fully believed it, but Erza did. She had to. "Finding him is of the utmost importance."
"Seven years," Nightwalker muttered.
"Just…gone," Sugarboy said.
"I hate to say this, but we don't have time for mourning dead time," Erza said. "Every moment that passes threatens your king on our world."
Nightwalker's gaze snapped up. "What?"
"Right now, he is holding together the portal between our worlds. At any moment, the Empire could descend on him and—"
"And nothing," Nightwalker said. "I'll muster my army. We'll defend him."
Erza's eyes widened. Fury radiated from her, but even deeper, she stood with an unbreakable passion. It was, if nothing else, admirable.
"Good," Byro said.
"And as for the location of your Jellal," Sugarboy said. "Our scouts reported new activity in one of the small mountain forests not far from here."
"So close to the capital?" Yukino asked. "I'd have thought Jellal would want to run away from all the action."
"Perhaps he can't help himself," Sugarboy said.
Or, Erza thought grimly, it wasn't Jellal so close…
"He is the only person of Earth-land to come to Edolas lately, right?" Erza asked.
Coco twiddled her thumbs. "Well…we did suspect that there was someone else, but, we haven't been able to track them down."
Yukino leered at that. "And you don't have a description of them?"
"No," Coco said. "Like I said, it's only a suspicion."
"I managed to find Jellal not long after his appearance," Nightwalker said. "He wasn't willing to speak and vanished not long after. But when I did, he seemed hesitant about something. As if he was hiding something or someone."
"I can't even fathom who it'd be," Yukino said. "All of Jellal's allies are still on Earth-land, and accounted for."
"As I feared," Erza said, "it could be someone trying to kill him."
"The only reason Jellal was able to get into this land was because of the Anima swap with the King," Byro said. "It should be impossible for another to get through!"
"And yet here we are, unswapped," Erza said. "That means someone may have also discovered the tower's secret. Someone with strong enough magic power to make it through, like your King."
"There are few people like that in the Empire, and, again, they're accounted…for," Yukino said, her face riddled in thought.
"What?"
She waved her hand. "I thought of someone it could be, but, no, I'm mistaken, I remembered something."
Erza nodded. "Which way was Jellal?"
"To the northeast," Nightwalker said. "There's a pass through the mountains, it's impossible to miss. There's an old, now abandoned, village that I managed to find him in. He may not be there anymore, but unless you take the pass, the mountains are unconquerable without magic."
And even though he had great power, in this land, there was no magic.
"It's a straight path," Sugarboy said.
"Will you need support?" Coco asked. "I can send some Legion with you."
"To leave the city, perhaps," Erza said. "But we'll have an easier time tracking Jellal on foot, I believe. That way we can't miss anything."
"Understood," Byro said. "And, Erza? Muster those forces quickly, we want nothing to impede or come to harm our King."
"If any filthy wizard believes they can, they'll soon come to learn of my power," Nightwalker said. "I'm leaving immediately. Gather my old weapons. I'd love to see how their power holds nowadays."
Ah, Erza thought, there was the one who she fought all those years ago.
At least this time they were on the same side.
The great library of Mercurius was at the heart of the palace as if all vital operations and processes flowed through it. Everyone with a meaningful position of power had to go through it to get where they needed to go to meet with one another. Even Queen Sonya glided through it, flanked by her impossibly powerful guards. August, Invel, Brandish, Mard Geer Tartaros!
Lucy tried to just keep her head down and pretend they weren't all there for a few fleeting moments, but it was impossible to ignore the call of their magical pressure the moment they entered the room. The librarians must've had some sort of iron-clad will; that, or they were just as Broken as several other wizards to not notice.
Levy never picked up on it but was one that was so easily stuck on a book once she was intrigued that Lucy could flick her on the butt and Levy wouldn't even notice.
They had several stacks of books in their little research hub. They had two dedicated tables for the books and one where they could scurry over to take notes. It bisected two massive bookshelves, easily hiding them from sight. Lucy carried a single piece of paper between the tables while she went from book to book, tracking one piece of information to the next.
The goal was not simply to uncover where Lullaby was in the capital—indeed, all of the texts they had were of various historical accounts of what'd happened in the Empire's rise to power over Fiore and much of Ishgar—but to see if there was more information on its powers, limitations.
Lucy recalled much of it, but so much of that mission against Eisenwald had been a blur, and she was so green to fighting demons, and fighting in general, that she recollected only the fear it instilled in her.
Much as they had to know with certainty where the weapon was, they had to equally understand if it could, truly, live up to its expectation.
From what Lucy read of its legend, it certainly seemed so.
Time flew during their research. The two hardly shared words with one another, save for little grunts or single words signaling something new to look at.
That silence was broken when Levy, at once, ran her shoulder into a tower of books, spilling them all over the ground. Lucy swung her attention around, lowering her glasses at a horrifying arrival: Axel, standing between the bookshelves.
"So studious," he said, his voice unfurling as if from the gates of hell itself. "Both of you. I'm proud. Have an exam coming up?"
"Gotta be ready to join the Twilight Division, you know?"
"That's not for a while," Axel said. "Levy, are you working on something?"
"For August," she said, picking up the books. That put the cap on that. August's business was none but his, or Levy's if he chose to involve her.
Axel was forced to accept that.
"Lucy?" Axel said. "Doing work for August?"
"No."
"Then you're free. Come. Let's go for a walk, we haven't been able to for a while."
"But, can't you see I'm busy?"
Axel held out his hand. "Nonsense. Not too busy for your future husband." He smiled wider. "Come."
Levy set down her glasses, too. Lucy approached her from behind, squeezed her friend's hand, and strolled by. She set her glasses on the table. They'd pick up later.
"I'm sorry, I'll come back if I can if you need help putting books back," Lucy said.
"Oh, Lu," Levy said and clapped her hands rhythmically three times. At once, the books took to the air and darted all around to return home.
Lucy watched Levy begin rolling their notes as she followed Axel out of the corridor, and subsequently, the library.
He waited to speak until they were out of the building, out of the ire of any of the great commanders in the library itself. He was dressed in fine, official robes, seemingly untouched, and probably new, as Lucy couldn't remember him wearing them. There were probably some women who thought he looked handsome.
Indeed, many kept their eyes on him, but he gave them no attention as he pushed aside Lucy's hair, gingerly giving her small touches until she looked as he wanted to—a neckline plunging to expose her cleavage, hair tied back to keep her face open, and he made sure, while he held her hand, that the diamond ring he created was out in the open for all to see, for it to catch in the sun's glint.
They entered the gardens, full of great, magnificent greenery and bursting with color all around. A small stream and falls babbled, hidden in its beauty.
"I'm happy you're continuing to be more involved," Axel said. "And I wish you could show the same enthusiasm for the wedding."
"I'm sorry," Lucy said.
"It's fine. I may be getting more time, soon, once Zash returns from his mission in wiping out Fairy Tail."
Axel always made sure to include that part, emphasizing how adamantly the Dragon Division was hunting her friends.
"I can take over from there. I know it's all about you, and I'm sure you'll have your input here and there. Your dress, the cake, the music, that's fine. But I can ensure we have our location, our guests, our day." Axel took in a deep breath. "Yes, a wedding day. It'll be marvelous, don't you think? Not quite the first time a rebel and a General have married but, given Minerva and Kiyl's situation, ours will be a bit more understandable."
"I'm sure there's more than a few people who wish it was over with already."
"You're looking at one," Axel said and laughed at his joke while Lucy gave him nothing in response. "And then you'll be in the Twilight Division.Impressivehow fast you'll have gotten there, Levy must be helping quite a bit."
He always brought that up. Always spoke with some degree of uncertainty about her place in the Empire. It was the best one for her, and, though she wasn't going to say it, she was more qualified than Yukino or Sorano to be there. She had way more spirits at her side, she had more experience with Celestial Spirit magic.
It was as if Axel was watching Lucy climb and waiting for something.
Unless that was simply his jealousy talking again. Was he threatened that they could, one day, be two Generals living with one another? Possibly.
After all, it was an unspoken truth that those of the Twilight Division, even of equal rank, were, in reality, regarded higher than their peers. Twilight Divisions had access even to Queen Sonya, whereas those of something like the Dragon Division were relegated to having to speak to her through their Captain.
He paused there to admire some flowers, see if he could get out of Lucy some sort of hint about a floral arrangement for the wedding.
Lucy's attention darted immediately away when she heard her name being spoken, in hushed words, by the pair of people also walking through the gardens and away from them: Kip and Brandish.
Not far behind them, trailing in an attempt at being casual, was Orga, potential Captain of the Hunter's Division.
Axel tried calling her back, but her eyes trailed Kip and Brandish, the two speaking so softly back and forth. Brandih's own gaze floated until it locked onto Lucy's, where an immediate chill shot through Lucy. Orga cut away from the two, and not a moment later, walked by Lucy.
He wasn't being subtle about it, but who was he following? Was he working with Brandish? Why would she watch him, what did she want with Kip?
Lucy stood taller and ushered Axel away. And then there was this one. Axel, ever the idiot, but…always around.
She tried not to feel the claustrophobia, but everywhere she looked among the flowers pulled as if from heaven itself, she could only see the shadows of the castle where demons waited in the wings, waiting to pluck out her soul. She felt Axel's tough, heard her name whispered, and felt her hair move at the slight crackle of Orga's lightning.
The Empire was everywhere, and they stood ever so close to her.
Hopefully, it'd be enough to keep eyes off of Levy.
The Edolas council was dead-on accurate about their description of the mountain pass, by way of Erza. Coco took them beyond the massive royal city's gates to the entrance of the pass, where even the Legion would struggle to climb through. Gray helped Wendy dismount, infuriating Juvia who fumbled off in pure anguish, while Carla slid down with a practically trained ease. Happy stumbled into Natsu's arms.
Before Gray could help Yukino, Juvia scrambled over and ripped Yukino down, her feral rage turning to Gray.
"There can be no New Rival," Juvia said under her breath.
Gray nodded and prayed to whoever he could that they didn't encounter Edolas Juvia. Otherwise…blood would run like water through Edolas.
"It's due north," Erza said. "Let's hurry."
The hot spring had been a welcome relief. Gray didn't expect to do any fighting, but his muscles were loosened up for the big hike ahead. Erza led the pack alongside Natsu and Wendy. Gray fell to the back of the pack while Juvia stood between both Wendy and Yukino, constantly glowering back at Gray.
If she hadn't done this sort of thing so often, he'd have been quite exhausted.
Gray recalled there being forests in the distance before, but hadn't been on any of the groups that'd been able to explore them on the guild's first venture into Edolas. It was interesting, with different species of trees lining the place, but still plenty of space for ground foliage and wildlife to roam around.
The pass guided them through a rough bit of the hill where tiny stones made up their path. The round rose unevenly, thanks no doubt to how the islands all came together to form these pieces of the land.
They walked, uninterrupted, for a few hours. They were a good distance from the royal city. Erza gathered them up as they continued walking.
"Apparently there was activity not far from here," Erza said. "So we want to keep our eyes out."
Natsu glanced behind her, down the path. He gestured. "Maybe that person knows."
Gray raised an eyebrow. "Hey, I thought you said Nightwalker was out with Mystogan? Isn't that her?"
"She's dressed rather extravagantly," Wendy muttered.
Yukino squinted. The figure was in the distance, a bit hard to make out. "It—it's not…"
"Nightwalker, no," Erza said.
The figure was approaching as they did the same. They wore a far darker color set than most of Edolas—black, plunging across their body. A flowing cloak caught in the wind, blowing back the tendrils of their massive hat that, mostly, resembled what an old-school wizard would wear. While their outfit was a bit scandalous it was also covered, a bit, by a robe beneath the cloak that had some patchwork ripped free. Black knee-high boots rode up their legs.
Everyone slowed to a halt while the figure came into clarity. Yukino rushed to Erza's side as Erza called,
"Excuse us! We're looking for someone in the area, perhaps you could help us?"
"Hey, wait," Gray said. "We're sure that's not Nightwalker? Look at…"
"Her hair," Carla said.
"No, her face," Natsu said. "Looks just like Erza!"
The figure stopped. She had a wooden staff in her hands that was certainly meant for more than a walking stick. Yukino balled a fist. Erza stood stalwart in front of the group as if pretending the woman didn't look just like her.
"I see," the woman said, "that you all finally made your way here. I was wondering if that'd ever be the case."
The Fairies quieted. Erza had to speak for them.
"Do you recognize us?"
The newcomer grinned. "Some of you." She raised her head all the way. The resemblance to Erza was incredible. "What brings you to these parts?"
"As I said, we're looking for someone," Erza said.
"Perhaps I can be of some help," the woman said.
Yukino continued to simmer. What was her deal? Gray approached but didn't place a reassuring hand on her shoulder as he was fearful that Juvia would bite it off.
"Who are you, anyway?" Natsu asked.
"Just a traveler these days, a woman looking at the wonders of this world." She exchanged the staff between hands. "My name is Irene, and I look forward to journeying with you."