Chapter Twenty Six
The tinkly sound of a piano skipped by on a breeze that did not merely seem to sparkle, but actually did. The glittering flurry swirled past Juvia, who stood with her hands clasped under her chin, her eyes shining as brightly as the speaker's abundant black hair.
"So today, join me in celebrating the greatest wizard to ever pass the S-class exam," Master Makarov said, his dewy skin looking even softer in the diffused golden glow of the evening sun. "A wizard so powerful, we had to go beyond the category of S-class and introduce a whole new ranking of mage.
"Give it up for the first ever Q-class wizard, Juvia Lockser! Juvia, you truly are in a class of your own." Master Makarov raised his glass, the wind ruffling his long, dark hair.
"Juvia, marry me!" cried someone in the crowd, throwing a rose at Juvia's feet.
"Marry me, Juvia!" shouted another voice.
"Juvia-sama, bear my children," purred a ponytailed monk in flowing purple robes, grabbing Juvia's hands and looking deep into Juvia's eyes.
Juvia was distracted when a scuffle broke out to her left. "Give a guest lecture at my magic academy, Juvia," pleaded a woman who looked eerily like Porlyusica-san.
"No, come to mine, Juvia!"
"Juvia, you're so cool, cool, cool!"
"Allow us to name the lake in our city after you, Juvia!"
"No, our city, Juvia!"
The sea of people parted, revealing a platoon of sharply dressed Rune Knights. A handsome blond stepped forward, sweeping into a low bow.
"Juvia," said Alucardé Hyberion suavely, "we, the Magic Council, beseech you – accept the position of One Wizard saint, the greatest of the Wizard Saints that has ever been or ever will be-"
"Hold on, can we go back to the bit where Master Makarov has black hair?" Meredy interrupted.
Juvia came back to Earthland with a thump. "I thought it gave him some glamour," she replied, pouting.
"Yes, but didn't Master Makarov used to have blond hair?"
Juvia clapped her hands to her face, spiralling into a tiny dot in the distance. "Ju-bin!"
Meredy grinned at her. Outlandish fantasies aside, she was really looking forward to being Juvia's partner in the year's S-class trials. Even if they did not institute a whole new class of wizard. "Are you ready for today's training session?"
Juvia sat up and clenched her fists, her cheeks puffed out with determination. "Juvia is ready to earn the rank of S-class!"
"…I'm not sure she's in today," Mira's voice drifted over to them, "I'll check."
Juvia looked up quizzically as Mira approached their table. "What's wrong, Mira-san?"
Mira's mouth twisted with worry as she gestured towards the guild's communications lacrima that was resting on the bar. "It's Gray. He wants to know if you are free to talk."
Meredy flinched at the momentary shadow that crossed Juvia's face. Juvia was not ready. Not yet. She looked away. So much for their training session.
"No," Juvia replied firmly, her hand coming to rest on Meredy's. "Meredy and Juvia have plans, don't we?"
Meredy's surprise melted into a smile. She might not be ready, but she was getting there.
"Yeah. Yeah, we do."
Erza could hear Mira's tinny lilt as she walked towards the kitchen. "She hasn't come to the guild today."
The answering rumble of Gray's voice arrested her footsteps. "She doesn't want to see me, does she?"
Who? Erza edged closer to the open doorway. Dismayed at her blatant disregard for Gray's privacy, Erza admonished herself by tucking her hair behind her ears to hear better.
"She needs some time, Gray." Mira's voice was soft.
There was a long pause before Gray replied, "Yeah."
Juvia. They were talking about Juvia. Erza leaned against the wall and shut her eye. Juvia was avoiding Gray because of what had happened between them. There was no surprise there. Erza had known that it would be so. Juvia was still hurting. Gloom descended upon Erza. How did Gray live with this feeling? Knowing that your actions could, and had, hurt a dear friend?
"Thanks, Mira. I'll go get the others."
Erza sprang away from the wall as she heard the scraping sound of a chair being pushed back. She took a few steps back into the corridor, then instantly felt ashamed for her underhanded actions.
Gray let out a little huff of surprise when he spotted Erza. He scratched the back of his neck and stared at the floor. "The communications lacrima is on the table," he said.
Erza nodded, her lips pressed into a tight line. She stared at his back as he left to find the others; hesitant and debating if she should call out to him. But what would be the point? There was nothing she could think of to say. Jaw clenched, she made up her mind.
She walked into the kitchen and left him to his search.
The vast sheet of ice stretched to the horizon, a barren expanse, white and frigid and utterly devoid of life. It was devoid of something else too. Hebiko stepped forward gracefully, leaving no trace in the powdery snow. The glacier still teemed with magic, but the undercurrent of power was gone. The Ox had been beaten. She twitched her nose to flick away the gathering frost. That was her due diligence done. She fed a number into her portable communications lacrima. "Hello? It's as we thought. Is the General with you?" A pause. "Then get word to her. There's no time to waste."
A visit to the nearest town confirmed that the Questers were long gone, but Hebiko did not leave empty handed. An eighth member had joined the party, it seemed. An eighth, familiar, and eminently trackable member.
She snapped herself from the thought. It did not pay to be hasty. It was the Questers she wanted and the Questers she would find.
Onward she journeyed, first to the train station nearest Silestina, where she left the station master staring glassy-eyed into the distance. She followed the train to the end of the line but found no clues at the final stop. Cursing the Questers, she began to make her way back, stopping off at each of the preceding stations, losing precious time until finally, she struck gold at Trona. A careful exercising of her gift left even the most reluctant witnesses eager to please. Information in hand, she hurried now to Barya. To the ryokan where they had halted. But the empty wooden room held nothing for her. Not a scrap of lace, not a fallen comb, nothing.
Hissing with anger, Hebiko tore apart the inn, looking for the smallest clue. The dining area, the baths, even the garden beyond; it was as though they had been scrubbed clean. The owner had no answers for her either. She had been thwarted. But how? Her ensuing scream cracked the windows in the ryokan. She stood in the empty garden and stared up at the night sky, trying and failing to contain her rage.
A whisper. The tiniest susurration. A pinprick of awareness. Hebiko whirled around, searching the violet evening for the source. She found only the innkeeper, sprawled on the tatami floor where she had left her.
She turned away from her latest victim in disgust, walking to the edge of the town to begin her long journey home. The General would have her own plans, but there was no use to them if the Questers could not be found. There had to be a way. Her temper cooled as she walked, bringing her a burst of clarity. She stopped short, a triumphant grin beginning to wend its way across her face. Of course. There was always something to be done. She would take a leaf out of her Master's book. Afterall, who knew temptation better than the Snake?
The ice hissed as it rose from the ground, vapours peeling away from the surface as a lance took shape. Gray smiled and pressed a fist to his open palm, throwing up a shield to deflect his own attack. The Guardian had suggested that Gray play against himself, speed-Making items to simulate a battle. It was exhausting and mind-numbing and this was the best he had felt in days. No thoughts, just him and the ice. Exactly how things were meant to be.
The Guardian watched from the other end of the room, making occasional notes in a leather-bound notebook. They donned their cat-eye glasses and flipped back a few pages. "If you do not mind my gaskin, why are you restraining yourself from making use of your Devil Slaying abilities?"
Gray dodged the icy cannonballs he had rigged up to shoot at himself. "How do you know about that?"
The Horse brandished a sheaf of papers. The letters from their first training session.
"Ice Make: Gungnir!" The spitting cannon was scooped up and trapped inside a rapidly rising spear of ice. "I gave those powers up."
"Why?"
He grunted and flicked the hair out of his eyes. "They were someone else's baggage."
The Horse studied him for a minute. "I see."
Gray resumed the battle against himself, deciding to show off a little by creating a fake floor above a pit of ice-spikes.
"You believe that Moulding Magic can handle all your needs?"
A wistful smile quirked his lips. "Ur-sensei used to say that Moulding Magic gives you the most freedom."
"That I am neddy to accept as truth." The Horse hopped as a sheet of ice rolled towards them, landing with a click on the new fake floor.
Gray grinned with pride, noting how realistic it looked. He had even managed to capture the grain of the wood. He channelled his magic into creating the spikes under it, focusing on making them razor sharp.
"It does, however, bay-g the question – why is your Moulding so limited?"
Gray slipped on the ice and narrowly missed being impaled by one of his own creations. "What?"
"Your Moulding is creatively stunted," the Horse explained, tapping a foot, and vaporising much of the ice that Gray had made. "You make objects, most of them similar. Hammers and spears and lances. If Moulding Magic gives you the most freedom, hinny-d to ask why you only make weaponry?"
Gray's brow furrowed. What else was there to make? Especially in battle.
"If the purpose is mare-ly to inflict damage, then why have elaborate scrollwork on your weapons?" Ignoring the blank look on Gray's face, the Horse hefted a shield that Gray had discarded earlier in their session. "You are an artist, Mr. Fullbuster."
"I guess?" What did that have to do with anything?
"Perhaps, I should change tack." They waved the letters again. "I do not cruple to tell you that there is a reason I enumerated a tendency to be self-sacrificing among your weaknesses."
Understanding clicked. Iced Shell was Moulding Magic at its core. Magic that converted the user's will into an unstoppable force. Magic that Ur had not lived long enough to teach her students, but that he had found while searching for the Lost Attribute of Iced Shell. The third kind of Ice Make, neither static nor dynamic – emotional Ice Make. Moulding Magic that drew from and inspired emotion. The same way art did.
The Horse noticed the light come on in Gray's eyes. "Shall we endeavour to work on concepts more abstract?"
A challenging smirk slowly spread across his face. "Let me show you how Moulding Magic is really done."
Gray left the session feeling good about himself. He had not felt that way in a while. It was important to remind oneself every now and then that one was not useless. An angry squawk was heard behind him as he divested himself of his coat, the heavy white fabric landing on Lucy's face as she came down the corridor for her training session. Gray looked out the window at a bird sitting on a nearby branch and nodded with satisfaction. Even the birds sounded louder this morning.
Erza had been right. Muscles were not his thing. Neither was raw power. Countless times he had used his brain and his creativity to best his enemies, and those were no small things to have. The easy destructiveness of his Devil Slaying ability had almost made him forget. Nearly all his battles in the past had been won by him outthinking his opponent. He was smart.
It felt good to remember it.
"Oh, how I've missed Lucy-san's nice body!"
Lucy sweatdropped and gestured towards her horny – literally and figuratively – Celestial Spirit. "Taurus is the strongest of my Celestial Spirits." She changed into her Taurus Star Dress and continued. "I get a power-up too, when I wear this."
They had spent the day before on theoretical concerns and on increasing Lucy's magic power. This was the first time she was summoning her Spirits in the Horse's presence.
The Guardian stared at the cooing, heart-eyed bull for a few minutes and then turned towards the lingerie-clad maid squirming on the floor on the other side of the room. "Are all your Spirits so…" they coughed discreetly, "concupiscent?"
Lucy did not need a dictionary to figure out what that word meant. There was only one word to describe her Spirits. A golden flash of light erupted next to her, and her horniest Spirit passed through the gate of his own accord. "Who invited you!"
Loke flicked back his hair and caught up her hand. "I sensed that you were thinking of your prince," he said in a debonair manner. "Besides, it has been far too long since my gorgeous face appeared in this story."
"It's written down, no one can see it," she mumbled, before realisation struck and she snatched her hand back. "Natsu and I are dating, you know?"
"I don't mind. Yo, Loke! Long time, no see!"
"When did you get here!" Lucy shrieked, turning to see Natsu and Happy floating outside the window.
Natsu tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I think it was when Gemini came out in a bath towel, right Happy?"
Happy sniggered and covered his mouth with a paw. "Eroi."
Lucy slapped her forehead. The Guardian Horse was going to think she was a joke. Not that she could tell. Their face remained as expressionless as ever. She needed to call upon one of her less boisterous spirits. It was only ten minutes into her training session, and she was already running low on magic power. Three summonings had really taken it out of her. There was no way she would be able to summon Capricorn.
"Alright. Open the Gate of the Giant Crab. Cancer!" she said.
Cancer materialised before the Guardian and snipped his scissors. "What kind of hairstyle would you like today-ebi?"
Lucy sighed with relief. Finally, someone normal. If a sunglasses-wearing crab that ended his sentences with 'shrimp' could be counted as normal.
"How are your box braids?" the Horse asked the Celestial Spirit.
Cancer grinned. 'Ksk ksk' went his scissors.
"Excellent." They turned towards Lucy. "Ms. Heart-filly -a, you may run laps around the estate for the rest of your session." A tap of the foot and a salon chair and mirror popped out of the ground.
"Is Princess being punished?" asked Virgo eagerly.
"The thought of Lucy-san's nice body in motion," Taurus puffed out ribbons of steam.
"Forced Gate Closure!"
The Guardian raised a hand. "Leave the others."
"Are you seriously planning to have a spa day while I run laps?" Lucy asked incredulously.
"Neigh, how better to improve your stamina than to see how long you can summon your spirits and exert yourself physically? Mare-over, the wainscoting is in dire need of dusting." They looked pointedly at Virgo and Loke.
"Me too? But I'm a battle spirit!"
"One who is here freely, using thei-roan magic to help their bearer, correct?"
"So long, farewell, I'll see you in your dreams, sweet Lucy," said Loke, fading out of view.
"Not so fast." Lucy brandished his key and he rematerialized.
She panted, then scowled. It was true that she needed to work on her stamina, but summoning three spirits and running? She caught sight of Natsu floating outside the window with Happy and her protest died in her throat. There was no way she was going to give in.
She changed out of her Taurus Star Dress and shot the Guardian a determined look. "I'll see you in twenty minutes."
It was pink. Bright and shiny, luxuriant and waxed, and undeniably, eye-poppingly pink. Its curled edges twitched and quivered, like tiny pink hands waving hello.
"Natsu-san, you have a moustache," Wendy observed apprehensively.
It was more like the moustache had a Natsu. Handlebar was not quite the word for it. Unless buses had handlebars. Or the giants from the Sun Village rode bicycles.
"Do you like it?" Natsu asked proudly, twirling the edges.
Wendy shuffled, unsure how to answer that. "It's… very vibrant."
Any more vibrant and it would vibrate right off his face and crawl around the grass like an oversized slug.
Natsu nodded. "I had Crabby-chan fix me up with one when he was here earlier today."
At a loss for anything else to say, Wendy gave a nervous chuckle and settled for one of the Ws. "Um… why?"
Please let Natsu-san not have decided on an exotic and unconventional kind of bridle for the competition. Please let Natsu-san not have decided on an exotic and unconventional kind of bridle for the competition. Please let Natsu-san not have-
"The Horse called me childish during my training session today." A sly expression crept over his face. "This will show them. A child can't grow a whole moustache in just a few hours."
The hallmark of maturity twitched again, its individual hairs rippling slowly like heather in the wind. Wendy prayed fervently that it would disappear before the competition (most likely of its own accord, with a stick and bindle and directions to the nearest dive bar, where it would creep on women who were far too young for it). There was no way she was braiding that.
"What does Lucy-san think of it?"
Natsu tapped his nose. "It's a surprise!" He grinned and continued in an overly casual tone. "Speaking of surprises…"
Wendy gave a sudden yelp and disappeared-
-and woke from her trance under an oak tree nearby. Happy smirked up at her, still sitting on her lap after the dive-bomb he had used to rouse her.
"I tried to stop him," Charle said, "But I got distracted…"
Wendy blinked, her eyes refocusing enough to clock the blue-hued baby brother of the pink specimen she had been staring at seconds before. She did not even need to take in Charle's pathetic expression to understand. An involuntary shudder went down her spine.
"Found you!" Natsu crowed, jogging up to the oak tree. "That's a neat trick!"
"I didn't know you could do thought projections, Wendy!" Happy added, fluttering up to sit on Natsu's shoulder, moustache-to-moustache.
Wendy smiled, embarrassed. The spell was a work-in-progress, but if she showed this to the Guardian the next day maybe they could help her project herself over longer distances. They had already helped to improve her ability considerably in just two days. "I'm still learning," she replied, scratching the back of her head. "How did you know it was me?"
Natsu tapped the sliver of nose visible above the cloud of pink and winked. "The nose never lies."
Ah. She would have to keep that in mind. Smell and solidity were the two tell-tale giveaways of thought projections after all.
"What do you think of my moustache, Charle?" Happy asked, his eyelids drooping as he flashed her his best 'sultry' expression. "Want to split a fish with me sometime?"
Charle looked at the moustaches, then back up at Wendy, then back at the moustaches; the trembling brushes of blue and pink bristling so rapidly that they were beginning to blur into a singular entity in purple. With a gulp, she grabbed Wendy by the shoulders and took off flying at top speed.
"Practice is cancelled today!"
There was a spring in Gray's step as he went to eventing practice. Erza seemed to sense his uplifted mood and she gave him a tiny, relieved smile when he met her at the paddock behind the manor. He felt a prickle of guilt run over his scalp and wondered how he would go about apologising for his behaviour.
"Horse or rider?" Erza asked him.
Gray scratched the back of his neck. "Erza, I-"
"Let us not dwell on it," she replied briskly. "Shall I be the rider?"
He flushed. "No. No, I'll do it."
Erza crouched down and he climbed onto her armoured back. "Are you ready?"
"Yup." He held on tightly as Erza clicked a stopwatch and took off towards the smallest jump on the cross-country track.
Practice went a lot smoother than it had in days past. Gray relaxed into his role as rider, Erza communicated her every action, and they took the jumps with ease – making it to the final jump across the river and back several times without mishap. Gray could feel the tension leave them both as they raced over the countryside.
The crisp smell of snow mingled with the sweetness of her shampoo as he leaned into Erza, warning of coming turns in the path in a low, steady voice. The tips of her ears turned pink under his breath, and Gray wondered if the biting chill was getting to her despite the thick, black thermal vest peeping out from the edges of her steel cuirass.
They took a break before starting the show-jumping course. Erza pulled out a water bottle from the insulated bag she had brought with her and sat on the ground with a thump.
"Tired?" he asked gently, taking the proffered bottle.
"I will be OK to continue after a few minutes."
He nodded and drank deeply. "What?" he asked, feeling Erza's watchful gaze as he wiped his mouth and brushed away the drops running down his neck.
She returned her gaze to the winter landscape. "Put on a shirt," she said gruffly.
"Ack! When did that happen?" he exclaimed, scrambling about for his discarded clothing. Doing up the final button on his shirt, he asked. "You feeling OK, Erza? Not too cold?" Her cheeks were still flushed, and he knew how easy it was to mistake the warmth of exercise for actual warmth.
"I am fine," she replied tersely.
Gray considered dropping the subject. Erza did not seem keen to talk and it was only the day before that he had yelled at her across the dinner table. She had not allowed him to apologise, but that only made him more eager to make peace with her. He had to show her his willingness to try. "I was working on this kind of spell in training this morning," he said, grasping the water bottle with both hands and focusing on the feeling of warmth. "Here, try this."
A hint of scepticism marked her expression as she took the bottle back from him and took a sip. "Hrrk!" Erza covered her mouth with the back of her hand to stifle her coughing. "Does drinking icy water in the snow make you feel warmer?" she asked hoarsely.
"That wasn't what I was going for," he muttered, embarrassed.
"I see." She got to her feet and dusted off her skirt. "Shall we continue with practice?"
It did not feel as if she was holding his screw-up against him as they attempted the first few jumps in the course. Erza leapt over the short palisade that marked the beginning of the course and then took the next two hurdles – one shaped like a fountain, one like a wishing well – in rapid succession. He could feel her relax as she allowed her muscles to take over. Her hand no longer gripped the underside of his thigh like a vice and her shoulders seemed looser under her armour.
They worked through most of the course easily, leaving the most difficult jumps for last. Gray tensed as they came running up to the very first jump that they had taken together, the one where he had nearly had his head taken off. His hands instinctively tightened around Erza's neck at the memory.
She sensed his apprehension and placed a gentle hand upon his. "I'm with you."
A memory seared through Gray – riding on the back of a Hodras with Juvia, his hand on hers as he said the very same words – and he recoiled.
Erza floundered. They had been moving too fast to come to a clean stop and they rolled, thudding against the ground, and crashing into the heavy iron frame of the jump.
She shaded her eyes against the pale winter sun and looked up to satisfy herself that the facade was not about to come down any time soon. "Are you alright?" she asked Gray.
He stared back at her, dismayed, and crawled backwards on his hands and feet. "I-I'm fine," he stammered. "I think we've practiced jumping enough. You make a better horse than me. Let's just call it a day," he babbled and hurried indoors.
The flush of confidence he had gotten from his session with the Guardian had made him forget. He might not be totally useless, but there was still something he was very bad at. Juvia's refusal to speak to him still burned. He had messed up with her and lost her friendship and here he was, trying to do the same thing with Erza. And why? Because of twenty minutes of exercising his creativity? Because a shred of confidence had been returned to him? Erza might think he was a better man than he was, but he knew better. He would spoil things, just as he always did. He was a moment of carelessness from ruining everything.
Gray shook his head. He needed to get a grip. His confusion was making his emotions volatile.
If only he could find a way for the two of them to go back to normal.
The library was silent save for the scratch of the Horse's quill against paper. The bookshelves cast long shadows against the worn carpet, fourteen black rectangles against burgundy running the length of the room. The Guardian Spirit paused, anticipating the infinitesimal burst of magic that preceded the addition of the fifteenth shadow.
"Fore-going our midnight perambulations, are we?" they asked.
She flopped into the armchair before their desk and sighed dramatically. "Someone forbade me from going to see Erza."
The Horse snorted and returned to their work. Meticulous records of all the Questers had to be kept. How else were they to learn from their mistakes? They squinted at the textbook before them, a tome snuck out of a different world on one of their rare furloughs in the Heavens. 'Introduction to Psychology – an analysis of personality types,' read the faded gold lettering on the spine.
"Find anything interesting?" she nodded towards the book.
They looked at her blankly. "As my answer remains stable, it would be redundant to provide it. Ask as many times as you will, Sacerdotisa, knowledge of other worlds is fore-bidden."
Sacerdotisa rolled her eyes. "Spoilsport."
"And you?"
"We cut it rather fine."
They nodded and began to put away their work, placing their journal into the topmost drawer of their desk. A wave of their hand, a green glimmer and the drawer was sealed. They shut the textbook they had been perusing and walked to the farthest corner of the library.
Sacerdotisa followed them, as she had done many times before. They knew she was not truly curious about the contents of the book. She was merely bored. Life could be very tedious when one's occupation revolved around Questers who appeared once a decade, if that.
"They are diffi-colt," they said, sealing the textbook into a cabinet of restricted reading material. "Most of them suffer from an extreme lack of self-a-mare-ness. Of those that I have asked, not one has had a ready answer wherefore they wish to complete the Quest. They credit the fire dragon slayer, as though he had suggested a constitutional, not a fell crusade to foreign lands. I would suspect chicanery if not for their utter hack of guile."
"And the others?"
"Are slower to trust. I will probe when I am certain of the veracity of their words."
She leaned against the wall and studied them. "What reason do they have to speak a lie?"
"What reason do they have to speak the truth?" They allowed their stoic persona to drop for a moment and rubbed the spot between their eyebrows. "It is hard to trust one who is as de-seat-ful as I am being."
Sacerdotisa nodded. "The stalking horse."
"Prescribe the Questers a Task designed to make them feel ridiculous; and use the preparation and performance period to surreptitiously study them. It appeared facile, yet whenever they look at me with a question in their eyes, my skin breeches."
She folded her arms and smiled wryly. "If only you were not so fond of wordplay."
The Horse took off their spectacles and tucked them into a pocket with an inky black hand. "Do not foal yourself that the plan evolved around that term. All of us agreed that it would be the surest way of discerning their intentions." They returned to their desk and waved a hand over the kettle that stood on the sideboard beside it. "Tea?"
She shook her head.
Another wave of the hand and the teapot was warm enough to spoon in the tea. The water in the kettle was nearly boiling as they poured it in. Sacerdotisa nudged the armchair next to her with her foot. They shot her a reproachful look and then folded their large frame into the seat.
"If only I had more time," they said, wiping a miniscule smudge off their otherwise impeccable boots. "The advancement of the timeline has placed us all in jeopardy."
"You weren't to know they would find the Ox first."
"Nevertheless, we should have planned for interference from her and the Heavenly Emperor's daughter. It was filly of us not to foresee this happening." They served the tea, placing the cup upon the saucer noiselessly. "The Pig and the Tiger gave their approval. We canter-ase that.
"The question is, what did they see that I do not? I see in them, trust, love and kindness, but I also see in them naked ambition and a disregard for the rules – the two things I have learned to fear."
She squeezed their hand. "The first three are exactly why things will be different this time."
"Will they? I am forbidden from telling them the goal we have in mind, and they are too frivolous to realise it for themselves."
"Frivolity does not preclude empathy."
The Horse took a pensive sip of their tea. "Is that so?" they replied, allowing their lips to tilt upwards slyly. "I will have to check the book."
Sacerdotisa laughed. "Haven't you read that two hundred times or more?"
"It never hays to be careless." They set down their teacup, the lamplight glinting off the wings in the darkness of its dregs. "We learned that the hard way."
A/N: I read an interesting thread on Twitter recently, about naming characters in a respectful way. Like how you can't just name someone 'Sword' in Japanese because that doesn't make any sense. But then I remembered, this is Fairy Tail, where a lady with a spider motif is called spider in Spanish - and so Sacerdotisa (priestess in Spanish) was born. It is something of a mouthful though. Why couldn't it be something cute like Miko?
A/N 2: The puns are getting out of hand. Self-a-mare-ness? Please T_T. I regret deciding the Horse was an incorrigible punner. Now I'm stuck trying to create ridiculous puns in all of his dialogue. As if it isn't bad enough that he liked to talk old-timey. If anyone has suggestions for puns they'd like to see (or just any horse puns at all), leave a review and I will add it into the next chapter. Lord knows, I am running out of ideas. Bonus points for anyone who can pun 'yearling' or 'gelding.'
A/N 3: Thanks to everyone who faved/followed and reviewed! Also, since my story 8-Island Undressing is a oneshot and I can't thank them there, thank you so so so much to the guest reviewer who left a review on it! I've been feeling bad for over a year that the only review on that story is from some nasty puritan.
Please do leave a fave/follow or review this time. Mostly coz I need to know that people are still reading this (shoutout to CrimsonStarbird for always reviewing. You are so nice T_T)
Hope you enoyed the chapter and I'll see you in two weeks!
