Alvarez’s imperial castle was large. Large enough to get lost in. Large enough that for the next two days Arthur didn’t meet a single member of the Spriggan Twelve, nor their Emperor. Well with the exception of Irene, who came to meet him and talk to him - her insights on magic and enchantment were fascinating, and her knowledge of the nature of dragon slayer magic offered a very enlightening second opinion on things.

Still Arthur had lived in this world long enough to grow a tad paranoid. Shonen looked all fun and power of friendship. Good always overcame evil, but when you got right down to it, living in one of those worlds was like living in the warring states period. There was no rule of law, just the rule of power, and 90% of those with power were using it to harm for their own gain. The heroes won in the end, and those they cared about were unhurt in the process. But everyone else?

The Spriggan Twelve were known for single-handedly fighting countries. Arthur had admittedly come close to doing the same in Edolas, and might be willing to take on a country, but that didn’t mean he wanted to sit and stew in a trap prepared for him by 12 country destroyers and their boss.

It, of course, wasn’t merely a matter of power. Zeref, and to a lesser extent the Spriggans in general, scared him because he wasn’t sane. It reminded him of Georg, especially in that last fight, when he was building up to something terribly self-destructive. He’d compare it to Selene, but she had her own logic and rules to her behavior; they just weren’t quite human. From his own meeting with Zeref he wasn’t sure he did. No, Zeref reminded him of Zero more than anyone. They were different. Zero was just simply murderous. But both reeked of madness so thick he imagined he could smell it. And Zeref’s level of power combined with a mind that was irrational and prone to emotion driven violent outburst?

Staying in the castle felt like staying at ground zero of an anticipated nuclear bomb attack.

By the third day, Arthur was getting downright antsy. A day or two he could easily let slide as Zeref having a moment. But three days, well Zeref could be busy with various matters and affairs of state and governance, but Arthur rather expected it meant he was plotting some way to kill him, or force him to serve. At the minimum it appeared to be some petty power play.

It left him in the mood for a bit of rebellion. He’d not actually been told to do more than just stay near the castle for when the Emperor desired to see him again. And if that didn’t come by tomorrow morning he was going to just have to go to Ishgar for his business. He had guilds to talk to, magic councils to consult, and medical operations to arrange.

Today, though, he was going to try some counter-intelligence of his own. Or maybe intelligence work. He was going to try and do something more useful than just talk to Irene and work to sow seeds of inevitable but unexpected betrayal.

It didn’t mean he wasn’t going to talk to her. She gave him a smokescreen of sorts. He would be showing her his Archive, and its ability to obtain information about magic. He didn’t like letting Zeref learn of that, but if he was going to obtain information himself he needed a space to manifest the full Super Archive, and Zeref would notice it. Better to have an excuse lined up ahead of time.

He summoned some of his spirits as well. The little nikora spirit, Equulus, Altair, and Enif. He sent two out to map the castle, allowing Irene to watch as the map grew in real-time, and Altair and Enif to play satellite surveillance providing a map of the exterior grounds.

They discussed the mapping function for a few moments, and the range and how many people Arthur could maintain such a link with, allowing their vision to be fed into the Archive, leaving Irene suitably impressed. But then it was time for a real test.

It was to be a brief sparring match against Heine and Juliet, demonstrating how it could record and analyze the magic used in a battle. But it was more than that. As the fight began he flashed the Shine Dragon’s light, a - strangely slower than light - beam of it shooting straight at an individual he couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, and even with dragon slayer’s nose couldn’t smell. But once he’d opened his Archive to full it could detect the very magic that was hiding him.

The beam of light struck the man and he flashed into momentary visibility, the energy beam burning his suit off of his chest as it sent him flying into one of the structures of Arthur’s Archive.

In an instant, Arthur was on top of him, his hand on the man’s throat. “Who had you spying on us?” Arthur asked with an unhinged, lupine grin.

“Arthur, no need to attack him. He’s Jacob Lessio of the Spriggan Twelve,” Irene said.

Arthur had guessed he was, not that he could remember Jacob’s name. He remembered his face now that he could see it; the skull on his forehead mostly. Looked to be in his forties, with a five o’ clock shadow, and a balding head. Arthur had remembered him as bald.

“Emperor Spriggan sent me. Wanted me to keep tabs on you.”

“I don’t like being spied on,” Arthur said, stating the obvious.

“I don’t like being hit with magic blasts. That sort of crazy power could kill a guy, you know.” Jacob complained. Arthur did his best to hold back a smirk. He’d been holding back. And it wasn’t even an offensive attack. Most of the spell was a lingering tracer of light magic which his Archive would be able to track easily; hopefully even through Jacob’s stealth magic. It didn’t matter where Jacob went, he’d know it.

“A Spriggan threatened by a half-assed training shot like that? I thought you were supposed to all be powerful mages.”

“You stupid brat, get off of me and I’ll show you a powerful mage.”

“Not got any real desire to see what a half-assed old man who has been following me around invisible can show off,” Arthur said but he was rising. He was actually sort of hoping that Jacob would show him. He didn’t remember him having any highly destructive powers - just some sort of spatial magic - that would threaten his Archive. If he was going to learn about a Spriggan’s power this was the best scenario. And just in case he was already changing his takeover, letting the white scales of the white dragon deepen to an azure blue. “I mean if it took you till you were this old to fit into the Spriggan Twelve, you can’t…”

His Archive sent him a mental alert, but without overclocking it was too late for him to meaningfully act on it. The spatial magic overwhelmed him before he could reinforce his territory armor to counter it.

Not that it mattered. He opened his mouth and he inhaled. He was in a pocket reality; a small one compared to what he’d painstakingly built over time with his dark dominion. But cramped or not it didn’t matter as he rematerialized when the spatial magic which composed the dimension was consumed.

“Thanks for the meal,” He stated as he spun, a backhand knocking Jacob flying hard into one of the constructed towers of his Archive. Jacob hit against the energy construct, and a crack formed through the carefully refined machine.

“****!” Arthur swore, slapping his hand into his face. He could already feel his Archive’s performance dropping from the damage. “I’m going to have to repair that.” Then he looked at Jacob. “And make sure he’s ok.”

Zeref’s face was impassive as he looked at Irene. He’d called her here after her time with Arthur today. She was growing too close to the Northern Mage. The Northern Mage had compromised both her usefulness and her loyalty. She had been one of his two key pieces. Her power had been invaluable, and as long as she was in that flawed human form, she was psychologically where he wanted her: a well trained attack dog. By reverting her to human form Arthur had not only cut her power substantially, but had removed the constant reminder of why she should hate.

But it left the question of what he should do with her. He could kill her. It was the easy answer; his default answer even. But what would that do to the loyalty of the other members of the Spriggan Twelve? Some he could trust to stay despite that; Larcade and Bloodman would stick with him even if he was in the middle of killing them. With others it was not so certain. If he began to kill them for actually obtaining the reward he had promised them he would likely see at least half of the Spriggan Twelve leave to hide from the potential of his wrath.

He had no emotional attachment to the Spriggan Twelve, any more than someone would grow attached to an army in a game of Risk. The last time he’d opened his heart enough to see a person as a person she had died in his arms despite her lesser form of his curse. He’d killed her. With his curse. He’d…

No. He couldn’t let himself think that way. She was dead and gone. And everyone else was just pieces in his game. They couldn’t be more. The Spriggan Twelve were not his friends or family. They were tools. Nothing more than high end semi-autonomous weapons. They were no more valuable to him than a tank, ship, or jet would be.

The Spriggan Twelve were scared to betray him, but if he pushed his definition of betrayal to a whisper of suspicion that you might eventually stop supporting him, too many of them would decide to escape him now before it became deadly to stay. He had to pretend to possess some sort of sanity.

She was still reporting on the Northern Mage. She was taken with him. It wasn’t surprising given he’d managed to restore her to humanity. It was a truly impressive feat, even if it annoyed him. As long as he could dangle the carrot that he could eventually restore her to a perfect, human body once more she had been willing to overlook anything else.

She seemed willing to accept that he’d merely been wrong about his belief that it was impossible to fix her without some vast, all-consuming power; that of Fairy Heart, though he had not fully confided in her about Pricht’s creation. Maybe. He wasn’t good at understanding what motivated individual people. It was a problem. He’d known enough people to understand common stimuli and the normal responses. But individuals often deviated from the mean. He had cultivated the culture in the Spriggan Twelve to help weed out impulses which would keep them from functioning as a weapon to point where he desired and fire. But Irene with her humanity restored was ultimately a different creature than before.

She’d cut her hair, leaving it only framing her face. It was not the first time she’d changed her appearance, but it hadn’t been done since he’d molded her into his weapon. Worse, she was beginning to know doubt. It was all the more clear in the fact that she was requesting leave to travel to Ishgar, and see if she could find out what happened to the daughter she had abandoned. And to go with the Northern Mage.

The Northern Mage was apparently growing uncomfortable in his accommodations. All the more so after Jacob’s spying had been discovered.

“Fine. Go. I can do without you for a time.” He said, cutting off her excuses for why the trip was necessary. If he refused it would become fuel for a future fire. It meant not trying to keep the Northern Mage here, but causing the mage to grow irritated enough that it burnt bridges would do him no good.

He could observe him on this trip and come to a decision as to how to deal with him. Same with Irene herself. He needed to replace her as one of his trump cards. And the Northern Mage would be a perfect replacement if he could be broken to the bridle. But did he possess the essential levers to turn the foreigner into his gun to be aimed? August and Irene had fallen in his lap. Larcade and Bloodman he had made. The other 8 had been forged and shaped by his conquests.

His only carrot for the Northern Mage was the death of Acnologia. And the mage seemed confident he could manage that. That even if he had come here for tactical advice and information that he knew how. Zeref could probably put him off for a time with the promise that he’d have to serve to get what he wanted, but that wasn’t a piece he could reliably control in a battle.

The Northern Mage was an NPC. And he had turned one of Zeref’s party members into one as well. As a gamer Zeref was quite irate at that.

He’d have the Northern Mage killed on that ground alone, except for two things. His game had been getting boring. He’d been considering expanding into Ishgar and taking that continent as well as a means of making the game interesting once more, but even that had seemed almost lackluster. With only Etherion and Face standing in his way, his demons could cut off the head whenever he prompted Mard Geer to do so.

But now? Fighting Arthur could be fun. It’d be a shame to kill him while he was in his hands. Though playing with Arthur might risk losing his window of opportunity. The Eclipse Gate had ripped a hole in time. His agents in Fiore were encouraging them to open another door to the future to open it more fully. But he only had a limited window of opportunity before time healed itself. Dimaria had informed him of that; not that she or Chronos was conscious of that fact.

Arthur offered him another opportunity, though.

Death.

That sword might manage to kill him. That sword might allow him to kill Acnologia.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to kill Acnologia.

No he did.

It’d be entertaining to try at least.

A game to see if he could beat the dragon.

“I wish you the best of luck in your journey to Fiore,” Zeref said. “But if that’s the full report, you may be dismissed.”

It was only after Irene had closed the door, that Zeref realized she’d never mentioned Fiore, but merely Ishgar to look for her daughter. Well if she asked questions, he could tell her he had assumed Fiore because Arthur had spent most of his time in Ishgar there. It didn’t prove he knew precisely where and who her daughter was. It had been impossible not to recognize the relationship when he’d observed her on Tenrou Island years ago.

Arthur lay in bed and considered the day and what he had gained from it. While he’d failed to get Jacob to extensively show his powers, the sparring match against Heine and Juliet had evolved into one against Irene herself. It was easier than it would have been when she was still a dragon; even in her human form her magic power had been reduced by the reconstruction of her humanity, and that had even weakened the enchantments which had stood beforehand.

She was still arguably the second strongest member of the Spriggan Twelve, but before she had been arguably the strongest, and definitely at least the second strongest. Now she had to compete for that status with the stronger members of the other ten. And the battle with his Archive up and active had helped him to learn a fair bit about what her combat abilities were now. Whether he was fighting with or against her that was important information.

Irene’s insecurities on this front had helped Arthur get an idea for what she believed the powers of the others were.

Drusus and Zeamei were wholly new to him. Zeamei apparently used a form of plant magic; and a particularly dangerous sort. Drusus was called the Takeover Tyrant. His magic was body possession and shapeshifting; even Irene didn’t know how many forms of Takeover he had mastered, though she talked about him as a weak link of little import who was only counted among the Spriggan Twelve because they had lost a member and he was a convenient placeholder. If Arthur joined the Spriggan 12 he would probably replace Drusus, even if he didn’t Brandish was being groomed to do so. But both of them were really on the chopping block.

The others were more familiar. When Alvarez invaded Fiore in the manga they were all members.

Ajeel the Desert King, a prince of a country that Zeref had conquered and raised as a political hostage of the imperial court. His place was somewhat more secure than Drusus and Zeamei’s because he was the grandson of one of Zeref’s high ministers, and while his overall combat power was not much superior to theirs his raw magical power was staggeringly different. He just was far from having reached his peak potential.

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Arthur wished Irene had told him more about Dimaria Yesta. Called the Goddess of Battle her magic was a time stop, though having experienced it first hand it was more of a pocket world between seconds. Irene didn’t mention that her true magic was Takeover - God Soul, or that she was a vessel for the goddess of time Chronos. Irene did give some veiled warnings, though. That the power Dimaria had demonstrated was only a fraction of what she actually possessed, and that even if Arthur had been able to move that didn’t mean he’d be able to when she became truly serious.

Invel Yura was Zeref’s chief of staff. Known as the Winter General he was a master of ice magic. Irene warned that he could use his ice magic to attack the mind itself and to be prepared if he went against Zeref to face it. Arthur found himself considering how, unfortunately, he lacked many good options to combat that, though Irene suggested takeover of a fire dragon form to ignite his soul and mind with a dragon fire that even Invel could not freeze. The only question was if he could manage it while under such an attack. Invel might be the most dangerous of the Spriggan 12 from Arthur’s perspective.

The purple haired dandy was Neinhart. Arthur remembered his magic from the manga, though Irene’s more detailed explanation was worthwhile. It brought back the dead drawing on emotional bonds and links. The dead were not always accurate, but influenced by the memories held of them. He had confirmed that Arthur killed God Serena, and that Arthur still feared the Six Dragon God.

Wall Eehto was a machias, a living robot, which used Weakness magic to pretend to be Karnak of the Inhumans and find the vulnerability in all things. He wasn’t in the castle, yet, and neither was one of his stronger puppets.

Bloodman was the final etherious Zeref made for the purpose of suicide, before beginning to make them for another reason; Irene was hesitant to say what it was but Arthur knew it was to recreate his dead little brother Natsu Dragneel. He was the culmination of all the others he had made, all their curses and powers pushed into one being. While his power was not particularly great for a member of the Spriggan Twelve, his position was unquestioned due to his absolute and unflinching loyalty.

Larcade Dragneel was the penultimate etherious that Zeref had created before abandoning them entirely. His personality was, in a word, twisted. He used ‘white’ magic, which was based on the three great desires of humanity: lust, gluttony, and sloth. His magic was powerful enough Irene was no longer certain she could resist it without the curse of her dragon’s body; Zeref himself could not wholly. He also apparently was quite vocal in his desire to see Arthur dead.

Arthur had just met Jacob Lessio. While his raw magical power was low compared to many of the Spriggan Twelve, his magic was dangerous. In detecting him Arthur had become one of 5 mages in history to do so; 3 of which were members of the Spriggan Twelve, and the fourth of which was the emperor they existed to protect. Arthur’s Archive had confirmed that his Transport magic was no threat to Arthur as long as he didn’t just zone out and not respond. Arthur set an Archive alarm to wake him if it was used on him.

That only left Irene and August both of whom Arthur was fairly familiar with. Irene was the Scarlet Despair, the grand enchanter whose magic could enchant an entire country and transform it. The versatility of her magic was immense, though obtaining that versatility had required her to learn a broad array of other magic. August’s specialty was Copy Magic, and it would take a true master mage to do with a spell something August couldn’t copy immediately, assuming he hadn’t already mastered the variety of magic. He was considered the most powerful mage in the world. But while he could mostly copy the effects of the Spriggan Twelve in battle, he didn’t have the mastery to simply use their magic on his own. End of the day he lacked ‘hax’ as powerful as they did, but packed a lot more raw power and versatility. The other Spriggans Arthur merely needed to counter their ‘trick’.

Zeref was August-lite. His raw magical power and breadth of mastery was actually less. But he possessed a curse which rendered him immortal, and allowed him to lash out with pure death magic all around him. It was dangerous, and made him potentially the most dangerous of the Spriggans,

Arthur’s Archive had provided him with a load of information that he could hopefully use to fight them if he had to. It wasn’t an equal to Wall Eehto’s Weakness magic, or August’s Copy magic, but his Archive could do a good job at pretending to be either. He couldn’t copy Jacob’s Stealth magic, he simply didn’t have the information needed. But Ajeel had spent almost half an hour chasing down Equulus and using his magic to finally catch the poor little horse and banish it back to the Celestial Spirit World; and his Archive had had plenty of chances to break it down.

It’d picked up on Bloodman and Larcade too. He knew where their books were - though Zeref’s personal chambers were not a place that was easy to access - but more importantly he had been close enough to pick up on the way their curses and powers worked well enough to possibly use them through Takeover, though it was not a full and perfect Takeover.

And the sheer magical information it had osmosed was immense. It’d take the Archive months to process it all, and most of it was probably not that useful, but his magical library was growing, and with time his magical knowledge could grow from it. And knowledge was power. Even if he couldn’t use most of this magic, the portion he could might prove useful someday.

But really as Arthur lay there in the darkened room, trying to sleep, he knew that he’d not be mentally reviewing this if his Archive tracer wasn’t telling him that Jacob was looming almost within arm’s reach. He wondered if this was new, or just something he’d been doing undetected for the last two nights. Irene had confirmed he’d been there at the meeting, just watching completely unobserved

Arthur was glad he slept with his Territory Armor active as a matter of course. Selene didn’t like it, but even with her he did it as often as not. He had trouble sleeping when he didn’t; memories of a knife in his back, of Georg’s blows, of other times he’d come next to death plaguing his mind. If he ever dropped his guard he could be killed. And that was never more true than in this castle. Even if he kept it up he might not survive this castle. He was confident that one on one, probably two on one, he could handle any of the Spriggan Twelve, at least if he had a chance to activate the proper takeover form, but Zeref remained a problem the limits of that death magic had too many unknowns, and if he tried to fight several of them at once he wasn’t confident he could survive. Or worse if they all gathered together to gank him in his sleep.

And he could just imagine Jacob looming over him and watching him sleep. He was not going to sleep well tonight.

Three days. Zeref had had him stalking this guy for 3 days. Jacob was thankful he had never had to sleep much, but the floor here wasn’t comfortable, and ensuring that Arthur didn’t trip over him in the morning was essential. Jacob had at least been able to take breaks due to August’s help or Irene occupying the Northern Mage’s attention.

And in three days, the Northern Mage had not lowered his armoring spatial field once. He slept in it. He opened it over his mouth to eat in it. He went to the blasted bathroom in it… Jacob assumed. It’d be far too perverse to follow a person into the bathroom just to see if they dropped their guard so they could be killed in it.

Today was inestimably worse than the last two though. The Northern Mage had stacked humiliation after humiliation on Jacob. He’d detected Jacob through his invincible Stealth magic. He’d destroyed the dimensional prison of his Transport magic,which meant Jacob would have to slowly rebuild it; but he couldn’t use his Stealth magic while doing so. And he’d knocked Jacob out in a single blow. Jacob wasn’t the toughest hand to hand fighter among the Spriggan Twelve. Or even in the top 6. He might actually be in the bottom 3 to be honest. But to be in the Spriggan 12 meant he was an expert hand to hand combatant by the standards of Earthland.

And he’d been knocked out in one blow. It stung his pride. Jacob wasn’t unfamiliar with Takeover magic; but Drusus was supposed to be the world’s strongest there, and Drusus couldn’t take him out in a single blow. And it was a dragon’s power. Jacob had a healthy respect for Lady Irene’s immense power, and he knew it was only a fraction of what she possessed as a dragon. He’d known the Northern Mage had immense magical power; he could feel that. But the fact that he really was on the same level as August the Disaster, and in all likelihood beat him out in several fields had not really been felt till then.

And he was spying on him at night, watching him sleep all while knowing he couldn’t actually hurt him. With his prison dimension destroyed he couldn’t crush Arthur in it. And with that armor around him, Jacob could strike away at him for all night and do nothing to him. It was a thing to make the assassin feel weak and impotent.

The mage seemed to be sleeping fitfully. Jacob wondered if he suspected that Jacob was there. It was possible; he now knew that Jacob had been spying on him. Jacob wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing that someone like Jacob was probably there. That fitfulness was reassuring. Maybe he didn’t know just how thoroughly protected he was. Though Jacob would have preferred to be underestimated to overestimated.

He was still watching the Northern Mage sleep when Zeref called him for a meeting in the dead of the night. Lady Irene was to go east, most likely with the Northern Mage, as soon as they could prepare themselves. Given the Northern Mage had never unpacked his stuff while here, that would be as soon as Irene could ready herself; and she traveled light. Messengers had already been sent to get the ship ready by dawn.

Jacob was relieved to know that he’d no longer have the job of watching the Northern Mage. That was until Zeref ordered him to tag along and keep an eye on them. He wasn’t a coward. He’d gone on many dangerous missions for his emperor. He was a professional.

If this had been anyone other than Zeref he’d have told him what horribly inappropriate place that should really not be named aloud that he could shove the mission. Lady Irene and the Northern Mage were two of the very few mages to ever discover him when he was using Stealth. Following them on a boat was outright insane.

But this was Zeref. Jacob knew how fickle his decisions could be. Hopefully Zeref would change his mind by morning.

Irene was obviously nervous, and Arthur couldn’t blame her. The voyage had been uneventful. Arthur learning that Jacob ran a risk of nosebleeds when Irene dressed in a bikini to sunbathe was one of its highlights. Other than that there was a touch of progress in studying Enchantment.

They had left Jacob behind with the ship still half a day from the shore. It should be days before he caught up. And that’s if he knew they were going to Magnolia Town. That hopefully gave Arthur plenty of time to skip off to the south and go meet a doctor about some lacrima implantation.

But first he had to be here for Irene, and she was understandably more than a little nervous of meeting Erza. She wasn’t coming in the heat of war and battle. She wasn’t coming here eaten away at by madness and the knowledge that she could regain her humanity by stealing away Erza’s life. She was coming as a human. A person mostly in control of her faculties. And one who bore the guilt and shame of abandoning her daughter as a child, but was now asking for a place in her life once more.

In the end it was decided to have Arthur act as a go between of sorts; to talk to Erza and see if she wanted to meet her potential birth mother.

It was not a job that Arthur looked forward to.

The guild was full of life and activity when Arthur entered it. Guild members that Arthur didn’t know filled many of the tables, though he recognized some as well. Lisanna and Mirajane were playing waitresses, and both did take a definite notice of him. Juvia was clinging to Gray who looked rather uncomfortable as he ate. Elfman was with Evergreen. Arthur didn’t immediately see Erza. And of course Natsu, Lucy, and Wendy were all still in Elentear.

While Mirajane was giving him a rather distinct stink eye, Lisanna seemed happy enough to see him as she approached with an eager wave. Arthur wished he could be so excited and happy to see her again. Instead he just felt awkward.

It wasn’t that things had ended badly between them. Lisanna had wanted someone she could start a life and a family with, and she didn’t want to have to leave her world and home behind to do it. Arthur could understand that. They’d parted as friends.

Which didn’t make it easy to know how to talk to her. This was a shonen fantasy world. People were quirky, and if you had power it didn’t matter what your personality was you would be accepted by royal courts on the basis of effectively being a walking army. If he was socially inept, he could plaster that over with sheer power.

But that didn’t apply here. It didn’t matter how powerful he was. He just had to socialize with no get out of faux pas free card. It put his stomach into a knot.

“Arthur, what brings you here?” She asked, a touch of apprehension reaching into fear in her voice. One which got Elfman and Mirajane both glaring at him.

“That hundred year quest,” Arthur said.

“Did Acnologia…?” Lisanna inhaled sharply. Arthur had told her everything. She knew perfectly well he didn’t come south due to Acnologia, and that he’d not do so unless something had caused it to be time for the final reckoning - and that he believed if left long enough Acnologia would begin a campaign of destruction.

“He didn’t do anything to my knowledge,” Arthur said and watched the relief wash over her. He was getting nervous himself - last time he had seen Mirajane and Elfman he’d ended up cratered into a boulder. He’d given Elfman a free swing without his Territory Armor.

He was not making that mistake again.

“So that means, you managed to finish your research, doesn’t it? So what brings you here?”

“I’d like to say I was in Ishgar so I figured I should stop by, since well… I’d have swung by for that. But I need to talk to Erza about something which I learned that concerns her.”

Lisanna nodded. “She’s not in at the moment, though, if you’d like to wait here we could catch up for a bit. She should be back soon, hopefully.”

“Thanks,” Arthur said, even as his stomach knotted. It was time for awkward small talk.

Talking with Lisanna, and Gray, was actually mostly pleasant, once he’d gotten over his own anxiety about the situation. Learning that Lisanna had a new boyfriend and things were getting serious between them was bittersweet. He wanted her to be happy, but he’d be lying if he didn’t confess to still feeling something for her.

Juvia and Gray were waiting till Natsu and the others returned in a month to get married. Which ultimately concerned Arthur less. Gray was an acquaintance from years ago, not someone he had ever been particularly close to.

Lisanna felt vindicated when she’d learned that things had progressed between him and Selene; she’d always claimed the dragon wanted to steal him.

Elfman and Evergreen were getting serious as well. Elfman had even been officially made S-Rank, and had been taking on some rather dangerous jobs to try and make certain they’d be financially secure to start a family.

It was nice to reconnect with the Strauss siblings, and Gray was able to give Arthur some news of the Thunderbolts. While he was in correspondence with Sorano she’d left the Thunderbolts more than a year prior. Gray had been in close communication with Ultear, and could give more of an update on how she, Azuma, Meredy, and some of the others were doing.

They didn’t press too much on what business he had with Erza; they accepted that it was her business and who should know should be up to her. Still she did not return that evening, and eventually Arthur returned to the hotel room which Minerva and Irene had acquired.

Erza was waiting in the lobby the next morning when Arthur entered it on his way to return to the Fairy Tail guildhall. She was sitting by one of the front windows, lightly watching the people who passed by.

“Erza!” Arthur called.

She turned to face him. “Arthur! They told me you had some news for me.”

Arthur breathed deep. He’d had time to think about how he would broach the subject, but it still wasn’t an easy one to bring up. Oh, hey, Erza. I found your mother who abandoned you. She was a dragon slayer who turned into a dragon and went crazy and considered herself unsafe to be around you, but I fixed her and she wants to meet you. Was probably not the best way to open it up, though, that was ultimately the information he needed to impart.

“Let’s talk in my room,” He said.

“Is it something about Jellal?” Erza asked as they entered the private chamber.

Arthur shook his head. “No. You probably know far more about what’s happening with him than I do. It’s about your parentage.”

“My parentage?” Erza asked.

Arthur nodded. “I think I have some news about your mother.”

“My mother?” There was a mixture of emotions in her voice. This was the woman who had given birth to her, a woman she had never met, because she had abandoned her for a reason Erza could not know.

Arthur nodded. “I figured you’d want to hear it, and decide for yourself what to do about it.”

Erza nodded, and Arthur began to explain. He wasn’t telling everything, he didn’t feel the need to say she had been part of the Spriggan 12 and helped a tyrant with no care for human life rise to power through bloody conquest and the imposition of order via force. If Mashima was allowed to note that over 2 panels here and there and then gloss over it to focus on making Zeref sympathetic, Arthur didn’t need to bring that up here. But he hit the broad strokes. How he had met a woman who looked like Erza, and had similar magical power in its feeling, and who was a dragon slayer who had turned into a dragon. He emphasized the way such a transformation caused madness; it wasn’t a new concept for Erza given how much she knew about his quest but he wanted to stress how much it really did mess with your head. It was why he’d spent 3 years mastering Takeover to control it, and to keep it from affecting his mind.

Still eventually he got to the point. That she had abandoned a daughter in Fiore because she thought she was a danger to that child in the dragon madness which had gnawed at her for so many centuries. And that now that she was free she intended to seek out and find that child.

And the question: Did Erza want to meet her birth mother?

Erza wasn’t ready to answer immediately. It was a heavy question. When she said she needed time to think, Arthur didn’t press. He could understand. Fairy Tail was her family. To seek her birth mother could seem almost like a betrayal to that. But he was fairly certain what she would answer in the end. She wasn’t the sort of person to turn her back on someone who had been through so much without at least talking to them.

It was that afternoon that she returned to say that she would like to meet with Irene, and Arthur was able to begin to coordinate when and where.

Arthur stayed at the Fairy Tail guild hall as mother and daughter met; they likely wanted their privacy. The meeting was different, just as the situation was. Irene was not an invading conqueror, bent on doing a dark master’s will in the hope of being free of her curse. She was a penitent and regretful woman, begging forgiveness for being too weak to overcome an impossible situation and having merely done the best she could, and here now to do the best she could to make amends.

There was no hostility on Irene’s part. Even if there were things about Erza which disappointed her - her underdeveloped magical power, and skills - she was just thankful that Erza was alive and well, and she could finally see her daughter.

Erza had more reservations. What would this woman expect of her? What would she demand? Would she try and demand by right of blood that she be Erza’s family instead of Fairy Tail? She was worried.

Irene had been thinking about what she should say when she met Erza throughout the entire voyage. She’d planned it all out. What she’d say. How she’d say it. And then she saw her daughter, and it all fell away. Tears filled her eyes. It was that baby which had smiled at her, too precious to hurt all those years ago.

“Erza?” She croaked out, choking on the word a bit. “You’ve grown so much…” She couldn’t remember what she’d intended to say, or how she thought this would go.

It didn’t matter, though. She had the chance to meet her daughter.

“You’re Irene?” Erza asked.

“Yes. I… I’m so sorry I had to leave you…” They would have a lot to talk about.