VERiTY (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

45. The Outliers

The girl at Mermaid Heel was not a dragon-raised, but she was quiet, tucked behind the older girls as Eir stood at the entrance.

"She's from Rosemary Village?"

She was small, and according to the Master (Queen, as they go with instead) of Mermaid Heel, she had been found by the streets in the wake of the same purge Erza had faced, and has been in an orphanage thus far.

Kagura Mikazuchi, the girl who almost entered the accursed Tower of Heaven.

Now she was broken and alone, detached from everything. She'd run away from the orphanage only to find herself in the hands of Mermaid Heel-- and they were more than willing to raise her as she festered in her hatred for the world, seeking revenge for the one that had wronged her.

"Does that qualify as a reason to let her join the guild?" Queen asked. 

It wasn't really a question-- this verbal approval is just a judgement of morals, and Eir was the arbiter. Was it right, to let this girl grow stronger and gain the strength to go on, living in hatred? It wouldn't be right to tell her to give up, when the only reason she's living is with regret.

The hate she bears is similar to Erza's, no different from Gray's, and resonates with Eir's own.

(And that is why Eir cannot allow that to happen.)

Eir sent Karen in to talk with the rest of the guild.

Kagura was warming up quickly to Karen-- who also got along splendidly with everyone in Mermaid Heel, no surprise-- and Eir was relieved at that. But Eir sat down at the cafe's table, and he leaned in to speak quietly.

"Queen," Eir turned to her.

This guild was like a little castle-- streamed through with waterways, adorned with an undersea theme-- it was breathtaking, none more so than the Queen herself, with her long flowing hair and elegant swimsuit, adorned with ribbons and a shawl around her waist. There was a reason Karen loved this place as much as she did Blue Pegasus.

Anyway, business.

"Do you know what cult attacked Rosemary? You can't let Kagura grow up aiming to take them down."

"You know better than me I can't just tell her to give up," Queen hissed back, sitting down opposite of him. "Give me a plan and I'm onboard, national disaster."

"Don't call me that," Eir said, reaching for a scroll in his bag, "and how did you know I had a plan?"

"I have my ways."

"What does confidential mean again?"

Queen unrolls the scroll and signs her name at the end, immediately followed by Eir before the contract dissolves in an agreement for the ambassador project, whatever, neither of them cared enough to read it properly.

Eir pushed a box in her direction. "Here are the pins," and then, he pushes a card in her direction. "The place is called the Tower of Heaven. I have a girl named Erza Scarlet in my guild-- she's from there, and from Rosemary as well. Come by to meet her."

"I'll think about it, when are you free?" She cradled her fingers under her chin, smiling sweetly.

Eir didn't even look her way. "Not very soon, I've got kids to find."

Queen pouted. "And they say you're a ladies man," she mutters, a little saddened. "Alright then, I'll bring Karen with me to Fairy Tail."

"That will work. I'm headed to the forest after this," Eir said, standing up.