Evangeline

Present: The Intro

Evangeline Aspen was annoyed. Nothing at the guild hall had caused her annoyance. It wasn't that there were multiple large iron rods sticking out of the main part of the guild hall. It wasn't that Mira was fuming, even though she was very much affected by the white-haired demon's emotions. No, this was more about who wasn't at the guild hall, and who had just refused to return to help fight against Phantom Lord.

As an S-Class herself, she knew the responsibility that all the S-Class mages had to protecting the guild, especially since Guildarts wasn't anywhere nearby. Laxus was breaking one of the unwritten rules that all S-Class mages followed by not returning.

"Ev," Mira said from behind the bar, pulling her out of her thoughts. Evangeline looked up at her.

"Hmm?"

"Ev, you were scaring people. You know how your magic gets when you get upset," Mira lightly scolded. Evangeline stopped her magic flow immediately. She didn't even realize that it was leaking from her.

"Mira, I thought I told you not to call me that anymore," Evangeline sighed. She was trying to get away from the nickname that Laxus had given her when they were younger, back when they were still innocent kids. Things weren't the same anymore. They never would be.

"Sorry, Evangeline. It's a lot to get used to after calling you that the whole time I've known you," Mira said, smiling sadly at her. Evangeline smiled softly back at her.

"I'm okay, Mira. In all honesty, I'm not mad about him not coming back now. It's nice to have space after everything that happened," she said quietly. She turned to look behind her at the new blonde girl in the corner. She was so young, and Evangeline could feel she had already faced a lot of trauma in her life. Evangeline could also tell by her magic that she would be very powerful in the future.

"I hope she'll be okay," Mira whispered to her, looking at Lucy in the corner as well. Evangeline turned back to face Mira.

"She will be, but the next few days will be a lot for all of us," Evangeline whispered back. Mira frowned at her.

"You can already tell how this plays out, huh?" Mira asked her. "It's been years since you've seen something like this, and almost a year since you've seen anything else. Why now?"

"I saw it a long time ago, Mira. Back before the issues with Laxus started, before everything else. When I was genuinely happy. My magic is so tied to emotions that all of the issues really messed it up," Evangeline told her. Mira nodded while keeping her eyes on the woman sitting in front of her.

"Have you had other issues, or just this part of your magic?" Mira asked, curious now as to why Evangeline was bringing this up now.

"It's affected every part of it. It's gotten a lot darker, and some parts I just can't use at all," Evangeline said gravely. Mira looked down at the bar top. "Anyway, I think new girl needs a strawberry milkshake. Can you make one for her real fast?"

"Of course," Mira said as she started preparing the drink. Evangeline turned back to face Lucy, who was staring at an empty milkshake glass in front of her. She tried to access part of her emotional magic that had been weakened for a while in order to try and sort through the girl's emotions that she couldn't see on the surface. Unfortunately, she couldn't dig into that more intimate part of her magic.

Mira placed the strawberry milkshake on the bar right beside Evangeline, and Evangeline picked it up, then stood and walked over to Lucy's table in the corner. She sat down at the table in front of the young blonde, who looked up at her, surprised by Evangeline's sudden appearance at her table. Evangeline slid the strawberry milkshake across the table to Lucy, who slowly moved it closer to her.