VERiTY (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

13. Ice Road

"Eir, Master Bob sent a letter. And Lamia sent us next week's battle chart, in case you have any opinions on the tournament," Enno reported to the boy, setting down her tray and handing her a letter from behind the bar counter. "You might want to go check out Mermaid Heel sometime soon. They're interested in your services."

"My services," Eir accepted the letter with a tired look. Rhetorically, he asked himself, "what exactly are my services anyways? Heck if I know."

Enno laughed, but didn't add on nor deny. Ow.

"Maybe next week," Eir decided, "I'm planning on working this week."

"Going to take a stack in vaguely the same direction and run off again?" Enno teased, "great timing, because there's about three jobs on the board that have locations en route to Crocus. You want those?"

"I'd rather not... last time I was in that area, I kind of destroyed a row of buildings, so I'm on the red list for a lot of shops," he muttered. "Could I have an iced coffee, Miss Enno?" Eir said, getting off the chair and heading toward the mission board.

"Black and burnt or full of cream?"

"Depends on how close Cana is to my drink."

"Full of cream then, since Cana is right over here."

"No! Make it black so she can't steal it!"

Eir sighed longsufferingly. The request board was full for once-- strange. Wakaba was standing by it, probably looking for another job to go on with Macao and Cana. Eir took a long glance and frowned. This was a strange surplus of requests...

Disaster relief to the continent in the east?

"What's happening in Isvan?" Eir asked, "monster subjugation, charities... that's a delivery request, escort mission, supply shipments... all the way from Fiore?"

Wakaba's expressions turned grim.

"A demon's been running loose for a few years now, and it's just escalated," he said. "Deliora, it's called. It's destroying town after town, and at this rate, people are saying that the country won't make it to next year. Bosco and Iceberg are flooded with refugees."

And Eir felt his heart stop.

Deliora, he's heard the word before. When? In this life? In the last?

(No...)

"You're from Isvan? That's really far..."

"My father's out fighting against the demon. With how close it was and how sudden it came, they sent the children running in emergency ships," someone had told him.

(It's in this life, not more than a few months ago.)

"We were supposed to go home as soon as we could, but Lamia Scale picked us up on the way and we haven't been given the all-clear yet, so we're staying."

(Ah.)