Fisk jumped up a little, surprised as more people had flocked to the Request Board. He didn't know Elijah very well, a fact that Fisk scolded himself over, but he did know Christina, to some degree. He'd met a few of her celestial spirits, but he didn't really know her. There was always something hiding behind those confident eyes of hers. He slapped Tim on the back at the mention of leaving now, a childish smile on his face.

"There we go! That's the attitude you need, kid...!" He cackled. Fisk turned his head to Christina, giving her a nod. She's right, they should get going, and quickly. He turned and started walking to Armin, mentioning to their party that he'd only need a moment. His friend was not faring any better, and looked like he was about to pass out from fatigue. Fisk heaved his friend up, slinging him over his shoulder gently. “You’ve been out too long, buddy…” He grunted, trying to keep his friend upright. “…We’re leaving soon, too. You’ll feel better in a few minutes.”
As though on cue, a magic circle appeared over Fisk and Armin’s heads, quickly lowering itself over their bodies. In a short moment, the magic circle disappeared, and all that remained was Fisk. His eyes became split between his natural green and a familiar but foreign orange, with Armin nowhere to be seen.

The event was over quickly and quietly, and a soft breath of air wafted from the now fused friends. Fisk took a deep breath, put his hand over his mouth, and gagged.
“Urk! Y-you weren’t kidding about being sick, Armin…” He lamented as he lurched back to his friends. It’s true that when they’re fused, they can share their stamina to heal faster, but that also means they feel each other’s sickness. He returned to the congregation around the Request Board, a little more green under the gills (do you get it hahaha oh god I slay myself).

“Sorry about that, just bringing a friend along,” Fisk managed a smile, and stood himself straight. It’s a good thing he didn’t experience all of his other half’s maladies or he’d be draped over a table right now. “I’ll have to take things a little slow for a while, but we’re good to go.” Bowing in as graceful a manner as he could manage, he pretended to present the exit for his friends, resisting the sudden urge to throw up. “…Shall we?”

Christina adjusted her glasses, re-reading the job request once more allowed to Elijah. The job entailed a skilled wizard to decipher the meaning of an ancient tome that the Magnolia Museum of Magic History had discovered at their dig site out in the desert. Scholars had confirmed that the text is not dangerous, so the reward was fairly low. She folded the request up and nodded towards Beau. This was her way of telling him that she was taking the job so he could scratch it off the list. Jobs like these were easy money for Christina, since she was blessed with a Celestial Spirit who could read all forms of language and literature as if they were her native tongue.
"It says that they gave the tome to Fairy Tail, so it's in our archives most likely." Christina spoke with confidence, holding out a shining, silver key out in the air in front of her. "This won't take a moment. Open, Gate of the Fox Constellation." A light pink magic circle appeared before Christina, the sounds of bells chiming echoing around her. The circle erupted into light which shone to every corner of the room, fading away to reveal the beautiful, flawless appearance of Velpecula. Her pink hair was tied up into several pony tails, flowing down past her shoulders. Her white robes gave her the appearance of some type of scientist. Her gale-force glasses stood out brightly on her small, fox like face. A single lollipop stuck out of her mouth, another one firmly placed in her hand.

Velpecula stretched her arms up behind her back, yawning. Her attention drifted from Christina to around the guild hall, which was met with a sigh.
"This place again. These guys will give me a migraine. Oh, new members. What a joy." Sarcasm dripped from the spirits voice, shooting an annoyed look at the two young mages who she expected to be just as annoying as the rest of the guild. Christina was always disappointed when she had to swap out Pan for Velpecula. Pan loved everyone at the guild; Velpecula thought they were trash.
"I'm not asking you to socialise with the other guild members, Vel. I have a job for you. You can get it done in a few minutes." Velpecula raised and eyebrow at Christina, scanning the piece of paper in her hand. Without a moments hesitation she snatched it from her Wizard and read it over.
"A few minutes is unrealistic, Christina. This text is old, I'll need at least an hour to decipher it. It'll cost you big though. Red Velvet Cake with creamed cheese dressing. Not a slice, the whole cake." Christina barely had the money to pay for her own food, and now she had to pay her spirit in expensive cake. Dishearteningly, she agreed to Velpecula's terms. the Fox Spirit nodded and quickly rushed off to the Fairy Tail archives. At least she'd be in a quiet place.

Once the ordeal was over, Christina stared at Elijah with a small smile.
"I believe we have a good hour to kill now. Let's go for that coffee."

---

The closest cafe to the guild was a small joint run by an elderly foreign woman and her son. They were nice people and Christina often made stops her on her way back from jobs. She sat at the table, taking small sips out of her flat white while she stared at Elijah. Wrapped up in plastic on table was the cake Velpecula had requested in exchange for taking the job. Another 800 Jewels down the drain. Resting her cup back down on the table, she pressed her hands up against her chin with her elbows leaning against the table.
"So, Elijah. If you don't mind me asking, why do you have such a fascination with Dark Guilds? Generally we don't bother with them unless they cause a fuss." Black Knight was known for being a quiet guild, it's members working from the shadow. Few people even know it existed. However the more Elijah snooped around the Dark Guilds, the more likely he was to find about them. They were famous amongst the underground for their assassins, so there'd be no question of Elijah discovering them if he kept taking on those jobs. She'd worked too hard to erase Black Knight from her past, and she couldn't risk being found out.

Elijah watched as Velpecula decoded the script, it was pretty interesting. He'd heard of the gale-force glasses, that of which you could read much faster than usual. He wasn't much of a reader, though. It didn't take much time at all for Christina's Celestial Spirit to do its job and they headed for the cafe.

---

Elijah stretched his arms out wide and yawned, it had been a fairly long day walking from Lilycrest after having dealt with the Forest Goblins. It was nice actually taking a break for a while and it tended to be something that Elijah wouldn't do. He took a small sip of his coffee, set it back down and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
His attention perked up when Christina asked him about Dark Guild and quickly afterward he remember that he was still hunting those particular guilds down, "Well, I have a bone to pick with a certain guild that does illegal shipping between Fiore and the country of Bosco, where I'm from. They, um, well..." Elijah looked at the ground, "They kidnapped my dad about 10-ish years ago." Elijah sighed, he wasn't partial about telling people that his father was supposedly kidnapped, as he wasn't strong enough to actually stop let. He practically let his father be taken by that guild and he hated himself for that. He looked up at Christina and grinned, "Sorry! I don't want to somber the mood or anything, but I guess it's just morals. I believe what Dark Guilds do is wrong, or at least what most of them do. I suppose I do accept jobs involving them a lot, I could see why someone would be suspicious." Elijah scratched the back of his head and almost tried to forget about it, he didn't want to get too angry over reminding himself of that he was too weak to beat the Whispering Ghosts. He lifted his cup and took another drink, trying to sooth his senses.

Aura had nodded simply to Christina, she had no intention of abusing the new mages and surely Christina knew that. She then watched her go off to talk to Elijah and Aura frowned, saying to herself "He's always after Dark Guilds..." She shook her head of the thought and turned to the others, watching Fisk go talk to Armin. Soon enough, Aura watched as Armin, for lack of a better phrase, retreated into Fisk. She'd seen this a few times as he always did this when he went on jobs, but it never changed how slightly uncomfortable his differing colored eyes made her. However, he was still the same Fisk, so she said with a concerned frown "Be careful Fisk, don't push yourself too much."

With that, she said to Vocalia, Tim and Fisk with a grin "Let's go take this job on!" With that, she strode from the guild hall, exquipping the magic shotgun on her back as she did and requipping her pistols and holstering the pair of guns. She looked over her shoulder as she did, calling jokingly "Let's try to avoid levelling half the forest. That means you Fisk!" Laughing gently at this, she headed for the train station, walking slowly to ensure her whole team could keep up.

"A-Ah, yes! Of course," Vocalia sheepishly replied as she ended up being swept away by the flow of the atmosphere. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to join the guild, yet here she was following Aura, Tim and Fisk closely like a card-carrying puppy. Having seen a first impression of Fairy Tail's dynamic, she felt that she might feel at home amongst the eclectic Mages. Taking on the job with them would help her decide if the guild was the right place for her, still unaware that Fisk and Aura had their eyes on her already. Just as she was about to catch up, she remembered something she felt was important. "Pardon me, but aren't Fairy Tail members the only ones allowed to take this specific task? I do believe I'm still unaffiliated," she pointed out.

Christina looked down into her cup of tea upon hearing the story of how a Dark Guild had taken Elijah's father from him. When working for Black Knight, that sort of thing happened all the time. She didn't want to think about how all the people they took never lived that long as prisoners. She didn't know what this guild Elijah was talking about was like, so she couldn't just assume the worst. She looked up at him with a soft smile.
"It's never a bad time to talk about what bothers us. I'm sure we can all help to get your father back, though." She took a sip from her tea, the warm liquid soothing her throat between sentences. "Some tasks become easier when we join forces."
Christina was the last person to bring up teams to anyone. She preferred to work alone and get everything she had to done, but now she was starting to consider the possibility of teaming up with someone and taking on harder, better paying jobs.
"I know what it's like to have something taken from you by a Dark Guild. I lost my closest friend because of them." It was only partly a lie, but she wanted to try and empathize with Elijah in a way that didn't give away who she was. "Why don't you and I start taking on jobs together? You'll be more likely to find your target with me around." She held out her hand, awaiting for him to shake it if they had an agreement.

After setting his cup down, Elijah swallowed, only a couple people knew his reasoning behind hating Dark Guilds and he started to wonder why he hadn't actually told anyone. Sure, it was a fairly sad story for how old Elijah was but he wasn't the only one that had lost a family member at a young age. Besides, he had relatives in Bosco that he had stayed with, and probably could have lived with, but he wanted to become a well-practiced mage and at least find out what the status was on his father.
Elijah looked at Christina smile, for the amount of time he had actually stayed at the guild he rarely talk about his past, but he always did have the back story of practically being an actor, which most of the guild had heard about. He leaned back in to his seat when Christina mentioned how joining forces helps with getting tasks done and he nodded in agreement. Though the idea of forming a team was one of the few things he thought he would ever do, he certainly agreed with the logic. He as well was someone who preferred working alone, or at least had more experience working alone.
Than Christina brought up a proposition, why not work together? Elijah hesitated but he knew very well that she was a seasoned wizard and thought about it. "You know, that's a fairly good idea. With each others help we'll better ourselves as mage's," He nodded his approval once again, "but let's not make this too formal.... and hey, since you're helping me with something I want, I'll help you with something you want. Deal?" He said as he shook Christina's hand. This would definitely build better chemistry and skills between the two and the result would hopefully be Elijah coming across the whereabouts of his father.