Mary walked behind the bar once more, disappearing from view when she crouched down. She was looking for her parasol. It looked like it was going to be a very warm day, and the mountains offered very little in the way of shade. She usually wore her armour on missions, but she figured a pleasant walk through the mountains picking wildflowers wouldn’t require such a thing. Her hand touched upon a bright red ribbon that was caught under a couple of dusty, unused mugs. The feeling of the soft, fuzzy fabric against her hands brought a wave of nostalgia washing over her. Her and Edward had skipped practice one day to attend a festival being held in the town near their training quarters. She still remembered the white lily kimono she’d worn that day, and how silly she felt being seen in such a feminine outfit. She’d given up frilly dresses and yukata when she was a kid, and having Edward see her in such a get up was nothing short of mortifying. She remembered thinking about how much of a disgraceful display it was for a soldier of the Rune Knights to be seen in something so gaudy. When Edward had laid eyes on her out of uniform for the first time, he’d stood there with his mouth gaping for several moments. He then took note of how she was turning as red as a tomato, which she had responded to with kicking him into a cart of watermelon. After a brief argument about how Mary wanted to go back to the barracks, the two of them spent the evening enjoying the festival together. Eventually he told her to close her eyes, which she had done reluctantly, and then open them to see a beautiful, red ribbon wrapped around his hand. He said he bought it for her because it matched the colour of her cheeks. Even though he was poking fun at her, she couldn’t help but laugh and feel overwhelmed. Seeing the ribbon again brought back a lot of great memories.

Which is why she had to rip it to shreds. She furiously chucked the tattered pieces of ribbon to the ground, stepping over them and walking back to the group with her parasol left on the counter. Pollux looked up from his notes, and then back at the bar where the tattered ribbon was scattered on the floor.
“Such a shame. You would have looked even more lovely with that, Mary.” He spoke as if he didn’t know the significance of the ribbon. Was he trying to torture her?
“I don’t like that colour on me.” She spoke quietly.
“It matches your beautiful, rosy cheeks.”
“Red looks tacky on me. I hate that colour.” She looked back at James and Aero, a forced smile plastered across her face. “I’m going back to my apartment to change. Head on to the mountains by yourselves for now, I’ll catch up.”
“Armour can’t protect you from your past.” Pollux whispered under his breathe as Mary left the guild. He gave a quick look over to James, Aero and Elena. They seemed to be pretty friendly with each other, and no doubt this would cheer Mary up. Turning back to Aura, he twirled his beard around his fingers and whistled to himself.
“An interesting proposition Aura, but that won’t fool Councilman Plato. We don’t want to give him any more ammunition against us.” Councilman Plato was the bane of Fairy Tail, and the reason Pollux suffered from so much stress. Ever since Pollux had become the guild master, Plato had worked his hardest to get the guild shut down on several occasions. He was a loathsome man whose children ended up running away from his horrid ways, along with his wife, and ended up joining Fairy Tail. As a result he’d become spiteful to the guild and always did anything he could to get them in trouble with the council. Thankfully between Pollux, Alicia, the S Classes and an old friend on the Council, they were able to keep the guild running.
“It’s a difficult predicament. I want to help those children, and even though I have full trust in the Rune Knights; they haven’t made enough progress to satisfy me.” Pollux rubbed his temples, before looking at the group of young wizards still sitting near the request board.

“You three should get going. It would be rude to leave Mary waiting for you at the mountains.” His voice was soft, yet stern, insisting that he needed them to leave. When they were out of earshot, Pollux stared back at Aura and sighed.
“It’s out of my hands, Aura. My mind and spirit are telling me to do something about these incidents. I want to send you out on a quest to go and gather information, but I don’t think I can handle the stress of wondering if you’ll be caught by the council.” Pollux let out a slow chuckle, leaning back on his chair. “I’ve become a very pitiful excuse for a Guild Master. I can see that my time is up, and even though I love my children dearly I think it’s time I stepped down and thought about my health.” Pollux began to scrawl over his papers some more.
“I never got to find what I was looking for. That’s just life, and hopefully when the time is right I can trust someone else to carry on my research.” He gave Aura a smile, shuffling around his robes for a piece of paper. It had a picture magically printed upon it. It was of a young Pollux, as well as a bunch of other people. One of them was a lady with long black hair, and the other was a man with his arm wrapped around someone who looked almost exactly like him. Brothers perhaps. Standing below all of them as a young girl in her teens, a wide grin spread upon her face. Pollux pointed at her.
“This is Charlotte. She was the youngest in our team. We were all adults pressing on 40, but she was barely even 18. She left the guild a very long time ago. She left to do great things. I have no doubt in my mind that the tales of Charlotte, Saint of the High Seas, has reached your ears more than once.” Pollux felt nostalgic talking about her. He hadn’t seen her since she was just a young lady, and he wondered what type of woman she’d grown into. “Don’t let the stories of her worry you. She really is a responsible wizard at heart, and I have no doubt that she’ll make a fine Guild Master. Much better than I ever could in my current state.” He didn’t want to shock Aura, but he felt like he could trust her enough to take the news of him resigning well.

------

Riley was teeming with excitement. He could barely contain himself. It was as if the anger and frustration he’d had towards Alex had just vanished within a few short hours. Then again, this wasn’t a particularly surprising thing. Riley was usually a happy go lucky kid always wanting a piece of the action, but he was such a sore loser that he ended up spending a week pouting every time he lost to Alex or anyone else in the guild. It lead people to believe that Yukiko hadn’t been as strict on him as he implied, otherwise he’d act more refined and noble. It was true that he exaggerated just how harsh Yukiko was with his attitude, but he wasn’t lying about all the intense training he went through with her. Alex’s words of wisdom were hard to swallow, considering he’d always believed that he was destined to continue Yukiko’s legacy. Regardless, that didn’t mean he had to become exactly like she was. He could grow strong in his own away and continue on her legacy in that way. He moved closer to Alex, holding his fists out in front of his face like a boxer.
“Do you think you could teach me to fight without a sword? Yukiko hated the idea of brawling, but I think they’re really fun. I get into a lot of them back at the guild, and I don’t really wanna have to use my sword in them. And you know, there might be a time when I can’t use it so.” He looked away, being too embarrassed to look Alex in the eye. “I guess what I’m trying to ask is if you’ll teach me. I think maybe having a new teacher will help me distinguish my own style. Gramps is old so he can’t teach me. You’re real strong, so maybe if you have any free time I could try and learn something from you.” Before Alex could give his answer, the carriage came to a halt and the driver hopped out and opened the doors. The two of them were met with a brutal snowstorm. The cold wind struck Riley’s skin like daggers and he wished he’d brought along a coat. It was the middle of the warm season and yet they were in the middle of a blizzard. Something about it didn’t sit right with Riley. He knew Mount Hakobe was strange, but this was unheard of.
“Alex, I don’t think this blizzard was caused by mother nature.” Truly it felt as though someone was trying to keep them out of Holstur; or perhaps keep them in.