Sacred Song, Mirror Water [Fairy Tail Fanfic]

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Thank you, everyone. I appreciate your understanding and support in getting this project up and running. The restoration of the Veruze site is essential to our historical awareness." Jellal stood from his seat, and everyone else in the room did too.

After shaking a few hands and repeating thanks, he headed out of the meeting room, returning to his chambers. The meeting was for the restoration products, and his advisors had been working hard to organise labourers and tradesmen to assist with the rebuild. Still, they also needed to consult an architect and a few historians about the process to ensure they kept the site in its original state as much as possible. Dreyer had been at the meeting to consult with his historical expertise. They had talked about what supplies would be required and where they would get them from, Jellal insisting that they try to support smaller businesses as much as possible since so many of them had been affected in the storm and had suffered losses; some worse than others.

As he left the meeting room, he went through a mental checklist, worried that he was missing something. Surely everything was covered as a large group of people were working on this, but he wanted to be sure. He felt like something was slipping his mind today, and he just couldn't put his finger on it. Continuing his way towards his chamber, he racked his brain to figure it out, but nothing came to mind. It also probably didn't help that he had enough on his mind as it was.

Once inside his chamber, he closed the door behind him, removed his formal robes, and sat on the couch. He had some water and just allowed the couch to take his weight. He tried to relax his shoulders and jaw and closed his eyes. Someone knocked briefly before speaking to alert him to their presence. His senses hadn't dulled, so he knew they were there anyway. It was Briyana's footsteps and her knock. He had convinced Coco to take a few days off, and Briyana was filling in.

She was a bit younger than Coco, and a few years younger than himself, maybe 4 or 5 years. Briyana was a friend of Coco from when they were children, and they were still close friends and had asked to take her in just after he had become King, and Jellal was convinced that his show of kindness and no hesitation in accepting was what had endeared Coco to him so quickly. Her mother had finally passed away after being unwell for a long time, and Briyana's father had passed away when she was a young teenager. She was a brunette with straight hair, cut into a bob style with a fringe reaching just past her brow line. Her eyes were a deep brown, and she had a somewhat elegant look about her for someone so young, but her bright smiles always made her look her age.

Briyana opened the door to speak to him, and he didn't see it, but she gave him a soft smile. She could see he was tired, but it wasn't stopping him from working hard.

"Your Grace. Serana has arrived and is in the library. Shall I bring some tea and something to eat?" Her voice was soft, but it travelled well throughout the large room.

Remembering that it was Serana's visit that he had forgotten, he opened his eyes. He nodded in confirmation, giving her a brief smile as thanks before levering himself from his seat. Finishing his glass of water in a single gulp, he straightened his clothes and briefly looked at himself in the mirror before frowning at his appearance. Dark circles were under his eyes, and his hair, which usually stood straight up, was a bit flatter as it probably needed a good wash. It was growing longer, parts of it reaching his jaw, partly because he didn't mind it being longer and partly due to not bothering to get it cut. He didn't smell bad, thankfully, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to stay with Serana as long as he had last time since he would desperately need sleep.

When he arrived at the library, she stood and bowed with a big smile on her face the whole time. His smile matched hers, but he noticed that she raised an eyebrow for a fraction of a second.