Quest for the Eighty-Eight Keys

Chapter Seventeen: la Cour de Velours

"Where did he come from?"

Midnight sat at a table in the hotel room of Lucy, Freed, and Rufus, watching as they stood in the room and Freed questioned Lucy about his presence. The two other men stood across from him while Lucy stood beside him, as if she felt like she was going to need to defend him. He shifted slightly, not used to being this close to her, and suddenly overcome with nervousness, perhaps because of their close proximity.

Lucy answered, Orion's key still in her hands, "he helped me when I was fighting the celestial wizard. He said that he wanted to help us."

Freed looked at Midnight, his stare, though not narrowed, was nonetheless sharp. Midnight suspected that the green-haired mage wanted to make him uncomfortable under his hard, sea-green gaze, however, he was used to such looks and met the man's eyes with equal masked intensity. The rune mage then spoke again, "is that so?" Midnight merely nodded his head.

Rufus spoke next, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea. What do you say, Lucy?"

Midnight and Freed made their gazes on Lucy, also wanting her input. The blonde asked Rufus, "why don't you think it's a good idea?"

Rufus shifted from one foot to the other, his arms settled behind his back like always, and answered, "well, this mission is the kind that would be best done with a small number of mages on it. I think three is pushing it, and four might be too much."

Lucy responded with a short hum, looking down at the silver key in her hands as she twirled it around her freshly bandaged fingers. Midnight watched her closely, waiting almost anxiously for her decision. It was clear that even though Freed and Rufus were on this mission with her, Lucy was the leader. All decisions were ultimately up to her. He wanted her to say that he could stay with her. He believed that this was his chance to redeem himself to her and earn her forgiveness. He also wanted to make sure that neither Freed nor Rufus even attempted to make moves on her. However, if she said that she didn't want him there, then he would return to Magnolia. He understood if she didn't want him to be around for such an extended amount of time, it was expected, if he was being honest.

He watched as Lucy finally looked back up at Rufus and Freed, giving her final decision, "he can stay. One more won't hurt our mission."

Midnight gave a silent sigh of relief, thanking whatever higher power that might be there for this chance. His attention was drawn to the other two men when Freed spoke up, "I have to disagree. Four mages are too many."

Lucy opened her mouth to speak, but Rufus beat her to the punch, "it is Lucy's decision, Freed. If she wants him to accompany us, then you and I don't have room to argue."

Surprisingly, Freed relented with just that, but not before shooting Midnight a glare, which Lucy seemed to have missed as she began staring down at the key in her hands. Midnight looked up at her, knowing that she was puzzling over why Orion hadn't appeared earlier. Freed questioned upon noticing, "is something wrong with that key?"

Lucy kept her eyes locked on the silver key as she explained, "when I tried to summon Orion, he didn't appear."

Rufus spoke next, "I've read about quite a few celestial spirits and I've witnessed the making of contracts before, but I don't remember encountering such an occurrence as that."

The blonde woman responded, "I've never heard of this happening before."

It was Freed who suggested a possible solution, "don't you have a spirit who can provide information on other celestial spirits? Perhaps he can help."

Midnight looked back at Lucy, wondering which spirit Freed was talking about. He watched as the celestial wizard nodded her head, stating, "Crux! He should know!"