Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 111 - A Starborn Return

ONE YEAR AGO

Irene floated down onto the rigid mountain path, having left behind the few rocks she'd been using to glide across the sky and have a better view of the village just ahead of her. She touched down, and immediately any traces of magic were absorbed into her body. One was reasonable—a positive start—while most others were meager, likely lacrima used by the people of the mountain.

She strode forward, ignoring the stiff, icy temperature of the mountain. Some of the men and women carrying supplies and baskets up the road eyed her curiously. She was hardly dressed for the environment. She added a thin coat and leggings to her normal attire, but that was all—and it wasn't for the temperature, it was to make it seem like she wasn't a total madwoman.

Nobody from the village greeted her as she strode forward. She tapped her staff on the ground a few times to pretend it was mostly used as a walking stick. Rocks were crushed beneath her sharp heels. She stopped in front of a larger hut and waited until someone strode forward. It was an aged woman, with wrinkles stacked over her other wrinkles and liver spots. Her hair was thin. But she had little regard for Irene.

"What?" she asked with a cracked voice.

"I'm looking for one of your villagers," Irene said. "Blonde hair, youthful, for the most part. Likely spoke a lot of the stars."

The old woman smiled. "She's not here."

Irene leered. This woman was the source of the mediocre magic power. A sage, then.

"When did she leave?"

"Some time ago. On a night when the stars were veiled, and she claimed she had no place in this world anymore."

"Did she say those words exactly?"

The old woman's smile faded. "She suspected you would ask such a thing."

Irene tapped the woman on the shoulder with her staff and gave her just a taste of the magic power within her staff. The village sage, sensing it, sighed.

"What exactly did she say?"

"That she could no longer live in a world built by an old friend."

Irene raised her staff. "That will be all."

She turned, and a step later, was at the peak of the mountains, her magic feeling the drag of the teleportation spell she used. The air was thin, but that wasn't unfamiliar at all to Irene. Cold, thin air was what she was used to for hundreds of years. It was almost like a second home to her, being in the mountains where nobody knew of her existence.

Something whipped about in the wind. Irene glanced over her shoulder. Faded, as he was still trying to get a lock on her, was a familiar Thought Projection.

Ignoring it, Irene held out her right hand. Two swords, one black and one white, appeared.

"Heine and Juliet? I have need of you right now, sweethearts."

The swords spun in Irene's open grasp before leaping away, and transmuting into two young human women, both down on a knee, bowing before their master.

"What is it?" they asked.

"We seem to have lost track of someone, and I must find the trail again, before it gets too cold," Irene said. "Juliet, I would like you to take the eastern roads. Heine, you'll take the west. I will scour the border of our fair Empire."

"Oh, that'll be fun. Bosco seems nice," Juliet said.

"It's a wasteland," Heine said, folding her arms.