Wheels of Fire

The Spider's Bite

It was unseasonably hot in the Edolas city of Lavenderville. A lady walked through the streets with a sway to her hips. A wide, stylish hat obscured her eyes, but still the men paused to stare at this stranger. The city was big enough so that no one knew everyone. She stood out, just the graceful way she walked and the curves that highlighted her femininity, but no one stopped her, no one went up to her, they just stared, enamored, caught in her web without her even intentionally weaving it.

Wendy had always been that way. She counted it as a curse and a blessing, this ability to ensnare men, almost like magic. This time, all the attention was utterly unwanted. She had hoped to hide after fleeing Fairy Tail. If anyone noticed her, she could be arrested.

Sometimes, the best way to hide was to stand out so much, people stared at something other than her face. So the hat hid her face, and her dress ... well, it did not leave much to the imagination. Her cleavage showed as much as she legally could without baring all. Her skirt was long, but it clung so tightly that she did not need to expose anything at all. She made sure her distinct purple hair was up and her guild mark was hidden, though. She did not want that exposed at all.

She paused and looked around. Tracking Natsu was harder than she thought. A young man with pink hair and wearing a scarf in summer? Why had no one heard of him? How had he vanished?

Was he okay? Was he alive?

She refused to give up hope. She had severed herself from the guild. That was usually suicide. Once separated, few people managed to find their way back. She was taking a huge chance, all on the hope of finding a man who did not love her, thought little of her, had been angry with her, a man who did not even belong in this world.

Why was she taking such a risk?

She had ensnared plenty of men. Finding herself ensnared was terrifying.

She paused to let a tanchimo-drawn carriage by. She had been to Lavenderville once, before the magic was lost. It had been lively with cars backed up in traffic, lights flashing in the shops, and children with their magical toys. It was different now. Tanchimos had replaced the cars. Some people had solar lights, but many relied on candles and lamps. The toys were simple: rubber balls, little wooden dolls, handcrafted since the machines no longer worked.

Many of the younger children had been born in a world devoid of magic. After merely seven years, it was a myth, a legend told by their parents ... a fairy tale.

A group of boys raced past her laughing and playing a game called Demon-Lord, where one boy used his hands to make devil horns on his head and roared like a dragon as he chased others. If he touched a player with his elbows—the hands had to stay as horns—then that person lost all magic and had to freeze. The game went on until everyone was frozen, or until the very first person to get tagged, who became The Prince, was tagged again by another player, freed from his frozen state, and if he tagged the Demon-Lord, the game was over and the Demon-Lord was defeated by The Prince.

Wendy watched them playing and smiled, remembering that battle. She had been there. She had seen Natsu's confrontation with King Jellal, just a long-lost prince back then. What guts that took! And what an impact it had on everyone. Seven years later, it was a game for children, a villain that would go down in history, turn into legends, and eventually fade into mere myth. The Great Demon-Lord Dragneel.

Wendy realized that the new generation would grow up free of the worries they used to have, dread about magic depletion, and people like Fairy Tail turning to crime just to get some scarce lacrima crystals. The world was no longer as sophisticated as it once had been, but they survived. Fairy Tail missed the worst of the transition due to that freak accident, seven years lost. Damn Levy and her inventions! By the time they returned, Edolas had gotten over the panic, the riots, the revolts, and things were returning to something like peace.