The Compromise (Private/Famine)

Another day had come and gone. Time seemed to pass both so quickly and slowly. Simultaneously. Perhaps, Famine was still ingrained in her endless loop, a damned niche. All because she’d completed little to nothing of value in weeks. It remained so. Every day.  Some all powerful guild master, right? Laughable. The sun rose behind a heavy quilt of snow packed clouds every day and sank over the same horizon line leaving the plains of their mountains cast in gunmetal this evening.

How much time had come and gone before her eyes?

Famine failed to seize the day yet again… Why? Because she was unfocused, and though she would never admit it, the weakest she’d been.

Her magic was only valuable with her innate focus. Now, it worked against her: literally building the walls up in the room with malevolent and jagged painted shadows that didn’t even make sense being there, and left her with a clock on the wall that ticked in her ears as though it was broken– Or maybe it just needed new batteries?

There she was with that sidetracked thought again… damn. Famine lifted a white stick from the glass ashtray on her desk which still emitted smoke from its end. She inhaled the poison, as though the nicotine would help her get ahold of herself, looked over all the smashed bottles in the corner of the office wondering if there were any drops left inside the glass husks. Famine may have been as broken as those liquor bottles.

If memory did not fail her, (which it never failed a seer), she’d felt this way before… Abandoned and defeated, lonely. That was years ago when her guild family didn’t pull through when she’d needed them most.

”Fucking Fairy Tail…Naive Council.” a mere murmur to occupy the silence as she inhaled the chemicals again and flicked away the ashes. She twitched her fingers in anxiousness and moved a hand to rub the burn scar on her throat. What had inspired her to burn insignias into flesh was how she’d been able to have her own original tattoo burned away under Elijah's hand. Now, scars were permanent as well as membership...or it was intended to be so.

It was that bitterness towards the politics in a legal mages life, as well as strong personal grudges, that had pushed her. It had helped her in causing so much destruction for so long, gave her a name and a voice-- for once, people heard her!

However, Now Basilisk Fang was in Silence. Why was it this time, when she thought of Sol was her bloodlust not so easy to grasp at its reigns? Famine felt trapped… Having him at her side had done the guild such good, they’d made a name for themselves and it was by being together. She’d only fallen apart. She felt it fading, the guild eroding around the damn snow stacks
Abruptly, a voice. It was true that the mother hadn’t come and visited him a while. Even then, she was the most thankful for his presence here.“Ahote,” she said so to taste his name. Though, her tone was bland like everything else in her demeanor as of late, unexcited. She turned to him still brandishing the smoke, no use in hiding the habits. The door slid backward at the same pace it had opened. Closed just like it was a second ago.

Famine flinched and ash dropped on the desk in front of her when she heard the clock hand on her wall click again as though she’d sent the minute hand back a notch… focus.. damn... Focus.

She took another drag. “Always… What is on your mind.”

Hopefully, he didn’t have nearly as many unorganized thoughts as herself.

A poisoned name fell from Ahote’s mouth and Famine’s palms were on the desk in front of her and she shoved herself to standing in a second arched over the scratched table. She’d reacted with such suddenness that the stool dropped behind her and hit the cobblestone at their feet with a hard clatter which would inevitably stop Ahote’s yammering before the topic got itself out of hand.

“I’ve told you we don’t talk about that guild here…” Her nails which she’d chewed into down to the nubs tried with all their might to hold onto the desk like she was gripping onto the desk edge for the sake of her life. Eventually, she withdrew her jittering hands and crossed them behind her back and forcibly straightened herself. Whatever beat looming over that desk and looking like a predator at her son….even if his proposition did turn her off. Famine was confident that at her current mental stability she would slice anyone’s tongue which said that guilds name right out of their mouth…. But this was Ahote, her apprentice, her heir, son, child, everything. She cleared her throat

A venomous flower bloomed in her ribs, burned her chest with years worth of dark animosity. “It’s not a matter of alignment, though I’m not sure even independent guilds would not have our intentions in favor.” Certainly not what caused her avoidance towards the guild, but a fact, right?... Certainly he’d need to say something else to keep Ahote away from that subject-- What did She need fairy tail for-- She couldn’t even look at that damned insignia anymore without feeling nauseous with memory.

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand it.....” That place once bore her soul, in its walls she’d felt companionship and joy until something taken advantage of her when she least expected it.

Passive-aggressively her fingers fumbled for the book on her desk. It reminded her that. The Tome of Famine was all that mattered and after that this guild that she locked herself in mattered. Fairy Tail could take that away from her all over again like they had several times!--  Like a serpent, she could hear the words echo in the marrow of her thoughts as her hand caressed the woven spine of the book. Everyone had just up and abandoned her. Never had she felt more vulnerable. ‘Than I found you.’ She crossed the book in her arms but suddenly snapped back over to look at Ahote. ‘You too…’

There was still conflict and much hesitation crossing behind Famine’s eyes. Weak-- that was just a damn banter from him, right? “...Certainty, if you want the guild to make bonds you could look somewhere else. I’ve had to of told you hundreds of times ….to never associate with those mages.”

Who put this damned idea in his head… she’d have their guts spilled for it certainly…

“I’ll stop underestimating you when you try to understand.”

A once tense and firm grip wavered and weak fingers dropped the cigarette from into the glass tray letting it smother, eventually rising with a ring of smoke which twirled up between their eyes. Nevertheless, Famine’s gaze never broke with Ahote. To think...he’d just toss those thoughts of his out there… she knew she was an ungodly mess… she’d rather him not remind her--- of all people. Cold fingertips came to rub her temples trying to sate a headache.

“Understand why I keep records of everything even though I forget nothing, Understand why I don’t move on and understand how it feels to be left all by yourself for the third time.” she murmured, eyes passing over him frantically in thought

Hell, how do I know he is not trying to spark this deal so he can just take off like everyone else-- be with the rest of them down in Magnolia or where ever they’ve zapped that guildhall….


She couldn’t bear him leaving for whatever reason if Fairy Tail became too involved with Ahote… All she’d have left would be this room and the damned window behind her.

For a span of two long months the window had been Famine’s only connection to the outside world. Without it this room would feel like a tomb, already it's as quiet as a mausoleum. The clock stopped ticking and the door stayed shut unless the serfs came by with paperwork or for whatever reason her son stopped in.

Just like today.  She wanted him just to sit and talk with her like they’d used to but there was nothing pleasant to make conversation of… Now her fourteen-year-old was talking about her guilds politics. Laughable. For the sum of a week, Famine just stared through the rectangle of glass to the landscape which stood utterly still save for the periodic shifting of the snow. Once in a while, she would see a guild member or two coming in and out from their jobs, but by the time she’d make it out of the room and down the hall they’ve already come and gone which left her standing in the guild usually alone.

Just her and the glass, clear or ice speckled,

“Ahote, I really--and I mean really... don’t expect you to understand my burdens. People like them are… already against me.”

“It was before your time. Again, you couldn’t know… I have half a mind to stop you and ask who put this ridiculous idea in your head… to bond with Fairy Tail? What you don’t know is that guild was my family and when they hung me out to dry several years ago. In return, I stabbed them in the back. Hard.”

She’d given up absolutely everything, friends, home, love, self-image, even a soul for the sake of taking out acts of vengeance against Fairy Tail and the rest of the legal guilds. It had been years… and the only notable thing she’d done was knock them on a dark path of their own for a brief period and been a reoccurring thorn in Heero and Leonards sides. She had to remind herself that they were gone.

For the first time in years, she stammered “The last time I s..saw them I ended up being tossed into death row an locked up in Era.” Famine knew Ahote must be thinking over how weak she was right now but he didn’t have the heart to point it out. She could feel herself breaking. She’d neglected to move on from so much. Her memory was a powerful thing when uncontrolled. Famine reeled in agony, leaning over the desk with one hand still on the surface, a braid shifting downwards to sweep against the spruce as her hand fell over the left side of her chest.

Some of the various newspapers stapled the bulletin behind her began to curl at the edges, to yellow, and deteriorate as though they’d been left on that wall for hundreds of years. Unironically enough… they were all the records she was keeping on Fairy Tail and Heero up to the point of...

Her nails dug into her chest tighter, palm trembling. He was dead, and she’d never been able to make it up to any of them... Not that it mattered... but there still was this… urge for someone just to talk to her about it. For her just to have her damned family back. Famine had sworn she would never need anyone's help again but her desire was intense.

When she left the guild her only desire was for someone to hold her by her shoulder and listen to what had happened to her the day she was taken out of Magnolia. For them just to take a look at the unholy relic she’d brought back with from the woods when she crawled back covered in mud and blisters-- maybe if the damned thing had been pried out of her hands sooner she would not have fallen this hard. After all her team, the guild, and everyone else in between had been through… Not to mention growing up together amidst so much laughter... the mentioning of the guild only brought her to tears.

“But..”She sighed

“If your confident you want to make arrangements...Let it be so that they don’t bother us and… we stay out of their way. However, I can’t guarantee if I go anywhere near someone prancing around with that guild mark that I can retain my control right now.”