![Novice [250]](https://i.imgur.com/lrYlde6.png)
![Shadows of the Past [Arcadia's Secondary Magic Training] Empty](https://2img.net/i/empty.gif)
The young dragon slayer was so very glad to finally slip into her pajamas. She hadn't done a job that day, but she and her non-wizard friends, the Magnolia Seis, had spent nearly all of it out in the East Forest. It was one of their favorite places to explore. With Arcadia's confidence growing in her magic she was happy to fend off any minor dangers they ran across. Her deep green eyes hung heavy and barely half open.
Arcadia climbed into bed, pulling her new comforter and blankets on over herself. Her emerald gaze couldn't stay open one moment longer soon as her pale blonde head hit her pillow. The girl's soft snores filled the room only a couple minutes later. Quite real and vivid dreams greeted her as she drifted off.
The city and kingdom of Dragnof stood again before her very eyes. She couldn't believe her eyes, but the smells, the sounds, the feel: like the aroma of cooking fires from peoples houses, and the perfumes of the trees in bloom lining the street, the sounds of birds and people calling out throughout the city, or even the cobbled stones warmed by the sun beneath her bare feet.
It was all more real than any dream she could remember. Maybe her time in Fairy Tail had been the dream, and Dragnof was still standing. If Dragnof hadn't really been lost to the dust of history, then maybe... ”Mom...”
Her bare feet pounded down the cobble stone street, carrying Arcadia quickly as they could toward the park she used to call home. She knew the way there perfectly, every turn, every hill and every store she used to pass on the way. The young slayer giggled and waved to all the old familiar faces she used to pass by everyday.
Finally, Arcadia reached the southern edge of Dragnof's largest park. It was here her foster mother, Khione Glacier had made a home among the cities human population. The great ice dragon was hardly the only one with dragons living in harmony for the first time with humanity all over the kingdom. Two other dragons called the park home alone. One on the northern side, and one on the park's eastern side. Arcadia missed them all, but she had to find her mother before any other reunion.
She hurried on through the first stand of trees to find, finding her old hut in pristine condition. Arcadia probably cold have lived in a real house or had a room off in the Royal Palace with some of the other dragon slayers, but she had always never wanted to live anywhere else than with her mother. She waited until reaching her hut to call out, ”Mom! Moooom! I'm home!”
The slayer girl slipped inside her hut, the warm happiness of being home again momentarily interrupted by a rude flash back to the end of it all. Her foster mother, Khione Glacier, fighting the traitor, Acnologia, high in the sky over the park after an interrupted training session. The great ice dragoness having the upper hand until Acnologia somehow... ripped Khione's soul from her great hulking body of living ice. Arcadia's screamed trying to shut out the image of her mother's crystalline body of ice crashing down from the sky above into the ground outside this very hut.
Tears streaming down from her deep green gaze, she rushed back out of her old hut, ”MOOOM! Nooo! Don't leave me.. We can stop that traitor this time! We just have to do it together!”
She saw flash of glittering white ahead. Her mother's gargantuan, icy draconic form was heading down into a cavern that opened up under the park. Arcadia rushed on ahead, determined to catch up. When it didn't feel like her feet could carry her fast enough, the slayer concentrated magic power and ice on the soles of her feet. Her nightgown and pale blonde tresses fluttered back through her acceleration into speed skating straight ahead. The rest of the park blurred by, Arcadia skating all the way down into the cavern. Some ways in there was a dusty shaft of light poking down into the dank, dim world of the cavern. Dripping water glittered in the dusty rays of sunlight. That was probably the well in the middle of the city plaza next to the park above.
Looking around, the rest of the cavern was huge, if dimly lit, and no sign of where her mother had gone. She tried to dry her eyes, calling out again, ”Mom?! Where are you?”
Glancing back toward light from the well, she saw her mother coming out from behind a bend in the cavern. Arcadia hurried toward the sunlight and her mother. The great dragon of living ice lowered her head, the young mage running full force into hugging one side. Arcadi'a arms could barely cover even one side of the ice dragon's upper muzzle. Khione Glacier gently nuzzled her daughter, before bumping girl up onto the bridge of her broad icy snout.
Arcadia smiled to her foster mother, trying to dry the tears from her deep green eyes, but there were always fresh ones filling in after those she wiped away. ”M-mom... I... “
Khione Glacier's voice filled the cavern, almost coming from everywhere at once, “Shh, little one. I never really left you. I and all of Dragnof are always with you.” The great ice dragoness gracefully arched her long neck up, bringing her head up to a ledge higher in the cavern. She gently deposited Arcadia onto the ledge, where there was an ancient leather bound tome resting on a small boulder. The tome embossed with the symbol of Dragnof's Royal Wizards. A metal band around the middle, magically sealed the tome shut, and was inscribed all the way around with Khione Glacier's name and many of the titles she held through life.
The great ice dragoness continued, “We even have a few more things left to teach you. You're already a capable warrior, worthy of Dragnof's glory. But a true warrior never stops learning, so take this book. It will guide you through some of our great kingdom's lost secrets.”
Arcadia stood and glanced to the tome. She scooped it up into her arms, and hugged it tight. Returning to her mother , she still couldn't keep back her tears, “T-thank you.. I won't let you down. I swear. I'll learn everything I can from this book.”
Khione Glacier gently nosed her daughter before the great dragon began backing into the sunlight. “I know you will, little one.”
The young mage's deep green eyes widened, watching her mother's great form of living ice begin to fade and meld into motes of sunlight. The vision melding with the end of her old nightmare of Acnologia. The golden sunlight swiftly filled the cavern and enveloped Arcadia and the tome. As the two dreams began to merge, she heard a distant echo of her mother's voice from the nightmare, “Sphere!”
When she could see nothing but golden light, the voice of her mother from the nightmare and the dream of the cavern merged into. “Arcad-Arcad-dia, I love you-you.”
Arcadia startled awake, not in her own bed in Fairy Hills, but on the floor of the library of Fairy Tail's guild hall. She found herself hugging the very same tome she had back in the cavern with all the same markings embossed on its leather cover and inscribed around the magical metal band sealing it.
A few books lay scattered around the floor of the library around her. She rose to her feet, unsure of how she ended up here. For once, she only remembered the dream. Tearfully hugging the tome, she was grateful this dream was not fading as others usually did. Arcadia wasn't sure anyone would believe her though, so she took her time re-shelving the books and straightening up the library.
Once she was satisfied the library was clean enough, Arcadia snuck back downstairs, and slipped out the front doors past the bar. She kept the tome tucked under one arm as she made her way back across the street to Fairy Hills.
Back up in her room, Arcadia left the tome on her desk, and stared down at it. Finally, a piece of her old home, from her mother no less. Figuring out how to open it could wait though. Arcadia didn't bother pulling her covers back over herself, she just crawled back onto her bed, and flopped back on her blankets. Sleep came just as swiftly as before, but she would awake peacefully in the later morning still in her bed.
To her surprise, the tome still sat on her desk. Part of her half expected none of the night before to have been real. Looked like she was going to be busy for awhile. Arcadia left her new tome be until after she had a chance to get cleaned, dressed and have a little breakfast.
Arcadia returned with a little watermelon-strawberry slushy from the guild hall, taking a seat at her desk. With a sip of slushy, the slayer studied the metal band around the tome and its inscriptions closely. Seeing no physical locking mechanism or any obvious way to remove it, she focused a small amount of magic power into her left hand. Allowing the power to drawn in frosty hint of winter chill, she did not focus her mind into one of her spells. Instead she held it to a frosty minimum, touching her magically chilled hand to the metal band on a whim.
Soon as she did, the inscriptions of her mother's name and titles all took on a soft blue glow, breaking the seal holding the band in place. Arcadia gathered the remains of the metal band into a small hope chest full of a couple other mementos she had collected since she had come to Magnolia.
Back at her desk, she opened the tome to find this learning, her mother alluded into in the dream might be the hardest part. Except for notes in the margins, the books' antique pages were written in a script and language she didn't recognize. For a moment, she thought of taking the tome to one of her guildmates for help. One of them might recognize the language and script, or know someone who would.
On the other hand, this task might a chance to say good bye to her foster mother in a way she had no chance to before. She shook her head, figuring out how translate this thing would take way longer on her own, but it was just too personal a thing to share.
Over the next week and a half, Arcadia got nowhere. She even borrowed every book from Fairy Tail's guild hall library that seemed like it would have even the remotest reference in it. In that week and a half, the only real break she had taken from her struggling studies was to get something to eat or sleeping at night.
It took her that long to remember, about the only thing she hadn't tried was the same key to unsealing the metal band. The signature of her mother's magic that still lived on in her own slayer magic. Not having much else to lose, Arcadia allowed a little magical power to focus into her left hand, giving off the barest frosty tendrils of winter chill. Resting her frosty hand to the open pages, the same soft blue glow appeared, making more notes visible. Reading these newly discovered notes, Arcadia was able to work out this extra work was down by her mother or a someone writing out the notes for her.
The glowing notes, addressed Arcadia by name, spelling out the lost history of the book and what it contained. According tot he notes, this tome and the language in it was ancient and difficult to read, even back in Dragnof's glory days. The glowing notes also related Khione Glacier's personal experience with the tome's authors, along with a translation key Arcadia had been unable to find anywhere else.
After that, it was just a matter of wrapping her mind around the new arcane mysteries locked away in the ancient writings. Mysteries long hidden, ironically about how to make or keep almost anything hidden.
The Arc of Obfuscation it was called, offering various theories on how to use the play between Shadow and Light to remain hidden, and the wide range of applications these theories presented. Arcadia would write out the easiest spells first, practicing them in her time between jobs or late into the night in her room.
It was all just a start, but knowing Khione Glacier's confidence in her, Arcadia knew she would master these new spells, blending them with what she had already learned of dragon slayer magic.
Word Count: 2143/2000
Arcadia climbed into bed, pulling her new comforter and blankets on over herself. Her emerald gaze couldn't stay open one moment longer soon as her pale blonde head hit her pillow. The girl's soft snores filled the room only a couple minutes later. Quite real and vivid dreams greeted her as she drifted off.
The city and kingdom of Dragnof stood again before her very eyes. She couldn't believe her eyes, but the smells, the sounds, the feel: like the aroma of cooking fires from peoples houses, and the perfumes of the trees in bloom lining the street, the sounds of birds and people calling out throughout the city, or even the cobbled stones warmed by the sun beneath her bare feet.
It was all more real than any dream she could remember. Maybe her time in Fairy Tail had been the dream, and Dragnof was still standing. If Dragnof hadn't really been lost to the dust of history, then maybe... ”Mom...”
Her bare feet pounded down the cobble stone street, carrying Arcadia quickly as they could toward the park she used to call home. She knew the way there perfectly, every turn, every hill and every store she used to pass on the way. The young slayer giggled and waved to all the old familiar faces she used to pass by everyday.
Finally, Arcadia reached the southern edge of Dragnof's largest park. It was here her foster mother, Khione Glacier had made a home among the cities human population. The great ice dragon was hardly the only one with dragons living in harmony for the first time with humanity all over the kingdom. Two other dragons called the park home alone. One on the northern side, and one on the park's eastern side. Arcadia missed them all, but she had to find her mother before any other reunion.
She hurried on through the first stand of trees to find, finding her old hut in pristine condition. Arcadia probably cold have lived in a real house or had a room off in the Royal Palace with some of the other dragon slayers, but she had always never wanted to live anywhere else than with her mother. She waited until reaching her hut to call out, ”Mom! Moooom! I'm home!”
The slayer girl slipped inside her hut, the warm happiness of being home again momentarily interrupted by a rude flash back to the end of it all. Her foster mother, Khione Glacier, fighting the traitor, Acnologia, high in the sky over the park after an interrupted training session. The great ice dragoness having the upper hand until Acnologia somehow... ripped Khione's soul from her great hulking body of living ice. Arcadia's screamed trying to shut out the image of her mother's crystalline body of ice crashing down from the sky above into the ground outside this very hut.
Tears streaming down from her deep green gaze, she rushed back out of her old hut, ”MOOOM! Nooo! Don't leave me.. We can stop that traitor this time! We just have to do it together!”
She saw flash of glittering white ahead. Her mother's gargantuan, icy draconic form was heading down into a cavern that opened up under the park. Arcadia rushed on ahead, determined to catch up. When it didn't feel like her feet could carry her fast enough, the slayer concentrated magic power and ice on the soles of her feet. Her nightgown and pale blonde tresses fluttered back through her acceleration into speed skating straight ahead. The rest of the park blurred by, Arcadia skating all the way down into the cavern. Some ways in there was a dusty shaft of light poking down into the dank, dim world of the cavern. Dripping water glittered in the dusty rays of sunlight. That was probably the well in the middle of the city plaza next to the park above.
Looking around, the rest of the cavern was huge, if dimly lit, and no sign of where her mother had gone. She tried to dry her eyes, calling out again, ”Mom?! Where are you?”
Glancing back toward light from the well, she saw her mother coming out from behind a bend in the cavern. Arcadia hurried toward the sunlight and her mother. The great dragon of living ice lowered her head, the young mage running full force into hugging one side. Arcadi'a arms could barely cover even one side of the ice dragon's upper muzzle. Khione Glacier gently nuzzled her daughter, before bumping girl up onto the bridge of her broad icy snout.
Arcadia smiled to her foster mother, trying to dry the tears from her deep green eyes, but there were always fresh ones filling in after those she wiped away. ”M-mom... I... “
Khione Glacier's voice filled the cavern, almost coming from everywhere at once, “Shh, little one. I never really left you. I and all of Dragnof are always with you.” The great ice dragoness gracefully arched her long neck up, bringing her head up to a ledge higher in the cavern. She gently deposited Arcadia onto the ledge, where there was an ancient leather bound tome resting on a small boulder. The tome embossed with the symbol of Dragnof's Royal Wizards. A metal band around the middle, magically sealed the tome shut, and was inscribed all the way around with Khione Glacier's name and many of the titles she held through life.
The great ice dragoness continued, “We even have a few more things left to teach you. You're already a capable warrior, worthy of Dragnof's glory. But a true warrior never stops learning, so take this book. It will guide you through some of our great kingdom's lost secrets.”
Arcadia stood and glanced to the tome. She scooped it up into her arms, and hugged it tight. Returning to her mother , she still couldn't keep back her tears, “T-thank you.. I won't let you down. I swear. I'll learn everything I can from this book.”
Khione Glacier gently nosed her daughter before the great dragon began backing into the sunlight. “I know you will, little one.”
The young mage's deep green eyes widened, watching her mother's great form of living ice begin to fade and meld into motes of sunlight. The vision melding with the end of her old nightmare of Acnologia. The golden sunlight swiftly filled the cavern and enveloped Arcadia and the tome. As the two dreams began to merge, she heard a distant echo of her mother's voice from the nightmare, “Sphere!”
When she could see nothing but golden light, the voice of her mother from the nightmare and the dream of the cavern merged into. “Arcad-Arcad-dia, I love you-you.”
Arcadia startled awake, not in her own bed in Fairy Hills, but on the floor of the library of Fairy Tail's guild hall. She found herself hugging the very same tome she had back in the cavern with all the same markings embossed on its leather cover and inscribed around the magical metal band sealing it.
A few books lay scattered around the floor of the library around her. She rose to her feet, unsure of how she ended up here. For once, she only remembered the dream. Tearfully hugging the tome, she was grateful this dream was not fading as others usually did. Arcadia wasn't sure anyone would believe her though, so she took her time re-shelving the books and straightening up the library.
Once she was satisfied the library was clean enough, Arcadia snuck back downstairs, and slipped out the front doors past the bar. She kept the tome tucked under one arm as she made her way back across the street to Fairy Hills.
Back up in her room, Arcadia left the tome on her desk, and stared down at it. Finally, a piece of her old home, from her mother no less. Figuring out how to open it could wait though. Arcadia didn't bother pulling her covers back over herself, she just crawled back onto her bed, and flopped back on her blankets. Sleep came just as swiftly as before, but she would awake peacefully in the later morning still in her bed.
To her surprise, the tome still sat on her desk. Part of her half expected none of the night before to have been real. Looked like she was going to be busy for awhile. Arcadia left her new tome be until after she had a chance to get cleaned, dressed and have a little breakfast.
Arcadia returned with a little watermelon-strawberry slushy from the guild hall, taking a seat at her desk. With a sip of slushy, the slayer studied the metal band around the tome and its inscriptions closely. Seeing no physical locking mechanism or any obvious way to remove it, she focused a small amount of magic power into her left hand. Allowing the power to drawn in frosty hint of winter chill, she did not focus her mind into one of her spells. Instead she held it to a frosty minimum, touching her magically chilled hand to the metal band on a whim.
Soon as she did, the inscriptions of her mother's name and titles all took on a soft blue glow, breaking the seal holding the band in place. Arcadia gathered the remains of the metal band into a small hope chest full of a couple other mementos she had collected since she had come to Magnolia.
Back at her desk, she opened the tome to find this learning, her mother alluded into in the dream might be the hardest part. Except for notes in the margins, the books' antique pages were written in a script and language she didn't recognize. For a moment, she thought of taking the tome to one of her guildmates for help. One of them might recognize the language and script, or know someone who would.
On the other hand, this task might a chance to say good bye to her foster mother in a way she had no chance to before. She shook her head, figuring out how translate this thing would take way longer on her own, but it was just too personal a thing to share.
Over the next week and a half, Arcadia got nowhere. She even borrowed every book from Fairy Tail's guild hall library that seemed like it would have even the remotest reference in it. In that week and a half, the only real break she had taken from her struggling studies was to get something to eat or sleeping at night.
It took her that long to remember, about the only thing she hadn't tried was the same key to unsealing the metal band. The signature of her mother's magic that still lived on in her own slayer magic. Not having much else to lose, Arcadia allowed a little magical power to focus into her left hand, giving off the barest frosty tendrils of winter chill. Resting her frosty hand to the open pages, the same soft blue glow appeared, making more notes visible. Reading these newly discovered notes, Arcadia was able to work out this extra work was down by her mother or a someone writing out the notes for her.
The glowing notes, addressed Arcadia by name, spelling out the lost history of the book and what it contained. According tot he notes, this tome and the language in it was ancient and difficult to read, even back in Dragnof's glory days. The glowing notes also related Khione Glacier's personal experience with the tome's authors, along with a translation key Arcadia had been unable to find anywhere else.
After that, it was just a matter of wrapping her mind around the new arcane mysteries locked away in the ancient writings. Mysteries long hidden, ironically about how to make or keep almost anything hidden.
The Arc of Obfuscation it was called, offering various theories on how to use the play between Shadow and Light to remain hidden, and the wide range of applications these theories presented. Arcadia would write out the easiest spells first, practicing them in her time between jobs or late into the night in her room.
It was all just a start, but knowing Khione Glacier's confidence in her, Arcadia knew she would master these new spells, blending them with what she had already learned of dragon slayer magic.
Word Count: 2143/2000
![Shadows of the Past [Arcadia's Secondary Magic Training] 3FQiytD](https://i.imgur.com/3FQiytD.png)
