Chapter 61 - A Night to Remember

Fairy Tail: Paths of the Soul

A cold wind blew down a narrow hallway, causing the woman exploring it to shudder under it's breath. She clutched her forearms, trying to retain what little body heat she could, then shone her flashlight back down the passage. It was musty, dark, and full of cobwebs. Not the most desirable place one could have found themselves in.

The woman crept down the hallway, running one hand along the wall with each tiny step. Suddenly, something dropped onto the floor ahead of her, just out of the reach of her flashlight. The music panned up as her flashlight flashed to the ceiling, where a huge, ghostly face leered down at her.

"AAhhhh!" Zeke and the woman on the tv screamed at the same time. The tiny cat dove face first into the couch, burying his face into the cushions so he didn't have to see what was happening. "Amber... Why did you have to pick a scary movie?" He said shakily.

"Yeah..." Axel nodded in agreement. He had half turned away from the screen himself, but was continuing to watch it regardless. "I never figured you where a fan of horror flicks."

"I'm not..." Amber mumbled, clutching Armeria to her tummy with her legs drawn up to her chest. She hadn't looked away from the film once, and had tried to hold back any reactions from the scarier bits. Her facade would go up in smoke however, if Armeria told the guys how tightly she was holding onto her. "I didn't know what it was about."

The scene changed, and Zeke finally dug himself out from the cushions to find the movie case. "It's called, The School of Ghosts..." He mumbled accusingly. "Did you even look it?"

"Umm... No..." She shook her head, thinking back to her just picking the first case she saw off the shelf. A few days had passed since the meeting at the guild hall about the Red Moon Festival, a few days which had proven to be very boring. Nobody wanted to take a job, even a local one, just in case they ran into another unexpected complication like they had with Bloody Smile. To alleviate some of the boredom, Zeke suggested they have a movie night before the day of the festival. Despite knowing nothing about which films had come out recently, Amber was left with the job of finding something to watch. "You guys told me to be quick, and to just pick anything." She huffed defensively. "I told you, I don't watch a lot of movies."

"Well, whatever. Better luck next time, right?" Axel shrugged, reaching for the remote. "Do you guys want to keep watching? 'Cause I think I've seen enough." Amber, Zeke, and even Armeria all nodded, as if everyone was just waiting for someone to ask that question. "Guess this wasn't the best way to spend the night before the festival, huh?"

Amber froze in place. The festival! She'd totally forgotten about that. The thing Shelly had asked her to do had totally slipped her mind. Axel wasn't home when she got back that day, and she'd just never thought about it until now. "Hey... So, about tomorrow." She began, hoping against all odds that he hadn't already made plans. "Did, you want to hang out together?"

Axel looked dumbfounded. "Like... Together, together?"

"Shelly was going to make plans with Jak, and she asked me to come with her." Amber added quickly, looking out the window at the lights of a departing ship in the distance. She was only distracted for a moment, but if she was looking at him she would have seen the slight twinkle disappear from Axel's eyes. "She said you could come too, if you wanted."

"You mean like a date?" Zeke questioned. He sounded honestly confused, and Amber couldn't tell if he was referring to Shelly and Jak, or her and Axel.

"Yeah. I guess." She nodded slightly.

"Would... We be on a date too?" Axel asked hurriedly, taking a quick step forward.

Amber scooted back on the couch, not expecting such an abrupt question. "I-I guess so?" She thought back to Shelly's suggestion of making it a double date, and the idea seemed to have grown on her now. She couldn't think of a reason to turn him down, especially as she watched him fail to hide a huge smile growing on his face. "Sure. If you want." Axel's eyes widened, and Amber abruptly jumped off the couch and headed for her room. "A-anyway, I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow."

Zeke glanced at the clock. "But it's only eight o'clock."

"And I'm tired!" She yelled back, clutching Armeria to her chest. She swung the door closed behind her and dove onto the bed, burying her face in the pillows.

Armeria melted from her arms into a shapeless blob, floating across the room to reform on the windowsill before Amber landed. "Why are you hiding?" She asked in her monotone voice. "You like Axel, don't you?"

Amber grumbled into her pillow. Why did her familiar have to be so perceptive? "Well, yeah... But not like that..." She curled up on top of her blankets, her mind racing with conflicting feelings. "I mean... I don't think I do. He just surprised me. And..." She was thinking in circles. It'd only been two months since they'd met, but they got along pretty well. Barring the first few awkward days of course. "Ok, maybe I do like him."

"Then why are you so tense?" Armeria continued.

"Uhhhggg..." Amber moaned, stretching her arms out over her head. Part of her was glad that Armeria had waited until they where alone to bring this up, but she'd much rather preferred she'd stayed quiet about it all together. She gripped at her neck, feeling the lumpy fold of skin that made up the scar running across the back of her shoulder. "I didn't want to get close to anyone... Not that close, at least."

Armeria hopped off the windowsill and placed her tiny, cold hand on top of Amber's. "You'll be fine."

That was all the reassurance Amber needed, for all her troubling thoughts vanished in a flash. She slowly pulled herself up decided that it was time for bed. Pulling her arms through her pajama top and stepping into her slippers, Amber settled down for the night. One thought still persisted on her mind though, something that no amount of reassurance would be able to quell. If Jaina got wind of this, the teasing might never end.

"And..." Isa said, signing the last of the paperwork for the festival. "Done! Everything is finally done." She lay her pen down on the table and stretched her arms out to her sides. Being hunched over a desk for the past hour and a half had been murder on her back. All she wanted to do now was go home and get a good night's rest.

"Hold up... Lemme' see." A woman with short blue hair sitting on the table next to her scooped up the papers and began thumbing through them. She moved far too fast to actually be looking at them, as apparent when she began to hum while absentmindedly staring at the guildhall's back wall. "Yeah, looks like it's all there."

Isa puffed out her cheeks, tipping her head to the side in concern. "You know Quin, the Council is going to fire you if you don't start taking your job seriously."

"And replace me with who?" She scoffed with a grin. "They where pretty big shoes to fill, but they where lucky enough to have me around when you quit. They fire me, and they'll need three people to do what I can do on my own." She slid off the table and into a chair, throwing her arm around Isa's shoulders. "But it's nice to hear you've been thinking about me."

Isa smiled as well. Her and Quin use to be partners back when she worked at the Magic Council, and she took over for her when Isa quit. The two had remained good friends, but Quin worked for the logistics division of the Council, the division that Payla was the head of. Needless to say, this had made getting in touch a little difficult. "You didn't have to come all the way to Merow City, you know..." Isa mumbled, remembering how busy she normally was at the Council. "I could've just mailed this to you."

"Why? It's grunt work. I've got grunts to do the grunt work. Just a bunch of forms saying the members of Blazing Soul are allowed to use magic in public on festival night tomorrow." Quin nuzzled her cheek against Isa's forehead. "And besides, I missed you."

"Well, you're always welcome to drop in." Davin approached the two of them from the kitchen door, bringing a trey with a small pizza with him. He sat down across from them and took a slice, gesturing for the two of them to help themselves. "It's not often we get a visit from a Council member who's happy to see us."

"Yeah..." Quin sighed with a mouthful of half chewed pizza. "That business with Bloody Smile last month couldn't have been fun." She took a moment to finish chewing before speaking further. "I left it out of the report, but I heard your daughter was there too, Mr. Vamiro."

"Yes... She was." Davin grumbled. "But she had a lot of good teammates watching out for her. And all things considered; I don't think we could've hoped for it to end any better."

"Jaina gave us all a really big I-told-you-so, though." Isa said with a small laugh.

"And how's she?" Quin inquired, finishing her slice of pizza. "I don't think I've talked to your sister since..." She thoughtfully touched her finger to her chin, but still came up blank. "Ever... Actually."

"She's, well..." Isa trailed off, trying to find the best way to explain the situation without sounding harsh. "She's been a little moody. But she always get's this way around the time of the Red Moon Festival."

"Right..." The happy tone dropped from Quin's voice momentarily. "W-why is that, again...?"

"She met her husband on the night of the festival a year before they got married, and he died around the same time seven years later." Isa nodded, staring blankly across the table. "I think... the festival was just wrapping up when she got into that fight with the dark guild."

Quin nodded again, suddenly recalling the event. "Oh... You mean Specter Eye..."

Despite the grim topic of conversation, Isa nodded slightly and put on a cheery face. "Now, because of that, she believes any red moon is a sign of bad luck."

"Is that why you're here, Ms Pinkton?" Davin joked, trying to steer the conversation back to something cheerier. "You've come to keep the town safe from Jaina's superstitions?"

"I wish..." Quin moaned with a sad smile. "But... Lots of people, high energy, loads of alcohol, added to mages putting on a street show... Old lady Payla's got us working as bouncers."

"Well, I'm sure we'll be responsible." Davin assured with a smile.

"Oh, I know you will. But, this is what I've been told to do. So I'm out of luck." Quin sank down to rest her chin on the table, letting out another bored sigh. She flashed Isa a mischievous grin, and suddenly jumped up to throw an arm around her again. "But... Maybe it won't be so bad of a certain someone comes by my post to say hi for the fireworks festival. And... Sneak me a bunch of snacks while she's at it."

Isa stifled a laugh as Quin traced her finger across the nap of her neck, playfully shoving Quin away. "Alright, alright, I'll think about it." Quin pumped her fist in the air in victory, and Isa shifted her attention to the guild master. "What about you, Davi-I mean, Master Vamiro? Have you made any plans yet?"

"No, not really." He shook his head, crossing his big arms over his chest. "I'd thought about trying to set some time aside to hang out with my kids... But Leo's name got drawn for the performance. And Shelly had already made plans to spend the night with her friends by the time I thought to ask her." He let out a slow, sad huff, rocking back and forth on his chair. "I think I'm at that point where they want to live their own lives, rather than spend time with their old man."

"Don't think of it like that." Isa said with concern.

"I know it's not true, but it's just a thought." He looked relived, like he'd been wanting to say that for a while and never had the opportunity. Apparently feeling that this was a good time to vent, he added. "I do worry about Leo sometimes though. Shelly, not so much. She's got a good head on her shoulders, and has excellent taste in friends... But, my little lion a little less well off..."

Isa glanced at Quin, who seemed to be doing her best to stay quiet after finding herself in the middle of a very personal conversation. "How do you mean?" She asked slowly.

"Well..." It seemed like Davin was lost in thought, but took full advantage of having someone to talk to. "Shelly... Never knew her mother. She's always thought of you and Jaina as a surrogate mom. Or her big sisters, at least. And I'll always be thankful for that."

"Yeah..." Quin mumbled, resting her head on Isa's shoulder. "She has that effect on people."

"But Leo... Has always pulled away from people." Davin continued after a quick nod of agreement. "He always took Yoshi's death so hard. And I don't think he ever really got over it." Davin's eyes had slowly been lowering while he talked, from staring blankly across the room, to a small chip in the wooden top of the table. A clear look of concern on his face. "He's suspicious of everyone, overprotective of his little sister, almost never leaves my side..." He thought a moment more, but really seemed to struggle with the words. This really wasn't Davin's area of expertise. "He just doesn't engage, you know? Especially around the other S-Class guys. Rift, Kat, and Peltin all try talking to him, and he just brushes them off."

Though she wanted to say something, Isa had no idea what it would be. She'd noticed this herself on occasion, especially after hearing Shelly complain about how her brother acts from time to time. But she'd never really known how to broach the subject with Davin. Knowing he'd been having these thoughts made her wish she'd spoken up sooner. "Well, he is at that age..."

"Sounds like he needs a girlfriend." Quin said suddenly.

The two of them where stunned silent, even as the councilwoman began to giggle. "D-do you..." Davin began, a little flustered. "Really think that'll help?"

"Think of it this way..." Quin said after getting control of her laughter. "He stays by you because he wants to be like you. He doesn't want to talk to your other S-Class mages because he sees them as competition. And he's afraid of loosing his sister the same way he lost his mom. If he had someone else in his life, it might be a good way to get him to loosen up a bit." It was a strangely sound theory, given how nonchalant about everything Quin had been all night. Isa was impressed. She'd had no idea Quin was capable of such sound logic. "Or, you might be a grandfather before you know it... Whichever works."

"Quin..." Isa mumbled... So much for that last thought.

Despite this, Davin began to laugh. "Well, I suppose there's no harm in talking to him about it." He wiped his forehead and cleared the table, before getting up and heading for the door. "Anyways, it's getting late. Tomorrows' going to be a very big day, so I should be getting on home."

They exchanged a wave, before Quin jumped to her feet and headed out as well. Isa did one lest check around the building to make sure all the doors where locked, then made for the exit as well. Something left on the table caught her eye however, and she let out a long sigh when she realized Quin had forgotten all the paperwork she was suppose to file for them. "Oh, Quin..." Isa huffed, packing the papers into her bag. "Some thing's never change."

"Amber..." A ghostly voice flowed down a long, metal hallway, which Amber was standing in the center of. She looked around quickly, trying to identify its source, but with darkness sprawling out all around her, she had no idea who might be calling to her. "Amber... You..."

The hallway began to move. Amber was traveling along the path, despite not actually walking. She expected to see a ghostly face learning down at her from the ceiling, but thankfully, no such apparition made itself known. "Ok... Ok... I get it..." She mumbled to herself. "No more horror movies..." No sooner had the words passed her lip did a long window appear before her, displaying a burning landscape as far as the eye could see. Amber instinctively recoiled, backing against the hallway's opposite wall for fear of the licking flames. This definitely wasn't part of the movie.

"Amber..." The voice called again. "It's your fault..."

Amber froze, but the hallway disintegrated into ash before she could think on it. She felt herself drop, landing softly in what looked like the burned-out ruins of a house. She sat staring into a small fireplace, but scrambled to her feet when a fire burst to life in it’s hearth.

"It's your fault." The voice was right in her ear this time, and Amber spun around faster than lightning, only to find a dark grey blur of a person standing behind her. She felt herself tense up, seeing a small, single eye open up on one side of the figure's face. "You, brought us here..."

Amber backed away, seeing more figures rise up from the ashes around her. "I didn't..." She shook her head, raising her arms to protect herself. All rational thought was gone, she needed to get out of here. "Stay away!" One of them reached out to her, and she felt an intense burning in her shoulder. She gripped and clawed at her scar, but no matter what she did, nothing stopped the burning sensation. She shut her eyes, wishing she could be anywhere else right now, as the phantoms closed in on her.

The moment the thought entered her mind, the house began to shake. A wave of earth rippled out around her, and the phantoms began disappearing as the wave passed under them. There was a blinding flash, and Amber suddenly found herself laying on a cold, metal floor. She abruptly sat upright, feeling a chilling breeze across her skin. The scar on her shoulder still ached, but it was nothing like the burning she'd felt before.

Looking around, she tried to get some grasp as to where she was now. To her surprise, Amber found herself sitting atop what looked like a large generator, staring down at a wide open, metal floor. It somewhat resembled a factory; large metal beams crisscrossing overhead, pipework's and gauges lining the walls, belching steam and cranking gears everywhere in between. The thing she focused on through, where a man and a child standing in the center of the room.

She recognized the child immediately. It was her; or at least, a younger version of her. She wore a loose fitting, blue t-shirt that must've been ten sizes too big for her child sized body, and pants that had obviously had the legs cut off to accommodate for her short stature. She clutched a small, ratty looking teddy bear in her arms, and she looked up at the man standing before her. Armeria stood next to her, only this time her head reached to the little Amber's shoulders.

"Are..." Amber recognized the voice as her own, but in a tone of a child. "Are you OK, dad?"

The man half turned to look at her, his face was obscured by a dark blur, but somehow Amber could tell he was smiling. "I'm alright, Amber." He slowly reached out to pat her on the head, his arm creaking and twitching like a machine. Bits of his skin where torn away or missing, leaving dark, blurry patches where the muscles should have been visible. "I'm really close now. Just a little bit longer."

The child Amber shuddered slightly. Armeria stepped forward and was about to brush the man's arm aside when he wobbled and dropped onto his back. A dull clang rang throughout the room when he hit the floor, followed by a slow cough as the man gasped for air. "Dad!?" Amber watched the child version of herself approach the man slowly, clutching to Armeria's back like a shield. "You're not OK. You're not!"

"Oh, I'll be fine." The man chuckled, waving his arm as if to try and calm her worries. "I met someone today. A dragon." His other arm collapsed to the ground, but it landed at an angle that it shouldn't have. The elbow seemed to have bent backwards, and a black fluid was leaking out of a crack in his bicep. "Because of him, my work has advanced by decades." He reached up to stroke Amber's hair again. "It's almost-."

Something grabbed Amber by the shoulder, bringing the burning from her scar back worse than ever before. She was about to cry out when a black mass covered her mouth, and two more wrapped around her stomach. She reached out to the younger version of herself as she knelt down next to the man, trying to warn her of whatever was happening to her, while at the same time fighting off her attacker.

"It's your fault." The ghostly voice whispered in her ear. She tried to pry the phantom's arm off of her, but it felt like she was grabbing at smoke. The room full of machinery disappeared around her, enveloping Amber in suffocating darkness. It's your fault that they all died."

Amber's eyes flew open, but she still couldn't breath. She kicked and flailed about, clawing at whatever had attached itself to her face. She felt her feet land on the wall and, lacking any other options, she pushed off it as hard as she could. She felt her neck drop off the edge of the bed, and the weight on her mouth lessened significantly. With one final push, she threw whatever it was off her head and took a deep breath of cool night air.

Seeing the stars outside her window, Amber regained her composer, despite still being sprawled out sideways on her bed. She looked at the floor and found what she thought had been an attacker was just her blanket, having coiled around her head while she tossed and turned in her sleep. She rolled upright to compose herself, feeling an exhausted sweat break out over her forehead. "Amber?" Amber sighed, knowing that her familiar had probably seen the whole event. Sure enough, she turned around to see Armeria watching her from the dresser, safely out of the way of her flailing. "You had another nightmare."

"It... Wasn't that bad..." Amber rolled over in her bed, pilling her pillows around her shoulders so as to get comfortable again. "I just panicked a little. I couldn't breath." It was a pretty bad excuse for why she'd woken up in what must've looked like the fight of her life, but it was the best she could think of.

Armeria deformed into a shapeless mass and flew across the room, reforming in a sitting position on the bed next to Amber. "It was about before, wasn't it?" Amber snorted dismissively, but Armeria laid a hand on her arm to stop her from turning away. "You've been clutching at your shoulder all night."

"No, not that..." Amber shook her head, pulling Armeria into her chest with a tight hug. "It was about dad." Armeria nodded slightly, but even through her expressionless face it was obvious she didn't believe her. She didn't push the point any further however, and simply curled up in Amber's arms like a big plush toy. Tomorrow she'd go have fun with her friends, and the nightmares would go away.

A single thought lingered in the back of her mind however, and this being the first nightmare she'd had in almost a month, she couldn't help but dwell on it. That scene with her dad wasn't a dream, it was a memory. Why was she remembering that now, of all times?

Next Chapter – Chapter 62 - Date Night