Star Attribute
"How is your time here?" Gran Doma asked Lucy
"It's fine. You have an incredible library. I found a book about basics of letter enchantments."
"Can you show it to me?"
"Yes, you can look at it."
Lucy gave her book to Gran Doma. As he is an expert in that field he knows what he's looking at. He was a bit amused about her choice but had to correct her a little.
"Lucy, that book is about history of the theory of letter enchantments. Don't tell me you wanted to learn letter magic from this. It would take a lot of time to cast first enchantments. Do you at least understand it?"
"Yes, I already read it. It's not that hard. I guess that theory is a bit metaphysical, but I'm fine with that. I wanted to ask you about good books to start, but you disappeared."
"I was sure you would spend that time looking for other students or reading about our education program. Did you chose subjects?"
"Yes."
Lucy took out a paper with a list.
"Holy scripts, chanting, theology, theory of magic objects, elvish languages, enchantment, theory of spell and hermeneutics and so on. It looks good. But I think you should reconsider the language. Elves had a lot of languages with good resonance with nature forces, but I assure you that not even one has strong resonance with light attribute."
"What should I chose then?"
"Try branenish language. Sometimes it's used in temples of the sun and light gods. It's not analytical language which means the meaning of a word is not dependent on its position in the sentence. It has only two declinations, two conjugations and two future tenses. If you master syntax you should be able to start to learn to use it in your letter enchantments. And its resonance with light attribute should be strong. Of course you will start to work on that kind of magic only after mastering the basics of letter enchantments in our language."
"So I'll try this. But what should I do about books? I need content referring to how to write enchanted letters and you said that my book about basics is too historical."
"Don't worry. That's actually the easiest thing to do. I already have something in mind."
He walked over the room to his bookshelf and pulled out an old book. Lucy read the cover.
"How to protect your tavern and more..."
"It's a book that one of our absolvents wrote for innkeepers and running businesses with intention of decreasing damages caused by drunken mercenaries and warriors. Even if you know nothing about letter enchantments you will be able to learn those in a few weeks."
"Thank you, Mr Gran Doma"
That's enough for now. I want you to introduce one of the most experienced Celestial Spirit Mages.
He approached the door on his left leading to his room made on purpose of hiding his guests. It's very often that people from different parties want to pay him a visit and usually the moment of one party paying that visit is also the moment of other party paying him a visit. So what to do? One party would not be really blissful seeing their political enemies with their political 'allies. So he solved this problem by redirecting unexpected person to his waiting room.
"Mrs Hayako, you can go in. She's here."
Hayako was an old woman with familiar light blue color hair and a dark blue outfit decorated with white feathery patterns. Her face was wrinkled and showed expression of pride of someone who took from the life as much as it was possible to take.
"Layla? Why are you so young?"
"Mrs Hayako this is not Layla. This is her daughter, Lucy."
"It explains something. You both are so similar. Gran Doma, why the successor of the oldest and the most powerful houses in the whole history is here?"
"Am I so important?"
"Of course you are! Your family is the owner of 12 zodiacal keys, and the only child of Jude Heartfilia. If everything will go well in the future you will have a fortune and the power of the Zodiac. That alone makes you superior to most Celestial Spirit Mages. Your mother fought with demons and defeated them banishing most of them from Ishgar. If I did half of what she did, I would have the right to say that I'm one of the most incredible mages in Fiore."
"Mother never told me about this."
"There's more about your mother than you would think. She's also one of my disciples. Even being bad one though. We're going out. I want to demonstrate something, but not here. We're going to go out."
10 minutes later
"So what are we going to do?
"Here I can show you the power of Celestial Spirit Mage. As you probably know Celestial Spirit Mages summon spirits to fight for them. That makes our combat power tied to the power of our Celestial Spirits. But fate made me so unlucky. I have only two celestial spirits and never managed to get more. On top of that one is Nikora, lower spirit without any combat power. So I should be pretty weak even having bigger pool of magic than most of mages. At least that's what I thought thirty years ago when I discovered different aspect of Celestial Spirit Magic."
She turned to Gran Doma
"Are you fine with I will destroy training field?"
"If it's only training field I can call earth mages immediately. You have only to promise that you won't destroy the Academy."
"Academy will be fine. I promise. Let me show you."
And Hayako started chanting familiar phrases.
"Survey the Heavens, Open the Heavens. All the stars, far and wide. Show me thy appearance. With such shine. Oh Tetrabiblos. I am the ruler of the stars. Aspect become complete. Open thy malevolent gate. Oh 88 Stars of the heaven. Shine! Urano Metria!"
88 candies like spheres started to spin around Hayako faster and faster and then... Then they stopped as if the goddess of stars sealed Heavens. Then she pushed her hand forward and spheres fired with speed exceeding speed of normal fireball by 10 times. One sphere after another hit the training puppet. Wind waves rocked the trees around. First 8 spheres destroyed the training puppet completely. When the last sphere hit the crater there was nothing that could be considered as a part of the training puppet or even as a part of the training field.
'That's even stronger than my Urano Metria was in my previous life. Who is she?'
"You know Urano Metria!"
"I created this spell, kid. Of course I know it." Hayako said with a proud smile before continuing.
"This is probably the strongest spell of Celestial Spirit Magic that ever existed. Well... except for Zodiac."
"But how?"
"That's what I want to offer. I can show you the real way of Celestial Spirit Mage. Not only the way for mages with good artifacts. That would be a waste of time. Of course you have to accept my condition."
"What kind of condition?"
"For the next three years the only Celestial Spirit you will be using is Nikora."
"But can I sometimes meet my Taurus?"
"That's not a problem, but don't train with him and don't call him to fight."
"I'm fine with that. Deal. I always wanted to meet a person that created such a spell. Before I knew about Urano Metria only because someone managed to copy knowledge about it with archive magic and impart it to me."
Lucy turned to Gran Doma.
"Gran Doma, did you know about her?"
"Well. No, I had to ask my friends here and there. She's not very famous. She doesn't belong to any guild. She never wanted to be a Saint Wizard. But she did a bit in the war with Alvarez. Most of Celestial Spirit Mages don't even think of becoming something more than a cleric in church or an owner of guardian capable of protecting them so their potential is a mystery. This woman is a pioneer in uncovering it so only some researchers and experts know about her."
"Naturally it will be a while for the value of the Celestial Spirit Magic to be recognized. It's possible that this moment will never come. Some kinds of magic are destined to be forgotten due to lack of someone who would perform them. Honestly I want to avoid that, but I almost don't have any suitable disciples and successors to preserve my legacy in their practices. It's a relief that at least someone heard about Urano Metria."
...
Later Lucy, Gran Doma and mrs Hayako were discussing Lucy's schedule to prevent overlapping classes with lessons with mrs Hayako and lessons with Gran Doma. Mrs Hayako wasn't happy that Lucy wants to learn two kinds of magic at the same time. There's a saying that Jack of all trades is a master of none. However she had to agree that Lucy's desire to be a combat mage is already more than someone like her could expect if you compare it to normal Celestial Spirit Mage. Jack of two trades and perhaps master of none is still much better than Jack of none and master of none. They decided she will be learning from Gran Doma three days a week and the same for lessons with Kayako.
...
"Let's start from the very beginning. What's the first principle of Celestial Spirit Magic?"
"To form bonds with our spirits."
"And what does that mean?"
"There are two known kinds of bonds with Celestial Spirits. The first is a contract. You form a cotract with a Celestial Spirit creating bond between both. The second is friendship. If you treat your Celestial Spirits well and get on their good side over time your control over gates grows stronger. Both kinds of bonds are utilized by both gate keys and magical power."
"Good. But something here is missing. Let's say that a mage already has spirit's respect, great control over gates and strong magic pool. How is Urano Metria even possible? In magic that is all about bonds with spirits there shouldn't be a place for spell like Urano Metria."
"I think you still used something that only Celestial Spirit Mages has. It's because Urano Metria is a spell of Celestial Spirit Magic. In short it should be possible thanks to bond with spirits. Gran Doma mentioned it naming it 'star attribute."
"You're right again. However your explanation is incomplete. Yes, my Urano Metria is based on some kind of bond with Celestial Spirits. Yes, its power originates in Celestial Spirit World. The point that I'm trying to emphasize is this kind of bond is not a contract and not a friendship. It's something more independent. It'sthird kind of bond."
"I didn't know about that. Honestly I couldn't even guess. Practically everyone says that Celestial Spirit Magic can become stronger only thanks to relation with our spirits."
"Because you didn't think about it like most of us. We were so concentrated on contracts and friendships that we didn't even realize that we had our own star attribute and we have to improve it like others do with theirs. That's why we weren't able to cultivate it properly. Having stronger spirits makes everything even worse. Our own attribute amplified with the power of our Celestial Spirits cheats our senses making us believe that our star attribute comes completely from our relation with particular spirits. Your mother was the main case of this contradiction."
"But how to cultivate star attribute without depending on bonds with Celestial Spirits? Is there something in this world that matches our star attribute?"
"Honestly I don't have a full answer yet, but there's a clue to start with. Of course we can't prove that our star atribute behaves the same way if it's about improving other magical attributes, but most magical attributes have one thing in common. Improving an attribute is greatly related to learning to wield it. Our star attribute is not different in this regard. Your first task is to do something pretty basic."
Hayako showed her simple ball-shaped lacrima.
"You have to influence this lacrima with your magic attribute. This will be your first task. Charge it and uncharge it."
Lucy started to fill the lacrima with her magic power. The lacrima shined in light blue color."
"Wrong!"
"What?"
"You just filled this lacrima with unattributed magic power. You have to do this with your magic attribute."
"Sorry."
"It's okay, but you have to know when you're doing it wrong."
"Can you demonstrate it, please?"
"Fine."
Hayako reached lacrima with her hand and it produced bright yellow light giving feeling nearly as familiar as her magic. It has also blue, purple, green and cyan glimmers. Someone with Lucy's experience couldn't mistake it for something different. It was star attribute.
'It's so dense.'
"Can I?" Lucy aske Hayako.
Hayako agreed. Lucy touched the lacrima again. This time to trying to concentrate on magic accumulated in the crystal. Her body started to glow with colors similar to lacrima. In short she managed to absorb magic from lacrima. The process was really slow. Doing it during any battle is not even worth of consideration if you can't play great game against time. However it's a bit different if you want to get in touch with magic. Hayako was looking at the scene with concerned look.
'She seems to know already what to do. She's trying to make her body more used to star attribute. It's not stupid. She already has some and taking just a bit more from external source would make her able to wield it. Unfortunately that kind of boost is just temporary because transformed ethenano particles don't come from her body. She won't be able to hold it for long just using them.'
Lacrima became blank again. Lucy opened her eyes and tried to fill lacrima with her magic attribute. This time it worked. She managed to do what Kayako ordered to do. But Hayako wasn't quite pleased.
"Lucy you should know that you can't depend on me lending magic from me. Otherwise it's no different from depending on your spirits except your comrade is not a spirit."
Kayako said that while discharging all magic from lacrima.
"Maybe there's some use. Try again. This time without using my magic."
"Okay."
...
Two hours later Lucy was tired. She sat down on the ground and next to her was a golden ball of magic.
"You did it. You manifested your star attribute into this lacrima your first day. Perhaps do you have experience in wielding star attribute?"
"Mostly in using star attribute of my Celestial Spirits so I can forcefully close their gate."
And summon second Celestial Spirit, but Lucy can't admit that she had more than one Celestial Spirit.
"It's a bit similar. Closing gate forcefully requires using pretty average amounts of star attributed magic. But if you are unable to wield star attribute properly you probably had to use it with big amounts of unattributed magic power or your other attributes. Most of Celestial Spirit Mages makes the same mistake making them use a lot of magic power."
"It was like that. I thought it cannot be really helped and I should train to be able to use more."
"We will change that. But first your homework. This will be your first spell to learn."
Hayako pointed her two fingers into dummy's direction. Her fingertips flashed and light formed a four-pointed star. From the center of the star bullet fired making a hole in the dummy.
"I expect you to learn theory behind this spell. I called it Star Bullet, Its idea is based on bullet magic. It looks like bullet magic and the effect is like bullet magic. Despite all of this is still not a bullet magic. You should probably know why. Memorize it and we'll start training it when you are ready. Also take this lacrima. Try from time to time to fill it with your star attribute. Today you did it but it took you too much time which shows that your control over your attribute is very weak."
Hayako gave her papers with spell's theory.
...
In Heartfilia's residence Layla was reading some papers and reports. Heartfilia Konzern was about finalizing their the most important plan: Building first fast unmagical mean of transport: Train. You had to pay for being delivered to another town. But not everybody had magic which made prices going up. In addition, most mages don't have enough magic power to keep magic cars running for longer periods of time. In short: Magic was very easy to utilize source of power, but not really effective.
Of course one would say: You can utilize some lacrimas and fill them with magic power. Lacrimas are not as cheap as you can think. It's okay if you use some to power up some devices, but if you want to do something requiring more power needed lacrimas are getting more and more valuable and more and more unstable. Solidification of magic is not an easy process. Magic particles have to be changed from active form used in spells to storing form to make it able to hold magic particles in active form or rather in their dormant form. Problems with saying which form of magic is dormant and which active are enough to forget about mass-producing lacrimas and that's not the only problem with magic.
The only solution she could think about was to not depend on magic. When she started the business with Jude he was interested in using the fact she was a mage to make some easy money. She had nothing against that as easy solutions for financial problems are easier than hard solutions. Over time they changed their mind. It was clear that people without magic are larger consumer niches and even miracles of magic can't change that. If you want to make real money you have to do something that more people want. This attitude made her into reconsidering the way the world is. Magic is not that important even if sometimes it can create some miracles.
"Good morning Layla sama. I have a letter from Lucy."
Capricorn crossed his gate on his own.
"Oh. Hello. Thank you. Leave it here."
Capricorn disappeared.
After discovering that she can ask her Celestial Spirits to contact with her daughter through Lucy's Celestial Spirit Lucy and Layla decided they would be contacted this way.
Lucy informed her about new teachers. Layla was surprised that one of those was her master. She knew Hayako Agria a bit. She had her own methods to become stronger. Some of her spells could even compete with Zodiac. Before war she lost her husband and later her own children disappeared as entire village in which they lived. According to Lucy there're two girls having hair and style similar to Hayako. Yukino and Sorano. One doing I don't know what somewhere alone in this world and second being slave working on Tower of Heaven. Both with the same last name. According to Jellal from that timeline Sorano happened to be with Brain because she was kidnaped by dark guild and imprisoned. If it's true what Lucy said Layla probably knows where is one of Hayako's grandchildren. In short it cannot be left like that.
'It seems I should write three letters. One for Grand Doma, one for Hayako and one for Lucy. We should pretend that Heartfilia Konzern got intel about dark guild being there while looking for a good location for a tourist spot like Arkane Beach but by chance we discovered location of the dark guild. Gran Doma would of course send a few squads to destroy it. At the same time Hayako needs to be informed about the existence of her grandchild in case Magic Council would be not convinced to deal with it. If a few children with recently awakened magic and slaves were able to defeat entire dark guild Hayako can easily send them to hell with Uranometria. Anyway doing anything without permission of the Magic Council would be illegal.'
Layla grinned inwardly. It's time to make first move. In moments like those she had a craving for a glass of wine. When success is so close it gets you drank more than alcohol. Then in contrast some alcohol can be even somewhat sobering. It's not a good moment to read reports at all when you have to do something about mysterious variables. The case of Tower of Heaven is more complicated than we think. You can't be so unlucky that as many as four organizations like Magic Council, Oracion Seis, Grimoire Heart, Fairy Tail have something related to Tower of Heaven. Choosing better moment to attack the Tower of Heaven may not solve anything.
She sighed, stood up, opened a bottle of wine, poured some into tall elegant crystal glass, and looked on trees outside the window. Standing there she could see a tree with a black crow on it. The crow was clearly watching her giving bad intuition. If an unknown bird like crow cares about staring at you for so long therefore it's a sign of evil.