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"We came here to farewell Mavis Vermillion, the first master of Fairy Tail and a friend to many."
A girl in a pink dress was sitting on a tree, her bare feet hanging in the air. She was observing a funeral ceremony held in a small cove on the eastern side of the island; more people were gathered here than the island saw ever since the only village here was razed to the ground and all but one killed by an enemy guild.
"She was light of the guild; strong and unwavering leader. In spite of losing her parents and hometown, she never succumbed to despair and kept walking forward with a smile instead. When me, Yuri and Warrod came here in search of a treasure, she fearlessly demanded to go with us; not caring for the conflict of interests and not scared of the world she never saw. Instead, she had beaten Yuri in his own game and made him promise to show her fairies."
In spite of tradition, none of them wore black. There were colourful capes and straw hats; costumes only considered acceptable because they were guild mages; far more practical trousers and jackets with many pockets. T-shirts stood out in their normalcy, and so did skirts.
"It's thanks to Mavis we've learned magic and founded Fairy Tail. She risked her life in order to save a friend and lead us to a victory. It was her who gave the guild its name and a spirit of what she wished it to be; an eternal adventure and a place to come back to. A home welcoming everyone and place to laugh with your friends in."
The girl jumped off a tree, but instead of landing on her feet, she hovered above the grass. No one betted an eye on this. They all listened in the same solemn silence; no expression twitched, no startled glance was given.
"She always looked into the future with a smile. So today, we honour her not with tears, but a promise to carry on her spirit; to live our lives to the fullest and never disregard the legacy she had given us!"
The girl chuckled lightly and smiled. The guild, being who they were, threw a party after the funeral. All were laughing, drinking, brawling and joking – all but the current guild master, who sat aside the commotion and spent his time observing waves crashing against the shore. The girl stood next to him.
"Thank you," She said quietly, night too serene for her to disturb it with a loud voice. He didn't do as much as rise his head. "It must have been hard."
Next day, they left. Campfires were extinguished, bottles picked up and exceptionally non-functional friends dragged back on the ship. No sign of their presence was left.
The girl looked at the horizon before turning around and heading back into the forest.
Tenrou Island was an unchanging asylum. Far from the continent and trading routes, it gave only few reason to visit and even less wandered in here by an accident. Isolated and with no human intervention, the island was free to live and breathe to the rhythm set millennia ago and undisturbed ever since, protected by magic of the great tree on the rare occasions it had inhabitants other than endemic animals. It was the same in the age of dragons, the same when magic became indivisible with Zeref's crimes in eyes of the common people, and the same it stayed as mage guilds emerged to gather those blessed with a gift of magic. The same, it seemed, the island was going to remain for the rest of the eternity; unbothered by dynastic changes, wars, ground-breaking discoveries; an eternal heaven for those seeking escape from matters of mortals, tired of ever-changing world.
Long time ago, Mavis had been calling Tenrou Island home. She had lived here alongside Zera, longing to see the world she read so much about, but happy nonetheless; too young to grow bored with the secluded island, nosy enough to always find something new and interesting to keep her occupied. But long ago it was, and she had outgrown this place; saw the world and found her own place in it, far from her childhood home and its fixed landscape. She never intended to return. Nothing could be found there except books she knew by hearth and old memories.
Fate had a different idea. What had been place of her beginnings also became her epilogue; a never-changing prison for a never-changing memory of a girl. She was bound to wander the golden forest, yet another piece of the eternal landscape, nothing but a name on the gravestone to a passing traveller.
Mavis was ghost of the island.
Three years after the funeral, Zeref appeared on the island. He didn't have a ship, or even a boat – no, in one moment he wasn't there, and then he was with no sign left a second ago no one stood in the spot. Mavis only noticed his arrival because now, when she was merely a spirit, magic of the island felt like a part of herself and the spell he had used was like an arrow who pierced through it with a deadly precision, only to vanish without a trace.
She still felt his presence, an empty spot within the island's aura. Not that she knew who exactly he was, at the time; she didn't knew his magic as she did her friends', with whom she fought alongside countless times; not with how brief and scarce their meetings were, and not with how she only truly sensed his curse before. In what she get a glimpse at now, it was dark in a way only dangerous artifacts from ancient times were and rumbled like a predator too great to be scared of anything.
With sense of curiosity and apprehension she approached him, and she couldn't help how relieved she was to see the familiar, black-and-white silhouette amongst the woods. He seemed to be strolling aimlessly. Mavis decided to join in, because what else she had to do? He wasn't going to know she was right beside him; she wouldn't sooth his loneliness, and he wouldn't satisfy her curiosity, but right here and now, it was still the most meaningful thing she could do.
When she got closer, as if a wasp had stung him, he turned suddenly in her direction, just to freeze with a confused expression when his eyes couldn't find what his magic told him was surely there. "Mavis?" He asked uncertainly and took few steps in her direction. "But… It can't be. You're dead. And that's not how a ghost feels."
"Um…" she muttered, slightly flushed by sudden attention after years of being either alone or unnoticed.
Zeref, seemingly flustered by her very existence, kept staring at her with a puzzled frown. He reached our hand in her directions and before Mavis backed off, unnerved by his proximity, she felt a soft glimmer of a diagnostic spell. "Huh. So that's what happens when an immortal dies? If you can even call it death."
"What do you mean?"
Surprisingly, he answered – or simply continued speaking, as he didn't really react to her words. "You're body died, but spirit remained alive, from what I see," He murmured. "How… Unusual. Dragons possess similar ability, but I have never saw it happen to a human being. My best guess is that my curse didn't fully overcame yours and it remained strong enough to tether you to this world, but without examining the body, it's hard to say for sure."
He withdrew his hand and eyed her curiously once again, exactly like Precht would a particularly interesting magical artifact.
As if she was no longer a person, but a peculiarity of magic to be studied.
Mavis forced herself to smile and skipped away from him. It was better like this; better for him not to mourn, not to cry because of her. No point to long for her, when they couldn't be friends either way. It was good he moved on, really! She partially expected him to do something really stupid or dangerous, so this outcome was perfect.
She didn't saw change in Zeref's expression; how it faltered and how he looked away, so his quiet 'sorry' took her by surprise.
"I upset you somehow, didn't I?" He said and paused, as if giving her place to answer. "Right. You can't speak. Not in a way I can hear, at least."
She turned back in his direction. He was looking at the ground with slumped arms, his previous curiosity dissipated. "How did you knew, then?"
Zeref answered nothing; instead, he sat down and rested his back against a tree. He seemed to simply… stare into space. Nothing potentially interesting was in a direction he was looking in; just a wall of trees and bushes, with no flowers to give it more colour or wild animals to bring it movement.
Mavis took few steps in his direction. Nothing.
Just black, hollow eyes staring through her.
Hesitantly, she sat next to him and put her hand on his shoulder.
Slowly, as if awoken from a trance, he blinked and looked in her direction. For a moment, there was a spark of life in his eyes – but then he looked away once again and she could only see guilt on his face. "Why aren't you with your guild?" He asked quietly. "Nothing is here, just ruins and wilderness. There, you could at least watch over them."
Why, indeed? For three years she spent here, she never tried to leave. Never dared to put a step beyond the shore.
"How could I?" She asked. Knowing her answer would remain unheard somehow made it easier to speak. "I killed Rita. I ran away and pushed all responsibility on Precht without a word of an explanation. The least I can do is to let them move forward without worrying about a ghost."
Once again, Zeref gave her no answer. He shifted his gaze away from her and looked at the forest in front of him instead. And she looked too, observing movement of leaves stirred by the wind and their dozens shades of green.
At the beginning of a new year, Precht and Warrod set up a barrier which protected Tenrōjima's location.
They came, did their job and left, barely exchanging a word.
Yuri wasn't mentioned.
"I have a newspaper," Announced Zeref.
There was, in fact, a newspaper spread on the flattest rock in the vicinity. It was black-and-white and printed on a poor quality paper a producent didn't bother to sew together. According to a date in a corner, it was nineteenth November X699.
According to Zeref, it was January. Eventually February. He didn't bother to search for a calendar as well, so he wasn't sure.
Still, Mavis was looking at it with wonder usually reserved for stunning natural phenomena and the finest of artistic masterpieces. No that Zeref was any better – basing on his expression, one would be forgiven for assuming it was a mighty beast he bested after days-long battle he brought at her feet, not a daily newspaper you could buy for a penny in any newsstand.
To be fair, for him such a mundane matter was often more taxing than killing any creature, predator or not. Death would come at his call at any time, but control over it was a rare commodity; a prize he always needed to fight tooth and nail for and never without paying a price.
As if sharing her eagerness to read, wind flipped a few pages and stopped on an article about nomination of a new council member; a green-haired woman named Perth Kirten Mavis hadn't heard of before. According to it, she had served seven years as a Rune Knight before switching to more political career path.
Yuri would have rolled his eyes on it; said to leave politics to politicians and that after trading wars, they should concentre on Fairy Tail, not puffed up councillors and their meddling.
It was a long time since she had last seen him; he didn't come at the funeral, probably too busy taking care of his son, so it was-
It was at that day.
"You think Yuri's okay?" She wondered out loud, but Zeref just settled next to her and turned pages back to the beginning. "Makarov must have grown up a lot. I hope he doesn't cause much problems! He's what, four? He must be running off all the time now."
"It looks like humanity keeps committing the same mistakes every time I read this type of thing," Sighed her companion and all grass around him vanished. She looked at what was written on the opened page. A terrorist attack carried out by a (now dark) guild called Lupus Shade, which disagreed with the council's decision to ban wars between guilds. "Senseless bloodshed, that's what it was."
Her eyes wandered to a list of people killed in the attack. Some names she recalled from her time as a guild master and a general, some she didn't. None she considered a friend. None was really a reason to mourn; people died and while she condemned deaths of mere bystanders, it wasn't a reason to cry. She was a general, once, and it was the part of her which calculated lives and moved people on the great chessboard of a battlefield what couldn't understand what Zeref was so upset about.
Then, she looked at the end of the list and his reaction suddenly seemed insultingly mild.
Yuri Dreyar of Fairy Tail, the letters said.
"Senseless, isn't it?," Zeref agreed with the sobbing air next to him. Not that he heard her – it was just a guess she was sobbing, based on the way her presence curled into itself in a vaguely distressed manner. "Granted, it's probably worse for you. He was never a friend to me, just a passing companion."
Magic – no, Mavis – shifted slightly. Maybe she looked at him, maybe said something. He wouldn't know.
"At least Makarov doesn't need to worry about ending up in an orphanage. The guild will take care of him. You've gathered good people; they won't abandon him."
"Well," he murmured. "I don't have a right to judge it, I suppose. I only ever met Precht and Warrod. Still, people of the same breed often attract each other. It's hard to imagine a guild you have founded would end up abandoning a child of one of its own."
"I've found a kid. Whoever kicked him out has no sense of value, if you ask me. I never saw anyone with a magic like this and he's not even ten; once he grows up, he's going to be an invaluable investment."
"He didn't have a name, just some stolen rags. I didn't need to even try to convince him to come; he glued himself to me the second he realized I'm not hostile."
"He really looks like you."
It was somewhat impressive how inactive Zeref could be, Mavis mused. It was almost as if he was hibernating. He slept most of the time, and when his ever-confused body decided it wouldn't stand a minute of rest more – sometimes after twenty hours, sometimes after one – he just wandered aimlessly.
He didn't spoke.
He didn't eat.
He didn't seem to even see. His eyes were empty, pitch blackness of a starless night. They lacked even embers of life she saw in him beforehand. He moved automatically, walking only because his body wouldn't let him fall asleep once again if he didn't. She would say he was determined not to put in any effort, if not for a dreadful feeling those hollow eyes couldn't possibly hide a soul capable of any motivation.
So Mavis talked. About past and present; stories she shared with Zera and animals she spotted. About magic, plants, struggles of being a guild master and joys of belonging to a guild; how they travelled in search of fairies and fought in a war. About time than never was, one she had read about only in books.
She chattered with a smile, always optimistic and cheerful, and as she did, a doubt starting to creep into her hearth if Zeref could be helped at all.
It was long after a sunset. She was sitting on the same clearing he was laying asleep on. Its existence must have been a result of the preying death getting out of his control; it would have never been so perfectly round if it was natural. But only unnatural shape and a fallen trunk was any indication it once was a wasteland. Grass had long covered a barren ground, new bushes had already started to grow in place of the ones that had withered away.
"Stars are beautiful tonight." Zeref murmured and Mavis turned in his direction. He was still laying in the same position, as if he had never woken up in, but his eyes were open.
"They are," She agreed softly.
The first S-Class Exams to be held on Tenrōjima were organized in X705. There were three participants, no partners allowed, and only the final round was supposed to take place on the island. Fortunately to everyone involved, at this time Zeref was away in Alvarez and both parties missed each other. By luck, or maybe a whim of fate, they stayed unaware of each other's visits for the next seventy-nine years, presence of the Black Mage revealed in the disastrous trials of X784 when Grimoire Hearth attacked the island and unwittingly summoned Acnologia.
It was during the trials in X705 Fairy Tail members first noticed a ghostly silhouette of a young girl on the island. No one could quite agree on how exactly the apparition was supposed to look like, so it was dismissed as a trick of local magic and quickly forgotten.
"They saw me!" Mavis nearly bounced at Zeref when he appeared on a beach. "I came, and they all looked at me, and they freaked out a little bit, but they saw! I mean, it must have been hazy, and they couldn't hear me, but the last time it was nothing and maybe in a few years they will actually see-"
"Something good has happened?" He asked with a puzzled frown.
"Oh, right, you don't know- So, the S-class Exam was on Tenrōjima this year, and this girl, I think her name is Marie, she ran into me and well- She just stared a long time and muttered something about seeing things, but when I came to their camp, they all got really scared- um, I know this doesn't sound very well, but I wasn't trying to haunt them or anything-" She paused, only now remembering her companion couldn't hear her as well.
But then… He looked as if he was really trying. His eyes were closed in an attempt to tune out distracting visuals and she could feel the faintest haze of his magic spread around. Did it help him sense magic? It wasn't something she ever saw other people doing, nor heard about.
"Oh, right- I think there's still place for a campfire left. Um-" She went in the direction of the forest and stopped to check if Zeref would follow.
He opened his eyes and tilted his head. "You want me to go with you?" She nodded and went a little bit further ahead. "Very well."
It didn't took them very long for to reach their destination; a short stroll during which Mavis talked about the trials and Zeref gave a few vague comments people generally said when they had nothing to add to another's story, but didn't want to appear uninterested.
"Ta-da!" She exclaimed. There was nothing special about this particular clearing, not anymore, but a burned spot after a campfire remained, alongside some stray chicken bones.
Zeref blinked slowly and approached the place cautiously, as if expecting a horde of bandits to jump at him from bushes. "There were people here?"
"Yup!"
"Your guildmates?
Mavis nodded vigorously.
"I… see," He spoke hesitantly and backed off slowly. "They're not here now, right? It wouldn't be good if we ran into each other."
No, it wouldn't. She didn't miss how grass blades had already started to crumble under his feet. "They left days ago."
"I probably should leave for now, just in case." He sighed, but before he made a move, Mavis stood in his way.
It wouldn't stop Zeref even if she was corporeal. It wasn't about stopping him, though. It was about a gesture and intention behind it; conveying that she didn't want him to leave.
He seemed to understand as he smiled softly. "You miss being amongst other people, don't you?" They weren't standing in a vibrant, green forest now, but in a cemetery of bare tree trunks.
"A little," She laughed. "It's not so bad. I'm not completely alone, after all. It's like living with Zera in a way, just this time, I'm the invisible one."
"It's good they visit from time to time, I suppose. I hope you got to catch up with them."
"Maybe the next time! I don't think anyone recognized me. Well, only Tasro knew me beforehand and he was a little kid at the time. It was to be expected." She puffed her cheeks. "I wish Precht hadn't ran off so quickly. Honestly, it's as if he didn't want to celebrate with them. I didn't even saw him."
"I could try to get a newspaper again," He murmured. "Or maybe a magazine. There are some dedicated to guild mages, I think. I never really read this sort of thing, but there should be some information."
"I fail to understand modern fashion," Zeref poked a photo of a woman in bikini from a 'Magical Backstage'. "In my times, a woman clothed like this would be assumed a drunk prostitute and chased away from any public space. And why did they put a list of potential boyfriends in here, of all things? Most readers will never even stumble upon those people, much less get a chance to start a relationship. It's absolutely pointless." He ended with yet another jab at the photo.
The model didn't stop smiling meaningfully, nor did she change her absolutely scandalous pose.
"I also fail to understand what you find so funny in this, Mavis."
How did he knew she was chuckling was to forever remain a mystery.
"Hey, they wrote about Makarov! He destroyed some important statue in Malva- Eh, it continues on the next page." She pressed her lips together, frustrated with her inability to interact with physical objects.
Zeref was unhelpfully sleeping in a nearby patch of sunlight. On times like this, he reminded her of an old, lazy cat – far too concerned with napping to be bothered to do more than walk to the closest water source, and yet content with his inactivity.
She looked at trees hopefully, but they didn't even stir, banishing any hope of wind turning pages for her.
Well. She could wait. It wasn't as if she was in hurry.
NEW SAINT MAGE APPOINTED, a magazine announced to the world. It didn't bother to inform it who was the said mage as well – it was written on a cover, after all. No self-respecting cover would include any meaningful information on the matter it referred to.
Zeref turned pages to the article. His movements were unusually quick, as if he was feeling impatient.
She didn't even need to read it to discover who was the fortunate man; a photo was included. Even if his skin was starting to resemble a tree bark and his hair acquired new, greenish shade, his face and eyes remained the same.
"So it's Warrod? He must have grown so much." She smiled and for the first time in nearly seventeen years, a part of her wished she was with her guild.
"He became a formidable mage." Zeref murmured. There was something akin to pride in his eyes.
Years passed and her companion came and went as he pleased, sometimes vanishing for more than year. Tenrōjima remained the same it always has been; animals died and were born, leaves fell and grew back. A few times S-class Exams were held here.
Nothing much was to do here, even less for a ghost. More often than not, Mavis was bored with it.
She never left. The same certainty which pushed her to go with a team of treasure hunters all those years ago was now keeping her here. She wandered forests and caves, flew on a top of the great Tenrō tree more times than she could count and as even more time passed, she started to understand why Zeref slept so much. There was only as long as a human being could do nothing but walk; a limited amount of words spoken to woodland creature above which you started to feel like an empty shell of your former self.
One day, she came to a shore and took her first step above waves. It took ten more before a doubt creeped into her hearth and another fifteen when she could no longer bring herself to walk.
How much the guild has changed?
How much the world has changed?
Was Precht still the guild master? How many of the members retired, how many has entered? Macarov was a grown man, now, but when she thought of him, a baby appeared in her mind. She had now idea who he grew to become, who he was friends with and what he liked the most. Maybe he was already married and she had no idea with whom. And… That was how it was with the whole guild. She didn't doubt Fairy Tail remained true to its spirit, but as she looked at the horizon, she realized that was she to return, she would find some other guild with strangers for its pillars and aged friends she could no longer claim to truly know guiding a new generation.
She returned on the island. Cowardice didn't suit a Fairy Tail mage, but when Zeref returned and she realized the only person which knew about her existence was also a banner for all evil of this world, she was no longer sure if she could claim to belong the guild.
He was in a chatty mood, this time. Talked about all sorts of things, even mentioned what was going on in Alvarez few times. Mavis was grateful for this. She longed for a sound of a voice of another human being and some great weight have been lifted from her chest when she saw that he looked the same as always.
She had laughed at him for being confused about popular magazines, years ago, but in reality, she was no better. The only difference between the two of them was that he had bravery to actually confront the ever-changing world and didn't keep hiding on a remote island only a handful of people knew about.
Makarov came to visit her grave few weeks after Precht appointed him as a new guild master. He sat in front of it with crossed legs and bowed his head respectfully as he prayed. No one could call him a boy, now. Despite his short stature he was a middle-aged man with a slightly wrinkled face and shoulders slumped under weight of new responsibilities.
"Give me wisdom, Master Mavis," He whispered. How long it had been since she was last called that? "Because I have absolutly no idea what I'm doing."
She laughed and he twitched at her voice. "Just follow your hearth. Times and circumstance change, but as long as you care for your friends, your hearth will never lead you astray."
Makarov looked confusingly around, but as he found nothing, he bowed his head once again. "Thank you, first master."
S-class exams were held on Tenrōjima significantly more often afterwards.
"It will be 7th July tomorrow," Zeref said on a perfectly average day. "It's X777, so I thought you would like to know. It felt like something you would enjoy."
It was tenth July and the first time Zeref's curse calmed down in three days.
He didn't explain what has happened; just disappeared without warning and came back few hours later surrounded by the black wind. It kept reappearing every time it blew up, completely disregarding a fact nothing was left in the area to kill and only after strain of death magic became too much to handle even for Zeref's immortal body, causing him to faint, it vanished.
She sat at his side with her hand on his shoulder. His curse had already claimed her life; it no longer held any power over her.
Praying death stroke again before he fully regained consciousness. She saw his eyes opening for a moment, only to loose sight of him in this hellish tornado and when it died down, they were closed again.
It didn't look like he was breathing.
He woke up eventually, and this time curse of contradiction was weak enough not to knock him out immediately. He managed to reach a nearby pond before he hissed in pain and was forced to battle his own magic once again.
That's how it went for three days. Zeref barely capable of movement, continuously torn apart by his curse and Mavis at his side, as invisible and inaudible as always.
They were sitting in what had been previously a forest, and was a barren wasteland now. Normally, at least tree trunks and bodies were spared, but after being ravaged by death incarnation so many times, not even that was left. It was just blackened ground around and a wall of forest around a two dozen metres away. Zeref was sitting, with his forehead rested on his knees and legs pressed closely to his chest, as if he hoped not seeing it will make reality go away.
"Thank you," he whispered hoarsely. In this cemetery-like silence his voice ringed like morning bells. "Everyone dies or leaves, or I cannot hope to ever come close to them. But even after I killed you, you're still here."
She was standing there, looking at this vibrant, living world just a few steps away, which neither of them could truly reach and didn't know how to explain he was her lifeline too.
Seven years later, the S-Class Exams came and this time around, Zeref was on Tenrōjima.