Date: Late February X787
Location: Council Citadel — Observation Deck, Era
The Council tower loomed over Era like a blade carved from stone and pride. Ethne, one of the youngest councilors ever appointed, stood alone on the observation deck. Below her, streets spiraled in careful coils around the tower's base—an illusion of order the world no longer honored.
Crystalline leyline monitors glowed before her. One by one, they marked anomalies: small, seemingly random disruptions in mana flow across southern Fiore. Tiny nodes pulsing red.
None large enough to incite panic.
All placed with purpose.
She touched the controls lightly. The leyline pattern distorted, showing convergence points. Glyph echoes traced paths to known vault ruins, including the sealed strata beneath Magnolia.
Another fragment of an old threat resurfacing.
A quiet step behind her drew her gaze.
Her aide bowed. "Report from eastern data post. Traces of Ky'run resonance were found again. Matches the interference that preceded the Trial of Blood and Chains."
Ethne's eyes narrowed. "Is it centralized?"
"No, Councilor. Diffuse. Spread across multiple inactive sites. Whoever is moving... they're not trying to awaken anything."
"Not yet," she murmured. "They're preparing the soil."
The aide hesitated. "Should we escalate security protocols?"
Ethne didn't answer immediately. Instead, she tapped a private crystal embedded in her ring.
"Send a direct lacrima to Teresa," she said. "Encrypted. Do not route it through open channels."
The aide blinked. "Teresa of Fairy Tail? That's—technically off-record protocol."
"She's not Council," Ethne replied. "That's why I trust her."
She turned back to the map.
"Storms gather in silence. She walks ahead of them."
Location: Magnolia — Eastern Ruins Sector
The remains of a former Council outpost lay half-buried in soil and time, overrun by ivy and rooted disinterest. Its protective wards had long since dissolved, lost to neglect, sabotage, or simply the grind of years.
Teresa stood in the shattered warding chamber. Broken glyph stones lay in ragged rings, dust covering everything but the center pedestal, where faint magical residue shimmered.
She stepped closer.
Her Yoki stirred—not in violence, but in quiet communion. The glyph responded as if recognizing kin. Teresa's energy threaded into its cracks, triggering a whisper pulse.
For an instant, she saw it: a message bound not to words, but to resonance.
"Marked. Watched. Invited."
The energy collapsed.
She didn't move.
Footsteps approached from the treeline.
She didn't turn.
"You're hard to track," said a voice—dry, intelligent, faintly amused.
"Hibiki," she said, without looking.
"You knew?"
"I knew you'd follow," Teresa replied.
He stepped into view, projection orb swirling with data in his hand. "I traced the feedback to three more sites. The symbols are shifting slightly—evolving. Someone is testing them as they deploy."
"Deployment patterns?"
Hibiki nodded. "Southeast quadrant. Between Magnolia and Sabertooth's border. They're using old battlefield vault tunnels—sealed since the Fourth Magic War. No one's touched them in years."
"Until now."
"They're using the underground like veins," Hibiki said. "Bleeding into every major guild sector. Quietly."
Teresa turned to him. "How long until they consolidate?"
"Two weeks. Maybe less. Once the glyphs finish calibrating, they can pulse mana back—detonate, distort, or collapse leyline traffic."
She studied him for a long moment.
"Blue Pegasus will stay out of it?"
"We're watching," Hibiki said. "Not interfering. Yet."
She nodded once.
"You think I can stop them alone," she said.
"No," Hibiki said. "I think you already plan to. I just want you to survive it."
A faint pulse rang in her earring.
Encrypted.
She pressed a finger to the rune at her collar, reading the Council message silently.
Her expression didn't change.
"They confirmed it," she said at last.
Hibiki waited.
"Ky'run-class glyphs. Buried near Magnolia's lowest strata. Vault-level readings. They're moving faster than we thought."
She turned away.
"Tell your guildmaster," she said. "Whatever lines were safe yesterday won't hold tomorrow."
"Teresa," Hibiki said, voice softer now, "if this is a trap—"
"I don't avoid traps," she said.
She stepped past him and vanished into the trees.
Location: Lamia Scale — Enclave Interior
That same night, Jura knelt in silent meditation within a circle of stone. Around him, four floating crystals pulsed gently—too minor to alarm, too frequent to dismiss.
Lyon stood at the doorway.
"Still think she should handle it alone?" Lyon asked.
Jura opened his eyes. "No. I think she will handle it alone."
Lyon exhaled. "I don't know whether that's impressive or terrifying."
"Both," Jura said.
He rose to his feet.
"Summon a passive unit. No intervention. Eyes only, near the lower ruins by next moonrise."
"You think the glyphs are bait?"
Jura's gaze darkened. "Yes. And she's the only one they want to see take the hook."