Chapter 43: The Mysterious Karen Lilica
The city of Magnolia glittered through Lucy's window, a scatter of warm amber lights against the cold dark. Somewhere out there, Loke was doing whatever mysterious, awful thing dying men did when they ran out of time.
Happy sat on her desk, nibbling nervously on his third fish cracker of the evening. "Aye... so what's the plan, Lucy?"
Lucy paced. Her keys clinked softly at her hip with each turn. *"Loke has been avoiding me since my very first day at the guild. Remember? When Mirajane told him I was a Celestial Spirit Mage, and he just... ran."
Happy nodded. "Aye! He was FLIRTING with you and everything, and then POOF! Gone!"
"Exactly." Lucy stopped pacing. "So whatever happened to him, whoever hurt him or scared him or... whatever made him like this... it was a Celestial Spirit Mage. It has to be."
She reached for her key pouch.
Happy perked up. "Are you gonna summon Aquarius? She's scary, but she knows stuff about spirits and…"
"No." Lucy's fingers brushed past the gold keys and found a silver one, small and unassuming, the metal warm against her skin. "Aquarius would just yell at me and then refuse to help. I need someone who actually knows things. Someone whose entire job is knowing things."
She held up the key. The lamplight caught the elegant design, a scroll, wrapped around a staff, the Southern Cross constellation etched into the bow.
"Open! Gate of the Scroll! CRUX!"
The celestial circle flared silver.
A puff of smoke. A gentle rumble, like distant thunder or a very old man clearing his throat.
And then
An elderly turtle materialized infront of Lucy and Happy.
His shell was ancient, covered in intricate, weathered carvings that seemed to shift slightly when you weren't looking directly at them, constellations, maybe, or a language older than human speech. A long, wispy white beard trailed from his chin, pooling on the wooden desk like spun moonlight. His face was wrinkled, wise, and bore the patient exhaustion of someone who had seen everything and was mildly disappointed by most of it.
His eyes were closed.
"You have summoned Crux," he intoned, his voice slow and deep, like rocks tumbling in a distant river. "Keeper of the Celestial Records. State your query, and I shall consult the…"
His head drooped.
His beard settled.
A soft, rhythmic snore escaped his beak.
Happy stared. His fish cracker fell from his grasp and bounced off the desk. "LUCY! HE DIED! YOU KILLED HIM!"
"He's not dead, Happy." Lucy sighed, already reaching for the small silver bell on her shelf. "He's just... working."
"WORKING?!"
"This is literally how he does his job. Scanning records, searching through spirit history, it puts him to sleep." Lucy rang the bell gently beside Crux's ear. TING.
"…and as recorded in the Third Archive of the Silver Concordance, subsection twelve, paragraph…" Crux's eyes snapped open. He blinked once, twice, slow and dignified, as if he had definitely, absolutely, positively not been unconscious thirty seconds ago. "...yes. The query. Proceed."
Happy stared at Lucy with wide, horrified eyes. "Aye... this is WEIRD."
"This is Crux." Lucy knelt beside her desk, bringing herself to the ancient turtle's eye level. "He's the keeper of all celestial spirit records. Births, contracts, history, everything."
Crux's ancient eyes fixed on her. Patient. Waiting.
Lucy took a breath.
"I need to ask you about someone. A human. A Celestial Spirit Mage."
She chose her words carefully, the logic clicking into place like puzzle pieces.
"There's a man. His name is Loke. He's a member of Fairy Tail. Every time he finds out someone is a Celestial Spirit Mage, he runs. He avoids them. He's terrified of them."
Crux's expression did not change. But something in his eyes, something ancient and knowing, shifted.
"I need to know," Lucy said quietly, "which Celestial Spirit Mage Loke had an encounter with. The one that made him like this."
Silence.
The lamplight flickered.
Crux regarded her for a long, long moment. His weathered face revealed nothing.
Then, slowly, he spoke.
"That information," he said, each word deliberate, "is not freely given. The affairs of humans and spirits, when intertwined, become... complicated. Private. The Spirit World does not…"
"He told me he doesn't have long to live."
Lucy's voice cut through the ancient formality like a blade.
"He embraced me, Crux. He said 'I don't have much time left' and then he laughed it off like it was a joke, but it WASN'T a joke. He's DYING. And I don't know why, or how, or what I'm supposed to do to stop it…"
Her voice cracked. She swallowed hard.
"I just need a name. Please."
Crux was silent.
The weight of centuries pressed down on the small apartment. Happy held his breath.
Then, slowly, so slowly, the ancient turtle's eyes softened.
"...Karen Lilica."
The name dropped into the silence like a stone into deep water.
"She was a Celestial Spirit Mage of considerable power. Affiliated with the guild Blue Pegasus." Crux's voice was quiet now, the formal register replaced by something older, sadder. "She died three years ago."
Lucy's breath caught. "Died? How?"
"I cannot say."
"Was Loke involved? Is that why he…"
"I cannot say."
"Crux, please…"
"I have already said too much." The turtle's eyes closed, not in drowsiness this time, but in deliberate, final refusal. "The full account is sealed. The Celestial King has decreed it. I am forbidden to speak of what transpired between that mage and the one you seek."
"But you just gave me her name…"
"A name is not a story." Crux's voice was heavy with the weight of unspoken things. "A name is not a judgment. It is simply... a beginning. The rest, you must find for yourself."
His form began to shimmer, silver light pooling at the edges of his ancient shell.
"Crux, wait…"
"He is afraid," the turtle said quietly. "Not of death. He has made peace with that. He is afraid of being forgotten. Of disappearing without leaving a mark."
His ancient eyes met hers one last time.
"Perhaps you can show him that such a fate is not yet written."
POP.
Silver light scattered like dust motes. Crux vanished, leaving behind only a faint scent of old parchment and the lingering echo of his final words.
Lucy stood motionless, her hand still extended toward the empty space above her desk.
Karen Lilica.
Blue Pegasus.
Three years dead.
And Loke… happy, flirtatious, avoidant Loke… carrying the weight of whatever happened between them like chains wrapped around his heart.
"Lucy..." Happy's voice was small. "...what does it mean?"
"I don't know." Lucy's fingers curled into a fist. "But I'm going to find out."
A sudden sharp knock at her door.
Lucy opened it to find Gray, fully dressed for once, which was suspicious enough on its own, his expression carved from the same stone Erza used for her "someone is about to die" face.
"Loke quit the guild."
The words hit her like a physical blow.
"He... what?"
"Walked into the hall an hour ago. Dropped his guild stamp on Mirajane's counter. Didn't say a word." Gray's jaw tightened. "Just turned around and walked out. No explanation. No goodbye."
Happy made a small, wounded sound.
"Everyone's looking for him," Gray continued. "Erza's organizing search parties. Even Elfman is out there, bellowing 'A REAL MAN DOESN'T RUN AWAY' at random street corners. But..." He hesitated. "...you look like you already know where he went."
Lucy's hand drifted to her chest, pressing against the fabric of her shirt. No Resonance here, that pull was for Natsu, always Natsu but something else. Something that felt like certainty.
"The cemetery," she whispered. "On the hill. Outside town."
Gray frowned. "Cemetery? Why would he…"
"There's a grave there." Lucy was already grabbing her coat. "Someone he... someone he lost."
"Lucy, wait…"
"I have to go alone, Gray."
She paused at the door, looking back at him. Her eyes were steady now. The confusion, the frustration, the helpless worry, all of it had crystallized into something harder.
"This isn't a fight you can help me with. It's just... something I have to do."
Gray studied her for a long moment. Then, slowly, he nodded.
"Don't do anything stupid."
"Me?" Lucy managed a thin smile. "Never."
She slipped out into the night.