Rhodes stressed repeatedly that he was only making a preliminary guess. It made no difference. Nobody could be stopped from speculating.
The theories multiplied. Even an anonymous Cana made her feelings about the Second Master's conduct loudly known. It wasn't until Rhodes called everyone back to the training schedule that the noise finally settled.
Makarov's brow stayed furrowed for the rest of the evening, quietly trying to work out when his beloved teacher could have made such a mistake. If it had been over ninety years ago, the child in question would be somewhere close to Makarov's own age.
When the session wrapped up and people drifted home, the conversation followed them out the door.
Unfortunately, nobody knew nearly enough about the guild's previous generation to piece anything together.
Precht would never have imagined that a single carelessly worded sentence would do this kind of damage to his reputation.
"What kind of woman would the Second Master's type be?" Mirajane was still turning this over after they arrived home.
Rhodes said, tired, "There may not be anything to it. I could have completely misread what he said."
He stopped mid-sentence and looked toward the window.
Mirajane noticed. "What is it?"
"Someone is reaching out to me." He frowned. "There's a fiery presence to it."
Mirajane asked without thinking, "Natsu?"
"Natsu doesn't know this kind of magic. I'll go check." He raised his voice toward the lower floor. "Lisanna, come keep your sister company."
"Okay!"
After Lisanna came up the stairs, Rhodes stepped to the window and dropped out.
The fiery presence was similar to Natsu's in quality, which gave it a strangely familiar feeling, but there was something different underneath. Rhodes recalled what Precht had said about the Book of END drawing dangerous attention and kept his guard up as he followed the sensation out of the city, stopping somewhere between the edge of town and Natsu's house.
In the field of his Void Divination, a small, fiery red point of light floated silently in the air, rising and falling in slow, gentle pulses.
A thought projection. An incomplete one, at that.
The aura was close to Natsu's, but hotter, and at the same time somehow contained, even restrained. A strange contradiction. He entertained a brief theory that something hidden inside Natsu had quietly surfaced on its own.
"Natsu's friend. Why do you stop?"
A deep, resonant voice. The hot presence seemed to move with it, reaching toward him. The feeling that came with it was fierce and nearly overwhelming, yet something gentle lived underneath. He couldn't think of any person who carried magic like this.
Not a person. This was closer to a dragon's magic.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Igneel."
Rhodes believed it almost immediately. The flame power was purer than the Purgatory Dragon's and more forceful than the flame dragon he had encountered in the Giant Village. The only one who could carry fire like this was the Fire Dragon King.
He adjusted his tone. "Are you able to appear like this without consequence?"
The deep voice came again. "What are you referring to?"
Rhodes felt a presence within that point of light, watching him.
"The Dragon Soul Technique."
"As expected. You already know." Igneel's voice carried certainty. "You've finished reading that book, haven't you?"
Rhodes nodded. "You must have known the moment I came into possession of it. Why did you wait this long to reach out?"
When Rhodes had first obtained the Book of END, Natsu had been present. Igneel, hidden inside Natsu, would have sensed the book's aura at that same moment.
"I thought you needed time. And I needed time as well. Regardless, you already know Natsu's identity."
"Yes. At this point I understand it better than he understands himself."
"And what do you make of it?"
"Absurd as it is, it's not that difficult to accept. What I haven't worked out yet is how to tell him."
Igneel was briefly quiet. "You intend to tell him?"
"Of course. Do you think I shouldn't?"
Another pause, longer this time. "I have always believed it was better to keep the truth from him, for now."
Rhodes shook his head. "Natsu isn't a child anymore. He has the right to know where he comes from. He also has the right to decide what he does with that knowledge."
There was only a point of light in front of him, but Rhodes had the distinct impression he was looking at a dragon's smiling face.
"He has made great friends," Igneel said, with something warm in his voice.
"Thank you. On another note: do you know of any way to break the Super Living Link Magic?"
"If the target of the link is me, I can simply burn the magic away."
Rhodes stared at the light. "Burn away a magic that is nearly undetectable with flames? Is that actually possible?"
He could accept the idea of burning away an enemy's magical attack, or canceling it out with opposing fire. But this magic was something closer to a curse, invisible and intangible. There was nothing to grab hold of and incinerate.
"Do not underestimate fire magic developed to its absolute limit. With the Fire Dragon King's flames, this kind of thing is within reach."
"Then Natsu, having learned your magic—"
"Natsu is my son. He will be able to do it one day. His flames are not there yet." A pause. "That training camp of yours is somewhat useful to him. But it is too gentle."
Rhodes opened his mouth and closed it again. He had set the intensity as high as he believed anyone could reasonably endure. Most of the guild treated him like some kind of monster on a daily basis. And it was still too gentle?
"You mean the kind of training that goes far beyond what ordinary people can survive, as long as it doesn't actually kill him?"
"That is correct."
Rhodes nodded in silence. Truly beyond a biological father.
"There may also be another path."
"What kind?"
"Pursue the root of the magic path itself, and resolve it from the source."
The root of the magic path. The Second Master would know more about that framing than anyone. Though Rhodes was fairly certain Igneel wasn't suggesting he pursue any Great Magic Era.
He probably meant the true origin of magic itself.
"I've heard many arguments on that subject. Some have even taken theoretical shape. What specifically are you referring to when you say the root of the magic path?"
Igneel said simply, "I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"That is something you will have to work toward yourself. Only you can reach it."
"That's an extremely abstract answer."
Rhodes had hoped for something more precise. Igneel, however, had no intention of continuing that thread.
"I have the answer I came for. My foolish son is in your hands."
The fiery red point of light began to dim, scattering small particles of light into the surrounding air.
Rhodes spoke quickly. "Won't you meet with Natsu? He has been searching for you for years. Wendy and Gajeel too. They want to see Grandeeney and Metallicana more than they can say, even if it's only a conversation like this one."
"It is not yet time for us to meet. Please do not tell him you have spoken with me. The cost of the Dragon Soul Technique requires us to preserve our strength as much as possible. For the final—"
The light vanished. Igneel's voice scattered into the night, breaking apart before the sentence could finish.
He hadn't needed to finish. Rhodes understood.
When the Dragon Soul Technique was lifted, the dragons hidden inside the Dragon Slayers would not be able to remain active for long before they dissipated entirely. What strength they had preserved was for the final battle. It could not be spent on seeing the children, no matter how much any of them wanted that.
As for why Igneel had spent that strength on this conversation instead—perhaps he had wanted to know how Rhodes thought of Natsu. Perhaps he had come specifically to point toward the way to break the Super Living Link Magic. Perhaps both.
Rhodes said quietly, to nothing in particular, "Thank you. That is already enough."
Knowing there was a way to break it was enough.
And if the dragons' strength turned out not to be needed against Acnologia in the end, then maybe there would be time afterward. Time for Natsu and Wendy to spend with their parents.
Rhodes let that thought sit with him.