Nuala Nazari had arrived in Magnolia mere hours ago. She was skipping through the streets in a skimpy dress and her shiny hair was cascading down the length of her back beautifully. The Voidling had been spending her time looking through the different shops and boutiques of this city, which was so very different from everything she was used to back home in Dahlia. Magnolia was bloomy, like its name, and while everything appeared to be more high class and fancy, it wasn’t as strict as Crocus or Era – it was more of a hotspot for tourism and she could tell by how many different people she saw on the streets that not all of them were locals.

Springtime had finally arrived and the weather was lovely. Mild temperatures, a cloudless sky and the sun was shining brightly. She could have asked for nothing more, but unfortunately the Voidling wasn’t on vacation. She had been tasked with scouting the streets, while looking as natural and unsuspicious as possible – and getting a rough idea of what the citizens were in need of and if Daeva Eye could possibly be the guild to provide for them. At least that’s how she worded it herself. Kaiser Bo’s initial demands had been far more...explicit, so to speak. Nonetheless, the Voidling wasn’t here to have a bad time and she didn’t intend on being here for a long time either so as soon as she could, she would insert herself into the crowd and listen carefully to the topics that were being spoken about.

Her face marks had been painted over with makeup and her supernatural hearing allowed for her to stay a tad bit further away from groups of people while still being able to eavesdrop without problem. And what she heard made her quite curious! Rumours of a beast tormenting the villagers was going around town and some unlucky kid had been chosen as its slayer. Nuala couldn’t help herself – she knew a rookie when she saw one. Curious as to where all of this would lead her, the clever thief followed Jin from Fairy Tail on his journey to seek out and slay said beast, making sure to stay in the shadows while she stalked him.

Since she made no sound when moving and he clearly wasn’t the most aware person, none of this proved any problem to her.

He was excellent at tracking though, she had to give him that. He arrived at a small cave that clearly had someone living inside and much to her shock, he walked straight up inside – just like that. Nuala (who was armed to the teeth underneath her cute dress) raised her hand in an attempt to stop him, but he was gone before she could say much. This didn’t last long however, as she heard a shriek, followed by some words she couldn’t quite understand and a loud, beastly growl. The Voidling didn’t hesitate for long, but walked up to the entrance of the cave and readied herself into a fighting stance.

Once the poor human emerged from the darkness, she grabbed him by his shirt, pulled him behind her and, with utmost elegance, punched the Wyvern in the face, causing it to stumble backwards into the cave. “Oh dear.” Since the Voidling also had night vision, she could clearly see what was bothering the poor thing – but she also wasn’t about to wrestle a wyvern on her own (not with that dress on!).

And so, before the beast could take too much time to recover, Nuala crossed the distance with a quick dash and punched it again, effectively knocking it out. It wasn’t dead of course, but at least now the spear and the noose around its neck could be removed without either of them risking to have their limbs bitten off.

“Don’t just stand there! Help me!” She yelled at the kid from Fairy Tail.

When Jin pulled a lacrima orb out of his pocket to light up the dark cave, Nuala frowned at him for a moment, wondering what he was doing that for. The Voidling sometimes forgot that not everyone had her eyes and could see in the dark. Once it dawned upon her, she quickly nodded in agreement. “Oh, of course. Very handy!” It was meant as a compliment although she couldn’t help but wonder what kind of person just randomly carried a tool like that around with them at all times. Perhaps he had come here more prepared than she had initially thought?

Nuala was often guilty of judging people a little to early and clearly this was one of those cases as she had to consider herself quite impressed with his work on the unconscious beast. Nuala didn’t deal with Wyverns often as they were – ironically – not very welcome in Dahlia. With Vampires, Werewolves and god knows what else present in the woods of Aldenwald, the giant, flying crocodiles hadn’t been able to make it very high in the food chain and therefore preferred to stay away from all that was more dangerous than themselves.

“Yes, of course!” He had asked her to hold the Wyvern down and Nuala simply went along with it; she sat herself comfortably on top of the monster and pressed it down not so much with her weight, but with her strength instead, while the human did his work. He removed the noose from its neck and, with a firm grasp pulled the broken shaft of a spear out of its back. Once the bandages had been placed (with utmost care, she acknowledged), Nuala dismounted the beast and both of them hurried out of the cave. The Wyvern, who was now no longer under so much pain seemed a bit grumpy still, but peacefully retreated back into its cave after growling at them for a bit.

She noticed how satisfied the Fairy Tail mage seemed to be with his work, so the Voidling pulled him a few steps away from the cave – she didn’t want their lingering scents to provoke the beast any further – before she finally responded to him. “My pleasure, Jin. I'm Nuala.” And without hesitation, the woman gave him her most dashing smile. “And you were right! You do indeed owe me one. In fact, I couldn’t help but overhear that you are from Fairy Tail? I would like to talk a little bit about that if you wouldn’t mind. Join me for a walk?” Nuala’s smile was inviting as she offered to walk him back to the city. Of course she tried her best to hide the fact that she had come here (and helped him) because she had ulterior motives, but Nuala believed that he could benefit as much from it as Daeva Eye. After all, they clearly needed the help.

Nuala almost scoffed at the young human; he handed her a good luck charm and happily babbled along and she wondered what life would be like for her, if only she could be this carefree. She took the charm from him without a thank you and merely gave it a long look. It brought back memories she wanted to suppress right now. “The last time a man gave me a charm,” she said, slowing down her pace so he would too, only to eventually come to a halt, “he broke my heart and ruined my life. Right now I’m on an everlasting quest to kill everyone he loves and then myself.” Silence swept across the sunny hills of Magnolia and Nuala’s expression was blank for a long moment before she burst into laughter.

“Haha! Just kidding!”

Before they continued their little trip however, Nuala wanted to speak up on what had been on her mind the whole day. “I’m actually in a guild already,” she began and thought about whether or not it was a good idea to show him her guild mark. Considering its location, the woman decided against it. “It’s not too far from here actually. It’s called Daeva Eye in Dahlia City – ever heard of it? I’m sure you have.” Magnolia and Dahlia were neighbouring cities so it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to assume that word had gone around Fairy Tail that a new guild very close to their own had been on the rise. Since the Voidling herself wasn’t from this country, she didn’t know much about Fairy Tail. Only that it was an old guild with very little influence on its people, having seen much brighter and popular days in the past.

"You see, thanks to our master’s hard work, our guild’s influence has been spreading across all of Dahlia, which brought a lot of positive results with it. Did you know that there’s an excessive amount of monsters in the woodlands near town? It’s actually why I’m so good at dealing with monsters like the Wyvern – because there’s so many of them at home and the citizens of Dahlia need our protection!”

Nuala was surprised at how much sense she was actually making. Initially, the Voidling assumed that Kaiser’s thirst for power was only natural for a person like her and therefore she wanted her influence to spread not just within the city, but across the region. But all things taken into consideration, perhaps it was the best decision for Magnolia to fall under Daeva Eye’s control.

“And lately we’ve been looking to expand. Fairy Tail’s seen brighter days and I think both your guild and Magnolia would benefit from being governed by Daeva Eye. I was hoping I could convince you and the citizens of Magnolia that our protection and the unification of east Fiore under our guild's banner will be well worth it.”

Nuala wasn’t big on politics, so she hoped this would do the trick. Perhaps helping him with the Wyvern had left a good impression on him and he could see the benefits of a conquest like this – after all Fairy Tail would be lying to themselves if they thought they held any sort of real power within the east.

“What do you think, Jin? Will you help me?” Her words were genuine now and she was hoping that this could be resolved in a diplomatic manner, without violence.

Nuala smiled at the medicine man throughout their entire conversation; his voice went flat towards the end of it and it was only natural she supposed–no one liked being controlled by someone else and humans craved freedom as much as any living creature. When he spoke about peace and love, the Voidling couldn’t help but feel as though she still had a long way ahead of her, if she would ever find those things for herself at all. The guild had only been a beginning but she was growing uncertain as to where it would lead her and whether or not that was where she wanted to be at the end of all of it.

“The road will be rocky, but not for us I’m afraid,” she spoke softly as he walked away from her. Jin hadn’t agreed to helping her, but considering that he wasn’t putting up a fight either was enough for the woman. As he turned away and left the scenery, the sun was beginning to set. Nuala knew what she had to do at this point and peace, as nice as it sounded, had probably never been an option to begin with. That concept simply didn’t work unless everyone believed in it–and a single glance at the world around her told her that that would never be the case. Nuala knew that when it came down to it, she only had herself and her guild to rely on and no one else would protect her, search for her and save her.

Especially not those Fairy Tail idiots.

There was no regret in Nuala’s heart when she returned to the Wyvern’s cave, beheaded it and carried it’s bloody remains back to town. She wanted the citizens of Magnolia to see what Daeva Eye could offer to them. And she wanted them to understand that violence was often necessary to reach a sense of security in which everyone felt at ease. The beast might have been irritated by its wounds, but who promised the farmers that lived outside the city walls, further away from the busy shopping streets of Magnolia, that this particular wyvern was going to leave their cattle alone once it regained its strength?

Nuala was never a soft-hearted person and she most certainly wasn’t about to become on.

The people of Magnolia were shocked by the discovery that the Fairy Tail mage assigned to this mission hadn’t returned and surprised to learn that it was another guild’s member that had slain the beast at last. Nuala spared them the details and just as she had expected, the villagers were simpler people and it was easier to convince them. They didn’t care as much about politics but they understood what safety and protection meant–and what it was worth in a world filled with monsters and evil. Nuala was able to convince them that spreading Daeva Eye’s influence across their lands would only benefit them and that they should rethink and consider if what Fairy Tail could offer them at this rate and state they were in was truly enough.

At last they agreed to surrender this part of Magnolia and Nuala, via telepathy, delivered the happy news to her guild’s mistress, Kaiser Bo.