The Sylvan Fay

All was going well at Fairy Tail's party. She had been one of the mages to help set it up. Her expertise in flora allowed the guildhall to be filled with serene natural beauty. She had even grown magnolias in glorious shades of white and pink. Her finest work consisted of a gradient of them arching over one of the doorways. She even made a touch pool of the town's signature flower floating in enchanted water as if they were miniature gondolas. Children who attended could play with them if they wanted and would discover that the petals could magically change into fun shapes. Atani was quite proud of her work and took pleasure in people finding joy in it. But alas... all good things had to come to an end.

Just as the elf herself stepped away from monitoring her work and took time to wind down on her own, there was a noise so loud that it shook the building. The sky lit up so bright that it penetrated the windows on the ground floor and illuminated the hall's interior. The flash faded almost as soon as it began and Atani could feel her heart drop.


There came the first scream. A bloodcurdling cry in the distance. More explosions sounded.

Atani did not know every person in the guild hall, but she could tell who was a mage from how they responded. Few words were exchanged between them. They all knew the consequences the mana surge brought with it and knew the extent of their capabilities should an attack like this happen. They all knew something like this would happen eventually. But even so, now? At this time? At this scale?

There was no time to waste. Atani knew her place, and it wasn't in the guild hall playing crowd control.


Kardia Cathedral had been turned into a field clinic. Despite the fast reaction times of all the mages gathered in Magnolia that day, the attackers had gotten the jump on them, and a powerful one at that. They even had the gall to attack medical centres. Though she believed they were some of the first locations to be secured, it was still a risk to bring the injured there, especially when there was damage done to the buildings. The Cathedral being a location so sacred to the populace was well protected from the very beginning. It gathered even more security after people started being moved there to get medical treatment.

At first, only a few came through the doors with relatively manageable injuries-- your typical stab wounds and thermal burns. But as time went on, the bodies piled up and the injuries became more diverse courtesy of dark mages. Each one told a story of the magic they possessed or the enchantments on their weapons. Some were wounds that could only be healed by magic similar to that of the Fay's caliber. Her place was with them.

"Rhaich," she cursed as she examined the patient before her. "This is the worst case of frostbite I've seen."

Granted, she lived in a warm forest most her life, but it wasn't as if she hadn't seen the power of an ice mage before. Whoever inflicted this injury though, they were in a league of their own. The woman's hands were frozen black. There was a blotchy gradient transitioning to blue that travelled up her arms. There were other injuries to be taken care of, but these came first. If she didn't act soon, this woman would lose her hands. Maybe more. Though her healing abilities were great, the Wood Elf feared they wouldn't fit the woman's needs.

The Sylvan Fay

A warm saline drip was often used intravenously to warm the body temperature of those who had hypothermia. In this makeshift field clinic though, nobody had access to such supplies. The best Atani could do was ensure the woman before her remained covered in blankets. Once she was done with treating the frostbite, hopefully she could find someone with fire or light elemental magic to provide further aid.

Atani looked down at her own undamaged hands and took a deep breath. Maybe she could try something different...

Holding out her left hand, she coated it in a layer of water and charged mana into it to build heat. She didn't build enough to bring it to a boil, for that would cause further damage to her patient. Instead, she made sure that it maintained a gentler warmth, the kind you wanted running over your hands from the faucet after coming inside from being out in the cold.

In her right hand, Atani tried a spell she had never attempted before. The goal was to extract thermogenic properties that resided within certain plants and incorporate it into her magic in the form of a serum. These particular species of flora were few and far between. Even she had only encountered one breed of it in her lifetime, and even then it wasn't used a medicinal herb. At least, it wasn't when used in its raw form, but when augmented with elven magic... ?

The elf crossed her hands and the two elements independently began to independently spiral around one another. They split into two streams and latched onto the woman's arms. At the point of contact, there was indeed a healing glow, but little sign otherwise of her spell doing its work. She was used to seeing immediate effects, but this wasn't the same as closing a wound or repairing a bone. It would take time, and time wasn't exactly on her side at the moment.


Another explosion. Not one nearly as big as the first, but one that was far closer in proximity. The cathedral rumbled from the sheer force of it. The ground shook; her hands slipped; the spell collapsed.

"Nonononono--" She was close, so close, to healing the frostbite. The majority of the black flesh had been reduced to a more blueish-purple color resembling something akin to a bruise, but the fingertips remained in their original state. She needed to make a decision. "Someone take over for me!" she ordered. "Acute hypothermia and frostbite. I need to go out."

Atani summoned her bow and dashed out of the cathedral. Though the Fairy Tail mages had done a good enough job at keeping attackers away, the battle had grown far too close to the wounded for her liking. Picking the direction that led to the closest sounds of battle, it wasn't long before the elf came across a barrage of fire and ice. In the midst of it all was a young girl who miraculously seemed unscathed.

"What the hell," said the healer under her breath. She notched a magic arrow and fired it at one of the remaining dark mages who were about to try their hand at attacking the shield-wielding girl. It impaled his shoulder, forcing him to drop to his knee and clutch the bleeding wound. "Is everything under control here?"