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Lion's Pride	By : Rhov Category: +. to F > Fairy Tail Views: 10067 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. I make no money writing this. I do it for my own pleasure. Any lyrics are my own or I received permission from the artist.

Chapter List
- 28
- 29
- 30
"So what's so special about Regulus? He is certainly of our time. He is the X factor and the superstar. The Elvis of the fixed stars. He ranks as ultra-fortunate, the most benefic star in the Universe. Medieval astrologers said it would bring glory, riches and fame to all those born under it, and that it was the 'Royall Starre'." - Marina E. Partridge, "Darkstar Astrology"

Chapter 29

The History of the Royal Stars
Lucy sat on her bed with Crux out. The wizened Celestial Spirit was snoring, but she recognized it as the sound of him searching. Gray and Natsu sat in the room with her, but they had both grown bored of waiting. Natsu and Happy began to raid her cupboards while Gray sat in the window and stared out vacuously.
"Lucy," Happy pouted as he gnawed on frozen fish sticks. "Are you sure he's not asleep?"
"Positive," she affirmed. Not a single bit of eager concentration wavered from her face as she continued watching the snoring Southern Cross.
Finally, Crux woke up. "Ooh! Regulus!"
Lucy leaned forward, eager to catch every single word. Natsu dropped his leg of chicken, Happy swallowed his fish down hard, and Gray moved from the window to the couch to sit beside Lucy. He could feel the magic pulsing through her to keep the Spirit manifested. It was nowhere near as much as that time she called out Aries, but it was a steady drain. He hoped it was worth it and they got some answers.
Crux began to lecture in a monotone voice. "Regulus, also known as Alpha Leonis, is the brightest star in the Leo Constellation. Of the twenty-one first magnitude stars, it is the closest to the ecliptic and regularly occulted by..."
"I know all that," Lucy snapped impatiently. "Skip the astronomy lecture."
"Very well. Regulus is also called the Heart of the Lion and is the source of power for the Celestial Spirit Leo. Access to Regulus' power is by means of the Regulus Ring, owned by Leo. However," he added, holding up a lecturing finger, "Regulus was once a Royal Star, Guardian of the Northern Sky, and a Celestial Spirit itself."
"A Spirit?" she asked. "Like you?"
"No. Most stars are weak themselves, just as most constellations have little power. Yet we constellations receive our power from the stars. Without the stars, we would be nothing. Most stars are merely that: sources of power. However, amongst the heavens, there were four Royal Stars, beings of great intellect, not mere hubs of magic, but wise and benevolent. In ancient times, they were called Venant, Tascheter, Satevis, and Haftorang."
"Haftorang," she whispered, remembering the fish-man who accompanied Queen Kefira.
"We know them today as Regulus, Aldebaran, Antares, and Fomalhaut. Long ago, those four were Guardians, royalty, lords over the Spirit World. Above them all was Regulus, the King Star, the most powerful of all. These four stars were creatures of a much higher power than we mere constellations. They technically ruled over the Spirit World, but being incorporeal in nature, they only manifested in the bodies of their constellation Spirits."
Lucy pouted in confusion. "Manifested?"
"They merged with the Celestial Spirits. Leo, Taurus, Scorpio, and Piscis Austrinus were autonomous Spirits; however, in terms you can understand, the Royal Stars could possess the Celestial Spirits in order to dole out law and justice. Yet when possessed, it was not the star alone who decided things, but a perfect union between Star and Constellation. Regulus was Leo, Leo was Regulus, yet both were their own individual selves. Leo could be summoned into the Human World with his Gold Key, opening the Gate of the Lion. Regulus had his own key as well, the Regulus Key, which opened the Gate of the Heart of the Lion. When summoned, the Regulus Key overpowered the Gold Key, and Regulus manifested by merging with Leo, using his body to work powerful magic in the Human World. When Leo merged with Regulus, it made him the strongest Celestial Spirit in existence, which was why the Lion was once considered the King of the Heavens. The Royal Star Keys were made of lapis lazuli and opened the gates to power that, so it is said, could destroy a planet."
"Cool!" Natsu shouted. He leaned forward with wide eyes and a massive smile like a child who was just told that his friend got a new game for his birthday and was eager to play. "Did Loke really have power like that?"
"Indeed!" Crux asserted. "The Lapis Lazuli Keys were some of the most coveted in the world and owned only by Human royalty. Four of the ancient kingdoms held these Royal Star Keys: Kohinur to the north had Regulus, Nyota in the south had Fomalhaut, Fiore in the west had Aldebaran, and Setareh in the east had Antares. With one of those keys, a person could easily win a war. The constellations aligned with those Royal Stars realized this was a double-edged sword. They had access to their full power, making them great and feared. However, in rare cases of conflict, the sheer power of the Royal Star could override the will of the Spirit of the Constellation."
"Loke would lose his freewill?" Gray questioned, not liking the thought of that at all.
"It rarely happened, but there are confirmed cases. They are personal matters, so I cannot divulge them."
"That's fine," Lucy assured. "So what happened to these four stars?"
"The Royal Stars saw that Leo, Scorpio, Taurus, and Piscis Austrinus had too much power, and through their usage, it gave Humans a power they could not handle. The Royal Stars were displeased with being used for petty warfare. They wished to move on, transcend these realms, and leave behind both Humans and Spirits. However, they pitied the constellations affected by their power. Knowing how great a blow it would be to them, the Royal Stars in their wisdom left the decision to the king, Leo. Leo hesitated for a long time, but quite suddenly he agreed to let the Royal Stars leave this existence."
"Because of Kefira," Lucy realized.
Natsu sneered. "That queenie bitch?"
Crux nodded solemnly. "Yamataikoku No Kefira, Shaman-Queen of Kohinur, was the last Human to possess the Regulus Key. I cannot get into the circumstances, since that is private information."
"I already know," Lucy whispered, recalling all Loke had told her when they were prisoners of Kefira and Haftorang. He and Kefira had been lovers until Loke left her for Naomi, the woman he eventually married.
"The Royal Stars moved on; their Lapis Lazuli Keys were lost or destroyed in fear of reviving such frighteningly strong creatures. The disbanding severely affected the four Celestial Spirits involved. Leo lost all but a fraction of his power and had to step down from his station as king. Taurus went from a noble gentleman to a raging pervert. Piscis Austrinus had vehemently fought against the plan. He sulked away, rarely seen, and eventually betrayed all of the Spirit World in his quest to regain his old power. Scorpio was hurt the worst. Antares completely destroyed his Lapis Lazuli Key. Having his heart removed so utterly traumatized Scorpio, and he repressed the memory of ever having been aligned with a Royal Star. What few particles were left of the Antares Key were blended with Scorpio's sand in hopes that it might stabilize him. However, it did little to ease the Scorpion's trauma. Instead, he has apparently formed something like a split personality, since he constantly refers to his attacks as our sand."
"Poor Scorpio," Lucy pouted.
Crux hummed, not commenting on what he thought of the Scorpion's predicament. "After seeing the torment Scorpio went through at the total destruction of the Antares Key, the other Royal Stars gave each of the other constellations fragments of their keys. Piscis Austrinus was given the lip ring of Fomalhaut. Taurus has his Aldebaran stone hidden within the cowbell he wears. Leo was given a small chip from the Regulus Key."
"So with Loke's ring," Lucy realized, "that blue stone is a fragment off of the Regulus Key. Just that tiny bit is that powerful?"
"Indeed! A whole Lapis Lazuli Key would be over a hundred times stronger, making Leo the strongest Celestial Spirit in existence, certainly more powerful than the current Spirit King."
"No way!" shouted Gray.
"Stronger than that mustache-geezer?" Natsu grinned wildly, looking even more eager.
Lucy's mouth dropped numbly. She began to see what Loke had planned, and she did not like it one bit. "What happened to the Lapis Lazuli Keys?" she asked hesitantly.
Crux hummed, which turned into a loud snore.
Happy pouted. "He's asleep again."
"No, he's thinking," Lucy said, waiting intensely.
Natsu laughed in excitement. "Man, to think Loke was that strong! I wanna find that lappy-whatever key so I can fight him."
"You're an idiot," grumbled Gray.
Then there was a pop and Crux opened his eyes. "Ah yes, the whereabouts of the Lapis Lazuli Keys! No one knows."
Lucy sank in disappointment. "Just great!"
"The Antares Key was destroyed, this much is confirmed. The other three Lapis Lazuli Keys were hidden so that the Celestial Spirits could call upon that old power in times of crisis. However, the last law handed down by the Royal Stars was that they should not be called back except in dire emergency. To use their keys for greed of power is considered to be the greatest sin a Celestial Spirit can make. As for where the three remaining Lapis Lazuli Keys were hidden, it is not recorded. Only the Celestial Spirit attuned to the key can find them. Yet they are useless broken. They must become whole."
"Which means," she realized, "even if a person found the Regulus Key, they'd need the missing chip on the Regulus Ring." She looked down at her necklace and the ring threaded through a silver chain.
So that was the reason Loke left the ring with her!
Lucy was stunned to realize what Loke must have been thinking when he shouted at her to find the Key to the Heart of the Lion, the Regulus Key. The only way to completely gain his freedom was to reacquire his ancient strength, stage a coup d'etat, defeat the Spirit King, reclaim his place as the King of the Heavens, and thus Loke would be able to make new rules and arrange things to his favor.
Lucy shuddered at the plan. She did not want to be the reason for a shift in the Spirit World, likely as Naomi probably did not want to be the reason Leo lost his Heart and throne. That poor woman must have felt deep guilt, but also pride that someone would go that far just for her.
She remembered what Kefira said about wanting the Heart of the Lion. That vile woman was after it. If she found it and got the ring, Loke would have no choice but to fight for her side. To have Zeref's minions controlling Loke...
She refused to let that happen!
"You've been helpful, Crux. I'm closing your gate."
However, the old Spirit was already asleep and snoring loudly. She sliced her Silver Key through the air, and he vanished with a pop. Now that he was gone, a plotting look came to Lucy's face, and her brown eyes hardened with determination.
"So what's the plan?" asked Gray.
Natsu leaped up and thrust his fist into the air. "Find the lappy-zuly key and make Loke super strong!"
Gray was about to shout at him to be more serious, but Lucy nodded.
"We need to find it. Kefira is after the Regulus Key, too. If we find it before her, we win. If Loke can be summoned using the Regulus Key, and it'd overpower even the Spirit King's jurisdiction, then that's one way to free him. Perhaps the Spirit King will let us live in peace if Loke is stronger."
"Threaten him!" whooped Natsu.
Happy leaped into the air and cheered. "Aye, sir!"
Gray was a bit more practical. "Lucy, if you do that, it very well might mean war within the Spirit World."
"I'm aware of that," she nodded solemnly. "I don't want trouble for my friends there, but I don't want to lose Loke either. If nothing else works, if I can't get him back by any other means..." Her eyes burned with determination. "...we'll take down the entire Spirit World together!"

End of Chapter 29

Rhov's Corner:
Never get between a woman and her man! Here's some obscure foreshadowing: back in Chapter 14, the Spirit King warned Leo that the Royal Stars were gone and they didn't need their power. After he said that, Taurus reached up to his cowbell and tapped it. A minor action, but here we see why he did that. His fragment is inside that bell. He was obviously thinking about his own star, Aldebaran.
For the four ancient kingdoms, they're not important, but I have fun inventing names. Each kingdom is designated by a direction which matches the Guardian direction of the star. North is Kohinur, and Queen Kefira had the Regulus Key, Guardian of the North. Fiore is far to the west on maps of Earthland, so I state they had the Guardian of the West, Aldebaran. South is Nyota, meaning "star" in Swahili, and they had the Guardian of the South, Fomalhaut. To the east is Setareh, meaning "star" in Persian, and they had the Guardian of the East, Antares.
I brought together some mythology with ancient culture. The FT wiki originally said Loke's ring is quartz, but that sure doesn't look like quartz to me! Recently they changed it to lacrima, but it's from the Spirit World. When I first saw a closeup of Loke's ring in color, I thought it was made of lapis lazuli.
Lapis ring: bit =dot= ly/pPvqyF

Compared to Loke's ring: bit =dot= ly/qsvdBv
Lapis lazuli is a semi-precious stone, lauded in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Caucasus. Lapis is Latin for "stone," and lazuli comes from the Persian لاژورد lāzhward, the name of a place where lapis lazuli was mined, which ultimately comes from a Sanskrit phrase meaning "ring of the king."
So lapis lazuli = "stone" + "ring of the king." An appropriate stone for the Keys of the Royal Stars, as well as the stone of Loke's ring, the King Star, Regulus!
I explained in earlier footnotes that the Royal Stars were part of Persian mythology. So when I state that these Persian Royal Stars have Persian lapis lazuli keys, whose name translates to "stone of the ring of the king"...aha! There is method to my madness! ^_^
=^..^= "I think Rhov is just mad."
"Quiet, Happy! This is the result of ingenious research and years of studying mythology and ancient cultures." *snooty nod*
=^-.-^= "I think you just got lucky in your random research of weird crap."
"Grrr... I think you're not getting any fish tonight. Ha!"
=^o.o^= "Rhov! You're a genius!"
"Good kitty! Have some tuna."
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Lion's Pride