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Heart of an Oracle

Summary:

It is the Heian Period of Japan. And the Hayato people are fighting in defiance of the current emperor. During this time a foreign woman with blond hair washes up on the shores after a storm and takes her as his wife. A woman who has a unique gift as an oracle that she passes to her daughter, knowing her daughter's life will be fraught with strife. Follow along as Lucy grows, is sold as a slave/servant to a noble house. Grows, adapts, and comes into her own as an oracle and finds love.

Notes:

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters; that right belongs to Hiro Mashima. 

Author’s Note: For reference, I did a bit of research to find things that were all in one time period and would overlap with my concept for this story. And, while it is a Bleach and Inuyasha crossover, I ask that you all have patience in how slow I will be updating this, along with the fact that I don’t think this story will be more than 10 to 20 chapters long.

Chapter 1: So the Tale Begins

Chapter Text

Year 813, Month August, Day 31

 

Many of the Hayato Clan were down on the beach to see what had washed ashore due to the storm the night before. Everyone on edge with the war with the Imperial Emperor, whom they did have a treatise with though they didn’t honor it due to the Nobility being liars and backstabbers. They were currently in a lull with both sides recouping their losses and healing the wounds. They were a proud people and just wanted to be free of the tyranny of the Nobility and Imperial Dynasty.

“Reo ( れお) , over here there is a ship,” A man shouted.

The tall raven-haired man looked in the direction the call had come from to see his second in command, waving at him to hurry. Narrowing dark, guarded brown eyes, Reo made his way towards Sora. Curious about this ship and what could have had him sounding almost excited. He was hoping that there might be some supplies, since the raids by the Nobility under the order of his Imperial Highness Shunsui Kyōraku to bring them to heel.

Taking his time to climb over other bits of debris, eyes scanning everything just in case as he made his way through the growing wreckage. The material that the ship seemed to be made out of didn’t look like anything he had ever seen a boat made out of. It was some pale, thin wood. And there was what seemed to be reeds and resin used to seal the planks together into a long, odd oval shape. Though Reo came to a halt as he looked at his friend who was standing beside a person. 

What struck him as odd, was this person was pale of skin and their hair looked like liquid sunlight. That and they wore a gown that was white and so thin it didn’t hide anything at all of the person’s body. With careful, measured steps, Reo came to stand beside Sora before kneeling to check and see if the person was even alive. The moment his hand touched the body, a soft moan came from them. Tensing, he roughly rolled the person over only to fall on his ass in shock. What he was looking at was a woman, one who was well endowed and showing every asset to the world with her thin white gown.

Never before had he seen anyone who looked like her. Though her skin was pale, there was an odd undertone of tan to it making it appear browner than it was. Contrasting against the yellow of the bound hair. His eyes scanned the soft angles of the woman's face as he saw her pale lashes flutter before opening and revealing the warmest brown eyes he had ever seen.

Βοήθησέ με.” (Greek for Help, me.) 

The words were foreign to him. It was a language that was not one he had heard in his many travels all over Japan. Where there were many dialects for the language, though all were the same except for how they were spoken in each region. This was something entirely else, and it scared and fascinated him. And he knew what she said in that hoarse sounding whisper. The look on her face was pleading as she slipped back into an unconscious state of being.

Lifting his head, he looked at Sora, who was staring with his mouth hanging open. Reo reached out and smacked his companion’s shin, getting his attention. Seeing understanding appear in his eyes, Reo gave a curt nod and shifted himself so he could scoop the woman up and carry her back to their small sea-side village. Knowing that her presence would cause problems. 



*****



Year 817, Month July, Day 7

 

Reo looked down at the small bundle in his arms in amazement, unaware of the love shining in his eyes. It had been almost four years since he had found his now-wife washed up on the shore. And now he was holding his new daughter, who was so tiny in his large hands. The girl had the same eyes as her mother, warm, gentle brown orbs that seemed to see everything. And the small tufts of yellow on her head let him know she would have her mother’s hair as well.

“Love, I would like to name her, Lucy,” Layla said from where she lay on the futon.

Glancing down at his wife, seeing that unique smile she reserved for him and him alone. Knowing he couldn’t tell her no, because she had told him months ago that they would have a girl and that she already knew her name. It was one of the odd things about his wife. She was a messenger of the gods. Or that was how he understands what she had explained to him after she was finally able to master their language and speak to each other.

Layla had escaped a large army that had come to destroy and enslave her people on her island called Greece. And that she had been given to a group or sect of people because she had been born with her hair color to be what is called an Oracle. A group of people who held the blood of the sun God Apollo. That had led to rather considerable debate and fight between them because the Sun was the embodiment of a Goddess, Amaterasu. Though in the end, it hadn’t mattered, for Layla could read the messages written in the stars by the Gods. She had known her whole life that she was not meant to be kept a virgin in the temple, upon a mountain. 

“It is beautiful, just like her, Layla,” Reo told his wife as he crouched down and handed his precious daughter back to her mother. “I am glad to be home for this. Tomorrow I must be back to the front line and lead our people.” 



*****



Year 821, Month July, Day 7

 

It was supposed to be a happy day, but it wasn’t. This day that celebrated her birth was now to celebrate death and loss. Closing her eyes, Lucy did her best not to cry as she smelled the funeral, pyre burned her mother’s corpse. Now four years of age, Lucy knew that she had to make her father happy. She hated seeing him so sad.

Opening her eyes, she reached out a small, still chubby hand and grasped his fingers. Lifting her head, she looked at her father as he looked down. Unsure of how or why Lucy knew that things would get better. Not able to communicate that with the world, Lucy smiled up at her father, seeing his eyes widen. Next thing she knew was, she was being scooped up and held in a fierce hug. It was rare for her father showed this kind of affection to her, being the leader and strongest warrior in their clan. 

Again she felt that something was telling her that things would get better. Lucy recalled the talks her mother had with her as she watched her mother slowly wither away and die. Her mother kept telling her to listen with her heart, not her ears, and she too would be able to hear the stars talk. She had no clue what that meant, but if her mother said it, then it was true.

“Papa, I will always be there for you,” she whispered as she finally felt the first of many tears to come to slip down her face. 



*****



Year 822, Month September, Day 23

 

Lucy stared at the woman that was to be her new mother and said nothing as the woman’s black eyes stared back down at her. She wasn't happy that her father had taken a new wife only a year after her mother's death. But he had explained that she had to have a female role model in her life. That she couldn't grow up to be a woman who couldn’t be tamed. A part of her could accept it, her needing a new mommy. Lucy didn’t want this woman to be her mother.

“These are my two sons, Lucy,” The woman, Sarah, said as she pushed the two boys forward towards her.

Lucy looked at the two boys. She knew who they were; she had played a few times with one or both of them, alongside the other village kids, and knew that Sarah knew it as well. Meaning this was what her dad called a formality? So she gave a small nod of her head as she let her eyes flick to each boy. The eldest was called Rogue; he had odd hair that was half black and half white. While his eyes were brown with a strange red tint to them and a scar across the bridge of his nose, he was older than her by two years, making him six. And the younger was almost a carbon copy of him, except for the white hair and lacking a scar. His name was Ryos and her age.

“We shall be living with you from now on, Lucy,” Sarah said in a tone that let held that final note. “I do hope we shall get along. I always wanted a daughter.” 

At this, Lucy let her eyes narrow a little at Sarah. She wasn’t stupid, no, she heard the whispers of the other adults about her Sarah how she had been vying for her father before her mother had arrived after a storm. And noticed how the woman before her would always stare coldly at her mother when they were out and about the village. Lucy was sure that Sarah had something to do with her mother getting sick and dying. But there was no way to prove it, except for the fact her mother got ill after Sarah visited and then would get worse with each visit that kept getting more frequent.


*****



Year 825, Month August, Day 3rd

 

Lucy felt broken inside as she watched the row of funeral pyres burn. The acrid smell of burnt flesh and smoke, making it hard for her to breathe. All her mind could think was that it wasn’t fair. First, her mother four years ago passed away from illness and now her father. He had been alive when they’d brought him back from the battlefield. But due to too much blood loss, he had slipped from the world of the living to join her mother in the underworld. And it had her chest hurting.

“You have no right to cry, Lucy.”

She was lifting her head to look at her now permanent caretaker. Lucy felt the anger bubble in her chest at the woman's harsh words. Sarah had no right to speak words like that to her. This was her father, and Lucy knew that she had every right to cry for her father. But wisely she said nothing to the woman, who after their first meeting told her (only after her father and Rogue and Ryos had left) that she was not to call her mother or mom unless the others were present. Something that Lucy was okay with since this woman could never come close to being anything like her mother.

“Do not stare at me like that or I will hit you, girl,” Sarah hissed to her. “I am now your caretaker and what I say goes. As your father’s late wife, you are now my burden to bear. And that is all you will ever be is a burden, born from a harlot witch that took the man that was to be my husband from the beginning.”

Lucy did her best to keep her thoughts from showing on her face at Sarah’s words. She knew how this woman felt about her mother — calling her a harlot, whore and unworthy whenever she could and making Lucy just plain miserable — often striking her for things that Lucy had no control over. It had made Lucy exceptionally observant and agile so that she would not bruise too severely. And served to help Lucy open her heart and hear what the stars said. Each painful experience in her life was a trial that earned her a new friend after she survived it.

Subtly Lucy ran on hand over her hip and waistline, feeling the faint outlines through the material of her cloak she was forced to wear to hide her pale skin from outsiders that came to the village for either safety or to trade because Sarah didn’t want questions asked and had gotten her father believing that because of how she looked that they’d try to kidnap her and sell her as a slave. Something her father always had worried about with her mother and her beauty. 



*****



Year 832, Month July, Day 21st

 

Lucy leaned herself against the window and looked out it from under the edge of her hooded cloak. Giving a worried huff, she watched the clouds move across the blue sky. A squadron of the Imperial Army had made it to the village. And with both Rogue and Ryos out on the front lines fighting to keep them safe they were unprotected and left open, except for a few of the younger warriors and retired elder warriors, which means that Sarah was the spokesperson for the Village as the late Leaders wife.

It made Lucy sick that Sarah was so greedy for power. She had thought that the woman had finally capped after she had obtained her father when she was young, and her mother had died the previous year. No, it seemed to make things that much worse. Over the past seven years, the Village Elders had tried to get Sarah to marry. But the woman had always manipulated her sons by lying and said that the men were forceful of her person. Or worse, trying to hurt Lucy by forcing her into their beds. This train of thought had Lucy snorting loudly. 

No, Sarah had taken to rubbing ink and ash into her golden hair to make it black so she would blend in better. Not that it did much since Lucy was forbidden from leaving the house without her hooded cloak. Then again, if her blond hair were noticed, it would be cause for concern since Sarah claimed that Lucy was her biological daughter from her late husband and very shy and sick. A bunch of bullshit if Lucy were to be asked. No, Sarah feared that if people saw her without her hair darkened and the hood that they’d try to make Lucy marry as the daughter of the previous Leader and make her new husband the new leader.

Closing her eyes, Lucy let her hand fall to her hips and stroke the keys she had hidden there. Over the years of being made to due to all the menial labor in the house, beaten when she displeased Sarah, amongst many other atrocities, Lucy had gained many keys. Most were silver, but she had a few gold ones now. She loved each one and called them her family as she didn’t have a family anymore. And the fact she heard them and they were teaching her how to read the stars slowly was terrific.

“Lucy, come here this instant!” 

At the shrill call from Sarah, Lucy flinched and opened her eyes. Giving the sky one more fond look, Lucy made her way from her tiny little room to the main living area of the house. Her body was going stiff at the sight of two ranked Imperial officers. One whom she knew by sight because he was the one who killed her father. It was the last thing her father had told her was the name of the man and what he looked like. His last breath was to warn her of this man, a General, who was able to beat her proud father.

“This is whom you mentioned?”

“Yes, now if we can be on our way?”

Cold filled Lucy’s veins, freezing her blood as she caught the malicious glint in Sarah’s eyes as she looked at her. The thing she had made her father paranoid about was the thing she was doing and selling her to the enemy to be a slave. 



*****



Year 832, Month July, Day 31



Pain and heat radiated from her cheek where Sarah had slapped her before their escort had come to get them for their meeting with the Emperor of Japan. Staying silent as she listened to Sarah work a deal with the Emperor for all of the Hayate people to surrender and accept the Imperial rule and Lucy was the bargaining chip as the daughter of the late former Leader of all the Hayate, Reo and Sarah. She wasn't thrilled about this at all. But Lucy was far from stupid. Her mother educated her in the basics of reading and speaking greek, the native language of her mother. Something she still practiced in secret, making Lucy a rarity among the women of the village and countryside. A thing she hoped to use to her advantage.

“You are willing to give your only daughter to end this war?”

Lucy turned her gaze to the tall, white-haired man standing beside the Emperor himself. She knew who Ukitake Jushiro was. The man was a fearsome warrior in his own right even if he didn’t get on the battlefield often. His tactical abilities were something Ryos loved to speculate on to her when he was home. Even Rogue had said that the man was brilliant and got a compliment of any out Sarah’s eldest son was like pulling a tooth from a dogs mouth, painfully hard. 

“Yes, I give you my beloved daughter to stop this war that has gone on for too long. I lost my husband Reo and fear to lose my sons now,” Sarah said in a sad, plaintive voice. “So I give you to Emperor Kyōraku, my daughter to either be a servant to you or a Noble of your choice in good faith since I know no noble would marry a commoner.”

Shooting Sarah a side glance, Lucy glared daggers at the woman who was now bent over low in a bow simpering openly like a woman desperate. No, Lucy wasn’t ignorant of what this woman was doing.

“Your Majesty?” Jushiro asked, his voice soft and holding a note that drew Lucy’s attention back to him.

There was something about the white-haired man that felt familiar and comfortable, but as far as she was concerned, he was the enemy for who he served.

“I accept, Jushiro. And I believe that she will be given to the Kuchiki household since it was them that brought us this plea for peace to our court,” Emperor Kyōraku said in a bored sounding voice.

When Lucy turned her gaze from Jushiro to the Emperor, she had to force herself from jerking back. The man was looking directly at her with scary clarity. His posture and bored tone said one thing, his gaze said another. She knew he was not a man to underestimate.

“Is that alright with you, Ginrei? Do you think you can place her in your household as a servant?” Emperor Kyōraku spoke.

There was a brief pause before a simple yes was spoken. Her fate sealed, Lucy bowed her head and tried to rationalize a good point, which came naturally to her. She was no longer under Sarah’s rule so that she wouldn’t be abused anymore. And as she was used for a peace agreement, that meant no harm could come to her without breaking the treatise, so Lucy knew she was relatively safe. Besides, moving from one servitude to another wasn’t going to be wrong. She just had to show her new owner that she was worth more than they all knew. At least without letting them know she could read and hear the stars, to understand the paths that the future could take. 

 

TBC