Of course it would be stupid to not use the opportunity. Layla was exchanging rummours and tried to find out about Fairy Tail situation and Lucy was looking for Gray. It wasn't hard. Gray had again his embarrassing moment of being naked. Thought no one really knew when or how he lost his shirt. This couldn't be just habit.
"Are you Gray?"
"Yes. And you Lucy?
"Yes. I want to talk. Here take a shirt. You lost it again."
"Huh!"
And then Gray recognized that he's naked.
"Do you know why it happens?"
"Yes, but I don't really want to talk about it. It's... my fault."
"I'll go straight to the point. I want you to explain to me how Ice Shell works."
"How do you... No, why?"
"It's complicated. But Ur is still alive, right? The problem is that she is the spell sealing Deliora. If we find a way to defeat Deliora and turn this ice into a human body, Ur may be with you again."
"Yes, but both are impossible. Deliora is too strong and no one know any way to reverse Ice Shell. Ur wanted to not tell this to anyone. Otherwise someone would waste his life only to try to reverse the spell. Anyway it's not like I didn't try asking the Guild Master about this. He said that melting this ice would kill Ur."
"So we need to do with that ice something not being melting."
"Let me ask, Lucy. What can you do with ice?"
"For now not much. But I think that if I learn to do my own enchants, I can change the properties of objects with magic. Then maybe... I don't know. Might I be able to give someone's body Ur's personality?"
"It sounds like dreaming. And do you really want to use someone's life like that?
"No, it's still a concept and it needs to be more detailed, but I'm thinking about it because I want to learn enchantment magic anyway. I'll learn eventually if it's possible to do that. Even then we have to find a way to defeat Deliora. To do that you need to be strong enought to defeat Deliora without Ice Shell. If we fail, I am sure we will not waste time."
"Okay. I'm in. Listen carefully."
Gray told to Lucy all that he knows about Ice Shell and after seeing Gildarts clearly and openly showing his love for Canna Lucy and Layla said goodbye to Fairy Tail.
"And what do you think about Fairy Tail."
"I don't know. Surely it's a strong guild. Magic here is dense. Let me ask. Why didn't you tell him about Erza?"
"Because I want to give Magic Council a chance to do what they should do and after all Erza can manage to free myself. This experience will make her much stronger. I can't just substitute that form of protection."
"Okay. Let it be. Only don't forget that you have to make that future better."
They returned home and Lucy started her training again. She knew that she need to work as hard as she can, because likely she'll be invited by Gran Doma. Giving good first impression is important. Her choice was learning a spell that can harden stick.
...
Some mages have a habit of holding like walking stick stuff in right hand and using it in hand-to-hand combat. It wasn't really super effective, but still it would counter ordinary swords because even more ordinary wooden stick if enchanted can be harder than iron. As stupid and arrogant it was Lucy had to admit that not having any needs for real weapon is something that looks cool. Used on her whip could make her attacks more dangerous.
Of course it's easier to say than to do that, so she spent next three days to find out how to harden stick in theory. She needed three more days to be able to cast it. It looked like this. Lucy gathered impressive pile of sticks. She were taking them each one per try trying to make it harder and then tried to break. If she is able to break a stick, its rather obvious that spell doesn't work so she need to try again. Being unable to break a stick means that this stick is hard. After 9th day of training she was able to cast hardening spell without failing every time. It doesn't mean that there's no more mistakes, but spell can be used.
...
At the same time Layla was doing conversation with one of her old friends. They slarped their tea in the garden. Zoldeo watched his reflection in his cup.
"Zoldeo, do you know why you're invited?"
"I assume this has something to do with Celestial Spirits."
"You're right. In fact I want you to give your key to my daughter. She's willing to pursue the path of Magic. As you know it's impossible to be Celestial Spirit Mage without keys."
"Is Lucy actually 7 or 9? She's very young. "
"Yes, but she has a... talent. Something very rare. If you don't believe me, talk to her yourself. But there are more reasons. I still remember days when you served me well. Asside from that I don't know much about you. I didn't press that matter. Past is very painfull. However this time I really want to know. For example do you have a familly?"
Zoldeo hesitated for a moment and told.
"My family died long ago. It's Deliora. You know. Due to his attacks a lot of people lost something."
"I know that pain. My mother died twelve years ago. She was wounded after fight against demons. After this for some time revenge was the only one thing I was able to think about. But revenge is an easy way to waste your life. I didn't notice until meeting Jude, but my time being mage wasn't really fun. It's not like it's a bad job. The problem was me. Your way of thinking can influence your experience. You know what I mean, right?"
"I know, but I can't. How can one forgive?"
Layla's eyes glowed viciously.
"It's not about forgiveness. I can't forgive death of my mother..."
She shooked her head to turn expression normal again.
"But that doesn't solve anything. At most it can make you reasons to fall into darkness disapear. The problem is what later. You couldn't protect your family and I couldn't protect my mother. But living are more important than dead. Is it really fine to not be able to save even yourself? No. Even If we can't we must at least try. You have to answer: What next?"
Zoldeo was speechless. It isn't a question with a good answer. No one can really told us what is the meaning of our lifes.
"Let's take a look on Lucy. She's training now."
...
So they went into the forest. From a distance one could hear whistles and blows. Poor tree was attacked by Lucy with enchanced whip. Marks were deeper than what can be done with ordinary whip.
"I see your training gives results. I brought someone."
Lucy turned around and saw a man who last time wanted to kill her. Her self-preservation instinct immediately woke up and then she realized that she has to calm down herself.
"Oh Mr Zoldeo as I presume. Good morning."
"Good morning miss Lucy. Your whip is somewhat glowing. What's that?"
"Ah... It's enchanted to make it stronger. I'm learning this recently."
"Is it suitable for a child?"
"I'm not a child anymore."
"Despite being eight? Not bad... Would our big girl accept gold key from this man? It summons being from other dimensions."
"Yes, gold old keys are rare."
"Okay. Give me a second. OPEN! GATE OF THE GOLDEN BULL! Okay, Taurus, listen..."
But instead Taurus started his pervert lines having heart shaped eyes and exhaling visible steam out of his nostrils in the middle of summer.
"It's not his usual behavior. He seems to be happy to meet Layla."
"There's two Laylas! There's more boobs!"
2 minutes later.
"Listen, Taurus. Layla-sama made a request to give your key to her daughter. I want to break our contract."
Zoldeo closed the gate and gave the key to Lucy
"Lucy, take care of him."
"I will."
"OPEN! GATE OF THE GOLDEN BULL! Taurus, before we'll set up new contract I want to ask you to...
Lucy whispered her new plan to Taurus.
"This one will be good."
"Stardress: Taurus Form!"
Lucy's body was bathed with golden light and her clothes changed.
"Lucy, what is meaning of this?"
Her clothes were inappropriate.
"Mom, from the beginning I wanted to show you this technique. It allows me to use the power of Celestial Spirits without even summoning. In this form I can do something like this."
She waved her whip on a thick tree branch. The branch broke and fell to the ground. Layla has nothing to say. Being strong can justify shameless outfit. Zoldeo was shocked.
"I didn't knew that Celestial Spirits are able to do something like this. Why did I know nothing about it?"
"Because it's my new technique. I just wasn't able to perform it, cause I didn't have any gold keys."
"Did you do a new technique just after getting gold key?"
"Technically, yes."
"What kind of talent is this?"
'If only he knew that's not a talent..."
"Talent of not being little girl, I guess. It's not a good time to talk about this."
"So... I think I did everything what I had to do here. Take care."
Layla interrupted.
"Wait! Not so fast! I didn't hear your answer. What are you going to do now?"
"To find a place for myself. I wandered around the world alone for too long."
"Here's the second reason to invite you. I want to hire you. Jude needs an assistant. It has to be someone who knows his temper well."
"What? But I'm a mage."
"I'm a mage too. It doesn't really matter. I think even that after giving away your gold key you have to learn new kind of magic, so it'll be your mission: Try to find magic usefull for running the company."
"If that's what Layla-sama wants, I'll do that."
"Please, stop calling me this way. We're friends."