[ The video as it turns on, shows Lucy sitting outside the Fairy Tail Guild, looking a little battered and weary, but not too badly injured. Mostly tired. Natsu is standing off to one side, glaring at a trio of men who were tied up with ropes. ]
For all those concerned, you may want to avoid the ruins that were uncovered. At least for a little while. While Natsu and I were searching the ruins, we came across some members of the Hands of Decay. I'm not entirely sure what they were looking for in those ruins - but whatever it was, they found it. [ She drummed her fingers against a strange looking book in her lap thoughtfully. ]
As some of you already know, mages in Fayren are not safe by any stretch of the imagination, especially when they don't take shelter where they can be protected, even temporarily. Those ruins... we found several mages who were kidnapped from their homes, left down in the lower floor of the ruins. The scum known as the Hands of Decay intended to leave 'bait' by them, and lure monsters to deal witht them when they were incapable of defending themselves. At the same time, they had also hired bandits - possibly as a distraction - that Natsu made short work of and...who the City Guard will be collecting shortly, but while we were down there, we accidentally woke an Earth Dragon. It's been dealt with but I don't know if there is anything else down there.
We -were- able to recover several mages - ten in total - from the lower level of the ruins, and transported them safely to our guild, Fairy Tail. They weren't too badly injured, thankfully, but they were--are-- very shaken up. Apparently they were all kidnapped, but I wasn't able to clarify if it was while they were in their homes, at work, or simply in the general area of Fayren. Unfortuantely, I was unable to identify the faces of the members of the Hands of Decay. [ If she hears them, on the other hand... ] But I delivered some of the information to the City Guard.
[ mainly because she didn't trust authoritarian figures, that was pretty much the extent of her interaction with them. Though if they'd wanted to ask questions, she'd cooperate enough to answer them - to an extent. ]
I want to reiterate, not to frighten but to inform. The Hands of Decay claim they only want to eliminate mages - or get rid of them. We don't know how they define "magic". At this point, they are targeting -anyone- who has any kind of 'ability', gift, or power. However you define it - if you can do something others can't, it's highly likely they'll lump you in with 'mages' as well. And though they are currently limiting their attack area to Fayren, there's really nothing that'd stop them from broadening their reach if they consider this a successful attack; and in addition to that, it could be mages today, their allies tomorrow. Anyone currently residing in Fayren, please be extremely careful and aware of your surroundings at all times. We don't fully know what these people are capable of yet. [ And there was something very, VERY suspicious about the way they were working. ]
Everyone; mage, non mage, whatever you classify yourself - Be careful out there and be safe.
[ She lets the feed end, but remained on standby if anyone had questions, naturally. Although after a few moments of careful thought, she adds another filtered lock to the post ]
Levy, I hope you can see this. I was wondering if you could check something in your bookstore, or the library for me?