"Where are we?" he breathed, this was the first time he'd seen the ocean, he couldn't hide the awe from his expression, the endless amounts of glittering water as far as the eye could see, as blue as the stories always told him it would be.
Agni cleared her throat from behind him, so he reluctantly tore his gaze from the giant body of water only to go into shock.
"Welcome to the Islands Of Tetrabiblos" Behind Agni were portals opening and closing, people of all shapes and colours were either appearing or exiting through the same method as they just had. Down in the distance large bridges made of the whitest material Levi had ever seen were connecting to four islands, the Middle Island being a large structure where most were flowing to and from. What really caught the eye, were the enormous metal bands slowly rising from the ocean lifting over all four islands before disappearing back into the water. 'they must span miles' levi thought to himself as two engraved metals crossed over their heads.
"Fuck me.. " he trails off. 'Imagine if one of those things fell on you..'
"Come on, I have many things to show and teach you!" Agni is already making her way down to a path leading to the other islands, leaving Levi to catch up.
"I suppose if I'm gonna fucking live here, I should know more about it"
" Great!"' At least he's willing to learn.' "But... Can I request something of you?" Agni asks tentatively.
"What?"
"Can you attempt to curb your language? It is not something well... appreciated here, you will end up rubbing someone the wrong way and it will end badly." He scowls but makes no comment. "We also need others to like us if we are to get jobs and sometimes even have to work with other mages and swearing will not help. " Levis scowl lessons and he sighs.
"Whatever. I'll try" he mutters, shoving his hands in his pockets.
Once they hit the bridge they're both forced closer together, so many beings were using the bridge at this time like a rush hour in a central city.
"Okay, first lesson! You see those large rings encasing the islands?" she gestures as they weave between others.
" Tch, kinda hard to miss" He ducks his head out of the way, before a woman's tail can slap him in the face.
"See how they move completely independently?" Agni is also moving out of the way of a wisp as it rushes past.
"Yes..."
"How do you think they move?" Levi quickly avoids stepping on what looked to be a leprechaun or maybe a Gnome?
"I don't fucking-"
"language"
"- know, nor do I care, but I have a feeling you're gonna tell me anyway." He pulls her out of the way of an avians wings before she got a mouth full of feathers.
"The heart."
"The heart?" he repeats back.
"Yes! The heart of tetrabiblos, it is a large crystal containing immense amounts of energy. The orb ommits natural energy that we use as magic. It resides in-
" The middle of the island?" He offers out moving ever closer to the girl as more pedestrians pass them. Slightly put off her tangent by his input, she tries again.
" E-yes.. And-" Only to be cut off again.
"Let me guess, rings are attracted by the magnetic pull of magic. The crystal gives out a static magnetic field to the rings, gaining infinite potential energy, which in turn is converted to kinetic energy causing them to spin continuously unless physically stopped, right?" Agni blinks several times before replying.
"... Well I don't know if you would be able to stop them... How did you know that?"
"It's simple Physics, I used clean a library and in return they'd allow me to read as much as I pleased" He supplies, watching as a man or at least he thinks its a man repeatedly apologise to a shorter man for stepping on his cargo.
"I was not aware you were this intelligent Levi!" She beams at him, clearly thrilled by his answer.
"Was that even a compliment?" He grumbles. "I'm not, I just remember random sh- stuff I read."
"That is the essence of being intelligent! The ability to absorb and store information from literature or the world around you and then being able to utilise it is how to tell one's intelligence! Have you never done a intelligence quotient test?" She hones in on Levi, not the least bit put off by his grumpy persona.
"Until a couple of hours ago I was a slave, and before that, I was too poor to care if I was smart. So no, I have not taken any IQ tests. Maybe you should take a memory test though, in case you forgot? You just stole me from slavery." His insults continue to fly straight over the girls head, but she relents.
" Sorry sorry Levi, but I did not steal you as such. You didn't belong there in the first place. I do not like the thought of slavery, no one deserves to be a slave to another, especially you."
"Thanks I-" They finally make it off the bridge and the crowds thin out until they come to a large structure made of dark oaks and quaint windows. Four arches lead to a court yard where others are doing various activities, be that studying, eating or otherwise. "-Is this a god damn school?"
"No, these are the living quarters. Most young mages live in dorms like this one. Dorms like this have everything we need for getting jobs. Plus, on site we have medicals, training areas so that we don't have to worry about civilians getting in the way, and libraries full of everything you could ever need!"
" Soo, a school without teachers?" He concludes, watching how majority of the crowd enter and exit a much smaller building to the left.
" I suppose, I do not know what schools are like in the human realm, I rarely go there except for jobs but, there are elders here who watch over the heart that can remove you if you do not pay enough contributions" She follows his line of sight," That is the quest building, we will enter there when we need to grab a job. " Amused, she watches as a stone golem attempts to squeeze through the entrance door his mage desperately trying to help without much luck.
" This is why- sorry - I tell you to- so sorry - wait, OUT SIDE! "The red faced mage continues to apologise to others until an earth mage offers their assistance, releasing the golem.
" Landlords." Levi brings her gaze back to him.
" What?"
" That's what your elders are. In my world they'd be landlords. Can be dicks if you make too much noise after dark and take forever to fix things."Levi explains as they start through the west side of the building, small orbs of fire lighting the mainly dark hallways.
"Hange and Moblit are always being fined for doing their experiments in their room, and exploding and destroying parts of the building... They do repair the holes though! Nevertheless, the elders are always at ends with them" Agni chuckles leading Levi up two sets of wide dark mahogany staircases, the afternoon sun glaring through large arched windows aluminating the red in Agnis curled locks.
"They sound like pains in the ass."
"Oh no, they are lovely! You will meet them soon, both are good friends of mine and our neighbours!" They continue down another hallway with many doors matching in with the dark walls, with only more orbs to light the way.
"Of course they are" Levi grumbles, he could already imagine the amount of noise complaints he'll have to issue.
"This is it!" Agni turns gestures to a door that looks identical to every other door they had past.
'This place is huge!' Levi was expecting a small box room with a couple of beds and a bathroom but, this was something else. A large white open plan livingroom with dark wood flooring, steps that lead to a level above that held book shelves crammed with hundreds if not thousands of reading materials. To his left was an archway leading to a spacious kitchen completely made out of marble, granite and dark oak. Agni opened the door next to the steps opening into a modern bathroom as glamorous as the rest... There was only one thing that bothered Levi, and it needed to be said now.
"It's fucking Filthy!" He fumed at Agni. A multitude of books half read were laying open across every flat surface, clothing left on the arm of the sofa, 'they'd better be clean...' coffee rings on the glass table, old plates and bowls scattered and completely filling the sink not to mention the thick layers of dust on the windows.
"How can you live like this? Before anything else, this place needs cleaning or the deals off" He immediately grabs the pile of clothes on the sofa and dumps in them in the young mages arms.
"It's not even that b-" Agni starts, but when she sees him pick up her hair brush filled to the brim with dead hair, he shoots her a glare that could frighten even the most dangerous demon, so she shut up, and fast.
Agni had finally cleaned most of the kitchen and was officially over this cleaning spree already. Sighing, she put the last of her plates away before stealthily peering into the livingroom, in the time she had done the kitchen he had done the entirety of the large room. She marvelled at the streak less windows, how he had got all the way up there, she had no idea but he had, and there wasn't a speck of dust to be seen, the fireplace was now white 'was it always that colour?' she distinctively remembers it being grey, her books were all back into their rightful places, the floor had even been swept and mopped. She finally spots the man, passed out on the sofa still clutching the dust rag he'd been using to clean the coffee table. 'He is kind of cute when he is not frowning' she quietly grabs a blanket to cover him with taking a moment to study him. 'He is under weight and clearly does not sleep well, he is definitely not what I was expecting when I went into that flea bitten place. I still need to speak to Hange and Moblit, I know so little on humans, I know most don't know anything about our kind, living in their own fantasies. They are magic less beings, weak and yet I saw him in that ring, the way he moved, how he almost appeared as though he was reading his opponents movements before they had even made them. He was king of that ring and used no magic to make it happen. Once he has learnt to control the magic that is flowing through him he will be a force to reckoned with that I have no doubt of... but, what does magic in a magic less being even mean?' she frowns having no answer. She stands looking at the rooms that had yet to be cleaned, there was absolutely no way she was continuing by hand but, ' Now he is asleep he will not mind if I use a little magic to finish it off. ' She quickly mutters a quick incantation and the cleaning products set about in their tasks, she gets the pots and pans cooking dinner meanwhile, she takes it upon herself to take a nice bath.
Clattering in the kitchen has Levi jumping out of sleep, his arms brought up to fend off his imaginary foe. Agni exits the kitchen with two plates and an amused expression at the man in her living room.
"Well hello there sleeping beauty, sleep well? " She chuckles as she breezes past him to place the food on the table. Levi drops his stance picking up the discarded blanket, folding it and placing it on the sofa as she disspears back into the kitchen. "Go take a seat, you must be starving!"
He takes in the pleasant aroma of the food. Chicken, vegetables, and boiled potatoes, nothing especially fancy but far more than he was used to. One plate was largely filled to the brim, while the other more sparingly so. He choose the latter mildly wondering how the girl ate so much.
"I made you a drink from your world, Hange got it for my birth date but I never used them." She brought in two steaming cups before taking her seat. She glanced at both of their plates before quickly swapping them.
"You don't really expect me to eat all this do you?" The big portion was for him? Why?
"Do you not like chicken?" She asks already well into her meal.
"It's not that, it's just, too big for me to eat all of. I'm not used to eating more than a potato or two" He begins eating anyway starting with the chicken, he couldn't remember the last time he ate real meat. He looks at her and her almost guilty expression, sighing he puts his utensils down. "What's with that kicked puppy look, it isn't your fault, and I'm not a charity case. I'll eat as much as I can but not even the gluttons I served ate this much. Shit, are you trying to make me fat?" He rose a brow at her and she chuckled, picking up her cup, him copying.
He smelt it before tasting, the familiar taste taking him back to his days with his mum, she'd always made him a cup when his was scared or upset, which was most of the time considering the back alley apartment they lived in. He saw his first person die when he was five, he watched as a group of men stabbed another for no other reason than the fact he had darker skin. He could still hear the man begging for his life before his mum pulled him away from the window, he stopped looking outside after that. He still enjoyed tea though, it calmed him like nothing else could, his childhood was breif but his memories of sitting with his mother drinking tea were something he still clung too.
Agni watched the man as he got back into eating his food, he was quiet clearly in his own world not paying her the least bit of attention, she knew next to nothing about the man but didn't want to constantly bombard him with her questions. He seems more pleasant now he had slept, more relaxed, less on adge. It was strange to be sharing her home with someone after living alone for so long. She would usually be reading now but didn't want to seem rude, she was itching to get back to Belle and seeing if she could truly live with the beast.
Her fidgeting was starting to irk Levi but as he went to open his mouth there was a crashing in the hall before their door was flung open and mass flew through the room crashing into their bathroom slamming the door behind them.
"What the fuck was that?!" Levi was on his feet in a flash looking at the still seated girl for an explanation when she didn't move. Agni laughs nervously scratching the back of her head.
"Well..."
