Chapter 6
Profession Hopper—and Levi had a hard time believing that name—showed them a few interesting animals over the rest of the class. There was a toad with acidic skin that could leap and then dive into solid rock, dissolving a path into the ground. Next, he showed them a bird that could set itself on fire when threatened. The last animal was, as far as Levi could tell, a spider that was completely transparent until it bit something and stole their blood. That one was a hard no for him—Levi did not like spiders.
The entire time the squirrel lay curled in his hair and quietly chittered. Levi figured out, as the class went on, that he’d misheard her name. Zuzan, was what she had said. It was a small change, but he thought she’d appreciate him getting it right, especially since Professor Hopper had been wrong about her gender for the last thirty years. Professor Hopper didn’t ask for her back, and she didn’t show any sign of returning to her cage, so Levi just kept her as he walked out at the end of the period.
His next class was Introduction to Interdimensional Geography, which was… incredibly boring. The best description for the maps he saw was a solar system, except the “planets” were entire dimensions. The lines between spheres represented the energy paths taken by the Reincarnation Network, and when he asked what the dimensions orbited, he was told that no one knew. They stared at him like he was an alien when he asked if they had any ships that could travel between dimensions. Magic ships that flew on mana-powered steam was normal—traveling the void, apparently not. Levi made a note of it as the class broke up and he headed for the library with Glint.
Levi was relieved to find he didn’t have a day with more than two classes; it made life a bit easier. Tomorrow, he had something called Mana Harvesting and Basic Spellwork, and the day after he had a double class in Taming 101, which he was positive had not been on his schedule before his class with Professor Hopper. Glint informed him that was normal whenever the Academy learned of a student’s talents, and said that Tawny would have books for him when he got back to Raven House.
The walk to the library was interesting, in the sense that the room sat in Wolf House. That House used a distinct gray for its color trim, darker than the gray of their uniforms. It gave all their halls a very gothic-cathedral vibe, and Levi liked it. The library itself was behind an iron door that had to be at least fifteen feet tall and looked armored. Levi wasn’t sure why the school’s books needed to be in a bunker, but the walls were dense and made of rich brown stone that stood apart from the rest of the Academy. The inside held every kind of writing format he’d ever seen. There were shelves that contained small cubicles to hold tightly rolled scrolls, racks of stone tablets, and even loom frames holding tapestries. The room had to be three floors high, with looping stairs and balconies separating the floors, though he could see them all from the doorway. The book stacks themselves were carved of a high, polished oak, and he saw more leatherbound tomes than he could count.
The entire area was illuminated by gas lanterns, except their light was an effervescent blue. Levi turned to ask Glint why the lamps were bubbling, but the imp was staring at the librarian like a man in love. Considering the librarian appeared to be a ten-foot-tall, two-headed troll of some kind, Levi vowed never to misbehave in the library. He patted his new friend on the shoulder. “I’m going to go look for books on sylvan squirrels,” he whispered.
Glint didn’t answer; his ears were flapping, and his huge eyes were fixated on something Levi couldn’t see. Levi slipped away and went to see if he could figure out how all these books were organized. He might not be on Earth, but a library was a library, so he focused on looking for something that resembled an index first. Seeing a black desk with a huge, open tome on it, he figured that was a good place to start. He stood in front of the book and stared down at the blank pages. Ink began to swirl on the parchment and formed a simple question.
What do you seek?
He didn’t see a pen, quill, or one of those crystal-tipped styluses to write out his answer, so he tried speaking. “I’m looking for information on sylvan squirrels?” he asked tentatively. Writing seemed to flow at random across the page, and then the book rustled as it flipped through its contents. He watched the parchment sheets turn one after another, and when it stopped there was an illustration that resembled Zuzan.
Floor two. Fifth shelf of the aisle designated by the triskele, third section.
It took Levi a moment to grasp that the book was telling him to go to the second floor and find an aisle marked with three interconnected spirals, and then go three bookcases in to check the fifth shelf. He shook his head at what seemed like an overcomplicated description, though he didn’t want to judge a book that answered questions. “Thanks,” he mumbled. He didn’t know the book was intelligent, but it seemed like something he should consider.
He found a spiral staircase and made his way to the second floor. It took several minutes of going back and forth before he found the row marked by a triskele, and when he did he had to count twice, realizing he didn’t know which end of the row to count from. If he had had to count a third time to figure out where the books were, he’d have worried that dying caused him brain damage. He found several large books with leather covers, and he grunted when he pulled them off the shelf—they had to be fifteen pounds each. Levi sat at a table with four of the books. and when he opened the first he was relieved to see the handwritten text was legible… and in a language he understood. He hadn’t considered that potential problem until just a few seconds ago, but he was glad it wasn’t an issue for this book at least.
Zuzan hopped down off of his head and scurried around the table. The portly little squirrel had a waddling gait, and she looked up to chitter at him several times as she sniffed the books. She opened her mouth as though she intended to take a bite, but he held up a finger. “Hey, I’m cool with you hanging out, but do not get me in trouble with a librarian who can rip me in half, okay? No eating the books,” he whispered firmly to the small animal—she rolled her beady black eyes at him. Levi chuckled as he turned pages while skimming, looking for information on Zuzan’s species.
He focused on reading while letting Zuzan play with his fingers. The squirrel’s fur was amazingly soft, and despite her nibbles she didn’t hurt him with her tiny teeth. Her small clawed fingers were nimble, and several times she climbed onto his shoulder and hopped down to the table with little thuds.
“Would you stop making that noise!” came a whisper. Levi’s head snapped up and he spotted the white-haired girl he’d seen in the hallway. She was glaring over her glasses at him with a bitchy expression on her face. Levi was about to give her the same attitude back when Zuzan ran up his shoulder and sat on his head. The minute the girl got a look at the little squirrel her face transformed with joy. “Oh my goddess! Is that a sylvan squirrel?” she exclaimed.
She hopped up from her table and rushed over to join him. The chair across from him scraped back as she took a seat. She leaned toward him, then clasped her hands in front of her. A minute ago, he would have sworn she was an ice queen from the stern looks she had given him, but the wide-eyed stare she directed at Zuzan was adorable. “Can I hold him?” she begged.
Levi looked at Zuzan, though he had to push his glasses up to keep them from falling off as he tried to glimpse the squirrel on top of his head. “What do you think, Zuzan, do you want pets?” he asked. The squirrel chittered and came down to his shoulder where he could see her, and then Levi tilted his head to listen. He turned his eyes back to the girl. “Two things. One, Zuzan wants you to know she’s a girl. Second, she wants to know if you have snacks?”
The slender girl looked excited and darted back to her table; she rummaged beneath it and lifted up a bag absolutely stuffed with books. She dug through it and returned with a tiny bag, looking from left to right. She leaned closer so she could speak quietly. “Sorry I called you a boy, and don’t tell anyone about these—we’re not supposed to have snacks in the library,” she said. She opened the bag to reveal tiny nuts that looked like they were glazed with honey and salt. Zuzan chittered sharply as she dove off his shoulder. The thump of her body hitting the table was followed by a scrabbling sound as she ran across the wood to grab onto the bag. Then the squirrel stuffed her head into the top of the bag and Levi held back a laugh.
“Are you studying them?” the woman asked quietly while she reached out to run a single finger along Zuzan’s spine.
Levi nodded. “Yeah, this little lady spotted me in my first class. She jumped on my head and refused to leave. Professor Hopper gave me an assignment to write a paper on them, and also called me a beast tamer,” he said. He motioned to her bag of nuts. “Glad you had a snack, Zuzan was about to start nibbling on the books.”
The woman looked at the squirrel with adoring eyes and clucked her tongue. Levi took the time to study her over more closely. He noticed she was about a foot shorter than him and very petite. He wasn’t sure how she kept her pale hair clean; it was incredibly long. Her glasses and button nose gave her a cute air, but she had sharp eyebrows and cheeks. It wasn’t until she turned her head that he noticed she had slightly pointed ears that aimed straight up. When she caught him staring, she gave him a decidedly cool gaze.
“Do you have a problem with the half-fae?” she asked. He could see she looked heated and he wanted to head her off because she could start yelling.
“I don’t even know what a half-fae is—I was only reincarnated here yesterday. Should I?” he responded, and she immediately blushed. She seemed to abandon whatever she had planned to say, and instead she went back to petting the nut-eating squirrel.
“My mother was a full-blooded faerie. She took a human lover and had me. She was a queen of her people before that, so they banished her for it,” she said, like it vindicated the expression on her face, though Levi only vaguely understood what she was talking about. He thought he saw a hint of sadness in her eyes, but he wasn’t sure.
“Well, kind of sounds like they were assholes if they kicked her out for falling in love,” he offered with a shrug. He didn’t know a thing about faerie royalty or their connection to humans, but it wasn’t hard to guess it sucked to get thrown out by her mom’s community.
She stared at him in silence. Then she turned her attention back to Zuzan. Levi tried to figure out if he had said something right or wrong, then he noticed the tips of her ears were flushed pink. He took that as a positive sign, then shifted the book on the squirrel so they could both see the text. “Think you could help me understand some of this stuff? My world doesn’t have any magic animals, so assume I know nothing,” he quietly asked, hoping he could connect with her.
“Sure. My name is Elizabeth by the way, Elizabeth Zephyr,” she said, offering him a very slim smile. After he introduced himself, she began to instruct him on the written lore of the sylvan world. Considering he knew absolutely nothing about other worlds, he was very happy to have found a tutor. He found the subject confusing enough that he had to start taking notes on the material before she’d finished explaining the first page.
Elizabeth was a good tutor; she started off teaching him the defining characteristics of a sylvan, which was the presence of natural illusions. She went on to explain that sylvan beasts were creatures that showed heightened intelligence, the ability to cast spells to throw off predators, and an affinity for bonding with larger creatures for protection. It wasn’t normal for a sylvan to bond with a sentient being, but it had happened with other animals, like sylvan cats. The squirrels were particularly elusive—apparently, they could harness limited wind spells to speed their gliding. They also had natural spells that hid their scent, and no one was sure how smart they were.
The pair spent quite a while discussing the limited information in those books. Levi ended up with a half-dozen pages of notes, and finally asked Elizabeth the question that had been bothering him since Zuzan had started nesting in his hair. “So, what do I do with her?” he asked. Zuzan’s head popped up and she chittered at him. He looked at her and shrugged apologetically. “I didn’t say I was going to kick you out or anything! I just have no idea what to do with myself here, let alone a squirrel,” he answered, then heard a noise that might have been a snort.
“If you’re a beast tamer, then your magic is going to be determined by the animals you have and how you learn to enhance them. Having a creature as magical as a sylvan squirrel choose you is an honor. My people would say that it means you’re very strong,” Elizabeth informed him. She closed her bag of nuts, then passed it to him without a word. Her eyes narrowed behind her spectacles. “Don’t waste it. Some people would kill to have a beautiful animal like that as a companion,” she finished, an icy tone to her voice. Then she got up and left.
Levi stared in confusion, and then looked at Zuzan. “What did we do?” he whispered. His squirrel companion chittered for a moment, then climbed his arm and dug her claws into the sack of snacks. The squirrel stared at him with huge black eyes as though she hadn’t already eaten half the bag. Levi just sighed and shook his head.
“Let’s figure out how to get back to our room, and once we’re there I’ll let you have more,” he finally said as he packed up his things. He was pretty sure he was going to get lost, but he had to figure out how to start navigating the place without Glint at some point. No time like the present.
Zusan just clung to the bag of honeyed nuts like it was full of gold, staring up at him with her begging expression. Levi barely made it out of the library before he gave the cute little ball of fluff her first treat.
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