Chapter 20
Levi landed on his bed with a thud and groaned. “Okay, the sudden teleportation bullshit is getting old,” he muttered to himself. Flix and Zuzan were already on his lap, and his cane somehow dropped to land on his forehead with a thud. “Ow,” he grunted. He looked up at the ceiling for a second, just lying there. There’s no way that was an accident, he thought.
The rumble in his stomach reminded him he hadn’t eaten yet, and he groaned. Levi looked up at the ceiling. “I really don’t want to deal with other people’s bullshit right now,” he complained to the ceiling.
That was when a knock sounded on his door. “Levi? I received a message suggesting you might want some food and company?” said Tawny and his stomach rumbled again in loud agreement. His beasts hopped off to make their way back to the shelf he had set up for them, and then he climbed to his feet to open the door. House mistress Tawny stood in the door, still in her black suit. She held a wide platter balanced on her palms, and there was a steaming pizza resting on top of it. Levi looked up at her and grinned.
“You are a sight for sore eyes,” he said, and he meant it. The dark elf beamed at him as she stepped into his room and he closed the door behind her. Tawny lit up at the comment, and then her eyes narrowed. She tapped a foot on the stone floor of his room.
“Are you talking to me… or the pizza?” she demanded. Levi let out a laugh and took the food from her. Once it was set safely on the desk, he pulled the house mistress into his arms and gave her a deep kiss. She squirmed out of his arms with a groan and shivered. “Okay, easy, I have a meeting of the house masters to go to—can’t afford to show up smelling like sex.”
Levi smirked at the regret in her voice, which made her shiver again. Her ears quivered and she bit her lower lip. He pulled the chair from his desk and sat. With a slice of pizza in one hand, he motioned for her to sit on the bed. “Do you have time to give me a rundown just what exactly fucking happened to me?” he asked.
She sighed and sat up to rest a hand on her knee. “Upperclassmen have certain… privileges. It is an unwritten rule that they can perform a certain amount of… hazing of younger students. Supposedly it builds character. I’ve always discouraged it among the students of Raven House, but others—Bear House, Crane, they consider it part of the curriculum. Darren comes from a very wealthy and influential family, so as long as he keeps his bullying limited, they look the other way,” she began. “Yes, it sucks, and yes it isn’t fair. Especially in situations like Glint’s, where it is very clearly a bigot bullying someone from another culture. There are ways to request a censure, written complaints, that sort of thing. Evelyn Shade has been protecting her golden boy for some time now though… but you undid all of that.”
Tawny’s eyes showed pride that Levi had exposed the Crane House’s prize student to humiliation. Her expression was fierce as Levi watched her. He raised an eyebrow and motioned for her to continue. His mouth was completely full with pizza, and he was too hungry to quit eating to ask her why she was smiling like that.
“Right, well, you went and overturned the natural order of things. A freshman showed they have the handy ability to overpower an upperclassman—publicly no less. Worse, your destruction of the Horrors marked you as a prodigy, and thus, their own little customs mean you should be given special treatment. That’s why Evelyn tried to pull you into a discipline meeting, of course. She wanted to ensure you were targeted as a discipline problem before the Academy made any official recognition of your growing abilities. Removing any chance of you getting special privileges. She had no idea the Director would show up. They haven’t made a public appearance in almost two years,” Tawny added, shaking her head.
“You’re telling me this high and mighty magic university runs along the same rules as a shit boarding school on Earth? Demerits, hazing, plebs, and upperclassmen who get to order everyone around? That’s great. Just, what, who… is the Director?” he muttered, taking a moment to swallow his pizza.
She frowned, then began to tap a finger against her bottom lip. Levi wondered if she even realized she was preening; her spine arched slightly to flaunt her figure as she crossed her legs at the knees and took on a lecturing pose. “The Director took over the school almost a thousand years ago. They were handpicked by the original Director. No one knows if they’re male, female, neither—not even what race they are. Earliest records indicate they arrived fully wrapped in those robes and the bronze mask ,and no one can agree if they’re telepathic or simply have a strange voice. Honestly, a few faculty have tried to find ways to oust them, but it never works. They’ve disappeared for years at a time and just left messages at staff meetings, but they always return. What we do have are consistent records of them performing tremendous acts of magic. Twice during a serious incursion of Horrors, the Director made an appearance and destroyed the monsters. Some people think they’re a bound spirit that can’t leave the school.”
Levi frowned. If the Director can’t leave the school, how is their office in a tower up on some snowy mountain when the Academy clearly sits in a grassland at the foot of forested hills? He wondered about it for a moment and then shook his head. “Okay, so what do I do about this bullshit with the Crane House? The Director didn’t seem to be in a hurry to punish me—in fact, I think they find my presence here funny… but that doesn’t mean Darren and his ass clowns aren’t going to keep trying to kick my ass while picking on Glint when they get the chance,” he asked finally.
“For all his bravado where the Horrors are concerned, politically Vardis is a coward. None of his students are directly involved. I expect he’ll quietly walk away from the struggle and sit things out, watching for a chance to throw some petty barbs when the time is right. Evelyn, however, is a bitch of a different color. I would be very cautious about how you deal with Crane students for the time being. You wouldn’t be the first student that Crane has targeted who suddenly found their study notes corrupted and their practical exams interfered with. Academic warfare is what house mistress Shade lives and breathes, and she’ll do her best to erase the embarrassment you’ve given her. She’ll likely rein Darren in for a while, just to make it appear that she’s fully complying, but I’d watch out for anyone who starts acting too friendly,” Tawny advised, then she raised a hand and gestured absently. “However, your little demonstration in the cafeteria has some benefits. Wolf House is siding with us thanks to the way you stood up for Beatrice, and you’re being shifted into an Incantations course. Guiding magic with your will is all well and good, but you clearly need to learn how to channel things through spells and symbols if you want to truly harness your power.”
“My reward for sticking up for a friend and taking down a bully is having to watch my back and getting more homework?” Levi asked in a dry voice, and when Tawny nodded, he sighed. “That’s just great. Is there an actual upside to any of this?” he grumbled.
“Nox Willowbrook is going to be your tutor. Since the pair of you already have an educational relationship and she is a master of battle incantations, I got the Fox house mistress to agree to it. It means you’ll be going into the field with her during her combat exams; I expect you to do a good job… and to behave,” Tawny teased, clearly enjoying his reaction. “Your lessons will begin as soon as she returns from her extended fieldtrip.”
Levi sat up straighter and turned to look at her in surprise. He reached up, pushed his glasses back up his nose with his middle finger, and then grinned. “Well, alright, I suppose I can handle that. Although, is the difference between instinctual magic and spell incantations really that big a deal?” he asked. They had lightly touched on how learning to structure magic with words was an important step toward mastering magic, but he hadn’t studied much in that area yet.
Tawny nodded and raised her hands. The woman rubbed her palms together for a moment as she got up, then she seated herself sensually in his lap. With her legs tossed over the arm of the chair, she snuggled in and offered him a teasing smile. “Yes, and let me see if I can explain why,” she started, then paused. “Imagine you’re with your friends and you pour out a package of snacks onto a table. If you use your hands and eyes to separate the snacks you can sort them into somewhat fair piles for your friends, right?” She waited for Levi to nod, then continued, “If you count and use math, you can give your friends the fairest division of snacks, even cutting some of them into fractional pieces. It is far more accurate, and incantations and runes work like that. They take your raw power and divide it in a strict, measured amount, thus letting you use it longer and to perform more complicated action.”
Levi nodded—it made sense. He hoped he wasn’t going to have to try performing calculations as complicated as he had seen in mana vapor engineering. That stuff had been too confusing for him. He realized one of his hands was resting on her thigh and he began to massage the muscle under her stocking. She shivered in a pleasing manner and he was tempted to steal a bit of fun with her, but he set that aside and nipped her pointed ear. “You’ll come by my rooms and explain this to me in more detail tonight?” he murmured and she positively quivered on his lap.
“Yes, I can do that. In fact, I can think of a few things that might be quite enjoyable to teach you… all things considered,” she replied. He enjoyed watching a flush spread up her neck and then into her ears. He actually felt the tip of her ear grow warmer beneath his tongue as he teased her. He let go of the ear, then let out a chuckle that caused her to tremble and leap out of his lap. She adjusted her skirt to make sure nothing was out of place while she gave him a mock scowl.
“House mistress Goldenrod, is something the matter? You seem flustered,” he asked with false innocence, his red eyes flashing brightly enough to reflect off the inside of his glasses.
She raised a hand as though to scold him, and then the rest of her dusky skin flushed. She shook her head and clucked her tongue as she got herself back under control. “Enjoy your pizza, Mr. Walker. It might be best if you and Mr. Scrim take a day or two off from visiting the cafeteria. I can arrange for food to be brought up to the common room for you both,” she finally said. Then she sauntered toward the door. Levi had a hard time believing she was trying to play professional, given the way her hips swayed in her skirt. He rose from his chair and put a hand to the small of her back.
“Of course, house mistress, I will be sure to stay out of trouble… I hope you do the same,” he whispered, leaning forward to ensure his warm breath was drifting across her slim ear—she let out a squeak as she slipped from his room. Levi smirked and snagged another piece of pizza, shifting to lie on his back. He took a few bites and felt a yawn coming on. When he turned to look at Flix and Zuzan, he saw that both of them seemed to be sleeping on the shelf designated for them.
With his stomach full, the long day came back to him: a long day studying in the library to try understanding Flix, then his trip to the cafeteria turns into a fight, he gets put on trial, and sent whizzing around the school via transportation spells. Fuck a lot of shit happened today. He was glad Tawny had brought him the pizza—then he realized he was struggling to keep his eyes open. He groaned and got to his feet, looking at his beasts as he took a bowl out of his desk and used a pitcher to fill it with clean water. Once that was done, he filled another bowl with a mixture of jerky and nuts, just in case they got hungry during the evening. He stripped off his uniform and carefully placed it in a basket to get cleaned, then took out another to change into in the morning. Once he had his glasses folded on top of that pile, he went back to his bed.
Levi was so tired that he flopped down naked on top of his mattress and simply shoved the pillow up under his head, flipping it a few times until he founded the coldest side to bury his face in. Then, with another jaw-popping yawn, he fell asleep. Zuzan and Flix raised their heads and looked to each other. Zuzan chirped a few times to see if Levi was asleep, then curled up to go back to sleeping in her own nest.
Not everyone in the room slept when Levi did. One of his companions opened her eyes and looked down at the nude young man.
Flix spread her wings and hopped down onto the desk. The amber-eyed dragonet munched on the jerky for a time and then drank some of the water, her wings rustling as she folded them back against her side. She walked along the desk and sniffed over the various items before she stared at Levi through the lens of his own glasses. Investigation complete, the dragonet jumped off the desk and landed as a humanoid woman, small and well muscled. She brushed her hair back from her face to expose her large golden eyes and smiled, letting her sharp teeth show. Then the small woman climbed onto Levi’s bed and shifted until she was lying against his back, her head tucked against his shoulder. She let her arms and legs drape across his body. Now that she was comfortable, the beast went to sleep.
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