12th Bell
The melted remains of snow spluttered from dreary cloudy skies onto the streets below while inside a certain apartment room, Levi slept on his bed. Or at least tried to sleep. He found the rest periods to be one of the strangest features of Lhavitian culture because to the visitor it seemed very unnatural. This strange feature though was the very behaviour that allowed for the city's dual life betwixt the influences of Syna and Leth. There was always something going on day or night in the city of the stars albeit the rest periods were the exceptions to that rule. If Levi was to get accustomed to Lhavit he thought that it would be appropriate to adopt aspects of their culture; the unique sleep schedule was one such important aspect. He sighed as he stared at the ceiling as he had for the past hour. It would take some time to get accustomed to this strange cycle of sleep he thought, but he planned to stay in Lhavit for a time, and that should be ample time for him to adapt to the Lhavitian sleep schedule.
The travels of the last two years seemed like a blur to Levi and it was something that stood out to him. Riverfall he recalled working for a Konti spiritist while both Naya and himself immersed themselves in the sights of the majestic city upon the waterfall. Even so they continued in their travels after a couple seasons, much longer than the two had anticipated. The next city though, that was where it felt like his memory was hazy. Alvadas the city of illusions, where the line between reality and fallacy was blurred. What did he do in that city? Were they even in that city in the first place? He could barely grasp a fragment of a memory that he had not worked in a spiritist's business there, but that was all he remembered. It was a flurry of the fantastical, strange and vivid images of things that were impossibilities in this world of Mizahar. Or were they? Either way the only concrete memory he had was that of boarding the Mischeif set for Lhavit. It was strange... had they been trapped in an illusion for a year until they escaped? He could not know for sure. Did he even want to know?
Now Lhavit, the city was beautiful and Levi felt a strange emotion, one he had not felt in Riverfall or Alvadas: he wanted to stay. He felt that he could remain and establish himself not only by becoming known by name but also starting his own business here, like the Konti spiritist in Riverfall had. The thought was unexpected. Was it the city's beauty that drew him in? Or was it something else, that feeling that Levi had felt in the back of his mind, the feeling that behind all of the shimmering skyglass there hid something dark? Preposterous, he couldn't simply stay here and adopt it as a new home. There was Naya and their promise to travel through the world with all its sights and dangers. She would not understand if he told her he wanted to stay in Lhavit. Not only that, his father was still somewhere in this world, Levi still believed that he could find him despite two years of fruitless effort in that regard.
Levi looked over at where the apparition was. Naya hovered near the window as she looked at the Surya Plaza, visibly bored as her own sigh echoed through the room. He himself was in a similar mood, considering the events of just a few days ago though, the boredom was a much needed rest for the spiritist. Levi recalled the encounter with the violent spirit, even though in the end he managed to assuage the ghost it had still been an unpleasant and humbling experience for the man. He was powerless before the apparition's power, words being the only tool he could possibly use. Thankfully it worked in that case, but there must be some method or tool to pacify ghosts, a technique that won't harm them. He will stand by his beliefs that was certain. If he was to support them though, he needed to get stronger.
Another reason for the spiritist's boredom was the annoying fact that he, for the first time in his two years of travelling, was unemployed. There was no opportunity for a spiritist to be hired in this city as it seemed the so called Dusk Tower and Rostam were the main authorities on matters of the ethereal in Lhavit. Even if Rostam was looking for help, Levi doubted he would accept that offer. Rostam had left a bad impression on Levi and it will remain that way. Also considering that he was the only other powerful spiritist in this city advertising his services, he must have been one of the spiritists Serah encountered. That only made his image worse in Levi's mind.
What was Levi trying to conclude on with all this internal rambling anyways? That was right, he had to get stronger. He had to train himself more if he was to offer better help to the restless spirits of this city. The current ability the spiritist had was not enough. On a dreary day like this, what better was there for the unemployed spiritist to do but practice? He sat up and slid off the bed, stretching his back and shoulders. This action seemed to have caught Naya's attention as she had blinked right up to Levi. "Hey! Are we going out somewhere? Even though it's so wet?" The girl slowly gathered form, green eyes twinkling with excitment. Levi chuckled and shook his head, "No, we're training today. We'll go explore tomorrow." The spirit's shoulders drooped as she pouted. "Aww... can't we do that some other time?"
"We have not trained for a while Naya, all we have been doing since coming to Lhavit is looking through the city for ghosts."
"And meeting new people! I really like Ingrid, she's nice." Naya added with enthusiasm. "That Djas guy though... I don't really like him. He made me feel sick..." The spirit frowned as she remembered the Dira marked. Levi nodded and patted her head. It was unfortunate that was the impression she got from Djas; he wanted to get to know the Dira-marked better after their first encounter. There was much for both to learn from each other.
"I'll make some soulmist first, alright?" He spoke to Naya as he walked to the table in their room. All that he need was on the table: a bag of flour, eggs, a large block of cheese, and the dagger for the blood. A bowl was set near the ingredients conveniently into which went the three mundane ingredients. Pour, crack, and a chunk dropped in. He mashed them together in the bowl as best as he could; he was hardly a cook but this simple dough he could manage even if the end result was a rough and chunky goo. In went the dough, slice went the dagger on his left pinky, and copper crimson spilled into his mouth. It was all a familiar procedure for Levi, one that he had gotten used to after the first several times of almost throwing up the unnatural mix when he first began learning spiritism. Now it was a laughable exercise of will to chew the mix for a few chimes. He swallowed, his throat squelching as the goo went down. Focus was all he had to do now, with his regimented controlled inhales and exhales aiding the process. Naya floated by Levi, though she was only a puff of swirling soulmist as she conserved her strength.
It was hard for Levi to describe the sensation of the forming soulmist inside of him. To simply describe it as cold may have sufficed for some people, but not for him. The sensation had a certain quality that differentiated this feeling from the chill of Morwen's winter. Not that it was a feeling of outright decay but subtler, it was stagnation, the feeling one gets when walking into an old abandoned house while a frigid wind blew through its broken windows. Levi would normally simply exhale the soulmist out of his mouth, that seemed to be the natural response, but today he felt he could do things differently. He closed his eyes and held cupped his hands together, the palms facing up and set his concentration on that part of his body. A numbness spread from his gullet and up but instead it trickled down his arms. At first it was a small glob of off white goo but it slowly grew in size as the substance seeped out of his palms, filling them up until they were almost full.
Levi opened his eyes and was satisfied with the result. The soulmist was carefully dropped into the wooden bowl on the table and set aside for now.The preparations were complete. Onwards to the true start of the spiritist's training session.
|
|
by Levi Remilian on December 17th, 2015, 9:46 pm 
