"Levi! Hurry up! You'll be late!" came the familiar voice of Levi's mother. Eyes open for another day. The morning blur clouded his eyes as Levi sat up, scratching his head and stretching out his arms to get that early morning stiffness fully straightened out. Blinking a few times to remove the gelatin from his eyes and the cobwebs from his brain, Levi looked around his room, becoming familiar with everything around him for the thousandth time. The sad detachment from dream worlds slowly crept in as Levi remembered this was real. This overly organised, categorically cleaned, beige bedroom that sometimes seemed so dull and pedestrian it may as well have been a retirement home. Between the awakening ritual, Levi felt the whispered slap of his dark brown hair against his cheek. Grabbing one of his hair bands, he pulled it upwards, tying it into a tiny bun on the top of his head, allowing him to get out of bed without a fuss and engage in his regular morning routine. Levi grabbed his fresh clothes from the desk opposite his bed and left the bedroom.
Arriving in the bathroom, Levi turned on the crystal light, and his eyes slanted a little as the bright light bounced off his pale skin in the mirror. Letting out a short sigh Levi grabbed his toothbrush, not wavering his stare away from his own bright red eyes in the mirror, and opened his mouth, brushing away at his teeth and making sure to catch the sets of sharp teeth he had at the top and bottom of his mouth. Then he took some gel and untied his bun, rubbing the gel into his hair and smoothing it down nice and flat before shaking his head for a few seconds and allowing his hair to naturally flow as it always did into its loose but still neat formation and touching it up slightly at the sides and front. He then grabbed his clothes and got dressed, pants and socks first, then shoes, shirt and tie already fitted around the collar, ready to be tied. Levi buttoned up his shirt and began on the tie, wrapping it around ever so deftly that it was almost as natural as breathing. Holding on to his tie, Levi stared more searchingly into the mirror as if looking for something.
"Two thousand, one hundred and twenty-five...." Levi muttered to his reflection, looking down at his tie and back into his eyes.
"When will it end? Probably at four thousand...". As he mulled over the mirror, Levi looked slightly down at his chin and groaned. A singular white spot sat near his bottom lip, blemishing what looked like a near-perfected presentation.
"Levi! Last time! Get down here!!" his mother yelled again.
"Yes, yes, I'm on my way!" Levi yelled back as he sighed and quickly expunged the spot on his face. Levi slowly descended the stairs, creaking the floorboards and making Levi's teeth grind, and toes curl. The little things like that made life at home continuously unbearable, the fact that he could always depend on these things happening. The creak of the floorboards, the squeaks of the doors, the intolerable sound of his Uncle Dominik's chewing, though that was a bit more come and go than the other things. Looking as aloof as ever, swanning into the kitchen, Levi sat down at the table where breakfast had already been made for him. He frowned slightly as he looked down to see it was his favourite, omelette, bacon strips and toast. Strange to see it on such a random day as there was no special occasion that he knew of.
"Levi Adonis Magnus. Mum, seriously, the students don't need to know my full name. Why not just Levi?" he asked with a discernible sense of disgust.
"Hey! You should be proud of your names! Your dad named you entirely, and you should respect his contribution!" she snapped back.
"Contribution?! That's a laugh. He stayed with you for a year after the twins were born and then just buggered off out the door!" Levi yelled back. Levi's father was never one for deep conversation when he was still around, save for "stay in school, study hard, get a good job", so Levi never heard stories about his father's past or any of the usual father-son talk. Even when pressing his mother for info, he'd get nothing. Now he was older, all he needed to know of his father was that he was a self-absorbed, uncaring asshole that liked weird ancient artefacts. The loft upstairs was the only thing close to a clue Levi ever got about what his dad was like. It was full of old stuff like vases, statues, books that he could never be bothered trying to peruse, and one specifically odd-looking rod with a giant jewel on the top. Levi had often asked his mother about it, but she would change the subject every time. After Levi's outburst, his mother merely shook her head and muttered, "Eat your breakfast...." Levi sat down and began slowly consuming the bacon and toast, leaving the eggs separate from everything else to enjoy that last.
"You can be very odd sometimes, you know that?" his twin brothers' youthful and challenging voices said in unison.
"And you two can be extremely annoying and a pain in the arse", Levi replied. Levi's twin brothers, Aaron and Archer, ran into the kitchen and immediately started scrambling for the cereal.
"Hey! I saw it first! No, you didn't! STOP COPYING ME!!" they both screeched at each other simultaneously. Annoyed and feeling a vein pulsing in his temple, Levi dropped his fork loudly and pointedly on the plate and stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder.
"Alright, I'm going to school. I cannot wait to finally get out of here permanently", he said as he grabbed and wore his jacket, proceeding to walk out.
"Whoa! Wait! You don't even know where you're going!" his mother replied with an even more elaborate frown as she turned to the twins.
"And both of you, be quiet and sit down! You can both have some cereal in a moment! I need to take Levi to school." As she put down her things and patted her hands off on her apron, she opened the kitchen door and rushed upstairs. Levi stood and watched, baffled by her behaviour, not knowing exactly what to do, only hearing a load of ruckus ensuing in the attic. Soon enough, Levi's mother re-emerged, carrying the old rod from his father's collection.
"Erm, what are you doing with Dad's old stick?" Levi asked as he stared at the package, not so much in bewilderment but more in slight fear and anger.
"Shh, not right now. You'll learn more when you get to school", she said hurriedly as she brought him out into the garden. Levi watched in awe as his mother stuck the staff in the ground and dragged it across the floor. She was breathing heavily and sweating as if she were having her life drained from her with each passing second. Her face flushed, and her hands shook as she drew into the grass. Despite her diminished demeanour, the floor demanded more of Levi's attention. The end of the staff was leaving a golden trail behind it as she drew three symbols inside a giant ring. The floor glowed brightly as the circle was completed, and Levi felt a funny buzzing feeling run through his body. She then walked around each symbol on the floor, tapping it and saying random words that sounded like some strange form of ancient language and gibberish mixed together.
"Here, take this and hold it tight with both hands", she panted weakly as she handed over the staff, wiping a whole river of sweat from her forehead. Confused incredibly, Levi held the staff with both hands, and his mother stepped out of the circle. She raised her hands and closed her eyes, directing her face to the sky.
"Signus roti almurgar, nokh timore calligh, nokh drego mectis, camina eder lokar".
Nothing happened, and Levi held the staff, looking at his mother like she was crazy. She opened her eyes for a moment, and everything was still.
"Damn, I hoped it would work even after all these years", she mumbled.
"What would work?"
As soon as Levi responded, the markings on the ground burst into gold again, and a loud humming noise could be heard as if the ground were charging up. Then, the staff Levi held began to move and vibrate. The wrapping paper over it burst into blue flames, revealing the glorious staff in all its might. It had a sturdy, black metal pole for the handle. It ended at the top with a large purple diamond-shaped jewel with four miniature jewels of the same colour with golden metal bands wrapped around them stuck to each side of it. As the humming grew, the jewel on the staff began to glow purple inside, and the four miniature ones floated away from the big one as the humming got louder. After floating at least a couple of centimetres away from the central jewel, they slowly rotated around the big jewel, orbiting it like moons to a planet. Levi stared at it with his jaw dropped and was speechless for the first time in his life. The vibrating became more intense, the humming getting louder, and as Levi held the staff a small distance away from him, he let go of it with one of his hands. He felt immense pressure, like the bubble of rejective energy created when trying to push together two positive poles on a magnet, which suddenly burst from the staff. Immediately after this pulse, he felt a wave of electricity surge through his body and return to the pit of his stomach. The sensation caused him to collapse and fall to his knees as he started to sweat, and his heart rate increased, making him pant for his life on the floor.
"Yeah, I got told that you might react that way. You might vomit later on as well", his mother almost yelled as she looked down at him on the floor, trying to be heard over the humming noise, which was beginning to die down. Levi only groaned in response as he shook it off as best he could and used the staff to heave himself up to his feet.
"What the hell was that?!" he tried to yell but only breathlessly.
"Transfer ritual. Now that staff is yours. All we have to do now is get you to school!" Levi's mother walked around with him to the front side of the house, where he saw the familiar view of the city. It was a gloomy day in Oxilian, as it usually was. The sky was grey, the lights were dimmed and the only significant light to be seen was from the numerous light crystals that still remained lit, despite it getting towards the later morning. Still, it seemed there may be some sun yet to shine today. Levi looked around and saw where his mother was pointing, toward the North Gate. Levi looked taken back for a moment as he stared. He'd never been told what was outside of that gate or why nobody ever went through it, but today it seemed that he was about to find out.
"Today is a very special day for you, Levi. Go to the gate, tell the guard that you're going to school and present the staff. He'll walk you through the rest!" Levi looked at his mother who beamed brightly back at him, prompting a very slight smile from him in return. Nodding, Levi held the staff tight and set off towards the gate.
"Ah, got yourself a staff already? Lucky you. Most of the kids here get theirs when they arrive", the guard commented as he knocked three times on the giant gate. Levi looked up and watched as the gate slowly creaked open and finally gave him his first view of the world outside. The landscape outside Oxilian was just as dark as inside, perhaps even darker. As far as Levi could see, there were fields and hills of red grass and black trees, looking tall and strong despite their dark and withered look. The leaves were different shades of red and orange and dotted here and there were, what looked like, farms with small cottages that gave a village feel from the surrounding but still retained the gothic house design Levi was used to. Though the land itself was dark in look, it felt warm by nature and radiated a strange calm as Levi stood in its dark embrace. Ahead of him was a long path that disappeared in the distance into some fells.
Levi looked back at the guard who nodded at him to continue. Taking a deep breath, Levi held his staff tight and started walking, before being stopped in his steps.
"Wait! Hold on! I'm here!" the voice of a girl came running up behind and joining Levi at the gate.
"Anya? What are you doing here?"
"Oh, it's my turn too! Along with a bunch of others! We're all starting at the Institute today!" she said with a beaming smile as she turned around and pointed at a whole group of other kids from the city running toward the gate. Levi frowned as they approached. The last thing he needed was to be going on another field trip with a bunch of people from his previous school.
"Well, well, look who's got his big boy pants on at last. Little Levi managed to get into big boy school after all!" Drower Zengist, one of the few boys Levi hated the most, strode up to the gate with a cocky grin on his face and looked out to the outside world.
"You're shorter than me you fuckwit...", Levi hissed back.
"I guess we will find out if we make it and become Warlocks..." one of the kids in the back mused as he looked over to the exit.
"Wait, hang on, Institute? What Institute? We never learned about that in school", Levi turned back to Anya.
"Oh! Right! Here, it's all in this book my mother gave me. Apparently this is one of the essentials you need for starting." Levi looked down at the book cover. A Brief History of Griermar. Levi opened the book and read a small passage in the first chapter.
'...apart from the absurd claims that the first settlers were, in fact, dragons, Griermar has always remained the home of Warlocks, Wykken, and Darklings...' Dragons?! What the hell was any of this? Levi kept the book close, remembering to peruse the pages at a later hour.
"Come on! You can put on your nerd vision later! Let's GO!" another impatient girl yelled as she shoved her way to the front of the line. Turning around, Levi looked ahead at the pathway and then over to Anya beside him.
"Don't worry. We'll both get through and soon enough we'll be super powerful Warlocks! Ready?" Anya took Levi's hand, causing him to flinch a little, but as always, her kind face and smile relaxed him and he gave a strong nod.
"Ready."