Chapter 2
You sat next to Levy in the guild, head resting on your arms against the table, legs swinging back and forth, listening to her read another book. This is how most days went for you now. Meeting her in town or in the guild and having her read to you.
Levy tried to get you to read once or twice, but gave up after you almost destroyed the second book out of frustration. The words were just too hard to understand, and looking at them gave you a head ache.
Today's book was another short fantasy novel, with princesses, dragons, nights, and great kings. It was a bit cliché, well actually very cliché, and you could see the ending from a mile away, but you couldn't help but listen. Levy had an amazing voice, and she always found a way to pull you in. Plus...you loved the stupid sappy ending. They always made you happy.
"Are you even paying attention," Levy asked after a few pages.
"Yes," you cried indignantly. "The stupid knight just found the sword, and now he's trying to find the tower! And the dragon's on their way back to the tower to guard the princess, but she's already gone cause she got hungry and bored!"
Levy laughed at your little outburst. "OK, OK. You just seemed pretty zoned out is all."
"I was just really into the story," you mumbled out.
Levy laughed again, going back to the book and trying to pick up where she left off. She was interrupted before she could continue though by the guilds resident loud mouth pyromaniac.
Natsu stood a few tables away, on the table no less, proclaiming for all to hear about how powerful he was. Gray yelled at him to get down, and Natsu quickly responded with a blast towards the ice wizard. The two quickly broke out into a brawl, getting the people around them involved in no time flat.
You groaned, and let your head smack the table.
A fight was bound to happen eventually, this was Fairy Tail after all, but you knew there would be no end to it today. Erza was out on a quest, and without her there to keep the idiots in line, you were doomed.
"C'mon, we can go to the park again," Levy said, marking the book and putting it away in her bag.
"But it's cold today, and the grass will be wet."
"What. Are you afraid of some water now," she teased you.
"No! Wet pants are just annoying, ok!"
"We can always stop and get a blanket. Now come on. Don't be a big baby."
"Big ba- I'm not a big baby," you grumbled, pushing away from the table to follow Levy. She just kept laughing as you both walked towards the exit.
Right before you were able to leave, a chair came flying and hit you in the back. It was silent for a moment, before Natsu started to laugh loudly. Levi helped you up, and you both started to walk for the exit again.
"Are you ok," Levi asked once you two got a few steps outside.
You shrugged before responding. "I'll be fine. Not the worse thing I've been through."
Levi looked at you for a second before snorting.
"What," you asked.
"N-nothing," she said, trying to hold in a laugh, and failing miserably two seconds later. "It's just- you said that so seriously!!!"
"Hey! Don't laugh at me! I have been through worse than a chair to the back."
"I know, but jeez, the way you said it."
You pout some more as the two of you finally make it to the park and moved to fhe tree you've unofficially claimed. Levy worked on pulling her book back out, as you worked on clearing a spot for you two to sit. You glared at the wet grass as you moved twigs and leaves out of the way.
"Ah, shoot," Levy said, as a different book fell out of her bag.
Cunabula Daemoniorum.
You started at the odd title, before picking the book up, and sitting down.
"What's this one about?"
"Oh, uh, it's not that important. It's just about the Septem Daemoniorum Gentes."
You flipped through the book as Levy started to talk.
"It's a nation, well seven nations, that all use demon magic and-"
"The maps wrong."
"Huh," Levy peaked over your shoulder and looked at the page you were on. It showed a map of the seven desert nations, each one having their capital cities marked. "What's wrong with it?"
You pointed to an empty spot near the center of the map.
"They didn't put the Octo Oasis here."
"What?"
"The Octo Oasis. There are eight grand oasis', there's a city built around each one, with the eighth being in the center."
"Why are there eight?"
"I don't know why there are eight, but it would suck if there weren't. And they aren't really seven nations, just seven really big city states that work together."
"How do you know all this? Wait," Levy smiled and her eyes seemed to sparkle. "Is this where you're from!?!?"
You kept your eyes on the map, looking at all the inaccuracies, and shrugged.
"Technically, I'm from here," you pointed to an oasis that was slightly east, and farther north than the center one. It sat at the base of a mountain, and was a bit more lush than the others.
"Seg-nit-ies," Levy tried sounding out the word, and you tried hold back your laugh. "What! That's how it's spelt."
"That's not how we say it though."
"How do you say it then," Levy asked with genuine curiosity.
"Segnities," you said it fast and simple, and Levy tilted her head to the side.
"Could you maybe...say it slower."
You smiled and laughed gently.
"Ok, try saying it like this. Sen-yeh-tes."
"Sand-yetis."
"Close enough," you laughed again.
"What does it mean?"
You didn't answer for a moment, debating about whether or not to tell the truth. But you knew Levy, and you knew she would figure it out one her own eventually anyway.
"It means sloth. That was the magic the arch demon that made the oasis had."
"Wait, so this oasis is called sloth, but that one is just a number?"
"Yeah, I have no idea why. Maybe the people naming them got lazy."
Levy nodded in agreement, before flipping to a different page. There was a diagram of a piece of jewelry in the center, and a long paragraph next to it, probably trying to explain it.
"What about this? I think something got lost in translation. It says that people split there souls, and put the pieces in jewelry, or other things like that."
"What, that's ridiculous," you grabbed the book and put your face directly in it, as if you could actually read any of the words. "Splitting a soul would ruin it! You need to keep it whole, or you'd ruin the person."
"Wait, so people actually put their souls into jewelry there?"
You moved to book away from your face.
"Well, yeah, but not just any jewelry. It has to be blessed, otherwise there's no point in taking it out of a person's body."
Levy shouldered up to you and looked at the book.
"I'm even more confused now. Why would you even want to remove your soul? Isn't it important?"
You felt a headache coming on.
"Yeah it's important, it's your soul. That's why you put it into blessed jewelry, otherwise it'd be corrupted by demons."
"Why would a demon corrupt your soul?"
"Well, they don't do it on purpose. It's just what happens," you shrugged. "So, a long time ago, some people worked together with demons to figure out a way to protect our souls. It took a lot of trial and error, but the eventually found out how to do it."
"Have you done it yet?"
"Yeah. It usually gets taken out around the age of five. Too young, and the person looses the connection to their own soul. Too old, the bonds too strong, and the pain and trauma could kill you."
Levy shuddered, before flipping to a different page.
"Ok, what's going on here?"
And the two of you spent the rest of the day like that, looking at pages, and verbally destroying all the inaccuracies.