“That’s the last one for the day, honoured soul mage,” one of his attendants told him, a merman variant with a similar body plan to his own, with two arms and dark scales covering their body, while the other escorted out the recipients of his magic, letting Elvat give a satisfied nod their way.
“Alright. And the schedule for tomorrow?”
“No changes. The contenders you're working with are booked.”
“Excellent. In that case, you’re both dismissed.”
Giving a small bow, his attendant left, making sure the other would follow when the two met, giving the soul mage some privacy to let out a long, drawn-out sigh before his body sunk into the depths that made up his home.
While he had a residence on the surface, as a member of a purely aquatic race, that wasn’t something he got to truly enjoy. It was somewhere that the terrestrial races could meet him to benefit from his power, back when he had been the only soul mage on the planet, but now, thanks to the fact that there was nothing left to teach his student, the majority of his time could be comfortably spent down below where he belonged.
Not that there was any less work for him. All of his days were filled, with only the few scant breaks he could get lending him any peace as he enjoyed his true home in the ocean.
Large but with little to occupy it, he didn’t like to collect trinkets, with the preferences of the aquatic as varied as any of the terrestrial. Despite being one that had to previously go out to the world above, his people were natural predators that preferred to hide in the shadows, his black-grey scales matching that heritage, and even with all of the comforts of civilization meaning he didn’t need to use that strategy to hunt for his food like any of his distant ancestors, the fact that he could enjoy a wide, dimly lit space was a comfort and a luxury he could afford thanks to the same power that kept him so occupied.
But this is some of my precious little free time. I can’t just waste it by lounging at home, he thought to himself, even if he wanted to do nothing more. Working all day and either sleeping or doing nothing once it ends. It’s not healthy for the mind. I can at least go out for a little stroll if nothing else.
His body drifted to an enchanted heater placed along one of his walls and it left him wanting to do nothing less when he had its siren’s song compelling him to stay in for the night and let its warmth wash away the aches of the day, but with a small bit of will he forced himself to swim away, out of his dwelling to see the city beyond.
As above, he lived in Allfaith, only the aquatic half of the city, but, unlike the terrestrials, their side didn’t have an invasion point. The fact that there was one so close by on solid land was a problem, there were more than a few semi-aquatic demons that had made their way to the ocean through it, but the amount of damage and danger made it a completely different scale to deal with.
In his half, the city was still a major destination and meeting hub for the faithful of the world, holding churches and trials of all types, not needing to be largely evacuated and not ravaged by the second wave, meaning that his swim was packed, even if it was in ways those on the surface didn’t have to deal with.
Not confined to just moving in two dimensions, by the nature of the medium in which he lived, vertical space was easily traversed, leaving the surrounding buildings having doors in and out on each floor, no need to go to the bottom where they’d been built from, and even in a full city, it was a different sort of cramped than one might see on the surface. While the extra dimension to move through meant there was rarely any reason to be packed shoulder to shoulder, it also meant one might have to deal with having people not only on all sides, but also above and below too. A fate that might have been fine for some within that sphere who hailed from races that preferred to travel in schools, but from a race that was more solitary like his own, it left him choosing emptier streets. Even if going out to be around others was good for him, he’d still spent all day with the people he’d been assisting with his magic; the rest of the population could be viewed with a bit of a distance.
Still, it doesn’t look like things are too bad yet, Elvat noted as he took the rest of the world in. Even with only a few short months till the third wave, the mood in the city wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been before the first or second, with people across the world able to feel the difference. They were all more powerful, and they were better equipped, with both leaving its fair share of hope that kept the world from turning to defeatism and misery. They could imagine that a brighter tomorrow might exist when that had once felt so impossible, and it left a mostly positive attitude filling the city, even as the days slowly ticked down.
But, same as everyone else he saw, that was something he didn’t want to focus on either. His work already meant there were no days he could go without being aware of it, he at least wanted to forget the worries of the world in his free time and, with his stomach starting to growl, his day too busy for lunch, he stopped at a food cart to look at the options available.
In the depths, liquidy meals weren’t common, no soups or stews needing to be cooked and contained in a way that would keep them from mixing with the surrounding ocean and anything else of the sort was just as inconvenient, even if a few cultures still created such dishes, their environment largely affecting what could be made.
There were simple options, of course, composed of different plants or cooked meats, both common across all of that world’s seas, but they had different techniques as well, including plenty that weren’t so commonly seen on dry land.
The cart he went to was selling such a dish, the chef from a more fish-like race, possessing various fins while lacking any sort of limb, made a dough of sorts before they shaped it into a ball to be cooking in an oven, using their water magic to manipulate the ingredients to combine them and then rotated the dish while it was heated to control how it baked in a way that would have been far too difficult for the average cook to do above. In the ocean, a single level of water magic made cooking in such a manner simple, but on dry land, one would need to work for at least a few levels of air magic or, even less likely, gain a non-affinitied branch. By controlling the ingredients used, the inhabitants of the depths could affect the buoyancy of the dish to change how easy or hard it would be to manipulate, but so long as they had water magic, it would always be possible.
He took it when it was done, a soft, spongy ball of flavour, and held out his card to pay, but the cart owner shook their head.
“You fixed up my fins a couple weeks back, good as new. Least I can do is give our soul mage a meal on the house, can’t I?”
“Then I’ll happily accept,” Elvat told the other, smiling before going on his way. He was a known face in that city, that much couldn’t be changed, and he made sure to lend some aid to the local hospital from time to time. In all of his years as the planet’s soul mage, he’d found it best to accept the goodwill he received. It made the people around him feel comfortable, and it made them feel closer to him in return. Less of an untouchable third tier and more a member of their greater community, no matter how active the city might have been.
It’s good, he thought to himself, eating as he swam, his razor-like teeth tearing through the meal. Hopefully, I’ll find them again.
As with the surface, there was never a guarantee one would find the same food cart twice, the owners having a tendency to move and in a city like that all the more so as people went to where a crowd seemed likely to draw to try to ensure their sales, but it also meant there was always something new to find and try when he didn’t feel like eating at home, letting him enjoy a variety the sea had to offer. Even if all of his work poking his head above the water to cast spells, and then later train his student, meant that he had gotten to sample more terrestrial meals than most who made their homes in the world’s waters, none of it could compare to the meals he’d grown up with in his eyes, letting him enjoy it as he slowly found his way back to more crowded streets, to see a group gathered around a couple busking.
With buoyancy fighting gravity, it was easy for him to lean against the higher walls of a nearby spire to watch the show, seeing something that was half dance, half juggling as two with more serpentine bodies moved together, bouncing balls between themselves with each movement they made while one used light magic to add an extra dimension to the display, creating a bit more flair and managed to captivate for the skill involved, even when he was long done his snack, driving him to watch till the end as the two swam around each other in perfect rhythm.
He clapped as loud as anyone else when they finished and tapped his card to theirs to tip them like the rest, the two either from out of the city or else new enough to it that they didn’t recognize him, before he left, off to go back home. He’d gone out for a bit, just enough to make sure that his day hadn’t been nothing but work and rest, and he’d gotten to enjoy both a nice meal and a show, leaving him in a good mood as he ended that day.
Author’s note
Honestly, I'm not crazy happy with how this one turned out. I’d wanted to use it to explore more of the aquatic half of the planet since it doesn’t come up much and Elvat is my most prominent character living there, but having already done a couple rewrites on it I'm still not satisfied. Still, hope you all got some enjoyment out of a little slice of life chapter for Elvat and the next poll should be up soon.