Purpose of life Chapter 1
I do not own Familiar of Zero or Warcraft
It was the day of the summoning ritual for second years at Tristain's academy of magic.
Some were anxious, others scared, overall there was excitement in the air, anticipation for the upcoming event.
Louise Valliere felt more and more scared as the time grew ever shorter. For her year at the academy she has failed to perform a single magical spell, be it even a simple one like levitation. Been the daughter, albeit the third, of the prestigious Valliere family, there were certain expectations about her, ones she has so far failed to meet.
However today was not like any other day of magic practicing. If she failed today, she might as well have been born a commoner, for failure at the summoning meant expulsion from the school. To top it all Louise had to go and make that ridiculous, pompous promise to her 'rival' that she would summon the best familiar there is.
As the pink-head finished dressing and pocketed her wand, she cast one last glance at herself in the mirror before exiting the room and walking towards the area outside the school walls, designated for the summoning.
Her classmates were already there, each one talking about what kind of familiar they were going to summon. While some were aiming for the powerful ones, other did not care so much for power as much as they did for the appearance of the familiar.
It was not a minute after her arrival that professor Colbert, the teacher that will be supervising the summoning, showed up and asked for the first student to begin.
As so it began, and in the course of half an hour a wide range of familiar appeared in the circle in front of the professor. From simple cats and dogs to more unique animals like salamaders and dragons.
"Has everyone summoned their familiar?" asked the balding professor.
"Louise is yet to do so, professor." Came the reply from a red-headed germanian, kneeling next to her firely familiar.
"Aa, Louise the Zero. You might want to step back, professor." This time it was Guiche, having finally stopped hugging his familiar, an oversized mole.
With a raised eyebrow at the statement of the young Gramond, Jean Colbert asked for Louise to step to the circle.
"Miss Valliere, if you would please?"
With slow and heavy steps Louise began walking forward, her shaking hands reaching into the folds of her cloak to pull out her wand. When she finally grasped it, she held it so tight her knuckles turned white.
She raised her wand, getting ready to begin casting, before an explosion came from the circle, kicking up a dust cloud, obscuring the vision of everyone.
" As expected of the Zero, she can no longer even say the incantations!" came a whiny voice through the smoke.
" Zeroooooo, why are you even here?" this time another, female voice pierced the smoke cover.
" Enough! This is no way for nobles to behave!" this time it was the voice of professor Colbert. Not a second later the smoke was cleared by a wind wave and revealed a most peculiar sight.
The area around the summoning circle was both covered in ice and fire at the same time. Even more interesting was that although the teacher was covered in sooth and had many part of his robe ripped, the Valliere daughter appeared unharmed, not even her hair was disheveled. The only difference about her was that her wand was nothing more but the charred remains of the handle still clutched in her hand.
But that was not the most important part.
In the middle of the circle did not stand an animal like the ones in the hour before. It was not even a living being.
It was a sword.
A sword with a jagged, silver edge, contrasting with the dark blue, almost black fuller and glowing blue runes running down the middle. The cross guard consisted of what appeared to be a ram skull. To top it all, the sword was smoking, as if it was fresh out of a forge.
The uniqueness of the landscape or the sword was lost to the arrogant noble students.
"Ha! Even Brimir himself decided to point it out, Valliere! You are good for nothing! A Zero!" Shouted Guiche, having 'heroically' fallen over his girlfriend to shield her from the explosion.
"Miss Valliere, while it is unheard of to summon an inanimate object as a familiar, it appears you have already bound the sword, judging by the runes on the blade." Began the professor slowly, ignoring the outburst of the blond playboy.
"Still…those are some interesting runes… the only ones I recognize are 'power eternal' and 'scar the spirit'…"
Louise could only nod slowly at the professor's words, not even looking at his direction. Her eyes were glued to the blade, as if it was calling to her. She extended her hand slowly towards the hilt and just as she grasped it both the flames and ice disappeared in a blast of wind. No one noticed that for the briefest of moments, one of the pink-head's eyes glowed blue, while the other-gold.
"Class dismissed, return to your rooms" finally said Colbert, snapping out of his thoughts.
'The blade…it's cold' though Louise, completely missing her teacher's words. What surprised her even more was the fact that the blade weighted next to nothing, even though it was nearly three-quarters her height.
When she finally tore her eyes away from her 'familiar', she was that she was alone, and with her head down, she began walking towards her room. Yes, she summoned something, but her wand got blown up in the process, which despite of the numerous explosions the previous year, always survived. What made matters even worse was that she summoned a useless ornamented, demonic-looking sword.
She could not even think how she was going to bring the news to her family. Even summoning a commoner would have been better. But the combination of her wand been destroyed and her new weapon been a sword was too much.
Yes, she could get a new one, but it was the symbolism behind her 'change' of weapons that unnerved her.
When she finally reached her room, she suddenly felt tired, barely had any time to put the sword on the pile of hay she had prepared for her familiar before collapsing onto her bed and falling into slumber.
Louise awoke to unfamiliar surroundings.
The first thing that caught her attention was the weather- bleak, dark, snowing heavily, with a howling wind that cuts to the bone.
She was into a snow-covered valley and from around the edges of the surrounding hills, tall metallic tower-like structures could be seen. At the very end of the valley, she could see a massive fortress, made from the same dark metal as the towers around her.
Pulling her thin cloak around her, for what little good it did, she began walking towards said fortress.
The closer she got the more details she started to see. Like the fact that the very ground beneath the layer of snow was covered in skulls, albeit made from that dark metal. Skulls were also a constant motive in decoration of the fortress. Even the massive banners that hung on both sides of the gate were held by skulls, while the banners themselves had the same sword as the one she had summoned.
Louise suddenly felt afraid to go any further. What if by her summoning she had stolen some form of a relic and now they have brought her here to exact punishment.
'Don't be stupid. There was no one to detain you when you first appeared here. There is actually absolutely no one here, even at the battlements of the fortress' Louise tried to reassure herself. That, however did not stop her shaking, but it could have been the piercing cold the reason for that.
When she finally reached the massive doors to the fortress, she wondered how was she to even move them, let alone open them. Still, seeing no other way, she extended a hand towards the door, ready to push, when the door opened by herself.
Louise saw nothing but a long corridor, leading to another set of doors with a massive ram head guarding them. All along the walls there were braziers with blue flames revealing the ominous beauty of the inside. While the architecture could have been beautiful, the presence of skulls in absolutely everything made it hard for one to come to a decision if it was beautiful or scary.
The pink-head tried to warm herself on one of the fires, but quickly discovered that they gave off a cold feeling instead of the warmth one associates with fire.
Seeing no other way, she continued to the end of the corridor, not noticing or hearing the door closing behind her 'At the least there is no wind here'
She pushed the doors, surprised by how little they weighted, and was stunned by what was on the other side.
A massive circular room, the ceiling nearly as high nearly as the fortress appeared from the outside. The room, no, hall had enormous sapphire windows flanked by silky blue drapes, descending from the ceiling and pooling on the marble floor. The hall was bright and warm, as if sunlight was coming through the windows, bathing every inch of it in rays of warmth.
In the very center there was a pedestal, upon which her 'familiar' stood floating. Or rather it looked like her sword one second, before changing to another for a second and returning to hers again, and again, and again.
The other sword had an ebon blade, followed by a winged cross guard. Along the lengths of the blade the same runes, but in golden color were flashing. On the pummel, cross guard and nearly at the tip of the blade there were crystals, appearing to be amber.
Louise heard the closing of the door behind her, and when she turned, she saw nothing, literally. The door has disappeared, leaving nothing but another of those massive, non-transparent blue windows in its place.
"So, you are the new brat?" came a gruff voice from behind her, making her jump.
She spun around to come face to face with what appeared to be ghosts.
The one that has spoken was what she though could only be an orc- green skin covering bent-over muscular body, with fangs protruding from his mouth. His face was cleanly shaved and had a white facial painting.
The other spirit would have made her blush had he been alive.
It was a man, in his late 30's, long blond hair turning white at some places. His cleanly shaved face was set into an emotionless mask, his blue eyes piercing the pink-headed girl.
"So young…why would you take up Frostmourne and waste your life like that?" this time it was the handsome man that spoke, his voice sounding old and tired, even more then Old Osmond.
"Frostmourne? Waist my life? Wh-what are you talking about?" Louise meekly asked, unsure of how to progress in the situation.
The 'orc' burst out into laughter, holding his sides.
"Oh she does not know! This is rich!" shouted the green-skinned ghost.
Ignoring his laughing companion, the human ghost slowly walked next to the girl before asking.
"What is your name, child?" he asked gently, as if talking to a wounded animal.
" L-Louise Valliere" Louise managed to stutter out.
"Louise, the blade you took is not a simple sword with flashy inscriptions. It is the most powerful sword a mortal can wield." Her eyes widened at that.
" But…it comes with a price. Do you know what the runes mean?" she shock her head no.
"He, whomsoever takes up this blade shall wield power eternal. Just as the blade rends flesh, so must power scar the spirit." Louise gulped audibly at the last part.
The man closed his eyes, as if getting lost into memories for a second before looking at Louise again.
"The blade has many powers. It is nearly unblockable, been able to cut through almost anything. It will make it's user immortal to time and respond to his or her wishes, changing shape depending if they are good" the sword at the pedestal changed to the one with golden runes and stayed like that " or bad" the sword changed again to it's original form.
" Yes, yes that's all good and all, but as the human said there is a price." This time it was the orc that spoke " the sword has your soul now, and you will never find 'eternal rest' "
"Wh-what do you mean?" Louise asked, truly fearing for her life, having come to the conclusion long ago that this was not a dream.
"No king rules forever…"whispered the blond human spirit "When you die, your spirit will be trapped in the blade…forever"
And done. As you may have guess Louise summoned Frostmourne. While there are other stories like that already, they mostry revolve around Louise going Death Knight on all Halkegenia. Frostmourne would not be the same as canon but alot different. The sword itself would act a little like a Zanpaktou from Bleach, with Arthas been the good(shinigami) side and Ner'zhul been the evil(hollow) side. The 'good' version of Frostmourne is based on Greatsword of the Sin'dorei.
One of the main focuses of the story woud be personaly struggle, like good vs evil, and yes Louise will be tought in both Paladin and Death Knight arts (you do not need to be dead to be a DK (Darion Mograine is technicly alive))
As always construction, grammar or story mistake reviews are welcome.
Thank you for reading.