Greetings, and welcome to Dwarf of Bronze. This is your author speaking. I don't normally do these but I feel the need to let people starting this story know a few things. Firstly; this is an unusual tale. The Stations of Canon, such as they are, have been well abandoned by the second arc of five (as of time of writing) and the plot has totally diverged from the original story. Guiche is the primary focus character, but he gets better. Louise is also still strongly involved in the plot since a lot of plot beats are related to her in various ways. Lastly, my writing has improved since I begun. I do hope you'll give the rest of the story a chance, and I promise this is the last you'll ever hear from me.
Brimir's Law of Opposition reads as follows; "All other things being equal, a power comprised of opposing elements will be greater than a power comprised of complementary elements."
The Line Magic of Ice, created by stacking Water and Air, is possible because the two elements flow together harmoniously. When working the Line Magic 'Sandblast', by stacking Earth and Air, one would usually have to be a Triangle Mage due to the difficulty of combining only oppositional elements. That difficulty would come out in the strength of the spell; an Oppositional spell will always defeat a Complementary spell of the same class.
It was this Law and the implications thereof that were giving Headmaster Osmond such a headache. Since the time of the Founder the tradition was for those performing a Familiar Summoning Ritual to do so in oppositional pairs. The magic worked against the opposing force and was greatly magnified; calling forth mighty creatures as a result.
His own familiar was no exception, regardless of what it currently looked like. The tiny creature scurried up the side of his heavily-reinforced desk which, nevertheless, creaked a little under the weight of the animal. When he held his hand out to it the ostensible mouse hopped right over and he barely felt the weight; one of the oddities of his beloved Familiar.
"What shall I do, Chuchu?" The tiny creature squeaked at him as he nodded sagely. His secretary placed a stack of papers on his desk while resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the old man's antics. "Ah, yes, I see… oho, very interesting! Yes, yes, white and plain, mm. Perhaps blue and lacy would be more inspiring…" A flush struck the woman's face as she glared at her employer. Terrible old lech.
"You ought to be focusing on the schedule for the Springtime Summoning, sir." She snapped at him before moving out of reach and clasping her legs together. Working in the perverted old loon's office was always an ordeal. "Since it's next week, and all." Ah, yes. Osmond stroked at his long beard thoughtfully.
They were fortunate to have a very balanced class this year. A few outliers could be dealt with using the third-year students who'd been unable to be placed last year; many of them could support two, or even three, oppositional bonds at the same time. However, he was faced with a serious issue.
Louise de La Vallière. Youngest daughter of Karin, the Heavy Wind. The girl was, supposedly, incapable of casting even the simplest magic without destroying things; that, at least, reassured both the Headmaster, and presumably her mother as well, that she belonged in the Academy. A commoner certainly couldn't even do that much.
Her element, however, was unknown. Many of the teachers had theories about it; most of which claimed the girl was any element but her own. The only report he put much stock in was that of Jean Colbert. His running theory on the girl, assembled mostly in his spare time, was that she was an Air mage. This was due to the lack of fires and burning that accompanied her spells; he likened them to the pressure blasts that could be conjured by more powerful Air spells. Osmond was inclined to agree with him as the logic fit even if something about it just felt off.
In spite of his thoughts on the matter, though, if she failed to perform the Summoning ritual… it was likely her mother would be obligated to recall her and simply marry her off. The student file said she was engaged to the Viscount Wardes of the Griffon Knights. Would he take a Noble wife who couldn't do magic? It was hard to say.
Best put her with the Gramont boy. If she was Air then it suited her to partner with him; besides which, his particular magic needed a stable hand and a stable sort of soul. As flighty as he was personality-wise his magic was steadfast. Hopefully that would allow both of them to do succeed.
It had begun, as things often did around the Zero, with an explosion.
Guiche had rather expected the explosion. He had not expected it would shear through the edge of her circle and into his as well. The entire debacle had proved most vexing! Vallière had made him look like a fool in front of a great many young ladies he either had once been, was or might soon be courting.
The whole day had been going so well, too. Kirche and his dear Montmorency had a little earlier and received practically matching familiars; the Germanian girl had called forth a rather large fire salamander while sweet Montmorency had acquired a slick-skinned amphibian of similar stature that she was quite ecstatic over. Especially as one of the other girls he'd been eying had said something uncharitable while poking said familiar and then collapsed into a frothing heap as the curious toxins in her familiar's skin took hold.
His entire line of thought was abandoned as soon as he saw what had come out of the circle. There was clear evidence of magic at work; that much was plain. He'd managed to distort the ground somehow by creating a shallow crater that stretched over towards Louise's circle as well. There within…
Guiche was startled. He was incensed. More than that, though, he was simply plain confused. The second reason for his confusion was the fact that there were two figures in the crater; meaning the Zero had successfully called forth a familiar as well. That paled in comparison to the first thing he noticed, however. Rather than a mighty war golem or some mythical stone giant or even some handsome subterranean creature it appeared that he had called forth…
Well, there were two choices before him. The squat, hunchbacked creature with the thick, massively bushy red beard or the dazed looking young man laid out on the ground behind him. Both seemed to be human… or at least he thought the smaller one was.
"Kto, chert voz'mi?" Gah! And the small one spoke! What a brusque creature it was; waving an armoured hand at him and demanding… something, obviously. Perhaps it was a gnome or some such creature? Although it looked a fair ways too large for that.
"Anata wa, shōnen o hanasu nodesu ka?" And again! This time the thing stamped its foot and stepped closer to him. One hand was clutching something underneath its heavy cloak while the other gesticulated furiously. With each motion the many small stone beads woven into its massive beard clacked against each other.
"Haben keiner von euch Void-verlassenen Idioten wissen, wie sie zu sprechen!" Someone in the crowd gasped loudly at that. No, it was multiple people. One of the words in there was one even Guiche recognized. A tall, busty girl with dark skin, fair and magnificent Kirche, pushed her way through the crowd.
"I recognize that! I mean; Ja, ich spreche Germanischen." The short being had started at the sight of her, and once again when she began to speak. Rather than being put at ease by the sudden break in the communication barrier his eyes narrowed and he grasped at the handle on his belt more firmly. Guiche couldn't see what kind of weapon it was.
"Germanischen? Habe nie davon gehört. Ich spreche Zwergen, Meriadan, Stalisinian, Kagati, Nord und West Azekara und zu meiner Schande, Zunali." Kirche was lost for words at that sudden and undecipherable declaration. She glanced over at Professer Colbert; he was equally concerned but gestured for her to continue.
Amidst the silence and confusion of their peers Kirche attempted to commune further with the strange person who'd come to be standing in the circle. A number of thick and guttural exclamations flew back and forth but at least the thing had ceased to hold such a heavy grip on whatever weapon it was concealing. After some time she nodded absently and turned to look at the Professor and Guiche both.
"He says his name is Kenneth Manson, of… somewhere called 'Kelicho'. He wants to know where he is, and which idiot called him through…" She blanched somewhat at the choice of words she was now having to repeat. "The Void." A quiet, startled titter went through the gathered students as Colbert looked at Guiche de Gramont.
Apparently the entity took that as confirmation. He stormed up to the edge of the crater and jabbed Guiche in the chest with one stubby finger; and hard. Which was quite difficult given it was barely over a metre thirty in height.
"Oh~?" Not the novelty of the situation was wearing off and the implications were setting in Kirche leaned over to smile at the young Earth Mage. "It seems that your Familiar isn't too happy with the arrangement, Guiche de Gramont." Before he could protest another, almost forgotten, voice rang out.
"Professor Colbert, you must let us try again! This has to be a mistake!" It was the Vallière who spoke up now. She had descended into the crater to examine the other young man. He was quite a sight; his surprisingly nice clothes severely dirtied as he lay there face-down. Even if Guiche's Familiar, for what else would one summon in this holy ritual, was a squat, misshapen creature it was still better than what was obviously no better than a mere peasant.
"How appropriate! Not only does Louise call forth a commoner as her familiar, but she messes up Guiche's calling as well. Professor, you might at least let him go again; it's not his fault he was paired with the Zero." The laughter stung at Guiche as well for some reason. He looked down once more at the short man… person… thing that had suddenly stopped accosting him.
"Aye, lass. Seems he called me. Are ye sayin' something 'bout tha'?" Everyone froze once more. The words were low-toned, filled with a subtle menace, but most definitely Tristainian. Kirche turned to stare at the short being that had just spoken. His eyes seemed to glow with some inner light of fury that made her take a step back.
"Seems ye spake some bastard tongue tha' be kin o' Meriadan; an' ah kin deal wi'that. Also seems that ah were called here along wi' this boy fer some purpose." He strolled over to the crater and hoisted up the prone figure over his shoulder with no discernable effort. "If tha's t'be the case then ah'll take this'n fer medical care, if'n it please yer Lordships, and then we kin discuss terms of employment like solid, reasonable folks."
Guiche did not like the sound of that.
Several hours had passed and Guiche liked the things he had heard since even less. The bastard thing was going to bleed him dry! That… Kenneth thing had taken the Zero's commoner to the infirmary along with Professer Colbert and he and the-... ah, he and Louisehad gone to argue their case to the Headmaster immediately.
It had not gone well.
The old man had finally agreed, under much sufferance, to let them both try again just once; in case there had been some error. He even drew the circles personally, with great amusement, and then calmly watched as their summonings failed to even explode. That was unusual for the Zero. Then he smiled an unpleasantly pleased smile at the both of them.
"And now, since we have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the two in our infirmary must be your un-bonded familiars, let us go meet them." He had said that with far too much mirth in his voice. Then there had been the next issue.
Before this day Guiche had possessed a certain sense of kinship with Kirche. The Germanian woman set the blood of men afire as much as Guiche himself felt a flame in his heart for the many ladies of the world. Now he found himself hating the buxom girl with increasing passion with every passing moment.
She'd gone to the infirmary as well, ostensibly to help out the Professor. He didn't believe a word of it. After all; there she was conversing with the horrid little man in his native tongue. It seemed he was not a misshapen brute after all. That hunch in his back had simply been a massive pack and some rectangular, cloth-wrapped object he'd laid to one side. It felt heavy just to look at it. Putting that aside for the moment he looked at the current object of his ire
The evil thing had written up a contract.
Eight days off a month, plus two weeks illness and bereavement leave a year; with pay. That was just the start of the insult being dealt to him. There was also some clause about how this 'Kenneth' character would, and he quoted to himself under his breath, "Protect him from non-lethal harm only if it was not brought about by his own foolishness". What did that even mean?
He read the whole thing, of course. Even though he was sometimes regarded as foolish Guiche was no idiot; particularly not when it came to matters such as these. His father's tales of incautious Nobles signing away their birthright by mistake had taught him at least that much caution. Which is how he came upon the many clauses allowing the being that would supposedly be his familiar to disobey him essentially as he pleased.
"This is beyond ridiculous. Your little scrap of paper is a sham! Why, you've written it up so that you can just ignore my commands on no more than a whim!" Professor Colbert shifted in place. He was leaning on his staff and quietly watching the proceedings but, on the whole, allowing them to continue as they would.
"Actually, Mister Gramont, the terms are more than reasonable; Ser Manson asked for my advice on them. You'd be best thinking of him as closer to a landless Knight than anything else. He simply seeks to ensure he will not betray his contract by refusing to violate his own virtues." Hmph. The brutish creature had even managed to get the staff on his side; no doubt preying on the Professor's better nature. He turned to Kirche instead.
"Bah! Enough of this charade. Bad enough that you're helping this… this… thing insult me such, Kirche, but why in the name of the Founder are you letting him do the same for the Zero's familiar?" At the sound of her nickname Louise flushed angrily but kept reading the fine print of her own, likely equally offensive, contract.
Maybe she would trade with him. The familiar she had didn't look like much with his soft cotton doublet, with pocket-heavy vest over top, and strange fingerless leather gauntlets. There was also a heavy red cloak that had been removed by the healer and was now hanging in the corner. But he had spoken to her politely and quietly, in a fairly deferential tone; he had kept his head bowed calmly and replied to her questions concisely in thickly accented Tristainian. So much better than the… the…
"Ach, shut yer gob-hole ye little shite. Trust me, yer getting ya monies' worth wi' that. Ah ought t'charge ye triple." Guiche's fists clenched so hard his fingers turned white; then even harder when he saw Louise accepting a quill from the boy.
"Zero, you can't be seriously agreeing to this… this farce! They are meant to be our familiars, not… retainers!" She looked up at him with a strange expression and then rolled her eyes with a loud huff. Perhaps she was simply glad to have a familiar in the first place. Then she suddenly donned a sickly sweet smile as she signed the paper.
"Perhaps you ought to have taken Hiraga here instead, Guiche the Vain. He may not be as exotic as your familiar but he possesses a number of talents that make him not only a useful servant but a perfectly serviceable familiar." He couldn't help but grind his teeth together as she finished signing both copies and then handed one to her new servant. The young man bowed deeply to her, folded the contract up and carefully placed it inside his vest.
The worst part was that she was right. Kenneth had explained to both of them that the young man's name was Saito Hiraga and that he was from a nation in the same land as himself; albeit a very different one. Apparently he had some skill at cooking and cleaning, among other similar menial tasks, although his contract probably excluded him from such duties much like Kenneth's.
Far more of interest was the explanation that his occupation at home was as a ranger; some sort of forester or woodsman or gamekeeper or something like that. As such he had training in recognizing plants and herbs, as well as practice with a bow and light blades. Not only could he probably serve as a serviceable bodyguard for the Zero he could also function as a porter and, most irritatingly, perform a number of tasks with far greater competency than a normal familiar could.
So instead of the polite and competent young man he was stuck with the thing that currently seemed to be telling Germanian jokes so dirty that they were making Kirche the Ardent blush. Not that she was in any way discouraging him from doing so with the way she was furiously scribbling them down in one of her class notebooks.
"By the Holy Founder… why couldn't I have gotten a nice, normal familiar instead of this… this!" He waved at Kenneth with a huffy pout. Worst of all, he was having to miss his planned evening rendezvous with that lovely first year to deal with this farce. However, it seemed that his mini-tantrums had finally gotten the attention of their cause.
"Boy." Something about the way that was said caused Guiche's spine to stiffen straight. His hand twitched out of the phantom desire to salute. It was like when his father said 'Son'; crisp, no-nonsense, military. "Seems y'think tha' my demands are a mite unreasonable. Well, too bad fer ye. Messir Colbert here tells me tha' slavery is illegal in these parts, so ye will be paying me." Ah… well, of course-
"An', if ah understand correctly, the nature of this ritual is such that ye cannae even call up a new creature unless ah die. An' do ah have news for ye, boy-o; ah'm over three hundred years old an' no likely to die of aging any time before yer Kingdom falls, by my reckoning." Colbert twitched at that as well, his hands shifting on the staff he was carrying idly at his side as he looked in with interest. Kenneth ignored him. "If ye dinnae want my service ah'll just go to this Germania place an' become a mercenary. Doesn't sound like anythin' in these lands has the stones needed to off me, either, so ye can bet ah'll outlast ye."
The diabolical little bastard had him by the balls. But… even so… these demands… he wanted to be paid in pure gold! Even when he translated the cost in his head into coinage it still came out to a sum he could use to hire a half-dozen blades and have enough for a footman and a carriage. Possibly even a horse! Every month! It wasn't that the de Gramont's could not afford it, of course, but… every month?
Kenneth stood quite suddenly and grabbed Guiche by the front of the shirt. The young man found himself being carried over the dwarf's shoulder like a sack of flour. While this was certainly surprising, and the strength being displayed was impressive, he quickly set to beating the fiend about the back and shoulders. Not that it did much for him. The strangely textured armour that he was wearing was painfully hard against Guiche's soft fists and he couldn't retrieve his wand.
"What are you doing with me! Unhand me you… you heathen brute!" Kenneth just huffed and continued his calm march downstairs and out into the abandoned grounds. It was far too late for anyone to be around. Even so he didn't stop; calmly carrying the boy to a secluded spot by one of the walls and dumping him on the ground.
"How dare yo-" There was a steely ring in the air as Kenneth drew his weapon in one smooth motion and pressed the blunt topside of his axe to Guiche's throat. It was a horrible looking weapon; single blade on one side and pointed end on the other. Rather than the chill of metal he was expecting there was an unpleasant warmth to it.
"Boy." The voice was harsher even than before and quite suddenly the noble felt like a child. Before the tone had been more like his father when speaking to his sons. Reprimanding, yes, but at least attempting to be gentle. As it was now Guiche was put more in mind of the time he'd heard his father dressing down a subordinate for doing something exceptionally foolish.
After a moment the axe vanished under the cloak again as Kenneth sighed loudly. "Verrah well. Ah'll humor ye. This, boy, is th' reason ya should sign the contract." As Guiche watched Kenneth deliberately raised one of his feet. He noticed that, strangely, the heavy boots he wore lacked soles; there was just a strap around them holding them to the squat man's feet.
Kenneth's foot came down. Guiche stared.
I, Guiche de Gramont, Mage of Tristain, do swear upon the Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers in the name of Brimir the Founder, to accept Kenneth Manson, Dwarf of Kelicho, as my bonded familiar under the aforementioned conditions and agree to abide by them for as long as my life may last.
I, Kenneth Manson, once Son of Man, do swear upon
Aspiration-in-Providence, the Goddess Zazâni, to serve Guiche de Gramont, Mage of Tristain as his bonded partner under the aforementioned conditions and agree to abide by them for as long as his honour and the tyranny of time allows.
Signed, Sealed and Witnessed before the Eyes of God by Headmaster Osmond of the Tristania Academy of Mages.