Chapter 1: Summoning Madness.
It is a well known fact that in accordance with the most fundamental principles of geometry that there must exist and infinite number of alternative universes. Just as an infinite number of two dimensional squares must be arrange together to create a single three dimensional cube it follows that all alternative universes must be arranges side by side with each other in order to create a truly fifth dimensional object.
The exact reason for this is unknown. Many thousands of hours have been spent in universities across the universe trying to theorize how all these universe came to exist. The two leading theories are that either a new universe is created whenever a decision is made by anyone as history fractures itself out across the vast realms of possibility. Alternatively, it is possible that the big bang being a unstable quantum event had an infinite number of possible outcomes which led to the creation of innumerable alternative universes each with slight different starting conditions. Such as being made of anti matter or entirely of cheese or indeed a universe where magic is not only very much real but very common.
In one such magic infused universe, on a planet very much like earth, on a continent called Halkeginia, in the small country of Tristain, at its most prestigious academy of magic and education a small pink haired girl debated the possible value of lighting her room on fire. On the down side it would lead to the loss of most of her worldly possessions, but on the upside it would certainly heat up the room really quick.
It was an early day in spring though the mornings still seemed to think it was late winter and so it was rather cold. The air seemed all the more frigid to the small pink haired girl since she was buried under several layers of heavy blankets. She was mostly warm at the moment but the girl insisted on sleeping in very little at all so if she got up she would be quite cold till she managed to gather more clothes.
The knowledge that elsewhere in the academy other students was overcoming this challenge by grabbing their wands to light fires and levitate their clothes over to them only added to her irritation. Ultimately her options were none existent so she gritted her teeth, braved the cold air and dressed herself as quickly as she could. She wore a moderate length skirt with a silk white blouse beneath a long blue cloak draped over her shoulders, she covered her legs with thigh high socks and wore simple black shoes. Now that she was a bit warmer she set to the task of brushing her hair and cleaning her face. Before too long at all she was ready to face the world.
Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere, third daughter of the Valliere family, noble and mage stood before her door with her eyes closed and a haughty look on her face as she steeled herself for the coming day. Today was a special day for her, today was the day she disproved all her detractors and rivals. Today was the day she would prove once and for all that not only was she truly a mage entitled to her noble status but a damn good one. Or today was the day her unofficial runic name finally got the better of her once and for all and she would be expelled from the academy and return to her family in disgrace. The young girl visibly shrank into herself as that thought occurred to her.
But she refused to give into to such negativity. She focused her mind on the task at hand, assumed inevitable success to boost her confidence and slipped out the door. She made her way down to the main dining hall and began eating a quick breakfast. She was one of the last students to arrive for the meal, most of the other students weren't such slow starters in the morning, but this was fine with Louise. She kept her head down and made her way around the edges of the crowd trying not to be noticed. It didn't work.
Before She even reached her seat at one of the tables the snickering had started. Louise could feel her classmates stare at her and could just barely hear their whispering as she passed. Fortunately she couldn't make out exactly what they were saying and could ignore them while she ate. Inevitably though, one of them spoke up much louder than they needed to.
"So what do you all think the Zero will summon today? A Worm or a dead fish?" A nameless voice called out from somewhere in the crowd around her.
"She always pretending to be a fire mage so whatever it is will probably be burning." Another voice answered.
"Oh, I hope so," One of the slightly larger of her classmates added, "I would love to have some broiled fish this afternoon."
"Knowing her it will just be another explosion." A female voice dismissed.
"I hope not, I would hate for my new familiar to get hurt by her incompetence, maybe we will all get lucky and nothing will happen at all, and she can finally just leave the school." One last voice stated and all around the room there were murmurs of agreement as the school collectively wished for its least talented mage to leave.
Louise bore it all silently without even looking up. After a whole year of this she had a lot of experience at ignoring them all. At least that girl was keeping quiet. Then Louise realized she had spoken too soon as the very girl in question got up and walked over the group that had done most the name calling.
Kirche Augusta Frederica Von Anhalt Zerbst daughter of the Zerbst family of Germania, known as The Ardent for her passionate fire Magic was a sight to behold. Her bronze skin accented her fiery red hair and lips. She wore the same uniform as Louise though hers was visibly straining itself to contain her full womanly body. She couldn't, or wouldn't in Louise's mind, even get the top button of her shirt closed leaving no small amount of cleavage shown to the world. She moved with a proud grace and sensually rocked her hips back and forth just enough to be noticeable without seeming like she was trying.
"Don't you all think you're not giving our Louise enough credit?" She asked the group of students in her most innocent voice as if she was actually defending her classmate. Louise ground her teeth and gripped at the fork in her hand bracing herself for what was to come.
"No mere worm or explosion will be quite enough for Louise the Zero," Kirche continued half glancing at Louise out of the corner of her eye. "A bull or cow will be much more suited to her. Slow, dull and almost useless just like how she is."
"Oh you be quiet Zerbst!" Louise shouted rising up. "If I'm going to summon a cow then you're going to summon a half dead dog in heat!"
"Hmmm." Kirche said to herself with her hand on her chin and a contemplative look on her face, as if she was seriously considering the prospect. "Yes I think a wolf or a hound would suite me just fine. A master of the pack Zerbst to herd you Valliere cattle about, oh how perfect that would be. Don't you think so Louise?"
"Don't call me that, Zerbst!" Louise yelled back.
"Oh why not sweet Louise aren't we friends? Shouldn't we be on a first name basis by now?" Kirche reasonably asked.
"We are not friends! Just you all wait and see! My familiar will put you all to shame! Legends will be written about it! People will come from miles just to see it!" Louise declared.
"Yeah I bet a lot of people would travel pretty far to see that big of a hole in the ground!" A voice called out from behind her and the room exploded in laughter. Louise blushed furiously, which even Kirche giggled at the sight of. And with that Louise left the room doing her best to hold in her tears.
The rest of the morning preceded without much incident. Louise truly enjoyed her classes and not just because within the classrooms the teachers didn't tolerate distractions of any kind and as such Louise's various detractors had to keep quiet. The pink haired girl had a natural thirst for knowledge and she was a skilled student. Even Kirche had to admit that her notes were the most detailed in the class and that her ability to strain the most useful knowledge out of the all to often self aggrandizing lectures of her teachers was second to none. And best of all after a year of less than stellar results her teachers had stopped making her try to actually do any spells.
Not that her classes were actually interesting today. This was still the first day back to school after the end of year break so the teachers were taking the time to review most everything the student had learned in the past year. This wasn't helped by the fact that the Earth magic professor hadn't reached the academy yet so they got two whole classes of professor Kaita the Blowhard. Finally as the day was drawing to a close they went to professor Colbert who after a brief review of fire magic and a review of the Summon Servant spell, took the student outside to a nearby hill to begin the ritual.
The Spring time Summoning Ceremony was one of the most holy and sacred days of any mage's life. Conducted in the second year of a mage's formal education it marked the transition from a mere student to an official dot class mage. The spell was ancient beyond all knowledge and didn't belong to any of the four common classes of magic. Some people thought it was a void magic spell but the jury was out on the subject. Really no one really knew why the spell worked or how only that it did.
As the professor called from volunteers to go first, Louise slipped into the back of the crowd. All around her all the student were idly chatting away about what they thought they would summon to become their familiar. It was an important event for everyone. A mage's familiar was a reflection of their power and the nature of their elemental affinity. According to the lore of the spell, it would summon the perfect familiar for a mage. One that would protect and serve them their whole life.
Kirche naturally insisted on going first. Louise couldn't quite make out what she said for her spell but it formed easily enough. In a flash a green oval shaped portal opened in the air before her. After just a moment or two a red lizard, the size of a hunting dog with a flaming tail stalked out of the portal. Its eyes swept over the crowd before it walked over to Kirche's side and sat before her patiently as the germainian kissed its forehead, marking the creature with a few ruins and binding it to her will forever.
Louise recognized the creature as a Salamander one of the strongest creatures a fire mage could summon. She burned with jealousy at the thought of Kirche's having such a thing. Really Louise would have to summon a unicorn or a manticore to match such an accomplishment and she was just hoping to summon anything at this point and finally break the stigma of being a zero. While she was focusing on the Zerbst's success the second student had just completed the ritual.
Louise's attention was drawn back to the summoning ground as the crowd around her oohed and awed at the next familiar. Louise's mouth fell open at the sight of a wind dragon standing before the crowd. Louise was left dumbfounded at the thought of what one of her classmates had managed, but then understood as she saw the dragon bowing to none other than Tabitha the strongest mage in their class. Rumor had it that now that she had summoned a familiar she would be recognized as a triangle class mage, as strong as some of the professors at the school.
Louise sighed in resignation, she knew Tabitha was going to summon something awe inspiring but this was too much. There was no way she was ever going to match an actual dragon being summoned. Founder Brimir alone only knew when such a thing had last happened at the academy. Now more than a little depressed, the small girl slunk back into the midst of the crowd and tried not to think about the rest of the ceremony.
One by one each of her fellow students went up and preformed their summoning spell. All of them were successful, though none matched Kirche's or Tabitha's familiars. Most of the students summoned house pets like cats or dogs, small reptiles and the odd bird. One student managed to summon what looked like a floating eye ball, which the others recognized as a bug bear. All and over it was a rather normal session.
Eventually Professor Colber called out to see if there were any students left who hadn't cast the spell yet. Louise wasn't paying attention though so for a moment it seemed like everyone was finished. Then Kirche spoke up.
"Hold on Professor Louise the Zero hasn't gone yet."
"Ah." The professor noted as he turned to look at Louise who was glaring at Kirche like normal. "Thank you Ms. Zerbst I had almost forgotten. Well Ms. Valliere would be so kind as to wrap this up for us all?"
Louise gulped to herself and made her way over to the clearing where all the spells had been cast. She walked with a great deal of prideful dignity as her classmates once more began to taunt her with predictions of failure. Louise ignored them, then raised her wand and began to cast her spell.
"To my beautiful, divine, and powerful Familiar that dwells somewhere in this universe heed my call..." She started as her fellow students wondered at such a strange incantation, but she continued ignoring them and speaking the words that came naturally to her. "To the Pentagon of the five elemental powers my name is Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere, heed my call and summon forth my familiar."
At her order a green portal opened up before her, just like it had for all the other students. Louise was delighted, no explosion, no fizzle she had cast the spell and it had done what she wanted it to on the first time. Now she just had to wait for her familiar to appear. For a rather long moment the portal just stood there then it exploded. Or rather, then a massive explosion flew out of it along with a ten foot long column of fire and smoke that swept past Louise missing her by a few inches. Behind her something crashed into a tree and then the smoke dissipated and the portal was gone.
"Scheisse!" Someone behind her exclaimed. Louise turned to look at the tree that the explosion had struck. She and the rest of her classmates looked on as a young man who rose up from the smoke.
"Hy svere hyu brain von or two of dat Scheisskerl's idiot sons to death" The boy at the tree declared as he brushed himself off, "und suddenly he sets the self distruck divice goink und legs it! Who even does sometink loike dat heyes tells ya."
The boy looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old. He had black hair and blue eyes a heavy pair of goggles were strapped to his head and his face was covered in soot and grease. He wore a light blue shirt beneath a heavy leather vest along with a thick pair of long pants strapped down by a large belt around his waist with two pouches on the sides and a pair of thick heavy boots on his feet. His clothes were ratty and torn in several places, burned and black in others. His boots were covered in mud and his arms in grease. In his right hand he held very large metal wrench almost three and a half feet in length. It looked like one end was covered in some kind of thick black oil while the other had a red liquid dripping from it that looked a rather lot like blood to Louise. He was speaking with what sounded like a thick germainian accent, but Louise spoke that barbaric tongue and knew that this man wasn't speaking anything like it. A thought occurred to Louise but she shuddered at it and hoped it wasn't true.
"That man's a commoner!" One of her classmates cried out echoing Louise fears. It certainly looked true. He wasn't wearing the signature cape of a mage, and he wasn't carrying a wand. The handful of tools on his belt marked him as a craftsman which probably made him better than the common peasant, but this boy clearly had no magic at his disposal.
"Trust in the Zero to always mess up in new and inventive ways!"
"A commoner seems perfect for you Zero!"
"I suppose we should be glad that he was the only one who got hit by her explosion!" The various students around her called out and began to laugh at her. Louise turned red with embarrassment which soon gave way to despair, she had been so close! She had opened the portal! It hadn't exploded for a full thirty seconds! She turned to her professor who was looking at the boy quite intently.
"Professor!" She exclaimed "There must have been some mistake, I can't have a commoner for a familiar! Let me try the spell again I know I can do it right this time."
Professor Colbert looked over her and then back at the boy in question. He was glaring angrily at the surrounding students muttering to himself. The professor ran a quick detect magic spell on the boy and sure enough he couldn't sense even a single iota of magic power from the child. It seemed he really was a commoner. But that was blood on his wrench, and there had been an explosion coming from the portal when he emerged. Something was very off about this whole situation. Nonetheless the ritual's rules were clear.
"I'm sorry Ms. Valliere" The professor explained. "But the boy is what came out of the summoning spell and therefore he is your familiar. Even if you wanted to the spell can't be recast. Now please complete the ritual so we can all go back."
Louise audibly sighed as her classmates laughed again. But her back remained ram rod straight and she approached the boy who was going to be her familiar weather she wanted it or not. As she did the boy stared at her awkwardly but he wasn't glaring at her as he had at the others. He even looked a bit sympathetic, he must have grasped that most of the laughing was aimed at her not at him. Louise wasn't certain how she felt about that, the fact that a commoner felt sorry for her was infuriating, the fact that anyone felt sympathy for her was a godsend.
"Und now von of hyu just valks up to me loike its nothink." The boy rambled to himself looking a bit annoyed. "Zo Toots any chance hyu vant to tell me vat happened to me or is hyu just gonna keep on sayink dat nonsense language of hyors?"
This close Louise got a better look at him. Her attention was naturally drawn to his eyes, they were a rather deep blue and very expressive. They reminded her of a hawk's eyes, ferocious but also very focused and very intelligent. This whole language thing was going to be a problem and Zerbst was never going to let her live this whole business down. But other than that, she was quickly warming up to the idea of this boy serving her. If he was a craftsmen he would be very useful around the house, and he may even be skilled at basic accounting. She tried not to think of him as a commoner but as a magically summoned butler, which at least was a little exciting. His face was filthy though, she regretted not bringing a handkerchief with her.
She grabbed the man's head in her hands and pulled him down towards her. He looked surprised at what was happening but made no attempt to stop it. She focused on his eyes and he matched her gaze with a curious intensity.
"You better be grateful for this commoner, most people would go there whole lives without this ever happening to them." She said and then cast the last part of the spell. "Pentagon of the five elemental powers, grant your blessing up on this creature and bind it as my familiar."
And with that, she drew towards him and kissed the strange man on his lips. The man was shocked at first but soon answered in kind and pressed back against her, which Louise hadn't been expecting that so she pulled back quickly. The boy had a altogether lewd look on his face as he grinned mischievously at her.
"Vera nize sveethot. Hy had best be careful now, mine poppa alvays varned me about goils loike hyu." As her new familiar spoke he face started to cringe and he looked down at his left hand. "Oy, vat did hyu do vit mine hand?"
"Don't worry," She reassured the obviously disturbed boy as the runes of a familiar appeared on his hand, "It will be over soon."
Sure enough the burning the boy was feeling passed quickly enough. When it had he looked at her suspiciously but didn't say anything. Professor Colbert recaptured everyone attention as he cleared his throat.
"And with that we are all finished." He stated matter of factly. "Well now, let's all head back to the academy. This will conclude all of class for the day, and I remind you all that there will be no classes tomorrow, please use this time to get to know your familiars more closely."
When he had finished the class began to collectively chant a spell together and before long every student was lifted off the ground and into the air as they gently floated away. Only Louise who couldn't cast that spell remained on the ground with her familiar, professor Colbert levitated up but remained close to Louise to ensure no harm came to her, and also to get a better look at the boy's ruins which seemed rather strange. Tabitha also didn't bother cast the spell, she simply flew away on the back of her dragon. Louise's familiar watched in interest as the class flew off whistling in amazement.
"Say dots a preety goot trick hyu guys got here. Hyu is goink to have to show me how to do dat some time." He said is his strange tongue. Louise just sighed and motioned for him to follow her as she walked back to the dorms. At least no one had made fun of fact she couldn't fly, and at least her familiar had to sense to follow her. It was going to be a very long night.
It had been a very long night by the time Louise got back to her room. Her familiar had been kind enough to follow her, but he had yet to shut up. She had expected the sight of the academy to at least have left him in silent awe, but the man had never stopped rambling to himself in that weird nonsense language of his. Worse still Louise guessed from his tone he was being rather critical of the place.
"Hyu call dis granite?" He said examining the stone work of the walls."Hy dont dis here iz common composite stones if ever hy saw dem. Probably dug up from some farmer's field. Vouldn't take more den an hour or two to break true dis stuff. Und vats vith all dese candles everywhere? have hyu pipple ever heard of torches? Cuz da tallow industry is cleaning hyu all out."
Finally they reached her room and its privacy. Here at least Louise was willing to try something desperate to shut her familiar up. She would try magic. With a deft flick of her wrist she brought her wand out and pointed it at her familiar.
"Silence!" She ordered and cast her spell which should have kept her from hearing her familiars words. Instead there was a loud bang, a shock wave that staggered her backwards and a cloud of smoke appeared between them.
"Oh come on, was that really necessary?" She heard from the smoke.
"Hey I understood that!" She exclaimed. As the smoke cleared her familiar appeared before her and answered back.
"Ah so you people do speak Dutch, about time you answered up instead of continuing on in that babble you were making earlier." The boy declared. He still had something of a germainian accent to his speech but it wasn't as pronounced and now his words sounded like crisp clean trade speak to her ears.
"I'm not speaking 'duch' or whatever you called it. I'm speaking the common speech and now you are as well thanks to my translation spell." Louise explained, leaving out the fact that she had just been trying to get him to shut up. The boy snorted at the thought.
"So you're saying that magic is letting us understand each other? Yeah right, try pulling the other one it goes zing." He said, and Louise glared at him.
"What's that supposed to mean? I cast a spell on you and its letting us understand each other. That's what happened." Louise insisted not about to let go of the fact that one of her spells had done something useful.
"Well this magic stuff is doing an impressive amount of work for something that isn't real." Her familiar declared dismissively before arrogantly barreling onward. "Now stop playing these games little girl. What's up with this elaborate ruse you all are pulling? Where in gottes namen are we? and who are you anyway?"
Louise glared at this presumptuous commoner. Who was he to talk this way to her? Didn't he see her cape? Didn't he realize he was talking to a noble? And how dare he dismiss something as sacred and vital as magic!
"I am Louise Francoise Le Blanc De La Valliere noble daughter of house of Valliere a mage and your master!" She declared readying up for a full noble rant against this commoner.
"Du hast den arsch offen!" The boy cried out interrupting her. Normally she would've rolled over him and continued her rant but this was the second time her translation spell had left a few words unchanged. She wondered if these words had no equivalent in the trade speak or if given the nature of how vehemently he spoke them, her magic was trying to spare her lady like sensibilities.
"No way on earth is anyone my master!" The boy declared, "Especially not some pink haired little Schlampe of a girl like you!"
"I am your master!" Louise declared, recovering from her earlier stupor. "My spell summoned you here and that make you my familiar and servant! That's what those ruins on the back of your hand means! We are now magically bound together for the rest of time!"
Then the boy laughed at her. Her familiar was laughing in her face at the very thought of serving her. Louise discovered for the first time in her life what is was like to be livid. But before she could lay into him, the boy turned to leave.
"Yeah," He said still laughing to himself. "Well you and your magic can keep dreaming. I'm leaving..."
But then he stopped as his eyes drifted passed the window. He stared very intently at the window for a moment or two and rushed towards it, threw it open and stuck his head outside into the early evening air. When he pulled his head back in there was a wild look in his eyes like he couldn't believed what he saw.
"Why are there two moon!?" He demanded to know, but before Louise could even think to answer he had rushed back to the window and was peering out again. He returned a moment later and added, "And why is one of them pink!?"
"What do you mean why are there two moons there have always been two moons." Louise explained dismissively.
"There most certainly haven't been two moons. I admit I may not have kept tabs on things up there every single day, but I distinctly remember that the last time I checked there was only one moon. And it wasn't pink!"
"Well obviously you are the most oblivious person in the world because there has always been two moons, and yes even a pink one! Why would I lie about that and you can see them right there."
The boy seemed to pause as he considered this. He looked back at the window and started mumbling to himself. "How the hell do you even get a pink color? The actual moon is silver because its mostly made of dust and stone and lacks the high carbon content that gives our soil its darker color. It would have to be a pink stone. But there's no such thing as pink stone! It would have to made out of rubies or rhodochrosite, but there's no way the surface would like that if it was. It must have been part of much larger older moon to exert the pressure to arrrrrrr..."
Her familiar finished his ramblings with a strange growling noise as he grasped the sides of his head and pulled at his hair. He glared at the window as if willing the sky to change. Eventually he exhaled with a heavy sigh as it seemed a realization dawned on him. He turned back to face the pink haired girl.
"It occurs to me," He began in a much more even and polite tone. "That I may have been a bit rude earlier and I interrupted you while you were answering my questions. I'm sorry. Where exactly are we again?"
Louise looked at him as one would look at a singing rock. She studied him a moment before seating herself at a nearby table and began to heat up some tea for herself. She continued to study him for a moment or two more while he remained unusually quiet and controlled. Finally she answered him.
"We are in the Tristain Academy of Magic. The dormitories to be exact. My dorm room to be absolutely precise."
"Magic academy right..." The boy said rocking back and forth like he working himself up to ask some rather stupid questions. "And that would be in the kingdom of...?"
"Tristain." Louise supplied.
"Of course, of course. I don't suppose this would be on the continent of like the Americas or Africa or the mysterious fair east?"
"The continent is called Halkeginia. How do you not know any of this? Have literally not paid attention to a single thing going on around you your whole life?"
"No, I've never paid attention to this world. Because this clearly isn't my world. My world only had one moon, and it was a quite sensible color too! My continent was called Europa and my homeland was in... actually I'm not too sure about that. Probably Austria, we were normally part of Austria but it's a bit politically nebulous. Anyway I've never heard of a continent called Halkeginia or a land called Tristain or a world with a pink moon before so this spell of yours has summoned me to a different ficken universe!"
Louise looked perplexed at this. The Summon Servant spell normally only summoned creatures that could be found from throughout Halkeginia. She had never heard of it grabbing something from another world. But he did seem genuinely surprised by the whole moon thing so maybe he was telling the truth. Or he was really stupid.
"Regardless you are here now. If you serve me I will make sure you are provided for with food and clothing. Really for a commoner like yourself it should be an honor to serve a noble of my status."
"I don't suppose there is a reverse summoning spell you could use to just send me back to where I came from and we can both forget about this whole thing."
"No I've never heard of such a spell. I don't know why anyone would make one. Most familiars are all too happy to obey their masters and make themselves useful."
"Girl no matter how much you say, no matter how much magic you cast, no matter how many ruins you write on my hands, I am not your slave."
"A familiar is not a slave!" Louise insisted, "It is an ancient and sacred relationship between a mage and a noble creature of mutual reliance!"
"Doing whatever I'm told expecting no more compensation than basic living necessities, yeah when you do that to a human it's called slavery. Either way I'm not interested in it! Although, it seems I am in need of a job."
"I see no reason why I should have to pay for my familiar to serve me. I would be the laughing stock of the school!"
"And I see no reason to not just walk out of here and take my chances in the woods."
"You wouldn't last five minutes out there." Louise mocked the supposed craftsmen.
"Do not underestimate me child. There is nothing I cannot do. And there is no way for you to stop me if I should. Why should I possibly consider staying with you?"
"And what would you do otherwise? Those ruins mark you as a familiar, no one would hire you and risk earning a noble's wrath. Subsisting in the woods like a common outlaw is all you could do if you could even do that."
The boy visibly scoffed at this idea. Either he didn't believe her or he wasn't opposed to the idea of living as an outlaw. This was getting out of hand. She couldn't summon another familiar and like it or not but this boy was the only thing that proved she was really a mage. She couldn't really afford to let him go out and get himself killed in the forest while stupidly trying to protect his pride. She had to convince him.
"Look," She said, "If you stay here you won't need anything, and so long as you are here I promise you I will look into a way to send you back to wherever it was you came from. While you're here you can learn about this new world you're going to have to live in. And it's not like it is going to be hard work or anything. Just a few daily chores to keep up appearances. Is this really so bad?"
The boy paused thinking over these ideas. Room and board were nothing to scoff at and he had to admit that he could use some time to feel out the lay of the land, gather some supplies and learn exactly what he had just fallen into. But this whole familiar business didn't sit well with him. He simply didn't see a reason why he should serve this girl.
Even after a single conversation with her he could already guess that this girl took herself way to seriously, she was prideful and way to entitled. He didn't doubt for a moment that this girl was a noble, raised with proverbial silver spoon in her mouth. But on the other hand. She was a girl everyone laughed at, she was the only student who couldn't fly, and it seemed that something had gone quite wrong with this whole summon servant spell. It didn't take a genius to paint the picture here, to see how her life may have been much harder than he guessed. So was she trying to secure his services out of entitlement or desperation?
On the third hand she was a noble. No matter how small; she had at least some political clout in this strange land that he knew nothing about. Worse still he had the sneaking suspicions that his particular skill set might not be so highly valued here, or even heard of. This land of magic, and classism, he hated it already, and he was probably stuck here for the rest of his life. He would need to change things and this girl could help him. There was potential here. But how much? The perennial screw up might be the only one willing to listen to him, but could she actually do anything? He didn't know. He needed more time to consider this.
"So to conclude," He finally said after a long period of silence. "You want me to be your familiar, which means serving you and helping like a good little pet. But I have no intention of being anyone's slave. You don't want to pay me, but you also don't want me to leave and staying here could be useful for me. We seemed to have reached an impasse."
Louise sighed in frustration, this was getting her nowhere. "I bet no other mage in the history of the world has had to negotiate with their familiar like this."
"I imagine most other mages have the good sense to summon an animal that is only interested in subsistence. But you summoned a human and humans work for a purpose. If we had a mutually beneficial goal to work towards I might be persuaded to enter into a partnership with you. But I don't consider your ease and comfort to be a purpose worth throwing my life at. And that seems to be all you're interested in."
"For now all I want is to learn magic and graduate here a successful and respected mage, comfort is secondary to be honest. Normally a familiar is an assistant to a mage, gathering ingredients for spells and defending a mage's life while they cast spells. But I can hardly ask you to risk your life for me and I imagine you don't know much enough about magic to collect anything useful for me so that just leaves household chores. Well what would be a purpose you would be willing to throw your life at?"
"I don't know. As you said I don't know anything about this world so I don't honestly know if there is anything worth doing here."
"Well why don't you work for me until you do find something worth doing and then we will consider a partnership together." Louise said bringing this part of the conversation full circle.
"Perhaps..." The boy admitted. "But there will be conditions for this. But perhaps we should table this discussion for the morning."
Louise agreed with that. This was getting more and more frustrating for her. She was a mage, he was a commoner so naturally he should obey her. And he was her familiar so obedience should come second nature to him, but he was being so stubborn and unreasonable. She was really getting tempted to just start beating him like a disobedient house pet. But she didn't, that would be unbecoming of a lady. Plus while she was a mage, she didn't know much about fighting and this man was obviously confident in his strength. Some time to get her thoughts in order would be good. With any luck the man would simply accept his role soon enough.
"It has been a long day," She admitted finishing off the tea she had made earlier. "A night's rest could do us both some good."
She paused for a moment before looking to the corner of the room were a pile of hay was amassed. "I was just expecting an animal for a familiar so I can't offer much for bedding..."
"I think I will search out my own arrangements for the night thank you." He dismissed as he turned to the door and made to leave. Louise turned away as well and began to undress for the night.
"You will still be here tomorrow, right?" She asked.
"Yes I will still be here." He promised, a small amount of annoyance creeping into his voice. Louise nodded, before throwing her shirt and skirt into a nearby basket.
"While you're out, you can take care of the laundry." She added, the boy looked back at her as she climbed into bed. "It's not like you have anything else to do."
"I'm going to pretend that you asked me to do this in a much more polite manner." He said picking up the basket. "And I'm also going to pretend that your thanking me as I leave."
"Oh and before I forget." Louise called out just as he was closing the door. "What was your name again?"
"You can call me Saito." Her familiar answered as he left.
'What a strange name,' Louise thought to herself before rolling over and going to sleep.
In the hallways of the Tristain Academy of Magic work never really stopped even this late at night. Although magic was powerful enough that most mages could live self sufficiently if they wished, nobles saw it as their duty to keep the down trodden and oppressed employed. Usually as their servants or guards so long as they could be trusted not to steal anything. Thus the academy employed quite a large number of non magic users. One such house keeper was a young woman named Siesta who worked at the academy to help support her rather large family back home.
Her work at the academy was constant and tireless. There was always something that needed to be done, but since she was supposed to keep out of the nobles way and sight there was no efficient way to do it all. The nobles had to be fed and served constantly. The whole place always needed cleaning and dusting. Clothing had to be washed, floors swept, windows cleaning, and metal work needed polishing. Most of this the staff could only do when the nobles were away at classes or asleep like now. So Siesta toiled away dusting old pieces of artwork and trying to finish this last room as quickly as possible.
While the work was constant, it wasn't particularly hard, and most of it Siesta had learned to do back at her old farm. Really her biggest problem was that the lack of mental engagement left her free to daydream which in turn made her easily distracted. So Siesta dusted away while imagining what it would be like to be carried off by a noble prince and live as a pampered princess the rest of her life. It was one of her favorite day dreams no matter how ridiculous and impossible she knew it to be.
And so distracted as she was, Siesta first warning that someone was coming to the room she was in was when she accidentally began dusting their face. Siesta immediately jumped back and quickly yelled an apology while vigorously bowing to the person, certain she was about to get fired, while they tried to calm her down. Finally Siesta caught sight of something that took her completely by surprise. The man she had just dusted had a set of ruins on his left hand.
"Wait a minute." She suddenly declared midway through her fifth apology, "You're that new human familiar aren't you?"
"So the rumors are already spreading?" Saito asked, glad the woman had stopped making a fool of herself. "Nothing too bad I hope."
"Oh no, nothing about you really just that Ms. Valliere had forced some poor soul to pretend to have been summoned by her."
"Ms. Valliere has forced me to do nothing." Saito insisted, a bit to forcefully in Siesta's opinion. "Her spell brought me here and marked me with these ruins. We're still negotiating that whole familiar business."
"Oh No!" Siesta exclaimed, "Don't tell me you have been arguing with the young mistress have you? You mustn't do that Mr. Familiar. Nothing good comes from getting a noble angry. Best to just keep your head down."
Saito rolled his eyes at this statement. He had kind of hoped that commoners around here would have a bit more back bone to them than this. Still judging from the uniform this girl was a maid here so perhaps she simply had a naturally submissive personality.
"I'll keep that in mind." He answered and then indicated to the large basket of laundry he had thrown over his right shoulder. "Would you mind telling me where I might find a wash room? The young mistress asked me to do her laundry."
"Oh yes, right this way." The maid explained and led the way. "Um, you know I could do that for you if you wanted, I'm sure you have better things to do this evening."
"Not really." Saito answered. "Besides I could use a chance to do a little work."
Shortly Siesta led him to a moderate sized room deep in the bowls of the academy. There was an open well in the middle of the room with several wash boards in the water and number of long thick ropes set across the back walls. Saito looked over the room and realized that doing the laundry would be a bit more work than he had figured.
"And here I was hoping that magic might have managed some way of quickly cleaning everything." Saito lamented.
"That would require a mage to be down in this room pretty much constantly. And one could hardly expect them to do that." Siesta explained. "Don't worry it won't take too long, why don't we just split the basket between us?"
Saito agreed and the two set to work immediately. At first Saito only watched as Siesta cleaned a few pieces of clothing, then he joined right in on the other end. Siesta wasn't surprised he had watched her do the first few, most men never had to clean anything, either their mothers did it or their wives did. Siesta honestly wouldn't have been surprised if she ended up doing a majority of the work tonight, but she was wrong about that.
Although it was clear that Saito had never done laundry before, since he took a rather long time to get through the first few pieces, constantly finding new spots or stains he had missed, he learned quickly. He was constantly improving, getting through each one faster and faster. Soon he matched her pace, even doing the shirts faster than she did.
It wasn't that he rushed the work, he was simply very, very efficient. He never washed anything too much. Nor did he leave anything undone. He had figured out exactly how much work it would take to clean any stain and did exactly enough to get it clean. He paused for some time when he pulled out the first piece of Louise's panties to clean. But only because he seemed fascinated by the elastic band, he took great care not to stress the band to much as he washed it.
However, the longer it all seemed to go on the more agitated the young man seemed to become. He glared at the clothing and at the wash board. He seemed to be mumbling under his breath, and occasionally staring off into space like he was doing sums in his head. He started fidgeting and almost shaking. It was as if he was filled to the brim with excess energy. He also seemed very frustrated with something.
Yet the quality of his work never fell. He still worked very quickly and did a very good job. If Siesta had to say something she would've said that he had mastered the craft of doing laundry by hand. She wanted to complement him, to reassure him that there wasn't anything wrong with his work. To put her hand on his shoulder and get him to calm down for just a moment. But she couldn't bring herself to. She didn't know why, but there was something about him which seemed like it would snap if she reminded him she existed.
Finally he finished and jumped back from the laundry. His hands grabbed his hair pulling it up and backwards as he paced back and forth. He had a wild look in his eyes that were constantly looking back and forth over the wash room. Gradually his voice elevated, but he was talking way to quickly for her to understand, mostly he seemed to be complaining about all the things he didn't have. Though Siesta could only guess at what half of those things were. Finally she found the courage to speak to him.
"I thought you did rather well for your first time." She encouraged him.
"Not good enough," He declared, "To limited with single set of hand, no faster than two point three four pairs of pants a minute. Not fast enough, not nearly fast enough. Soap contaminates the well water wasting it in the event of a siege. Need to pump it out into separate containers, use rotary motion to mix the soap into the fabric, secondary faster spin cycle to remove water generate fiction to dry clothes. Whole load forty five minutes. Still not fast enough, maybe high level light focused to generate heat vaporize stains. Whole load twenty five minutes. But I don't have the steel, I don't have the power source, I don't have the tools!"
Siesta still had no idea what the man was ranting about, but she did grasp that last part. She could see from his clothes that he was used to wearing a number of different tools on his person. Most likely he was an apprentice craftsmen, or even a journeymen. Siesta knew that in most fields craftsmen were responsible for making their only tools as proof they were skilled enough to take over the more detailed work of their masters. An apprentice couldn't even become a journeyman till they had made a whole set for themselves which often took years as they delicately carved each individual tool out of hard iron or brass. To have lost his whole set when he was summoned here would've been years of wasted effort.
With tears almost swelling in her eyes Siesta started to grasp exactly what it was this young man had lost when he was summoned her. His tools were gone. His past was gone. His job was gone. His family was gone and he would probably never see any of them again. All because some magic spell had ripped him out of his home and dropped him in the middle of serving some noble he had probably never heard of.
"I'm sorry." She offered trying anything to comfort him. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"I suppose." Saito said skeptically as if he couldn't believe she actually wanted to help him. "Well I can't really do anything without tools, I don't suppose there a workshop or a smithy around here I could work at?"
"Well we don't have anything really professional around here but... The Farrier does have a small furnace and anvil you might be able to use."
"That would work well enough I think." Saito said and indicated her to lead the way.
She led them out of the main dorm rooms over to a small shack by the academy stables. There was light coming from the shack's door and within Saito could hear the tell tale sound of banging metal. Inside they met a rather large heavy set man whom Siesta introduced as Mr. Charles. She quickly explained the situation to Charles who looked over Saito approvingly.
"So you're a tradesmen eh boy? Can't be a good one if you forgot your tools behind just because of some little magic." Charles said jokingly. "I suppose I could help out, but you will owe me for every tool of mine you have to use."
"Fine with me." Saito agreed, "It's a better deal than what my father offered me. I'll need the forge, the anvil and a hammer. What about iron?"
"The nobles give me the scraps and leftovers from when the practice their alchemy. I've got plenty of iron, don't worry about it."
Saito smiled and set to work. He grabbed one of the heavy forge hammers and a few large blocks of wood, with a few quick smacks he knocked the boards apart into a set of large heavy planks. He reached into one of the large pouches at his side and removed a few heavy pieces of paper and fashioned together a set of large bellows. He affixed one to the front of the forge, and dropped in several chunks of scrap iron. After working the bellows for several minutes he heated the iron till it glowed orange in the low light.
With a smack of his hammer he launched the block of glowing metal out of the forge and onto the anvil. He began to beat on it and soon split the block in half. He knocked one block back into the forge, and split about a quarter off of the second piece. He beat the smaller piece into a set of nails, and used a bar of scrap metal to fashion an impromptu handle and soon assembled his own hammer. He dropped his creation into a bucket of water and cooled it off as he handed the Farrier back his hammer.
Charles could only stare at with wonder at the young man. He had never seen someone break iron apart just by hitting it. He also never seen anyone beat metal into such perfect shape in just a few swings. The old craftsmen suddenly realized he was standing in the presence of a true master of the forge. In near slack jawed awe he spoke.
"Thanks," He said as he took the hammer from the young man as he picked up his new solid metal hammer and began wrapping the handle in a length of rope. "Need any help with anything?"
"Yeah if you could man the bellows for me? Keep a steady pace if you can. Yes just like that." Saito explained as the older man took up the role of an eager apprentice. Once again Saito knocked a glowing block of metal out on to the anvil and set to work. After just a few minutes he hand beat out a pair of tongs from the scrap.
Next he began beating the metal out into long thin metal plates. Several of which he bound together into a serious of pipes. But most he used it to make iron into a set of large metal pots which he lined with heavy clay. One of which he set besides the forge with another pipe leading to it constantly blasting scalding hot air at it. The other he set on a pair of wooden stilts so that it could be tilted back and forth, and placed it just outside the shed tilted slightly on its side. At the base of the second one he set up another large bellow piping air into the base of the strange device.
Siesta was amazed by how quickly the young man worked. It hadn't been more than an hour at most and he had already radically rebuilt the forge to serve some yet unseen purpose. Once more it wasn't that the man rushed his work or anything he was just inhumanly efficient. She noticed that his hammer didn't bounce when he struck metal. His hammer came down and the metal bent under his blow in a shower of sparks.
He was quick, and rather graceful as he moved about the forge with practiced ease. He was always just where he needed to be. Always one step ahead of the melting iron, always in just the right place to carry it all on to the next step in the process. He had removed his shirt and jacket in favor of a heavy leather apron to shield his chest from the heat while leaving his skin free to breath and sweat.
In the soft orange light of the forge, Siesta studied the young man's exposed back with interest. He was by no means muscular, lacking the shier size of a man like Mr. Charles. But he was very... taunt. His muscles looked like wires drawn across his back and arms, not bulging but visibly straining to contain the strength within them. It was clear the Saito was stronger than he looked, and it was a strength focused on agile precision.
Saito paused for a brief moment to look over his work. He smiled to himself and rubbed his hands together in anticipation. He set Siesta working the second set of bellows beneath his second strange device, and began piling scrap metal into bowl he had built besides the forge. When it was full of iron he opened a valve on a pipe coming out of the forge and began to blast the contents of the bowl with hot air from the forge. He ordered Charles to increase his pace and poured more charcoal into the forge while complaining about what he wouldn't give for some decent coke. Soon the iron glowed red hot, then orange hot, and soon white hot as it began to melt. He splashed water on the bottom of the bowl to quickly cool it, and as a great cloud of hot steam filled the shed he grabbed bowl with a pair of tongs lifted it and poured the liquid iron into the strange pot on stilts he had set outside.
He then turned another valve on a pipe besides the strange device that had been filled with pressurized air from Siesta's bellow. As the air filled the chamber it burned from the heat of the iron consuming carbon and other impurities within the metal and releasing a nearly ten foot tall column of fire into the air. Siesta and the Farrier wondered at the sight, but Saito reminded them to continue to keep a steady pace on the bellows.
Meanwhile, Saito refilled the first pot with iron and allowed the hot air of the forge to blast it again. While the iron melted and fire continued to leap from his device outside he began carving molds for various shapes out of brick and clay. But even still he never stopped moving always pausing after each finished mold to cool the iron pot holding the molten metal, or shovel more charcoal into the forge.
About twenty minutes passed this way, and as they did people began taking note of what was happening. A ten foot tall column of fire has a way of attracting attention after all. None of the mages noticed as they had either gone to sleep or were engrossed in their arcane research but soon most of the serving staff had gathered around the Farrier's shed to see what was happening. All of them soon found themselves entranced by the sight Saito nimbly rushing about the forge literally playing with fire. Then at last the young man looked at the fire coming from his device and smiled.
He motioned Siesta away from the bellows and grabbed a chain. He set several of his molds around on the ground to one side of the large pot and pulled on the chain to tilt it out over the ground. With delicate ease he poured the molten iron into the molds filling them up to their edge till the device was empty. He then took one of the molds over to the anvil in the forge and beat on it a few time with a hammer till he emptied it into a bucket of water. When it had cooled, Charles retrieved it, and marveled. It was a simple chisel head, ready to be set in a handle and put to work. But to the practiced hand of an expert like himself, he recognized the material it was made from.
"This is steel!" He exclaimed, staring in wonder at the boy, the chisel and the strange device. "You just turned iron into steel in just under twenty minutes!"
"It's a Bessemer converter." Saito explained, indicating his device as he poured another bowl of molten iron into it, and indicated for the man to who had taken Siesta's place to resume working the bellows sending another column of fire into the night sky.
"It expose the liquid iron," He continued, "To a strong blast of air, allowing the oxygen in the atmosphere to combine with carbon and other impurities in the iron and burn them off. Ideally we should have pretreated the iron while still in a proper blast furnace to remove every scrap of slag out of it, but I really don't have the means to build a proper blast furnace yet so there's not much point in that. Still for my purposes this steel will suffice. I will have to simply make a better set of tools later."
In fact the boy already seemed to have a good set of tools almost finished. Even as he spoke he had started making handles for his other steel tools. With a few more moments he had assembled close the thirty different instruments for himself. Three different hammers, claw head, ball peen and a small narrow headed one, a number of different chisels, files, twelve wrenches, double sided of various sizes, several screw drivers of every kind and different lengths, and even a planer. All of these were now affixed in various loops about his belt or in one of the two large pouches at his size. The boy wore them comfortably, and seemed much more satisfied to have them at his side again.
Charles stared at the boy and his machine, his Bessemer converter. This thing had churned out twenty pounds of steel in just twenty minutes. The thought of it all staggered him. Steel was one of the strongest known substances in the world. Only dwarven adamantium and diamonds were known to be stronger. And it was one of the few substances that mages couldn't create themselves.
Earth mages could easily transform substances from one form to another. But the problem wasn't making iron, which was a rather straight forward spell really, it was getting it free of impurities. There was no such thing as pure iron ore, or pure copper. Every stone that came out of the ground was made of a composition of different materials. Mages could transform most of one substance into another but there was always some left behind, and other materials would be unaffected. The smaller the impurity the more focus and will power it took to remove it.
Only square class earth mages to turn iron into steel, and only in small quantities. Honestly it was easier to turn iron into gold and then buy steel from a competent blacksmith who could draw the impurities out of the ore with fire, skill and patience. But even for a master of the forge making steel took time. Gallia, a country famous for its steel, barely made more than three thousand tons of the stuff a year. If this machine was as good as it looked, Charles guessed that he might be able to make almost as much steel in the same time by himself.
This boy had just made a device that could change the entire world as they knew it, and he considered it a jury-rigged means of getting himself a half way decent set of tools. And he already had plans about how to build a better system, how to make better steel in a fast way. In fact it seemed like the boy regretted having had to resort to such an inferior system to make a few chisels out of. The thought was staggering. And Charles found himself thinking the same thought as everyone else there. Just who was this boy?
"Are we going to get in trouble for this?" Someone in the crowd asked. Saito shrugged.
"Well you aren't going to get in any trouble, since you didn't have anything to do with this." Saito said back to the nameless voice. "And if they don't like it who cares? We'll already have what we need. It's always easier to ask for forgiveness than permission."
The crowd was not reassured by this. Many of them started backing away from Saito as if his dismissive attitude was going to call down the wrath of the nobles then and there. Saito noticed this and continued, once more rolling his eyes.
"And if anyone does say anything about this you all can just point them my way, say I ordered you all to do it, and I'll deal with the nobles." The crowd seemed to accept this.
"So do you need any help?" Someone else asked, rather missing the whole point of plausible deniability.
"Oh, I'm sure I can think of something for you all to do, unless of course Mr. Charles here needs his sleep, I would hate to keep him up and worried about us breaking something in his forge."
"Now hold on here boy," Charles answered glaring at Saito and drawing up his chest. "Don't you go thinking that an hour or two on the bellows is enough to wear me out like I'm some new apprentice who still cries himself to sleep missing his mommy. I can do this all night. But I'm curious, just what do you plan to build next now that you have your tools?"
"What am I going to build?" Saito asked laughing at the question, "I have my tools, I have plenty or iron, a hot forge, a converter waiting to be put through it's paces, and a whole crowd of willing assistants. Plus I've had a rather stressful day so I'm just a hair's breadth away from entering my mad place. So the better question is, what can't I build?"
"Now man the bellows!" Saito ordered a pair of young men who literally jumped to it, "Keep that forge nice and hot. We need lots of charcoal, if there isn't enough then I need wood to make some more. Get the iron into that pot so we can start melting it. Ladies find me some sturdy planks of wood and a few long sheets of heavy paper, a few more bellows will do us some good. Hurry, hurry now everyone lets' see what this forge can really do!"
Almost all at once the crowd exploded into action, as people scattered to gather materials and fulfill their appointed tasks. Siesta looked on at Saito in admiration, she had only seen nobles give orders like that, yet there was a strange humility to his, that they lacked. No matter how different he acted he was still one of theirs. A commoner, a skilled commoner, one perhaps who could change the world, but a commoner nonetheless. Charles could hardly believe what he was seeing, and after studying Saito he suddenly spoke again.
"Who did you say you were again boy?"
"You can call me Saito."
"You have a family name to go with that one?"
"It hardly matters you wouldn't know of them. Just Saito will suffice I think."
"Humor me." Charles asked, "I wonder what short of family produces a man who considers all of this a good start."
Saito paused considering this and then he shrugged and answered.
"My ancestors have always gone by the name Heterodyne."