AN: Revised as of 12.02.2015 because I played ToX2 since the last chapter which resulted in a costume change.
Chapter 1
The gentle light of the rising sun, falling through the window illuminated her small figure atop the desk littered with books and papers. Her flowing pink hair laying messily in between, the youngest daughter of the noble family de La Vallière, encouraged by the gentle caressing of the sunlight, began to rise from her sleep.
Still wearing the uniform of the Tristain Magical Academy minus the cape, Lousie Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, descendant of an old and proud family of nobles while being completely inept at any magic she tried so far, had fallen into a deep and dreamless sleep after revising her incantation for the springtime summoning ritual. The previous evening, the insufferable Zerbst had taunted her into declaring that she would summon something amazing like a manticore, griffon or dragon and now she would have to live up to it or embarrass herself and by extension her family.
Well more than she already would if her attempt ended with nothing but an explosion, as was usually the case when she tried to use magic.
To prevent such a disgrace, the young girl had decided to change the aria she would use in her attempted summoning in hopes of raising her chances of bringing forth a Familiar worthy of her status, or anything besides an explosion at the very least.
Her original drafts had included terms that she considered rather unsavory in hindsight. Which proud, noble and strong creature would react well to being called slave or servant? So she had changed that into companion instead. The parts about her Familiar being powerful, divine, and beautiful she left as they were as they were what she wanted her Familiar to be, or rather needed it to be.
All in all, she had spent the better part of the last night, looking through records of summoned Familiars, what kind of aria their summoner used and what kind of Familiar – species, abilities, and character – turned up. She even went on to look through some books that most would call fiction rather than fact in hopes of composing the best aria she could, whipped on by desperation.
With her still half-asleep form now slowly rising while removing a piece of paper that had stuck to her face, Louise's mind gradually started to wake up. Like an undead, she completed her morning rituals without consciously thinking about it. Brushing her long pink hair, cleaning away the grime of the past night alongside the ink that had ended up on her face with a wet towel, and clothing herself took until the first bell of the day, signaling that breakfast would now be available.
When her hand touched the doorknob, the first thought of the day popped up in her mind. A simple thought shared by most people in Halkeginia every morning.
'Founder Brimir, please let this day pass without incident.'
She wished for nothing great, just a small sign that she wasn't a complete failure. Something that would show that she was a noble just like the rest of her peers.
To bad for the pink haired girl, that it was a fact from the point of her birth, that the day she would summon her Familiar would be far from normal.
In the vast, infinite variety of paths that her fate can take, none would yield a "normal" Familiar for her. In some of those paths, she summoned heroes who accomplished or would accomplish many good deeds, in others villains who brought misery to the masses. There even existed some in which her summons called forth things so abnormal that a human mind could never fully comprehend them or some flukes of destiny where her ritual grabbed a completely random, normal teenager from another world.
The truth behind it stays the same for all those worlds. No Familiar summoned by Lousie Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière would be what she expected and hoped for at first.
This amused a certain red-eyed old man a lot and offered him a nigh infinite amount of entertainment, but neither is this old vampire responsible for the mess in this particular world nor is he of relevance for this story, so anything more is better left unspoken, lest his attention fall on this world and twist its fate further than necessary.
One way or another, the Zero, as her fellow students dubbed her, made her way from her quarters to the dining hall without knowing that her prayer would not fall on deaf ears. As they say, ignorance is a blessing, and it would be for the girl, at least until noon.
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On the courtyard between the main tower of the Tristain Academy of Magic and the tower associated with the element of Void, a group of students clad in black capes and a wide variety of animals, ranging from mundane cats, frogs and birds to more fantastical species like salamanders, bugbears, and even a dragon, could be found. Those were the academy's second year students that had just finished the ritual to summon their Familiar, a noble's second set of eyes and ears that would help them achieve their goals.
Those more or less proud beasts were a status symbol of being a noble as they were a noble's partner, often for life. This meant that the Familiar was something the students used to compare themselves with their peers, boast about and use to further their standing.
A strong, intelligent or generally useful Familiar could raise the opinion others had about them and signify their strength as a mage, while a weak Familiar would cause said opinion to fall. Of course, lineage and money still played the most important part when building connections for the future, but at least now, shortly after the summoning, a good Familiar could open a lower noble many a door.
"Have all of you summoned your Familiars now?" a middle aged man in dark robes, suffering loss of hair on the top of his head asked his students with a gentle but firm voice while adjusting his glasses. The man, professor Colbert, known by the students for his timid nature, held a long wooden staff in one hand and a small book he used to sketch the Familiar runes in the other while letting his eyes wonder over the crowd.
"No, not yet. Miss Vallière still hasn't summoned her Familiar." a redheaded student helpfully answered her teacher's question, the mirth in her voice barely hidden.
The girl in question had tried her best to stay hidden between the other students in hope of delaying the inevitable, but was soon the target of everyone's attention.
Shaking off her hesitation, her posture straightened. With big strides and her head held high, Lousie walked toward her teacher and the empty space used to summon the Familiars. Considering her prior experience with magic, this was nothing but a social execution for the young girl, but her pride and the Rule of Steel wouldn't permit her to run away from it. She would face the challenge, knowing her chances were next to nil with her head held high, for such was the only way a Vallière knew.
Around her, the students started whispering and making bets. What would the girl without talent for magic summon? Would there even be something that would heed her call, or would it end like it always did, with a big bang? Most bet on nothing happening at all while those that counted her explosions as a sign of magic bet on what would turn up. The highest odds were, oddly, on a barrel of black powder.
The pink haired girl simply blocked out the not so hushed whisperings around her and even the odd taunt by her busty arch-nemesis. This was the moment of truth. Sink or swim. Live or die. Her whole life from this point onwards hinged on this one spell.
And she would damn well ignore everything distracting her.
Louise's breath steadied as she began her chant. Similarly the crowd around her fell silent.
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Beneath a solitary tree, standing on a vast grassy plain, sat a woman, looking no older than at most 25 years, but her age easily having three digits. Surrounding her were five of her closest friends, the four who raised her from the moment of her birth and her sister.
Those five had never changed over the centuries, always displaying the same overblown excitement whenever a new spirit was born, always confirming her, that she had made the right choice.
Her other companions had lived their lives to their fullest and achieved their goals, restoring the balance between humans and spirits while securing the survival of Rieze-Maxia and Elympios. Each one had followed his or her own path and saw them through till the end, leaving this world without regrets.
With the world in balance thanks to replacement of spyrix by spirites and humanity having passed Origin's trial, the woman's responsibilities as Maxwell were now few and she hadn't needed to interfere with the human world in the last six decades, living quietly with the four Great Spirtis and Muzét in the realm of spirits.
But now, something was happening on the evergreen plain they called their home. Something so rare that it piqued the interest of the plain's inhabitants. Someone tried to summon the Lord of Spirits.
"Hear me, my companion that exists somewhere in the entirety of existence!" the female voice reverberated through the plain.
Attempts to summon Maxwell had been sparse throughout history. First of all, the ritual to do so was known only by a handful of people over the ages and necessitated a great deal of power as well as a human sacrifice to work.
But this summoning seemed somehow different.
"My divine, beautiful, wise, and powerful kindred spirit, I, Lousie Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, beseech thee from the depths of my heart, heed my summoning, follow my guidance, and appear before me!"
It was a heartfelt cry for help, a simpleminded wish for some higher might to release the summoner from her suffering, a hope for someone to guard her from all the evils that befall her.
None who had tried to summon her had been this earnest in their wish and with intentions this pure. The call was not specially intended for her which made it reaching the spirit world nothing short of a miracle.
And she is Maxwell. Her task encompasses taking care of both spirit and human alike, so she would heed this call, for a spirit's purpose is equivalent to its life, its existence. As such, there was now doubt in her as she reached out.
Her companions knew what she was about to do without a need for words and disagreeing with their friend and master's wish was the farthest from their minds. They would simply faithfully wait for her to return or for her to summon them to her side if need should arise, after all, Milla would return. They had no doubt about that.
With a nod to her friends, the Lord of Spirit was on her way to walk on the mortal plane once again.
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The courtyard was silent.
The Zero had just finished her incantation to summon her Familiar, a quite unusual one at that, but there was no sign of her Familiar just yet.
No trembling of the earth, no gale, no particles gathering, nothing.
The silence stretched on for a couple of seconds and the students started murmuring.
Had the Zero at last completely failed to use magic? Even summoning a cockroach would have at least made her magical enough to fit her title of noble just barely, but summoning nothing would put her on the same level as a commoner. An unheard of disgrace that would shame her family for generations to come. If they didn't dispose of her and deny her existence that is.
This made even the students that usually bullied the pink haired girl feel pity for her.
The aged teacher was about to lay a calming hand on the girls shoulder when he was blown backward by a sudden explosion.
Similar to him, most of the assembled students where knocked back by the shock wave that had accompanied the suddenly expanding cloud of white dust. Several of them had landed on their butts where some had unfortunately fell on their Familiars which then started thrashing around from the sudden turn of events. Thankfully, only the smaller Familiars got this agitated and ran around in panic while the bigger ones, like the dragon, stayed comparatively calm.
"*cough* *cough* Are you trying to kill us, Zero!?" a posh looking blonde in a frilly shirt accused between coughs.
"As expected from the Zero!" shouted a slightly rotund student.
Several other students joined in on the complaining, not noticing that the target of their complains didn't listen to them in the slightest. No, the pink haired girl's attention was focused slowly on the shadow she could make out between the wafts of smoke.
Something was in there, something fairly big by the looks of it, bigger than a dog at least. Maybe her prayers reached the Founder and he granted her a small dragon? But what it was didn't matter for her at the moment.
She had summoned something. Her spell hadn't resulted in just an explosion as usually, but had actually accomplished its purpose this time around. It had brought forth her sign of being a noble, her partner, her Familiar, and for now she wouldn't care what it was that was inside that cloud of smoke.
The students, those that weren't still on the ground, and their teacher then noticed that the one who had blasted them didn't pay them any attention judging by her lack of reaction. Following her line of sight, they saw what had made the girl ignore their jeers. There was something inside the cloud that slowly dissolved, which meant that the Zero had actually succeeded in her attempt to summon something.
A tense silence fell upon the courtyard as everyone present waited for the last wafts of gray dust to be blown away by the slight breeze blowing today. What would it be, being summoned by the Zero? Was it still alive after being exploded? Would it attack? Who won the pot?
The silence was broken by a surprisingly human cough.
"This was a rougher summon than the last one. *cough* Now I have a good excuse not to answer any." a deep female voice spoke from inside the cloud.
With a sudden gale flowing through the court, the dust was blown away, revealing a beautiful young woman in clothing that made many of the male students have problems with the tightness of their pants. A very short, black rimmed white skirt, barely reaching the upper end of her thighs, a slit at the left side, going all the way, giving a hint of what's beneath. Detailed gold embroidery on deep black background completed the appeal by drawing attention to it. Slender legs stretch from beneath, showing of pink, flawless skin before being concealed again by knee-high boots with the upper part made of two ribbons. Connecting the boots with two strips of cloth coming from the skirt is a metal ring on each leg.
Her top was a form-fitting, if it could be considered such. It consisted of white cloth accentuated with blue around the shoulders and breast, and a black, overlapping scale pattern on her sides. The top seamlessly flowed into similarly styled gloves without any obviously discernible border between.
Long hair flowed behind the woman, starting as a light brown but turning into a brilliant gold as it neared the tips with a single lock of ephemeral green hair standing off horizontally. Her eyes were a light shade of red, lighter than rubies but darker than pink. Mirth and overflowing energy were shining in those two orbs as she turned towards the crowd before her.
The students and their teacher watched in stunned silence, the latter having switched the grip on his staff to a combat ready stance, as the woman let her gaze wander through the crowd, a small smirk tugging at her lips.
Her eyes came to a stop when they fell onto the pink haired girl standing slightly in front of the crowd. The girl's face was filled with a look of disbelief and shock.
Taking a few steps toward her summoner, the woman began to speak up, a friendly smile on her lips.
"Rejoice girl, for your call has been heard. I, Milla Maxwell, Lord of Spirits, have answered your summons and appeared. What is your wish?"
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'A human...'
'A human and a commoner at that. No way, someone with less modesty than Zerbreast can be a noble, they are supposed to be the pinnacle of immorality among nobles!' Louise thought.
Her brain was running a mile a minute, unable to come up with any reasonable answers concerning her apparent familiar. What elemental affiliation of the summoner does a commoner indicate? What virtues? What did summoning something unheard of mean for herself? Her future?
In her mind it all added up to the one thing that had become a default for things concerning magic and herself: absolute failure.
She turned around to her teacher, ignoring the inquiring look of the 'familiar' in front of her. With a pleading look in her eyes she crushed what was left of her shattered pride and begged for a second chance.
"Mister Colbert, can I please try again? This time I'll summon a proper familiar."
The almost bald man loosened his stance slightly after being spoken to by his student. Seeing that the summoned being didn't mean harm thus far and seemed neutral at least helped a great deal in easing his tension. Gathering his thoughts and straightening his robe slightly he answered his problem student.
"No, Miss Vallière, the springtime summoning ritual is a sacred ritual since the times of the Founder Brimir. Redoing it simply because you didn't like the outcome would be close to heresy and would certainly be enough reason for an expulsion. Now would you please proceed to bind your familiar?"
Colbert knew that forcing the girl to proceed might be cruel towards her, but he could still feel when he was in the presence of a person used to wielding power, literally as well as figuratively, and this young woman certainly had more than enough of the former.
While he wasn't capable of magically measuring any person he lays his eyes on, he had become quite good at judging the character of people thanks to his many years as a teacher and as a soldier.
Being thrown in a probably unfamiliar setting, staring down several nobles and making ridiculous claims while exuding an aura of utter confidence in herself. You could only do that if you were either crazy or sure that you could take everything thrown at you and then some. The only other woman that he would attribute the same kind of confidence to was Karin the Heavy Wind, and she could mop the floor with him in his prime.
He didn't want to know how far the woman in front of him measured up to one of Tristain's heroes, so letting the girl bind her would be the best choice, given that a battle with the students in the line of fire was the alternative.
"But-" the girl in front of him tried.
"No buts, Miss Vallière. You will uphold six thousand years of tradition. Now, please bind your familiar."
His polite but firm order and his stern look made the girl accept that she would have to bind her new 'familiar', whether she wanted to or not. Reluctantly, the youngest daughter of the duke de La Vallière turned around and walked towards the young woman that had appeared inside her explosion.
Neither student nor teacher had noticed the amused smirk the subject of their conversation wore while they talked.
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Meanwhile, the audience had started firing off one wild speculation after another. Many possibilities about the young woman were discussed. Guesses ranged from her being a commoner hired to stand in for a real familiar, to her being a mystic creature from obscure scriptures called succubus which would now go on to "feast" on all the poor students. The latter was, of course, shared in hushed whispers by a couple of boys with goofy expressions on their faces.
A little bit apart from the other students, a busty redhead turned to her blue haired and significantly shorter companion.
"What do you think Tabitha?"
Tabitha nodded slightly in acknowledgment of the question before returning her issue of Romance in Castle Rochelle to her customary position of burying her nose in it.
"Strange... and dangerous."
Kirche was perplexed that her diminutive friend went as far as to use a conjunction to describe Louise's familiar and almost missed the slight nudge of the blue haired girl's staff towards her own familiar.
A wonderful familiar, Kirche had to admit. A blue wind dragon large enough to ride it, doing the small Gallian's ability with wind based magic justice.
This supposedly majestic creature of the sky that shouldn't need to fear anything bar its own kin and other dragons was right now staring at the young woman that had been summoned. The big reptile stood with slightly bent limbs as if preparing to jump, nostrils flaring and eyes darting between the newcomer and her master, appearing to debate whether to fight or to flee.
"What..." the redhead wondered.
"Unknown. Maybe not human." Tabitha answered.
"You don't mean...? She doesn't have pointy ears..."
"Uncertain." she paused. "Probably strong. Worried."
"Don't worry. Even as passionate as my flame burns, I'm not foolish enough to face a rainstorm." Kirche assured her companion. A hotblooded Germanian she might be, but duking it out with what could be a firstborn was near the top of her don't-do-list. After all, she valued her life highly. How could you enjoy all of the world's wonders if you were dead?
'No choice but to wait and observe. It doesn't seem like she wants to do anything to Louise or anyone of us, so I'll just wait and see how this plays out.'
Tabitha couldn't stay as calm as her busty friend. Oh, outwardly she was still perfectly stoic, but inside she panicked.
What was that woman that could frighten her Sylphid, an admittedly young, but still powerful rhyme dragon? Some species of firstborn unknown to man till now? An elf without pointy ears?
The possibilities were too many to consider all of them and most were not favorable for her or the general populace.
'Wait and prepare.' were her thoughts on the matter. She'd have to ask Irwukuku first thing when they were alone why she was so nervous around the woman.
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Coming to a stop in front of the commoner she summoned, Louise huffed once before pointing her wand at her. With a glare at the inquisitive look on her familiar's face, she started chanting the words of binding.
"Oh Pentagon of the Elements, in the name of our Founder Brimir, bless this being and make it my familiar!"
With a wide swish of her wand, ending in a pointing movement at the woman's face, Louise finished the 'easy' part of Contract Servant. With much more reluctance, she closed in to her familiar and signaled her to bow down, annoyed with the still curious look on the woman's face.
"Be grateful that I'm doing this! Normally a noble would never do something like this to a commoner!" she shouted before pressing her lips onto the blonde's with so much speed it was only millimeters away from turning into a headbutt.
Unknown to her, her petite body and doll like appearance was quite well liked by many of the students. As such, the picture of the small but cute de La Vallière and the mysterious woman kissing wouldn't be letting some of the present males sleep that night thanks to their (un)healthy fantasizing.
"Strange." the now bound familiar began, "judging from your call, you sought a companion to shield you, not one to bed you. I don't think I am suited for that kind of actions. Maybe a misunderstanding?" she asked, putting her right hand to her hip while trailing her left pointing finger along her lips.
Many jaws in the crowd dropped at the serious delivery of such an immodest view of the master-familiar relationship, making their heads call up puberty induced images of themselves with their familiars in more... intimate situations.
The pink-haired girl in question didn't even register the meaning of what her new familiar had said for a couple of moments. When realization set in, she blushed so hard in anger and embarrassment that her face glowed a deeper shade of red than her hair.
"Y-y-you stupid familiar!" she shouted. "There's no way I would want to do... that with you!"
After a short standoff between Louise and the woman, the former glaring at the latter while the latter only had a look of innocent confusion mixed with curiosity on her face, the familiar came to a conclusion.
The crowd meanwhile had broken into chatter about the Zero's newest accomplishment or were cheering both females on to continue. The later comments were soon rewarded with dark looks by the female populace, and a couple of confused ones where the cheering party had been female themselves.
"Then kissing is just a greeting here? Good to know." the blonde answered in a serious but friendly tone.
"That's not it! Don't get me in trouble for kissing random people, familiar!" her master shot down the horror visions of what was magically and legally an extension of herself, going around and kissing everyone she met, before they could turn into reality.
"Then why did you do it?" she asked innocently while adapting a thinking pose with one finger touching her forehead which was scrunched up in concentration. After a moment the woman hit the palm of her hand with her fist in a gesture of enlightenment. "So my appearance proves to be effective on some females too, interesting."
"What are you... argh!" the pink haired girl threw her hands up in frustration as her new familiar proved to be not only a useless and stupid commoner but also at least as debauched as the damned Zerbst. She stomped off towards the dormitory without caring what happened behind her. There was only so much the Rule of Steel ingrained in her could handle before her temper exploded figuratively and something else exploded literally.
Her new familiar just followed her summoner faithfully while looking around the court curiously. The rest of the class then proceeded to dissolve by flying away to their respective rooms and Colbert made his way towards his office to transcript the familiar runes, not noticing that he had forgotten to get a certain set of runes.
AN: A fic written over the Christmas holidays that didn't get published until now since I wanted to publish the next chapter of another story first.
I will continue this sporadically if the feedback indicates that some people want to read this, but the fic I'm going to put the most effort into for the time being will be my other story Cycle of Hate (end of shameless self-plug). So if you would like me to continue this please show it in the form of reviews and/or favs.