Songs of the Magi
Dislaimer: I do not own either A Song of Ice and Fire or Familiar of Zero.
Note: while largely following ASOIAF canon, this story uses the character ages from the GoT television series (everyone is two years older in the television series).
Prologue
She would not cry. She would not.
She had already failed the familiar summoning spell twice now, whereas all her peers had succeeded in their first attempt. That she even was allowed to make a third attempt was due to nothing more than Professor Colbert's kindness. She should have been thrilled at that chance to avoid expulsion from the Academy, but she did not know what she had done wrong the first two times.
Other students who had made small errors in preparing their summoning circles had been corrected by their instructor, but Professor Colbert had not needed to correct her. Her preparations had been perfect. Her wand motions motions were perfect. Her chant was perfect. So, why couldn't she summon anything? Was she really just a commoner pretending to be a noble after all?
No. She would not accept that. She had one more chance, and she definitely would not fail. If her spells were not working, then she would just have to use more magic. She would not just use what felt right – since that had obviously been wrong, as it had not worked. She would simply keep pouring willpower into her summoning spell until something – anything at all – appeared.
Taking a deep breath, Louise focused carefully on remembering the correct wand motions and incantation, she dredged up every ounce of willpower she could muster, and then the young mage began to chant.
"I, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, in the name of the great Five Pentagon Powers, following my fate, summon a familiar!"
For once, Louise's spell caused no explosion, but no familiar came forth either. Louise could feel her willpower pouring into the magical circle before her eyes. The circle was glowing with a blinding white light. Still, however, her familiar was not appearing.
"Ms. Valliere," Professor spoke to her in a kindly voice. "I know this must be discouraging, but-"
"No!" she very nearly screamed.
Normally, she would never contradict a professor, but she couldn't allow herself to fail here. Mother would never forgive her. She would never forgive herself.
"No, professor. I can do it," she affirmed, as her wand itself began to heat up in her right hand.
Her summoning circle doubled in size, and then doubled in size again, so that the majority of the Vetri Courtyard suddenly found itself within her circle. Still, though, nothing appeared.
Louise was breathing hard, as yet more of her willpower drained into the circle through her wand, but she still would not give up. This was not how the summoning ritual was supposed to go. Even Tabitha's wind dragon had not needed a larger summoning circle when she had summoned it, but maybe her familiar was even bigger than that. It didn't matter. No matter what, she would not allow herself to fail.
"Ms. Valliere, please! Stop!"
But Louise could barely hear her instructor through the pounding in her ears. She gathered more willpower – every last erg of magical power in her body – and focused on pushing every last bit of that power into her summoning circle.
The circle pulsed a blinding white colour once more, the academy's staff and students freezing in place for a moment, as the icy cold energy of the void rushed past them, and then Louise brought down her wand, and the world went white.
The ground quaked. The senses of students and staff were overwhelmed by blinding light and sound. Then Louise Valliere looked into the centre of her summoning circle hopefully, and had her hopes dashed.
"There's nothing there."
Utterly spent, without either and willpower or hope remaining within her, Louise collapsed, falling to the ground face first.
To those outside the walls of Tristain's Academy of Magic, the school's disappearance would remain a mystery for a long time to come. Where the great castle had once stood, only an empty field remained. No convincing explanations were found, even after a lengthy royal inquiry.
The disappearance of an entire generation of Tristain's leading aristocrats was, in the years that followed, generally considered to be one of the primary causes of Tristania's Quiet Revolution, in which the Queen Mother and Princess of Tristain were deposed in favour of a council of the nation's leading nobles and notaries (although, theoretically, Queen Marianne continued to be the head of state during her confinement). Some also consider this event to have been one of the sparks which ignited the War of Tristanian Succession.
This story, however, is concerned with just what happened to those who disappeared from Halkegenia on the day when Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere was to summon a familiar, as well as how their arrival reshaped the land in which they appeared. The events it addresses are those immortalized by the bards in Songs of the Magi.