so a slightly new idea ive been tossing around, i know its not the most orriginal idea, but whatever.
the familiar of zero world is fairly well documented by this point, and with the absolute lack of valkyrie profile fics out there i thought id bring one to the table.
i do want to mention beforehand that this will update slow. i dont hold to any kind of schedual whatsoever and it kinda shows in my writing, but once a project is up i will see it through to completion, it may take a while but ittl get there. and as always the obligatory disclaimer:
I OWN NOTHING. aside from the original plotlines if there are any, and any original caracters if i introduce any, the remainder of this work bleongs to the original publishers.
Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, daughter of the duchess Karin Desiree de la Vallière, and her husband the duke, Second year student at the Tristain academy of magical arts, and absolute failure as a mage. In the country of Tristain, nobility is granted to those who can wield magic, regardless of financial situation or familial history. It is a point of pride; those with power wield the political power within the nation.
The De La Vallière family was renowned for producing mages of nearly prodigious talent; both the duke and the duchess were rated as square class mages, and both of Louise's sisters were well on their way to becoming square as well, both having attained an advanced level of competency as triangle class mages early on in their schooling.
So Louise, in her second year at the magical academy was under tremendous pressure. She had yet to be recognized as even a dot class mage. Every single spell she cast ended in failure. Without exception, every time she cast any magic, it exploded in her face, literally. This had the unfortunate side effect of giving her a nickname in school, one her peers were quite fond of using.
Louise the Zero as in: Zero success, Zero chance, Zero hope.
It was an unfortunate situation. And one her family was all too aware of, her mother had actually been grooming her for a political marriage for a few summers now, instead of magical training with her sisters, or tactics with her father, Karin had Louise focus on the skills of a housewife, cooking, cleaning, knitting… etc, the unfortunate thing was that her lack of talent with the magical arts wasn't exclusive. She lacked any kind of finesse or grace that her mother would have expected of her daughter.
Because of the frustration this caused, she had been allowed to start her education at the academy in the vain hope that the education would kick start her potential. And she had put her all into it. Not one student in the entirety of the academy could claim to be her mental superior. History, magical theory, science, alchemy, mathematics, and music she had mastered nearly every aspect of her life as a student, aside from practical application. And her fellow students NEVER let her forget that.
And she was staring straight in the face of her absolute last chance to make something of herself other than a housewife. The springtime summoning ritual proved definitively weather or not a noble had ANY magical potential. If she couldn't summon anything she was going to be forced to give up, and give in to her mother's designs. If she could; then it would just be the first step on a long road to becoming someone worthy of her noble family.
She had gone over the books again and again. She knew the ritual better than many of the teachers. Everything she knew of the theory was sound. The ritual relied less on her, and more on the magic of Helgenkia to find a compatible familiar for her.
And so on the day of the ritual, she was confident in her ability to perform this magic.
The ritual field was set up on a large cobblestone courtyard, within the school grounds. Professor Colbert was going to be overseeing the proceedings, just to ensure that even if a student did summon something inherently dangerous, that the situation could be controlled.
In total her class had 100 students participating in the ritual today. Most of them would summon something mundane, domesticated animals; cats, dogs, small birds, even some reptiles.
Some of the 'lucky' ones would get something more interesting. One student managed to summon an 'evil eye'. It was basically a giant floating eyeball, and while it was inherently magical, and in the wild dangerous, due to the ritual it was no more troublesome than a tabby cat.
One of the most troublesome students (in Louise opinion) Kirche Zerbst, managed to summon a salamander, a red lizard with an ever burning living flame tipping its tail that was about 600 pounds and seven feet long from snout to burning tail tip. Her familiar strongly reflected her elemental affinity.
Another student Louise barely got along with got another 'exotic' familiar. Guiche de Grammont an earth mage and son of one of Tristains generals summoned a giant mole.
The most outstanding summon of the day went to Tabitha though. Her summon was a dragon of all things. A magnificent blue dragon, it appeared to be a juvenile, but that was within reason, Tabitha was no older by human standards.
Finally it came to Louise turn, she had procrastinated, and delayed until all of the other students had gotten their familiars, and she was the absolute last one to perform the ritual for the day. And it made her nervous as hell.
When she stepped forward to draw her summoning circle on the ground, her hands were shaking so badly she misspelled many of the simplest runes. Kirche ever the antagonist couldn't let that go un-announced. "Look at that! Zero can't even spell anymore, come on professor, lets just call it a day, spare her the embarrassment. We all know she can't do it right anyways."
Louise hated that nickname, and every time the Zerbst girl used it, it got right under her skin, no matter how small of a matter it was. So going red in the face louise turned to face her detractor.
"SHUT UP ZERBST! You aren't helping any!"
"CHILDREN! That will be quite enough, Miss Zerbst, I will ask you to remain quiet while miss Valliere makes her attempt." Professor Colbert was a short man of moderate age, he was balding, either prematurely or from the stress his career as a teacher exposed him to. But he was a kind and patient man, more than willing to give everyone their fair shot. "Please continue Miss Valliere."
"Thank you professor" Louise after having the professor come to her aid had calmed down, and noticed her previous errors. After correcting her mistakes, and finishing the circle out. The professor handed her a book with the incantation she needed. Pricking her finger and letting a drop of her blood fall onto the circle she began her chant.
"Ich rufe dich, pentagram der fünf Elemente, bringe mein vertraut und binden ihn in meine Dienste. Please, I am Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, my familiar, divine, beautiful, proud, noble, and strong familiar, heed my call, and come forth."
With her wand in the hand she dripped the blood from, and the spell book in the other, she stood over the summoning circle expectantly, waiting.
One of the other students, who had summoned a rabbit, decided to take this opportunity to speak up. "Professor, Kirche was right! the Zero couldn't even get this right, lets go inside!"
The lone student's cries were echoed throughout the crowd. Louise hung her head in shame. She had failed again.
"Professor PLEASE! Let me try again!"
Her eyes had unshed tears shining in them, she was desperate. She wanted anything aside from the life her mother had planned for her, and this was her last shot at avoiding it.
The professor slowly shook his head. "I'm sorry Miss Valliere, but each student is allowed only one attempt. You will have to repeat the year, or attempt your classes without a familiar."
"Noo…" Louise sunk to her knees, she had failed utterly. She wouldn't get to repeat the year, or even finish this one. Once her mother heard of this, she would be in the first carriage back on her way to the Valliere estate. As she sat there crying her failure, and the other students began to disperse back to their various activities, a light began to shine from the summoning circle she had drawn.
The professor hadn't moved from his place, once Louise left, cleaning up the field was his responsibility after all, and so as she sat on her failure crying, the professor was right there to see her circle re-create itself.
What his student had drawn was fairly simple. A basic triangle, with three other outward facing triangles along the sides of the main one, bound within a circle, with runes in the appropriate areas for better willpower channeling, and reinforcement. What he was looking at now was something else altogether, what had originally been a simple triangle, was now looked as if it were three interlaced, and layered pentagram circles, with every line being written completely of complex runes, describing things that the professor hadn't ever heard of, many of the symbols on the ground were completely alien to the professor. And it very much looked like the circle was about to explode like all of her spells thus far had been known to. But one thing was clear to him, his student hadn't failed. "Miss Louise… I suggest you step back."
"…Huh?" Louise face came up to regard the professor. Who in turn had lost the joviality he normally had with his students. As she watched, he threw his arms wide, and a wave of fire sprang up between Louise circle, and the rest of the dispersing students. Still too confused to react, and sitting on the edge of the circle Louise was blown away from the center of her attempt, and straight into the waiting arms of her teacher.
A massive cloud of smoke unrelated to the fire the professor had made filled the air. from within the cloud a presence could be felt. it was an almost visceral feeling that seemed to stimulate all of the senses at once. And as the soke began to clear a shape became visible, where the circle had been a woman lay on her back. Clad in dark armor, and a feathered helmet.
Louise had succeeded. She had summoned this woman whoever she was; now all she needed to do was finish the contract. The professor spoke up to that intent. "Louise, congratulations, now… finish the contract and complete your summons."
"Yes professor…" still in a daze from the overwhelming explosion her summons had caused, Louise stumbled over to the unconscious woman. "Durch die fünf elementaren Pentagramm, ich akzeptiere dies als meine vertraute."
As she finished her chant, louise sealed the pact with a kiss on the woman's lips.
Cociousness was slow in returning to Hrist. She had spent a small eternity in the embrace of sleep, and it was loathe to relenquish its hold. The first sensation to register in her mind was pain. Unsupprising, rebirth was never plesant. The pain was minor, and fleeting. Touch was next, her armor felt like it was still intact, her greaves, gloves, and brestplate were sound, and still coated in ether. Good to know somethings don't change. Hearing was the next to return and the first thing she heard was a small girl nearby, worridly speaking presumably to a teacher.
"...sor why isnt she waking up?"
The man she was speaking to sounded older, gentle, but with an edge to his voice that led her to belive he had ALOT of experience. He was one to keep an eye on.
"patience child, she will wake soon, I can feel the magic of your spell building within her."
'Hmm... so the girl is reponsible for me being here? Good to know'
Sight was the next of her faculties to return. The girl she had been hearing up till now came into focus in a great pink blur. The little pink blob was hovering close over her face, and the man she was speaking to was not far off, standing just behind the girl. Mobility was next. Although when Hrist tried to sit up, she expirienced vertigo for the first time in her long long existance.
Louise was stunned, now that she had a chance to get a better look, her familliar was absolutly breathtaking. Her facial features were gracefully sharp and refined. To Loise it felt like she was in the presence of a queen. And when she opened her scarlet eyes and looked straight at her, Louise found it hard to belive that this woman was her familliar, there was just something that was just plain NOBLE about her. she was barely able to ask her a single question.
"...what is your name?"
Hrist knew something was going on, If this girl was responsible for her being here, then she was probably a demi-god, or a mage of some significant ability. and there was this nagging feeling like she had met the child before. which in all honesty was not and outstanding possibility. Odin had the nasty habit of putting the Valkyries "on vacation" in a mortal shell on Midgar when they weren't needed.
"Lennore, you may call me Lennore." It was a name she had used before, while she was traveling with Alicia, the human container for her sister Silmeria, that had been a long time ago. And the name brought alot of memories with it.
"Lennore, I am Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, and you are my familiar." something about Louise reminded her very much of her sister Sillmeria, it might have been her attitude, or the lightness of her hair, or any number of other things. but that sense of familiarity kept Hrist from dissmissing the little pink mage offhand.
'So that was the game. Somehow this half-pint little girl has managed to summon ME as a familiar? This should be good. I think i'll play along... for now.'
"I see." Taking in Louise appearance, and that of her older mentor, Hrist surmised that she was in some sort of academy teaching magic. Not unreasonable most all of the major nations across Midgar at one point or another had at least one such school. But then again this didn't feel like the Midgar Hrist remembered.
Professor Colbert was overall satisfied with the situation, but one thing remained, the woman had identified herself, but that was not the runic name she would be known by, and as the administrator of the exam it was his responsibility to record her summons by that name and that name alone. Unfortunately there was no unobtrusive way to go about seeing the runes on her hand. Might as well ask directly…
"Madame, may I please see the back of your hands without the gauntlets on?"
Hrsit saw no apparent reason to comply with him. And removing her armor left her she was determined to avoid in her current condition. "No."
Louise was annoyed that her familiar was being obstinate. "Lenore remove your gloves so the professor can see your runes."
"I will not disarm myself in public Louise. If all your 'professor' wants is to know what the runes say, then i can get back to him later." Both Louise and the professor were stunned, not only was Lennore refusing the profesor's request, but she was refusing her master as well.
Unfortunately the distraction that Hrist had caused to the professor had allowed the wall of fire he created to dissipate. And now that the three were revealed to the rest of the students they revealed just how little they thought of a human familiar.
"HA! So even if the Zero can summon a familiar, all she can get is a stupid commoner?"
"I bet she paid that woman to act as her familiar."
"Once a zero always a zero."
On and on the students went. Surprisingly Kirche wasn't among those teasing the young aristocrat.
She was still there, but silently taking the situation in much like Tabitha next to her. Something about Louise's familiar was keeping her quiet.
"Students! That will be quite enough. Please return to your classrooms." The professor's commanding voice echoed across the field, despite the size of it.
Still kneeling next to her familiar, Louise was once again in tears. She was so sure that once she had her familiar the teasing would stop. Sure, Lennore didn't look too impressive, and she wasn't a dragon, or a griffon, or even a manticore like her mother had summoned. But there was something so much deeper about the woman that just made Louise respect her very presence.
Hrist for her part wasn't slow. She knew that somehow Louise being teased by her peers was somehow related to her. "Louise, why are they calling you 'zero'?"
"It's because… *sniff…* I've never successfully cast magic before today." Still crying but calming down now that Lennore was waking up Louise managed a quick explanation.
"I see." Hrist was unaware of the political ramifications that Louise had just brought up. But it didn't really matter. "They are making fun of your talents as a mage I take it?" Louise nodded her response. "Ha! Trust me child, pay them no mind. You brought me here; you are in all likelihood, the most powerful mage on the face of this world."
Now that she thought about it, Hrist felt a distinct lack of 'Divine' energy in the air, she still felt her own, and surprisingly enough, Louise had a significant amount of it as well. But there seemed to be a lack of any other sources, as if there were no gods interfering with the mortals of this world.
The professor despite shooing the rest of the students off had been paying attention to the conversation between the summoner, and her new familiar. Lennore was still and unknown factor, and the title she had declared scared Jean more than a little. Something else was bugging the professor now her manner of speech could lead one to believe that she had experience with other worlds. "Miss Lennore I apologize for this, but I must ask. Who are you?"
Louise was shocked and more than a little offended. The professor was suspicious of her familiar. HER FAMILLIAR! "Professor! That is rude!"
Smirking lightly as she levered herself to her feet Hrist tried to calm her little pink mistress down. "Louise its quite alright." Turning on still shaky legs, Hrist looked the professor in the eye, with a stare that had reduced men of lesser caliber to mere stuttering piles of excrement and madness she simply told the man "I'm nothing more than an adventurer. Think nothing of it."
Turning away from the man, she waved a hand dismissively.
The professor felt a wave of vertigo hit him momentarily and then dismissed it as his imagination. He had better things to do than worry about some odd familiar, research beckoned him!
Louise had felt something, she wasn't sure what it was, but as her familiar dismissed the professor Louise had felt SOMETHING. But there were more important things to worry about, her familiar didn't look all that good right now, and the best thing Louise could think of was to get her back to her room. Unfortunately her familiar was about a foot and a half taller than she was. And in her armor she was nearly half again Louise weight, it was a struggle just to keep upright with the larger woman leaning on her for support. When Kirche stepped in and took some of Lennore's weight off of Louise the smaller noble was surprised. Not angry, but defiantly confused, surprised and suspicious, Kirche NEVER did something like this without some sort of reward and Louise knew it. "What do you want Zerbst?"
Feigning hurt, Kirche picked up the banter. "I'm hurt; I can't help my friend just to help?"
"FRIEND!? I don't remember ever being a friend to a Zerbst." Louise was genuinely shocked, Kirche had never done anything more than tease and harass Louise all of her school career add that on top of the fact that both of their families had a long standing feud, and it was honestly hard to believe that Kirche was doing ANYTHING for Louise out of the goodness of her heart.
"Oh come now! Don't tell me you don't enjoy our flirting all the time!" Kirche had a mischievous look in her eyes as she taunted Louise, Tabitha only made it worse by taking an exaggerated step away from the girl, without looking up from her book, she added in "…pervert"
"Oh hush you!" the dark skinned busty young woman was in generally good spirits. And Hrist was taking it all in. there was no hostility in any of the girls. Louise was nervous; there was definite history between her and the other girl supporting her, but no hostility. If it wasn't for the fact that Louise responded so badly to Kirche's teasing and innuendos Hrist would have passed them off as any other group of friends. It wasn't uncommon to see Enherjar lounging in Valhalla to deride each other relentlessly all day, and then find them singing songs of victory and drinking together in the evening.
The group finally made it to Louise chambers, and got Hrist onto the bed, Kirche and Tabitha disappeared back into the castle that comprised the academy with a short promise of seeing each other around the school, and Louise followed shortly after, stating that she was going to get food.
Once they were all finally gone, Hrist was able to stop the vertigo causing her weakness. Sitting upright in the bed, she took stock of her situation.
'The girl Louise is obviously responsible for bringing me to this realm, is this a summoning or a reincarnation though?'
Hrist's memories were still very much intact, the last thing she remembered before waking in the summoning field, was merging her soul with her sisters, creating the 'true' Valkyrie, the bastard blasphemer mage Lezard had to die, and that was the only way. So if she was here on her own now, then reincarnation was the more likely of the options. And if that was so… how long had it been since Ragnarok?
That was a question that would take some research to answer. But in the meantime she needed a reasonable gauge of her available power. If she was indeed recently reincarnated then she might be slightly limited…
A quick search through her soul revealed just as she suspected, while she could still feel that her Enherjar existed, and were alive somewhere, she couldn't call on them. It was as if they were either sealed, or someone else had possession of their souls.
But, while she couldn't call her old Enherjar, nothing was preventing her from finding new ones. Her ability to manipulate Photons, Ether and magic were unimpeded as well.
Unfortunately her personal armaments seemed to be inaccessible as well. Aside from the armor she wore, nothing tied to Midgar or Asgard seemed to be accessible to her. That was fine; her ability to manipulate Photons meant she was hardly unarmed.
While her sisters were both builders she was a destroyer, both Lenneth and Silmeria created constructs with their photons, and the projectiles they threw were non lethal. Hrist made weapons. And the Photon projectiles she threw were violently explosive.
It was a temporary measure at best, and draining to use in protracted combat, but with the limited options she had at the moment it was reliable. And when she finally did get ahold of some reliable arms, her ability to manipulate Ether ensured that she would never have to maintain, replace, or upgrade what she found. And anything she didn't take a liking to could be broken down into pure energy to use to forge something else. Overall she was fairly self sufficient.
The lack of reliable magic at her immediate disposal did cause her some concern though. and although she was fairly proficent in the manipulation of divine energy, the general lack could prove problematic, especally surrounded by so many mages... Human mages had time and time again proven far more capable than she was comfortable with, the royal court mages of Dipan, ascending into undeath and actually creating a viable time travel device sat pretty high on that list. As did the upstart Lezard Valeth, who had found the secret to divinity, and used it to overthrow Odin, and prematurely cause Ragnarok. Both situations were dealt with and the mages in question had died in the end but the point remained. And here she sat, in the bed chambers of another such mage, strong enough to force the rebirth or reincarnation of a goddess. And supposedly she was to serve this little pink mage as her familiar...
Louise was still at a loss, her familiar was not what she was expecting, but it wasn't a bad thing. Thanks to her mother and father, Louise could recognize true noble bearing miles away, and her Lennore had that quality in spades, even weakened as she was. Louise had left her room shortly after getting her settled onto Louise own bed, intent on getting food, she hadn't eaten all morning after all and she had the feeling that Lennore was just as hungry. It was a simple matter to get one of the castle servants to bring Louise meal to her room, with a second portion for Lennore added on as well.
When Louise returned to her room and saw Lennore standing in the middle of the room holding a rather large crystal halberd, she fainted almost dead away…
Seeing the little pinkette mage collapse in a heap in the hallway had been amusing, but something about the girl left Hrist unsettled, it was hard to nail the feeling down, but for some reason the little girl who would be the master of a goddess strongly reminded Hrist of her youngest sister. Silmeria. With that thought in her mind, Hrist retrieved her diminutive summoner from the hallway, and placed her on the bed.
Removing her armor with a thought and a small burst of power Hrist cast a casual glance to her hands, on the back of her left hand, a set of runes were carved into her flesh, as if she had been branded with a hot iron. it read as if it were a lable; Gandalfer the left hand of god.
as she was going over the implications of the brand, she heard her diminutive summoner mumbling something, asking her big sister for help of some kind. Apparently Hrist and Louise had that in common; they both bore immense love and care for those close to them. Smiling gently Hrist chose to spend the first night of her new life protectively sleeping with her soon to be adopted little sister trying to ease whatever nightmares troubled the girl.
so there it is, chapter 1 done. if you saw potential here, or anything you feel you need to call me out on or comment on please feel free. reviews are always good, even flames let me know that something is happening here.