"Breath. Just breathe," Louise thought to herself, trying to keep her emotions steady. "You can't afford to freak out, Louise. Not today."
Despite her best efforts, Louise had trouble dispelling the anxiety that was churning in her stomach. Today was the day all second years were to perform the Familiar Summoning Ritual, and many of her classmates were expecting to summon some fantastic beasts. So far the fare had been pretty standard, a young wolf, a black cat, but at the moment, very few students had taken their turn.
Louise scanned the audience of students, counting how many of them had already summoned. While there was an order to who performed the ritual, it wasn't in any obvious one, so the only way Louise could know if her turn was coming was based on how few people there were who hadn't summoned yet. She wasn't sure whether to hope that she went soon and get the whole ordeal over with, or if she wanted to be last and put off the whole affair as long as possible. Unfortunately while looking across the student body, Louise accidentally exchanged a glance with the one person she had hoped to avoid today. The student smirked and waved back.
"Yoo hoo!" Kirche called out as she walked over to Louise. "Big day today, isn't it Zero?"
"Ignore her and she'll go away." Louise thought. It was less a plan of action and more of a desperate hope. A hope that was dashed as Kirche finished walking over to her and proceeded to throw an arm around the smaller girl.
"Why the silent treatment?" Kirche asked, giving Louise a friendly pat on the shoulder. "Hoping if you act like Tabitha you'll become a prodigy like her? I figured you of all people would know superstitions like that have as much a success rate as your magic does!"
"Get off me, Zerbst," Louise growled, shaking free of Kirche's grip. "If you're here to gloat, wait until either of us actually summons something."
"Well, I'm not sure you can say that Ms. 'I'm going to summon the biggest, best familiar Halkegnia has ever seen!'" Kirche reminded Louise of the girl's boasts the night before. "When you make a statement like that of course I'm going to check on you before your big break. I mean, can you imagine? A Zero like you summoning anything half as impressive as you bragged about?"
Louise gritted her teeth in annoyance. She hadn't meant to say anything even remotely that stupid. All it did was make her sound like a child throwing a tantrum. However, the stress she had been accumulating in the weeks leading up to this day, set off by the spark of Kirche's teasing when they ran into each other then simply caused Louise to explode at the red haired girl. Truthfully Louise didn't much care what she summoned, just that she did summon something. That didn't mean much anymore, now that she made it a competition with Kirche.
"Just you wait, Zerbst," Louise finally decided on her response. "My familiar will be so amazing you'll be blown away!"
"I know I'll be blown away, that's what I'm worried about," Kirche said with a wry smile. "Your explosions are always larger than you think they're going to be."
Louise blushed in anger, then turned her away from Kirche, cursing her own poor choice of words.
"Oh come on Zero, you walked right into that one! You can't be mad about that!"
"I'm done speaking with you," Louise replied, still refusing to look at Kirche. "My familiar will say all I need it to once it's summoned."
"Louise Vallière, please approach the summoning circle!" Professor Colbert called out.
"And here's your chance! Go wow everyone with your biggest explosion, Zero!" Kirche said. She gave Louise what was likely supposed to be a friendly pat on the back, but Louise thought it felt a lot more like a forceful slap.
Louise grumbled and stepped up to the summoning circle that was drawn on the ground. She readied her wand and went over the steps to the ritual in her head. She performed each step of the ritual flawlessly, spoke each part of the incantation perfectly. All that was left was to point her wand and bring forth her familiar.
"Please. Please, just this once let my magic do something," Louise silently prayed to any higher power might have been listening. "I don't care what I call, I don't care if it's not the largest, grandest, most awe-inspiring creature. Just let me summon something."
If there was a higher power looking down on Halkegnia, they responded by blowing up the summoning circle. In grand fashion, as well. It was certainly the largest, grandest explosion Louise had managed to produce in her time at the academy, tossing dirt and dust everywhere. All students were sent reeling, many were blown off their feet and landed flat on their back. Louise had the worst of it, as she was closest to the initial blast zone. There was soot and burn marks all over her clothes, and Louise felt as if a horde of horses had been stampeding across her chest.
"Founder, I hope I didn't break anything," Louise thought as she put a hand to her chest to check. "I can't go to the infirmary for broken ribs twice in one wee-"
"Wait, my familiar!" Louise bolted upright into a sitting position, wincing in pain as she did so. "Did I…"
Louise looked toward the where the summoning circle would be, but the smoke kicked up by her blast was still too thick to see anything. Amidst all the students coughing and trying to regain their bearings, one cast a wind spell to blow the dust up and away. With the dust finally gone, Louise was able to see what she had summoned.
"A… person?" Louise asked in shock.
Kneeling right where the summoning circle had be drawn with their head tilted toward the ground was indeed a person, though Louise had no idea what to make of them. With them kneeling down hunched over as they were, Louise found it hard to tell much about their physical characteristics, though she noted that her familiar-to-be didn't seem all that tall. The person was wearing an all black ensemble made up of a jacket with the hood drawn over their head, making it difficult to make out their facial features, shorts that just barely came down their thigh, laced boots that rose to their knees and a pair of gloves. Considering how much of their thighs they were showing, Louise was afraid that she had summoned someone from an unsavory profession. What changed Louise's mind was the sword her familiar-to-be had strapped to the back of their waist. It wasn't fancy, or ornate. It was a simple, steel sword you could find wielded by anyone who could afford basic equipment, but it still gave the familiar a threatening presence.
"I summoned… a person?" Louise asked again, pulling herself to her feet. Saying it out loud didn't make the situation in front of her seem any more real.
Kirche had pulled herself into a sitting position to see what her dear "friend" had summoned, and immediately fell backward from laughter.
"AHAHAHAHA! Wow, I shouldn't be as surprised as I am that you summoned a commoner, but oh Founder, that's so rich!"
The crowd of students finally start to reorganize themselves and start muttering to themselves about what just happened, with some joining Kirche in laughing at the Zero's expected failure. Louise tightened her grip on her wand.
"That's not…" Louise's voice trailed off as she looked at her familiar, still kneeling in the summoning circle.
"It's certainly… unusual," Professor Colbert said, rubbing his chin in thought. "But it is what you summoned. As such, I see no reason why the ritual shouldn't continue. Therefore…"
The Professor stopped mid sentence, feeling a change in the air. The Familiar had finally raised her head and locked eyes with Louise. Louise noticed her familiar was breathing heavily, and seemed to be bleeding from several cuts across her face. Louise then noticed several other bleeding cuts across her familiar's arms, legs and torso, as if they had just lost a fairly serious fight. Far as Louise could tell, her familiar didn't seem to be much more than some kind of thug. As the two stared at each other, Louise grew more confused by the second.
"That's… not…"
Before Louise could finish her thought the Familiar produced a small ball from inside her coat. She scraped the fuse across the ground to light it, then tossed the bomb into the crowd.
"Everyone, get away from that!" Colbert warned.
The warning came too late, as the bomb exploded the second it hit the ground, injuring many students and knocking them down. It wasn't a large enough bomb to cause any life threatening damage, baring some truly unfortunate accident, but the Familiar was fine with just knocking as many out of the fight as possible. She took advantage of the confusion caused by the bomb to rush towards Louise. She leapt forward, planting a boot on Louise's chest, and bounced up into the air. While airborne she readied four knives, two in each hand. She threw two into the crowd, one at Colbert, and one at Louise who was still grounded. Louise raised her arms to protect her neck from the knife thrown at it, which only resulted in her getting stabbed in the forearm instead of the neck. An improvement for sure, but Louise would have preferred to not be stabbed at all.
Professor Colbert managed to deflect the knife thrown his way, but the knives thrown at the crowd found home in one student's leg, and another student's arm. The familiar landed on the ground and, having noticed that Louise was struggling to get to her feet, delivered a swift kick to her face, sending her rolling. The familiar prepared her fifth and final knife and tossed it into Louise's thigh, causing her to cry in pain. The Familiar prepared to approach Louise, but was forced to roll backwards to dodge the fireball Colbert had launched at her.
"Everyone, evacuate now!" Colbert called out to the students, casting another fireball spell and launching it at the Familiar, who nimbly dodged.
The students grabbed hold of those injured by the initial blast and rushed for the nearest exit. While many would have loved a chance to watch one of their professors show off their mastery of magic, this was not the situation any of them would have had in mind. While most students headed for the closest exit to get away and alert other staff members, Kirche had a different destination in mind.
"Come on Louise," Kirche said, helping Louise to her feet and providing support.
"Wait, my familiar-"
"Is busy right now," Kirche says. "Let Colbert deal with it and sort it out later. Worse comes to worst you can summon another one, now get limping."
As Louise slowly made her way out of the courtyard, she looked over to her familiar and saw her still engaging Colbert in combat. The Familiar seemed to be having trouble approaching Colbert, as he was using a combination of fireball projectiles and rising flame pillars to keep the Familiar from standing in one place for too long. The Familiar ducked to dodge a large burst of fire, and quickly scanned the courtyard to take stock of her options. One of the three knives still in the courtyard was lying on the ground to her right a fair ways away. A good sprint could get her to it, but if she let Colbert figure out what she was running towards he would know exactly where she wanted to go, and have either and easier time targeting her, or he could use magic to burn the knife and make it unusable. Neither option appealed to her. The second and third knives were piercing Louise's limbs, and the girl in question was being escorted out of the courtyard by Kirche. If she tried to get those knives, that'd mean turning her back on Colbert and leaving herself open, not to mention the possibility of those two joining the fight instead of simply leaving. She was having enough trouble against one person, she didn't need to fight three, not to mention she was exhausted and considered it a miracle she hadn't already passed out.
The Familiar thought carefully, and decided on a plan of action. She dashed towards Colbert, who made several fireballs that he fired at the Familiar in quick succession. She leapt to the side to dodge the initial salvo, and once she hit the ground she rolled to continue her evasion. When she rolled close to where her knife had fallen she scooped it up and threw it at Colbert. The Professor cancelled the spell he was preparing so he could use his staff to deflect the projectile that was aimed at his neck. She used the opening to dash off towards the side, towards Kirche and Louise.
"Ms Valliere, Ms Zerbst, be careful!" Colbert warned the students.
Kirche turned around, only to be met with a flying knee to the face, courtesy of the Familiar, knocking her away from Louise and onto the ground. The Familiar landed on top of Kirche, straddling her torso. The Familiar clasped her hands together and brought them down on Kirche's head. The force of impact caused her head to hit the ground hard, and she lost consciousness. The Familiar rolled off of Kirche toward Louise and got back on her feet. She pulled the knife out of Louise's leg, earning a scream of pain. The Familiar stood upright, and put the knife to Louise's throat, and a hand over her mouth, taking her summoner hostage.
Colbert pointed his staff at the familiar, hoping for some kind of opening that would allow him to separate her from Louise.
"Let go of her this instant," Colbert warned. "You can't hold out much longer, and other staff members will be here shortly. Surrender peacefully and perhaps we can work something out."
The Familiar took advantage of the stalemate to try and catch her breath, as well as reorganize her thoughts. The professor in front of her was looking for even the smallest opening, she had no idea how long the redhead would be out, and at any point reinforcements could be coming. All the Familiar had to defend herself was the knife in her hand and her sword. Two knives and a sword could hardly hold off a single competent mage, let along multiple.
"Damn it, this is why I hate fighting mages unprepared," the familiar thought to herself. "Wait, mages."
"You're a mage, right? Wand, now," the familiar whispered to her hostage. Louise tensed up upon hearing the Familiar's voice. After a second of not getting the wand, the Familiar pressed the edge of the blade up against Louise's throat. Louise's grip on her wand loosened, and it fell to the ground.
The Familiar let go of Louise and pushed her forward onto the ground. The Familiar quickly dipped down to grab the wand and pointed it at ground she was standing on. There was a small bang as the ground exploded, kicking up dust and creating a smokescreen.
"She's a mage?!" Colbert exclaimed.
Several more bangs covered the courtyard in more smoke, bringing visibility to near zero. Colbert readied himself, preparing for an attack from any direction. A sound behind him caused Colbert to quickly turn around, staff at the ready. Instead of seeing the Familiar, all Colbert saw was a wand on the ground. The Familiar leapt at Colbert from behind with her knife, but barely missed her stab as Colbert twisted out of the way, having anticipated that trick. The Familiar continued her assault, slicing and stabbing at Colbert. While Colbert did everything he could to fight off the Familiar. As a mage, there was only so much that could be done in close quarters combat, and the Familiar was giving him no breathing room to prepare a spell to retaliate with.
The Familiar stabbed at Colbert's chest with her knife, which was just barely blocked by his staff. The knife embedded itself into the wood and was stuck fast. The Familiar let go of the knife and instead grabbed the staff itself and tried to pull it free from Colbert, who kept a firm grip on it. She kicked at Colbert's leg, knocking it out from under him and forcing him to drop to a knee. She followed with a swift headbutt, knocking Colbert back slightly, then putting her boot to his chest and pushing off, using the momentum to tear the staff from his grip. The Familiar swung around and brought the end of the staff to Colbert's head. There was a loud thwack as the two met, and Colbert was knocked over. The Familiar was fairly certain he was unconscious as a result of that hard smack, but hit him in the head again just to be certain.
After confirming that he was down, the Familiar pulled the knife out of the staff and tossed the staff next to the downed mage. She slipped the knife into one of the holsters sewn into the interior of her jacket and stopped to consider what her next course of action should be. She could (and probably should) kill him now to prevent any future grief, but he could have information about where she is or what their plan here was exactly. She didn't know what these people wanted with her, but when she considered the kinds of people that had been after her for a while now, she felt like whatever these people wanted was nothing she wanted a part of. If she hurried, she could likely tie the Professor up and escape to some form of safety before the reinforcements arrived and get the information she wanted. She made her choice and took a step towards Colbert, only to feel what could only be described as a shift in the air. She put up her arms to defend herself, but it was of little use.
There was a loud BOOM as the ground in front of the Familiar exploded, knocking her back. The Familiar landed on her back, hard. She felt as if a horde of horses had been stampeding across her chest, and checked to make sure no ribs had been broken. She didn't have the time or energy to add that to her current list of injuries. She seemed to be in not terrible condition, so she sat up to see what happened and saw Louise struggling to stay standing, holding a wand pointed at the Familiar.
She wondered where the peach haired girl had found a second wand, only to realize she probably pilfered it form the unconscious redhead next to her. Not only was it likely, it was stupid of her to assume that the redhead had been anything other than a mage as well. The Familiar cursed her oversight.
The Familiar stood up and looked Louise in the eyes. She wasn't entirely sure what the expression the pink haired girl in front of her had was supposed to convey. Some combination of determination, fear and confusion? Maybe a little anger mixed in? She wasn't sure. She was a sellsword, not a merchant, she couldn't read people if they had their thoughts literally written on their face. The Familiar realized that the explosion had knocked her hood off, so she pulled it back over her head. While she had no outward reason to, she felt calmer when she hid herself in her jacket's hood. She unsheathed her sword and pointed it at her attacker.
"Breathe. Just breathe," she thought, attempting to refocusing herself.
The Familiar charged at Louise, who tried to stop her by firing off as many explosions as she could. Unfortunately, and likely as a result of the blood loss caused by the knife wounds she sustained, Louise was growing very dizzy which did nothing to help her accuracy. The Familiar continued her rush, undeterred by the explosions that were going off around her and closed the gap between the two. A quick kick knocked the wand out of Louise's hand and the Familiar readied her sword. Without her wand, there was little Louise could do to stop her familiar-to-be from driving the sword through her stomach.
Louise coughed up blood and looked down at the sword sticking out of her. She looked up and found her face mere inches away from her familiar's. She noted that her familiar had a perfectly neutral expression. No anger, no sadness, nothing. Just a cold precision from someone who had likely killed many a time before.
Louise didn't know what to do. It was too much happening at once for her to process. None of this was supposed to happen. She was supposed to summon a familiar that would finally get her the recognition she felt she deserved. Instead, her familiar had assaulted her classmates, her teacher, and had now gone for her very life. This damn familiar…
Louise reached forward and grabbed the sides of her Familiar's head. She leaned forward and gave her Familiar a light kiss on the lips.
"You're my familiar… You should… listen… to… me," Louise forced the words out before losing consciousness.
The unexpected action shocked her familiar enough to cause her to let go of the sword. Without the support of her familiar holding her up, Louise collapsed to the floor. As her familiar tried to figure out what she had just done, she felt a burning sensation on her chest. She pulled her collar out and looked down at her chest and saw runes carving themselves into her skin.
"What… but… she said I'm her familiar? I…" The Familiar looked at the building the courtyard belonged to. It seemed somewhat familiar but she had trouble placing it. All of a sudden it felt as if the last puzzle piece had finally slotted itself into place.
"Shit, I really screwed this one up," the familiar cursed her own impatience and actions, then realized there was a more immediate problem. "Shit! Gotta find a medic right away!"
The Familiar picked up her master and rushed off into the castle in hopes of finding a mage who was at least halfway decent with healing magic. As she ran she hoped she hadn't made an irreversible mistake.
When Louise woke up, she found herself in her bed, in her room at the academy. She didn't get up immediately, instead lying on her back and staring up at the ceiling. She felt like something was off, but she didn't know what. Her bed felt the same, the ceiling was fine, her uniform fit her the same as it usually did, so what was this nagging feeling in her brain? At once, Louise remembered everything that had happened. Her summoning and the familiar it brought forth, the chaos in the courtyard and finally her familiar attacking her. Attacking? No, the familiar had…
Louise sat up and looked down toward her stomach. It looked fine, so she poked at it a bit, but it didn't seem like there was anything wrong. She looked at her arm and leg where the familiar had thrown knives at her, but she seemed fine.
"Healing magic sure does wonders, doesn't it?"
Louise yelped and nearly fell out of bed from shock. She looked toward the voice and saw her familiar leaning against the wall near the corner of the room, arms crossed. She was still wearing the same outfit she had been at the summoning, though her sword wasn't strapped to her waist and was instead resting on Louise's desk. She was also bandaged up, with bandages all over her arms, legs, and a patch on her face.
"Don't go moving too quickly now," her familiar warned. "You've been out cold for a couple hours, you might be a little dizzy still. When I got it half as bad as you did it took me days to recover. Course I didn't have an army of triangle and square classes mages lined up to heal me. Still don't, I had to borrow bandages from the nurse to finally get some treatment. Why's a school with a healing mage still carry bandages anyway?"
"You're… my familiar. Right?" Louise asked the girl.
"By all rights," she responded. "Judging by the runes that magically appeared on my chest and all that."
"What happened?"
"I stabbed you."
"I… I meant after that. How did I get here alive?"
"I found out I royally screwed up and took you to a healer. Thankfully the staff was already on their way to the courtyard, though they originally got caught up with calming the mass hoard of students that were stampeding down the halls. When they saw the condition you were in, they dropped everything to focus on you. Good thing too, you were probably seconds away from death, what with the blood loss from the stab wound in the arm. And the other stabbing in your leg. And the sword. You were kind of pincushiony, to be honest."
An awkward silence fell as neither knew what to say next. After a minute the familiar sighed.
"Look I… I'm sorry," she finally said. "I wasn't in a good spot and made a bad call. Because of that I made an impossibly large mistake that I'll likely never be able to properly make up to you or anyone here."
"That's… well it's not fine but…" Louise was still fumbling for her words. Eventually she threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. She walked over to her familiar, stopping a few paces away. "Before we talk about anything else, I should introduce myself. My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. May I get your name?"
The Familiar hesitated, before eventually nodding. She lowered her hood and shook out her long, pink hair.
"Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, third daughter of Duke Centurion la Vallière and Duchess Karin Desiree la Vallière, at your service."
Louise was silent for a minute, before letting out a long sigh.
"Were you expecting something different?" Her familiar asked.
"No, of course not," Louise said. "I was just hoping that hearing you say it out loud would make it seem even slightest bit more real."
"… Well did it?"
"Of course not!" Louise exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "I finally get a chance to summon my familiar and prove I'm a respectable mage and not only do I somehow summon some weird version of myself-"
"I'm not weird!"
"But she's a violent thug!" Louise ignored her doppelgänger's outburst. "You hurt all those other students, you knocked out one of my teachers and you even stabbed…"
Louise stopped her rant as she recalled just what it was her familiar did to her. She recalled the feeling of the sword entering her stomach and shuddered. The other Louise looked very guilty as she cast her gaze towards the floor.
"I'm sorry," the alternate Louise said.
"So you said," Louise responded, not looking her familiar in the eye.
"I really am," the alternate Louise repeated. "It's not an excuse, but you saw how beaten and bloody I was, right? That was from just like ten minutes before you summoned me, I was exhausted, hurt, my head was spinning and all of a sudden I'm somewhere completely different and there's a bunch of people I don't know and someone who looks exactly like me and they're talking about a 'ritual' and… I don't know, I just panicked."
"You're a Vallière, how is it that your first instinct when panicking is to start stabbing?" Louise asked. "Surely you were raised better than that."
The other Louise's expression soured.
"How I was raised is none of your business," she curtly responded.
"Of course it's my business!" Louise replied. "Not only are you my familiar, you're me! How could a proper noble like me fall so far and become some kind of sword wielding thug?"
"I'm not a thug!" the other Louise roared, taking a heavy step toward her master. Her outburst caused Louise to shrink back, and the Familiar remembered that she needed to tread more carefully. She didn't want to make things any more messy than they already were.. "… Sorry. I'm not a thug, I'm a sellsword."
"And how is that any different?" Louise asked in response.
"I don't go around just stabbing and beating up people for a good time."
"No, you just do it for money," Louise accused her.
"Yeah, but I only rough up people when I'm given good reason!" the other Louise defended herself.
"Like earlier today in the courtyard?"
The Other Louise didn't have a response to that.
"So what now?" Louise asked her familiar, folding her arms in front of her chest. "How are we planning on explaining you?"
"Do we have to?" Louise responded. "No one's going to believe I'm some alternate you, or you're an alternate me or whatever. It'll just wind up as some weird rumor like 'Louise summoned her illegitimate twin who was sent off for being a disappointment!' or something like that, and I really don't want to have to explain myself to them every time. Let's just give them a cover story, it's easier."
"In that case… I think I can come up with something if anyone asks, but I'd rather they just not ask at all."
"Is the story going to cover me blowing up the courtyard?" the other Louise asked. "Not the bomb, the magic. I don't think anyone else saw it, but there's no way the didn't hear it.
"It doesn't need to, they'll probably just assume the explosions were from me. They're used to me blowing things up," Louise admitted sheepishly.
"Oh, you have magic problems too?" Louise asked.
"Too? Are you also 'Louise the Zero?'"
"Heard it once or twice," the Familiar said with a forlorn sigh. "Since you pulled off the familiar summoning ritual I hoped you'd have had better luck than I did in that regard. What a shitshow this keeps turning out to be."
"Watch your tongue," Louise admonished her familiar. "You're a noble, you should make sure to conduct yourself appropriately."
Louise the Familiar was slightly startled by what her master had just told her. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had chastised her for her manners, so this was a foreign feeling.
"Uh… I mean…" she faltered a bit to figure out how to respond to that. Before she could figure out what to say there was a knock on the door.
"Excuse me, is Ms. Vallière awake yet?" Professor Colbert's voice came from from the other side of the door.
"I am," Louise responded.
"Ah, that's good. When you're ready, the headmaster wished to speak with you about your familiar. Have a good day," Colbert finished before leaving.
"So how screwed am I?" the Other Louise asked.
"Do you really need me to spell out what you did?" Louise asks. "Hurry up and get ready. If you're sufficiently apologetic and explain yourself then maybe they'll go easy on you."
"I can probably do that," Louise the Familiar said as she pulled her hood over her head. "Well, let's go then."
Louise and her familiar were standing in the headmaster's office along with Professor Colber and Headmaster Osmand. While Colbert kept a neutral expression, Louise the Familiar felt he was probably not too happy to see her again. While she was bad at reading people, she would have been very surprised if he held no negative feelings towards her after the earlier events. Osmand, by contrast, seemed completely at ease with the situation. Whether it was because he hadn't seen the events and only heard of them secondhand, or if he felt that if anything happened he could handle it easily, she wasn't sure.
"So, this is our troublemaker," Osmand opened with. "And she's your familiar, Ms. Vallière?"
"Yes, Headmaster."
"Care to introduce us to her?"
"Of course. This is… Elle, my familiar. She's a sellsword from a noble bloodline, though she's not a noble herself. That's all she's told me about herself so far."
"Elle?" her familiar whispered to her.
"First name that came to mind," Louise whispered back.
"I see," Osmand said, stroking his beard in thought. "So then, Ms. Elle, was it?"
"Yea- ehem, yes?" Elle lowered her pitch just slightly to make it less obvious she and her master shared a voice. If they figured it out, they figured it out, but she would have really preferred it if they didn't. It would be too much of a pain to explain something she knew nothing about.
"Would you care to explain why you attack our students in the courtyard today?"
"Well…" Elle thought hard about where to begin. "Okay, so… I'm not sure if you noticed when I first showed up, but I was kind of injured. Cuts, bruises, stuff like that, right?"
"Was she?" Osmand asked Colbert, who nodded.
"When she first showed up in the summoning circle, she did appear slightly wounded, and was breathing heavily," Colbert confirms.
"Right! So that happened because I was… being chased by some people. A bunch of awful thugs that had been chasing me for a couple weeks now at this point. Just a bit before I got brought here I had just finished fighting what I really hope was the last of them. While I can proudly say I won the fight, it wasn't as clean a victory as I'd have liked, and they had managed to add several wounds to the ones I had already taken in previous encounters. The summoning that brought me here was unexpected, and when coupled with my current exhaustion led to me being very confused. I vaguely heard some of the people in the courtyard talking and caught something about a 'ritual.' I didn't catch the 'Familiar summoning' part of that, and assumed the worse. Exhaustion and paranoia can cause that."
Elle was proud of her response. She got all the information out and was able to sound somewhat polite while doing it!
"If you don't mind me asking-"
"I do," Elle interrupted Colbert, and in doing such received an elbow to the gut from Louise. "Ow! Fine, ask."
"You said you were being chased, right? Who was chasing you and why?" Colbert asked, suspicion in his voice.
"Were you not listening? It was thugs, who knows why?" Elle said with a shrug. "Probably stepped in their territory or something."
"I have a hard time believing that street thugs would be chasing after a person for several weeks straight, as you say, without a particularly compelling reason," Colbert reasoned. "Most would simply give up and move on to the next target when their original one proves too much trouble."
"Are you saying you don't believe me?" Elle asked, taking a step toward Colbert.
"I don't believe you're being forthcoming with us, no," Colbert replied, glaring at Elle.
The two glared at each other, Colbert tightening his grip on his staff, and Elle readied to reach into her jacket and draw her knife.
"F-Familiar, stop this now!" Louise called out.
There was a pause, but eventually Elle clicked her tongue and turned away, taking a few steps back and positioning herself next to Louise.
"My apologies," Colbert offered, relaxing his grip on his staff slightly. "I'm not usually this combative. I'm just having a hard time believing such a vague story, and considering how our first encounter went, I believe you can understand why I would be wary of you."
"Well, believe me or don't," Elle said. "I panicked and made a mistake. One that I apologize for and promise will not be repeated."
"And if you won't be truthful with us about what you were doing prior to your summoning, how can we trust you to be truthful about that promise?" Colbert asked.
"Because I'm her familiar," Elle said, giving Louise a hard slap on the back. "I may not be a proper mage, but that doesn't mean I don't know what a familiar is supposed to do. Keep her safe, follow orders, yadda yadda. It's a bodyguard job, and unless the entire student body decides to violently gang up on her, I have no reason to do anything."
"And you are her familiar, correct?" Osmand asks.
"… Yes? Was that in question?" Elle asked.
"You'll have to forgive me, but it's still hard to believe that a human was summoned as a familiar," Osmand explained. "In the entire history of this academy there's no record of another human being summoned as a familiar."
"Well if I'm not a familiar tell it to the runes," Elle said, unzipping her jacket and pulling the collar of her shirt down past her collarbone to show a glimpse of the runes that were engraved on her chest. "That's all you're getting, I'm not taking off my shirt so you can get a better glimpse."
"O-Of course not!" Louise exclaimed. "That'd be indecent!"
"Hmm…" Osmand hummed in thought. "If nothing else, I suppose we have no choice to accept that she has been summoned as a familiar, unusual as it is. Unfortunately, that leaves us with a problem."
"Problem?" Louise asked.
"You see, several members of the staff and student body are none to happy with your familiar, as I'm sure you could have guessed," Osmand explained. "Some are even calling for the dismissal of not just the familiar, but the master who summoned her to begin with."
"Bullshit!" Elle called out. "Kick me out for my screwup if you want, she just got a short end of the stick! Not like she chose to summon me!"
Osmand held up a hand to signal that Elle should hold her tongue for a moment.
"A threat to the student body, such as yourself, should not be allowed to stay within the walls of the academy. The familiar is the responsibility of the master, are they not? If the familiar is to be punished, the master should share the punishment. So the argument goes, anyway. That said, Ms. Vallière. Do you believe that Ms. Elle is a threat to the students here?"
"Huh? You're asking me?" Louise asked.
"While you and I both witnessed your familiar's actions firsthand to a greater degree than the other students, you've actually conversed with her as well," Colbert explained. "If anyone were the best fit to judge their character, it would be you."
Louise pondered for a second. She looked at Elle, who looked back at her. Louise still felt uneasy about looking herself in the eye.
"I… don't believe that she's likely to attack other students," Louise eventually responded, turning back to Colbert and Osmand. "If she was a true threat who just wanted to do harm, she would have let me die instead of taking me to a healer when she realized her mistake. When coupled with what I've learned from talking to her, I believe she's harmless enough."
"And if she were to get into trouble, for any reason, are you willing to accept the responsibility for her actions?" Osmand asked.
"Of course. She's my familiar, and I am her master," Louise said with a nod.
"Very good," Osmand replied. "In that case, we will refrain from any immediate disciplinary action regarding your familiar's actions. Do be aware, this is not forgiveness, nor are we going to simply overlook this matter. We are choosing to believe that your familiar truly did just make a mistake and is no threat, but should she cause a disturbance in any way, we will not hesitate to remove her and you from the academy. Have I made myself clear?"
"Crystal," Elle replied. "I'm on probation watch for the foreseeable future."
"We understand, Headmaster," Louise agreed. "I will keep an eye on her at all times to make sure she remains on her best behavior."
Elle was about to complain about how she didn't need a babysitter, but thought that perhaps there was a time and place to be annoyed by such things.
"Very well then," Osmand said. "Professor Colbert and I have other matters to discuss, so you two are dismissed."
"Thank you very much for your understanding, Headmaster," Louise and Elle responded in unison before exiting the office.
As Louise and Elle walked back to their room they passed by many other students. As the two walked by, the students would look at them pass and begin whispering to each other.
"That's the familiar."
"You said she blew up a bunch of people with a bomb?"
"Not just that, she beat Professor Colbert in a fight!"
"What? You're kidding! But she's just a commoner right? Professor Colbert is a square-class mage!"
"That's what I heard. And get this, she nearly killed-"
"Hey," Elle called out, startling the gossiping students. "I thought nobles were above something as callous as talking about someone behind their back?"
"Y-yes, of course. S-sorry," one of the students said before they both scurried off. Once they were out of earshot Elle sighed.
"Word spreads way too fast for my tastes," she mused. "Already got a reputation."
"Were you really expecting anything different?" Louise asked.
"No, but a girl can dream, right?" Elle replied, putting her hands behind her head. "I'd have liked to blend in for maybe a bit longer, but that's impossible now."
"With your outfit, blending in was never an option," Louise told her familiar. "You stick out like a sore thumb."
"It's easy to move in and is perfectly modest," Elle defended her outfit. "Except for the thighs, I guess, but oh well. Not like this is my usual work outfit anyway, it's just all I had when you summoned me."
"Well, we can go shopping on the next break day," Louise said. "Until then you can wear my clothes when your's are being washed. They should fit you."
"Already planning a date with you familiar, eh Vallière?" a voice cut into the conversation.
"Zerbst," Louise growled. "No familiar yet?"
"Well, due to a certain someone's little party in the courtyard, the whole thing was thrown off schedule," Kirche explained. "You know, what with the healing a bunch of people needed and all the teachers having emergency meetings about the whole affair. Everyone who didn't summon will do it tomorrow instead. A real shame for sure. I was sooooo looking forward to getting my own adorable little familiar."
"Is that so," Louise didn't really care about what Kirche was saying in the slightest. "So what do you want this time?"
"So hostile! And after all I did to help you when your familiar was going crazy," Kirche said, her smirk betraying the feigned sadness in her voice. "I suppose that lack of manners is to be expected from you."
Louise opened her mouth to respond to that, but was interrupted by Elle.
"Oh!" she said, pounding a fist into her hand. "You're the redhead I knocked out earlier. Almost didn't recognize you since I didn't get a good look at you before I smacked you into the dirt."
Kirche's smirk faltered, as Elle's outburst threw off her rhythm.
"That… that's right, yes," Kirche responded.
"I deeply apologize," Elle said with a bow. "I made a mistake that I very much regret and will work to make sure that I don't do it again. I'm sorry, and I thank you for trying to help Louise."
"Oh… um…" Kirche hadn't expected that sincere of a response from the familiar. "Wow Vallière, your familiar is significantly more well-mannered than you are."
"Familiar, get your head up!" Louise yelled at Elle. "You don't need to apologize like that to Kirche!"
"Why wouldn't I?" Elle asked her master. "I did attack her, and she's the only one who actually tried helping you, wasn't she? Isn't apologizing the polite thing here?"
"Don't talk back to me!" Louise exclaimed. "Be that as it may, the Vallière and the Zerbst family have had bad blood for generations! Even if she did try to help me, that hardly does anything to make up for the way her family has tried to shame the Vallières in the past!"
"Is that how it was?" Elle dug deep into her memories to see if she could remember anything about the Zerbsts. Elle didn't know Kirche personally, but if the Zerbsts and the Vallières hated each other as much as Louise said they did, she likely would have remembered hearing something about it when growing up. Elle could vaguely remember something about a Zerbst stealing the fiancé of a Vallière heir some three or four generations ago, but that seemed fairly paltry.
"But she still helped you," Elle settled on that as her reply. "If there is any lost love between your families, she clearly doesn't seem to feel badly towards you."
"Oh of course, I just adore my little darling Zero!" Kirche said, pulling Louise into a tight hug.
"Don't call me that!" Louise said, pushing Kirche off of her. "And don't touch me either! Familiar, we're leaving."
Louise stomped off towards her room, but Elle stood in place.
"No."
Louise stopped her walk and looked back at Elle.
"No?"
"No," Elle repeated. "Not until you thank her for saving you."
"Oh, don't worry about it," Kirche said, trying to wave away Elle's concerns. "Louise is always like this, it's fine. 'Zero' doesn't just refer to her casting success rate, it also describes her manners."
"Maybe I'd be more inclined to thank you if you didn't insist on insulting me like that whenever you got the chance!" Louise yelled at Kirche. "Elle. We're going."
"I'll go," Elle said, her voice neutral. "I'll go, once you say thanks. It's not hard."
"I'm not going to repeat myself," Louise said. "I'm the master, you're the familiar, so you have to listen to me. We're going now."
"Is it really that hard to thank someone who saved your life?" Elle asked, anger rising in her voice.
"I'd have been fine anyway, all she did was get herself knocked out," Louise argued with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"It's fine… Elle, was your name?" Kirche asked, recalling what Louise had just called her familiar. "I wasn't expecting a thanks or anything like that I was just-"
Before Kirche could finish her sentence, Elle took action. She dashed towards Louise, grabbed her arm and pinned it behind her back.
"F-Familiar?" Louise asked in surprise.
"Oh really? If Kirche here hadn't helped you out, what do you think would have happened?" Elle asked, keeping Louise's arm pinned tightly to her back. "Are you fine with the idea of lying in the courtyard bleeding from those knife wounds?"
"I d-don't- AH!" Louise cried out in pain as Elle twisted her arm a bit more.
"H-hey, what are you doing?" Kirche asked, her earlier playful tone replaced with one of worry.
"She took a risk to help you out despite the bad history between you two and you can't say two goddamn words?" Elle continued, putting more pressure on Louise's arm.
"I-I'm sor- AAHH!"
"I don't want an apology!" Elle roared, twisting Louise's arm more. "I don't want you talking to me at all, talk to her and say thank you, you stubborn brat!"
"T-T-T-"
"Speak up!"
Louise tried to speak, but her throat seemed to simply close up. Her arm felt like it was ready to twist off at any moment, but she couldn't seem to say anything. She was reminded of just earlier that day, when her familiar held a knife to her throat. Louise knew Elle still had the knife on her, and was scared that if she didn't say something soon Elle might think about using it.
"Cut it out!" Kirche exclaimed, taking a step forward. "Stop hurting Louise already!"
Elle paused. She blinked once, then twice, then finally seemed to realize what she was doing. She looked at Louise, whose arm she still had pinned. She let go, and Louise stumbled forward a step or two before falling onto her knees. Kirche kneeled down to check on her, and both looked back at Elle. Kirche wore a stern expression on her face, while Louise was frightened and seemed to be holding back tears.
"I… I'm…" Elle didn't know what to say, so she turned around and ran off.
"Hey, get back here!" Kirche called out. She stood up to chase Elle down and give her a piece of her mind, but was stopped by a tug on her cloak. She looked down and saw Louise holding onto her cloak.
"It's fine," she said quietly.
"But-"
"It's fine," Louise said firmly.
Kirche didn't say anything for a moment, but eventually nodded her head.
"Is your arm okay?" Kirche asked.
"Good enough, not anything to see the nurse about," Louise said, rotating her arm to try and work out the soreness.
"Are you okay?" Kirche followed up.
"I'm fi-"
"It was a rhetorical question, you're clearly not fine," Kirche said, kneeling back down next to Louise. "Want to talk about it?"
"I'm fine," Louise insisted. "I just… kind of froze up for a second there. I was remembering earlier today, back in the courtyard. This was better than that, I guess, since she didn't have a knife to my throat this time."
"She what?" Kirche was shocked.
"Right, that was right after she knocked you out," Louise gave a humorless chuckle as she remembered that.
"Louise, are you going to be okay with that familiar?" Kirche asked.
"Honestly, it's not me I'm really worried about," Louise said, finally deciding to try and stand up. She got about halfway up before he knees gave out and she nearly fell to the ground again. Luckily Kirche was there to catch her.
"Easy there," Kirche said. "Take it slowly, got it?"
"Right, right," Louise said. She stood back up, feeling a small amount of pride over the fact that she didn't fall over again and started back towards her room. After four steps she paused. "Kirche?"
"Yes?"
"Um… Thanks," Louise said quietly. "For now and earlier."
"Don't worry about it, Zero," Kirche said with a smile. "Though I suppose I can't call you that anymore. A successful summon, and you're growing some manners."
Louise wanted to respond, but couldn't think of a good enough reply so she simply gave an awkward nod of the head before turning and heading back to her room.
When Louise was gone from sight, Kirche gave a worried sigh.
"I sure hope you know what you're doing," Kirche said to no one in particular.
Elle sat outside of her and Louise's room. She hugged her knees and tried to curl into as small of a ball as she could in the hopes of pulling off a miracle and simply vanishing.
She heard footsteps approaching and looked up to see Louise approaching her. When she got close enough, Louise stopped walking and looked at Elle. The two were quiet for a moment before Elle broke the silence.
"The uh... the door was locked," Elle explained. "I don't have a key. Or unlocking magic."
Louise nodded. She fished the key out of her shirt pocket, unlocked the door and opened it.
"Do you mind talking in here?" Louise asked. Elle shook her head, stood up and followed Louise into their room.
Once inside with the door firmly shut, the awkward silence returned. Louise walked over and sat on the bed while Elle kept pacing around the room. It was hard to tell which of the two was more nervous.
"Look/I-" they both spoke at once. They paused, and Louise cleared her throat.
"You may talk first," she said.
Elle nodded, and tried getting her thoughts in order. While "I'm sorry" would have been a fine place to start, it would hardly be enough at the point.
"I guess I should start with apologizing," Elle said, trying to buy enough time to figure out what she should actually say. So... I'm sorry."
Louise nodded, but didn't say anything. Elle waited for a response, but after realizing she wasn't getting one yet, decided to continue.
"It's just been a very hard couple of weeks, capped off with the madness that is today. Even if we just ignore all that stuff and just focus on me, all that violence just... kind of comes to me naturally. I've been a mercenar- sorry, a sellsword, sellsword sounds better, for years at this point. I never really learned to control my temper that well. So I'm sorry that I tried to kill you, and that I tried to force you to thank that redhead. I just got rubbed the wrong way by how ungrateful you were to someone that genuinely just tried to help you, even if the two of you weren't on the best of terms. Back with..."
Elle trailed off.
"Back with?" Louise tried prompting her to continue, but Elle shook her head.
"Not important," she said quickly. "It's just that I've known some people that got themselves hurt trying to help me, and without them I wouldn't be here now, so that kind of stuff just means a lot to me, I guess. I don't know. I just know that I've got a temper I need to work on. Which is a problem, since if I screw up I'll get you kicked out. Maybe I should talk to the headmaster, see if we can break this thing off and send me on my way. It's probably be better for you in the long run."
Louise thought about all that she had just heard. She chose her words carefully.
"I can't claim to know what you've been through up to this point," Louise said. "What I do know is that as a familiar your behavior today was unacceptable."
"... Huh?"
"Picking a fight with Professor Colbert in the headmaster's office, scaring off those gossiping students, the..." Louise faltered, but quickly regained her feigned bravado. "The way you essentially held me hostage and tried to force me to thank someone I originally had no intention of thanking, it's all unacceptable. Clearly you'll need more training if you're to ever hope to be a proper familiar. As such, you are to remain here at the academy for now. While you have temperamental issues, you have also shown a willingness to overcome them, which is important."
Elle was stunned.
"You're keeping me around?" She asked. "That seems like a terrible idea."
"Oh absolutely it is," Louise agreed. "That said, how could I call myself a noble if I don't take a chance to try and help someone in need?"
"I'm not in need in any way, shape or form!" Elle protested. "I can take care of myself just fine!"
"Do you have a place to stay outside the academy?" Louise asked.
Elle was silent.
"Do you have any money to buy food when you're out there?"
Elle was silent.
"Do you even have any spare clothes at all?"
"I get it, I get it!" Elle replies, feeling ready to tear her hair out. She took a deep breath to calm herself, then gave a small bow in Louise's direction. "I, Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, shall gratefully accept the most generous hospitality you have shown me tonight."
"Too stiff."
"I don't remember how to act like a noble, cut me some slack!" Elle complained, snapping her head up to look at her master.
"It's something we'll have to work on I suppose," Louise said with a sigh, she turned her head and caught a glimpse of how dark it was outside her window. "Oh wow, it's so late already!"
"You did spend most of the day unconscious," Elle pointed out.
"True. I suppose I should ready myself for bed," Louise said as she stood up and walked over to her wardrobe. "What about you?"
"What about me?" Elle asked.
"Do you need a nightgown? I've got some I can spare," Louise offered, pulling out two nightgowns to show her Familiar.
"I'm fine," Elle said as she removed her jacket, revealing the white tank top she wore underneath. "Got anywhere to hang this up?"
"Coat rack over there," Louise pointed towards the corner of the room.
"Perfect," Elle said. She walked over, hung her jacket on the coat rack and then leaned up against the wall.
"Claiming your territory?" Louise asked as she changed into her nightdress.
"I've long since trained myself to sleep standing up, so I'll be fine here," Elle explained as she took off her boots.
"Really?"
"Well, not trained, but I am used to it," Elle corrected herself. "Couldn't always afford my own room at an inn and needed to double, triple, or sometimes even quadruple up. One bed very rarely fits four people."
"I see. Well… Good night, Louise."
"Same. Night, Louise."
Louise wasn't sure what to make of her familiar. She had tried to not think about how she was feeling all day, but now that it was night she had nothing to do but think. She was of two minds about pretty much everything.
On one hand, she had finally managed to cast a spell and summoned her own familiar! On the other hand, her familiar was a mercenary with a violent temper.
On one hand, her familiar was a violent sellsword who could snap at a moment's notice. On the other hand her familiar was… well her.
That was the main sticking point for Louise and the major source of her conflicting feelings. If her familiar had just been some random person who seemed nice enough but had anger issues that'd be one thing. Heck, if that had been the case then all things considered Louise wouldn't have thought twice about kicking her out after everything she'd done today. If it had been anyone else, Louise would have just assumed the apologies were hollow, a way to try and play on her sympathies. After all, how could someone so easily and calmly run someone through with a sword one moment, then later apologize so profusely for it? It would be insincere at best.
Of course, that wasn't the case here, as Louise could tell, and that just made her more unsure of the situation. It made Louise wonder just what could have happened. She was wondering what could have possibly happened to her that could have turned her into… that. They had the same name, the same parents, the same face, but they weren't the same person.
Louise noticed it in the way Elle conducted herself. Louise had always been taught that as a noble she had to hold herself to a higher standard than other people. She always kept a straight posture, walked in even steps, focused intently on whoever she might have been speaking to, standard things all children of nobility were taught. Elle's posture was much looser, she was constantly looking around and seemed to never focus on anything, and her language was rough. While Elle did talk in a slightly lower pitch to try and hide that she and Louise had the same voice, Louise felt that even if she hadn't people might not have noticed unless they were already looking for it. Elle had a bit of gruff to her natural voice, the inflections she put on certain words, it was all different from Louise's usual pattern of speech. She figured it was likely a matter of life as a sellsword. Louise heard various stories about sellswords and the like around the academy and it never sounded particularly glorious. Louise wondered just what Elle had been through that could have ground down her noble teachings as much as it had.
Louise just didn't know. As she thought about her familiar her mind drifted back to earlier in the courtyard, when her familiar had stabbed her with her sword. Louise could vividly remember the feeling of the steel piercing through her flesh, the feeling of her consciousness fading, Elle's complete lack of reaction to the attempted murder. Louise shuddered and had to fight down the wave of nausea that was threatening to come over her. Just how many people did she kill before this that she showed such little emotion over the act? The question weighed heavily on Louise's mind until she eventually managed to fall asleep.
Elle couldn't sleep and that really annoyed her. After how much of a rollercoaster this day had been she would have loved to get some rest for the first time in weeks. Unfortunately she didn't seem lucky enough to get that. Elle sighed and walked over to the window. She opened it up and let the cool night air blow past her.
As Elle looked out the window at the view of the courtyard she realized what her problem was. It was too quiet. Before, Elle had always slept in spare rooms at inns and other such establishments, so there was always noise. Be it the folks next door who were a little too tipsy and have great time, the people on the floor above who were in a heated argument about something or other, or even just the roommates she often had, Elle wasn't used to it being this quiet at night, it was unnerving.
Elle sighed and was about to close the window when she noticed something. She looked up into the sky and saw two moons, one blue, one pink. As Elle looked at the two moons, it was as if everything that had happened that day no longer mattered to her. While she knew where she had been summoned too for most of the day, she never had a chance to truly recognize it. Now that she had finally had a quiet moment to herself, the true significance of where she was finally occurred to her. This wasn't a hallucination, or a dream. She really was in Halkeginia. A wave of emotions came over her and she began tearing up.
"I'm really home," she said, looking up at the moons. "I'm finally home."