All rights to the Anime Familiar Of Zero are not mine
It has been two days since Hurmy started teaching Louise how to us her now developing Puppeteer abilities. Finding her inner power was rather easy, as it seemed to be what Mages called Mana, and since Louise knew how to channel it to her wand, all he had to do was teach her how to channel it to her hands and fingertips. The next part was going to be a bit harder, as she had to use a Puppet Spell.
At first Louise was apprehensive about trying out a new spell, but didn't tell him as to why and went ahead and tried it. The first one she was to lean was three Enhancing spells.
"To use these Puppet Spells, you must know three words and say them in a certain order." Hurmy said, paceing like a teacher on her desk before her "The first word is the Base Word. These are used to make what you want. Then you fallow it up with a Effect Word, granting what effects you want it to have. And finally, the Finishing word, which gives you the result you want."
Processing what he said, Louise asked "Can you give me an example for better understanding?"
With a nod he said "One example I will tell you is: Augeo Sphonda, Propero, a speed spell for the legs. It loosely translates too Enhance Legs Speed."
"So it's like casting anyone of our spells" Louise mused before asking "Can you add more words or do it with less?"
"No." Hurmy shook his head and explained "To little, and it will randomly misfire. To much, and it will degrade and be too weak to work."
Nodding her head in understanding at this, he continued "Now I will teach you three Puppet Spells to start out with. I already told you one for speed, the next is: Augeo Arma Potentia, a strength spell for our arms. Then there's: Corpus Resisto Ignis, a spell for Puppets to resist fire."
Furrowing his brow, she asked "How long do they last, and how strong are they?"
Taking a thoughtful pose Hurmy mused "Depending on how well the Puppeteer controls there spell during it casting, it will last longer or act stronger." Looking up to her he shrug "To be frank, it's hard to tell. My old Master -bless his soul- could make that resistant spell last for days and let me walk thru infernos that would otherwise light me up as soon as I entered."
"And me?" Louise asked rather hopefully.
"It will be hard to tell until you cast your first spell on me or the others." He said gesturing to the now large number of thirty Puppets that were either sitting doing nothing or working on something for themselves.
Looking thoughtful she asked "What spell do you think I should try first?"
"Either one but the resist fire one." He stated with crossed arms "I for one, speak for us all when I say, none of us want to test how fire resistant we are." All the other Puppets in the room nodded in agreement.
Louise only rolled her eyes at them "I know that, any one with half a mind would know not to try that at first."
"Cant be to careful." Hurmy stated.
"But joking aside, I would suggest trying the speed spell first." He told her "It will be easer for us to control and wont bite us in the end."
With a nod of her head, Louise lifted her hands and focused her mana into them and slowly seep out of her fingertips. "Good Louise, don't forget to wind it up like strings." The Puppet told her as he kept an eye on her progress.
Slowly the white like glow that seeped from her fingertips began to tighten themselves into something along the lines of fine string, making it next to impossible to see. She watched Hurmy puppeteer a little to show her an example of how to control Puppets with ones hands. She asked why his hands didn't show any strings like hers did and was told that it was just lack of experience then anything else.
One of the Puppets nearby, picked itself up and walked before Louise, ready and waiting for her to make the mana made strings to attach. After a few seconds of working the strings to the Puppet and gaining some control to it, did she say "Augeo Sphonda Propero!"
On an instant, the Puppets white-eyes-turning-green flashed as the spell took effect and rush to its legs.
Looking to Hurmy to see if she got anything wrong, she was given a pleased nod letting her know it was set.
"Very good Louise! Now, lets put our little friend here thru a small test run." Stated a happy Puppet, who was egger to see how powerful and refined her spell was.
"Right." Louise nodded, looking to a spot in her room to have the Puppet move too. Finding one far enough, Louise began orchestrate her hands and fingers in a careful manner while employing her mind to help control the flow of mana at the same time. In a normal sense, a Puppeteer would have a difficult time doing so much in such early stages of this practice, but due to the Puppets having there own level of control of there own bodies helped greatly.
She herself, would not be able to control a single motionless Puppet of any sort yet, where as these Puppets would allow her to control them and help keep the connection between them. It also made for good stepping stone for her in Hurmys opinion.
Then, with a flick of her wrists, she sent the Puppet under her control running to the appointed spot. Most in the room were rather surprised at the speed it went when it jumped off the desk and landed on the floor. If it wasn't for the Puppets cleaning her room (out of boredom) she would have no doubted it would leave a dust trail behind, as well as a small cloud at where it stopped. The Puppet itself, actually looked down at the ground it was standing on with some level of awe at what it was able to do after the spell was cast on it.
A whistle brought Louise out of her surprise and looked to her Summons who looked on impressed. "I have to say Louise, that was something." He said with an edge of anticipation "Once you can speed up your Mana Strings and better your control over them, then you can really give us Puppets quite the boost in power."
"You really think so?" The new hopeful Puppeteer asked.
"Oh, I know so!" He returned with a thumbs up "I cant wait until the time you can connect those Mana strings up with us and cast those spells without needing to control us!"
With wide eyes she said "I can do that?"
"In time." He shrugged before pointing back at the Puppet she moved. "Keep moving him around. I would like to see how long it lasts before it runs dry."
With a nod, Louise looked back to the small Puppet that had been rooted in the same spot before moving her arms about. From there, the Puppet fallowed each of her commands thru the nonexistent strings, zooming from wall, bed, table, corner and between other Puppets. They kept this up for a good while before Louise's arms began to tire from being held up for so long, thus breaking the connection.
Unfortunately for the Puppet, he was still running, and as soon as the connection was broken, so was his control and speed. Not able to move his legs as fast, or get control of them, he tripped and went head over heels before crashing into another Puppet and into the wall. There, they laid in a mess with swirling eyes.
Disregarding the little accident, the pinkette got up and lifted her cloak off the chair she was in. no sooner did she, did six Puppets all scramble to it and climbed on the inside of it and into six pockets made just for them. With them inside each pocket, Louise put the cape on and put out her arm to Humy, who jumped onto the hand and ran up the arm, claming his perch on her shoulder.
"I'm heading out. The rest of you behave yourselves." Louise said as she walked out the door, closing it behind her and made her way down the hallway.
"Where are we going Louise?" asked the small Puppet on her shoulder, glancing at each student and teacher they came by.
"There were some books I wish to look at before tomorrows test." Was her answer while taking a left to the stairs.
Cocking his head to the side he asked "The one on transmutation?" She only nodded "I wish I could help, but the only sort of transmutation I know is how to alter wood Puppets to steel for a few minutes."
"Really?" She asked with interest.
"Indeed." Hurmy nodded "It's mainly used for defense or adding weight. Only drawbacks is its harder to control and the Puppet is so heavy that they cant move that well."
"Then what's the use of it if they cant move?" She asked. The idea of having an immobile Puppet didn't sit well with her, so why use it?
Shaking his head he explained "They use it to be like a wall for the Puppeteer to hid behind, or to add weight to little puppets such as myself, to slow opponents down or pull down levers and ropes. But I'm a cloth Puppet, so it wouldn't work for me."
For a moment Louise thought about what he said, and could see how it could be useful. If the Puppet was about her size and was turned to steel, then she didn't need to worry as much about it being harmed and made a fine place to hid behind. As for the other reason, she could understand more greatly.
Hurmy was extremely light weight, even for cloth. So were the others. In fact, the ones in the pockets of her cloak didn't feel weighed down at all. If that Mutation Puppet spell made them more heavy, and her having so many of these little Puppets- if they were to swarm onto a person and suddenly turn into heavy peaces of metal, they would be slowed greatly. But as Hurmy explained, he was a cloth Puppet, so were the others. This was used for wood Puppets.
Putting her hand to her chin, she mussed to herself "This Puppeteering seems to call for more thinking then a Mage's knowledge…"
Hrumy only shrugged at that "To be a Puppet Master, you need to be able to out wit others so you might successfully manipulate them."
"That's another thing." Louise said "You always keep telling me it's an art of manipulation. Is there any Puppeteering that doesn't include something so…dark?"
Blinking a few times, Hurmy only said "It depends on how you look at it. Manipulation isn't really evil, but it's branded as such because so many criminals use it."
"I suppose…" Louise reluctantly agreed.
"After all, you have Politicians, and they can be Manipulative on different levels and do it for the better good. This can be done vice-versa with those who want power or wealth."
For a while they just went silent into there own thoughts. The library wasn't to much further, but Louise felt she needed to ask.
"Do you think I'll end up like that?" Hurmy had to blink a few times and stop thinking about dancing cupcakes to process what she said.
"Huh?" Was his only intelligent reply.
Taking another breath and said "Do you think I'll end up doing evil?"
Her Familiar only shrugged saying "I cant tell you for sure. I can only say that I'll do what I can to keep you off that path if you wish me to."
It wasn't long after this that they reached the door to the library and made it inside. Like any library it had an impressive amount of books of various subjects, with most having some dust on them from lack of use.
Louise made her way down each row of books, looking for that ever so evasive book she would need. It was a few minutes latter she found the book she wanted, only it was to much out of her reach.
She scrunched up her face in annoyance and glared up at the high shelf heatedly.
"Um…Louise?" Turning her gaze to Hurmy, who slightly flinched at her glare, he said "If you toss me up, I could get it."
Almost instantly, she lost her glare and smiled at the idea. Reaching up and grabbing him (causing him to make a little squeak) she aimed and threw him up. Hurmy flew up a few feet before starting to come back down and grasping onto the shelf.
Carefully situating himself on the ledge, he began to make his way to the book. Once he reached it, he began to tug on it and said a quick warning to Louise, who readied herself to catch it. With two more tugs did it come free, leaving both Puppet and book in a free fall.
That was to say, until Louise caught them both.
"You ok?" She asked Hurmy, who sprung up an arm with a thumbs up with a "A-OK!"
Rolling her eyes at his antics, she placed both him and the book down on a table and taking a seat before reading. Hurmy looked at the book curiously, but overall ignored it. He wasn't much of a reader, and most of it went over his head anyways. He only shrugged and sat back down and waited.
-(Next day)-
Louise looked on with determination while holding the quill in her hand, and all but glaring at the paper before her. The test before her was difficult, and it was certainly challenging her knowledge on the subject of Transmutation of earth type magic.
The test itself wasn't going to be the difficult part, it was what came after it. Afterwards, all students were to do a 'Demonstration' of a spell they had studied. This is what she was worried about, as it would further embarrassed the reputation she gained.
"Louise, are you alright?" Her Puppet summon asked with slight worry. Louise had been acting somewhat nervous since this morning, and even more so when the Teacher, Miss Chevreuse, told them what there test was.
He could only assume that she was nervous about the test being on earth magic, and that it wasn't one of her strong points.
With that in mind, he just watched as his summoner write down her answers, getting the correct at every chance. He was rather surprised how smart Louise was at times, it made him wonder if the students around even realize her intelligent. They seem to think lowly of her, and the only reason he knows this is because they talk behind her back very often.
wouldn't be long before some mishap would happen only moments latter. Oh, the joys of using six inch Puppets to do your pranks with.
While the Puppet internally snickered with his little devil side encouraging such thoughts, Louise was almost sweating at what she had to do next. She was just about done with the written part of there test, and fast approaching was the actual casting. It was nerve wrecking in a sense.
that's when the time came.
Rather slowly, each student was called up to transmutation a ball of rock into a different material that was within there abilities. Hurmy gave a few encouraging pats on the shoulder he sat on while she made her way up.
She looked down at the small ball of stone with some apprehension before taking a calming breath. 'I can do this.' She resolved in her mind, lifting her wand.
Though he was focused on what his master was doing, he couldn't help but look behind himself to see what some of the shuffling was. Watching rather curiously, he wondered why the other students were…hunkering down?
'Hurmy believes I can.' And with new confidence, caste her spell.
Nothing happened.
Hurmy tilted his head in confusion and Louise was about to hang her head in disappointment, only to be caught off guard from a bright flash and explosion.
Both Mage and Puppet went flying back, with Louise going a few feet while Hurmy slammed into the wall and muttered something about rag dolls.
-(An hour later)-
Louise and her little army of Puppets were all scattered about the now scorched classroom, scrubbing every inch of it with brushes. After the explosion had happened, she could not keep her head up anymore and just hung it with shame.
'Just another failure to add to my list of failures…' She thought, scrubbing a bit slowly. She looked to her left and watched as her puppets continued to work with a sort of happiness that confused her.
Why were they so content with cleaning mess this size anyways? It baffled her to some degree.
She looked to her right and found more puppets scrubbing the steps, working together to do tasks that would be difficult for there size.
Looking behind herself, she could see Hurmy working with a few others to help clean the mess. She had to ask.
"Hurmy?" That one name, no matter how quiet seemed to always get the Puppets attention, this being no different as he stopped what he was doing and ran right to her.
"Yes Louise?" He responded immediately. It was almost as if he was egger to hear her order or question.
"Why are all you Puppets so…" She stopped what she was say and tried to find the right word. Admittedly, it was hard to find the word she was looking for but settled for "So happy with work?"
It was hard to understand for her. No matter the task, no matter the time, no matter what, they seemed to do everything without complaint. Unless fire was involved, then they get nervous or finicky, but that was to be expected when ones made of such a flammable material.
"That's simple Louise." He said happily "It's one of the first things we talked about after we met."
"It was?" Was the confused question.
Nodding he said "I told you that I would become your Familiar because it would give me purpose."
Purpose? Was that why he, and in turn all the rest, fallowed her orders? "I don't quiet understand…" She murmured, trying to understand.
With a sigh of his own, he explain "We're created to fallow others Louise." And glanced to the still working Puppets around them "Normal Puppets don't have any soul. There just…moving animate objects that fallow the words of the strong willed."
With that he strolled back off to another group to help with the clean up and leave Louise to her thought.
'Constructs that only fallow those of strong will.' She thought, deciding to work while she thought.
'And that's because they don't have a Soul?' She scrunched her brows in thought over it and recalled Guiche's bronze golems. In a sense, they were the same. All they did was fallow what the mage willed them to do. On occasion they would show some sentience, but that was because of the slight mental link they held with the mage, sometimes making them act like there creator.
It was at this she stopped scrubbing as a confusing thought came to mind. 'Hurmy's a Puppet, just like the rest.' Glancing up at her first Puppet, she watched as he took command of a few and ordered them on how to get a particularly hard mark out.
'If that's so, then how can he be so much more…' She couldn't get any further then that, as it didn't make much sense. Mixing with what she knew of Puppets and what she knew of Constructs made with magic and there similarities- she couldn't puzzle it out.
Hurmy made all the other Puppets, so they act a little like him, even holding the same fear of fire. But if his last statement was to go by, then he shouldn't have such independents. After all, if a Golem, Familiar's, Servant or solder were to lose there master, they usually didn't know what to do or stop doing anything. The difference's?
Golems and Familiar's will either leave or disappear after there master is gone.
Servants and Solders will either make new lives or find another to serve.
Hurmy was intelligent. Too intelligent for a normal Puppet. So what made him so different?
(A/N)
Alright, i've been gone for quiet some time, so i'll just say a quick soory for that. i was busy tickering with some other fic ideas that had been running thru my head. some to note are Slenderman, Naruto and even Starwars- but havent made much progress any any of them. anyways, hope you liked this chapter and furhter hope you like the next. untill next them.
