Louise stared at Louise.

"What."

Louise turned slowly to gauge the reactions of the audience. For once, no jeers. Her eyes landed on her teacher. Colbert had frozen.

"Uh-" The Louise in the summoning circle flinched as Louise whipped around. "What's going on? I was trying to summon my familiar… and then…?"

With that little revelation out of the way, everyone went back to flabbergasted silence. At least until Colbert spoke up, clapping his hands together. "Well. This is… unusual. But she is still… your… familiar."

Both Louises began screeching.

"How dare you! I am Louise-"

"-de la Valliere, and I will not turn myself into a-"

"familiar! Do I look like an animal to you?!"

Colbert rubbed his temples. "This is a sacred ritual. You will bind… her… as your familiar, or you will not have a familiar. I don't have to tell you what happens then, do I?"

The summoner paled. The summoned took a step back, hesitated, and considered. It wasn't like she couldn't empathize with herself. Would she refuse her twin out of spite, and force her to leave the academy in shame? It wasn't like she herself would be leaving if she was a familiar… and her other self wouldn't treat her badly, right? They were the same person.

So when the soon-to-be-master stepped closer, the soon-to-be-familiar did too. "You know what happens next, right?" the summoner asked.

"I do. It doesn't hurt, does it?"

Louise winced. "I… don't know."

Slowly, carefully, they came together. It was a bit awkward, but there was some confidence in knowing another person so intimately. They'd both imagined this moment, the moment they could definitively declare themselves a mage. And as strange as this outcome was, it was still a very special moment, and they both knew the other knew it.

As their lips touched, Louise couldn't help but think, Wait, if she's me, then wouldn't she like it if I…

An arm was put around a shoulder. Almost involuntarily, a leg was pressed in closer. Tongues were extended, curiously, exploratorily. Instead of being awkward, the mood shifted towards tender. They pulled apart, looked into each other's eyes, and immediately flushed.

"That was the hottest thing I've ever seen."

Both Louises immediately turned their wands on Kirche.


"Why in the name of the Founder does our magic fail in such a… ugh!"

"You're telling me? Finally I summon something, but it tells me nothing! What kind of element can you even discern from summoning yourself? Worthless!"

A wince. "I mean, I get it, I really do. But that still kind of hurts, you know?"

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. Even still, you'd think that maybe Kirche and the others would stop calling us Zero?"

"Yes! Obviously, we succeeded with one spell. We have magic. We're not failures. Why are they such… such… jerks?!"

"You're right! We are Vallieres! Nobility with the blood of the Founder in our veins! Haven't we proved ourselves worthy of our name? Can they not muster an iota of respect?"

"It's obvious their parents failed to teach them how to be proper nobles. It doesn't matter if all our other spells have ended in explosions!"

"It doesn't matter if we don't know our element!"

"It doesn't matter if we can't do practical applications of magic!"

"Or if we destroy bits of the castle!"

"Or if we give them just as many heated words as they give us!"

"Or if we get angry so often…!"

"Or if we hide in the library so much."

"Because we're a nuisance to everyone around us."

"Or if we're short."

"And flat."

"And weak."

"And stupid…"

No more words were uttered that night as they fell into a depressive lethargy. They sat on their sides of the bed, unmoving, until it was time to sleep.


A/N: Louise summons herself. Whether it's a clone, or an alt-timeline version, or something else… I've got no idea. All I know is that although it seems like a better outcome than the previous two chapters, it's really not.

Self-doubt is loud enough when it's just in your own head. With someone to say those doubts out loud, I'm pretty sure Louise's issues would just feed into themselves.