In retrospect it was Miss von Zerbst's summoning where things grew strange.
No, that wasn't quite true. It had been obvious at the time that things were going to go awry, just not in what fashion. Jean Colbert had overseen quite a number of Springtime Summoning Rituals now and this one had been running almost true to form, the only fly in the ointment being the undercurrent of sniggering among the students about the likely outcome of Miss de la Valliere's summoning. He had diplomatically ignored it as long as it was no more than background whispering - the Duke's daughter had enough to handle without being labelled a teacher's pet student.
But no one had really expected that Miss von Zerbt would do anything unusual. Remarkable, yes - daughter of a distinguished lineage and already evidently a strong fire mage - but there would be nothing surprising about her summoning a magical familiar. A salamander perhaps?
But no. Barely had the lush bodied (no, BAD Colbert!) young Germanian cast the summoning than a young man fell from the sky.
That had been cause for quite a bit of exclamation from the other children. Most, seeing the plain black pants and jacket that the poor fellow wore over an equally unremarkable white shirt had written him off as a commoner. More than a few had made sly comments on the topic of Kirche summoning herself a man - some had merited a mildly reproving look from the Professor. (Privately he admitted that it would have no more than temporary effect upon them of course). A foreign man, it would appear since he did not speak Halkegenian, but instead some exotic tongue - from the east perhaps? - and also clearly an ailing one, as he appeared to be in the grip of a fever.
And then Kirche had performed the Contract Servant spell. Flawlessly, of course. While the man had appeared reluctant at first, he acquiesed eventually and...
Colbert refilled his glass and sipped on the contents. One advantage of all the glassware he was using for his chemical experiments was that it was easy to hide a still. There was ample justification for wanting to distill for certain reagents, but of course there was the most valuable of reasons for one, and Colbert's nerves had required a lot of steadying, his first year at the Academy. The bottle at the back of one shelf had aged well and was now almost palatable.
Wings. Wings of fire. Fire, that the young man - still clearly delirious - had generated of himself. No doubt there would be hell to pay once it was publicised that Miss von Zerbst had summoned a powerful fire mage from his own lands and family. Triangle class? Perhaps even square? Colbert had never raised wings of fire himself, but then, he saw little point in doing so. He thought he probably could, with a little experimentation.
And then Tabitha of Gallia - who was at least a Royal Bastard, judging by her hair and might be a great deal more (there were at least two little seen Gallian princesses in the right age bracket) - summoned a woman, one with a marking on her forehead that might already have been a familiar mark as it disappeared following the contracting. She was clad in a white shirt and a white coat - the latter stained with what was evidently blood - and nothing else.
Certain of the less mature students - most of the male students in fact - had made much of that.
Miss Tabitha herself had seemed less than disturbed. But then, even the wings of ice that formed when she completed the contract did not disturb her apparent equilibrium. Her familiar collapsing into hysterics did elicit a reaction at least - Colbert was relieved by that. The girl otherwise so reserved he might have thought her spellshocked.
The unexpected was sufficiently expected now that Guiche Gramont's summoning another human was barely noteworthy. Except of course, to Montmorency Montmorency, who had decided his summoning of a tiny blonde girl was cause enough to slap the boy across the face. It was possibly undeserved in this case - for all his faults, Mr Gramont was probably not guilty of that sort of behaviour - but in fairness, he probably deserved it for something.
The wings, in this case, were formed of grass that grew from the ground to distinguish the girl in the same fashion as the earlier summonings. Colbert had wiped at his face then. A very rare sort of magic - some mix of Earth and Water? - and in a child who he would have been astonished to see do something as simple as levitate a cushion. No doubt her parents would have words with both Mr Gramont and with the Academy over this mess.
He was tempted to call the entire thing off before the Academy managed to embroil Tristain in a war with these people's homeland (he was sure from their few words that all three were speaking the same tongue, strongly indicating a shared nation of origin) but the traditions of the Springtime Summoning were ironclad and so he permitted Miss Montmorency to make her own summoning.
The appearance of a blonde who in body was a match for Miss von Zerbst, but in attitude perhaps closer to Miss de la Valliere was not entirely a surprise. However, the woman screaming in anger and immediately assaulting her young summoner with powerful water magic was unprecedented. Colbert had moved swiftly to vaporise the torrent of water being conjured and students scattered prudently in all directions.
In the end, it took the combined efforts of Miss Tabitha, Mr Gramont and their familiars to restrain the woman so that Miss Montmorency could complete the contract. A scandal that her family would probably not wish publicised but that every single student there would no doubt relate to their kin as soon as they were able.
Miss Montmorency's familiar displayed water wings - no surprise there - and a storm of tears. Colbert had finally had to order Mr Gramont and Miss Tabitha to assist in conveying the woman to the infirmary, Miss von Zerbst accompanying them to provide moral support to Miss Montmorency.
Colbert shook his head. Such a mess, such a mess. Looking back on it from the comfort of his laboratory did not help in any way. And after that, all of that, there had been Miss de la Valliere's summoning.
Just the memory of that was enough to have the professor refill his glass to the brim...