It couldn't be, Louise thought as she walked up and down the Academy's corridors. It was blasphemy of the highest order. To declare oneself a god was tantamount to accusing the Founder and his people of lying and scamming everyone.
Except the Musician didn't see it that way.
"I'm not a god of this world. You won't find me in your holy books or your legends. For all I know, your religion is true… only, I am true as well."
His words had merit, as much as she didn't want to believe it. If every world had its own god, then that meant that someone from the outside wasn't committing blasphemy so much as giving their own account of their world. But the Church would never see it that way. She'd asked him to keep it quiet. And of course, he agreed. He always agreed.
It made no sense at all. Even if she accepted his words, why would a god willingly put himself beneath her? She'd seen the duel. Everyone had. There was nothing that she could say or do to control him. No power that she had over him…
…Except the power he gave her. And wasn't that a frightening thought.
Is there any other mage who has been afraid of their familiar?
Though he seemed to have gone out of his way to cheer her up, even before the duel. Telling her again and again that the familiar fit the mage. Saying that she was his equal. She didn't believe it one bit.
God, demon, mage, whatever he was, he was far and above her in every way.
Louise stormed back to her room from class, muttering under her breath about magic theory and explosions. Musician stayed right beside her, seemingly amused at the whole situation, though he hadn't said a word.
She opened the door and slammed it behind her into his face. Unsurprisingly, it bounced off harmlessly and he followed her in. "Alright, now that we're in private, I have some things to say," he said.
"…" Maybe a few days ago she would've told him to shut up, but she didn't know if she should order a god around.
He just looked at her. "That's your cue to respond, you know."
"Shut up, familiar." Fear, she might not deal with well. Anger? Unwise as it might be, she could do angry.
"No."
Everything stopped. All was silent except for a pulse, a ripple through the floor that beat in time again and again. This was the first time he'd resisted an order, and she had no idea what to do. Almost everything in her told her to submit. That this was an unfathomable being, that he could squish her like a bug as easily as he decimated Guiche's Valkyries.
But a small part of her, what remained of her pride as a Valliere, told her to stand strong. That even if she were to die, she'd die as a noble, and this familiar's master.
"Why not?" she asked, her voice teeming with unfulfillable retribution.
"Because I am not your pet. I am your familiar. And it is my responsibility to ensure your wellbeing." He knelt down to her level. "You are my master, and so I will follow your commands. The one exception is when you need something. Then I will do what I must for your sake."
Louise growled. "What do you care?! You have everything, I have nothing! While I work hard to fail as a mage, you are a god and sit around, stupidly grinning and playing that Founder's-damned music without even touching an instrument! The only reason anyone has given me any respect is because of you!"
"I care because I have chosen to care. And you have far more than you think."
Louise flinched and turned away. "No, I don't. All I can do is make explosions. You saw, in class. Even when I summoned you, I made an explosion. Stupid, useless explosions."
"I know a great many people who would love to have even that." Louise looked up at him. "You sell your self short, my Lady. You focus so hard on the things you don't have that you cannot see what you have. Tell me, what is the most obvious quality of an explosion?"
She had no idea what he was getting at. "Smoke?"
"Try again."
"Sound?"
"Closer."
"Music?" she scoffed.
He laughed his short barking laugh. "Well yes, but that wasn't what I was getting at. When you cast your spell in the classroom, what happened to the teacher? What happened to the desk?"
"The professor… went unconscious. And the desk broke into pieces." She looked straight at him. "Destruction?"
From somewhere came triumphant horns. "There we go! Destruction. Explosions obliterate everything. Sure, that's not as useful when you're trying to make gemstones or build a wall, but destruction has quite a few uses itself."
She was skeptical, to say the least. "What would you know?"
Musician's smile grew to touch his ears. The shadows grew darker, and the music grew ever shriller until it was reminiscent of screams. "Musician, god of music, revelry, madness, chaos, and destruction. That aspect is well within my domain, child."
For a moment, she forgot to breathe. Visions flew past her eyes of houses flying apart, people scattered and broken, entire worlds remade in the image of madness.
"That said," he started, snapping her out of it, "A lack of creativity is only one of your issues, and hardly the most major."
Maybe she had just imagined that terror? "A-and what would the most major be?"
"Your lack of self-confidence."
Louise's temper started coming back up. "Oh? And what could that be caused by? It couldn't possibly be because my magic doesn't work right, I'm one wrong move from being expelled, and my familiar is a god, could it?!"
"Let's not forget that you're surrounded by people who hate you."
"Musician!"
"Okay, okay." He raised his hands, a contemplative look on his face. "How about I tell you a story."
"What?" Where did that come from?
He ignored her. "A long time ago, there was a boy. His father was a psychopath, and his mother a madwoman. Together, they spent their days using their… sorcery… to terrorize all they could. They did not care about their children. And the boy needed special care. See, ever since he came into the world, he was plagued by music."
"…Music."
"Yes. It played around him all the time, and without love or care, the poor child was driven quite insane.
"But he could do nothing about it. That was the only power he had, to make music play around him. It wasn't something he could control. It wasn't something that he could use. Every day, every waking moment, the music played, keeping him up at night, making it impossible to talk with others, and otherwise making his life a living hell."
Despite herself, Louise found herself asking, "Then what did he do?"
"What else could he do but accept it? Use it? The boy trained, using the music to keep rhythm. He let the music play and let his body dance to it, swinging a simple axe that he stole. And what do you know? When it came time to fight, the fighting style that came from his music was so unpredictable, so hard to fight against, that he defeated all who faced him. That supposedly useless power gave him the strength and skill he needed."
Louise could see what he was trying to say. And if this boy was Musician himself, as she suspected, he was certainly trying to make a greater point. He was saying she could, if she worked hard and played to her strengths, become as a goddess.
She felt a little better, even if she didn't quite believe him. It was certainly nice to have someone act as if she wasn't worthless. So she returned his smile. And pretended to agree.
Even though the bittersweet music playing in the background gave her away.
"Oh, by the way, this girl is living with us now."
"A servant? A commoner! Living in my room?!"
"Her name's Siesta. Say hi, Siesta."
"H-hi…"
"Why is she here?!"
"Because I felt like it."
"I say no!"
"Just go ahead and unpack your bags, Siesta."
"MUSICIAN!"
A/N: Muse won't leave me alone about this. I have other things I could be working on, but no. I wanted this to be a one-chapter dealie, but no. Gotta write more chapters.
At least I'm fairly sure this story isn't going to go into the politics and nitty-gritty details of Halkegenia. Restricted to Louise's viewpoint as it is.
