Wow, people actually really seem to like this story. I got no less than 11 favorites and 19 followers by the time I'm posting this, which is what encouraged me to make this chapter so quickly!
Thank you everyone for taking your time to read this, I really appreciate it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Zero no Tsukaima or Command and Conquer, although my life might be more interesting if I did.
With all this popularity, I have however been upgraded so now I DO get cookies for my writing! Muahahaha!
What, next chapter? Okay, okay.
Chapter Two
I don't know what I expected!
The Headmaster of the Tristain Academy of Magic was an elderly man named Osmond. Nobody was quite sure if it was his first or last name, or even how old he was but most people simply called him Old Osmond. He had a preference for the simple joys of life like a good meal, a good drink, a good pipe-weed and knowing what color underwear his secretary was wearing at any particular time.
"Ho, ho. I see, good work Motsognir." He praised the little white mouse sitting in the palm of his hand, his familiar since he was a boy. He gently rewarded the little rodent with a piece of cheese, blissfully ignoring the evil eye he was getting from his secretary, Longueville.
She was a beautiful young woman with shoulder-length hair the shade of freshly-cut grass, a nice hourglass figure and rounded glasses that complimented her nicely. She was however anything but happy at the moment, her face twisted in an angry scowl with a vein pulsing in her forehead.
"Head-mas-terrr!" She hissed in anger at once more being subject to his lecherous ways and was just about to hit him with a large, leather-bound tome when there was a knock on the door to the Headmaster's office. The door opened a moment later to admit a very enthusiastic Professor Colbert who immediately passed Longueville, now holding the book to her chest, to stand before the desk.
"Headmaster Osmond! I have great news!"
"Ah, Colby!" The old man greeted him with a certain twinkle in his eye, not being able to resist the urge to annoy his staff by pretending to be senile. "How goes your research?"
"It's Colbert" He replied without pause, in too much of a good mood to be annoyed. "I believe I have finally been able to establish Louise's element!"
Osmond's eyebrows rose considerably. It was well-known throughout the entire school and even to some of the nearby farming settlements that Louise de la Vallière was practically a lost case. Her grade and attendance were some of the best in the entire school, even compared to the older students in classes above her. She obviously had the drive and intelligence for magic, but none of her spells had ever done anything but explode which was why this was big news indeed!
Abandoning the slouched posture he normally kept, he leaned forward in his chair to give Colbert his full attention. "Please have a seat, Professor. I take it the Springtime Familiar Summoning was successful then?"
Taking a seat in the chair made from carved wood with a stuffed seat that was always kept there for visitors, he took a moment to wince at the question. "Well, yes and no." He hedged. "La Vallière did indeed summon something, although..."
Old Osmond took a moment to fill his smoking pipe and lit it with a spark from his thumb, blowing out a thin stream of smoke he urged him to continue. "Although what, Professor?"
Jean Colbert let out a sigh. "We don't know what it is, Headmaster. It resembles a large insect the size of a small house, completely black in color."
"That happens Colbert, sometimes mages do summon insects of one type or another." he briefly ran a hand over his long, white beard. "However I must agree with you that I have heard of no insect or even animal as large as the one you describe."
Colbert leaned forward as well, resting his elbows on his knees. "That's not all of it however, I have reasons to believe that it is not a living thing at all!" Producing a sheet of paper he had brought with him, he spread it out over the desk to show a drawing of the thing Louise had summoned with a basic human shape for scale. "It was I believe made out of steel or some similar tough metal, and these lines here?" He motioned along the lines he had drawn along the entire length of it, as well as the dots that lined each side of it. "No animal has a shell like that, and these are obviously rivets!"
The Headmaster took a few moments to look over the picture, his own sense of analysis briefly overriding his sense of humor.
"This is a good drawing, Colbert. If this is accurate..."
"I take great pride in my drawing techniques, Headmaster! It is as detailed as I could get it in the time I had available."
It was indeed a very good drawing, simple charcoal on paper but he had managed to get it down almost exactly like what Osmond had seen in his scrying mirror. Nevertheless he did notice something missing; the familiar runes. It was standard practice to record them so they could be deciphered later, as they often gave useful clues to the new summoner.
"...Then I would say that this is a Golem of some kind. Do you believe her to be an Earth mage, then?"
Colbert frowned and leaned back once more, slowly rubbing his chin with one hand. "I would have normally said the same, had it not been for the events of the summoning. It was a very energetic one that threw around winds strong enough that some students were almost blown away."
"Well," Old Osmond mused. "The eldest Vallière sister is a triangle Earth mage, is she not? Éléonore, I believe her name was."
Colbert nodded. "Yes, but do not forget who her mother is."
"Hmm, yes indeed. I can see your issue, Professor."
They sat in silence for a little while, Colbert pondering the issue and Old Osmond puffing on his pipe and sending sweet-smelling smoke into the air.
"I did notice however that you had not written down the familiar rune, Professor Colbert."
Colbert blinked, and then he face-palmed. "Founder, you're right! I was so exited that I only did a drawing of the summon itself." He let out a sigh and folded his arms. "Well, I can do that tomorrow. It would be a hassle juggling a torch and writing implements at the same time."
"Indeed. And quite the fire hazard!"
All the way throughout this conversation, Longueville had been covertly listening in while pretending to sort some papers. Unbeknownst to either of the two men she had been paying close attention to the story, as this information could be of great use to her. She was however forced to admit she couldn't help but agree that there was no easy way to tell what element this little brat had.
"I had better draw up some plans to take care of her should the need arise. It's always the deviants that give me the biggest headaches!"
Maybe she'd also figure out a way to get a copy of those runes, nothing was that big unless there was a reason for it.
That night, Louise had one of the most vivid dreams she'd ever had in her life. Normally dreams faded as the day went on, but this one was one she would remember as what had started it all.
Louise was dreaming, and in her dreams she was flying. Perhaps she was an eagle, soaring majestically in the skies. She honestly didn't know, nor was she particularly good at recognizing the various avian species.
What she did know was that she had a bird's eye-view of the Academy down below her, arranged into the Sacred Pentagon of the Five Powers. She felt a brief flash of irritation when she noticed it wasn't a perfect geometric shape, what kind of commoners did they hire to build it anyway?
Surrounding it were fields and forests she'd never bothered to learn the names of, with the exception of the Dark Forest you had to pass through to get to the capitol city of Tristania. However it was too far away for her to see even at this height, so her attention was instead diverted downards to the courtyard where the Springtime Familiar Summoning had taken place.
She absently noted that she could still see exactly where the summoning circle had been placed, mostly because of the spiraling furrows that had been torn into the ground by her spectacular failure. It was also the spot where the thing she had summoned was sitting quietly, little more than a large mound of metal. For some reason, she felt the desire to reach out and touch it despite how far down it was. To direct it as she'd seen her mother do with her mighty Manticore that was her familiar.
'Arise, my familiar.' She commanded it, and it did.
Siesta was a maid in the Academy of Magic, and had been working there for many years. She rather enjoyed the domestic chores and was generally considered a skilled and hard-working woman. Tonight was laundry night and she was carrying a large basket of dirty clothes, sheets and similar things that was in need of a good scrubbing. She hummed softly to herself as she walked the path to the washroom and was just about to round the corner to the Vestri court when she very nearly walked into someone.
"Watch where you're going, commoner!" Someone hissed, and she looked around the pile to see the womanizing Guiche de Gramont and a girl hanging on his arm, although not the same one he usually did.
"I'm sorry, my lord!" She apologized immediately, the basket thumping against the ground as she bowed low at the waist.
Guiche looked at her for a few moments, his eyes wandering down to where he could see the generous mounds of her chest. Although he would have preferred a nice bit of cleavage, it lightened his mood enough that he didn't feel the need to punish her.
"Hmph, see to it that it doesn't happen again, commoner."
"Yes, my lord."
"Uwaaa! You're so cool, Guiche!" Katie squealed girlishly as they walked away, and Siesta kept the pose for a few seconds before breathing a sigh of relief. Any commoner knew not to stick her nose into the dealings of the Nobles, as that only lead to grief (and possibly pain). However, when she opened her eyes again she spotted something small catching the light just next to the basket.
"What's this, a perfume bottle?" She asked out loud as she held the little glass bottle up in front of her. She could see a purple-hued liquid within it and was secured with a small glass stopper that had been ground to a perfect fit in the neck of a bottle. Far too fancy to be the property of a commoner she assumed that it was most likely dropped by accident when she bumped into the Noble earlier.
As she went to tuck it away in a pocket for safekeeping until she could return it, she heard a loud metallic clank come from the field before her. As she watched, what she previously had assumed was just one of the silly statues or monuments that the Nobles favored folded out four pointed legs and stood up.
With several loud thunks of its stubby legs slamming into the ground, it turned around to face her and she felt the blood drain out of her face as she was confronted by a multitude of eyes that actually glowed red in the dark.
A loud scream of terror echoed through the night, frightening birds and small critters followed by a piercing cry of:
"IT'S A GIANT BUUUUUUUUUG!"
Louise felt satisfied as her familiar reacted to her wishes, and it spoke to her in an echoing voice unlike the one she heard when it was first summoned. This voice was smooth and cultured and spoke perfect Halkeginian with a slight tone of arrogance. She found this strangely comforting in its familiarity.
"MCV."
Was that what it was called? Emseevee? She thought it must be an abbreviation for something, there was no reason to pronounce each letter otherwise.
'What is your purpose?' She asked it.
"We build for the Brotherhood." Came the echoing response.
'Will you build for me?'
"Of course."
In her bed in the Academy, Louise smiled in her sleep.
'Then do so at once!'
A moment passed, and she could see the large bug-like thing turning around this way and that, as if looking for something.
"A better place, perhaps?"
She pondered this for a few moments and came to the conclusion that it was correct, the Vestri court wasn't a very good place to build something for her. Although it was the largest of the courts, it was too cramped.
Her mind moved swifter than any horse or birds, going beyond the protective walls of the Academy to a flat section of land that had not yet been claimed as farmland.
'Will this do?' She asked once more.
"We can try it."
She blinked in her dream and found herself above the Vestri court once more, just to watch her familiar smash right through the wall without pausing. Unlike the Academy itself the walls were not magically enhanced and broke easily beneath its heavy gait, but it did not matter. Brick and masonry was cheap and easily replaced.
'Will it take long?'
"The foundation must be true."
'Will you be able to do it? Will you carry out my will?'
"We carry the future."
The elation she felt when she heard these echoing words were beyond describing, maybe she could finally do something useful. With this she could rub it in the face of all those who told her she was useless, a failure!
She could be of use to the crown! She could enforce the rule of the crown! The possibilities were limitless!
And then when she had made everything right in the world, maybe her mother would give her one of those rare smiles and tell her: "You've done well, my daughter."
"The cities of Nod will rise."
The next morning came unbidden and unwelcome to Louise as she laid curled up within her comfortable blankets. How could something so far away as the Sun be able to strike with such precision? It was maddening, and yet it happened every single morning when all she wanted was to remain in bed!
This morning was a bad one in particular as she felt as if she had barely slept at all. She blamed it on that stupid dream she had about her stupid familiar that just sat there and did nothing, the sheer irritation of it all was enough to force her to sit up in her bed. Smacking her lips to try and get rid of the dry flavor in her mouth that always came like clockwork, stretching her arms above her head she marked the start of her morning routine.
After stumbling about for a little bit she poured some water into her washbasin and splashed some of it into her face. Thus slightly more awake she went about brushing her strawberry blonde hair and getting dressed in the uniform for the day. Today was a day off for the mages who had successfully summoned a familiar, which meant no classes. So she could take her time getting herself just right before going out to find breakfast, a welcome change to the normal routine.
However disaster struck in the annoyingly untimely manner it always did.
Not a second after she stepped through the doorway marking the sacred space that was her room, the door on the opposite side of the hallway opened as well. This one belonged to her greatest and most-hated enemy, second only to the morning Sun itself!
"Zerbst." She ground out in greeting the moment she saw the red-headed boobie monster. Behind her, she caught a glimpse of Kirche's own room and the pile lying on the bed that she assumed was her latest conquests. "Why do you have to irritate me every morning?"
"Oh why good morning, Louise!" She greeted her brightly. It was incredible how someone could be so perky in the mornings despite being so active at night.
"Have you met my familiar yet?" She asked smugly, motioning with her hand down at the salamander who was just coming out to stop beside her. "He's a rare fire salamander from the Fire Dragon Mountains!" She boasted. "Not even collectors can put a price on one of those!"
Louise gritted her teeth as Kirche leaned forward slightly and made a show about looking around with her hand over her eyes. "Oh? I don't see your familiar anywhere. Did it leave you already?"
"Don't wave your chest in my face, you succubus!" Louise responded hotly. "And you'd know that it's too big to be in here if you had half as much in your head as you did in your breasts!"
Kirche just smiled and ran her hands up her waist to briefly lift her bust and then let it fall back down with a satisfying bounce. "Don't hate it just because you don't have it!"
Louise actually looked like she might explode and she was briefly afraid she'd gone too far when she suddenly turned on her heel and stomped away down the corridor, muttering to herself.
"Should stop doing that." Came a somewhat monotone voice from behind her, and Kirche turned her head to look at the only person she could actually consider a friend. Tabitha was a diminutive bluenette who on first glance had absolutely nothing in common with the tall, curvy Germanian.
She pressed her glasses back up her nose with the spine of a large book as she cradled her staff in her other hand, giving the other an exasperated glance of someone who'd seen it many times before.
"What can I say?" Kirche shrugged. "She's too easy to rile up, and besides," She looked down the corridor where Louise had stomped off. "maybe the frustration will encourage her."
"Stupid, stupid Kirche!" Louise grumbled as she made her way down towards the Alvíss Dining Hall for breakfast. It was thus named after the many statues resembling little people that decorated the walls. She normally came down for breakfast much earlier in the morning, but since it was the day after the summoning, it was mostly the younger and older students.
She had just sat down and gotten a cup of tea and a pastry from the lunch wagon set down before her by a maid when there was a slight commotion nearby. Someone was moving very quickly through the small crowd of people and that someone was Jean Colbert who soon came to a stop before her table. She blinked at the man as he took a moment to catch his breath and had just taken a bite from her pastry when he spoke up.
"Miss Vallière! Your familiar has disappeared!"
Had she started with the tea he would have gotten a face-full of it, but as it was she tried to shout "Whaaat?" and swallow at the same time. The result was that it got lodged in her throat and it took a lot of coughing and that same maid clapping her on the back to get it out.
Taking a deep breath she offered a smile to the maid who helped her and got one in return before she hurried on to serve the next person. "Huuuh.. I thought I was going to die." She sighed before remembering what Colbert had said and snapped her head back towards him.
"Wait, my familiar disappeared? How is that even possible?!" She demanded as she stood up, not caring that the chair she had been sitting on almost went flying in process.
"I don't know miss Vallière. I was going out just now to make a copy of the familiar runes, and it wasn't there!" He said while gesticulating wildly in the direction of the field in question.
"Brimir damn it!" She hissed as she rounded the table, was nothing going right today? Colbert fell in after her as she started walking down the hall towards the exit, ignoring the whispers that had started not long after his outburst.
Siesta looked up from where she had just finished serving another noble and bit her lip as she remembered the frightening event from the day before, could that have been the familiar? She really hated insects with a lot of legs, and although the one she had seen only had four and was too large to be an insect, it had triggered the same kind of feeling. Should she follow them and tell them? She bit her lip for a moment as she pondered it, ignoring the Noble trying to get her attention.
"Hey, commoner! I said I wanted some more tea!"
She slapped her face a few times to better focus her mind on the present and nodded once as she came to a decision. After waving another servant down to serve the now very irritated Noble she had ignored, she set out after them.
A few minutes later, Louise and Professor Colber arrived in the Vestri court to find that the enormous shelled familiar had indeed vacated the premises. Although a lot of the damage done by the summoning had been repaired by the Academy's small army of diligent gardeners, there were several fresh holes in the ground.
Louise paced to and fro over where it had been sitting quietly before, alternating between running her hands through her hair and pulling on it as she tried to make sense of it. How the hell did something that big even do that, for Brimir's sake?
"Oh Founder, please just kill me now!"
Losing your familiar was a pretty serious thing, and would only reflect badly on the mage that summoned it. Before she could start contemplating the ways of quick suicide, a third voice suddenly piped up behind them.
"Um, excuse me?"
Both Louise and Colbert who had been examining the ruined wall turned to the maid that had suddenly showed up behind them. "Are you looking for that.. bug thing?" She asked timidly. "I was here when it... vanished yesterday."
Louise immediately narrowed her eyes and pointed an accusing finger at the dark-haired maid. "You! Did you steal it?"
Siesta gaped for a moment at the sudden accusation and waved her hands up in front of her. "No, absolutely not! It just stood up and wandered off!"
"Miss Vallière, please." Colbert said gently to his fuming student before turning back to Siesta. "Could you tell me exactly what happened? Every detail might be important."
"Well," She began. "I was carrying laundry to be washed and I was passing through this courtyard when, er... my fingers slipped on the basket I was carrying so I bent to pick it back up." She cursed herself inwardly for not coming up with a better story beforehand, to say that she saw a noble two-timing on his girlfriend would only end badly.
"And then what happened?"
"I heard this loud clanking sound," She recalled, tapping her lower lip with a finger. "and when I looked up it had stood up on these four, kind of squat-looking legs." She swallowed. "And then it turned to look at me."
Teacher and student looked at each other as Siesta shivered and hugged herself.
"It was possibly the most frightening thing I've ever experienced! It had eyes! Lots of eyes!" She exclaimed, holding her balled-up hands up in front of her with an almost wild look in her eyes that made the two take a step back. "An they were glowing red like embers in the dark." She paused to blink and catch her breath. "And then it just kind of walked through the wall over there." She said and pointed towards the large hole in the Academy wall.
"Hmm." Colbert said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "It does appear as if the wall simply collapsed outwards, which matches your description of the events. Are you sure that's everything?"
"Well.. I didn't exactly follow it out." She murmured, poking her index fingers together and looking away. "I really hate bugs."
"Ah." Colbert blinked and then smiled. "That's alright, miss..?"
"Siesta, sir."
"That's alright miss Siesta, you can go back to your duties now if you wish."
"Thank you, sir." She gave them both a short bow before she hurried back to her rounds, for some reason feeling ill at ease and just wanting to leave the scene behind her.
"Well, I guess we'll just have to follow the tracks." Colbert said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Something that big would leave a lot of tracks. Miss Vallière?"
It was then he noticed that Louise had been very quiet for a few moments and looked over towards her to find she looked like she'd seen a ghost. Her face was pale and she was shaking slightly as she looked at the tracks and the hole in the wall as if seeing it in a new light. "Are you all-right miss Vallière?" He asked again.
"I..." She swallowed and took a deep breath, having suddenly remembered her dream from the night before. How she told it to move and it did, as well as ordering to find a new place...
Oh Founder.
"I think I know where it went."
"A dream? Hmm... it does occasionally happen that a summoner gets memories and images flowing back through the familiar bond." Colbert said as they climbed a hill. Louise had after some gentle questioning told him about the dream she had, and about the voice she had heard.
"S-so I'm not crazy?" She asked hopefully, having been afraid she had been losing it completely.
Colbert shook his head and offered her a comforting smile. "No, there have been documented cases of similar thing happening before. Although cases where mages have said that they could hear the words of their familiars aren't rare, I don't think I've ever heard of one speaking Ancient Romalian before."
Louise nodded. "I know, but I swear that's what I heard. I'm not an expert, but I've learned a little from doing research."
"Yes, many of the old texts are written in Ancient Romalian. You are quite the excellent student to have managed to get through those." He praised her.
"Thank you, Professor!" She smiled, happy to have gotten recognition for her hard work. "We should be close now."
Sure enough, when they crested the hill they have arrived on exactly the spot where Louise had directed her familiar in her dream. And there it was, and all it's black and... pink glory?
"It seems bigger than what I remember." Colbert mused as he took in all the new details of what her familiar had morphed into. No longer resembling a bug, it was now a sort of oval-shaped building with a sweeping, rounded roof that ended in a claw-like point in front. Open in the front, it somehow reminded him of a warehouse of some sort, he could even see a crane dangling from the ceiling. A glowing strip of pink ran down the center, tipped a little tower in the back and ran around the rounded sides as well as a curious symbol decorating the floor.
"That is odd." Louise commented as they made their way down towards it. "It was a lot more crimson in my dream." she said, furrowing her brow as she compared the design in her dream to the one before her.
They both took their time examining the building all the way around, founding more of the symbols that Colbert had first observed on the floor in front of the building. It was a triangle with rounded corners sitting on a black, pink-rimmed circle. Inside the triangle what was could only be described as the profile of a scorpion's tail viewed from the side.
It still had the rows of familiar runes scribed into the hull however, and Colbert took a moment to make a simple rubbing of a section of the side with some charcoal on paper as Louise watched from the side.
"Never hurts to be certain." He commented sheepishly as he carefully overlaid it with another sheet of paper before rolling it up into a tube.
Standing in front of the building, the two tried to peer into its dark depths without actually stepping foot onto it. They quickly found that this was nearly impossible and spent a few moments contemplating their next move, eventually Colbert turned to his student and motioned inwards.
"It's your familiar, miss Vallière, I think you had better do the honors."
Nodding, Louise took a deep breath and closed her eyes before lifting her foot and swinging her weight forward until she stepped onto the metallic panels with a dull clunk. When nothing happened after a few seconds she opened one eye, then the other, and looked back at the older man.
"It's safe, I think."
He nodded and followed her inside into the gloom of this mysterious familiar who was also a building.
The inside was dimly lit by some kind of glowing wall sections that acted like no form of natural lighting either had ever seen. She almost had to drag him away from them and into a stairwell set in the far back. It led into a short corridor that terminated into what appeared to be a dead end, emblazoned by the same scorpion-triangle as before.
Colbert didn't say anything as he furrowed his brows, trying to find any hidden mechanisms and levers around them. "Is this it?" He asked, half to himself.
"No, it can't be." Louise hissed, trying hard to keep her hopes up. She couldn't have come this far just to have her hopes and dreams crushed again, could she? But no matter how they searched and felt along the walls, nothing was showing up.
But instead of sorrow all she felt was anger. Anger at the world, her dreams, and this stupid familiar! With an incoherent scream she turned and slammed her fist right in the center of the emblem, and no one was more surprised than her when it lit up like set on fire.
++RECOGNIZED – LOUISE DE LA VALLIÈRE.++
++WELCOME, PROPHET.++
And then there was a brief hissing noise, like water thrown on flames, before the wall that had blocked their access so successfully split down the middle like a jagged bolt of lightning, each side vanishing into the walls.
Louise stood frozen, her fist still extended in the air as her mind tried to make sense of what just happened. Walls didn't do that!
Well, at least the voice had spoken Halkeginian this time.
Colbert was in a similar state but shook it off far quicker than she did for some reason, and ended her trance when he put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle shake.
"Good work miss Vallière! I should have guessed that you were the key to this particular puzzle." He said, trying to insert a little bit of awkward humor into the situation.
"Uh, thank you Professor." She could only mutter in response as she slowly stepped inside the inner sanctum.
Nothing could quite have prepared them however for what laid inside. Considerably larger than they had expected, the room expanded on both sides into what looked like some kind of arcane workspaces. Each with numerous knobs, dials and a section of squares with little glowing letters on them. The walls were awash in crimson light, depicting falling columns of letters and digits, some of which they did not even recognize. Further ahead, the walkway they were on descended on a few steps into a more narrow area with more glowing walls on them.
"Brimir's balls!" Louise swore as she tried to take it all in, to her it looked more like the Church's depiction of hell than anything else. All it lacked were some cackling men with pitchforks and some shrill screaming.
Colbert was similarly dumbstruck to the point where he didn't even bother telling her off for using the Founder's name in vain. Mostly because he was thinking the same thing as he looked over the many dots of light and tried to make sense of the scrolling text.
"I... what in Brimir's name did you summon, Louise?" He couldn't help but exclaim.
Before she could reply, a familiar voice intruded on her scrambled thoughts.
++GREETINGS, PROPHET.++
Louise jumped and whirled around, trying to spot the speaker. "Who said that?" she yelped. "Where are you?!"
The Professor next to her was snapped out of his wonder at her exclamation, frowning. "Who are you talking to, miss Vallière?"
++MY NAME IS LEGION, PROPHET.++
"Eh?"
"Miss Vallière!"
"What?!" She snapped at him, then blinked when she realized she had just snapped at a teacher. "Er... sorry, Professor." She said awkwardly and took a moment to run her cheeks with her palms, all of this was starting to get to her.
"It's quite alright, miss Vallière." He sighed. "Is it your familiar speaking?"
"I.. I don't know! I need some fresh air!" The voices, the dreams, the stifling atmosphere in here was just too much. She felt as if the glowing walls were closing in on her and she turned on her heel and ran back upstairs at full tilt.
The balding Professor sighed and looked around once more. He could see why Louise had reached her limit in what she could take in at once, this was overwhelming even to him and it was her familiar.
Looking up across the vast amount of black metal and crimson lights, he experimentally called out to the entity within. "I don't suppose you could speak to me as well?"
He waited for a moment but when no answer came, he blew out a sigh and went to follow his student back outside. He found her sitting with her back against one of the nondescript crates that littered the floor near where the curved roof ended. She had her knees pulled up to her chest and her eyes looked a little red.
"Miss Vallière?"
A loud sniffle was his only response.
"Come on, let's go back to the Academy." He said gently. "I need to report back to the Headmaster, you may come with me if you'd like. It's your business as well, after all."
She nodded quietly and stood up, together they began the short trek back to the Academy.
About half an hour later, she was sitting in a comfortable armchair in the Headmaster's office, holding a hot cup of tea in both hands. She had been sitting quietly while Colbert explained the situation to the Headmaster, who was listening intently while stroking his beard.
"A building you say, Camembert?"
"It's Colbert, headmaster!" He sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose with his middle and index fingers. "And yes, it's at least twice as large now than it was before."
"I see. Do you think it might pose a threat to miss Vallière or anyone else?"
"I... don't think so." He said hesitantly. Although it was true he had seen nothing in there that could be considered a weapon, he knew to never judge a book by its cover.
"It seems content to sit where it is, although she tells me that, um..." He paused to look over to Louise, but he recognized the thousand-yard stare of someone trying to cope with an overwhelming event. He'd seen it in the eyes of soldiers after their first battle, and it was hard seeing the same look in someone so young.
When she did not react at all to his half-finished statement, he turned back to the Headmaster and continued. "She tells me she can hear it speak to her."
"Oho? Fully sapient familiars are rare, and only the ones with true intelligence is capable of speech." The elderly Headmaster said as he looked over to Louise. "I expected nothing less from a Vallière."
"Thank you, Headmaster." She murmured.
She had been sitting there, staring down into the cup of now-lukewarm tea for the past fifteen minutes. What kind of familiar dug itself into the ground and refused to move? At the moment it didn't matter to her that she had a completely unique familiar, it was practically useless!
She couldn't ride it, she couldn't send it anywhere, heck she couldn't even pet it! She blinked hard as she tried to keep the tears that she felt coming on trapped behind her eyes. What good was it to her?
++I CANNOT FULFILL ANY OF THE DUTIES YOU REQUIRE IF YOU WILL NOT GIVE ME DIRECTION, PROPHET.++
The voice of her familiar rumbled through her mind like the rock avalanche she once watched as a little girl. She and her family had been on one of their rare outings together, and her mother had demonstrated her awesome power to her children. The target was a hapless cliff face that had almost completely collapsed under a low-level spell from her mother.
Louise had been six years old, her sisters Cattelya and Éléonore 14 and 17. This had proved an important formative event for the young girl, and cemented the belief that her mother was the strongest mage there was. As a result she had unconsciously compared her own progress to her mother ever since, which had led to quite a few issues as she grew older.
Tea flew everywhere as she jumped out of her chair in a surprise reaction. Both men quickly turned to look at her and Colbert just barely dodged the porcelain cup that came flying. Neither had a chance to say a word of admonishment or comfort as Louise's hands slapped against her ears and she growled like an angry dog.
"STOP talking in my head you stupid familiar!"
"Miss Vallière!" Colbert called out in alarm and cringed inwardly. He understood why this was happening, but having an outburst in the Headmaster's office was going to go over like a fart in Chruch!
++FORGIVE ME, PROPHET.++
++CANNOT COMMUNICATE WITH YOU IN ANY OTHER WAY.++
Colbert worriedly looked over at Old Osmond who despite his expectations were watching this with a deceptive sense of calm. He was puffing on his pipe without a care in the world as he watched the most troubled child in the school have an angry, one-sided conversation with her familiar.
"Please accept my apology for my student, Headmaster!" The Professor begged, bowing his head and clapping his hands together in the universal pose of submission.
The old man chuckled and waved his pipe dismissively in Colbert's direction. "Oh it's quite alright, Professor. I can see that this is hard on miss Vallière, and it's good that she can vent without her classmates watching her every move."
The younger man made a sigh of relief and nodded, happy that the Headmaster was such a mild-mannered person. He had often heard the other children call her names and ridicule her for her inability to produce anything worthwhile. He had always felt so helpless whenever he saw her shoulders slump after being called a Zero, and he always did his best to discourage the use of the name. Alas, although he was well-versed in how to pass knowledge onto young minds, he had little experience helping them with other unrelated issues.
"Besides" He continued with a small grin as he looked down at the tea-soaked papers on his desk. "Now I won't have to do all this paperwork!"
"Headmaster!"
Louise had abandoned the fruitless attempts at covering her ears, slightly mirroring her attempts the night before. Instead she had stalked over to one of the ornate bookcases in the room and with a cry of frustration she slammed her forehead into the hard wood.
++WARNING – PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE IS NOT APPLICABLE TO ORGANIC SYSTEMS.++
"Shut up!"
++DAMAGE TO THE FRONTAL LOBES CAN CAUSE IMPAIRMENTS IN JUDGEMENT, ATTENTION SPAN AND ORGANIZATIONAL ABILITY, AS WELL AS LOSS OF MOTIVATION.++
"Just... leave me alone!" She shouted as she rested her head against the hard wood, the cool surface feeling nice against her now-aching forehead. "Why are you doing this?!"
A few seconds passed before Legion's voice came again, but somewhat more muted than before.
++IT IS MY DUTY TO SEE TO YOUR WELL-BEING, MY PROPHET.++
++I CANNOT PREFORM MY FUNCTION TO YOU WITHOUT COMMUNICATING WITH YOU, ALTHOUGH I CANNOT ADEQUATELY EXPLAIN WHY ONLY YOU HEAR MY VOICE.++
"It's..." She sighed and turned so that her back was against the bookcase and slid to the floor, where she once more assumed the curled-up position with her knees to her chest. "It's most likely the familiar bond." She told him.
++FAMILIAR: NOUN.++
++A FAMILIAR FRIEND OR ASSOCIATE.++
++OR++
++AN ANIMAL, AS A CAT, THAT EMBODIES A SUPERNATURAL SPIRIT AND AIDS A WITCH IN PREFORMING MAGIC.++
"Witch?" She asked in confusion, having never heard that voice in her life. "We are mages, and our familiars is said to reflect the summoner." She recited, having learned it by heart since she was a child.
++AKNOWLEDGED.++
Well, now that she'd started talking with him, Legion wasn't so bad she supposed. Although the way he talked left some to be desired, it wasn't quite as bad as she had first felt it was.
"Bet you my savings that Kirche can't hold a meaningful conversation with that ugly reptile of hers!" She thought smugly.
"Have you worked things out with your familiar, miss Vallière?" Once more Louise jumped in surprise when the Headmaster addressed her directly, and she was on her feet in a fraction of a second. "Yes, Headmaster!" She said, giving him a respectful bow to which he nodded in return.
"I have no excuse for this behavior!" She said, suddenly realizing what she had been doing in the Headmaster's own office. Throwing cups and tea around, and assaulting his furniture with her thick head was surely a punishable offense! "I will accept whatever punishment you wish to give me!"
Colbert couldn't help but sigh at her antics, but smiled at the same time. The girl had an explosive temper but her heart was in the right place.
"Hmm, well I will let you off this time miss Vallière." The old Headmaster said with a small chuckle. "Just do not let it happen again, understood?"
She straightened back up, surprised but happy at his leniency. "Yes, Headmaster!" She chirped with a smile.
"You must be hungry by now." He said, grinning a little when he heard her stomach growl even from where he was sitting, to her embarrassment. "Go down to the Alvíss Hall and get yourself some dinner before you go to bed, you have classes tomorrow do you not?"
"Ah! Yes Headmaster! I will be going now." She gave him another bow before turning and heading out through the door, in a considerably better mood than when she entered. She did not even notice miss Longueville standing against the wall to the right, half-hidden by the door as it was opened. If she had she might have wondered why the bookish secretary had been standing there, but as it was she was too intent on having a hot meal.
Longueville had of course heard everything through eavesdropping, and was already discarding the half-finished plans she'd made. A stationary familiar was of neither use nor danger to her, although she would have to scout its location later...
Her thought halted abruptly as she heard the conversation start up again on the other side of the door, and pressed her ear against the hard wood to listen.
Colbert had decided to help clean up a little after Louise's unfortunate teacup accident as further apology for his student. In truth he was used to cleaning up similar things in his laboratory, as his experiments had a tendency to fail spectacularly with large messes as a result.
"Miss Vallière has been put in a very interesting situation has she not?" The Headmaster mused out loud.
"Yes, although it may prove a great boon to us all in the end." Responded the Professor as he swept up the pieces of the teacup and had it join the ruined papers in the trash.
"Oh? Why would you say that, Professor?"
"When we went inside her Familiar, we beheld some truly wondrous things." He said as he dusted himself off before sitting down once more. His eyes were shining as he recalled the glowing walls of moving letters, the many perfectly smooth surfaces and the general uniformity of what he had seen.
"It is clearly not of this world, Headmaster. I thought in the beginning when it was first summoned that perhaps it came from the Sahara desert or a place beyond Rub al Khali, but now I doubt even that!"
"If it is even half as amazing as you discover it might just be." Osmond replied as he tried to compare it with anything he had ever seen before. He thought briefly of the Staff of Destruction he had found so many years ago, but dismissed it quickly. You do not compare a sword to a house, after all.
"I can't wait to visit it again." Colbert said excitedly. "A more thorough exploration might yield more answers for miss Vallière, as well!"
"Perhaps you should ask to visit come the Day of Void?"
He lit up, at that thought. "Ah, you are quite right! I will ask miss Vallière after her classes are over tomorrow."
"A sound plan, Colston."
"It's Colbert, Headmaster!"
Down in the Alvíss Hall, Louise were enjoying a hearty meal of Boeuf Bourguignon and a fresh loaf of bread when when she heard Guiche's flamboyant voice next to her.
"What's this? This is not mine!"
Looking over, she saw the maid from earlier this morning holding a small glass flask out to the Gramont boy who was sitting a handful of seats down the table from her.
"My Lord, I found this in the courtyard last night and I thought that it might be yours."
"It is not mine, get rid of it immediately!" He scoffed at the maid, and Louise could feel a headache coming on.
Couldn't the stupid boy just accept it and be done with it?
At this moment, Montmorency de Montmorency, a somewhat vain girl who was also Guiche's official girlfriend leaned over the table from where she had been sitting across from him.
"Isn't that the bottle of perfume I made for you?" She asked suspiciously, glancing between the dark-haired maid and her boyfriend. "Why does she have it, Guiche?"
Louise rested her elbow on the table, chin in her palm as she watched the drama play out while slowly sipping the glass of wine she had been served.
"Serves him right." She thought.
++IS THIS FORM OF INTERRACTION COMMON WITHIN YOUR SOCIETY?++
Legion's voice rumbled in her mind, but she found she had mostly adjusted to its presence by now.
"Yes and no." She mumbled around her glass as she watched Guiche start to sweat visibly as he tried to explain his way out of it.
++PLEASE ELABORATE.++
"What's there to say? He's a two-timing fop who is unable to think any longer than the length of his pecker." She snickered.
++UNDERSTOOD.++
"W-wait Monmon, you got it all wrong!"
"Do I, Guiche? Then explain it to me!"
"We-well you see," He said, holding his hands up as if to ward off a blow. "I was out taking a midnight stroll and this maid..."
"Don't try shift the blame to her!"
Siesta was still clutching the little glass bottle in her hands, her head bobbing to and fro as she followed the conversation worriedly.
"Should I just leave it here and make a run for it?" She considered briefly, but she knew she was already on thin ice after leaving one of the Nobles hanging this morning. Either way her plans were dashed as another voice cut into the conversation, and Siesta recognized the girl hurrying towards them as the girl from last night.
"Guii-iiche!" the girl called in a sing-song voice, in her hands she was carrying a small metal pan with an embroidered towel lying over it. "You said you wanted to try my soufflé last night!"
If it was bad before, not Guiche looked downright pale. "K-Katie?!"
It didn't take Montmorency long to put two and two together as she rounded on Guiche, her eyes having narrowed into slits at his obvious two-timing.
"Wait, Monmon! You're the only one for me, my ro-"
SLAP!
He was cut off mid-sentence by Montmorency's hand impacting against his right cheek with considerable force, and could only watch as she stormed off in anger.
"Guiche..."
His head snapped up to Katie who was looking down at him with a look of horror that quickly shifted into realization and then anger.
"Katie, this isn-"
SLAP!
Hand met face once again, accompanied with the clang of the pan being dropped on the floor before she, too, stormed off in the opposite direction.
"Good one, Guiche!" His friends who had also been sitting nearby called to him between bouts of laughter. "The rose that blooms for many strikes again!"
More laughter followed the exclamation that had Guiche shaking with anger and humiliation. Although it was not always the case, children had a certain tendency towards cruelty for the sake of amusement. It was also easy to redirect the blame to someone else, which was exactly what happened as he snapped his head up to look at the startled Siesta.
"This is your fault, commoner!" He growled at the poor maid as he stood up, his rose wand finding its way into his fingers with a flourish.
"W-what?" She squeaked, shrinking back from his tone of voice. "My Lord, please!"
"You have made two girls cry!" He announced with a sniff, ignoring the fact that he had done so all himself. "How do you intend to make this up to them? To me?"
"B-but... sir!" She stammered. "I'm only a poor maid, I don't have much in ways of value!"
"Then you leave me no choice, commoner! You are hereby banished from the Academy!" He shouted, swishing his wand to punctuate his words.
The little glass bottle fell with a clatter on the checkered red and white marble floors of the dining hall, and to Louise that was the final straw.
Normally she would just have ignored this, but there was just something about this situation that pushed almost all of her buttons. Perhaps it was the stress of the past two days, her being tired of seeing Guiche's repeat preformance or just the alcohol present in her bloodstream. Perhaps it was all three combined yet again with the sheer injustice of it all.
Throughout her life she had often heard from both her parents and her sisters that it was a Noble's duty to look out for the commoners that served them. Although it was not against the law for a Noble to carry out harsh punishments against commoners, her mother had always made sure that all punishments were indeed just!
The sound of her palms slamming into the table and rattling the fine china and silverware brought the attention of most of the Alvíss Hall to her. Ignoring them, she stood up to her full height of five feet and pointed her index finger at Guiche.
"Stop right there, Gramont!" She called out to him, her cheeks flushed both from wine and anger. "I will not allow you to blame your two-timing on this commoner!"
There was a collective "Ooooooh!" from the surrounding audience followed by the customary whispers.
"Louise the Zero is standing up for a commoner?"
"That's absurd!"
"Doesn't she know better than to stay out of the business of another noble?"
"Of course she doesn't! Zero skill, Zero wits!"
A small bout of laughter followed the last one, but she again ignored it as she always did.
"Hmph!" Guiche smirked and smoothed out his frilly shirt with one hand. "What's this, Vallière? I didn't peg you for someone with a thing for a commoner." He taunted.
Louise smirked and folded her arms over her modest chest, suddenly feeling brave. "That's rich coming from someone like you. Do you want me to get you some cream for those nice, matching hand-prints on your cheeks?"
He recoiled slightly, more in surprise from getting such a biting remark from her of all people than the insult itself. He quickly recovered however and brought an actual rose out from the inside of his cloak and put it to his nose.
"You know what they say, better to have love and lost than never loved at all." His smirk turned cruel. "Isn't that right, Zero?"
By now everyone was following the wordplay between them, immature as it was.
Louise was fuming now, damn that fop and his cleverly worded replies! "Well at least you could have made a better choice than Montmorency the Flood!"
Guiche gasped audibly at this audacity, how dare she insult his dearest Monmon?! Oh she probably hated him right now, but nevertheless!
"Nobody insults Monmon to my face, Vallière!" He shouted at her, pointing his wand directly at her. "You take that back!"
But she stood her ground, her head held high as her pride as a noble demanded. "Never!"
"Then I will have you pay for this most grievous of insults!" He said, swinging his wand down once more with a satisfying swish. "I, Guiche de Gramont, challenge you to a duel! Vestri Court at dawn!"
Gasps and murmurs spread through the crowd like wildfire. Guiche against Louise? That was hardly a fair fight!
She too had suddenly realized this and flexed her jaw for a few seconds before finally answering as her pride demanded.
"I, Louise de la Vallière, accept!"
And there we have it! I felt like I didn't want to try and rush Louise's acceptance of Legion since he's so different from the normal familiars she gets. That's why I moved the event with Guiche's challenge to later in the day instead, as I felt that was more appropriate in order to not lump it all together at once. Hopefully I'm getting their characters right as it's been a while since I watched the show.
I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review if you did!