I woke in bed, since I'd won my argument with Louise over the sleeping arrangements. I don't think she'd been in with much of a chance from the outset since, after all, she simply didn't have the physical strength to move me against my will, apparently wasn't skilled enough to accomplish it by arcane means and couldn't bear to face the humiliation of having to have someone else discipline her familiar.

Of course what woke me was Louise kicking me in the face.

There was nothing especially malicious about it. I was lying in the opposite direction to Louise so her feet were fairly near my head to begin with and then she'd rolled over. Still, it got my attention since amongst the little weaknesses of my mutant powers that I hadn't explicitly stated to Louise the night before was that psi powers such as my shield only work when I'm conscious. They don't take much concentration but I'm certainly not providing that when I'm asleep.

Granted, I wasn't hurt by the flailing foot but it was noticeable and once my eyes were open and I could see that sunlight was entering the room I wasn't particularly inclined to resume sleep. With a sigh I scrambled out of bed and found my clothes where I had left them, piled on one of the chairs. There wasn't much I could do about the T-shirt I'd slept in except turn it inside out and hope I could borrow something to wear once I worked out how laundry worked around here.

I didn't bother putting my socks or trainers on though. Instead I crept barefoot to the window, unlatched it and gently pushed it open, shivering slightly at the cold morning air. This entire business of being summoned was a colossal inconvenience (to put it mildly) but I would at least take the opportunities that were the other side of the coin. Mum would have had a fit to see me practicing martial arts anywhere but a nice, flat, supervised location, perhaps because she had an excellent appreciation of the risks in anything else. She would have objected strenuously to my taking my practice onto a roof even if I had been able to fly. And as I've mentioned, I can't. Not yet anyway.

Slates wet with morning dew proved something of a challenging footing, particularly since they were of course at something of a sharp angle and I spent several minutes skidding perilously close to the edge as I got a feel for the surface with my bare feet. Eventually I got the hang of it - or the dew dried - and I was able to work through some of the forms, stretching out after the night's sleep.

The sound of half-asleep mumbling from below drew my attention to the fact that Louise, my 'master', was awakening. With one last kiai I hopped off the roof, twisting in mid-air to catch hold of the edge. Kicking my legs to build momentum, I swung, let go and landed in a neat perch on the windowsill.

Louise squawked in alarm at my sudden appearance. "Wh-what? Who..."

I jumped down into the room. "Ellen, remember? Your familiar?"

"Oh. That's right, I summoned you yesterday, didn't I?"

Evidently she wasn't a morning person. "Indeed." I bowed slightly. "So how may I serve you?"

She yawned as she scrambled out from under her blankets. "Clothes."

Once I'd passed her the uniform she'd worn before, she directed me to get her fresh underwear from one of the drawers. I made a note of that since my own was... not fresh. I wasn't so large that I probably couldn't borrow Louise's. Preferably without her finding out, which would be relatively easy since she apparently intended to delegate all responsibility for them to me.

"Clothes," she mumbled again.

"Yes, Louise, clothes." I confirmed.

"Dress me."

Ugh. What was she, three? "You're kidding."

"You must not know because you're a commoner, but nobles will not dress themselves if a servant is available."

"We have a word for people who can't put on their own clothes," I told her, picking up her blouse and opening up a sleeve to maneuver it over her arm. "It's not 'noble' though."

.oOo.

Louise's room was one of four on this landing and another student was leaving her room as we departed. It was the big-breasted redhead from yesterday and she grinned broadly when she saw us. "Good morning, Louise."

"Good morning... Kirche," replied my master grudgingly. I rather got the impression that she was no fonder of the other girl than my own first impression had made me.

"And here's your familiar," Kirche declared as if that was a great discovery on her part. "Are you really just a human?"

That was something of a matter of opinion back home and I didn't feel like going into a long winded explanation. "I am as you see me."

"Ahaha! That's amazing. It's just like you to summon a commoner with 'Summon Servant'. What else to expect from Louise the Zero?"

"Shut up." Louise was blushing again.

"I summoned a familiar yesterday too." Kirche seemed to enjoy the evident impact her boasting was having on Louise's emotional equilibrium. "Unlike a certain somebody, I was successful on my first try."

"Really."

Kirche smirked triumphantly. "And, if you're going to have a familiar, it should be a good one, like this. Flame!" In response to her command a crocodile-like creature slithered from her room. Unlike any lizard I had ever seen in a zoo, it's scales were a dark red and the creature seemed to actually be radiating heat. The tip of its tail was actually on fire and sparks and embers were visible when it opened its mouth. Try as I might, I couldn't avoid displaying my surprise, though the creature showed no sign of hostility.

"Ohoho! Don't tell me this is your first time seeing a fire lizard."

My eyes narrowed and I reached out. "As a matter of fact it is. A salamander from the Fire Dragon Mountains, is it not?" I had no idea where the Fire Dragon Mountains were or what a salamander was, but that was uppermost in Kirche's thoughts as she stared pridefully at her familiar. I didn't want to press further or she might have realised her thoughts were being perused.

"That's right! See, look at the tail," she exclaimed. "It's like a brand. Collectors can't even put a price on these!"

Louise looked as if she was sucking on a lemon. "That's nice."

"And it perfectly matches my affinity for fire!" She did a little twirl. "For am I not Kirche the Ardent, the ardent of gently smoldering passion. Everywhere I go, I have boys falling for me. Unlike you." She thrust her chest out dramatically.

"Then I'm surprised that you didn't wind up summoning a cow. With really huge udders."

That was a pretty nice zinger, I noted. Then noticed that Louise was looking at me with surprise and perhaps a hint of approval and Kirche was also looking at me with surprise and perhaps a hint of anger. Ah. So I was the one who'd said that. Imprudent of me.

Miss 'The Ardent' shrugged the insult off however. "Those with great natural talents must always face the jealousy of those less blessed," she declared, stroking her flaming red hair and then dashed off, the salamander scuttling after her.

Louise shook her fist in the direction of Kirche's departing back. "Ooh! That girl gets on my nerves! Just because she summoned a... hey, how did you know her salamander was from the Fire Dragon Mountains? If you're really from another world you couldn't have ever heard of them."

I smiled slightly. "Telepath, remember? I just plucked the information out of her head."

Her eyes went wide, last night's explanation now raising rash ideas of impractical uses for that little talent now rushing through her mind. No, I wasn't reading it, she was just that obvious. "Does she have any embarrassing stories about bedwetting or something?" she asked eagerly.

"No idea. I didn't relive her entire life, I just skimmed the top of her thoughts. People tend to notice if I do more than that."

"Hmph. Well tell me the minute you learn anything like that." Louise started stalking the stairs and then paused. "Have you ever had a look inside my mind?"

"Not inside," I assured her. "Although when you're thinking very... well, loudly, it's difficult not to pick it up."

Her immediate reflex was of course relief that I wasn't aware of certain childhood embarrassments that were therefore vividly displayed to me as a result. I forced my psikinetic shields up, partly because focusing on that neutralized my telepathy and partly by reflex in case Louise guessed that I had just picked up some rather embarrassing blackmail material on her and tried to throw me down the stairs.

"It's a pity no one will believe you're magical," she said bitterly, having concluded last night that my psi must be magic of some kind. "You can determine a mage's true power just by looking at his or her familiar but you don't look half as impressive as that idiot's salamander."

"Excuse me for being grateful for that." I shuddered. "Some mutants don't look at all human and that's rarely a good sign. It's called Gross Structural Dystrophy and if you're lucky it might just mean that everyone who looks at you knows that you aren't a baseline. If you're not lucky, expect to spend the rest of your life trapped in a hospital bed. And the rest of your life might not be all that long."

"What do you mean?"

"There's supposed to be a kid who just turned to liquid years and years ago. If they hadn't gotten him into a tub he'd have just drained away. As it is, he's still living in a vat." The tale was a standard horror story used in explaining what could go wrong with mutation and I decided that Louise didn't need to know that the mutant in question was a powerful psychic and wasn't exactly trapped in his body.

As it was she turned pale. "Could that happen to you?"

"It's not likely, or it would probably have started by now, but he'd been a mutant for years before it began, so maybe."

.oOo.

The dining hall for Tristain Academy of Magic was rather a grand hall, located in the centre of the campus and towering over the surroundings with a tall, cathedral-like ceiling. Long tables that could probably seat a hundred students each were occupied by just about that many. Each table's students wore different coloured cloaks - black like Louise being the option for the middle out of the three. A fourth table across the top was evidently for teachers.

The decorations were lavish with candles, flower arrangements and fruit bowls all along the tables and statues lining each side of the chamber. Personally I thought that with the ample light streaming through the windows, the candles were an unnecessary fire hazard but perhaps there was some kind of magical effect that took care of that.

"Impressive," I conceded.

"Tristain's Academy of Magic doesn't teach just magic, you know," Louise lectured me. "Almost all mages are nobles. The saying 'nobles achieve nobility through the use of magic' is a foundation for the education we receive as nobles. Thus, our dining halls must also be fitting a noble's status."

I had a few ideas about what else would be fitting a noble's status, but held my tongue. It was a trifle early to be fomenting revolution in the dining hall.

"Normally a commoner like you would never set foot inside the Alviss Dining Hall. Be grateful."

"I think you're forgetting a lot of our discussion last night," I murmured as Louise paused at an unoccupied seat, keeping my voice low enough that the students around us might not overhear unless they were paying attention to 'Louise the Zero' and her unusual, if impressive familiar. I was going to have to get the story behind Louise's nickname at some point, although the substance was easy enough to guess.

"You're supposed to pull out my chair," she hissed back.

"Milady." I drew the tall chair back easily enough for her to sit on it, and then pushed it close to the table. "Let me guess," I added sotto voce, leaning over the back of the chair. "No seats for commoners."

Louise's head nodded. Then her hand moved to point at a small bowl on the floor next to her seat. A small bowl with... I'm not sure what it was. Some sort of thin soup - gruel perhaps, with some fragments of meet and half a loaf of some bread that looked like it might be on the verge of creating penicillin. Given my usual appetite that wouldn't keep me going for long.

I looked at the dishes on the table. The word lavish could be applied to their contents. Perhaps even sumptuous. "If you think I'm settling for that crud then you're going to be wearing it," I hissed.

"You know, familiars are supposed to stay outside. You're only in here because I especially requested it."

I considered this. Make a stand or play along for now? My stomach made the choice for me. "Given that you're supposed to be my master, just how much trouble would you be in if I smashed this hall to kindling?"

Louise stiffened. "Don't you dare!"

"I don't give a crap about the bowl, but the food just isn't enough."

Eyes were beginning to be directed towards us and Louise squirmed. "Trust me," she mumbled.

A few moments later I was eyeing the food in my bowl with no particular enthusiasm as Louise, along with the other students, chanted a well-rehearsed grace thanking some great founder (of the academy I suppose) and their Queen for their 'humble meal'. A moment later there was a rattle of cutlery as the students began to eat and a sizeable leg of chicken dropped off the table almost into my bowl. I caught it before it could splash into the thin stew and looked up, seeing Louise glancing apparently casually in my direction.

It was a start. Not enough, but I'd give Louise points for at least trying.

A few minutes later I was mopping up the stew with the bread when a couple of apples 'slipped' off the table in my direction. I munched them down one after the other and was still hungry. Maybe I could slip away and find the kitchens.

.oOo.

"This isn't going to work," I told Louise as we walked from the dining hall towards the classroom.

"What isn't going to work?"

"I appreciate you slipping me a little extra food, but it still won't be enough," I told her.

Louise stamped her foot harder than was necessary on the stone floor. "Don't be greedy! You're just a familiar you know."

I sighed. "I'm not being greedy, Master. I simply need to eat more than a human would. I can do some remarkable things but it all has to be fuelled by something. If I don't eat roughly twice what you got served for breakfast, three times a day, then I will start to starve."

Her eyes went wide. "That's ridiculous. You'd as fat as a pig within a week if you ate that much."

"Trust me on this, Louise. I can manage short rations briefly, but if I don't get a real meal today then I'll carve up your friend's salamander and eat it. At least it'll come pre-cooked."

"Don't!" she half-shrieked. "Attacking another mage's familiar... I'd be expelled!"

I shrugged my shoulders and shadow-boxed for a moment as light from a window we passed cast our shadows against a white-painted wall. "Well we wouldn't want that. Look - point me at the kitchens and I'll see what I can scrounge there to keep me going."

"Save it until after class," Louise insisted.

The classroom she led me into was laid out like a lecture hall, with ranks of seats rising like stairs along one side and the teacher's position opposite them at ground level. On our entrance we became the immediate focus of every student in the room. The laughter started almost immediately and while I wasn't entirely sure of where it had begun, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was where Kirche was sat, surrounded by a group of boys. I suppose the big booby had them wrapped around her chest. Not too surprising.

In addition to students, the room was host to just as many familiars: my peers, so to speak. Owls, ravens, cats and even a sizeable snake were in evidence but there was no doubt that the kings and queens of this display were the evident magical creatures such as Kirche's salamander, another lizard, this one with six legs; a huge floating eyeball that I guessed would be a beholder (Louise later told me it was actually a bugbear, which made no sense to me, although not much did right now).

Louise took a seat at the back of the room. None of the students took a seat at that block of three desks so I took the chair next to her. She gave me a sidelong look. "That's a mage's chair." Then she shook her head. "Don't blame me if the teacher tells you to get out of it." I suppose that that passed for some degree of acceptance.

A moment later the door opened and a middle-aged woman in a purple robe walked in. I had to stifle a chuckle at the pointed hat she was wearing. She was so stereotypically a witch that I half expected her to be carrying a black cat in a cauldron hanging off a broomstick. Her face was round and plump with a kindly expression, which made her just about the friendliest person I'd seen since my arrival yesterday.

She looked around the classroom and nodded in apparent satisfaction. "Well, everyone, it seems that the Springtime Familiar Summoning was a great success. I, Chevreuse, always enjoy seeing the new familiars that are summoned each spring." Then her eye settled on me and she blinked. "My, my. You've summoned quite a... peculiar familiar, Miss Vallière."

There was another explosion of laughter from around the room and one wit decided to interject: "Louise the Zero! Don't go around grabbing random commoners off the street just because you can't summon anything!"

Louise snapped to her feet, hair billowing around her. "No! I did everything properly! She was all that appeared!"

"Don't lie! I bet you couldn't even cast 'Summon Servant' properly, right?" From the chuckling that seemed to have been a widespread perception.

I slowly rose to my feet, reminding myself that if Louise was willing to make at least some efforts to be what passed for friendly towards me then I should at least make some move to defend her. However, Louise's mouth moved faster than me. "Mrs. Chevreuse! I've been insulted! Malicorne the 'Common Cold' just insulted me!" She emphasised her words by banging on the desk with her fist.

"Common cold?" the boy protested. "I'm Malicorne the Windward! I haven't caught any cold."

"Well your hoarse voice sounds exactly like you've caught one!"

Malicorne took to his own feet at that but Chevreuse pointed her wand up at us all and made a sharp gesture. I could feel a sudden pressure dragging at me and saw the two nobles jerking like puppets before sitting down woodenly, faces dejected. Either Chevreuse wasn't using as much force on me or they were quite unused to using their muscles since even without surrounding myself with my shields I was able to resist the pressure. I saw the teacher's eyes widen slightly as I didn't yield to her magic and then I bowed slightly in her direction. The moment that Chevreuse lowered her wand the pressure vanished and I then returned to my seat, satisfied that I had made my point.

"Calling friends 'Zero' or 'Common Cold' is not acceptable. Do you understand?" And what had how you treated friends to do with how Malicorne and Louise interacted? Oh, this was probably the adult use of 'friend' meaning 'people we've stuck you in a room with'.

The boy apparently hadn't had enough. "Mrs. Chevreuse, I'm only called that as a joke, but for Louise, it's the truth."

Chevreuse put a stop to the giggles at that with another point of her want that stopped up the mouths involved with red clay. "You people shall continue the lesson in that state." She shook her head. "Now, let's begin the lesson."

I leant forwards a bit. Magic was apparently the key to status in this world and if I could get a handle on that then I would be in a better position. Not necessarily on easy street - there were undoubtedly twists and turns for a commoner who 'presumed above her station' and took to magic - but since I was pretty much at the bottom of the social heap already, just about anything would be an improvement.

The woman placed a few pebbles on the desk in front of her. "My runic name is 'Red Clay', Chevreuse the Red Clay." I'd have been less than impressed with that if I hadn't just seen her method of dealing with hecklers. "This year I will be teaching you all the magic of the Earth element. Do you know the four great elements of magic, Mr. Malicorne?"

I took a guess that this would be based off the old Greek concepts and was proved right when Malicorne's answer of Fire, Water, Earth and Wind was confirmed by Chevreuse.

"And combined with the now-lost element of 'Void', there are five elements in total - as everyone should already know. of the five elements, I believe Earth holds an extremely important position." She coughed. "This isn't just because my affinity is Earth, nor is it simply a personal preference. The magic of Earth is very important magic that governs the creation of all matter. If it wasn't for Earth magic, we wouldn't be able to produce or process necessary metals. Raising buildings from large boulders and harvesting crops would also involve much more work. In this manner, the magic of the Earth element is intimately related to everyone's life."

I fought back a whistle. Accomplishing all those feats with science meant that anyone who put some effort into it could learn to do so - maybe not with great expertise, but passably. However, if it was dependent on magic here - as apparently it was - then it was no wonder that those with magic had come to dominant positions in the social hierarchy. And that would mean teaching the relatively small number of magic users in each generation how to use their talents would be critical to maintaining their civilisation. No wonder the Academy was considered be highly important.

"Now, everyone, please recall that the basic magic of the Earth element is 'transmutation'. While there will be people here who have already learned this in their first year, basics build foundations, so let's review it once more." Chevreuse twirled her wand over the pebbles, whispering a spell that I couldn't hear. I hope that the successful use of magic isn't dependent on exact pronunciation of spells. The pebbles glowed brightly for a moment and when the light died down they were shining metal.

Kirche leant forwards, breast stretching the fabric of her blouse. "Is that g-gold, Mrs. Chevreuse!"

"No," Chevreuse corrected her. "It isn't. It's plain brass. Only square-class mages are able to transmute to gold. I'm just..." She coughed self-importantly. "A triangle mage."

"Why would that make a difference?" I mumbled to myself, thinking back to my own chemistry classes, grateful for my eidetic memory. Louise gave me an irritated look at asking that question out loud but declined to say anything.

I ignored the look, deep in my thought. Gold is a different element from those pebbles, but they were probably silicates of some kind (I'm not a geologist). Changing them to brass - basically copper and tin - wouldn't be all that different. Possibly it was a difference of degree not of kind - gold has a much higher atomic number than the metals in brass. From context a square mage would be considered better than a triangle mage, although I wasn't sure yet what the distinction was. Presumably a triangle mage was quite high up the scale since Chevreuse seemed quite proud of being rated as such.

Obviously I'd have to seek out whatever the Academy had in the way of a library once I had the opportunity. My stomach rumbled and I blushed at the reminder that I did have other priorities to address as well. Being a little distracted, I only caught the end of Chevreuse inviting Louise down to demonstrate her mastery of the same spell. Louise did not respond at first, simply giving the teacher a surprised look. "Eh? Me?"

"Yes. Try changing these pebbles here into a metal of your choice."

Louise still did not move and I gave her a worried look. "Are you alright?"

"Umm..." Kirche called, sounding more serious than she had thus far in my limited experience of the other girl. "I think it would be better if you didn't let her..."

Chevreuse frowned. "Why would that be, Miss Zerbst?"

"It's dangerous."

Dangerous? I looked around the class and saw that all the students seemed to be in agreement with Kirche. I'd gathered that Louise's proficiency with magic wasn't well thought of, but they seemed genuinely fearful of her even making the attempt.

The woman seemed equally surprised. "Dangerous? How so?"

"This is your first time teaching Louise, right?"

"It is," confirmed Chevreuse. "However, I have heard that she is a hard worker. Now, Miss Vallière, just give it a try. Don't worry about making mistakes, this is quite a simple spell."

Kirche turned towards Louise, apparently feeling that appealing to my master might yield the result she desired: "Don't Louise."

Her words apparently had the reverse of her intentions however as Louise stood up sharply. "I'll do it."

Chevreuse's smile was probably the only one in the room as Louise stepped down towards the front of the room. On a hunch I slid out of my own chair and followed her, spotting surreptitous movement by the other students who were apparently taking cover. Whatever they were expecting to happen involved destructive effects and while every instinct I had told me that I should avoid it, Louise was going to be in the middle of it and as long as she had whatever link to me was represented by the characters burned into the back of my hand, keeping her alive was a priority. As a precaution I raised my shields and did my best to reinforce them.

I wasn't surprised that no one paid attention to me following Louise. In their eyes I was little more than an animal.

"Miss Vallière, you have to visualise vividly the metal that you wish to transmute them into."

Louise pursed her lips and raised her wand over the pebbles. It would have looked cute, like a little kid playing at being Harry Potter, if it hadn't been for the premonition of danger I was feeling. Then she uttered a short incantation and flourished the wand forcefully.

The pebbles promptly exploded.

Closest to the blast, Louise and Chevreuse were hurled backwards. The teacher crashed into the blackboard and fell to the ground, only her twitching indicating that she hadn't been killed outright. Louise, on the other hand, was flung against me. Reflexively I caught her and braced, fortunate that my shield was sufficient to protect me. However, I and the area directly behind me were the only parts of the classroom spared.

To add to the pandemonium, dozens of familiars reacted instinctively to the unexpected noise and exploded into flight or hostility. One of the larger magical creatures simply smashed its way out through a window and from the calls of protest from one boy, his familiar had just become lunch for one of the others.

"That's why I told you not to let her do it!"

I turned and saw that it was Kirche who delivered that statement. However, it was Malicorne who added: "Jeez, Vallière! Save us some grief and just quit school already."

Louise pulled free from my arms. The explosion had left her black with soot and done quite a number on her clothes - skirt and blouse torn away to the point that they barely gave her any modesty at all. She didn't seem particularly fazed by the destruction she had wrought however. Or grateful for my small assistance either. In fact, from the sidelong look at she gave me, the fact that I wasn't as blackened and battered as her seemed to sting her pride.

"Looks like I messed up a little," she observed as she pulled a handkerchief out of one miraculously undamaged pocket and started to wipe at her face.

"That wasn't 'a little'!" Montmorency snapped from where she'd sheltered under a desk, "Louise the Zero!"

Kirche nodded knowingly. "Your success rate is always zero!"

Well that answered where the nickname came from. Actually, if this was typical I was somewhat surprised that Louise was still alive. Still, under the circumstances she was as close to an ally as I had so I held back on pointing that out. On the other hand, an explosion wasn't exactly a zero result, even if it wasn't intentional. There had certainly been a formidable amount of magic being thrown around but not so much in the way of control.

I suppose it could be said that Louise was a little like me in that.

"It seemed harmless enough to me." I patted Louise reassuringly on the shoulder.

"Clean."

I blinked and looked at the source of the voice. The girl standing near the door had been in the class earlier and now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen her after the explosion. Possibly she'd stepped outside for the duration of Louise's demonstration. Given the charred state of her classmates, that might have been a good idea.

"What was that, Tabitha?" Kirche's question didn't elicit more of a response from the girl but with that one word as a starting point it didn't take the redhead to zero in on the meaning. "Hey, how come you didn't get blown up like Mrs. Chevreuse?" she asked me pointedly.

"Why would I want to be?" I asked her, feigning innocent curiosity. "It seemed quite uncomfortable."

"It's not usually a choice, being around Louise the Zero!"

Okay. Denial had not succeeded in obscuring the facts of the matter. The next line of defense was to switch the blame.

I grabbed Louise by the shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "Lady Vallière shielded me with her body! I have such a caring master!"

.oOo.

It was the executive decision of the first member of the teaching staff to arrive on site that Louise's punishment was to clean up the room without the use of magic. Then again, I suspected the only form of cleaning that she was likely to be able to do with magic would involve atomising everything in the general vicinity.

Since class was pretty much abandoned (Mrs. Chevreuse was carted off to the infirmary and I later gathered that while she was awake within a couple of hours she wasn't up to teaching for the rest of the day) all the other students headed off in search of fresh entertainments which gave us a chance to talk relatively freely.

"It was that shield that you mentioned. That's why the explosion didn't affect you."

I nodded and lifted one of the desks, having decided that cleaning the room would go faster if they were all stacked neatly out of the way. Then I picked up another desk with my other hand and carried them over to a corner. "It made my ears ring a bit. If the shield blocked sound then I wouldn't be able to hear anything when it was up."

"..."

I turned my head and saw Louise staring open-mouthed at me. "What? Don't they cover basic sonics in classes here?"

"Aren't those heavy?"

Oh, the desks! "My shield... well I suppose it's more like a shell around my body, technically. I can use it to boost my strength. I suppose you could say that I'm as strong as I think I am." It was the work of a moment to place the desks down, one on top of the other.

Louise made a choking sound. "How strong do you think you are?"

"Pretty damn." I grinned. I admit to being a bit of a braggart at times. "I can chuck around a car... uh... a large wagon... pretty easily. the one time we tried to measure it we ran out of heavy things for me to lift. I'm pretty sure that there has to be a limit - that is, I 'think' there is a limit so there will be one, I just haven't encountered it."

"W-why didn't you mention this before!"

"Didn't I?" I thought back to the previous evening. "I suppose we did get a bit sidetracked last night. Then again, I'm not the only one who forgot to mention something." I didn't bother asking if her demonstration in the class had been typical - that was kind of obvious.

Louise humphed irritably and wiped ineffectually at the top of the teacher's desk.

"It is odd - I'm hardly an expert, but you're obviously using magic. If you just weren't able to do that then nothing would have happened at all. I may be biased towards this as an answer, but are you sure you aren't just using too much magic?"

"Why would that matter?"

"I've no idea, does it? I've no training in magical theory so I'm probably not the right person to be asking. I've definitely got that problem with my telepathy - although it's more in the lines of rip someone's mind apart and leave them a drooling vegetable than it is to generate..." I turned around with two more desks in hand and saw Louise had backed up against the blackboard, white-faced and brandishing her wand.

My initial thought was to look behind me. My second thought would have been that turning around while carrying two large desks was not the best of ideas and I should instead use my clairvoyance to look behind me for the threat. Which could have been messy since that would have removed the strength supporting the desks. Fortunately, I don't rely on thinking when instincts are available. And in this case my instincts were screaming a very simple warning:

Talk. Fast.

"I'm speaking hypothetically of course, I've never actually done that. The textbook I got hold of it has some very firm warnings which I take very seriously."

Still white faced. Still trembling. Wand now pointed right at me as I lowered the desks.

"Please don't blow me up, Master. These are the only clothes I have."

Okay, that got to her. It's a bit incongruous for someone that she was apparently thinking of as a...

...um, some sort of lovecraftian monster. I need to work on my public relations.

In any event, concern about something as relatively mundane as keeping my clothes intact and no more in need of laundering than the already are didn't mesh well with her fears and broke the mental impasse. "B-but you could do that?"

"Well... yeah. It's why the prerequisites for anything beyond the most basic psionic classes at Minch are heavily loaded with ethics classes. And from what I've been told the basic classes aren't much more than figuring out how to not get your own mind torn apart by either your fellow TPs or by your own mistakes." I grimaced at the reminder that I should be getting myself set up at Minch this morning and preparing for my own classes, not cleaning up here.

Louise nodded slowly. "I suppose that you're a more impressive familiar than I had thought."

"I'm flattered, Louise." Now that she wasn't pointing her wand at me, I lifted the desks again. "Going back to our earlier topic of conversation, it's possible that you're simply using too much magic for the spell. That's hardly the only possibility, of course, but it's certainly one of them. Alternatively it may be that your talents simply lie in other areas of magic. Have you ever tried to deliberately create an explosion?"

She gave me the sort of look that is usually directed at particularly stupid dogs. "Why would I do that?"

"Have you met Kirche?"

She actually snickered at that. The evil looking grin on her face probably wasn't all that different from that my distant ancestors had worn when they discovered that hitting tigers over the head with crude axes worked better than using their bare hands.

"I do suggest practicing in a safe area, well aware from anything breakable," I added. "Cleaning up a classroom isn't all that bad. If you demolish the dining hall then there might be a few people might be a bit upset." As if prompted by the mention of the dining hall, my stomach rumbled again.

"You're really hungry already?" she exclaimed.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch, Louise," I explained. "My mutant talents are a boon, but they always exact a price. In this case..." I shrugged. "I'd really like to get this over with so I can find the kitchens before lunch is served."

Louise picked up the cloth she was using to clean off the desk with. "Hadn't you better get back to work then?" She then went back to scrubbing, with at least some vigor behind the action, as I went to move the last desk.

.oOo.

It took longer than I expected, although for my first time repairing a window I dare say I make a half-decent glazier. Still, once I'd mopped the floor and Louise had wiped off the desks setting everything out again didn't take too long and Louise was able to point me to the kitchens before she scurried off towards the dining hall.

It felt a little strange parting ways from her and I wondered if it was some effect of the spell she had cast on me when she accepted me as her familiar or if it was simple nerves at being without the one guide I had to this strange world. However, any wavering of nerves was quickly outweighed by a renewed rumbling of my belly and I knocked briskly on the door leading into what Louise assured me was the kitchens.

After a moment the door opened to reveal a girl only a few inches taller than me and wearing a maid's outfit - and it was an entirely proper outfit, I assure you, not some sort of pervy french maid get-up. I'm sure that that disappointed a few people since she wasn't bad looking either. "Hi, is this the way to the kitchens?"

"Oh yes," she agreed. "However they're a little busy right now, since we're serving lunch. Is there something I can fetch you?"

"Well -" My stomach rumbled loudly. "Could you spare any food to a starving familiar?" I asked, clasping my hands in front of me and trying to look innocent and helpless. I admit, being slightly built helped with that although puppy-dog eyes on a girl my own age was a long shot.

Her eyes went wide. "A familiar? Are you by any chance the girl who became Miss Vallière's familiar?"

"Word got around then?" I couldn't say I was surprised. Gossip among the students would naturally spread to the staff.

"A little." She directed a carefree smile at me. "It's become quite a rumour, that a commoner was called by the summoning magic."

It figures that my status as a 'commoner' would be the key item of description. Somehow I had to wonder how they'd have reacted if I was able to demonstrate being a mage. "God bless England." At least we'd gotten past that division, mostly by killing a lot of the nobility off over the years.

"England?" she asked.

"Where I come from." I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hands as if I was on the brink of crying and felt a slight pang of guilt at the stratagem as she wrapped an arm comfortingly around my shoulders and drew me inside.

"There, there, don't cry." The maid pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and offered it to me. I accepted of course and wiped at my eyes before blowing my nose noisily on it. "We'll take care of you."

"Y-you will?"

"Of course. You said that you were hungry?" Under her guidance I entered what was evidently the kitchen, a large room occupied by quite a number of cooks and maids working on scores of large pots and ovens. The chamber was a hive of industry, but I was led to an out of the way chair in one corner. In a trice, the girl was able to provide me with a large bowl of a rich stew. "Here, this is some stew made from the leftovers of the nobles' meals."

"You're very kind," I thanked her before digging in.

"It's only the staff meal... Oh my goodness!" Her eyes went wide as I started spooning the stew rapidly into my mouth. "Weren't you given anything to eat?"

"Miss Vallière gave me some food at breakfast," I assured her. "It's just... My body is such that I have to eat a lot more than she does and she said I was greedy. But if I don't eat more then I'll fall over and die. Really I will!"

She looked astonished to see that I had almost finished the bowl already, spooning stew into my mouth between words. "We have plenty, if you need seconds."

I scraped the bowl. "You are a life saver, Miss..."

"I'm Siesta." She took the bowl from me. "I serve the nobility here by doing domestic duties."

"My name is Ellen," I introduced myself. "I suppose that I will be doing the same for Miss Vallière in the future since she says she can't send me home."

"Welcome to Tristain Academy of Magic," Siesta said and hugged me around the shoulders again. "I'm sure that you can be happy here." She took the bowl. "Let me get you another bowl."

I was quite genuinely near to tears now. The first bowl had been fairly generous. A second... and maybe a third since Siesta said there was plenty... and I'd count myself as having had a decent meal. Yes, I know it seems shallow, but the first week after my mutant genes activated I withered away faster than an anorexic until mum sat me down and forced me to eat as much as both my brothers put together. (For the record, my brothers seem to feel that leaving the faintest speck of food uneaten is a mortal sin. It would have been forgivable if either of them was fat as a result).

The next bowl was accompanied by half a loaf of bread, much fresher than what I'd been offered for breakfast. That settled Siesta into the category 'friend for life' as far as I was concerned. "Thank you so much," I said, slightly ashamed of how I had taken advantage of her kind-heartedness. "If there's anything at all I can do to help you, just ask." I promised once I had polished off the bowl.

She looked me over and smiled. "In that case, please help me serve the desserts," she said.

"Sure, absolutely." I wiped the bowl clean with what was left of the bread and shoved it into my mouth.

"But you'll have to dress properly," she added with a slightly reproachful look at my jeans and hoodie.

"Um... okay..."