"What. Did. You. Do." Louise said clearly, deliberately, entire body trembling from the effort it took her to remain calm. That her familiar was affecting an oblivious confusion didn't help matters.

"Guiche has been standing in the middle of a courtyard since before I woke. He skipped classes, had breakfast delivered, and hasn't made any attempt to flirt with anyone. They say he's waiting for you to show up for a duel- he's never been this serious about anything before. Which means, somehow, while I was asleep, you managed to enrage him beyond all reason. How."

"I saw him meeting with a girl... and I was hungry. So I played with them a little, and then ate~" Rumia answered cheerfully.

Louise groaned indecipherably.

"... you ruined one of that playboy's little trysts, then." She said glumly. "Ugh. That would do it. But why?"

"I was hungry, and food appeared." Rumia repeated, as though it should be obvious.

"That's... You'd eaten an entire cow before I went to bed, how could you still have been hungry? You stripped it to the bones! You ate the bones! There wasn't even a spot of blood on the floor left." she finished, giving off a sense of incapability to comprehend how that had been pulled off.

Rumia just shrugged vaguely.

"... Tch. Well... maybe if you apologized, and I paid for the food, he'd drop things... but ugh, if he'd expected any sort of companionship from his playing about, that won't be nearly enough to salve his pride..."

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Because Guiche is a Noble." Louise explained. "So am I, of course,which makes things better and worse. Better, because if it was just you and him, there would be nothing to be done if he decided to bring his entire noble family against you. You may be... unique, as familiars go, but if he complained loud and hard enough, the rest of his family would send at least a half-dozen triangle class mages just to appease him. Worse, because while I can shield you to some degree from that sort of political maneuvering, if he pushes things far enough I'll probably have to back down and give some sort of concession."

"... Why would you want to do that?" Rumia asked again, head tilted to the side.

"Because as my familiar, you are an extension of myself." Louise continued wearily. "It's... it's politics. And it seems like he does have a valid complaint to bring to bear, trifling though others might consider it. If it doesn't get settled, and neither of us backs down, then it could lead to a fued opening between our families. I don't know how Guiches's parents might react to something like that..." Her face went an odd shade of pale, with a tinge of green as she hesitated. "... But I'm sure that whatever concession might be demanded can't possibly be as bad as what my lady-Mother might do to express her displeasure."

"... that sounds complicated." Rumia decided after a long moment, as the smell of singed hair filled the room. "And boring. You should just get stronger, so that everyone does what you say and you don't have to listen to anyone."

Louise hacked slightly as she tried to choke on her tongue and erupt in hysterical laughter at the same time.

"That... humans don't work that way." she managed after a moment. "Except some barbarian tribes. Even if I was the queen, and even if I was the match of a hundred other mages, there would still be dissenters, factions I would have to placate and political games I would have to play."

"Just get rid of everyone who doesn't do what you say." Rumia advised seriously.

"That would make me a tyrant, and I don't even want to be queen!" Louise objected.

Rumia simply stared blankly, as the scent of burnt hair intensified.

"... I don't get humans." She admitted, after a minute had passed.

Louise waved Rumia down in the courtyard, just a few minutes before the appointed time.

"There's... no chance at all that I can just convince you to apologize for this, is there." She stated wearily.

"Why would I apologize? He brought food out into the night, where I was. What happened after was only to be expected." Rumia said grumpily, darkness around her intensified to block out as much of the sunlight as possible, so that she was only the barest outline of a figure inside of the floating orb.

"Just... please. Don't die." Louise requested, face twisting with a mix of emotions, mostly the dread of her greatest, even only, success simply falling from her grip. "If you think you're going to die, surrender, and I can make him stop!"

Rumia giggled.

"... 'Surrender'?"

Without a further word, she floated forward, to hover before Guiche, who wasted no time in conjuring his full complement of Valkyrie.

"So you have come." He stated simply. "... you either know something of honor, or you are more a fool than I expected."

"It's hooot..." Rumia complained.

"Tch. Vexing to the last, familiar? Don't think I'll spare you just because the light of the sun doesn't agree with you..."

"Hrm... I want to go back inside and sleep." Rumia continued. "It's too hot. It's too bright. I don't like the day. I'll... just have to finish playing quickly."

"This is not a game, familiar!"

"Is it not?" came the reply, and there were suddenly twin pinpricks of red within the orb. Then it bulged grotesquely, swelling outwards and spilling forth as it expanded, light dimming as the air cooled. The crowd of milling students, come to watch, broke out in awed, though confused mutters at the display. Louise's familiar had, at least within the bounds of the courtyard, made the day into night.

"What trickery be this..." Guiche said, eyes widening as he looked around. The light had dimmed to that of a fully-moonlit night: enough to see by, but not fantastically well.

"Come, human." Rumia declared, eyes blazing with crimson light. "Show me the power you would use to cut me down. Show me your reason for confidence, why you walk in my domain without fear. Or apologize with your flesh!"

"Apologize... Apologize! To you!" Guiche was trembling with barely contained rage now. "Valkyrie! Cut her to pieces!"

Three golems surged forth, haltingly, and it was the work of a moment for Rumia to slip around them, to pass through them even as a nagging itch at her scalp was brushed away with her disinterest in thought, and to surge into a lunge at Guiche, intending fully to punish the human for his temerity. And then the fourth Valkyrie, the one she had lost track of rose from its concealment beneath the earth, slamming an unexpected fist into her stomach, and launching her back into the gathered and waiting golems behind her.

Guiche smirked as they lashed out with their broadswords, slashing and stabbing as she passed, even as one lost its grip as the blade lodged in the familiars ribcage, and she crashed into a heap on the ground. His plan had been enacted perfectly. Flawlessly, even, despite the unexpected hindrance of low visibility. That was what came of being the son of a General, he supposed smugly, as he sniffed delicately at a rose, eyes closed with satisfaction.

A giggle reached his ears, and his eyes snapped open in disbelief.

Rumia stood there, beyond his golems, having risen from the ground to float in place, smiling widely. Without mirth. Deep rents had been carved into her flesh, through her clothes. The did not bleed, but seemed to show only a deeper darkness beneath the skin. The sword remained lodged in place, surely, surely piercing heart and lung alike... she tugged it free with two fingers, as though it were no more than a toothpick, and cast it aside without interest.

"Heee... How interesting. You've killed me once, now, sir Guiche. Better than I had expected! I might have a little fun after all~"

"Valkyrie-" Guiche began to order, only to be interrupted.

"Tooooo late, it's my turn!"

Dozens of angrily glowing red orbs, each individually larger than Rumia herself was, blasted forward towards Guiche with ominous intent.

"What." Was all he managed before bodily throwing himself out of the way, and noting that all the fingertips of one of Rumia's hands were suddenly glowing brightly. Then thin lasers fired out of them, focused at his prone position. He had a moment to roll out of the way before they bulged outwards with intense heat, searing a pit into the stone where they had focused. "What." He tried again, scrambling to his feet as best he could to hurl himself out of the oncoming paths of brightly colored giant balls of oncoming pain, still not sure what the hell was happening now.

"Run, run!" Rumia urged cheerily. "Keep dodging, sir Guiche, my barrage will huuuurt if it hits~"

"Wh-what kind of twisted magic..."

"The fun kind~" Rumia declared. "Demarcation!"

A.N.

If you frequent a certain forum, you've probably already seen these. If not, then enjoy~

Figured I'd indulge my review whoring a little and post here too, see how it went.