Magic The Gathering is owned by Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast. Familiar of Zero is owned by Noboru Yamaguchi.
Φ
Louise wasn't sure what to think about her familiar. On one hand, it was the validation she so desperately craved that she was worthy of the title of Noble, physical proof that she was not a failure as a mage. On the other hand, he acted nothing like a familiar should. Not even five seconds after finishing the contract familiar spell did he threaten her life and has yet to show any measure of care or consideration. His display was so out of hand, that she still ended up being mocked by her peers for not being able to control him. Even after giving validation for her Noble lineage, she was still haunted by that insufferable nickname.
Louise the Zero.
Though it seems that her troubles are not yet finished, for when the two finally did reach her dorm, another problem arose its ugly head.
"What do you mean you can't fit!?" Louise yelled. She was currently standing outside her dorm with her familiar, who was failing to get through the much too-small door frame.
"It means I can't fit, child! Your door wasn't made to accommodate someone of my height and width!" Her familiar yelled back, frustrated with her attempts to get him in her dorm room.
"Ch-Child!? I am not a child! I am 16 years old!" Louise replied, indignant at his assumption.
"Then stop acting like one!" After backing out of the door frame, her familiar let out a breath in an attempt to calm down before talking again. "From what I can see, I wouldn't fit in your room comfortably anyways, and even if I did fit myself in there, the heat my body emits would just turn it into a furnace. Last time I checked, humans and their belongings can't withstand that kind of heat."
That was another thing about her familiar. The area around him felt hot, made worse the closer she got. If it weren't for the magic of the Contract Familiar spell, Louise's lips would have no doubt been burned when she kissed him to seal it.
"Fine, I guess," Louise replied, admitting defeat. "How can you even seeanything though? you don't even have eyes to look around with!" While she didn't think to ask before, how did her familiar get around without bumping into everything?
"Unlike your fleshy form, my vision does need to rely on the sensory orbs you call eyes. I could tell perfectly that if I got into your room, my exhaust ports would either scratch or outright pierce through your ceiling, which I doubt you would want."
"...Fair point. We'll need to find somewhere else for you to stay in, if not my room. None of the other rooms meant for students are bigger than this, and I doubt you would take kindly to being placed in the stable with the other large familiars."
"You presume correctly Louise, and I doubt you would want to deal with what would inevitably happen were one of the other children's pets got in my way, accidentally or intentionally."
"...Right…" Louise said hesitantly. "...I'll have to go ask Headmaster Osmond where we can put you, then."
However, as Louise turned towards the hall's exit, she caught sight of another student walking in, one she would rather not want to see right now.
"Kirche…" Louise ground out.
Kirche von Zerbst, her room's neighbor and eternal rival, was a tall, red-headed, and well-endowed woman who frustrated Louise to no end. Louise's and Kirche's families despised each other, and since they lived on opposite sides of the country's borders, they would be some of the first to fight each other in times of war. Even to this day, their families conflict lives on through their daughters.
"Oh, hello Louise! I see that you're with your unruly familiar as well!" Kirche said in a happy tone.
Mostly through Louise.
As Kirche approached, Louise could only fume. "Stupid Kirche. Why did you of all people have to show up now."
When Kirche finally reached the two, she looked up at Louise's familiar, who watched on in silence.
"I have to admit Louise, you summoned quite the impressive thing here, though are you sure you can control him? He quite nearly made you a head shorter, and at your height, you don't have much height to give up!"
Louise at this rate was indignant. "Keep your hands to yourself, Zerbst! I summoned him, and I will not let you ruin this achievement for me with your prattling!"
Looking back to Louise, Kirche only smirked. "I suppose I can let you keep him. Though, since we're speaking of familiars, let me show off mine. Oh Flame!"
Through the hallway's entrance, a large red lizard with a flame-tipped tail came waddling through, running into the waiting arms of the redheaded Kirche. "This Louise is my dear Flame! Although not as big as your familiar, I'll let you know that he's a fire salamander! Look at his tail, it's so bright and vivid, he's got to be from the Fire Dragon Mountains!" While Kirche was ranting about how great her familiar was, said familiar finally decided to look away from their master, instead turning to Louise and her own familiar. However, when the two familiars made eye contact, Flame froze in place, before hiding his face away in Kirche's bosom in fear, which she noticed. "Hmm, are you alright, Flame?"
Seeing Kirche's familiar acting as he was after staring at her own, Louise couldn't help but smirk. "Oh, it looks like your familiar can't help but feel ashamed, being compared to my own." But instead of inciting the angered reaction Louise was hoping for, Kirche instead showed a look of challenge.
"Is that so, Valliere? Well just you wait, soon enough he'll surpass your familiar in greatness, and then we'll see who has the last laugh." With this, Kirche decided to take her familiar back to her room, once again leaving the master and her familiar alone. Louise felt great after that argument with her rival, finally getting the chance to one-up her. However, her elation was interrupted by her familiar.
"What a waste of time."
Turning to her familiar, Louise made to respond. "I beg to differ, finally being able to put that red-headed bimbo in her place felt wonderful!" For ages, Kirche would taunt Louise for her lack of talent in applying magic, so finally being the victor in the verbal spats they often have has inflated her sense of self-worth. However, her familiar thought differently.
"If you hate her so much, kill her and be done with the pointless bickering."
Louise was shocked. She knew firsthand her familiar's tendency towards violence, but this was a level beyond even that.
"K-Kill her!? Are you crazy!? If I did that, it would cause our families to declare war on each other, which could end up dragging both the whole of Tristan and Germania into their conflict. As much as I despise her taunts, I will not be known as the Vallière daughter who caused a war because she couldn't handle a few insults!"
"Then don't let your anger be so easily controlled by the words of others!" Her familiar replied loudly.
At this, Louise paused. "...What do you mean by that?"
Her familiar continued. "It's plain as day that you hold your sense of self-worth highly, and any attack on that self-worth only leads to you wildly lashing out with your anger. Anger can be a powerful tool, but it can also end up being the chain that drags you to your demise if you let it. Anger must be controlled, lest it control you."
Louise was lost for words, unable to form a response. As a noble, especially one such as her, she felt that she had to defend her Noble pride from those who attacked it, but was her outrage at her treatment that bad? Did she give in to her wrath as easily as her familiar suggested? It was something she would have to think more about. "I'll… keep your words in mind. Say, now that I think of it, I don't think I've asked your name yet. Who are you, exactly?"
He huffed. "Heh, finally decided to treat me more than just a thing to gloat about?" Her familiar replied.
"I don't gloat about you! Mostly…" Louise replied meekly.
Her familiar gave her an eyeless deadpan stare. "Not counting the encounter with the red-haired woman, you've already made comments about my superiority as your familiar a total of three times on the way to your room."
"...Ok, I admit I did a little bit of gloating." How couldn't she though? After finally succeeding, she wanted to shove her success in the faces of her doubters. "But besides that, if we're going to be with each other, I should at least know who my familiar is. I don't want to be put in the position where someone asks your name, and I make myself look like a fool because I don't know it."
He thought about what Louise said and agreed. "Reasonable enough, giving you my name would be better than shaming me with some deplorable pet name," Her familiar said with some emphasis at the end.
Thinking she may have touched a nerve, Louise got a wicked glint in her eyes. "Perhaps he isn't as in control of his anger as he presides, the hypocrite!" She walked behind her familiar and began to goad him, trying to get a reaction. "What, does the familiar not want to be called something like Blaze, or Cinder, or even Sparky-"
At that last name, her familiar spun around faster than she could see and put his blades back near her throat, now tipped bright red with heat. "If I ever hear you call me Sparky, I will make sure you regret ever summoning me," her familiar said in a chilling voice, a great contrast to the heat that emanated three-fold from the metallic organism's exhaust ports, which started to even spew some smoke.
Despite the threat and the blades at her throat, Louise looked victorious. "Who's the one letting their anger control them now? It seems I'm not the only one with anger issues."
"Yes, but unlike you, I have no qualms about killing those who insult me, and I always make sure to uphold my promises." With this final threat, he pulled away his blades, Louise silently grateful that he did before her skin could blister from the blades' heat. "Regardless of your foolishness, I suppose a proper introduction is in order. I am Urabrask, former praetor of the Quiet Furnace of New Phyrexia."
"Quiet Furnace? New Phyrexia? Where are those places?" Louise questioned, having never heard of her now-named familiar's homeland.
"Farther than you can ever imagine. With my introduction out of the way, let us go to this headmaster you mentioned, so that I may find a place to stay that won't end up being burned to ash. I would rather not deal with the whiners that would complain about such destruction."
Flippancy about destruction aside, Urabrask had a point, and Louise would rather not spend more of her money on school repairs than she already does. "Alright Urabrask, but let's be quick about it. Being threatened with evisceration twice in one day has drained a lot of my energy, and I would very much like to rest."
Φ
With how old of a mage Headmaster Osmond was, he had seen his fair share of things over his long life. Said things included a variety of fascinating creatures, from dragons and orcs to bugbears and spirits. However, in all his years, he had never seen anything as strange and, admittedly, unnerving as the familiar of Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière.
He was doing some paperwork at his desk when he heard a knock on his office door. Hearing this, he turned to his secretary, Ms. Longuevuille, who was currently at her desk in the corner of his office.
"Ms. Longuevuille, would you kindly go see who that is?"
"Certainly, headmaster," Longuevuille said, getting up and going out the door. However, it took her a bit longer than expected for her to come back in, and when Longuevuille did, she looked rather distressed.
"Are you alright Ms. Longuevuille? Who was it at the door?" Osmond asked, worried about his secretary.
"Sorry, I'm fine," Longuevuille said, removing any signs of stress from her face. "Louise Françoise is here to speak with you. She's with a familiar."
"Oh? So Ms. Vallière managed to summon a familiar?" Osmond replied. "What great news, it seems she's proven herself capable of magic after all! Please, do let her in."
"That's the thing, she asked if you would kindly step out of your office. She says it would help illustrate the problem she is currently having with it." Longuevuille said, who put a worrying amount of stress on that last word.
Osmond got up from his desk and started to make his way to the door. "What's the matter, Ms. Longuevuille? Is there something wrong with her familiar?"
Longuevuille only gave him a worried look. "It's best you take a look yourself, headmaster. Louise's familiar puts me on edge just looking at it."
Reaching for the door's handles, Osmond brushed off his secretary's worries. "Oh, her familiar can't be that bad, right? I mean, what could she have possibly…"
Osmond wasn't able to finish his sentence, as he was stuck staring at the thing that now stood in the room outside his office. Covered in black metal plates of iron and steel, its insides burned with a great fire, already filling the room with a large amount of heat. Each of its arms ended in dual blades and a three-fingered claw. Attached to the top of its back sat two pipes, which could be visibly seen emanating waves of heat. Its head more resembled a mockery of a dragon's mouth than anything, the tip of its jaw extending downwards to a point, almost resembling the shape of a long, narrow beard. All-in-all, it was probably one of the most unsettling creatures he had ever witnessed in all his life.
And standing in front of this creature was none other than Louise Françoise.
"Is such a terrifying thing really her summoned familiar?" Osmond thought. Moving forward to confirm such, Louise began to speak.
"Good evening Headmaster Osmond. I was wishing to speak with you about my familiar, Urabrask. See, he's too big to live in my room, and he was barely able to get up here in the first place. Do you happen to have somewhere big enough where he can stay?"
Breaking his gaze from Louise's familiar, Urabrask apparently, Osmond looked at the young mage. "Is there a reason why he can't stay in the stable with the other large-sized familiars? Besides scaring the other familiars away with his presence."
To Osmond's increasing surprise and worry, Louise's familiar answered his question. "I will not be kept in some decrepit stable with the animals," Urabrask said, a tinge of anger in his voice.
"He speaks!?" Osmond exclaimed.
Realizing her folly, Louise apologized. "Sorry headmaster, I forgot to mention it to Longuevuille, but my familiar is completely sapient, and would rather not, to quote him, be treated like a pet."
"I… see. Apologies for my suggestion then." Osmond then turned to face the unsettling familiar. "So, sir Urabrask, do you happen to have any preferences with your living spaces? Best keep him amicable, something in my gut tells me I do not want to anger this thing any further than I already have."
Urabrask thought for a moment, then gave his answer. "Do you house a smithy in this academy?"
Both mages were surprised by Urabrask's answer, but it was Louise who responded first. "Urabrask, the headmaster asked where you wanted to live, not to work! How are you going to sleep in a smithy?"
"Unlike your kind, I do not need to sleep to recuperate my energy. However, for me to continue The Great Work, I will need a forge. While I doubt that your academy will have tools and equipment up to my normal standards, anything at this point will do."
While Osmond was curious as to what The Great Work that Urabrask spoke of was, he thought it was best to leave it be for the moment and get Urabrask out of the hall's enclosed space. "There's an old smithy building in sudri court, across from the servant's quarters. It's mostly gone out of use over the years, as no one has found a use for it since its installation, so it's been locked up for a while."
Going back into his office, Osmond grabbed a key from one of his desk's drawers and went to his secretary. "Ms. Longuevuille, would you kindly bring Louise and her familiar to the old smithy and unlock it?"
"What, why do you want me to do that?"
"Apparently, Louise's summoned familiar is sapient," Osmond explained, Longuevuille slightly shocked at this news. "When I asked where he wanted to stay, he asked if we had a smithy! He says he doesn't need to sleep, though he didn't say why."
"Alright, I will guide them to the old smithy". Longuevuille took the key from the headmaster's hand, but before she could leave, she was stopped once more by Osmond.
"Also, one more thing before you go." Osmond looked Longuevuille dead in the eye. "During his explanation, he mentioned something called The Great Work. As headmaster, I must keep my students safe, and will not let someone who may end up being a threat be unwatched. If you hear any mention as to what this Great Work of his is, report it to me immediately."
Longuevuille only nodded before stepping out the door. Once the hall was filled with silence once more, he returned to his desk and resumed his work, though he couldn't help but think about the thing Louise summoned.
"I have faced all kinds of creatures throughout my life, and I've seen people summon just as many. Ms. Vallière, why is it that your familiar, of all creatures, unsettles me so?"
Φ
As the three were headed towards the old smithy, Louise couldn't help but think about what Urabrask said about why he wanted to live there. "No need to sleep? That could be useful in the future. But what's this Great Work he referred to? It sounded like it was of great importance to him." Wanting to get it answered before her familiar got too preoccupied with cleaning up what would no doubt be a much-ignored space, Louise turned to Urabrask.
"Urabrask, back by the headmaster's office, you mentioned something called The Great Work, and you made it out as being very important to you. What is it, is it some kind of task you have to do?"
As she asked this, Longuevuille slightly tilted her head, curious as to what this thing the headmaster had her listen out for was.
"Yes, and no. The Great Work is my ideal, my vision of perfection, and the future of Phyrexia. To serve The Great Work is to endlessly toil for the betterment of oneself and Phyrexia. In doing this work, I achieve perfection. In serving this purpose, I am compleat." Urabrask spoke in a passionate tone, unlike anything Louise had heard from her familiar yet. But there was still one part she didn't understand.
"But why would you be working on such a thing here? You said it yourself, your home is farther away than I could imagine, what could you do here to better a land so far away?"
But before Urabrask could answer, Longuevuille interrupted the two. "Sorry to interrupt, but we've arrived at the smithy building." Approaching the large double doors, she inserted the key and unlocked them. "From what I've heard, this building was supposed to hold some bigger and more experimental forging equipment, hence the bigger size. Unfortunately, due to budgeting constraints, it only could get the bare necessities before being left to gather dust." Once Longuevuille got the doors open, Louise took a peek inside the abandoned smithy, rather disgusted at the layer of dust that covered everything.
"Even with what Urabrask said, I don't think I'll ever get his choice to want to live here. But, if he really wants to live in a place like this, he better make sure to clean up. I don't want my familiar known for being dirty and dusty."
After the three went into the building, Urabrask walked around to see what tools and equipment he was working with. He was rather unimpressed with what he found. The tools were small, the forge looked inefficient at retaining heat, and the anvil looked to be of shoddy quality. However…
"It's a start. A very poor start, but a start nonetheless." While most of the stuff in here was destined for replacement, It was better than nothing at all. After his assessment, he turned to the two mages still present in the smithy. "If I want to get this smithy working once more, I need to clean up the debris that has collected over everything, which will take some time."
"Well, It's getting late," Louise replied, "and I would rather not stay up waiting for you to finish, Urabrask. If you would, meet me outside my room tomorrow morning." At this, both Louise and Longuevuille headed out of the smithy, but not before Louise turned to Urabrask one more time. "Good night, Urabrask."
As the two left, Urabrask turned to the interior smithy, beginning the long clean-up ahead of him.
Φ
After a few hours, now nearing midnight, the smithy was finally cleaned up and brought into operation once more, with Urabrask testing the forge's ability to retain heat, by using the shoddy anvil the smithy came with.
"By how the anvil looks, it seems the forge gets barely hot enough to let me work with steel and iron, but whoever designed this didn't seem to have a single clue about heat retention. I will have to make a better forge and a blast furnace as soon as possible if I wish to start The Great Work properly."
Urabrask had decided to use the anvil in this way due to realizing how poor quality it was. Rather than being a forged steel anvil, like he preferred, it was instead one of cast iron. While alright for working with thin materials, it would not be good enough for The Great Work.
As he pulled the anvil back out of the forge, Urabrask placed it onto the stone floor and turned to the only table in the room, which seemed to have been raised from the floor itself.
"I will need to speak with that headmaster again when I get the chance. If I want to make a blast furnace, I will need refractory bricks, and if this table is any indication, they will have a geomancer who could help me." Approaching the table, Urabrask decided to reopen the hidden slot in his arm, revealing the Reality Chip, which seemed to have handled the former praetor's internal heat rather well.
Taking out the Reality Chip, Urabrask placed its tentacles first into a bowl he had found on the table, beside the forearm blades he had unattached from his arms. As he did this, Urabrask thought of the deal he made with Jin. "If I am to bring back Phyrexia, then I need to avoid making its past mistakes." Urabrask knew that if he tried to forcibly compleat others as those in the past tried to do, it would only end as it had before: with destruction. And so, only one thing could be done in the face of such destruction. "For Phyrexia to progress, its original vision must be reforged into something new. To do that, we must start from the source."
With this thought, Urabrask raised his left hand over the bowl with the chip and slowly drove a clawed finger from his other hand into a gap between the metal plates. After piercing deep enough, glistening oil began to drip from his hand, collecting in the bowl below. Soon enough, The Reality Chip's tentacles were covered in the substance. Once enough oil had been collected, Urabrask removed the claw from his hand, stopping the flow. He then picked up the Reality Chip once more, and after fiddling with it for a moment, managed to push a button on the side of the living device. This caused the blue light emanating from the bottom of the Reality Chip to solidify into a holographic screen, no doubt made by Jin-Gitaxias to allow for experimentation outside his laboratory.
"It will take time, a lot of time. But sooner or later, I will master this device, and with it, the oil will be mine to alter freely, to improve freely. The glistening oil already perfects the body of the incompleat, and Jin-Gitaxias' work has made them retain their soul upon compleation. Now, only one thing remains…
For the betterment of Phyrexia, those who hoist its banner must do so of their own free will. Their minds will serve The Great Work not out of indoctrinated compulsion, but out of a willing desire to do so."
Φ
It was several hours later when Urabrask met Louise outside her room. After another confrontation with Kirche, they headed towards the dining hall, where breakfast was being held. However, before they could enter the dining hall, they were stopped by a staff member, who told Louise familiars weren't allowed in. It took a bit of convincing, in the form of Urabrask speaking his displeasure, but he ended up being allowed to enter the hall. Once the two went through the entrance, Louise turned to Urabrask.
"While you convinced them to let you in, I don't think there's any chairs or tables in here that could fit you, so you'll, unfortunately, have to eat sitting on the ground, or at least on your knees."
But as Louise sat into her seat, made a prayer to the founder, and prepared her plate with the banquet before her, she noticed that while Urabrask had indeed kneeled beside her, he didn't grab any food. Instead, he was looking around at the hall itself, for what reason she couldn't tell.
"Hey, the food is right there, aren't you hungry?"
Urabrask only glanced at Louise. "Just like sleeping, eating is another thing I do not need to do."
Louise was baffled. "No eating? No sleeping? Despite saying otherwise, you do sound like a construct."
"While some phyrexians do eat, most convert mana into energy the body can use," Urabrask explained. However, Louise seemed to look more confused.
"What's… ma'N?" Louise said, confused by the weird-sounding word
Urabrask turned to the confused Louise, intrigued by this new development. "Interesting, the familiar rune's translation enchantment didn't work. You must have heard the word in my natural language, Phyrexian. Do your people not have a name for the energy that makes up magic?"
"Energy of magic?" Louise questioned. After a moment of thinking, however, she made a realization. "Wait, are you saying your species can survive on willpower alone!?"
Now it was Urabrask's turn to be confused. "Willpower? As in control over oneself?"
Louise shook her head. "Not that kind of willpower. When a mage manipulates the elements, willpower is consumed while they are chanting, with the amount of willpower used depending on the level of spell cast."
"And what exactly are these levels?" Urabrask knew this could prove to be useful information for the future. At his question, Louise turned to face Urabrask and straightened her back, happy to express her knowledge.
"So, outside of exceptions like the royal families, mages can perform up to four levels of spells, those being dot, line, triangle, and square. The higher the level of the spell, the more elements one can combine. For example, you can combine wind and water to make ice."
"What happens if you combine an element with itself? Does it result in more of the same element?"
"Yes. If you were to add wind to wind, it would result in a stronger wind spell, for example."
There was still something else Urabrask wanted to know, however. "What is the exact relation between willpower and the level of a spell?"
"That's simple, taking a spell to its next level will double the willpower required to cast it. So for every line spell you could cast, you could instead cast two dot spells. Is this all making sense?"
"Yes. However, there is one thing you haven't explained that I want to know: how does a mage regain willpower, after expending it?"
"To put it in simple terms, it recovers while sleeping."
It was this last bit of information that confirmed it for Urabrask. "From what I can tell, based on the information you gave me, the people of your land use a different method to cast their spells than those of my land do."
"Really? What makes you think that?" Louise was intrigued. A different form of magic? The only magic Louise knew about that wasn't Brimiric was elvish magic, and last time she checked, her familiar didn't have pointy ears. Or ears in general.
"From what you told me, willpower is generated by the mage's body when they're sleeping, something I do not do. Instead, I draw in ambient mana from the surrounding area, which I can either use as energy for my body or to cast spells with."
At that last bit of information, Louise froze, her fork slipping from her fingers. "Urabrask… are you implying that you can cast magic!?"
"Yes, I can make use of mana to cast spells, though I much prefer steel over spells when fighting my opponents."
Louise couldn't believe it. Her familiar, a mage! If it weren't for his status as a familiar (as well as not being human), he could very well apply to become a noble!
Urabrask was confused, seeing Louise's despondent face. "Is something the matter?"
Louise could only sigh. "It's nothing. I'm just going to focus on finishing my breakfast."
The two would sit in silence for the rest of the time they were in the dining hall, afterward heading to Louise's class.
Φ
As Urabrask and Louise entered the classroom, the two were met with an unnatural silence. All of the students were staring at the pair (besides Kirche, who was instead disappointed that the attention of the boys she was flirting with had been dragged away) as they made for a seat at the edge of the class. The strangest part though was that when Urabrask went to stand by Louise, all the familiars that were near him hid beneath their masters if they could, seemingly scared of the praetor's presence.
Soon after their arrival, the teacher came into the classroom. She was a plump, round woman wearing a voluptuous purple robe, as well as a hat of the same color.
"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." The self-named Chevreuse said with a smile. However, as her gaze fell upon Louise and her familiar, her smile slightly faltered. "Oh my, Miss Vallière, what a… peculiar familiar you've summoned." As with Osmond, Chevreuse seemed to also feel uneasy around him.
Oblivious to her discomfort, Louise only grinned, taking another chance to gloat about her successful summoning. "Isn't he great? He's big, strong, and smart to boot!"
"Yeah, and you almost got killed by him too! Are you still having problems controlling him, by the way?" One of the other students, a chubby blonde boy, jeered at Louise, seeming to have gained enough confidence to do so despite her creepy familiar.
Before Louise could retort back to the student, Urabrask spoke first. "I only did so because she, a stranger at the time, placed her mouth upon me when I had shown no consent to it or the familiar contract."
"What, have you never heard of a kiss before?"
"I am familiar with the sapient biped action of kissing. I am also knowledgeable enough to know that it is not appropriate for beings like you to kiss someone without the other being's consent. Tell me, boy, did your familiar show any sign of consent when you made your contract? A lowering of the head, a turning of the cheek? Or did you just seal it as soon as you could, eager to bind a creature to your will?" The blonde boy turning away his face only confirmed Urabrask's suspicion. "As I thought."
As the blonde boy went silent, Kirche decided to speak up against Urabrask's words. "All this talk about consent isn't needed, it says that the familiar summoned by the ritual is supposed to be a perfect match for the summoner, so wouldn't the summoning itself be consent?"
"The bald man didn't mention that detail," Urabrask thought. "However, despite possible future implications, this changes nothing." Urabrask then put his full attention on the redhead, though Kirche took his glare with stride. "Even if what you say about the familiar being a perfect match is true, there is more to the summoning than just the matching of the summoner and summoned." Urabrask then turned to Chevreuse, who slightly flinched at the attention "Tell me, professor, in your time here, have you ever heard of a student failing the Summoning Ritual?"
"W-Well, no. Assuming the student casts the ritual properly, it will always find a familiar for the student to bond with, and I've never heard of a student needing to cast the spell multiple times." Chevreuse replied hesitantly.
"Thank you for your help." Urabrask turned back to Kirche. "Tell me, does it not seem odd that there has never been a case where a magic-capable student fails to find a familiar on the first cast? I know first-hand why that is. Tell me, redhead, do you know what happens on the other side of the ritual?"
"The… other side?" Kirche questioned.
"When I was summoned, it was more than just me instantly teleporting from where I was to here at this academy. See, when Louise cast the summoning ritual, it opened a portal for me to enter. Barring the circumstances that made me go through, most animals and other creatures would want to avoid unnatural things like that. However, there is another part to the ritual at play. Even before the portal opened, I had a feeling deep within, a calling. That calling I felt I now know was a part of the summoning ritual that brought me here. While I had the mental capacity to at least consider not going through the portal, do you think a simple-minded animal could resist such magic-induced manipulation?"
Everyone was silent after Urabrask spoke his piece, each person struck by his words. Surprisingly, it was Louise who was affected the most by his words. Here she was, gloating about what she summoned when Urabrask probably didn't want to be summoned in the first place. Did Urabrask miss his home? What even was his home? All she knew was its name and that's it. Louise then swore to herself to learn more about her familiar and his past.
It was then Miss Chevreuse cleared her throat, trying to regain the attention of the class. While Chevreuse was surprised at the familiar's suggestion about the nature of the summoning ritual, she had a class to teach, and they had already veered way too far off course. "Ahem… moving along from that, my Runic name is 'Red Clay.' Chevreuse the Red Clay. This year, I will be teaching you all the magic of the Earth element." Chevreuse then faced the boy who jeered at Louise. "Mister Malcorne, do you know the four great elements of magic?
The boy, now named Malcorne, straightened back up from his slump. "Uh, those would be Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind."
"Very good!" Chevreuse replied. "With the lost element, Void, there are five elements in total. Of the five, I believe Earth holds a major importance in our lives, for reasons more than it being my specialty. With the element of earth, buildings are raised, stones are cut, and crops are harvested. Without the element of earth, we wouldn't even be able to produce certain metals!"
It was this last fact that gave pause to Urabrask. "These people aren't able to produce certain metals without magic? Are they just not that advanced with their mining, or do they perhaps have magical metals like darksteel?"
As Urabrask was pondering this, Miss Chevreuse was going on with her lecture. "Please recall that transmutation is the basic magic of the Earth element. While you all have no doubt learned this, repetition makes for mastery. Now, bring your attention to the rock upon my desk."
As the student watched, Miss Chevreuse said a quiet chant and pointed at the rock. Before their very eyes, the rock began to glow brightly, and once the light faded, what was left behind was a sparkling sphere of metal.
Kirche leaned forward in her desk, slight amazement in her eyes. "Is that… real gold!?
"It's not gold, it's brass. The metal is too dull and not yellow enough for it to be gold," Urabrask corrected Kirche.
Chevreuse was surprised by the familiar's knowledge. "That's… Correct. This is indeed brass, an alloy of copper and zinc. How did you know so quickly, Mister Familiar?"
"I have spent a good portion of my life working with metals and alloys, which required me to be able to identify them apart from one another. And for the future, my name is Urabrask."
"I'll be sure to remember." Chevreuse turned the brass back into a stone, then focused on Louise. "Since your familiar correctly identified my transmutation, would you like to show the class some transmutation of your own Louise? Any metal will do."
After saying these words, all of the other students went pale. Kirche stood from her seat, looking panicked. "Miss Chevreuse, this is your first time teaching Louise, right?"
"It is, but what about it?"
"I think it's best if you don't let her do it."
Chevreuse gave a flat look to the redheaded student. "And why is that, Miss Zerbst?"
"It's dangerous, trust me."
Chevreuse only shook her head. "Nonsense. This is a rather simple spell, she should be able to cast it without issue. Now then, Miss Vallière?"
As Louise got up from her seat, the rest of the students dove behind the tables, leaving only Urabrask in the open. "I feel like there's something I'm missing, why are these children so afraid of Louise casting?"
The answer would come to him quickly, as after finishing her chant, Louise pointed at the stone… which violently exploded.
Φ
"I see now why they call you Zero," Urabrask stated.
"Are you going to laugh at me too?" Louise bitterly retorted back.
"Laughing would be a waste of energy."
Urabrask and Louise were currently cleaning up the mess left behind from her explosive failure, which had caused the whole class to once again call her Louise the Zero. Louise, the noble with zero success in magic. The only one who hadn't was Miss Chevreuse, who was knocked out by the explosion.
Urabrask was currently putting the tables back into their original positions, the heavy furniture blasted back from the force of the explosion. Louise was behind him, wiping down and cleaning off any debris that had gotten on the tables from the chaos that occurred afterward. With a final push, Urabrask got the last table into its proper place, and with Louise cleaning it off, they would finally be done with the mess.
Louise placed the rag and bucket she had used by the classroom's door and turned to Urabrask. "We're going to the dining hall again, it's about time for lunch," Louise said quickly, not wanting to talk about what happened during Chevreuse's class.
As the two left the classroom, they walked quietly for a while, until Urabrask decided to voice a question. "Why do you care?"
"Huh?" Louise said, who was lost in thoughts of frustration and wasn't expecting Urabrask to speak.
"Why do you care about what those students call you? The fools can waste their breath all they want, their words do not matter in the end." Urabrask stated bluntly.
Louise stopped walking and turned to Urabrask, staring directly at his face with eyes once more full of fire and fury. "How could you ever understand!? How can you understand what it's like to be mocked, ridiculed, and pitied by everyone who's ever known you? You have strength, you have intelligence, by Founder Brimir himself, you admitted that you have magic! What would you know of being ostracized, of being treated as an outcast!"
Louise's scorn didn't affect Urabrask however, already used to dealing with fiery tempers. "I know a lot more about outcasts than you realize, Louise. My home was not a kind one, especially to those who opposed its vision of perfection. In its time, it managed to make many enemies from those it scorned and cast out. I was one of the few who accepted those outcasts, saw their potential, and respected their choices. In doing so, however, I in turn was cast aside by my fellow praetors, seen as a heretic no longer fit to lead." Urabrask then leaned forward, bringing his face closer to Louise's, wanting to emphasize his next point.
"What do you think I did, in the face of those fools throwing me out like a useless piece of scrap? Do you think I stayed down, fuming and yelling meaningless words? No. I. Took. Action. I isolated myself, my people, and those outcasts from the rest of New Phyrexia, so that they could live how they wished. And then once I had made the preparations, I went to war against the other praetors, to end their reign and free New Phyrexia from their choking grasp. In the end, while it was not by my hand, their rule would fall apart, destroyed by those who they saw as imperfect."
Urabrask then leaned back up. "Take these words, and learn from them. Know that I understand your plight, but do not accept your unwillingness to act."
Louise, once again, was lost for words. Did he truly mean what he said? Did he go to war with his home's ruling body? And what did he mean that he wasn't the one to end their rule? Who were the outcasts that her familiar defended? On top of everything else she'd heard about from Urabrask today, she needed time to process everything. And so, the fire in her eyes died out, once more replaced by steel.
"Whatever, this is too much to process at once, and I think I need a break from lectures." Louise looked away from Urabrask, not wanting to meet his gaze. In doing so, she looked down and only now realized how messy her clothes looked. Dirt thrown up from the explosion had gotten all over herself, and her shirt and leggings had rips in several places. "If I'm going to show my face in the dining hall, it would be better if I didn't look like this."
Looking back up to Urabrask, she made a decision. "You know what, here's what we'll do. I'm going to go back to my room to get a new change of clothes since these got damaged in the explosion. You go ahead to the dining hall and find a place for us to sit. Then when I'm back, you're going to elaborate on everything. Your species, your home, your past, everything!"
Disappointed that his words seemingly had little effect on Louise, but content with her decision, Urabrask nodded. "Alright. But think about what I told you, I would rather not my words be wasted on those with deaf ears."
The two went their separate ways, with Louise once more lost in her thoughts. However, they were no longer thoughts of frustration, but rather curiosity. Curiosity about the being known as Urabrask.
Φ
Thanks for reading the chapter. Before closing out the chapter, I wanted to go over the implied use of Phyrexian earlier on. Since the translation spell in the main canon has shown trouble with translation in some aspects before, I feel the use of unfamiliar words would cause the translation to "break". Thus, if Urabrask uses words that have no real translation in Halkegenian, like mana (since from what I can find, willpower is an energy mages produce within themselves, rather than being taken from the environment), Halkgenians will hear it in its phyrexian pronunciation.
Until next time!
