第五章:
DISCLAIMER:
Not mine.
CHAPTER START:
Momorency and the other healers continued their examination of the familiar's body – and continued to run into problems. Their 'detect life' spells revealed only the ambient life of the grass below it, and all healing magic went right through it. As well as their hands, wands, and everything else. It was though it wasn't really there at all. What they essentially had in front of them was a ghost. But while a ghost was usually a spirit without a body, this one seemed to be... she didn't even know. A ghost of a dead body? As one who was familiar with spirits – albeit elemental spirits, this one was starting to spook Monmancy a fair bit. The familiar had been creepy in life, and was even more so in death. Trust the Zero... And then she noticed the other healers looking past her. Turned. Saw the now -live- familiar of zero... turned back, to the... ghost... And decided that nope, this was enough, thank you very much, and this would be a very good time to just leave. Quickly. Not running away, just leaving because the thing that was dead clearly wasn't dead and didn't need healers so she was leaving now.
Louise watched as the healers hurried back to the academy, almost but not quite running. Frequent glances over their shoulder to make sure her familiar wasn't following them. Something that resulted in at least one of them faceplanting as they tripped over the uneven ground.
A tiny part of her brain noted that she should probabally be finding this funny. But the majority was still recovering. Her Familliar. appeared. Then vanished. Then reappeared. Then dead. Then un-deaded just as... no. No!. She turned, a fresh batch of shock splashed across her face.
'Your not a zombie, are you? A liche? A vampire?'
Her words made Guiche recover a little, and he fumbled for his wand, lying at his feet where he had dropped it.
[ub3rL33t1: put the wand down dumbass]
Guiche ignored him, pointing his wand in the direction of the familliar, hands shanking. Her familiar bought up his gun to point at Guiche, and Louise screamed 'No! Drop it!'
Much to the surprise of all three, her familiar did. The weapon tumbled from his hands, and landed at his feet. Her familiar looked down at it for a minute... before moving forward over it, causing the weapon to disappear, and reappear in his hands. Still pointing at Guiche.
"Drop it!'
Once more, the gun dropped from his hands. But why was he dropping it in the first place? Her familiar moved to pick it up again, and Louise ordered him to drop it once more. What was going on? Think... Think... Louise and her familiar kept going through the same routine, while Guiche kept a trembling wand aimed at Uber, and Louise frantically tried to work out what was going on.
'Louise! Tell him not to pick it up again!' It was Mr Colbert, come from who-knows where. Louise quickly repeated his command, and her familiar left the weapon at it's feet... though it did glide over it a few times.
'What's going on here? Drop your wands at once!'
Guiche and Louise wern't quite as quick to obey as Louise's familiar had, but a glare from Mr Colbert quickly sent their wands to rest alongside Uber's gun.
Mr Colbert glared at the three of them – seemingly not put off at all by Uber's strange apperance. Or the mangled copy of him lying off to the left. 'Explain', he commanded...
TWENTY MINUTES LATER
Louise was feeling a bit stupid. Of course her familiar would obey her – The binding magic tied into the summoning ceremony had been made clear in the preparatory lessons they had to take in the weeks leading up to the ceremony. And as for being undead - Mr Colbert had pointed out, her familiar had already told them it's body here wasn't it's real form. Guiche of course knew none of this, and her familiar had given him a somewhat simplified explanation - that it was a spirit of sorts, inhabiting golims, and whenever his golim was destroyed it created a new one to inhabit.
The dawning realization of what this meant was slowly making Louise feel a little giddy. She had an undeniably powerful familiar under her control – one that was impossible to kill, very powerful, and under HER control. If she said jump, he wouldn't even stop to ask how high – he'd just jump. It was true that she still couldn't cast magic, but at least the teasing would stop. Who would dare tease her now – with her familiar by her side
With this in mind, and reassured by her ability to control it, she felt comfortable in having her familiar live with her. After all, if it wasn't dangerous, there was no reason it shouldn't be staying with her, right? And the fact that it's presence would put off some of the teasing by that horrible Zerbst woman was entirely coincidental. So when she ordered her familiar to follow her to her room and it refused, it came as a bit of a shock to her.
[ub3rL33t1: It's midnight here. I got classes in the morning. Everythings settled here and I need to get some sleep.]
Louise stamped her feet. 'Your my familiar! Your supposed to obey me! In fact, your bound to obey me. So never mind your sleep, follow me!'
[Ub3rL33t1: I may be your familiar in this world, but in my own world, I'm a uni student. A lot like you. I have my own obligations, and I don't consider following the orders of someone girl in my monitor to be more important than them.]
Louise's face went red, eyes flashing to Guiche – who oddly, wasn't gearing up to make fun of her for this act of treason by her familiar. Mr Colbert similarly seemed unconcerned by her failure to control her familiar, and seemed instead to be listening intently, analysing what was going on. None the less, she couldn't be shown up like this! Rumors would get around...
'You're my familiar. You'll do what I say, and like it!. Now come over here and follow me.'
Louise pointed at her feet, and looked expectantly at her familiar, which... didn't move an inch.
[Ub3rl33t1: I'll do what I like. And while you can stop my character doing some things, it seems you can't force me to do them either. So you can take your attitude and shove it, kid]
Guiche actually cracked a smile. Louise flushed.
[Ub3rL33t1: I got a bunch of assignments to work on, and the only reason to come on here at all is to relax a little and have some fun. Your not fun. You're the opposite of fun. So I'll be back on when I feel like it. Don't like it? Stop being such a *****]
And with that, he disappeared.
Louise looked around, mortified. Thankfully, there was only two other people there. Mr Colbert – who was looking thoughtful. And Guiche. Who would normally be a problem. In fact, the beginnings of s smirk was creeping over his face... but no, it seems the shock of almost killing someones familiar hadn't completely faded. The boy's smirk faded before it had fully formed, and he shook his head, giving a disgusted snort at Louise, before heading back towards the academy
Louise shrugged. If the duel had traumatized the boy, perhaps that'd make up for some of the teasing she'd recieved. She turned to Mr Colbert.
"Sir... about my familiar. Can I ask for some advice?"
Mr Colbert sighed as he put away his thoughts, and slipped into his mentor role.
"Yes Louise? What did you want to ask?"
THE NEXT DAY, LATE AFTERNOON
Siesta led the Count the remaining few steps to Principal Osmond's door.
"Count Mott – The principals office."
Siesta internally sighed, glad to be done with this particular chore. It wasn't that she had other things to do, more that... well...
"Thank you, my dear", the count said – taking her hand and planting a kiss upon it.
"Your assistance has been as bountiful as your..." His eyes lingered on her breasts, before returning to her blushing face.
"Well, I certainly appreciate your help. Alas, as much as I wish to enjoy your generous... hospitality, I have a message to deliver."
And with one last roving glance across her figure, the count entered the office in front of him. Siesta grimaced, before returning to the kitchens, trying to put his words and lecherous gaze out of mind.
Behind the principals door, Count Mott was rolling out a royal message – an action slightly redundant, as he already knew it's contents, and was in the process of explaining them.
"A ghost-corpse? Outside the Academy walls? Yes, I am somewhat familiar with this"
Osmond puffed at his pipe.
"Perhaps the best person to explain this matter would be our Mr Colbert. He's outside the walls at the moment, however he should be returning within the hour. Would you care for some refreshments while we wait for his return? And if I can be just a little impudent – do you mind telling me the going-ons in the palace"?
Count Mott sighed. He had hope to have the lovely serving lady show him through the academy after his meeting. Instead, it seemed he would be spending the afternoon entertaining this doddering old fool.
"Certainly", he said, with a slightly forced smile.
"Nothing would make me happier."
AUTHORS NOTES:
I wrote most of this over about 3 hours, flying from Tas to my new / old home in Alice Springs. Since that was about six weeks ago, I guess it's been even longer than I thought since my last update. My apologies. Unfortunately, I'm doing upwards of 48 hour weeks now, so updates will be even more sporadic when they are.
This arc is now complete. I'll likely be bypassing Count Mott altogether, as I can't think of a reason for Uber to even learn about Siesta's reassignment, let alone any motivation for him to rescue her. It can be assumed that because he was unable to spend the extra time with her, he got distracted by another pretty girl, and didn't request her reassignment.