Fate is owned by Type-Moon and Familiar of Zero was created by Noburu Yamaguchi

Welcome to the archive: This is the failed beginnings of The Shattered Familiar. I will come back to this story one day but until then all that will remain of it will stay in this catalog.

The Shattered Familiar: One-Shot

Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere was not in a good mood; she just finished her Springtime Familiar Summoning as was customary for all second years of the Tristian Academy of Magic and she had wished for a wonderful, beautiful looking familiar and all she got was a commoner.

She asked for 'wonderful and beautiful', not a commoner! What kind of noble wanted a tall commoner as their familiar and it didn't help that everybody in the circle around her laughed and continued calling her by that damnable nickname 'The Zero'.

One day she'd show them she knew it in her bones that she'd show them.

Speaking of her familiar, he was odd-looking. Tall, with bronze skin, white hair, and dull gray eyes, but the weirdest thing was the outfit. A navy blue button-up with short sleeves, same color pants, and sandals.

She believed it to be a uniform of some kind, perhaps the normal garb for commoners wherever he was before being summoned as her familiar. She wonders where he came from for a moment but dismisses it as not being important.

Louise and her familiar finally make it to her room in the girl's section of the Academy, she opens the door and walks inside. Her familiar walked in behind her and closed the door just as Louise began taking off her uniform.

Louise, now just in her undergarments, tossed her uniform into a hamper near her wardrobe as she walked closer to it. She opens the wooden dresser and pulls out her nightgown and then glances back to her familiar.

"Familiar, take my laundry down to the washroom and make sure it's ready for tomorrow," she commands as she puts on her nightgown. She turns fully to her familiar who'd just grabbed the hamper and was already moving toward the door.

Louise nods, satisfied that her familiar was listening to her without backtalk or any defiance. She would not have to deal with people making fun of her for her familiar's disobedience at least. Being known as Zero was insulting enough, she didn't need to be known as the Noble daughter who couldn't control her familiar.

Louise sighed, sitting on her bed. The whole day was just draining on her, the incident early in the morning where she once again produced an explosion, the summoning, and the jeers toward her afterward.

Louise lay back onto her bed, throwing the cover over her, and closing her eyes. Her final thought before drifting to sleep was that the next would be better than the one she had today.

-Siesta-

Siesta was a commoner born in the village of Tarbes and the eldest of eight siblings, all counting on her to provide money for the. She knew she was lucky to get a job as a servant in the Academy as it paid a lot and if she played her cards right she could make her family's money troubles a thing of the past.

Right now she was doing one of her nightly duties which usually rotated from laundry, cleaning, prepping meals for the next day, or transporting food from the shipments to the kitchen. On this night she was currently doing the last one.

Siesta walked through the servant halls, a set of halls that the students didn't typically go down and were more used by the staff so they didn't always intersect with the students. She had a bag of maize on her shoulder, which was the last of the shipment, and was heading toward the kitchen when she saw an odd sight.

A tall man wearing what looked like an odd uniform was walking around with a basket, he seemed to be looking around as if he were lost. Siesta looked around and saw no one else and decided to help the man out.

"Excuse me, are you lost?" Siesta calls out, the man turns to her voice, and though Siesta can't understand why it's as if he's looking through her. The feeling gives her a small shiver as if a predator was looking at its prey before the feeling disappeared.

He looked toward her and gestured to the basket in his hands. Siesta gets a glimpse of clothing inside and realizes he may not know where the laundry room is, "Oh, you need to know where laundry is?"

The man nods.

"Okay, it's" she turns and points down the hall, "down the hall and once you reach the end take a left and it's the first door on the right."

The man looks down the hall then to her and nods before going off in the direction he was pointed toward. Siesta watched the man go and wondered who he was as he wasn't wearing the normal Academy staff uniforms. She shook her head, he was probably here for a reason the Nobles would've sniffed him out otherwise.

Putting the thought away she continued on her way to the kitchen.

-Louise-

Chirping birds invade Louise's unconscious mind breaking up the cloud of dreams and the sun beaming through the blinds forces the teenage Noble to open them and then close them again as the beams hit her eyes.

She hisses at the irritation and turns her head blinking out the colors that invade her vision. As the colors fade she sees her familiar sitting next to the door. He's sitting oddly with his legs out forward but bent with his arms rating over his legs. It seems her familiar is sleeping but isn't using the hay she set out for them.

She pushed herself up and groaned, not wanting to get up but refusing to miss the day. Louise's movement awoke the familiar who seemed to flinch upon waking. His fingers curled as if to hold something but stopped halfway through. Though Louise was ignorant to that motion and simply thought she'd scared him awake with her sudden movement.

The familiar stood from his position pushing himself with his back up against the wall. He simply stared at Louise, awaiting a command most likely. Louise was happy that her familiar was once again showing obedience but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. She didn't know what it was but blamed it on her familiar's eyes, the gray eyes that bored into her without any emotion.

Louise couldn't help but find it kinda creepy, "Familiar, help me get dressed," so she gave a command and brushed the whole thing off.

A few minutes later she was dressed and ready to get on with the day. Louise looked herself over making sure she had everything and grabbed her wand off the dresser and slipped it into her skirt pocket.

She looked to her familiar, standing once more behind her, "Let's go," Louise said, opening the door and heading into the hallway. The familiar stepped out behind her and closed the door behind him before following Louise.

Within the hall itself were three other doors similar to Louise's that lined it, though one opened as the duo got closer to the stairwell. A busty teenager walked out with bronze skin, red flaming hair, and an untucked blouse with the top few buttons open showing off the top of her bust.

She looked to the two and upon spotting Louise a smirk crept to her lips, "Ahhh, if it isn't the 'Zero'!" she greeted.

Louise growled, "And if it isn't 'Pass Around Kirche'."

Kirche simply smirked, "At the very least I'm capable of having multiple men," she says, pushing her chest out and cocking her hip.

Louise simply frowned at her. Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst was the worst part of Louise's time at the Academy, it wasn't just that the Zerbst was a rival to the Valliere for generations, nor was it that Kirche whored herself out to any boy in the academy that caught her interest, no, it was the fact that she was the main perpetrator behind Louise's nickname.

The Zero

"What do you want, Kirche," Louise asked, her teeth grinding together in her presence.

"Just wanted to see if the rumors were true," Kirche purred, though Louise could hear that mocking tone in it, "you summoned a human didn't you?"

"You were right there when I did so, Kirche."

"Ah, sorry I was busy with something far more important at the time," as she said this a large reptile walked out of the room Kirche came from, "I was getting to know my own familiar, meet Flame."

Flame tilted his head looking at Louise who stared at the fire salamander with clear envy on her face. It wasn't fair that Kirche got a familiar that reflected her affinity while she got a commoner that she wasn't even sure what it could represent.

"A Fire Salamander from the Fire Dragon Mountains!" Kirche announced, her voice filled with pride, "a creature capable of producing a shower of fire and proving I am a competent fire mage. Familiars reflect their status after all~" she purred, her eyes looking at Louise as if she were a predator that just caught the scent of blood, "so going on that view, it's obvious the Zero would summon a useless commoner!"

Kirche laughed as if she'd just told the joke of the century while Louise simply seethed quietly, not able to offer a word in response as she couldn't think of one.

During this whole interaction neither mage paid attention to their familiars and how they were reacting to each other. Nor that Flame was looking more and more frightened as it stared at the human familiar, his own grey eyes boring into its own slitted ones.

Flame backed up slightly, bumping into Kirche's legs who finally took notice of her frightened familiar. Looking inquisitively at Flame, she glanced at Louise's familiar and smiled. Louise's eyes dilated at that look, she recognized it all too well. It was the same look Kirche gave anyone that caught her eye and it seemed her familiar was in her sights.

"Ahh, it seems your familiar has a rather," Kirche's eyes scanned Louise's familiar, Louise growled at the look, "Robust~" Kirche purred once more but this one was accompanied by a sultry breath.

"No," Louise growled, stepping in front of her familiar, "you will not do anything to my familiar, Kirche."

"Quiet pipsqueak, the grown-ups are talking," Kirche said, looking over Louise's head at the taller familiar, "Why don't you and I meet back up here around midnight, hmm~"

The familiar just stared at her, not reacting to her charms at all. If anything it looked like he was looking through her, a small chill went up Kirche's spine and she found herself liking it. She went to speak more but Louise wasn't having it.

"Come, familiar, we have to get to class," Louise commanded, brushing past Kirche followed by her familiar who didn't give the busty girl a glance.

Kirche watched the two leave, her eyes lowered on the familiar at all times. Kirche licked her lips and her face took a brighter shade as she looked hungrily after the two, "You will be mine tonight~" Kirche vowed.

Louise cursed Kirche under her breath with every creative insult that she knew of. How dare that Germanian cow attempt to seduce her familiar! In front of her no less! Did that cow have no shame? Oh, who was kidding she knew the answer to that. All she had to do was count the men she had hanging off her every time she was in class.

Louise glanced at her familiar, a stone wall that didn't even blink at Kirche's advances. Usually, a man would at the very least look uncomfortable with a beauty, as much as she hated to admit it, like Kirche showing any interest in them.

But not her familiar.

He hadn't even blinked at her or did that thing that men did like checking women out through the corner of their eye. Nothing. Louise was thankful for that, she didn't know what would've happened if her familiar had fallen for the seductress but thinking about it would make no difference.

Louise and her familiar continued on to class and for the first time in a long time Louise felt hopeful for her class.

Louise's hope had been extinguished nearly as quickly as it had appeared. Her first class was a disaster and she could only blame herself. The first time she has hope and she'd let it get to her head and caused an explosion big enough to create a crater in the once pristine wooden floor of the classroom.

The shockwave had blown most of the students in the front row into the middle while a few poor souls got launched into the stone walls. All this was because she'd attempted to transmute copper into gold.

All she could do was stand there and soak in the chaos of the room, her clothes had been just scuffed this time so she had to thank the Founder for small mercies. She didn't want a repeat of her first year and have to run from the classroom nearly in tears because she'd been left in nothing but her underwear.

She should've known that would happen.

The worst part was what everyone chanted afterward, they all yelled at Louise calling her Zero. The teacher didn't stop them that time as she did during the beginning of class as all she did was look at Louise in pity.

She probably thought the same thing as them.

Louise sniffed and wiped a small tear from her eye. Thankfully her familiar had done none of that and instead stood as a pillar for her in that moment. She wouldn't admit it but she was thankful one person was standing by her, even if they are contracted to do so.

She walked into the cafeteria, the day having passed quickly to lunch after her incident, her familiar following just like usual. She sat down at the end of a table away from the others not wanting to deal with more jeers from her peers.

Louise pulled her wand from her skirt pocket and stared at it, twisting it in her hands, feeling the wood taken from the Valliere garden and shaped into the wand. She stared into the wood, hoping it may give her an answer to her plight. She needed something, anything, to tell her a way out of this.

But as usual, it never came.

She sighed and returned her wand to her pocket, placing her arms down before letting her head fall into them. Perhaps her family was correct in their beliefs about her.

Louise had fallen into the hole of self-pity and hadn't noticed the commotion coming from a table over. Her familiar however had noticed and was watching it all unfold.

The familiar watched as the maid he had encountered the night before walked up to a blonde student who was speaking to a girl in a brown cloak, the maid offered up a bottle of perfume to the student saying that he had dropped it but the noble attempted to say it wasn't his until one of the nobles at the table recognized the bottle.

The blonde noble, Guiche, attempted to dissuade them of the notion until the girl looked at the bottle still in the maid's hand and back to Guiche. The girl had teared up and after a back and forth between the two she slapped him and ran off crying.

Guiche had been blindsided by this and was in no condition to react to the girl walking up behind him. A blonde girl with curled hair, the owner of said bottle, yelled at him as well and then slapped him hard enough to send him tumbling to the floor.

She stomped off and grabbed the perfume from the maid's hands, who had been standing in the same place the whole time just watching it unfold. Guiche stood up and glared at the maid, he proclaimed that two flowers had cried because of her folly. Guiche advanced toward the maid who'd begun shaking after being addressed.

"-who do you think you are?" Guiche questioned menacingly at the poor maid, "I am a Noble son of the Gramonts and you are a common maid who believes she has any right to harm the hearts of noble standing."

Guiche raised his hand and attempted to slap the maid. The maid closed her eyes ready for the pain.

But it never came.

"What do you think you're doing!" Guiche shouted as Louise's familiar grabbed Guiche's arm holding it up away from the maid. All the while the familiar's face never changed, he simply stared at Guiche who attempted to pull his arm away.

"Unhand me, you commoner!"

Louise finally snapped out of her pity party just in time to notice what her familiar was doing. Her face turned from confused to horrified in the span of a second. What in the founder's name was her familiar doing!?

She couldn't understand it, her familiar had listened to her throughout the time it'd been here. Not once had it done something without her saying so-no wait that wasn't true. She remembered the explosion she'd caused earlier and how her familiar had come to her after it. But he'd never displayed this kind of autonomy with the insults hurled at her.

So why was her familiar grabbing Guiche!?

Guiche seemed to get an idea and grabbed the rose he held in his breast pocket, which also acted as the wand he used, and attempted to use a spell to get Louise's familiar off of him but was interrupted when the familiar's other hand snatched the rose wand from his hand.

Within a moment of that action, he tossed Guiche over the table. Guiche slammed into another table with a loud crash before silence enveloped the cafeteria, everyone in it just attempting to understand what just happened.

All except Louise.

"FAMILIAR!" Louise shrieked, she moved toward the familiar who was now looking at her with the same look as always. Not a hint of remorse or fear, it was like he had no idea what harming a noble could entail for him.

Louise stomped up to him and snatched the rose from his hand using it to point at him, "Do you have any idea what you've just done? Commoners striking a Noble in any way is considered punishable by imprisonment or a beating!"

As she screamed Guiche hauled himself up, a small cut on his head the only visible damage to him besides his ruffled uniform, "Zero," Guiche growled cutting off Louise's scolding, "you do not have to explain it to the commoner familiar of yours because I will be giving him a proper showcase!"

He marched up to Louise and snatched his rose from her hand, before pointing toward the familiar, "You will head for the dueling grounds and accept the punishment I deal out to you, you will pay heavily for scaring my visage!"

"W-wait, Guiche, surely-" Louise attempted to get Guiche to be more lenient but he wasn't having it.

"No, your familiar has struck me! A noble! He will pay the same price every commoner would pay for his insolence! The dueling grounds, now." Guiche didn't give any more words and simply walked out of the cafeteria leaving silence in his wake.

"YOU IDIOT!" Louise yelled before kicking her familiar in the shin, though it seemingly did nothing, "Why would you do that!? There was nothing to gain from protecting that maid!"

Not to mention the maid had scurried off as Louise was first yelling at her familiar.

Her familiar didn't seem to care though and she had half a mind to go back to her room and take a gift she'd gotten from her eldest sister to her familair. But he was already to be punished and she'd still hold back on it if she were doing so.

Guiche would have no such restrictions.

There was nothing Louise could do though, Guiche had been wronged and everyone in the cafeteria saw it. No one would listen to her or allow her to dish out a punishment because they'd think she'd be lenient on him. And she would be, no one wanted a crippled familair.

Louise couldn't see a way out of this. It could only end one way and it was cemented in stone with her familiar's actions.

"Familiar," she said, her voice having lost a lot of its anger, "we are leaving."

Louise headed off in the same direction Guiche had headed with her familiar following her, his expression the same as it's been since she first summoned him. Walking toward a punishment with no sense of fear.

All the while the maid the familiar had protected watched this with a heavy heart.

Louise walked to the fields with her head lowered as if on the way to the executioner's blade. She may not have been but she couldn't say the same for her familiar, Louise had no idea what Guiche would do as a punishment. All she could hope was it wasn't something that would cripple or kill him.

Louise walked through the field, toward Guiche who stood at the far end of the dueling ground. He stood with a smirk and a vengeful eye toward her familiar who still followed behind her. They reached the other side of the marked area and Louise looked toward her familiar, "Familiar, go and stand in the middle of the area."

Without a word, the familiar walked forward not a hint of fear in his steel eyes.

"Ah, so you accept the punishment you rightly deserve?" Guiche asked, mocking the familiar with just his tone alone. He idly let a petal fall from the rose he held in his hand, the petal drifted to the ground and just as suddenly as it landed the ground rippled.

Soon metal formed from the dirt and in a moment a large metallic feminine golem stood before Guiche. Its appearance seemed similar to that of empty armor that a woman would wear but over-stylized. It stood at attention with a pole in its hand ready to use it in whatever fashion its master ordered.

"Ha! Meet my beautiful steel Valkyrie, the culmination of my earth magic!" Guiche proclaimed, "And today, it will be used to put this commoner back in his place!" Guiche looks to the familiar still standing in the field with no change in its face, "Do you have anything to say, perhaps groveling for my forgiveness?"

The familiar just stood. Not a word, not a twitch, nothing, not even sweat rolling down his face. He was wall toward Guiche and his face set in its perpetual blank stare.

Guiche scoffed, "I'm not sure why I bother. Beat him black and blue!" Guiche commanded to his valkyrie. The Valkyrie's helm turned to the familiar and suddenly rushed toward him, the metal pole raised high.

The crowd watches on, fascinated by what is to occur, as if this were a simple fair-side attraction. Louise had long looked away from the scene, only having the crowd to guess what was happening.

The Valkyrie was finally in range and swung down.

Clang!

The sound of metal hitting metal echoed through the courtyard. A sound that shouldn't have been heard, it should've been the sound of a blunt metal object breaking bone but instead, it was a completely different noise.

Louise whipped her head back toward the scene and her mouth gaped at the sight.

Her familiar had grabbed the pole aiming for his shoulder and was holding it above his head. The Valkyrie was shaking, showing the strain it was putting into the hit while the familiar simply held the pole up with not a hint of effort.

The familiar's eyes looked at the pole and then down to the Valkyrie before trailing to Guiche who stood in utter shock. Breaking the mask he wore, the familiar scoffed audibly, closing his eyes and then opening them to reveal cruel golden eyes.

The familiar ripped the pole from the Valkyrie's hand, making the Valkyrie fall forward. The familiar's runes began to glow before the familiar spun the weapon toward the Valkyrie's head with enough strength to separate the steel golem's head from its shoulders.

The head fell to the dirt with a thud and the body with a louder thud. The steel then reverted back to dirt and all that was left of the golem was a mound of dirt, as if it were buried.

Silence reigned for all of a second before the familiar began moving forward. Guiche, finally processing what happened, sent three more petals and summoned three more valkyries which immediately sped forward.

The familiar flipped the pole and held it in a javelin stance before throwing it at one of the approaching valkyries. It speared through the Valkyrie's head and collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

In the same moment the familiar threw the pole a weapon appeared in his hand. A strange weapon that resembled one of those flintlocks Louise had seen before in a demonstration at the Vallerie Estate. But it was much larger and had a black bayonet under its barrel.

BANG!

And she had no clue it could be so effective against the steel golems.

The shot had hit the Valkyrie in the chest, shattering the metal like glass and making the golem stumble backward. Another shot hit the other valkyrie directly in the head causing it to fall and turn back to dirt. The Valkyrie with a shattered breastplate was quickly finished off with a similar shot to the head.

The familiar smirked, looking directly at Guiche. He seemed to realize what may happen and summoned four more valkyries, though these ones were showing his exhaustion as they were brown. Made from copper than the stronger steel.

The familiar glanced at them and then raised his hands, another gun appearing in his offhand. He fired rapidly, this time not letting them get near him as he walked forward. Guiche looked panicked but there was nothing he could do now.

Summoning that many valkyries had exhausted him. He'd expected to have the first Valkyrie beat down the commoner and show him his place and instead, the commoner tore his Valkyrie apart. Then those weapons appeared in his hands and it just went downhill.

Guiche was terrified, so much so he hadn't noticed the familiar lining up another shot.

Bang!

Directly at his knee.

"Ahhhhh!" Guiche screamed as pain erupted in his knee. It felt as if his knee had exploded and he nearly fell over but was caught by the throat and lifted up.

Guiche was now looking directly into the golden eyes of the commoner he'd meant to teach a lesson. Instead, the commoner had taught him one. A very painful lesson and one that, if Guiche survived, wouldn't be forgotten.

Too bad for Guiche, it didn't look like the familiar was interested in mercy. He had already raised his gun to the noble's head and his finger was wrapped around the trigger.

"STOP!"

All motion ceased. The sadistic smirk once on the familiar's face was gone. The feeling of death encroaching on Guiche disappeared.

All because of the shout of one Louise Valliere.

"Familiar, that's enough! Put Guiche down and come back here!"

The familiar continued looking at Guiche, "Well," he said, breaking the silence he'd held until then "It seems I have a rather merciful master." And with that, he dropped Guiche who screamed again once his leg hit the ground.

The familiar looked down at the noble and blinked, his face setting back into its blank mask and his eyes returning to their steely gray. He turned on his heel and walked back to his master's side.

Louise watched as her familiar walked to her side, barely noticing Montmorency rushing to Guiche's side. Instead, her gaze was locked onto her familiar. Her mind is seemingly at war with the image in front of her.

The docile and obedient familiar vs the dangerous golden-eyed familiar.

How could they be the same person?

This line of questioning was interrupted, however, by the arrival of Professor Colbert.

"What is going on here!?" he demands, looking around and soaking in the image. No one speaks up, either too shocked by the events or staring at Louise's familiar in utter shock. With no one speaking up and Colbert noticing the stares he makes a decision.

"Miss Valliere, please head to the headmaster's office and take your familiar."

Louise mutley nodded and began heading toward the office, her familiar trailing behind her. Thoughts continued bouncing around in her head, how, why, and more importantly, who was the familiar that she had summoned?

The Shattered Familiar: Chapter One

Distant sirens blared.

The Sword kneeled in a puddle of blood not his own. The blood had once belonged to the men who had been occupying the warehouse behind him and the bodies that remained within. The Sword had killed them all, brutally, effectively, and mechanically. As if he were a machine in human skin.

The blood The Sword kneeled in had dripped down his kneeling form. He'd been here for the last thirty minutes, just kneeling and staring forward with blank silver eyes. The blood coated his hair making it seem as if it were back to its original color but a true look at it would show the white peaking through.

His body is unscathed. These people were not Magi or Dead Apostles, they were simply people who'd gotten on the wrong side of the government and had told him to kill them. So he did. It was the way things worked for The Sword. He was just a weapon to be used.

The Sword felt something. Enough to make him look up and grip the modified gun blades still clutched in his hands.

Gray eyes watched as the space in front of them distorted and curved into a circle that soon gained a purple color just as a magical pentagram appeared in quick flashes as if they were being drawn in real-time with runic scriptures printing themselves in a circle around the pentagram. The purple anomaly floated in front of him as if to invite him in.

The Sword got to his feet and allowed Kanshou and Bakuya to fade from his hands. He stepped closer to the purple anomaly and put a gloved hand up to the pentagram. As soon as he did he could feel something behind it, a feeling of desperation.

It called to him but not in words. A force rippled through him as he sunk his hand into the pentagram but he couldn't find it in himself to pull back. The Sword had no real obligations to this place, not anymore. The people who used him were just that, people who used him for their own benefit.

He looked back at the warehouse as his arm sunk deeper into the pentagram which soon consumed his shoulder. The Sword had nothing left here so why not answer this desperate cry? The Sword looked forward and instead of passively allowing himself to be consumed by the anomaly he pushed himself into it.

When the authorities finally arrived at the sight of the massacre all they found were bodies and a pool of blood in the parking lot. Their prized asset was nowhere to be found.

-Louise-

Louise Francoise Le Blanc de le Valliere coughed while waving her hand to disperse the smoke from her latest failure. The Springtime Familiar Summoning was an important stepping stone for all the second years of the Tristain Academy of Magic and Louise Valliere had just failed once again.

Coughing surrounded her, coming from her peers as they had been in the blast radius. Louise could even hear her teacher Professor Colbert coughing through the remaining smoke. Soon a gust of wind blew through the area sweeping the smoke away. Louise looked over to see her classmate, Tabitha, settling her staff against her shoulder while reading a book.

"Hohohoho! It seems our dear Zero has once again proven her title~" A haughty voice gloated. Louise growled and turned to glare at her eternal familial nemesis.

Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst was a busty teen with bronze skin and alluring red hair. Her untucked blouse barely held back her large bust with the top buttons having been undone to give a view of her cleavage. Overall the girl was a bombshell and the boys in class were fully aware of this.

But before Louise could unleash a piece of her mind on Zerbst, Mr. Colbert spoke up, "Ah, Miss Valliere, I do believe you have succeeded?" The tone of his voice was slightly questioning but the words made Louise's neck turn at such speed you'd think she broke it.

Where her wand had been pointed during her incantation a man lay sprawled on his stomach. Louise stared with her mouth agape at the human she'd summoned. A human. A man. A Commoner.

"Professor Colbert! May I please retry!?" Louise screeched in desperation. She couldn't have a commoner as a familiar! How would that look to her family!? Already scenarios filled her mind, her sister's disapproving stare and her mother's stern glare. She shuddered at them all.

As if to tear down any remaining threads of hope Professor Colbert shook his head, "I'm sorry, Miss Valliere but to retry once you've already summoned your familiar wouldn't do anything. A familiar is meant to reflect the Noble in some way and to retry would only show the same or similar result. Like it or not, you summoned this man and as such must take responsibility."

Louise bit her bottom lip as she looked down at the prone man. He hadn't moved once since he appeared and suddenly a new thought entered her already panicked mind. What if he was dead?

"Uh, Professor Cobert. Louise's familiar isn't moving, I think he's dead." A voice called out. Louise didn't actually care at the moment who it was, only that they voiced her thoughts for her.

Mr. Colbert looked down at the familiar and walked over, he crouched down and brought two fingers to the man's neck. A second passed and Colbert nodded, looking over at Louise, "He's alive. Now, please finish the ritual, Miss Valliere." With his piece said, Colbert stood up and looked at Louise expectantly.

Louise swallowed and looked down at the man she had summoned. Her familiar. She huffed through her nose and kneeled down bringing her hands to the man's shoulders and pushed the man up. It took a moment but soon the man was in a kneeling position and she could see his face.

Dark bronze skin with stark white hair and chiseled features. The man was at least in his late twenties and was rather handsome in her opinion. Louise shook her head, she couldn't think of her familiar like that! She glared at the man's closed eyes and then leaned forward, locking her lips with his.

Then she leaned back and looked back toward Professor Colbert before she felt the man she was holding by the shoulders twitch. Her head snapped back to her familiar's whose eyes opened to reveal a gray metal-like color. His cold gray eyes stared into her own hazel eyes.

The man blinked and looked around at the people surrounding him. Her familiar then turned back to her and stood up, he towered over the people in the courtyard with only Colbert coming up to his chin. Louise couldn't help but stare at the well-built man.

Her familiar was wearing a long black coat that seemed to be made of leather with a red scarf and what looked like armor beneath. It was black with silver lining and what looked like a silver strap of metal connected to the collar. His pants were black with his boots being plated with metal.

He looked like a mercenary.

"Congratulations, Miss Valliere. You have completed the Familiar Springtime Summoning." Professor Colbert said, a smile filled with warmth.

"Yeah, but it's still a commoner!" A girl exclaimed. "Louise is still a Zero as proven multiple times before."

Louise growled and turned to the girl who said that.

Montmorency Margarita le Fere de Montmorency was a girl not much taller than Louise but, to Louise's dismay, she was more filled out than Louise was. The girl was blonde with her hair put into swirls that bunched together in the back tied by a red bow. She wore the same Academy uniform as Louise.

"Yeah? Well, at least I don't have the rune name Flood!" Louise retorted making Montmorency red at the name.

"I am not called The Flood! It is The Fragrance you swine!" Montmorency yelled back

"Oh yeah? Then why were you known for wetting the bed until only a year ago!" Louise yelled causing some of her classmates to giggle and Montmorency to gasp in shock.

But before Montmorency could get another word in Colbert separated the two, "Enough you two! Louise, take your familiar around the school and calm yourself, the rest of you follow me." Colbert began shepherding the other students toward the entrance to the courtyard while Louise stood alone with her familiar.

A moment passed and she turned to her familiar, "Why did it have to be a human!" she yelled, her frustration finally bursting out, "A useless commoner! Why!? I did everything right!" She marched up to her familiar and kicked him in the shin. It didn't do anything to him as he just stared at her but she kept doing it as she vented her frustration.

"I chanted the words! I studied for hours! I read the entire book three times!" Each exclamation was followed by a swift kick to the familiar's shin. Louise continued ranting until finally she couldn't anymore. She just stood there with her head hanging and tears flowing down her cheeks. It seemed her family was right about her.

She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, "Familiar, follow me." Louise walked off toward the girl's dorm, she just wanted the day to be over. As she walked she could hear footsteps behind her, Louise's lips curved into a small smile. She was happy her familiar listened to her if nothing else.

Louise shoved open her door and walked into the room. She unclipped her mantel and tossed it on the back of a chair near her table. She fiddled with the academy's emblem attached to her collar and took it off placing that on the table as well. She turned just in time to see her familiar close the door and then she began unbuttoning her shirt.

Louise stripped it off and then took off her tanktop which she wore under the shirt since her chest was too flat to need a bra. She unclipped her skirt and slipped her underwear off before tossing it into the hamper along with everything else. She turned to look at her familiar who was just staring at her, "Familiar, I need these washed by tomorrow morning. Take them to the washroom and clean them." Louise commanded.

The familiar didn't say anything and simply turned its head to the hamper before walking over and grabbing it. He lifted it up and walked over to the door. Louise watched as he opened the door and left, making sure to close the door behind him. Louise nodded to herself, and a ping of appreciation went through her.

She was happy her familiar listened to her.

Louise walked over to her wardrobe and opened it to take out her nightgown. She pulled it over her body, walked to her bed, and collapsed into it. The fabric greeted her like the only friend she needed. She wormed under her blanket and rested her head on the pillow with a content smile.

Sleep took her not much later.

-Siesta-

Siesta shouldered open a door while holding a bag of food to be stored in the pantry. Siesta was from the village of Tarbes and a family of eight siblings and two parents. Her life was as typical of a commoner and she was in service to the Tristain Magic Academy as a maid but she helped out in other places as well. It was a good job and the money she earned was all sent back to Tarbes.

She was currently walking down one of the servant halls which separated the nobles and commoners from each other so the workers didn't get in the way of the studies of the students. That was fine for Siesta, she wasn't exactly fond of the nobles for their attitudes toward commoners anyway. She did have lunch serving duty for the next few days though.

Siesta's thoughts lingered on what she had to do for the next few days until she turned a corner and spotted a man standing at the end of the corridor. He was quite tall and was wearing a black coat and carrying what looked like a hamper. She didn't recognize him. Was he new?

The man's head turned toward her and Siesta froze. It was dark in the hall, with only a few candles lighting the hall but Siesta could see his eyes silver glinting and in those eyes, she felt like she was being examined. Siesta stared back and for a moment all was still until the man began moving toward her.

Siesta's heart started racing as the boot clacks came closer. Sweat ran down her forehead as the man stopped only a few feet away from her. Then he gestured to her with the hamper. Siesta swallowed and looked at the hamper, "You, uh, do you not know where the washroom is?"

The man shook his head.

Siesta held in a sigh of relief, "It's, uh, down the hall behind me, the last door on the left." The man looked past her and nodded. Then he walked past her as if nothing had occurred. And nothing had occurred but Siesta felt like he had been in danger just being in that man's sights.

Siesta looked over her shoulder and watched for a moment as the man made his way down the hallway. She shook her head and adjusted the bag on her shoulder, she needed to get this food to the pantry.

-The Sword-

The Sword opened the door to his master's room with a hamper full of clean clothes. It had been a few hours since his master had given the order as he wanted to make sure they were clean. He quietly closed the door behind him walked over to the wardrobe and placed the hamper down in front of it.

He looked over at his sleeping master. A short girl with bright pink hair and a penchant for outbursts. She was the one who called to him and summoned him, though he was not a servant but a familiar. He looked down at his gloved left hand, remembering the runes that had been burned into his hand.

He walked over to his master and stared down at her. She was special, in what way he didn't know. Just that she was capable of reaching past the second magic to summon him, no easy feat. He'd noticed the absence of Gaia on his arrival and could no longer feel the small pull of Alaya that had been hounding him for years.

He turned and walked over to the side of the door and leaned up against the wall before sliding down. He rested his arms on his bent legs and lowered his head allowing himself to sleep. Though he would dream of nothing.

The Sword would protect his master just as he'd been summoned to do.

I hope you enjoyed.