Rise Of The Mirror King

Chapter 20: Choosing Familiars

I had trouble sleeping after my encounter with Mazikeen. Somehow, my little investigation had begun to scare me. What did she mean? Nothing in this realm was powerful enough to tear a soul out without leaving a mark.

None of the textbooks in Symon's room mentioned a creature close to that. I had to ask Vance or Zudrik. It was why I walked Vax to class earlier, much to her disdain. Whatever was lurking in these halls was still present; I could feel it.

When I reached the guild wing, I ran into someone on the stairs, having turned a corner too quickly without looking.

"Sorry." I knelt to gather their books. A pale, slender hand reached down and yanked them from my grip, as if they didn't want me touching them.

"Sorry," I said again. I looked up and found myself face-to-face with Ice, the Eleventh Commandment. I knew her rank because she had the number eleven tattooed right across her neck. Her eyes literally reflected her name. Cold and cynical.

"You're in my way, Wardreth," she growled.

I stepped aside and watched her descend the stairs. If I recalled correctly, she belonged to the Siren Song Guild. I shrugged her off my mind and walked down the hallway.

The class was full this morning. Everyone stopped talking when I walked in.

I didn't want to look toward the front seats like always—I knew she was there, and I knew Lucifero was, too. But curiosity got the better of me.

He had his arm slung around her shoulder. I couldn't tell if the look in her eyes was worry or contempt.

"You're late."

I knew that voice. Ace was twirling a quill between her fingers, her head tilted sideways. Behind her sat Baron and, of course, Mazikeen. I slipped into the empty seat next to Ace.

"Touch my books and die." She didn't smile.

"I won't."

Then she grinned and punched my shoulder. "Where's the fun guy at?"

"He's burnt out." My gaze drifted to Amelia again. She looked away.

"Couples fight?" Ace leaned in, whispering.

"No."

She was going to say something else, but the room went quiet as Vance entered. He muttered a low spell, and every window snapped shut in unison, except the one directly behind the dais.

"I see many radiant faces. Are we hyped for today's occasion?" Vance asked.

"Yes," the entire class chorused.

Ace was looking at me. "You look like you don't know what today's occasion is."

I didn't. I hadn't glanced at the guild's calendar even once.

"Every guild member is expected to choose and bond with a familiar," she explained.

I knew what a familiar was. I already had Grey; I didn't think I needed any more companions.

"Ladies and gentlemen, with no further ado, shall we begin?" Vance cleared his throat, commanding the room. "I'm sure most of you know what a familiar is, but for the sake of the class, I will elaborate."

A student in the second row raised his hand.

"And no, Mr. Flairstain," Vance cut in smoothly without breaking stride, "you cannot be friends with your familiar."

The class chorused a short wave of laughter.

"Why not?" another student asked, leaning forward.

"Amelia, care to tell us why?" Vance stopped right at her desk, looking down.

She took a moment to compose herself before answering. "Because some familiars can manifest mana of their own. If a mage forms an emotional bond with them, that foreign mana can bleed backwards, corrupting the mage's own core."

"I would expect nothing less from you, Miss Amelia." Vance smiled warmly and went on.

"Think of a familiar as a lightning rod. They are your mana regulators. The human body can only handle so much friction before it burns out from the inside. If you want to cast high-tier magic, you need a secondary anchor to absorb the overflow."

He paused, his gaze cutting across the room until it briefly locked onto me.

"Although some of you can already manage high-tier spells without a familiar, you will need one eventually."

A hand shot up in the front row.

"Yes, Mr. Adams?"

"Can we summon anything we want for a familiar, sir?"

"As long as it satisfies the requirements. Which are…?" Vance's eyes scanned the desks, trailing off on purpose. "Ace."

She answered instantly, her voice crisp, as if she had been waiting for the prompt. "Control, species, and tier."

"Excellent. Your summoned familiar must fall within the permitted species, match your current magical tier, and above all, you must be capable of binding it to your control."

Another hand went up, slower this time.

"Go on, Miss Sera."

"What if… someone accidentally summons an S-tier familiar?"

The ambient hum in the classroom died instantly.

"The academy has strict protocols for an anomaly of that scale," Vance said, his boots clicking rhythmically against the stone floor as he walked back to the dais.

"In such an instance, the familiar would be placed under constant, heavy monitoring by the upper echelons, alongside the summoner themselves, and—"

He cut himself off and stepped onto the elevated platform.

"Though it is mostly a hypothetical scenario. We haven't witnessed a successful S-tier summon in the last thirty years." He turned around slowly, his sharp eyes settling across the room. "But this year does have some… promising candidates."

He was looking directly at Lucifero.

"I'm curious to see what you'll summon," Mazikeen murmured, leaning in close enough that I could feel the chill of her breath.

"You already have a familiar, right?" Ace asked, keeping her voice low.

"Yeah. On the other side of the wall, we summon when we're eight."

I didn't know if she said it just for dramatic effect, but the casual mention of 'the wall' earned her sharp, uneasy stares from the surrounding desks.

"Which tier?" Baron chimed in, his golden eyes narrowing slightly.

"A-tier."

A collective, silent breath caught in our row. She was the demon princess, after all; summoning an A-tier at eight years old meant her mana core was terrifyingly rich.

The sheer scale of it made me wonder what a powerhouse she had for a brother. What kind of monster had Zeldryl summoned?

As if she'd read the exact thought tracking across my face, Mazikeen smirked.

"He summoned an S-tier."

I turned and glared at her.

"So, who's first?" Vance asked. There was no show of hands. "Very well." He placed an empty birdcage on the center table and draped a heavy, black fabric over it.

"We're doing this the old-fashioned way." The hall broke into a frenzy of nervous whispers.

Vance muttered a low spell under his breath, and a chaotic cascade of papers poured out of his palms like a fountain, spilling onto the table. He reached into the pile, plucked one out, and slowly unfolded it.

"Baron."

"Are you kidding me?" Baron hissed under his breath as he rose from his seat. Beside him, Ace was quietly laughing into her sleeve.

Baron marched down the steps and stopped right before the covered birdcage.

"A Commandment. A perfect candidate to start us off," Vance murmured, circling him like a hawk. "Ready?"

Baron nodded once. The room fell utterly silent. Everyone watched keenly now.

"Clear your mind. Quiet the noise in your head." Vance kept circling him.

"Exhale. Let the breath leave your lungs slowly, and with it, drop the tension in your shoulders." Baron exhaled gently.

"Good. Now, stop looking with your eyes and start looking inward. Feel your mana. It isn't a weapon right now; it is a warm, steady pulse right beneath your sternum. It feels like a second heartbeat, doesn't it?"

Baron nodded slowly.

"Let that heat spread. Let it flow down your arms and pool into the palms of your hands." Vance had stopped moving.

"Now comes the vital part: do not just imagine a creature. A familiar is not a sketch in a textbook. It is a piece of your soul given form."

"If you want a wolf, do not just picture fur. Feel the phantom weight of its muscle. Hear the low, rumbling vibration of its breath in sync with yours. Smell the ozone and wild earth of its spirit. If you want a bird of prey, feel the sudden, sharp rush of wind against feathers."

"Your mana is the clay, but your intent is the mold. Build it in your mind, cell by cell, instinct by instinct. Call to it. Tell it that it is alive, that it belongs to you, and that it is finally time to wake up. Open your eyes. Cast your mana forward. Summon!"

Baron's eyes snapped open. The irises dissolved, his pupils expanding and shifting into rings of flawless, burning gold.

The temperature dropped instantly, his breath turning to mist as his mana flowed from his core, trickling like a cold, heavy current down his arm and gathering in the hollow of his open palm.

Without warning, the curtains snapped forward. A biting gust of wind blew into the window, howling as it circled the birdcage like a hunting predator. The cage began to rattle and shake violently, dancing on its chain as a localized shadow bled into the center of the iron bars.

Then it stopped.

Something burst out of the cage and landed on all fours. The entire class gasped. My fingers dug into the edge of the seat.