The Familiar
Prologue410Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpXoT1QfLU1
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The calling
There was a light… or a darkness, it was hard to tell. He felt something that could only be related to nothing. He, it, his world; it just was. But there was the light, the stability, the clarity, the warmth; the only thing that existed. He was suddenly aware, or at least slightly. He existed, and he wanted to keep existing.
He moved, or felt, whatever he could do in this plane, toward the light. Around him, other entities stirred. They wanted what he wanted, the light. It was his, he couldn’t let them! As one approached it before him he did what could be most closely translated to attack. The other entity shrieked in agony, it could feel that now, and faded away. There was what could be called a collective gasp among the other entities. He felt an initial feeling of horror at what he had done, but it quickly faded away as he entered the light.
He had form. He felt the air and the earth. He saw light and darkness. He heard the wind and the leaves. He had form. Yet he was in a dream; semiconscious. He was familiar. He was a wizard’s magic cat.
Chapter one410Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2x1qhOF4yH
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Anomaly
Muttering an arcane cipher, I weave my fingers through the magic infusing the multiverse and call forth a minor being from the magic of an outer plane. I wasn’t anywhere near a good enough wizard (or apprentice) to decide which; magic was a chaotic thing.
“By the time I can control that, I will use my skills to do much more than summon useful pets,” I think. From a well of light emerges a shadow. No wait, that was a cat. A cat as black as night.
“It worked!” I yell, jumping up and down, filled with excitement. Now to think of a name… He was black, black as the incarnation of darkness.
“Onyx? Void? Midnight? Obsidian?” I say, thinking of names out loud. Just then my master comes in and upon seeing the cat exclaims,
“You did it!”, acting a little too surprised, I might add.
“Yeah, I’m trying to find a name for it, I’m thinking Midnight or Obsidian,” I say.
“Are you sure you want to keep it and not try again?” she says, ignoring my question and acting a little skeptical and… worried?
“Yeah, why not?” I say, drawing out my words in confusion.
“Nothing,” she says and changes the subject, “I suggest Umbra, it goes with your theme and it sounds well with your family name Lunargem.”
“Umbra,” I think, “Umbra Lunargem.”
“Sounds good,” I say. She nods and leaves. I look at the cat, he looks at me. I walk over to the table next to and pick up my spellbook.
My master, Gradia, had given it to me when I started as her apprentice. It was a sturdy and heavy book with a purple hardcover and edges gilded with… I don’t know what it was. She said it had been made centuries ago and had been in the hands of countless wizards. It was fancy but was not an overly lavish book and every time I picked it up he felt a hint of magic. I was told that it was residue from the many years of use, but I felt like there was something special about it.
The familiar spell wasn’t finished yet, I needed to name my familiar and complete the final invocation. After that, I will be mentally linked. For example, I will see through their eyes, speak with them telepathically and dismiss them to a “pocket dimension” at will, along with some other things.
I gather the components for the spell. A brass braver, incense, and herbs. Using a simple spell, I light the brazier and throw in components. Soon the room fills with a light haze. I flip to the right page in my spellbook and start muttering the proper invocation, put down my spellbook, and place my hand on Umbra’s head. He jumps backward and away. I felt surprised.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen.” I think. Familiars were generally obedient and unaware before the end of the spell as they had not fully come into being. I try again, but he jumps onto the table on my spellbook. Suddenly the spellbook glows with purple light and it emits a weak force wave. So distracted on completing the spell to react, I quickly place my hand on Umbras's head and mutter the last part of the spell, completing it. Just then a massive blast of energy comes from the spellbook and a sound like a thunderclap knocks me backward.
↔️↔️↔️↔️↔️↔️↔️↔️↔️↔️↔️↔️
After a few seconds, I regain my senses and see Umbra laying on my spellbook. I look around; everything has been knocked away pages from my studies are scattered everywhere.
Just then, Gradia runs in and frantically looks around. Seeing me on the floor, Umbra sitting on the spellbook, and everything blasted away from it, I can only guess what she is thinking.
She then asks a very important question, “What in the Far Realm happened here!?“
I sit up and say, “I don’t know, I was completing the last part of the spell, but Umbra didn’t cooperate and jumped on the spellbook. I completed the spell, the spellbook EXPLODED, and here I am now.”
She pauses for a moment, processing the information while I stand up and says, “I knew there was something up with that spellbook, and that familiar for that matter.” sounding awfully calm, as always.
Just then Umbra sits up and says, “Where am I?” Or, at least it was as if he was talking, but it echoed in our brains. We both froze and slowly look at Umbra, who was looking around at everything.
“Did you hear that?” I say quietly.
“Yeah,” she says, equally shocked.
“So it’s not just my mental connection, ”
“You think your familiar could talk to you even when the spell is finished,” She says rhetorically, (Just so you know, the answer is no, it’s still a cat)
Umbra then says, “Who are you? What am I? What is happening?”
This time, with indisputable evidence of it speaking, we stumble backward. And, to our continued amazement, he unfolds bat wings.
“A tressym?!” My teacher spat out.
“What?”
“A tressym. A winged cat. Though this one seems to be intelligent, psychic, looks different from any tressym I’ve ever heard about, and it’s your familiar.” She says, gathering her senses.
“What makes it look different from other tressyms?” I say, confused and still shocked.
“It, or he, has bat wings and is darker than any natural animal. Tressyms have bird-like wings and are always light and colorful. This one seems like a demon from the shadow fell.” She says, stepping away from Umbra.
“It’s a demon?!” I yelp and back away.
“No, well... I mean familiars are always demons, celestials, or fey because they are made from the magic of a random realm, but this one is in a category all on its own,” she says.
The tressym spoke again, “who are you?”
“You are my familiar, I am your master,” I say, my voice shaking.
“Familiar? Master? I don’t even know you. I’m not familiar with anything here,” it says (or projected, I’m just going to be acting as if he’s not speaking directly into our heads)
Just then, Gradia casts a sleep spell, and the tressym slumps down asleep. I relax slightly. Now we could handle this without having a conversation with whatever it was. My teacher picks it (or him) up and places him on a nearby chair within sight.
“Now let’s see what happened,” she says.
“How are you so calm?!” I say, barely believing what was happening.
“If I got worked up every time magic acted unexpectedly, I would never be calm. And I would be dead,” she notes. And went back to examining the spellbook. After casting a few divination spells, some I didn’t even recognize, she says, “I should have done this later, I knew this book had magic, but I didn’t think it would manifest itself so chaotically.”
“You knew the entire time it had magic!?” still worked up by the recent events.
“Calm down,” she mutters, “I give all my apprentices something I find interesting and special to help them gain and learn about something unique and experience the variety of magic. Most of the things I give them are rather powerful too.”
How did she have multiple apprentices? We were elves. We lived about 750 years. She was 250 something, rather young for an accomplished eleven wizard, and I was practically an infant; I was 16.
“This one is very peculiar,” she continues, “It seems it gathers magic overtime and then lets you use it to augment your spells. I think it thought you were using it as a component for your spell. Even then, this shouldn’t have happened. The only spell I can think of that imbues permanent intelligence in animals is cast by druids. But doesn’t polymorph or give psychic abilities to animals.”
“All it can do is telepathy that might as well be talking,” I interrupt.
“You don’t know if that’s all it can do, and it’s still strange,” she retorts. Then she continues, “It seems this effect had nothing to do with nature though. It's very powerful to be able to do this with psychic energy and brute force magic. As I’ve said earlier, this is a special case, and there is something special about that familiar. Probably not a good special,” she adds.
I glance at my familiar, worried. It was gone.
ns 15.158.61.5da2
