Louise forms a strange pact with a sinister book instead of summoning Saito. This provides her with power, every creature she could possibly imagine as a companion, and the validation she has always craved.
But at what cost?
Follow her in the thorny, cruel path she has chosen, and find out.
The reflection housed on the full body length mirror stared back at me with the grim intensity of a sickly corpse, grey-black circles surrounding my eyes and bringing their exhaustion into stark clarity and contrast with my pale skin. The morning sun peeked behind the horizon, mocking me with its radiance.
I repeated the words of the summoning ritual to myself for what had to be the millionth time, the words themselves already engraved into my mind with burning clarity thanks to countless utterances across the past months, all in preparation for this exact day.
With a forced exhalation, I stepped outside my room and headed for the open court in the middle of the academy, where I had already seen the summoning circle from my window first thing in the morning, marked on the packed earth with bone-white chalk. The colour looked particularly ghoulish in the early morning, a small detail that I tried to put out of my mind while going down the main stairs of the residential part of the academy. Servants greeted me, and students sneered or subtly jeered my way, laughing between friends at my cost.
I didn't grit my teeth or clench my fists, nor did I sneer back or throw back their insults at them.
I simply walked past them. Not unscathed, not unhurt, simply uncaring. Hollow taunts died smothered in their crib as I kept my course, throats seizing up as I walked past their owners with all the aplomb usually reserved for a funerary march.
Despite my precautions and exhaustive care in arriving exactly with ten minutes to spare, the full class was already there along with mister Colbert, who was looking at me with a small smile that I didn't have enough energy to return. He faltered for a second before turning to the rest of the students, voice raised in that soprano of his.
"Well class, it seems that we're all present! I assume that everyone here knows what we're doing today, and how to do it?" a chorus of nods and 'yes's greeted him. He smiled at that. "Even if that is the case, let me repeat an abridged version to wake all of you up for good." There were groans and small protests, but no one openly opposed him.
"The Springtime Familiar Summoning rite is the most important day for every mage of Tristain. This will determine your future companion and affinity, a creature that shall serve you to the best of their ability for the rest of their lives. As you already know this is a binding ritual, passed on by the Founder himself, and a once-in-a-lifetime occasion." Once enough severity was conveyed through his tone alone, his expression softened, and some of the students relaxed without them themselves noticing the act. Mister Colbert could be very scary when he proposed himself to the task, something that proved true each and every time his face hardened for one reason or another.
With a clap of his hands and two quick steps, he left the ritual circle open for anyone to step in. "Well! We don't have all day, so we'll start from left to right, commencing with…"
And that's where the stares and stage whispers directed to my general vicinity commenced anew, all of them thinly veiled jabs at my inexistent ability to do magic beyond basic, mere explosions. I felt a spark of fury, of that old defiance that had characterised me the first half a year of school, but it quickly faded, sputtering and dying a lonely, cold death.
Students entered the circle, familiars went back outside with them. A bugbear, a cat, a parrot, a dog… The most exciting additions to the slowly growing monster roster were Tabitha's small Syphian Dragon, named Sylphid, Guiche's mole, and Zerbst's Salamander, obnoxiously named Flame.
The rest of them blended into a formless mass inside my head as I redirected what little focus I had left on remembering and muttering the words I had carefully chosen over the last months for this particular moment. Concentration that was broken as Zerbst closed the distance with me and started speaking in that annoyingly falsely concerned stage voice.
"I wonder what Louise will summon? Well, it's not as if I expect anything given that you're a Zero," as the rest laughed and Colbert frowned, she continued, "well, I honestly think anything would be better than her usual results." A mischievous smirk invaded her lips, and I felt my shoulders tense. She always smiled that way when she prepared something particularly nasty. "What if she summons a commoner? Wouldn't that be funny? The ultimate proof that she doesn't belong here."
That… hurt. Even if I didn't want to admit it. It dug at my own fears, doubts and anxieties, bringing them closer to the surface than I would've wanted — and I wanted them dead and buried in the deepest parts of my soul. With a deep breath, I repeated to myself the mantra that my mother instilled in me, locking everything I could inside an Iron Maiden carved out of pure, cruel steel. I exhaled, opening my eyes once I noticed that I had closed them. I noticed Zerbst's disappointed expression, and I let a small jolt of amusement and satisfaction run through me. I always liked foiling whatever stupid scheme she cooked. It was a small pleasure in what was becoming an environment I was coming to loathe.
As the second to last — me being the last one — carried through their own rite, I wondered if their accusations of me not belonging here, not really having magic had a kernel of truth. After all, no mage was completely incapable of casting even the most basic of spells. As I shook my head, fruitfully casting away my doubts, Mister Colbert turned to me with a small smile that quickly gained a strained edge. He already knew me, I couldn't fault him for doubting me.
"It's your turn, Miss Valiere. Please proceed to the circle and cast the rite."
He stepped back as I entered the circle, and everything fell away.
The months I spent refining my ritual didn't matter. My doubts, my anxiety, my hatred… none of it mattered. It never did. It never has.
The only thing that mattered was the burning desire in the centre of my chest, as scorching as the fury of a star, eternal, unyielding. My speech fell away, as did everything else in my mind but the words burning it, engraving themselves into my psyche and coming out straight from my deepest point.
"Please… anyone. Anything. I offer you whatever you desire, at any cost. My life, my blood, my soul, my time…
Anything. Just… please. Please, answer me. I beg you."
Reality came apart at the seams.
A moment frozen in eternity as endless snapshots crossed my eyes at a speed that defied belief. Ruinous wastes filled with walking corpses; miasmic jungles where the strong thrived and fed on the souls of the weak; dead worlds that spun without name nor purpose or light, planetary graveyards full of wrathful wraiths, gems frozen for all of existence in an onyx tapestry with tapered points of cold light; mountains bleeding oceans of sickly golden godly Ichor; moons cracking, cancerous pinkish flesh beneath hard stone; living, breathing black holes that stretched out time and space and infinity itself into a mere mockery and shadow of their former selves. Infinite, unending, inescapable.
My head snapped back, eyes wide and nose trickling with a warm substance. I heard someone call for my name, but I didn't pay attention to it.
On the floor, there was a book. An averagely sized tome bound with chains that seemed to weigh quite a bit. Its cover seemed to suck up the light around it, not as if it were bending it towards itself, but as if it barely reflected any at all. Its shadow fluctuated and danced in the morning sun as I crouched down intending to pick it up, but someone beat me to it.
A feminine, refined hand snatched it out from the floor, and for a single moment pure, unending rage filled my veins in a way not too dissimilar to the heat and flow of the heart of a forge. Zerbst looked at the book and opened her mouth, possibly wanting to spew one of her inane quips, until she saw my face. She faltered, closed her mouth and extended her hand with the book. Mr Colbert was already rounding on the Germanian, a stormy expression darkening his features, and for once, truly frightening the students.
"What were you thinking, Miss Zerbst?"
"Well, I wasn't—"
"Yes, that is clear. Please refrain from doing such a thing in the future." At that, he turned to me with a complicated expression. "Well, Miss Valiere, you should… complete the contract."
He seemed conflicted at that, and I don't blame him, given that sealing the contract between master and servant has to be done with a kiss. I smiled, the first genuine smile since I got admitted into this hellish academy. "It's already done, Mister Colbert. See?" I tapped the backside of the book, showing him the faintly glowing runes, slowly settling as their light faded. He furrowed his eyebrows as the rest of the class looked on, confused, as they commented between them.
"A book on Magic?", "Have you ever heard of a living book?", "No, not really. Maybe it comes with an integrated teacher? That way Zero wouldn't be so useless…", "I don't think so. Zero will always be Zero. Maybe it's just a boring book on maths or something", "Yeah, that could be it."
They went on and on and on ad nauseam, but I didn't care, because as I opened my book with all the ease of the world, all the chains and locks fell away at a mere thought, and I confirmed what I already knew. I wouldn't have just one familiar.
I would have as many as I wanted, forever and ever. The Tome would make sure of it.
"Miss Valiere? Would you kindly let me take a look at the runes?" I traced the runes on the backside of the book, still burning with a faint, greyish light. I nodded, but I didn't let go of the book, too immersed in its contents.
The Darkest Tome.
Unbreakable, impossible to steal, and completely intertwined with the Soul of the contractor, the Darkest Tome gathers any and all methods of summoning and binding creatures, no matter what blackened corner of the universe they come from. Be aware, that the Tome never, ever provides allies or friends. It provides servants.
Within its pages there were another two entries, Tapping the Tome, and the Darkhold.
Tapping the Tome gifted me with a small pool of energy to do with it as I pleased, something that I only managed to notice now. There was a comforting warmth filling my veins, pulsing along my chest. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever felt — magic, of my own. My very own magic, joyfully wrapping around my soul in a comforting embrace.
The Darkhold provided me with what the book called a limited hammerspace. Any and all supplies that came as gifts directly from the book would be stored there until I took them out, at which moment it would be impossible to put them back.
Rapidly flipping the other pages, I found that all the chapters of the book were empty, something that slightly disappointed me, even if the emotion was unintentional. The chapters gathered on the Tome were six — Rites and Rituals, which involved summoning creatures; Surgery of the Self, which would contain methods to create servants from my very own being; Infernal Boons, which would offer options to better my summons; Protective Techniques, to protect me from my summons and the effects they could cause; Dark Secrets, which would grant me direct magical abilities so I wasn't completely defenceless if cut off from my summons; and Wells of Power, which would gather sources of knowledge, mana, and reagents so I didn't have to gather everything myself.
I froze for a second as I just noticed something new inside my head. There was a blackened thread that reached downwards, downwards, downwards; like a charred length of silk that somehow held on for dear life. I felt… something, passing close by. Like a courtyard full of doors, bolted shut and chained, but still rattling and moving when the thread passed close by. The best way I could describe it was a graveyard full of mausoleums in which everything that had been buried was alive and wanted out.
I felt the thread inside me reach for one of the smallest doors, my breath seizing up as I felt the chains unravel, the bolts coming apart in a wave of decay, and the door slam open against the walls of my mind.
Mana was lifeblood, blood was mana. Everything was one and the same, and I just needed the right mix to bring to the world my first summons. A careful application of blood mixed with energy in a particular way and cast across the earth could give raise to my new minions and servants. I could choose how they would be, what would be their tasks and what capabilities they had to complete them. With great effort and great sacrifice, I could even bring greater creatures into this world under my will or improve already summoned ones, but that was something that I couldn't do due to the cost.
For now.
The new entry in Rites and Rituals was called Water the Earth, and it contained what I already suspected, if with more detail.
"Miss Valiere?" I snapped out from my own head, now staring at Colbert with a smidgeon of irritation. I wanted to try out my new summons, not be subjected to the gazes and whispers of my classmates.
"Yes?" I really wanted to get away and sequester myself in my room or take a hike along the nearby forest. I wanted to summon.
"I've finished copying the runes, thank you for that." He turned to the rest of the class with a strained smile. "Now that the Familiar Summoning rite has been completed, you have the rest of today and the entirety of tomorrow to familiarize yourself with your summons," he clapped as he continued, "now if you excuse me, I need to go pay a visit to the headmaster. Have a good day."
The rest of the class dissolved into the usual cliques and groups; everyone but Zerbst and Tabitha. They looked at me with a conflicted expression that was quickly schooled into the usual derision and an arched eyebrow, respectively. Somehow, Tabitha's small expression was more unsettling than Zerbst's bombastic attitude.
With haste, I made my way through the group of students, who were now floating or climbing into their respective rooms, with me quickly becoming the only one that had to walk to the dorms. The usual jeers and sneers didn't sting as much as usual, now that I knew that their claims and accusations were false.
I belonged here. I had magic, and I had a Familiar, and a way to summon more.
With time, they would see how wrong they were. They would all see it.
Rites and Rituals 1/??
Surgery of the Self 0/?
Infernal Boons 0/??
Protective Techniques 0/??
Dark Secrets 0/??
Wells of Power 0/??
Free powers.
- The Darkhold.
--
In order to avoid manifesting difficult-to-explain items at its wielder at inopportune times, the Tome will allow its wielder to access the Darkhold, a buffer space connected in some way to the Tome intrinsically.
Any items that the Tome provides will be generated within this space, and any items that respawn will do so into this space. Once an appropriate physical location is available (such as one of the various libraries in Wells of Power), items will spawn/respawn there instead.
Items stored in the Darkhold can be extracted at any time by the wielder reaching into what is, to an outside observer, thin air. Once an item is extracted from the Darkhold it cannot be returned (except by respawning there). Items stored in the Darkhold are treated as existing in a form of stasis until they are extracted, and will not experience the normal passage of time for the duration; reagents won't expire, for example.
- The Darkest Tome.
--
This can optionally be taken as a perk or item, determining what form the Tome takes for its wielder.
If this is taken as a perk, the Tome exists in much the same form as the Celestial Forge; a sort of mental index that is accessed in the wielder's mind's eye. The Tome itself exists in some dark and distant place, inaccessible to all but the wielder. They can flick through its pages at will with but a thought.
If this is taken as an item, the Tome instead exists in much the same form as the Jumpchain Warehouse Key; a physical book kept on the wielder's person, indestructible and very difficult to lose. If it is, somehow, lost, it will find its way back to the wielder within a few minutes.
Regardless of what form the Tome takes, when it first manifests it will only contain pages with Chapter headings and, optionally, a foreword section containing the Tome-specific perks/items (ie. The Darkest Tome, Tapping the Tome, and Darkhold) that the author has chosen to use. Its visual appearance is up to the author, but my suggestion would be a collection of worn yellow pages bound in a cover of roiling shadow. Text and illustrations are all in black ink, except where colour is relevant (such as for diagrams).
- Tapping the Tome.
--
To facilitate summoning systems that require some level of magical potential or mana investment to function, the Tome will allow its wielder to draw a trickle of magical power from it. This provides a small pool of generic magical power that can function with any given magic system (able to be substituted for mana, prana, personal power, etc.). It is very modest in output, but sufficient to get the Tome's wielder started - greater power sources await.
Any new perks or items the wielder gains that expand mana pools or grant magical potential may instead expand this generic pool's output by an appropriate amount.
Chapters.
Rites and Rituals.
- 1. Water the Earth.
-- Create summons via blood and mana.
---
By scattering drops of your blood upon the earth and investing your mana you may give rise to monstrous servants. You may command them as you see fit across any distance, see through their eyes, and treat them as you wish for they are not truly alive. You are only limited by your levels of health and mana and the processing constraints of your mind.
For the moment you may give rise to Swarmlings, Reavers, and Giants, but in the future who knows what you could create. Do be mindful though that the stronger the creature the greater its cost, and some will demand more than blood and mana. After their creation you may also invest mana in monsters you have created to increase their power, but as with gems the cost quickly becomes prohibitive. Monsters you create will not resist your commands, but they are not strictly loyal as they do not have much of a mind of their own. Should your control over them falter they will likely revert to a primal state. If you learn to create more intelligent monsters they will likely follow you as long as you remain stronger than them, but what they would do when not under your control will be hard to predict.
