Valendor found himself t-posing on a raised pedestal while tailors darted around him, marking the cloth draped on him. Shadow phasing a donut to drop above him, he tilted his head up to catch it with his mouth and munched carefully to avoid dropping any sprinkles on the seamstresses and breaking their concentration.

With nothing else to do, he let his mind wander. He genuinely had not thought that sunlight would hurt him in his physical form, since a great friend of his, the former light pillar, had granted any physical bodies he possessed a blessing of imperviability to her light powers. It was her first gift to him, and he still missed her dearly. The blessed angel hair strung on his violin and bow were her last gifts.

He embraced the bittersweet memories of a long bygone era, the tiny but happiest chapter of his long life.

Valendor guessed it was the combination of his more unstable body, which leaned on the more incorporeal side upon his own choosing, and that the current light pillar, who was not the one who gave him the blessing, so the change in power, though subtle, was different enough that the blessing did not recognise all of the sunlight as her power and therefore unable to nullify it.

Theodric approached Valendor, who was snapping up another donut, right when the team of seamstresses scattered from their circle around him and flitted to the back of the shop to resize the clothing after marking it.

“Just out of curiosity, what type of demon are you?” Theodric questioned. “I've seen demons shadow jumping before, but to my knowledge, it's quite mana consuming, even for greater demons, even more so for shifting objects that they aren't in contact with.”

“So clothes and armour are easier to jump with but shifting objects from far away is harder, and yet you do it so casually while low on mana,” Theodric mused. “It's as if you don't need mana to shift the donuts,”

“Good observation,” he allowed, muffled by the half-chewed donut. Valendor tilted his head to the side in consideration as he swallowed. “Well, I'm just born better than demons,” Flashing Theodric his fanged grin, looking down his nose at the human from his pedestal.

He gave the human an answer that he already thought up prior, he tilted his head to the other side. “I’m what you could call in your human tongue, a Night Warden. I have far better control over shadows than any demon does,”

“Night Wardens? I've never heard anything like that before,” Theodric mused, lost in thought.

“Well, the world is pretty large, so there's bound to be stuff that you've never encountered before,” Valendor shrugged nonchalantly, dodging the half-question. “We Night Wardens like to keep to ourselves, so the world having no record of us is preferable,”

Valendor was known as the Night Warden once upon a time, though that title died along with the people who used it. So he saw no harm in bringing it back from the dregs of history so it could once again bask in glory and be passed throughout generations, a tiny memento of his past. All of which left the Lord of Night feeling rather sentimental.

“Oh, I suppose you have a point,” Theodric rubbed his chin thoughtfully. But before he could ask another question, a seamstress poked her head out and beckoned Valendor to the back of the store. All too happy to take the chance to escape Theodric’s interrogation, he hopped off the pedestal and went with her.

Theodric was too busy to notice Valendor sneaking off however, for the school badge pinned to his coat blinked in code as the light runes imbued on the badge glowed and faded rhythmically.

Return. Now. You. Your friend. Question.

The code was limited in vocabulary as the communications artifact was ancient, probably made for the staff when the school was founded, so that made them rarer as they were limited in number. Only the heads of departments were given one, and Theodric was one of the lucky few.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

He assumed by “Your friend”, the headmaster meant Valendor. “Question” was easy enough to decipher: the headmaster wanted answers, and he wanted them now.

…

“Worry not Kira,” The headmaster smiled not unkindly. “The events of yesterday were collected by multiple witnesses but we were still unable to fill some gaps, so we just want your side of the story,” He leaned forward, lacing his fingers as he propped himself on his desk by the elbows.

“Did you summon that creature on purpose?” The parallel couches facing each other, piled with the heads of departments, creaked as all of them turned to look at her expectantly.

Kira gulped air as her mouth was dry with dread. “No!...I mean I did summon it, but that’s because I suddenly sensed something, uh, powerful, and I wanted a powerful familiar, um,”

Kira avoided all their gazes by staring at the carpeted floor, voice shrinking smaller and smaller at every word. “I’m sorry I-I got greedy, it-it won’t happen again, I promise…”

The room erupted into hushed whispers and the Heads exchanged complicated looks, before silencing as soon as it started. It didn’t seem that all the members of the council were totally against her, and that gave Kira the slightest flicker of hope.

“Do you know what it is?”

“No, I don’t. I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it,” Shaking her head with renewed confidence, she added. “I had no idea what I was sensing when I summoned it. All I knew that it was very powerful,”

She could hear someone scoff in disbelief, but the head of Animus Lore spoke up. “I would be surprised if the girl knew what monster it was,” She stated. “For even I could only hope to guess it could be similar to a mutant shadow spirit,”

The person briefly argued that Kira could be lying, but it was weak and half-hearted. Headmaster Ravencrest pressed on with the questioning. “Did you feel anything off about the summoning?”

“No…I’ve summoned before but there was nothing different this time,” Kira thought hard, wracking her brain for memories of the summoning. “Oh, but there is one thing: the summon’s presence appeared suddenly within my search radius,”

“It’s not that I didn’t notice it before,” Kira hurried to get the truth out in hopes of proving her innocence. “But it suddenly popped into existence, and I didn’t think twice before falling for it,”

The council immediately erupted into heated discussion once again. Kira could catch snippets of the chatter.

“...that would explain how the aggressors planned to sneak it in…”

“...who would go to such lengths...”

“...probably in cahoots… ”

“...question is, where did they find it…”

“...absolutely despicable…”

“...so it would do the dirty work for them…”

“...how could you be sure…”

Headmaster cleared his throat loudly. The room quieted in the instant the headmaster steps in, Kira marveled at the display of authority.

“Alright Kira, this is our last question: how did you summon it? By that I mean, what similarity do you think you might have with it?”

Kira widened her eyes in realisation. “I-I have no idea,” Kira stuttered, confused as well. “I thought I had earth affinity, I mean I do, so I have no clue,”

Unhelpful grumbles of suspicion rose within the group of professors, Kira could distinctly hear the loudest accusing her of having the same wretched personality as her summons.

Kira’s heart sunk in despair, the questioning was going so well before this question, She looked to her mentor Professor Thornewood for help, but quickly realised with a sinking feeling that he was not there to help explain the intricacies of summoning.

Looking to the headmaster for help, Kira asked for her last hope. “Headmaster sir, um, may I ask…where’s Professor Thornewood?”

Before the headmaster could reply, the professor who came in with her and threatened her dismissed her coldly.

“Professor Thornewood is busy cleaning up after your mess,” He sneered snidely. “He was the one who brought that abomination of yours under control,”

“If you were wanting to drag him down with you, you will be sorely disappointed,”

The door to the office chose that exact moment to swing open, revealing Kira’s hopes and dreams personified.

“I heard someone was mentioning me?” Professor Theodric Thornewood queried, slowly surveying the room.

Kira couldn’t help but slump in relief, the Professor was a real sight for sore eyes.