Finally able to feel the wind on his skin that he had seen rocking the trees while in his prison, the Lord of Night had not looked forward to anything so much in a long time. Waiting for the stupidly slow human to work was simply agonising.

“Wait, you don't have a penis?” The human questioned while pointing at his bare crotch area.

The Lord of Night’s brain stuttered and his jaw dropped incredulously at the absurdity of the question.

“That's all you have to say to me after summoning me?!?” He yelled, insulted and utterly flabbergasted.

“Oh, I'm Theodric Thornewood, fifth in line to House of Thornewood. Nice to meet you,” The human blinked and introduced himself enthusiastically. Using the same finger he had pointed at the Lord of Night’s divinely empty crotch, Theodric gestured hurriedly at the others. “And that’s Morvax, Barkly and headmaster Ravencrest,”

“But um, I’m still curious about your lack of, uh,” Theodric waved vaguely at his crotch again. “Oh, but you don’t need to tell me anything if you’re insecure about it,”

“Insecure…?!” Shock wore off immediately and he hissed with rage at the indignity. The Lord of Night gritted his teeth and laboriously restrained himself from attempting to smite Theodric where he stood.

The Lord of Night barely bit back any nasty threats on the human’s life, as it would probably be bad for his health too seeing as he had no way to defend himself, but he was close, too close.

The Lord of Night had probably leaked a bit of his presence, as it was evident that a pressure had descended on the group before him, for they respectively took a step back or tensed up in battle stances. He had probably forgotten to obscure his bloodlust too.

Already straining his new body to its limits through sheer emotional stress, he huffed in irritation, doing his best to calm down and avoid scaring the hex-happy mortals into blasting him to smithereens. Which he would never have dreamed of as something he needed to do before.

“I apologise for my rudeness, I will do better to avoid unleashing my pressure in the future,” The Lord of Night said slowly, to avoid retching at every word that left his mouth. Already regretting it, he grimaced internally, it was a brand new mouth too. “To answer your question, I do not possess any reproductive organs because I do not reproduce, simple as that.”

“It’s quite alright, no harm done,” Theodric beamed and relaxed from his fighting stance. He was absolutely thrilled that the entity even wanted to communicate at all. “So what do you prefer to be called by?” His eyes gleamed in anticipation.

The Lord of Night almost gasped aloud, it was like a weight had been lifted off his soul that he hadn’t noticed before when the familiar bond relaxed its vice grip around his soul. A bit of the terror from last night reemerged at the newfound restrictions. So that’s how the familiar bonds keep them -him- in line. But what were the boundaries of what was considered a threat to the summoner? It’ll have to be investigated at a later date.

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Blinking back into the present after the unsettling revelation, the Lord of Night almost told him his full title, but paused as it would most definitely be a bad idea to let anyone know who could take advantage of his weakness. He couldn’t think of any enemies he had off the top of his head at that moment. But mortals are always endlessly power-hungry and he refused to be ruled or used, not that anyone would value his opinion on the matter.

“...I do not possess a name,” Which was technically true: the Lord of Night was his identity, the purest definition of himself, condensed into words, but it was not necessarily his name. He felt it best to stick to half-truths, as he wasn’t sure how much Theodric could tell through the bond, but he wasn’t keen on finding out the hard way.

“That’s great! We can come up with a name for you!” Theodric was bursting at the seams with excitement -not only did he get a new familiar, but he gets to name it too?!? Can this day get any better? “Soo…let’s see, how ‘bout…Vaylen?”

The Lord of Night took a moment to register the professor’s words, still unused to Theodric’s bombardment of happy feelings on his soul. “Uh…”

“Oh, maybe Eryndor instead? That has a majestic vibe to it,” Theodric hurried on at his familiar’s doubtful expression.

The Lord of Night tilted his head slightly to the side in thought. It does sound good, but there’s something off about it. After repeating his thoughts on it, Theodric nodded, deep in thought.

“How does Valendor sound?” The human asked after a moment of consideration. “A combination of the two previous names,”

The Lord of Night seriously considered it, tilting his head slightly, ultimately deciding that Valendor was a name he could tolerate being called by, he nodded, solidifying this current body’s name.

“Valendor it is then,” Theodric chuckled. “Welcome to the club, Valendor. But first, let's get you some clothes at the market, I doubt the headmaster would like you walking around campus completely naked with nothing but boots on,”

Theodric tactfully did not ask Valendor why in the world he was only wearing footwear. And since Theodric only implied his interest, Valendor saw no reason to grace him with an answer, and merely nodded again to his dressing request.

It was reasonable given that humans see clothing as a major part of etiquette, and Valendor would admit that he quite enjoyed wearing some of the fancy ones in the past. So he rather looked forward to trying on some of the clothing in this era: if the humans had ever been good at something, it was superb fashion sense. If memory serves of course, though he doubted humans ever changed much in this regard since three thousand years ago.

The headmaster finally spoke up behind Theodric. “You’re welcome to use school funds for a fitting suit of your familiar’s caliber, Sergeant Theodric,”

“After all, the school buildings and its students would not have been safe if you hadn’t made the sacrifice and stopped Mister Valendor in time,”

Ah, that did it. Reminded that the almighty Lord of Night had been reduced to someone’s familiar, the headmaster’s comment served as a painful slap back to reality of who was the Lord of Night’s master, and who was leashed like a chained pet.

Theodric had been chill and casual about it, but to anyone else, Valendor would only be known as a human’s familiar, born as a slave on the day dignity went to die. He had been distracted by the human’s niceties right from the start.

Good mood vapourised within seconds, the Lord of Night fully embraced his hatred once again like rain after a drought.