I feel the mist once again envelop me. The journey is instant, or near enough that I can hardly notice the difference.

The next moment I appear in a small, dilapidated room, or maybe shack. A broken window is covered up by a couple planks of wood and the rest of the room isn’t in a much better state. Old and dusty, half filled with broken bits of what I presume used to be furniture, it is quite a wonder that it still stands.

Beneath me is a familiar image of a summoning circle, even if the details aren’t exactly identical. Fortunately, this one isn’t drawn in blood and instead in what appears to be plain charcoal, confirmed by the nearby presence of a small bit it. No candles this time too, which is a bit of a shame, but what can you do.

And there, in front of the circle, is an eerily familiar scene. A young boy, malnourished and weak, stands there. And while he too has determination in his eyes, it is of a different kind, accompanied by hope.

Suddenly, we are interrupted by loud banging on the door, which I now notice is barricaded by some of the scrap in the room. It continues for a moment or too, before a gravelly voice interrupts it.

“We know you’re in there! Open up and you may yet get off lightly!” Shouts an old man from behind the door.

The boy, upon hearing this, collects himself, as if realizing for the first time what kind of situation he is in. He begins to speak, yet the people outside trying to break in interrupt him once more.

“Please, please, please form a contract with me!” He manages to shout out over the noise before the door shatters.

“Sure” is all I say in reply, and once again begin to be pulled towards my summoner.

In that exact moment the, who now that I can see them, guards or soldiers rush into the room, intent on tackling the boy. And yet, the same voice as before stops them. It is an older guard, presumably their captain or something, and he’s intense gaze is focused on me. Or more accurately, my movement towards the boy.

Sorry mate, but I can’t stop this. It’s all automatic. And then I’m gone. Well, not gone, just locked to the point of view of my summoner once again.

The captain sighs and gestures to the guards. Hmm, is that a secret sign language? I’ll have to learn that later, if I get the chance. Or should I make up my own? Wait, why would I even need a secret sign language, I don’t have arm! Or any appendage for that matter! I’ll have to somehow fix that. After all, the serpent was a spirit too, and they weren’t a ball of solid light.

My musings are interrupted as I realize that while I was distracted, we’ve begun to move. The guard captain, who I’m going to call that until proven otherwise, is leading us, or rather the boy, towards somewhere in the city.

Speaking of which, I’ve never seen anything like it before! Admittedly, my life has been extremely short so far, but still! House after house, all along the cobblestone street. They’re all made of mostly wood, at least I think, but as we continue there are more and more stone ones. There aren’t many people on the streets, butt hose that are out and about are paying quite a lot of attention to us. Maybe the captain is famous? Who cares!

Sadly, my exploration of this new environment is cut short by the captain. It seems we’ve arrived at our destination. It’s a two-story stone building, similar to the neighbouring ones, yet it is more… fancy, I guess. It has decorations, unlike most other houses, and is also cleaner, even if not exactly clean.

Inside we, I and the boy, are left inside of an empty room. We’ll there are two chairs and a table, but other that it’s empty.

Some time passes, however I’m very patient. Then again, this is a new situation for me, so I’m still taking everything in. Not that I’m in shock or anything!

After a while, when it seems that we will be left alone for a while, the boy finally speaks.

“He-hello? Are you there?” He asks hesitantly, as if afraid something will happen just because he asked a question.

Wait, is he talking to me? I mean, there’s no one else here, so probably? Most likely? Ah whatever, might as well try to answer.

“Yep, yep. Still here, alive and hale. At least, I think I’m alive. Are spirits considered alive? Who knows!” I stop keeping my thought contained for a second. Ok, I need more practice with that, let a bit more than I meant to slip.

“I-I’m not sure?” comes out of him after another moment of silence. Huh, must have shocked him somehow. Oh well, he’ll adapt.

“Oh well, doesn’t really matter. Hey, do you know what’s happening here? You’re obviously in some trouble. Also, why were all the houses wooden first, and then stone? Is the guards captain famous?” Ups, let a bit more than I wanted slip again. I’m sure it’s gonna be fine.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Or maybe not. My little summoner appears to be, once again, stunned for some reason. Maybe I really should learn to contain my thought better. Ok, let’s give it a try. Focus, and…

“Oh, yeah! What your name? I seem to remember that’s what you humans were about, right?” Well, I’d say that that’s progress! Obviously, there was some slippage again, but better than last time.

“Aiden” he whispers.

Huh? Aiden? What that? Oh wait, right. I asked him for his name. Aha, so my summoner is named Aiden? Well, that’s nice. I never learnt my first summoners name, so let’s just forget him and consider this summoning numero uno. Or did I? Doesn’t matter, he wasn’t really a proper summoner anyway.

My precious musings are once again interrupted by the increasingly more annoying captain as he brings us out into a different room. Admittedly, this one is bigger and much more nicely furbished. There awaits us another person. An old lady, with greying hair sits on a couch as she sips tea.

“Is that him?” she asks the captain while glancing at us. Or glancing at Aiden? Not sure how I should talk about our little duo.

“Yes, Magus Quinn” he replies in a very respectful tone. Almost too respectful.

“Well then, let’s have a look at you boy.”

She motions for us to get closer. Aiden does so and stops a meter or so in front of her, fidgeting nervously. She examines him from head to toe, though it doesn’t look like she’s really looking at us.

After a while, she declares: “Well, you’ve just barely enough mana to qualify. Now then, bring out this alleged familiar of yours so that we can be done with this.”

“Um, excuse me, but how? Er, Magus.” Aiden nervously stammers out. Seriously, he has a problem. If he wants to be my summoner, he needs to gain some confidence.

She sigh, but luckily replies, “You just have to call it forth, it comes out on its own. Seriously, this is not hard, keeping them in is supposed to be difficult.” She murmurs the last bit quietly.

Wait, I could have been out and about this whole time? I didn’t have to be contained to just this one view, with no agency of my own? This is a travesty! A truly unjust world we live in!

“Um, come forth?” Oh, shut up Aiden!

With a thought I am finally free of my prison. Ooh, this is nice! Took long enough to be able to explore on my own, unconfined by a summoning circle or the summoner. As I begin to flit about the room, exploring at last, she locks her gaze onto me. Ok, sorry Aiden, I never should have doubted you. That analytical stare, as if she were dissecting me with every passing second, is seriously weird.

Eventually she lowers her eyes back onto Aiden. “You should consider yourself to be so, so, so lucky. That’s one of the weakest Familiars I have ever seen, combined with your mediocre talent you never would have gotten any schooling at all! But the rules are the rules and you do have a Familiar, so I guess you’re coming with me.” Wow, she really doesn’t like the situation. Oh well.

She stands up to leave, motioning Aiden to follow after her. As they’re leaving the room and passing by the captain, he gives a respectful bow to Magus whatever and a look to Aiden. Hmm, should I follow them? Sure, why not. It sure beats being confined to just this room.

Once we are outside, I realize a very important fact. We are outside and I’m not locked in place! So naturally, I fly up. And up. And up. Once I judge to be high enough, I look down.

The town below look almost tiny from this view. The streets chaotically crisscrossing each other and the variety of houses all throughout. There’re still fewer stone buildings on the outskirts though. Oh wow, is that a river? It’s my first time seeing a river! It’s running straight through the town! Outside the town are just some fields and even further a forest. That’s all stuff that I’ve already seen though, so much less exciting.

Then I hear a voice inside my head which sound exactly like Aiden. Which is weird because he’s not here and his voice shouldn’t be able to reach this high.

“Um, could you please come down here?”

“Sure can buckaroo! I’ll be right there Aiden.”

I quickly fly back down to the sight of a still nervous Aiden and an impatient Magus. I settle to circling around Aiden while observing.

It doesn’t take long for another person to appear. And I really do mean appear. Like, one moment there was no one and there next, they were there. Honestly, a bit rude if you ask me, but what do I know.

They wear a purple robe with a long hood. And honestly, that’s all I can see! Stupid hoods and their anti-sight properties.

“Did you call for transportation?” the extremely rude hooded person asks. Which is just stupid, because obviously yes! Still, the Magus lady answers him with a yes, and they nod their head.

We all gather in a circle around this strange human, at least I think human, transportation. Then, a strange something envelops me and a weirdly familiar feeling washes over me. It almost feels like… like being summoned? Huh, but it’s not quite the same. And that strange something also feels almost like something I know.

Before I have the chance to dissect the unusual sensations again, the scenery changes. Or more precisely, we change location.

I, along with my three companions, suddenly find myself in some kind of courtyard. Its floor is made out of smooth stone and all around us are buildings. And yet they are almost unrecognizable from the ones in the, presumable, other town. They are all clean, tall, most are even decorated.

There are a couple of people who are all moving towards the outskirts of the plaza. And also… Wow! Another group of four suddenly appears. Is this some kind of teleport station?!

In my astonishment I didn’t even notice that we too started moving out of the way. Our transport is nowhere to be found though. Good riddance!

And then I notice where we’re headed. A grand gate guards our destination. The gate itself is massive. Mound out of stone and carved with dozens of images of various lizards like creatures. And yet, even with how grand and extraordinary it is, it pales when compared to what lies beyond.

Beyond it is something that cannot be described otherwise than a castle. And yet it’s even more than that. Yes, it has high reaching towers and is extremely fancy, but it doesn’t just sprawl upwards. Its accompanying building reach wide as well and all of it is, quite frankly, too fancy. Combined with the ancient feeling it gives of, one has to say that it is otherworldly.

I’m broken out of my admiring but the fact that we’ve just crossed under the gate. Magus I-forgot-her-name turn to us and says:

“Welcome to the Azunad Academy of the Arcane Arts.”