The teacher was explaining "thermal magic theory". I didn't pay much attention rather I was more focused on one of Theo's classmates.

He was about the same height as Theo was, he wore the same clothes but seemed to have ditched the ridiculous hat everyone used. His hair was light brown, the same as his eyes.

"Hey familiar" He was whispering trying to gain my attention, he had been doing so for quite a while "Hey"

"What do you want?" He had been bothering me and I finally decided to humor him, it was more entertaining than watching the weird beasts people had as familiars "Also be quiet, you are supposed to be learning right now"

He looked confused "You think I don't know this? I'm gonna be an alchemist... it's the best I can be with my familiar" Standing on his shoulder he had some kind of muted green frog "A swamp frog grants good affinity with water and poison which also helps with antidotes"

"Well that's great" I didn't know if being an alchemist was a good career path but the fact that he hadn't dropped out after getting the familiar it probably wasn't the worst... speaking of which I really didn't understand familiars, some of them were really flashy while others just looked like mundane animals though according to Theo the aspect of a familiar had nothing to do with its power... also what did affinity with poison mean? Is it with specific types of poisons or with the concept of poison.

"So... I've been meaning to ask..." He got closer and spoke almost in a whisper his eyes shining with expectation "What's your element?"

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Confusion was evident in my face "My element?" Theo had asked me the same question multiple times but I had no idea, I wasn't really sure I was a familiar and not just a summoning spell went wrong. Of course telling people that wasn't the best idea considering that my livelihood depended on Theo thinking I was a familiar... "Why don't you take a guess?"

"Well I've bet money on your primary aspect being earth, the real mistery are your secondary aspects"

"Wait, there are bettings about my primary aspect?"

"Well you haven't really shown your face and rumours about a humanoid familiar have gone around" Maybe hiding in Theo's room was a mistake... "In fact not everyone believes you are actually a familiar, some people like Lour over there say you are a fake, a peasant hired to mask the fact that the familiar ritual failed... are you a peasant?"

He had pointed towards a guy with the flashiest of familiars, a winged lizard was perched in his shoulder, it had no eyes which freaked me out a little bit. "Of course I'm not a peasant" I scoffed at him as if he had said something ridiculous "I'm Theo's familiar and I'll beat anyone who says otherwise"

"Woah I didn't want to insinuate you weren't a familiar" My fake outrage seemed to have worked "You are lucky though... I was worried you were a fake and that you would end up dead in today's duel"

My confusion must have been obvious since he promptly explained himself "You do know Theo arranged a duel with Lour right?"

Almost in time I managed to see Lour staring at me, when he noticed I had seen him he smiled.