Leigh’s frantic pace back to the forge is almost endearing to watch. She’s clearly excited about having a familiar of her own, even if she’s made it clear she’d rather avoid my own companion.

Leigh arrives back in the workshop before I’ve even reached the same street. By the time I arrive outside, she’s already lit the forge and I can hear her scurrying around making preparations. I walk into the building rather casually, calling out “Leigh?” to announce my presence. She immediately rounds a corner with a small crate on her shoulder, a casual display of her system-enhanced strength.

“Right here.” Leigh responds, waving idly to me. “Do me a favor and clear off the workbench for me?” she asks as she walks past. I have to hurry a bit to press past her and reach the table before she does, but I manage to clear off enough space for her to set down the cargo. Leigh immediately starts clearing off the rest of the table, and I do my best to help. Within a few minutes, we have the table fully cleared and ready for work.

“I take it the box is your offerings for the familiar?” I ask as Leigh begins to unpack a small horde of various trinkets. A few scraps of various metals, a candle, a lump of charcoal, rocks, and ashes are among the materials she produces from the crate and each of them is clearly aligned with one or more magical elements.

“Yeah” Leigh answers, “I focused on the fire and earth-aligned ones like you suggested. I have a bunch of different metals too, so if I can’t get forge I’m hoping for metal or magic metal.” Throughout her explanation, I can hear the faint worry of failure creeping its way into her voice.

“I’m sure you’ll summon something great, people with half as much talent as you don’t work nearly as hard.” I laugh, trying to ease the mood in the room. Leigh chuckles but still seems nervous.

“Hey, uh, Vincent. You never really told me how you learned all this stuff” She mumbles a few minutes later after the silence has grown long. “I can see your Mom teaching you some of this but I don’t think she’d…” Leigh’s voice trails off and I can tell exactly what she’s thinking. Cain. Mom never would have taught me actual necromancy like that, and Dad can barely cast anything. My knowledge of magic doesn’t seem to add up from her perspective. The unasked question seems to hang heavy in the air, and I can’t help but wonder how long Leigh has been stewing on this.

“I’m not sure how to answer that in a way that won’t upset us both” I sigh, turning around and leaning back against the workbench. “I know it’s pretty obvious that I know more about magic than I reasonably should, and I really would love to tell you everything. I just-” I pause, taking a deep breath as I try to stamp out the growing buzz behind my eyes. It feels like a swarm of bees has invaded my head, I can barely think straight for the first moment.

“I just worry that you won’t think of me the same after. I know you won’t, even. After I introduced you to, you know, I’m not sure I could take that” I finally manage to explain, each word ground out deliberately.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

There’s another long drawn-out silence. “I was scared, Vincent. What did you expect me to do?” Leigh sighs at me. I can’t find the words to answer her.

“I appreciate that you were honest with me when I asked, but in that first moment, I didn’t know what to think. My dad was gone, and even if I wanted him gone it was scary. I knew it had to be something, but nobody would tell me what actually happened. And then” Leigh’s voice catches in her throat.

“Then you show me this undead wolf, all bones and shadow, and I’m thinking ‘dear gods, Vincent killed my dad. He kills things for fun’ and I think it was a little understandable to freak out” She explains, stress and fatigue melting off with every word as if she’d been holding back for weeks.

I can’t refute anything she’s said, and each word lands like a hammer blow. I hadn’t realized just how deeply it had bothered her, I thought she was just scared of Cain.

“I never meant to scare you. I just - ” I try to explain, but Leigh catches me off guard.

“Vincent. Have you noticed the smell?” She asks with a disappointed look. I have no idea what she’s talking about, but I don’t want to sound like a fool by asking ‘what smell?’. She must have been able to read the confusion on my face anyway.

“The smell in the cellar. I can always tell when you’ve been down there, the whole place smells like dust, soil, and bone, just like the lot behind the butcher, or the cemetery at the church.” Leigh explains, much to my horror.

“The cellar smells like it, you smell like it when you come out from down there, and that wolf is worse.” Leigh finishes, and I am at a loss. I hadn’t noticed in the slightest, and I have no idea why no one has told me before now. Confusion swells with disappointment and shame, but beneath it all simmers a growing bubbling rage. I’m furious. Angry at everyone for not telling me, angry at Leigh for misunderstanding Cain, for misunderstanding me.

That fury feels foreign though, like a phantom limb or forgotten memory. It buzzes on the edge of my mind until I wrestle it away. I’m not sure how long it takes, but when I open my clenched eyes, Leigh is staring at me with worry.

“I’m sorry Leigh. I didn’t know. Let’s just do the summoning okay?” I suggest meekly, feeling strength fading from my limbs. There’s a sharp sting in my hand, and I glance down, reflexively opening my fingers. My hand had clinched so tightly that my nails dug four tiny divots into my palm, each of them now faintly bleeding.

I press my palm into my shirt while Leigh finishes her preparations for making a summoning contract. She arranges every trinket she’s thought to offer along the outer perimeter of the circle we drew.

I hand her the transcription of the chant I’ve written and tell her to imagine what she wants while she studies it. I know she won’t need to recite it perfectly, but the look of determination on her face makes me hope she will. For my part, I just want to get this all over with now. I wasn’t expecting all this today, and I could really use a nap.