“You wish to help?” Suma chirped slightly confused.

“If I can, yeah.” I told her.

“Even after… even after I tried to control you?”

“Just don’t do it again,” I chuckled.

“Of course, never again,” She said and began almost bobbing up and down singing happily, “Asumu da jonn nis ah!”

“Um, I think the translation thing stopped working for a second.” I said.

Suma slowly stopped bouncing and, still exited, explained, “oh no, it is still working fine. I was singing in the old tongue of my people. I do not truly know what it means, but in my country it is sung when we are happy.” “Oh,” I nodded in understanding. “So, Suma, can you tell me what I should expect if I were to become your familiar?”

Suma’s head craned back as if she were avoiding a slap, “Grea—uh Jake, I could not possibly make you my familiar! I am not worthy to be the master of such a powerful being as you. You have already shown so much kindness by naming me; I could not possibly ask any more of you.”

I shook my head and waved a hand in dismissal, “you aren’t asking, I am. I prepared for years in case I was summoned again, then I find out that there’s no danger anymore, and I basically wasted years of my life over nothing. I want to at least use the skills I learned to help someone. I’m not much of a soldier, but maybe I could make a decent familiar.”

“I-I…” Suma was dumbstruck and could barely form a sentence. She shook her head and flapped her wings, “okay.”

“So… what do we do first?” I asked.

“We need to perform the Rite of Two, it will bind our souls and allow us to communicate with each other across worlds, as well as let me summon you in a moment’s notice.” She explained.

“How do we do that?” I wondered.

“We need to go to the Grand Sanctum, it is illegal to try and perform it anywhere else now… after what happened.” I figured she was either talking about me or that Borog beast, but I didn’t ask. With that, we left the school and made our way to the city.

“Will it be alright if I just walk around like this? What if I scare someone?” I asked Suma.

“It should be fine, most people will just assume you are a familiar and under a control ritual, but you will definitely draw quite a few stares.” She chirped in a way that I think she was laughing. She wasn’t wrong, nobody bothered us, but almost everyone we passed looked at me with either shock or fear; I was guessing anyway, I still can’t exactly tell with them. For all I knew they could have been flipping me off in their own way.

We arrived at the Grand Sanctum without incident, mostly… I think one nymph was trying to seduce Suma, but she had me chase him off. She chirped happily as he squawked and flew away as fast as he could. The Grand Sanctum was a large white building, that had huge holes peppered throughout its walls. Nymphs were speedily flying in and out of them making a variety of noises as they did. There was a large open area at the bottom, well… large compared to the nymphs. I had to crouch down to make it through; I guess bipedal apes are rare for familiars. Inside it was like a giant bird cage, some areas had walls, others just wire shells, but most of it was empty space so that there was room to fly.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“This place is huge,” I whispered to Suma. She had told me that I needed to be quiet, or the other nymphs would think she was losing control of me, and I would end up in a cage or something.

“It is actually the largest building in the city right now, but I understand there is a bigger one somewhere in the Western Atolls.” Suma quietly told me. We waited in a line leading to a large pedestal for about twenty minutes, but eventually we were called up by an older looking nymph with greyish feathers and a more curled beak than Suma’s.

“Next,” he squawked.

We walked up and Suma said, “I am here to perform the Rite of Two.”

“ID number and date of hatching?” The older bird requested.

“ID- 126-5569-741, I was hatched on the second of Famuth twelve years ago. Oh, and my name is Suma.” That last part she announced proudly. As soon as Suma said she had a name, the older bird perked up and began talking in a much friendlier tone.

“Oh, Madam Suma, my apologies for the long wait, we will get you a room for your ritual right away. Um…” The older bird looked at me then back to Suma, “is this the creature you will be pairing with today or shall I get you a summoning squad?”

“This is him,” she answered.

“Very good, we will alert you in just a moment when a room is available. Please feel free to relax in our waiting area, and if you want, we have a nice kennel for your future familiar to stay in while you wait.” I shot him an icy glare and the feathers around his neck puffed up.

“That will not be necessary, Jake will be staying with me.”

“Very good,” he said looking back and forth between me and Suma. We walked into the waiting area he mentioned, and she perched on a kind of metal branch thing, meanwhile there wasn’t a single real seat in sight.

I sighed, “I guess I’ll stand.”

“Sorry about the kennel remark,” Suma said sheepishly.

“It’s no big deal,” I told her, “I guess that’s something I’ll just have to get used to.” We didn’t have to wait long for our turn in the room, I guess named nymphs are this world equivalent of rich people or nobility of some kind. The room was much smaller than the main area, but more than large enough for me and several nymphs.

“Okay Jake, are you ready?” Suma asked.

“Ready,” I told her. Suma then bowed her head and spread her wings with the tips pointing to the sky. A glowing multi-colored magic circle formed on the golden floor around each of our feet and began to twist and match the shapes of our shadows. Soon I felt a kind of heaviness in my soul and nearly fell to my knees but managed to steady myself and stay standing.

The weight suddenly vanished, and I heard a voice echoing inside of my mind. It was far away at first, and I could make out the words, but soon it boomed like thunder, “A NAME IS REQUIRED…”

“A name,” I asked aloud.

Suma looked at me questioningly, “did you hear that, Jake?” She sounded confused, or maybe scared. Without warning, a small ember began to glow on the floor, it radiated in a brilliant display of light until it nearly exploded into a roaring inferno between Suma and myself.

“A NAME IS REQUIRED!” The flaming figure bellowed. There were several large birds and their animals in the room with us, and each of them stepped back at the sight of this creature.

“I… I am Jake!” I yelled out, but the figure ignored me and turned to Suma.

She looked at me, then turned back to the figure and shouted, “his... his name is Sentinel!” The figure faded back to an ember and a burning pain shot through my shoulder.

“Ah!” I yelped and lifted up my sleeve to see that a magic circle, surrounded by some kind of alien letters, had been etched into my skin like a tattoo. I looked down at the floor and the magic circles faded away into nothing, leaving the room filled with an eerie quiet. “What the heck was that?” I asked, breaking the rest of the room’s occupants out of their own stupors.

“I have no idea…” Suma replied meekly.