“Leon huh?”  she looked over at the man that was currently laying on the cold stone floor next to her bed.  He looked over to her with his red eyes, they were honestly captivating.  A deep red that held a slight tinge of gold around the edge and caught all the light in the room, devouring it. ”Where are you from?”  she asked.

“I-I don't know.” he answered after pausing to consider it.  “I honestly can’t remember anything other than my name...”  he searched his head, but with the exception of a single scene of a city in flames and the cobbled streets painted in red with blood he had no memories.  He tried to think back, remember anything, anything at all, but when he did he got a stinging headache, it felt like someone had stabbed daggers into his eyes.

“Nothing?”  Lira looked over at him, placing the book down on the bed beside her.  It was a book about all known types of familiars, and as she had assumed there has never been a human familiar, or even a humanoid familiar for that matter.

“When I try to remember I feel this deep pain, it causes me to loose focus for a few seconds.”  she looked at him, that sounded like someone had locked the memories away from him artificially. But if that was so then it would have had to happen before he had been transported here as a familiar.

And there was that.  Familiars were nothing more than spirits that were summoned and bound to a practitioner.  Meaning he would have had to been a spirit before he could have been summoned.  

He was dead.

Or at least he had been dead. That subject was the center of many debates over the last 100 years or so.

“Why can I understand you even if you are speaking in a different language.”  he asked, looking over at her.

“Well it would be a hassle if a familiar did not understand its master.”

“Master huh?”  he looked over at the little girl, she was his master? Ha, as if she could ever be the master of the great- the great-... his head felt like it was going to split open, cradling it in his hands he let out a soft groan of pain.

She watched as he rolled around on the floor in pain.  She didn't know what to do, or frankly what she should even feel while she was watching him.

He stopped rolling and lifted himself off of the floor with his arms, before spitting out a large gob of blood all over the floor.  Her eyes widened as she saw the blood. Was he really in that much pain? She reached down and was going to touch his shoulder but he moved away his shoulder and looked at her with an angry look.

“Don’t assume you can command me, I will bow to no one.”  he growled before spitting out more blood. “I could kill you right now.”  he growled, His eyes glowed red with a blood lust and a promise of an early demise. “It is hard to be a master when you are dead.”

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She shrunk back away from him, her eyes wide with fear as she drew a ragged breath. He had never moved, he had simply sharpened his gaze at her.

But the meaning in those eyes were clear.

“I however do not feel like killing you, so do not make me.” he said his eyes reverting back to the normal red as he looked at her. “As of yet I have no ill feelings for you, please do not change that, I am not the type to grant mercy.”

“You would die anyway.” she said. “When the caster dies the familiar dies as well.”  that was a lie, a barefaced lie, many familiars that outlived their masters would become the guardians of their descendants, her grandfather’s familiar was one such creature.

It was a bluff, but it was one that would keep her alive for now.

“So I am stuck with you.” she nodded, thankful he had believed her.  She etched this moment in her mind, it would seem her familiar had a violent side, if this encounter and when he had first appeared were anything to go by. “Very well, I will stay, but if you think I am some servant, let us say I would rather choose death before dishonor.”  he growled, the implications were all too clear.

You mistreat me and I will kill you, even if it meant my own death.

That was what he was saying.  She would remember this. Her life depended on it.

“So explain,”  he said, sitting down, he gestured to the surroundings. “Where are we, what are you? What am I?”

She looked at the man, or whatever he was that was seated on the floor.  Even though he had just threatened to kill her mere seconds ago he now looked like a different person.  His red eyes no longer glowed with the vengeful promise of violence.

She took a deep breath, and started to answer his questions. “As I said I am  Lira Mila Vas Lirtus, I am-” she paused and pulled a face, it was obvious to him that the next thing she was going to say was a hard thing for her to say outloud. “I am the bastard child of my father a duke and a maid.”

“And in a feudal society like this one that has negative connotations does it?”  he asked, it would explain the looks he had seen some of her peers shoot her way.

“Feudal?” she asked, it was not a word she had heard before.

“An absurdly outdated or old-fashioned way of living that is based on the holding of lands in fief or fee and on the resulting relations between lord and vassal.” he looked over at her. “In other words a world that is ruled through hereditary rule, it is the only place someone would be shunned for something as simple as their parent’s social status.”

She looked at him in confusion. “How does where you came from work?” she asked.

“Power, power rules.” he stated simply. “Power is king.” he smiled even as the pain stabbed him again in the head.

“That is-”

“Where you came from does not matter, it is more about who you are and what you can do.”

“That sounds nice...” she said.

“Nice?” he looked at her, before breaking out in laughter, “No, it is not nice, if you are weak you are nothing, I say feudalism is archaic, but in truth our methods are just as barbaric.”  he stopped laughing and motioned for her to continue. “I apologize for interrupting, continue.”

“There is not much else to tell about me, I showed I had talent in magic, and my father has no other heirs so I was sent here, much to his wife’s anger.”  Leon was beginning to understand her circumstances better now. And it would seem understanding her circumstances was also understanding his own as he was currently tied to her.

“What exactly is a familiar?”  he asked.

“It is a summoned creature that covers all of the caster’s weaknesses.”

“So I am your opposite?” he asked.

“Well, yes and no, for example I am good at buffing and protecting and healing, but offensive magic...” she paused. “I am a complete failure.” she hung her head in shame.

“I see,”  he nodded to himself.  “And how long do I have to stay as your familiar?” he asked, he felt he already knew the answer, but he was hoping otherwise.

“For the rest of my life...” she answered softly. He had known that answer was coming. With a sigh he closed his eyes and resigned himself.

“I will help you,”  he said softly, “But I am no slave.”  she nodded, she would remember that.

She doubted he would let her forget...