"What do you mean by 'deal'?" Amy asked, oblivious to the strange magic around her.

"Well, I suppose you wouldn't know if you read his grimoire," Felin said, licking the back of his paw, "Familiar is an... interesting Spell. Come, walk with me, and I'll explain."

With all of the grace of an actual feline, Felin sauntered off towards the cellar door, not even deigning to look back to see if Amy was following. Of course, she was following, but that didn't stop a frown forming on her face from noticing it.

"A regular Familiar Spell is blank, containing only the framework. When you summon anything with Familiar you are providing that summon with a contract, imbedded in the nature of the Spell itself. The details of that contract are usually ironed out between the two parties before it is formalised, using the Fae nature of the Spell to make it... solid, if that's the right word. The Spell gets filled in with patterns corresponding to both the realm that summon resides in and a unique identifier for the summon itself, so there's no mix-ups. And that's that. The contractor then uses that new version of the Spell as their Familiar from there on until their contract ends. For me and my old contractor, that was supposed to be forever. It didn't... work out, however."

"...What was his name?" Amy asked, opening the cellar door for the pair of them and closing it behind them as they walked off, leaving the grimoire in the cellar.

"His name was... never mind, I'd rather not dwell on the past in these most important of moments," He grimaced, shaking his head, "Rather lets focus on getting things in order. The formalities of our contract will come later, for I will contract with you Amy Wachlund, Mageling of Triesen and her family. You twang upon my reality so perfectly I'd think you a living tuning fork to my mana if my Sight had failed me."

"Your reality? And you're not flying?"

"Wouldn't it be mighty suspicious if a flying cat was spotted near you?" Felin smirked, ignoring her first question, and carrying on into the woods, "Anyone spotting a lone floating feline would think they're seeing things, but with someone else? Well, they might just start asking questions. Questions neither of us would like."

"I can't imagine it would harm my image that much," Amy whispered under her breath, barely audibly, following to his side.

"Oh? A pariah or sorts, are you?"

"You heard that!" Amy exclaimed, forgetting for a moment that it wasn't a person she was talking to, "Right, you're a cat."

"Oh yes; yes I am." Felin purred at her, his grin eerily wide.

"Well, the village I'm in doesn't... know of magic. Magic-aware mundanes are becoming a lot more common since the wars, but it's still on the rarer side here in the country. After I... did something, they... Let's just say I'm not welcomed in many places in the village. Seeing me with a floating cat would just ignite the rumours more."

"Unafraid of getting hunted because of it? Magelings aren't much different from mundanes. A well shot arrow still kills you."

"I doubt they'd try to kill me, Felin. Drive me out maybe? Sure, but lynching's a bit far."

"You'd be surprised, Amy, I've seen this same situation play out many times. Nothing's more dangerous for a Mage than a mob of afraid, angry mortals."

"Mortals; really?" Amy frowned, glancing at the cat in disbelief.

"You're all mortals to me, Mageling, don't forget that. A mob of afraid, angry Apprentices is just as dangerous to a Journeyman, as mundanes would be to you. And, don't you forget, no Mage is infallible. Even the 'immortal' ones."

"Well, the Monarchs are pretty immortal from the sounds of it..."

"The Monarchs? What do you mean?" Felin questioned, squinting his slit eyes.

"Well, they're immortal, no? They've reached the peak of magic and became unaging because of it."

"Oh, yes... they sure are 'immortal'," Felin muttered, looking deep in contemplation, "What of the gods then?"

"That they're immortal too? Probably, but they all left after the wars, so I couldn't care less about them. What's so great about the divine if they bugger off at the first sign of calamity?"

"They've... 'buggered' off?" Felin gasped, whipping his head around to her, eyes wide.

"...Yes? No one's heard from them after the turn of the calendar." Amy said, slowly and carefully. Without a word, Felin turned back to face the forest path ahead, staying completely silent. It stayed that way for an uncomfortable amount of time, Amy following in the footsteps of her 'Familiar', without a clue of where he was leading her to. Presumably it was the Tower, but the destination weighed heavy on her mind.

"Are we heading to the Mage Tower?" Amy asked, only to be ignored, "Felin?"

"Oh!" Felin jumped, stopping in his place and turning to face her, "Sorry, what were you saying?"

"We're heading to the Mage Tower, right?"

"Yes, yes, I thought that was obvious?"

"I mean, yeah, it was, but I was just making sure."

"...Whatever you say then," The cat huffed, continuing onwards, "We're here, either way."

"We are?" Amy said sceptically, looking around at the wood around them, no Tower in sight.

"Yes, we are. I rebuilt a temporary obscuring shield so no one but us will be able to see and get in now."

"Was it like this before then? There was some sort of oddity in the Ocean, like a massive wave of mana, and I stumbled upon this after that, even though I'd walked through that area of the forest before."

"That was probably the actual obscuring shield that simply broke after deteriorating." Felin said, floating up to chest level. He raised a paw to the air and seemed to push against something tangible in it, reality parting like a hand going through a curtain. With the veil receding, Amy was able to see in past the flaps of the shield and saw the old ruins of the Mage Tower, almost exactly as she had remembered. "Let's go in then."

Stolen story; please report.

Cautiously, Amy followed the cat as he pranced through the open gap, letting it close behind him. She rushed to catch up behind him, raising a hand in front of the flap of reality instinctively, not expecting it to catch on it and actually feel like a curtain flap. Messing with it, it didn't always react how she'd expect it to, neither crunching up or bending when she pushed or pulled, only staying slightly folded. Shaking her head, she walked on through, letting the flap of reality close behind her. There's enough strangeness going on lately, and that's only one more thing to add to the list.

Amy emerged onto a small patch of short grass, cut down from the long grass that the area was almost entirely made up of before. Felin sat upon a piece of rubble, expectantly, a rock opposite him which she assumed was her seat. As she took it, the black cat looked up, his eyes all green.

"The first term of our contract is that you will show me the world. Doesn't matter when, or how, just that you will." Felin clenched his mouth, staring through her, "I need to know. Everything."

"Okay, I accept that. I thought we'd be leaving the contract to later?"

"This is only the first term, Amy, the rest can be said later. I've got that out of the way now so I can move onto other topics... What have you taken from this Tower?"

"Um," Amy gulped, suddenly concerned at how Felin would react if he knew, "The grimoire, you know already, a candle, and an introduction book for Wizardry."

"Good. I wasn't intending to harm you, Amy," Felin smiled softly, "This ruin is long gone and I wouldn't be mad if you looted anything. There were a few things in that Tower that shouldn't be in anyone's hands, however, and if I learned you had taken anything like that... I would need to destroy it, whether you wanted to keep it or not."

"Is- is anything like that still there?"

"No, I made sure of that," Felin announced, his solemn tone allowing no disagreement. Strangely, and not too, Amy felt that it wasn't directed towards her but something else. Perhaps the mana? Wording seems important to Fae magic, so it could be to do with that.

"Can... can I request something from the contract too?"

"Oh? Yes, yes you may."

"In return for 'showing you the world', I want you to teach me what you know of Wizardry."

"That is more than acceptable, young Mageling, more than acceptable indeed. When in actual writing I'll make it so the wording's are balanced and that you get your fair share. A mere teaching is not sufficient for the weight of my requirement."

"Oh- okay," Amy said, confused now on what he had meant by 'showing him the world' if the deal hadn't been balanced for her. If anything, it should've been unbalanced for Felin, if he had to teach and all she had to do was travel.

"I was planning on instructing you, anyways, so this will serve nicely. What have you learned so far from that book? All Illusion I imagine?"

"Yes, I had stopped on Illusory Bolt though. I couldn't get it to work, at all. The book said it needed specific Magecraft so I probably couldn't cast it, but it was still frustrating. Today was the day I stopped and ended up casting Familiar instead."

"What do you mean? You practised enough to cast Familiar in only a day? I must have a talented Fae apprentice on my hands, then." Felin remarked.

"No, I ended up casting it on the first try..." Amy murmured, her voice getting smaller and quieter as she spoke, trailing off.

"First try!" Felin yelled, incredulous, "Young lady, what on Ryuen is your affinity!"

"I don't know..."

"I swear there were affinity tests in those books, did you not take one? I was the one who suggested their-"

"I did it, but it broke," Amy admitted, "I thought it was faulty so I took it with a grain of salt and-"

"It broke."

"Yes?" Amy said, noticing a complicated expression on Felin.

"What did it break on." Felin asked, making it seem more like a statement than a question.

"It got really bright on the Unknowable one, and even brighter on the Fae one. That's when it-"

"Unknowable too!" Felin shouted, leaping towards her and onto her lap. Shocked, Amy acted like she would if any other cat jumped on her and supported it, smoothing its back. "Stay still, I need to examine you, now."

"Oh-okay."

Flashing bright with yellow and green light, Felin's eyes inspected her closely, staring at her intently, as if looking into her soul. At odd moments his ears or tails twitched or wagged, seemingly random, except from his face growing more grave at every movement. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the light dimmed, and Felin's gaze returned to normal; somewhat strange, but still a cat's and not some magical creature's.

"Are your parents Mages, Amy? Felin asked, forcing the words out harshly and quickly.

"No, not at all. Both mundane."

"A Wizard King or Queen in your lineage you'd be aware of?

"No...?" Amy responded, not sure what the terms meant. Maybe a Monarch?

"Well, Amy Wachlund, I have some good and bad news. Well, it could be all good or bad depending on your point of view. Could even be great, or terrible," Felin meandered, blabbering to himself back and forth nonsense words before settling on just breaking it to her, "Let's just get it over with.

"I have no idea what happened to you in your childhood, because your affinities... It's like someone made you to be a Wizard. You have a decent Illusion affinity that will take you far with the right instruction. Your Unknowable affinity is high enough to be very concerning, and not because of its severity, but because of what the Element means. And finally, well...

"Fae is high enough, close enough to 100%, that if I didn't know any better I'd wonder if you're even human at all."

"Excuse me?" Amy sputtered, unsure of how to react.

"Have you heard tales of changelings perhaps? Mysterious creatures swapping children out in the night for shape-shifting fae?" Felin scowled, as if recalling a particularly bad memory, "It used to be a problem until the Archfey council came to an agreement that stopped the unconsensual swapping of children. It took me so long to inspect you because I was trying to determine if you were a fae, and, well, one of these changelings. Unfortunately for you, you're human."

"Unfortunately?" Amy whispered, still partly in shock.

"Well, combined with Unknowable, there's a few possibilities that could lead to such affinities. One possibility that I ruled out was that you were regularly experimented on and mind-wiped by a fae, corrupting your attunement enough to be this severe. Another that might have happened is that you were briefly kidnapped into the fae realm at an young enough age that you don't recall any of it. You lived long enough in it, in a pocket of altered time that when you returned it was like no time passed at all, that it changed your affinity that way. I haven't ruled that one out.

"Another could be related to an... idea I've had about the disappearances of the Wizards. That would open a veritable barrel of worms too big for you to properly understand or contemplate.

"Finally, there's-"

"Does... does me spending a lot of time in forests mean anything?" Amy pleaded, "When I was younger, I mean."

"Yes, it does. That ties into the final one too, as well as the second.

"Wizards often had Towers in woods, close to things called fairy rings for easy access to the fae realm. Well, these Towers have obscuring shields, the same as what I described before. These are powered by Fae and a variety of other miscellaneous mana. When they break, they release a storm of Fae mana. I'd obviously need to investigate your hometown but if you were exposed to such an event when you were young...

"It'd both be enough to corrupt your affinities towards Fae, diminishing all of your others, and provide you enough exposure to mana to reach Aspirant, all in one go."

"These... These are all just possibilities, right? The possible causes? They're bad, mostly, yes, but what's bad about having a high affinity?"

"Your affinity isn't just high, Amy, it's... I would say it's unparalleled but that's only because it's a natural affinity. Enhanced affinities go much higher than that. It's simply... unnatural."

"That still doesn't explain to me why this is bad! Just why it's 'wrong'. Please, just say what's wrong and be done with it," Amy shouted, anxiety driving her mad.

"Maybe I'm too used to talking to higher Tier Mages, so I apologise Amy, but... and I'm not telling you why it's bad exactly, that's not for a Mageling to know, yet... You're stunted." Felin said, wincing at the word used.

"Stunted?"

"You won't notice it until far later in your Magehood, but if you'd ever want to go and cast Spells other than Fae? You wouldn't be able to. Anything you try to do at a high enough Elemental level would be corrupted by your affinity, making it impossible to cast powerful Spells of other Elements. Using your stupid Spell Tier nonsense, if you'd want to cast a Tier 10 Spell with the Advanced Inferno Element? You wouldn't. Fae would corrupt the Element into something other, completely unstable and unusable."

"Oh." Amy blurted, staring up at the sky, face blank.

"Yes, 'oh'." Felin purred, defeated.

"...I can see why that's bad now."