"You," The voice said, reverberating through Amy's being. Less so than before, but the words still had a weight to them she couldn't describe. A strange glint passed across the cat's eyes for a moment, barely a flicker in her mana sense, before his expression seemed to change almost imperceptibly. "Mageling girl. How did you steal this grimoire?"

Seconds passed slowly in awkward silence as Amy tried and failed to gather herself back together from the state she'd been reduced to. Wiping away tears she didn't remember shedding, Amy met the eyes of the strange cat in the air, standing on all fours like there was solid ground underneath him, and attempted to make sense of what she saw. Other than the entity's appearance as an ordinary black cat, its most striking features weren't its magical ones but its mundane. With no magical cause she could decipher, the cat's eyes shifted almost freely between what seemed to be its natural yellow colour and a virid green, reflecting the mana used to cast the Spell that summoned it. Through her mana sight, it was immediately obvious that this was a magical being, the mana around it in the Ocean curling around and feeding into the beast, subtly corrupting the attunement of nearby mana to its own. Fae. The cat's oddly non-magical eyes also appeared differently through her mana sight, replaced with bottomless holes that felt wrong to stare into, as if something was staring back at her.

"Well?" The cat said, sitting down and peering at her pointedly, "I haven't got all day."

"I-I'm sorry," Amy apologised, scrambling for the right words than wouldn't get herself killed, "I f-found it in an abandoned Mage Tower-"

"Abandoned?" The entity's face scrunched up at that, their tone turning sour. Without budging from his position, the cat floated seamlessly down to Amy's level and gazed straight into her eyes.

"Yes, a-abandoned!"

"My contractor would never leave his grimoire alone in an abandoned Mage Tower, would he?" The entity hissed, a glimpse of his otherworldly presence leaking through to his words.

"It-It, it was in a coffin!" Amy shouted, eager to get her words out before the cat drew the wrong conclusion, eyes reflexively shutting closed. In the pregnant pause that followed her statement, every excuse imaginable ran through her mind, Amy trying to think of something to soothe the entity's ire. Only, an odd noise surprised her, sounding almost like something hitting the floor.

"A-A coffin, you say?" The cat murmured, something almost like sadness heavy on its voice. Carefully opening her eyes she saw the cat sitting on the floor this time, its eye's glazier than before. "Where would this... Tower be?"

"Out there," Amy said, thankful for the change in attitude, pointing a shaking finger towards the cellar door, "It's in the woods, about a twenty minute walk from here."

"...I see." The cat replied emotionlessly, looking deeply at the closed door, "Remain here Mageling while I... verify your claim."

Without a word, the cat took off into flight, running mid-air on all fours straight through the cellar doors like they weren't even there. A trail of virid mana, of Fae mana, was the only sign that the cat had ever been there, the only reason Amy wasn't believing that it was all a hallucination from a failed Spell's backlash. Yet, as she fully began to process what had just happened, Amy could only wonder one thing. Am... Am I an Apprentice?

* * *

Although the entity, the cat, had said to stay in the cellar, Amy certainly wasn't sitting still. Pacing around the cellar floor, countless questions ran through her head, and it was a struggle trying to concentrate on only one at a time. I have an affinity better than Light. An affinity that somehow wasn't picked up. Because it's a Fae affinity. A completely new Esoteric Element that's never even been mentioned before! WHY? And it's colour! That's the green mana I've been seeing in forests all my life, the mana that disappeared when the Tower appeared. What the fuck is that all about? And the Spell! The SPELL! I casted a Tier 3 Spell. I'm a bloody Apprentice! Then why does that thing still call me a Mageling? What even is that thing? Nothing in the Spell name or that short description in the book told me it would summon something! I didn't even need to really cast the Spell, I barely had to do a thing. Is that why I'm still a Mageling in the thing's eyes? Because that Spell isn't a real Tier 3? Why would an Element like Fae be even used to summon something? Why would an Element like Fae be present in every forest I've ever been to!

Even if I accept that it's just how the Element is, then why do I have an affinity for it? Affinities can always be explained by circumstances surrounding a person's early life. Always. Everyone has some affinity for Light or Fire because they lived under the sun for their entire life. A lot even have a good Advanced Solar affinity too! That's the reason it's the way to get to Apprentice, through the Solar Flare line, and the way to get to Journeyman too through Starbeam. It's why people sometimes have decent Space and Earth affinities too. Then why Fae? What's so special about me that gets me Fae? My parents would've mentioned something odd about me when I was young if they knew. They were more enthusiastic about me becoming a Mage than I was. It's why they searched so hard for affinity tests for me, even though the results were bad. They had to have known something to warrant such an affinity. We all expected a high Nature affinity too with all the time I spent in the woods, but nothing! 0% affinity! Neither positive nor negative! HOW? Was it because of the Fae affinity taking it over, somehow? It all makes no-

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Making no noise at all, the entity reappeared from the cellar door, flying straight through it again, almost an hour after it had left. Amy thought she saw tear marks on the fur near its eyes for a moment, before any traces of what it might've been vanishing, the cat seeming exactly like he'd been when she first summoned him.

"It seems that your... claim was valid, Mageling. I... apologise for my brashness earlier." The cat forced out with an unreadable tone, its face cringing at his pauses. "If I may, can you answer some of my questions I have about this... situation. If you won't, then may you-"

"Yes, please ask me questions, as long as you can answer mine," Amy blurted out, not quite thinking about the fact she was speaking to an alien otherworldly monstrosity.

"Well, then. My only condition is that I can ask my questions before yours. Do we have a bargain?"

"Yes."

"And a bargain is met," The cat smiled, as if revelling in a private joke. "First, where is your Wizard guide?"

"I- I don't have one." Amy admitted, taking some joy in the entity's surprise. As she was about to ask a question of her own, something stopped her. The words she was about to say froze in her mouth, Amy unable to speak, seeing strange magic wrapping around her throat. Looking up, she saw the cat's smile turn into a grin, all of his teeth on full display.

"Never make a bargain with a Fae, Mageling, everyone knows that," The cat snarked, "Now, do you not know of a Wizardly embassy you could go to?"

"What's..." Amy replied, acting innocent and drawing her words out to hopefully annoy the creature, "I don't know what a Wizardly embassy even is."

"How? He made sure that there was one in every country or state on the face of Ryuen!"

"I didn't even know what a Wizard was until a few days ago," Amy said, enjoying the look of pure, unadulterated shock on the cat's poor face. Taken aback, the cat pranced back and forth in the air, contemplating what question he could even ask after that. Finally deciding he took a seat on the floor this time and became completely serious. That's what Amy deciphered anyways. Hard to tell through a cat's face.

"What year is it?"

"I- I don't remember. I think it might be 102 PW?" Amy said, thinking back to her early days in School.

"A new calendar? Do you remember what was the year before this 'PW' calendar?"

"It was 2736 AG-"

"What!" The cat exclaimed, interrupting her. "How can you not have heard of them then?"

"What- do you mean?" Amy asked, concerned by the cat's sudden shift in behaviour. Wait, did I just ask a question?

"It's only been 102 years since he died! 102 years since that grimoire lost its owner! 102 years since he dismissed-" The cat screeched, suddenly cutting himself off as his face scrunched back up, unreadable. Silence dominated as the feline fumed and the Mageling shifted where she stood, uncomfortable. While Amy mustered up the courage to ask question of her own, that hopefully wouldn't rouse the bargain's magic, the cat spoke up, "I need to know everything; so much has changed in so little time. But I know that's too much to ask for now. So speak, young Mageling, that I may go out and investigate on my own."

"...What do you mean when you call me a Mageling?" Amy asked tentatively, taking a seat on the floor to be more on level with the entity.

"You are a Mageling, are you not?" The cat said, glancing up at Amy and giving her a look as if she was an idiot. Wait, he just asked a question didn't he? Never mind, let's get back on track.

"I casted a Tier 3 Spell to summon you, so I'm an Apprentice." Amy said, carefully.

"...What?" The cat spat, squinting at her through fully yellow eyes. "You aren't a Mageling because you haven't ascended a Mage Tier. Is that silly 'Spell Tier' nonsense still going around or something? If anything deserved to be forgotten, it would be Spell Tiers, not Wizards."

"What do you mean by ascending a Mage Tier? Is there something I need to do? We were never taught about that."

"...Excuse me?" The entity gaped, his cute appearance with his open mouth at odds with his 'Fae' nature.

"I've never heard of anything other than ascending Spell Tiers with your rank as a Mage..." Amy mumbled, the black cat's stare boring into her.

"...Something's deeply wrong with your world. Very wrong," The cat announced, with a mix of disbelief and what Amy thought might be fright, "And you said this was 'PW,' right? As in, Post War?"

"Yes, a new calendar was made after the Mage Wars."

"Hmmm..." The cat pondered, retracting his gaze to look pensively at the ground. "My name is Felin, Archfey of the Fairys. May I have your's, young Mageling?"

"My name-" Amy almost said, stopping at noticing the literal and figurative weight Felin put behind 'name' as well as the title he said afterwards. That sounds very important. "I'm... I'm not sure if I want to give you my name."

"You noticed that, then?" Felin huffed, "Well, I promise on my name that I will not use the knowledge of your own name in any nefarious or magical manner until you deem appropriate."

"I..." Amy contemplated the 'bargain' and sensed no loopholes in it, any she might've missed too tricky for her to notice, "I shall give you my name then. I am Amy Wachlund, Mageling of Triesen and my family."

"Well, although the circumstances are not as auspicious as I'd hoped," Felin smirked, fangs popping through his lips, "It is lovely to meet you, Amy Wachlund. I hope that, for both of our sakes, that this... deal we have will be most fruitful."

As if the mana was listening, something twinged upon the air, unseen to the Mageling, but obviously known to the Archfey. It was the sound of a deal well made, a sign of future good fates, and a wish to the future for greater things. However, it was gone as soon as the cat noticed it, hidden behind the depths of the Mana Ocean. That hopeful hint of virid green.