A shudder ran down my spine. I knew my imagination made everything so much worse than reality actually was, but in my mind, there wasn’t much that could be worse than having spiders running up and down my back. It was probably dust bunnies, I told myself, dropping down from the ceiling. I knew for a fact that nobody had been all the way up here with a duster since last winter.

I froze, feeling something tickling its way down my back, under my shirt. Dust bunnies didn’t crawl across skin like that. I felt the need to shout and slap until there was nothing but mush where that damn spider was. Thoughts of the different species flashed through my mind. White ghost spiders could kill a man with a bite. A couple of red spiders could leave me with a nasty infection and fever for weeks.

Odd how all that seemed to fade when I realized what would happen to me if I was caught up here. Death or fever were nothing compared to what would happen if Master Vis found me sneaking around in the rafters of the manor.

All of it was enough to make me wonder just what the fuck I was doing up here in the first place. What did I stand to gain, even if I wasn’t caught?

I was looking for something to help me in my training, but if I was discovered, it would all have been for nothing.

I dropped down from the rafters, careful to slow my drop so as not to be heard. My soft shoes made barely a whisper over the flagstones. I quickly pushed my hand down over the area where there was still something tickling down my back, breathing a sigh of relief when I realized that it was just a trickle of sweat.

I stepped lightly, keeping my center of gravity low to the ground as I moved closer to the door. I could hear voices inside. I should have been more afraid than I was, but at this point, I was more afraid of what would happen if I didn’t do this.

Evening rituals were rare. Well, not so much rare as difficult to find. There was a good deal of taboo that still surrounded magic, thanks to the history of abuse, but that very history was what made it so very popular with the few who could withstand the public scorn if they practiced it.

I gritted my teeth, freezing in place when I heard the sound of heavy boots outside. Master Vis’ manor, in which I had residence, wasn’t that far away from the guardhouse that provided security not only for the capital, Ozryn, but for the rest of the empire as well. Discovery here would end poorly for me.

I needed to be more cautious, I thought, dropping down to a crouch as I moved closer. My soft, calfskin shoes made little noise over the stones. My breathing was the loudest noise to be heard until I got closer to the open arch, which led to Master Vis’ chambers. I hugged close to the marble walls, making myself as invisible as possible before peeking around the corner.

Master Vis was there, dressed in black and red silk. Odd, all things considered. He hated flowing robes. He always said that they made him look fat. Considering that the man always looked painfully thin, I had no idea what he was even talking about, but there were certain vanities that could not be judged from man to man.

My eyes immediately flickered over to the two women with him. Both had the look of ladies of note, judging from the way that their long, red locks were done up, elegantly brushed and held up by silver and gild wire. That and the paint on their faces were all I had to go on, as they were otherwise naked. Full, heavy breasts, toned stomachs and supple legs were immediately all I could see as they moved around Master Vis. I couldn’t hear what they were saying as they whispered in his ear, but the intonation was clear, as well as the man’s own reaction.

He grinned, the small, fine wrinkles around his mouth disappearing as he leaned in and kissed her neck gently. She giggled, mock-slapping his face as the other woman grinned, moving over to the bed in the center of the room. The first woman joined her as Vis moved over to them. I couldn’t imagine that this was how rituals were conducted. There had been images in my mind of old pasty men in long robes chanting ominously. I couldn’t have imagined something further from the truth.

Vis stood over the women, who lay prone on their backs. His hands moved over them, a foot or so above their naked bodies as he started chanting something in a deep, almost unnatural voice. I’d heard him speak that way before. He was a spellcaster, whose power lay in the spoken word. The man had more than a few books devoted to the craft. I’d always been interested, but as a familiar, it had never been my place to learn more than the rudimentary details. I was a focusing point for Vis’ magic.

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While I was far from the best familiar, I wasn’t the only one in Master Vis’ employ either. Which begged the question of why the man was choosing not to conduct this ritual with any of his available familiars. I suspected that the answer lay with the women over whom he was performing the incantation. They were nobles, who would have demanded as few witnesses as possible.

As Vis continued his incantations, I could see bright marks starting to show on the women’s skin. They started out as bright spots, but they slowly started taking the form of runes. I narrowed my eyes, unable to make out what the runes were supposed to represent. Then again, my own training in that area had been lacking at best.

I saw an aura starting to build around Vis. What little I did know was that the more power that he took into himself, the faster he needed to expend it, lest it start to build up an excess. There were conflicting stories about what happened if the amount of power reached a critical point, since most mages used familiars to transfer the power to if things got too hot.

In this case, quite literally, I realized as the silk robes that Vis was wearing started to smoke. The man gritted his teeth as he tried to quickly finish the incantation before his clothing caught on fire.

He didn’t have enough time. A sleeve burst into flame. Vis jumped back, shouting a curse as he pulled away. The marks on the women’s bodies immediately started to retreat and disappear as the women sat up from their prone positions, looking more disappointed than concerned as Vis rushed out of the room, trying to douse the flames.

He was running in my direction. I had barely a moment to pull away from the arch before he rushed through it, more preoccupied with the burning sleeve than with paying attention to his surroundings.

He stepped into the darkened room that I was hiding in, pulling the ruined sleeve off with a growl as he cradled his burned arm. I could see that the flame hadn’t done as much damage as I had feared. I suspected that his ego took the brunt of the damage.

“Should have brought a fucking familiar,” Vis growled, whispering a few words of power to cool his arm off.

This was my chance. Distracted as he was, I could make an escape and move away into the shadows, and then leave while he…

“Grant?” I heard him say as I turned away. The sound of his voice was the last thing I wanted to hear, especially saying my name. There was no escaping, no running away.

And from the sound of it, he wasn’t too pleased to see me.

“I…” I gasped, trying to work up a response, “I thought you might have needed a… needed a familiar for your ritual?”

“What?” Vis hissed, moving in closer to me. He gripped my shoulder, spinning me around.

“You… you needed a familiar?” I repeated. I had no illusions that my claim would help me escape punishment for snooping, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Were you spying on me?” he asked, putting a hand on my forehead. I closed my eyes, trying to fight back a panicked sob from escaping from my throat. Vis had ways of getting to the truth of a matter without torture. Well, physical torture anyways. I remembered the day that he had demonstrated that to the rest of the familiars, using me as example.

It had felt like a thousand needles digging into my skull. I closed my eyes, shaking my head. “I would never spy on you!” I cried softly. “I swear.”

He pushed me down to my knees, leaving his hand on my temple. I wasn’t sure if he had already started the spell or not, but he quickly pulled his hand away, chuckling.

“No, I don’t believe you would,” Vis said, shaking his head. “Even so, you should not have been here. Come with me, and we shall arrive on a punishment for your actions.”

*************

I looked around the dark cellar, which was lit with only a couple of candles. We were below ground, and the dank room had walls made of rough rock.

“I was not spying on you, Master Vis,” I whispered again, once he was finished putting a listening ward on the door and had turned back to me.

“I believe you,” Vis said softly, inspecting his burnt arm.

“Then, what…?” I couldn’t shake the feeling of terror that was starting to soak through me.

“I will not punish you, boy,” Vis said, smiling and patting my cheek gently. I was a good foot taller than he was, and yet I still felt like he towered over me the same way he had when I was a child.

“Why?” I asked, not believing my good luck and unable to keep from voicing the first thought that came to mind.

“Because I have a job for you,” Vis said softly. “It will be risky, but I believe that you can handle it. While your skills in my craft are lacking, I know that you have what it takes to see this task to completion. It will be different from what you have been taught your whole life, but I believe that to be a boon rather than a curse in this instance. Get it done, and we’ll both reap the benefits.”

I nodded. While in the immediate future, this was better than spending the night having Vis practice his spells on me, I couldn’t imagine that whatever this task was would be easy. It wasn’t like I had much of a choice, though.

I ground my teeth and nodded. Vis had many ambitions, most of which he wasn’t very likely to achieve, considering his low rank even among the nobility, but if there was one thing I knew, there wasn’t much that Vis wouldn’t do to advance those positions.

The only problem was, it seemed like now I would be the one doing those things instead.