A quick meal later and we were enjoying the late afternoon sun outside on the porch. Midnight was curled up on my lap, Winter was roosting on my hat, which was set on a nearby table, while Soot was roosting on the railing. “Everyone satisfied now?” There was a unified “yes” from all of them.
“Well then, just give me a moment to send a brief message to Lilly, then I can continue, or would you rather relax?” Another unanimous agreement on continuing the story ensued. I nodded, then rose from the chair and headed into the potion room, scribbled a quick note, and sent it off to Lilly on an enchanted wind. As I returned to the living room, I sat back down and Midnight hopped back into my lap. “Alright then, as I mentioned before lunch…”
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A few days after Ivy left, there was a sudden commotion outside, which interrupted my afternoon meditation. “What in the world?” Before Soot could answer, there was a knock on the door. I rose from my seat and walked over to the door, and opened it. Outside was a small crowd of pixies.
“Good afternoon. To what do I owe the pleasure of such a large-scale unannounced visit?” I was trying to keep it polite. However, I was perplexed about the situation. A pixie, giving off a much darker purple light, compared to the various pastel colors of the others, flew up to my face. She seemed worse for wear, with an obvious black eye and busted up lip.
She eyed me silently for a few moments, as if gauging my reaction. “Hmm, your confusion seems genuine, so I take it this wasn’t deliberate.” There was a murmur from the crowd, before the viridian ball that was Ivy flew up from the back of the crowd. “I told you, Lady Nettle! Ms. Morgana is a good bigun!”
Ivy was covered in bruises as well, though it was easier to make out on her, since her own glow didn’t mask it. I gave all the pixies a quick glance. They were all showing bruises and minor injuries. “Tell me, Ivy, did something happen since you left last time?” Ivy didn’t answer, just looked down towards the ground. Nettle, for her part, took a deep breath. “So here is what happened…”
… “A riot? Yikes, I assure you Lady Nettle, that was not my intent at all. I sincerely hope no one was injured.” Nettle’s stoic face twitched for a moment. “No severe ones, no. There are a few bruises here and there and a few bite marks, but nothing severe.” The pixies were all now hanging out in my living room. Be it flying around, relaxing on the couch, table or other furniture, or just milling around the room.
Nettle took a gulp from the teacup on the table next to her. Which was impressive, considering it was bigger than she was. “Well, I must say, Ms. Morgana, I appear to have misjudged you. Then again, given my experiences with the big folk…” I waved her off. “There are bad eggs among all people out there. However, as for my own, I can’t really speak for them, as I am pretty sure I am not human.” I lifted my tail and waved it at her for emphasis. She looked at it with interest for a few moments. “So it would appear. Now then, aside from learning whether it was malice behind the…” her voice trailed off for a moment. “… incident. I wanted to meet the bigun that charmed Ivy so much she won’t shut up about you.”
I glanced over to where Ivy was happily chatting with Soot and two other pixies. “As far as I can tell, I haven’t really done anything special. I let her inside during the torrential downpour last autumn and allowed her to stay until it ended. We’ve been friends ever since.” Nettle looked up at me with an unreadable expression. “Friends, huh…” Another pixie, this one with a pale white light, landed next to Nettle and looked up at me with a curious expression.
“Ms. Morgana, this is Lilly, my bestie.” Nettle gave Lilly an encouraging nod towards me. Lilly hesitated for a moment, then gave me a quick nod and then a shy smile. “A pleasure to meet you, Ms Morgana.” I responded with a polite nod of my own. “Likewise, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Lilly. Could I offer you some tea as well?” She shook her head and made a grimace. “Ah, so it’s not your cup of… err… tea, eh?” Lilly made another grimace at my horrible joke, but seemed to relax a bit more.
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“I remember that evening, first-ever party in the house.” Soot looked up from his roost, pausing his wing cleaning to comment on that. “Indeed, quite the little celebration it turned into. Enough so that we were invited to that year’s midsummer festival. Not that we could attend, because of another important event that would coincide with it.” That earned me curious glances from both Midnight and Winter.
“The first blood moon of the year would happen on the eve of the midsummer festival that year.” Realization dawned on Midnight’s face. “The Familiar Ritual. Either attend and miss the ritual, or don’t and finish it.” I began scratching Midnight’s right ear. “Indeed. Since we didn’t know when the next blood moon would be, we really didn’t have a choice there. Nettle and the others understood that this meant a lot to us, so they weren’t insulted or anything, thankfully. They did insist we join the one the next year, though. And we have been attending every year since. Now, speaking of… Why don’t we speed ahead a bit to that midsummer night, since most of what happened until that point was rather mundane.”
There was a bunch of grumbling from the trio. “Well, I could continue on, but there are only so many ways I can say; ‘And I spent most of the day practicing magic and potion brewing for the upcoming ritual’ without it becoming tedious. As that was what I spent the remaining time doing.” Soot gave a few chirps of agreement. “Indeed, every spare moment it was another simple spell or a few minutes of meditation, or hours spent over the cauldron, so you wouldn’t screw up the ritual. It was to the point I was almost getting worried.”
I began scratching Winter’s neck, earning delighted hoots from her. “Indeed, so no complaints, then?” Silence. “Excellent, well then…”
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The sunset was taking forever. I was tempted to just start early, but that would ruin the entire ritual. I’d spent the last week reading and re-reading the steps, and I now knew the thing by heart.
Step 1. Wait for night to fall on the night of a blood moon.
Step 2. With both the Master and familiar present, they would each recite their part of the binding oath, while spilling a drop of their own blood into the prepared wooden bowl on the ritual altar.
Step 3. Add the life-binding potion, which needed to have been pre-brewed.
Step 4. Let the light from the blood moon boil the potion one last time.
Step 5. With the potion boiling, the familiar and master would each drink from the bowl together after reciting the last line of the oath.
Step 6. Endure.
That last part was worrying me. As it didn’t go into further detail. However, the list of steps was simple enough.
I looked at Soot. “Well, we are as prepared as we can be. Are you ready?” Soot gave a solemn nod, but remained quiet. There was only a slight shiver to show the emotions he was experiencing. And I couldn’t blame him for being nervous, considering his previous master.
The sun finally set and the bloodred light of the blood moon cast an eerie light over the small island. The different engravings on the ritual altar glowed under the light of the moon, showing the altar was successfully made. That was a relief, at least. The last thing we needed was for it to turn out that the altar was busted on the eve of the ritual.
Well, no time like the present. “Ready, Soot?” He hopped over to the bowl as I grabbed the ritual knife I found in the potion room. I held it up to Soot’s feet, and after a moment of hesitation pricked one of his toes on it. “The Familiar bleeds for its Master.” He said as he let a few drops of his blood fall into the empty bowl.
I pricked my right index finger and let a few drops of blood drip into the bowl as well. “The Master bleeds for its Familiar.” I said as the drops fell in. “So we bind our souls and lives together.” We said in tandem. I poured the potion into the bowl and stirred it three times counterclockwise using a feather given by Soot. The red glow of the blood moon fell on the concoction, and it began to bubble and give off vapors. It was still cold, but behaved as if boiling.
“A bond for life, willingly forged. We drink for our lives together.” We said once more in unison as we both drank from the bowl. The effect was immediate. It felt like my entire body was on fire as I collapsed onto the ground. Soot wasn’t faring much better, as he was writhing atop the altar in pain as well. Endure. So I couldn’t pass out, was that it? Damn, this sucked. “Gaaah, you alright Soot?” My only response was an incoherent chirping because of the extreme pain.
The pain lasted for about an hour. When it finally subsided, I staggered back to my feet, in no small thanks to using the altar to pull myself up. Soot was lying on the stone, breathing shallow breaths, and seemed to be on the verge of passing out. “It’s alright, Soot, it’s over now. No need to hang on any longer.” As he heard what I said, he closed his eyes and was out like a light.
I picked him up with great care and carried him back to the cabin. Once inside, I walked over to the leaning chair and sat down, gently stroking Soots’ unconscious form. “You’ll be alright, Soot. You’ll be alright…” A few moments later, I passed out as well.
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At the mention of the pain, both Winter and Midnight flinched, having experienced similar results during their rituals. Soot on his end seemed less affected. “I am still shocked you willingly went through that ordeal three times, considering how bad it was.” I gave him a quick glance. “A small price to pay in the grand scheme of things. The pain is temporary, while our bond will last for life. Besides, we both know you went to great lengths in trying to make the potion less painful for all of us. Don’t even try to pretend otherwise, ya big softie.”
Soot gave a surprised caw, but didn’t deny it. I chuckled for a moment as I conjured an ethereal hand to give him some scratches, even as I resumed scratching both winter and Midnight, filling the room with delighted noises from all three. “Well, it should come to no surprise that…”
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It took us a few days to recover after the toll the ritual took on us. We did originally plan to pay a visit to Nettledale afterward. However, neither of us was in a state to travel into the forest on the vague descriptions that would take us there. Sure, the pain was gone, but it left us both drained and exhausted. We did, however, learn a few things that the book didn’t mention.
First, Soot couldn’t refer to me as anything but Mistress, regardless of our attempts to change that. A more interesting development, however, was the second thing the ritual did. Soot could now understand English. And not just English, but any other language I spoke as well. Over the winter, I used to tease Soot now and then by speaking English, or my very rusty German. But now, he understood both, and not just understand, but speak as well. I suspected I knew why, but decided not to tell Soot right away, since I didn’t know if it was safe to tell him.
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Soot flapped his wings in indignation. “Of course you did. I should have known. Bah, I kept wrecking my brain over that mystery for months, YEARS EVEN!” He took a deep breath, before releasing it all in a sigh. "Well, it’s all good. As you said, you didn’t know back then if it was safe to tell me." I leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. "To be fair, it’s only a theory. But the familiar bond might extend the whole 'understand all languages' thing I gained to you as well, and since I speak those languages now you do too."
The three glanced at each other. “It’s as sound a theory as any, Mistress. However, considering the origin of that ability, I think it would be safe to assume some kind of otherworldly power is involved. The type of something that mere mortals like ourselves are not meant to know. So it would probably be wiser to not dig deeper into it and just accept it for what it is, a boon. What’s that saying you always use? ‘Don’t look a horse in the mouth’ or something like that.” That earned a dry chuckle from me. “Gift horse, but close enough. And I agree.”
Just then, there was a knocking on the door. “That must be Lilly. I asked her for help with working on Nettle’s gift.” The trio looked at me, but I just smiled. “You’ll all just have to wait until the festival.” I answered as I rose to answer the door.
It was indeed Lilly. “Hello, Ms. Morgana, I got your message. Your request wasn’t easy, you know, but I liked your idea so much I couldn’t refuse.” I gestured her inside. “Well, seeing as you are here, I take it you succeeded.” She nodded. “Then let’s go into the potion room and begin our work right away. The faster we get this done, the better.” Lilly followed me into the room as I closed the door to prevent the other three from seeing what we were doing, much to their annoyance.