Chapter 3: Well, here I am.

I emerged in a stone room.  On the floor around me was a glowing circle that rapidly disappeared.  In front of me was a group of about twelve teenagers.  Most of them were wearing the same school uniforms, but three of them were dressed differently.  Though they dressed differently from each other, each of those three teenagers had a black ring around their neck, as if somebody had died their skin black where a collar would be.

"Very good," a voice said.  "Now, Elizabeth, finish the contract."

A female voice replied, "Yes, Professor Alba."

I turned and looked.  Standing to my side were an older man wearing a ridiculously ornate jacket and a teenage girl holding a wand out in front of her.

I smirked and addressed the girl with the wand.  I'd never get a better chance to use this line. 

"I ask of you, are you my Master?" I said.

Professor Alba's and Elizabeth's eyes widened in shock.  Elizabeth's wand slipped through her fingers and hit the floor with a loud clatter.  The teenagers started talking and murmuring to themselves.

Well, that was an odd reaction.

Elizabeth looked to Alba for guidance, but he seemed too flabbergasted to say anything.  Elizabeth retrieved her wand from the floor, then stepped forward with a haughty air.

"I am your master, Elizabeth the Third.  You have been summoned as my familiar.  Now stand forth so that I may finish the contract."

"Well, that's a little rude," I said playfully.  "Don't you even want to know my name?"

"I- um- yes?"

I said nothing, simply staring at her.

"Well?" she eventually asked.  "What is your name?"

"Alexander Balkan, but my friends call me Ace."

"Okay," she said uncertainly.  "So, should I call you Ace?"

"Well that depends," I said with a smirk, "do you want to be my friend?"

The girl was about to answer, but then she looked at Alba and seemed to remember something. 

"No," she said.  "I am your master, and you are my familiar.  We are not friends.  In fact, you shouldn't even be talking to me this casually.  Know your place!"

I shrugged.  "Suit yourself."

I started walking toward the exit, a massive open archway set into one of the walls.

"Wait!" Elizabeth yelled. 

I ignored her and kept walking.  I heard the noise her shoes made on the rock ground as she ran towards me, but I wasn't prepared for what happened next: she tackled me and dragged me to the ground.

"Oof!" I exclaimed, the wind knocked out of me.

"You can't go!" Elizabeth cried.  I twisted myself around so I could face her and somehow ended up with her straddling me.  HEL-lo.

Elizabeth quickly blurted out, "By the Goddess Melinda and the God Zacharia and the Spirit of the Void I create this pact."

Then she kissed me.  HEL-lo!

Now, I'd just like to say, for the record, that what happened next was totally not my fault.  This was a cute girl, wearing a school uniform, straddling me and giving me a kiss.  This was not the first time I'd been in this situation, and it went the same way every time before now, so can I *really* be blamed for acting the way I did?

Without thinking, I wrapped one arm around her and pulled her close so that my torso was touching hers.  I kissed her lips, gently at first, then with increasing passion.  I moved from her lips to her neck and ears, nibbling and kissing them.  I heard her whimper and moan.  I would have kept going, but I noticed the teenagers still standing there, completely stunned and staring at us.

So I stopped, gently pushed her off of me, and got to my feet.  If there's one thing I understand, it's the importance of discretion.  I mean, it was a little late at that point, but I didn't want to make her look bad.  Well, any worse than I already had.

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That's when I noticed a mild burning sensation on my neck and wrist.  I looked at my wrists.  They were glowing white, and I suspected my neck was doing the same.  I walked to one of the teenagers that had a black ring on his neck, grabbed his hand and examined his wrist.  There was a black ring there too.

Oh hell, no.  I reached inside myself for the power I'd felt earlier and cast it outward, shattering the glow and causing it to disperse into nothingness.

There.  Problem solved.

"WHAT?!" Elizabeth yelled.

Okay, maybe not.

"Tell me," I said to Elizabeth, "what was that?"

"That was supposed to be the completion of the contract!  You would take the collar and manacles and become my familiar!  Hold still, let me cast the spell again."

Elizabeth pulled her wand out, but I stepped forward and grabbed it from her.

"Do you have any idea what you've done here?  You've taken an innocent person, yanked them from their home without giving them a choice, and thrust them into a life of indentured servitude!"

"Preposterous!" the professor yelled.  "Every single familiar that has been summoned has accepted the contract by choice."

I sneered.  "Easy to say when they've had a control spell planted in their brains."

The professor sputtered.  "Why, that's absurd!  I have done no such thing!"

"You haven't, but someone or something has been intercepting the spell before the familiar arrives here.  'Don't worry, you won't remember a thing.'" I said, mockingly.

"You're lying!" Elizabeth shouted, but the professor looked hesitant.

"Oh, am I?" I asked.  "Well, there's a very simple way to test it.  Bring one of the familiars over here and let me cancel any mental spells on them.  If nothing happens, you'll know I was lying."

"Hah!" Elizabeth shouted aggressively.  "So I can let you cast your own mind magic on them?  What do you think I am, stupid?"

"Let him try," the professor interrupted softly.  "He appears to be of the Rejection domain, and no familiar in Radia's entire history has ever belonged to more than one domain.  If he tries and fails it costs us nothing, and if he succeeds... it means we have unknowingly been perpetuating a great evil."

I walked up to one of the familiars and gently placed my hands on either side of his head.  I extended my senses, feeling for any foreign magic, and felt the control spell, clear as day.  I flexed my willpower and the spell shattered harmlessly.

I took a step back.  "How do you feel?" I asked the familiar.

"A little disoriented," he said with a rueful smile.  "But not that much different.  I-" he froze, a look of shock on his face.  "My mother; my sister.  How could I have forgotten them?"

A teenage girl approached the familiar and placed her hand on his shoulder.  He recoiled on shock and fear.  "Don't touch me!" he yelled.  "You think I've forgotten about the whipping you gave me?!"

The entire room went silent as the girl sputtered denials.  "That wasn't- you didn't-... well, it was your fault anyways for not folding the clothes right!"

The familiar yelled and lunged at the girl.  Several students grabbed him and held him back.  The Professor looked ashen.  "Class is over!" he loudly called.  "Damien, Ace, and Elizabeth, come with me to the Grandmaster's office.  Lucy, you're on academic suspension until we get this sorted out.  Head straight to your dorm and go nowhere else until we call for you.

Lucy scoffed and walked away.  Damien eventually calmed down enough for the students to let go of him.  Eventually the rest of the students filtered out, leaving just Damien, Elizabeth, Professor Alba, and me.

"Come along," Professor Alba said sadly.  "We have much work to do."