Learning about familiars is an important first step to establishing a healthy familiar-Meister relationship. Trust is another vital ingredient; doubt is usually considered a hindering factor.
Morgan, still chained to the ceiling, is approached by another potential partner. A much more talkative one.
(This narration relies heavily on information penury, as well as continuous improvisation on my part. Because information penury doesn't work well when spoiled, minimum tagging is enforced (if the main character isn't aware of something in a given story part, then the corresponding tag won't be included until they become aware of it in a latter part).)
////////// BEGINNING OF PART 2 //////////
The next day’s flow was rather ordinary. The wardens attended to me exactly as usual, cleaning my body with rough sponges in the morning (apparently, the health cream had left no visible trace on my body — either that, or they simply weren’t paying close attention or didn’t care) and feeding me a single meal compound of bread and dried meat sometime around midday. Unexceptionally, not a word was uttered.
On the other hand, although this day’s flow was no different from yesterday’s, my experience of it definitely was. The sponges that hadn’t bothered me one bit up to now now felt incredibly irritating against my skin, and the food tasted like something I might actually ask for in a restaurant for a change.
I deliberately kept silent (except for a surprised whimper when I first noticed the sponges’ sting had increased). I suspected bringing attention on the fact that something had changed might make them more vigilant in the near future, something that I didn’t want.
When my captors left the cell, I let out a brief sigh, trying to make sense of what had transpired today. The increased irritability of my skin was easy enough to explain — assuming the girl hadn’t lied, my body had essentially gone through a rejuvenating cure during my sleep (the ease with which I was accepting the notion that something magical had happened actually surprised me a little). Rather than an increased sensitivity, I supposed I had simply recovered my up-to-now-lost healthy sensitivity, dropping some kind of accumulated pain resistance in the process. That was relatively easy to imagine.
My increased taste, though… she supposedly hadn’t done anything to my head, never mind my tongue. I couldn’t think of a realistic justification, so after a few minutes of fruitless reflexion I decided to drop the issue for now. I had more urging matters to think of.
I had an intuition I would ultimately accept the girl’s offer. Although I was fully aware that I had no idea what I would be getting into, this might be my only chance to leave this cell alive, and her respectful attitude up to now made me inclined to believe she wasn’t the kind of person who would condone abuse.
Nevertheless, I resolved to ask her about familiars before I took my decision. I figured this shouldn’t scare her away if she was serious; should my questioning turn out to be enough to drive her away, that would be a very strong indicator of some kind of double-game going on and I would probably be better off not letting her have her way in the first place.
Out of the blue, someone grabbed my right hand and forced their fingers between mine. Once my initial, shocked surprise dissipated, I looked to my right and discovered another girl was standing next to me, grinning at me.
“Hi,” she greeted me, squeezing my hand.
I tried to free myself from her grasp, but the chains that kept me standing up didn’t allow for a lot of amplitude and her grip was incredibly strong. She calmly maintained the pressure until I gave up, constantly looking straight into my eyes as she did so.
“There, there,” she said after I had given up, stroking my arm with her free hand, “good.”
I wanted to look away from her, to at least preserve my freedom of focus, but I was somehow unable to do so — I felt as though my eyes were pinned to hers. Her caress was distracting.
“I was thinking of having a little chat,” she continued. “Any objections?”
There was no way I could shake her off, and my eyes wouldn’t let me ignore her presence. I managed a nod.
“So here’s the thing,” she casually started. “Yesterday, I was reading a book on one of my wonderfully comfortable feather cushions, minding my own business, and all of a sudden little Erika pops through our door with a smile on her lips, obviously very satisfied about something. She wouldn’t tell me what she was so happy about, but I have… my ways… of loosening tongues. Anyway, eventually she confessed about your conversation, and I felt I had to react.”
So, yesterday’s girl was called Erika?
I frowned, but didn’t say anything. I didn’t know who she was or what she was trying to achieve, but I had a feeling reacting to her would just be playing right into her hand — literally. She smiled before taking a more serious expression.
“Listen, you mustn’t accept her offer,” she stated. “She may have looked like she was a gentle, docile girl, but she’ll change the moment you enter her game. I’ve seen it happen before. It wasn’t pretty.”
She let go of my gaze, and I was finally free to look away from her eyes. My hand was still stuck in hers, though.
I carefully examined her, trying and failing to read her body language — she radiated way too much self-confidence for anything else to be noticeable. She was calmly examining my arm, as though it had been some sort of archaeologic find. Blonde tresses… was she related to yesterday’s girl? She was much taller than her, though.
“Why are you telling me this?” I probed.
“Because I have an alternate offer for you,” came her immediate answer. “Let’s not waste time on formalities: I need to get out of this place too, and I need you to become my familiar for that purpose. I promise to release you the moment we’re out — if you want me to, of course.”
Well, at least she was straightforward. I stared at her, unsure what to think. It dawned on me that she might be willing to explain what being a familiar meant to me.
“I didn’t accept Erika’s offer yesterday because I lacked data about familiars — I was planning on asking her about that subject tonight,” I explained. “Whatever my decision ends up being, I need to know what I’m getting into. Care to educate me?”
She nodded slowly, smiling a warm, empathic smile at me. I was pretty sure she would have been able to lie her way through nearly anything, but something about that smile felt authentic, reassuring.
“You aren’t from this world, are you?”
I glanced at my feet.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Probably not.”
She nodded. “If you don’t know about familiars, this most likely isn’t home world. Familiars are way too important around here to escape one’s awareness.”
It was my turn to nod.
“Does the word at least ring a bell?”
“It does pop up in fiction from time to time. Most of the time a familiar is the pet of a magic user,” I recited.
She titled her head.
“A pet? Like, an animal?”
I nodded.
“What a bizarre idea.”
She looked genuinely puzzled.
“I don’t mean to insult you or anything, mind you, but… I mean, how would an animal be supposed to process complex magic motives?”
“Magic motives?” I asked, curious.
“Right… I assume actual magic isn’t a thing where you come from?”
“Unless you’re talking about card tricks, no, it isn’t.”
She sighed loudly. “Sounds like an awfully boring world to me.”
I actually chuckled at that. She gently squeezed my hand, reminding me that her grasp was still active with a grin.
She then spent a while giving me a crash course on the world we were in, how magic worked and, most importantly, what familiars were.
Over here, a familiar was basically a human being bound to a partner called a Meister. The Meister had absolute control over every aspect of the familiar’s existence — their appearance, their behavior, their beliefs and even their memory and life. Obviously enough, that meant anyone looking to become a familiar had to trust their potential Meister hugely, or face potentially disastrous personal consequences, for a familiar-Meister bond could only be released by the Meister. As such, familiars were considered extremely rare and precious.
Familiars were also the most powerful wielders of magic around, by far. They couldn’t use magic on their own, but their Meister could essentially use them as wands to cast nearly limitless magic.
She was still holding onto my hand. My palm was getting embarrassingly sweaty, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“Erika probably won’t be long,” she said with an awkward smile when I remarked the day had ended. “I’d rather she didn’t learn about my visit, if that’s okay with you.”
I actually heard a sigh escape my lips, and blushed upon realizing I had been enjoying that girl’s presence.
“Aren’t you going to ask me whether I want to be your familiar?” I asked, surprised at her casualness.
She smiled.
“I’ve already made my offer,” she shrugged. “There would be little point in pestering you over and over with it, right? You need to make your own decisions.”
I smiled back at her. She gently caressed my cheeks with her free hand, and I felt them warm up under her touch.
“Well, I’ll see you around, I guess.”
She finally let go of my hand, passed behind me and left the room. I was alone again, but I knew it wouldn’t be long until Erika came over. I wasn’t sure whether I should carry on with my original plan of asking her about familiars. Cross-interrogation might help me examine her psyche, but it might also give my conversation with her maybe-relative surely-rival and I wasn’t sure I wanted that.
I decided I’d let her take the initiative for now. Going with the flow would give me a better posture to observe her behavior without alarming her.
////////// END OF PART 2 //////////
Written by Rebecca "Kalista" Scalese
Personal site: beckyverse.com
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Mail: [email protected]
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Comments
This is getting interesting
If familiars are powerful magic users that can only be used by a Meister, you have to wonder why he or she is a prisoner. Also, how are the two girls able to get in for a visit and will they be the only ones to visit?
The fact that the Meister has almost complete control over the familiar makes you wonder what freedom the familiar actually has. Does the familiar have the latitude to decide whether to perform a particular ritual or cast a spell?
Something tells me that our hero(ine) is still going to be surprised in some way when the bargain is actually completed.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of the story.
Meisters and prisons
Guessing here, but maybe a Meister is only really powerful with a familiar?
Then our heroine would be the means for the Meister to break out.
That's right
Thanks a lot for your comment!
Another way to put it would be to say a normal mage is fundamentally limited by their biology when it comes to wielding large amounts of magic energy (mana). In normal circumstances a mage is only going to be able to wield magic on relatively small scales; for instance destruction magic is a straight nope.
If they try to cast too powerful a spell their body will take a huge strain (potentially leaving them with definitive wounds) and that's before the spell is even successfully activated - it can fail. As a consequence, most mages will stick to basic tricks and avoid rampant magic use unless it's a matter of life and death.
A Meister wielding a familiar doesn't operate the same way at all, and as such the usual limitations don't apply.
Control and willpower are the thing
Thanks a lot for your comment!
A Meister is always defined in relationship to their familiar, and vice-versa (you can't have a familiar-less Meister, or a Meister-less familiar). The sum of a familiar and a Meister's powers completely dwarves the sum of its parts, and that's what makes familiars desirable for those who seek power (as is the case for these two girls).
About the "Meister has nigh-complete control over familiar" part: it's active control. Anything the Meister hasn't taken control of at a given time is up to the familiar (for instance, a Meister might tell their familiar to go fetch food at a store, but leave the choice of what food up to the familiar). The gist of it is if the Meister wants something out of the familiar, they are getting it, no questions asked - but most Meisters will only use absolute control sparingly (they tend to prefer their familiar thinking and talking, if only because it gives them someone to talk with).
The familiar doesn't have any control on the magic (they can neither cast on their own, nor refuse to cast) - the Meister does. Then again, the precedent statement stands - in many cases, the Meister will want their familiar to be in good terms with them, so they'll frequently have some way to communicate and take decisions together even though the Meister will always have the last word.
About the other questions, I'm not telling~
Hopefully you'll enjoy what comes next ^_^
Maybe the two girls imprisoned the prisoner?
I am assuming the prisoner is a he. So, perhaps they simply imprisoned him to bring him to the state of mind to accept the offer?
Gwen
That's a possibility, isn't it?
Thanks a lot for your comment!
Future will tell, as they say~
well, we've got some more information, anyway
trouble is, I don't know if he can trust this girl any more than he could trust the other. For all we know, they may be working together and responsible for his imprisonment in the first place. And since his memory and thinking could be altered, any promise to let him go if he wants is useless, since they could just arrange things so he never wants to leave. But any refusal could result in an increase in his torture, so he may have to pick, and hope he gets it right.
I look forward to seeing the next chapter
When all you have is a fleeting promise~
Thanks a lot for your comment!
Hehe, I like the way you're thinking ^_^
Hopefully you'll enjoy what comes next~
Danger Will Robinson!
This whole familiar thing sounds way too much like the situation with the Artificer in the Whateley universe. Worse, actually, since the master can make you forget things or remember things that aren't true. It is the most insidious form of slavery imaginable -- even your own mind and soul isn't your own.
Reading between the lines, it sounds like someone is born with the ability to be a familiar. Maybe someone who is born with the ability to be a familiar can also be a magic user, but the two girls never told our protagonist that. I would be suspicious.
So, in that world, I would assume that someone who is born with the ability to be a familiar would hide the fact. After all, what's to stop some nefarious person from kidnapping him and just keeping him in a cell until he can't stand it anymore and agrees to be a slave?
If I wanted to guarantee a supply of familiars, and I lived in that world, and I lacked a moral compass, I would do exactly that. Better yet, kidnap familiars from a world without magic so that they won't know the score. After being stuck in a cell standing in water and with his hands manacled, he would jump at the chance of being released.
So, what's the deal with the second girl telling him the score? Is she trying to sabotage the first girl's attempt to attain power? Or maybe she's lying.
I wouldn't trust either of them.
Just on the off chance that they are only partially lying, and that magic exists, I would try to feel the magic and maybe use it.
After all, a familiar might just be a magic user that has given himself away to a master.
Of course, there wouldn't be a story if he didn't give his soul away to the master, turn into a girl, and sprout a set of wings.
Or maybe someone will turn him into a girl, which turns him from a familiar into a magic user. Then, he'll fly away and be chased all around that world by a powerful organization.
Great guesswork!
Thanks a lot for your comment!
I haven't read anything Whateley yet (came across it many times while browsing, but I haven't really felt like trying it yet), so I can't really tell... but yeah, a familiar's mind is essentially subject to any of their Meister's whims.
You're definitely on to something with these questions :P
I like it.
Nice dilemma; stay stuck here, go with mystery girl one or go with mystery girl two.
and with no (or so little) say in the mater.
Can I take the risky answer "D", I'll be the familiar of both of you ! That way one can counterbalance the other.
Peace, Love, Freedom, Happiness
Take the nth option
Thanks a lot for your comment!
Actually, that's an interesting idea, isn't it? ^_^