208 208 Familiars
Katerina nodded stiffly and awkwardly took her place in the circle, looking incredibly nervous at the prospect of summoning a Familiar. She began to channel her spell, and the mist formed exactly as usual, but to Wolfe, it looked much different. This cloud was lighter, without the blackness that he had seen every other time.
He wondered if it was because he had cleaned out the corruption from her body before it could solidify or if it was something to do with the spell itself. It seemed to be working properly, though, and the nearly white cloud was getting quite thick, though it stayed as a tiny ball right until the end.
It was almost dense enough to look like a tiny moon, glowing in the evening sky, when the spell finally completed, and a tiny Fae appeared in the air in front of her, then began rapidly flying circles around the girl’s head and chattering too fast for Wolfe to understand.
“She says her name is the same as mine, and she’s happy to be here,” Katerina explained once she realized that nobody else could understand the fast-talking creature.
It landed on her shoulder a moment later, and Wolfe noticed that it had butterfly wings, making it a Faerie, like the ones that featured in so many kids’ shows. They were powerful magic users in their own right, and having one as a Familiar would surely lead her to incredible heights, even without Wolfe’s assistance.
The Fae flew over to where Wolfe was standing and circled him a few times before hovering in front of him. “So, you’re the first one that has forgiven the Witches, are you? Not all of them, it seems, just a few who have proven themselves. It’s a start. Thank you for treating my summoner well.”
Her words were fast, but Wolfe could tell that she was speaking slowly and deliberately so that he could understand her.
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The Fae gave him a respectful bow and returned to tangle herself in Katerina’s hair, taking a secure position so that they could watch the remainder of the summonings.
Ella was up next and every bit as nervous as Katerina had been. Her first attempt at this spell had been a true spectacle, and she wasn’t confident that the second would be any better. It could fail, cling to Wolfe, even summon another Demon. The ways that this could go wrong were endless now that she knew that it was possible for the spell to do unusual things.
But, she placed her reagents in the circle to balance the elements in the area and then began to add mana to begin the summoning.
Where Katerina’s cloud had been nearly white, this one was inky black, seeming to absorb all the light around it as it increased in density. Ella had her eyes closed so that she didn’t get distracted and jinx herself, so she was the only one that didn’t notice the circle of darkness engulfed everything inside the circle of Witches but ended abruptly at their linked hands.
While the darkness spread, the cloud itself remained small, and then in an instant, the light was back, and Ella was looking at her second Familiar. It was a small creature, about the size of a Goblin, but with wicked-looking clawed hands and no legs under its shadowy robes.
It floated just a little off the ground and turned its shadow-filled hood up at Ella in confusion.
Ella smiled back at it. “You’re in the land of the living, little Reaper. I needed a Familiar, and the spell sent you to me.”
The small floating figure nodded and then looked around the circle before turning back to Ella and raising its hands to the side in confusion as it didn’t find a target.
“No, you’re not here to collect anyone’s soul. At least not right now. These are my friends, and we intend to keep them all alive.” She explained.
The floating undead nodded in understanding, then moved to hover behind her shoulder, matching his head movements with hers, so he was seeing exactly what she was seeing, but from a few centimetres to the left.
“A floating undead. Now that is an impressive Familar. It might not be able to use the sorts of magic that a Fae can or even the Jackalope, but if I am right, it should be able to use Shadow Magic of its own to move between targets and attack.” One of the Officers explained with an excited look in her eyes.
It wasn’t often that a Witch got an Undead Familiar, and they were usually considered bad luck since skeletons and zombies were the most common, while Skeletons were incredibly weak as Familars but strong as Guardian warriors, and the zombies were very affectionate Familiars, but they usually smelled really bad.
That just left Cassie, who stepped into the circle and double-checked it as soon as Ella left. It still looked intact, so she put her reagents on the ground and began the summoning.
This one looked quite mundane, just as Priya’s had, and Wolfe could sense Cassie’s excitement at the possibility that she would be getting a completely normal Familiar.
Wolfe tried to hide his response from the link since every Familiar that they had seen tonight was either very rare or very powerful. The Jackalope was considered a highly dangerous magical beast, and its wind magic was on par with any of the First Rank Witches here, while the Fae and the Undead were both rare and extremely powerful.
This cloud was much larger than the others had been, and it was closer to the ground instead of floating at chest level like the others. It was the usual dark gray summoning cloud at first, but as it condensed, it began to change.
The cloud went jet black, then began to glow with red and orange light from inside as it solidified. Wolfe could feel Cassie’s panic, but he couldn’t interfere with a Familiar Summoning, so he just stood back and waited.
The cloud seemed to implode, collapsing into itself until it revealed her new Familiar, a small black dog with flames flickering in its eyes and a furiously wagging tail as it stared toward Cassie. The wind picked up, and the puppy sneezed, sending out a small ball of fire and making the Witches gasp in shock.
“It’s a Hell Hound. An actual Hell Hound, but just a puppy. Pup will love you when he gets here. You’re both soft and warm.” Cassie greeted her new Familiar as she picked it up in her arms.
The little dog was preening in pride at her praise and holding its head high while its long tail gave away its happiness. If it weren’t for the eyes and the heat it gave off, the Hell Hound could have passed itself off for a black lab puppy, all happy and friendly, especially with the tongue hanging out the side of its mouth.
“Congratulations on the Familiars, everyone. We will hold this ceremony every time someone reaches the Second Rank since we don’t have any other new Witches here who haven’t had a first Familiar.” Wolfe announced, then wondered what they would do with the Summoning Circle now that they were done.