"Oh looks like you're back Sammy, how was it?" Hildi asks with a smile.

I just need to imagine if she loves me and then I'll see her soul, right? I mean, she already told me so but... I'm just doing this to be sure…

"Hello…Hildi to Sammy, do you copy?"

Imagining this question and feeling a tightness in my chest I focus and look at Hildi. And…And…

"It's pink…"

"What?"

Without thinking, I jump into her arms for a hug. Happy tears streaming down my face.

"Woah, woah Sammy what's going on, are you ok? What happened to your hair? Why is it white?"

I look her straight in the eyes and all I can say is

"Yes, I'm doing great."

"Woah, woah, Sammy are you sure you're alright? Your eyes are blood red and your hair turned white, are you sure you're ok?"

"Huh?"

Looking at my hair, it does seem to have whitened just like the queen's. Maybe if I turn off the eyes again…

"Eeeeeh, let me try something."

Soul seeing eyes off. As I say this in my head, the soul of Hildi becomes invisible again and my hair turns golden blonde once more.

"How did you do that? Is that a trick you learned from your Familiar?"

"I'll tell you all about it in private!"

"Uhm…Ok?"

"Oh anyways. Pavel? Where are you?"

I look around the room but I don't see any thirty foot tall soldier dude.

"Down here" A high pitched voice says from beneath the table.

"Huh?"

Looking under the table, there is a mini Pavel standing there like a little tin soldier.

"Pavel? Is that you?"

"Yes, now please get me off the ground, I don't want to stare at your feet all day."

"Oh, sure. It would sadden me if you're sad."

I then pick up mini Pavel from under the table and put him on top of it.

Looking at Pavel, Thunderbird says, "Ah, so you made a Familiar contract. Good, where did you find it."

"I'm not allowed to say. Also, he's not my Familiar. He's more like, a future friend."

"What do you mean, 'not your Familiar'?"

"That I'm not anyone's slave you nitwit." Pavel says while spitting in Thunderbird's direction.

"Such insolence! Sammy, tell your Familiar to behave and apologize."

"Oh ehm, Pavel it would be nice if you apologized. That was a bit rude."

"I don't fucking care! That man's a slaver, I can tell. Fucking mage. You reek like an old bed, lightning chicken."

"Hey, I used that insult before too! I guess great minds think alike"

"Eh whatever."

Getting angry, Thunderbird yells, "Sammy! What is the meaning of this disobedient Familiar?"

"Eh…Like I said he's not my Familiar, we didn't make a pact or anything."

Letting out a sigh, he bends over and hides his face behind his hand, "I can't believe you found the one Familiar willing to trick a little child."

"Oy what did you say lightning chicken? I'll have you know I didn't trick anyone."

"You shut your mouth before I send you back where yo-"

"OK STOP!" I interrupt, "Look, Pavel, please stop escalating this unnecessarily. As for you, teach, he didn't trick me or anything, this is just the agreement we have. Now just, like, shake hands or something and make up."

"Me? A mythical being, a wizard apologizing to a servant?!"

"Well I'm not gonna fucking apologize to someone locking their slave up in a safe 24/7"

"Aha, so they ARE spying on me!"

Hildi interrupts this time, "Alright stop this! You're acting less mature than the literal child present. You should both be well into your tens of thousands of years old, this child is fourteen. You should be ashamed of this display in front of her. You don't need to kiss and make up, just shut up and continue this aptitude test."

Fuck yeah, let's go Hildi!

"And you Sammy…"

Uh oh.

"We'll have a nice long talk about this later tonight, understood?"

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

"Yes mom, I mean ma'am. I meant ma'am!"

She gives me a smug look with her arms still crossed after my mistake.

Damn it! Worst possible slip of the tongue. She's not gonna let this one go. Fuuuck and it's gonna make it so much worse if I do tell her about me…

"Tsk, I guess bigger people yield to smaller minds. I'm prepared to continue," Thunderbird scoffs.

"Not very chivalrous of me to keep slinging insults at the morally challenged either."

"Ok! Good! Let's continue then, teach. I'm pretty sure I passed, so what's the next magic school?"

"The next school is the school of curses. It is the-"

"Nope. Unless it teaches me to get rid of curses I'm not interested."

"It does not."

"Then I'm good."

"I think I understand your apprehension but it is still important to learn from every magic school, to be competent in the field of magic as a wh-"

"Nope. Don't touch shit and your hand won't stink. I don't want anything to do with the evil schools."

"Hmph you almost sound like a Human. There is no such thing as good or bad magic it all depends on who use-"

"Nope, next. Not interested."

"Fine, the next school is the school of repulsion, it is the art of reflecting and defending using magical barriers and changing the flow of the spells of others to disperse or redirect them."

"Hildi! Write this down, I'm totally gonna need a tutor for this! What do I need to do, teach?"

"I'm going to throw balls at you and I want you to imagine a shield coming out of your hands that makes the balls bounce off."

Pavel scoffs, "Heh, wizards will really do anything not to train their reflexes."

"Shh Pavel, I'm learning."

"Eh, whatever."

"Ready yourself Sammy, I will start throwing shortly"

Ok, take your magic, extend it and imagine a rubber shield!

"Ready!"

As he throws the first ball it bounces right off!

"Keep concentrating."

He then readies his second ball and throws it a lot harder, like a full on baseball throw. It connects, takes a bit to slow down and then falls down mid air.

"Last one, keep up concentration."

This time he doesn't swing for the throw but instead just holds his hand forward and the ball starts to spin and accelerate in his hand. Then suddenly, it shoots out his hand and hits my shield, stopping for a second before a glass breaking sound is heard and it shoots past the barrier toward my head. It's way too fast to dodge! Right before it hits, things seem like they go in slow motion for a second as the ball suddenly takes a turn and flies by my head and into the wall, leaving a cannon ball sized impact hole before a huge explosion is heard. I…I think he broke the sound barrier with this one. This would have fucking killed me if it hit my head.

"Hmm, average."

"Average??? Who is able to block that on their first try?"

He points at the tree.

"The same type of person who does stuff like that but for this school."

"Hmm. Fair. So how many do we have left?"

"Just one."

"Oh? So we're almost through!?"

"Yes. The last school is the cosmic school, sometimes referred to as the school of divination. It is the school of communing with the cosmos, divining and scrying. Many diviners receive messages of possible futures but only the skilled ones can discern which futures are actually likely to happen and how to cause them or stop them. Most diviners just lock themselves up in their research chambers and try to create different world ending prophecies and then ways to prevent them. Which sometimes is as easy as making sure a person doesn't eat something that gives them a tummy ache on a specific day. Like the famous case of Dysanderoph's prophecy of eternal doom that would cause the eventual downfall of all existence if a farmer named Samillion stubbed his toe on his 2376th birthday. And so, a day before, his toes were forcibly amputated and regrown a day after his birthday and calamity was stopped."

"Oh…OH…WAIT…I think I can tell the future as well…A test awaits me, is that correct?"

"Do not make light of prophecies! Anyways, you're correct. Your test will be…"

A knock comes from the door and then the Cyclops from the entrance enters.

"Sir, there is trouble outside."

"What kind of trouble?"

"I don't know, it seems like some raid is going on. Guards are running around asking questions about a fugitive."

"Well, if they come here, keep them occupied for a bit. I'm almost done with my consultation."

Wait a second. 'Take me in no matter the cost' are they after me? But how would they know? I have this necklace that should block out all scry…FUCK, I took it off to be identified. They're totally looking for me. It must have been at least an hour since I took it off so it totally makes sense that they're showing up now.

"Hildi…"

"Yes?"

"Come down so I can whisper in your ear."

"Ehm, ok."

She leans down a bit and I get close to her ear making sure neither the cyclops nor Thunderbird can hear me.

"I had someone trustworthy in the white queen's kingdom tell me that people are after me and want to imprison me, I don't know much more about it but the timing is too suspicious to be a coincidence!"

"I understand. We should be safe here though. Even if they are looking for you, it is unlikely they'll have much leeway in trying to get in here. The place is as secure as you can get."

Thunderbird lets out a sigh, "I am annoyed by this interruption but let us finish this. I want you to do some scrying. Here is a bowl of water, I need you to pour your mana into it, thinking of a place or person, the water surface should then show what they're doing right now. This test is less about accuracy or being able to do it but how long you can keep the image without losing it, I'll be putting down three differently sized hourglasses. When you see an image, I will turn them and depending how many you can outlast your competency is determined. Just tell me when you can see something."

"Ok."

A little worried, I try to ignore the danger outside and start pouring my magic into the bowl. Who should I think of though? Hildi? Nah too close…OH! I know! Pubert! He should be in his knight training now. Ok, think of Pubert…

"Oh I see something coming into view, it's a bit foggy though."

"Just put more magic into it, it will better the image. I'll start the timer now."

Ok…It's coming slowly into view…I think he is…Oh he's training his fighting! Yeah let's go beat em up Pubert. Oof I don't think he's doing too well…Wait, they're fighting him 3 vs 1 that's unfair!

"Boss, it's bad. They want to enter."

"For what reason?"

"Under suspicion of high treason and harboring a dangerous fugitive."

"What?"

Seems like they're dragging him somewhere now…Is that…A cage? Oh is this maybe one of those fucked up hazing rituals? Are they gonna burn a knight's symbol on his butt or something?

"Can you hold them off a bit longer?"

"They're already breaking in through the first door, they have mages, Quicklings and two Ogres with them."

"They really brought the big guns, huh?"

Wait no…I know this place…This is the bandit camp!!! He isn't fighting knights he's fighting the bandits and they have him all caged up!!!

"Hildi! We need to go back to earth!"

"I agree. It's not safe here right now with the raid going on."

"Huh, I thought you said it's safe."

"It was, not anymore. Thunderbird, can you finish up your contract and send us out your back door?"

"Of course, looking when she lost concentration I'd say she'd be low average in divination. This fulfills the contract to your liking, correct?"

"Correct."

"Perfect, now get the fuck out of my shop, you're sending the troops here. Under the carpet is a trapdoor, go down there and run."

"Will do!"

Hildi says while transforming into her hybrid form and picking me up into her baby carrier.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.