Settling in

After Louise stopped screaming at me and trying to hit me (I've had far worse), we went to the classroom just in time to hear a speech on how the students should go out and bond with their familiars. After walking to Louise's room the old fashioned way we settled in for a talk.

"Okay first off I feel it's best to explain that I'm from a far away place that has a system of spellcraft very different from yours, my magic isn't your magic. So anyway where am I and what is your magic?

"For your questions you're at the Tristain Academy of Magic. I'm not quite sure what you're looking for on magic but the library may be of help for your inquiries. What do you mean by your magic being different from ours."

"There were two major forms of magic and a few lesser ones. The major two I actually cannot use, the first was hereditary but only to females and involved the channeling of a totem animal, while a portion of my magic resembles it that's more from upbringing. The users of the second were able to turn into a weapon and synchronize their powers with a wielder to cause various effects, they could also eat the souls of their foes but that was illegal to do except to criminals." It was interesting to note the unusual lack of homesickness when talking about earth. Probably the runes messing with my head, darn that's disconcerting.

Louise looked rather disbelieving of my claims. "A place with people weapons that can eat souls, how odd. So what does that mean for your status as my familiar?"

"I'm not of your nobility if that's what you're worried about, we Sorcerers were an anomaly in the second world they were more hermits than rulers, happy to seclude themselves to their experiments. As for you I can't teach you my magic since you're clearly not a Witch or a Sorcerer but I can teach you how to craft golems. Quite useful once you get the knack for it. That particular art just needs a specialized set of gloves." Enchanting was a quite respectable trade, also it would help boost Louise's confidence to at least have some branch of magic she didn't create explosions when doing.

"Wait you can craft golems? And you can teach others how to without them being earth mages?" Curiosity and shock flash across her face.

"As I said the art of imbuing the clay with the proper matrices using specially prepared gloves and then using the power of your soul to call it to life is fairly simple. I've actually got a good number of them of various sizes and functions stashed in my Pandimensional Workshop, if you like I can call one or two out for demonstration."

With that I created an opening to my workshop and called out one of my smaller servant class golems, it was far easier than it usually was and the runes showed up over where the usual inscription of Emeth was. "He can take simple orders and should be able to take care of the more menial tasks that fall on familiars. Speaking of which what are my usual duties as a familiar?"

"Fetching spell components and serving as an extra set of eyes mostly, protecting their master and serving as a mark of prestige as well. For some reason the usual sense link doesn't seem to function for you." Yup that sounds about right.

"I'll see what I can do on the components front, as for other tasks we'll see how that goes. Do keep in mind though that you shouldn't give a toad the same tasks as a dragon. Anyway how about I start you on the basics of enchanting for now." Hopefully my status as a magic user will keep her from doing some of the stupid BS she did with Saito.

From there I spent most of the day tutoring Louise on the basics of enchantment. By the time she went to bed she had decent progress on a doll sized golem with somewhat sloppy programming and mildly disproportionate limbs. Honestly it was quite good for a beginner, she seemed to take quite well to it, doing a good job of learning my lessons and keeping my advice in mind. She still had that minor issue with not seeing a problem with changing in front of me but frankly I'm not especially interested in that sort of thing and simply averted my gaze.

But anyway once she was unconscious was when the real brunt of my work began. You see one of the spells I developed as the Jellyfish Sorcerer was a lovely little healing spell that could remove fatigue, it's not a good idea to use long term but it allowed me to avoid sleeping for a few days if necessary.

As for what I was doing I had a hunch as to what the ephemeral beings appearing in my vision were but it wouldn't do to test it anywhere nearby as that might be linked back to me and I don't want the strain on my relationships that would cause just yet. So instead I decided to see about hiring an expert to help obtain items for my abilities. After getting directions to Ms Loungueville's room from a passing maid I went and knocked on her door.

After a little while she opened the door looking rather cross. "You're Louise's familiar what business do you have with me at this time of the night."

"My apologies for the late hour of my calling. I have a proposal for a job for you but don't have my master's approval yet. As for your fatigue just give me a bit of time to work. Float float sting jelly pyon." With that incantation I cast my healing spell once more, clearing away her fatigue.

With the removal of her fatigue she straightened up and became far more alert. "Thanks for that, anyway what sort of job do you have for a secretary like me?"

Now how do I phrase this so she doesn't flip out? "I find that I could use some magic items, you seemed like the person to go to for help liberating them from corrupt owners. Also the money would go to a good cause."

With that she grabs me and pins me against the wall with one hand, the other holding her wand. "How do you know about that? Explain now or I'll reduce you to a pulp."

"It's a long story but I've got some rather scattered information on the world thanks to my abilities, your identity is part of it. Don't worry I swear I will not disclose your identity to any others. Even Louise would just get told of a treasure hunter who I wish to employ. My only condition for employment is to keep things relatively quiet and avoid getting unique items for now."

Matilda lightens her grasp on me and lowers her wand. "And if I refuse?"

"Then I shall trouble you no further about this. I will be obligated to defend my master if you do something noticeable for your heist here though. As promised I will oppose you solely as Foquet and not use your identity against you. Anyway it’s a standing offer, also one last thing: you may want to let your employer know that the Staff of Destruction is only usable once.”

“That certainly changes things, I’ll have to see about contacting them.” She released her grip on me but kept her wand pointed at me until I left her line of sight. Well that went reasonably well, pretty sure I didn’t screw anything up too bad. Once I was out of her line of sight I opened my second portal to my Omnidimensional Workshop, I had some work to do, after all surveillance networks of tiny golems with magic mirrors integrated into them don’t set themselves up. On the plus side my new abilities seemed to make it so that I didn't need an actual reciever so long as I was the one controlling them.