Guiche

The open vista of sunlit green seemed to welcome and succor, his heart beating with a drumming excitement. All around him stood his peers, the fellow mages who also were finding their own momentous day in this quiet, calm, sunlit meadow. The only structure of human hands being the rune inscribed alter upon which the day’s most sacred trial had commenced. He could only grin.

Success.

The powerful opiate of rewarded effort filled him as he looked upon that which his mage craft had wrought. The proof of his magehood in flesh and bone, beautiful to behold even as it… no HE mulled  about before it’s summoner’s gaze. He’d done it, he Guiche De Gramont, scion of his Noble name had managed to bring forth a Familiar unto this world to serve him until they both should part though death.

“Louise Francois la Blanc De La Valiere!” He heard, barely paying attention to the sound of the teachers voice as the last of your year group is called forth. Too engrossed in cuddling the beautiful golden fur of his new Familiar, a gigantic mole the size of a huge dog and inscribed with all manner of natural runic symbology, to care much as to what was going on with the girl who was both the second most lacking in chest and the laughing stock of the entire school.

Still dimly Guiche found himself aware of her plight, the single glance thrown her direction revealing the nervous anguish which lived upon her face, even as she tried her best to calm herself and proceed with the ritual. Guiche turned his face away once more cooing and bonding with the beautiful creature who in turn seemed smitten with him if only though what he could feel via their link, only to have to turn back at the startled gasp which filled the crowd. It seemed that yet another explosive failure had happened, a detonation which rocked even the stable earth here and knocked many from their feed.

And as the smoke cleared something else became apparent. A person stood amidst the smoke and dust, his silhouette sharp against the brilliance of the noonday sun.

“Is that a person?”

“Yeah… somehow…”

“A commoner?”

“Did she hire him?”

“Wow how’d she pull that one off?”

“Look at his hair, it’s so black…”

This would be the first time in which Guiche would lay eyes upon the young man, handsome and exotic in his own right. Hair black as a raven’s feathers gleamed in the brilliant sunlight. Only once had Guiche seen anything akin to it, and that was from a single commoner maid within the school. His clothing too stood out in ways which Guiche could not quite name, design and seamlessness of their make quickly catching his eye, he was after all a student of intricate detail and craftsmanship.

But he wasn’t quite certain just what the fabric of that was.

Curiously Guiche continued to watch the exchange between their presiding teacher, Professor Colbert, and the young pink headed mage who seemed some odds torn about her success. Unkind whispers had already begun, alleging this to be unreal, mere attempts at confounding the sacred process rather than an honest summoning of the Familiar which all were to bind.

Unprecedented even if it was not a trick. To summon another person...

He could not help but notice the resolve which hardened within the young woman’s eyes, even as her wand waved for the effort of focusing a minor cantrip, the spell of binding, and then approached the young man in order to seal the ritual with a kiss.

Puzzlement seemed to be the only thing which crossed the summoned man’s brow, even as his summoner lunged forth against his lips sealing tightly lips against lips then pulling back in bitter anticipation.

… the scream which came forth was piercing.

Guiche never even noticed as he pulled his beautiful mole closer, an imperceptible monster seemingly unleashed.

“What the hell did you just do to me?” His lips moved now with the tongue of the land, the ritual it seemed was a success. “What the hell was that and where am I?”

The flickering anger in his stance spoke of pain and fury.

Another explosion from the pink bomber herself waiting to happen.

Not his problem.

Blithely Guiche waved his wand, settling flight cantrip in place as the professor ordered everyone up and gone... only Louise and her new pet, a few moments observation put it categorically as clearly a commoner, were left behind. Already rumours of illegitimacy were flying about between the year group’s loose lips.

Guiche left with his new beloved companion in tow, sparing only a single fleeting look back in their direction as he sped off beside his blonde fiancée, smiling and nodding slightly as she spoke about her own cute new familiar, a small but ridiculously venomous frog which she’d already named.

And even in departing his eyes caught against the Raven haired commoner’s own... and for one brief moment Guiche de Gramont felt the cold bite of thrilling fear shoot though his spine. Those were not eyes which belonged on a person, they were the eyes of something fearful, predatory...

... they were eyes which pieced though… and somehow he knew them settled upon himself.

A moment which became eternity.

A shiver of fear.

Guiche, scion of the house Gramont, tore himself away... no he was just imagining things, what threat to him was a commoner anyway? What kind of fool was he to take such a thing so seriously? No clearly it had been all in his head. He pulled closer to the fair Monmon, almost as a talisman as he hugged his own familiar close, mind disturbed by thoughts of those eyes and that Raven head.

But lunch would come, time would pass, and the feeling of threat would fade. Minutes turned to hours and soon Guiche would find himself once more in a state befitting a man of his structure and grace.

Nothing to worry about.

Nothing to fear.

And yet…


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“Milord Guiche…” He grins at the breathy pronouncement of his name, running fingers though light brown hair, the colour of smelted bronze. “Milord, I…”

His fingers caress across her lips, bringing silence to her tongue as his roguish smile danced across an impish face. Fingers slid, shifted across the smooth skin of her heated cheek brushing lightly as they traveled in a quest to lift her chin lightly. His eyes met hers and all the world seemed to but fall to the wayside, his thumb tracing her trembling lips.

“Katie. Dearest Katie. Beautiful as the fields in summer, ripe and wonderful to behold.” He laid it on a bit thick to be sure, but this was one little grasshopper whom had fallen into his web on her own, no need to hunt her down, to make the chase. This first year wanted badly to be prey... and Guiche wanted little at the moment but to be her hunter. “I hadn’t expected you to be so forward with me, so aggressive in your pursuit.”

The colour in her cheeks deepened, his suggestions anathema to the unwritten lore of what a ‘good girl’ was supposed to be. And yet, his every inflection coloured the idea in an allure, dark and wonderful all at once. Irresistible in its own right.  Intoxicating like fine wine for one who’d never experienced before such a rush. The cute little first year was practically wrapped around his finger, and she’d done most of the wrapping on her own.

“… I… they said to go for it.” She stumbled slightly over her own word. “My friends... they told me to. I…”

Guiche silences her once again with a thumb upon her pretty lips, sliding ever so lightly across their full red surface. “Shh. They were right. You came to me, and now you’re rewarded for your initiative. Bold is the one who reaps the reward, the frightened fail before they grip. And you’ve been bold indeed.”

His hand slid down across her side, gripping her close till his breath and hers mingle soft and subtle... forbidden fruit for one who was already promised, and all the sweeter for it. His lips closed in, pressed against her own…

“Oh, now this is a pretty interesting sight.” An interruption broke him away from his focus, as a sudden chill walked down Guiche’s spine. Was he caught? Ruinous… scandalous… all these things worked their way through him as he turned to meet the voice of his night mare suddenly realized.