Jump 200: The Familiar of Zero

Jump 200: The Familiar of Zero

Location: Tristain Academy of Magic
Identity: [100] Void Familiar
Drawbacks: [+300] Devoted Bodyguard

[600/1200]  Spellbreaker
[Free]      Chosen by the Void
[Free]      Summoned Hero
[800/1200]  Familiar's Arsenal: Gandalfr
[Free]      Laptop and Cell Phone
[900/1200]  Honors
[1100/1200] Regalia
[1150/1200] Canon Companion: Louise

The sound of the explosion echoed, the dust cloud prodigious in size. The ringing in everyone's ears began to fade as the smoke cleared, revealing ... nothing at all, to everyone's eyes. A young girl with pink hair found herself on the verge of tears, as others in the crowd of youths begin to whisper, the volume increasing as some began to jeer her. The single source of authority standing with them seemed reluctant to stop them, until all were brought to silence by a bass hum. No, a rumble, nearby. As all fell abruptly silent, a barely visible shimmer could be seen. The rumble continued for several moments. At last, it made sense; it sounded like laughter, if the one laughing were gargling boulders.

And then the shimmer changed, refracting the light from the surroundings, a kaleidoscope of color sent through the form before the students. Something that easily could be the size of a manor house. What looked to be its head, on a long neck, lowered before the pink-haired girl that stood in front of the others. Who, it could be noted, seemed to be extremely nervous... yet was holding her ground where others had not. Many fled, whether from their own fear or to pursue their own fleeing familiars. A few of those who held their ground did so out of fear, while the remainder did it for the sake of ceremony.

The... thing, moved. Slowly. Something unfurling from its back - wings, perhaps? - and cocking its nearly transparent head. "So, the day has at last come. Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere. The one the history books shall call Zero, for that is the number of enemies left unbroken in her wake," it spoke, pronouncing each word crisply. Rumbled, really, its voice a bass deep enough to be felt in the bones of whose who stayed near the summoning. After a pregnant pause, it spoke again. "I ask of you... are you my master?"

The pinkette had found herself dazed. Her legs had locked when she realized how massive the... thing, in front of her was. The fear that had been coiling in her gut evaporated as a burst of rage filled her as it spoke the hated nickname from her classmates, only for it to fizzle out in a hurry given the unexpected potential future context. And then, with that question, she found herself grounded firmly in the here-and-now. With the light refracting, she could tell where its... face? Snout?, was, and there was only one action to take.

"Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, grant your blessings upon this creature and bind it as my familiar."

Her lips were pressed to it briefly, part of the ritual of binding, eyes open. But she found the near-invisible shape before her shifting, compacting. Disappearing. Though the moment felt oddly drawn out, it was but a moment before she realized her lips were on the cheek of something that looked... human. A male, an adult garbed in strange attire, skin in an identical tone to her, but with crimson hair and faintly illuminated golden eyes, and an arm around her middle.

She quickly disentangled herself from him, a bemused chuckle audible as runes burned themselves into the back of one of his hands. He folded his hands behind his back, commenting in a much more human baritone, "I shall be in your care, then, at least for the next decade. Forgive me if using a compact form proves itself more convenient than that of a dragon that few can see."

The proctor for the summoning, a slight man whose hairline had deserted him years ago, seemed oddly relieved that the attempt had succeeded. If a bit unnerved by the results. The students and familiars who had fled returned in ones and twos, and were dismissed not long after. The two began walking back toward the castle, striking up a conversation.

"So... you know me. Is that because you're my familiar, or..? No, you knew me before you were my familiar," Louise mused thoughtfully. "And what are you, anyway? Was that an illusion, or... oh, Founder, tell me I didn't summon a foreign mage."

The man chuckled, shaking his head, and answered, "I know you because you introduced yourself to me, even if it was after the fact. Much as I know where your room is, and the... straw bed that you had hoped to use for a familiar. Though I do hope you weren't planning on making me occupy that permanently of course." He glanced to her with an indulgent smile and she shook her head rapidly, cheeks darkening a bit. "As for the rest, it's a bit of a long walk but I know a shortcut if you'll give me your hand a moment?"

Louise's eyebrows lifted, looking between the dormitory and her familiar for a moment, but reached out a tentative hand and grasped his own securely. With not a moment's warning, they were standing in the center of her room - she pulled her hand away and looked around the room, momentarily disoriented. "I... what was that? Teleportation magecraft?"

"Nothing so fancy," he answered, folding his hands behind his back. She sat down atop her bed as she regained her bearings. "On a piece of paper, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But if you fold the paper, you can bring those points together. That is, in a manner of speaking, what I did."

"This... is going to be a very curious conversation," she muttered to herself. Then looking up at him again, repeated her earlier question: "What are you? WHO are you?"

"You may call me Crux, Louise. What I am... is very complicated. The simplest title for me is god-president; I oversee many words, and preside over a total population that numbers in the quadrillions. I am to mages as the sun is to your world. But why I am here is much more important."

She leaned forward, impatience warring with curiosity. "What?"

He smiled, a smile that seemed unnerving in that it somehow looked too... normal. Too happy for the words that followed. "You're going to become the most powerful mage in this world in order to save it, Louise. And I'm going to help you do it."