Becoming the Witch’s Familiar

Mujad sat snuggly in the main chair within the sitting room.

It appeared his first experience with snow had taken a number on the elf, as he sat sniffling while thumbing through the pages of his notes, his brow furrowed as he tried searching for the answer posited to him. He pensively searched as the fire raged just mere inches away from him in his down blanket.

Sara sat opposite of him on a less ostentatious guest chair, actually having approached the boy rather than the other way around. She was certain he knew more about her body than she did, so naturally he was the first one she would go to.

“I cannot find this.” The young elf closed the book, sniffling all the while, but had not given up. Sitting back in the chair, he leaned closer to the fire than he already had. “Rejuvenation would not work?”

Looking at her stub arm, Sara sighed. She had tried for two weeks to learn the spell and had left the tome behind in Merreign, neither of which were conducive to restoring her other hand back, something The Eternal said was essential to her if she wanted to learn more magic. While she could shapeshift into a form with a functional arm, much like how Bila-jihns did with their genitals, it took a constant supply of mana to maintain that form. Not to mention, any time she tried to cast that spell and the levitate spell, the newer one overwrote the older, meaning she could only have one spell up at a time.

“Well…” The boy in the blanket cocoon snuggled further into his fluffy embrace, “What if cut everything from main body?”

She pondered this as well. “That’d be a question for The Archivist.” Thoughtlessly placing a hand over her lower stomach, she noticed the neon pink seal had gotten less elaborate, most likely due to the meddling of Eldura back in the Merreign prison. “But I haven’t heard from her lately. Normally, she’d be high-fiving me after getting her some mana.”

The idea of losing everything she used to walk around, interact with things and even see normally caused Sara to shudder. Thankfully, she was not alive to feel what it was like to be just a flatworm swimming around in a body of water somewhere, but she had no desire to revert to that state.

“If what you said true,” Mujad started, shaking her out of imagining what it would be like being confined to a pool forever, “You are dragon succubus, meaning you have ties to dragon. So what do dragon do to heal?”

Crossing her arms, she scowled, “I’m only essentially a dragon mimic, I shouldn’t have any actual ties to dragons themselves.”

The two sat in silence as the fire continued to crackle.

A light scraping sound could be heard. Looking over, the goopy sphere extended it’s pseudopod towards the two, dragging the metal core contained within the slime body across the wooden floor.

“Do you know anything about that?” Sara pointed towards the blue blob. She was not terribly concerned by the monster, but considering where she got it from, more answers would be preferred.

Mujad shook his head, eyes still closed. She knew The Eternal gave him a few hours back at their tower to look into some potential leads for what the slime creature even was, but nothing had turned up.

“Ugh…” She knew the one person who could get them answers to both of her pressing questions, but had refused to answer her when she called out like she had done before.

Something was up.

“Fine. I guess I’ll have to take matters into my own hands.” Sara stood, scooping up the slime ball.

“Hand.” Mujad corrected before drifting to sleep.

- - - -

She still had not gotten used to seeing The Eternal without his usual blue mountain coat and obnoxious bird mask.

In tallman years, she would have placed him towards the end of his twenties, still holding onto whatever youth he had left, but losing ground against the more defined features of manhood that began to take up residence. Like most elves, his face was fair, but his wide cheekbones certainly separated him from the elven norm. She wondered if that would be considered ugly in Merreign?

“So you wish to contact your master?” He spoke without moving his lips, something she had realized he had done all along, even if Ashara had told her he constantly did that. Despite being an elf, their mouths ill-fitted for languages other than their own, he always had perfect speech and unrivaled clarity. “And you came to see if I can teach you my flagship spell?”

Sara simply nodded in confirmation.

He sat back, crossing his arms. Lifting the front legs of the chair, he leaned back, appearing to fall onto the dining room floor at any minute. “I do not see the harm in that, but I am curious as to what warrants you wanting to contact her rather than the inverse?”

The succubus looked at the slime creature, seemingly confused by being put on the table, “I want to ask her about my arm since the light mana spell is out and ask about this thing too.”

“Understandable. The Archivist is unparalleled when it comes to understanding monsters.” His silver eyes darted to the blob as well, “Just to satiate my curiosity: you do not have a link with her any longer?”

Shaking her head, she looked back at the Sage. Something about him was different than the other elves she had seen during her stay in the desert country. “Not sure. But it’s for the best that I learn this spell while having the best teacher for it, don’t you think?”

The Eternal smiled. She was used to assuming he had emotions, but now that his face was on full display, he was terribly emotive. “You flatter me, Succubus Sarakiel. But fine, it will not take long to learn such a simple spell.”

Putting his finger in the air, he drew a tight circle, only his knuckle moving. “Next, think of the person’s name. The more you know about them, the better the connection.”

“So it’s a form of onomancy, then?”

The elf’s eyes widened as his jaw opened. “I have never thought of it that way… Did I-?”

As he continued to spiral further into his existential crisis, Sara did as her teacher instructed. It proved to be difficult with her hand’s limited dexterity, but after enough circles, she noticed a small golden circle of what appeared to be sparks hovering in the air where she pulled the finger trick.

“Hello?” Sara thought, knowing the basics of the spell after seeing it countless times on the battlefield.

Static filled her ears, sounding like rough waters traveling too fast down a river. Just as she was about to sever the connection, a voice reached out from beyond the current, “Sara?”

The voice sounded like the tiny witch’s, prompting Sara to continue, “The Archivist? Is that you? It’s me.” She really was not sure what else to say. As the connection continued to sound as if were right next to a waterwheel, she idly grasped the sphere around the slime, causing the tendrils it had out currently to reach straight out and waggle about.

Coming out of his daze, the elf across from her rubbed his face, “You appear to be struggling. Do you need-”

The Eternal’s voice was cut off. Almost like shattering glass, a loud sound filled Sara’s ears as she felt as if she was being forcefully pulled backwards.

She felt cold as the dining room flew away before her as she was consumed by an all-encompassing darkness, reminding her of the time she died. As her mind began to recognize the sudden shift, a booming voice filled the space.

“Succubus Sarakiel, as your master, I demand an explanation of your betrayal. So says your master, Ashara Dulanares.”

The command was simple, yet took a moment to register with Sara. “What betrayal?” She screamed, the dragging sensation growing faster towards some destination behind her.

Before she knew it, she felt a cold floor on her butt. Thankfully avoiding her tail, the sudden jolt knocked the air out of her.

“Then why was your crest tampered with?” Ashara leaned over, her face mere inches from the succubus’s.

It took a second more for Sara to realize where she suddenly found herself: the back room of the witch’s house.

A sudden fear gripped her. Her head began to hurt and her mind screamed at her to run. Dropping the slime-covered sphere she seemingly held onto through the cold space she was dragged through, she could feel every heartbeat.

“Well, succubus? Do I need to command you again?” The tiny witch meant business. Her normally chipper expression was instead furious. Something Sara still did not have the full detail of.

Pushing past her renewed trauma, she barely managed to speak between her shortened breaths, “Wh-what do you mean? I haven’t done anything!”

Forcefully lifting the comfortable clothes Sara had put on before reporting to The Eternal, the pink sigil that alighted on her lower stomach had changed it’s shape.

The normally complex series of lines and shapes denoting her contract as a familiar to the witch had instead become simple. A pink circle with no filigree, no array nor any significance was found instead. It continued to glow with the familiar light, but had fundamentally changed outside of that.

“Who did this?” Ashara demanded. “Who did you speak with to do this? Was it your teacher? Answer me, succubus.”

It took another moment for Sara to figure out what she was being accused of. She remembered the rail-thin witch tampering with her lower stomach, but never felt concerned with how it changed shape, but everything began to click into place as she realized. “I…” She stammered, “I’m sure it was the witch.”

Ashara grew closer, even more furious to the point where her face was nearly as red as the circles that dotted her cheeks, “Which. Witch?”

Normally, Sara would assume this was another wordplay her tiny master would use to be quirky or cute, but this appeared to be more of a coincidence, “Um… I don’t remember her name? She was tall, had a big overbite, and she-”

“Fuc-” The witch before her finally pulled away, turning towards the darkness beyond what they could see in the room, “Eldura.”

The witch turned back, her tiny face manic, “Always a thorn in my side! She probably thought this was a funny little game, her messing with my work! But this?” Ashara drew close once more, “But this is no game! No joke! I am personally going to ruin whatever semblance of a life she has left! A comeuppance for fiddling in powers beyond what she could even hope to imagine!”

All Sara could do was sit, her eyes forcibly held open to the events unraveling before her. She had always known The Archivist to be flippant, but this looked to be incredibly serious.

“That’s why I never received my cut of mana from you! That’s why I could never get a proper sending spell in! It sounded like that nerd’s work, but of course he probably was too stupid to understand the sheer gold I dropped in his lap! It was the perfect plan! It was all fine and dandy until somebody had to come along and throw a spanner in the works! My work! And now we…!”

The tiny witch grabbed Sara’s arm, “We’re going to settle the score.”