After a full night’s sleep I get up and start heading down the stairs but something catches my eye on the nearby night stand, a glass of clear water with a note and a pill next to it picking up the note I start to read it, “Dear Mr. Morningstar I would like to apologize on the behalf of one of my assistants as they neglected to add the knowledge needed for this experiment to actually yield results in the short term, this being your ability to read the native language of the country you reside in, the pill found upon the nightstand will when taken implant the necessary knowledge needed to read. This is likely the last time you will be helped in any regard.” – The Scientist.
Once I finished reading the letter I picked up the pill and looked it over. It just looked like an ordinary pill, nothing special but considering where I am I went ahead and took the pill with the water. After a couple of minutes I felt a searing pain in my head but as suddenly as it came it disappeared. Going downstairs to The Study I opened the book I had tried to read yesterday and to my surprise I can actually read it. So I started to read it, discovering that this book was on how to summon spirits and other creatures to make contracts with them, but what truly caught my attention was a passage about halfway through, “…summoning is commonly mistaken as the summoner forcing a creature to appear and while this may be true for lesser beings, those at and above the Sigma class (see pg. 25 for familiar power levels and ways to identify them) are sent a request this request acts as both an invitation to appear and a resume providing the castor’s current and potential power both physically (such as physical prowess and mental capacity) to metaphysically (such as the castors magical prowess and soul strength). This resume allows the being to decide if they wish to appear or not though the caster is usually rejected outright, in rare cases Arch Fey and divine spirits have formed contracts with mortals, the most notable being Starswirl The Bearded who formed a contract with the Arch Fey…”
This is actually good I thought to myself because while I may not have great physical prowess or even magical as of yet the potential for my IQ is incalculable this should land me a decent familiar. Looking through the book I found the needed requirements for the summoning, salt, 8 g. of iron filings(or silver depending on the nature of the familiar you wish), 3 g. of ground mandrake, 1 lb. of Spanish moss finely chopped, chalk, a sample of the castors blood, and lastly the feather of a phoenix. This is going to be difficult, I thought to myself. But this did not deter me as any respectable mage had a storage room for such materials and the only place I that it could be was on one of the lower floors as I haven’t looked there yet because I was too afraid to go down there without protection, but if I could get even a small bit of the required materials needed then It would be worth it.
Cautiously going down the steps I kept a vigilante eye whilst traversing deeper into the bowels of the tower every slight sound making me jump, soon though I came upon the first door and when I opened it I was pleasantly surprised as I had found a storage room, and it was filled to the brim with… unmarked boxes *sigh* This will take forever. I should also find some books that will help me categorize the ingredients.
An ungodly amount of time later
“I swear I’m going to kill the previous owner if I ever find them and if they’re dead I’ll resurrect them and kill them again!” I yelled at no one in particular. I had categorized all if not most of the components in that storeroom/pantry, because apparently it had magically preserved fruits and vegetables which had been a blessing, but I had succeeded in my quest for finding the components for a familiar. I only had one chance though as I could find only one feather. It will be enough but it may not work as I don’t know if I have magic but it was worth a shot, carefully drawing the magic circle with the chalk, I used the iron filings and the ground mandrake to carefully draw out a couple summoning runes around the edges of the circle, then I created a barrier of salt mixed with the Spanish moss, after that I cut my thumb and using the blood the was dripping from it I painted the final rune needed, once this had been completed placed the phoenix feather atop the bloody sigil and started to read the incantations. As I read them the magic circle started to glow a crimson red with a black energy arcing around the feather and the various runes drawn out using the other components, slowly the black energy became more and more violent whilst this was happening the runes started to be absorbed into the feather quickly followed by the black energy causing the feather to turn pure white then black before bursting apart. This drew a strange symbol on the ground within the salt line and from this symbol a portal opened into nothingness, then something crawled out of it something so massive that only a small portion of it fit through then to my amazement it warped and twisted until the upper half of a body could fit through. I could feel my mind slowly start to shatter just by gazing upon it.
It seemed to stare at me for a few moments before a guttural scream escaped from its body, I felt my mind splinter but the more it did the more I could understand this beings speech though I wouldn’t call it speech as I could barely understand it, that as well as it using some sort of telepathy these combined made me feel as though my mind was being but through an industrial grinder and yet I could feel something keeping a small amount of my mind together enough for me to think at the very least and so I started to convey my request to the being and waited. After what felt like ages it nodded and in a clearer “voice” it requested I pay a suitable price whilst reaching out to me, and felt something tug me forward over the salt line I tried to resist but only partially succeeded as my arm had gone over the protective line. The being immediately grabbed my arm and tore it off, screaming in pain I watched the being as it devoured my arm, satisfied it took off one of the tentacles on its face and forced it where my arm had been previously, this only caused me more agony as I felt something within me change the last thing I saw was it sinking back into the abyss with what I swear was a smile.