So I jumped off of a building. More accurately, I clung desperately to Wendy while she slowly descended from the roof. It’s amazing how you don’t know you’re afraid of heights until you find yourself standing on nothing but your classmate’s feet with nothing but a drop beneath you.

Wendy croaked, “You don’t have to hold on so tight. Just rest your feet on mine and let me do all of the work.”

While I did hear the words, my body refused to acknowledge them. I found myself clinging to the poor girl for all I was worth as we slowly descended to the ground below. I could feel her body pressed up against mine as I buried my face in her hair, trying to pretend I was anyplace but where I was.

I found that I was still holding my breath when Wendy whispered, “You can let go now. We’re on the ground.”

Opening my eyes, I released my death grip. A mumbled apology later the girl was showing me a side entrance through an underground parking lot. We worked our way through the bowels of the newspaper before finally emerging at yet another side entrance of the academy. Wendy pointed me toward one of the classrooms and said, “That’s your next class. Summoning for Beginners. Be sure to make something blow up like you did with me.”

Rubbing the back of my head sheepishly, I said, “I’ll try. I’m not sure how I can do that with summoning though.”

She grinned at me, “I’m sure you’ll figure something out. Would you like to join me for lunch?”

I was halfway into the room before I registered that the green haired girl had just invited me to lunch. Turning back, I offered her a smile and said, “Sure. Sounds like fun.”

Wendy turned to leave and said, “I’ll meet you back here after class.”

Kalli was already warming up for her fire class. I see you had a good time with Wendy. She even invited you to lunch.

The room I found myself in was arranged with a circle of chairs. I selected one and took a seat. Several of the other students looked up curiously at me. I replied to Kalli.

Yeah. She’s nice. We all go to lunch at noon, right?

Kalli was strangely quiet, even going so far as to mask her emotions. Indeed.

I didn’t have time to dwell on it. When the instructor entered the room, I quickly checked her out.

Name

Anne Peletier

Class

Conjurer

Level

24

Affection Level

Welcoming

Mrs. Peletier quickly noticed the new student in the class. There were only 5 other students seated in the chairs around me, all of them several years younger. I stood out like a sore thumb.

The teacher took a seat with us and said, “It looks like we have a new student today. You must be Melvin Murphy. Can you tell me a little about what you can summon?”

They want to know about you.

Kalliphae snorted, taking a moment from her class to reply. We both know that is not what she is talking about. Besides, can you really say what you did was summoning and not just botching a ritual?

I sighed. My greatest achievement to date was basically a mistake. I was forced to admit, “I can’t summon anything.”

She gave me a knowing look and replied, “Don’t worry. You’ve come to the right place. By the time you complete my class, you’ll be summoning all sorts of things. My roster here says that you are a summoner, correct?”

I nodded quietly, focusing on looking at my feet. Mrs. Peletier addressed the class, “Good, now that that’s out of the way let’s begin today’s lesson. How about we help the new student by having each of you demonstrate a good summon. Who wants to go first?”

A boy with scruffy red hair who could have passed for Kalliphae’s little brother hopped to his feet and announced, “I’ll go first.”

We all watched as the kid walked to the middle of the circle and dropped to his knees. For a moment, he looked like he was praying. I watched intently as a ball of light began to build in front of the kid. Not taking my eyes off of the summoning, I asked the teacher, “Is there a skill that lets you see mana before it becomes a spell?”

Mrs. Peletier didn’t answer right away as the ball of light began to take shape. I watched in awe as a sword materialized in front of the boy. The teacher clapped and said, “Very good Ralph. Who wants to go next?”

I was surprised. I expected everyone to be summoning dragons and other exotic monsters. It never dawned on me that summoners might summon items even though that’s what I had been pretending to do for weeks. A girl raised her hand and the teacher called on her, “Okay, Jonna, you’re up next.”

As the girl began her summoning, Mrs. Peletier turned to me, “There are those with skills that allow a person to see the unseen. You would not see mana itself but there is still a way to see what you want. You would need to develop a trait that can detect the way that mana interacts with the environment.”

I thought about what the teacher meant as I watched Jonna summon a puppy. Once summoned, the puppy looked completely normal. I contemplated the best buff to give myself to see mana as the rest of the children went about showing off their skills.

After the last one was finished, Mrs. Peletier motioned for me to enter the circle. She explained, “As a summoner, you have the ability to summon a wide variety of things. You need to form an affinity for the object you wish to summon for the pact to work. For starters, I want you to carefully form a vision in your head of the item or creature you most wish to form this bond with.”

Hey Kalli. I have an affinity with you.

Kalliphae snorted at me in my mind. What you have an affinity for is girls. I wouldn’t even call it that. It’s more like infatuation.

I frowned. Was Kalliphae mad at me? I put it out of my head and tried to decide what to summon. I wanted to try to summon a living breathing thing. Not another human. I decided to start with an animal. A pet. A friend. I could summon items using edit. Editing something into a creature felt wrong somehow. I tested the water with Kalli again.

What do you think I should summon?

She didn’t say anything for a while. Then Kalli seemed to notice that I was waiting on her. I don’t know Melvin. Summon whatever you want.

She was definitely mad about something. She said my full name. I closed my eyes to watch her for a minute. Kalli was in the middle of a demonstration of her fire skills. I could feel her mana burning its way through her channels, emanating from every pore on her body. The external fire washed over her and swirled around her in a similar fashion to the storm shield I had learned in my previous class. All eyes were glued to the girl as she showed off.

I smiled and sent reassurance. I could feel she was a little embarrassed at the attention but otherwise didn’t seem too upset with me. I got back to the task of focusing on my summon. An animal would be the best choice. While I could summon a monster, I had limited experience with them. I decided to go with the type of animal that I had the most experience with.

Since we lived in apartments all my life, the only pet I had ever owned was a cat. I looked up at the teacher, “I think I have something.”

Mrs. Peletier nodded at me and commented, “That took a while. Were you unsure of what you wanted to manifest?”

I shook my head, “Not really. I was just thinking about how I first became a summoner.”

She prodded me, “Tell me about it.”

I sighed and explained, “Well, it all started when I awakened. I didn’t know anything about magic and wanted a teacher, so I tried to summon one.”

The teacher raised an eyebrow, “What happened?”

I groaned, “It didn’t work.”

Kalli was paying attention again. That’s an understatement.

I felt her playfulness in the statement so I laughed. Mrs. Peletier said, “Very well, the next step is to see if you are a natural. I want you to stand in the middle of the circle and try to summon what you envisioned.”

I nodded and looked at the teacher, “Am I supposed to have special skills or traits that allow me to summon?”

She looked at her clipboard and nodded, “Yes. Did you not know that you have an affinity for summoning? That should make your natural summoning skill even stronger.”

I grinned and added one skill and one trait.

Affinity: Summoning (Edited)

Summon: (Edited)

Wondering if these abilities would have helped me when I summoned Kalliphae, I knelt like the other students had done and began trying to summon my first pet. I envisioned the cat in my mind’s eye. Kalli wanted a cute kitten. She was collaborating with me telepathically.

I went with it. The kitten was tiny and unimpressive. I willed it to be larger. It grew and grew until it was no longer a house cat. I didn’t want a lion. That was too cliche. I wanted something special. Something exotic.

Suddenly a white face peered back at me through the ether. Kalli swooned. Oh, he is so cute. You have to summon him.

I’m working on it.

Summoning was more difficult when I didn’t use editing. I imagined the creature living somewhere just beyond my reach and I just needed to form a bridge for them to travel through. A portal? I remembered the portals that I had recently been through. I called to the creature that had been looking at me, pleading with it to form a bond.

The cat tilted its head at me. Just when I thought it couldn’t understand me, its eyes flashed and I was standing in front of it. The world around me was suddenly white, and the kitten was a 20-foot tall white tiger with black stripes.

Kalli seemed a little less sure. Maybe you don’t have to summon that one.

It towered over me, sitting on its haunches. In a booming voice, it roared, “Mortal. What makes you worthy?”

I was stumped. I didn’t realize there would be a test. Mrs. Peletier definitely didn’t say anything about it. I answered truthfully, “I don’t know.”

Our standoff lasted for five minutes. The tiger stared at me from above as I defiantly locked eyes with it. Just when I felt I had failed, it spoke again, “You are one of his children. It might be amusing to form a bond with a cub for once. I grant you a temporary bond to prove your worth.”

When the cat looked away, the white room faded to black. I blinked and I was suddenly looking up at a very worried teacher. She asked, “Melvin, are you alright? You fainted.”

I sat up suddenly, looking around at the other kids who were all anxiously looking at me. Shaking my head to clear it, I offered, “I think I’m ready to summon something now.”

Mrs. Peletier shook her head, “No no no. You need rest. We will try again tomorrow.”

Despite my objections, the class ended without me being allowed to summon anything. I shuffled my feet as I made my way out.

“Hello”, a chipper voice greeted me as I felt a hand grab mine.

I looked up to see Wendy’s bright smile. She announced, “Come on. Let’s go have lunch.”

As we walked, I checked in on Kalli and found her walking with a boy I didn’t know. I decided to see where she was headed.

Kalli, are you coming to lunch?

Her reply was short. I might.

I frowned and let Wendy lead the way.

I want to show you something. I guess we can do it later though.

She didn’t say anything for a few minutes before replying. Fine. Meet me at my room when you can.