We slowly made our way through the woods. Mira stomped ahead with a bit of distance but made sure to not leave us behind. In the meantime, Circe was telling me her life story.

“So, my parents live fully in the village. My dad ‘s the chief, even. They told me my granddad moved here when the place was founded. And since I have two elder brothers, I didn’t really have anything laid out for me to do with my life. They’re gonna deal with managing the village and defending it. That’s why…”

“Hold on. Does this village have a name?”

“Umm…”, she scratched her nose.

“It is called Greypeak but nobody bothers”, Mira called from ahead.

“Right. That was it. Anyway, I had a lot of freedom to decide on what to do with my life and since I’ve always loved playing in the forest, I knew Master for quite some time before becoming her apprentice. In fact, I didn’t move in with her until my tenth birthday. That’s when I decided I want to be a [Witch].”

“And why that Class specifically?”

“It’s just great! You can make potions or do rituals and most witches get a Skill to straight-up use magic at their third Milestone. And! You get a familiar!”

“I suppose that’s quite good?”

Circe’s enthusiastic nodding was interrupted by us reaching a clearing. The place was a simple oval meadow with one end holding a decently large hut. When I compared the size of Mira to the door, I realized it must be rather small. My sense of scale was a little off with how much time I spent living in dwarven and goblin communities.

The building had a small roofed patio in front with two chairs and a table standing ready to be used. The windows were covered with wooden shutters, much simpler than the glass I had gotten used to. Even the goblins had rebuilt Gobburgh’s huts with stone and glass. Then again, the humans looked to be rather scared of going into the mountains so stone was a much scarcer resource.

Mira turned around in front of the two steps leading up onto the porch. She gave me a stern look before sighing.

“Well. I guess I can not command you. But! In my house, you will follow my rules!”

I bobbed my head.

“That’s fair. Anything to look out for?”

“Yes. My bedroom is off-limits. No shitting anywhere inside. No breaking mine or Circe’s things. Do not eat our food or take our possessions without permission. And do not hurt anyone.”

I scoffed.

“That’s just common sense, isn’t it? Then again, you can’t know where I’ve lived before now.”

One of her eyebrows rose.

“You even know about common sense? Well, come on in then.”

Circe bumped her free fist, the walking stick already laying in the grass. I noticed how she shifted forwards to skip up the stairs and picked it up with a tendril of darkness. Since it extended behind us and Mira was already inside, nobody even noticed.

The door fell closed as we stepped into the main room of the building. It was a combination of living room and kitchen with a stone stove on one side and a table with chairs in the middle. To the back, two doors led into more rooms while the wall to the right had another two.

“That’s Master’s room”, Circe said, indicating the left-most door, “Then there’s mine, the workshop and the pantry.”

She simply kept going clockwise, pointing her finger. I hooted in understanding and jumped from her arm to a nearby chair. Standing on the seat, I could comfortably look above the table. Mira was whispering to someone while standing next to the kitchen counter but I could only make out the figure once she shifted to the side. It was a toad. A big fat ugly toad. It was round as a pumpkin and a dirty green-brown colour.

“This is Grunk”, Mira said, “My familiar. Treat him well. He is sapient but on the less intelligent side.”

The blob half-heartedly slapped at her with a foot.

“I have had him for almost forty years, now”, she said while petting him.

I hooted a greeting and got a croak in response. My [Telepathy] reached out but was unable to find purchase. Instead, it almost felt like I was trying to connect to the witch once again. Was that an effect of [Familiar Bond]?

Circe plopped down next to me.

“So, where are you from? Where do you live? Do you travel a lot with those wings? Do you have any adventures to tell me about?”

I clicked my tongue to shut her up.

“Slow down, girl. I get that you’re excited but I can’t answer everything at once.”

“Girl, she says. You are only two years old yourself!”

I tilted my head at Mira.

“That’s in this world.”

Silence and confusion spread. I decided not to elaborate for the time being and turned to my new friend.

“How about we go question for question? If you can’t answer, Mira can. And if one side doesn’t want to answer, you get another one.”

She scratched her nose again.

“Hmmm… Sounds good?”

Once her master confirmed her approval, she turned back to me.

“Who starts?”

“You go.”

“Oookay. Then… Let me think… Right, where do you live?”

“When I’m not travelling, I have a home in Borsdown. That’s a budding dwarven city.”

“No way! Dwarves? How?”

“My turn. What kind of potions does a [Witch] make?”

“Well, there’s a lot. But it’s also not much. It’s kinda like… You can make anything with the right ingredients but unless you’re perfect, it’ll be slightly different each time. Similar ingredients make similar potions but I’ve messed up a healing potion to give me green hair for a week, once.”

“Healing potions? That’s interesting…”

“Now! How did you get to live with dwarves?”

“Long story short… I made a friend near a dwarven town and she got injured so I flew over to get something to heal her. One thing led to the next and I made a lot of friends.”

“That’s too short! More details!”

“Well, I helped some of the dwarves here and there. There was an artificer who I worked with for a bit and a guard expedition…”

“Go on!”

“No. My turn. What are rituals?”

“Ugh. I can’t really tell you much…”

Circe looked to Mira for help.

“I suppose I can help you with that. She has only learned some theory and never practised one. Rituals are a way of guiding vis into a general direction to create a desired effect. They require complicated patterns of a multitude of ingredients which are, just like potions, not exactly straightforward to use. If a straight branch would make the flowers bloom, a crooked one might make them wither. One of oak might bring yellow blossoms, one of willow green ones. There is a lot you can do with them but every witch has her own versions, as long as she has the Skill.”

I nodded, satisfied.

“Okay, next one… Umm… That Skill you used earlier. Can I see it again?”

I blinked.

“Sure.”

[Owl’s Stomach] activated and a rupture in reality opened up in the middle of the room. The purple disk hovered horizontally with a few wisps of pink and white cracking around the edges. I heard my observers gasp and Grunk croak. When I pulled out a bag of fruit tea, Circe squealed.

“This is so cool!”

I deactivated the portal and the tea dropped onto the table. It was a simple paper bag treated to be more resilient to humidity. And yet, Mira staggered forwards and picked it up like it was the holy grail.

“What is this? How? I do not understand!”

“How does it work?”, Circe asked, “Did you get that from your Class?”

“No. It’s one of my racial Skills after the first Breakthrough. Granted, I guided it there. It creates a space beyond reality where I can store any physical items up to a certain volume. Food doesn’t spoil, so it’s very useful.”

“Volume? Like, how loud it is?”

“No”, Mira interrupted her inspection of the tea, “She is talking about the dimensions… the size of things.”

I bobbed my head.

“Correct. Now, could you fill your kettle with water? I want to make some tea.”

Mira held the bag towards me.

“This is tea?”

“Yes.”

“What’s tea?”, Circe asked.

“Oh, you’re in for a treat!”

A minute later, the girl had filled the kettle on a barrel behind the house. I had pulled out my heating plate to Mira’s amazement and was happily heating the water. Granted, the artefact was a little too big but it worked if I controlled the vis a little.

“You really met the dwarves. That’s an artefact if I’ve ever seen one”, Mira grumbled.

“Now. It’s my turn to ask a question. What does [Familiar Bond] do?”

“Oh? Are you interested?”, Circe asked, “Alright. Let me give you the rundown. It’s a [Witch] Skill that always unlocks on the second Milestone. There isn’t even another option there. Unless you have special affinity for it and get it earlier. I sadly didn’t have that but it’s also good because I got to meet you!

“As for what the Skill does, it binds two beings together. The [Witch] offers terms of what she gives and what she gets and the familiar has to accept it. I didn’t know what it does to other sapients until today, though.”

“I did not know either”, Mira said, “What exactly happened?”

“I got a notification stating the terms and asking me if I wanted to accept. Which I declined.”

“Right. My offer was a little half-hearted… Anyway! The [Familiar Bond] is lifelong and a familiar that dies can even be revived by the [Witch]. They also share the higher lifespan? I think?”

She looked over to Mira who nodded.

“Correct. It is advised to find a familiar that you can get along with for the rest of your life. Which is why it usually is not used on sapients.”

“Exactly. Wait what?”

“Nearly every non-sapient familiar will reach the threshold after a year or two but by that time they will already be so used to their master, they will not mind the bond.”

“So, brainwashing? Sort of…”

“That is not what I would call it but I can see the similarities.”

Croak

“Grunk does not mind.”

“What does the [Witch] get out of a familiar, then?”

“Other than what is stated in the bond, the familiar is another mind to help with witchcraft”, Mira said, “Potion brewing and rituals are our core profession. Other common options are hexes and curses. All of those need to be controlled when cast or created. The additional mind helps with that.”

“That’s a good benefit.”

On a whim, I decided to [Identify] Grunk.

[Identify]

Species: Bloat Toad (adult)

Age: 43

Name: Grunk

Gender: male

Status: healthy, sapient, vis enriched (minor), familiar (Mira Selvos)

Level: 47

Class: [Familiar], -

There was even a Class for it?

“Yup!”, Circe said, “It’s also why I haven’t started on rituals, yet. I’m supposed to do one with my first familiar to progress to the actual Class. I’ll have to look for one again… Unless you want to change your mind, Fio?”

“Not really, no. I’m more interested in getting the [Witch] Class myself. Can a [Witch] bring her familiar along magically? Like teleportation?”

Mira raised an eyebrow.

“You are willing to change your Class? What do you have right now?”

“Well, I’m looking for my second Class.”

“…”

“…”

“Oh.”