Lily was setting up a noose in her room.

Death seemed the only way out. The rest of the faculty either supported this attitude or didn't care. Her fellow students were much of the same, although she hoped that a few of them might be sympathetic to her plight yet powerless to help her. Crassus was going to torment her and humiliate her in front of her classmates, her teachers, and the king himself, and no one was going to lift a finger to help her.

If she tried to run away, her family would suffer for it. However, Crassus hadn't said anything about her dying. If Lily killed herself, there wouldn't be any point to Crassus going after her family. She'd be gone from the school, which was what everyone clearly wanted. Her parents would mourn her, but they'd be safe. They were still young enough to have another child, maybe one who wasn't such a spectacular failure like she was.

She took a look around her room at the academy one last time. She took in the undeniably soft and fluffy bed, her alchemy set, the bookshelves full of books that she'd spent many an hour reading cover to cover, her lantern with its enchanted quartz lighting the room, her desk where she'd spent the last three hours composing her suicide note.

She briefly considered waiting. After all, the tournament wasn't until Monday, so she had an entire weekend between now and her impending doom. However, she knew that if she delayed, she'd lose her nerve and talk herself out of this. It needed to be done, and if she was going to do it, it had to be now. She climbed atop the stool, put the noose around her neck, and took a step forward, tipping the stool over behind her.

Almost immediately she realized that this was a mistake.

Not just because she'd not fallen with anywhere near enough force to crush her windpipe or break her neck. It was because she'd realized after that initial step that killing herself was a terrible idea. She didn't want to die. She wanted to live.

There had to be better options than this. She didn't want to die. She wanted to live. She'd been so scared and depressed that she'd given up without a fight. She didn't want to die. She wanted to live. As awful as her life had become, she didn't want it to end yet. She didn't want to die. She wanted to live. Unable to breathe, she clawed at the noose. She didn't want to die. She wanted to live. But the noose was too tight, and she was already blacking out. She didn't want to die. She wanted to live. She was going to die at fifteen years old, having accomplished nothing in her life beyond making her parents mourn for their child. She didn't want to die. She wanted to live.

She wanted to live.

She wanted to live.

She'd do anything to live...

*Be glad that I'm not the sort of person to hold you to that,* said a voice in her head.

Her hands, seemingly of their own accord, tore themselves away from the noose and raised up, blue fire wreathing her fingers as they unleashed a barrier spell. But why...?

Suddenly, she felt herself rising, the noose around her neck loosening. She looked down to see that she was standing on a barrier, a tidy little cube with enough strength to support her own body weight. She'd never thought of using a barrier like that, but nothing she knew about the spell would have prevented her from doing so, had she been thinking clearly a moment ago.

Her hands, still moving without any input from her, pulled off the noose, and then moved to her throat and began using a healing spell to undo the damage done to her neck. Lily took a deep breath, never before being so happy to be able to do something so basic and forgettable, despite her lungs feeling like they were aflame.

After a moment, her hands moved down to her chest, healing her lungs, then moving about her body, healing any other damage that might have been done by her near-asphyxiation. After they were done, they waved again, the barrier beneath her slowly diminishing, before lightly depositing her on the ground.

What... what had just happened?

*I happened,* said a calm, powerful voice in her head.

Looking around, trying to spot the source of the voice, she asked, "Who... who said that? Where are you?"

There was an odd feeling, of the sort you might get upon seeing someone roll their eyes in annoyance. *The one who just delayed your date with the reaper. And please stop trying to find me. I'm not in there with you, and you moving your eyes all over like that is making me dizzy. I'm... not really anywhere right now. But like me, that's neither here nor there.*

The voice chuckled, then continued. *I interrupted your untimely demise because I'd like to make you an offer.*

Immediately wary, as the many books she'd read in the last few months had warned strongly about making deals with unknown entities, "What kind of offer?"

*Let's clean up your room a bit, first. You woke up one of your fellow students next door when you tipped over that stool. She'll be here in a minute or two, and I doubt that she'd be happy to see a noose and a knocked over stool in your room.*

Madeline, the only girl whose room was adjacent to Lily's, she deduced. Yes, it would be a bad idea to have Madeline see those things. If a suicide attempt was reported, Lily would likely be expelled from the school 'For Her Own Good', the attempt being used as proof that a poor commoner girl couldn't handle the stress of a school normally intended only for nobles...

Before she could do anything, Lily's hand shot up, then waved, causing the rope to suddenly burst into blue flames. In a second, it was completely consumed, not even ashes or scorch marks remaining to show that it had been hanging from the rafters of her room. Her hand tingled at that as if it had gone to sleep and just woken up, and she stared at her fingers in shock. The shield and healing were spells that she was familiar with, but that last bit was something she'd never done before...

*We'll discuss that later. There's no time right now. Set that stool upright, somewhere well away from the center of the room. Let's make sure that no one thinks you were even contemplating what you'd just attempted.*

Nodding, Lily set the stool upright and placed it at her desk. Her hand waved of its own accord once more, and incinerated the suicide note, again leaving no trace and not even scorching the desk where it once lay. No spell Lily had ever heard of was capable of that. She looked at her hand again as the pins and needles feeling slowly faded out. It was... strange.

*Alright, now I've got a few instructions for you.*

"What?" she asked, confused.

*I'll need you to ask your imminent guest for a favor or two. Try to make it as natural as possible. We'll need her so you can serve Crassus some humble pie at the tournament.*

"What favors?" Lily asked, still trying to make sense of things, but that final sentence sounded very, very nice.

The voice told her. Lily's eyes went wide in surprise, then she nodded and said, "Okay. But not because you asked me to. I'll do it because it's a good idea."

*That works for me.*

There was a knock at the door. Lily gently opened it to see Madeline, dressed in a pale blue nightgown that hugged her slender curves well enough to give any teenage boy who saw it some very interesting dreams. Groggy, she asked, "I thought I heard something fall over in here, so I thought I'd check on you. Are you alright?"

Lily nodded and said, "I'm fine. I'd been sitting here thinking of what I can do about the tournament, then I got such a great idea that I stood up and accidentally knocked my stool over."

"An idea?" Madeline asked, surprise seeming to wake her up. "What kind of idea?"

Lily gently placed a hand on Madeline's shoulder and said, "Not here. There's no telling who might be listening." She gently pulled her classmate in and shut the door, before saying, "It would take too long to explain everything tonight, but I need to ask a favor or two. See, earlier..."

She took a few minutes to detail what Crassus had threatened earlier today. As she listened, Madeline's expression went from shock to anger, and then to disgust. After the summary, Lily asked, "So, can you do something to make sure my parents will be okay?"

Madeline nodded and said, "I can get a message to my father first thing in the morning." She paused, then said, "Just say the word, and I'll convince him to take you and your family under our protection, no questions asked. I'm certain we can find something that they can do on our estate to make a living."

Perhaps it was only because the Montegards and the Alvorins had been rivals for generations that Madeline was willing to go so far. Perhaps she was simply a good person at heart. Regardless, that offer would have been the kindest thing in the world that the young noblewoman could have done. Had Lily known that Madeline would be so quick to not only agree to that request but to go even further beyond, there would have been no need for the noose.

Mentally kicking herself for being so shortsighted, Lily said, "No. If I run away, even if Crassus can't do anything to me, he's sure to start tormenting the next commoner brought in to replace me. He needs to be humbled, or he'll just become someone else's nightmare. I'm not going to run away. I want to put Crassus in his place, and show everyone that I deserve to be here, and he doesn't."

Smiling and nodding, Madeline put a hand on Lily's shoulder and said, "I'm with you. What do you have planned?"

Shaking her head, Lily said, "It would take too long to explain, and we both need sleep. Go back to bed. Meet me in the morning, and I'll explain everything. We're going to have a busy weekend. And don't tell anyone about this, or what Crassus said. Not even the teachers: I'm sure that at least Madame Goldentone is in his corner, and there's no telling who else is on his side. I need to completely blindside him for this to work."

Madeline smiled, then leaned in and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "I'm looking forward to whatever you have in mind," before departing.

--------------------------------

After Lily closed her door and carefully locked it, the voice spoke.

*Smoothly done.*

Again, Lily kicked herself mentally. It was such a simple solution, but she'd failed to ask the one person who seemed even slightly sympathetic for help. Admittedly, the main reason why she hadn't was that Madeline wasn't a friend, really, even if she clearly didn't approve of what Crassus was doing. She was likely only helping because Lily had promised that Crassus would be humiliated in front of the entire school.

*Possibly,* the voice said, seemingly reading her thoughts. *And she may also be seeing it as having a better chance of winning the second round of the tournament if she faces you instead of Crassus. However, there's also the possibility that she is genuinely sympathetic to your struggle but unable to show any real support because of the current climate of the school. The hearts and minds of others are difficult to read clearly, especially those of teenagers. Regardless, she's a useful ally to have.*

"If I'd known that getting her to help me was as easy as asking..." Lily began, voicing her frustration.

*You're a teenager and an outcast in a school environment that is overtly hostile to you. I've seen teens in far better situations than yours make far worse decisions. You're alive. You have friends you didn't know you had. Quit kicking yourself for being an idiot, and learn from your mistakes so you don't make them again.*

Lily took a deep breath, then let it out. Whoever or whatever this thing was, they were right. "So, what do you want from me? My soul?"

The voice laughed, then answered, *Don't take this the wrong way, but your soul would be about as valuable as a sack of dry dog turds to me. I don't deal in souls. I trade in goods and services.*

The voice paused, then added, *As for what I do want? Well, I was locked away someplace that I can't get out of. I've been stuck here for so long I doubt anyone even remembers my name, nevermind the supposed crime I was sealed away for. I want to escape my prison, but doing that is beyond your current capabilities. However, in time, you should be able to assist me in my goals, provided you have the proper training and tutelage. To that end, I want to propose a partnership, or to be more precise, a familiar contract. I'll give you support so you can become a powerful wizard and pursue whatever goals you set your sights on, and in exchange, you'll help me in getting the things that I need so I can escape my prison.*

A familiar contract? That was something she'd read about in books, but in truth, it was very rare in the modern age. By entering a familiar contract, a wizard could gain the aid of another being, and that being would be obligated to help whenever the wizard called upon them. However, many stories about familiars tended to end with the wizard in question losing the aid of their familiar because they neglected to fulfill their obligations to the contracted entity, or worse, because the wizard mistreated their familiar, only to discover that there was a loophole or escape clause to the contract that allowed the familiar to abandon their cruel master at the worst possible moment.

There was also the risk that the contract might hold fine print that made the wizard unknowingly the slave, instead of the master. Regardless, familiar contracts were incredibly risky things, especially since the magical contract could not be broken until its terms were fulfilled.

Lily hesitated, thinking for a moment about what this... whatever it was had just said. She knew nothing about this entity, other than the fact that it was currently a voice in her head that could work magic through her. Admittedly, it had worked some surprisingly effective and unique magic, but the facts that it could control her movements and her ability to work magic were both unnerving. However, even if it was for its own reasons, it had still saved her life. She was only alive, here and now, because this thing had intervened. She... supposed that she owed it the benefit of the doubt for that.

Interrupting her thoughts, the voice said, *I won't ask you to agree right away. After all, you barely know me. All I'll ask is for an opportunity to show you that I'm as good as my word. Give me a couple of days to show you I can get you results, and then we'll discuss an official partnership.*

Lily took a deep breath, then let it out. "Alright," she said, nodding. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. What do I call you?"

*You may call me Rine. Now, grab the quartz crystal out of that lamp, and we'll start the first step of your training.*