Lily's eyes widened as a pentagram formed on the ground and enclosed them. The pentagram glowed an eerie shade of blue.
Lily could feel their mana melding together as the contract is being formed. The pentagram gradually dissipated as the contract started to progress.
As the contract began to complete, her talk with her mentors about familiars flashed in her mind.
"What is a familiar?" the young witch asked her mentors, Master Chervil and Zeke.
Zeke began his explanation. "A familiar is a supernatural creature, it may be a spirit, a demon or other entities."
He thoughtfully added. "They usually took animal forms and they served as companion, a servant or even a spy to casters. Most often they aided the casters when they use high level magic."
"Creature or spirit… spirit of the dead…" she muttered before she innocently asked. "Can I summon a dead person to be my familiar?"
All the while, she was thinking that there may be a way for Hazel to become her familiar. She might be able to summon her lady-in-waiting and bring her back to life.
Realizing her train of thoughts, Zeke rolled up a scroll and hit Lily on the head.
"Do not ever bring the dead back to life!" he snapped. "How many times do I have to repeat? Bringing the dead back to life is a violation of natural law. It is forbidden. Taboo!"
"Not to mention… the act of summoning the dead into the mortal world, often against their will, came with grave consequences." Master Chervil supplied.
Crossing her arms and knotting her brows, the girl pouted.
But remembering something she came back with a retort. "But Zeke seemed to resurrect Killer all the time."
The young wizard pinched his nose as if he was trying to lengthen his patience by doing so.
"Killer is a stuffed bear. I used different magic to bring him to life." the young wizard imparted.
"Is it Necromancy?" the girl asked while her face brightened.
Zeke's brows creased before he answered. "No. I am not capable of necromancy. What I did is simply puppetry."
"What's the difference? You are just bringing him to life with your magic."
"They are different."Master Chervil suddenly cut in."Necromancy is summoning the spirit of the deceased."
Furthermore, he elaborated. "You have to perform blood sacrifice and a catalyst to do that. Then you may also reanimate the cadaver using such elaborate ritual."
Chervil then explained. "Puppetry, on the other hand, is to manipulate the body, and possibly the mind, of people to move them against their will."
"But Killer is not a person." The girl pointed out. "Killer is a stuffed toy."
Drawing a huge intake of air, Zeke muttered. "Killer is an example of a self-made familiar."
"Self-made familiar?" Lily asked. The term seemed foreign to her.
"Self-made familiars are supernatural servants from stuffed animals." Chervil provided.
In turn, Zeke explained to her as if she was a five year."But unlike other familiars, these servants have no inherent supernatural abilities unless provided by their masters."
Lily listened attentively for details.
The young wizard continued.
"These self-made familiars are just regular stuffed animals which received the breath of life and a small part of their master's soul. They are also imbued with magic to make them move about. They are mostly employed as spies and their goal is to fulfill their master's commands."
"Can't I make a self-made familiar for myself?" Lily inquired. "Or better yet, bring Killer back to life, so that he can be my familiar."
Chervil answered. "You cannot. You need an ample amount of mana to maintain the life of that familiar and control it. With the way you are right now, you won't be able to make your familiar last even a few hours."
"As for Killer." The younger wizard replied. "since his original body had been destroyed and lost, I will not be able to bring him back to life anymore."
"So that means that I need to summon and make a contract to a familiar." She concluded.
"Yes. But you need to be careful not to summon and make a contract with a demon." Master Chervil reminded.
"Why?" the girl's brows creased.
"It's dangerous." Zeke answered her. "Stick to the spirits or mystical creatures. They are less harmful."
After their lesson, Lily tried to summon a familiar several times.
Unfortunately, all she had summoned were very small creatures such a wood bunnies, hares, a few rodents and toads. They were normal animals which did not have any magical attributes.
Taking greater risks, Lily tried to summon spirits. However, when she did try to summon using her blood and a sacrifice as a catalyst, she had summoned a low class demon instead of a spirit.
"I cannot believe I've been summoned by an incompetent witch fledgling. As a reward, allow me to feed on you." The demon lunged at her.
Petrified with fear, Lily just closed her eyes and shielded herself with her arms as the demon attacked.
But instead of getting thrown to the ground to be eaten, Lily felt a strong surge of magic around her.
"Be gone demon! Get your prey elsewhere. This child shall never be yours!" Master Chervil's voice rang through the air.
Lily felt his hands on her shoulders, preventing her from falling down from the force of the blast.
With a huge burst of light, the demon vanished.
Although Lily was able to escape without a scratch, she was not spared from a stern reprimand and a fitting punishment after that incident.
But being a stubborn girl, Lily did not give up trying to summon a familiar. This time, instead of experimenting with unholy catalysts to summon demons, she tried to use mystical relics to summon spirits and creatures.
Unfortunately, she was not lucky to summon anything that she could make her familiar.
"No wonder you don't have a familiar." Rei's voice broke her musings. "You failed in the summoning ritual."
Slightly in a daze, Lily pulled away to assess the situation. Rei was able to break his bonds and for some reasons, power radiated from him in waves.
Not only that, he looked a bit more mature than earlier. His silvery hair had grown longer and he shot up in height.
His nine bushy silver tails stood proudly as if a flower in full bloom. It was as if the contract acted as springboard for his growth spurt.
The result of the contract seemed good, but the bad news was the barrier was disappearing.
Lily turned her attention to Briar. Instead of focusing on the witch, the prince was looking at them with disbelief. With his mouth hanging ajar, he seemed to have forgotten to maintain the barrier.
"He kissed you!" the prince hissed. He would have said something else but was suddenly thrown off.
Finding the source of the blast which sent Briar to the ground, Lily took note of the old hag who had cackled at their state. "Do you honestly think that obtaining a familiar will allow you to defeat me?"