Hello!
To those of you reading who have read the first part, this is the second (obviously!).
I will mention this right now; this part is very exposition heavy.
I'm still new to Literotica and writing in general so I apologize if my story has terrible grammar and pacing. (I'll get better I swear!)
It's really overwhelming to see so many people read this (unless I'm incorrect on how the Lit viewing algorithm works) so I'm happy to see all of you people reading!
I'm playing around with how I transition things so feel free to comment on the flow of the story.
I want to say thank you to Capn_doggy, Fantasticalfantasy, Magical_kitten, and China_Doll. Your works have been very influential to this story and for the inspiration to write this story.
Lastly, I want to say thank you to you the reader! Again, feel free to comment or message me! I would love to read criticism or just to learn more about you guys!
I hope you are having a good day and remember somebody loves you.
Also note that that the characters in the story are 18 and up.
Throwawaytrashpig
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The journey back to Zaille was thankfully peaceful. Elise had no qualms with travelling out in daylight despite rumours regarding her species saying otherwise.
"Honestly, I have not the slightest on who created the preposterous idea that driders are creatures of the night. We might have dark fur but that does not mean we exist exclusively in the shadow." Her words ended with a humph.
"Well you did do the whole, I'm going to be as silent as possible and scare the living day lights out of us thing. I'm pretty sure that's got something to say about your preferences."
Lily replied sharply. Judging from her colour (which incidentally had taken on her dark purple but was mixing slightly with a forest green and a maroon-ish red), she was feeling angry and jealous. Since we had met Elise she had done nothing but glare at her and look slightly betrayed when we exchanged glances.
I personally had no clue what was going on. While I was adept at summoning magics and was known for being well read amongst other summoners, my own magic was something I had yet to fully understand. Magic was a fickle thing like that. Just when we think we have a solid understanding of what magic does and can do, it throws a curve ball that completely alters everything that we know. I'm one such curve ball.
Before me, summoning magics had a very concrete identity. Alongside most other mages in different fields that have been identified, a summoner typically manifested their magic at the age of 5. While their magic wouldn't be significant enough to cast even the most basic spells that all mages are equipped with, they could clearly manipulate arcane energies, albeit weakly. As they grew, their grasp of magic become more refined up until puberty. Puberty in mages was the point where a mage would start to learn which profession they were most suitable for. There were mages who were skilled in healing, battling, protecting, manipulating the elements, and summoning. You would then enter an academy where you and your magic was tested to see where you stood amongst other mages.
In the summoning academy, we were made aware of our abilities to control and manipulate the world around us through our magic. Magic was a substance like energy that existed all around us and as part of us. Any living being could create magic, but only mages could manipulate that magic to do anything with that raw energy. Summoners had a much more refined ability to control, to the extent that we could bond other creatures and indeed other humans and mages for our use. We did have the mundane ability to bond physical objects to our will but both of those bonding's were tied to how much mana we had. Mana, or the magic pool that we have access to, did increase by small increments every day but had much more potent increases during puberty. Once you bonded to something, your mana pool significantly dropped based in proportion to how much magic the universe deems is worth.
For this reason, alongside the other party requiring consent, summoners all learned the contract deal. When we found a person or a thing that we wished to bond to, we initiated the contract. We would first analyze the other party and determine how much mana it was required to contract them. After this both parties would start to compromise on terms and duration of the contract. Once all terms were agreed with, the summoner would place their mark on the summon usually in a place that the summon chooses. With objects the concept was the same, without the agreeing of terms due to the objects not being able to reject the summoning. It is important to note that both the summoner and a living summon must both be of a reasonable mind and whenever a summon occur, both parties will be placed in a state of no influence just to make sure that a summon isn't taken against their will.
As I said previously, I was a curve ball to what was previously known to summoning magic. In retrospect, curve ball is not the best way to describe what I was. I was and have continued to be an anomaly, an exception to known observations. When I was born, the healers on hand and the midwife had all noticed that I had been gathering magic almost immediately. By the time I was 5, my mana pool size and grasp of the arcane rivaled mages who were already in their 3rd of the 5 years that they spent in the academy. Despite the large amount of prowess that I displayed, my parents were in constant debates with mages to let me have an ordinary childhood. Word had gotten around in the magic community that a child had reached a level that had previously never been seen before. Many facilities had wanted to examine me for abnormal magic potential and see if they could somehow replicate the results.
My parents were for the most part successful in fending off those "scholars" and their attempts to research me. I still lived a normal life amongst other kids and adolescents and proceeded to obtain a fairly "normal" childhood. Despite my parents fears that I would be ostracized by my magic, I had managed to make friends with those my age and some mages at nearby academies. Despite my parent's best efforts, many of the scholars had left a lasting imprint on my childhood, namely in the form of magic books. My room was littered with different books that taught everything from healing magics to transformation magics and everything in between. I had learned of the different magic subjects from these books including summoning. Despite my current profession and role, as a child summoning scared me. I had feared being able to control someone so easily by just contracting them. I did not like the thought of controlling someone to make them do what you want. While the summoner contract was in place to avoid this kind of behavior, I had read in some of the more advanced text books that once you were contracted if you had more magic you could force someone to do what you wanted by forcing your magic into them, but those cases were dealt with severely.
Puberty was chaotic to say the least. While some other mages of the same age had gone through what they described as an awakening of their abilities, puberty was a time that changed the very fabric of magic for me. As my body transitioned into womanhood, my magic started to show me what I could do. I started seeing not just the person or the thing, but the mana of that individual. I had assumed just from my own personal distaste of the controlling arts that seeing the magic of others was either my magic shaping me into becoming a sensor or a healer. I had hoped that it was sensing and healing that were my traits, the idea of being a battle mage never appealed to me despite the potential that many mages saw in me. The idea of hurting others using my abilities was never appealing to me. If I controlled them, I could at least make them feel good whereas with a combat oriented magic, I would be forced to hurt and potentially kill.
As I matured, the idea of hurting and controlling others never gained appeal. I would only use violence in a scenario where it was a last resort. As for summoning, that had and will always be an iffy subject for me. I could understand the idea and in truth there were many whom benefitted from summoning and being a summoner and I grew to accept the trade. I tried limiting my own summoning to as little as possible, but just as the sun and moon dance tireless in the sky, a summoner must summon.
My aversion to creating contracts had of course been a critical issue during my time at the academy. What good was a summoner who did not want to summon anything? To compound my issue, I had started to notice that both people and creatures were following me. During one of the many field excursions to find and befriend something to bond with, my teachers at the time had to quickly pull me away from the forest that we had been visiting due to many of the deadly forest denizens appearing and taking a liking to me.
Compared to the people however, I would have preferred the forest creatures any day of the week. It seemed as if many individuals both male and female had become smitten with me. My appreciation for the female form had caused conflictions with the males as they simply did not appeal to me. The overall affect of the attention caused me to withdraw from interactions between others and become more solitary. I had made a few companions during the time, including my dorm mate Michelle. My first and up till today only summon had started with a stressful studying session with her. I had coasted through the years at school by demolishing the written portions and explaining my circumstances to the teachers. They were peeved but begrudgingly accepted my reasoning. I was told however that I would have to summon something to pass my final exams.
"I'm surprised that you still haven't dated anyone! C'mon girl the boys go crazy over you!" Michelle like many others were in the dark about my sexuality. I personally kept it that way to avoid any confrontations.
"Michelle, could you please not change the topic? I'm currently stressing out about the exams soon, I do not need to worry about a potential significant other right now."
I had seen the same face that she currently touted multiple times. A face of bewilderment and a hint of disappointment. While in the context of Michelle it was mostly my attitude towards dating and exams. Everyone else, especially professors, viewed my issue as confounding. Here was one of the most powerful mages in some time physically and mentally limiting herself for no apparent reason. My explanation unsurprisingly fell on deaf ears.
"Just summon something! The answer is literally so simple. You've aced every test up until this. Stop being so self-righteous and just do it. Besides most summons like it. Makes them feel important." I had heard these points before, even tried to justifying summoning beforehand but the points in my mind lost their meaning. I tried to defend myself but I knew that anything I said would be weak. Frustrated both with my dorm mate and my own predicament, the night air seemed like a refreshing way calm down.
