A roleplay by and @littlewhitedragonlet and I. 
Forums Role Playing [IC] Strange Familiar (Dragonlet & Whimsy)
Zylar sighed, looking around the empty shop as dust sparkles floating in the weak afternoon sunlight spilling in the front windows. Today had been a slow day, with only 3 or 4 customer since he'd opened, and those just looking for simple things he kept on the shelves lining the walls. He'd already swept the shop 3 times, and wiped down the class cases in the middle of the floor as well as their contents twice. Crystal balls and glass phials only collected so much magic dust in a day, and if he handled them any more today they'd bond to his magic instead of the next customers. His family was, for the most part, on another trip to collect ingredients, weird artifacts and books, and most importantly, stories from the other Prides and Packs they crossed paths with. For him, that just meant the shop wouldn't have any familiar faces popping in at all hours until they got back.Ugh, moping around wouldn't do him any good either. Maybe he should go short the pile of stuff from they're last trip that was just sitting in the back room. He thought he'd seen a couple newer magic books when they were dumping it, and the bookcase was starting to look a bit sorry for itself...Decided, he headed through the simple green beaded curtain separating the shop in two, mindful the keep an ear tuned in to the front. Maybe someone else would wonder in, even if they just needed directions to where they actually wanted to go.
Shasta practiced all morning with his wand. He knew the theory inside out- how the wand was supposed to channel his energy and concentrate it at its tip, for a more intense and powerful application of his magic. But the energy that came out of the tip of the wand was far from what he'd call 'powerful'. It was enough for everyday magic, and for making sure his spell didn't go wide off its target, but that was about it.It's not like he didn't know what the issue was. Ultimately, the source of magical power was himself. It was his own magical energy that he was directing and concentrating through the wand. And if the magic at the source was weak, concentrating it could only make it a little more effective. He needed something that didn't just channel his magic, but which amplified it.
Shasta went to his bookshelf again, for the umpteenth time, to search for another way. He didn't want to make pacts with powerful beings because they would come back to bite him in the butt. Especially when he was a weak magician binding a powerful being to himself. The being would hate being bonded to someone who didn't have much to offer in return, and the relationship would not only be one-sided appropriation of another being's powers, it would end in disaster.
After some fruitless turning of the pages, it occurred to him. It was a simple, obvious answer all along. A familiar. Summoning a familiar would lead to a pact that was on an equal footing, because familiars had their own powers amplified simply by being bonded with a mage. And a mage had their powers similarly amplified just by being bonded with a familiar. There were other magical benefits too which depended on the specifics of the powers of either party. But the significant thing was, that a familiar would find it advantageous to be bonded to him regardless of the strength of his magical power, and he, too, would be able to grow stronger simply by being bonded to a familiar.
He rummaged through his shelves in heightened excitement only to realise that he didn't really have any tomes that dealt with the nitty gritties of sumoning a familiar. They at most made passing references to the process. He needed a book that would break it down for him. There was a local shop that had supplies for the magical arts. Shasta hurried there.
He entered the shop and parted the bead curtain. His fingertips tingled when they touched the beads, but he didn't pay much thought to whether they were charmed like his own beads; this was a shop full of magical wares and so it was practically thrumming with magical energy. He went straight for the counter. "Hi! I'm looking for books on summoning familiars; could you recommend me something? I need detailed instructions and, uh," he blushed, ducking his head, "I also need the book to clearly state how to do damage control if the spell goes wrong."
@littlewhitedragonlet:
Humming as he worked, Zy was able to get through most of the books before he felt the wards laced through the front curtain ping along his ear. There were only 10 or so left that needed to be inspected, logged, and checked over for magic or magical residue before he shelved them, and he could tell at a glance that they were much of the same. Had his family raided another magic shop or something? This was a weirdly large amount of books, especially considering that he’d only had to throw out a handful and de-curse even less. Ugh, he needed to have a talk with his dame when they got back. Hopefully no one would come looking for their books any time soon.Still, the money he’d make from the books on their own was staggering. He hadn’t even had time to sort through the various clothes and trinkets, and that would probably have to wait until later. Stepping through the back curtain and up to the counter, he smiled gently at the customer as he came up, vaguely recognizing him from previous visits. He looked frazzled, like he’d rushed here as soon as possible, and while that was flattering in of itself, Zy hoped he could help ease that energy a bit before it set him on edge too.
He tilted his head, mentally running over what he knew of familiars and their summoning as he listened. “Well, from what I know off hand, there shouldn’t be any damage control. If the spell fails, no familiar will appear. If it works, a familiar should be drawn to you and appear within a week. Give me a moment…” trailing off, he turned around and went back into the back room, absently twisting the chain in his right ear. It was the one connected to the wards, and it was currently still a bit tingly. That happened, sometimes, when a stronger magic user touched them.
They took a little bit of magic from each customer, not in a malicious way, but to make sure it could recognize their signature if they came in again. Sometimes it just took more than it needed; that was the problem with having it take 2% of their magical excess, 2% was different for every magical. His family, for the most part, didn’t have magical excess, so 2% barely felt like anything. Pure humans, those without magic of any sort, didn’t have magical excess, because their energy never needed to leave their body. The Enchantress who visited when she grew bored of her higher end shops carefully curated selection put off more than even this customer, though, he though with another absent tug to the chain, not by much.
With a soft noise of triumph, he finally found were he’d set the book registry after he’d added the most recent one in. Why it was already half buried under the books he didn’t know and didn’t have time to find out. He’d left his customer out front, alone, long enough.
“Sorry for the wait, I seem to have misplaced this.” Holding up the unassuming black book with a small laugh, Zy set it on the counter and tapped the front 3 times. “Now, Book, highlight anything on familiars, please.” With a small shudder, the book seemed to take a moment to think before softly falling open and flipping to the first relevant page. There were a couple lines glowing softly, and he could see that there were more entries further back, presumably where he’d just logged the new arrivals. He also saw, when he looked, that only 2 books on the shelf to the right of the door were glowing as well. Which meant that all the other books on familiars were in the back still.
“Ah. On summoning familiars, specifically.” He smiled a bit sheepishly at the customer as he closed the book and tapped three times again. This time, it took a bit longer, but it flipped straight to the last page and highlighted only 3 books. A second look around showed the glow was gone from the bookcase. Great. “Would you care to follow me to the back? You will have a much better idea of which book is helpful than I do, unfortunately.”
@Whimsy:
Shasta was relieved to hear that there would be no magical messes to clean up if the spell failed. It was rare that a spell didn’t have backlash when it failed, especially when the spell involved another party. Shasta’s mother had a favourite saying she used to repeat when she taught Shasta about spells involving others, whether human, witch, fae, demon, or any other kind of being: “Wishes and curses are like old hens. They always come home to roost.” All magic had consequences, and not necessarily the ones the caster predicted. But you had to be especially careful when you involved someone else in a potential magical mess, not just yourself.“Thank you, I’m glad to hear that,” said Shasta, nodding when the shopkeeper told him to wait. Shasta watched him go, his movements drawing Shasta’s attention to the chain in his ear. Pretty. It was a delicate piece of jewellery, and maybe he imagined it, but Shasta thought it glowed- maybe because of a magical aura. That wasn’t surprising in a place like this.
Shasta waited, looking around at the shop in the meanwhile. It was a fascinating place, stuffed full of magical materials and artifacts and piles of tottering spellbooks. The shopkeeper returned and apologised to keep Shasta waiting. His small laugh was endearing, and Shasta smiled, “No problem.” If Shasta had to run a place like this he wouldn’t remember where anything was kept. He was the last person to be judgy about something like this.
Shasta watched, fascinated, as he charmed the book registry to find books on familiars for him. It was an excellent piece of everyday magic.
The shopkeeper reworded to narrow the focus of the charm, and that brought up more memories: Shasta as a small student, copying out into his grimoire that “The will of the spell is the statement made during the spell that represents its objective. The focus of the spell is what the statement means, represents, or manifests according to you. The will and the focus together make up the intent of your working. It is important to sharpen will and focus so that your particular intent aligns with particular results, to reduce risk of unintended ones.” And then there had been stories of the ‘be careful what you wish for’ variety, that warned of asking for things without pinpointing how exactly you want them to manifest.
The shopkeeper asked Shasta to follow him to the back. “Sure,” said Shasta, although he wasn’t sure if he’d know which book would be most useful as the shopkeeper said. So far it had definitely seemed to him that the shopkeeper knew more about familiars, and about magic in general, than Shasta did. Shasta hadn’t exactly been a brilliant student.
As he followed him to the back, Shasta asked, “Uh, by the way, what’s your name?” He knew he’d be visiting the shop more frequently now and it was probably time he got better acquainted.
@littlewhitedragonlet:
Zy threw a smile over his shoulder, absently parting the curtain before twisting to hold it ‘open’ for his client. “Name’s Zylar, though most people just call me Zy.” Once they were both in the back room, he let go of the beads and started picking his way towards where the pile of books, and the soft green glow, was located.“Now, my spell will only highlight the books, not the specific passages. It’s probably a good idea to read the whole book anyways, but I do have a different spell that will find the relevant pages if you’re in a hurry?” His voice went up a bit at the end in slight question, asking and offering without the pressure of an outright stating his curiosity. He was curious, of course, because from what he could sense the man didn’t need any help magically, but maybe he was just lonely. Not a horrible reason to want a familiar, though they definitely weren’t common with the more powerful types. No, the more powerful a magic user, the more likely they were to summon something far more dangerous than a companion.
Still, it wasn’t his business what his clients did with what they came to him looking for, and he knew better than to ask. The first time had ended sour enough to not make a second attempt. Even if his current client didn’t seem the type to blow his top.
Lost in thought, he almost tripped over the very books they were heading to. He smiled sheepishly as he caught himself, self consciously brushing imaginary dust off his shirt. “Here we are! The books should be right…” he titled his head and squinted, trying to pick out the glow under the brighter light of the back room. “Ha! Here!” He nimbly jumped over the stack next to him before squatting down, wiggling a slim book out from the bottom of 10 other, much larger books. Plopping on his butt, he rotated and pulled the other, much larger glowing book out from the middle of a different stack, wincing as it toppled over. Whoops…that would be fun to figure out later.
@Whimsy:
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Having you as a Voltie would be awesome.