Familiar

by Roseau, Robin

"What was that?"

  She smiled. "Gaelic. And no, I will not translate."

  I pouted. "French now," I told her. "Only French."

  We helped each other to undress, caressing the intimate places while we did so. I took her and led her to the bed, and then I spent a long time pleasing her. She spoke to me in French the entire time, and when she came, I heard my name said over and over.

  But it didn't sound French, it sounded like Gaelic, and she interspersed other words, words I didn't know.

  * * * *

  She began teaching me her magic the next day. "I don't know how to do this," she said. "My spells need to be cast on someone."

  "Then you may cast them on me," I said. "You will tell me what they do, and you will reverse them afterwards if I ask you to."

  "I can not teach you all my spells then. Some of them are harmful."

  "Teach me the nice ones then. Teach me the love spells and the lust spells. Teach me the obedience spell, and teach me how to reverse the spells. And teach me how you make me come so hard."

  She laughed. "These I will enjoy teaching."

  She began teaching me. She started with a very simple spell, the sleep spell. "I can do it with partial power, and it will only make you sleepy."

  She showed me the spell, and then she cast it at me. I watched carefully as she built the magic, and then watched as it settled over me.

  "I can hold you sleepy like this, which makes you complacent," she said. "This can be cast without permission, and if I am careful, I can hold someone just on the edge of sleep. Right at that point, most people will follow simple directions. Please stand up," she said. I stood slowly. "Please follow me." She led me around the room. And then she reversed the spell.

  "Wow," I said, shaking my head. "It didn't seem to take much magic."

  "It's a steady drain," she said. "With just my own magic supply, I would run low after a couple of hours unless I put you to sleep."

  She showed me again, going very slowly. "When constructing magic, intent is very important. It is my intention that builds the spell as much as my knowledge of how it is assembled. I intend this structure. Can you see?"

  "It's beautiful, Arianna," she said.

  "I can hold it ready, like this," she said, and the magic waited, hovering. "I've made it very large so you can see it. It is normally much smaller. And then, to cast it, I simply tell it to settle over you."

  The magic moved slowly, and I watched it. It came down around me like a net.

  "And then I, well, I squeeze, I guess."

  The net contracted, and I grew sleepy.

  "And then," she said, "I can add a little more power, and you will sleep. Or I can end the spell, and you will remain sleepy. Whether you sleep or not would then be up to you. To cancel it, I call the magic away from you." And she pulled, almost like pulling on a rope, and I felt her magic leave.

  I shook off the effects.

  "Once more, slowly."

  "All right. Slowly, but at the normal size. You won't be able to see the structure this time." And I watched as she built it, but she was right. At the normal size, I couldn't see the structure. It was a small ball of light in her hand. She held it up for me to look.

  "Can you see the structure?" I asked her.

  "No. When I was beginning to learn, I made them big, like the last one. With time, I learned to make them small."

  "You can still settle something so small over me?"

  "Yes. Hold still though. I will go slowly, but normally it would be very fast." The light moved away from her and then wrapped around me, expanding as it settled and then collapsed again. And again I grew sleepy.

  "Now, Moira," she said, while I was sleepy and complacent. "I wish a reward for my lessons. Tell me one thing you love about me."

  "Your eyes," I said dreamily. "I love your eyes."

  She smiled. "Good answer." Then she cancelled the spell. It took me longer to shake off the effects.

  "Done?" she asked.

  "Once more, Arianna? How fast can you snare me?"

  "Don't blink," she said. I felt her draw magic from me, then almost faster than I could watch, the magic formed in her hand and darted over me. She pulled it tight. "It is actually harder this way. I don't want you to actually fall asleep. If I wanted you to sleep, you would only have a second or so to react. But I am going more slowly to be more careful with control."

  She cancelled it once more.

  "That's enough for today," she said. "I want a prize."

  I smiled. "What would you like?"

  "Hmm. You will buy me a small present today. Only a small present, Moira."

  * * * *

  Over the years, I bought her a great, great many small presents. Every morning she taught me her magic. I could not manipulate the magic myself, but we learned how I could ask her to manipulate it for me.

  I learned to build the spells, one piece at a time. There were only a few she was willing to teach me, but then, there were only a few I wanted to know.

  First, she showed me the spells, and she pointed out the structural elements of each, explaining why this structure instead of another. We spent a few months on each spell, one hour every morning.

  After that, she built a spell and I was to identify it and explain everything I could about it. She corrected me, patiently, far more patiently than ever I would have expected from her.

  The years passed. Sienna got married but remained at the agency. Terry moved on. Lydia served her sentence, and the day Arianna offered her freedom, she cried.

  "Don't make me leave!" she said. "Please, Arianna, don't make me leave!"

  And so, Lydia, like Dean, stayed with us. We grew to love them both.

  Stephanie was soon to be offered her freedom, but instead she grew sick. I took her for her appointments. Once we had the results, I took her to see Arianna.

  "I will free you," Arianna said immediately.

  "Can't you help me?" Stephanie asked immediately.

  "I am so sorry," Arianna said. "My magic only works on the mind, on your passions. I can make changes to my own body, very, very slowly, and Moira's as my familiar. I would help you if I could."

  Stephanie looked at the floor, then looked up. "The doctor told me it is inoperable. I am going to die. I would rather not die alone. If you free me, I will be alone."

  And so, rather than freeing her, we hired her a nurse. As her days grew closer, she worried that she would die not having known love. She voiced this one night over a household dinner.

  "My love for Arianna is real," I said. "Even though it started with a spell."

  Dean stood up. "Arianna, you can make me love her, can't you? And she would love me."

  "Oh Dean," Arianna said.

  And then Lydia stood up. "I think Stephanie would prefer my love." She turned to Stephanie immediately. "I will not mourn you forever. I may choose to move on after a time. But I will love you, and I will remember you for as long as I live."

  Stephanie looked between Lydia and Arianna, and I saw hope in her eyes. And then her eyes darkened. "No. It is unfair to ask you to watch the woman you love die in front of your eyes. Arianna, I would be happy if you made me love you."

  "No!" Lydia said. "You should be loved. If you don't want me, I understand. But Arianna and Moira will help me, after." She looked at Arianna. "She likes me. And I like her. Please do this."

  Arianna hadn't said anything. I stood up and spoke. "It must be mutual," I said. Lydia, do you want Stephanie?"

  "Yes."

  "Stephanie, Lydia wants you. Do you want her?"

  Stephanie looked at Lydia. "It's too cruel."

  "That's my decision," Lydia responded. "Do you want me?"

  "Yes." And she began to cry.

  "Do it," I thought to Arianna. "Give them both this."

  Arianna wove the spell, casting it first over Lydia. "Lydia, do you accept this spell?"

  "Yes."

  I watched it settle over her. I watched it draw tight. And I watched
as Arianna spread the other end of the magic over Stephanie, so it was her that Lydia loved.

  Lydia's gazed turned to Stephanie, and she smiled. "Wow," she said. "Oh wow. Arianna, thank you."

  Arianna cast the second spell, drawing heavily from me. "Stephanie, do you accept this spell?"

  Later, when we were alone, I said, "Those weren't love spells. They looked like love spells, but they were different."

  "Oh, they were love spells," she said. "But I also mixed in the lust spell at the same time. It took me a very, very long time to learn to merge them into a single spell."

  They only had a few months together. Lydia stayed strong, and Stephanie died in her arms, with all her friends around her.

  Lydia mourned for a year. After that, she kept two pictures of Stephanie, and sometimes I caught Lydia talking to Stephanie. I told Arianna, "We may not recruit anyone else named Stephanie until Lydia's days have passed."

  * * * *

  And the years continued to pass. Arianna and I grew increasingly wealthy. When we had been together for thirty years, I compared photographs of us each, and I could tell little difference.

  We traveled twice a year; one trip each year would be to somewhere in America, and one year abroad. Arianna wouldn't allow me to engage in dangerous sports, so my requests to learn skiing and skydiving were each met with a firm "no". We avoided areas of political strife, but there was so much of the world to see, and I knew I could never see it all.

  And every day, I received a magic lesson.

  I learned to construct the spells, telling Arianna what to do with the magic. At first, I was very wasteful, and renewing my magic required more effort. But I got better and better. I knew only the few spells: sleep, love, lust, devotion, and obedience. And she taught me how to break the spells. She taught me the modified obedience spell she used when she freed someone, and she let me direct her whenever we needed to use it.

  One day, I asked about witches dueling with magic.

  "We avoid it," she said. "A magical duel comes down to two things: technique and power."

  "So if we were both witches, and we dueled?"

  "You don't know any offensive spells," she said. "And your spell casting is very slow. I would win before you could assemble your first spell."

  "Can you counter my spells?"

  She frowned. "Countering a spell is nearly entirely about power, the weight of the magic behind it. If I could not draw on you as my familiar, and if you were able to launch a spell at me before I was ready, then your power would overwhelm mine."

  "What if you launched first."

  "If I taught you to counter the spells, and you learned to be very quick, then your power would help you to shrug my spells off."

  "Will you teach me?"

  "I can't," she said. "I can't both cast the spell and counter the spell. You would have to be able to cast the spell for me to show you how to counter it. I am sorry."

  "That's all right," I said. "But if I had a sleep spell, and I managed to throw it over you, would you be able to throw anything at me before you fell asleep?"

  "If you actually got it wrapped around me, but hadn't tightened it? Probably not, even as slow as you are."

  Another day, I asked about the familiar ritual.

  "I was a familiar," she said. "For the witch who taught me."

  "You never told me that."

  "Making another witch into a familiar is very dangerous," she said. "A familiar has more magic at her disposal, so if your familiar decides to rebel, she may have far more magic than you do."

  "I guess you'd be screwed if I could manipulate magic."

  "No," she said. "You love me. You wouldn't hurt me."

  "What is the difference between a witch and a familiar?"

  "A witch can manipulate magic. A familiar can only store it."

  "Can you have more than one familiar?"

  "No, and a familiar is a familiar to only one witch. But a witch could have a familiar and be a familiar at the same time. Sometimes, although it is rare, two witches will be each other's familiars."

  "So if I were a witch, you could be my familiar?"

  She laughed. "Yes."

  "You would have more magic then?"

  "Yes. Together we would be exceedingly powerful."

  That night, Arianna drifted off to sleep. I slipped out of bed. "Where are you going?" she asked, waking.

  "I can't sleep," I said.

  "I can help."

  "No. I'm just going to go for a little walk. Lydia has been troubled lately. I am going to make sure she is all right. I'll be back in a little bit."

  But I crossed to her side of the bed and caressed her back until she fell asleep again. Then I slipped out of the room, grabbing my robe.

  I walked to the bunkhouse and let myself in. Lydia was awake. I stopped in. "Hey," I said.

  "Hey," she said. "Can't sleep?"

  "I was thinking about Stephanie," I said.

  "Me too," she said. "I was just asking her about something."

  "What?"

  "Erica," she said.

  "Erica?" I asked, smiling. Erica was one of our newest recruits. She had been a client, a stay-at-home mom. She came to us after her divorce and her kids had all moved out. She asked us to sell her house, to help her find somewhere cheap to live, and a job. She was Lydia's age, give or take a few years.

  "I like her," Lydia said. "And I think she likes me."

  "Tell me about it," I said. I sat back and relaxed while Lydia talked. And the entire time she talked, I twirled my finger and watched the magic spin around in circles. I drew magic back in from Lydia as she told me passionately how she felt about Erica.

  Arianna was teaching me very well.

  Reversal of Fortunes

  I wasn't willing to risk a duel with Arianna. I thought the chance of one of us getting hurt was too big. I didn't want her to get hurt.

  After all, I loved her. I loved her deeply.

  I bided my time.

  Life was good. Arianna treated me very well, and we had come to an agreement on our recruiting policies.

  Beck and Corbin had children. When the eldest was four, Corbin approached us and begged us to cast obedience spells on them. Arianna laughed and promised to step in if they turned the wrong way as they grew older.

  Sienna and her husband also had children. We ended up setting up a daycare facility for employees.

  Lydia and Erica fell in love. They didn't need any help. Arianna gave them her blessing, and we built a small house for them on the property.

  Dean grew old, and his younger years caught up to him. It became increasingly difficult for him to keep up with the grounds keeping. We recruited an assistant.

  My opportunity with Arianna came quite by accident.

  * * * *

  "I think we misplaced the car," I told her.

  "Was it left at that last intersection, or right?" she asked.

  "Why did you park so far away?"

  "Don't blame me," she said. "You're the one who told me to let Sid and Mack free."

  "They served their sentence. Although I thought they'd stick around. Sid has the hots for Julie."

  "Clearly not enough," she said.

  We turned the corner and came to a stop. We had found our car, but between the car and us were six teenagers, and they were all wearing the exact same color of ski cap. It wasn't ski season.

  "Gang," I thought at Arianna. "Can you take them?"

  "Six? If I have to. It won't be pretty."

  We began backing away, but the kids came after us, and soon they had us surrounded.

  "Hey, pretty ladies," one of them said. "Give us your purses and maybe we won't hurt you."

  Arianna began building a spell. She didn't realize it right away, but I began building one myself. It took me a lot longer than it took her, and mine was a lot bigger, consuming a lot more magic. But I had plenty stored.

  "Boys," Arianna said while preparing her spells. "You do not want to mess with
us. Go along now and no one will get hurt."

  The leader laughed. "We're not worried if you get hurt."

  Arianna said, "So be it." She pointed her finger straight at him and screamed, "Die!"

  The boy immediately fell to the pavement. It wasn't a death spell; Arianna didn't have those. But making them sleep while yelling "die" was more intimidating than "Take a nap". Arianna immediately prepped another spell and threw it at the next boy. One came up to flank her, and I threw my spell over him. It was slow, but I managed to land it over his shoulders and I jerked on it. He collapsed.

  I prepared another spell. Arianna got two more, and I had my next spell ready when she looked around. The last boy ran. Five boys lay on the ground. Arianna counted, and then she looked at me. She saw the spell I had waiting.

  "Moira?" she said.

  I threw the spell over her, and she collapsed. I caught her before she fell to the ground. I protected her then checked. She was breathing and her heartbeat seemed fine.

  I dragged her to the car and got her settled in. I checked her repeatedly, but it seemed like a normal sleep.

  I drove us home. She never woke up.

  It took time, but I managed to get Arianna into the house. She still had the table she'd used on me the first day she had taken me. I pulled it out from storage and then dragged her downstairs, holding her under the arms, her feet clumping on the stairs. It was difficult to get her limp body up onto the table, but I managed.

  I removed all her clothes and strapped her firmly to the table. I retrieved a blanket and settled it over her.

  I had constructed the spells that Arianna had used to cancel the obedience spells. I didn't know if there was another way to cancel the one she had cast on me, so I built the one she always used. Then I said, "I will honor any promises I make to Arianna tonight," and I settled the spell around me. "I accept this spell."

  And like that, my obedience spell was broken. And even more importantly, I knew how to cancel the other spells. I thought I could even cancel the familiar bond, but I wasn't sure.

  My magic level was still good. Arianna's was not. She had used most of her magic during the fight, and I didn't think she had enough to do anything. She would have to pull magic from me; she should have done it during the fight to stay topped off, but perhaps she hadn't had time to think of it.