4. Ren Is Ready To Help

The Summoner's Castle might have been a mighty fortress with elegant towers a century ago, but up close, right now, it was a dump. It had no gate, just a hole in the wall, and every tower had been shattered. Half the walls showed signs of damage, and the top corner of the central keep had broken off entirely.

"This can't be the place," said Ren. "This is a ruin."

"There's strong magic here, though. Maybe they're related! Why don't you go inside and find out?"

Ren's eyes narrowed. "What are you going to do?"

"I'll be right behind you," said Merlin, grinning. "But you're the Summoner, after all." He made a shooing motion with his staff.

After a long, suspicious look, Ren said, "Yeah…. I don't know how I feel about taking my eyes off you like that.

Exasperated, Merlin said, "Really, young lady. Maybe you should use one of your Seals to make yourself feel better?"

Ren glanced at her hand, but before she could answer, a voice from the crumbling castle said, "Oh thank goodness! Are you a Summoner come to answer the Call?"

A slight figure with orange hair peeked around the gateless passage through the wall. If this was the little boy's Miss Ritsu, she was a lot younger than Ren had anticipated. Somewhere in her early teens, in Ren's estimation.

"Maybe," said Ren cautiously, and then decided to come clean. "Honestly, I think I was summoned myself. And then I summoned him." She jerked a thumb at Merlin, thought about it, and added, "Maybe."

The orange-haired girl fell over, and then scrambled to her feet, her mouth open in a perfect O of shock. As she did, a floofy golden creature with pointed ears and a bushy tail scrambled up into her arms.

"Oh my, oh my, oh my, did you hear that, Foxette?" said the girl, her eyes huge. "Oh my goodness, I AM A GENIUS! Me! A genius! I always knew it! Nobody ever believed in me, but look what I've done! I've summoned a person. A summoner." Her eyes slitted suddenly. "But if I summoned you, why didn't you come through the portal when I cast in my blood?"

Ren, knocked back on her heels by the girl's triumphant crowing, swayed forward again. "I don't know. Maybe you didn't summon…" She stopped. The kid's eyes had been so huge and hopeful.

Instead she declared, "I don't know, but I'm here to help!"

Little Miss Ritsu said, "Yay!" and then hesitated. "Uh, do we have to fight first?"

"Ooh," said Merlin, behind Ren. "Is that the tradition here?"

Ren gave Merlin a dirty look. "Hush, useless mage."

"Wow," said Ritsu. "You don't know anything, do you? Well, come on in and make yourself comfortable and I'll try to explain. I found some tea in the underground kitchen."

This definitely wasn't the summoning system Ren vaguely remembered. The small furry animal, called a foxette, was Ritsu's first summoned familiar. The foxette was affectionate and apparently very magical, but poorly suited for defense or offense. Normally, summoners would use magic harvested from their first familiar—Ren didn't really understand this part—to summon more of the same elemental alignment. But Ritsu, her town and the orphans she claimed to have adopted under threat, didn't have time for that. So she'd taken the risk of a second blood summoning.

"The first one's always easy." Ritsu chattered as she fussed with a teapot in her underground hideout. "It almost never wants to fight, but after that… there's usually a battle before you can bind them. Especially if you use blood, because then you're aiming for something really different than what you already have." She stole a glance at Ren and hugged herself with glee. "I'm so amazing!"

Ritsu too had a set of glyphs on her hand, differently shaped than Ren's but apparently holding a similar power. "We can use them to power up our familiars," Ritsu explained. "They usually come back after a few days unless we've done something really extreme. And then we're usually not around a few days later either, eheheheh."

She poured tea in a little bowl for the foxette, and then served first Ren and then Merlin with tiny chipped cups. "So, you're a — you're Merlin? And you can talk! I've always wondered: what's it like where familiars come from?"

Merlin laughed and tugged on Ritsu's side ponytail. "Very boring."

Ritsu nodded thoughtfully. "That make sense, because why else would you all be so willing to come here? Um, do you have high offensive or defensive capabilities?"

"Nope! I'm basically a bipedal version of your foxette." said Merlin. "I'm afraid that in order to help you defend your village, the young lady over there will have to summon… somebody else. You said you had a summoning portal here?"

"Hmm," said Ritsu worriedly. "Will that work?" She glanced down at her hand. "I guess if it turns into a battle I could use one of my Seals to help… if I really did summon a summoner, it should help?"

Ren, annoyed by Merlin's smirk, stood up. "I don't have to fight them, I just have to name them. At least according to somebody. Let's try this out."

Ritsu brightened. "Of course. I should have known you wouldn't be afraid. The portal is this way!" She ran out of the room, her little foxette trotting after.

"You're very confident," said Merlin, rising to his feet.

With a scowl, Ren said, "Shouldn't I be? I've got you on my side, an obvious bad guy, and a little girl who needs my help. Given that I have this mark, I ought to at the very least be able to summon a fuzzball. Although if that's what I get, you'll have some explaining to do…"

"Teehee," said Merlin. "To be honest, I'm just as curious as you are to find out what you pull."

"Come on!" called Ritsu. "It's down here!"

The portal chamber had been constructed of stone below the central keep, but lines of blue magic reinforced walls that might have otherwise collapsed. Magical circles had been drawn all over the room and a shimmering blue field filled a large circular white stone frame that had been set at an angle to the ground. In one corner of the room a large book lay open, next to some empty paper wrappers, a jug, and a pile of blankets.

"There you go," said Ritsu, pointing at the tilted portal. "I hope it works this time. I mean, properly. It was pretty scary when I cast in my blood earlier and nothing came out. Really, really scary…" Ritsu trailed off looking thoughtful.

"Is this your book?" called Merlin, already over in that corner.

Ritsu turned scarlet, darting over to snatch the book away from him. "Yes! Bad Merlin! Stay out of people's stuff!"

"I like books," said Merlin mildly. "Those looked like interesting stories."

"They're summoner tales. I mean, I had to learn how to be a summoner somehow, right? It wasn't like To—it wasn't like there was anybody else to teach me."

"So what do I do?" said Ren, inspecting the portal curiously.

"Well, basically, if you've got the Seals already, you cast in ten drops of blood and, uh, hope. I mean… that works, at least.. There's all these different rituals for trying to get specific familiars, but they don't always work and they require a lot of stuff I don't have." Ritsu shrugged.

"Right," said Ren. "Big drops or little drops?" She didn't see anything useful for drawing blood lying around.

Ritsu said, "You have to decide, but some people think the more blood you put in the more powerful a familiar you'll get." She frowned, looking at the foxette prancing around her ankles. "I don't know if it's true or not."

"Little drops, Ren," said Merlin calmly. "In fact, I think I'll take care of this, before your enthusiasm ends this story way before I'm ready." He reached into one of the elaborate twists of his staff and pulled an entire sword out. Then, while Ritsu goggled at him, he leaned the staff against the wall and advanced on Ren.

Ren, who found the sword-in-the-staff thing less surprising than Ritsu—bubbles of story, fizzing in her mind—still eyed Merlin warily. "Isn't that overkill for little drops?"

"You'd rather gash your palm with a rusty, dirty dagger?" asked Merlin, and took her left hand. "This Holy Sword won't leave an infection behind, and I won't cripple you." Before Ren could really react, he'd used the base of the blade to painlessly nick the fleshy pad beneath her thumb.

"There you go. Ten or so drops. Don't waste them."

"As if I would," said Ren, and held her hand over the swirling blue field, thinking of what she'd like to summon.

<A warrior.> A drop fell into the portal.

<A friendly, trustworthy warrior.> Another drop, and another. She felt dizzy, as much more than a few drops of blood was being pulled from her.

<Somebody who could protect, who could hunt down the bad guys.> A brief image flashed through her mind, so fast that all she could recall was pink hair and a shield and the sense that nobody could be more trustworthy. Then the image faded beyond recollection.

Another drop, another, another. How many had that been? The light from the portal grew steadily brighter. Little Miss Ritsu said something, but Serendipity couldn't understand it. She stared at the portal. Would something come out, or would she fall in? What would happen if she did?

Drip, drip.

She had to focus. <Somebody who could help this village…>

<Somebody who wasn't a silly, untrustworthy mage.>

Drip.

<Please, not another troublesome mage.>

Drip.

A blinding white light filled the room and Ren's legs gave out underneath her. She sprawled backwards, blinking, as a shadow emerged from the light.

"Ah!" cried a rough male voice. "You chose well! Eh? This isn't right…"

As the light faded, the shadow filled in with color: a man in blue armor with dark hair, short on top with a long thin tail settling over his shoulder. He stared down at Ren with widening ruby eyes that matched the spear he held over his shoulders.

"What did you do?" Then his eyes narrowed. "Aw, I don't care. Just tell me this, my lady. Did you summon me to fight?"

Dazedly, Ren nodded. He grinned. "Great! Now… information on this place is kind of… missing but I do know this: you have to tell me your name and mine. And then we can get down to business."

"I'm Ren… Serendipity," she said breathlessly. "And you're…" She closed her eyes, concentrating on story bubbles. She knew this hero. He showed up in so many stories. Blue. Not a Caster.

"You're Cú Chulainn, the Child of Light. Lancer."

His grin widened as lilac light flared around them. "Not, thank God, a mage. Exactly so, my lady. Let the contract be formed!"