1 The Witch's Familiar: Part 1

"Miss Rashad. A word."

Her throat closed up. This was it. The final step towards earning her witch's license. With a final wave, Anise said goodbye to her friends.

Saher grabbed her shoulder before she could go. "Make sure to tell us how it goes. I'll meet you back in the dormitory, ok?" Anise took a breath and nodded.

"Still watching Our Name?" She tried to smile, but it came out shaky.

The hand on her shoulder squeezed and Saher returned the expression. "Of course." Her eyes then turned to the professor's retreating figure. "Good luck."

With that, Saher ran towards the rest of their friends. As Anise stared at their backs, she let her fingers run through the old pages of her journal. After all of her hard work she'd soon be rewarded.

Ugh, why was she nervous? Her aptitude in flying was perfect, she could talk verbatim of all the plants she'd already studied in the lab and her room was (mostly) tidy after her levitating practice. If she could pass the exam given to her by Professor Elger then Anise would be able to start her own journey as a medical herbalist and explore past Magus University. She was so close.

Closing the door behind her, Professor Elger gestured for her to have a seat.

"So, Miss Rashad. You probably know what I've called you in for." The corners of the woman's mouth tilted upwards.

Anise clasped her hands together. "I would like to think I do."

She, Professor Rosaline Elger, was one of the administrators for the unversity. In just ten years, she earned a dual degree in Animal Care, Herbalism and with a talent for divination within the family. Even outside of the university she was considered high class amongst the witch community. However if you mentioned her family, you'd probably be met with a wand in your face. Why? Because her entire family was competitive to the core. Each member specialized in something different from Fortunes to Ancient Ritual studies. The only thing other than blood that tied them together was their magic. No one could deny their strength, even with a bloodline that dates back 200 years strong.

If you opened a history book you'd probably run into the last name Elger a few times. The family was notorious for its overachievers. Also, it was one of the main reasons that Magus had different practical exams for each student.

Professor Elger cleared her throat. "As you well know, to become a formal witch with the ability to be recognized and practice magic around the world, you as a student need a license. You're definitely one of our most remarkable students and I would be proud to see you go out on your own as a full fledged witch from Magus.

"However, another thing you know, you need to pass a certain examination given by me or by one of our other administrators. Seeing as I am the direct head of your focus, Herbalism, I will be administering your examination."

"I understand."

Magus University was a presitigious university that specialized in producing high class witches. Of course it had other subjects that catered to other professions like Trading Negotiations and Politics for Monarchs 101. But the first thing that came up when someone spoke about Magus were it's witch oriented programs. Not just Professor Elger but many other famous witches graduated from the school. The other side to its fame was it's acceptance rate.

Sixty percent of students are accepted each year. As a result, the expected amount of graduates would be ten thousand. Doesn't sound like quality doesn't it?

The exam then served as a filter. It was known to be sent out as a vague and then judged by a panel to see if it filled out the implied requirements. Everyone either loved it or hated it. But if you graduated as a witch from Magus and said you passed the exam first try, no one could doubt your skills.

"For your exam, you need to perform a ritual. As reference, please look into our library," she explained. "The ritual does not need to be a difficult or high rank ritual. What we'll be paying attention to are the results. Are you prepared?"

Just as Anise was told, the explanation was hardly an explanation. A ritual? What kind? Should she research a plant ritual? A sacrifice ritual? Should she go pray in the mountains?

[Ah, fuck. I need to consult Saher. Maybe she'll know what to do.]

Anise gulped and nodded, even though she knew it was a total lie. "I understand."

"Alright. If you understand, please notify me or another administrator when you are ready. As you know there is no strict time limit but do know that it'd be optimal to complete this exam in about two months as you will not be able to graduate as a witch this year unless you do so." Professor Elger then took out her hand. As I reached out to shake it, I felt myself sweat.

[Two months? What ritual could I perform that only takes two months? Definitely need some help for this.]

"With that I wish you good luck." Professor Elgy then put her hand above her heart. "May Hecate bless your path."

[Doesn't Hecate know I'm an athiest?]

I shot a text to Saher about the situation.

Star Anise [2:20 p.m.]-so

Star Anise [2:21 p.m.]- prof said i gotta perform a ritual

saher bear [2:21 p.m.]- btch whatchu mean a ritual

saher bear [2:23 p.m.]- do i need to find a body (ノ°益°)ノ

Star Anise [2:30 p.m.]- not yet i dont think

Star Anise [2:34 p.m.]- omw to the library. meet me there?

saher bear [2:40 p.m.]- can't bro bro needs me rn (｡T ω T｡)

saher bear [2:41 p.m.]- recon in dorm in an hr? (*°▽°*)

Star Anise [2:42 p.m.]- will do.

Anise looked at the books stacked in front of her and and cracked her knuckles. Time to do some light reading.

She was late. No matter how much of a "star student" she was, Professor Elger was going to mark her down for her fifth tardy, meaning that it was her turn to feed Cecil and clean his cage. Sure it'd be her seventh time cleaning the special cages near the Animal Breeding center— last time she only got one scratch, a tiny incision on her left thigh — but Anise would rather save some time to finish her witch's application. Deadline was in two months and she couldn't wrack her brain for a demonstration for her presentation exam in the last two days. Her fingers touched the top of her forehead. Ugh, wrinkles.

She read every book on rituals and only a few stood out. One ritual required an expertise on plants and the creation of multiple tonics to pull off. The good thing was that all the ingredients were cheap. Bad thing was most of the plants grew during the winter or grew in another country. And Anise couldn't really afford imports.

Another ritual needed a sacrifice of not a human but something precious to that person. By doing the ritual by sacrifice, depending on the intensity of the sentiment associated with the item, the production of a high class witch's stave or garment could be a possible. However the most precious thing to Anise was her herb notes and, one, she didn't want to give them up for a staff she didn't need and, two, the probability of success for the ritual was about 30% success rate. She wanted to pass but not lose all of her hard work over four years. That ritual would be a failsafe.

Lastly the final ritual that caught her eye was spirit binding. Although her proficiency lie within plants, like Professor Elger, Anise also could manipulate and communicate with spirits to some extent.

[Thank god I took that summer class.]

Spirit binding was both simple and hard. The easy part was gathering two people, items or animals that had a strong bond with each other. There were no set restrictions or requirements other than they needed to know each other to the extent of risking death with the other person. The hard part was just that; where would Anise find two people willing to die for each other in two months?

Point is she needed to do more research. Either that or pester Saher more for some advice.

Anise mumbled her messiest latin. Clumsy hands grabbed the nearest staff and barely managed to not knock over her favorite deck of tarot cards. In an instant, her books, wallet, cell phone and tumbler managed to levitate neatly into her book bag. One hand tucked in her flyaways while another hand dropped some food into her cat Mishie's bowl, the maine coon peacefully sleeping.

Lights? Off. Plants? Watered. Make up? She snuck a glance at her reflection. Could use some blush. Another bit of latin and a palette was tossed into her hands. Her eyes turned towards the sun dial. Five minutes. She's worked with less.

The knob twisted with a click, a slow creak before slamming right behind her.

[If I go through the quad near Lipton square I should be able to just make it. The others should be near the front.]

But before she could even take two steps, her face barreled into someone's chest. She felt the impact of the door knob on her spine before hearing a loud thud. All the things she packed spilled one by one onto the stranger.

"Ow—"

Anise's hands flew to her face, covering her mouth in shock. "Sorry! I didn't mean to run into you!"

She dropped down a hand. The other person grabbed her hand and got up. For only a split second, Anise could swear she saw three inch claws. Their hand was also littered with small nicks and scars. A blink and they were replaced with nicely manicured french nails. A lupus?

Lupus were part human, part wolf. Colloquially, they were known as werewolves. But most prefered to be called Lupine or lupus for singular terms. Magus was an open university and hasn't discriminated since the witch imprisonments half a century ago.

The other person, a woman, huffed a laugh. At full height she towered over Anise with at least a foot. Next thing she noticed was her thick curls of light purple hair cut short, and honey-brown eyes. A scar ran down from her left cheek to the base of her collarbone. The final touch as a thick black velvet choker with a small tasteful pearl attached as a pendant.

Her eyes glanced at the campus sundial. "In a rush?" The lady smiled, an eyebrow raised.

"Yes so if you'll excuse me, I'm so sorry—" With a few words Anise returned all her belongings into her bag, and did a 180. A gaze fell onto the levitating items before Anise's arm was tugged back to the woman.

"Where are you going?"

Anise bit her tongue. She was gonna make her even more late, dammit. "Amnity Hall. It's really, really far so I kind of need to hurry along. I have a lecture I really can't be late too." Her lips formed a tight smile. "Now if you'll excuse me." She tried to push her way through.

Once again, the woman reeled her back. This time she couldn't help but yell.

"Ok what do you want? If this is petty revenge for making you fall? Sorry again but I need to go." Her voice became slightly high pitched. Anise bit her cheek, annoyed that she wouldn't let her move.

[Ugh I'm gonna get more wrinkles at this rate.]

Brown eyes looked in the direction of Amnity and scanned Anise's face. "I'll take you. Get on."

Her head pounded, a headache coming on. "Huh? What do you mean get on?"

The lady then grinned, showing off two sharp white canines. "I'll show you."

Slowly the woman's body began to form into the body of a wolf's but her size was that of a bear. So she really was a lupus. Even her wolf form was stunning. A shiny light purple coat, clean and taller than the ones the professor shows. Up close her teeth were pearl white and visibly sharp. If Anise even touched those things she'd get cut worse than when she dealt with Cecil. Was she a purebred wolf?

"Since you can't get on, I'll help you out." Right as she was admiring the wolf's build, the lady's mouth bit the back of her shirt and tossed her onto their back. With a yelp, Anise scrambled to get off the wolf.

"Put me down! I can walk on my own, really don't worry about it!"

"Nonsense. Amnity Hall, huh? I know exactly where that is."

With no choice, she grabbed the nearest thing she could. Anise held onto the velvet necklace for dear life. She had to survive today. Her ritual hadn't even started to go past the idea stage!

"Hold on tight," she said, letting out a chuckle. At that, Anise could feel the vibrations reverberate along their body from under her.

When they leaped down the stairs together, another bang could be heard throughout the dormitory. Other students peeked through windows and doors wondering at what was going on. With all the stares, Anise burrowed her head into the fur, willing herself to not blush.

"Is that Maya?"

"No way, from the Abbott family? I thought she went to a private school."

Another student whispered to the two kids who spoke. "Didn't you hear? She was supposed to go to another country to study Ancient Runes but decided to stay due to some infighting between her parents and sister."

Really was that true? Or were they just gossipping to get her attention? But that ancient rune bit was interesting.

As a distraction, she focused on the feeling of riding a wolf, which was a much different sensation compared to riding a broomstick. Brooms were slim, fast and mechanical when higher in quality. Each broom, whether wood or metal, was made to last meaning that each broom was tough and stable. You could only feel the design and there was no sense of a "rush". Her own broomstick was a worn out hand me down from her family. A sturdy wooden mahoghany model, hand crafted by her dad when he went to Magus. Although a broom was familiar, it wasn't anything like what Anise was feeling right now.

Each stride was different and imperfect. The woman was obviously from a strong wolf family but even her movements couldn't be considered perfect. There were no harnesses, no safety precautions to take in case of an emergency. Anise's grip tightened. She just had to hold on.

The most similar experience Anise had prior to this was riding a horse when she was younger. Even though it was a long time ago, she could still recall how it felt. And it still felt nothing like this. The horse was tame and had a certain gallop unique to its own sense of movement. However "Maya" was strong and confident with each stride. Not to mention incredibly fast.

As they kept going, Anise could feel other people's stares. Was the lupus she was riding on really that well known? Was she infamous or well liked? Again, she kept her head down.

When they finally made it to Amnity, she couldn't help but sigh. So that was what it was like to ride a wolf huh? Frankly, she was probably still late. The sundial was well past 2 o'clock. Oh well. She carefully made her way down the woman's back. Her feet touching the ground felt strange, foreign even though the trip was no more than ten minutes. Anise looked just in time to see the lady finish turning back into her human form.

"Sorry we couldn't make it on time." The lady lifted her arm and scratched the back of her head. Anise resisted the urge to pat her head in consolation.

"I was gonna be late anyways," her tone was resolute but resigned. Goodbye precious beauty sleep. Maybe she'll rope in Saher to help her with cleaning the cage tonight.

"Is there any way I could make it up to you? I was the cause of you being late after all." Her head hung a little and again, Anise wanted just to say 'let me ask for another ride' or something stupid like petting her fur.

And like that, she had an idea.

"You're a lupus right?" Maybe she could work something out after all.

"Maya lifted her head. "Yeah, what about it?"

Now it was her turn to laugh. "That's perfect. There's a little project I have in mind. Would you help me?"

If she accepted, Anise definitely wouldn't mind being on cleaning duty.