Margot and I sat on the rooftop of one of St. Csilla’s dorm buildings. Sitting beneath an evening sky filled with countless stars. Our hands holding bowls of shaved ice. Margot gazed outwards off the edge of the roof. I leaned back, elbows propping me up as I stared up towards the night sky.

“So...what are you exactly?” said Margot.

“That’s kind of a complicated question. I’ve been a lot of things. Many of them either hybridized or liminal in nature. By this point, I’m pretty sure you’d just call me something like unique, or eldritch, or eidolon. Or just call it a day and use my name. If you really insist on knowing what I am exactly, the best I can do is list all the things I’ve been.” I said.

“Things like ...?”

“Well, let’s see. I’ve been human, a vampire, a ghost, a vampire ghost, human again, vampire again, an angel, a spirit...which isn’t a fancy way to say ghost. Continuing from there, I’ve been a whale, a vampire, an elemental, an elf, a fairy, a pixie, a whale again, a kraken, a slime, a werewhale, a space whale, a spaceship, a space station, a vampire...again, a human again.”

“Now that I think of it, I think I kind of just default to human when things don’t get weird enough to force me to do otherwise. Where was I? Oh yeah I was listing all the shit I’ve been? Right. I’ve been a demon of the luxuriae variety...i.e. an incubus and/or succubus. Technically they both are and aren’t the same thing cause luxuriae can shapeshift between genders.” I continued.

“I’ve also been a spirit, a cambion or human-luxuriae hybrid because the luxuriae part of me never really went away. Then there was this one time I swore off magical worlds and ended up becoming an artificial intelligence because I fell asleep long enough for these asshole scientists to steal the crystal I’d been keeping my soul in and somehow managed to digitize it.”

“Man, I thought I was going to end up killing the shit out of those guys when I woke up but damn if they weren’t so adorably full of themselves that I ended up just playing it cool so I could watch them destroy their civilization on their own. Then I became a robot a couple billion years later because not having a body got boring and my AI-core somehow got into the hands of a group in another universe.”

“ Then I ended up going back to magical worlds again, because space-dramas get old eventually, where I became a demon lord. I was the first time I’d been a demon that wasn’t a lust demon. I destroyed the world I was demon lord for because the hero was a litttle shit and all the humans were basically just nazi to the Nth power in that world. I went back to hanging around low-magic realities for a while as a cloud of sentient stardust.”

“At around the time I stopped being able to use actual numbers to count my age, I became the operating system for an ever expanding dyson complex, I evolved out of that. I met some cool bros who taught me that life isn’t all bullshit and talked me out of hooking up with a couple of wackjobs who’d wanted to try and take on the impossible task of bringing down the cosmos.”

“They moved on, one of my buds went back in time to go back to his homeworld. Last I heard he started a family and a vast transdimensional empire or some shit. I hung around with my other bud who later went off to do his own thing. Then I became whatever I am now, through the process of melding all the various parts of me and all the various lives I’ve lived, so I could exist a single unified state. The plan was to eventually ascend to one of the higher planes but fuck that noise, wandering the physical plane has been pretty fun and I could always ascend later.” I said.

The young woman nodded. Tucking a runaway lock of orange-broad hair behind her ear.

“Oh...Um, I-...I guess that is a lot of things.”

“And that’s not even the half of it. That’s just the stuff that had the biggest effect on my nature. There were tons of other things I became... sometimes temporarily, often not so temporarily. Like this one time I spent a thousand years as a goldfish...or this other time where I spent a million years as a rock, hiding from this archdemon who’s truename I might or might not have gratified onto the stars. It’d honestly, just be best to think of me as a wild Montgomery.” I said.

“What’s a wild Montgomery?” said Margot.

“Fuck if I know…But you managed to catch one and didn’t even need to use a master sphere so I think you’re doing pretty good for yourself.” I said.

Margot gave me a sidelong look and I just smirked in response.

“You’d be surprised how many universe that some iteration of that game managed to make it to...That and the one about the plumber.” I said.

“Nh, so just to be sure, you just want to follow me around?” said Margot.

“Pretty much. You summoned me and here I am, and here I am content to be.”

“But why though?” said Margot. Finishing off the last of her shaved ice.

“Well, why not? When you live forever you pick up some eccentricities.” I said.

“And yours is following around strange girls?” said Margot.

“I’d complain about your phrasing but you’re more right than you know...also, yes, at least in this instance. I mean how many times have asked me this? Three? Four? Ten? Are you expecting me to slip up and tell you my ‘real’ answer at some point?” I said.

“S-, Sorry...I just...I just needed to be sure.” said Margot.

I couldn’t help sighing. This wasn’t the first night we were out here like this. Nor was this the first time I was letting her interrogate me like this. Trust was a thing that took time to build and for the sake of our working relationship, while Margot figured things out I’d been letting her continue to ask me questions.

Our conversions running in circles because she’d always somehow end asking me questions that she’d asked before as if testing the waters. I’d get annoyed but honestly I understood. The girl had issues with abandonment and trust that went as far back as her earliest memories, so I was trying to be patient.

“Look I’ve already told you, I’m not going to hurt you. I don’t have some insidious plan to make use of you or do anything bad to you or the people around you...Honestly, I wasn’t even aware that this whole universe existed till you knocked on my door and woke me up. Now I’m here and I just want to see what’s out there. And the reason I’m doing it as your familiar is because the bond we have will allow me to grow as you grow.”

“Nh...I-, I believe you. I think. But why me?”

“Because you’re the one who knocked.”

“There are so many better witches and wizards out there. Other mages who’d be...better.”

“Well, they're not the ones who knocked. I met you first. I liked what I saw. So here I am. Now what do you say?”

“I ...Okay. I accept the contract.”

With those words. We both felt something click as the tether that had originally connected us was further actualized becoming a consensual bond. I’m not some devil or beast. I wasn’t going to force the girl into anything she didn’t want or wasn’t ready for.

The tether from before was more or less just like a mooring like. A way for me to find my way back to this universe from the place of nothingness my mind and body went to whenever I was resting.

This. The thing that now stretched between us, was the real connection. The real covenant. A simple agreement to coexist. She would give me blood and magic. I would give her assistance and protection.

Neither of us would be subordinate to the other but like I’d been telling her, my role in our relationship would probably end up being more passive for the most part because this was a whole new universe for me. A whole new world. I didn’t know what, if anything, I was supposed to care about, or like, or hate, or do. It was a brand new sandbox and I just wanted to see the sights for a bit and ease my way into things. She would be my guide. Keeping me from going too big, too fast, and blowing things up.

[That feels...Weird. Nice? But weird.] said Margot. Speaking with her mind. Rather than her mouth.

“I know, right? Well, I’m finally tired so you finish deciding on what you’re next move will be and I’ll take a little nap.” I said.

“Oh, okay...Goodnight?” said Margot.

“Night.” I said. Yawning. Slightly concerned because simply being awake for a few hours was enough to exhaust me and I’d been awake for three straight days so I was kind of concerned how long it’d take before I emerged from dormancy again.

“Um, do I need to get you another gallon of blood?”

“Huh? Nah, now that we’re contracted for realsies just a little blood every now and then will do. The aether and vital energy that flows through our tether supplies most of the sustenance I need. You might also want to take the time to figure what your new body is capable of...I made it to the best of my abilities which might be a good thing...or a bad thing so...yeah. Look into that.” I said. My voice going all echo-y as I faded out of existence.

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“I probably should have asked about that before...I definitely should have asked about that before…ugh” Margot sighed. Placing her face in her hands.

She’d been focused on being certain of the nature and intentions of her new familiar. Her methods had been something she randomly thought. She wasn’t asked him the same questions over and over again because she was insecure...or at least not just because she’d been feeling insecure. She’d actually gotten the method from out of a book.

It was a methodology that had been used by one of the most prestigious exorcists and demon hunters to come out of the Holy City of Albrecht. The priest’s memoirs recording a time when he used a series of repetitive questions over the course of several days to trick a demon that had been possessing a girl into revealing its true name.

Funnily enough, the method had worked. Tonight had been the first time that “Monty” had given her a straight answer about what he was. The fact he’d been consistent about assuring her that he wasn’t out to hurt her and just genuinely wanted to act as a familiar part of why she’d agreed to formalize their covenant instead of letting it exist haphazardly.

She was at least eighty percent sure that whatever the entity’s goals actually were, he wasn’t here to hurt her and would help her if it was convenient for him...Or so she hoped. There was a small part of her mind that was sneering at her, muttering about how the real reason she’d accepted the contract was because she was a lonely loser with no friends. She was ignoring that voice right now, but she was pretty sure it’d pop again when she was lying in bed and about to go to sleep.

“I really hope I don’t end up regretting this.” said Margot. Anxious. Hopeful. Worried. Excited. A strange sense of anticipation building up inside her. For the first time in her life she had no idea what the future would be like and it felt kind of great. Maybe that was because up until now all her possibilities had been terrible ones. She worried that maybe she was buying into what Monty was selling a bit too fast but a part of her didn’t care because up until he showed up she was going to die in two or three years anyway. Her fate set in stone.

“Alright...Time for bed.” said Margot. Getting up and stretching. Her back bending farther back than it would have been able to bend before. The young woman slightly dazed as she found herself noticing how distinctly catlike the movements of her new body were.

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That night when Margot dreamt, she dreamt a long dream. It seemed to last forever. Carrying her through the course of over fifty, sixty, possibly even seventy years. There was a war. She was just a bystander at first. The daughter of one of the citizens of a colony of some newly settled planet. Later as things grew dire the nation drafted her and many of the people on her planet, pulling them into the war.

The dream became a nightmare. A bloody vision of fire, bullets, lasers, bombs and death. Endless death. The war ending a great symphony of mushroom clouds and what seemed to be end of several worlds. With multiple planets being reduced to naught but rubble and ash.

Margot woke up. Sick to her stomach. Her entire body covered in sweat. For solid forty-five minutes she just sat in bed. Unable to recognize where she was. Unable to remember ‘who’ she was. Then she realized that it was all a dream. Real life dropping back in pace. The details of the dream began to fade. Evaporating from her memory like alcohol in the open air.

She felt a sense of reassurance come from within, carried over to her from the sleeping mind of her familiar. Another thing was carried over along with the feeling of reassurance. Apparently the dream was a gift. A kind of quick training and imbuement of skills.

Though the details of the dream were mostly gone the skills and experiences had stayed in place. To Margot’s mind, it was as if she’d actually spent seventy-five years fighting as the genetical soldier of a spaceborn army.

In that moment, Margot knew that if she wanted she could have many such experiences. They would never be longer than seventy-five years. The seventy-five limit mark was a safety restriction. She got the gist that her familiar wasn’t so adept at the imbuement technique. Stopping things at seventy-five years was a way of helping Margot avoid an inadvertent death of the ego.

Remembering the fear and pain that she could still feel in the very depths of her bones she couldn’t help shuddering. The nightmarish experiences she’d seen as she’d dreamt of being a young ensign and later an aged officer, in a forever war between two intergalactic nations would stay with her forever. Margot leapt off the bed grabbed a waste basket and upended her stomach into it. Vomiting till only water came out and her stomach was fully empty.

Then she answered the small impulse that was issuing out from the sleeping mind of her familiar. To her surprise, and partial dismay, she answered in the affirmative. As the various plans, and ambitions, that dwelt in the young woman’s heart rose the surface she became more and more aware that the things she needed to know and be able to do were thousandfold. As mild mannered, and gutless as she might normally have seemed, Margot was well aware that this was not an opportunity she could turn down.

If she could grow in power by accepting more of these life long dreams and having the associated skills and knowledge transmitted to her mind, then so be it. She’d take the nightmares and thank her benefactor for sending them to her, when he awoke. As she made her decision there was a feeling of appreciation and admiration from the half-sleeping mind of the being that was tethered to her soul.

Apparently, she was made of sterner stuff than he’d expected. In truth, she was made of sterner stuff than even she’d expected. This showed a strange lack of insight from both parties. Someone truly gutless wouldn’t have been able to create their own summoning ritual as she had and bet with their lives by actually attempting it. One would need to either be brave, stupid, or utterly mad to take that kind of risk. Only time would tell, under which category the twenty-one year old, Miss Wallace, fell.