Leon sat at the table with the three others, it was the first day of this year of school, most people would have spent the time at home with their families, the four of them however had worked almost all the two month long break fixing up and making their new dwelling more to their liking.

That and planning the wedding.

A wedding between two females, which was not something that happened very often and definitely not something that Krya’s family wanted. Clan Gremor had sent many suitors her way over the years only to have them all rejected. And now there beloved daughter was going to get married to some other woman, and a bastard child of a small duke at that.

Surely they thought it a waste.

And honestly the looks they all got from other students when the news went out was, uncomfortable. It was not like they were actually lesbians, it was simply that it was not possible to marry a Familiar, seeing as they were not recognized as anything more than magical constructs, complex magical constructs, but still magical constructs.

They wouldn't even bother with the marriage, she was happy with just being Leon’s woman, but the suitors were getting more and more annoying. She was already his, but she like Lira was unable to legally marry him. So she had proposed a solution to Lira, it would cure the nagging suitor problem and would make it so they were free to live there life any way they wished.

She played with the necklace she had around her neck. It had a pendant of a flaming lion’s head, the same symbol that was branded on both Lira and Leon’s hand, the symbol of their link, there contract. Lira likewise had a necklace that had a black and blue wolf on it, the same mark of her and fluffy’s union. It was how you told people you were engaged to another house, wearing the other person’s mark.

Krya liked wearing it, it was the mark that represented Leon, which gave her more than enough joy to wear for that reason alone.

The two of them being lesbians was not the only rumor going around, in fact the smarter students had already deduced that her and Lira were not homosexual but in fact all part of one person’s harem. The act of mating with a familiar had always been considered taboo, mostly because familiars were nothing more than animals magically reconstructed to act as servants, add to this the fact that they were created with spirits, souls, animus however you want to call it.

They were in essence dead.

You can see where this was going.

Some pretty nasty names were floating around, of course not where Leon could hear them, most people had wised up to the fact that he could crush them underfoot, which gave them all some breathing room. But when he was not there there would often be a snide comment about beastiality or necrophilia.

Nevermind the fact that he clearly was not a corpse or an animal.

It honestly got to her some, not that she showed it, her face as always was emotionless. It was not that she didn't feel, it was simply that she was unsure of how to show the emotion she was feeling. She had never been exceptionally good at social interactions, so she had learned to keep her emotions bottled.

The only time she didn't do this was when she was alone with her family.

By family she meant her new family, Leon, Lira, and fluffy.

They had truly become her family, no matter what happened she knew she could count on them to help her out of it all, through thick and thin. And they were the only ones she had anymore, to say her clan didn't take to well to her engagement was putting it mildly. In truth they had completely disowned her, striping her of her status as a family member and as a royal descendant of Clan Gremor. Meaning all she was now was a mage that had no family ties, and that was worse than being a bastard child.

Much worse.

She however found that it didn't matter to her, she was not lacking for anything, she had food, it was paid for with the tuition she had sent to transfer to this academy. She had a roof over her head, that they had earned for upholding their end of the bargain with the headmistress. And more importantly than any of that was the fact that she had companionship.

She looked over at her group, the tallest and easily the most eye catching was Leon, standing a full head over herself and almost half a head taller than any other man in the school he demanded attention, what with his fiery red hair and short beard, those blazing red eyes that would make a dragon quake with fear and the obsidian horns that curved back from his temples. He like all the rest of them was clothed in the red and gold uniform of the school’s second year students, soon they would change those out for the next set of robes assigned to them, these ones blue, but still cut in the school's signature look. He had this Aura around him, like he was some sort of Demonlord.

Or a god of war.

She didn't know, all she knew was that she was drawn to him, and to Lira for some unknowable reason.

Speaking of Lira she glanced over at her fiance, strange as it may seem this woman was going to be her husband, or was Krya going to be the husband? Or was there even a need for one of them to assume that role? Shaking her head she looked Lira over, the woman was small framed, wearing her robes slightly looser than they should have been, but still in the respectable margins, she had shoulder length silver hair, and these piercing golden eyes. That however was not the thing that caught the most attention when talking about Lira, it was the horns. They curved from the back of her head across the temples and around, almost sticking out like a bulls but not protruding far from her head.

That had happened when she had merged with Leon, it was not uncommon for a mage to get part of their familiar imprinted onto them like that, it had even happened to fluffy and her. Krya now had this incessant tail, and no matter how she tried to hide her emotions the blasted thing would give her away in an instant, much to her chagrin and Leon’s pleasure.

The last and final member of her family was her own familiar, who had been dubbed fluffy by Leon. never minding the fact that the familiar was a woman, and fluffy seemed more of a male name. Ah whatever, fluffy seemed ok with the name, so Krya let it be. During her and fluffy’s merging the familiar had undergone the most extreme change Krya had ever seen, or heard of for that matter. She had gone from being a horse sized white direwolf with blue markings to a woman, with tan skin, white hair, and a full set of wolf ears and a tail. She also still had the blue markings.

She watched as fluffy rubbed up against Leon begging him for a “Petting” Krya was well aware of what the familiar meant by this, there had been many such pettings over the break, and it would seem that other students also understood what her asking him to pet her was judging by the blush of the female students and the fact that multiple males crossed there legs.

She smiled, yes, she had made the right choice coming to this school.

“Greetings third year students!” the headmistress called out as she walked onto the stage, the headmistress was a tall woman, looking to be in her forties, she had blonde hair pulled back into a bun that was held together by a single silver clip. Even in her forties she was a good looking woman, with tight skin, and high cheekbones, but the most attractive feature about her was those eyes.

They were the clearest blue anyone had ever seen, like looking into the endless sky.

She had apparently been the bastard child of true royalty, and had been pushed out of her house by her siblings of pure descent, landing this position somehow she had carved a name for herself, free of the name of her father. She was a role model to Krya, if she could do it then so could Krya.

“Welcome one and all to your third year at Grulik School of magic, two down four to go.” she smiled, and a small wave of chuckles rippled through the room. “This year promises to be exciting for you all,” she said, pushing up the half moon glasses on her nose. “Besides the studies of Advanced systematic Magical constructs, the application of potions crafting course three, the study of elemental powers course three-” she called out the list of classes being offered this year to them, they would have the next three days to sign up for them. At this school it really didn't matter what order they were done in, so long as you did them all and passed them all before the year was out. “And many more elective classes we have something special this year.” everyone's ears perked up, and in the case of fluffy you could actually see them perk. “This year we have been invited to an event, or perhaps it should be said we were challenged.” The headmistress’s eyes landed on Krya and lingered there for a second longer than she liked. “There is to be a tournament between the schools, a grand tourney between us, The Retcliff school, Termlin, Motrasi, and Wolfthir.” krya’s eyes opened wide, so that was why the headmistress had looked at her, it would seem as though her old school was one of the rivels…