Summonings

Will was busy, very busy. They’d been working on putting this garment together for the majority of their day, and it still wasn’t done. They were currently sewing parts of a jacket sleeve together, and were very focused on their current project. The customer who ordered this jacket had some really specific ideas for their coat, and Will tried their absolute best to get the final product to look similar to the ideas the customer had sketched and noted down on a piece of paper.

All of a sudden, they feel their attention slipping away. In fact, it’s not just their attention that’s slipping away, their entire soul and body seemed to be fading away from reality. Will started panicking and called out for help.

“Pheo!” they screamed as loud as they could in hope their mentor would still be able to hear them. “Pheo, help!”

They saw Pheo run towards them, their mouth moving and their flames moving faster than usual, but before the Fire could reach them everything went black before Will’s eyes. The darkness didn’t last long, as a sudden flash of light blinded them. Will got ready to defend themself against whatever being had pulled them away from their job, but as their eyes rapidly adjusted to the dim-lit room they were standing in they saw familiar faces. Well, most of them were familiar yet different from how Will remembered them.

“What the fuck?” the woman with long greyish black hair muttered while staring in disbelief at the Muddled Primordial that had just appeared.

“It worked!” the short blonde-haired girl said in surprise. “It.. It really worked!”

“Told ya.” a tall man with a big mess of black hair said.

Wait… that guy’s voice sounded familiar even if the person didn’t look like Will remembered him at all.

“Ki- Kichiro?” Will’s voice was so quiet it was almost a whisper. “Kichiro is that you?”

The man unzipped part of his high collar jacket with a claw-like hand, showing the tattoo on his throat.

“One and only.” he said.

Okay wow, puberty must’ve hit him hard.

“So, we really have Willemina back?” From the back of the room a voice sounded, it was another familiar voice.

“It’s… It’s been a while since I’ve been back here…” Will spoke, a little less quiet than before. “But I’m afraid…”

“Afraid of what?” The person from the back of the room had gotten closer, and was indeed the person Will had expected to be.

“Well… Assuming Kichiro here summoned me, I can’t stay long. Primordial Magic is dangerous, even for you guys.” they sighed “I must be hurting him already, I’m sorry.”

“Willemina,” the blonde girl from before stepped closer to where Will was standing, locking her scarlet eyes with Will’s yellow gaze.

“Noortje, please call me Will, it’s what I’ve grown used to.”

“OK, fine, Will… Will I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” Noortje looked and sounded like she was on the verge of tears, which was really saying something if Will remembered it right. “I shouldn’t have done what I did, I should have helped you. We were like some kind of family, and… you were right about Eldenval.”

Will wasn’t sure how to respond to this, they were getting emotional too but at the same time they were scared of what they were doing to their friends by being this close to them.

“We ran away, just like you did, even if it cost us some… things.” the black-haired woman said.

It was only now that Will noticed she was missing the lower part of her right arm. They silently looked over the group before speaking again. Words didn’t make it out of their mouth though, it was just a noise of sadness.

At least they had inspired their friends, their family, to follow the path they had taken in their past life, with much more luck than Willemina had back then. It made them happy yet sad to see their family like this.

“I’m so… I’m so prou… Proud of you.” they managed to speak, “And… And I wish you all the best of luck, you’ll need it.”

They glanced over to Kichiro, who was visibly hurting from the Primordial magic coursing through him.

“Kichiro, please let me go back. I don’t want to hurt you any longer.”

Their friend nodded before unbinding the summoning spell.

Their vision went black once again, and slowly faded back to the familiar interior of Pheo’s workplace. They were sitting in the exact same place as where they had been before getting summoned.

“Pheo, you there?” they called out.

“Will?” Pheo once again came running for Will and hugged them tightly. “Will, my child, I was so worried about you, I thought you’d be gone forever.”

“Same here,” Will chuckled awkwardly, “but I met with some old friends. I think they wanted me to stay with them but when I explained what Primordial magic does to Outsiders they seemed to understand.”

Pheo nodded and patted Will’s leg.

“You deserve a day or two off, you need to recover.” they said.

“Yeah… Thank you, Pheo.”