Chapter Text
Sora sat with Hayner out in the grass, half in the shade from a nearby tree. They were studying, their actual work done for once. The academy tried to appeal to all avenue’s a witch could take. The building itself was extensive. There were classrooms and libraries galore, even some wings that seem to be constantly under construction. Training rooms and laboratories for all kinds of witchcraft were available but often had a waiting list. Outside was the same. Behind the green houses were woods and all manner of trees and plants. There were streams and ponds and paths connecting each one. Each element was accessible, though some were a little more chaperoned than others.
The dorms were just as elaborate, but the school was focused on turning out the best group of witches every year. There were the witch dorms, the familiar dorms, and the partnered dorms. While they were encouraged to wait before they bonded, many did choose to have the same familiar throughout their school career. Choosing to room with their familiar was supposed to give them domestic experience.
As it was, Sora and Hayner were both still in the witch dorms.
“I can’t make sense of this one.” Hayner sighed, dropping his magical theory book and pointing to the topic. Shifting magical protective barriers to a portable spell circle. The books always over complicated matters. “The book says to use graphite because silver is too strong but wouldn’t you want a strong barrier and circle?”
Sora snorted, he’d thought the same thing. “No idea but it sounds a little too flimsy to me.” The books taught the basics, they would alter the spells to suit their needs. Learning to do that could be dangerous. “If you’re going to take the time to make a barrier, make it. Don’t make a cheap spell circle. I don’t care if it’s portable.” Mishaps came from rushing.
“Totally. Not going to help on the exam though.”
“Right.” Sora said, doing what he always did in these situations. He pulled out a notebook Squall had given him filled with notes and comments and cheats for when the textbooks said something stupid. It didn’t always have the answer but it did often enough to be useful.
“Lets see.” He flipped through the index Squall had made for him before finding the pages on barriers and spell circles. He skimmed until he found the right spot. “Graphite is stupid.” he read. How very like his brother. “But it works in a pinch. It depends on the barrier you’re trying to make. If you are trying to ward off threat or evil, go for silver. The overkill is worth it. If you are merely trying to ward off other spells, use diamonds. They absorb magic best. Uncut if available.” He paused and both hummed their acknowledgement. “If you are just trying to make a portable spell circle and need a good heat conductor to meld your spells and or materials, use iron or copper.”
Hayner was already scribbling that now, nodding furiously. “See, that’s all i wanted. A reason why silver would or wouldn’t work. Your brother should be a teacher here. He actually knows what he’s talking about.”
Sora snickered. “He’d never do it, but at least i don’t have to worry about him as much since Cloud came to stay.”
“Right, the wolf.” Hayner laughed, dropping his pen. He’d loved hearing Sora tell him about that. After over a decade of being a practicing witch, Squall had finally found a familiar he liked. That he connected to. “Are they bonded yet?”
“Not yet.” Sora said, mildly distracted by a girl walking by with a bunny familiar in her arms. A silver bunny… He shook the thought away. Stop looking... “I think Cloud really went through some shit on the streets and Squall’s giving him all the time in the world to adjust. Just a matter of time.”
Hayner nodded, flipping his book shut. “Well good for him. Everyone here sure is pushy about shoving familiars at us. The bonding is supposed to be serious. You can’t just decide overnight.”
“Yeah,” Sora sighed, thinking how terribly unfair it all was. Familiars were treated like a status symbol for so many and he hated it. He could see why his brother boycotted the system in school.
The relationship was supposed to be beneficial. A witch needed a familiar to soak up their excess magic or it would overflow inside them and effect them poorly. Primarily it caused focus fevers. A witch would be so focused on one task that nothing else would sway them. Not even eating or sleeping.
Eventually they would become so exhausted that they would either pass out, or a mistake would be made in their spell work leading to awful accidents.
Beyond being a conduit for magic, the familiar also acted as an assistant of sorts. It was an important role.
Familiars had it far worse. Without the renewal of magic being introduced to their systems they often became ill. It would start with simple fatigue and would then deteriorate quickly into geostigma. A terrible illness that caused painful black sores to grow all over their body’s and eventually eat them from the inside out.
“You’re brother’s a good guy.” Hayner commented after a while. “We could use that around here. Someone else sticking up for familiars.”
Witches tended to adore their familiars, but not every witch cared about familiars as a whole. Non-magic people were worse. They treated familiars like they were pets. Less them people. Second class citizens. Not people.
Squall had refused a familiar in school because he was strong, and therefore, needed a strong familiar. Familiars could have gotten hurt trying to absorb his magic and Squall had refused to hurt them. It had been years since he’d graduated and he was still a legend. It had been the start of his fame.
“Yeah. I know. The rumors are going to be nasty when they finally do find out about Cloud. Saying he finally caved and got himself a familiar.” Sora’s smile grew. “Until they actually see Cloud and pee their pants. You should see how fast he can drop into his animal form, it’s nuts.”
Hayner snickered. “There’s another thing i’d love to see. People gotta figure out that familiar’s aren’t here for our convenience. Did you hear that Lea has two familiars? I heard something went haywire. Dunno what.”
“Yeah.” Sora snorted. He knew Lea enough to know he was serious about them. Too many teachers had told him that bonding with two familiars was impossible. He’d proved them wrong, but not without consequences. “Dalmatians, aren’t they?”
“I think so. It’s what i love to see, you know? Breaking the normal chains of society. Two familiars.” It wasn’t just two familiars to work with, but a bond with two. He cared about them both so much that he wouldn’t be separated from them. It should have been impossible but…
Sora had already met a witch that had bonded with two familiars. He really needed to go visit Naminé again soon. She’d been settling in above Squall’s shop for some time now. Her and her two cobra familiars.
They’d been friends for a few weeks now and he’d have liked to see her more. When he found out she’d needed a place to stay well, he had options why not share them? Squall hadn’t minded.
He wasn’t quite sure of her age but he wished she was at the academy too. It would have been nice to have another friend. Half the students thought he was beyond weird and the other half thought he must be a snob because his brother was a famous witch.
People liked to say he was trying to be his brother by refusing to take a familiar partner. Honestly… it wasn’t like he was the only one taking his time.
“At least we know he must really love them.” Hayner muttered and it took Sora a few seconds to realize he was still talking about Lea.
Hayner was an idealist and a romantic. He was waiting for his perfect match, a treasure. Sora thought it was sweet and Hayner idolized Squall for his stance on not harming familiars for his own gain.
It was a terrible shame that more witches, more people in general, didn’t think as highly of familiars.
“Squall says it’ll happen when it happens. I guess that was always hard to swallow but look how long he waited and it paid off.” Sora mused.
“Like a fairy tale.” Hayner muttered, resting his arms on his knees.
A small smile twitched at Sora’s lips. “I think your fairy tale is starting off a little rough.”
“What?” Hayner's face slid into a scowl, “Shut up.”
Sora laughed, “So you’re still being stalked?”
“Shut up, Sora. He’s an asshole.” Hayner said, swallowing hard. The topic always got him worked up.
The bond was mutual, or it was supposed to be. Many described it as a magnetic pull towards their partner and after seeing Squall and Cloud, Sora was inclined to believe it. No matter the situation, it was rare for it to be the familiar to pick their witch without rhyme or reason.
There was a familiar around the campus, a year or two older than them. A bad apple with a knack for getting into fights and pissing off anyone he came across. He was all aggression and bad attitude and he had his sights set on Hayner.
Something had evidently happened because Hayner was quick to call him a prick and avoid the subject. It was interesting given Hayner’s overall affection towards familiars.
“I think you’re protesting a little too much.” Sora snickered. “I’m not saying he’s not an asshole, just that you need to stop hiding from him. If you want him to stop, tell him.”
Hayner tsked, “Seifer does whatever he wants and doesn’t listen to anyone.”
Sora smiled faintly. Hayner certainly wasn’t wrong, but he never seemed to catch the way Seifer stared at him. The longing and the irritation like he was aware he constantly put his foot in his mouth.
“That's true, but so do you.”
Hayner snorted. “Not as much i wish i did.” He tore at the grass under him in frustration.
Sora kicked at Hayner’s ankle with his foot, trying to think of something that would distract him. “Want to go down to the grove? Can snag a couple things for class tuesday?” Squall had it practically beaten into his head that ingredients needed to be fresh.
“Yeah.” Hayner nodded. “Okay.”
They packed their books away for now but they hardly had a chance to stand up before a voice cracked across the quad. “Sora Leonhart!”
Sora almost winced, turning back to look at one of his teachers. He could tell by her tone that right now she was Professor Trepe and not Quistis, his brother's friend.
“Yes?” he asked, his tone drenched in suspicions. He hadn’t done anything lately… He smiled at the crow on her shoulder. “Hi Paine.” He got half a noise from her in response.
Quistis had a paper in her hand while she approached and this didn’t look like a conversation he could get out of.
“What is this about?” she waved it in front of him. “Why is your last witchcraft performance evaluation form half blank?”
Sora blinked. “Oh, because you gave me the partner form. I don’t have a partner.”
“You don’t…” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’s a formality Sora. You can still fill out the form with the temporary familiars you use.”
“But then all the questions would be different.” Sora said slowly. “How do i fill it out like that?”
“You fudge it.” Hayner said. “That’s how i did mine. Just kinda combined all the answers.”
Quistis heaved a heavy sigh. “You know you could both just take a single familiar for the semester.”
“Nah. The rotation’s fine.” Sora said. There were those who kept the same partner most of their school career and those who swapped around. A witch still needed a familiar, and a familiar still needed a witch.
Sora didn’t want to commit but that didn’t mean he wanted a familiar to suffer uselessly. Some witches like him cycled through familiars. Always changing and moving to the next one. Some would keep the same familiar for a week, a month, an entire term.
Sora had trouble doing it. It just didn’t feel right to him. Somewhere was a familiar for him. A familiar that needed him like he needed them. Maybe he was being dramatic, maybe…
“You don’t need to be your brother, Sora.” She said, her voice almost too soft like she knew she was treading towards a sensitive topic.
“I’m not trying to be.”
Quistis nodded once. “But you look up to him. He’s your role model, but you more than anyone know how rough he had it sometimes. Being without a familiar was dangerous for someone as powerful as him.” She paused. “I’m not saying i disagree with his reasoning, but he had it hard for a long time. I don’t want that for you and i’m sure he doesn’t either.”
Sora shrugged. “I’m not actively looking to burn myself out either but i can’t help it if it doesn't feel right.”
Quistis sighed again but Sora cut her off before she could keep pressing the topic.
“I’ll turn it in again. I’ll fill out the whole thing, promise. You don’t have to call Squall either.” Sometimes it sucked when one of your teachers was one of your brother's best friends.
“Alright Sora.” Quistis agreed. “I’m sure you’re thinking hard enough about this as is.”
“Right.” Sora muttered. It was only something he thought about all the time. It wasn’t like he was anxious about it or anything...
Hayner elbowed him lightly and the two of them took off across the quad, thankfully leaving their teacher behind. He was also nice enough not to drag the same conversation on.
“So anyway, your brother got copies of that notebook he made you?” Hayner asked, making Sora snort. Partial distraction achieved.
“No but maybe i could find a duplication spell or something.” Sora said, wondering if there was an example of one laying around.
Hayner grinned, “You could sell it and make money. We’d learn more from that than the text books.”
“I do believe that.” Sora laughed. He’d been at the academy a long time and had forgotten as much as he’d learned over the years. When Squall was still a student himself Sora came along too since there was nowhere else for him to go.
Squall had always been a rule breaker.
They were halfway to the grove when Hayner got all stiff. His posture shifted to something more uncomfortable and he got quiet. Sora didn’t have to guess why.
“Your stalker nearby?”
“Shut up.”
Feeling a familiar's eyes on you was intimating, and Sora rather thought it meant more than Hayner was willing to admit. Some people clicked, whether they were ready to admit it or not.
“Sora…” Hayner started, sounding frustrated. “I’m sorry, would you mind if i bailed? I think i wanna head back to my room for a little while. Get a nap in.”
Avoid a lynx.
“Yeah, it’s fine.”
Hayne smiled, equal parts relieved and irritated. He was running like prey and he hated it, but he didn’t know how else to respond to a forward familiar.
“I’ll grab extras for you.” Sora continued.
“You’re the best.” Hayner grinned, hitching his bag over his shoulder and taking off back down the path that would lead him back to the witch dorms.
Sora sighed and not for the first time wished he had more friends. It was hard finding people that believed in the same things he did. Frankly the academy didn’t feel as elite as when his brother attended only a few years prior. He learned more from Squall than he ever did in school. He really missed the days when Yen Sid was the head master.
It was just one more thing that left him feeling unprepared. He had another year at the very least before he could test out and graduate but what then? He didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. He had no focus. No goal.
Maybe Squall would hire him to work in the shop. He was a Leonhart too and Squall hired all his friends, why not his brother? He didn’t know if that’s what he wanted or not but it would be a start.
When Sora got to the grove he pulled a few small ziplocks out of his bag while mushroom hunting. He grabbed some anemone and windflowers too, each of them going in their own individual baggie. He pulled up a chunk of moss and even came across a prickly ash tree to steal a few branches. Not for the first time he was glad that students before him continued to plant things so the woods and groves continued to have a huge stock of ingredients.
Whether they would have grown there in nature or not was irrelevant. He remembered walking the same grove with his brother and watching Squall plant as much as he harvested. It was one more reason he wanted to live up to Squall’s growing legacy.
Had this not been a spur of the moment trip, Sora would have been replanting too.
His brother had always been a genius. He did anything he wanted to. His friends had all picked paths that made sense for them.
Rinoa and Aerith were healers. Irvine had recently made detective in the police-witch branch. Yuffie was a treasure and ingredients hunter. They all figured out what they wanted to do in school and Sora was just at a loss.
Fuck, even Naminé had two jobs now. She helped the police on occasion with her seer abilities and was now giving Selphie a hand in Squall’s shop where she sold the cobra venom she gathered from her familiars.
Where did that leave him?
Sora sighed, kicking sticks away as he walked. His counselor said every student felt like this, but it sure didn’t seem that way to him.
He wandered the grove, finding comfort in nature he didn’t get in the classroom. Hell, even Squall had his chickens to get him out of the house once a day. Sometimes being outside just felt better, closer to the elements, closer to magic. It was better than filling that form out for Quistis again.
He was starting to think about heading back himself when a smell caught his nose. An awful smell he was getting used to in his own house. Geostigma. A sickly smell that came along with an ill familiar that had been deprived of magic circulating in their veins.
“Hello?” Sora called. Yes, he was standoffish about forming a partnership with a familiar but there was no way he’d let one suffer either. Watching his brother take care of Cloud had shown him just how bad it could get.
“Hello…” Sora called looking around. It didn’t help that familiars could come in all shapes and sizes. Tiger or field mouse… It could have been real easy or real hard to pin down a familiar.
All he could do at the moment was follow his nose, and all that told him was that this stigma wasn’t as bad as Cloud’s had been.
He searched anyway, looking for something that didn’t belong. It was harder when outside… animals were kind of a staple outside. It was however a spark of shiny color that finally caught his eye. A shock of silver curled up among all the browns and greens that had Sora’s heart rate kicking up.
Silver.
He had never asked, but sometimes Naminé made predictions without meaning to. The day they spoke about familiars she looked at him blankly and told him one thing. “They’ll have silver fur.”
Since then every time he saw a silver colored familiar he got his hopes up just a little bit. He tried not to but…
Right now, it was a silver colored fox, curled up in a ball, it’s tail looking like it was dipped in ink, black and oozing with geostigma.
“Oh, poor thing.” Sora muttered, rushing forward and only stopping when the fox lifted his head to growl, it’s teeth bared in a snarl.
Right, encroaching a familiar’s space was bad. Talk to them. They’re people too even if they sometimes got stuck in their animal head space.
Sora sat slowly, sliding his bag off his shoulder. “Hey, i won’t touch you if you don’t want me too. Just want to offer a little zap of magic to help you feel better.”
His fur was matted and dirty, his claws sunk into the dirt underneath him. His eyes were wild with alarm but Sora didn’t need that to know this was a feral.
Feral familiars had been stuck in their animal forms too long and usually were wild rather than being raised in a witch home. It was a sad fact that most didn’t make it to adulthood. This fox was small, all skin and bones. Though if the amount of skin was anything to go off of, he’d be quite the size once full grown.
“Hungry?” Sora offered, digging through his backpack and pulling out a mini box of cornflakes. He didn’t wait for a response he wouldn’t get anyway. The fox was just growling and shifting its weight from one side to the other painfully. Maybe there were sores on its feet too.
Sora tore the cardboard of the box to make a little bowl and dumped the dried flakes into it. It wasn’t the best food, the familiar probably needed meat but it was all Sora had on him.
“Can you understand me right now?” Sora asked and the growls grew. He couldn’t exactly tell if it was confirmation or just a response to Sora’s speaking but he went for it anyway. “I’m gonna send this towards you, kay?”
It was lucky he could levitate things, Squall had shown him when he was younger. Light objects were easier by far and the little cardboard bowl floated from his hands to the fox, just within reach.
He got more hissing and those high noises fox could make but after only a few minutes of Sora sitting there quietly had the fox diving in to eat. Starvation had won out. Sora didn’t say a word for a few minutes, not wanting to interrupt him and make him stop.
“I’m sorry you’re hurting. Sorry you don’t feel good. I know you don’t know me or anything but i could help a little bit.” He held out his hand but didn’t do more than that. Familiars had to decide for themselves whether or not they trusted a witch.
“I’ve had a lot of practice recently.” He started babbling and watched the way the familiar’s ears twitched, listening. “See my brother recently found a wolf. He was really sick. Like really, really sick but he’s almost all better now.”
Most witches his age had only ever had much contact with familiar’s at the academy. Ones who got magic every day regardless of whether or not they had a partner. They were often in their human shape for classes though that wasn’t a requirement. A wild familiar in need was beyond most of them. It really should have been a course all on it’s own.
Not that Sora was an expert…
The fox leaned forward a little bit and Sora finally got a look at it’s back legs. They looked painful.
“I’m gonna reach towards you, okay?” Sora said. “Just make a noise if i get too close.”
He reached closer, moving to his knees and stretched his arm out as far as he could from where he was. He was inches away and left it up to the fox to fill the gap. After a minute the fox pressed his snout to Sora’s fingers and he didn’t waste any time pushing a pulse of magic into him.
He made sure to be careful, remembering clearly not to use as much magic as if the fox were Cloud. For whatever reason, Cloud could handle a lot more magic that most familiars couldn't.
The fox jerked back, shaking his head but it seemed to be just what he needed to perk him up a little.
“Feel better?” Sora asked, hand still outstretched. He could give the fox one more tap before they would need a break.
The fox made another noise, this one less threatening. More inquisitive maybe. With all the strength the fox seemed to have, they lifted themself up and limped painfully towards Sora, sniffing his hands for more food before laying down and resting it’s head against Sora’s leg.
Outside Sora remained still and calm, letting the fox get comfortable. Inside he was a mess, his heart beat going a mile a minute.
A silver familiar.