Heir Apparent - a Summoner FanFic

The Tournament Begins

Dorien paused before knocking, contemplating the week he'd been having. There wasn't a day that he hadn't half packed a bag, tried to convince himself that his half made plan was enough, only to unpack, return his armour and arms to their stands and return to pacing.

"You aren't ready to go running off into the jungle." Harold had warned him sternly when he had visited Dorien in the Palace Infirmary. "Without Toralu you are weakened, your training isn't complete, you have no support and you're emotionally unbalanced."

"You could send me with summoners and troops from the royal army."

"Father would never allow it."

"You could convince him to -"

"I don't want to convince him, Dorien. Enough." Dorien had opened his mouth to argue but Harold cut him off before he started. "Look, you only have two weeks until your Tournament. After which you'll need to make your move on Alfric for Hovalli."

"Hovalli has its own army."

"Not my point, Dorien." Harold had looked at his brother then as if he were unhinged. "You need to focus."

I will find you. Dorien thought as he knocked. No matter how long it takes. It was a vow he had repeated more times than he could count. Micca opened the door looking slightly flushed, probably from excitement. He waved Dorien into the room, where Tilly waited, leaning against a wall. Oddly, Lieutenant Lovett was also present, sat in her wheel chair. Dorien sent Tilly a questioning glance.

"No cadet will summon or capture a new demon or use a keyed circle without the consent and present of a superior." Lovett quoted. "You weren't here at the beginning of the year, Your Highness, but I'm sure you know of this rule." She raised an eyebrow at him. Clearly she knew he'd already broken this rule when he summoned Rashik. "Shall we begin, Micca?"

Micca stood between the three of them and unrolled the leather he had taken from the Orc summoner. He opened the leather and began to read. Dorien noticed that the syllables, whilst similar to those of a human scroll, also held lots of sounds he'd not noticed in a summoning before. Lots of 'v's and 'k's.

As Micca read the larger boy's voice grew on confidence and the air felt heavy with his chant. The symbols on the leather began to glow but before a demon appeared Micca stopped reading. Dorien looked at his friend closely. He looked confused. Micca opened his mouth but never got to say what he had planned to. He gasped and dropped the leather, which smoked and sparked before the glow died out completely.

"I read the whole thing." Micca mumbled around his scorched fingers in his mouth. "Why didn't it work?"

"You don't have a high enough fulfilment level to summon this demon." Lovett responded.

"But a Gunni is only fulfilment level of four." Tilly pointed out.

"How do you know this leather summons a Gunni?" The Lieutenant asked.

"That was the demon that the summoner had with him." Micca replied, still sucking in his blistering fingers.

"That doesn't necessarily mean that the Gunni was his only demon, or even that this leather was his." Lovett sighed as if this was obvious. Which I suppose it should have been really. Dorien thought to himself.

"I'm sorry, Micca." He said out loud. "I'll help you capture a new demon in the Ether before the Tournament if you like." Micca took his fingers out of his mouth and narrowed his eyes at Dorien.

"You'd do that for me?"

"Um...well yeah." Dorien suddenly felt self-conscious.

"Then you should have this." He picked up the leather gingerly and held it out to him as if he were passing over a poisonous snake. "It won't replace Toralu but..." he shrugged.