“Last chance to kneel and give up before I embarrass you Haven.”

Riley stared down his opponent from across the courtyard. She was standing defiantly, nose turned up ever so slightly. Despite his height advantage, she was looking down on him. “It’ll be the last decision you ever make.” he added.

He was projecting an aura of confidence. He exuded aggression and hostility. He even felt dangerous.

But all that was flashing through his head was watching Carenia lose. All he could think of was making eye contact with her. The way her body had contorted to the whims of her Mage. How she took comfort in her arms as unimaginable pain was inflicted on her. How she looked at Alune. Her owner. She didn’t even have her own name anymore, having been renamed “Nia”. Her mind, her identity, her magic. All of that belonged to Alune now, to do with as she pleased.

A shiver ran up his spine, threatening to break his well maintained facade.

Truthfully, Riley was horrified. Both at the prospect of doing something similar to Haven by accident, and of the idea that it could easily have been him. In a different life, he had challenged Carenia, and ended up her familiar. Would she have taken mercy on him?

Haven’s voice pierced his meandering train of thought, “Really?” she chirped, incredulous, “Come and get me then.”

With a scowl, Riley started towards her. He didn’t even need to run to catch Haven. She had no magic she could use against him. No way to safely do anything to him. The matchup didn’t make sense, not when a single successful strike could win him the duel outright.

“You know, I’ve been wondering about why you orchestrated all of this.” Riley shouted across to her, advancing with steady purpose.

“Was it a last minute change of heart? You wanted to be my familiar so desperately that you decided to throw yourself at my feet?” He paused, still making progress towards her. “And this little act you put on, refusing to surrender until I force victory from you?” He looked her straight in the eye, prompting an exhaling chortle and a wry smile from the brunette.

“You tried to run away. You failed to even make it out of school grounds. You challenged me to cover it up. You want me to win, to keep you from the consequences of your actions. You knew you’d lose against Ophelia, so you came crawling back to me.” Riley knew this was the truth. He knew it’s the only way all of this made sense. He was right.

“And for once in your life, you didn’t have a plan. You panicked, and here you are. Relying on me.”

Haven made no attempt to rebuke his claims, she seemed interested in where he was taking this, as Riley closed the gap between them step by step.

“So I’m being serious. Ask me. If you are polite, I’ll consider any request you have. You saw first hand what Alune did to that poor girl, you know if you tell me what you want, I’ll give it to you. You’re already blindly trusting me, what else do you have to lose?” his voice was softer now, not needing to travel the full open courtyard to be heard.

The gap between them was close enough that Riley could effectively use his magic now, but there was still more to be gained. Haven stood her ground, firmly rooted in place.

“Do you want to stay human? I could make you into a cat? If you beg I will even give you an inch or two, nobody else has to know. You could have your own little wardrobe, I’ll even take on mathematics so we can put that brilliant little mind of yours to good use.” still no rise from her. She had nerves of steel if nothing else.

The two were only a few metres apart now. A good stride would put Riley in grappling distance, and he could incinerate her at will now.

“C’mon Haven. Don’t make me do this the hard way.” Riley pleaded. He knew that without her cooperation, he wouldn’t be able to drain her mana faster than she could counterdrain his. Was this part of her plan? Get him all cocky and then pluck victory from the jaws of defeat?

Pathetic.

Riley wasn’t stupid, despite his fiery personality. He knew he would have to use his pyromancy to win without directly draining Haven’s mana. He knew her too well, she couldn’t win.

“Haven. I’m serious. This is it. I’m going to burn you.”

“Go ahead, show the whole class how you’re about to burn the defenceless bottom-ranker. Go on. Do it.” Her cheery smile was unsettling given the content of her words.

“You’re trying to guilt me into giving up?” Riley laughed, “Haven…” he didn’t finish his sentence.

Instead he ignored the dozens of hungry eyes he felt boring into him from the audience. He ignored his classmates. He ignored the onlookers. He ignored Haven.

His stance was flawless. He felt his mana inside him. It was willing, ready, it buzzed with energy within him. It was jumping at the chance to be used by him. His control was more absolute than he’d even know in his entire life.

If Haven wanted to play with fire, she’d get burned.

Eyes trained on his target, he pushed his hand forward. The mana within him barely needed to be guided, it jolted through his arm, forcing itself into his fingertips.

At the very final moment before his mana turned to flame, Riley shut his eyes. Despite everything, he didn’t enjoy the idea of hurting his friend. But he’d given her a chance, and plenty of warnings. She chosen this path, he reminded himself. This was her doing.

Riley braced himself to hear her curdling scream. He mentally prepared to quickly drain her of what little mana she held onto so the ritual would take over and heal her. Oh gosh, what kind of familiar did he actually want? A cat? No, he couldn’t do that to Haven. Perhaps she would want wings or something? She was the “wild and carefree” type. He knew that the study help would be appreciated for his ailing maths skills, so he would keep her smart.

Yeah, Riley would make sure she was happy. Right after he burned her to a cinder. How despicable was he really?

His ears were ringing, and he almost felt sick to his stomach. He knew burning another person was wrong, but what option did he have? The smell of charred flesh was one he had smelled sparingly few times in his life, especially based on the type of magic he used. When he was younger it had mostly been his own singed skin.

The moment must have stretched on for what felt like a minute, but it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. It was time to open his eyes, assess the damage, and get this over with. He hoped his classmates would be understanding of his unfortunate situation.

As Riley opened his eyes, the world began to spin around him. A thin trail of smoke bled from his fingertips into the open air. Haven took her first step for the entire duel. Towards Riley.

“Awwh, having a little performance anxiety?” She goaded, pressing her ombré painted nails into Riley’s still smoking fingertip. “Try again sweetie.” she giggled.

Riley stared at her in disbelief, aghast, before realising that she had touched him directly. He darted away from her, hands frantically checking himself for any untoward mana leakage.

She advanced again.

“Riley.”

He looked up at her in fear. Her smile cut through his tattered ego.

“You really thought that magic was yours?”

“W-What?” Riley stammered out.

“That magic you use, did you think it belonged to you?” her head tilted.

Still backing away, Riley tried to cast another spell. His mana welled up, barrelled down his arm, and fizzled into a small spark at his fingers.

“Sweetie, that’s not going to work.” Her advance hastened. “You seriously thought I didn’t have a plan? Me?”

Stupid, of course she had a plan! This is Haven we’re talking about! Riley’s brain spun at a million miles an hour. What had Haven planned? Why couldn’t he use his magic?

“I can tell those gears are turning, but you’re not getting it fast enough for my liking. Let me tell you a story.” Riley would take any reprieve he got, as he continued to slowly back away. That’s right. Let her monologue and gather yourself. Figure out the trick.

“Once upon a time, there were two sad little apprentices. Neither of them were very good at magic, and so they had resigned themselves to becoming familiars. One day, one of the apprentices, the girl, approached the other apprentice, the boy, and offered to make both of them strong. And she did as she promised, making them both stronger than either could have imagined.”

Riley was going all the way back to ‘pyromancy for beginners’ the basic basics, lighting a small flame in his hand. Despite doing it behind his back it should have been literal child’s play, but he couldn’t keep the damn thing going, even clicking his fingers was barely getting the spell started.

“But the apprentice girl had a price, a price that the other had to pay. He was strong now, but the lady apprentice had strength that he did not know about.” Haven could clearly see how much Riley was struggling to get his fire under control, and it clearly brought a perverse joy to her.

“Do you remember the first time you fucked up your magic, Riley?”

He perked up at that, distracted from his task.

“The first time since I started training you? Last week? You were doing so well, following my every little instruction to the letter. I was so proud of you!”

Her words were sickening.

“It broke my heart a little to interrupt your perfect little spell.”

“Wh- wuh?” she hadn’t interrupted him, the conditions had been perfect. What was she talking about?

“That’s right Riley. I have meta magic. I can’t bring my own mana into the world, but I can still manipulate it. I can drain others of their mana too, remember? And I can feel it, your mana. I can see it inside you.”

These were all facts that Riley knew, Haven had drilled it into him over hours of planning for their respective duels.

“And last week I learned something fun. I can control your mana, too.”

Riley froze in his tracks, no longer backing away from his rival. “What did you say?”

“Your mana. I can control it. Inside you.”

She raised her finger, and Riley felt a sloshing within him. This was wrong. This was supremely wrong. A mage could only control their own mana. Once it left your body, it was relatively fair game, but inside your body? That was your mana.

“Awwwh, what’s wrong? Can’t hold your breakfast?” Haven teased, swirling Riley’s mana inside him. The poor pyromancer felt his knees buckle from under him. He did not have a particularly strong constitution, and having his magical innards turned into a whirlpool did not agree with him.

“But I wasn’t sure. Not after one test. And when I wasn’t paying attention you could still use your mana like normal. I had to understand what I’d found. I holed myself up in Sonia’s room, using her as a test subject. When I was unable to even touch her mana, I tried with rodents, insects, even the school cat.

“Each yielded the same result. I could see, I could feel, but I couldn’t touch. Only your mana let me. You were different.”

Riley rolled around on the floor, finding his bearings and attempting to stand. He was making good progress, until another cruel wave of Haven’s control washed over him. This time he actually was at risk of losing his lunch.

“I guess that makes you lower than an animal, doesn’t it?” She was genuinely asking herself, out loud. The bitch.

“So I did something drastic.” She paused, uneasy with her own admission. Riley deserved to know, and it’s not like he would be able to tell anyone anyway. Haven didn’t mind the respect of her classmates, but she didn’t want any foul rumours, so she closed in on Riley and whispered straight into his ear.

“Last night when you kept waking up?”

The realisation dawned on Riley, and he turned to grab Haven in his fit of lucidity. She twisted his mana into a knot and the resulting pain shot up into his brain. He whimpered on the floor, wordlessly begging for mercy, as Haven continued as though his outburst was nothing more than an involuntary reflex.

“You weren’t imagining those eyes on you. I was there, at the foot of your bed, playing with your mana. You know, it moves around a little when you’re dreaming? I could feel it moving towards your hands at the same time as you stirred in your sleep.”

“You fucking psycho!” Riley managed.

“Hey, there’s no need to be rude.” Haven flicked her hand and Riley convulsed in another round of pain. “I’m not a crazy knife wielding stalker bitch, I’m only looking out for you here.”

“HBBHJGUYEUISFHSFIUSBEJGDF” Riley questioned.

“Yes! This is for your own good. You’ll be much better off with me as your Mage than you would have been with any of our classmates.” she said matter of factly, before proceeding to straddle him.

“And besides. You. Owe. Me. Your magic is mine. You think my tutoring is free? You aren’t even my familiar yet and your magic already belongs to me. All those hours I spent building you up? Giving you those very specific pointers? You really thought that all of it was about efficiency gains?”

Riley tried to sit up, but felt a hand press each of his wrists firmly into the dirt. He looked up into Haven’s eyes, ready to burst into tears. How could things have gotten like this?

Well, Haven had been playing the long game. She was a planner, and this was her plan.

“You’ve been wasting your potential. For a while I wondered if I really could build you up into a mage, but you can cast fundamentals. You aren’t just a pyromancer, you are an elemental mage. Do you understand what that means?”

Once again Riley tried to push her off, but it was in vain. She hadn’t even started the mana drain yet, she was too preoccupied emotionally draining him. He was on the verge of a breakdown. A tiny voice within him wanted it to be over. A part of him wanted her to just drain his mana now and wipe his memory.

“I’ll be able to cast spells. Basically any spell. Do you understand what it’s like to live your entire life knowing that you’re a fuckup from birth, and then be given this gift?”

“Do you understand you’re taking it from me?” Riley spat back.

“Oh, so you have some fight left, huh?” she smirked down at him. “You weren’t using the magic. Not properly. You wouldn’t have managed a single real duel with your crappy form, and you know it. You were always going to be a familiar, it was just a case of who’s familiar you would become.”

It wasn’t true. Riley always won his mock duels with all of his peers. He was competent, he was fast, and he was talented.

“Just a little familiar, pressed into the dirt. Lower than an animal. How badly you need to be shown your place.” she mocked.

He was pinned down in the dirt. None of his spells had worked the entire duel.

“Do you even remember the last spell you cast?” her words cut deep.

The last spell he used? What was it? Oh curses, if he lost now then he would never know what the last spell he ever cast was. He couldn’t lose. He had to try something, anything. The only option he had was-

“PLEASE PLEASE DON’T TAKE MY MAGIC PLEASE HAVEN PLEASE” Fuck! He wasn’t supposed to be begging! What happened to fighting back? Riley was barely holding in his gasping sopping wet tears.

“There we go, it’s okay. You don’t have to worry about that for now. You don’t have to worry about putting your gift to good use. I’ll do that for you. You can rest.” Haven wiped a tear off his cheek, but the begging continued regardless.

“Haven please, please, don’t fucking do this, please Haven.” he was getting more desperate. “Don’t fucking-” he struggled to get an arm free, “Let. Go. Of. Me!”

Haven gritted her teeth and wrestled back control of her prey. “And just as I thought you were learning, I guess there’s only so much I can fix with a few months of traditional training.”

Riley felt the familiar buzzing of Haven’s mana drain start against his wrists. They’d practiced so many times, but this was real. At first a small trickle, it quickly evolved into a flowing river of mana. His futile attempts to stop it had no effect, just like every time they practiced this drill.

Riley felt his vision blur, he knew this was it. It no longer mattered what protests he made. It no longer mattered if he kicked and screamed and cried. The dried snot and tears and matted clumps of dirt in his hair didn’t matter. It didn’t even matter if he begged and pleaded. Haven had him. He was hers.

Riley knew it.

Haven knew it.

And the Ritual knew it.