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Chapter Text

Louise felt the tears well up in her eyes as the summoning spell exploded in front of her. It was unacceptable, she needed for this to be a success. If it wasn’t then she would be declared a failure and cast out. Behind her she could already hear the steady swelling of laughter among her classmates. She felt her anger at them course through her burning away her tears and crushing any lingering despair she was feeling. She went to turn around and inform her classmates that they just needed to wait for the smoke to clear and then they would see her beautiful, powerful, and wise familiar standing before them, but she stopped short as the sky suddenly grew dark.

Looking up she saw a dark cloud covering what had been only moments before a bright spring day. As gawked at the sight the temperature around her plummeted until it was as cold as a harsh winter night. Her surprise turned to wonder as snow began falling from the clouds and started lightly covering the ground. Behind her she could hear the gasp as the other students noticed the sudden change in the weather, as well as a faint hum from over her shoulder where Professor Colbert stood. As she looked out at the freshly white landscape she noticed that a thick mist was covering the area where the explosion from her summoning had occurred.

Louise took a step closer and the mist cleared and standing in it was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen with hair as white as the snow that fell around her. As the woman looked down and met Louise’s stare she felt her breath catch. The woman’s eyes weren’t human, instead her pupils were slitted like the eyes of a cat. Louise found herself transfixed by the gaze, freezing up as if hoping the one who held it would grow bored with her and move on if she just kept still.

The faint hope was broken when the woman finally spoke, her voice reminding Louise of an arctic breeze, “I am Mab. Why have I been summoned?”

Louise froze. With the woman’s eyes still locked on her own, something in the statement had terrified her. It felt as though the name held meaning beyond any comprehension she could hope to possess. Before Louise could answer she felt a comforting hand on her shoulder, looking up she saw Professor Colbert standing over her. The professor addressed the woman, his voice tense, “Are you an elf?”

The woman answered with a voice that had gone from an arctic breeze to a gust in a blizzard, “No.”

Louise felt the hand on her shoulder relax, she wanted to call out to her teacher. Tell him that the woman in front of them must be something far worse than an elf even if the thought of such a thing seemed impossible, but she once again found herself frozen in the woman’s gaze.

Colbert stepped forward putting himself between Louise and the woman. “You were summoned as part of the Springtime Familiar Ritual, a sacred event where young mages are paired with their partners for life.”

The woman’s face remained impassive as she listened to this but when she spoke her voice was no longer sound but pain. “You summoned Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness, to be the familiar of some child. Have you even prepared proper sacrifice, impossible as it may be that you could even achieve a payment worthy of my servitude. I could bury this world in ice over this insult and not even my sister would deign to assist thee in escaping the consequences of my wrath.”

Louise fell to her knees as the woman spoke. She felt as if the information was being directly etched into her mind with a blade. She felt something damp slide down the sides of her head and brushed her fingers under her ears only to see blood rapidly freezing on her fingers. In the sky the dark clouds swirled, forming a blizzard but leaving herself, Colbert, and the woman standing in the eye of the storm.

As the woman stepped forward Colbert stood up in front of Louise, using his staff to pull himself to his feet and stepping forward to meet her. Lines of fire erupted around him moving in serpentine paths. Louise could hear the water that had once been snow popping as it boiled from the heat of the spell. The lines of flame formed into a single massive snake before lunging at the woman and engulfing her in a massive pillar of flame. It was a display of fire magic far beyond any Louise had ever bore witness to.

As the pillar burned she was vaguely aware of Colbert screaming something at her and the students surrounding them, but she could not bring herself to listen. She glanced behind her and saw indistinct shapes moving in the blizzard, retreating to the buildings. Part of her wanted to join them, but to her core she knew it to be pointless. If she ran, the thing she had summoned would hunt her down and slowly strip the flesh from her bones.

Louise turned back to Colbert just in time to see a spear of ice slam into his hand sending his staff flying. Colbert went to reach into his cloak but ice quickly covered his body pinning him in place, leaving only his head uncovered.

The flames dissipated and Louise saw the woman standing completely unharmed. She noticed that the ground around the monster was still covered in a light snow as if the pillar of flame that had been there moments before had never existed.

The woman looked at the teacher, her expression one of contempt before speaking up. “For the crime of attacking the Queen of Winter you will suffer as no mortal has suffered on this world since time immemorial until I or one bearing my authority deigns to release you.”

The ice encasing Colbert began to twist and grow. Louise watched in silent horror as he was lifted off the ground by the ice, his arms being pulled out wide to his sides and his legs tight together leaving him crucified against the ice

The sound of Colbert’s scream dwarfed even the raging winds. The woman walked forward, in front of her more ice sprang into being creating a small staircase leading up to the professor. The woman ascended the staircase leaning into the man’s ear and whispering something. Colbert turned to Louise an expression of terror on his face but as he opened his mouth to say something the ice expanded from behind his head and enveloped his mouth and ears, forcing his head to face straight and sealing his mouth shut. As the woman descended the staircase she ran her finger across Colbert’s wounded hand before bringing it to her lips and licking off the blood.

Louise wanted to curl up into a ball and cry as the woman approached but her entire body was frozen in fear. The woman stopped as she stood over Louise and spoke, her voice once again sound, “What should I do with you, little magus? To summon the Queen of Winter for something such as this is an insult greater than you could possibly know. A curse across your bloodline seems too lenient. Maybe I should personally go visit your family instead.”

Louise glanced over at Colbert’s crucified form, the pain visible in his eyes. She could see Cattleya taking his place in her mind's eye. Finally, she forced herself to speak, “No, it was my mistake, leave my family out of this.”

“What do you have to offer me that could convince me to waylay my vengeance?”

Louise froze. There was nothing she could offer, she was just a failed student. Her family’s connections were meaningless, and she doubted all the money in the world would matter to this woman. Desperate, she said the only thing that came to mind, “I will serve you forever. I will be your familiar.”

“You wish to reverse the initial bargain? Now that is interesting, I do see some potential in you. It may be a shame to snuff it out over revenge.” The woman paused for a moment. “I will accept this bargain, your eternal service as my familiar in exchange for your family not coming to harm by either my hand or command. Are these terms agreeable?”

Louise paused a moment before nodding.

The woman bent down before grabbing Louise by the cloak and lifting her into the air until they were at eye level. Surprised Louise asked, “What are you doing?”

The woman responded, “It is common practice to seal the bond of a familiar with a kiss.” Then she pulled Louise in and kissed her deeply.

As they touched Louise’s whole world went white with pain. Waves of agony spread throughout her whole body before concentrating at a single point on the right side of her neck. The pain seemed to go on for eternity until she was roughly dropped back into the snow.

Louise layed there a moment before reaching a hand up and touching her neck right where the pain had been concentrated, quickly she pulled her hand away with a gasp as her hand erupted into pain.

“Stand up, familiar. We must return to Arctis Tor, and if you delay me you will suffer the consequences.” Louise rose to her feet looking forward and seeing the woman standing in front of a portal. The woman stepped through and Louise hurriedly approached it. Wishing she could see her home through the blizzard one last time she stepped through.

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Osmond trudged through the blizzard. It had been two weeks since it had suddenly formed, and he still had no idea what had truly occurred on that afternoon. The students had given him reports that Louise de la Valliere had summoned something that had created the storm, but Louise had disappeared since the event with no sign as to where she may have gone and Colbert… Osmond shuddered.

As terrible as all of that was his more immediate concern was the blizzard, he was slowly making his way through. I showed no signs of moving or dissipating despite it being so late into spring, and it had completely cut off the school’s contact with the rest of Tristain. Some of the professors had suggested sending someone out to seek help from the royal family but he had denied them. There was no way the knights were unaware of the giant out of season blizzard that had formed over the countryside and if none had come in to make sure the school housing the scions of many of the most important families on the continent it meant they were unable to penetrate the blizzard. The school had enough food to last another week or two with proper rationing and he did not want to risk the lives of those under his command on the vain hope that they would fare better than the knights.

Osmond continued forward through the blizzard finally reaching his destination, the eye of the storm. It was the clearing where the students summoned their familiars, and despite the blizzard raging all around the wind here was calm and steady with just a light dusting of snow falling from the sky. In the center of the clearing stood a massive ice sculpture of a tree. It was intricately detailed down to the smallest branch and leaf. He would have called it a masterpiece if it wasn’t for the fact that Colbert was stuck to the trunk of it, crucified by frozen barbs through his legs and arms.

Osmond went up to the tree and looked at the man in the eyes. Somehow despite the impossibility of it the man was still alive and awake. As if the ice was preserving him in order to maximize his suffering. Osmond and the other teachers had done everything in their power to try and free him from his prison but so far they had been unable to do so much as snap the smallest twig on the tree.

Every day Osmond came to visit, to apologize to Colbert for what had happened under his watch. And every day nothing changed. Part of Osmond hoped if he was dead or trapped in a perpetual nightmare, that the only one really trapped in this hell was himself.

He closed his eyes and spoke allowed a prayer, “Oh Founder, free him from his suffering.”

A woman’s voice called out in response, “There isn’t anything your Founder could do about this. This was a punishment from the Queen of Winter and not even the White God would deny her right to this, at least not directly.”

Osmond jumped almost a foot at the surprise and turned around hurriedly. In front of him stood a woman in her mid-twenties dressed in clothing of a style he did not recognize but was of obvious quality. She was beautiful, almost impossibly so, with pale skin, delicate features, and long flowing pink hair. She brought to mind a flower in a storm, standing tall and defiant and surviving against all odds. The only mar on her skin was a black snowflake that appeared to be branded on her neck.

Osmond called out, “Who are you? How did you get here?” A moment later he felt a surge of hope. “Are you a knight? We need to arrange for an evacuation of the students.”

The girl shook her head, “I am no Knight.”

Osmond gave her a moment to continue speaking but she did not. “Then who are you? You don’t look like one of the staff and I know you are not a professor here, so you had to have gotten to the school somehow.” Her pink hair caught his eye again, it was the same shade as Louise based on his recollection. He felt a pit of worry form in his stomach. “Are you one of Louise de la Valliere’s sisters?”

“No, I am not a sister of Louise. As for how I got here I took a path far more dangerous than you could know.”

Osmond started to get angry, why wouldn’t this girl tell him who she was. Osmond felt his hand move towards his wand. “Who are you?”

The girl sighed, “Thrice you ask so I shall answer. I am Louise de la Valliere.”

Osmond snarled, “That is impossible, Louise only disappeared two weeks ago. If you are just here to torment me with my failures, then tell a better lie.”

The girl raised an eyebrow and said something under her breath. A moment later a small blue light floated in front of her, the girl whispered something to the light which then vanished for a moment before reappearing next to her ear.

As the light disappeared again the girl spoke, “My Queen seems to have meddled in the flow of time for this world while I was away. Regardless of the time you spent here, it has been more than a decade for me.”

“And why should I believe that?”

The girl smiled, “I suppose there is no reason you should. Still, it matters not, who I was is irrelevant. It is who I am now that matters to you.”

“And why would that matter to me?”

In response the girl walked forward to the tree of ice and reached up and with a single motion snapped a twig from the tree. She then turned back to Osmond with the twig resting on her open hand, “Because I wish to make a deal with you.”

Chapter Text

Osmond looked at the girl claiming to be Louise, stunned. “Are you saying you can free Colbert?”

The girl smiled, “More than that, the tree is the source of this Blizzard. Once I free him it will dissipate.”

Osmond felt a surge of hope, “Then break the spell, we can talk about payment after.”

The girl’s eyes went cold and she closed her fist crushing the twig of ice. “No.”

Osmond shouted at her, “Why not? Every moment we wait he suffers! I know Colbert, if you are truly Louise like you claim and your familiar attacked you then the reason he ended up like this is because he was trying to protect you from your familiar.”

The girl’s voice broke, and she suddenly sounded much younger than she had moments before, “You think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t spent the last fourteen years wishing I could save him?”

The girl paused for a moment taking a deep breath and spoke again her voice steadier “What I want has little matter in this situation. He attacked the Queen of Air and Darkness. The punishment my Queen decreed for that transgression is for him to suffer as no mortal on this world has suffered until she or one bearing her authority deigns to release him. If I were to just release him on my own authority the punishment would be transferred to me.” The girl’s hand moved towards the brand on her neck, and she stroked it lightly. “And I doubt my Queen would see fit to grant me the mercy of only having it last two weeks.”

“Then why show me you could break the tree if you won’t save him! Are you just here to offer me false hope?”

The girl gave him a hard glare. “I said that I could not release him on my own authority. If I were to release him as part of a deal in order to help me achieve a task my Queen has ordered of me and has given me a measure of her authority to help achieve, then that is a very different story.”

Osmond’s mind whirled and he felt his rage begin to subside. “Would that really matter? You would still be undoing a punishment set by your Queen. Would she not still be angry with you?”

The girl sniffed, “My Queen is a lady of her word and I mean that precisely and absolutely. When she said one who wields your authority may end the punishment, she meant that as an absolute law. There is no spirit to her words, only the words themselves.”

He felt somewhat confused by the situation she described but if she could really destroy the tree and end the blizzard if she was to be believed, if he made a deal with her then he had no choice. “Fine, what is it you need?”

“I will require a place to stay as I complete the task my Queen set before me and two other favors from you to be specified later.”

Osmond paused, “I can give you a faculty room at the school or a place at my own estates, but can you give me an idea of what favors you would require of me? I will not take action that will bring my students to harm.”

“I will not ask a favor of you that would have you harm those under your protection, or those to whom you owe your loyalty. And I will honor the responsibilities of a guest and help protect your hearth and home while I stay.”

Osmond hesitated. He didn’t know what her task was, he didn’t know if he could trust her, he didn’t even truly know who she was or how she got here. Even with the limitations this deal could cost him greatly.

The girl spoke, “Do you know why my Queen froze his mouth shut?”

Osmond looked at her, confused by her sudden question.

“She did so that he would not be able to beg you to end his suffering. So that you would not relieve him of his punishment.” A haunted expression crossed the girl’s face. “He is suffering in ways you do not understand right now. My Queen once saw it fit to trap me in this spell for a month. The pain of the ice and the crucifixion are the minor parts of the suffering, the worst of it is the nightmares. You cannot sleep while on the tree and your mind begins to attack itself, dreams begin to mix with reality, and they work to tear your mind asunder. While on the tree you wish for death with every fiber of your being.”

Osmond felt like throwing up. What was Colbert going through, what nightmares was he seeing. “If that is the case, even if you free him will he truly survive, or will he be a broken man.”

The girl looked at Colbert, “I could put his mind back together, I know the magic to be able to do so.”

Osmond scowled, “What are you telling me that you would require another deal from me to fix him after you save him?”

The girl turned back to Osmond, “No. I am… limited. But I still have my Free Will for now. Colbert attacked winter to try and save me, I can save him.” Tears began to well in the girl’s eyes and her voice cracked. “Please let me save him.”

Osmond paused only a moment longer, “You have a deal.”

As the words left his mouth, he felt the temperature begin to plummet despite it already being freezing outside. Mist began swirling next to the girl as if guided by a wind he could not feel. The mist continued to coalesce until it formed a tight column as tall as the girl that he could not see into. The girl thrust her hand into the column, and it suddenly dispersed sliding to the ground and spreading across the snow-covered earth. In the girl's hand was a staff of pitch-black ice covered in runes he did not recognize all faintly glowing with a blue light. As he watched the veins in her hand which clutched the staff began to glow with the same blue light as the runes. The blue veins rapidly spread up her arm disappearing up her sleeve.

“What is that? Where did it come from?”

The girl glanced at him, her eyes now faintly glowing, “It is my focus, and my leash. Now be quiet, this is not a simple spell.”

The girl raised the staff and stepped forward placing the tip of it on the trunk of the tree. She began to chant in a language he did not understand and the world somehow found new depths cold to plunge into. He felt as if his own energy was being sucked into the staff. He felt the bone deep exhaustion that had been built up over the last two weeks and all the years that preceded them. He wanted to just lay down and let the cold take him as it would inevitably take everything else. He forced down the feeling with the discipline honed over his long years.

He looked up at the tree and saw faint cracks forming in the ice spreading from where the tip of the girl’s staff touched the trunk of the tree. Around them the winds of the blizzard began to howl louder and stronger, lightning began to strike down from the sky and the thunder from it sounded as if it was a quickening heartbeat. The girl continued chanting unperturbed, her voice growing louder as if she intended to shout the storm down. Then she suddenly stopped chanting and pulled her staff away from the tree.

For a moment the world went absolutely still. He could see snowflakes suspended in the air as if gravity had leased its hold on them. In the storm he could see a bolt of lightning locked in place as it formed a connection between the heavens and the earth.

The moment ended and the tree shattered to pieces freeing its prisoner and dropping him to the ground. Osmond rushed forward to the prone body of Colbert. He gasped with relief when he saw the man’s chest slowly rise and fall, his eyes were closed and his face was peaceful for the first time Osmond had seen in the last two weeks. He turned towards the girl to ask her to help him move Colbert to the school’s infirmary but stopped when he saw her collapsed on the ground herself. He went over to her, she was asleep and her staff had disappeared as suddenly as it had manifested.

He looked around, the Blizzard was still present but it was noticeably calmer. He wouldn’t be able to carry the two of them through the snow himself but he could penetrate the weaker storm without interference. He pulled out his wand and spoke, sending the words along the wind to his secretary’s ears, ordering her to send healers and a couple of fire mages to the clearing.

He looked back down at the girl lying on a bed of snow. He did not know if she was truly Louise de la Valliere as she claimed but she had spoken true about her ability to save Colbert. Regardless of what favors she could ask of him he would not regret his choice.

Chapter Text

Louise took a deep breath as she sat up on the bed she found herself laying on. She still felt a bone deep exhaustion from her spell. Her collapsing after breaking the curse was disappointing, if unsurprising. Even with how suited void magic was to curse breaking, a curse placed by the Queen of Winter was not something easily banished. She would not have been able to manage it without the Staff of True Ice.

The thought made her shudder. She spoke aloud, “I am free.” Louise let out a long breath, she could still speak falsehoods. The curse she had accepted when she took up that staff had yet to fully consume her. She did not know how much time freeing Professor Colbert had cost her, but it did not matter. If breaking that curse had cost her life she would have died with a smile on her lips, progressing her curse was a small cost all things considered.

Thinking of Colbert she needed to find him before he awoke, she would not let the man who tried to save her suffer a moment longer than was necessary. She could hardly believe that she would have the chance to help restore him, when Mab had sent her here she had planned to manipulate someone into having her break the curse on Colbert as part of a deal. But she had assumed that he would have been up on that tree for almost fifteen years, once he was down she had thought the only mercy she would have left to offer him was death.

But in the timeframe of this world it had only been two weeks since she had left. Intellectually she knew that fact should terrify her, Mab had not spent the resources necessary to stretch time here without a purpose. The mission she had been given was far more important, and thus more dangerous, than she had assumed. Still she could not bring herself to care, this was an opportunity beyond her wildest dreams, she allowed herself to feel a rare moment of gratitude for her queen as she stood from the bed.

A young woman’s voice rang out. “My lady, please lay back down. The healers said that you should get a full night’s sleep before getting to your feet after collapsing in that storm. You might hurt yourself if you were to collapse again.”

Louise chided herself, it had been careless to not examine her surroundings for potential dangers upon waking, if this had been Bluebeard’s castle… An involuntary shudder ran through her. She forced it down with difficulty, Bluebeard would never touch her again, she had made sure of that.

She quickly scanned the environment with her eyes, taking care not to make any sudden movements that might give away her surprise at the voice. She was in a small but well furnished room. Most of it was taken up by the bed she had been laying in, in the corner to the left of the door was a stool and a table. Sitting on the stool was a young woman dressed as a maid, she looked startled and was quickly stashing away a book she had been reading. 

Louise glanced down, her shoes and cloak were removed but otherwise she was still dressed as she had been when she had arrived in this world. She looked back up at the servant, “Where is Professor Colbert?” 

“He is resting in the room next door.” 

Louise nodded at the words, her eyes catching a rack on the other side of the bed holding her cloak, her shoes resting at its base. “Send word to the headmaster that I will be finishing up with Colbert as we discussed earlier, and that I must speak with him at his earliest opportunity.”

“Of course, my lady. But please get back to bed, my instructions are-”

Louised reached out a hand and summoned a gust of wind pulling her cloak off its resting place and into her waiting hand, the temperature of the room dropping noticeably as she did so. The servant started, then dropped into a hurried curtsy and rushed out the door. After taking a moment to put on her shoes Louise followed, before turning and entering the room next door.

The room was identical to the one she just left, save for the man sleeping on the bed. Louise strode forward, ignoring the protestations of the servant sitting in the corner and placed her hand on his forehead and began to examine his mindscape.

Lousie found herself floating above a vast battlefield, fire and death spanning before her as far as she could see. She floated down and looked closer at the charred corpses littering the ground.  The earth around the corpses was a spider web of fractures as if each body had struck the ground like a meteorite. As she looked closer she noticed that it was not only the earth that was cracked, but the air around the corpses. As she examined the cracks she noticed that while some were slowly closing, new ones kept opening to replace them.

Louise nodded, the bodies and the battlefield were old wounds brought to the forefront by the curse, but they were reopening. Honestly it was impressive how whole this place was, especially with what this environment said about the past trauma Colbert must have suffered. But it still was breaking, as things stood she could not guess whether or not his mind would remain whole without assistance. 

Not that she had any intention of leaving such things to chance, she raised a hand and a pack of wolves appeared in front of her before disappearing into the smoke of the battlefield, hunting.

Mental magic is a dangerous art, the slightest error could have devastating side effects that would destroy the mind of the subject. The White Council of Earth banned the practice almost in its entirety, as even attempting it with their magic would damage both the caster and the target of the spell. Of course she was not using their magic, she was using the magic of a High Sidhe of the Winter Court, granted to her by her curse.

Winter magic is the magic of predators, dangerous but not in the same way as the magic of mortals. Her wolves would not damage Colbert’s mind as they hunted their prey, predators could be vicious but they did not destroy their own hunting grounds. To do such as that was the madness of Man, not of Winter.

As she waited, the battlefield she was standing on disappeared, driven deeper into Colbert's mind as the wolves found their target and drove it towards the front of his mind. She found herself within the walls of the school a storm of ice and fire raging around her. She glanced down at the corpses laying at her feet acrid smoke rising off them. 

After a moment the smoke rising from the corpses seemed to stream back into them and they rose to their feet. The charred skin vanished and she began to see faces, some she recognized and some she did not.

The grounds of the school seemed to stretch into the infinite, pulling the newly reformed people away and causing the walls to vanish into the distance. Finally the wolves reappeared having hunted the memory she wanted and driven it to isolation. In front of Louise stood three figures.

The first was a monstrous creature, its hands, hair, and eyes were all blades of ice set into a body of living shadow, above its head floated a crown of shadow covered in gems of ice. As Louise examined the figure she considered how her Queen would react to this depiction of herself. She would likely be pleased, it cut a terrifying but oddly regal figure.

Louise turned her attention to the second figure. It was a depiction of herself from before her time in Arctis Tor. The figure was wearing a collar of ice, attached to a leash of shadow being held by the representation of Mab. Her ankles and wrists were bound in manacles of flame, and her head was turned towards the third figure even as she followed the first, her eyes appearing dead. Louise felt a spike of pain as she looked at the depiction, it seemed accurate carrying all the imperfections of humanity that had been slowly stripped from her by her curse. 

She turned away from it and looked towards the third figure. This one was the frozen corpse of Colbert. His hand extended, reaching for her own figure yet unable to reach. The only movement in the entire scene were bloody tears flowing down his cheeks.

Louise looked at the scene frozen in front of her. Part of her, a large part if she was being honest, wanted to destroy this scene and forge a new one in its place where Colbert was knocked senseless after having driven off Mab and saving her. Allow him to live out the fantasy she had held for so long. It would not be difficult, she would need to rewrite the minds of those who saw him crucified to that tree, but she had no care for them so that was no cost. But she would not risk it, in turning him into the hero from her dreams she might shatter him.

With a flex of her will the scene disappeared into a glacier of black ice, which then disappeared from her sight, having been sent into the deepest recesses of the professor’s mind. She once again found herself in the middle of the school, the storm having been replaced with a mild snowfall and the flames having almost entirely disappeared. Around her the students were milling about. 

After a moment she found what she was searching for, the cracks in reality that had been forming. She examined them, noting that the rate at which they were disappearing had not changed, but now new ones were not replacing those that vanished. With a satisfied nod Louise extracted herself from Colbert’s mind. 

Osmond watched as the woman who claimed to be Louise de la Valliere stood over Jean’s bed, her hand resting on his forehead. When they had spoken under that Brimir-damned tree, her claim that she would be able to use magic to repair Jean’s mind had convinced him to agree to her deal but now that he saw her just standing over him with her eyes shut and no outward sign of magic he wondered if he had been deceived.

While water mages could heal the body he knew of no magic that allowed one to heal the mind. He shook his head, trying to free himself from the suspicion. He had watched her break the curse, the magic she had used had behaved in ways he had not even known was possible while she had done so.

Beside him stood Charlotte, the school’s head healer. She was a grandmotherly looking woman in her sixties, though the impression was currently spoiled by her vexed expression and the fact that she was muttering curses under her breath. She had wanted to forcibly stop Louise when Osmond had explained what she had said she was going to do, stating that misapplied healing magic could interfere with Jean’s recovery. He had been able to convince her not to do anything rash, though he believed the only reason he had been able to do so was the fact that there was no outward sign of magic from whatever it was Louise was doing. If she had been using a basin of healing water he probably would have been forced to bodily stop the healer if he wanted to prevent her from interfering.

He felt a pulse of frigid air and then Louise opened her eyes and pulled her hand away from Jean’s head. She stepped away from the bed and Charlotte rushed forward to examine Jean. Louise glanced at her before refocusing her attention on Osmond and spoke, “I have sealed his memories of the last two weeks. When he wakes he will be unable to recall what has happened since the day of the Summoning Ritual, but his mind will still be fragile. The curse drew upon his past traumas, and from what I glimpsed they were significant.”

Osmond winced, wondering what Louise now knew. He had helped Jean hide his past as the Flame Snake, he would need to ensure she did not speak of it carelessly. Still that was hardly what was most important right now, “Will he be able to recover?”

A faint smile appeared on Louise’s face. “Absolutely. His will is strong, even with the memories of the curse actively tearing new holes in his psyche he was piecing his mind back together through sheer will. In fact his will is strong enough that I chose to use a seal that will slowly thaw, releasing the memories back to him slowly as his mind grows stable enough to deal with them.”

Osmond shuddered, “Why allow the memories to return? Wouldn’t it be better to permanently seal them?”

Louise shook her head, “If I thought he could not deal with the memories I would, but the damage the curse did to his mind would still be there regardless of whether I permanently removed the memories or not. Without him being able to recall the source that trauma would be more difficult for him to recover from in the long run. By allowing them to come back slowly his recovery will be more stable in the long run.”

Osmond nodded slowly. He wasn’t sure he agreed but she obviously had more experience with mind magic than himself, especially given that he had thought it to be mythical earlier this morning.

Charlotte stepped away from Jean, seemingly satisfied that his health had not been negatively impacted from Louise’s intrusion. She glared at Louise, “Headmaster why are you listening to this prattle? I wouldn’t be surprised if Jean awakens without his memories of the event, it is a somewhat common reaction to severe trauma like he just went through, but magic cannot seal memories. There is no physical sign she did anything to Jean, she did not even pull out a focus for Brimir’s sake! I do not know what game this girl is playing but she is trying to con you.”

Louise turned to look at the healer with a bored expression, but Osmond felt a chill run down his spine as he saw her eyes. He could not understand what had changed about them, but her gaze was now distinctly inhuman. She spoke, her voice as cold as the blizzard she had dispelled only hours before. “Do not assume that what is possible is defined by your ignorant perspective, child. I have seen sights that would leave you weeping blood as your mind shattered from the horror of it.” 

Charlotte slowly backed away from Louise, one hand forming a holy symbol while the other grasped for her wand, “E-elf!”

Louise's bored expression morphed into a predatory smile. The temperature in the room plummeted and there was a creaking sound as the water in the healing basin at the foot of the bed froze solid. Osmond felt panic rise in his gut, he did not understand Louise's magic but he remembered that moment of frozen time from when she had unmade the curse. She was far beyond a square mage like himself, let alone a triangle mage like a triangle mage like Charlotte. If he did not defuse this situation immediately this would be a disaster. Desperately he searched his memories of his interactions with the woman, desperately looking for anything that might help

“Louise, You are here as my guest! Please do not harm my staff.” The words were the only thing that came to mind. Louise seemed oddly concerned about deals and exact wording, and she said she would behave as a guest as part of the deal he made with her, responsibilities that she had said included defending his home. Whatever moral system she followed he had to believe that her killing his staff while his guest would be a violation. He felt his knees weaken as she turned to face him, but did his absolute best to maintain a stern expression.

As she met his eyes Osmond had to stop himself from sagging in relief. Her eyes were once again those of a human and she had a contrite expression plastered across her face. The room warmed noticeably as she bowed her head to him in apology then turned back to Charlotte and spoke, her voice kind “Be calm, good healer, I am no elf and I will cause you no harm while I am treated as a guest at this school. As for my words, I apologize. I spoke before thinking. I would blame my exhaustion but making excuses for foolishness still leaves one a fool.”

Charlotte glanced at Osmond and he desperately tried to indicate that she should accept without speaking. After a moment she turned back to Louise, “Thank you for your apology. This has been a stressful couple of weeks for us all.”

Louise turned to him, “Before I can retire we must speak in private.”

“Go out and ask a maid to escort you to my office, I will be with you momentarily, I must discuss something with Charlotte first.” Louise nodded at his words and glided out of the room.

As Osmond heard the door click shut behind him he turned to the healer. She spoke before he could, keeping her voice hushed in case Louise was listening from outside the door. “Headmaster, who was that? And what did she mean she is a guest at this school?”

“I don’t know, though I will try to learn when we speak after this. But she is currently a guest here, she has some business in Tristain and I offered to allow her to stay here while she attends to it as payment for her banishing that cursed storm.” Osmond purposefully did not mention he owed her two additional favors as payment.

Charlotte turned to the door, “She is dangerous, Osmond, and even if she is telling the truth about not being an elf, the magic she demonstrated is not of Brimir. It must be heretical. With the storm gone the knights should be here shortly. Just tell them about her and let the crown or the church deal with her.”

“No! She claims to be here on orders from her Queen. If we were to betray her after the deal I made, it may have consequences for all of Tristain.” Not to mention if her claims about the identity of her queen were true, doing so may leave him envious of Jean’s time on that tree. “At least allow me to speak with her before doing anything rash. I will tell you what I learn and we can choose how to deal with her after.”

Charlotte paused a second before agreeing. Osmond trusted the healer to keep her word, at least for as long as she thought he was not recklessly endangering the students. He started walking back to his office, he had promised himself he would not regret his choice when he chose to make a deal with that woman. He would have to see if he could live up to that.

Chapter Text

“Headmaster!” Osmond startled as Longueville quickly approached him. Her normally pristine appearance had been decayed by stress over the last two weeks. Her hair was tied back loosely with a few free strands falling over her face rather than the tight bun she normally kept it in, and there were dark bags under her eyes.

“Sir, a great white bear arrived at the western gate, obviously someone’s familiar. It was carrying this.” His secretary held out a letter sealed with the royal sigil. Osmond took it and gestured for Longueville to follow as he continued to walk towards his office. Seeing that she did he opened the letter and quickly read through it.

“The crown is preparing to send a contingent of Griffin Knights to the school, led by their Captain. They will assist us as they are able, but their primary mission will be to reestablish contact with the surrounding villages and provide aid to them. They will use the school as their base of operations while they do so. We will need to prepare the stables for their Griffins and what rooms we can for the Knights. Contact Professor Ravier, he will be in charge of coordinating our Earth mages in case we need to quickly create temporary shelters. What is the status of the familiar that delivered this?”

“Resting. Malan is taking care of it. The storm is weakening noticeably, but the trip through was obviously difficult.” Osmond felt a moment of relief, that meant he had time to figure out what he was going to tell the crown about Louise.

“Have Malan send someone to inform me when it has recovered. I will draft a reply to send back with it. Are the rooms prepared for our new guest?” Longueville nodded sharply. “Good, I will be meeting with our guest momentarily, after which I expect she will want to be shown to her accommodations.”

“Sir.” Longueville hurried away to carry out his instructions.

Osmond continued towards his office, as he did he prepared himself mentally. He needed to figure out who Louise was and how he should handle her going forward. He owed her a debt, not only from the deal he made but because her actions will have saved everyone in the school once the storm had finally dissipated, but she also claimed to owe fealty to the being that had endangered them all in the first place. Not to mention that look in her eye when she confronted Charlotte. Whoever she was, whatever he owed her, she was dangerous. And if he was to ensure the safety of his charges he needed to understand how she was dangerous.

Osmond entered the reception room for his office, inside Louise sat on one of the chairs, her posture perfect and her hands folded on her lap in front of her. She looked every bit a perfectly refined young lady. Osmond bowed his head towards her, “My Lady, if you could come with me to my office we can talk there.”

Louise silently rose and made her way to the door to his office proper, as she did so he turned to the maid who stood in the corner, “Miss-”

“Siesta, sir.”

“Miss Siesta, please wait here. I have set aside rooms in the guest manor for the lady. After my meeting with her please escort her there and see to any needs she may have.” The maid curtseyed and Osmond entered his office, Louise following behind.

After they entered Osmond pulled out his wand and placed a barrier of wind in front of his door and windows, he then turned back to his guest, “Those will prevent eavesdropping.”

Louise responded with an amused smile, but before she could speak Osmond continued with a firm voice, “Now tell me, who are you actually?”

“I do not like repeating myself, headmaster. I am Louise de la Valliere.”

“You saved Jean and likely this whole school so I owe you a debt, but please, do not lie to me.”

Louise glared and Osmond felt himself wilt under it, “The only person I speak lies to is myself.”

The odd response startled him, but he persevered with his question, “Look, I am willing to accept that you aged at least a decade in two weeks, the magic you demonstrated when you dispelled that curse is at a level that I find myself questioning if the things I thought were impossible actually were. But you also claim to owe fealty to the thing that cursed Jean in the first place, and that look in your eyes when you were angry at Charlotte earlier…,” Osmond felt himself shudder, “I’m not sure that you are entirely human. If you are Louise de la Valliere, as you say, what happened to you?”

The woman’s face softened, “I suppose that question is fair. After my Queen finished with Professor Colbert she turned her attention to me. I offered to become her Familiar in exchange for her sparing my family. So now I serve her, as I will until the day of my death, and, knowing her, possibly beyond even that.”

She took a deep breath then continued, “As for my humanity, do you remember the staff I used to dispel that curse?” Osmond nodded, it was a difficult thing to forget given that just looking at it had made him want to give into death. “That is the Staff of True Ice. It amplifies my power, but it also contains the Mantle of the Yuki-onna. When I chose to take up the staff in exchange for power I also accepted the Mantle into myself, and it is slowly eating away at my humanity.”

Osmond stared at Louise in horror. “Why would you do that?”

Louise’s expression darkened momentarily, “There was someone I wanted to suffer, and I needed power to make that a reality.”

Osmond felt a chill run down his spine at her words. The reason she now served the monster that attacked her made sense to him, and he had known people who had thrown away their humanity in search of revenge so that wasn’t too surprising. He had just not known it was possible to literally throw away your humanity before, that sounded insane. “You not being entirely human, will that pose a risk to the students if you were to stay here rather than at my estates.”

Louise laughed softly, “While I am your guest it is my humanity that may pose a threat to your students, rather than my lack thereof.”

“What does that even mean?”

“The less human I become the more I am bound to my word and the Old Laws. If my humanity was completely gone then it would be physically impossible for me to purposefully harm anyone here unless I could do so in such a way that it would not be a breach of etiquette, such as in a duel. As I am now doing so would leave me ill for a time, but I could still choose to do so if sufficiently motivated.”

Osmond dropped into his chair and put his head in his hands, her explanation was insane. After a moment of contemplation, he decided to just accept it. He had always known the knowledge of magic they had inherited from Brimir was incomplete, he had just not realized exactly how lacking it had been until now.

He looked back up at Louise “Okay, I’ll accept that you are who you say, but sadly that makes my situation more complicated rather than less. I have no idea how to report any of this to the crown in a way that doesn’t make me come off as insane or result in the church ordering our arrest for heresy.”

Louise nodded, “That brings us to what I wished to discuss with you. I do not want my family to discover my fate.”

“I thought you said that you don’t lie.”

Louise smiled softly, “Lying to someone and deceiving them are not the same thing.”

“Isn’t that just semantics?”

Louise giggled, “You will find that few things are of greater import than semantics while dealing with the Fae.”

Osmond sighed, “Then what should I tell the crown?”

“That I broke the curse, avoid any details about me and call me Yuki. I can say with honesty that I am Yuki-onna due to the Mantle, and I can deal with their questions of how I got here and did such a thing myself.”

That was easy enough. There was nothing good that could come from claiming she was Louise anyway. “I will do as you ask. If I may have your leave, we have received a missive from the crown and I need to draft a reply. I also need to make sure the school is prepared to receive the Griffon Knights.”

“You do not have it.” Osmond looked up questioningly, “We need to discuss what to do about my disappearance. It would be inconvenient if you were to be removed as headmaster as a consequence of it.”

Osmond hadn’t considered that, he had spent the last two weeks dealing with matters of life and death so he hadn’t really had time to consider how this all might impact his career. “What can we do about it?”

Louise smiled coldly then backed up towards the door while she started chanting quietly. Osmond listened, the chant sounded like the spell to summon a familiar. Before he could ask what she was doing she stopped and a circle of green light appeared in the middle of his room, out of which tumbled a boy who looked like he could be no older than five. The circle vanished as the boy stood up, his legs unsteady.

The boy quickly scanned the room, eyes wide with fear stopping on him. Osmond stared back in stunned silence. The boy glanced at his feet for a moment then his head jerked back up towards Osmond, the fear that had been plain on his face moments ago had vanished in favor of anger.

The boy spoke in an accent reminiscent of something he had heard while in Albion. “Oi! Fucker! Where do you get off summoning me? And not even using a bloody circle to protect yourself! I am going to shove my hand so far up your arse it is going to come out the other side and then I am going to tear out your bloody throat!”

Osmond looked on in horror as the boy stepped towards him, his right arm growing noticeably longer as he did so. Then Louise spoke, “He did not summon you.”

The boy stiffened to a stop as his eyes widened and his arm returned to normal. His breaths came out short and quick as he started to shiver noticeably. He slowly turned around and then gave a stiff bow, “You calling in your marker, Lady Valliere?”

Osmond looked up from the boy who now had his back to him and at Louise, he felt himself start to shiver as well. All of her warmth and humanity had vanished from her eyes. He had no question that right now he was not looking at Louise de la Valliere but at the Yuki-onna.

“I am.”

The boy straightened, “Very good, my lady. What favor are you asking of me?”

“You will be imitating me from before I came into my Queen’s service.”

The boy seemed to relax at her words, “I am sorry my lady. I need hair from when you were that age in order to do so, and they can’t be more than a few weeks old.”

There was a sudden chill in the air and the window behind Osmond blew open. He whirled to look and saw a small winged woman fly in carrying a hairbrush over her shoulder like she was lifting the trunk of a tree. The woman flew to Louise who took the brush and tossed it to the boy, who caught it stiffly. “The hairs on that should meet your requirements.”

“I see.” There was a pause while the boy took a deep breath. Then he spoke again, his voice filled with obviously false confidence, “I cannot accept this. Pretending to be you sounds like a good way for a bloke to find an early grave.”

Louise nodded, “Our deal does allow you to refuse any favor you find unreasonable. Then I will contact the Winter Knight, he owes me a favor and will escort you back to Earth.”

“Oh you bloody bitch!” Louise raised an eyebrow and the boy’s voice quieted. “You know Dresden will turn me into a pile of ashes.”

Louise smiled sweetly “You should have considered that before you killed children in order to steal their families.”

The boy paused for a moment longer then looked up towards the ceiling. After a moment his jaw stretched open several times wider than should have been possible. He raised the hair brush above the gaping maw and dropped it inside. A moment later his body began to shift and stretch, growing into the form of a young woman with pink hair. The clothes remained the ones the thing had been wearing upon its arrival, stretched and torn into rags.

Louise gestured and the rags were replaced by a blouse and skirt that fit properly. The newly formed girl curtseyed, “I am most grateful, my lady.”

Louise ignored the words, walking in a circle around her younger self inspecting her before nodding in approval. “Those will turn back to rags at noon tomorrow, I would suggest getting a change of clothes before then.”

Finally Osmond found it in himself to speak again after what he had just seen. He pointed to the girl, “What is that thing? And if it kills kids like you said, why would I let it into my school.”

“That is a Doppelganger. They are shapeshifters who kill people to take over their lives and feed on the love and affection they receive. They are completely harmless, unless they are hunting for a new family.”

The Doppelganger turned to face him as well, “Which I will not be doing until Lady Valliere releases me from my favor.”

“Now I must retire soon. I will leave it to the two of you to figure out a story as to how she survived the blizzard. Sliver you supervise them.” The small winged woman saluted towards Louise as she walked towards the door.

Before opening it to leave Louise stopped and turned to look at her younger form once again. As she did so the temperature in the office plummeted. “If you harm my family I will ensure you spend the next thousand years wishing for the fate I rescued you from.”

She then opened the door and stepped out of the office leaving Osmond alone with the shape shifting monster. It turned to him, “So, did you make a deal with her as well?”

Osmond nodded stiffly.

“Well at least I am not the only one here who is fucked.”