White Flower, Black Feather

Contemplating the Past

Brenna worked for hours on her spells, needing her Helper to interrupt her three different times, until she finally went to sleep. Mostly because a random idea of how to improve the spells came to her mind just as she was falling asleep, and there was a risk of her forgetting the whole thing, so she had to write it down… but…

/////

She was wearing her white, tattered by design, dress. Spinning and singing while enjoying how she looked thanks to a mirror in the… classroom…?

“Ah…?” she liked how her trained voice sounded and she had used her voice a few times before the performance, but Brenna never wore the outfit at school, it was supposed to be a massive surprise, there was no reason to put the plan in danger with… something she wanted to…

The weirdness of the situation made her shook her head, before making sure that no one was looking at her…

“What…?” suddenly realizing that there were no doors out of the room… “Oh, well… I can fly out at least”

It made sense, she had wings after all

So, she moved to the sliding windows and opened one of them, starting to hear a familiar pained voice nearby…

She jumped out of the classroom, with her arms merging quickly with the wings and calmly descending to the ground, before hiding behind a tree… but she couldn't help it, and looked towards the one in pain…

It was one of the twins being helped to walk by the other, his right leg slightly changed angles at his thigh. His broken leg, and the obvious signs of violence they shared, told her that they were fighting someone recently…

“I’m going to murder them…!” the venom in the voice of the bespectacled twin made her shiver, the seething rage on those eyes was quite scary…

“Miri-ow!” the more injured twin winced as they moved, making his twin cuss and fixing the way they were holding each other “We… got them good…” he grinned as they resumed to limp away from the school…

‘Why the teachers didn’t helped them…?’

“Maybe! But that doesn’t means I’m not beating the crap out of those fuckers again!” with her wings folded in front of her chest, Brenna started to remember the day she saw that same scene… “If any of you have problems with me! Then face me you bastards!” and she remembered the people surrounding the twins…

No one offered help, everyone just whispered looking at them, or were moving away to see the ones that got the worst deal in the fight…

The school had some bullies in different classrooms and both twins had taken to stop them at any point they saw them acting up, to the point where big boobs guy patrolling the school, became a common thing. The other twin also helped with that at times… but generally, with less violence in his methods

Brenna could remember that this fight resulted on those bullies getting either, arrested (The oldest ones), or expelled mere days before graduation (They used clubs as weapons), getting their class scores voided and forcing the youngest ones to repeat their year on another school, that Carmen was sure was at least an hour away…

‘Those eyes…’

More importantly, she finally understood the expression of the bespectacled twin: regret masked by anger…

‘Look like Miriam’s…’

But she couldn't do anything else, because she looked down due to feeling liquid on her feathers

“AH!?” seeing blood flowing out of her chest-

/////

She jolted awake, annoyed by the weird dream she had, but by the time she finished eating the fruit, the dream was mostly forgotten and she focused on Sapphire’s page… taking many deep breaths to calm down and to not fumble what she wanted to say…

All she could do at the time was wish that her friends had a good life… and she assumed the twins deserved a good one too… even if she was a bit annoyed at one of them…

‘My name is Brenna. I wish to fully establish a Pact between us’ she was pouring her magic on the circle represented her on the page ‘All I ask is the protection of me and of those I want to protect, but I’m not going to ask for the impossible, or willingly ask you to do something that I know will put you at risk. I offer in exchange, the search for someone that can wield you properly and to… fight… by their side, for as long I’m able to maintain the summoning’

Suddenly her magic was cut off… and she froze with fear while staring at the page, needing a few seconds to notice the changes

‘Ah…’ she knew that the sword had accepted the Pact… ‘Does this means she prioritizes combat, over protecting me…?’ but couldn't help the annoyance she started to feel…

-At least she didn’t rejected it… I’m somewhat surprised that you didn’t placed any limitations to her?-

Those were part of the explanation she got about Summoning’ Pacts…

‘She is already angry, I don’t want her to turn hostile…’ but she didn’t liked the things she could do with those… ‘And I trust that she isn't going to go killing children, or something like… that…’

After a few seconds of silence, and hesitation, she poured more magic to communicate with Sapphire

‘Just to make sure, you want to fight the strong, and those fights not necessarily mean to the death… right?’

The written word “Explain” appeared inside Sapphire’s circle, much to her relief

‘Eh… like sparring? If your wielder finds someone strong that enjoys fighting with them, they might fight multiple times to train themselves, so both can grow stronger… but they need to be alive after each spar…’

“I must be told beforehand, but yes, can do”

Brenna couldn't say anything else before the connection was cut again, not showing any other change…

‘I’ll… keep that in mind…’ she sighed… but shook her head and closed her Grimoire after confirming that Sapphire was still Angry ‘All right… I have no idea how to make her happy…’

-Baby steps! You aren't in a hurry, so, relax! Things will go well!-

Brenna nodded and looked in the general direction Sunny left the previous sunset… she had said something about needing to “Spread her reach” and how she needed her full focus on that, meaning that she wasn't going to be able to use her secondary body to talk directly with her

Sunny made sure that Brenna understood that she was still protecting her inside her range, just unable to talk directly with her…

‘Ugh…’ but she almost preferred to have someone else to talk… ‘Wait… I just thought about this, what is the difference between Sapphire and a nuke…?’

‘Wha…’ she cawed out loud the moment she saw the… answer… ‘What is wrong with you?!’ and how the message morphed into a box full of laughter the more angry she got

She made a lot of noise while lecturing the Trickster for a few minutes…

‘Wasn’t she an object prior to the summoning?! And…!’ eventually reaching the point she wanted to make… ‘Prior…?’ noticing something as she rambled ‘She was magical before getting here…’ Brenna got a “Yes~” as a confirmation ‘Did… did she changed during the summoning?’

‘Hmm… that’s a yes…’ she focused on the memories of her magic during the summoning, on how it gathered… ‘So… the amount of magic during the summoning, it’s not just to… make a Gate somewhere, it’s also a way to improve the being or object summoned… is… is that outcome, intentional, or an accident…? Can I just summon something over an over again to make it strong…?’

‘Not an easy way…? So, if I go to where Sapphire is from, and summon her there, she wouldn't get stronger, because she… what…? She already got that… power-up?’

She didn’t got an answer, other than laughter, making her feel that she nailed it, or at least got close to the answer… but once the topic was over she got nervous…

‘What do I do…?’ she could do anything she wanted to do… but two things were consuming her focus, not letting her relax fully…

-It’s up to you. I can guide you there if you want, but you aren't being forced to do it, and you worked a lot on the Contact spell. I believe it will work!-

Brenna wasn't sure about doing either… even if she couldn't think of a good reason to not do both…

One was meeting an unknown, potentially dangerous, being, or object, to find a way of making her stronger, or opening new alternatives to any problems she might find in the future…

The other was rescuing an unknown number of people, from an unknown number of slavers… while possibly working together with a girl turned snake, that (Unwillingly) had tried to kill her…

‘Ugh… be honest with me, is there a chance of sneaking and rescuing the people trapped there?’

‘Ugh…’

She realized that not everyone was going to be like the woman she released… she had been terrified and ready to follow her to freedom, but any number of them could be… in a similar mental state to how Miriam was that day, just… being held back by the accursed collar…

‘Maybe… ugh… maybe I can use Contact… to find someone that can teach me a spell, that helps with this situation…?’ she asked doubtful ‘A teleportation spell sound useful…’

-I… I don’t know if you can use a spell like that with your current magic reserves…-

‘Then an invisibility… no, nevermind. I forgot the collars…’ she looked around

And flew down to the ground

‘I’ll use up to Contact to ask for a solution… or at the very least, to learn about the cost of a spell that can help…’ she hesitated again, with another question suddenly appearing in her mind ‘Can I level up by killing humans…?’

-No, creatures can level up by doing that, but humans and humanoids can’t do it at all. Your mind classifies you as a human/humanoid, so you (And Miriam) can’t level up by doing that-

She nearly collapsed in relief, taking a deep breath and shaking her body to remove the tension she didn’t realized she had

‘Good… that’s… good…’ she shook her head one more time before dropping the topic

Brenna opened her Grimoire, and started to focus completely on scratching the summoning circle on the ground using her talons, aiming to a size where the figure of a human could stand up in it. She had no idea of how much of her magic per second the spell was going to consume, so, she had decided the day before to save as much magic as possible

Which meant some manual labor from her part

/////

An advantage of being capable of flight, was that she had an easy time looking at the thing from above a branch, meaning that once she was satisfied by what she saw…

‘It… looks fine…’ she couldn't stall it anymore… even with her focusing on the task, doubts were starting to resurface the more complete her work looked ‘Just… just like a concert… just treat this like a concert…’ she landed back on the ground, next to one of the small circles that formed a ring around the bigger one, she touched the only circle of the ring that was connected to the big one with a single line

The seven small circles surrounding the main one, were supposed to be the providers of magic for the summoning. Brenna hoped that, by using the natural magic around her (That she hoped for its existence…), and by giving it a singular connecting point, she could have an easy time canceling the talks if things went poorly, or she called something… unwanted…

The one she was touching was the controlling circle, the other surrounding circles only were supposed to work providing magic when she started the process and remained connected, which in turn meant that none of the circles were supposed to work without her. She also was sure that once she got it started, the drain on her magic would drop removing the worry of having a time limit…

With all the precautions she took, she believed it was impossible for something to remain against her will, but even so: the circle she made, was just capable of working up to Contact, just able of showing a representation of the being on the other side

Brenna had divided her summoning spells into: Search, Contact, Connection, and finally Summon. So, the magic circle was just to talk, mostly because she still remembered how fast her magic was consumed by Sapphire the day before… and the fear of the unknown…

‘Ia Imbue!’ struggling to not overthink anymore, she begun

The circle she touched started to glow and that light quickly spread to the surrounding ones, Brenna still didn’t wanted to activate the inner one, so she didn’t let the magic move there

Getting surprised by a soft hum that came around her, and the light wind that started to move her feathers… a quick glance around didn’t revealed any creature, so she looked back to the middle one. Letting the glow move towards it, while feeling her magic usage lowering until it reached an even rate of use, the addition of the main circle wasn't making it more difficult, so she held to the hope that the ring she touched was working

‘Using my magic as a beacon, and my words as guidance, I call for a being that feels joy at the existence of life and that can communicate with me’

Those words were the best way she could think of calling at a “Good” random number…

‘I wish to ask for guidance…’ the glow of the main circle intensified for a moment, not using more of her magic while that happened ‘And for knowledge. I’m willing to listen at your price, if it doesn’t causes harm to me or to those around me… Search…’

The circle glowed one more time…

And Brenna started to feel…

It came from the main circle: many small spots floating in the space above the drawing that pulled at her attention. One was deathly cold, another felt like touching glass, a different one gave the smell of petrichor, there was something that gave the feeling of an unending void…

But the one that was reacting the most to her magic, was hot and left a spicy aftertaste on her tongue… just as she was about to stop the spell, that heat gave her a feeling of… yearning…

‘Contact’ making her focus on it

Making the glow turn red and raise as it was taking the voluptuous shape of the being she was calling…

“Hahahahaha~!” hearing a bell-like laugh of a gorgeous voice… that she couldn't focus on “My~ what a boring spell you made~” the pressure coming from the being was enormous, she was too powerful for the circle she had made

Causing her to tremble in fear and to the trees around them to bend away from the pressure

“But~ I’ll be nice~♥!” the pressure suddenly lessened, becoming more manageable for her spell, but the figure of the being remained blurry. Brenna only could be certain that she had horns “Because~ it’s nice to see you again~ Brenna~”

‘Ah…?!’ her fear didn’t lessened at all…

The being chuckled and turned around, making the motions of spanking herself

Clank!

“Please~ my ass is worth at least seven stars~” even if the sound that resulted was a metallic one. Brenna was unable to see the attire of her summon due to how blurry she appeared, but she was certain that the powerful being was wearing armor…

But that seeing problem seemed to only be hers…

The horned being turned back towards Brenna and crouched, her voice still full of mirth as she spoke again

“What’s with you and being a bird~? Not happy about doing it once~? You needed to do the ‘Bird becomes human’ again~?”

‘W-what…?’ she was getting overwhelmed by what she was hearing ‘What do you mean…? And how do you know my name?!’ but she tried to push back against her fear

“Hahahahahaha~!!!” causing her to laugh once more “You picked that name again~? That’s adorable~” she laughed again needing some time to recover her breath after she was done “Oh~ that makes accepting to answer this spell worthwhile~” the voice suddenly became somber “Even if… Emma…”

That name made Brenna shiver in an absolute and incomprehensible terror… a feeling that she had no idea of where it was coming from… specially because Carmen’s ex had that name, and she never reacted like that to her…

The being chuckled

“Nice reaction~ your soul remembering us, explains how you managed to call for me” the tone of her voice became serious, but the innate… sexiness… of her voice remained there “But I don’t suggest you to call me again in the future, Emma is still angry at you”

She shivered again, but struggled to push back against her fear…

‘S…! T-tell her I’m sorry…!’

Her conversation partner just waved those words away

“Don't worry about it~ I already made for her, someone less dense than you, she just needs some decades… well, centuries, dating them, before she forgets about you”

‘M-made…?’ she tried to ignore the way she was described, instead focusing on something equally confusing to her

But her question was received with a laugh and a hum

“Don't worry about that either~ this world…” she looked around “This world is too dead for me or my kind…” and the answer froze her again

“Hmm~? Is that so~?” she hummed again “All right, you seems to be a serious one, so I won’t pry on that topic. Besides… I already have a lot of bastard gods that I need to kill, no need to add more to that list…” she was extremely nonchalant while saying something that almost made Brenna faint

“Thanks~!” she pointed at Brenna, making her shiver again “But I’m not here to get encouragement on my ongoing war~ come on Brenna. What do you want to know? Because I really doubt this is about a previous life of yours~”

She really had lost control of the situation happening in front of her… and part of her mind was certain that the demon was loving it…

‘I…’ but she struggled to move on, she had already used a third of her magic ‘I want to know… ugh!’ she cawed in frustration, making the demon laugh again ‘I’m about to go to save a bunch of people from slavers! I need to know a teleportation spell or an invisibility one!’ she had no idea of where her anger came from, but she used it to move forwards

“Oh… my~” she chuckled again “That’s refreshing~ the last time you summoned us, you were ruthless~” getting floored by the demon again “I still remember the many slaughters we caused together~”

Cold

Brenna felt as if a cold knife was shoved deep inside her heart, and tears started to gather on her eyes

“Now, now~ don’t cry~ they deserved it~” the demon pushed a dark gauntleted hand out of the circle, becoming perfectly visible the moment it did so

And she patted Brenna’s head before going back inside the circle, and returning back to a blur

“You can trust me on that~”

Her shock was immense…

“Sadly…” but the demon didn’t stopped to let her recover “I can’t do that. I’m all about killing things, and making~ more demons, if we are talking about spells, then you… are the more skilled of the two, and not even your reincarnations, have changed that”

The demon pointed at her Grimoire floating next to her, making her shiver once more

“What I can do~”

Snap

She snapped her fingers… somehow… and the pages of her book turned to a new one, where the surface of the page became mostly black…

“Is giving you the same Familiar Bonding spell… that you taught me before~” she laughed with mirth again “It has been really useful~ I’ll say… almost as useful as Cursed Immolation~”

The demon stood up and turned around

“Good bye old friend~” she sighed… “Try to not break too many hearts in this life~” before laughing as the glow intensified one more time

CRACK!!!

‘AH!?’ before the ground and the circle got destroyed, causing a gust of wind that pushed Brenna away on to her back, surrounded by the smell of brimstone… and flowers… ‘W-what?!’

She was unharmed, but seeing how her work had been destroyed like that made her feel… conflicted…

‘Ugh… I don’t think… I’m supposed to get angry…?’

-I think it went well… that last action seemed more like a prank to me…-

‘Or… a warning…’ she flew to a branch, where she looked at the broken ground ‘She… could have killed me at any point…’ her drawings were completely destroyed, making her frustrated enough to decide immediately that she wasn't going to Contact on that day again

‘Ah…?’

Brenna’s mind blanked out…

She was the reason a demon managed to kill gods…?

‘T-there… is no…’ she opened her Grimoire on the black page of the new spell ‘Ah…?’

It wasn't a mostly black page. The page contained an absurd amount of densely packaged characters, symbols, and explanations for a lot of things that flew above her head, she lacked the context for most of the things mentioned on the spell…

‘Ah…?’ but… ‘What…? Lowering the consumed mana to one point…? Strengthening the Familiar growth? Induced evolution?!’

CAW?!!!

‘I MADE THIS BEAST?!!!’ she still understood enough…

/////

It took her a while to calm down from what she understood from the spell… in the end, she figured that as she was right now, her past self was incredibly more skilled than her…

‘So, mana is another name for magic when you talk about the “Fuel” of a spell…?’ but her shock at that discovery, just became fuel for her desire to improve ‘All right… with this I can become more efficient’

-By a lot… it’s surprising how easy this spell is to adapt…-

‘Oh~ I can’t wait to add this to my S. L. S.!’ her plans were cut a bit short ‘Ugh…’ she got hungry… ‘Ah… might as well move east as I look for food…’

Still, she didn’t took flight immediately and looked at the spell again…

‘So… I was a woman in my previous life’ that knowledge made her pensive…

‘Hmm…?’ but when she read from who, her last message was… ‘Ah! My bad! I misspoke! My previous life was as a… dude…!’ and she tried to not cause a misunderstanding… ‘S-should I say “In a previous life” instead…?’

-…-

‘What…?!’

‘What is that supposed to mean!?’

/////

Eventually, after flying for a long time, Brenna found some fruits that satiated her hunger while flying east, trying to understand more about her past’s spell, while angry with her Helper and the gods’ silence…

She had the same problems to go to sleep that night, but eventually managed to do it…

Awakening groggy and slightly unsteady, barely managing to eat the daily fruit-

‘AH!?’ when her path crossed with Miriam’s once more…