It was a black dome.

That was all Louise could say about it, really, shutting out the confused mutterings of her fellow students as she analyzed it. A simple patch of space that seemed completely empty, black as the deepest night. Not shiny, or glossy black, or like velvet, but simply... darkness. Greedily drawing in the sunshine around it and devouring it, turning everything within its reach into an anti-light. She passed a hand tentatively through its boundary.

No noticeable effect. Her arm simply swung through the patch of air the same as it would any other patch of air, with no sense that it might have been stopped, or even slowed, by anything. It was simply as though a dome of darkness had risen up to form a shadow in three dimensions.

It was all well and good, Louise supposed, and she was a little happy to have at least manages to summon SOMETHING, nebulous lump of intangible night that it might be, but she couldn't help but wonder how exactly she was supposed to contract with something like this, without any substance to its shape and form. Then it lifted up off the ground, floating slightly, and it clicked in a burst of intuitive comprehension. The dome was not a dome, but an orb, and there was something inside of it. Creating it, like a protective shell against the light.. probably nocturnal. She'd never heard of such a beast, but it wasn't impossible, though certainly neither common, for the summoning to bring a sort of creature that had never been seen before. She felt a brief swell of pride as she realized she might be the first in over a century to be added to that short list of names. It floated a little further up and to the side, and she realized belatedly that if she delayed too long, it might simply drift off.

"Don't go!" She called, before she could stop herself, or consider that she may have just spooked it with the noise. She was surprised, however, as it stopped in place.

"Don't go?" It called back, in an almost querying tone, speaking, for whatever reason, with the tongue of a girl perhaps a few years her junior.

It drifted slightly, in a different direction, and Louise realized that the... that whatever it was, it was either a cunning parroter of sounds, or bore enough intelligence of its own to comprehend speech. It might need to be bargained with.

"I have summoned you here." She declared simply, uncertain as to how this would go, what she might offer that would entice it.

"You have summoned me... here? Is that so..." The thing in the orb mused, floating gently in place, and confirming itself to be the latter of Louise's suspicions. There was a sudden soft crackling noise, and a smell... not unlike singed hair, in fact, and the speaker continued in a different vein.

"... I am hungry." It said, simply. "Will you fill my belly?"

Louise felt a sudden surge of relief that things would prove to be simpler than she'd expected, despite the being's unusual intelligence.

"Contract with me." She offered. "Become my familiar, and you will be fed."

"Is that so~" The voice came again, this time seeming interested, rather than simply curious. "Fa-mi-liar..." It spoke, seeming to taste the word, before the orb suddenly jerked, and it spoke another word in mild distaste, one she was not familiar with. "Shikigami. You would be the master?"

"And your belly would be filled." Louise countered, deliberately playing to the whatever-it-was' sole apparent interest. The orb bobbed slowly up and down in the air, as it seemed to consider the offer... then there was another soft crackle, accompanied by the same burnt-hair smell, followed quickly by a cheery "Ok~"

"Hold still." Louise requested, the negotiation having come to a mutually satisfying conclusion. "I will contract with you, and then I will give you food."

A soft humming of what was probably assent came from the orb and, after steeling herself and taking a deep breath, Louise stepped inside of it.

It was darker than she had ever imagined darkness could bee. Even in the deepest, blackest of nights, there would always be some trace, some mote of light, even if merely the twinkling of stars through clouds, but this... this was different. Pure. Empty. A nothingness that she could almost swear yawned infinitely in every direction, had she not known the orb had dimensions. Or did it. A sudden, primal paranoia filled her. What if she was wrong? What if there were no boundaries, and this... nothingness, empty void, simply continued on in every direction forever, once a fool had stumbled within? The sudden dread overwhelmed and drowned out the sudden, hindbrain correlation to her mockingly granted title of 'Zero', and her skin crawled. She barely kept herself from stumbling to her knees... it was as though she had been struck blind and would never again see.

She stepped forward, awkwardly, footing suddenly uncertain now that she could see neither her feet nor the ground they stood upon, and grasped carefully forward with outstretched hands. Fingers met soft flesh, and hair, and a warm cavern of a mouth eagerly accepted her thumb, a wet tongue running up to slide around the digit before she tugged her limb backwards sharply, mind so preoccupied with -face that's a face, it was a head a human head, why would it have that- that she missed the following sharp click of teeth against teeth entirely. She breathed softly, but heavily, for a moment before reaching out again with both hands and setting them on the sides of the head.

"Pentagon of the five elemental powers." She chanted. "Bless this..." She thought quickly and left off the traditional 'humble' portion for worry of causing offense. "... being, and make it my familiar."

As she finished the chant, she leaned in, placing a brief kiss against the familiar's brow.

It screamed.

After several minutes of panic, during which she had stumbled out of the rapidly thrashing orb, the familiar floated sulkily in place. She could tell its mood because she had insisted that it lower the intensity of its orb of shadow, to the point where she could actually make out the being within. Not clearly, of course, there was only so begrudgingly far the familiar had been willing to go, even at the insistence of its new master, and she had decided not to push it, but enough that she could make out a vague form, if not a few features. It was in the shape of a simple peasant girl. Illusion at best, because it couldn't possibly be human, that creature of darkness, and the lowest part of its feet were floating a half dozen handspans off the ground besides.

"It hurt." The familiar said, grumpiness coloring its tone. "You didn't mention that."

"I had not thought to." Louise replied honestly. "Before you, a summoning would only bring wild, dumb animals, and they would thrash regardless, of fear or confusion. I don't know that anyone was aware the contract caused pain. And it's over now, is it not, and you soon to be fed?"

As she had thought, the blatant redirection brought the familiar out of it's funk. She could almost swear she saw the tiniest pinpricks of red, floating where its eyes should be, as it seemed to look around the clearing.

"... I am hungry." it declared, then after a moment raised an arm, pointing. "I want to eat that. May I?"

Louise's gaze tracked the extended finger to... oh no. To a somewhat portly classmate, suddenly clutching his own familiar, a particularly large rabbit, to his chest with worry.

"No, dear." She said carefully, trying to keep her voice soothing as possible. "That belongs to someone else, you can't eat it. But I'll feed you. Wait patiently, and I'll have a servant bring you all the meat you can eat."

"... fresh? Dripping with life?" The familiar asked, allowing its arm to drop as it turned back to Louise. She swallowed back bile at the thought, inhumanity reinforced.

"... Yes." She said weakly, then continued, hoping she was making her voice sound enticing. "Freshly slaughtered livestock. Just dripping with... blood."

The familiar's head tilted slightly to the side, and this time she could almost see a subtle flash, along with the noise as smell, as a hand seemed to reach up reflexively to something at its head before stopping short of it.

"... A cow?" It asked, seeming uncertain of something.

"Yes." Louise agreed quickly to the demand, thinking it better than letting it run amok and devour other familiars freely, and mind desperately whirling to find out what... ah. "I'll have them lead it in live." She said, coaxingly, though haltingly. "And you can eat it as you please, killing it yourself, if you want."

"... Okay~" The familiar agreed after only a moment, though it seemed a little irritated still. Possibly that it could not pick and choose its own prey, despite that the bounty was greater in Louise's agreement. Perhaps rabbits were a particular preference. Well, she would discover sooner or later.

She had much yet to learn, about her new familiar.