Page 14 of Lucent Academy: Trinity Awakens
Someone in the crowd snickered. I heard Seraphina make a disgusted sound somewhere to my left. But the circle didn't seem to care about the quality of the speech, because the symbols were already blazing brighter, the air above the altar shimmering like heat haze over summer cobblestones, and a moment later a figure stepped through from somewhere else entirely.
She was beautiful, there was no denying that, with curves that seemed designed to fulfill every aspect of the boy's request and a face that promised pleasures I was too innocent to fully imagine.Her skin was a deep red, her eyes golden and slitted like a cat's, and small horns curled elegantly from her forehead. A succubus, I realized, remembering the illustrations in the books I had read after my awakening.
"Hello, master," she purred, and her voice was like honey and sin combined. "I heard your call and found it... acceptable. I am yours, if you'll have me."
The boy looked like he might faint from joy. The bond formed with a flash of light that connected them briefly before fading into invisibility, and staff members gestured for the new pair to move aside, joining the other students at the edge of the circle. His succubus clung to his arm, purring contentedly, and he looked like he had no idea what to do with his hands. The crowd murmured, assessing, and I heard someone nearby mutter "steel rank" with a tone that suggested this was neither impressive nor disappointing.
"A steel-rank succubus for asking for something busty and cute," Amber whispered. "Could have been worse, I suppose."
"Could have been better," I whispered back. "He didn't ask for anything meaningful. Just physical attributes."
"And he got exactly what he asked for. There's a lesson in that, I think."
The summoning continued. Student after student entered the circle, spoke their piece, and received their mate, and I watched each one with growing fascination. The speeches varied wildly in quality and content: some were eloquent and heartfelt, others were nervous and stammering, and a few were so brief that I wondered if the speaker had forgotten what they wanted to say. The mates that appeared were equally varied, from the expected beastkin and kobolds to more exotic creatures I had only readabout in books. I saw a silver-rank werewolf emerge for a girl who spoke passionately about loyalty and pack bonds. I saw a gold-rank drake—not a full dragon, but close—answer the call of a noble boy whose speech had been surprisingly humble about his desire to protect those weaker than himself. I saw iron and bronze and steel, silver and gold, a parade of beings from the Pacted Realms who had chosen, for their own inscrutable reasons, to bind themselves to these young humans.
"This is remarkable," the principal murmured at one point, loud enough for those nearby to hear. "The ratio of silver and gold to lower ranks is far higher than usual. The Equinox truly did affect this generation."
Crystalline, perched on a nearby railing in a position that should have been impossible, nodded enthusiastically. "Told you they were interesting! Just wait until we get to the really fun ones."
I wondered what she meant by "fun ones." I was fairly certain I didn't want to find out.
Seraphina's name was called about halfway through, and she strode toward the circle with the confidence of someone who had never doubted herself for a moment in her entire life. Her golden hair caught the light as she moved, and I had to admit, grudgingly, that she looked every inch the noble she claimed to be. She picked up the dagger with practiced grace, cut her palm without flinching, and began to speak.
It was a speech, that much was clear. Not a simple expression of hope or desire, but a prepared oration that had clearly been rehearsed many times. She spoke of passion and fire, of hearts that burned with ambition, of spirits that rose from the ashes of defeat to claim victory. She invoked poetry and legend, referenced ancient heroes and mythical beasts, and built towarda crescendo that declared her intention to bond with nothing less than a phoenix, a creature of flame and rebirth who would match her own blazing soul. It was, objectively speaking, a very good speech, eloquent and powerful and delivered with perfect timing and emphasis. The crowd seemed impressed, murmuring appreciatively as her words rolled over them.
The circle, however, was less convinced.
When the light faded and a figure emerged from the shimmering air, it was not a phoenix. It was not even close to a phoenix. It was an imp, small and red and grinning with an expression of manic delight, dressed inexplicably in a butler's uniform complete with white gloves and a perfectly pressed collar. He stood perhaps three feet tall, with oversized ears and a pointed tail, and when he saw Seraphina his grin somehow widened even further.
"Mistress!" he cried, dropping to his knees with theatrical enthusiasm. "At last I have found you! The moment I heard your magnificent speech, I knew—I knew!—that you were the one I had been waiting for all these centuries. Please, mistress, tell me I am unworthy. Tell me I am beneath you. Step on me, I beg of you!"
The courtyard went absolutely silent. Seraphina's face had gone from confident to confused to horrified in the space of about two seconds, and her mouth opened and closed several times without producing any sound. The imp continued to grovel at her feet, professing his undying devotion and begging to be insulted, and I watched as the reality of her situation slowly dawned on her.
"T-this is a mistake," she finally managed, her voice strangled. "I want to redo the summoning. This creature is clearly defective. I asked for a phoenix, not... not this!"
"The summoning cannot be redone," the principal said, and though his voice was carefully neutral, I thought I detected a hint of something that might have been satisfaction. "The bond has formed. This is your mate, Lady Ashworth."
"No! Get away from me, you filthy—"
"Oh, yes, mistress!" the imp moaned ecstatically. "Call me filthy! Tell me I'm worthless! I live to serve your displeasure!"
The crowd had begun to murmur, a mixture of shock and schadenfreude that I suspected would haunt Seraphina for the rest of her time at the Academy. She looked around wildly, as if searching for someone to save her from this nightmare, and for just a moment her eyes met mine. I expected to see anger there, or hatred, or blame. Instead, I saw something that looked almost like despair.
The principal made a small gesture, and a gust of wind swept through the courtyard, lifting both Seraphina and her new mate off their feet and carrying them gently but firmly toward the edge of the circle where those who'd already bound their mates stood. Her protests faded into the distance, along with the imp's continued declarations of devotion, and the summoning resumed as though nothing unusual had happened.
Amber squeezed my arm. "Iron rank," she whispered. "The lowest in the entire group. After all that talk about phoenixes and not settling for anything less..."
"She asked for what she thought she wanted," I said quietly. "Not what she actually needed. The summoning saw through her."
"Do you think that's true? That it can tell the difference?"
I thought about the speeches I had heard, the mates that had appeared, the pattern that was slowly becoming clear to me. "I think it gives you what you deserve. Not what you ask for, but what's actually in your heart. Seraphina asked for fire and passion, but what she really wanted was someone to worship her, to tell her she was special, to feed her ego." I paused, watching the next student enter the circle. "She got exactly that. Just not in the form she expected."
"Remind me to be very, very honest when my turn comes."
"You were going to be honest anyway."
"Yes, but now I'm going to be aggressively honest. Painfully honest. So honest it hurts."
