A Vista of the Void [Worm/Familiar of Zero Xover]

I'm still alive, sorry for being away for so long. Here's the second chapter, better late than never. I was going to include another scene with Vista confronting Louise but I couldn't get it right, so after rewriting that part about a dozen times I finally decided to post what I had and let future me deal with that can of worms in the next chapter.

A Vista of the Void
Part Two​

There is one very important thing that a commoner has to learn when they have to serve nobility directly or has to work near them on a regular basis and that is to recognize the different types of nobles and which is safe to approach and which you have to excuse yourself from their presence as soon as you can.

There are nobles who treat the common people under their supposed care as little more than cattle that has the unusual trait of being able to talk, then there are those who abuse their power to get whatever they want from the less fortunate like that count Mott who according to the rumors has the habit of making one of his female servants 'warm his bed' each night until he tires of her and finds another young woman to be his plaything. Then there is the majority of the nobility who treat their servants as little more than part of the background, as long as you do your work and do not mess up because if you do... well, depending on how bad it is the mistake, if said mistake has caused embarrassment to the noble and the mood of the noble at that moment you could end up out of your job in the best of cases or be made an example of at worst. Then there is the rarest kind of nobles, those who honor their title, treating those under their command as people no matter if they have magic or not.

In Tristain's academy of magic luckily there was none of the first and second kind among the faculty, and while the student body was a mixed bag they did not have any official authority to harass the service. Of course, there were always some idiots that try anyway. Maybe because that's what they did back home, maybe because they think that because they are without the supervision of their parents for the first time they can do whatever they want. Whatever the reason those who do find themselves facing harsh punishments from the administration of the academy. Osmond may be a bit of an old leecher but no one can say that he doesn't hold the students to the standards that all nobility was supposed to have.

One very well regarded member of the faculty was professor Jean Colbert, he might a bit eccentric and his workshop maybe suffer from the occasional explosion and strange smell sometimes, but he always treated the help with the same respect he treats anyone else. It was no wonder that he was very popular among the commoners employed at the academy. So, when he asked the first maid he crossed to go help Louise François LeBlanc De la Valliere to get her new familiar to the student's room and help her tend to it she did it right away even though she had just finished her shift.

On her way to the courtyard where the second year students had participated in the springtime summoning ceremony Siesta of Tarbes, maid of the Tristain's academy of magic, couldn't help but feel a bit of apprehension. She had accepted professor Colbert's request before hearing who she'd be helping. Not that Miss Valliere had been bad in her dealings with the service, maybe a bit distant at worst, but she was known for having a temper and a short fuse. It was true that normally who lighted that fuse and was on the receiving end of that temper were the other students, especially that scandalous red headed germanian. But being near an incensed noble never boded well for any commoner.

Another thing that Siesta found strange was that Miss Valliere needed help to get whatever she got as a familiar to her room. Maybe she got an especially stubborn animal? Did professor Colbert know that she, Siesta, grew up on a farm? Maybe that's why he asked for her help.

Siesta was still trying to think what kind of animal was she going to have to deal with when she entered the courtyard. There tapping her foot impatiently was Miss Valliere, but what really made her pause was the girl laying next to her.

"Did professor Colbert send you, maid?" Asked Louise when she noticed Siesta's presence.

"Yes, Miss Valliere." Answered Siesta making a curtsy.

"Very well, then pick my familiar and follow me." She said pointing at the prone girl. "Oh, and pick up her things too." She added pointing at a strange helmet and a glove next to the unconscious girl.

"Yes, Miss Valliere."

She didn't want to believe it but couldn't deny it either now that Miss Valliere herself confirmed it. She had bound a person as her familiar. And not just a person, from what Siesta could tell the girl would be around twelve or thirteen years old. Wasn't professor Colbert supervising the ritual? If so, why would he allow something like this to happen? How did she end up unconscious anyway?

Siesta hid all her doubts about this situation under a mask of professionalism as she followed Miss Valliere's instructions, gathering the girl's things on the girl's lap and then picking her up bridal style. She couldn't do anything for this girl but be there for her when she wakes up.

As she followed the pinkette to the female half of the dorms Siesta prayed to anyone who would listen that nothing happened on the way to Miss Valliere's room.

"So, Louise the zero. That certainly doesn't look like a dragon or, what was that you said? Oh yes, 'the most impressive familiar ever summoned', really." Both Louise and Siesta froze at the sound of the most famous or infamous, depending on if you ask a male or a female respectively, germanian student at the academy. Kirche Von Zerbst was leaning against the wall next to Louise's door a big red lizard-like creature at her side.

"Zerbst." Louise almost growled the name as she clenched her fists. Meanwhile, Siesta just tried to stay in the background and not attract any attention to herself.

"I was going to ask you how much did you had to pay that little girl to pose as your familiar, but now I'm having my doubts that that was what happened." Said the red-headed germanian putting a finger on her chin and feigning to be thinking deeply.

"Of course it wasn't like that!"

"Oh, was it not? Because the only other explanation would be that you kidnapped that child and used that explosion to make it seem like you summoned her." Said Kirche airly. "So, which one is it?"

"Neither, you were there! You saw how I did the summoning ritual right and she appeared, you myopic dairy cow." Louise spluttered suddenly pointing at the unconscious girl and making Siesta flinch. "I even managed to bind her at my first try!"

"Okay, I believe you." Said the germanian with a sigh surprising both Louise and Siesta.

"You do?" Asked Louise suspiciously.

"Of course, after all familiars reflect the main traits of their masters. Take my 'Flame' for example." She said proudly, petting the lizard's head. "As a salamander from the fire mountains, he is the perfect embodiment of my fiery passion. So it is perfectly logical that you'd get a commoner child as a familiar, after all she represents zero magic and zero..." She trailed off as she crossed her arms under her considerable chest, pushing it up. "... other attributes. Oh look at the time, I guess I'll see you around, Louise the zero." She finally said walking away with her salamander in tow.

"Zerbst!" Louise almost shouted, red-faced and shaking either from rage or embarrassment. Taking a couple of deep breaths to calm herself and failing miserably Louise opened her door with more force than necessary making it bang against the wall. "What are you waiting for, get her in." She ordered curtly turning her glare on Siesta.

"Yes, my lady." Said Siesta demurely getting into the room after the noble. On one hand she wanted nothing more than find an excuse to get away from the irate noble but on the other she couldn't leave the poor girl at the mercy of the short mage. "Excuse me, my lady. Where should I put her?" She said looking around knowing enough about nobles to assume that letting the girl use Miss Valliere's bed was out of the question.

"Can't you see that I had that corner prepared for my familiar? Of course that was before I knew what she was, but for now it will have to suffice." Answered Louise pointing at a corner of the room where there was a small pile of hay, some collars and leashes in various sizes had been prepared for whatever animal she summoned. "Put her there and make sure she is silent, I have an important letter to write to my family and I don't want to be disturbed."

"My apologies, Miss Valliere. I'll do as you say." Answered Siesta managing to hide her dismay. She put the girl where she was told making sure that she was as comfortable as Siesta could make her.

Some time later there was a knock on the door. When Siesta answered it she found one of the water mages that the academy hired as healers who had come to check the unconscious girl at professor Colbert's behest. At this even Miss Valliere stopped what she was doing.

The diagnosis, like Colbert's spell had detected, was that the worst injury that the girl was suffering right now was a bruise on her lower back, but also had some minor bruises on her arms and legs and various scars that if it weren't for her age he'd say that came from some rather serious fighting. But it was the cause of her unconsciousness what really puzzled the healer. She had all the symptoms of having suffered from a high fever recently but he couldn't find a trace of any illness that could have caused it. In the end he treated the bruises easily and instructed to let her rest and she would wake up by herself.

It took most of the day for the girl to wake up after all. Miss Valliere got a message from professor Colbert saying that he had to leave for the capital on some urgent business and that he'd be back tonight to talk to her about her familiar.

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The first thing that Vista noticed was that she had a damp cloth on her forehead. She was laying down on something, it wasn't really comfortable but it wasn't as rough as the floor either. Someone seemed to have rolled a cloth for her to use as a pillow. She tried to remember how could have gotten here, wherever here could be. She could recall the Merchants' ambush and the fight, then the strange green oval floating in mid-air feeling so wrong to her power, distracting her long enough to be hit from behind and launched right into it. Then pain, so much pain that she thought that her head was going to explode before passing out. She wasn't sure if it was real or a pain induced hallucination but she could also remember feeling a different kind of pain, like her whole body was on fire before the pain concentrated on her left hand. And while she was going through that she thought she saw a balding older man and a pink haired girl standing over her.

Physically she felt as good as new but her thoughts felt a bit sluggish. Trying to get as much information about her surroundings as she could she used her power discretely to find that there were only two people in the room with her. One sitting on the floor right next to her and another sitting at a table on the other side of the room.

For a moment she thought that she might have been captured by a new cape working for the Merchants, but she quickly discarded that idea. Kidnapping a Ward would bring the triumvirate down on their heads so fast that their drug-addled brains wouldn't know what hit them. No, Skidmark may be a bit brain damaged from so many overdoses but not even him was that stupid, far from it really, that's why the law has been having problems getting rid of his gang. And she wasn't restrained anyway, that was a sign that the situation might not be as hostile as she initially thought. That is if her supposed captors weren't underestimating her, but if they were she would make them regret that error. Vista stopped that train of thought and chided herself, she was jumping to conclusions. Better wait until she had more intel on the situation.

Knowing that she was only delaying the inevitable Vista opened her eyes to find that the person sitting next to her was a girl maybe in her late teens or early twenties wearing an old-fashioned maid uniform with a white headdress on top of her shoulder-length black hair. Looking around the room Vista noticed that the walls, ceiling, and even floor were made of sturdy looking stone. The furniture while it looked like it was new was made in an old style. The only illumination in the room at the moment came from the dwindling light coming from a window and a couple of old style oil lamps.

"Oh." The maid exclaimed seeing that she was awake, turned to look in the direction of the other person in the room, another girl sitting at a desk with her back to them, and whispered. "How are you feeling?"

"I've been worse," Vista answered in the same tone, sitting up. "Where am I? How did I get here?" When she brought her hand up to take the cloth from her forehead she realized what her instincts were telling her that was wrong, she was unmasked. "Did you take my helmet off?"

"We are at the Tristain's academy of magic, and I believe that it was Miss Valliere who summoned you, I don't know much about it, I'm just a commoner. And about your helmet, you already had it off when I was asked to bring you to her room. She has it on her desk." She said looking at the other girl and from the tone of her voice it looked like she didn't understand the importance of that last question. A breach of the unwritten rules wasn't to be taken lightly.

Magic... The only group that used magic, or more precisely were delusional enough to believe that they did were 'The Adepts' down in New York and teaming up with the Merchants didn't seem their modus operandi.

And summoned, did that mean that this other girl, Valliere, was responsible for the whole incident? But before she could put her thoughts in order the other girl spoke again.

"Anyway, are you hungry? One of my fellow maids brought us something when she served Miss Valliere her dinner." She said pointing at a wooden tray with a bowl of soup and a couple of slices of cheese. "I know it's not much but you can have it, I can go down to the kitchen later to get something else." Vista hadn't noticed until the maid mentioned the food but to be honest she felt like she had skipped a meal or two. For a moment Vista considered the possibility of this being a trap but the girl seemed sincere in her helpful attitude and she had been at the mercy of this 'academy of magic' and Miss Valliere for who knows how long so if they wanted to harm her they would have done it already.

"Thank you." She said accepting the bowl. "How long was I unconscious?"

"The summoning ritual was this morning and it's sundown now, so almost than half a day." The maid answered with a thoughtful look. "Oh, my name is Siesta, nice to meet you."

"Vista, of the Brockton Bay Wards." She said paying attention to the other girl's expression looking for any kind of sign of recognition.

"Brockton. Is that in Albion?" Asked Siesta a bit confused. "I'm sorry, I don't know much about geography."

"No, it's north of New York." Vista tried to clarify.

"I heard of a York in Albion but not a new one anywhere else." Siesta shook her head before giving a worried glance to the third girl in the room and dropping the tone even more. "Listen, I can only imagine how frightening all this has to be for you, being brought here suddenly by magic. I know Miss Valliere is far from the worst kind of noble there is but she also has... issues. Just keep your head down and try not to antagonize her. If you need anything ask any of the other servants for me or Marteu the chef. I don't know how much we can do for you, but we'll try at least. Us magic-less commoners have to stick together, right?" She said winking at her.

"Thank you." Said Vista trying to assimilate all this new information. Albion? Never having heard of New York? Maybe she was farther away from home than she thought.

"Looks like Miss Valliere is almost finished with her meal. I'll have to take the trays back to the kitchen but I'll be back as soon as I can. Will you be okay?" Asked Siesta obviously concerned.

"I can take care of myself, don't worry." Vista answered squashing her growing irritation. Always the same, people only saw the barely thirteen years old little girl, not the experienced hero. True that if Siesta had never heard of Brockton Bay or New York logically she couldn't have heard about her. For that reason and that she seemed to be really trying to help her, Vista kept her temper in check.

Siesta went to wait next to where the other girl was seated. Now that she had time to get a better look Vista was pretty sure that the girl she saw standing over her when she regained consciousness for a few seconds. After a couple of minutes Siesta picked up the trays and with a curtsy to the other girl and a nod to Vista she left the room.