Summoner Trilogy

Volume One

Ascent

Summary: Prodigy Summoner James Aquarius, at the age of twelve, did something very stupid and bound a number of high level beings to him. But when war breaks out, will even his raw power be enough to save the world?

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Prologue

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I was, oh, about twelve years old when I did the stupidest thing I could possibly have done at that point in time. Well, almost the stupidest, anyways. For years, my master had been teaching me magic, and was especially keen on me learning to summon. The problem, though, is that he would never actually let me do it.

So, in twelve-year-old stupidity, I decided to just do it on my own. Then, of course, I decided that I would prove to him that I could not only do it, but was good at it, by binding a group of eight high level spirits to me for my first summoning. That was where I was stupid. I made up for that, however, by choosing only fairly nice spirits to conjure up. It’s not like I was going to call forth rampaging beasts, after all, I wasn’t that stupid.

And so, I drew the extremely advanced Orial Summoning Circle (which I had learned in secret) to make sure the spirits couldn’t escape, then quite calmly sat in the designated area, and opened my summoning book. As I began reading, the light in the room dimmed, until the only source of light was the glowing circle I had made on the floor. I was pretty sure that was supposed to happen. As I finished reading, eight shapes appeared. They were blurry, then, but I knew I had done the summoning right.

“Well, this is weird.” One of them said. “I don’t think anybody’s every summoned all of us at once before.” The speaker turned his/her/it’s/whatever’s head to look at me. “A boy!?”

“Seriously?” one of the others asked. “We were called up together by a lone boy?” there was a short silence, then I heard the sound of somebody whistling, impressed. “That’s some serious power…” I looked up and gazed at the spirits. Quickly checking another book told me that these were indeed the eight spirits I had wanted.

“So, what do you need us to do?” one of them asked, lying on her stomach as she looked at me. By now, I could tell this one was female. I looked carefully at her, then smiled.

“Spirits of the Seasons, and Spirits of the Elements, I have conjured thee in order to create a contract with thee, partly that our lives may be more interesting, but mostly just to annoyeth my own teacher, who hath refused to let me attempteth summoning.” I explained in the stuffy language recommended for such things. All you really needed to do was add ‘eth’ to the end of a word now and then, but it was still stuffy. “However, as I am not a cruel master, I give thee a choice, that thou may either sign the contract with me and becometh my guardians, or returneth to wherever you cameth from.”

The beings huddled together for a moment, whispering, then turned to look at me. The same girl spoke.

“We haveth decided to grant thy request and becometh thy guardians, but only uponeth the condition that you refuseth to continue talking in thy stuffy manner, and indeed talk like thee are a normal person.”

I laughed.

“If that’s what you wish, then you have a deal.” I said, smiling, as I passed over a contract. The spirits quickly signed it, and the Summoning Circle vanished. Both of my hands glowed. Four marks appeared on each. The left one had a tornado, a wave, a flame, and a rock. The other hand, my right one, received a snowflake, a budding plant, the sun, and a half-barren tree. I smiled. These were precisely the spirits I had sought out. Their forms condensed into solid, recognizable shapes rather quickly once the marks appeared.

“Come on, let’s go scare that master of yours!” the red-haired girl said enthusiastically. I laughed, and we headed down the stairs. With some interest, I noticed that the spirits were all female. I supposed that made some sense, male spirits probably would have done nothing but squabble, and weren’t really appropriate for this sort of thing. We were all quiet as we approached my master’s workroom. I knocked on the door.

“Who is it!?” my master yelled through the door.

“It’s me! James!” I replied.

“Well, then, boy, get your lazy butt in here!” my master yelled back. Smirking, I opened the door and walked into the room. “You’ve been studying hard, boy, so here’s a question for you. I am attempting to summon some spirits right now… So why is it not working?”

“What spirits?” I promptly asked. My master told me, and I began laughing. “I know what your problem is! The problem is that somebody’s already summoned them!”

“Who?” my master asked sharply. “Only the most powerful Summoners could call up these.” I gestured towards the door, where all eight of the spirits were looking into the room from. My master’s jaw dropped so fast I thought he was going to break it. “YOU CONJURED UP EIGHT OF THE MOST POWERFUL SPIRITS IN EXISTENCE ALL BY YOURSELF!?” he roared.“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!? IF YOU DID ONE TINY THING WRONG, WE’D ALL BE NOTHING BUT ASHES!!”

“Hey, I object to that!” the red-haired girl, who I strongly suspected was the spirit that represented fire, exclaimed. “I don’t burn things THAT much! Well… At least, any time I’m not really mad.” My master’s jaw moved up and down a few times, but nothing more came out.

“I summoned them to prove that I could.” I told my master, glaring at him. “Go ahead, punish me, but remember that I’m still good enough to do something like this with no help from anybody, okay?” There was a very drawn out silence, before my Master sighed and collapsed into his chair.

“You foolish, naïve, idiotic brat.” He said. “You made a long-term contract with them, didn’t you?” he didn’t wait for an answer. “Yes, of course you did, you’re stupid enough to do that. Well, at least you’re not an embarrassment to me.” He smiled thinly. “What you did was very dangerous and very stupid, and I’ve half a mind to send you up to your room and keep you there for the next decade. However, since you are obviously a prodigy at summoning, instead I will impose upon you something much worse.”

“W-worse then being kept in one room for a decade?” I asked nervously. My master laughed in a way I did not find remotely reassuring.

“Indeed. The National Summoner’s Meeting is tonight, and we’re going to attend. It’s a formal dress party.” He said. I slowly backed off. You see, I hated formal clothing with a passion.

“No. No no no no no.” I said. My master just smiled. “No.”

And so, several hours later, I found myself following my master into a massive convention hall. The spirits I had summoned had disguised themselves a grouping of small animals. My master approved; it would make a bigger shock when everybody saw them in their normal forms. And besides, it was easy to carry them.

With some degree of interest, I noticed that the Spirit of Winter (whose nickname was Frost), who was currently a tiny, icy blue kitten, was lounging on my left shoulder. She seemed like she had no intention of moving. I didn’t mind, though, she gave me a running commentary about who people and the creatures they had summoned were. The others were riding in a bag I had brought.

“Attention! Your attention please!” a rather large man. Nice people would call him chunky. Normal people would call him extremely fat.

“That’s Chairman Piscea.” Frost whispered. “I know he doesn’t look it, but he’s an extremely powerful summoner. He’s leagues above you in skill, but I’d have to say you top him in raw power and potential.” A massive genie appeared behind the Chairman. “And that’s Jenar, an A-Ranked Genie. Any of us could take him with our eyes closed and one hand tied behind our backs.” She laughed quietly. “Powerful, yeah, but really nothing on us.” I grinned.

“Nice.” I said. I quieted down, though, because the Chairman was speaking again.

“I would like to welcome all of you to this year’s Summoner’s Meeting, and give an especially warm welcome to those who are attending for the first time.” Chairman Piscea said. “So everybody else, forgive me for giving them a short explanation…” a few people laughed. “We call it a meeting, but really it’s just a gathering. More like a party then much else, really. Out back, you will find summoning areas prepared so you may show off your talents, though we ask that you will not try to summon anything too powerful.” There were a few muffled laughs from my bag. I flicked it with a finger. “Refreshments will be served shortly.” He continued talking, but I didn’t pay attention, because my Master was beckoning for me to come over.

“Boy, this is Master Summoner Taral.” My own Master said. Frost whistled quietly.

“Big time…” she whispered in my ear. “Very big time.”

“So, you are this boy that Arthur has been bragging about.” Taral said, bending down to look at me. “Hmm… You do not seem to be special.”

“That’s because you’re not looking in the right place.” A voice from my bag said. Frost sighed. “What!? It’s true, isn’t it!?”

“May I?” Taral asked, looking at my bag. I nodded, and he took and opened it. He found seven sets of eyes staring at him. “These…” he whistled, then looked at Frost. “No wonder he’s bragging. You called them by yourself, boy?” I nodded. “No help from anybody?”

“Well… The Supply Clerk at the store gave me some advice, but…” I muttered, shifting around uncomfortably. Taral returned my bag and thought for several long moments.

“You summoned eight S Rank spirits and bound them to you by a contract with no help at the age of… What is it, twelve?” My Master nodded. “I believe that you will grow up to be something very special, child. Here’s some advice; remember that the things you summon are people just like us, and have feelings. Do not be rude to them, or try and get them to do things they would rather not.”

“I agree.” Frost said quietly, purring. Taral laughed, pulled a pendant off from around his neck, and put it around my own.

“Keep this with you, boy, should you ever get into deep trouble.” He added, before moving off. My master looked very impressed.

“He actually gave you a small gift, along with advice.” He said. “Okay, that’s it. Boy, starting tomorrow, you are going to be taught every last thing I know about summoning. You are NOT to summon without me present until I say otherwise, but I believe that together we can do great things.”

Yeah, great things all right. Good thing he was teaching, too, because a few years later I was going to need every last bit of teaching I could get.

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