38 – Familiars

Lars wasn’t all that surprised by the letter nor its contents.

Reasonable, since he’d both been informed of the messenger hawk’s arrival and been present when Anaster announced the impending family visit.

He didn’t know the name Lenora either. Which made it more likely she was someone who grew up outside the main estate. Or that she was a few years younger than me and hadn’t been introduced before I had to leave. Or both, of course.

Just like me, Lars also didn’t have any idea why exactly a potential heir of the family would be sent here. Though he also shared my two most likely suspicions – being sent away to let political fallout settle or preparing for an arranged marriage.

Slightly more surprising to him was my announcement of Mia’s new status. Not that he was shocked by it. He also rolled with the news quickly. I had already introduced Mia as my representative to him before, so upgrading that to steward wasn’t too big a step.

In contrast, Theodore appeared delighted. He congratulated an embarrassed Mia on her promotion and assured both of us he would set aside some time to teach her. Obviously not when he was busy with treatment, but he promised to make at least an hour or two a day available if possible.

Mia was some mix of happy at being taught and taken seriously, plus ashamed she didn’t already know how to read and write. I told her it was fine due to her circumstances, but that didn’t help all that much.

Finally, finally evening came. The world turned dark and people went to sleep. After a quick dinner, I was free to pursue my business.

In other words, familiar time!

The bats found me out in the garden, sitting underneath the fruit tree. It was funny, watching a full flock of them appear and hang themselves upside down from the branches many meters above me.

Alone among his family, the little rascal I’d held this morning swooped down and landed a bit awkwardly on my shoulder. I scratched his back and wings in greeting. He squeaked at me happily.

As much as they were willing to hang out with me, even with weak bonds, the bats were hungry. When I inquired what they liked to eat, I got a very confusing pattern of sound back. Once we figured out sensory transmission anyway. It didn’t take too long, my experience with training the rats already helping out. The bats also weren’t stupid, for small animals.

My best guess for the message’s meaning was this being the echolocation ‘look’ of an insect in flight. With absolutely no experience or reference, it was obviously a jumbled mess for me.

Not that the bats had particularly bad eyesight. They could see pretty well in low-light conditions, even. But their echolocation was a much better tool to find and catch insects at night.

To soothe my new friend’s rumbling tummy, I picked up one of the fruit from the ground. Careful not to bend in a way that would throw my passenger off, obviously.

Seeing the fruit, my buddy perked up. Then he sent me an only mildly confusing thought. Something along the lines of it being difficult for him to eat the fruit due to the hard skin.

That made sense. Insect-eaters like these bats didn’t need very strong teeth. Not that they didn’t have any of course, but these peach-apple fruit had quite a sturdy skin protecting their soft insides.

Catering to his needs, I extended a claw and cut the fruit up into slices. He happily munched on these. His relatives hanging in the tree above were getting restless. So, I proceeded to spend an hour just cutting up and feeding fruit to different bats.

In the process, I gave the bats with weak bonds a bit more blood mixed with their fruit. I didn’t know if a bond could break on its own if it was too weak, but didn’t really want to try that right now.

While I was playing around with the flock once they were sated, a familiar presence neared.

It had been a few days since I had seen my first ever rat familiar, but he had sought me out on purpose.

As the little guy crawled into my lap, I almost didn’t recognize him. Where he’d previously been slightly less than the length of my forearm without counting the tail and a little wider, he had grown noticeably. A centimeter or two in all dimensions, by my estimation. Mostly in the width department.

Since I’d just spent some time improving the strength of bonds, I immediately noticed his, now that he was so close. Compared to the normal ‘string’, this bond was a thick rope. Or a pipe instead of a straw?

Another difference I didn’t realize at first, distracted by the other two, was the lack of scars. He hadn’t been heavily scarred before, but there had been some. Evidence of a life lived in competition with other animals.

Now, this looked like a perfectly healthy rat. I’d even call his fur glossy.

Obviously I was very confused and both mildly happy and concerned at the changes. How did that happen?

Upon closer inspection and a bit of thought, the answer was clear – the bond somehow improved his body. And the bond itself also improved. I had been distracted while he approached, but with such a strong bond it might be possible for the mental connection range to be increased as well.

With some further thought, I realized what was different about this rat compared to the others, who hadn’t showed overt signs of change. It was even something I’d done myself, though I’d almost forgotten it in all the hectic stress of the demon hunters’ visit.

I had, back on that first night when I’d bound him, fed this rat more of my blood. Significant amounts in comparison to his body weight.

Back then, the only change I’d noted was the lack of pain in his scars. But then he’d returned to his nest in the morning and I hadn’t seen him until now. I hadn’t even realized that last fact, with how distracted I was.

“Did you sleep all this time?” Obviously the verbal question was more of a rhetorical one, with the actual query happening mentally through the bond.

In response, my familiar sent back that he’d slept for a long time and how amazing he felt right now. It was hard to quantify, but did his mind feel somehow… clearer? The improvement might not have been purely to his body.

Aside from the bond, I could also feel an increased kinship with this rat. Like he was more similar to me now. But in a different way. It was a confusing mix of sensation and instincts.

He was not a vampire, that much was clear. And he also wouldn’t become one this way. This was something I knew. But he was still some form of ‘kin’ to me.

We spent another hour or so testing various things. Though he saw it more like playing. In conclusion, he was moderately stronger and more flexible than another rat. More so than his increased size would suggest. He was also definitely smarter, though that was less drastic.

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Through the prolonged contact and focus, I began to develop a sense for his blood-flow. One beyond my normal heart sense. The conclusion I came to with this deeper inspection into his body was that he was healthy. As in, perfectly healthy.

Unlike after I fed him originally, there was barely any of my blood remaining in his body though. It had likely ‘seeped into the soil’ in a similar way to how I felt when strengthening myself.

Implications of this development were fascinating.

Apparently, my blood could lead to a physical and mental enhancement if ingested. I didn’t know how exactly it interacted with the bond. There was definitely something there though, my instincts told me. I just didn’t know exactly what.

As the last test, I drank a few drops of his blood. The experience was a bit confusing.

It was sweet and rich with mana. More so than another rat that had also dined on mana-rich fruit its entire life. But it also had familiar notes to it. It took a moment to realize what it was like, but then I remembered. This is a bit like drinking my own blood.

Back when the former steward stabbed me, I’d bled into my shirt. Afterwards I had reclaimed the blood by sucking it out of the fabric. I hadn’t really noticed it back then, but the blood had a peculiar flavor.

Not immediately obvious, or it would have caught my attention. But with this other example before me, I recognized it.

To test, I lightly bit one of my fingers and drank the drops that spilled out.

This was undoubtedly my blood. Now that I was aware of the effect, it was clear as hateful day. The impression I got from drinking my own blood was a sort of reclaiming of what I lost.