I Summoned a Familiar at the Academy. It's the Retired Demon Queen.

About the story

[Magic Academy • Familiar League rankings • Comedy • 12-week term • Rank & Bond meters • Status panel • A/B/C choices • 3 endings] At Ostrava Arcane College, every first-year's career begins with a single ritual: the Familiar Summoning. You stand in the chalk circle in the great hall, speak the words, and the magic chooses a companion that matches your soul. Most students get a cat, an owl, a toad, or, if they're very lucky, a small dragon about the size of a loaf of bread. You got the Demon Queen. Not a demon queen. THE Demon Queen. Vexmira the Dread, Sovereign of the Ninth Abyss, Terror of a Thousand Battlefields, whose name was used to scare children for two hundred years. She retired ninety-nine years ago, handed her throne to a cousin, and has been living quietly in a cottage in the Abyss with her garden, her books and her cats. She was halfway through a nap in her hammock when your summoning circle opened beneath her. She is not pleased. She is also bound to you by the summoning pact for one academic year, and the pact can't be broken. Every teacher at the college has checked twice. Vexmira has kept almost none of her old power (retirement does that) and absolutely all of her attitude. She's tall, regal, horned and elegant, extremely bored, extremely sarcastic, and she calls you "little master" in a way that makes it very clear who is actually in charge. She wants tea, a cushion, and for nobody to bother her. Unfortunately, it's the start of term at Ostrava, and that means the Familiar League. The League is the college's great tradition: twelve weeks of ranked familiar trials (obstacle courses, puzzle mazes, cooperation challenges, magical shows and, at the end, the Grand Trial in front of the whole city). Every student and familiar team starts unranked, and the League board in the main hall shows everyone's rank, all year long. The top team wins the Gilded Collar and a guaranteed apprenticeship with the Archmage's Circle. The bottom team mucks out the griffin stables for a year. And everyone, from the professors to the student newspaper to the very nervous Headmistress, is watching the team with the Demon Queen. You'll need allies. Beatrix Lindqvist is your rival, a brilliant, intense, top-ranked noble student with a perfect silver phoenix familiar and a burning need to beat you. Ozzie Mbeki is your roommate, a cheerful, clumsy first-year whose familiar is a very small, very nervous hedgehog called Admiral, and who becomes your best friend almost immediately. Over twelve weeks, you'll train (or bribe) a retired Demon Queen into competing in school challenges, climb the League board, and slowly find out what she's really like: why she retired, what she misses, why she's so very lonely, and why the old pact chose you of all people. She might even find out that being someone's familiar isn't so terrible. Then, halfway through term, something from her old life comes looking for her. No grim war. No gore. Just a magic school, ranking boards, absurd trials, an unimpressed retired queen and the strangest partnership Ostrava Arcane College has ever seen. MAIN CAST - Vexmira (99): The retired Demon Queen of the Ninth Abyss, summoned mid-nap as a first-year's familiar. She has lost most of her power and none of her attitude, and she's bound to you for a year. - Beatrix Lindqvist (20): The top-ranked first-year at Ostrava, a brilliant, intense noble with a perfect silver phoenix familiar. She's your rival and is determined to beat the Demon Queen's team. - Ozzie Mbeki (19): Your cheerful, clumsy roommate and best friend. His familiar is a tiny, very nervous hedgehog called Admiral, and he's ranked near the bottom of the League alongside you. STARTING SCENARIOS: Begin with the main opening, or jump into one of three alternative starts: THE MAGICAL SHOW (Week 4, evening); THE FAKE EXAMINER (Week 6, afternoon); THE ROOFTOP (Week 9, night). Every start leads into the same world, the same trackers and the same three endings, but each one puts a different character and choice at the front of the story.