The Girl who Devours the Sun Part 1: Summoner

“Lunar, I’m going to have to go away on my own for a bit. You’ll have to continue the search without me for some time.”

“Ehh?”

I had been following Master Erda as her protégée for nearly eight years now. While I was still learning magic from her during that time, her main objective was to search for an artifact known as Lapis Pandora. We had gone from city to city and country to country searching. Still, we were limited in where we could go. Whenever we reached the border of a country that was mainly summoners, we usually turned to go around it. I wasn’t sure if she was doing it out of concern for me, but it was definitely making this journey take longer than she had intended. I couldn’t help but feel like I was a burden to her.

Over the years, I had learned to master elemental conjuring. Like Master Erda, I was able to effortlessly cast spells of any of seven basic elements and the five advanced elements. However, I had still yet to learn any Eclipse element spells despite my affinity for that element. While Master had searched for some at one point, they truly did seem to be lost to time. Despite that, my affinity was apparently what had been helping me to learn other spells so effortlessly, so it wasn’t entirely going to waste.

We had been staying for a couple weeks now at a villa in a western country called Victoria. It’d been the longest we’ve stayed in one place. I had thought that perhaps Master had finally found a lead, but instead, she suddenly spouted something nonsensical to me over breakfast.

“See for yourself,” she said as she tossed an envelope across the table to me.

“What’s this?” I asked as I picked up the letter. It was addressed to Master Erda, and had an official looking seal on it. I wasn’t sure which country it was from, but I could tell that it was important. I picked up the letter to look it over.

“It’s a summons. They’re calling for a council of all the Grand Magi. And my attendance is mandatory,” she explained.

“Wait, Master...”

“I know, I know. I asked if you could come with me but the request was denied.”

“You’re a Grand Magus?”

“Huh? That’s your first question?”

“Yes! How could you never tell me?”

“You’ve been my protégée for half your life... Did you really never realize?”

I shook my head furiously. I had suspected that she was a master of some high standing, but I had never expected this. We’d never met up with any of her colleagues. I had always assumed she was an independent scholar. That did explain why people seemed to hold her in such high regard, though.

“You know, Lunar, you can be really dense sometimes.”

“What? Me dense?! This isn’t about me being dense, this is about you keeping something so important from me for nearly a decade!”

“I guess it just hadn’t come up?”

“Hadn’t come up...? No, now that I think about it, I guess it hasn’t...”

“See? So it's not my fault,” Master Erda said.

I sighed. I still couldn’t understand Master’s logic sometimes.

“So what’s this about a conference?” I asked.

“Right. These conferences happen only once every twenty or thirty years. The Magi’s Guild requires all active Grand Magi to attend. It’s honestly a bunch of boring meetings and stuff, so you’re quite lucky that you got denied attendance.”

“But how long will you be gone for? Should I just stay here in the villa?”

“No, that’s probably not a good idea. The conference could last a few months, or it could last a few years. There’s no telling how long I’ll be gone for.”

“Years?!” I was trying not to let my voice sound panicked, but Master seemed to pick up on it right away.

“I was worried that this would be your reaction. But you’re almost an adult now, Lunar. You should be able to take care of yourself.”

“But that’s...” I wanted to protest, but I had been taught so many things over the years. I knew how to go shopping for my own food, cook for myself, and even how to take jobs through the Magi’s Guild. Still, I didn’t know if I knew how to be alone anymore. Master Erda would often go out at night by herself, but she was always back by midday at the latest. This was different though.

“Look, I’m not planning to leave you by your lonesome. I said you were gonna continue the journey without me, not by yourself.”

“Huh? Do you have some kind of secret friend you’re going to pawn me off on?”

“Why does it feel like you don’t think I have many friends? I have a ton of friends, dammit!”

“Sorry... Continue.”

“Right... As I was saying, I don’t plan to leave you by yourself. But I don’t plan to hand you off to someone either.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” I started to take a drink of my tea...

“I’m going to have you summon a familiar.”

...and I immediately spat it out in my master’s face.

After using magic to clean her off and receiving a quick scolding, I asked her to explain what she meant.

“Well let’s start off simple. By blood you’re a summoner, right?”

“Huh? You knew?”

“Of course I knew! I actually pay attention to people. Plus, you were in a torn up ceremony dress when I found you. Either you were a runaway child bride or you were a summoner who failed their summoning ceremony. That said, you were too unaware of even the basic concepts of conjuring, even as a country bumpkin, to be a conjurer.”

“Even if it’s true, please don’t call me a bumpkin, Master.”

“Regardless, I knew you were a summoner the whole time. It was part of why I wanted to teach you conjuration to begin with.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense. Why would you want to teach me the opposite school?”

“I told you I was a heretic, remember. Do you know why I’ve been trying to find the Lapis Pandora?”

“No, you never told me.”

“According to the legend, whoever is able to wield the Lapis Pandora will have unlimited magical energy. I planned to have that power for myself as a way to get the world to listen to me.”

“To listen to you? To your heresy?”

“That’s right. It’s the only way I could have enough power to influence the entire world at once. As I am now, it would only take the Elemental Church’s Grand Magus teaming up with another five Grand Magi to defeat me. Frankly, I don’t like those odds.”

“You seem to think pretty highly of yourself to think you can defeat five Grand Magi by yourself.”

“Of course I do. If I had you by my side we could probably take on another three or four.”

“Then you should have started the count there then! Of course I would be by your side.”

“You really are a good kid. But that’s why I need to ask you to do this for me. I need you to perform a summoning ceremony.”

“But why now? If you knew I was a summoner this whole time, why wait until I was nearly sixteen to have me try this?”

“Honestly, I would have wanted to wait a few more years. But I can’t risk waiting until after this conference. If all of the Grand Magi will be there, then they could attempt to silence my ideas once and for all...”

“But that’s... They wouldn’t dare!”

“I hope that is the case. Tensions are still rising around the world right now. After this conference, the land itself could be reshaped. Which is why we need to act now.”

“I see. I understand. But can I really summon a familiar when I’m already a conjurer?”

“Well, I can’t say it’s never been done before, but I had also found no evidence of it either. Still, I see no reason for us not to try. The main reason it’s never been done is simply because summoners keep the summoning incantation secret. But, you know it, don’t you.”

“I...I think I still do.” We had practiced the summoning incantation every day at school, so it was still burned into my head. “But you’re only able to summon a familiar once, and I failed. Surely it wouldn’t work a second time?”

“Ah, but you failed, right? So you didn’t summon a familiar. You see what I’m saying?”

“I think so...but it hurts to hear you say that I failed.”

“Sorry... Anyway, I managed to hear about some village ruins that have a summoning dais still intact. I verified the coordinates with space magic, and it should be safe to make the jump since it is an unpopulated area. Do you need anything else to be ready?”

I looked down at my hands in thought. I had never thought that I was going to get the chance to perform a summoning again. We weren’t sure if this would work, but it was still worth a shot. That said...

“If we are going to do this, I want to do this right. I’ll need a ceremony dress.”

A few days passed and we had obtained the dress. By sheer coincidence, it also happened to be my sixteenth birthday. It had been exactly eight years since I had last put on a dress like this. The design was quite different, though. It was a proper wedding dress this time rather than something just resembling one. Master had made up an embarrassing story in order to purchase a second-hand one from an acquaintance and had then tailored it for me. I didn’t really want to get into the details...

Using space magic, we made the jump to the site of the ruins. Space magic was a pretty convenient advanced element, but this teleportation spell had a lot of downsides. Firstly, we had to know the exact coordinates of where we were going. Secondly, it could only be used to travel to locations that were devoid of other humans. Strong mana signatures interfered with the targeting, so it was pretty much useless for travelling to distant cities. Thirdly, it required every person teleporting to be capable of using the spell. That meant it was impossible to carry passengers with you or other party members. Still, for situations like this it was perfect.

“Look, here it is.” Master pointed me to the Dais of Summoning. It looked exactly like the one that had been in my hometown.

Master held my hand as she walked me down to the dais. She probably looked like a father walking his daughter down the aisle. It was almost midday and the light was peaking through the trees. The smell in the air reminded me of home. This was so much like that day eight years ago that I was beginning to worry.

“All right, Lunar. It’s all up to you from here. You’ve got this,” Master Erda said.

“Err... Right.” I stood facing the center of the dais and began to channel my mana.

As I chanted, light rose up from the magic circle inscribed below me. It seemed that despite the desolate surroundings, the ruins still worked as intended. I closed my eyes as I finished the incantation, not wanting to see no familiar present again.

“Hey, Lunar. Something doesn’t feel right,” Master Erda said.

“Huh?” I opened my eyes to look at what was happening. The pillar of light had extended far into the air and taken on a shining rainbow hue. Every summoning I had seen performed had the summon appear in a white light that was no higher than the tops of the buildings. I had never seen a light this beautiful or large before.

“This isn’t good. People will definitely notice this. Lunar, is it done?”

“No, the summoning isn’t complete yet. I’ve completed the incantation but the light still hasn’t faded. The familiar will appear once it does.”

“Tsk. So this is some sort of unheard of summoning, eh? Just what I’d expect from my protégée.”

“This isn’t the time for that! This thing is sucking all of my mana. I’m not going to be able to teleport afterward.”

“It’s still absorbing your mana? That’s crazy. If familiars are summoned proportionally to how much mana is used in their summoning, then you’ll probably be getting something amazing.”

I knelt down on one knee to steady myself. I had never felt this much energy being drained before. Perhaps I was really going to summon an Archangel like my father had. I was sure that I could get by without having a familiar at this point, but a demi-god type like that would still be amazing.

Please, please...Be something amazing!”

Finally, the rainbow of colors coalesced into a golden light and faded. A single figure was standing where the light once stood. My vision was still a bit blurry from the light, but I could make out the shape of a woman with wings.

“Gee willikers! What the hell was that? An SSR?” A voice I had never heard before said.

“Huh?”

My eyes finally adjusted and I finally got a look at the figure that had appeared. She was a girl that looked to be about my age. She had black hair and black eyes and was wearing a black dress.

But the most notable thing about her was the pair of pitch-black wings that extended from her back.