After sharing intimate details of how Pitch had died there was a lengthily awkward silence. Luckily Patrick was impatient enough to butt in and break it. He wanted answers to his problem and he wanted them ASAP.
"So, can we plan a summoning? What all do we need?" he asked. Nik seemed to be relieved they had made their way past his blunder. Alexa figured he must have not thought before asking and had probably been very shocked by Pitch's sudden human appearance.
"It is usually a big event for the guild when one of our members attempts to summon their familiar. Where you are not exactly a member they may want to wait. You could summon one quietly at home but would have all the help and support of the guild. It may be more difficult to gather the spell components." Logan said quietly. Alexa smirked a little.
"Alistar left a lot of spell components and I'm sure we can find anything else we might need. I would however like to keep track of any recent death and try to avoid summoning anyone who has recently died."
"By that logic, we shouldn't be able to summon anything should we?" Nik asked. Alexa shrugged.
"I don't know, but I don't feel right keeping someone's spirit from moving on. Ramona, his last familiar, had become a poltergeist before Patrick summoned her. Her spirit did not want to move on and had been here for years. I'm thinking maybe we will try for local hauntings. At least that way we are helping a soul that is not moving on instead of keeping one here." Patrick was nodding, obviously agreeing with anything that could fix his powers. Nik was silent for a few minutes.
"I'm surprised there are no hauntings here. There is a local rumor that the old factory is haunted. It's been shut down for years. They've tried and tried to sell it but every time they try to do anything with the property bad luck hits." he said. Alexa noticed a little bit of a gleam in his eye. Logan chuckled.
"Nik's tried three times already to summon a familiar but hasn't had much luck." he said. Nik scowled and dug a balled up and very wrinkled ball of paper from his pocket. It had old faded ink scribbled over it. He dropped it on the table unceremoniously and it popped open into the shape of a paper airplane before flying around above their heads. Patrick stared in awe even if Nik seemed less than thrilled with his summoning. Alexa watched it curiously for a moment before looking to Pitch.
"Can you grab the Encyclopedia of Familiars from my room?" Pitch nodded and vanished is a cloud of black. Nik stared in amazement until he returned a few seconds later with the book.
"This was in Alistar's things. It describes the different levels of familiar, right up to human forms. Basically when you summoned there were no souls nearby so your magic focused into an inanimate object. "She opened the first chapter about magic objects. \
"The next chapter is about how, once you incorporate a soul, the animal summoned will depend on what star signs are above at the time, Leo for cat.... I have no idea what constellation would be ferret, maybe a weasel. Then their type of death gives your the form of powers they will have. Ramona froze to death so her powers were ice. Pitch's death was... Dark. So his powers are of shadow and darkness." Patrick was paying apt attention. Alexa had been careful to limit what she told him about familiars and how to summon them. She had figured it was a higher form of magic and where he was struggling with the basic stuff she didn't want to rub his nose in the things she knew.
"So I should go to the old factory to do the summoning. what are the words to the spell and the ingredients I need." Patrick demanded. Alexa eyed him warrily. She didn't want him diving into this and getting in over his head, but she did have to remember that is how Alistar had managed to dig his claws into her brother in the first place.
"Hey, hey. Slow down. Yes, we are going to help you summon a familiar. I just want to make sure that we have everything together and planned properly. We don't want any backfires." she said. The angry snarl she got from her brother made it obvious she had chosen the wrong words.
