Book One – Chapter 8

While witches obtain, bind and command their familiars through arcane rites, wizards are chosen by their familiars. Deep-rooted in fundamental wizarding lore lies the profound belief that every wizard is granted a familiar at birth. As a newborn draws breath, a familiar seeks him out. Most make their way into the infant’s room undetected, others, more politely, appear in front of the mother’s dwelling, patiently waiting to be introduced to the child. It was, in some way, comforting to know that even if a wizard child is born amidst the bleakest corners of existence, even if his mother does not live to hold him but leaves the earth as he enters it, he would be sought out, protected and cared for by his familiar.

The familiar is considered a reflection of the wizard’s innermost being and a guide through his journey for power and purpose. Their first encounter marks the forging of a profound bond whispered to endure a lifetime — a pact not of servitude, but of shared destiny. 

Midnight traversed the night unseen. As a pathera, her lithe form was an embodiment of speed, agility, and endurance, granting her the ability to travel swiftly through the vast expanses that separated the coastline from the forbidding Albweiss Mountain range. On her fourth day, she had left the heavy storms behind and entered the scorching desert lands. While small farming villages and isolated dweller settlements speckled the far North-Eastern landscape, the rugged terrain that made up the Northlands plateau between the ocean and the mountains was too treacherous and too barren for any humanoid races to endure. It belonged to the beasts of the wilderness.