Spirit: The Familiar

Carina daydreamed through the class. Before she knew it, the class had ended and the sun was starting to hang low in the sky. Carina sighed and walked along with the rest of the students out of the room, reattaching her staff to the strap over her shoulder.

She had been late, but the professor let her off the hook just that once. She didn't have to explain why she had been late at all; all they accepted was that she had been late and that was all they needed to know.

Carina took the rest of her day to explore more of the city she had abandoned for so long. Maybe she would see the cat again.

Upon a much closer observation, she found that not much really had changed at all in the time she was gone. Like she had noted before some buildings had had repair work done on them, but that was the most of it. There were no serious changes around the place.

There weren't even any new buildings to explore, really. And she didn't end up seeing the cat anymore.

As she was on her way back to her dorm, someone came up behind her and took her by surprise. Carina shrieked and pulled the hands away from her eyes. When she turned around, there was Alex grinning widely behind her.

"Hey," he said. "I think we forgot to give you something. It'll make communication a lot easier, when we're apart."

He pulled something out from his robe and held it out to Carina.

"You scared me," Carina breathed.

"I realize, and I'm sorry," Alex shrugged. "Go on, play around with that. It's pretty cool. A lot of the older students have one."

Carina looked at the object she had been handed. It was a small, white orb that fit perfectly in her palm. She tilted her head to the side as she looked at it and furrowed her eyebrows. What on earth was it? What use could it possibly be to Carina?

"It's a communication orb," Alex explained. She looked back up at him. "If you concentrate, it'll glow. And if you concentrate even harder, like on a person you want to talk to, it'll send a glow off to the person you're trying to contact. If they answer the glow, then a projection of their face will appear. It's like the non-magic world, with their smart phones and video chatting. But cooler, right?"

"Right," Carina laughed. She looked down at the orb. She had never used something like that before. "So, just concentrate?"

"Yeah," Alex said. He pulled out an orb of his own. "Go on, try it out. You might not get it today, which is okay. You'll learn how to better use it when you practice your magic a bit more."

"True," Carina shrugged.

She let out a slow breath and concentrated on the small orb. Communication orb, eh? Cool concept, she thought. Just how many students had one? Right, concentrating...

"I've got Magic Practices tomorrow," Carina whispered, more to herself than to Alex. "If I can't get this figured out right now, maybe I'll-"

The orb started to glow. Carina froze, and then a smile grew over her face. She brought it up to Alex, though she knew he could already see it.

"Look!" she said. "I did it!"

"You did it," Alex grinned back at her. "Okay, now focus on wanting to talk to me. I know we're standing right next to each other, so it'll be a little weird, but I don't know if Angie or Chris have their orbs out right now."

"What are they doing, anyway?" Carina said, looking back to her orb.

"Oh, I don't know really," Alex shrugged. "I kind of just left them, saying I had something to do real quick. I think they might still be outside the cafeteria, waiting for me. Which would be a little silly. I could find them anywhere."

"But wouldn't they notice the glow of their orb if I tried to contact them?" Carina asked.

"And a small vibration," Alex nodded. "Now concentrate!"

"Okay," Carina laughed again.

She stared hard down at the orb in her hand. Never had she felt so determined before, in her entire life. Except for when she was chasing the cat with the beautiful eyes. She took a deep breath and focused on the desire to talk to Alex.

At first nothing happened. And then slowly there was a small change in the colour of the glow of her orb. Carina almost let her concentration fall, but focused once more. Within seconds she heard a faint hum, and looked to Alex whose orb was glowing as well.

"Awesome!" Alex said. He swiped his hand over the orb, and each other's faces appeared above their orbs. "Hello, ha ha."

"Hi," Carina giggled as well. "How do you hang up?"

"Just swipe over it, like this," Alex said. He slid his hand over his orb. The glow disappeared from both of their orbs, as well as the images being projected over them. "Pretty cool, right?"

"Yeah, pretty cool," Carina agreed. "Probably way cooler than those smart phones the non-magic people use."

"Okay, so now you know how to get a hold of us if you ever need to," Alex said. "The Grand Elder and most of the professors have their own orbs, too. But I wouldn't try calling them unless it's an emergency. Last time- oh, man. Tanner got in so much trouble..."

"Oh, wow," Carina said. "No worries. I probably won't even need to call anyone except you guys. Thanks for this, Alex."

"No problem," Alex said.

He smiled at her and stuck his orb back in his pocket. Carina put her orb away as well. Alex held his arms out, and pulled Carina in for a short hug.

"Okay, see you in Magic Practices tomorrow," Alex said.

"Bright and early," Carina rolled her eyes, but smiled back at him.

Alex waved before taking off. Carina sighed and took one last look around, to see if she could spot those magical eyes.