liccachan

On the day of her dreaded twelfth birthday, Briar is called in to be evaluated for her potential to be a Mage. 

Mages become products of the state; their souls are removed outside of their body to take corporal form of an animal called a familiar. 

Watch Briar as she navigates her remaining childhood as a ward of the Familiar academy where no one will ever graduate.

The Familiar Academy

Suddenly there was dozens of men in the small room. She stood up and tried to get away and tell them that there was a mistake and that she couldn't have been a mage and that she really really needed to go home. Her pleas fell on deaf ears. 


"Don't worry!" She heard the Indian mage yell over the bustle. "It only hurts for a moment." The voice of the bird called out. 


She struggled against a particularly bulky man as he lifted her up over shoulder. Her breath knocked out of her tiny body and at some point during her flailing someone had gotten what looked like zip ties around legs. Binding her at her knees, and ankles. 


Briar screamed for help as she was carried off into a black room. Her arms joined her legs in being bound. Than they were painfully hoisted above her head as she was laid on a bed of cold plastic. 


"It's never easy." Sighed a woman, she couldn't see any features or even a silhouette. It's like this room had made her go blind. "But it is easier if you don't struggle." 


Suddenly above her eyes was a light so bright it might her snap her eyes shut, but the light poured in past her eyelids. "I'll go blind!" she yelled pitifully at the void. 


"No, you won't." Said another voice, annoyed. 


The tiny girl thrashed against her restraints, screaming and crying. She would have been embarrassed by her lack of bravery if she wasn't terrified. 


Briar did the opposite, trying to avoid whatever it was the light was doing.


"Or you can turn your head and cry but it's going to be same result" sneered the annoyed voice. 


"It's going to be like a little pinch around your throat and you'll go to sleep, very quick and easy baby girl." Purred what sounded like the man from the interrogation room. "Don't hurt me." The little girl pleaded above a whisper.


Suddenly the light turned into a straight line, razor thin. Briars chest heaved and held her breath as what felt like a guillotine snapped down on her neck and she didn't know what happened next, that was the end of that life.
