Summoning

"The Duke of Dimenche demands an audience and the elders too demands an urgent meeting, the people of the Dukedom wants to see the second young lady." The butler hastily gave a report. Ever since the second young lady came to the Duchy, he had more work to do than usual and now, it just got worse. This wasn't supposed to be part of his job, but the late Duke had asked him to support the lady until she became Duchess.

Accorsa glanced up from the papers.

"Who do they want to meet?"

"Miss Tatiana." The butler replied.

"They won't meet her." Accorsa said in a firm voice that demanded no opposition. 

"Then... the emperor?" The butler stuttered.

"We would all meet at the royal palace."

The butler suddenly had the feeling of foreboding.

"Eh, what do you mean, My Lady? That would be disrespectful to the Duke of Dimenche and to the elders."

"It doesn't matter, does it? I have the upper hand here."

The old butler sighed, he knew well enough that the young lady was one to show her superiority at every chance she gets.

"Yes Yes. I'll send a letter to them at once."

"Hmm." Accorsa just made a sound of affirmation and turned her gaze back to the written reports. 

********

"Can you summon a water spirit." A young maid asked, beaming in excitement. 

"Eh..." I still don't know how I summoned Eloise, so I couldn't summon any other thing. 

"Stop bugging the lady." Yvonne quickly stepped in, her cold eyes caused the other maid to back away in fear.

"Yes Yes, Miss exclusive maid." The other maid waved her hand and rolled her eyes.

"Then I'll leave first, My Lady. Tell me if you need anything." The maid bowed to me, she glanced at Yvonne before leaving the room.

"You can't summon a water spirit, can you?" Yvonne turned to me and asked.

"What? Of course not." I laughed awkwardly. 

"You really should learn how to or else you might be in danger or even worse, mocked."

Yvonne was right, but being mocked wasn't my problem, but if the elders or warlocks figure out that I can't summon anything, they'll try to find out the conditions or reason why I summoned Eloise, and of course, to find that they'll need me as a specimen... a lab rat.

"Hmm, I understand." I nodded.

"It gladdens my heart to hear the lady refer to herself as 'I' and not 'Tatiana'" Yvonne suddenly said out of the blue with a straight face. 

Ouch, was it annoying? I only tried my possible best to act like a five year old, what do you expect?

I shook my head in disappointment but I was grateful that Yvonne pointed it out, even though it seems like she knows that I usually act like that on purpose.

"Ah, right. Thank you."

"Yes, My Lady. Anything for you, I just hope you won't forget your promise." Yvonne walked to the door, she turned back and smiled at me before leaving the room.

"Ha." I sighed and immediately sent for Eloise, he was probably with maids doing God knows what.

"You called?" He came in shortly after I sent for him.

"Learn how to knock, Eloise." I shook my head.

"Okay." He just gave a short reply with a smile on his face. 

"I want to learn how to summon... properly."

"Yes?" The smile on his face faded.

"You heard me." I avoided his eyes.

"You can't even summon? Then how the hell did you summon me?"

"Language, Eloise, mind your language."

"Ah. You... are so weird." Eloise sighed and sat on the couch opposite me.

"Just wish and feel it." Eloise said.

"How do I wish and feel it?"

"How would I know? I'm a summon not a summoner!" Eloise yelled in a whisper.

"Hey, little girl. I don't know how you did it but you can do it again." He added. 

"You said you are the king of spirits."

"You heard?" Sarcasm dripped from his voice.

"Just... answer me."

"Yes, what does that have to do with summoning?"

"Can't you order them to come?"

"I can't. You somehow gave me a corporeal body, so I can't order them because they're incorporeal." Eloise explained carefully but I stared blankly at him, unable to grasp the meaning of his words. I mean, what do corporeal and incorporeal bodies have to do with this?

Eloise stared at my blank face then sighed.

"Just close your eyes, give the order in your mind and release a little energy."

"What energy?"

"Just do it!" Eloise yelled in frustration. 

"Fine." I shrugged my shoulders.

I took a deep breath to relax my mind, I closed my eyes and did as Eloise said.

After a little while, I felt a strange feeling, like something swirling in my heart. I quickly reached for it and opened my eyes and... nothing happened. 

"Eh?" I looked around but no spirit was seen.

Eloise gritted his teeth so hard that it could break before he asked in a low voice.

"Did you call the spirit you want to summon?"

Damn, I totally forgot about that.

"Do it again. I can't have a weak summoner. Do it till you perfect it." Eloise ordered. 

"I got it." I nodded and went through the process over and over again.

A few hours later, I opened my eyes after losing count of how many times I tried to summon a spirit.

A little thing, a fairy I guess. She flew around me.

"Hello." I smiled at her. The hair and body shape was like that of a female, so I quickly tagged her as female.

She bowed and flew around with a smile on her face.

"What's your name?" I asked but she did not answer, instead she held my index finger with her little hands and smiled, her long grey-coloured hair fluttering. Her green eyes matched with her dress and her most striking feature was her long elf-like ears.

"What can you do?" I asked in excitement. 

Her little smile grew wider and she stretched out her hands. The wind blew my dress and my hair. It looked like she was a wind spirit, a low-tier one. But still, it was progress.

She had an incorporeal body, so she wouldn't be able to stay in the corporeal world for too long.

I quickly sent her back to her world and turned to Eloise with a smile but my smile faded when I saw him sleeping soundly on the couch.

"Tsk, and here I was wanting to ask him how good I am at summoning." I muttered underneath my breath.

I slumped on the bed and grinned from ear to ear. This way, I would be able to protect and help Accorsa.