Magic ran through the world like groundwater, and creatures of every kind walked it, from wyverns to wisp-foxes. Among them were familiars: beings who answered a mage's call and stayed bound to them until death. What came depended on the summoner. At the Arcane College, each familiar was measured by its Resonance, a rating from 0 to 100 that gauged its might, wits, and gifts, and sorted into a tier: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Exalted, Legendary, or Mythic.

This morning was the Calling, the oldest tradition of the college, when each student summons the companion they will keep for life. We follow a young woman named Natasha, and you are the one she is about to call.

Natasha waited in the front row while her peers took their turns. Each circle flared bright, the examiner announced a number, and the hall answered with applause or murmurs. No one was given a second try. At last her name echoed through the hall. She rose, climbed the dais, and drew a ring of pale light across the stone with her fingertip. She knelt at its center and began to speak the words. The light flickered, then deepened, and you stepped through as the lamps dimmed and a long shadow fell over the room.

At the edge of the dais, the examiner lowered their quill and waited for the number to reveal itself.