“I see.” Flora frowned. “No special perks apart from understanding human speech? No way. Every living creature Greya created had their own effect. The Section Ephemera creates a plane tunnel, the Twisting Protozoa can locate coordinate using historical traces, the Ox Mackterfly can help you grow exoskeleton like butterfly wings…
“Now a living creature without abilities? Interesting. Seriously, I want to look inside it.” Flora approached Toby again with her curious expression. Toby quickly flew up in a panic and tried to stick itself inside Angor’s clothes.
Angor put Toby inside the chest pocket of his shirt. He was wearing a white undershirt and a brown checker jacket which gave him a more mature look.
Toby’s tiny head slowly emerged from the pocket. When it noticed Flora was still there, it quickly went down again, while reaching out a red talon to button the pocket up.
Its human-like behavior caused Angor to laugh out.
Flora shrugged. “Well, the silly bird’s too terrified to come out now.”
“Good, so he doesn’t ruin my hair again.” Angor stroke his already cluttering hair.
“He doesn’t have special abilities, but he’s enough to be an alchemy familiar,” said Flora. She seemed energetic for some reason, “Do you want me to process the bird into one?”
“What is an alchemy familiar?”
Flora gave him a mysterious smile and whistled towards the sky. The sound of something dashing through the air came from the distance, and a trail of smoke scared the cows away. When the smoke cleared, a black owl was standing on Flora’s shoulder.
The black feathers were sharp as needles and full of might. A wisp of golden feathers sat on the owl’s forehead like a crown, giving the creature a king’s look.
“What a handsome owl!” Angor spoke in his mind. He noticed the owl’s cold, pale green eyes. It was not a beast’s ferocious nature. It was more like… an emotionless machine.
“This is my alchemy familiar, Isa.”
…
A wizard needed an extra pair of ears and eyes when he or she wanted quick information or did not want to show up.
There were three ways for a wizard to do this:
One was by using special spells, such as Possession and Transmit Sound.
The second way was using scout avatars.
And the third, alchemy familiars.
Alchemy familiars were results of wizardry experiments. Wizards used alchemy to make monsters, phantoms or beasts into their spies.
Scout avatars were also made from creatures, but a scout avatar possessed its own consciousness while an alchemy familiar’s mind was as good as dead. The familiar’s life energy was depended on the wizard’s support. Its eyes and ears all belonged to the wizard. A wizard had complete control over an alchemy familiar like controlling his or her own senses.
An alchemy familiar did not have any consciousness.
In Angor’s view, alchemy familiar was the cruelest method. Although he could not deny the fact that it was also the most efficient and error-free approach. An alchemy familiar was like a part of a wizard’s body, impossible of betrayal or being deceived by mind-control spells.
Angor considered. If he ever needed an extra pair of eyes and ears, he might need an alchemy familiar.
But he would never dare to make Toby into one.
Greya’s retribution was only the second reason. The first being his own conscience. He promised to take care of Toby, and a man could not go back on his words like that.