Chapter 3

3.

Niana had swapped her party clothes for her school uniform.

She dropped to her knees on the hardwood floor, her head bowed low.

"I failed my duty today. I didn't protect my master. I am ready for my punishment."

The standard punishment for a Familiar's failure was twenty lashes with a spirit-whip.

The pain from those lashes was agonizing, leaving wounds that took forever to heal.

I looked at my mom, desperate. "Mom, please. Niana didn't mean it. Just let it go this time."

"I accept my punishment. Master, you don't need to beg for me."

Niana's voice was loud and firm.

I caught a flicker of pure hatred in her eyes.

When we were kids, she lost track of me once and I nearly died in the woods from a heart attack.

She took fifty lashes for that.

Afterward, she had glared at me and hissed, "Why didn't you just die out there? At least then I'd be free."

When a Familiar bonds with a master, they can't wander too far or they'll die.

But if the master dies, the contract is automatically severed.

The Familiar becomes a free agent, no longer bound by anyone's will.

Niana had been a prisoner to my heartbeat her whole life. Of course she hated me.

As she took her punishment in the living room, she kept her back straight and didn't make a single sound.

Once my parents left, I rushed to her and tried to pull her into a hug.

"Does it hurt? I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."

Her lips were pale, and she shoved me away with surprising force.

"Get lost! To people like you, I'm just a low-life animal. Stop acting like you care!"

She dragged her bloodied body into her room and slammed the door.

I never thought she was a low-life.

Neither did my parents.

They had raised her like a daughter.

And I... I had looked at her as my destined soulmate.

But my parents were selfish; they were terrified of losing me.

Every time I got hurt, they took it out on her.

I grabbed some ointment and tentatively entered Niana's room.

She was sitting on the edge of the bed with her eyes closed, her white fox tail peeking out.

She only showed her true form when she was trying to heal herself.

I had a cousin who also had a Familiar, a rabbit spirit.

I once saw him cuddling with her, showing her so much affection.

That was when I realized a master and a Familiar could actually be close.

But Niana never showed me her true form.

She wouldn't even let me touch her tail.