Heroine Creation: All My Summons Are Custom Made

Since she didn’t know exactly where she was going, Lancet spoke up, directing her to a quiet, discreet place where they could stay and talk.

The back of the Enchanter-S faculty building.

She flew there, carrying him with her fire. Once they arrived, the fire around him lowered him over the long grass and set him beside one of the fallen trees he often used as a bench.

Before his boots had fully settled, the flames tightened around both wrists and held his arms apart.

Lancet looked down at them. Then up at her.

Solaris stood several feet away with fire wrapped around her body from shoulders to ankles. It moved like cloth without fully becoming one, showing her feminine shape while hiding her female parts.

Her thick red hair fell freely down her back.

Beyond her, the Academy spires rose against the afternoon sky, linked by all the magitech infrastructure she had never seen before.

She ignored them, directing all her focus on the blonde boy. .”What did you do to me?”

Lancet stopped thinking about the museum, Danistasia, or the hundreds of students who had watched him get carried away. ”What do you mean?”

Solaris took one step closer. The fire around his wrists grew hotter.

”I knew you before I saw you. When you spoke, something inside me answered.” She scanned him as if she could read his spirit. ”I feel like I have seen you before. You’ve visited my dreams.”

Lancet tested the flames around his hands and gave up immediately. He had wanted to stretch this out a little bit, but what was the point?

”Well, that’s the effect of the bond.”

Solaris’s eyes narrowed. ”The bond? What bond?”

”My summoning bond.”

Solaris still didn’t know what he truly meant. ”Are you saying that...”

”You are my summon now, Lady Solaris,” Lancet declared, gazing intensely into her eyes.

The fire behind Solaris rose into the brief shape of wings. ”So you caused my resurrection.”

”No.”

Her eyes narrowed.

Lancet chose his next words with more care.

”Your Phoenix power caused your resurrection. You were always going to wake today. I didn’t pull you out of the past or force your body to rebuild.”

”Then why am I tied to you?”

”Because I chose you before you returned.”

Solaris stared at him long enough for the wind to move the grass between them.

”Explain.”

Lancet looked at the fire around his wrists.

”Could you let me go first?”

”No.”

”Fair enough.”

He shifted his feet and leaned back against the fallen tree instead. ”My Class is called Architect. It’s a Class that lets me build ladders to Awakeners from any time, past or present.”

”Ladders...”

”Paths. Connections. Whatever word makes the most sense to you.”

Solaris said nothing.

Lancet continued. ”Some Ladders reach people who died in the past. When I call them through, they become Invoked Summons. Their return depends on my power, so they stay connected to my Summon Space.”

Solaris’s brows creased when he said that. She already suspected he had quite a few of those types of Summons.

”If the person is alive in the world now,” Lancet continued, ”the Ladder takes me to them and I connect to them right away instead of having to pull them out of history.”

Solaris looked down at herself, then back at him. ”I was dead.”

”You were. But you didn’t return because I invoked you. Ashen Rebirth brought you back normally. You’re alive now, in the present, so the Ladder made you a Bound Summon.”

Solaris thought about this for a moment. God Phoenixes were no stranger to being summons. There were very few of them left in the world, and they were all bound to Summoners. Not to forget the other species of Phoenixes who also shared the same fate.

But Solaris, the human, wasn’t a fan of being tied to someone else’s will. And Solaris, the God Phoenix Reincarnate, was not interested in being controlled by a common child.

This was certainly something she didn’t want right now!

Suddenly, the flames around his wrists pulled tighter. They didn’t scorch him or anything like that, they were just tight enough to exert dominance over Lancet, her supposed master.

”Why did you do it?!” she demanded, her eyes catching fire slowly. ”I was going to be free! My rebirth gave me freedom after being held for 50 years by the shackles of death. Now I am held by your summoning shackles. Why?!”

Lancet gave her a complicated look. No matter how much he got used to it, it was always the coolest thing ever to see the characters he created in real life.

And like with Thor, regardless of how explosive their characters were towards him, it always made him grin or cause his spine to tinkle. An artist watching their art.

This was why he had a complicated look. Trying to keep a straight face because of the situation while jumping and smiling inside was really difficult to do.

He felt like one of those memes where the man had on an emotionless mask with a grinning face right behind it.

He quickly answered the question.

”I actually saved your life, Lady Solaris, don’t you see?”

Solaris’s eyes squinted a little bit. ”How is that?”

”You’re very powerful,” Lancet replied. ”But you were never going to survive, not in this time. There are more powerful Awakeners out there, and the many of us that are less powerful than you are in thousands. Not to forget all the technological advances of this time. The world can kill you at any time now if they find you an inconvenience.”

Seeing that he had her full attention, Lancet continued. ”By making you my Summon, I’ve effectively stopped all of that. It’s illegal to kill another person’s Summon unless in a duel to the death. I’m also a prestigious student in the Academy so that gives you another layer of protection.”

He looked deep into her eyes. ”You died the last time you returned, Lady Solaris. How long do you think you can last in this time without me?”

Solaris’s eyes dropped slightly as she considered this. That last sentence did it all for her. She knew nothing about what the world had become 50 years ago, and she knew even less now, 100 years after her first and greatest death.

Slowly, like she was accepting her fate, she lifted her head until her ember eyes met his blue ones. ”How much control does this bond give you over me?”

Lancet did not lie. ”You can’t hurt me, not really. And you’re compelled to fight for me if I call on you.”

Solaris’s expression changed very little, but the temperature around them climbed. ”Can I refuse?”

”Not if I force the bond.”

”And can you remove it?”

”No.”

The Phoenix shadow opened behind her, larger this time.

Lancet kept his back against the tree. ”Hey. I don’t intend to drag you around like a weapon.”

”That means little when you possess the ability to do it.”

”I know.”

”Why should I believe you?”

”Well...” Lancet thought about it. ”I’m the only one who hasn’t tried to trick you yet but... I guess you shouldn’t. Not yet anyway.”

That held her attention.

Lancet continued before she decided honesty was not enough. ”You can judge me by what I do next. But right now, you asked what connects us. That’s the answer.”

Solaris studied his face, searching for whatever part of him might shift beneath the truth.

At last, the flames around his wrists loosened.

They did not vanish.

”So you must want something then. Seeing that you went through all this effort to choose me.”

Lancet rubbed one thumb against the side of his hand, though the fire still held him in place. ”There’s a war coming.”

”There was always a war coming.”

”It’s the Warning Gates,” Lancet said. ”And it seems that this time it’s going to be big. The Demon Lords tricked us, and tried to sabotage us from within.”

Her eyes remained on him.

Lancet added, ”I need people strong enough to fight what’s coming. Your Phoenixfire burns Gloom and souls. That makes you useful against Demons in ways most Fire Mages aren’t.”

Solaris looked toward the distant Academy grounds for the first time. Smoke still rose above the museum.

”And that is all?”

”Well... no.”

He expected the fire to tighten again. It did.

Lancet exhaled. ”I also need you to train someone.”

Solaris looked back at him. ”A soldier?”

”A student.”

The silence stretched.

Lancet gave her a tired smile. ”You’re allowed to say it sounds ridiculous.”

”It does.”

”She’s a powerful Fire Mage who can’t control her output.”

”That is not rare.”

”Maybe not. But this friend of mine, she’s rare. Her fire is pretty powerful. It’s Dragonfire, you know. It broke an arena barrier and burnt the people sitting outside it.”

Solaris’s gaze sharpened slightly.

”No one died,” Lancet said. ”But she thinks she should stop using her power completely. Her instructor keeps demanding more force, and her family wants medals and status from her.”

”So what?” Solaris’s phoenix brows rose. ”You expect me to repair what they have damaged.”

”I just want you to teach her control.”

”Why?”

”Because you can.”

”That is not a reason for me to care.”

Lancet nodded. ”It isn’t.”

Solaris waited.

He pushed away from the tree, and the remaining fire around his wrists finally released him.

Lancet lowered his hands. ”I’m offering a trade.”

”What do you have that I want?”

Lancet took a deep breath, letting silence build before he gave her his answer.

”Cinderhold.”