So you’ve either summoned a horrible, world-ending demon, or a chipmunk? And you won’t know until you open the summoning portal again?

“Yes.”

I shouldn’t need to tell you that this is a failing grade for the course.

“No, no, I figured that. I just want you to fix it and I’ll retake the class next semester.”

Fix it?

“Yeah? Make the potential world-ending demon go away?”

That’s not how summoning works. You summoned it. You need to dismiss it.

“It’s a potentially world-ending demon though.”

Could be a chipmunk.

“What’s the probability on that?”

Six to one, half a dozen to the other.

“And you want me to take care of it?”

It’s not that I want you to take care of it. It’s that you have to take care of it.

“What if I just leave it alone for the rest of my life?”

Well, that’s an option. You’d end up killing the chipmunk, though.

“I think, in the grand scheme of things, that’s preferable to unleashing a world-ending demon.”

Remember, though, this was a familiar summons. If you summoned a chipmunk, you’d be killing your own familiar.

“And if my familiar dies…”

You lose your magic. And die.

“You’d rather doom the world than let me die? That’s… kind of sweet, I guess?”

It makes our retention statistics look bad when students die.

“Oh.”

Besides, it wouldn’t be me ending the world. It would be you.

“Thanks for that.”

At any rate, you need to open the portal again.

“That’s it, then? Just doom the world for statistics?

Could be a chipmunk. Bring some acorns either way.

“Would that help me against a demon?”

No.

I open the portal.

Angry, black eyes glare back at me.