The night before Aurora’s fourteenth birthday, she lay awake, tossing and turning under the crumpled sheets of her bed, butterflies in her stomach. After all, everyone awakens their final affinity when they turn fourteen.

— — — — —

In the morning, as the moment Aurora was born fourteen years ago rapidly approached, she fiddled with the hilt of the katana at her waist, twirling her finger around it.

“Are you ready, Aurora?” her mother, Iris, said, a smile forming across her face as Aurora and her parents stood in the overgrown grass of the field, the sun rising on the horizon. “Just one more minute.”

“What if I get a carpet affinity, or something like a feces affinity?” Aurora asked, moving her sweaty palm to squeeze one of her tails as her mother waved her hand dramatically, and the glare from the rising sun suddenly dimmed.

“We’ve told you so many times, we’ll love you just the same.” Ignis, Aurora’s father, chuckled. “No matter what you get, every affinity has more applications and uses than any one of us can conceive of, even if it seems completely unsuited to combat.”

Even so, Aurora couldn’t see past a dull life as a carpet maker, or trash lady with such affinities. With her palms sweating profusely, Aurora hoped that she might get a fire affinity like her dad did, or perhaps the rare shadow affinity. At least she had some relief from the fact that people with less affinities are exponentially more likely to get rare ones.

“Sweety, just ten more seconds.” her mom gently said, giving Aurora a hug, and a kiss on the cheek. With the sun rising over the horizon, the colors of the sky slowly shifted; from red, to pink, to orange. As the colors shifted, Aurora wondered what color might be hers, what the second, and last, color she would awaken might be.

“And… Time!” her father Ignis shouted, looking as though he was about to start jumping up and down. “What is it?” He asked as he looked around the field for any changes, any physical manifestations from the awakening.

Aurora remained silent, her heart pounding in her chest, as she waited, staring into the open air in front of her as the sun slowly rose higher, the sky shifting to yellow as sweat dribbled down her forehead.

“Sweety, what affinity did you awaken?” Iris gently asked after a lengthty silence.

“I… I haven’t awakened anything yet” Aurora murmured, clenching the hilt of her sword in a pale white fist. “Any moment now…” she thought.

“Sweetie, does your status say you are fourteen yet?” Iris asked, her smile looking a bit forced, her rainbow eyes softening. “If it’s something you’re ashamed of, you can always tell us, we’ll love you just the same.”

Aurora willed for her Status to appear, frantically shaking her head as the white screen materialized in front of her.

Name: Aurora Dreamfire

Class: - Unavailable -

Class 2: - Locked -

Level: Level 1, F Rank

Species: Nine Tailed Kitsune

Sex: Female

Age: 14

Affinities: Illusion, ???

Soul: Nine Tailed Kitsune (Unattuned)

Forms: Nine Tailed Kitsune; Nine Tailed Fox (Unformed)

Skills (0/10)

“No no no, that's not it.” Aurora muttered. “It’s… I don’t have my second affinity, it’s still question marks, even though I’m fourteen?”

“That's… odd.” Iris said, as her eyebrows furrowed, her vibrant rainbow colored eyes flicking left to her husband standing beside her.

Ignis suddenly started talking. “Well, let’s wait a little bit longer and see if you notice something different then. If not, uh… your mom and I will see what we can do, okay?”

Aurora slowly nodded. Her affinity never changed.

— — — Two years later — — —

As Aurora sat at her desk, an illusory light bobbing over the pages of a book titled The Oddities of the Empty Affinity, she slowly read through the lines, marking her position with a finger. She compared with and looked back at her notebook, which was filled to the brim for pages and pages with cramped, scrawling lines of text, detailing the process of awakening precisely. After all, the empty affinity is one of the vanishingly few known affinities that manifests under odd circumstances, rather than age. 

The author of this novel detailed how they awakened the empty affinity at seventeen years old; when they were put in a situation where they had no thoughts, felt nothing, and were just… empty. Aurora has performed this method several times, less than she has some of the others, and had the few other tomes on similar affinities neatly placed on her desk. Then the door to Aurora’s room made a slow creaking noise, and she turned to see her mother peeking through the doorway. 

“Hey Aurora,” Iris whispered, “your father and I have been searching just as hard as you have, but we haven’t been able to find any more records on top of what we have already, not here, nor in other worlds that the residents are willing to part with without us swearing eternal secrecy.” After hesitating a moment, she took a deep breath and continued. “So, we talked about it a lot, and have both agreed to allow you to be summoned by low rank summoners in information exchanges, in hopes that their worlds may have a solution.”

“Really?” Aurora exclaimed as she leapt off her chair to face her mom, illusory light bobbing above her shoulder, illuminating her neatly brushed black tails. “Do you really mean that?”

“Yes sweetie, I do. It will be a strictly informational meeting though, we will be certain that is very clear in our ritual. You will have to wait until you at least reach C grade to take any contractual summons though; no grand adventures for you just yet.”

“I love you, mom” Aurora sniffled as she hugged Iris, all eighteen of their tails wrapping around each other. 

After a long moment, both of them standing there, they seperated. As they did, Iris handed Aurora two pieces of jewelry. “I have these two items for you to wear for your safety, you must never remove them under any circumstances. Is that clear?”

“Yes mom. But what do they do?” Aurora asked, tilting her head slightly as she put on the vibrant green ring and light blue necklace. 

“That ring is a protective charm, it will form an energy barrier to prevent a fatal strike once from any A-grade or lower foe, whereas that necklace will form a spatial tunnel through the Void to me, so you can flee in case of an emergency. I commissioned the necklace recently from a resident B-rank enchanter, whereas your father found the ring a couple decades ago, but never used it.”

“Thank you, mom.” Aurora said as she wrapped her arms and tails around her mom for another hug, the illusion light on her shoulder winking out as she forgot to keep channeling mana to it. “Aren’t these a little excessive, though? I can always return through the ritual or the contract bond, and it’s just an information exchange.”

Iris chuckled, rubbing Aurora on the head. “Either way, better safe than sorry.”

— — — — — — —

The next morning, Aurora and her parents were flying on an enchanted cloud, soaring above neighborhoods on their way to the nearest facility for summonees. Aurora and her parents were dressed in a black and white kimonos, and Aurora’s silver katana strapped to the left side of her waist.

Aurora lay down on the puffy white surface, backpack lying beside her as they continued soaring across the sky. “Hey dad, what did you have to do the first time you were summoned?”

“Haven’t I already told y— oh wait, that was your mother, she brought up that story so many times when you were a kid I must’ve mixed them up.”

“Hey!” Iris pouted, her multicolored tails slowly waving back and forth. “It is a good story though, you can’t deny that.”

“You literally stole the affinity randomizing treasure left behind for a talented descendant of an ancient clan!” Ignis shouted, his voice and the surrounding temperature rising.

“Well, I would say unearthed is a more accurate descri—”

Aurora cut her off, rolling her eyes slightly as she tried to stop her mom from telling the entire story for the millionth time. “Okay mom, I know how the story goes, you have always been very proud of it. Anyways dad, how did your first summoning go?”

“Unlike your mother here, I didn’t get summoned as an F-rank into a competition for an inheritance realm that would change my life forever. I—”

“He got brought to an ocean world, where the only land is various islands scattered around on the sea.” Iris giggled. “With his fire affinity, he had an absolutely amazing time helping escort a fellow D-rank across a particularly treacherous area of the sea in return for a measly enchanted illusion treasure.”

“Hey! I helped fend off a massive sea serpent! You didn’—”

“You gave it a mild burn, and it hated how it felt so much that it left your boat alone.”

“Well would you look at that, we’re almost there.” Ignis said, as the marble white, skyscraper-esque summoning facility came into view. “By the way, take this and put it in your bag,” he said, handing Aurora a glimmering silver box. “If someone does help you unlock your final affinity, give that to them; it’s a present that will open for them when you arrive home.

“Thank you dad.” Aurora responded, smiling as she stood up and slipped the rune covered, silver surface inside the backpack she began putting back on.

“Don’t forget, if something looks or feels odd about the place, go back through the summoning rift and we can try again.” Iris reminded Aurora for what had to have been at least the twelfth time since the previous night. “There’s no problem with that. Once you actually form a contract, you’ll be able to step out of the summoning circle, but can’t return here without either completing your contract, your contractor dying, or you using the necklace your mom and I provided, so remember what your father and I told you about sketchy clauses.”

“Yes mom, I understand, I’ll be careful. Thanks again for allowing me to finally do this.”

“Sweetie, you did bring your book, ri-”.

“Mhm!” Aurora said as they descended to the front of the towering, gleaming white summoning facility, full of C ranks, B ranks, and even some A rank expert summoners. She did, however, reach back to her bag, feeling the hard cover pressing against the bottom.

— — — 

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs…?” The receptionist behind the front desk made from gold-plated marble asked, mid yawn, when they got to the front of the line after a few minutes of waiting.

“Dreamfire,” Ignis casually said.

“Dreamfire, o-of course!” She exclaimed, her white tails suddenly straight as needles. “E-Esteemed guests, your room is number s-six on the right hallway, with s-six B-Grade expert summoners inside. W-Will that be to your liking?” She stammered, giving a deep bow.

“That would be just lovely, ma’a-” Ignis started.

“We are allowed in with our daughter to help, correct?” Iris interjected.

“Of c-course!” The receptionist stammered. “I s-sincerely apologize for any misunderstanding about the services of our f-facility you may have received.” 

“No worries.” Iris said as she strode across the marble floor towards the hallway on the right, her multicolored tails swaying back and forth as though she owned the place. Aurora and Ignis followed shortly behind her.

After Iris opened the door, labeled Room 1-6, they then strode into a blank white room composed entirely of high quality marble, almost looking like a wide, rectangular hallway. The only things in the room were the 6 B-rank summoners carefully finishing up forming the detailed ritual out of ink, and knowing Aurora’s parents, it was probably high-grade spatial ink. Yup, those bottles neatly placed in the corner of the room look rather expensive.

“This certainly appears serviceable.” Ignis commented after looking around, and giving a brief nod. Aurora could have sworn all six summoner’s shoulders relaxed slightly at that. “Aurora, are you ready?” He asked.

“Yes!” Aurora exclaimed, giving her mom and dad a large hug. After all, what was there to be nervous about? While summoning is a cross-void method of transportation, Void Horrors can only be summoned by the party doing the actual summoning, and the odds of a sentient one even caring about an E or F grade ritual is very, very unlikely; about as probable as two superpowers of a planet swearing eternal loyalty to a random newborn. Worst case scenario, someone else has a very, very bad day and Aurora just has to try again.

“Ok sweetie, since this is your first ever time being summoned, when you’re done we’ll go home and only come back whenever you feel ready again, does that sound good?” Iris asked.

“Mhm! I would love that.” Aurora said, smiling in anticipation. “I’ll see you soon then, love you!”

“Love you too!” Her parents said simultaneously.

After stepping into the center of the ritual composed of black spatial ink, lines of runes written on the marble floor, Aurora began channeling a little bit of her illusion mana through the runes in the center. As the ritual activated, a flat, clearly defined rectangle sprung into existence in front of her almost instantaneously; a spatial tunnel through the Void. At the end of the tunnel she could see a small demonling wearing a tiara, waving, and an elderly, whisened scholar standing behind her. Before stepping through, Aurora turned around and saw her parents give thumbs up and wave. She waved back, and then stepped through.

Aurora never saw the looks of alarm and horror suddenly overtake the faces of her parents and all the summoners in the room. She didn’t notice how her view of the demonling and the scholar flickered out of existence, along with that of her parents. She didn’t notice the surge of Void energy flooding towards her, either. She didn’t notice the bright green barrier from her Mother’s ring spring into existence, immediately starting to dim and fracture. Her focus was completely consumed by the white screen that just appeared in front of her.

[*ding!* Void Affinity Awakened!]

And then everything went dark.