Seth glanced behind him at Mau as he left the barn. He was a little worried about what she might do. But Robin seemed to know how to handle all the animals, so he'd trust that Mau wouldn't be able to cause too much trouble. She was also leaving her familiar behind. As the striped fish swam in its water bubble, the bubble rolled around the barn.

"Normally we'd have someone else do your training while I worked with the familiars. But we've been badly understaffed lately. A few of you are helping out later, right? I'm so grateful for that. I'll leave Louis here to keep an eye on things. He can let me know if anyone gets up to shenanigans. This way." Robin led them to the neighboring building and into a mostly empty room with benches along the walls. It was a good sized room, and would accommodate a much larger class as well as some large familiars.

"Okay! Go ahead and get comfortable and we'll get started. Now some of you may know a lot of this already, but I think it's best to start at the beginning. Let's start with names." Robin smiled and rubbed her hands together as she looked over all the students. "You with the silver leopard, you start, and we'll go down the line. Tell me your name and your familiar's name."

They went one by one down the bench. Everyone introduced themselves, and each time someone said their familiar's name, Robin would tell everyone what type of familiar they had. Owen was an exception, and Robin promised the training could be used later when he got his own familiar.

"Should we wait for the guy with the white thing?" Michael, the student with the tiny deer asked.

"Elias? No. His familiar is Wadsworth, and he needs special attention. Elias isn't here for training but so he can use some of our facilities. Okay! The reason I separated you all from your familiars is so they don't hear this. Many of the critters are really smart, and they can get ideas if they think they can get away with it."

Seth was glad Mau wasn't listening to whatever Robin planned to tell them. She didn't need any help with having her own ideas.

"First, there is a lot of variety with species. And I mean a lot, a lot. Some are smart, and some are really dumb. Even though the familiar bond makes an animal smarter, it does not make them people smart. It's not common for familiars to become a public menace, as the bond influences their behavior and they are not feral anymore even when they are wild caught. But your familiar is still an animal, and is dependent on you for care and guidance. I find it best to consider familiars like toddlers. They have their own opinions, they can understand what you tell them, but you still need to teach them to do as they're told."

Mau was definitely smarter than a toddler. Bossy too. Seth had no idea if toddlers were bossy.

"Due to the nature of the familiar bond, your familiar will naturally assume you are in charge. You need to reinforce that with training. Just like you would with a non magical pet, you need to teach your familiar acceptable behaviors. This is made easier with their ability to understand all forms of speech, but just because they understand the words does not mean they understand what you want them to do, so you need to remember to be patient with them."

Seth wanted to shake his head. There was no way Mau thought he was the one in charge. And she understood him perfectly, all the time. She chose not to listen.

The guy with the small deer raised his hand.

"Yes! Michael, you've a question." Robin pointed at him.

"I was wondering if the magical strength of the familiar had an effect on how smart or capable the familiar could be?"

"Yes, actually it does. This gets tricky though. Stronger beasts with more mana and more innate magical power are more intelligent and capable. And by stronger, I don't mean bigger, but more powerful or more varied magic. The tricky part comes in with the bond of such a beast in the first place."

Robin held her hands palm up, and moved them up and down like balancing a scale. "On one hand, the beast will have power. This gives it weight in the link. To bond a strong beast needs a strong link. That means what you get from the beast is strong too." She raised the other hand. "If you don't have a strong talent, then you will need a strong will to maintain the link, if you can maintain it. When a master is weaker than the familiar, the bond will deteriorate until it fades completely."

"Links can deteriorate?" Duvessa asked.

"Yes. It is very common with powerful beasts as familiars, actually. Also, if a familiar is unhappy with the relationship, it will resent the link and emotionally attack it. Eventually, their souls will reject it and the link will dissolve. A powerful beast can willfully dissolve their link in a matter of days, weaker beasts may take months."

"How often does that happen?" Michael asked.

"Not very often. Most people who have familiars have them because they like animals and want both the companionship and the power the beast provides. But it does happen. We have a beast here now that has dissolved its link."

Duvessa jumped up. "What kind of beast? Can we see it?"

Robin smiled at Duvessa's excitement. "Later. He's a manticore. His owner caught him while young enough that he could be bonded easily. But as he got older, the owner couldn't maintain the bond."

"Is that due to the power of the manticore, or because the manticore wanted the bond dissolved?" Seth asked. Mau was likely to get really strong too. He didn't want the bond to go away just because she was strong. If she didn't want it anymore, well, he could only hope she did want it.

"It's hard to say, really. Most really powerful beasts don't stay as familiars past adolescence. That's not true of evolved beasts though. If you bind a beast, like Michael's small deer, and it evolves into something higher, like a mist doe, or forest walker, then the beast usually stays. I personally think this is due to a good relationship between the familiar and the master that let the beast evolve in the first place."

"Why would anyone want a manticore as a familiar?" This question came from Arnold.

"Because manticores grant immunity from venoms and poisons," Robin answered. "And their masters get it almost instantly. A strong familiar can also produce a strong link. Not only can you gain some of the attributes of your familiar, but they can gain aspects of your power. For example, my familiar Louis can take control of my summons."

Duvessa hopped in place, having not yet sat down from the last time she jumped up.

"Can you bond two humans?" One of the girls asked.

"Ew, no. That would be like slavery," Robin said.

"But can the ritual do that?" the girl asked.

Robin shook her head. "No. There is a hierarchy of souls in the ritual. You can't have two beasts, and you can't have two humans. The ritual wouldn't work. Now, that hierarchy of souls is one of the things I wanted to talk about without your beasts here. As the master, you can use the link to send commands to your familiar. A weak familiar is easy to command, but a strong one can be very difficult. A familiar can actively resist commands, so I didn't want them to know they can be commanded this way. And since the strong ones are also smarter, they can become almost impossible when they know that's what you are trying to do. Always, always, include verbal commands when using the link to command your familiar. They will fight the link commands so much less."

Seth had tried before to use the link to command Mau, and never succeeded. "Is there a technique or something to using the link? I've never been able to manage it."

"Silver leopards are strong, but they are not outside the typical scope for familiars, so you should be able to do it. We'll go over the technique–"

"Robin!" A woman burst into the room. She was wearing the same coveralls and barn boots that Robin was wearing. "It happened again!"

"I knew it wasn't Martin! Which ones are out? And does the Director know?" Robin asked the newcomer.

"I haven't told him, and he's not in the main hall. The five from Section C got out. If we hurry, we might be able to find them all before he comes back."

"Check that every door is shut and locked. I'll be right there." Robin faced the students. "We've been having a problem lately with the beasts escaping their cages. We've actually lost several beasts in the last few weeks. You'll need to wait here while we deal with this problem, or you can help us find the escapees."

"I'll help," Seth offered. Owen, Duvessa, and Arnold stepped forward also.

"What kind of beasts escaped? Are they dangerous?" Michael asked.

Robin rushed over to a hidden closet and rummaged inside as she answered. "The five in Section C are a fire hound, a fox, a badger, a housecat, and a monkey. The hound is the only one with an elemental aspect."

"If you are having a problem with beasts escaping, what has your Director done to solve it?" Arnold asked.

Robin sighed unhappily. "The first time it happened, the manticore was the one that escaped."

Duvessa inhaled dramatically.

"Exactly," Robin said, nodding at Duvessa. "We reported it, and got help searching for him. He was found a couple days later wandering the basement of our main building. That got the old Director fired. We got our current Director, Lord Henry, shortly after that. But it happened again, but with a group this time. The new Director, Lord Henry, fired the person who had last checked their cages."

She found what she was looking for and pulled out light stones and capture sticks. The capture sticks were long poles with a loop of rope at the end that could be tightened.

Robin handed each of the volunteers a capture stick and a lightstone and headed for the door. "He still thinks it's sabotage by an employee. So far he's fired three people, and two more quit. We've had all the locks on all the cages re-enchanted. We are working on acquiring a tracking artifact that has linked collars. But if we do that, we won't have the budget to hire back the staff we lost." Robin glanced around outside before leading the group to the barn with the familiars. "We tried to get the beasts to tell us what happened. They wouldn't really talk about it though. I don't know if that's because they can't, or won't."

"You can talk with the familiars?" Seth asked.

"Martin has a parrot as a familiar. He made it really easy to talk to them. Unfortunately he's been fired. We don't have another beast that makes communication easy. Let's collect your familiars. They could be a big help in tracking down our escapees. Unfortunately Louis doesn't talk well with other beasts."