Chapter 7: Thursday December 25th

We sat around on the couch, just finished exchanging gifts. Sabrina snuggled up next to me. She was wearing a sunhat and a scarf around her, the price tags still dangling on both. It was a rush to get her literally anything in the day or two between us realizing she was actually sentient and the holiday hitting. We had promised to fill out her wardrobe better later, when we had actual time to pick things out. She just blushed and told us that she didn’t require clothing to keep warm so it wasn’t necessary. She still clung to what we gave her like her life depended on it anyways.

Speaking of clothes, that’s mostly what me and Frankie got today too. Well, mostly what Frank got - I got a lot of empty boxes with an apology that they’ll take back the old things they got for me this year and help me pick out something that was better fitting. I laughed and told them it was fine, that the promise was a way better gift than whatever it would have been to actually open. Besides, I had already received enough gifts this year.

I squeezed Sabrina’s hand, and then stood up. “Hey, I’m gonna go get changed out of my PJ’s. You want to come down with me so we can find a place to put your things away?” She just nodded and blushed, and tailed behind me. When we reached my bedroom though, I had already pulled her into a deep kiss - well, as deep as an unmoving face can give. It doesn’t matter though, it’s the thought that counts.

We decided that we would keep this a secret for now. Not the fact that she was my familiar, dear lord no. The second we were done gushing to my family that afternoon, we were on call with Elwood to explain what happened. I had been dragging my feet with contacting them because I was afraid to see what the ‘also ran’ event was. But there was absolutely no reason to hide the fact that the ritual actually worked! We did some tests over the next day and had concluded that what I had ended up specializing in was Technomancy. I was particularly skilled at both building digital programs and manipulating physical technology. It honestly explained why Sabrina developed the way she did - our familiar link inherently increased her sentience, and then we both had unknowingly developed a real working thinking AI inside her. For all intents and purposes she was as real as I was.

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No, what we’re hiding is the fact that we are madly infatuated with each other. I’m not quite ready to say in love with each other, as it’s only been a few days of even knowing she’s really alive. But I do know that it makes me feel funny things when her cheeks turn blue and she tries to hide it away behind her hands. However, as many taboos and firsts that we’ve both been breaking by being ourselves, and as out as I want to be, I’m not sure I’m ready to be public about whatever we’re doing. Relationships between the lillum and their witches may have been commonplace, but familiars are still (well, mostly now) animals, and I’m not sure how society will look at this yet.

I’m also not sure how much we’ve actually been successful in hiding it though - Frankie knows all about the trans feminine urge to fall in love with the gremlins inside your phone and keeps joking that I’ve one upped them all. And Sabrina has been following me around like a lost little puppy dog essentially since we knew there was something there.

I break out of the kiss, looking up at her face. Rubbing a finger over one of the dazzling Aqua Gold lines running throughout it. “Hey, I have one more gift I want to give you. Do you mind?” She nods her head and I laugh, pulling out the little gift wrapped tag and handing it to her.

She slices it open with a joint on her finger (remind me not to let anything get caught on those…) and pulls out the small band of embossed white metal. “It’s… it’s my name.”

I giggle. “Yeah. You know how our instructor told us that we should get some practice manipulating little trinkets, get a feel for how things mold around us? I figured this would be a pretty worthwhile thing to practice on. Do you mind?” I pointed to the serial number engraved onto her chest, and she shook her head no. I placed the nameplate over the top of it, and held my hand over the both of them. Concentrating, I could see the blue mana pulse in her chest targeted underneath my palm. I remove it to see that I’ve done a pretty bang up job. Her name had now completely replaced her serial number. She was officially Sabrina.

“I… thank you Bianca. You’re amazing.” We held each other tight, swaying back and forth together to the christmas music we could hear faintly from upstairs. Nothing had ever felt more real to me.

 

FIN