21 Explusio!

*Thud!*

Michael hits the ground hard as he tumbles to a halt, the horse not waiting for him as it gallops off into the distance, as if it'd never been tamed in the first place.

Realising just how bad this looked for him, Michael scrambled to his feet and begins to run towards the forest in the distance, glancing over his shoulder to see who was pursuing him. Fortunately, this coincides with the moment the man, Professor Colbert shoots some kind of fire snake at him from the tip of his staff.

It hits the floor but doesn't lose any momentum at all as it rapidly begins slithering towards him, at speeds that might even rival Michael's recently departed mount. Frantically, Michael points a finger at it and shouts "Ether Shock", causing a thread of orange lightning to strike it...

The snake bursts into flames, but much to Michael's dismay, quickly reforms and begins its pursuit again. Try as he might, there was no way to outrun it, and eventually, it caught up. The snake flings itself at Michael, wrapping around his ankles like a living bola. Michael had been preparing to scream his lungs out as the flames captures him, but even as he falls to the ground, is confused by the lack of burning flesh...

Indeed, the fire snake was only slightly warmer than his body temperature. So, while it did have him captured, it wasn't torturing him as it held him.

Michael does his best to try and escape, but the snake is too tightly wound around his ankles, easily allowing Professor Colbert to reach him. A foot lands near his head, and the professor kneels next to him with a solemn yet firm expression, "I had thought you were better than this when we first met, even if this is all a misunderstanding, I cannot allow you to attack my students further... But you even attacked your own master? Not even the most beast-like familiars would stoop so low." he sighs, "We'll see what fate befalls you soon enough, General Gramont has already been informed of his son's injuries. I'm sure Duke Valliere will also be wanting to punish you for marring his daughter's face." he states before gesturing with his staff and causing Michael to be levitated by the snake holding his ankles.

Blood begins to rush to his head, but the adrenaline still pumping through him gives him enough clarity to try and escape again... Only, Colbert is well aware of his abilities by now, smacking Michael in the temple with the butt of his staff as he sees him start to struggle.

With that, all goes black.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Many things begin quickly happening as soon as the 'Rogue Familiar' was apprehended by Professor Colbert. The first, was the announcement that any human familiar summoned from there on would have to be heavily vetted, to prevent anything like this from happening again.

The fact that Guiche de Gramont had perished in his sleep the night after the duel made everyone aware of how bad things had gotten, and with the culprit still on academy grounds, rumours were unstoppable forming around almost every aspect of Michael and Louise.

Despite the official explanation being that Louise was taken hostage by her familiar as it tried to flee, a large portion of the student body thought that she was in league with him. The bond between a master and their familiar wasn't so easily broken, even if the familiar was an independent person.

Some people had even begun making up stories about Louise' obsession with Guiche, which led her to have him murdered in a jealous fit of envy towards Montmorency. The fact Louise had yet to awaken from her unconsciousness made it difficult to refute, especially since no one was particularly fond of Louise and her tendency to make everyone's lives difficult with her random explosions.

The second thing was, for the first time in history, the academy would be holding someone prisoner within its walls. As the place had always been intended to function as an educational institution, no prison cells had even been installed. This meant that the rogue familiar had to be held in the empty Void tower with the academy faculty taking turns to guard it as they waited for soldiers to be sent from the capital.

Third, was the 'currently' unofficial expulsion of Louise de la Valliere. For her failure to summon a proper 'familiar'. While the academy had been lenient with her, allowing her to keep her human familiar and remain in the school, recent events had forced their hand, causing the academy to proclaim that any disobedient familiars would have to be put down, and any student unable to control their familiar would face expulsion.

There had actually been a few missives from the capital, asking them to delay the expulsion of Louise, but with it already set, she was no longer a student. Unless the Queen herself got involved, or Osmond stepped on many toes to make an exception, Louise' fate was decided.

Unbeknownst to everyone, these events had put a massive amount of stress on a certain thief, who was now unsure whether or not they'd be able to pull off their heist now that soldiers would be becoming a temporary addition to the academy.

While Fouquet could probably stay in her persona for an extended period of time, she had other responsibilities outside of stealing that required her attention... A responsibility handed to her by her father, as the former Archduke of Albion.

Her original intent was to try the heist during the familiar exhibition, but perhaps she needed to expedite her plans. She had a few treasures from her other thefts that, as much as she didn't want to use them, would probably be required...