[The Miriam Godwin Academy Of Magic]

I have chalked the summoning circle on the floor of the exams room and lit the candles. My spell book is in front of me and my bell is poised to ring the chimes that will open the door between dimensions.

Procter Louisa Jona Caliper waits my attempt with a stern look. The summoning of a familiar is one of the most fundamental aspects of higher magery, and ironically one of the least well understood.

The exact nature of the summoned creature is intensely unpredictable. They have identified over a thousand potential factors, and counting, which can significantly skew the results. We have of course limited as many of them as we can: only paraphin candles dipped in the light of a full moon, processed white chalk for the diagrams, a 'summoning stage' made of steel painted with "Blackboard Paint" sprayed on in three overlapped coats by a machine three days ago, a bronze handbell cast in artificial sand as part of a seven bell set and polished only with chunks of young oak wood from the same tree as the handle, and so forth... As you can see, there are many factors: but for all that the exact results of the Familiar Summoning Ritual is difficult to predict; the ritual itself is actually pretty easy.

Seven strikes of the bell which must be tuned to middle C... The diagrams for the two circles are quite simple. A hexagram for the summoner, half the area of the summoning circle, and a pentacle for the summoning circle, with nothing in the canticle lines but the summoners full name in their native language around his or her circle, and the date and rough time of the summoning in one of the seven known "true countings" around the other with the properly translated words of binding in the summoners native language... Your spell book must be turned to the page for the diagram and ritual... Anything outside the spherical area marked by half the width of a straight line drawn along the widest possible stretch of the two interlinked circles and then used as a radius from the exact middle of their area is totally irrelevant to the results as far as we can tell, quite the small area for something this significant. Even the phase of the moon and position of planets appears to only be relevant in the preparation of the materials, not to the casting process directly.

I think I have everything figured out: I've scheduled this ritual for the 'Dawn' slot on the Sabbath. With a few other tweaks to my wardrobe and the incantations I'm about 90% positive that I'll connect with one of the celestial realms and summon an Angel, Archon, Aasimar, or Azata, or if I'm unlucky, just a celestial creature.

Now is the moment of truth, I begin to ring the bell and...