It doesn't even give him time to get a spell off, whatever it is. He falls, and tries to hold onto the half-cast teleportation to complete it on the other side of the portal.

He tumbles through a tunnel of green light.

And then quite abruptly he is standing on healthy mowed grass, surrounded by smoke. When the smoke clears, it is a pleasantly sunny day, and he is surrounded by teenagers in uniforms, each accompanied by a strange creature.

A bald man with a staff stands nearby.

Directly in front of him is a girl with silver eyes and short purple hair. She is clutching a wand in one slack hand, staring at him in complete surprise. She has dark circles under her eyes and tears on her cheeks.

She whispers something in an odd hybrid of English and French. The bald man replies at length, watching Raafi consideringly.

Something very strange is going on here, but he's not going to stick around to find out what. He completes his spell, intoning the last few syllables in a language unrelated to the one spoken here.

It doesn't work.

He yelps, and begins casting something else, eyes darting around the group in clear alarm.

The bald man says something to the girl, stern and urgent.

The girl blanches, looks at Raafi, and goes red in the face. But at another barked word from the bald man, the girl steps forward and raises her wand to point it at Raafi, beginning a chant of her own.

Raafi finishes first.

And now he is in a stone brick hallway. There is a maid right in front of him. She screams in surprise and drops a basket of laundry.

An uproar of... laughter? fills the courtyard outside.

He apologizes, not that she'll understand more than the tone, and hurries to get more distance from the group.

He appears to be... in a school of some sort.

There are other students in the hallways, some of whom stare in confusion at him as he passes, and classrooms visible through various doors.

The school itself appears to be a large tower surrounded by a lawn on all sides, with a thick castle wall with five segments surrounding that lawn.

Longstrider. Fly. He swoops up into the air, pulling a vial of Mage Armor out of a belt pouch as he begins to gain altitude and downing it before he makes too much of a target of himself. What's over the walls?

Plains. Forest. Some hills.

Down on the lawn where he first appeared, dozens of teenagers are jeering and laughing at the purple haired girl from before as she lays curled up on the spot where Raafi appeared, shaking.

...oh, hells.

Does he have a translation necklace.... yes. Great. He swoops back over. "Is that supposed to be helping anything," he calls down, "or are you just being assholes?"

Now that he can understand the jeers, they seem to be about mocking the purple haired girl for trying to fake her success by hiring a random commo---NOBLE MAGE??!!!?!

When they all notice that Raafi is flying, their jeers all trail off into mutters of confusion.

The bald man with the staff sighs. "Excuse me. Who might you be?" he asks Raafi.

"Raafi, cleric of Fharlanghn. Not of this plane, if that failed spell earlier is any indication. What's going on here?"

The bald man opens his mouth to reply, but before he can, the milling crowd of students erupts in protest. An argument breaks out between those who insist "the zero" hired an actor, and those who appear to be calling Raafi variations on "heathen" and "blasphemer".

"BE THAT AS IT MAY!" The crowd falls silent. "Welcome to Tristain Academy of Magic, Raafi. I am Professor Colbert. And unfortunately this is a somewhat unprecidented situation. I hope you'll bear with me as I explain your situation, given that," he raises his voice for the sake of the students, "you did indeed come forth from Miss Vallière's successful familiar summoning."

(The girl on the ground suddenly stops shaking.)

He shoots several of the louder students dirty looks.

"-you can't possibly mean the same thing by that that the wizards I'm used to do. Yes, please explain."

Colbert gestures about.

"As you can see, the other members of this class have all summoned animals or magical beasts. To summon a fellow human mage is unheard of. The Springtime Familiar Summoning is the ultimate rite, the sacred proof of a mage's existence, for all of our hallowed history. By casting the holy ritual left behind by Founder Brimir, every mage is paired with a destined exemplar of their element."

Colbert sighs.

"By all the laws of god and men, the being summoned by the holy ritual is that familiar. There are no mistakes, and no second chances. Miss Vallière's fate is, it would appear, entirely in your hands. She must complete the ritual binding you to her, or she will be expelled, not just from this school but from noble society entire, stripped of all titles and inheritances."

"-what will that. do. to me."

"It will mark you with a set of runes that may or may not have some beneficial effect. To be frank, it is mostly a formality, but unfortunately it is a formality that is absolutely required of Miss Vallière here."

He relaxes a bit, though he doesn't descend any further. "I want to talk to her first."

He can do that.

The girl sits up and blinks at him.

"You came back."

 Now he descends, close enough to speak quietly to her, his tone much softer. "Yeah." He goes to scoop her up. "You're not afraid of heights, are you?"

She blushes a lot when he picks her up, and holds very still in his arms.

"...a little? I can't cast Levitate."

"I won't drop you." He starts ascending, slowly at first while he's not sure how she'll react. "And I can cast Fly on you once I have my hands free." Once he's clear of the crowd, he heads for the roof of the school.

The school doesn't really have a roof, but it has some unoccupied balconies.

That'll do in a pinch. He settles her gently and peeks inside to make sure they aren't being watched before settling himself on the railing. He doesn't try to talk to her immediately, but seems to be giving her a moment to relax and think first.

"I wouldn't blame you," she finally says, after a long silence. "If you dropped me and went home. It doesn't make any sense. How can you be my destined familiar?"