Effie Wisender

Effie's closest companion is her familiar, which typically takes the form of a curious oversize bee. It shows distinct intelligence and an influence over mundane pollinators. It seems to have a special relationship with the wandering hives that Effie looks after as well, perhaps acting as a soothing infiltrator to the hives and their queens. It seems able to vanish when wanting to be unseen and only shows in the material world when needed by Effie, clinging to her hair or hovering when she is gardening or doing magic.

A creature with all the respect for its person as a cat and a ferret combined, this greedy little nectar eater can often be difficult to find among all the jars of reagents and tea leaves lining Effie's shelves. She is a miniature manaraptor, a familiar species that requires the right mage and a touch of their magic to hatch. An unusually small example of a manaraptor with an odd diet to boot, she mostly eats nectar, pollens, soft fruits, small insects, and larvae. There are tiny hairs on the end of her longue tongue forming a 'brush' not unlike a lorikeet (albeit less prominent) for feeding off flowers. Honeythief is an effective pollinator able to store nectar and create honey in her throat pouch, which likely has special properties - however, this 'raptor honey' is primarily used to attract small insects for lunch.

These are not companions or familiars so much as rare specimens that Effie looks after. While they resemble once living creatures and can occasionally recall fragments of preserved memory, they are little more than mobile hives and lack true individuality. A Wandering Hive is a special construct of honey and wax wrapped around the remains of a damaged soul. These hives grow from the form of infant animals to adult form, or whatever the final stage was the animal held before it died. The unusual queens in these hives are the true supernatural animal, an insect with the capability of seeing and preserving the remains of other creatures. Effie strongly suspects that these queens are repairing the souls they collect, piecing them back together over many longs years of tedious work before allowing the hive to die and the spirit inside to properly move on. The 'queen that sees' then takes her hive away in search of another damaged soul to repair.

Effie maintains two colonies in the shape of a fox and a cat respectively, which seem to get along well enough for her to keep in close proximity. They provide her with ample amounts of wax and honey for her business practices, but for obvious reasons she's reluctant to reveal her sources.