I'm glad to see that Vallo's revolving door worked in your favor, yesterday, and you received your beloved pets.
Back home, like most careers, there is legal and illegal magic. Generally, illegal magic lines up well with 'forbidden' magic, meaning that it's considered immoral and usurps the power of the leading class and/or the gods. That said, illegal magic is frequently practiced on the sly by the wealthy, who if caught generally can pay their fine and continue on as they were. Most of our forbidden magic deals with manipulations of the mind, of illusions, and of demon-summoning.
But quite a bit of forbidden magic is needlessly forbidden - in my home country, which is backwards in many regards, women are not allowed to practice magic because they aren't allowed to be certified by the Academy. That's changing, albeit slowly - but I wanted to mention it to underscore the point that 'forbidden' in my world is not synonymous with 'evil', nor should it be.
Forgive me if I don't adequately understand, but you draw upon spirits for your power, is that correct?