[Falke Residence; Midnight]

It was dark and cold in the room, a room that was both sparse in furniture, decor and walldecoration. It was a rather small place, no larger than perhaps twenty or twentyfive feet both on both lengths. There were candles, small, luminous lights that gently danced in the overwhelming darkness, bound to consume their fickle light at any given moment. However, from the vague light that shined and were there was one thing that could be seen. There, on the cold and dirty (and quite dusty) stone floor, was a drawing, a drawing made from white chalk. It represented a pentagram, with many fine details scribbled around it and within it, all quite amazing if you thought about it, since chalk was not known to be a very handy or easy material to use when either drawing or writing.

A door opened and light shined it briefly, before the heavy shutter closed and once again the room was bathed in oblivion's inverted light. There stood now a young woman, barely visible in the light from the candles. Her face looked dulled and sleepy, so did her eyes. She carried nothing with her except a common, brown-coloured bathrobe which was donned, loosely tied together at the front with a cloth sash of the same colour and fabric. The young female stepped over to the circle and eyed it down, staring at it for a few moments before thoughts and mindprocesses began swirling inside her head.

She stretched her hands outward, cracking her hands and fingers, she then did a few stretch-movements (probably not in order to perform the ritual, but rather just to warm herself up) before finally taking a last deep breath before beginning.

"I am The Bringer and Wielder of the Five,
She who calls upon the Service of They Who Are,
It is my will that They grant onto me the services of Thou,
It is thy wish that I serve in the fruition of destiny and fate,
It is thy will that I stand by thy side as fire and ice encircle us,
It is my wish that thou stand besides me and shields me from Those,
It is my will that we share our destiny until the day They are ours or none.
By this creed, by this pledge, come forth and let us embrace each other."

The chalk circle that had previously been only the dull, white colour on the dusty ground suddenly glowed with vigor that was unnatural. It became a pristine and overwhelming white, emitting a glow that completely chased away the darkness that had previously covered the room. The lights of the candles were brought to their demise and fickle slivers of transparent smoke slowly made it's way towards the roof, though this was unnoticeable to the light that overwhelmed the room at this point. The intensity of the glow increased and increased, until it was so bright that nothing could be seen in the windowless sanctuary.

And then it all faded. The candles, the circle, all was gone. Alone in the room was the woman in the bathrobe, who had shielded her eyes from the bright light with her sleeve. As she let the arm slowly fall down along her side, she looked about the room with her sleepy expression. Nothing?

[Leclair Estate; Basement]

The woman who stood before Sophie now, clad in her dark dress and matchingly darkend armour, had a remarkably stern face and equally stern eyes etched onto her at the moment. It was clear that she was either a very a serious individual or, for some reason, greatly unamused at the present time. Whichever the case, the Servant spoke in order to address her new, and young, mistress.

"I, Rider, Pledge my life in service of you, my Master." She bowed her head slightly towards the child, though in this case it only looked as if she was looking down at the girl infront of her. She then raised her head once more and looked around the basement, eyeing the boy and the other servant, Caster, with much disdain visible on her face. The nonchalant magi-servant and her, quite possibly, inept Master both seemed ideally matched; Seeing as both of them were quite fond of their mouths and hearing their own voices.

The Servant in armour then fixed her eyes upon Caster and spoke with her rather clear 'no-nonsense' tone of speech.

"If your Master can be hurt by mere words alone, then what chances does he have of victory, Caster?" Quite uncorteous there, was she not? Rider then looked back to her own Master. "Clearly, it is I who have received the better end of this deal." Her face, at this point, warmed up (and a lot in that regard) allowing a weak and quite motherly smile to appear on the woman's face as she looked down upon Sophie with a gentle expression.

"I agree with your call however, Caster. I too wish to see the dwelling of my Master, though not for the sake of my own, personal boredom." The woman said, still looking at Sophie and clearly marking the difference between the two servant's desires.

__________________