Smooth jazz flowed from the phonograph, as Rodin finished perfecting his latest cocktail, The Moonrose Jewel. Things had been fairly quiet at The Gates of Hell for some time, with the only interruptions being from small Angel flocks or a lone Beloved. It was starting to get... dreary.

A red, demonic portal manifested itself from the floor of the bar, and from its depths rose the Umbra Witch, Bayonetta. Rodin smiled as she approached the counter; he had something special for her.

"Check this out", stated the demon-smith, "Whaddaya buyi-"

"Spare me the tales Rodin, I need a blood rose lollipop and your strongest drink, Stat!"

The witch looked both flustered and exhausted , almost as if some angels had the jump on her. "Jeez, you shitty too? Guess the worlds gone completely crazy today!" Enzo, who was sitting at a nearby table, had just awoken from a recent nap and had been eagerly waiting for the witch's arrival.

"You have no idea-", said Bayonetta, sucking on her lollipop as she downed Rodin's cocktail and requested for more. "Everything has been fairly peculiar today. I got a very rude visit from Fortitudo, where he congratulated me on "Making it in" and that he will "See me there", whatever that means. And ever since then, I've been stalked by multiple Affinities and some Inspired wishing me luck in "Smash" and asking if I could try to spot them when I get there. I still managed to reach my quota, but for all I care, Paradiso has probably discovered narcotics and decided to take their delusions out on me."

"Sounds fuckin' batshit insane", said Enzo, "I've been spending most of my time waitin' for you to show up. Rodin here managed to intercept a letter for you addressed to here, and he wouldn't let me touch the damn thing 'til you had first peeks." Bayonetta raised an eyebrow at the portly man, "... not that I read peoples personal mail for a livin', y'know? Heh heh... yeah."

Rodin moved himself to his workshop hidden behind the drinks cabinet, took an envelope from a nearby table and returned to the counter, the cabinet sliding back in place, "Speakin' of which, here's the letter." He handed the letter to Bayonetta, where she began to study the envelope.

The envelope was made out of a brown parchment, unlike those one could find during the 15th century, and it even had a read wax seal on it. The seal bore an intriguing insignia. It was that of a cross within a circle, but unlike a typical religious cross, it was off-centre; with the intersection sitting at the bottom-right hand corner of the circle. "Do you recognize this?" Bayonetta inquired to Rodin, pointing to the seal. "Doesn't look like anything angelic, demonic or chaotic; too simplistic. But I would probably know if I were in my real form..."

"And you can forget about that!" said Bayonetta, whipping around and taking quick aim at him with Prelude, "That's the last time I spend twenty million halos for you to turn into an angel and/or a nigh – invulnerable demon!" Rodin stood unflinching, and chuckled. "Don't worry. I only wanted to offer you a challenge."

Bayonetta stared suspiciously at the Demon-smith, and lowered her weapon. Enzo chimed in, too impatient to care about the squabble, "We done here already? C'mon you're taking forever!" Bayonetta took the letter from the counter again, still glancing at the smirking Rodin. She carefully removed the seal from the envelope, placing it on the counter, and opened the envelope. Within it was a folded piece of paper made from the same parchment as the envelope. She unfolded the paper, smoothing it out on the counter, and began to read.