Scrrrsh.Scrrrsh. A long, twisted iron bar scratched against the walls as she walked down the long, dark hallway between her room and the stairs leading up to the library. Flandre Scarlet had a lot on her mind - she was restless, fidgety, edgy. Worst of all, she was bored. Bored out of her centuries-old mind, and the worst kind of bored, to boot - the kind of bored that sets in when you know that other people are having fun, and you have been specifically excluded.

Not that she blamed Remilia for that - she loved her older sister, and Remilia loved her right back. Anything Flan wanted - so long as she was currently stable - Remilia would move, if not heaven and earth, then earth and a good portion of hell, to get her; for her part, Flan respected her sister's wishes and did her best not to cause unnecessary trouble. Like when that stupid shrine maiden had come with the "invitation" to the party …

"What do you mean, Flan can't come? If she can't come, then I won't go."

Reimu sighed. "That's not an option, Remilia. This is a party for some newcomers, and we don't know how they'll react to vampires at all, let alone one who can't control herself. She's dangerous and difficult to control, so she can't come; you, on the other hand, are a respected member of the community, so you must come."

"She's getting better!" Flan hadn't been able to see anything - she was listening in on the conversation using an old spell of Patchouli's - but she could imagine the fretful look on Remilia's face; she usually got that way when she whined like that.

"Oh really? How can you tell?"

"Well …." And the hanging head that shows she's lost an argument.

"That's right, you can't. So you're going to go to the party at my shrine tomorrow, and your sister isn't. If I have to break into the mansion and beat you again, I will." Stupid Red-White Shrine Maiden. But the voice softened, "Look, you don't even need to tell her about this. Just say you're going out for a bit - or don't even tell her at all! - and she won't know." A sigh. "I'll see you tomorrow."

But Remilia had told Flandre - had told her, fighting back the tears, that the others had demanded that she come but leave her sister behind. And before Remilia could work herself into a fit, Flan had hugged her, told her it was alright, and that she'd be fine for a day or two. That Remilia needed the company of people besides her and Pache, and that if her courtiers demanded her presence then surely she was needed. And her sister had smiled a bit, and her tears had dried, and she promised to bring back presents. But that was yesterday. And Remi and Sakuya had left earlier today.

And right now she was bored. She wasn't even feeling fey, like that time she'd tried a coup when Remilia had been visiting the Hakurei shrine on business. She still hadn't figured out how Patchouli had been able to stop her - not only had she not been coughing her lungs out while throwing out all kinds of water spells, but she'd even fought some intruder who'd gotten past Meiling beforehand! That sort of thing just didn't happen … but she hadn't told Remilia, it seemed, so Flan didn't get in trouble for trying to break out of the basement. But she was normal right now, and the basement door was in sight, and she was so bored …

And then she stopped. What is this?Some new magic Pache made? A strange mirror of some sort barred her way. Flandre stared at it for a moment, mind whirling - and then, with a mischievous grin, she turned sideways (so her wings would fit) and slipped through the mirror-passage. Sneak sneak! And then the grin died, and she began shrieking as she felt the horrible pain, like that of the sun when she was so much younger … and then the shrieks faded away as her mind fled.

The students - and the tall, balding man who oversaw their Summoning Rituals - opened their eyes and uncovered their ears. Finally, one of them - a short pink-haired girl - stepped over the collapsed figure and knelt beside it, and the older man followed. What they saw was a young girl, maybe eight to ten years old, with short blonde hair with a long pony-tail on her left side. She wore a short red dress or skirt, with a matching vest and a pink shirt … and she had two twisted iron-like bars with colored crystals hanging from them, that would - had they looked like almost anything else - probably be wings. Now that the piercing screams had died down, she looked exhausted, but untroubled, as though she'd simply fallen asleep.

"Well, Miss Valliere, it seems you've successfully managed to summon a familiar. Precisely what she is, I'm not sure, but you should proceed with the Binding, and then we can take her to the infirmary." The man seemed a little worried, and spoke a little quickly and loudly, but that may have just been because his ears were still ringing. The student started, then nodded quickly.

"Yes, Mr. Colbert." She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and then briefly flourished her wand. "I am Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière; Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, bless this humble being and make her my familiar." She then touched the wand to the girl's head, pulled her into a sitting position, and kissed her forehead. Some of the students could now see the crystal wings, and some of their murmurs could be heard.

"Did the Zero really just succeed? What kind of wings are those? Figures that the Zero would manage to botch this somehow." Louise, however, ignored them in favor of watching her new familiar closely, searching for any signs of harm or other distress that could explain the screaming. She gasped as the girl twitched slightly, apparently in reaction to the runes forming on her left hand. Professor Colbert noted them with interest, "Hm, those seem to be rather unusual …." Shaking himself, he called to the other students to return to the classroom, then levitated himself, Louise, and the strange girl to take them to the Infirmary.

Bright red eyes popped open, and Flandre controlled herself immediately. The last thing she needed was to scare her sister … and then she realized Remilia wasn't around. In fact, she wasn't anywhere she recognized, and she certainly didn't recognize the girl sleeping right in front of her. Although given that, shemust not know who I am, either.Or else she's terminally stupid. She got up - carefully, so as not to wake the sleeper - and stretched, looking around. She was in an outside room - a tower room, for that matter, judging by the curvature of the wall and the view from the window. Flan shrank back a little - Remilia was the one who like towers, not her - but then straightened up and marched over to look outside.

As it was night, she naturally looked up to see if she recognized the constellations, and gasped when she saw not one, but two moons. One larger blue moon, and the smaller a beautiful scarlet. "Uwaaa~!" Flandre's eyes shone brightly, and her left hand started itching. Taking her eyes from the mesmerizing sight, she saw noticed strange marks on her hand. She stared at them as she tried rubbing them off, memory twitching. Where have I seen marks like that before? That one looks like an "X," and then a sort of upside-down "U," and the one at the end is an "F," …. The marks wouldn't come off, though.

"They're runes. They mark you as my Familiar," a new voice said, startling Flan. She turned and jumped back - and would have fallen through the window, except for her wings. The pink-haired girl who had been sleeping across from her was now awake, mostly. She yawned and rubbed one eye before continuing, "Are you alright? You were screaming when I summoned you, but you seemed to be fine … um, except for those." She pointed vaguely at Flan's wings.

""Those" are my wings," came the indignant response. Then she giggled - that cute, childish action that made anyone who heard it forget they were dealing with the most dangerous person in the room, and instead think of her as nothing more than she appeared - and ran, slowly, back to the bed and jumped on. The girl seemed to want to be irritated, but faced with all the charm Flan could muster, smiled resignedly. "My name is Flandre Scarlet. Oh! You said we were in the same family, right? Is my sister here too?"

"I am Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière … and what do you mean about being 'family?' You're my 'familiar,'" she said, emphasizing the distinction between the two words. As Flandre frowned at the apparent scolding, she softened. "I suppose it does mean that you're part of my family now, kind of. Familiars are supposed to serve their Masters, but most familiars are just animals or magical beasts. I can't think of any, uh … human familiars ever being summoned. I don't suppose you know how to do any chores?"

"I can pick up after myself!" Flan said brightly, intentionally misunderstanding again. "My big sister used to take care of me, and then we got our house and we got a bunch of servants, and Sakuya takes care of Remilia and me, and Pache gives me lessons when she's not making sure the library is taken care of!" Her cheerful smile became a worried frown. "You're not going to make me study, are you? Lessons are boring," she finished with a pout. Then she registered the worried look on Louise's face. "Is something wrong?"

"Um, is your sister a noble?"

"Umm … yes? She's really rich and famous and pretty and everyone listens to what she says. And if they don't do what she tells them to do, she gets angry and yells at them, unless she wants to execute someone for being in-… in-sub-ord-you-nate." At this point, Flan paused - she was no longer speaking, or even thinking in Japanese, as she had in Gensokyo (after Remilia had ruthlessly drilled that language into her head, and Patchouli had used magic to ease the shift in languages); she was speaking in something far closer to French. Pache's spell must still be working, if I didn't notice the change. She cocked her head to the side upon seeing Louise laugh.

"Insubordinate, not 'you.' Is your sister a mage? Can she use magic?"

"Umm … kind of. It's a really weird sort of magic, though …." Flan's eyes narrowed briefly as she glanced again at her hand. That's where I've seen them before.Remi's magic. "Pache is a magician, though. She takes care of the library." She looked around. "Umm … is my sister here? She's probably going to be worried when she can't find me. I hope she doesn't get too mad."

"Where do you live?" Louise asked.

"In the big red mansion by the lake!" Flan said, smiling widely. Louise's eyebrow twitched, then she sighed.

"That's really not anywhere near enough information. That doesn't match anyone in Tristain that I know of, but I suppose you could be from Gallia, Romalia, or even Albion. Not Germania, though, I hope." The confused look on her familiar's face made her sigh again. "Haa~. Well, let's not worry about that for now. Once we find out where you're from, we can see about sending a message to your sister about what happened. For now, though, let's go back to sleep; it's still a long time to morning, and I have classes to attend." She grimaced. "I suppose you'll have to come with me, huh?"

"Okay!" Flan snuggled under the covers, then curled up and hugged Louise, her wings pointing straight back. Then she relaxed slightly and looked up. "Hey? Why are there two moons? And they're different colors, too - the red one is pretty, though - but there's only supposed to be one white moon, right?" She saw Louise's face slowly pass from confusion, to realization, to horror … and then she scrunched her eyes and smiled.

"We'll talk about that later, okay Flandre? Let's go to sleep now."

"Okay! I'm glad you're here to take care of me. You're nice."