Louise, the third daughter of the Valliere's, was in a panic, and only one thing was going through her mind. Where was she? Last she knew, she was at the academy performing her summoning ceremony.

Everywhere she looked, she only found darkness, a never-ending void to nowhere that confused and frightened her. The sound of squeaking rats was all that accompanied her in this deep dark void.

Swallowing, she said "Hello!" into the void, hoping for any sort of help.

"Child of man-things and Chaos." A voice whispered to her in the voice of a thousand screeching rats.

The sky suddenly lit up into a sickly green colour, bathing Louise in green light. All around her were magnificent ruins of a castle long since abandoned. Her eyes darted to the sky, looking for the source of the voice, but there was nothing.

Her breathing grew more panicked. Her mind raced, 'Rule of Steel, Rule of Steel, Rule of Steel.'

When the voice refused to show its self, she collected herself. To her left were the castle's battlements. She walked over to it, gripping the broken stone with her thin fingers and looked out over her surroundings.

Beyond the castle lay wastelands filled with the dead bodies of various creatures. Most of whom looked human. Louise's mouth hung agape "Gods." She muttered at the sight. The wasteland

"You seek power." The voice called again. The clouds slowly parted, and from the sickly green clouds came a massive skull of some giant rat with teeth as tall as towers. Its eyes glowed a deadly green, and innumerable horns covered its head as tall as mountains. "You seek proof of your strength." The voice boomed.

Fear gripped Louise. She could hardly comprehend what she was staring at. It was some strange amalgamation of man and rat.

"The horned rat shall grant you command over the rats. Used them as you will."

Louise, barely able to collect herself, finally sputtered out a "What."

But it didn't care to answer. A massive arm reached out of the clouds. It outstretched its hand and poked her in the chest with its enormous claw.

She was confused for a time, but her chest started to heat up, it got hotter and hotter until it began to burn, and by the gods, it burned.

She collapsed to her knees in pain, pressing both hands against her chest. Tears built in her eyes.

She looked to the monstrous beast before her. "Head west and reclaim the undercity."

The world around her suddenly fell away, and she fell with it into a deep dark void.

She screamed for as long as she could.

"Leave it to Louise to screw up a summoning." Her familial rival, one Kirche Zerbst, said from somewhere.

'Huh?' Only then did Louise realize that she was back in the academy courtyard, smoke blanketing the area.

The smoke was suddenly blown away by some unseen mage, allowing Louise to see what she had summoned.

Before her stood a rat-man, who was a little bit smaller than her, it wore green spectacles which hid its red eyes, a purple scarf and a black robe upon its belt were tied potions of various colours and a large book. Upon its back was a basket with several scrolls.

It looked around, seemingly in a panic. Until its eyes landed on her, its ears folded back, and it bowed its head. "Marked of the horned one. We must go now-now. Man things surround us, going to kill-crush us."

Louise stood there confused. Was it referring to her? Gulping, she said. "I believe we should be fine." it looked confused.

"But-but man things."

"It's fine." She once again said. Did it not see that she was human?

A low murmur reverberated from its throat. "If you squeak-say. Me-me believes you Marked of the horned one." It said, obviously still scared.

A cough broke their conversation. It was her professor, a tall, nearly bald man who looked about as confused as she was at the whole ordeal. "I'm going to assume that since you understand your familiar, that you've completed the ritual." He said.

"Do you not understand him?" Louise asked, to her, it sounded like perfect Gallian.

"I can't say i can.."

The man looked perplexed for a moment but shook his head, pushing an idea away. "If that's everything, i will end today's class. Spend the rest of today and tomorrow to bond and connect with your familiar." Colbert announced to the rest of the class.

As the students filtered out of the courtyard. Louise worked up the courage to ask the first question to her odd familiar of hers. "Who are you?"

"Me, Thet Farrowwatcher scribe of Skaven Clan Mors, bestest most powerfulest clan on Skavendom. Here to serve you now until the end yes-yes."

Even with such a strange familiar, Louise was just happy that she had succeeded. But what was that vision she had, what's the horned one and what was an undercity?

"Ahhh!" Her familiar screamed, grabbing her attention, to find it running from that dragon Tabitha had summoned. "Reptile thing, send for the doom wheels."

'Guess its more rat then man."