Sun rays filled the cold empty halls of The Schnee Manor. The few maids and butlers who were on morning duty had swept and scrubbed most of the halls, and the cooks began to prepare for breakfast.

Usually, there would be more personnel to fulfil the plethora of tasks the mansion had, but a large portion of the staff had either went along with their employer or were on temporary leave to keep costs low.

The remaining servants were spread thinly around the mansion. If you were lucky, you could walk around all the halls and not see anyone else. This was more due to the large size of the manor, rather than a lack of workers. Even in its current state, the mansion had around 100 employees working.

But while the rest of the manors residents slept, Winter had already woken up and was on her way to Weiss' room. They had both agreed that they'd have training session together each morning while Winter stayed at the mansion. Military business kept her usually busy so she gladly took upon the request from her sister to train her.

It was with Winter's help that Weiss was able to learn to use Time Dilation and make progress in Summoning. Today they planned to further Weiss' skills in Summoning and hopefully have her succeed.

Winter stopped as she turned to the door to her sister's room. The hallway's doors were all the same, but years of wandering them gave all the residents a good idea of what door lead to what room. She knocked on the door and waited for her sister to open.

But the door remained closed and no sound could be heard either. Winter still decided to let a few seconds pass before trying again. This time with a little more strength.

There was still no answer. Normally Weiss would already battle-ready and was only waiting for her to come. But now it became clear to Winter that her sister was still asleep.

She didn't blame her. Winter knew that Weiss frequented night training, which she seemed to want to do on her own. But even if that was the case it was no excuse to not at least answer the door.

"Weiss, are you awake?" As she suspected, still no answer.

It was not good mannerism of her, but there was little choice left. And so, she opened the door. "I'm coming in now."

She took a step forward and immediately noticed a scent. It smelt as if something were burning…

A sudden realization hit her as she quickly entered the room and looked around. There was no fire, but the source of the smell was clear: Weiss' bed.

The smell was not the only thing that surprised her, but also the unfamiliar silhouette on her sister's bed.

This would have been a cause for alarm for her, but the sleeping faces of both girls kept her somewhat calm. She had never seen anyone else in her sister's room. All visits from the staff went unnoticed and for most people entering the room would be considered trespassing by her sister.

Questions like who the girl was began to quickly form inside Winter's head but she had nothing to go off. It was like the girl had just appeared out of thin air. There were no visitors at the manor nor were any coming. And the wings that the mystery girl had were as mysterious as the girl.

But she then remembered the more considering thing out of the norm in the room: the smoke.

She took a quick step or two closer to the bed and instantly realized the cause. The wings were gradually blackening the blanket, and it was a miracle a fire had yet to start.

Winter took action as she prepared to firstly remove both girls from the bed. She took hold of the blanket right under the girl and made a fast and seamless pulling motion. The blanket slipped from under the girl and her sister and both woke in the process.

"Weiss," Winter began, "I hope you have an explanation for this."

Weiss first gave a baffled face as she had yet fully awake, but it didn't take long for her to realize the situation.

"I swear can explain!"

The burned sheet was now hanging on the balcony while the two sisters stood there quietly waiting for the other to start.

"So, can I get an explanation for who this girl is and why you thought letting her sleep in a bed was a good idea?" Winter started.

"I…" Weiss had planned on telling her sister at some point about The Summoning, but she had completely forgotten their morning routine. "…summoned her yesterday."

Weiss knew the answer sounded absolutely absurd, but she had no time to figure out a good way to explain everything.

"Summoned? You mean you summoned that girl-" Her sister pointed in her room where Bella was sitting on the floor with a confused face."-during your night training?"

I should have known she'd find that out… "Yes… I don't know exactly what happened myself, but she did appear in the Summoning Glyph."

Winter looked as if she didn't believe a word she said, but Weiss knew that her sister wouldn't disregard her claims that quickly. Trying to lie to one of Atlas' top operatives was something she knew not to try. This was likely something Winter had also realized.

"Alright." Her sister answered after a moment of silence. "I trust you are telling me the truth, but what about my other question?"

"Ah-" Weiss quickly figured what her sister meant. "Well… I… I don't know."

She wasn't completely sure why letting Bella in her bed didn't raise any more flags than it had. Now thinking back she figured she had just been tired, but maybe it was also to compensate for her… over-reaction in the garden. She had been and still was somewhat oblivious to the world around her, so making a simple mistake like grabbing her leg too strongly or shocking her was something Weiss couldn't blame the girl for. And if you really twisted it, it was her fault for summoning Bella in the first place. She had to take responsibility for the girl's actions while she was still learning how to behave properly.

Her sister nodded at the answer. "I see, we can continue on the topic later. But do you still want to go training? I did come here for that in the first place."

Weiss thought of her answer. They had been practising summoning, which she had now succeeded in, but that didn't mean there wasn't anything to improve on. For all she knew, this could have just happened by chance.

"Yes, I still need to polish the process." She gave the answer to her sister.

"Then I'll go set-up things while you prepare. And also bring your new Summon along."

Her sister gave both a smile and a small wave as she left and closed the door.

Weiss immediately headed to her cabinet to put on her combat dress while leaving the always confused Bella sitting on the floor.

Winter had placed the targets in the right places and had put the training bots on stand-by mode.

While she appeared accepting of the fact that her sister had summoned the winged girl, she still was picking apart all evidence and trying to figure out what had happened for herself.

She had no memory of Weiss having killed a girl, not that she'd ever do that. Nor were the records of something similar happening with older generations of the Semblances users, who perhaps could have done so. Winter had no choice but to trust her sister's word.

It wasn't like she didn't trust Weiss. More than it was unorthodox of her to believe something without knowing the facts first. The only other case where she would do so was in the military, where obeying orders blindly was sometimes the only option.

But there was one thing she in her mind. And that was how Weiss' could keep a summon active for such a long time. If the girl was in fact a summon, then that meant she would drain Weiss' aura constantly as she remained formed.

This was one of the things she wanted to find out during their training.

"Sister, we're here."

She turned to Weiss as heard her call her. Both of the girls looked ready to begin training.

"I forgot to introduce her to you back in my room." Weiss held her hand towards Bella. "This Bella."

Winter nodded and responded. "It's nice to meet you, Bella. I am Winter Schnee and also Weiss' sister."

Weiss awkwardly scratched her neck."I… also forgot mention that she doesn't understand Universal."

"Oh," White realized her mistake. "I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions."

"No, it's alright… I was the same when I summoned her."

"That still doesn't excuse my behaviour. But this isn't mannerism class. Today I want to see what you can do with your Summoning Glyph and what Bella here is capable of."

Weiss nodded in understanding. "So do you want me to begin with the Summoning or…"

"Yes, we'll begin with The Summoning."

"Okay." Weiss gave another and walked over to the clearing with Myrtenaster.

Bella stood beside the woman her master had previously spoken to. Her master had seemingly given her the order to stay put, as felt like she was glued to the ground. She had at some point figured out the correlation between her master's orders and invisible force pushing and pulling her around.

It was a great relief on her part, as now she had no fear of misunderstanding orders or missing them entirely. But she still selfishly wished to be able to speak to her master, and more importantly, understand her. One thing she had learned was her name: Bella. It had oddly familiar to her, despite never having heard it.

And while her young master was doing something, she sat on a low wall and watched. She didn't get what she was doing, but the thought was what counted.