I have ideas, ideas that will stay secret for now. They need to cook in my brain before I make them a reality.
One Week has passed since the Spring Summoning Ritual occurred. Students were enjoying their time chatting with one another, while the Servants tended to them. It however was not hard to notice the sunken eyes on a few of the servants. For Louise she wanted to agree with them as it was bothersome to have been awoken on such a day.
"Miss Valliere, your food." Louise turned to see the tired eyes of a maid looking right back at her. Looking at her plate it was not what she had asked for, having a little too much bacon on the side.
"This is not my meal."
The girl's eyes widened as she looked completely mortified, "I-I AM-!"
"You do not need to scream it at me." Louise fired off before the entire room would look in their direction, "I still owe you for some of that information do I not?"
The maid, Siesta, steadily nodded her head, "I am sorry Miss Louise. I have not been sleeping that well lately."
"I hope it is not my familiar." Louise admitted as she looked at the maid with a torn expression.
"I-I cannot say. We have a little bit of a rat problem right now that we are trying to take care of." The young lady admitted while rubbing at her face, "I will admit, Miss Louise, that it is a losing battle."
A small shiver went down Louise's back as she looked back to the maid, "Have you thought about hiring a mage to take care of it?"
"We did that already." The maid lamented with a pure pain upon herself, "But they keep coming from the walls even after we flood or burn each of their holes. They must be coming from a place much deeper than magic can reach."
Louise mulled over those words for a moment. Then she looked at the maid again, "You want me to make sure Itch is not the cause of it?"
"Please oh please!" The maid cried out with pain, "Every night I hear them in the stonework. It is just like how my Grandfather described their kin, and how they would attract other vermin to their lairs."
Louise sighed as she didn't really want to be talking about these things here in the cafeteria. However none of the students seemed to be paying anymore attention these days, and the dreadful Kirche is nowhere to be found.
"Do not talk of these things in here, am I understood?"
The maid's eyes widened, "I-I am very sorry."
"It is fine, you are obviously overworked." Louise admitted as she mulled over my next choice of words, "I will be taking Itch out to get him some more proper clothing. You can clean my room as long as you lock the door behind you."
The maid's eyes widened as she gave the most firm nod Louise had seen in a while, "I thank you, Miss Louise! I will try and repay you!"
As the girl left Louise the Noble mulled over what she did. Ever since she talked to that maid about Itch, the two of them had actually been helping the other out more and more. It was Siesta who gathered willing maids to help give Itch a daily cleaning while Louise would give things like this, a place to sleep comfortably.
The simple matter was that the servants seemed more kind ever since she started working with Siesta, far more than their respectful status quo before. Her mother had taught her well to respect the servants, and about times they had taken bullets for her. Louise did not know what she really meant until the trials that she faced dealing with her Familiar.
Soon breakfast we finished and Louise made her way down the lot where all the Familiars were held. It did not take her long to track down her rat, considering the creature was once again smelling like a dead cat.
"Boss-Master!" The rat exclaimed as he saw her arrive, "It is good to see you once again."
"Itch." Louise declared as she finally arrived to the Skaven, "We just cleaned you yesterday. Why do you smell again?"
"I have been hard at work creating the exhibition that you asked for." He said with a mouth slowly starting to curl.
"That… well from here onwards I order you to get yourself cleaned up before meeting up with me. Am I understood!"
"But Master-Boss I-!" The rat stood still as Louise brought her wand to bear against his face.
"You have seen my explosions, Itch. I wonder what will happen if I let one off in your face." Such a threat Louise genuinely wanted to perform. Who wouldn't against a rotten face like her Familiar's.
"Yes-Yes! Itch understands Master-Boss perfectly!" He exclaimed while raising his ratty arms.
"Good, and be sure to use a barrel too." She ordered the brat, "Brimir knows what will happen if you bathe in the stream instead."
"Understood, Master-Boss." The Skaven reluctantly said with a lowered head.
"Now do it now!" Ordered the Pinkette with a fury in her voice, "We are heading to town today and I would not want the peasants to hang you by the tail!"
There was not even a response from the rat as it quickly ran off as fast as possible. Louise's work was cut out for herself at this point. Every night he would leave her to work on whatever this project was. While it was her duty to find out what exactly this project was, she was honestly a little scared of what her Familiar was working on.
It had only been a week with him and she knew he was some flavor of insane. Not the kind where you see or hear things that are not there, but an insanity that wipes all morals from the soul itself. Unless forced, her Familiar would not care about being clean or would try to convince her of ordering him to do something else. Unlike the servants of the academy this rat needed to be bashed over the head, whipped, or blown up into submission.
Anything else was just begging to have him skitter his way out of it.
Within the hour the both of them were ready, Louise commandeering a carriage to take the two of them over towards the nearest city.
"Kukuku, we are closing towards our destination-place!" He said excitedly with a devious smile, "Oh what can we get here I wonder!"
"..." Louise did not expect her rat of a familiar to be this well ready for the trip, especially what they were going there for. No she had a guess and needed to iron out the problem now, "Familiar, is there something you are looking for in the city?"
"Hmm, oh its nothing master-boss. Nothing you need to-!"
"I order you to tell me."
"I-!" Before the rat could finish he seemed to suffer a moment's pain, "Yes yes, I want to get some parts for my project."
"Parts for the show?" Louise asked skeptically, "I order you know to tell me what exactly you are planning."
"But master-boss I-!" Louise held up a whip towards her familiar, to which the creature stopped for a moment as if weighing his options, "I-me understands. I plan-am building a Doom-Flayer!"
There was a moment of confusion on Louise's face as she looked at him, "Doom-Flayer?"
"Yes yes, a motorized warmachine capable of going faster than horses!" He said with a devilish eye, "It is capable enough for both Itch and Master-Boss to ride it."
Louise took a moment to process those words as she slowly thought about it. He called it a war machine but then again Horse are technically beasts of war, "So it's essentially a better horse?"
"No no, master, it has spikes and weight to kill many soldiers! I personally have crushed several men under its metal claws myself." He said in one of those rare moments of honesty.
Louise weighed her options against one another, "You are to remove as many spikes from it as you possibly can, however I will allow its making."
"Thank you master-boss, thank you!" He squealed while shaking her hands, "Scrap, I need scrap!"
"Scrap? What kind?"
"Metal-tin!"
"Metal?" Louise looked a little confused before thinking to herself for a moment, "I can look into getting some delivered to the Academy."
"Hehehe, thank you Master-Boss." The rat grew a devious smile just when Louise was feeling comfortable around her familiar.
Soon they arrived at the town, the two of them being dropped off at the front of the gates. The Guards did not say a word as the two walked into the room without issue. Though Louise could tell there was some desire to call out Itch for what he was.
The people in the streets did not pay Itch that much heed, with the exception of a few children staring at him in disbelief. The only moment that got Louise just a tad bit interested was when the rat's nose went into the air.
"Two smell-targets." He said before changing directions entirely, "Chance for revenge-vengeance comes!"
"What are you-?" Louise was about to say something before being pulled into the shadows by her familiar. She was about to say something, but her familiar covered her mouth and pointed in a direction.
Standing there was Kirche the Ardent Flame. Such a person was looking a little annoyed as if she was waiting for someone. Louise gave her familiar a small nod as if telling him she understood and to let her speak.
"What, no, why are we avoiding her?" Louise would have said thanks but this was her damned familiar.
"See-look at this." She watched as her familiar pulled from nowhere a perfume vial.
She only needed a moment to realize whose it was, "Montmerencie's!?"
"Hmm, if that is name of his other woman yes-indeed." The rat said while pointing in another direction.
Guiche, the boyfriend of Montmerencie stood there, "The Horned Rat has blessed us with a chance for revenge-attack."
Louise was a little confused, but watched as the rat softly pushed the vial towards the woman. The next moment she watched Kirche turn towards the vial with a small bit of curiosity and picked it up.
In the next moment Guiche turned to see her and his eyes widened, "K-Kirche!"
The woman took a moment to look at the vial before looking towards the man himself, "Oh my, how did this get into my possession I wonder?"
"Why do you have that!?" Called out Guiche as he almost stumbled on his words.
"It was simply something I found on the ground." She said with a smirk, "Now why would I find it anywhere but your Fiance's Bedroom and yours?"
"I-I dropped it!" Declared Guiche as he ran to grab at the item. However much to his dismay the larger woman simply side stepped him and pulled the bottle away.
"I see, so this one is special~" Correctly guessed the woman as she placed the bottle behind her and lowered to show off her bosom, "Whose is it? Oh I don't need to ask you, it was Kate wasn't it?"
"Guh!" The man moved to grab his heart as if an arrow had struck it, "Please, oh great Kirche the Ardent, I ask you please give me the perfume bottle."
"Hmm." The woman seemed to weigh her options for a moment before a much more devious smile crossed her face. Taking the bottle she snugly sneaked it into her bosom, "Well if you want it you will need to come get it~"
And like that she bolted, causing the latter to give chase with a fury only a desperate man would know.
"Man-things think they are smart." Started Itch as he emerged from the shadows, "But they fall-tricked into becoming pawns of Skaven."
"What is the aim here, Itch?" Louise probably should have stopped him from doing that, but now she was invested this maybe as much as him.
"Yes yes, young man-things think themselves smart but are very driven by desire." Answered the rat as he grew the most evil grin yet, "We have planted a crop of corruption, now it must grow."
Louise mauled over the idea, her mind becoming more and more wary of what he suggested. Against all her training and tradition Louise grew a smile as she realized what was happening was exactly what she wanted for so long.
"Finally, I can rid myself of Kirch." She said before walking once more, "For that Itch, I will make sure you get all the scrap upon the name of Valliere."
"Thank you Master-Boss." The rat said while following her, "I will endeavor myself to realize this plan."
The Spring Summoning Ritual attempts to pick Servants who are most compatible with their masters.