[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/bdQDcE2.png[/img]
[sub][i]West Çanakkale, Mansion's Courtyard[/i]
[color=gray]Collab with [@Enkryption][/color][/sub][/center]
It was a pleasant surprise when Hektor Bahadir turned out to be a most gracious host. The trip to Turkey would have been well worth it just to speak to the man alone, to learn whatever the man would teach, and yet he'd offered his home to Farren. Further, he'd given Farren a very unique opportunity.

[i]I'm getting quite the chill of anticipation,[/i] the Irishman thought to himself as he watched the others in his "team" go about summoning the thralls they would command to battle. Teams and servants... war and wishes... that little competition to seize a grail, inflated to twice it's size. It was dramatic; maybe even a little romantic. When Farren first caught wind of the Bahadir's plans, he thought it would not only be interesting, but invaluable to get up close and study the phenomenon. Taking part in it himself though, well...

[i]First hand accounts make excellent resources.[/i] That being said, Farren had never been part of any true battle, large or small. Hell, he'd never even bothered with familiars beyond the spiders he personally cultivated. He'd studied up on mundane wars, their flimsy reasoning and results. He'd visited the sites of battles between magi, brief and bloody. He knew the process of summoning a heroic spirit, or the servant that passed as one at least, and even if he was a complete stranger to it, there were perfectly good examples right in front of him. Some of their team, dubbed "blue," had summoned early. Others like himself were collected there in the courtyard, summoning the last of their classes.

Farren blinked down at his circle. It was perfect. Textbook. He'd drawn it slowly and leisurely, not in any rush despite being one of the last of their team to perform the ritual. He'd taken a lap around the manor, checking up on his precious arachnids and the webs they'd woven around the base. While technically he had no need to physically visit the nests, it was nice to do so every now and then. Of course, his familiars were spread in the courtyard as well, sitting comfortable in the dark corners where grass met stone. It would have been cute if the spiders were curious or eager to meet their future companion, a familiar on a different scale from them yet contracted to Farren all the same, but alas. They were perfectly bred to weave, scribe, and breed. Beyond their master's instruction, they were little more than animals. 

[color=85B06B]"Well, I ought not stall anymore,"[/color] Farren chuckled to the courtyard group at large. [color=85B06B]"It's been enlightening to see the ritual. Now to try it for myself. Sláinte."[/color]

Farren raised a few fingers to his forehead, a dismissive salute to the blue team before he closed his eyes and inhaled. He channeled mana through the circle before him, recited the spell, and in the back of his mind he idly wondered what kind of servant would answer his summons.

[color=85B06B]"Come forth."[/color]

There was a skittering that crawled through Farren’s mind, like an army -- no, a sea -- of spiders. From his control, the spiders that were task to serve him were ripped away, and they drew to the circle, as they crept into the circle, and, en masse, weaved from the floor to the ceiling to cocoon the entirety of the circle, and fell to the floor in a strange pose that bespoke a sort of... reverence?

Before Farren could truly question anything, there was a glint of silver, as a blade punched through the cocoon. Had he mistakenly summoned a second Sabre, or a Rider, or even a sword-wielding Archer, because Archer Class was full of Archers. In spite of the sword, something told him there was magic beyond his own at play, as the cocoon split open, and splayed out -- in something of nightmare.

[center][hider=Gishiki Shoukan!][img]https://i.imgur.com/qxkZtQW.png[/img][/hider][/center]
Hundreds of thousands of eyes, crimson and beady, stared back at him, before eight opened; uniformly split, two across and four down, in a gentle V, before they closed, two at a time, until only the largest, topmost pair were open. From a dimension beyond him, both them all, the approached with a slow, firmness; the sword drawing ever-closer, until Farren could see the crossguard, and the hilt of the weapon, held firm in an undeniably female hand.

“[color=f5deb3][b][i]So, you are the one to summon the Careless Broodmother, the First Spider, she that bested Athena in the art of weaving,[/i][/b][/color]” asks a somberly expressions woman with strangely European attire for the credentials she listed, as she lifted her sword high. For a long moment, the air was tense and heavy with the power of persona on display -- before that shattered, as she surged forward, and glomped the Irishman. “[color=f5deb3][b][i]Oh! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I’m human again! Centuries of being a spider, and I get to be human again![/i][/b][/color]” she, seemingly, could not have been happier.

Although, she was hugging him with a sword pressed “Danger, Will Robinson!” close to his neck.

[color=85B06B]"Ah... Your blade..."[/color] Sorting his thoughts about the summoning was enough of an ordeal without the looming threat of death at his throat, accidental or not. The powerful shift in his familiars' behavior nearly sent him reeling, even the spiderlings literally in his head were affected. Once he'd calmed them down he was left with his apparently very friendly servant.

“[color=f5deb3][b][i]Blade? My blade? Oh, this!?[/i][/b][/color]” the woman retreated but one step, and hefted the blade. “[color=f5deb3][b][i]It doesn’t cut. No edge,[/i][/b][/color]” she confesses, as she held it to his sight. “[color=f5deb3][b][i]It’s a tooth -- well, a fang.[/i][/b][/color]” Elaborating, she hooked the right side of her mouth, and drew her lips to the side; true to her word, her right upper canine was gone -- evidently, fashioned into the edgeless sword she held. “[color=f5deb3][b][i]Shee?[/i][/b][/color]” she asks, lips still drawn. “[color=f5deb3][b][i]Ah kan eet mah whebs li’k dis.[/i][/b][/color]”

The woman before him... she was silly. Even so, she was enchanting. She commanded his attention with just her aura. Despite her antics, she was also darkly beautiful. Was this the power of summoning a servant with no catalyst, one that instead resonated with him?

Farren's eyes moved from her body to the fang to her face. Her goofy face, with a finger hooked into her mouth and saliva threatening to spill out of it. 

He snorted, then chuckled into his hand.

Her identity was clear. Even without her little speech upon first exiting out of the cocoon, Farren thought he'd be able to tell. He didn't expect  her to be so cute though.

[color=85B06B]"Say that last part again?"[/color] he laughed.

“[color=f5deb3][b][i]My webs, I can eat them with this,[/i][/b][/color]” says the woman, before turning on her heel, and slicing through the cocoon that she was summoned through. No trace of web remained as she settled at the end of her graceful flurry. “[color=f5deb3][b]URP!~[/b][/color]” she belched, before whirling around on Farren with her cheeks ruddy-red, “[color=f5deb3][b][i]Did you hear that?[/i][/b][/color]”

There were two answers, and one was CLEARLY the right one...

[color=85B06B]"Who, me? Of course not."[/color] Really, the difference between the woman's appearance and her actions were interesting. Perhaps some men or magi would find them unappealing, but it just made Farren curious. When she'd hugged him she mentioned being human again. He wanted to ask about that, but before that question...

Farren placed a hand over his chest and smiled at his servant. [color=85B06B]"My name is Farren Mac Rohard. It's my pleasure to make your acquaintance. So, miss First Spider,"[/color] Farren's single visible eye sparkled as he spoke the title, [color=85B06B]"You... are Caster, aren't you? I've been told it's safer to call you by your class, but if you have another name in mind I am all ears."[/color] 

“[color=f5deb3][b][i]Miss First Spider... oh, I like that... Miss Spider is much nicer than Caster. Who would wanna be called “Caster” anyways? So bland,[/i][/b][/color]” she says. “[color=f5deb3][b][i]Farren...[/i][/b][/color]” Suspiciously, the woman leaned forward, and her hair cast around her face; darkening it in shadow, and she opened all her eyes in that darkness. “[color=f5deb3][b][i]Are you betrothed?[/i][/b][/color]”

[color=85B06B]"Ah... what? Betrothed?"[/color] Farren stared at her. His brows furrowed and he searched all the scarlet lights of her many eyes. [color=85B06B]"Can't say I've ever been asked that. I'm not."[/color] 

“[color=f5deb3][b][i]Good,[/i][/b][/color]” Farren would find nothing within, beyond years, all but infinite, of magic and a deep-seated power, before she drew back; shadows gone, and eyes normal. Bashfully, she rubbed her left forearm, as she murmured, “[color=f5deb3][b][i]I don't want to share my human, is all.[/i][/b][/color]”

[i]'My human', hm?[/i] Farren tilted his head curiously. How intriguing it was, the way his servant's mind must work. Both human and animal.

[color=85B06B]"Of course."[/color] As Caster - Arachne - moved away, Farren spread his arms out to finish up his welcome. [color=85B06B]"I am your master I suppose, and I am also your human."[/color] The man turned the back of his hand outward, showing off the crimson symbols emblazoned there. [color=85B06B]"Proof of the threads that weave us together."[/color] 

[center][hider=The symbols of authority][img]https://i.imgur.com/RMoDHGC.png[/img][/hider][/center]
There was a hint of warm humor in his voice when he next spoke. [color=85B06B]"Honestly Miss Spider, I don't mind if you continue to call me Farren. That whole master-servant relationship is a bit stuffy for me. I'd prefer to get to know you a little more personally. We'll be as partners here on the ah... I believe we've been designated the 'blue team.' "[/color] 

“[color=f5deb3][b][i]Very well, Master Farren,[/i][/b][/color]” Miss Spider says, keeping her True Name to herself. Even if Farren could suss it out, as long as it wasn’t asked for, she would keep to her new moniker. “[color=f5deb3][b][i]Pray tell, what do you need to know about me for this... blue team...?[/i][/b][/color]”

[color=85B06B]"Oh there's a lot I'd love to know about you,"[/color] Farren replied suavely. [color=85B06B]"And I hope you'll share with me soon. For the team however, I suppose it would be strengths, weakness, that sort of thing."[/color]

He glanced over at the few others gathered in the courtyard, the first time he'd looked away from Caster since she'd manifested. [color=85B06B]"It will help to get to know everyone, but we can discuss it privately if you like."[/color]

“[color=f5deb3][b][i]If you feel that is necessary, Master Farren,[/i][/b][/color]” Miss Spider says, her expression returning to that somber beauty, as if something unknown was bothering her immensely, but she was too shy to speak of it. “[color=f5deb3][b][i]We may do so immediately, if preferred.[/i][/b][/color]”

The area around Farren's eyes crinkled as Caster's face transformed. [i]Ah, the wistful look of a maiden now.[/i]

[color=85B06B]"I'm in no rush,"[/color] he told her. [color=85B06B]"You mentioned something about being human again. Why don't you take some time to get used to it again first. I can show you around, introduce you too."[/color] 

“[color=f5deb3][b][i]Oh? I would appreciate that,[/i][/b][/color]” Miss Spider says, “[color=f5deb3][b][i]That sounds much more enjoyable than not.[/i][/b][/color]”