Victoria Allstead giggled as she observed the preparations for The Gentleman's "party." It was such a farce, a dull, boring, stupid thing meant to shackle others to some stupid tradition. The House of Tia was old and rotten; the all were, the proof being that not one House had managed to claim a consecutive victory in years. But Wood burned best, after all, so Victoria had nominally sworn to Tia.
Which was why no one had objected when she'd insisted that she and Assassin "help" with the preparations. Victoria happily kicked her legs, waiting for the real party to start.
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Mark tugged at his tie, adjusting it in the mirror.
"Do you really intend to go, Master?" Caster asked, watching Mark put on his suit. "To do so would mean leaving the safety of my Temple. You would be at risk. It would be prudent to remain." Since Mark had summoned Caster a week ago, the Servant and his wives had been hard at work, and had made the empty storage room into a veritable fortress. Three sets of four different types of bounded fields circle the borders of Caster's Temple, courtesy of his more demure wife. One acted as a traditional barrier between the outside and the inside, a second reflected force back onto its source, a third simply absorbed energy that struck it, while a fourth was interwoven between the three, meant to befuddle magecraft trying to tear down the barriers. The mundane walls of the room had been strengthened with Runes, making the concrete harder than steel. It was a truly a formidable defense, and would only grow stronger as time went on.
"It would be safer." Mark admitted, finishing with his tie. "But there is more to war that a strong defense, Caster. We may be neigh untouchable in here, but so long as we remain still our enemies will have the initiative. If we want to change that, gathering information on our opponents is necessary. I doubt that the other Masters will simply ignore an event of this size, especially if any of them have yet to swear allegiance to a House. Something that we have not done, as a matter of fact." He looked over his shoulder and grinned at his Servant. "Don't worry. I'll be taking some of our footsoldiers with me, and if you allow it, I would like to take the feisty one with me. It would shame me before my peers to show up without a date, after all."
Caster frowned. Mark was certain he would give his permission, Caster didn't like the fiesty one as much as the demure one. "It will slow progress on the bounded fields..." Caster said at last. "...but I suppose that your safety is of greater importance. Very well, if you insist on this matter, I will call her. In exchange, however, I would like you to keep an eye out for the materials I requested."
"Of course. I'm sure that there will be many samples to choose from." Mark said. Caster's Temple was miraculous, but there were simply some thing it could not produce. "Have her and the footsoldiers meet me at the entrance."