Chapter Four: Come Together

The City had many beautiful buildings, but the Tower of Rose took the cake. It was impossible to miss, really - its 300 meter structure dominated the city skyline with room to spare no matter where one went, and its structure was something out of the dreams of a genius or a madman. A relatively lithe set of lower floors gave way to gradually expanding stories, surrounded by a seemingly infinite ramp that rose up in a gentle spiral all around it, like a wrapping keeping the edifice's expansion contained. It continued up until the highest floors, where the structure reached its apex, unraveling into she shape of a blooming rose, crowned by a smaller set of final floors that rose up towards the heavens in the shape of a pistile. It was this luxurious location, the Dominion Suite, that was Ariel Labelle's destination as soon as she got off the plane that had taken her to the City.

*Pretty fancy choice for an HQ. They really spared no expense*, she thought, as she got into the central elevator and dialed in the number of the topmost floor in the digital keypad that engaged the transport. Not only was this place reserved for the richest and powerful people on earth, the air was alive with mana. There was no mistaking this feeling - it must have been erected atop a powerful confluence of leylines. That her patron had managed to secure such a powerful site before the war had even begun was reassuring - and yet, at the same time, it made her anxious. It was a strong reminder of how many options the Barthomeloi family had at its disposal, and how expendable she truly was.

*That's what they think, at any rate,* she thought, and shrugged. *It's not gonna turn out that way.*

The view from the steel-glass elevator was mesmerizing. The City's skyline was really something else alright. So many bright lights...like staring at a gem collage. She made a mental note of the image and committed it to memory. A beautiful design for a necklace could be wrung out of this view, she was sure of it. *And not everyone could see this. It takes a trained eye for beauty to spot inspiration when it comes to you!

...How much is that gonna be worth in this fight though? Feels like everything I've learned up to this point was for the wrong things. Grandmother...you said the secret to strength is not in being, but seeming. Will that help me in a struggle of life and death?*

The door chimed musically as it slid open behind her. When Ariel turned around, she beheld a room of such immaculate whiteness, she needed a moment to make sure all the color had not simply been drained out of it. She couldn't have been sure if not for the open door in the far right corner, through which golden light streamed through...and music.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liDEV5vpXcs

*Hmph. Do they really need to be so tacky?* she wondered, as she crossed the room and threw the door open. Better to get this charade over and done with as soon as possible.

The room beyond was a spacious library, furnished in rich reds and golds. The music was coming from a vinyl player at the center of the room, resting atop a small table. Beside it was an ornate chair, and resting on it was a tanned, muscular man in a stylish button-up black and white suit, reading a magazine through tinted glasses.

"Are you with the Barthomeloi's? I'm here to-" Ariel began, but the muscle freak cut her off.

"Here's what you need," he said, hefting up a black, runescribed canister the size of her forearm from the floor. "Open it in your workshop and make sure you've got your Command Code ready first. Anything else you need, just drop by and ask."

He threw it at her without another word. She caught it, but almost dropped it right after. *Jeez, why is this thing so heavy?! He didn't have any trouble with it! And what does he mean, 'just drop by'? We're not done here yet!*

"I know the Heir's here. I want to speak with them so we can discuss plans and-"

"And Master Barthomeloi doesn't want to talk to you. Guess whose wishes take priority here?" Closing the magazine, the man stood up and took the needle off the vinyl disc. "They'll contact you when the time is right, not the other way around. That clear enough for you, girlie?"

Ariel was planning on replying, but then he cracked his knuckles and an ominous pressure began bearing down upon her skin. Suddenly the library did not look warm and regal anymore - it looked like a scene of impending violence. *W-what the hell is this guy? What's his problem?!*

As much as it ground her gears, maybe discretion was the better part of valor here. "...Of course. As you wish."

She turned around and left, slamming the door behind her on her way out. As she abandoned the Dominion Suite, and got back in the elevator, she couldn't keep herself from shaking with rage.

*How dare he?* How dare he? *I'm the scion of the Labelle family, not just some kind of lackey they can order around! I won't allow them to think of me as incompetent! If they think I need help so badly, fine! I'll win this war without asking those Barthomeloi jerks for a single thing!*

It was raining by the time Ariel reached the ground floor. Fortunately, the Tower of Rose always had a squad of taxi cabs available for visitors.

"Take me to La Belle. And make it quick!" she barked as she got inside, still fuming from her encounter within the Dominion suite. Sensing the danger, the cabbie wisely chose not to argue, and instead stepped on the gas.

Fifteen minutes later, Ariel entered her family's shopping centre. The seven-story behemoth had been one of their most brilliant acquisitions - built right as the City began to flourish, it had come to dominate the fashion landscape by offering all the best brands of Europe and the world under one roof. Even though its power as a magical site paled in comparison to the Tower of Rose, the sheer amount of money it funnelled into the family's coffers gave it a kind of power all its own.

That wasn't what the heir to the Labelles was looking for at the moment, however - it was past midnight, and all the customers had already left. No, what she wanted lay at the top of the building, on a special hidden sub-floor. There, her family's atelier awaited her. There, she would call forth the servant of the Barthomelois and bind it to her, and there her participation in the Holy Grail War would formally begin.

The atelier was nothing like the alchemical workshops of old. It most resembled a miniature weapons research facility. The walls were lined with racks of experimental magical apparel, some still in the prototyping phase, some straight up failures, others tried and true standards of the Labelle family. Magical reagents were carefully preserved in person-sized glass tubes, and boxes of mundane materials were piled in one corner. Even though it had nothing on the family's central workshop back in France, the City's atelier would still have made lesser magi turn green with envy. And if they'd known about the bounded field security system, they would have killed to try and unearth its secrets. This last thing in particular was what Ariel was counting on as she placed the canister within a permanent magical circle and began preparing the invocation.

"Morph code Ixis-IPCC. Zeus Navigator, activate."

A casual onlooker would have assumed Ariel's clothes were nothing more than a trendy, finely cut high-school uniform. They would have been wrong. Responding to her command, the uniform dissolved covering her whole body from neck to toe in a skintight nanomachine mesh. As soon as she felt the comfortable 'fabric' on her skin, all of Ariel's worries faded away. The Zeus Navigator was her pride and joy, a Mystic Code that combined magecraft and state-of-the-art technology. Its adaptability knew almost no bounds, and it had even been modified to serve as her Command Code, with which she would be able to control the servant of the Barthomelois.

"Function Dominateur, engage. Function Amplificateur, engage."

Three spots lit up on her body. One was on the back of her left hand, the other on the right. The last one appeared in the center of her chest, above her heart. A circuit was established between them, drawing lines conveying massive quantities of mana across her body. These were the Simulacrum Command Spells, the proof of her ability to control a Servant in spite of not having been chosen as a master. Now all that was left was to unleash their energy.