Lord Valentine sat at his desk in his personal study looking over one of his spellbooks. A lot of things were already moved in how he wanted them in the house. Especially in his study and the great hall, but a lot of the rooms were still fairly barren. The house was actually smaller than he was used to as of late, but he planned on expanding it some. The room he was in was eerily quiet and had a hair-raising effect to it. “Gabrielle, go ahead and fetch Joan for me.” The shadows themselves then seemed to flutter as a translucent black skull appeared from them. It went through Valentine and up the stairs to the great hall. He gave an involuntary shiver but remained undistracted from his work. Soon a well-dressed servant came down, he had a dead look in his eyes even upon addressing the master of the house. “My lord, the priest has arrived, Father Donovan who we have dealt with before. I have been getting everyone ready including your bride. However, I come in here to find that you are not ready. You aren’t having pre-wedding jitters, are you my Lord?” The servant might have sounded sarcastic if his voice wasn’t so monotone.<br/><br/>Valentine laughed dryly, “Hardly, Joan if you recall, I’ve done this before. I simply will not allow this wedding to cut into any more of my work than it has to.” Joan walked over to an outfit that was set aside, he picked it up and brought it over to Valentine. “You aren’t even dressed. And since you have done this before, you’ll remember that the groom is out waiting for the bride to be walked to them by their father.”<br/><br/>Valentine finally looked up from his spellbook. “I don’t need to wear that Joan, this outfit I have on now is probably the most regal one they’ve ever seen. Besides, I told you I only wanted the people needed, a minister, the father and the bride. This isn’t exactly with other lords you know. The only purpose this holds is to get married with a flesh and blood woman, so let’s not pretend of anything more than that.” Joan shook his head, “Which I suspect is why you didn’t even ask to see the girl before now. You had me do all the arrangements with the father and the minister, had me prepare everything to have the ceremony on the property out back. I, of course, did all these things, but the reason for getting this wedding to happen is for a spell. I taught you a majority of the spellcraft that you know. So listen to me when I tell you, spells like this one, want things to be done proper, you know that. Don’t let your disinterest in marriage cause you to cast a subpar spell if it would work at all due to sloppiness. So, my lord please, wear the outfit, go through the ceremony, say ‘I do’, make sure she does too and I’ll watch over the other minutiae.” Joan then held out the outfit for him to take.<br/><br/>Valentine put his hand to his forehead and sighed before taking the outfit. “If not for this damned spell I wouldn’t have to marry some uneducated commoner, she is beneath me, as much as anyone. But yes, I know spells, even if one of this sort is more your expertise than mine. It’ll work, I may be more accustomed to ripping what I want out with a spell, this gentler approach will still go as planned, I never fail to get what I want. And if I’m right, once it’s complete she’ll just feel ever so slightly colder inside and out. If living in this house alone doesn’t just do that to her. That’s the only thing I’m looking forward to in this marriage, watching her deal with all the spirits.” He chuckled in a sinister manner before getting dressed quickly. Then he turned to Joan to look him over. “Oh, and before I forget Joan, I originally called for you because I am going to need a body, a fresh one. Nikolaus has been wanting to get out, have him possess someone people would be glad to see gone and see as an act of God as usual.”<br/><br/>It wasn’t much longer till he walked out to the back lawn. He had made sure to buy a fair amount of land around the house as well as he didn’t want anyone bothering him. More than this new wife would anyway, he wished marriage hadn’t become such a necessity, but he now saw what his son had tried to tell him. Valentine passed some bushes hearing dissonant whispers, he put his finger to his lips to hush them. It seemed that several of the spirits had wanted to see this, more than just the ones in his servants, who were still running around making everything look right. He saw that the only ones not already here were the ones helping his bride get ready. Even though he was providing the dress, he had no idea what it looked like, it hadn’t mattered to him. He was not a man who saw much in physical beauty, though he did meet the stereotype of a black warlock enjoying dark colors.<br/><br/>The one thing he had asked about his to-be bride was if she was a blonde or red-head, fortunately, they said she was not. Even if the thought of her being ugly and fat crossed his mind, it didn’t bother him. Mostly because he already expected her to be unintelligent which was worse to him than any face she could possibly wear. Especially since with his magick he could easily fix one but not the other. The only other thing that he worried about was uselessness, it infuriated him with a passion. But he planned to make sure she was never that, and that thought of his made him smile devilishly.<br/><br/>In one of the upper rooms in the house, several female servants with dead looks in their eyes were there to help the bride. There was actually several dresses for Mary to choose from, most of them looking like something high nobility would wear on their wedding. But the lead servant who had introduced herself as Katherine suggested she wear one specific one. She spoke with a germanic accent even though she looked Scottish. “This one may not be the typical choice, but I believe it is the one our Lord would like most. If he asks, I would also say that you picked it, he would appreciate that more. I will not say anything wrong of him, but it would be best to try to stay agreeable with him.” She did however not push the issue if Mary wanted to wear something else. Once finishing all preparations, Katherine spoke up again before leading her to meet up with her father so that he could walk her down to Valentine and the minister. “Are you frightened Ma’am? Fear isn’t a good thing to show in this house. They can sense it, it’s never good.” She then clammed up like she already said too much.