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Having contacted Sutai, Anandi when not powered up, she had invited the other to come with her to see Ciel who was Hyperborea. She thought the three of them should come together for an evening. Food, a movie, talking, and just bonding. She wanted to see if the two other females could work well together before bringing Sutai into the forming brigade. She was hoping to bring her fellow squire of Polaris with her, since their princess was missing and a group would be safer to be in with this war.

Winterlynn had already spoken, at length, with Ciel telling the younger her plans and making sure everything was alright with the white haired female. She had, of course, offered to bring food and had thus spent the whole earlier part of today cooking.

Food was packed and held in a large fabric grocery shopping bag, one of those ones the grocery store sold in an effort to help customers be more green.

Winterlynn had been the one with the plan, everything mapped out in her head, so she had taken a cab to pick up Anandi and from there they'd go together to Ciel's home. She was just waiting for Anandi right now, sitting out in the cab at the curb, she had let the younger female know that she was out there waiting. This meeting she hoped would go well, she really did, though she had no reason to think it would go poorly.

"I understand." She said gently, holding up a hand. "Don't worry. Family comes first. I have a rather...traditional and somewhat proper family, especially the older members." If she was younger, or for some reason still lived at home, she knew she'd have similar to deal with. "I brought some food as well." It would be interesting to try food from India while also sharing some Russian dishes with the group. Ciel had tried her cooking before, on more than one occasion, but this would be the others first time.

Glad the other seemed to be keeping her voice down, least the cab driver hear anything, she smiled. "Ciel is her name and she is younger than us both. She seems to live on her own...aside from occasional help. But no parents....I think of her as something of a younger sister - she's sweet." As the other would find out no doubt. Ciel was a very sweet girl and she really just wanted to adopt her and keep close to the younger - keep her safe and give her something of a family.

"She speaks French fluently as well." So Indian, Russian, French and English spoken between the three of them and then when the two males got added to the mix there was also Japanese. They were a rather interesting group.

"We should be there soon...don't be surprised by her home - it's big." Which she wondered if it didn't make Ciel lonely because it was so big. Pushing the thought away she leaned forward, opened the sliding glass between them and the driver and provided him Ciel's address, leaning back she smiled to the other. "The group was her idea." The glass closed again she really had a feeling the two other females would get on well.

Anandi seemed rather pleased with the idea of meeting another knight, and someone Winterlynn liked enough to call a sister! She clapped her hands in delight though made sure not to spill any of the freshly-cooked traditional Bihari dishes: fried dumplings, chicken kebabs, fish curry and a mixed rice dish with mutton called biryani. At the very least, a cultural exchange between the three would be an excellent bonding experience. “Traditionally, Bihari foods are predominantly vegetarian but… I know a lot of people are not vegetarian, so I brought a little of each. I hope that’s okay!”

The girl understood what the word “big” meant in English, but she was wholly unprepared for just how massive Ciel’s house was. It was a mansion!, even complete with waitstaff! Servitude was common in middle-class Indian culture, to which Anandi’s family traditionally belonged. Her grandparents had live-in servants in their estate, but Anandi found the practice quite uncivilized and demeaning. In America, waitstaff were hired to do such a job, and were often educated and well-paid. This made Anandi feel much more comfortable with the practice. If the waitstaff chose their job and were paid appropriately for their work, it was much better all around.

She must have looked like a gawking tourist, never having seen a living space of this size and scope. For once in her life, Anandi was rendered speechless. “Ah… oh… oh my!” was all she could squeak at the grand entrance and marble hallway. Her family’s home must’ve looked like a guest house to Ciel. Hands on her cheeks, Anandi’s eyes followed a line from floor to wall to ceiling, almost falling over onto Winterlynn in her awe.

She turned to who she presumed was Ciel, a smaller girl with white hair, and must’ve looked a fright. “YOU LIVE IN A MANSION!?” she cried, unable to control her reaction to such opulence. “This… this is like the houses you see on television where they restore an old family home from centuries ago in England and then open it to the public and you have to pay for a ticket just to tour the bottom floor and the upper floors are full of family heirlooms and linens and---”

….aaaand there she goes.

"Merci, though my maids won't let anyone else in the kitchen. They are very particular about it. Something about me always making a mess whenever I'm in there." She said with a laugh. She motioned for a maid who was carrying a basket of laundry to come over. "Amy will you please bring some plates and glasses to the sitting room, when you're free." She politely asked the older woman. "Of course miss Ciel." The woman responded with a smile before disappearing with her load of laundry.

"Oui" She said in response to the other girl's statement, the shock on her face making Ciel feel a little bad. She was glad they weren't meeting at her family estate in France. If this house shocked her so bad, Château Beaulieu would probably make her faint and she would hate to do that to a new potential friend.

"You're not entirely incorrect this house is old, my ancestors built it when they fled to America to escape the reign of terror. And it has been renovated several times." She explained as she lead them into the sitting room which was finely furnished and had a large plasma screen tv with multiple game systems attached. It had a ornate fireplace with a fire going that kept the room nice and toasty. "I do have a few heirlooms here, though most of them are with my grandparents back in France. Oh but I do have a few pieces from Hyperborea that I have brought back." She said getting up and picking up a statue of a deer from the mantle of the fire place. It was a white marble deer with golden antlers and Amethyst eyes, it stood on a golden platform with various jewels and unreadable inscriptions on it. She brought it over for the others to see.

"So what would you lady's like to do I have alot of movies and games we could play." She offered with a smile.

"Ah, I did forget your maids are a bit protective over the kitchen." Though there had been the odd time or two she'd gotten away with getting things from there. "It's alright, I don't mind if they handle gathering some plates and glasses for us." Not a single issue at all, as she watched Amy come over for a moment. Listening to her and Ciel she smiled as Amy went off to complete her task - the laundry. She knew the other would return with the plates and other things so Winterlynn was comfortable with heading toward the living room.

"I wouldn't mind seeing the other home you have - though this one is very nice. I'm sure France is a lovely place, the pictures and movies I've seen depicting it are lovely." Though she doubted they did it justice. Paris, and France in general, were likely far more splendid and lovely than could be portrayed on screen or on film. It was something seen best in person...so everything could be experienced and enjoyed properly.

"We could watch movies, you've seen the collection I have Ciel." The other had been to her apartment more than once and had seen the large collection Winterlynn had, there was really no way to miss it. The older woman had a thing for movies, and she tended to own every movie she had watched in the last several years. It was her one weakness, or at least her biggest one.

Hearing Anandi she figured she'd let Ciel answer the darker skinned girl about her parents, it was Ciel's thing and Winterlynn didn't even know it all. But she did listen as Anandi went over her family and where they were from and habits. "I see, that's interesting and I appreciate the difference in food for us to choose from. I did the same though not for the same reasons." She spoke gently as she motioned, with her head, to the bag full of food she had brought for them all to share.

"I've never had Indian food, so I'm looking forward to trying it." She was hoping it would be good, she'd heard from other people that Indian food was really good though tended towards being spicy.

"I'll leave the choice to you both on movies or games, I'm willing to do either or. I'm here to spend time with you both." And see if something came of it, if they expanded their little group of knights. it sounded like Anandi had a good mother though, not forcing food choices onto her children and letting them decide what they wanted to eat - on their own. That was good.

Anandi seemed quite upset when Ciel admitted her parents' passing.She quickly set about fussing over the white-haired girl, oblivious to the fact that her parents might have passed many years ago. "Ahhh, Miss Ciel, I am so sorry!" Anandi attached herself to Ciel in a loving hug. "I know you have lots and lots of space and things and help around the house but we're here to help you too,, okay?"

Realizing it was probably inappropriate to just cling to Ciel and Anandi detached, wandering over to Winterlynn and tittering to herself. With a sigh, she leaned lightly against Winterlynn. "I'm glad you can bring things back from Hyperborea. That's neat, that you can bring back some... history?" She giggled slightly, twiddling her thumbs. She just felt so terrible about Ciel's parents that her usual bubbly attitude was noticeably absent.

As she mussed and fussed with the hem of her jacket, Anandi mumbled, "...wha... whatever you think works best, Miss Ciel... um... games or movies... whichever... would make you feel better..." She sniffed, fighting back empathetic tears for the dear lady she just met.

Ciel hadn't quit been expecting Anadi to throw herself at her like this, sure she was used to getting sympathy but usually not quit this touchy. Not that she particularly minded, as she returned the hug with a warm hug of her own. "Merci. You are very kind Anadi."

"I...I have had alot of time to work through my emotions about it. I've cried, I've raged, I've run away, and I've mourned. I think I've found peace at this point." Her voice was a whisper. "I try to take comfort knowing that they are safe in the cauldron with lady Cosmos."

She nodded at Winterlynn. "It took alot of convincing and promises that I would regularly call them to tell them how I'm doing to keep them in France. I enjoy visiting them and I wish it was safe enough let them move back here but I can't risk losing them as well."

"I think you are right, they would probably enjoy meeting you all, perhaps I'll speak to them about it." She promised.

Looking over at the clearly distressed Anandi Ciel regretted her decision to talk about her parents, she hadn't wanted this to be a sad evening. She placed a gentle hand on Anandi's hand. "Please do not worry about me, this should be a night of fun. I am not the only person orphaned by this horrible war, it is just another reason I fight so that this kind of thing stops happening."She said in a soft voice, her tragedy was just further motivation for the knight of Cosmos.

"Now lets put this serious talk out of our minds." She said brightly as she stood up. She put on Camelot before she fixed herself a plate of food and began digging in, she was afterall still a growing girl so it was only right she had a healthy appetite at least that was her justification.