Tria, who hadn't visited Mons Electi in ages suddenly appears and requests an audience with Fiona and one of the Miles. She appears a bit tired and worn.
((Alexei, you're indisposed due to your LR failing, it's got you off your game. And if the title rings a bell, it goes with Isen's preferred magic.))
Since Alexei's indisposed, Isen will step in, first enquiring who's this tria.
(Need to do my 75BPs!!! Aaargh!!)
He is uneasy at first. This could be another trap, or an ally having been attacked by our ennemies
(Oh, and thanks to Erickson, I just discovered Isen's favorite action: Scowling^^ - It appears every 2 pages in Memories of Ice. Which has me hurting more than I have in years -)
Fiona and Paul arrive at the council chamber to meet Tria, and introduce her to Isen as "a friend of the covenant, and of Apollodorus." [color=blue]"You look like you've had a rough trip, Tria," Fiona says when she sees Tria's haggard state. [color=blue]"Would you care for a sip, or is there anything else we can get you?" She offers Tria her flask.
Fiona makes sure that her guest is situated comfortably. [color=blue]"How are you? And how is Ulrich?"
She waves off the flask. "I am not much of a drinker, and I don't have one of Pinarius's glasses with me."
"I'm tired. Very tired. I need a few nights rest, but I don't think I'll have it for a while. Ulrich? She pauses for a moment, "He's fine, he's with Ra'am at Viscaria's old covenant. I sold him to Ra'am when I started my present mission. Ra'am is turning him into an able researcher. Probably not what Ulrich had in mind when he became an apprentice... Nevertheless he was in an odd situation."
Tria glances around as if she doesn't know how to say the next thing on her mind, so she says something else. "Still haven't beefed up the Aegis, have you? You're relatively safe, I know that they know you've been keeping quiet."
"It's on my list, now that the Tribunal is behind us and they've talked me into staying in Normandy for a while. But there's only so much one maga can do -- even a maga as capable as yourself." interjects Viscaria as she comes into the room, wax tablet and abacus in her hands.
She takes a seat at the council table, spreads out her working materials and pulls out a few scrolls which she references while making marks and working with the abacus. Barely looking up from her work, she slides a fragile-looking pendant made of silver and air across the table to our guest.
"I made this for you a while ago, as a kind of apology for your run-in with Theraphosa. I've since had the opportunity to turn it into an Aegis token as well. Be welcome and named Friend Of The Covenant, Tria Bonisagi." (Viscaria uses Tria's full Hermetic name.)
(OOC: It'd also be very cool if the pendant could be used to store vis, but it's never been clear to me on how to do that, or if it's just something that you can do to any object with the right spell.)
Viscaria continues with her Princeps accounting work and listens.
Fiona pulls a swig from her flask, then pours a dollop out onto a small bowl on the table for Paul.
[color=blue]"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what brings you to our neck of the woods? And please tell me you got lonely and longed for our company," Fiona says with a half-smile.
"Perhaps, but I would have expected you to have exploited some of Apollodorus's trove in the time since I was last here."
"No apology is necessary, she has her own motivations. She was skirting the edge of the Code, but right now, trying to complain about a code violation is probably the last thing either of us want, and it is why I had Maris pluck Ulrich from her grasp."
((Any object can be used to store vis, up to its content in shape and material bonuses, and it's a single day lab activity to do it, also keep in mind that this is a token of only this year's Aegis.))
"I've recently developed a shadow. I hadn't been traveling by my usual method for some time, as I've been following their agents. It appears I was discovered after a few years and by chance I discovered I was being observed. It's recent, the last couple of days. I need a bit more protection than I'm used to. I think they mean to assasinate me and make it look like an accident. I'm a bit too well known to kill out of hand..." She says it as if she has had a great weight lifted from her shoulders. ((An OoH Lore check of 12+ will reveal to the characters that she's currently the Tenens for Greater Alps, Roman tribunals...
((Fiona has Int 1 + Order of Hermes Lore 2 + die roll of 1 (followed by a die roll of 3, for a roll of 6) = 9. So, nope.
And I think/thought we were still trying to decide who would inventory Apollodorus's lab here at ME. Does that look like a seasonal activity or just a few days?))
[color=blue]"You're always welcome to stay here for a while, while you decide your next steps. Is there anything you would like me to do?"
1d10=9 
+ Int 2 + OoH 1 = 12
Isen scowls when hearing the news. After a while, he speaks up.
For what it's worth, you're under my protection while staying here. I just regret we didn't have the time to cast a better Aegis.
Yet, this may be an opportunity. If they're after you, we can lay a trap.
Not that killing them would do much good, although I'd do that gladly. But this may be an opportunity to expose them to some neutral parties, although, as you said, they're probably quite cautious about it.
Enchant it with Divide the Gathered Essence 
Wow!!! You blow my mind here, I didn't remember that. Where is it?
((page 94, Vis Transfer section))
Viscaria leaves things like Order of Hermes Lore to Thera, and while they may have a two-way mental link now, this is the sort of occassion where it wouldn't occur to V to ask Thera for this info. So she's in the dark until she relates the conversation to Thera.
And I voted that we make Isen do the inventory, just to force him to spend time in Autun 
He loves you, too.
"And that's why I came here. There are few places I can turn to with people I can trust implicitly. Even of the Flambeau who voted for Ariel, I can't be sure of all of them. You may or may not know this, but Murion appointed me to the Tenens Occultorum for Rhine, Roman and Greater Alps Tribunals." She allows the last to sink in and gives a look that suggests that there is more to this than what she said, but won't elaborate unless prodded.
(Oh, that ariel!)
That's... Quite a huge zone for a single maga
"I suppose, I've never really stopped to think about it. I have ways of getting around rather quickly." She grins at the last statement. "It's traditional. I only have to talk to the Bonisagi and keep tabs on their research. Otherwise, I spend most of my time on something else..."
Viscaria speaks out of her pile of papers, "I thought the Rhine had its own Tenens. That'd be about what, 300 Bonisagi, about half of them researchers -- 150 tabs to keep up on?"
She double-checks internally with Theraphosa, who rolls Int +1 + OoHLore 5 (history) + die roll 7 = 13.
"Or rather, closer to ____, I suppose, if you include the out-of-house researchers who begged a spot at the table. Anyone working on anything interesting? More importantly, what are our allies working on? Come to that, who are some of our allies? Any necromancers we can trust?"
((I'm going with canonical numbers for the population of the Order, there are about 100 of House Bonisagus, a third of whom are Trianomae. House Bonisagus, because they research whatever go wherever...))
And to get back to the point... Do you have any idea of many ennemies are following you? Their strengths and weaknesses?
"I'm unsure of all of that, I just know I have a skilled tracker. And until this point I've been traveling mostly mundanely as it's part of my duties. And this is only recent, within the last day or so. I made my camp in a cave and came here. I sealed the entrance until sunset, as I've usually done, for privacy so the site is probably being watched, but they may not know I'm not inside.
[color=blue]"Whereabouts was that?"