"You're right, perhaps I was too eager in touting my horn, so I apologize. I think if I read the Vim Root, I might be able to manage a 4th magnitude Wizard's Vigil, in a few seasons. Might take me more to research a 5th magnitude one, as am afraid Muto isn't my best Technique. Perhaps we should try and find, if not a decent Summa on Vim/Muto, then at least some Tractatii. I will try to endeavor to improve those once I get my lab set up, bind Lencor as my familiar, and I want to get more familiar with the area."
She smiles at Alba "I know you don't usually like being in the spotlight, but being our Aegis caster is something I think you'd be good at."
"Yes," Clusius vigorously, "growing our library is our next priority. But we will need resources to pay for those books, primarily raw vis. But as we venture out to secure sponsors, we should also ask the covenants we visit if they would agree to let us purchase the right to copy of a few books. But we need to secure those vis source in order to do that!"
Oops I said it from memory and I didn't remember that xD
Alba nodded with a suspiciously energic aura.
"Ok then. I will have the spell ready to be cast for the next summer solstice." - when Clusius gave her a year to prepare the spell, she immediately thought about turn the Aegis annual recast into an excuse to celebrate Mittsommernacht with her companions.
"Yes... I'm surprised, but... happy to have such an useful role." - answered Alba with a soft nod.
She looked to Celeste and Clusius while they talked about the Vigil spell, but her mind was at another place, thinking about the preparations to learn the Aegis.
"Sorry Clusius. Then... which sources we must search first? I still don't have any laboratory, so now would be ideal for search them. If you need more time to search through Leonardus notes, for now I might as well read that Vim root."
"Yes, do begin studying the Vim summa. I suspect it will be quite popular in the coming year, but you have first call on it for the Aegis."
"I need to review the notes before I can say which source we should investigate first. A lot of them can only be harvested at certain times and under certain conditions."
"Oh, you haven't spoken to them yet? Well, let's do that now..."
After discussing Alba's dream sanctum with the stoneworker and the carpenter, they agree that the project is possible, though difficult. It will take a while to build with the covenant's current resources, but no more so than building another large tower.
Alba didn't know how many resources or time the big tower needed, but the way they said it made it not sound so bad.
"T-that's a good thing, right? If I can do anything to help, please let me know..." - she said, seemingly as serious as ever but feeling very happy inside. Now she was pretty sure that she would have her own sanctum earlier than Clusius predicted.
Francesca is a solidly build woman if her early fifties, with scared-cut face, short blond hair and scared hands. She speaks rather bluntly and with assurance, looking at the drawings and listening to Alba's words.
The only things that worry her are the dome, something she hasn't done before, and the need to duct water in for the tree. Out as well, assumedly.
She says, "I will have to build a small scale dome first. Not sure stone is the way to go, maybe we need to settle with wood. Large framing either way. Load bearing." Whatever that means Alba doesn't understand allmof it.)
She also asks Clusius what priority that project is, for there were many tasks on the list. Upon being answered with "important but not immediately urgent" she says, "Five to ten, maybe more. Will begin thinking about it and prepare plans. Small scale first. Will need some oak, but not right away. We can start clearing the base at the end of summer, maybe. Fall, worst case. Where?"
"Duct water for the tree? No, no, I want to plant a hawthorn." - Alba said as if that was a good enough explanation.
Then she listened to the dome explanation and she got worried.
"The dome must be made with stone. Wood would will rot over time, and being all the building covered in earth, it will rot even faster... Any wood part failing would collapse the ceiling and sink the room in earth..." - she thought about it a little - "What if we look for someone with experience who can help with the dome? You would learn a new technique and I would have the stone dome that I need. Everybody wins. Since the dome is also one of the last parts of the building, we have time to find that person." - she proposed.
When Clusius said "not immediately urgent", Alba felt a little sad, but she didn't said nothing... at the end it seemed like she wouldn't have her sanctum for a long time...
Francesca then asked about the location and Alba almost jumped upon hearing that, snapping out of her thoughts.
"I saw a knoll south-west that could be used to build the building. It's at around one hundred paces of the closest stream. If you want I can show you."
"Well, trees need water, don't they? Perhaps that kind doesn't need much, but it needs some, right? Don't want to have people need to carry that water in pails or barrels. Just saying." (see note below)
"Don't understand the need for it to be buried, but hey that's your weirdness, not mine. Stone rots too, you know. Moisture will attack the mortar between stones, and you'll have more problems with moisture inside. Still doable, but adds more problems, is all."
When Alba suggests sending Francesca out to learn the technique elsewhere, she barks a short laugh.
"Ah! As if any of those pricks would teach me anything! Why d'you think I live here, lady? Men don't like it when we show them we ust as good as they at working and building. Could send one of me boys -- they been chafing enough about seeing the world -- but they risk not coming back. Could be good -- meeting a girl out there and marrying, but could be bad too -- some of those greaaaat builders", Alba can hear the sarcasm dripping from her words, "don't they worry too much about safety of young 'uns. Any case, they'd have to follow the guild progression before anyone would teach them anything fancy. It'd be decade of more 'fore he came back."
OOC information
From what I could find, hawthorn actually quite a bit of water:
"Uhm... What if the dome was made from a single stone piece? It would work then? That could also help with the dome building process... maybe?" - sarcasm permeated so much Francesca's words than even Alba was able to catch that, but since she didn't understand what was that about, she tried to walk around the issue without touching the subject again.
OOC
Thats only for when they are growing (around the 2 first years). But here we have magic to take care of that.
Once a hawthorn is mature it needs little water.
Still on the issue of the Wizards' Vigil, after some contemplation, Regulus asks:
"Since it looks we will end up joining the Rhine I intend to make the a trip to Durenmar soon, in order to familiarize myself with the Tribunal records. Should I request a copy of a higher level Vigil? Or indicate that one would be a suitable gift if we end up joining?"
"Perhaps magic can make the construction of the dome much easier. And if need be, i can also provide a way to water and drain water from the living Hawthorn. I do think Alba's proposed sanctum, even if takes longer than she'd like, would be a marvel of the Order of Hermes."
"If Durenmar would give us such a Lab Text, that would be wonderful, but we shouldn't hang our hopes on that. Plus, if we can get a Muto or Vim Summa, those would serve us better, in the long term, than the Lab Text."
"Oh, I don't intend to say that only this single copy would suffice as a gift. And based on what I have heard from Rhine's tradition of gifting new covenants, I don't think Durenmar would give us only that either."
"By 'request', I was actually thinking of buying a copy of the spell, if it's readily available and not too expensive. But I don't think we'd have much use for the spell before 1207 either way, so maybe I can just make a brief suggestion when I'm there and hope they catch the meaning of my words."
Alba turned red when Celeste mentions that her sanctum could be a marvel of the Order.
She hugged her awkwardly.
"Thank you for offering your help, C." - she said in a soft voice while she released her - "And... I don't know, if you all like it so much... I don't have to be the only one to have a sanctum with these characteristics... maybe we could prepare a ritual that allows us to create one for each of us..." - she proposed, since everybody seemed so interested into her idea - "I'm not good with Terram, but surely I could prepare a ritual spell to make an underground building made of living wood..." - she started to think about it.
"You wizards may be able to conjure that up, but if that was easy I'm sure you wouldn't keep us workers around. But sure, you do that. Let me know when you need me, I have work to do in the meantime." Francesca leaves.
Clusius shakes his head with a smile, "I don't think so. She's a bit gruff and rather blunt, but she's a good person. From what I've seen in the last year, she'd rather work than talk, so she's just letting us decide what we want to do. We can tell her later, once things are settled."
On the subject of lab texts and the Aegis, he adds, looking at Regulus, "Let me know when you leave for Durenmar. I think you should take a few pawns of vis with you, so that you can purchase those lab texts right away. In fact, we should probably make a list of other lab texts the covenant might benefit from, and see if we can get our hands on a copy."
I said it from memory and I didn't remember that xD