"Oh. That works? Frightening." Attravere is surprised awake. "Mentem is not a strong suite of mine. It is a bit scary to me, actually, as I really don't like the idea that it can change the way someone thinks... thinking is so much of us."
Attravere goes quiet for a little then jerks his head up as he'd started to nod off, then asks almost timidly, "It would only help me stay awake, right? Nothing else?"
[color=red]"Nothing else, I promise," Cygna says.
((If Attravere agrees, then it would be as above, with a R: Touch, for a target level of 15 (Base 4, R: Touch +1, D: Sun +2, T: Individual), with a CT of (32 + die roll) ÷ 2.))
[color=red]"Of course, you'll probably be exhausted at sunup, but we should likely be getting to bed then anyway"
Attravere gulps and nods, lowers his parma, closing his eyes and takes a very deep, slow breath.
Once at Duos Flumen, Attravere will take the time to greet each of the available Magi. (Who are they?) (Will post how his half of interactions once persons are known)
When he is able to meet with Aulus of Bonisagus and he has the opportunity for a private discussion...
"I understand you claimed Shmuel as an apprentice recently. I'd like to speak with you about that. Perhaps come to an arrangement."
Once Sinmore is awake the next morning, Cygna will ask them if either of them have exceptional abilities with Intellego. When she finds that they don't (at least according to their character sheets), she asks if they know who in the covenant does. If they don't know, she will ask at the next Council meeting.
She also, sometime that day, approaches Sinmore to ask what she (Cygna) can do to help Sinmore control the beast. Perhaps the collar Cygna had thought of?
((I can play out Sophronia here, since she started here, and it is technically before the Tribunal threads, I'd just kept quiet, but it does throw this part of the thread into some difficulty.))
((I know...I just want to at least seem like we're working on Sinmore's problem before it gets any worse, and Cygna is still damnably bothered about what happened in Flint.))
Sinmore could spend her two seasons not working on Covenant duties designing a spell of Personal range. She's not that good at it though.
Should only be one season free-- everyone should have been already advanced through Spring 1221, and we're only going through Spring 1222.
Duos Flumen is made up of Gruis and Mikhail of Bjornaer, Aulus scholae Bonisagi, Collem Ex Miscellanea, Deiectus of Flambeau, Iorwerth of Tytalus, and Cuprincus Verditii.
Gruis and Mikhail greet the magi when they first arrive, with hugs and cooing over Cygna. They are both polite to Attravere, but their welcome makes him keenly aware that he is an outsider.
A huge man, even bigger than Sinmore, is sparring with some grogs out in the yard when Gruis shows Attravere to his guest quarters.
The Mercere is given a casting token for the Aegis (Cygna already has one). As Cygna is ushered off for a family dinner, Attravere is left to his own devices.
Aulus smiles warmly and clasps Attravere's hand. "A pleasure to meet you, a pleasure. Mercere are always welcome at Duos Flumen, especially the magical ones. Yes, I have taken Shmuel under my wing. The poor lad has a great deal of potential which was foundering with no guidance. What sort of arrangement are you looking for?"
Cygna gifts Grus with the grapevine cuttings from Phoenix that she promised, and gets her mater and uncle caught up on everything that's been going on in her life since she left (especially her relationship with Hiems and how that crashed and burned mere days earlier).
Gruis frowns tightly. "I never liked that boy anyway, he sounded like trouble," she states matter-of-factly. "Don't you agree, Mikhail?"
The Russian man shrugs. "He sounded okay to me," he begins, but as he noticed Gruis glaring daggers at him, he quickly appends, "...For a distraction or brief fling, but of course our girl can and should do much better than some pretty face with no alpha quality."
Gruis nods primly. "My thoughts exactly. Katya, honey, you deserve a real man, not some simpering housewife who follows after whatever woman is foolish enough to lead him around by the nose." She pats Cygna's shoulder while glaring over Cygna's back at Mikhail, for his obvious, unforgivable ignorance of what to do in these situations.
((He's a guy, what do you expect? 
))
Cygna shakes her head. [color=red]"The way he treated me...the way he offered to come with me from Phoenix...I thought maybe... I knew he was hurting, and thought that he would come around and say what he felt, and I didn't want to scare him away. But when Adorjan told me that Hiems's heart had been broken by a woman not even a tenth as good as me, I was thinking that maybe I should say something.
"Then, when Flint was destroyed and I believed Hiems was killed...that was when I took my vows so that I can be rid of Adorjan once and for. Then he had to go and come back with...with the same woman who destroyed him all those years ago. And, to be honest, I don't' think he loves her, and I would be surprised if she loved him. I know it's wrong of me to think ill of them like that, and I hope it's not simply my jealousy speaking. But he wouldn't say that he loved her until I asked him point blank...and even then, he didn't sound very convincing.
"I just don't know what to do. Or even if I should...no, I know I shouldn't do anything. That would violate my Vow of Chastity. But, as a friend? It's going to be so very hard for me to stand idly by and watch him be broken again."
Gruis tsks. "No, honey, he is not worth breaking your vows over. I only hope you're right and that this wench DOES break his heart, so he knows what it feels like. He deserves to be cast aside like the morning rubbish. Right, Mikhail?"
Cygna's uncle nods and agrees lamely, "Yes. Because... Hiems is clearly a bad person?"
"That's right," Gruis declares, still glaring daggers at the clueless man.
Attravere coughs a little and smiles weakly at the mention of how welcome his house is. "Oh my, Cygna wasn't kidding about this fellow." runs through his mind.
"That's very gracious of you, Magus Aulus. Your good nature and, uh, keen insight help set me at ease. Perhaps by putting our two minds together we can figure something out?" Attravere looks at Aulus hopefully before continuing,
"You see, Shmuel's sudden change of master creates a potential rift between our covenants - something neither of our houses desires. Shmuel is like family to many of us at Gallus Florensis, and I am not just speaking of his own, biological family, either.
Attravere pauses and thinks briefly to the times Shmuel was treated like the black sheep child by the Magi and a particular altercation involving Sinmore and a breakfast roll. He smiles softly before continuing.
"Many miss him and feel he was claimed with little consideration. There are those who know the letter of the code better, of course, but with covenant relations at stake it has become a matter of the heart. Beyond returning him to a Magus stuck in Twilight, something I can't imagine even Bonisagus, Trianoma or Mercere doing, or figuring out some way for him to be in two places at once, I am at a loss. I feel like there is even a chance here to improve relations somehow, but the course is hidden to me."
Deiectus of Flambeau is one of those currently absent. Inquiries from anyone at the covenant would state that he is, "As always, locked away in his lab. Or the library, under his wife's care. Though he does come out often in the mornings to train for an hour with the grogs. Some sort of ritual, as he is clearly not an eager fighter." It's possible one of the kids is around to peer inquisitively at the visitors.
((If memory serves, Deiectus's wife would actually be from Gallus Florensis covenant originally, as they're the only nearby Jewish settlement.))
"Oh!" Aulus exclaims. "There's no need for acrimony, my friend. I spoke with the boy prior to claiming him; he informed me that he practically begged all your magi to take him on after his pater passed, but none accepted him. He even told me that Aequi never formally accepted Sam either-- he simply moved into Lamentus' sanctum and didn't throw the boy out. Aequi never gave a single season of teaching to Sam, and never officially claimed him.
"I am teaching Sam how to be an adept politician even now. It is the first instruction he has received for nearly four years. If any among your number wished to claim him, why did they not do so when they had the chance?"
Some time in spring, Cygna and Hiems are both summoned to the library (each not knowing the other will be there). Upon entering the library, they see a balding Englishman looking quite testy.
"Have a seat." He points to two chairs, imperiously. "Daniel tells me that he's been carrying written letters back and forth across the covenant. When I was astonished and asked him to verify it, he fingered the two of you.
"Now, I'm sure you both know the cost of vellum. Perhaps you should also be made aware that it is all the more precious to us, now that we have no sheep. We cannot produce our own vellum, and our provider in Chester is a crook.
"I expect this nonsense to stop. You both have two perfectly good legs, and you live within a stone's throw of each other. Just WALK and communicate FOR FREE! If this does not stop, I am turning you both over to CLAUDIA. Do we have an understanding?!?"
((Does Cygna know who this chap is?))
Cygna almost stumbles when she sees that familiar fall of blue hair in the library, but manages to catch herself and greets him politely, if a little more formally than she would have liked.
When the Englishman is done, she will turn to Hiems. [color=red]"You live here now? When...why didn't you say anything?" She looks like she's about to continue, but catches herself and looks down shyly.
Cygna recognizes Wallis of Oxford as a tutor and scribe who works for the covenant. (I can't believe I forgot to mention him by name. Derp.)