An aging friar emerges from belowdecks, runing his hands across his freahly shaved pate. "Yes, my son?" he inquires in Gaelic, with just a trace of a Roman accent.
"Lord Nevin sent me to bring the maga, Brother." He looks around quickly and leans toward the friar. "There's been a murder," he whispers.
Nevin and his man Glowan and his other guard wait with the cart near the dock. Nevin is looking around and seems less than impressed, though there does appear to be some attempts at building up the place.
"So this is how a wizard lives eh?" he aks Glowan who makes a grunted laugh as he stays on guard. "No one to greet the Laird and no one speaks the bloody language."
((You know those scenes in all the old westerns when the Yul Brenner type shows up, and everyone ducks into there homes, closes the doors, grabs their kids off the street? Yeah...that. The covenfolk see him, but they're hiding from him. And everyone is speaking, or whispering, Gaelic.))
((Who is this? 'Cause I can't imagine Jonathan, man that's so weird, had stayed aboard ship all this time since we arrived. 'Cause mama gotta squeezebox, ya know?))
Talia emerges to her sanctum and finds where everyone is at. I suppose by this point she has 2xp in Gaelic and can understand pronouns when there's a lot of pointing going on. "Sorry, trying to keep crew morale up." She says it as if it was a perfectly legitimate excuse to be cavorting with two of her crew. The crew members nearby nod knowingly. "What seems to be the trouble?" All words spoken in Latin, of course.
((Note, in the OOC thread with Arya, I was actually kidding about the nobles, but I'll roll with it.))
"I am sure you are aware that magi do not take kindly to being given orders, young man. When she has completed this unholy fornication" -- he frowns uncomfortably-- "I will take her confession, first and foremost. Should she wish to honour your request, where should she call upon your laird? Unless of course you'd prefer to wait," he says with a sigh, gesturing toward the cabin from whence moans and cries of three or four different voices can be heard.
((It's Caoimhe. Folks showed up while she was working on a new prop to make herself look bald. Faster to put on a robe than get out of the bald head.
Even if Talia was trying to get mundane visitors directed to her, I'm not sure why the covenfolk would take more kindly to her direction than a Gently Gifted maga, but whatever. I'd like to change virtues if the Gift doesn't have any effect on mundane interaction.))
((Shush, Douglas was just horny, you left him with a case of blue ones, at the end of the night, he's taking what he can get. Some guys take it as a point of pride that they don't have to like who they are with...))
"Brother, forgive me, because I liked it so much I'm going to do it again tonight! Care to join us? Is that enough confession? Good, then, alright. What's going on here, I was taking a study break, and I would really get back to my studies. Well, the break primarily, but after more studies. I digress. What can I do to be of assistance?"
((That would be Donndubhán, Caoimhe's monk clerk persona.))
"I know, Brother...but this is Lord Nevin! I don't want to risk making him hungry...angry! I don't want to make him angry!"
His voice drops to a whisper. "Lord Nevin, and his whole clan...they're cannibals," he says and quickly crosses himself.
"He's on his way now," he says in a normal voice (still in Gaelic), "with the body."
The shepherd gulps and looks nervously between the monk and the maga, then speaks to the monk.
"There's been a murder in the woods, one of the other shepherds," he says in Gaelic. "Lord Nevin and his men are bringing the body here to have the magi investigate."
((Ah...okay.))
((You both spoke up at about the same time, or close enough. No one said anything to indicate they were yielding or making a better case why, and I didn't realize JL was kidding. So I threw a couple of dice which said Talia. And, so far, there's not been a whole lot of magus-mundane interaction. Just Douglas, and he's been trained almost since birth how to overcome the effects of the Gift. Note that he doesn't have the Unaffected By The Gift, in that magi still creep him out or whatever...but he's good at pretending that he's not bothered. This is, at least ims, common for Redcaps to have a high Guile for this purpose. That way, they don't have to cling to a magus for a Parma extension, and you can't put Parma into an item, afaik.))
((I can pass this part of the story to Halie, with the need to investigate a murder, it only makes sense. This way Talia just gets to demonstrate how she gets her freak on to more people in another thread.))
((Nevin certainly wouldn't mind 
))
((It's a rational and reasonable situation: someone comes to Talia wants to investigate a murder. Hmm, we have a Bjornaer Quaesitor with, ostensibly, investigation skills. She's going to pass the baton. Also, it becomes problematic if I meet Nevin here for the first time and also meet him earlier for the first time in Three Hour tour, since I'm not sure what's going on then. So, Talia will move her sweet little a$$ out of the way very shortly.))
The friar turns to Talia. "Apparently the local lord thinks the magi of this covenant are his to command. One of his subjects has been murdered, and he expects you to do his bidding. This shepherd believes the lord will break his fast on our livers if he is unhappy with the service provided him."
Nevin is keeping a studious eye about him as he examines the covenant. He was here once before, but truth be told he was rather drunk at the time and most likely none would have remembered him since he was not wearing the 'clothes' of a laird at the time. He seems to recall he was swimming with the otters, but his memory was a bit fuzzy.
"'Ow long they gonna make ye wait Nevin? Disrespectful, that's what it is!" grouses Glowan. Nevin nods but says nothing.
((which actually makes sense, from an ic perspective, as Talia knows that Halie's a Quaesitor and that something like this would more likely be up her halie.))
"Brother, let's escort this shepherd to Halie, and see if she will be so kind to assist him, as this is something beyond my Arts or skill to handle." She'll point the way to the ladder going to the deck and follow everyone out.
"Of course," he replies. "My son, I will show you the way to Maga Halie's cottage. She may perhaps take more kindly to receiving orders from your laird."
Caoimhe shows them to Halie's cottage and knocks. Halie opens the door, buck naked and with a few feathers in her hair. "Yes?"
One of the covenfolk, a middle-aged man, scuttles closer to Nevin, looking as though he would bolt given half an opportunity. "My Lord," he says, "what brings you to Insula Canaria?"
Before Nevin has a chance to answer, he and his men (and the covenant-dweller) see the above procession descending onto the pier from the boat and heading his way. Once the covenfolk sees them, he decides that they can handle Lord Nevin better than he, and beats feet back to the safety of his cottage.
Talia comes with. She whistles appreciatively. Oh, that's just her Bjornaer lineage, she was probably in her Heartbeast form. She's probably not getting her freak on. What a shame.
"Halie, this shepherd here is here with his Laird, Nevin and reports a murder. How he came to me, I haven't a clue, I have neither Arts nor skills to conduct an investigation of any kind, let alone a murder. Could you be of assistance to him?"
"A murder?" she blinks. "Of course. Athenus, love, I'll be back later." A beefcake lookin' dude with a linen wrapped around his waist kisses Halie on the cheek and murmurs, "Of course, my dear."
Halie grabs a couple things off the nightstand and strides out of her cottage, wearing nothing but a tiny skull on a leather thong around her neck, and a diamond bracelet around her left wrist. "Lead the way," she tells the shepherd, seemingly in his native tongue.