"6 pawns, 4 of corpus, and working in labs no more than two seasons per year, unless the project is of interest to me for academic purposes for anything above and beyond 2 seasons. You should see the value of this, as it forces magi to come up with interesting projects to engage me more. I'll also agree to increase my knowledge of Magic Theory to the extent that the covenant's library allows, if a magus isn't reading the texts, and my time allows." Ysebrand feels a bit more confident about this, Com 5 + Bargaining of 5+2+ (spec?) +die roll of 5=17 or 18.
"Very well," Eilid says. "And if Arguing With One's Reflection or the other texts are in use, I can teach you if I'm still around. It might be my last chance to teach." She says the last part almost to herself, as though she were thinking aloud.
"Now, to my other question. How much of your situation do you want the Council to know, if any?"
"Are you ill or is Twilight approaching, Eilid?" He asks somewhat concerned. "Given the circumstances, if the accord between us can be ratified by the council, my secret and talents could be disclosed. Conditions are that I do not wish to be monopolized by any one magus, and nor do I wish to have my case used by an ambitious Quaesitor to attempt making new Hermetic Law." ((Ysebrand has a Code of Hermes of 0, 1xp, and is paranoid about this particular issue for some reason, whether it has a basis in fact or not.))
Eilid looks down. "I suspect that I am on the verge of Final Twilight. I have had great...painful difficulty becoming my Heartbeast and becoming human again, for three or four years now. The last time I became human, I was bedridden for a week. Before this, I had thought to take another apprentice, but that would not be fair to him, to me, or to my House."
She takes a moment, then continues. "I have had a good life, my affairs are in order. I would just like to do something worthwhile, to make one last difference before I head into the Endless Forest."
She stands up. "Work with me for this season, let us enchant Buttercup's armour, and at the next meeting we can discuss your situation and ratify the agreement we've reached."
Ysebrand stands mute, he had no idea. "Of course, I will do what I can to assist you, happily. You, and to some extent Talia, have done much to restore my faith in Magi. Her appetites are... impressive, but even when I was well when we first met, she did not make me a target of her predation. You and I reached an accord, understanding that each of us has something the other can offer and choosing to negotiate rather than to take by force or taking advantage. You've earned my respect."
He stands, indicating he's ready, "Would you be so kind as to extend your Parma so I don't misunderstand your instructions or comments in a more negative light? And then we can begin."
"Of course...where are my manners?" She extends her Parma over him.
"Are you a pious man, Ysebrand? We're getting a late start on the project, and the heavens may not quite be properly aligned for the most efficient use of our energy. We may have to put in some extra hours to make up for the time that we've lost, and we are most certainly going to have to experiment with the enchantment some."
((She has Buttercup's armour, and the lab text for The Armour That Fits. With the missed time, she's almost certainly going to have to experiment or use the Overtime rules from Covenants to make up for the points lost.))
"No, not especially, I am at your disposal."
((I'll mark his seasonal activity as assisting in the lab and take 2 xp of exposure for Summer 1222. By the way, for some reason I chose spells as his specialty, it could be anything, I could leave it there or we can adjust it for this instance and move it forward. If he was to work with a PC, I would've asked to adjust it to whatever the PC would have desired, to make it fortuitous... Right now he adds 8 to the LT, 9 if his specialty is adjusted.))
((Yeah, I would imagine that he'd be a lot more likely to help with enchantments than with inventing spells, so changing it this once is fine.))
Well, the bad news is that, even with her lab stated out, she comes up just a shade short of what she needs to pull off the enchantment without experimenting. Good news is that she doesn't need to do any Exceptional Risk.
So. Simple die, added to the Lab Total, she rolls a 1. Which doesn't matter, the bonus she gets for experimenting put her over the top anyway.
On to the Extraordinary Results Chart. Stress die...aw crap. A freakin' 0. And the botch dice (1 die, plus 3 for the aura): Wow...2, 2, 2, and 2. What are the odds? ("The odds are approximately 10,000 to one, Captain." "NEVER tell me the odds!")
Whew. So. No extraordinary effects. And Eilid dang near has a nervous breakdown 
So, at the end of the summer, Buttercup has armour that will grow and shrink with her whenever someone casts Preternatural Growth and Shrinking on her. Most likely the Growth part, I would imagine.
((I'll take credit for that. Ysebrand won't, though.))
Over the course of the summer, Eilid expresses to Halie when she sees her that she's glad to have a Quaesitor in the covenant, and occasionally asks theoretical questions about hermetic law. Like, if two magi from different covenants come across a vis source at the same time, who does it belong to? If a muggle consumes vis, is that a hermetic crime? Stuff like that.
"Thank you Eilid, I am glad to be here. I stopped at Crun Clach on my way from Edinburgh and you were right, I would have been dreadfully unhappy there."
(Halie's answers are to the best of my OOC knowledge, feel free to edit her responses to give truthful answers if you want the peripheral code in Loch Leglean to specify differently or whatnot.)
"On paper, it belongs to whomever registers it first. Precedence of paperwork can be ambiguous, though, particularly when one covenant might have a visit from a Redcap before the other, so in practice it will actually belong to whichever of the two musters the most votes at Tribunal."
"Huh?" Halie seems confused by the question, but answers anyway. "Only members of the Order of Hermes are subject to Hermetic Law. Depending on who the muggle is, if the magus who owns the vis kills the mundane in retaliation, he could possibly be charged with Mundane Interference. Most Tribunals uphold a magus' right to use deadly force in protection of his own resources, though, mundane and magical-- and Caledonia is more vehement than most about a magus' right to defend his property."
At the Fall meeting of the Council, Eilid has some new business she would like to discuss.
"We have a newcomer to the covenant who will be of no small use to us. While not a magus (in fact, he doesn't even have the Gift), he is quite intelligent and has some knowledge of Magic Theory. He would like to serve as a laboratory assistant at large for six months out of the year, but he's willing to serve more under the right circumstances. He assisted me in a project over the summer, and I can attest that his help would be of no small value. I would judge his assistance to be at least as effective as a well-trained apprentice.
"However, he requires that he be paid in vis. I have negotiated a salary of six pawns per annum – four of the art of Corpus, and two more of an art of our choosing. I request that this agreement be ratified by the council."
Halie's jaw drops. "And how much salary do magi draw, comparatively?" she asks.
"We pay this mundane six pawns of vis per year, four of which must be corpus? Forgive me if this seems a bit excessive. What does a mundane need with vis? How do we know he's not some infernalist sent by Duncan or his demonic masters to weaken us?" Talia says incredulously. "If he is to help us in the lab 6 months, and I like the idea of competing for his assistance in projects, what is he doing the other time? Seems as if he could be living high off our largess."
Drystan (who looks almost as stunned as Halie) answers. "A full member, which we all are, is entitled to one share of the surplus.
"Last year, there was no surplus, as we only had the one vis source that we knew of. This year, with the restoration of at least some of our vis sources, it looks to be about five pawns apiece."
"I knew your brain was addled," Doineann mutters half under her breath.
"I'm with Talia. The idea that we would pay a mundane more for two seasons of work, than we ourselves make for the entire year? Astonishing ludicrous."
"I do not believe him to be an infernalist," Eilid says as she looks directly at Talia. "And his need for vis is very, very real. He has asked me not to disclose the purpose for that. But, if you wish, he can be summoned and you can discuss it with him in Council or in private."
"Indeed, I wish to see this confidence man and have him justify his actions to the full council. I cannot conceive of any reason why a mundane needs Vis!". Talia says forcefully.
"I fail to see how any mundane's need for vis, real or imagined, compels us to pay him MORE THAN WE PAY OURSELVES, when our finances are not in any position for such excess. I vote no. Period."