"Point is, they ain't people. Don't count them when figuring out how to play well with others. Dream-magicians don't play well with others, and the apprentice/master relationship is one of the most torturous experiences a human can go through."
Viscaria pretends to be absorbed with the book, and replies absently, "Oh. Well, if you're very good and do all your chores, then maybe we can practice some later."
At last, she thinks. Some power I can wield in this tiny little prison.
If Viscaria wants to catalog the entire library she can, under the guise of studying a book or books, or some sort of research. She can scribe her own catalog which becomes a proxy/AC to the entire collection. It's unlikely though, that an AC will be useful to the library until after Candidus releases Lapis Crudus from the regio, given Mnemnos's inability to transport himself out of the Regio with ReCo spells (unlike how it works in the rest of the saga). It's a bit of a gamble if her Mirror could work given that limitation...
So... Viscaria could probably get away with squirreling away an arcane connection to Deconstructing Morpheus (it is a summa), and study from it during the season, she can also get an AC to maybe two others, but it's a gambler's choice as to what gets selected, it may be a piece of junk, or it may be the best book in the library. Making a duplicate catalogue of the entire library will require the entire season, but not leave any study time, so it's quite a risk.
"Very well, I'll leave you to your book, and have Languidus deliver this letter."
((We'll do a short pause in the action for events in the other thread to unfold.))
Her primary focus is on studying the book for a season and getting the most out of it she can. Squirreling away ACs to this book and others will strictly be a crime of opportunity thing.
EDIT: it really does amount to a sort of petty vandalism. "Oh, maybe I'll grab this and someday warp one of their books if I feel like it."
The summa is L6Q13 Summa on Finesse.
Viscaria will have about 10+ days before something happens...in the mean time.
A few days after their departure from Dragon's Rest, Wen, Cygna, and I'm sure Heims run into a man on the road lying in the middle of the road, appearing to be either dead or asleep.
[color=red]"I have a spell that allows me to understand her, but I must concentrate to maintain it. If you would ask her to touch her lips when she has something to say to me, or to us, then I will sing my spell to make her words known to me."
Wen crumples to the ground again, "Touch lips for the maga to cast a spell to help her understand what you're saying." She wakes up a few moments later. Somnifer nods at Cygna.
OOC: Assuming a full season's study, that'll bring her up to Finesse 4 (Rego) by Tribunal season, based on my current listings in the Magi Planner.
((Sorry, this thread completely slipped my mind until last night, and I didn't feel like getting out of bed to deal with it 
))
Cygna walks close to Hiems, talking, laughing, flirting, and generally tries to keep his spirits up. She knows that, left to his own devices, he will become gloomy and depressed, and she much prefers him to be happy. When they come across the man in the road, she stops and looks at him with a concerned look on her face. She looks at Hiems and Wen to see what their reaction is. She then approaches, stopping a couple of paces away, and watches the man intently to see if he's breathing, look for any signs of injury,what have you.
Sorry, work work work, too delayed at that 
.
Hiems will enjoy, or try to, every moment with cygna. Nothing lasts forever anyway, so he tries to burn these moments into his memory*. He'll have a hard time being flirty, yet he'll try to, and he'll be happy to see her laugh. And he will convey to her, albeit clumsily at times, all the love and care that he can. He is worried that she may think he cares for her despite her marks, since she was the only one to love him, while he cares for her, period (in fact, most of the time, he doesn't even think of the damn things).
When seeing the man, Hiems will first think he was maybe wounded by something. He'll take a protective stance towards Cygna, and look around to see if there's any king of danger, mundane, animal or supernatural:
A moment, katerina
Awareness (alterness) 2 + 0 + 1d10=9 = 11
Second Sight (Invisible things) 2 + 0 + 1d10=9 again + aura = 11 + aura
Once he thinks they're alone, he'll approach the man
Sir? Are you all right?
After a few moments, he'll touch him, to see if the man is cold/dead or not.
As Cygna and Heims approach one can hear him snoring softly. When the ask him if he's alright he awakes.
((I'm going to go with you guys using Latin..))
After a few moments of disorientation one normally experiences after being awakened suddenly he responds in kind, in Latin, "Yes, of course I'm fine. I was tired so I took a nap. Oh, and I had to wait for you. Somnifer told me to wait in this spot for you to come. Viscaria will be so happy to see her long absent friends, I'm sure. Eventually you'll enter a fairy forest, do not leave the path and you will come to Lapus Crudus. I'm to deliver this note to an associate of hers at Spider's Palace, so I must be off."
Cygna glances at Hiems, surprised for a moment, then starts beaming. [color=red]"That's the first time you've ever called me by my given name," she whispers. [color=red]"We are so sharing a bed tonight!"
((It's an Int stress roll against the same ease factors (starting at 9) and three extra botch dice, but you have to repeat the roll to remember perfectly; failing the roll introduces inacuracies in the memory.))
[color=red]"Could you please tell our guide?" Cygna says, indicating Wen. [color=red]"She doesn't speak Latin."
Wen looks back and forth between the speakers, wondering what they're talking about. When Cygna indicates her, she starts to ask what they're saying about her, but catches herself.
Once the messenger scampers off, Cygna looks down the road after him for a couple of minutes, then turns to Hiems. [color=red]"Do you feel like we're being manipulated?"
"I can, but she knows this, I can see the memories Somnifer put in her mind. I was asked to wait here, because you didn't know."
((My intention is that this have a dream-like quality, that things are always in place whenever they are needed, much like a dream. I'm probably not executing that very well.))
Interesting choice of words, ice-mage. Wasn't there something in his flaws about the heat of love being bad for his magic?
JL, the unnerving sense of everything being set-up is coming across, but it hasn't been feeling very dream like to me. I guess I associate dream-like with surreal. So maybe throw some more Strange at us?
Maybe... The surreal only applies if people are actually asleep. In this case, no one is. Am I the only one who has realistic dreams where everything seems to be in place where you want it? Oh, right. Maybe it's not your dream.
Meanwhile, Viscaria is spending her days reading and occasionally getting punctuated by Mnemnos, as she gives him a crash course in talking to women.
What is he like?
Back at Lapus Crudus...
Viscaria falls into a routine of reading Somnifer's book, her grandmother's journals, and also has a nightly meal with Mnemnos. Mnemnos on evenings when he is distracted by something, a problem he's working on or something other than flirting with Viscaria seems infinitely more attractive. When Mnemnos tries it seems to all fall apart on him.
The more Viscaria looks over the journal the more dissatisfied she is with it, it never seems to answer any of her questions about who she is, or, who her mother might be. References seems to refer mostly to Somnifer, and have very little about Somnifer's wife or his daughter.
It is entirely possible that she is actually falling for him, then. Especially if he takes instruction well. Almost immediately upon seeing the pattern, she starts dissecting the social situation for him, explaining dinner company using the mathematics of enchantments -- which may be a bit confusing for him since Verditus enchant using both Magic Theory and Philosophiae.
Particularly unlikely given that it is supposedly written by his wife. So, I've been conned. But why now? Why at this moment did he reach out to me? I've been in Normandy for over a year. What was so important that he needed to do now? I wonder if this book could help me discover some Sympathetic Connections to him...
After a few nights of this routine, Mnemnos indicates he is unavailable to join Viscaria for dinner. There is a quiet knock at Viscaria's door. When she answers it, Candidus is before her. I sense you have an evening available, my dear maga. Would you care to join me for dinner, this evening?" He stands before her in a manner similar to Somnifer, and then it clicks for Viscaria, that Somnifer's affectation of closing his eyes is a feeble imitation of Candidus who possesses no eyes, not eye sockets are visible on his face.
Viscaria assents readily. Not only is this creature her would-be captor, but he's a Faerie Lord on par with the dwarven king who raised her, so long ago. She hungers for some half-remembered sense of interacting with beings who aren't human, the alien perspective which was so commonplace for her to encounter as a child.
(I'm trying to think of a good metaphor here. She's like one of those half-white babies that littered Korea after the war, grown up and sent to live with American right-wing Catholics for the last three decades, getting invited out to dinner by a Chinese Bhuddist.)
"It would be my pleasure, fair sir. What is on the menu?"
"Conversation. I thought I'd inquire as to how you're enjoying your time here. I thought we would eat in tonight, and I have had some items prepared. Some foods familiar to you from your life in Iberia." A parade of small faries comes in bringing in several delights. A rice dish infused with saffron, delectable hams and wine soaked cakes along with a variety of vegetables.