"Well, yeah. Somnifer wouldn't harbor ill feelings towards Magus Gunthar if the @#$!ing @ssh@le hadn't been such a total #@$%&#@$%@# to me as an apprentice. He's seeking my revenge on him by declaring Wizard's War."
[color=red]"And this is a bad thing, because you want to get your own revenge. But torture? And how did he know how your pater had treated you? I've known you for years, and didn't realize it was heinous enough to warrant Wizard War."
"Oh, yes. He and I have always been riotous laugh together during the holidays," Viscaria comments sarcastically. Perhaps for the first time, Cygna realizes that she's rarely heard Viscaria say anything about her pater, beyond his identity. The magus has certainly never visited or corresponded.
"Look, you know that I was raised in a dwarven citadel, and you might even remember that I first arrived at Phoenix after escaping a dwarven citadel with three half-dwarf prisoners as my retinue. You never put those thoughts together? Norbart's experiments on me during my apprenticeship turned me into a creature that disgusted the dwarfking who raised me. I was lucky to escape alive. But the question that's never been answered to my satisfaction is how was I born there to begin with? Orbhammer will never tell me, he cannot stand to have me within the same mountainspine. I'd hoped to find some proof of a maga who'd dealt with him, but I've had no luck. That leaves only Norbart Gunthar to ask for answers."
Hiems turns slightly towards cygna o_O
Hiems stays pensive a few seconds
Hum... I guess I could cast The Call to Slumber?
To Viscaria
I won't pretend to judge you or else. Just be careful. Both Norbert Gunthat and Somnifer are more powerful than you. Don't let your quest for your origins blind you to that truth.
Cygna leans in close to Hiems for a quick, whispered conversation, a mix of love and fear on her face..
((It basically boils down to whether we think having someone with Viscaria who has a high Mentem defense or a high Mentem ability is more important. Hiems's MR against Mentem is 48, while Cygna's is 28. Cygna's Mentem score is effectively 18, with a couple of useful formulaic spells; Hiems's is 4, with no known Mentem spells. Fixer, I'll let you make the call as to which of the two will go with Viscaria. I'm of the opinion that Hiems might be a (ever-so-slightly) better choice, due to his Mentem defences, but I can see either one.))
Hiems shakes his head.
No way.
No freakin way.
I'd get myself in this, or any other, trap if it was to save you. I'd die if it could save you. But I won't let you get into it. Nor will I go into it, leaving you alone. Not unless you ask me to. There must be another way.
A man with chalky white skin, resplendent in blue leggings and tunic comes into the building where Heims and Cygna are in. Viscaria immediately recognizes him, while Heims and Cgyna have no idea who it is. His face without eyes is disconcerting, and his habit of looking directly at a person when they speak is disquieting as well, and of course, oddly reminiscent of Somnifer, who spoke with his eyes closed most of the time. He looks at Heims and Cygna, "I could allow a two for one exchange, this time only." He smiles and offers a chuckle with a slightly sinister tinge.
Cygna beams at Hiems, eyes glistening. [color=red]"This," she says softly. [color=red]"This is why I love you, moja ljubov'" She then hugs him longly and buries her face in his hair, nuzzling him softly, oblivious to the fact that Viscaria might be watching.
[color=red]"May we discuss it for a moment?" Cygna says to the newcomer, [strike]She then leans in close to the mirror and speaks softly.
[color=red]"Do you know who this person is, Viscaria? And, more importantly, do you trust him to do as he says, not only to get us into the mirror, but to get us both back out under the same terms? And what's it like in there?"[/strike] Cygna looks into the mirror to see what's on the other side besides Viscaria. ((I think all she can see is part of the room that Viscaria is in?))
((edited, because Candidus ticked her off 
))
"You may, of course discuss it. However, it is still my realm. Lapis Crudus is under my protection, and I can allow you or not, so I would prefer to remain party to the discussion."
[color=red]"Your realm?" Cygna says as she stands straighter. [color=red]"Lapis Crudus is under your protection, and yet you allow members of the Order to be held against their will?
"If you wish to be part of the discussion we have regarding your generous offer, so be it. I have two questions for you. Who are you, and can we trust you to get my sodalis and I into the mirror in exchange for Viscaria, and can we trust you to release both of us in exchange for one other?"
"Your Order created the very situation which required my protection. Being preyed upon by a neighboring covenant, left starving and unprotected, with a mob marching on the covenant, they turned to me to protect them. I did so, under my terms. I have relaxed those terms in recent years, and allowed magi to go, if they could find others to take their place. The exchange here, in this case was between Somnifer and Viscaria. She made the decision to trade places with Somnifer. She chose to be there. I was not party to that transaction, but she knew full well what the scope of the transaction was."
Addressing the question about who he is, he satisfies that with the response. "I am Candidus, Lord of this realm. The offer now, without any condition is a two for one exchange now. If you wish to bargain for the same at a later date, we can."
Cygna's hand reaches for Hiems's as she regards Candidus. [color=red]"What kind of condition would you impose for Hiems and I to switch places with any one magus, who it is doesn't matter, and return from the mirror to here?"
"That's the deal as it stands," Viscaria interjects before this gets too far. "One goes in, one comes out. They must be of equivalent station in life, as measured by some element of their essential nature. My shield grog could not come in because there are no warriors here. Likewise, Mufarjj could not enter because he is too much defined by his foreign ways in this land, and the citizens of Lapis Crudis cannot possibly be strangers to each other. One might say the inhabitants of this regio are deeply colored by a sense of poetic irony."
"Lord Candidus is a creature of the moment, like many of the noblest of... the... Sidhe....um, the Sidhe... nobility. I suspect you would dislike the exchange rate he'd offer for future events."
"I don't suppose we should consider whether it'd be wisest for you two to go WarBusting, while I stay here and pray that Somnifer will keep his bargain?"
Hiems holds cygna's hand tightly all the while.
Once candidus has spoken, he looks at her.
May I talk to you a moment?
He'll take her appart
I don't think we can trust this candidus, anymore than we could Somnifer. He'll keep his word this time, to have us enter his realm. But I don't think he'll release us under any kind of two-for-one trade again.
I feel compelled to help Viscaria, yet she brought her own demise, and I... I don't want you to pay her price. Maybe we should seek magi who would be interested to trade places with Viscaria. Surely, there are bonisagi theorists or merinita who would be glad to study such a place.
Likewise, I can see a magus under the threat of wizard's war taking sanctuary here.
...
Do you think we should speak of this place to Norbert Gunthar?
Cygna smiles a crafty smile. [color=red]"I do see a...'poetic irony' in Viscaria's pater trading places with her in order to escape Somnifer's mis-intended Wizard's War. But I do agree that I don't feel that he's all that trustworthy...but I can't bear the thought of us being on different sides of the mirror, either.
"Perhaps if we can find Norbert, offer him our counsel in spite of what he seems to have done to Viscaria, and see how things develop."
We agree then.
Hiems comes back to the mirror
Lady Viscaria. As you surmised, Cygna and I are loathe to try this trade. Having two, even one, magus traded instead of one is not a solution.
On the other hand, we don't trust Somnifer to honor his bargain with you.
What we would like to do is seek out Norbert Gunthar, and offer him an asylum against Somnifer here, if he would trade your place. Do you think we have a chance to convince him? And if so, do you know where we could find him?
Viscaria looks down at the mirror's framed edge for a long second. Her eyes follow the contours of her exquisitely rendered prison door as she considers her options. The moment passes, the cloud of painful insecurity and childhood despair pass like a summer breeze blowing the familiar easiness and joy of her character back into her face.
"Sure! You can always come back and trade places with me if it doesn't work out. Though I caution you, Norbart is a particularly distrustful[1] magus. He'll be at his covenant, Laguna Sententia. It's hidden inside a monastery about 40 miles north of Saragossa in Iberia, the Abbey of San Pedro el Viejo. "
She pauses for another long moment, her expression inscrutable. "I have another friend coming anyway, and it'd be rude not to be here when she[2] shows up. Oh, and I nearly forgot. Cygna, how long can you use a skeleton to summon and bind a ghost? Theraphosa wants to interrogate an assassin."
From the way Viscaria mentions the project, Cygna can easily deduce that she's talking about a dead magus, that Viscaria has qualms about the entire concept, but has accepted the necessity of asking her about this. (I mention this just because I'm having a hard time remembering to play Viscaria as someone Cygna has known for a decade).
[1] Note that Viscaria's opinion of Norbart is heavily biased by the fact that he initiated her into weirdly occult mysteries through painful means before she knew that she had The Gift or that she was his apprentice. As she tells the story, he kept her locked in a cage and fed her nothing but shards of stone until she won her freedom from him.....but its entirely possible that this was just the initiation for Imbued With Terram Spirit.
[2] It's actually going to be Virgil, not Olivia, but she doesn't know this yet.
((Cygna rolls Per 0 + Folk Ken (Magi) 3 + die roll of 8 = 11.))
Cygna kneels and presses a hand on her side of the mirror, at a height that Viscaria can match if she so desires. [color=red]"I give you my word, Viscaria, that Hiems and I will return, with or without Norbart. We will not forget you here."
She smiles. [color=red]"Do you have a good map or instructions that I can memorize, to make it easier to find him?"
Cygna thinks for a moment. [color=red]"As long as the poor fellow's not had a Church burial or his soul's winged his way directly to heaven, forever. I know of a ritual that can summon a spirit, but even with a lab text, it's just barely beyond my capabilities. As far as binding, I would have to think about it, but I'm sure it can be done. It might be rather difficult, but doable." (I'm sure there's a way to bind a spirit in Ars, probably using ReMe, but I don't see it in my spell guidelines anyway. Maybe if I tracked down the "Bob the Skull" thread on the forums?))
((I was half expecting Viscaria to notice the way Cygna and Hiems are acting toward each other, the holding hands and the glances, and say something like, "Well, it's about time you two started knocking boots! Took you long enough!"))
((Com 2 + Guile 2 + die 2 = 6))
Viscaria's very nature is at conflict in this moment. All of her personality traits apply and they're evenly divided. She does not believe Somnifer will return (Cynical +3), or that Cygna and Hiems will be able to return safely (Brave -2), and she'll be separated from all she loves, even from her familiar (Loyal(Theraphosa) +3). On the other hand, it's the right thing to do (Altruistic +2), so she might as well have fun (Hedonistic +1) because she's damned if she'll let anyone see her cry (Hubris +1.1).
Viscaria eyes Cygna's hand on the glass, knowing that all she has to do to escape from here is to place her hand against Cygna's. Another long, hard moment passes.
((Relay the Vision of the Magus, CrIm 4+, Base 1 +1 Touch, +1 Dia, +1 Changing Image, roll up for detail. Cr 7 + Im 5 + WG 2 + Aura ? + die 0,7 (no botch, unless more than 8 botch dice) = 7+ Aura/2))
"Laguna Senentia lies almost directly between Castra Solis and the Ruins of Plateau -- you remember, the ruins that we explored with Cersei back before we knew she was an Infernalist. Those other infernalists had destroyed it right after Los Toledos? Anyway, the easiest way for a mortal to get there is to travel to Saragossa, and from there get directions to Huesca. There, locate the Abbey of San Pedro el Viejo, and ask to speak to the monk, Federosa. They can guide you the rest of the way. The Abbey is in a reclaimed mosque, and they're a legit Church institution. The monestary, too. If you want to Leap there, you can find connections at any Reconquista covenant, but they'll only take you to Huesca. Laguna Sententia guards its location heavily. Duresca has a more direct connection, since they found the place initially, but you'd have to pull some strings to get at it."
((Hooray for the power of Google Maps and PbP!))
"What if I can....well, talk to Theraphosa about the project, if you get to Mons Electi before I do.."
((HProj also has it. ReMe Base 5. Bunch of variations you can do for the enchanted version, including a built-in Coerce. Of course, you'll want to figure out how much Penetration you need to add first, and I'm sure some of the other magi will want to interrogate it quickly. We have the entire skeleton, but Thera has it split up and hidden a bunch of places, so I don't know if putting it back together counts.))
[/quote]
Viscaria is absolutely going to keep herself from saying anything, as if worried that if she exhales, the dandelion fluff might blow away.
Cygna tries to memorize the moving map and the instructions ((Int 4 + Art of Memory 2 + (die rolls of 1and 9) 18 = 24)), and apparently does so easily.
((Derp. I thought she had just realized something about Somnifer.))