Talia pounces, "I find your answer, interesting. If you loved someone you had a child with you'd want to fulfill the obligations of fatherhood. But if you didn't love the person with whom you fathered a child, you wouldn't, letting the mother and child fend for themselves? What makes one child less worthy than another child? Your love for the mother? Aren't you a magus, who could just pluck the child from their circumstance, and put him with some nurse? What if the child is Gifted are you prepared to open an apprentice's Arts, or would you inflict some deficient Arts in the process?"
Aeliophanes smiles. It's been a long time, and he's never once won an [strike]argument[/strike] debate with Talia, but this brings back fond memories.
[color=red]"A woman goes to the market to buy food for her family. She glances a man she does not know, also at the market, but pays him no heed. What does it matter to her that his family is starving and he's only earned enough to feed one of his children that day? What makes the stranger less important to the woman than her own children? It is the bond that the woman has forged with her husband, her children, that makes them more important to her than the struggling stranger. Likewise, with my theoretical lover and our children. It is the bonds that we have forged, the mother and I, that make the children's fate more important to me that the result of a single night's pleasure.
"As for the apprentice. If I were to pluck him from his circumstance, it would be only because I were ready to train him, to mold him, to teach him what he needs to know to be a Flambeau of the Order. Placing him in a nurse's care would not do either of us any good, unless she were to simply care for him while I had to attend to an urgent and possibly dangerous matter. And I believe that I am grounded in the Arts firmly enough that I run little risk of improperly opening his Arts."
"Men." Talia walks off back to her cabin. She'll order best speed to Verdi, and redirect the wind as necessary and go back to studying the Lungs of the Fish lab text.
Aodhan pauses after Talia storms off before addressing Aeliphanes. "So...you must gather a lot of vis on these exploits. What are ye doing with it? Would you like to have something invented? Perhaps invest your vis in something that can provide returns on it? I'm sure items could make your exploits even more...exciting."
((Perfect!))
((Yeah, gotta let the drama settle before you can talk business))
Aeliophanes looks at Talia's door for a long moment before he turns to Aodhan.
[color=red]"Most of the vis I gather, I save up to use to try to enhance my Talisman. But there's only so much I can do with my spear unless I learn much more than I know. What can you do for me that would me want to deal with you rather than Memnos?"
((Who is Memnos, does Aodhan have any idea? I assume it's a Verditius from the Theban Tribunal?))
"Glad you asked, a smart magus always wants to check his options. Well, I don't wish to speak ill of Memnos, so I'll only talk about my own particular skills. I'm quite adept at making weapons and jewelry with a wide variety of enchantments. Jewelry is especially good at keeping an enchantment going upon you. No doubt ye cast spells to compensate being underwater, but should one of them fail or be turned off perhaps by the creature you're hunting, you'd want something you can activate without words and with a quick and easy gesture perhaps. I can likely provide that for ye."
((I swear if this website had a face I'd punch it! Not sure if the original post went through or not, so this might appear twice.))
((Make an Order of Hermes Lore to see what, if anything, Aodhan knows of him.))
Aeliophanes thinks for a minute. [color=red]"After what happened the other day, I can see the merits of not having all my eggs in one basket, so to speak. And if I should come across something that would nullify my Lungs of the Fish, that could be catastrophic. My Talisman glows, but it would be nice to see in the dark without it."
((It did...I can delete the duplicate if you want.))
((If you could delete that, please go ahead. If you want to roll Lore for me that'd be great, I'm at my office))
Aodhan smiled. "Brave and smart, a great combination. Lungs of the fish and eyes of the cat would be the enchantments ye'd want, no doubt. It might be more economical to make them on separate items as lesser enchanted items. But there is an issue with the items penetrating your Parma. I'm sure in an emergency ye'd not want to lower your parma while a beastie is about. So the items would provide a low magnitude effect, but potentially built with a high amount of power to penetrate your resistance safely. That would be the main complexity I would think. Ye could put those in your Talisman, but should ye drop that ye are back to where ye started, and of course it takes up what might be precious space on the talisman. It's hard to drop fitted jewelry."
[color=red]"The main problem I see," Aeliophanes says, [color=red]"is that you're in Loch Leglean, and I'm not. So there would be the problem of dealing with getting the magic item to me wherever I am. Granted, with the Persea, I could make it to Scotland and pick it up, but that would take a good amount of time that could be better spent on other endeavors."
"Not so difficult I would think. Aside from picking them up I can think of two other options off the top o' me head. I could always have the items shipped to ye, the Mercer Houses run lines of credit with vis and can insure delivery. So I could build them back at my Covenant and then ship them. Another might be to see if I can have time in the labs here at Verdi...can't guarantee anything until get there." he pauses and thinks a moment. "Well...there might be another option...though I think ye might rather fight another serpent than try this. Talia has a lab aboard this ship I think. But getting permission to use it might be very...tricky."
[color=red]"She does?" Aeliophanes looks surprised. [color=red]"Is it any good?"
((Oh geez...Aodhan stepped in it))
At his question Aodhan looks decidedly uncomfortable. "Ah...well...that is I assume she has one, she's alway on board her ship back at the covenant. But I've never seen it myself. I think I remember her mentioning it as well...but maybe it's for the best not consider that as an option. What about the other two options?"
((Oh, and before I forget again. Aodhan's roll is Int 5 + Order of Hermes Lore 1 + die roll of 8 ) +3 in the same House = 17.
Memnos of Verditius is a Hermetic Architect in Thebes, a member of the floating covenant of Favonius and the one who built both the Thereus and Aeliophanes's ship. He is an older magus, roughly six decades out of Gauntlet. He doesn't ever go out to sea himself (despite the covenant consisting of four ships), possibly due to a phobia of some kind.))
Aeliophanes thinks for a minute or two. [color=red]"It should work. The Redcaps are there for a reason, and it would certainly be more convenient for us both to take advantage of their services. What would you charge for an item that would let me see in near-total darkness?"
Made an awareness check (total of 5) for Talia, to see if she can overhear the conversation.
Her cabin/sanctum/lab is below decks, isn't it?
((My roll was based on the above.))
Ah. No, she doesn't hear any of their conversation. She does get propositioned by Tintavius as she passes by his stateroom, he opens the door and asks her if she wants to make the boy jealous, with a lewd smirk.