"Exactly my point, rabbi. I have no strong sense of faith like my father, mother and sister. I do not lie, and when I am in their home, I observe more to promote harmony with my family than out of a sense of obligation. I do not work on the Sabbath here, mostly so that my Master can honestly report to my father that he does not force me to do so. I recognize their rights to worship as they choose. My choice is not to worship, but not be disruptive. I don't engage in Korvin's heathen rituals, and my father probably had a greater sense of House Mercere's pagan nature than I gave him credit for. My father once told me, that when G-d comes calling, I'll know how to answer. I have not yet heard G-d. I recognize the meaning and form of the rituals I grew up with, and my decision to not practice is more out of respect for G-d, than anything. I do not lie to myself, nor do I lie to my family, and I believe I have never lied to G-d, if he should exist. I may break the Law, but I do have a code of conduct. You would seek to guide me back to being observant, perhaps at my father's insistence, but the truth is, since the demons were chased from Phoenix, you've sought deeper meaning in your own life, and you're here for yourself, much more than for me, or you wouldn't have agreed so willingly."
"Of course I am here for myself. And for you. And for Ra'am. And for any other Jew who might be living in the area who has no rabbi to tend to his needs. If there was a rabbi easily available, you wouldn't have had to import me, neh? The Torah tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Serving you, and Ra'am, and other Jews -- serving my community -- is my place in the world, my expression of tikkun olam. It is through service to others that I find my fulfillment.
As to your earlier comment, about answering when G-d speaks... mmm. Hold on a moment." Pinchas stops, stepping to the side of the hallway, and crouches down on one knee, digging through his travel pack. He extracts a water-skin, handing it to Abigail, and a simple metal cup. "I find myself thirsty from the trip. Could you pour me a drink of water, please?"
He holds the cup out to Abigail with a smile. Only problem is, he's holding the cup upside down.
Alexei sent all his grogs and assistants back to his post while he struggled with the new member of his entourage. A leash did almost nothing, the dog managed to uproot trees as they brought it back from the giant's Regio and seemed to think it was a game. Alexei basically had to keep the dog following him and pay attention lest its curious eyes led it astray. When they were finally within sight of the halls of Mons Electi Alexei let out a sigh.
"C'mon Donner, almost home." the giant puppy followed happily until they reached the foot of a bridge, Alexei walked with a tired step up its familiar boards with Donner a few steps behind. Suddenly he stopped short as if running into an invisible wall. He sat up and looked at the nothing in ront of him, wondering why he couldn't follow his new friend. Alexei didn't notice and was almost across the bridge. Donner puffed out his chest and ducked his head and bowled forward and again was rebuffed.
Alexei stopped when he heard the sad and mournful howl of Donner, looking back he saw the sad dog whining at the other side of the bridge. "What? Donner, come! Come! What's wrong...oh...that is my fault. The Aegis." Alexei hurried back as Donner flopped onto his belly in sadness, wondering if Alexei had tricked him or something. Once Alexei was there he stood tall and addressed the dog, who looked up at him plaintively. "Donner, the Giant's Dog, I invite you into the Aegis of Mons Electi. You will be a good dog and a friend and guardian to all within. You may now enter." Alexei looked down at him. "Donner, come! Come Donner!"
The huge dog looked incomprehending at Alexei and then the bridge as well as the invible wall that had stopped him before. Tentatively it reached a paw forward until it touched the wood and was unimpeded. [size=150]"Rowr?"[/size] he asked and took a faltering step, and then another before he was confidently on the bridge and standing tall. [size=150]"Rowf!"[/size] and then lifted a leg and watered the nearest post while Alexei slapped himself in the forehead.
"Yes, well go ahead and do that I suppose, better here than in my sanctum." When Donner finished and briskly wiped his feet behind him he barked again indicating he was ready. "Right...well on we go. Maybe we'll say hi to Fiona."
Abigail smiles, "I'd be happy to." Abigail takes water skin and pours the water out, apparently on to the ground, but as she does so, she speaks a few words in Latin. Base 1: Control Liquid in a gentle way. R:Voice +2, D:Conc +1 T:Ind for a level of 4. She has Re 5 +Aq 0 + Sta 1 + Aura 10=16, so success on anything except a botch.
She smiles winsomely at Pinchas as the water is held in his cup being held upside down.
Fiona looks thoughtful at this insight into Alexei's personality. So that's what's holding him back, she thinks. He wants a woman he thinks he has to protect. After a minute, she smiles. [color=blue]"I suppose I'll have to be content with teasing him until he comes to his senses."
[color=blue]"She and I do have a bit of a rapport, born of us both being Scots. If it won't betray any confidences, maybe you can coach me on how to try to nudge her in the right direction." Fiona gestures to the cup with the bottle.
Once Fiona realizes what Cumhachd has gifted her with, she gasps, sighs, and feels a little wobbly-kneed for a minute. She then takes a few minutes to decide where to store the peat and barley so that it doesn't freeze during the winter, then takes off for Tribunal City with a girlish grin on her face. If she passes any of the workers en route, she will ask them to send a couple of men to her cottage after lunch.
Once she gets to where Cumhachd has set up shop, she knocks politely on the door.
The door to Cumhachd's villa is opened by Loys. He calls out, "It's the maga Fiona, Cumhachd"
"Bring her in Loys. We must show courtesy to our hosts." Loys escorts Fiona into the villa, and Fiona recognizes her as the maga who led the ritual at Founder's Fane during Grand Tribunal.
"Welcome, Fiona. Have a seat."
Fiona is somewhat surprised to see Loys here; it's the first time she can remember seeing him when he wasn't either with Tranquillina or running errands for her. Perhaps he's here at her request she thinks. She glances at Loys out of the corner of her eye as he escorts her back to Cumhachd, and can definitely tell what Tranquillina sees in the lad, with a hint of a smile of appreciation.
She shows no sign of recognition when she sees Cumhachd.
[color=blue]"Thank you, sodalis," Fiona says as she gingerly sits down. [color=blue]"I simply came to try to express my gratitude for your gift. It was not only most unexpected, but exceedingly generous and incredibly thoughtful. Thank you very much."
Pinchas smiles back with genuine fondness, reversing his wrist so that the cup is the right way up. "Just so. Thank you." He takes a sip, and shoulders his pack again. "As I was saying... G-d speaks to everyone. All the time. His love is poured out like water upon the earth. Only problem is, most of the time His voice is a gentle whisper, no louder than the sound of rain.
You saw yourself how difficult it is to pour water into an inverted cup." (Abigail did lose a fatigue level, after all... unless that was a Formulaic ReAq spell called 'Hoist Annoying Rabbi With Own Petard'? No? Didn't think so.) "If your cup is inverted -- if your soul is closed to G-d's words -- you do not hear the whisper. Not unless He chooses, for His purposes, to yell."
"That's one of the purposes of halakha, Abigail. That is how we set our cups the right way up. That is how we listen for His whispers. That is why Azura's practices, though joyless, have some merit -- she is opening her soul to G-d's whisper, even though her inner turmoil drowns it out." His voice is still gentle and smooth, but there's a core of unbending steel within it. "And that is why I will teach you. And that is why, while I am here, you will observe halakha --so that before you say 'I have not heard His call', you can say with perfect honesty 'I have listened'."
"I cannot prevent you from turning your back on our heritage, Avigail, if that is what you choose. That is why Hashem gave us free will. But before you do so, you will understand -- not with a child's limited comprehension, not with a teenager's rebelliousness, but with an adult's mature consideration -- you will understand exactly what it is you are turning your back on, and why."
"Tell her... um. Um. You could say... no, that wouldn't work..." Stultus is obviously struggling to think through the haze of alcohol: it takes very little to get him drunk. "Try ... try to help her see that Eskil is the key to the whole thing. That Eskil is a scared little brat who's been bullied so much that she turned into a bully herself so no one else could hurt her, and that whenever Cumhachd shows up, the sight of her throws Tranquillina right back into that dark place, and she doesn't have to go back there, she really doesn't."
"Yes, it is difficult for me, but it is not impossible. And it isn't impossible for G-d's voice to make it into my closed soul."
"You presume much. I will not. You cannot force me to do so. I will give up my privileges I enjoy and seek the refuge of Korvin's sanctum, full time. Enter a magus's sanctum uninvited to enforce your will, not G-d's will upon me."
I am a woman of 20 and more years. I have given it an adult's consideration. I have observed Azura, and she lives a lie. She and Etienne carrying on as they do. She does her duty to her House and engages in sexual congress as many as she might to get pregnant and satisfy the demands of the House. And she observes the law just enough to assuage her guilt. The difference is I don't have any guilt, I have made a choice. And so to, you must make a choice. Try and haul me back to my father, or serve as an example, as a Rabbi should, and not as an enforcer. If I need you, I will call upon you. But do not try and force me to follow the halakha. I listened and followed for 16 years, as a child, and as a woman, and now I am an apprentice to a magus of the Order of Hermes, House Mercere. You are here because the fight with my father wasn't worth it. If I must I will write to him and tell him what I have told you. I have no fear of the truth, I just don't push it into his face."
Pinhas spocks an eyebrow. She's just threatened to hide within her master's sanctum, and then threatened to tell her daddy on me. What adult, reasoned negotiation tactic will she try next -- holding her breath till she turns blue?
"Clarify something for me, please. Azura observes the law just enough to assuage her guilt over... having sexual congress? Is that what you're saying?"
"I am most generous. Sometimes conflict can develop out of generosity. For example, I gave Eskil a very powerful Arcane Connection to myself as her gift from me, for extending me Hermetic courtesy. My copy of The Analects of Tytalus, it's tradition in my House that each apprentice copies it for themselves from their master's copy. Eskil never had the chance to do so." She smiles warmly at Fiona. "Are we going to dance around, or are we going to be direct. My gift gave you the excuse to come see me, and so now, you can find out all about Eskil's 'evil' mater." She smiles at describing as herself evil. "Of course, having been invited into one of my cabals, you know something of what I'm about. If I were evil, I would never have been involved in that particular ritual[1].
[1] Realize we haven't done it, but it's more perfunctory than anything. It just needs to be performed, it's not particularly mystical to Fiona's mind, and it may only be done out of a sense of superstition, than actual utility.
"You'd have to ask Azura. I have observed her for years, and she takes no joy or sense of love in what she does. At least my sister, father and mother do. I choose to walk a different path. I will not follow the joyless path of Azura."
((Perhaps I have a modern understanding, but Rabbi's don't typically try and force the unwilling to be observant. So, he has little choice except to be an example, or take her back to Phoenix and try her for her violation of the Law. Which would shame Ra'am. That's where I'm coming from.))
(( The second is flat out not an option, not only because it would shame Ra'am, but because it would shame Abigail. Pinchas knows very well that he cannot force her to do anything, you are correct. ))
(( I thought for some reason she was a great deal younger -- like, 14. That's what a lot of the conversation was based on.))
Which is kind of what she's counting on... She is the baby who got away with everything. And she continues to get away with quite abut. But she also gives back...
No, she was 16 when apprenticed to Korving which was in 1222? So, she is in her 20's. Her decision to have a baby with Praxiteles was calculated for advantage with her House and also her womanly desires. And while it probably happened way back when I wouldn't have put the two together if Abogail were less than 18, for some obvious modern issues.
"But Azura is not here. You are. I am asking you what you think. You said she does so to assuage her guilt: I'd like to know what you think she has to feel guilty about."
(( There is a reason he's asking: he doesn't think Abigail fully understands the implications of Azura's choices, and by extension her own, in the matter of sex and children. He reads Abigail as defensive about it, and believes her resistance may come from the fact that she on some level feels guilty about her choices. He'd like to figure out if that's the case, because the point is that she does not need to feel guilty, or at least not nearly as much as she might think. Like I said, the results of my research on the matter were somewhat startling. 
))
"I have guilt over other things, not sex.". ((Yeah the hang ups about virginity and sex are primarily Christian)). I'm not prepared to discuss it with you. she then clams up and refuses to talk.
"Very well," Pinchas says with perfect equanimity. "When you are prepared, I'll be here."