Heads shak slowly, then somone raises the idea "perhaps if any survive in France they can be brought here to teach!"
"That may be a possibility in the future," offers Argentius confidently, the affect of the Aura of Ennobled Presence helping him appear more confident than he may actually feel. "There is much work to be done. You need to organize yourselves. Start with families. If you're part of a family, organize yourselves together. It will be strange at first, I know. Younger siblings may be older now. Mothers may now be the age of daughters. Do your best. If there are those without family connections, find them family groups to join. Then designate one or two in a family group to lead each family. Those family leaders may form a temporary council of sorts among your people. Let that council meet and discuss your situation and identify your needs and responsibilities. Let that council begin to think about who among you can represent you to the Council of Magi."
The Verditius takes a long breath, thoughtful for a moment as the weight of this situation crashes down again on his mind.
"We have much to do. Al Kufra… Liberte must continue to function. It will continue, and you must again take up your responsibilities here."
“Oh well, the situation cannot be helped for the time being, then. I have a few other suggestions, however.”
“First, I am going to see if I can find some books on covenant management lying around in here somewhere – there would have to be some, I think, given that I ran things, and I must have learned it myself somehow. If I can find them, I would like to discuss the matter of studying them with you, Merin, or Winitran. It would be good if someone acquired the requisite theoretical knowledge as soon as possible, and I cannot do it for the time being. And second, I would suggest that we sit down for supper together every evening. Barshako too, if she can be persuaded. This way we can get to know the people we have become. What do you think of these suggestions, Izri?”
Izri winces "You always used to say you learned to manage the covenant by managing the covenant. There was someone else, before you came who managed resources, but she, well you said she had to leave in the middle of the night. Never said much more about why."
"Magus Argentius," calls a voice.
Plasmatoris has found - or possibly bullied - someone to lead him on his goal of finding the covenant leaders. The Jerbiton took the time in his lab to cast Aura of Ennobled Presence, after enough conversation with scholars that he may have wasted his afternoon. The manic artist was lead to where the Verditius was, to begin his own investigations, only to find Argentius already deep in discussion.
"Have you been lead to here as well?" he asks, peering past a mass of his own locks, looking at the handsome magus. "I was trying to find the leaders of our fractious covenant to begin the process of rebuilding our social structures." Then, in a lower voice, a mutter more to himself, "I do hate these social games."
(If I fail to actually cast the Aura of Ennobled Presence, I will still go seek out the leaders.)
Argentius turns at the unexpected voice. "Ahh, Plasmatoris, right? Please join me."
The Verditius turns back to the gathering of Cathars, awaiting their response to his counsel.
Lares seems surprised.
“’Learning by doing, hm? I suppose that is going to have to suffice for now. Do you know if there are people at the oasis who might have some of the requisite knowledge? Perhaps they could teach us the basics.”
Plasmatoris nods cheerfully, beckoning to his claimed assistant. The Jerbiton has a wax tablet he has been taking notes upon, and he joins Argentius to speak with the Cathars, the awkward artist watching them with curiosity in his gaze.
Izri nods "I suppose so, though they will all be Arabs, and giving the Arabs too much control won't make some people very happy."
Lares chuckles.
“I see what you mean. Scratch that for now – I’ll think about it some more. Thank you for putting up with my questions, Izri. I’ll let you get back to organizing the Berbers. I have some things I must sort out in my lab. Just one more question: was your mother literate?”
If Izri’s answer is yes, Lares heads back to his laboratory and first looks through his papers in search of correspondence with Barshako. His idea is that finding, say, letters written by her might help him convince her of her situation.
Otherwise, he will look for any recent correspondence with members of his tradition, the Domovyki (he has a Hermetic Patron with them). His idea is that perhaps he could request them for help with some things.
He winces again "She was, she said you taught her."
His correspondence with the Domovyki seems to have petered out over the years as the people he knew personally either died or fell into twilight, or in some cases just had trouble responding through letters themselves. You do find that some of your old friends did have children (keep in mind that a Hermetic Patron may have been lost over this time period, the same way some characters gained initiations- the characters you made were as they were at guantlet, and did not ensure that their relationships with the outside world would remain))
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(OOC: Ah, thanks for the clarification, makes sense.)
Lares searches for correspondence with Barshako nonetheless – perhaps he might still learn some information that he could use to persuade her, even if she couldn't read the letters herself. Any events or secrets she might not have told anyone, what she likes, etc.
Lares also looks through the lab notes to see if he ever got to inventing a Moon duration version of Maintaining the Demanding Spell, as he had planned to do.
Lares doesn't find any correspondence with Barshako. She apparently lived at the covenant after she was taught and didn't have anyone she would write to who could read.
He does find the moon duration of mantaining the demanding spell.
Argentius says to Plasmatoris as they stand together with the Cathars. "It seems that the Cathars were led by spiritual elders they call Perfecti. These Perfecti seem to be gone. I suspect they have all become Iuventae like the rest of us."
The Verditius shakes his head.
"I've suggested that they organize themselves by family group and from there to form a council of their own out of those family groups but it remains to be seen if they will take action. I wonder if we'll see the same people become Perfecti again over time."
[OOC: What level(s) of the Moon duration Maintaining does he find? 35? Higher? The level of spell that a Moon duration Maintaining can affect is -10, so a level 35 one work on a level 25 spell.)
Does he find any evidence in the lab texts of a familiar or talisman?
The spell has been one you invented and reinvented, first at level 20 (maintains a level 10 spell) then repeatedly every 5 levels until you reached level 45 (maintains a level 35 spell).
Lares eyes glint with delight.
Excellent. I have been quite diligent.
He looks through his correspondence for mentions of his sons – the point of this is simply to cross-verify Izri’s and Merin’s story to make sure they are really who they say they are and to see if his relationship with them was good.
There is nothing in his lab notes about family, everything written focuses on his magical work.
He looks for traces of rituals that he might have researched recently, trying to see if a failed ritual could have caused this.
Plasmatoris mutters to himself. "... Sip upon the waters of Lethe..." He looks at the Cathars that his companion was speaking to, and asks of Argentius, "I am not familiar with their beliefs, but they sound quite spiritual, religious. We must keep it a close eyes on all our people, as I fear they will not work well together. The religious are most likely to damn a stranger instead of learn from them, in my be experience.". The Jerbiton thinks back on his more experimental artwork he created during his apprenticeship.
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