When Elric speaks, the sheriff is startled. He looks at him twice, then he looks away, and then he looks puzzled at Thadeus.
«I will not comment on what you say, master Thadeus. It is a delicatIe matter. Wulfric is under the aegis of the archbishop, and the archbishop has the power to excommunicate. The problem is that even if Wulfric is right, on the balance, his cure may be worse than the disease.»
«This is different from the last years' war. Tacitus' enemies were content to leave me and my subjects alone as long as we stayed out of the conflict, and my enemies never bothered Ungulus as far as I know. Wulfric, I am afraid, treats everybody with the same distrust and discontent, and he fears no one.»
«This is why I think we should discuss more active collaboration.»
«At present Wulfric with two companions are roaming the land South and East of Carlisle, shouting witch at the slightest fart. They have a unit of mercenaries camped further Southeast, sent by the sheriff of Nottingham. I am not sure Wulfric commands them, or even wants to command them, but I am sure they hare here to support whatever he does. They are a hard day's ride from the city.»
«You have not run across the friar and the giant, have you? The description is rather mysterious. Apparently the friar struck Wulfric down with a staff, somewhere in the vicinity of Nottingham. Quite unusual, both for a friar and for Wulfric, I think. Wulfric claims they fled this way, and he is still looking. They had a bard companion with the most extraordinary hat. There is a bounty on all three of them, although the bard is not so frequently mentioned.»
"I have heard of the friar and the giant," Thadeus replies with a slight smile. "Such a shame that they did not strike him down for good, proving that God did not support him. My guess is that the friar restrained himself from doing permanent harm to Wulfric, out of the belief in his vows to hurt no fellow man. In any case, it may be better if their identity and location remain unknown, is it not?"
"Do you know how large the mercenary unit is? We certainly would not want to meet them accidentally."
"We will have to think about this collaboration. I think we would be open to it, once I have discussed it with my friends. But again, what is it that you propose? Common action against Wulfric? Against the mercenaries?"
«Wulfric is the problem, but if you have some ... ahem ... ideas for him, I can deal with the mercenaries. Even though Nottingham men have no business in Cumbria, I am hesitant to take action as long as Wulfric is in the area. If you move against Wulfric, I shall drive the mercenaries back where they came from.»
«We had better think about the future too. Wulfric cannot be slain, and Sweynson is far from dead.»
"He cannot be slain? You really believe that?" asks Thadeus with a raised eyebrow. "Even if that were the case, there are other things we could do. As my friend here has mentioned," he inclines his head towards Elric, "we could find a way to discrdit him. And even one who cannot be slain can still be contained or imprisoned. We'll have to think about various ways to deal with him."
He rises, "But that may take a bit of time. Do you want us to let you know in advance when we have found a way to deal with him? If so, where should we send a message to let you know?"
Elric clears his throat. He'd taken to heart Thadeus' comment about magic, but he was thinking on other ways to lure Wulfric. "I don't know whether he can be slain or not, but the best way to get him away from here, is to present to him something else to pursue. Now, obviously, we want to make the target enticing enough to lure him away, but not one that might come back and bite us." He scratches his nose before continuing "We can either provide him with rumors of sightings of the friar and the giant, or we can provide rumors of the man that slept with his wife. Either way, it can send him away from here."
"The man who slept with Wulfric's wife? Intriguing, can you tell us more? That might indeed be something that we can use. Either to draw him away or to discredit him."
Elric blushes deeply, his cheeks turning crimson. "I... Ah... Well..." he stammers in a way you haven't seen him before and then he takes a deep breath to calm himself, not that it helps much to calm his nerves... "I didn't know she was his wife... I just met a nice lady that seemed genuinely interested in my scholarly abilities, and one thing led to another. It just happened!"
Thadeus looks at Elric unbelievingly for a moment, then bursts into laugther. He tries to control it, but every time he looks at the Bonisagus, another burst of laughter takes him.
It is only a few minutes later that he wipes tears from his eyes and is able to speak again, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Then he asks, "Really?"
Nauvi smiles. "Well, it seems there are ways to upset Wulfric without needing to ask witches or giants. All we need to do is leave rumours of Elfric's passing in different parts of the land, and we'll have Wulfric running around like a headless chicken. Let me look at you closely, see if there are any distinguishing features we can mimic with a disguise."
Thadeus nods at his sodales, before turning to Osbert, "As you can see, we have some ideas that could be useful. But for now, they are just ideas and we will need to discuss amongst ourselves how they could be developped into actual plans. This may take some time. Would you like to remain here at Ungulus while we develop those? I can arrange for guest quarters for you and your men. Or would you rather we visit you in a few days once we have something more solid than ideas?"
Osbert looks shocked at the discussion of Wulfric's wife, and he says «I did not know that Wulfric was married. When did this happen, euh, master Elric?»
«Yes, I do believe that Wulfric is unslayable. The word has been repeated often enough by men of high standing. What I am less certain about is if this is due to divine protection. There are many who says that he has made a bargain with the Devil, even if the bishop of York is adamant that he is protected by God. Wulfric survived when his two trusted lieutenants were burnt to crisp by a mighty warlock two years ago. Still, there are some who claim that he can be slain, not just by steel or by fire. What do I know? There are contradictory rumours.»
«Yes, we would be grateful for your hospitality, and pleased to stay a night or two,» says Osbert. He is visibly tired, and when the meeting dissolves, he is just too pleased to just lean back and close his eyes. One of the sergeants watches over him.
Baldwin, and the other sergeant, will go outside and see to the horses. If nobody accompanies them, they will go for a stroll and admire the towers from every angle. If anybody wants to talk to them, they will be happy to stop and chat.
Once the magi are alone Angus asks “So Praetor, do we need to kill this Wulfric? He appears to want our companions and his threat to the magical community seems clear”
Elric clears his throat "Shouldn't we find out first if he is killable? Seems like he's quite lucky, and has some measure of Magic Resistance, and we should find out how he got those, especially the later, and how high it might be. For now, perhaps it's best if we just send him off elsewhere on a goose chase."
"He is certainly a threat, and it appears we have little choice but to deal with him," says Thadeus after a moment. "In his own way, he has declared war on the Order, and it is our duty to deal with him accordingly."
"The real question, to me, is not wether he can be killed or not, but rather what is the best way to neutralize the threat he represents. It needs to be done in a way that will not cause someone else to take up his witch hunt. So we need to discredit him. Because if we simply murder him, others will take up his atrocities and continue them."
"I have some idea on how we can do that, but we'll still need an Arcane Connection to him, and I'll need to invest some work into my studies. I have two spells that can help. One allows me to make the target gain Warping, which will cause him some discomfort. And the other will have others react to him, for Sun duration, as if he has the Gift." Elric smirks "Once we have an arcane Connection to him, and I have an Intangible Tunnel, we can him hit with these spells from a safe distance, and disrupt his life, and if he, or anyone close to him, is an Hermetic Wizard, he'll not know what's causing this."
"That is all fine and good," Thadeus tells Elric, "but your course of action would postpone things for... what, six months or more? Can we afford to let him roam freely so close to the covenant? Need I remind you that one of our vis source is in Carlisle, where he is now? And that he will undoubtedly burn people until we stop him?"