Friend, huh? Is he here? Prochorus looks around.
Japik looks puzzled at Herman "Your friend? Do you have a familiar? Or who is this Aerianos?" The tone in Japik's voice is not suspicious at all, more interested and eager with anticipation.
"As far as I know Aerianos is not here now. I can usually tell. I can't imagine he would want to function as familiar, although I hope to have one some day. He is a wind faerie with whom I am friends. He is often helpful, sometimes troublesome, and aware enough to be a friend, not just a pest as some of the fair folk are. He does like new and interesting things, and like most of the folk, he likes adventures."
"Wind faerie! Perfect for the place we are located. Make sure to introduce him to us when he shows up. Adventures are fun so he seems like a nice chap."
"What do you know. Well. Do we have something more, or should we get Mr. Wobblypants for the paperwork?"
"I am ready to sign on."
Bernhard returns a few hours later. When he is informed that Herman is ready to sign the contract, he presents it to the young Bonisagus.
In short, the contract states that the magi signing it agree to protect a primary source of vis and share it with Bernhard. Every fifth pawn collected from the source will be paid to him, and that every tenth pawn from any other sources collected within ten leagues of the primary source. Should the magi found a covenant and have it officially recognized by the Tribunal, Bernhard will be offered membership and the same privileges as other magi.
Once the contract has been signed and registered with a Quaesitor and House Mercere, then the location and details will be revealed.
There is also a clause in the contract specifying that should Bernhard disappear or die, his share would pass on to his House.
"Herman reads over the contract and signs it."
A few days later, all three magi travel back to the island. (I'll let the current magi give the tour of what the covenant has and explain their contacts with local mundanes.)
(Someone asked whether there had been a discussion about the name of the covenant. This was indeed never discussed. You might want to hold that discussion in this topic as part of the tour.)
(Bumping this thread along. Don't wait for Flavius' magus to join the covenant yet. I'll introduce him at some point later in time.)
(What do the magi do when they return back with Herman?)
As soon as they land at the harbour of Meden Japik turns to Herman.
"So this is the main settlement of the island, Meden, lots of fishermen and some merchants. Not sure how interested you are in taking a closer look here otherwise I suggest we head along to our location just outside the town. It's an old inn, ghosthaunted and all. You'll love it. Come on." The Bjornaer shows the way through the busy harbour area towards the inn.
Herman looks briefly at Meden and shrugs "I suppose you have had dealings with the town, and I probably will have to. But lets go see this Inn and related buildings. It sounds more interesting than spending the summer trying to chase a flock of birds."
"Our servants usually handle the dealings with the mundanes down here, but the villagers that live close to our location on the Oberland we need to address more directly. So far we haven't had the best contact. It was a tough negotiation just to be allowed to settle around the tree. We need to work on that somehow." Japik walks briskly avoiding all contact with the mundanes until they reach the inn.
"Well here it is. As there isn't that much living space up there" he points upwards and in the direction where the stairs to Oberland are "you may have to spend some time here. I hope we can employ a stonemason soon to get the construction of the main building started. Dietlinde and Yulia works from here and they are also taking care of our mundane dealings."
Herman turns to Tristan "Find Dietlinde and Yulia, and arrange space for me, and of course for yourself and Wolfred."
He then turns back to Japik: "Do we have any laboratory space? Clearly, we don't have a library. Have you been able to create someplace to at least store manuscripts?" After a pause, also "And when do we expect the ghost next?""
There is a little lab up there, and a crate somewhere over here for texts. What? We told you it would not be fancy.
The ghost comes whining once a month. Don't piss it off or it will put a rock through your head. I'm trying to get rid of it, but it is proving harder than I thought.
"Good enough. I assume one of the two of you will be using the lab in the spring? You mentioned you have a few books. I will contribute the one tractatus I have with me, and look at what is here. Once we have space I have supplies to help set up a second lab.
The ghost can wield a rock? Quite a ghost.I will be careful when I see her.
Have you already agreed on rules for the covenant?" (I can't remember if that was mentioned in the interview.)
No rules yet. Do we need some? Everything has been nice and dandy without.
Japik just laughs first "Rules. Well as you say Prochorus, we haven't needed any so far but maybe we should gather in a council sort of and discuss everything that needs to be done the next year or so. It's not like we will be able to enforce any rules other than kicking out a member and given the secretive nature of our location to the rest of the order it might be disruptive for all of us if the kicked out member decides to reveal us. I don't think we need a lot of rules, but maybe some guidelines regarding the use of vis we find, excluding the pawns Bernhard are entitled to, where and what to build and how to deal with the mundanes on the island. Also we might need an Aegis of the Hearth soon."
After a pause Japik continues.
"Shall we continue up to the Oberland before it gets dark? I hope you feel fit for a climb, Herman." he grins at the Bonisagi.
Other than the climb, those suggestions I can live with. Couldn't we have picked a less tiresome spot?
"While long walks aren't my favorite occupation, I understand that even if we learned them, using rego corpus to move around might disturb the locals a bit. Up we go."