“Do you want to make your lab the infirmary maga or do you want to keep the two separated?” Asks Janus
Will Nauvi have to travel down into Mercia to get to his dowry?
If he does, there will be a story. If he delays it until Summer, it could be combined with harvesting the Corpus source.
When Sionag inspects the existing infirmary, possibly together with Janus planning the interior for the new tower, Clarissa becomes a little defensive.
Are you sure you want to take over the infirmary, maga? Remember that it can get quite crowded, with scores of casualties after a campaign. If we keep the infirmary as it is, I can care for the crowds, and you can have a laboratory on the floor above for your special work and the difficult cases. Isn't that better?
If Sionag inquire about the cottage, Caelha will say that it should be possible to get a carpenter to improve the insulation over the Winter. The carpenter is more sceptical. The easiest way to get it more comfortable would be to tear it down and rebuild it. He can probably fix some insulation, it will just take more materials than doing from scratch, but the damp is from the ground and is not so easily corrected.
It is finally settled that the magi take over Ungulus, and nobody challenges the lead role taken by Janus and Thadeus. The rest of the Autumn passes, surveying the ground, the buildings, and the contents, and making plans. Caelha tries to keep out of the way, and sneaks away into Tacitus sanctum to read the summa on Rego that Luciu brought. With all that is going on, the magi are very unlikely to notice this, unless they have a particular desire to read rego.
Chronos does not meddle either, except his taking stock of the writing materials, and liaising with Osgar to procure more parchment and ink, to make sure he can write his memoirs. He is a little more sociable than Caelha, though, and can be consulted at mealtimes at least.
You can overhear some gossip among the grogs, overheard by those magi who speak Saxon. The covenfolk are very curious about who's who among the magi, but discuss it only between themselves. Will they make the Aegis this year? Who of the magi is the ritual master? Will the feast be as grand as it was two years ago?
(Please complete the plans for Winter and Spring in Chapter 8, so that I can move on with Chapter 9.)
Thadeus will try to take a few minutes to talk to the grogs and covenfolk that he meets, whenever he has the opportunity. (That may explain why he often arrives lates at the various meetings with the other magi.)
He also makes sure that Sasso and Telsa are able to settle down amongst the other grogs.
"I don't want do my laboratory on the infirmary, but I want to stay close of it. I have some duties and if I stay here, I want to be sure to keep my vows. But before choose where I stay, I need to be sure that this covenant is a place for me, a place where I will feel good, in adequation with my values."
"Caelha, please, should you let me have a discussion with the another magi ?"
Sionag is more respectful and polite in her asking that she was daily. It's clearly not a maga who dismiss an apprentice, but something more that a guest who ask a privacy to her host.
Sionag waits that the young person left, and will not say more if Caelha decides to stay in the room.
"Seriously, we will keep her as apprentice ? She is a maga, a maga who needs time to study, who deserves a real sanctum, an full access to the librairy, like each of us. I really don't care about who is her parens. More than one year without teaching, and she takes the role of seneschal, autocrat and chamberlain. She stays alone here with only few mondains, manage all the situation, and we will keep her as apprentice ? I thought that gauntlet was a test to prove that the apprentice is ready to be a responsible magus. You can say what you want... But she IS a responsible magus. She has done more work in one year in this covenant than some lazy magus for their in one decade."
Yes, that was the first point who hurts the values of the young pharmacopean... And maybe not the only one...
“But maga, what right do we have to interfere with an apprentice of house Tremere. We have agreed to allow study of the library and Caela has indicated she will travel to Blackthorn in the Spring. I agree a great job has been done but I for one will not interfere further” states Janus
"The only reason I'm not declaring her a maga is that she doesn't have a heartbeast and I can't adopt her. And I also see no reason to remove her from her house. But she's a maga in my eyes, much like Sionag said."
“Then perhaps a letter to her house telling of her great work and positive virtues may be appropriate. Maybe one of you who writes well could do it” suggests Janus
"She isn't a maga until she has completed a Gauntlet and been accepted by her parens and House," says Thom. "As is required of all of us according to the dictates our of various Houses. I will be needing a lab to work on inventing the Wizard's Vigil. Does anyone object to my using Tacitus's lab for the season? Unless you wish to Cath'rinne? Or Betula?"
“You can have Frederic’s old lab in Spring and Summer if you need it, but it’s focus in Ignem does come at a detriment to more general work” replies Janus
"She didn't have any teaching during one year. She is something like an abandonned apprentice, at my regard. And I don't put any notion of will in the abandon, be clear about that. And accepted by her parens ? Maybe her parens is dead, that seems the more realistic way about him or her, according to my vision.
I'm fully agree to take the responsability of her adoption in my house to give her her gauntlet. But I can't consider her as an apprentice with her work."
"While I agree that she has done good work here, managing the covenant in her master's absence, that may be irrelevant in her passing the Gauntlet of her House. Since none of us is a Bonisagus, what right would we have to take her as an apprentice? All we could do is report the situation to a quaesitor... who happens to live at Blackthorn, if I'm not mistaken."
"In the same way, our right to declare her a maga in one of our Houses is limited. House Tremere would react poorly -- which we can hardly afford even if we were not at war."
Thadeus sighs, "I think we did all we could for Caelha. Like you, I wish we could do more. But overstepping will make things worse, not better."
In my vision, she is a possession of a certainly dead magi. Claim her now, as orphan, is slightly diffferent as take it to a magi who was there. I'm agree to take the responsability. If her parens came back, I will assume the consequencies of my ... thievery... But, an apprentice who has no teaching and let in charge of a covenant for one year... I definitively can't consider her as apprentice.
"I'll just take that little cramped lab to use to invent the Wizard's Vigil from the casting tablet," says Thomas after a while. "That should keep me out of anyone's way."
The Merinita shrugs at the discussion of Caelha.
"Whatever decision is made, we shouldn't open ourselves to greater risk with her. She has earned the right to have one of her House complete her training and doesn't deserve to become a pawn to be pulled apart by House politics. We have enough of that with the War."
Adressing Sionag, Thadeus adds, "You are of course free to treat Caelha as you wish. But if you intend to claim her as your apprentice, yet accord her the respect due to a full maga, then perhaps you should determine her wishes first?"
"As for the return of her parens, we have seen his body ourselves. It is more a question of how House Tremere will determine her status and future parens."
Osgar and Mildred are grateful for a chance to talk properly with the new management. They have already noticed Caelha's concern for the future. «Will things be changing?» they ask. «Or do you want us keep it running as we used to?» I assume Thadeus reassures them, calling for stability, which prompts them to point out the fact that the servants are overworked with so many magi and clerks in residence.
The grogs are less concerned, putting their faith in Osgar, for the lack of a turb captain. The new grogs are included in barracks life, although Sasso and Telsa may be more suited for scouting and foraging than for the domestic turb captain.
Hamish walks over to Janus, Thadeus, and Cath'rinne.
"So... You need me to lead your turb? Or should I move on?"