Caelha blushes, and looks down in thought. «I .. I am not sure.» Voice suddenly hissing, she asks «Why do you ask?» Then she thinks better of it and calms down to explain. «Tacitus had two more seasons of training planned for me, I think. He had just mentioned the gauntlet before he left, saying that we could discuss it when he returned. It doesn't matter. I will find a new parens from Blackthorn. Don't worry. If they do not come here, I will go there before midsummer.»
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"I asks this because I think that an apprentice who maintain a covenant during one year isn't no more an apprentice. I don't know how your house fixes who are or aren't a magi, but in my house... when you are able to assume the responsabilities of a magus, you can have a gauntlet and become a magus. You didn't have any teaching during this year, you manage a wholy covenant, you stay alone to set up things. Actually, you know more about this covenant and how things work that many magi about their place. Do you really want return to apprentice status ? Don't you think that you are ready to be an adult, and no more a puppet for a new parens ? Midsummer... half year more. Six full seasons of freedom, of responsability... I ask you again. Do you REALLY want return to the apprentice status ? Do you REALLY think that you don't deserve to be a magi ?"
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«That's between me and my ... Tacitus' house,» she says curtly. «It will be sorted out when I go there.»
Sionag sighs, hearing the young maga, because in her head, she must be, definitively, a maga, not an apprentice.
"As you want, Caelha. I was ready to take some risks to give you the status you deserve, at my opinion.... But I won't do it against you that would make any sense. But I don't let you half year more without a teaching season. I'm not the best teacher, but not the worst. I'm sure I can give you some courses. Corpus, Herbam, Muto, maybe chirurgy to have the basis to stabilize people on war field ? Or healing spells if you have a laboratory where we can work."
«Thank you for your concern, maga, but the place I deserve in the House of Tremere is not for you to grant.» She speaks matter-of-factly, and pauses before she continues. «I was going to focus on Rego and Terram, and maybe Creo. Healing spells would be useful, and I would probably need to improve my Corpus to do that. Don't worry about it. Studying the summa on Rego will serve me very well. Thank you for your kindness.»
Sionag shrugs and raises to her sit.
"As you want, Caelha."
The tone of the voice says something little different, more like a desapprobation, but the maga won't express her thinking.
"You can dismiss."
If she wants to stay an apprentice, so, really as she wants. And for further interactions, Sionag will be colder with her, dealing with her with respect, but like she would do with any other good apprentice. Sionag will come back to other magi.
"Topic is close. And she needs to go to Blackthorn. An apprentice needs a master, it's not good for her."
“Myself, Thaddeus and Thom have indicated we are willing to take on the three members roles at Ungulus as stated in the charter. I think we should move to that position immediately. That leaves everyone else as “probationers” until we change the charter as we have been discussing. Does anyone have any last changes they seek before we say the new charter is as good as we can get to at this time? I would then intend we immediately offer the other four magi membership under that new charter. Any objections?” asks Janus at the next breakfast meeting
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Janus will examine the untranslated lab texts from Frederic’s lab for arts and level to decide how best to approach the deciphering.
"No objections from me," says Thom.
"I am happy to have a home."
Thom pens a letter and leaves it with Chronos.
"I am not sure if you'll be able to get this to Mildred Ex Merinita near the Wall in the East, but if you could, I would appreciate it greatly."
The Letter
End of Autumn, 1013, Ungulus
To Mildred ex Merinita,
Greetings and salutations from your road-weary, footsore former apprentice! Winter will soon be upon us, but thankfully we have determined to settle down and establish a covenant here in the near-empty shell that is Ungulus.
In fact, I am writing you from a small cramped lab in the tower. I don't know who set this lab up, but it is the most haphazard confusion of a lab you have ever seen! But beggars cannot be choosers, and it is a far sight better than the lab we did not have in the regio with the Romans. I have great hopes of finding a faerie regio in the covenant grounds. Nothing yet, but I'll keep looking. If I don't find anything interesting, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to set up a lab when Master Janus casts the Mystic Tower ritual at the beginning of Spring.
In the mean time, I'm trying to make friends with the local faeries. I met a taciturn nisse goatherd on the road with Master Luciu, and he seems settled in here. The nisse, that is. Master Luciu died. He suffered injuries on our journey and could not recover from them. I don't like to think about it. I had such hopes of getting to know him better.
In addition to the nisse, I saw what is probably a brownie tending the cowshed. I will keep leaving little tributes and writing them little songs. If you have any suggestions for how to entice them into friendship, please let me know! I am fascinated by them but they seem so elusive and wary. They have probably been ill-treated by this War.
I saw a giant! As we left the Wall, it was heading north. Others in our company went north into Scotland hunting the rebels, but they only ran into signs of the rebels, though we have a huge man in our group who surely has giant blood, and he said that they found giants in the clouds after climbing a magical giant plant stalk. It sounds amazing! I'm going to try to secure one of those beans if there are any left so I can study it. I suspect if we could cultivate these beans, we could have a reliable source of vis. That is if we could avoid the giants… or slay them. Our big Scot--his name is Hamish--said he stabbed one right in the eye with his longsword which seems a horrific thing but also daring and brave. I'm envious of those who went up into the cloud castle.
Though we did find another Roman regio: these delightful Roman baths! They are really remarkable, though unexpectedly dangerous. I had a run-in with a water elemental that left me injured. We met a pharmacopeia maga on the road, and she is remarkable with healing unguents and magic.
I spent the summer and autumn traveling about searching out possible covenant sites. Stonehenge is nearly empty now. I'm not sure what remains of the covenants in the Tribunal. We think Blackthorn remains. We're re-establishing Ungulus. It wasn't exactly abandoned but its magi left it in the keeping of an apprentice, Caelha, who did admirable work keeping the covenfolk and grounds running and in reasonable order. But the magi were either dead or vanished. The tribunal needs us to not only hold this outpost but develop it as a place of strength. That's our plan.
I will write you again soon, assuming I can find the time. I have a lot of work to do to carry my share of the work here. These magi are far more accomplished than I am. But with a home, I hopefully can settle down to serious study and deepen my understanding of illusion and glamour.
If you run across any lab texts or summae on imaginem or creo, please let me know. We are very interested in expanding our library here.
With respect and fondness,
Thom Myddleton
After a month out from his tussle with the water elemental, Thom seems to be doing better.
[Recovery Roll for Medium Wound. Improvement Ease Factor 12. Roll: 17. Wound becomes a light wound.]
After a week or so, Thom uses more of Sionag's potion.
[Recovery Roll for Light Wounds. Improvement Ease Factor 10. Roll: 19. Light wound is healed. Thom is back to normal.]
Thom leaves Sionag a little bouquet of autumn leaves in golds and yellows, tied with a length of grass.
«Mildred? Is she still alive? I have not heard from her for ages, so I was afraid she had perished. I was not planning to travel until Summer. Is it urgent?»
"Yes, yes. She's alive. Or was in the Spring. She is my parens. We hid in a regio at the Wall. But the rest of Castrum Antiquum was lost to the War," says Thom with a sad look down at the ground.
"No urgency, really. I would just like to stay in touch with her."
«OK. I hope we hear from Blackthorn in Spring. If we do, I would like to make my way in-land in Summer, and if Mildred still has a covenant I would pass by.»
At a meal one evening, Thom speaks up to any of the magi who might be gathered.
"I'm realizing that I don't have much experience with arcane labs," he asks. "I guess you could say my training was largely 'in the field' so speak. We didn't have many resources some five years into my apprenticeship."
Thom takes a spoonful of the evening's stew.
"How do you approach organizing and setting up a lab? If I might ask."
"I haven't set one up yet from the ground up," admits Thadeus after putting down his spoon down and swallowing his moutful of stew, "but in our travels my pater and I had to use those made available to peregrinators by covenants of the Rhine Tribunal. So I saw a few different configurations. And I discussed their merits and drawbacks with Caspar - that's my pater."
"I'm still thinking about how to set mine up in the new tower. My little friend here," he scratches the little salamander on his shoulder, offering it a small piece of meat from his bowl, "changed my plans a little bit. It likes fire and warmth, so a big fireplace would be appropriate to let it bask in the fire's heat. So I'll probably use that as a major feature of my lab. And such a structure can probably be configured into the tower when it is created."
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"If that is your plan Magus Thadeus then may be Frederic's old lab may suit you as it already has a large fireplace providing a lesser feature and focus in Ignem, along with a magic item proving Excessive heating. I am well versed in Ignem already and my studies will likely take me along a more general elementalist route so I would give up the lab after this Winter if it suits your long term needs? Replies Janus
"I should say that if you take it over I would ask to use it in Winter 1014 to create my Longevity ritual as I won't have time to outfit a new lab before then."
"That's really interesting! The places you must've seen in your travels. I can only imagine!" says Thom with a broad smile.
He listens to the two more senior magi for a few moments before asking.
"Have either of you ever seen or heard about a Merinita lab? I want to create a place that is welcoming to the Fae."
"Actually," says Thadeus to Janus, "a fireplace is also useful to destroy things, and that is the side that interests me, rather the just the Ignem. My talents lay in Perdo and Vim, and my lab will reflect that. So the heating item is of relatively little interest to me."
To Thom, "Mostly the forests and bogs of Pomerania and a few of the covenants of the Rhine tribunal. My pater was looking for small tradition to bring into the Order, so we visited a lot of isolated villages in the last few years of my apprenticeship." He grins, "not very glamorous and much more boring in reality than in the telling, let me assure you. Particularly when you can't understand what most of the people you meet are saying."