Year 4 - 1204
1204 - Spring: In Irencillia
With the reach of the spring, and since messengers started their works again, I wrote a letter to Audeline explaining her about my travel, Celeste and Irencillia. I also wished her that everything was going well and added that since she is still an apprentice, it's understandable if she doesn't have access to writing materials to answer and that she should not worry about it.
I also had the opportunity to know more about my caricature, named Inka and already more talkative. Funnily enough she copied my winter white hair, while now I already have a green one. She is also pretty smug and talkative, and true to her nymph nature, she seems very interested into me trying the spell that Celeste taugh me the two seasons ago, The Succubus's Trick, so we can, as she says, "give your male body a good debut".
I know that I'm naive, but I also know pretty well nymph to know what she is talking about. So it seems like it will be better to wait until I'm far away from Irencillia if I want to try that spell.
Also, Inka gave me a new insight about myself. I've always been told that I'm not very expressive, even if I don't realize it myself, but when I saw Inka speak and express herself as my caricature, at first I thought she was exaggerating. It wasn't until Celeste and Lencor confirmed it to me that I understood that, indeed, I was like that.
Now I understand a lot of things about my past interactions of other people... and I'm a lot less talkative than her... I must be so boring...
But changing the subject, this spring I have spent carrying out various orders for the covenant.
The most important of these was when I was asked to look for some covenfolk who had gone into the forest but had not returned. Given my spells and Herbam specialization, I could find them faster, so I was tasked with doing the quest, along with some grogs.
I started asking the trees near the path they take, and so we followed their steps with the hope of finding them. Unfortunately, our steps took us to the end of the Bohemian Forest. I and the grogs tried to find tracks and traces, but the flexible new growth and the spring rains had washed away all traces. We were about to throw in the towel when we came across a colony of wild cats that lived in the area. Several of them could speak, and offered to help, since they lived in the area and saw what happened.
As the animals explained, they it was a group of cats from an ancient lineage of the tortoiseshells from the Rhine Tribunal, and that their family had been accused of the theft of an ancient relic of the King of Cats, so they where now exiled and living there while they managed to clear their name. They offered to help us if in exchange Irencillia agreed to host them while their problem was resolved.
I promise that while I was listening to her story, for a moment I thought it was about a group of fairies. However, although they were touched by the fairy world, those animals were from the magical realm. I remember learning about tortoiseshells, but I've never expected that kind of complex society from cats.
I was unable to talk in name of the covenant, but the grogs assured that if the magi did not accept the cats, they themselves would run to their care, since among the missing were friends and acquaintances of theirs. This was satisfactory for the animals, who guided us back into the forest while they told us what had happened.
Apparently, the missing group of covenfolk had been captured by some nymphs who had later taken them to a secluded place. Thus, we took precautions in case they tried to attack us, but luckily was innecesary, since when we reached the place there was no resistance from the fairies. They had already had their fun and didn't want trouble with a maga, so they just leaved the place dancing and running away while laughing, leaving behind the group of poor men who, even while in good health, were exhausted and still tied hand and foot.
We attended to them and we borrowed some clothes to them (well, the grogs borrowed them, since I don't have a lot of clothes with me), and when they felt better we all started the way back, followed by the cats.
In the end everything sorted itself out more or less. And the felines were well received, both their powers and their affinity with magis are in great demand, so it seemed like a good addition to the covenant, even if temporary.
Doing errands and rescuing some lost covenfolks
Intellego 4 + 2 exp → 4+2exp
1204 - Summer: In Irencillia
This season Celeste let me took a very good book about the House Merinita Lore. She wanted to learn a little more about Rego, so she could bind Lencor. It was very fun to see him jumping and running from happiness just thinking about becoming her familiar. Feeric familiars were cool but sadly just temporary... Well, there are the faeric binds too, but those are just too selfish and cruel to even think about them. I imagine that Celeste will have it easier to find another one when the ties with Lencor dissolve, since she is so likeable and charismatic. But to me is already hard enough to find one, so I prefer a regular one to live with it forever.
The firsts days went with us reordering the library. It seemed like somebody made some chaos with the books and Lencor went very angry. To be honest, I think that to be a covenant full of faeries, it was very fortunate to not have to repeat that work every week or so.
Overall it was a very quiet season, just reading and talking with Celeste and Lencor. From time to time we also had a visit from Inka, and also the new feline inhabitants of Irencillia were a regular visitors while in search of mouses or just want to rest on the table or chairs. I've started to recognize and name the most regular ones.
Whenever a feline comes, Lencor watches them suspiciously with his great sense of duty when it comes to protecting the library, he is so cute... its weird to think about him as that with his appearance, but the more time passes, the less I see him as scary. I understand now why Celeste just talk about him as a dog.
Study from House Merinita Lore summae L5Q14
House Merinita Lore 1 + 14 exp → 2+4exp
1204 - Autumn: In Irencillia
My initial idea was to continue reading the book, but I found out that Celeste wanted to go to a Regio and that she wasn't allowed to go because it was so dangerous. So I volunteered to help hoping that would give her access... and to my surprise, it worked.
Celeste gave me a brief update on what we could find in the place and we entered it. There seemed to be numerous ghosts, which we easily put to rest thanks to the spell Celeste had taught me (well, I think she actually sent them all away by herself... I'm not sure that my spell managed to affect many of them).
She also got information from some of them. It was a sad and terrible story. Maybe had some links to her mother? She though that was worth it to know for sure.
That small but intense adventure left me in low spirits for several days. But I remembered something about tortoiseshell cats, and while Celeste tried to gather information, I went to ask Stella (that's how I call one of the cats that appears the most in the library... and the one that always tries to climb to my lap when I'm reading) to ask her if her family had ways to deal with ghosts, since I understood that their breed was good with that and in divination. Stella replied that her group was divided into two, apparently, she and others were more oriented towards powers related to the natural world, but the others did have powers with which they could talk with the dead or even eliminate ghosts.
I thanked her for the information and told Celeste about it. I though that perhaps those animals could help keep that Regio peaceful and free of ghosts, but as later Celeste told me, that place has an Infernal aura, so it would be too dangerous for them.
At the end, it seems like they will guard the entrance to the regio. After talking with the cats, Inka said that she had the feeling that those animals were adapting very well to Irencillia and she suspected that they were going to live in the place for a long time.
Adventure
+1 Warping
Perdo 2 + 3 exp → 3
Mentem 0 + 3 exp → 2
Penetration 1 + 4 exp → 1+4exp
1204 - Winter: In Irencillia
This season Celeste was away helping her parens with a spell, so I took again the same book that I started in summer to follow the reading.
At least I wasn't alone. Inka came a lot of times to talk and try to convince me to use the gendershaping spell. And since Lencor isn't here, Stella and other cats come more often too. Since they don't touch the books and they share a lot of heat when you have them on your lap, I'm not complaining at all.
It's also the first time that animals have let me touch them, so that made it fun too.
Study from House Merinita Lore summae L5Q14
House Merinita Lore 2+4exp + 14 exp → 3+3exp
It is good?
