Enchanting a Familiar

Games Discussion Ars Magica
1

Muriel wants to enchant a familiar, and has the following characteristics

Int: +3
Rego: 15
Mentum:38+3
Magic Theory: 7 with specialty in Me
Aura: 7
General Lab Quality: +5 (Highly Organized, Palatial, Priceless Ingredients, Superior Equipment)
Me Lab Bonus: +1
Including everything, that gives a Lab total of exactly 80.

She also has the flaw Deaf.

Question 1: With a Magic Theory of 7, she can use at most 14 pawns in a season. Including the Me specialty gives a Magic Theory of 8, she can use 16 pawns. Does the specialty apply?

Question 2: If it doesn’t apply, or she doesn’t want to use that much vis, can she bond with the familiar with less than the required level, so long as she meets the minimum amount? For instance, a magical cat with Might 20 and size -3 would have a minimum level of 20+25+ (5*-3)=30, so if she only wanted to spend 6 pawns of vis, can she bond at the minimum level?

Question 3: The rules say that the familiar gains the languages that the wizard knows. While Muriel knows Latin and Arabic she is not familiar with how they sound per se, she is able to read and write those languages. Whereas the cat would be different situation, it doesn’t have Arts Liberales so it can’t read, but it still hears just fine. Should it get the languages or is that part of the cost of being Deaf?

2
  1. the totals used include Mentem, so the Magic Theory (mentem) specialty applies
  2. You can bind your familiar with lower than the maximum possible total, you're just short-changing yourself on how powerful you can make the bonds. If you're short on vis, go ahead. Very few magical activities in Ars insist on being used at full power.
    Those two were straightforward, the third one involves a bit more room for opinion.
  3. I'd say no, that's part of of the cost of being deaf. Teach your familiar to read so it can use your language abilities.
3

Has she always been deaf?

4

Muriel will have a means to communicate with her parens and her sodales, right? Otherwise her master would not have been able to teach her. What is that means: a kind of sign language?
That should be a language also Muriel's cat familiar gets upon binding. Maybe it is even more appropriate to the cat's physiology than a spoken language. In that language Muriel could then teach her familiar Artes Liberales about the same way she learned them herself.
Anyway, nearly every magus will early on spend a few seasons to teach his familiar Artes Liberales, thus enabling the familiar to study from books and get useful in the lab.

Cheers