"But how will we know if it's a Diedne ghost or not," Cecelia asks. "Unless it admits to the fact, all we have is conjecture."
"We have only one other possibility, so we try and confirm that. If it isn't true, we assume Diedne. But if Diedne practiced diabolism at the time of the schism, does that mean a magus who lived centuries prior practiced diabolism? Of course I suppose they would still have to be killed because they would know parma and are clearly no longer part of the order." She smiles wryly at Fredrika, "But first lets see if that is the headache we have, or the headache we are borrowing."
At this the doors to the dining hall fly open and in strides tall dark and spooky who begins in Latin, "Greetings, I see we have quite the assembly for these negotiations, where shall we begin?"
"I'm good at this. Not really, but I can pretend. What are we negotiating? I mean, what my good ghost do you hope to gain from this negotiation? "
Guiverna introduces herself with an air-kiss to either side of the other women's cheeks, and mingles as the others talk, stopping to rest a hand on Antoine's arm. "I don't think I've been by to see your forge, dear. I'm sure you can do wonderful things with your hands."
If Guiverna notices Fleur's interest, she shows no outward sign of it. Semsuhfaw, however, does raise his head and looks Fleur in the eyes, tongue flicking quickly, before he hisses softly in Guiverna's ear. She bends over to allow him to uncoil and slither to the floor., where he starts to wander about.
Guiverna looks surprised. "Do we have any reason to believe, or even suspect, that our guest is a member of the House of the Damned?"
((I suppose, if I want to see what Guiverna knows about what's going on and how much she can see, I should read Parts 1 and 2, right?))
"We did some research, he was apparently a member of the Order of Pluto, which nobody had heard of, but it turns out there were two organizations that went by this name, one of which was a split from the Roman Cult of Pluto, the other was a Diedne mystery cult."
after Mr. Spooky's appearance
"First, peace. I made a mistake trying to garner power and I have, admittedly deservedly earned some animosity from your... group, coven? I'm not sure of the right word here. Second, I'm hoping to find some way that I might come to an arrangement to gain some portion of the power to at least maintain my presence, meaning of course that I would need a regular supply of blood. Not necessarily a lot, a few ounces a day should suffice, and it would not need to be human."
Frederika stepped forward courteously: "Well met then, sodalis. I doubt anyone here has an objection to peace! I am Frederika Ex Miscellanea. I cannot presume to speak for everyone at our covenant, but I don't see an issue with accommodating your needs. May I ask, though, who am I am addressing, and when you hail from?"
"When? Depending on the calendar you prefer, and what colanders I might not have heard of, well in short the date of my mortal expiration was 1110 years after the founding of Rome. Not to the day, I don't think, though that certainly would explain some of the more curious details of my situation."
Frederika was both relieved and disappointed: their ghost was surely Roman. No caches of hidden Schism treasure would be found here. But...that also meant no headaches. This peaceful entreaty, and the near future, looked to be uneventful if all went well:
"Then it's been nearly 900 years since your passing! I've never heard of a ghost so old; you must be a truly exceptional man. To have lived this long is no small feat!!"
"Have you made some of your blood deals with others in the past?" Cecelia asks the ghost. "Is that how you've survived this long?"
"Has it been so long, yes, I suppose it has. I have gained the blood of others in the past, bound their spirits to me as I tried to do with him." He indicates Antonius. "Their spirits faded, mine remained, only my two acolytes remain now, and they are not as I, but simple specters who, like I cling to this place. I am not sure what the reason is for our longevity, I know that I sought immortality and I suppose in some twisted way I have achieved it. Blood gives me power, without it I am as you found me, able to appear but once a year and try to frighten or cajole someone into giving me more blood. If I bind a spirit to myself I can manifest without blood, but doing so weakens the spirit I have bound. If this has contributed to my longevity as a spirit I am unaware of how it has done so. As you may have gathered my transition from man to spirit was not exactly as planned."
"That seems like a small, I mean reasonable, price to pay if animal blood would be acceptable. A few ounces of blood..., Vara trails off mouthing what appear to be numbers ... in exchange for free use of the tower and access to your ancient knowledge. Most people don't like bloody meat for dinner, so if we just have the butcher collect the blood during slaughter.
"Presumably." Fleur considers aloud "A little after sunrise and sunset, I will need to let other mages into my sanctum for them to interview you, which presents an issue, unless... there was mention made of my moving back to Arans, but that would require someone else take over this house, and see to the security, which still puts him in someone's sanctum."
"No need to have your sanctum cover the entire building. Where can you manifest Mr. Ghost?
Note: Fleur's sanctum currently is the entire building.
"Anywhere in the house"
Some small noise, as a visibly tired Arachné slumbers into the room.
I see I'm late to the party. So many things to do, so little time.
Hello spooky. Fancy seeing you here.
She sits down in a ruffle.
So. From what I've heard, you've come to your senses. Good. I, at least, am willing to help you. But what can you bring to the table? Who where you? What did you do?
She'd probably help spooky anyway, reasonning that, sooner or later, she'd have a use for him, but she's trying to milk him for information. Just as well to get the most out of him.
"I'm not sure what power my name might have, so for now I will keep that to myself. I was a priest of Pluto, a rather thankless position late in the empire I might add, Christianity had already become the official religion of the empire, and our cult was already underground. I studied some of the works of these Christians, and believed I had found a way to cheat death, but would need to be outside Rome to make the attempt given the political climate there, so I fled to this island with a few of my acolytes. As we experimented with necromancy many of the acolytes left the fold, and as we were separated from the Cult of Pluto we began calling ourselves the Order of Pluto. We had managed to bring back many of the dead masters, and learned much from them, but could not find the breakthrough I sought, and the followers of Jesus proved difficult to summon. Finally, down to my last two acolytes I made the choice to experiment upon them and try to sacrifice them and raise them from the dead. I sacrificed them on the date which should have been the secular games, the celebration comes once every 110 years. All I succeeded in was creating these two shades which remain here still. I buried their bodies in the garden, but then on Oct 31st, the significance of that date still eludes me, their specters took on substance and had their revenge, but while they remain shades of their past selves I linger on in a state of consciousness."
You may not be aware, but Necromancy is considered a dark art these days. Presumably, with Pluto as your patron, it was somewhat more accepted when you still lived. If your bargain involves offering us some of your knowledge, you should probably know that there must be moral objections on our side.
"There have been moral objections to necromancy in every age, that is why Pluto's holy days only came once every 110 years, but there was an annual festival every May to keep the dead out of the world of the living. Knowledge is one thing I offer, I am also willing to help with protecting the house. So long as I am manifest I can hold the doors open and shut, and there are some other possibilities I would like to look into. I have had a long time to theorize. Of course, simply learning from me is necromancy by some definitions."
If Frederika was disappointed that their guest was Roman, and not Didene, she wasn't showing any indication: "Dark or no, necromancy is inextricably entwined with corpus theory. Imagine, a potential breakthrough in longevity research!"
"Magic aside though," she was almost blushing a little, as if embarrassed at not thinking solely of the hermetic implications: "I also confess to being, well, interested in the history? Because Rome's faded grandeur is still inspiring. And we could perhaps learn a lot there too."
Vara and the ghost who followed her in have a short discussion, Vara gives a brief overview of Christianity and Lisbeth apparently thinks its rude to bother the Divine. "Trying to cheat death through the works of Christians as a priest of Pluto. That was a dead end. As I see it you probably don't have anything to offer except knowledge and all we can offer is blood and I suppose a cure for boredom by giving you students to teach. I guess Fleur ultimately gets to decide who can come to learn. I would like to know more about the cult. "