Silas meets Tastheus’s gaze. He thinks a little before answering. Oh they need me do they? Finally some proper appreciation. From our own senior Quaesitor nonetheless. Silas cant help but smile to himself before he answers.
“Oh yes that will not be an issue, you can count on me. I am very curious about these details myself.”
Lares wipes his mouth.
“Are we done here? I’ll go look for the ledger in the library – anyone with a hankering for accounting is free to join me, of course.”
He stands up.
“Once we know what our mode of subsistence is, we may wish to use Plasmatoris’ lists to make sure that all the mundanes are familiar with their tasks. We must have lost a lot of expertise, so there may be gaps.”
Aetherius nods. "I think we're done. I'll head to my lab and see whether I can learn more about our current situation from my correspondences and such."
Silas looks surprised at the magus who suddenly stands up and then at Aetherius as he agrees. Silas spurts out.
“While I understand that there are many things that need to be done, shouldn’t we try to properly organize them? It was my understanding that our last meeting only disbanded due to the time pressure we were under. I can think of a great number of things that needs to be discussed. How to undertake our own investigation. Division of duties. While secrecy is a good start, we need more than that. An agreed upon cover story to start with. Enough with the stumbling around by ourselves, let’s sit and discuss. To carve something beautiful one must first plan it out in detail. One can’t just carve at random, especially when there are many hands holding chisels.”
Argentius listens to the discussion back and forth, largely silent. He nods as Silas confirms his status as builder of the automatons, as expected.
"Lares, I'll join you. I may be able to lend some particular aid to our understanding of the ledger shoulder we find it."
Argentius was half-way standing when Silas speaks up, but he sits back down. When Silas finishes, Argentius arches his finger tips together thoughtfully.
"What in particular do you have in mind?"
Zarkut looks over at the distressed magus.
"Our cover story is that nothing happened. We don't allow visitors anyway, and if we do have to be face to face with someone, we make sure we look old. Some of the covenfolk will know what we looked like yesterday, in terms of age, so look into their memories to see the proper disguise.
As far as the ledgers go, everything should be stable, or else we wouldn't have such a thriving place around us. Once we've found the books, I suppose there should be a meeting to go over them.
As for investigation, we each have our own methods and secrets, it's best to leave that to the individual magi, to find the best way to learn more."
Silas gathers himself and shakes his head as Zarkut finishes.
“If you necessarily want to postpone the council meeting, I won’t resist, but let’s come up with a time to meet again. Also, I seriously doubt that just saying nothing happened will do. Just think about this:
While we all have been curious about our correspondence, shouldn’t we instead be worried about it. If suddenly all magi at our covenant stops writing letters there will be questions. Corresponding with stranger isn’t much safer, it would require an extremely uninquiring pen pal. Sending letter out also poses another problem, that of Redcaps. They know a lot of things and are quick to notice anything strange. Disguises are all well and good but there is so much information we lack. If we give them an excuse before their suspicions could be risen it would be safer…”
"Redcaps are bound to keep our secrets. But what do you suggest? I can't think of a lie that would explain why we all look young that wouldn't be basically as dangerous as the truth."
Lares looks at Silas, smiles, and sits down.
“I can be a bit hasty, sometimes, Silas.”
He raises two fingers.
“How to undertake our investigation and division of duties. Me, Aetherius, and Bartomeus were going to look for ledgers to see if we can use those to get an overview of the covenant’s resources and mode of subsistence. I imagine the rest were going to either try to get into the vis store or look through their lab notes and correspondence for any explanation for what has happened here. There’s so much to do I haven’t even managed to properly check my lab, or even to see if one of those magical creatures out in the pens belonged to me!”
He lowers one finger.
“Cover story. I think Zarkut has the right broad picture. I do not think we can fill it in much more before we have some idea regarding the form of our intercourse with the outside world. What would they expect of us? Who comes to visit, if anyone? What route do they take?”
He lowers his hand.
“Now that I think of it, interviewing covenfolk on our external relations is also a task to be added to the list.”
"I believe the youngest members of our covenant are going to be a unique resource," Plasmatoris says thoughtfully, his delicate fingers tearing bits and pieces off of his food and making a little pattern on his plate. "Every person has lost memory and progress, dragging their lives back through history. Those who are older, such as us elder magi, lost decades, perhaps a century of knowledge." He begins to pick up pieces of the meal and eat as he thinks aloud. "The youths will have lost less knowledge of the current covenant existance, those who grew up in the covenant would have the best information for us."
"You are exactly right. Would you care to question them?"
“While I understand that there are many things that need to be done, shouldn’t we try to properly organize them? It was my understanding that our last meeting only disbanded due to the time pressure we were under. I can think of a great number of things that needs to be discussed. How to undertake our own investigation. Division of duties. While secrecy is a good start, we need more than that. An agreed upon cover story to start with. Enough with the stumbling around by ourselves, let’s sit and discuss. To carve something beautiful one must first plan it out in detail. One can’t just carve at random, especially when there are many hands holding chisels.”
"Yes," Tastheus nods and pulls at his short beard a moment. "Agreed."
"Redcaps are bound to keep our secrets. But what do you suggest? I can't think of a lie that would explain why we all look young that wouldn't be basically as dangerous as the truth."
"Sometimes hiding in plain sight is the easiest solution. We simply say nothing and change the subject if it asked about. Silence can be omnious when used appropriately."
"I currently have enough on my plate to keep me busy. I'd prefer not to overplan on unknown elements, and conduct some of the necessary investigations then see what else is a priority. Overplanning will just lead us to unproductive speculations, and likely to make me lose interest in the conversation. So I suggest we meet again to share updates as needed, perhaps on a daily basis, and adjust as we go. Do you all prefer lunch or dinner time? I'm more of a dinner time person myself, but I can be flexible."
Argentius nods to Aetherius, agreeing.
"Daily for at least the next week or two seems wise. Dinner would be better, I think, in terms of a time. Less interruption to our studies and work."
Argentius gestures toward the library proper.
"How are we thinking about approaching our studies and allocation of our summae and books? As Silas and others have said, we have significant short term tasks to be focused on but we each have a tremendous amount of study and research before us to re-establish the foundations in the arts that built Al Kufra. Perhaps we could discuss any initial study plans and requests for books at one of our next gatherings."
Argentius pauses before adding:
"And I still think it would be wise of us to all make new Oaths to and afix new signatures on the Covenant Charter. Trust will be a necessity if we are to survive."
"I concur on discussion study plans at our next gathering. As regards the charter, I'm open to amending it, but I'd like to read it first."
Silas drinks some more before answering.
“My suggestion would be to be vague about a sudden winter of the covenant or claim that the aura had gotten uncontrollable. Not perfect cover stories by any stretch but either way it seems that pretending nothing is amiss is preferred by the majority. Thought I am not sure you plan on handle knowing nobodies’ names, histories et cetera. Seems like a ploy that could be discovered by the simplest trick. Alas, I am the minority on this issue.”
Silas gives a little shrug after listening to Aetherius and Argentius speak. He turns himself towards the Mercere and speaks.
“Cautiousness is the greatest of virtues. I would lean towards overplanning rather than running around as headless chickens. Speculation and theorizing is a vital part of any project. But if the council wish to postpone the necessary discussions so be it. Daily meeting is all good and well but perhaps they can last longer than an hour for next time…
Silas turn more towards his fellow House member as he continues.
“New signature and study plans should come later. While we all hunger for power and wisdom what we truly need is answers. We still know nothing...”
"Perhaps you're right, Silas. Splitting up the books may need to wait until we have a better grasp of the situation. Overplan all you want, if you think it helps you. I, on the other hand, still don't know what I've been up to for the last century. And I can't plan based on this much lost knowledge until I have a fraction of a shard of something. Now if you'll excuse me..."
"It's a gesture of trust, a renewal of our oaths to each other," responds Argentius simply. "We have all been made new while this place we once made remains intact. What harm is there in taking an evening hour to renew those promises? Once we've read the Charter, of course."
"Agreed. Without trust and a degree of unity," Tastheus raises his opens hands, then crushes them into fists, "we will accomplish little."
“Argentius, if you would be as kind as to draft the addendum to the charter, I am sure we would be willing to sign it. Everyone else should figure out for themselves what they need to study, with one eye on casting the Aegis. When everybody knows what they need, we should coordinate.”
[OOC: I would prefer that we do the division of the texts out of character to make it easier. Maybe a Google document or something?]
Lares gets up again.
“Now that our wain sits firm in the anterior equinal regions, I would go look for the ledger.”