Nope-- they're apolitical in the extreme. None of them have shown up to a Tribunal in Cygna's life.
"Th' sarjeant kin handle 'at. Ain't near enow coppers in th' 'ole world t' make me go near that lot."
The girl shows Cygna upstairs and down a few hallways, to a training hall. "Sarjeant?" she calls, and a gorgeous hunk of a blond man comes up. "This 'un say she's a maga. Found 'er lurkin' about in th' ruins."
"What were you doing in the ruins, Beth?" he asks sternly.
The girl blushes. "I was jest in th' storage, gettin' barley fer th' ale, an' I 'eard 'er rootin' about on th' t'other side o' th' door."
He nods. "With me, if you would, madam?" he extends an arm to escort Cygna. "Beth, ring the bell, if you would."
Not bad, Cygna thinks. Not as delicious as Hiems, but... She then realizes what she's thinking, and kicks herself for not dismissing temptation out of hand like she should, wondering if Adorjan's incessant needling is succeeding on wearing down her defences and making her weaker. She closes her eyes and says a quick Ave Maria.
[color=red]"I'm not yet married...but thank you," Cygna says stiffly as she takes the sergeant's arm, shooting a glare back at Beth and then walking with him, looking around and trying to sort through everything.
"Oh, you're not?" He smiles charmingly. "Forgive me, I should have introduced myself-- I am Georges Saint Jean." He makes charming conversation until you come to a stone door. (Oh- and he is definitely more delicious than Hiems. No comparison. This guy has Venus' Blessing and a positive Presence. Plus good str and stam, so he's got a great bod too :p) He tugs a rope, and a few minutes later (yep, minutes), the door slides aside to reveal a squat little apple doll squinting at Cygna. "Wot's all the trouble about?" she grumbles in English.
"Maga Scintilla, this is our intruder. Beth found her lurking about in... the old ruins, beneath. She says she calls herself Cygna Bjornaeris." He bows and excuses himself, leaving Cygna alone with Scintilla.
The old woman squints up and scowls. "You don't smell near bad enough ta be a Bjornaer," she grunts. "You lot even speak Latin?" she mutters as she motions Cygna into her antechamber, where a number of overstuffed chairs await. She plops herself down in one of them (where her feet don't even reach the floor) and says, a bit too loudly, "Better tell me wot the hell you were doin' in the bowels of my covenant. If I have to sort out this mess, well, I can't just kill ya with a Quaesitor sleepin' under me own damned roof." She says the last with a perfectly pleasant manner which leaves Cygna wondering if the old woman's completely nuts.
Cygna tries very hard not to think lustful thoughts...but, you know, the more you try not to think about something, the more you think about it. Vade post me Satana she quotes to herself.
"Go ahead...indulge yourself," she hears Adorjan whisper in her ear. "I'm sure that, after all these years, you still remember what to do. It comes naturally to you. As hungry as you must be, it would be a piece of cake! And if you're worried about Hiems..." She feels his spirit brush against her back as he moves to whisper in her other ear. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him...it will be just between you and Georges."
[color=red]"I do try to bathe at least once a season," Cygna says, in the best Latin (4) she can muster. She remains standing until Scintilla invites her to sit, but will speak regardless.
[color=red]"I can see where that would be rather inconvenient.. And to be honest, I don't know what I was doing in your crypt. I would like to know how a Welsh lord happens to have a casting tablet that delivers him there, myself. As would your Quaesitor, if she knew about it."
If she's asked, Cygna will tell Scintilla that she had been sent to Lord Robert de Montfort to discuss their oppressive taxes and was captured by rebels. [color=red]"I was thrown in with some other hostages, and the rebels somehow got the notion that I was his lover. They took me into his manor, threw me into a hidden chamber, and ordered me to figure out how the baron was able to escape. I found a casting tablet, used it, and wound up here."
The old woman listens intently to the whole tale. "Well, let's see this tablet, then, eh?" She has a few choice words when she hears that the lummox who created it didn't include a Terram requisite. "...Seems a pretty huge oversight fer such a great investment o' vis... Unless it were intended to be stationary all along," she muses aloud with a growing frown.
Scintilla drills Cygna for everything she knows about Robert de Montalt, his manor in Flint, and the Welsh forces invading the place. "i'd appreciate yer silence on th' matter o' th' ruins, as well. Been a long time since I had tae write anyone a sternly worded letter, an' it wouldn't hardly be fair, wot with you barely outta diapers an' yer kind bad wi' ignem."
She calls for her majordomo, who shows Cygna to a room. Georges also discreetly makes himself available as Cygna is shown to a hot meal amd hot baths.
"She certainly has you pegged, doesn't she? Adorjan gloats.
Cygna also points out (in case she didn't earlier) that it appears that a probationary member of Gallus Florensis has taken up with the baron, based on the ghastly robe.
Assuming that she was given a casting token, Cygna will spont a spell or two to get the blood out of her robes. ((Looks like maybe Base 3 PeCo: "Do superficial damage to a body (for example, remove its hair)", +1 Touch, +1 Part maybe, for a Level 5. Her CT is Pe 4 + Co 5 + Int 4 = 13 + aura + die roll, ÷ 2)
If not, or if the spell doesn't work, then she will have ask Georges to have someone get the blood out, being careful that nobody sees her scars. Other than that, she will try to ignore Georges as best she can, thinking a lot of Hiems, and maybe wishing she hadn't left her faerie wands back at Gallus Florensis. She certainly enjoys the hot bath (and, if the tub is big enough, taking her Heartbeast form so she can enjoy it that way as well...nice thing about being Bjornaer, you can enjoy things on so many more levels than others can). That night, when she does her nightly prayer, in addition to the normal (praying that Hiems will come to love her as she loves him, and to get rid of Adorjan), she also prays for the strength to resist the temptation that Georges offers. Then she will cry herself to sleep missing and fearing for Hiems, and hopefully wake up refreshed.
Cygna is not given a casting token. Scintilla seems uninterested in Cygna's speculations on who might be sleeping with whom-- she makes it clear her only concern is getting in and retrieving the casting tablet, which she sees as a major security threat. She intends to send someone along with Cygna on the way.
Cygna is not given a casting token, but her clothes are laundered for her while she's bathing.
The next morning, Focus of Flambeau introduces himself tersely, and informs her that they will be travelling together. Georges is among the party.
Cygna is rather annoyed at this turn of events. It's going to take, likely, at least a week to get to Flint by foot, and she is very concerned about Hiems. She doesn't know if she can make it that long without knowing whether he's alive or dead...although, if he is dead, the longer she's ignorant the better, maybe.
[color=red]"Are we planning on traveling all the way to Flint by foot, then?" she asks Focus.
[color=red]"Well, in that case...there is something down at Gallus Florensis that I desperately need to check on. I will fly down, set my mind at ease, and return either this evening or tomorrow around mid-day."
If they haven't set out yet, she will go to the room, disrobe, change into her heartbeast, and have the chambermaid take the clothes to the party to be carried in a saddlebag pack or what have you. (She will accompany the maid).
If they have, then at the next stopping place, she will find someplace out of their sight to do the same, and have them carry the clothing.
((Near as I can tell, mute swans fly about 85 kmh/50 mph when migrating, which would put them about four hours straight-line from Burnham to Gallus Florensis. When she gets there, she will look around for Hiems. If she doesn't find him in a reasonable time, she will alight and find someone to ask.))
Sure, but with no Area Lore and no one to guide her, she's quite likely to get lost. Wilderness Sense can tell you compass directions, but it doesn't give you a map of the continent in your head.
Uff. Well...she knows that Gallus Florensis is on the west coast and down to the south, and that Burnham is to the north and east. If she flies southwestish until she hits the Atlantic and flies south until she sees something familiar, like a lighthouse or something, does she think that would work?
That would only work if the island were a rectangle. She knows Gallus Florensis is at a river mouth, but that the bay and estuary are huge. She doesn't anything about Burnham's location except that the covenfolk's accents place them somewhere in the north of England.
Also bear in mind that migration flight speeds account for migratory formations, where the apex position rotates among a number of birds, and the V-pattern drastically reduces wind resistance and creates buffeting jetty currents. Flying solo, count on more like 35mph for short bursts of speed, but more like 20 for sustained flight (accounting for both exertion and crosswinds). (Sorry, I'm a nitpicker.)
Tracing the British coastline would be time consuming and exhausting. She could try it, but she'd be likely to end up in Lancaster after four days, wondering how the hell she missed the lighthouses, and funny how she'd always imagined Chester was supposed to be a big bustling city...
That said, she probably hasn't ever tried anything this ambitious before, and given her emotional state she may not realize it's an untenable plan, and go for it anyway. Up to you.
Yeah, she's not thinking real clearly atm. So, after confirming that the party will stay on this road (basically, making sure that she'll hopefully be able to find them again), she's going to fly as above. And when, after three or four hours, she hasn't hit the ocean yet, she will stop for a break, cast Form of the Phlegmatic Heartbeast on herself (which gives her +1 Str, +3 to all rolls involving intuition and memory, and temporarily gives her the Cool-Headed Personality Trait, or negates her Hot-Headed trait, for Sun Duration, in both her Human and Heartbeast forms. It's a MuAn 20, her CT is +9, with a -5 for No Gestures since it has to be cast in her heartbeast form.
OK She loses a Fatigue level but regains it quickly enough. After casting Form of the Phlegmatic Heartbeast, Cygna realizes that not knowing where she's going, she'll get to Hiems sooner on horseback, with a guide. She doesn't find the group until well after nightfall, and then only because they have an exceptionally large campfire.
George brightens visibly when he sees Cygna-- if she is nude and in human form, his eyes never stray from her face, and he covers her in his own cloak and seats her by the fire while he rummages about and finds her clothes. If she approaches in bird form, he smiles and brings her clothes out into the woods a ways so that she has privacy as she changes. She is given a hot meal and mulled wine.
Over the course of the trip, Georges is attentive and solicitous and always acts the perfect gentleman.
It will take about a week and a half for the group to reach familiar territory. Whether or not Hiems is there depends on a weigh-in from Fixer. (If he doesn't find Cygna back at the covenant, would he return to the covenant and wait, or go looking for her? She returns to the covenant 11 days after they were separated.)
It would be in bird form – she's too ashamed and embarrassed by her body to let anyone see it, especially a man she doesn't know. And en route, she may head off into the bushes to change into her heartbeast, fly ahead and around to kind of scout just get away for a little bit, then come back down at the next break.
Which reminds her so much of Hiems, the way he always treats her like a lady, always tries to take care of her. sigh She will be curtly polite and gracious the entire trip.
She passes the time by singing, mostly love songs about people separated from the ones they love by the cruel hand of fate, in various languages.
He approaches Cygna when they have a moment of semi-privacy:
"I apologise if I have given offense, mademoiselle. Please let me know how I have injured you, that I may make amends." His warm brown eyes look so hurt, just like a wounded little puppy.
In that case, they hear you comin'....
Just when Cygna starts to think that the forest looks vaguely familiar, a dark shape drops out of a tree above and onto Focus' back, and five archers spill out from the surrounding forest, with their bows trained on Georges, Cygna, and some guy in a red shirt who's been travelling with your group.
Georges' sword clears its scabbard in a moment, but as he sees the bows trained on him, he waits for orders.
Initiative:
15 Lead Bandit (shank)
13 Other Bandits (who are currently holding their actions) (shortbows)
8 Georges (longsword and shield)
7 Cygna, Focus (both have the same Qik and rolled 6's; PC breaks a tie)
5 Guy in red shirt (axe and heater)
Cygna sees gorgeous Georges looking at her like that, and a small, almost unconscious moan of desire escapes her lips.
"Now would be the perfect time, Cygna...nobody around but you and him, and he won't tell anyone if you do satisfy your hunger. It would do you a world of good, Katerina."
Cygna tries to ignore Adorjan's advice, even though he seems to be making some sense, and looks down at her hands clasped in her lap.
[color=red]"It is nothing that you have done, Georges. But...my heart belongs to another. And yet, when I see you, I find myself sore tempted to betray him." She stops, wondering if she's said too much, and fearing that, if she is that easily tempted, she may not truly love Hiems after all. She closes her eyes and pictures Hiems in her mind, and finds herself starting to smile.
Cygna draws herself straighter (is she mounted or afoot?) and glares at whoever looks to be in charge. [color=red]"What is the meaning of this?" she says in English, followed by a singing of Doublet of Impenetrable Silk ((CT: 9)).
Georges gathers up Cygna's hand gently, and makes a show of inspecting it. "I see nothing here that would indicate any song your heart might sing for me would betray another," he chides softly. "Has this other man confessed any feelings for you in return? For certain, your beauty and grace are plain for all to see, and I would be remiss in my duty as a gentleman not to praise it. Indeed, if the Lord deemed me worthy to know your heart and spirit as well as mine eyes know the radiance of your face, I would have no choice but to declare my undying devotion. Both by word and in deed." He brushes a lock of hair from Cygna's face with a surprisingly gentle touch. "This lucky man-- he must be blessed indeed to know the love of such a woman, and doubly charmed to have the luxury of spurning it."
Focus pushes the hooded figure off him and draws a longsword, and a great ball of flame erupts from the sword's tip and hits the bandit square in the chest.... Where it winks out of existence harmlessly.
The guy in the red shirt lurches at the hooded figure and hacks his axe at the other's head. The figure screams, a woman's cry of pain, and in a moment she vanishes, leaving in her place a great winged lion, which lashes out with her claws and rips RedShirt in two.
The other bandits start shooting. Focus and Georges may or may not dodge the two each that come at them; one is probably going to hit Cygna unless she can stop it. (I left my purse downstairs, so you'll have to make your own rolls this round, unless I get back downstairs and edit this post before you have a chance to respond.)
She loses a Fatigue level but regains it quickly enough. After casting Form of the Phlegmatic Heartbeast, Cygna realizes that not knowing where she's going, she'll get to Hiems sooner on horseback, with a guide. She doesn't find the group until well after nightfall, and then only because they have an exceptionally large campfire.