"I see. She thinks for a moment then calls out for malachai. "I will send this one to aid you in your quest, but for this boon, and for my sparing you punishment for your trespass, you will owe me a future service that I may call upon at any time."
The person who arrives appears to be a ten year old child.
"How are you suggesting this one, malachai, can help us on our journey?"
"I do not know everything your journey will hold, but Malachi is a very helpful young man, and I'm sure you will see the benefit of his assistance on your journey." There is an edge to her voice that suggests she is not accustomed to having her judgment questioned, at least not openly.
"And what kind of future service would you expect from us, exactly?"
She waves her hand in the air carelessly "Oh probably to retrieve some lost object or person."
Aetherius looks at the young man. "Malachi, is it? What can you tell us about you, and how you can help us on this journey?"
As a non-gifted and socially awkward individual in a Hermetic House of Gently Gifted socialites, Plasmatoris seems quite comfortable and happy standing near the back of the group. In fact, he almost doesn't notice the conversation going on, because his eyes are still following the scenery, tracing the trees and admiring the way the light moves. Finally, he steps around the edge of the group to look past them to the Queen herself, his eyes studying the seated Goddess-Queen and the throne, the hunting dogs, the bow. His fingers idly twitch as he fixes the scenery in his memory.
The boy's face lights up "Oh I can be a great help! I can fetch water, or wood if you are camping, or I can talk to people in the villages because I am great with people everybody loves me, I'm Malachi, especially the women, they think I'm cute and they love children well except that one crone who tried to put me in her cookpot, someone told me she was a witch but I pushed her in the cookpot instead because I was too quick for her and then I got the chicken which the other lady had asked me to get for her and I used to help this wizard Malamar back in Scottland I did everything to help him he would have been lost without me!"
The punctuation is not accidental, he does not stop, even to breath, as he goes through his introduction, and then pauses as he rises up onto his toes, clearly wanting to say more but held back by a sense that he might perhaps need to give other people the chance to say something.
Aban looks at the boy quizzically, hesitates a moment, and turns to the queen.
"... Our trip could get quite dangerous, and it may not be possible to ensure young Malachai's safety. Perhaps he would be better protected here?"
Aetherius listen in to the young kid, surprised and not surprised at the same time by the level of energy he shows. He will not interrupt Aban, somewhat agreeing with him a young boy might not be easy to bring along the journey. He does ask the young men how he helped the wizard in Scotland, how long he was with him, whether he was taught anything and how he ended up in the care of the Faerie Queen after she had a chance to speak.
The queen smirks at your concern, "Malachai will be perfectly safe."
Malachi adds "Just don't eat the bread. That happens sometimes when I die, but I get better. I would do all kinds of chores for Malamar, getting him herbs or running messages he had me run a lot of messages to other wizards and some of them would spend hours in their labs and I would have to wait outside their sanctum to deliver the message because it would be rude and dangerous to interrupt a magus in their lab I learned that when we had the zombie outbreak when I interrupted our healer while she was doing an experiment but it all ended up okay because the visiting mage who I had sort of killed protecting Malamar came back to life and so the Que, the Quae, the funny judge mage went away since nobody was dead."
Aban smirks.
"Well, it seems to me that our choices in this matter are limited, if I understand the situation correctly."
He eyes the magi.
"Are we agreed?"
We are agreed.
Atys worries about having such an unknown in our midst, but the choices seem limited.
Tastheus can be surprised to smile, for the first time since a very long time. The child is very cute for him and his energy lead the Tytalus far in his remember, when his child was young.
"I'm agree to take him with us."
His voice is more a "please" than other things.
"Very well then, proceed to your covenant." Artemis gestures and a door appears between a pair of trees in her grove. The gnome opens it and Malachi dashes through ahead of the rest of you, though you can see him waiting on the other side, calling out "Hear ye, hear ye, the questing mags arrive!"
On the other side of the door is what appears to be a coastal town with several docks with boats for fishing, as the sun sets over the water. When you look back the door appears to be the front door of a modest hut.
Aetherius frowns to hear his sodales admit they have no choice in the matter, clearly displeased by the turn of events. He doesn't try, however, to overrule what seems to him like a majority decision after 3 of their lot have spoken.
Tastheus seems the only one inside the group of magi to be happy of the decision about Malachi. The time his children grew was one of best part of his old time and this kid remembers him that. The faeri queen makes a gesture and the gnome opens a door in ... a tree ?
Not really the time to question it, that Malachi dashes through.Tastheus bows to Artemis.
"It was a honour to meet and to talk with you, Ô Queen Artemis.We will take care about Malachi."
Plasmatoris also gives a polite bow to the queen as the magi begin to leave. "Fair well, Queen Artemis. It has been a vibrant experience." He turns, almost slams into one of his sodales, catches himself, and more slowly shuffles out behind them.
Stepping out behind them, he pats the young Malachi on the shoulder. "Good voice on you. Did heralding for them did you?"
"Harolding? I don't know any Harold or is that like the song ark the Harold angel sings I never understood why a angel named Harold would have been on an ark maybe they meant arch because if I had wings I would sit on arches a lot it seems like fun don't you think?"
1 Like
Aban leads the others to the dwelling of the magi, assuming he knows where that is. If he doesn't, he asks Malachi.