"The Ex Mercere Express" he replies with a sense of humor, unsure if the young men is an actual redcap. "We walked in through the city gate."
"From hollow mountain covenant? Why didn't you send advance word?" (FYI the young man is speaking Latin, but not well, you would guess he has a score of about 2)
Hearing the conversation a middle aged woman emerges and looks the group over, "they are not from hollow mountain, and you say they were not aboard a ship? I assume you made your own way to the city, but unfortunately without knowing you were coming we could not prepare properly. We do have two rooms available tonight, they are reserved for tomorrow night though."
Plasmatoris blinks and peers about with curiosity as they move through the city and approach the Mercere house. Looking about the building, he smiles brightly to the younger lad and then the woman. "An unfortunate pinch, only two rooms," he muses, glancing about at his compatriots. He doesn't want to interrupt his ally by taking over, so he talks quietly to his group. "Does anyone have ideas here? I doubt the rooms are going to be even vaguely comfortable for the group."
"Could you assist us finding a room? I'm Aetherius ex Mercere and these are my sodales, redcaps and magis of the Order. We made our way here from the African Tribunal. The locals are paranoid hearing our Latin it seems. I would also request your assistance, tomorrow perhaps, to find records about a traveler from our covenant we believe may have came through here."
"Records will not be a problem, and we will send the boy out after dinner to inquire of other inns along the docks. Given reputational concerns our own rooms should be prioritized for the Gifted, and if a Gifted individual is to sleep elsewhere they should go with a non Gifted, or gently Gifted individual who will serve to interact with anyone they come across. How many Gifted and unGifted people do you have?"
Aetherius introduces himself as a gifted and then his gifted companions, finishing with ungifted/redcap/faerie.
So how do people want to divide up? Two rooms in the redcap inn, each Gifted person beyond that will need to pair with an unGifted (including Malachai)
Atys attempts to be paired with anyone other than Malachai
Aetherius tries to get a spot at the redcap inn.
Tastheus will take Malachi with him.
Aban will suggest to Atys that they might accompany each other.
Malachai heads off with Tastheus before the rest of the group is done being sorted out, and heads for the inn the redcaps have recommended. He speaks softly and quickly and Tastheus finds himself presented with a second dinner at the inn while his room is made ready. When he is finished he is guided up to the room where a young woman rests seductively on his bed.
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Plasmatoris is also interested in staying with the Redcaps, since he doesn't want to deal with people who he can't easily talk to safely - and it seems there's no unGifted to acompany him and talk to the mundanes for him.
The redcaps also recommend an inn run by a family fluent in Arabic for Aban.
The day after, Aetherius returns to see the redcaps. He explains they're looking a covenant member who's been missing. He gives the name and description details of the date and ship he left Cairo aboard. He explains that he believes he intended to transit to Provence from here, but he's not 100% sure if it's a direct route or if his plans changed. He asks for assistance to see if they have any records of his passage here.
Malachai seemed to want to throw a whole party for young Tytalus and Tastheus let him. The youthful freshness of the fairy envoy annoyed his companions slightly, but was actually doing the magi a lot of good. Little by little, he was recovering from his recent ordeals, through the boy in a way.
As for the proposal for the night... it seemed to Tastheus that it had been years since he had been able to enjoy the body and soft curves of a woman by his side.
Clearly the young magi was going to enjoy his whole night if he could afford it.
By strange coincidence (then again there are faeries involved, so it might not be coincidence at all) the woman Tastheus spent the night with knew your covenant's missionary Cathar (not in this professional capacity) and when he last spoke with her he was headed to Paris, where he had planned to stay with a cousin of hers who had been brought back to the estate of a French nobleman.
Tastheus takes his time to get as much information as possible about the place of residence in question. The name of the owner, its location and the name of the -certainly charming- cousin. In short, all the information that could be useful to continue their road and their tracking.
Aban collapses into bed, happy to be comfortable for a change.
The next morning, he seeks out the others to discuss how they should proceed.
The cousin is staying at the estate of one Jaques DeFontaine, who was stationed in Sicily until his father died when he returned home to his Paris estate to rejoin his wife and family and brought her cousin Jamila back with him. She isn't certain what her cousin's official role in the household is since she hasn't heard from her in a few years.