"You have come all this way and don't even kow how long you intend to stay?"
"My apologies, but I do not have an exact number of weeks. We will likely be here less than a season. Do you need more granularity than that? That may be hard given our need to arrange travel when we leave."
Atys hopes that this buys us time to discuss amongst ourselves.
"Would you say about a month then? I assume you do not need labs, are there any of our other resources you would rely upon?"
"That seems reasonable. We will not need labs nor access to your library. Many thanks for your help.
Has Luc ex Jerbiton been alerted of our presence?"
"We have sent notification to Luc, I do not know if he is still in his lab or if he has otherwise received it. Even without the use of labs or other covenant resources the presence of so many extra magi within the city represents certain risks to our covenant, so we will need to insist you comply with covenant codes of behavior and that you will, at some point in the future owe us a favor as well, where our covenant may call upon yours for aid. Are you willing to agree on behalf of your covenant, to these terms?"
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"To speak clearer, maybe we will stay just one or two days. We don't want cause any issue, just meet one magi and, ideally, another people that we search for some weeks now. We travelled through the Mediterranean sea and half of Europa just for this meeting. If you don't want that we stay to avoid issues, just help us to end this quest and we will go return to our desert and our laboratories.
And no, I cannot accept to have a blind debt for hospitality after weeks of travelling to meet one of your magi."
I think you make an excellent point. We cannot take on a blind favor.
Atys turns to the woman and states, "We would like to stay for 2 days and if Luc is not around, we will return at a future date."
"Very well, let us make an offer for a specific debt. Would you rather trade a pawn of vis or a single vote at the grand tribunal?"
Tastheus let out a more than audible sigh. He was clearly tired of it all, tired of the search, tired of the journey, tired of the promises that would no doubt only lead him down other paths, again and again and again... Was paying vis to meet a magi in a covenant what the Order of Hermes had become since they went under? Was it just this covenant, or were all the others just greed, politics and rapaciousness where hospitality once prevailed? Tastheus was a proud, manipulative man, but he had principles and had always served the Order and what he believed to be its values.
At the suggestion, he couldn't hold back a frank pout of contempt.
"Stay if you like, Sodales, I don't want any more. There was a time when I was a worthy member of an Order where hospitality and mutual aid prevailed, even within a House as controversial as mine. Today, I see nothing but scheming and greed in this place. When I was young, even a Tytalus such as myself would never have had the audacity to charge another magi for a simple meeting.
I don't even know your name, madam, but know that you have just earned my deepest contempt."
With that, Tastheus left the room, and globally the place.
Two details- 1) the maga is a woman, and 2) the meeting is in his bedroom.
I can offer the one pawn, but we need to know when we can speak to Luc ex Jerbiton
"I will let you know as soon as I do. If you have the pawn with you simply leave it at the front desk in the morning."
I don't recall that we've left the covenant with vis, but either way, I don't see us letting Alys shoulder the debt alone even if we were not there to discuss. To be sent via redcaps after the adventure. They will follow the instructions given to meet with Luc ex Jerbiton.
Luc meets for breakfast at a cafe, at a table for two with his old protege, though the others are able to find tables nearby.
"So what brings you back to Paris so soon? Have you tired of life on the frontier already?"
"To put it simply, a large portion of our covenfolk are Cathars. Our only perfecti left a few years ago for Europe... we tracked him down to Paris, and he's apparently been taken in by the Inquisition. We don't know if he's alive. But we suspect that, if we don't bring any Perfecti back home to help our covenfolk with spiritual guidance, we will lose them to despair. Our leads currently point towards something that involves a goat an an eel. We're not sure right now, whether that might be the name of a location, a symbol that might be hanged over of a location, or a physical symbol of some kind, but we believe Cathars gather at the goal and eel. We're hoping you might have an idea what the place is, or whether there are other pockets of Cathars that might have escaped the Inquisition... Of course, if you know a Perfecti, that would be useful as well."
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To be clear, luc was seated with Atys. So Aetherius is going to stand up from a nearby table and start discussing Cathars with him in a bistro in the middle of Paris, drawing the attention of everyone in the bistro?
Atys introduces his companions at the first opportune moment. Hoping to make it seem less strange when Aetherius joins the discussion.
(Tastheus isn't here, to be more discret than too much people with gift in a same place)
( Plasmatoris was asked on the adventure in case we needed to talk to locals, so I don't know if he was invited along with this meeting. )