Summer 1229 a letter from Bartomeus

While at the tribunal a letter is delivered to the covenant (to be written by Bartomeus below)

(I hope for his sake we don't hear any rumors about goings-on in his old covenant.)

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From the environs near Brescia, 1229

Bartomeus, by the grace of the Order of Hermes, ex Bonisagus, scholar and magus, to the most esteemed, erudite, and puissant Council of the Covenant of Gardenia, established in grandeur among the towering Alps, within the renowned Tribunal of the Greater Alps.

Warm greetings and peace unto you, Sodales. Fond fortune be upon your studies and works Hermetic, from your humble colleague in the Arts, sent to you from the foothills beyond the reaches of Brescia.

Not, therefore, to keep you in suspense by a long account of studies Hermetic or of scholarly investigations, I make formal request and application to join you in the Oath of Covenant, to unite my mind and Arts in common, collaborative purpose. I am, therefore, fully prepared to dedicate myself to the pursuit and exchange of knowledge, to the advancement and mastery of the magical Arts, and to the fostering of peace amongst the magi of the Order of Hermes. My dedication, therefore, made with full purpose of mind and heart, is made not in name only, but is the north star and guiding principle of my life, and shall be my commitment and promise to you, should you accept this, my application and formal request to count myself your colleague at Gardenia. By all that I hold true and just, I swear to obey the stipulations and rules of the Charter of the Covenant of Gardenia, until death shutters my mind. I shall swear that your goals, fortunes, hardships, allies, and enemies shall be my own.

Should you accept my application and humble request, I shall bring to service the full extent of my studies Hermetic, my understanding of the Arts and theory. In me you shall find one committed to the Order, embracing with full and open purpose the Hermetic Oath, as well as a true magus of House Bonisagus, dedicated in life's work to further the knowledge of the Order and to share all that I find in my search for wisdom, insight, and power. I am a scholar and researcher, committed to the rigorous pursuit of knowledge through consistent effort and discipline in the laboratory.

While I cannot offer great wealth or reputation, what I do have I am dedicated to share, be it knowledge or responsibility in pursuit of common purpose and goals of the covenant and colleagues.

Thus with sincerity and purity of intent, I make humble inquiry and application to join the Covenant of Gardenia, in response to the invitation extended by Mingus ex Miscellanea in Grand Tribunal. May this my present letter of application lead to acceptance and uniting in common purpose and covenant.

Given in the foothills near Brescia, in the late Spring, in the year one thousand two hundred and twenty-nine.

Bartomeus ex Bonisagus

Guida makes a point to deliver the letter to all magi of the covenant at the same time, so that they may be aware of the application of Bartomeus.

Kriegeist takes the letter to the small common room at the base of the tree, waiting for the others to arrive. He occasionally rereads the letter, and he is smiling broadly.

Elia enters the common room, with her hands and robe stained with dirt. She was working on a herb garden when the letter arrived, so it is stained as well. "Pleasant day Kriegeist, I see you got the letter as well, may I ask for your thoughts on this?"

Kriegeist grins at her. "I love getting letters from people who can write well. And a sparring partner for a neighbor? Yes, please! The only concern is the publicity of Bonisagus research, they've already worked out ways around that, so it should be fine, but we should address it with him. What do you think?"

Schwartz flies into the common room with Corvus the raven carrying the letter. (He does not transform out of the Black Kite form). “What do you think indeed Kreigeist? An interesting proposition, particularly when we haven’t yet been here a year.” (Yes, the bird is talking.)

Kriegeist nods, "A good point, I would like to know how he heard about us. Though we do get the letter at tribunal, not Gardenia, that assuages my paranoia a bit. Is he here? The redcap was gone before I knew to ask." He looks down at the letter again, turning it over to see if there us a "from" address, saying as he does, "Do be careful, my friend, you might get accused of scrying if you fly about as a bird too much, especially by that one fool. That's the main reason I left young Tobin home."

“His inability to recognize a member of the order, in plain view, with Parma up, is his problem. I am not invisible, or trying to hide.”

Elia drops her stained copy of the letter to the table "Indeed it is very nicely written, in Latin." She adds with a smile "But We will need to make sure that this Bonisagus will not tell the Order where Gardenia is, and will not spread his research too soon, as we explore what's beyond the portal."

Anastasia chimes in. "He does have a fine quill. And yet, after reading this letter, I find that I know next to nothing about him besides being a Bonisagus from the Roman Tribunal looking to join our covenant. Well. We have a spare lab. And I don't have any problem with his House. Perhaps we should meet with him, and get a feel for the magi behind the letter? Perhaps invite him to the copper rooster inn? He may be able to get some transportation help from House Mercere, and save himself a season with some luck."

"I suppose we can invite him to Lucerne or Bern, and I can go meet him there." She rubs her nose and temples, smudging the dirt stains on them.

Kriegeist looks around, wishing he had a map, "I'm not good with the geography around here, is there a place we could all meet him on the way back? He's not too far away, is he? That would seem simplest."

"If you wish to meet him on the way back, the simplest is going to him in Brescia before we set back for our covenant. If we try to set a midpoint, with the time it will take for a redcap to go to him, for him to get the message and then free himself for overland travel, and so on, we'll be waiting in that point for who knows how long. Alternatively, we invite him to a place we can be informed when he arrives while comfortable in our covenant working, and then we go to him when we know he's there. But I don't like the idea of waiting in an unknown town wondering if I'll succeed with meeting our correspondent or have to leave early to restart my lab research and probably make him waste his time with the travel because the timing of our travel was ill advised."

Kriegeist shrugs. "Well, unless we're going to ignore him, we'll need to meet with him outside of the covenant. There are always lots of reasons not to leave the comfort of our sancta, but since we're already traveling, we might as well do it now."

Elia considers it "Well, then now we need to figure out how to send him a message to let him know when and where to meet. I guess we can try and use this letter he wrote as an AC, but if he's in his covenant, we have no way f knowing if we can penetrate their Aegis."

Anastasia chimes in. "Or, if a redcap picked up the letter and managed to deliver it to us, we can probably check with the redcaps for an established covenant arround the foothills of Brescia where that magi would be located. I'd prefer that to, you know, scrying and perhaps getting marched."

"I wasn't suggesting scrying. Just sending him a message where to meet us."

"You were suggesting using a letter as an arcane connection to locate him using magic. By my understanding, that's scrying."