The death of Artemis Fall 1195

In the early fall of 1195, while Constantine was selecting a book to study for the season, Artemis was accosted outside the marketplace and murdered. Details are unclear, but the household cares for Constantine while letters are exchanged...I'll leave this thread open for character interactions and reactions before proceeding...

Constantine is distraught. Their relationship didn't start out on the best foot, but Artemis was a fair parens and a likable mentor, and they had started to become friends. If the covenant doesn't plan on a ceremony, he will try to arrange his own, either way he gives a speech lauding her ideals and her conviction that magi should serve the community they live in, and espousing the ideas himself (though he stops short of an oath).

Privately, he is embittered, torn between fear of leaving the covenant and desire for revenge. He is also concerned about whether word of the death of his parens will reach his father and create a problem for him. He tries to find out who is writing letters, and to whom.

the house arranges a very opulent and public funeral for the wealthy trading magistrate whom Artemis posed as for her public life, and the magi have a private memorial with their apprentices and Constantine. His speech is well received, as the they are ideals that the other magi of the covenant shared with Artemis. The letters have been going many places- trading partners, associates within the order...

Constantine goes looking for Trintion. When he finds him, he offers him a handful of sugar beets. "Trintion, will you help me? I want to take a message out into the city, but I'm... afraid. But there is a risk to you as well, of getting captured, so I'll understand if you don't want to take a message for me."

After thoroughly enjoying the treat Constantine has brought Trintion, ever the gallant, says, "Of course I will carry you to the ends of the earth and beyond... those were delicious, do you have any more?"

Constantine smiles. "I was just going to ask you to take a letter to the apothecary for me. I'm afraid I'm a terrible rider. But I will have some more of those for you when you get back."

“The stable man hates it when I go out alone... so of course I’ll do it.”

Constantine replies, "Great!" He puts a letter in a pouch and hangs it around Trintion's neck. "I'll see you when you get back." He goes off, and if the stable man is around he will engage him in conversation about the merit of the various horses and whether there is someone in the covenant that could teach Constantine to ride, hoping to keep him occupied while Trintion leaves.

Trintion uses the distraction to sneak out past the distracted stablehand and heads straight to the apothecary where he's been many times, though usually with some oaf on his back.

[Do I need to go through any doors or did Constantine take care of that? Do I need a stealth roll?]

At the apothecary, Trintion headbutts the door and it bends open allowing him to pass.

[Trintion has a power based on Pass the Unyielding Portal, it costs 1 might. If the door normally opens out, it's probably a pretty noticeable effect, if not then it probably just needs to bend a little so the latch no longer holds it closed.]

"Great, the messanger horse has arrived!" The appothacary sits down and reads the letter, thinks it through and writes a response which he then reattaches to Trintion. "Take that back to our mutual master, though I fear he has more regard for you than for I."

The letter:

Dear Isandros:

I have a difficult but final task for you. Try to find the one who murdered my aunt, Artemis, in the marketplace three days ago. If you can find this person, report their identity to me, and enact revenge, you will be free of me.

Yours,
Constantine

Trintion returns with the letter around his neck like an albatross. His thoughts the whole way home were gloomy and filled with how low he had sunk. Before coming here he had been free to run in the fields and play with the others of the herd but now... now he is chained to the area around the covenant by his need of the aura to stay alive. Sent on menial tasks like delivering a letter. His gait appears particularly gloomy when he returns to Constantine.

[pardon likely anachronistic phrasing.]

Constantine does his best to make sure nobody misses Trintion, and he smiles at the horse when he returns. "Here are some more beets for you." he says, as he takes the pouch off the horse's neck and hands the treats over. "You seem down, did anything bad happen?"

"Just remembering my mare and the green fields... rather than this dirty city. Perhaps we could go on an adventure, somewhere else."

Constantine scratches him between the ears. "I'm likely to be sent away. Do you want to come if I am? I can ask for that, though I don't know if it will be granted."

"HO! HO! And I would finally be able to teach* you to ride... somewhere if you fall off it won't be onto these hard cobblestones... but do you think they'll let me leave? The Stable Man is a hard one. Makes me run in circles all day and... well, I like the Mares and I've sired a few foals here, so that part isn't so bad but I do want to run free again."

[* Probably practice with amusing commentary from yours truly since he doesn't really know how to ride a horse.]

"Alright, I will ask, if they send me away."

Constantine will head back to his chamber and read the response to his letter.

A couple of days later you get word that you are being sent to the Moero's garden, where the parens of Artemis will take over his training.

He will ask whomever is in charge of the ownership of magical animals (I assume one of the magi) if he can have Trintion join him.

The response to the letter was simply "I will do what I can."

The maga considers "I will need to discuss this with others, I'll let you know what I decide."

Later that night the stablemaster comes to see Trintion. "You like that Constantine boy, don't you?"