"Thank you. Please wake me up at first light."
Constantine will sleep the night. As he falls asleep, his mind is torn in indecision between trying to stay in Nicea on his own and find the place, or going back and waiting for the guide to recover.
When he wakes up, his mind is made up, and he will head back to where the boy was staying and go back with him.
He gets to where the boy was staying, but finds he has already left.
Realizing that he needs to support himself while he waits for the guide to recover and searches for the covenant, Constantine changes tactics.
He tries to recall Redcap sites nearby, but nothing comes to mind; so he decides to try a mixed approach. He searches the city to try to find employment as a scribe. He will look for any places that sell books of the type that might be bought by Hermetic scholars, and try to find a position at one of them, failing that, he will expand his search to any sort of business where his writing can earn him room and board.
[Romaic Greek 5/Koine 6, Ancient Greek 4]
You spend the day seeking out a position, to find that most of these places do not have openings, and are tied into schools for eunuchs and other local sources of students to do their copying. You press on and towards evening find a shop for poetry which is interested, they apparently have had a rather large order just come in.
Constantine will give Trintion a quick apology. "I'm sorry for abandoning you again, but I have to take this. As soon as I have some money, I'll get you a proper stable and feed. You are a fine specimen of horse, if you hang around town someone might take you, I don't know if you want that or not. It might be a good way for you to be comfortable for a while, but it means when you come back to me people will say I stole you. Or if you head out of the city you can just run wild for a while. You know I'll be here for a bit, and later I will come to the place we ate lunch just after sunset, whenever I can."
Constantine will take the job copying poetry. If there is something like a hitching post out front, he will tie up Trintion to it, knowing the horse can free himself if he wants to, but while he's tied, he looks owned. (Which he explains to the horse.)
as he works at the shop, the very first day, he notices on the order slip "Moero's garden" and an address- the name of the covenant he was being sent to.
At the end of that working day, he will find Trintion and, assuming he wants to accompany Constantine, they will go to the address together.
A young woman in a toga opens the door to your knock "May I help you?"
Constantine smiles, his relief making him incautious. "Greetings! I am Constantine, filia Art..." he stops, suddenly, sadly, realizing he can't introduce himself that way any more. "Um... Former filia of the late Artemis. And this is my friend, Trintion. Is this Moero's Garden?"
"It is." She answers, then pauses "are you the student they have been waiting for? You were expected yesterday."
Constantine nods. "I am. The guide was ill, so his son got me here to Nicaea, but he didn't know where this place was. I tried to find it on my own but it wasn't easy."
“Perhaps some better signage would be useful, the sign for the apothecary helps me find it even without letters.” Trintion says helpfully to the person who answered the door.
She smiles as you enter and drops her toga to the floor to pose for a sculptor. "Normally we don't want to be found." it takes a moment for it to register what feels wrong- the aura inside the building is a divine aura of 2. Momentarily a man emerged who introduces himself as Pondorius pares of Artemis. "I know Artemis had some odd ideas about the role of a magus, you should know that from here on out you will be raised in proper Jerbiton traditions. No more of this urban flambeau nonsense. Now, what arts are you practiced in at this time?"
A little distracted by the sudden nudity, Constantine tries to focus on his elder.
"Uhhh... I have a good grasp of Theory, and I have learned a little in Intellego, Rego, Perdo, Mentem, Terram and Vim."
"Rego terram, good forms, lets see what you can do." he gestures to a large block of clay and the posing young woman. "Lets see how well you can sculpt her likeness."
Constantine gives him a nervous look, then goes over to the block of clay. He looks it over, then rests his hands on it. But the magic doesn't come easily to him. He is distracted by the nude model, and he is impeded by the divine aura. He blushes, and sweat comes to his brow as he focuses on making his magic work in the difficult circumstances, and he becomes winded with the sheer effort of will, but finally, his magic obeys him, and the clay under his hands reshapes into the form of the young woman.
[Final finesse result is 9]
Pondorius looks the work over "It obviously took you some effort, but the final work is decent, what I would expect of a professional in a day, not quite an artist, but certainly better than an apprentice artist or perhaps what a mundane craftsman would achieve. I assume from my Filla's cause that this is not a spell you had been taught. That should be remedied soon. Take the rest of this season, familiarize yourself with this chapterhouse, our books here are limited, but it is best to keep you out of Constantinople and all the intrigue which that other house is involved in. We have recently ordered some books of poetry you can enjoy. as to the arts themselves, we know now what my Filla has trained you in, what are your interests?"
Constantine half-smiles. "I'm grateful for that poetry order, it's how I found you. I ended up here in Nicaea, the guide fell ill and I was on my own, so I had to find a place to earn my keep while I searched for you. Which happened to be the poetry shop, the day your order came in."
He pauses to think for a moment. "I find that Perdo, Vim, and Mentem come easily to me. I've especially thought about Perdo, and exploring the limits of what it can accomplish."
"Perdo? That seems rather, well, dark." He considers for a moment then shakes his head, apparently dismissing the train of thought. "Well lets get you settled, and we can deal with that later."
adventure 7 xp
1 confidence to constantine
Winter 1195: teach imagonem SQ:21
Spring 1196: lent summae philosophae L:5 SQ:15
Summer 1196: lent summae perdo L:9 SQ:16
Fall 1196: lent summae mentem L:9 SQ:22
Winter 1196: taught spells: Agnosia (PeMe:10, HoH:S p. 69), and loss of but a moment's memory (PeMe:15)
Spring 1197: lent summae philosophae L:5 SQ:15
summer 1197: lab assist (CrIm)
Fall 1197: lab assist (CrIm)
Winter 1197: taught spells: silent shout (CrIm:10), auger Belli (CrIm:10), Phantasm of the talking head (CrIm:10), and Fooling the eye (CrIm:10)
Spring 1198: summae philosophae: L:5 SQ:15
Summer 1198: lab assist (ReHe)
Fall 1198: lab assist (ReHe)
Winter 1198: teach artes liberales (SQ:21)
Spring 1199: summae philosophae: L:5 SQ:15
Summer 1199: lab assist (reTe)
Fall 1199: lab assist (reTe)
Winter 1199: teach etiquette (SQ:21)
Spring 1200: summae philosophae: L:5 SQ:15