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Chapter 036 |  |
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This is a true telling, and one you will not find anywhere
else, nor you ask far and wide, for those who were there, and might tell their
own tale, tell less than the whole truth.
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With the resolution of the problems that arose during the ploughing of the Covenant's fields, the magi caught their breath, and looked forward to a healthy and bountiful crop next year... The magi could now relax and leaves the fields to the peasants (and the Fae) until Midwinter when they would cast The Bountiful Feast, and the excellence of the harvest guaranteed (an excellence which they have become wholly dependent on as the Covenant has swollen in size).
Then came the realisation that Magus Joach had gone away to Septem Montes, far off in the south of France, and would not return until well into January, and that Magus Joach was the only magus in the Covenant who could handle a full VII pawns of Vis in the casting of a Ritual, such as is required for The Bountiful Feast.
If only they had some Creo Vis instead, then Magus Constantine would wrestle with the spell text in his stead, but the Covenant's Vis stocks are small and narrow ranging, and there was no Creo Vis at all.
The options would seem to be to exchange Herbam Vis at some ruinous rate for Creo Vis, or to persuade some kind magus to handle the Herbam Vis on behalf of the Covenant.
While counting pawns, to see if they Covenant could afford to trade for Creo Vis, they also realised that an income of V pawns of Herbam versus an outgoing of VII pawns for The Bountiful Feast, left an annual shortfall of II pawns of Vis. The Covenant needed a further source of Herbam or Creo Vis if it were to continue to rely on this Ritual.
The other question to be resolved was the fate of the magical Ploughshare which Magus Joach had spent the last Season enchanting for the Covenant, and whose Iron blade had been such an irritant to the Faeries of the field.
Since the magi could not use the Iron bladed plough in their own fields, the best option would seem to be to sell this valuable magic item and to enchant another with a wooden blade - if only they had made a wooden bladed plough in the first place!
The local mundanes were not the best customers for the plough as they might so easily become jealous were one of their neighbours to become the only lord with a magical plough. So, then perhaps a Hermetic customer might be found?
Were another Covenant to purchase the plough, might they perhaps be persuaded to cast the Ritual for the Covenant and guarantee the Harvest they now so much desire?
Speculor immediately wrote to his parens at Petrusca, asking might Jovinus or one of his sodales either trade Vis, or come to cast the spell. Unfortunately, when Jovinus replied, his brief message was that the Magi of Petrusca would happily trade Vis (though at a ruinous rate in the eyes of the local magi!) but were otherwise occupied at Midwinter. Nor would Petrusca be interested in a Lesser Device to plough fields, thank you.
The magi listed the other Covenants in Brittany, and their opinions of those magi and their likelihood of helping:
Mummolides - Criamon sponsors of the Covenant, and well disposed towards them - the first to receive Council's formal request.
Fudarus - rich and well endowed with Vis, but certain to turn the episode into a greater "Test of Strength" - Council would not call upon the Domus Magnus Tytalus, thank you!
Odela - erratic, and bound into their feud with Wirbelnia, and overly keen to draw Caribet into that feud on their side. Little is known of their magi, except for their Princeps, an elderly Merinita "gnome", and one Marpesius Criamonis who is obsessed by Death.
Wirbelnia - the other half of that feud, apparently populated by Mad Merinita.
So they must write to Mummolides, and wait for Aversus to return on his Redcap's Rounds with the reply. When Aversus arrived, he reported that Graculus defunctus was bound to the Covenant and unable to leave, that Glomerulus was still writing up his notes from his visit to Caribet and could not be fetched form his Covenant but declared always that he was "too busy"; Extrema Penthamenta proposed several riddles to Aversus, which he was quite unable to solve, but which he guessed were engrossing the Magus. As for the ploughshare, Aversus was unsure whether Mummolides still ploughed fields - the food which arrived at table came from the Kitchens, and he had never had to ask where it came from. He thought they might have something like a Ploughshare in the Library vaults, or perhaps it was a Horseshoe?
Upon reflection on the remaining Breton Covenants, it was pointed out that at the 1221 Tribunal at Petrusca, that Wirbelnia had been most restrained in their behaviour, and had made strong supporting gestures (including a formal support motion) to Caribet. Since they had a number of magi on the island, perhaps they could help?
Aversus was questioned about the magi of Wirbelnia, and told of their magi:
Their best Herbam specialist was Alan Kerbol ex Miscellanea, who specialises in Potions, but whose own Longevity Potion has never properly taken: he is frail and infirm, unfit to travel.
Their Princeps, Gareth o Fflint ex Miscellanea, was initially an apprentice to Quintillianus Tremereris, whose unfortunate demise led to Gareth being saved and recruited by an Hermetic Spirit Master. (Gareth's early-learnt mastery of Certamen has stood him in good stead in the battles to establish his own Covenant.)
Anna le Bail is a Hedge Magus trained by one Idea Mixa ex Miscellanea - a Conjure Wife who once rescued a Flambeau magus who then rewarded her by recruiting her into the Order of Hermes. She has modest magical ability but researches ways to integrate the methods of her Mater with those of Bonisagus.
(Gwénolé le Guen and Mari Amwithig are already well known to the Caribet magi.)
Another exchange of letters produced a very positive response! Gareth o Fflint, Princeps Wirbelnia, replied that they liked the Plough and would offer III Pawns of Form Vis from their stores, and provide a caster for The Bountiful Feast. He could only ask those of his magi capable of swift transport to travel to Caribet for the next day: these would be Mari Amwithig Merinitae or Gwénolé le Guen Merinitae.
Both Gwénolé and Mari Amwithig were familiar to our magi: the first as a Maga with Strong Faerie Blood and an equal disposition - thought locally to be quite mad; the second to be an expert at Perdo magics, to the degree that she emanates unconscious secondary effects from her Art - she flounced out through a door when leaving in a bad temper.
In the end the fear that a Perdo specialist might wither the entire crop at a glance swung the decision in favour of the Maga Gwénolé
With the decision to invite Gwénolé made, Constantine decided to pre-empt trouble by avoiding encountering her!
While the magi were running round in circles worrying about their spell-casting abilities, Sir Achilles was making steady, if mundane, progress.
He had sent messages via Bertrand le Marchant seeking miners to work the vein of silver which the magi had promised him was buried in the hillside. [This being the vein of silver that the Faeries of the Quarry had led the magi too; the magi of course believed the Faeries as they were trustworthy little creatures.] Now in late November, one Petroc of Cornwall, from England, came to Caribet, with his two indentured servants. He explained that he was a Cornish miner, one of the finest of that fine breed, but that since coming to Brittany he had found himself between employers, and if Sir Achilles were to employ him in his fine silver mine, then Petroc would be most obliged...
Sir Achilles had by now come to accept that the Forêt de Lorge is indeed haunted, and that those who are prepared to enter and live there must be allowed their reasons for leaving the outside world, chose to accept Petroc's "explanation" and took him on. Sir Achilles himself led the men to the mine site, as the income from this was hoped to be an important plank in his plans for the growth of the Manor.
It must be said that Petroc was only slightly taken aback by the state of the mine - a blank hillside slope, still earth covered, with no sign of minerals. However Sir Achilles proved persuadable to pay his miners in hard cash, even before the vein were reached, and to provide Ale in sufficient quantity for three very thirsty miners, and a place for them to live in the village (only a mile and a half away, with a path being cleared even now). With these promises, Petroc set his men to work.
Gilles the Quarryman was instructed to join the miners and to follow their guidance, and to wield the Stone Cutting Knife so as to speed the excavation of hard rock. They made extremely fast progress with this, once Gilles grasped that they need not cut neat well formed blocks to use for building, but need only reduce stone to rubble. Gilles quite enjoyed swinging the knife to "slay" the stones! Petroc and his men proved their skill, and ensured that there was bracing to avoid falls of unsound stone.
Once work was well under way, and a proper rock tunnel formed, Magus Speculor himself visited the site, and removed a chip of rock from the walls, taken as it fell, and caught before it hit the ground. This he took back to the Tower as an Arcane Connection to the Tunnel, so that Magi could scry upon the Mine whenever they had need.
By Midwinter, Sir Achilles was delighted to discover that they had reached the promised vein of Silver, and were cutting out many nuggets of the precious metal: it was their hope that they might yield L Pounds of Silver per annum.
While Sir Achilles' grand plans progressed, Speranda became alarmed enough to approach Iuris Perita on the matter, and to suggest that if the Covenant arranged a "suitable match" for him, this might tame him somewhat. Iuris remained inscrutable and unmoved by these arguments.
There is a narrow but steep gorge which breaks the path south from Caribet to Plouec. The magi and their grogs had never been bothered by this: indeed the Turb Captain believed it a most suitable gorge, but now Sir Achilles took against this gorge. It seems he has yet more plans for growth, and must have a better road. He has had his men working to clear and level the worst parts of the path, and now set men to work to build a Bridge.
The Bridge was to be a fine structure, with two stone pillars for support, and
a stout wooden trackway crossing between, and a Shrine to St. Christopher to guard
and bless travellers who offered tolls alms. Work progressed excellently
on the Bridge: once the initial foundations were set in place, and the form of a
bridge began to grow, the structure grew rapidly. There were even some who swore
it were growing overnight as well... (Surely not!)
The magi do not cast the Aegis Of The Hearth at Midwinter, but rather at the Spring Equinox, so the Equinox was magically quiet, very quiet. Speculor insisted on making many short visits into the Regio to make sure that it had not improved over the previous Midwinter bleakness, but his confidence was not rewarded.
This is however the day on which the V Magi hold elections for the III Elected Offices among them.
This year, Magus Joach was absent, gone to Septem Montes for the entire Season: he had left deposition of his voting intent. Joach had expected the three existing Officers to stand for their current posts, but Iuris Perita threw all this into disarray by standing down from Council. The other magi rallied round and nominated each other to the available posts, and soon we had a new Princeps: Maga Speranda, who took control of the Council and continued the Elections. They then elected Constantine as Defensor and Speculor as Librarius (disappointing Speranda who had hoped to continue keeping the Library under her pillow...).
Joach must be apprised of the changes when he returns!
Speranda had secretly hoped to retain control of the Library as well as taking over as Princeps; she is still smarting from Speculor's removal of Texts from her "careful arrangement". She was left to mutter quietly under her breath...
Constantine presented his carved Icon of St. Vincent of Saragossa, patron Saint of Vineyards, which he explained was the Form of the Device he had enchanted to prevent frost in the Covenant's soon-to-be-planted Vineyard. All that was needed was to mount the icon into the wall of the Vineyard!
He went on to argue that the Covenant needed to increase its supplies, especially of Herbam Vis, so as to continue casting The Bountiful Feast, Constantine volunteered to spend the next Season in service, hunting Vis to replenish Covenant Vis supplies (and hopefully to find a renewable source). So keen was he on this task, that he would leave the very next day!
Speculor's final Service this year was agreed as Distilling Vis in his Laboratory, leaving Speranda and Iuris Perita to work on private projects, and Joach to return or not, but to be free this Season.
Speranda made another return to The Manipulation of Aurae, Regiones and Vis
Iuris Perita took The Learning of Learning to her Sanctum, to write a Commentary upon the text, for her own purposes.
The next day, Constantine left very early, with Redwald and Caspar, taking with them the Vis Detection Wand.
About the middle of the morning, a golden Faerie arrived, clad in diaphanous silks, and borne upon diamantine wings like those of a dragonfly. She flew straight through the shield of the Aegis, so either she possessed a frighteningly high Faerie Might, or no Might at all and was the hoped for visiting Maga.
Thankfully, the intruder landed, and enlarged herself to more like human sized, though still of inhuman countenance, and introduced herself as Gwénolé le Guen of the Order of Hermes, as invited. Our new Princeps, Speranda, presented her with an Aegis Token so that she might cast spells within the Covenant, which she gracefully accepted.
Gwénolé also produced a small ball of fur from within her robes, and casting a spell upon it, revealed a small human child, perhaps aged VIII years. This, she introduced as her new Apprentice, one Séanna.
Speculor insisted on taking Gwénolé on a tour of the fields, and explaining about the Field Faeries and the Forest Faeries, and the Battle Of The Faerie Castles. Perhaps he hoped for wisdom from Gwénolé and her knowledge of the Fae, or perhaps to impress her with his own knowledge?
Maga Gwénolé listened to most of Speculor's story, then accepted his invitation to examine the field by casting a spell to merge herself with the field, and disappeared from sight. Under the Code, Speculor could not cast spells to monitor Gwénolé's progress, but had to stand and wait.
While Séanna waited with Speculor for her mistress, she sent a mischievous glance at Speculor, and asked if he could do "this", as she made the gestures of Muto and Imaginem, and spoke spell words in her childish Latin: she changed the appearance of a rock into a tree, true in all its aspects except touch. This Speculor knew as a variant on The Image Phantom, a V Magnitude formulaic spell, albeit Séanna reduced the range and touched the target. A III Magnitude spell was still impressive for a first year Apprentice, so Speculor found himself drawn into an impromptu competition with the child. He cast spells and invited her to match his, and she vice versa to him. Speculor created a Phantasm Of The Human Form, while Séanna turned her tree into a cloud of Butterflies.
Unfortunately Speculor let himself down, by overreaching and attempting a Spontaneous spell to reveal the sights of his Laboratory with only an Arcane Connection to link to it.
Finally Speculor endeavoured to prove his superiority with an extended mediation upon the Arts of Creo, Intellego and Imaginem followed by a Shouted Spell. While Séanna waited for this, she let her concentration drop from the Butterflies, which then flew away into the woods. When Speculor finally finished his Shouted spell, he found Séanna had taken upon herself the Phantom Image of one Speculor Bonisagi!
Since there was no sign of Gwénolé returning, and it was now lunchtime, Speculor and "Speculor" returned to the Tower.
Gwénolé was already at the Tower when Speculor arrived, and was discussing the Ploughshare with Speranda. Speranda wished to hand over the item immediately after the spell-casting, but Gwénolé was standing back and looking disgusted with it - perhaps the Taint of Iron was too much for her? When the two "Speculor"s arrived, the Ritual began...
Sir Achilles had thought he was managing to master the weirdness around him but now there were two of that Magus Speculor; albeit one was not so creepy and did not make the hair stand on end - could they perhaps keep that one?
Fr. Edwin was dismayed to see more magical antics (duplicate magi) and scandalous dress (Gwénolé), followed by what seemed set to be a Pagan Ritual. The magi seemed to require everyone to follow their march around all the fields of the Village and Tower, so he was drawn in, while praying to his patron saints to explain that he was not really participating in this pagan activity so much as observing and keeping pace with the others...
Maga Gwénolé led the procession round the bounds, with the spell text floating in the air before her, chanting the words of the great Ritual. After three and a half hours, she was quite exhausted from the casting, and had to sit and rest, while the others dispersed; she was most ready to accept the invitation to Sir Achilles' Feast that evening, feeling little disposed to fly back to the Channel Islands under her own power, just at that time.
In celebration of the Bounty to be expected (promised by the Magi) from his fields, Sir Achilles held a Feast in his Great Hall. [It is also true that there was nowhere else large enough to host a feast for the whole community!]
Fr. Edwin opened the Feast by saying Grace (although some of the Magi can be quite rude and ignore him).
All seemed to be going well, until the Field Fairies, who had crept in and were helping themselves to food and drink on the table, started to get drunk (and lose their invisibility), as did the people around them (gaining the Sight), and people started to see the Faeries clambering round and falling over. Sir Achilles picked one out of his dinner and set it aside - recognising True Nobility it bowed and apologised to him! (This caused Achilles to quite lose his anger, and accept the flattery.)
Fr. Edwin saw the wrinkled and gnarled fellows, and concluded he had now drunk far more than was sensible, and made his excuses. He gathered up young master William, and they left for his residence. [William soon slipped away and returned - it is not easy to keep a teenager away from so fascinating an event, and besides he thought he had seen a Faerie!]
Huon tried juggling Faeries, then switched to trying to snatch Sir Achilles' purse - but was spotted. He quickly turned it into a joke and started juggling the pouch and Faeries; Achilles grabbed for the pouch and missed (badly) falling flat on his face into the mounds of food piled on the table. Having so much lost his dignity, there was nothing else but to call early on the Christmas tradition, and pronounce the Season Of Misrule.
This was a particularly interesting twist to the evening, as by now a fair amount of Faerie Dust had fallen into the Wine, and it was starting to go to people's heads... Achilles' declaration quite pushed things over the edge!
Let none regret or hold against another, the acts taking place under the Banner of Misrule: they should be performed in good spirit and seen in that regard.
With the loosening of inhibitions, from Achilles' prescription of Misrule, and the effects of the Faerie Wine, people found themselves in romantic embrace, and crept off to find quiet corners to celebrate. As per the Traditions of Misrule, in the large part, the Ladies choose the Menfolk for the night, and the men must wait their turn.
Some quite unlikely pairings came out of this, which we must record even though it embarrass or reflect upon those recorded:
Mistress Galienne believes it is her destiny to marry a Noble Lord: this night she found her Romance (or so she hoped!) in the arms of Sir Achilles, who left his reserve at the table and took her away to somewhere comfortable.
Alain le Guerrier, who has been Cursed by Venus, made play to Maga Iuris, and was lucky not to end up as a Toad;
he turned to Mistress Elli (who does not show much interest in romance) - but she turned viciously on him and they fight, until others intervened to break this up. Alain got his nose broken for his pains.Maga Iuris, sensing something odd, tested the Wine (InVi) and thought it prudent to leave. She and Pernelle left with Duncan...
Maga Speranda, sensing something odd, tested the Wine (InVi), put two bottles aside in a carefully selected safe place, downed an entire goblet of the stuff and found a Tryst with Magus Speculor, safely hidden away inside the Regio, made comfortable by a little deft magic.
Master William, returned to the Feast and very glad he were so, turned his charms on Goodwife Guen, one of the Witch's Daughters, and wooed her well (Enchanting Music); alas she is Cursed, so that an Asked-For Boon must be granted but must turn to ruin, so that the unhappy couple spent the entire evening in unconsummated frustration, as others disturbed them at every turn!
Mistress Nolwenn the Cook found that Sergo the Veteran, despite his back, his cough and other problems, regained his Great Stamina for the evening.
Maga Gwénolé, of the Faerie Blood herself, sought the highest pleasures, and looked for those others of the Blood who might share with her:
Mistress Amelle, another Witch's Daughter, has Strong Blood - showing to any in her Cat's Ears and Cat's Eyes, was one Gwénolé set eyes upon; Goodwife Marie Briere was another. Those three ladies went to Gwénolé's chambers for a night of unbridled passion, fired by Faerie magics.Mistress Jimena the Healer found a burning passion, just for the night, with Pierre Martin, the Carpenter (husband to Guen).
Mistress Elli, recovered from her Fight, turned from her normal Embittered attitude and found Iussuf, who lost his normal Reserve so that they found passion together.
Mistress Gwenna, Speranda's Maid, and Ignatius, bold defender of Speranda, were seen to slip away together.
The scribes Isabelle and Pepin went away to "study manuscripts".
Goodwife Ana (third of the Witch's Daughters) and her husband Gilles Tregon surprised some by rushing away together to their own cottage.
Goodwife Therese Rouet lost her husband somewhere in the revels, but found a strapping young man, who she kept up all night.
Many happily married couples spent a very happy night together.
And these are all the ones of whom I can tell, before I myself made my excuses and left. (And therein my tale has one small incompleteness in the telling...)
The unmarried menfolk, who did not find some woman or another taking interest
in them, still found great cheer in the excellent wine, plentiful food, and the
raucous games to be shared and enjoyed by all who would play!
The Faeries? They fell into a bloated slumber on the table, slumped in the dishes,
after blearily gazing up at the Big Folk and toasting any who looked at them. As
they slept they faded from mundane sight, and perhaps slipped away to some other
place.
The next morning brought a shock of awakening to many. Those who had parted company late at night, might rue the ending, or might rue what they did, but mostly regret the hangover (Faerie Wine packs a powerful punch!)
Those who did not, must face waking to find the wrong head on the pillow, or themselves in the wrong room... Poor Marie Briere woke to find Amelle grinning at her, with Gwénolé floating around the room somewhere (having woken early to renew her Parma).
Iussuf and Elli spent the next few days ostentatiously occupied on errands that took them as far apart as possible, for as much time as possible!
Speranda had left Speculor some time earlier, but when she woke and remembered, the first thing she did was to rush to the Hall and seek out the bottles of wine she had hidden. Casting a frantic spell in Intellego Vim, she found herself cradling the precursor to II pawns of Muto Vis! The wine must be processed to extract the Vis, but Jimena can do the work in her Herbarium. Jimena herself was busy patching up grogs who had been involved in fights: a broken nose here, a broken arm there...
Fr. Edwin found himself with a stream of unhappy penitents coming to confess their sins, so that there was a loose crowd of persons, all seemingly on unrelated business in the vicinity of the Church, and each rushing to slip in after another left. The Priest began to take a very dim view of the previous night's proceedings! He also had to counsel Marie Briere, who came with her concerned husband, claiming that Gwénolé had bewitched her, and tried to persuade her that she, Marie, was of the same Witch-Breed as Gwénolé! In this, Edwin must seek counsel from Constantine (who should know the theory of such things), while keeping his Friend and the distraught lady well apart physically...
Poor Huon had to be disciplined, as Sir Achilles was most furious. Speculor had long known of Huon's predilections and indeed made good use of them, but Sir Achilles did insist on his rights to dispense Justice upon those inside his realm. In the end, Speculor agreed to put a Fear into him, lest he delve hands into more purses...
Maga Gwénolé le Guen ad Wirbelnia departed around midday, carrying a webbing of fine hempen ropes which in turn bore the Iron ploughshare, but at a distance form the sensitive Maga herself. Séanna was not to be seen - presumably already concealed upon the person of her mistress.
The Magi gathered later to discuss the dreadful behaviour of the grogs, but when they found that Speranda had discovered Vis in the Wine, they decided that they must make this a regular part of the Covenant's annual cycle.
Iuris Perita raised matter of the priest Edwin with the new Princeps Speranda. Iuris fears that Edwin may make complaint to his clerical superiors about the goings-on, since he had appeared distressed before the feast, and even more so the following days as he heard Confessions from those who had sinned. If he were to make a formal complaint, this could easily breach the Code!
Primarily, under Hermetic Law, Edwin is the "property" of Magus Constantinus, who must bear the responsibility for all his actions; however, Iuris was also concerned lest there arise any "collective responsibility" for the troublesome Priest. It was agreed that Iuris would speak to Constantine and advise him of his position under the Code.
Constantinus himself returned only a few days after Maga Gwénolé departed, in time for the Christmas Mass and prayers.
Fr. Edwin held another of his popular Masses on Christmas day, drawing in many of the grogs but few of the Magi (well, Constantine, then!). Speranda was heard muttering that she would avoid another Dominion-induced headache, as she was certain that on such a Feast Day the little church's Aura would grow stronger and more annoying, especially as this year the XXV of December fell on a Sunday, the Lord's Day.
After the Mass there was a further ceremony to bless and inaugurate the Statue to St. Vincent of Saragossa (Patron Saint of Vineyards), now emplaced firmly in the wall of the cleared land that is to become the Covenant's vineyard. This will protect the vines from any possible frost, and ensure a good harvest. Slowly, the Covenant's revenue base grows and widens...
Several of the ladies have found that the enchanted evening has resulted in them Carrying Child:
Joach was prodded and poked all season, while fetching and carrying at command, but has a brand new Longevity Potion to sustain him for many years to come. He also owes a Great Favour to his Parens, even greater than before!
Joach was also fascinated to discover that Dergorus was working on an Hermetic Automaton[1], and was even keen to encourage his pupil to stay on and assist in the creation. Joach was happy to put aside his dignity and serve this purpose, just to get closer to the Mysteries of this Art![2]
Joach will be delayed another Season and not return until after the Spring Equinox...
Hermetic Automaton, as in The Mysteries (p.44), rather than the simple Automata in the WGRE.
Joach has chosen to mark the Season as an Ordeal of Subservience, rather than opt to learn (experience) from the work.
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