1210

In March the apprentices don their toga praefecta and gather together at Icy North. For most, it is the first time they have seen each other in since the events of Tribunal, during which the Scholastic Project came under examination by the magi of the Alps, and there is some anxiety over Profundus's return. But the apprentices at Valnastium confirm they saw the Profound Doctor reading and gardening back home, and it is at about this time that a man emerges from the schoolhouse. Only Breandan recognizes him.

He is tall, imposing, and clad in black. "I am Scamandrius filius Barbaros scholae Teremendi," he says, in a sinister Hungarian accent. "I am your new teacher, and I am here to instruct you in the sciences of magical combat. I am not your friend, your family, or your dominus. I will not coddle you, flatter you, or accept excuses. The skills I teach you will save your life. Conversely, ignoring these lessons will result in your death and, if that should happen to occur before I am done with you, you will merely have saved us all considerable wasted time." Silently, he directs the apprentices to file into the schoolhouse, and he begins instruction at once.

Scamandrius introduces the apprentices to Certamen, explaining its origin both as a method of resolving disputes between magi and as a tool meant to facilitate the Founder Tremere's plans for world domination (a plan ultimately thwarted by the Sundering). He lectures on the means by which Tremere invented it, its integration into Hermetic theory by Bonisagus, its customs and traditions, its role in the Code, and how it is treated differently in the Peripheral Code of the Regional Tribunals. Everyone is shown how to create a dueling circle and how to summon the phantasms which enable the actual duel. There are over a dozen schools of Certamen, each with tricks and special tactics; Scamandrius briefly demonstrates all of them. Of course, Certamen cannot be performed alone, and so for much of this practical instruction, Scamandrius pulls Breandan out of the crowd and uses him as a mock-partner in the duel. While everyone gets a chance to do some dueling, Scamandrius seems to think you will all have plenty of time to practice when you're not in school, and for now he focuses on the history and legalities, explaining that "Before you are qualified to duel, you must know the rights and responsibilities you incur when you do so."

When not in the classroom, the apprentices have a male and female dormitory, each with about nine occupants. Alys sees to the chores with her usual good humor. Scamandrius's familiar, an enormous white wolf the size of a pony, makes a home for herself in Profundus's old garden. Her name is Penthisilia and she can speak Latin with a Transylvania accent.

Advancement

Everyone gets 5 XP in Order of Hermes Lore, 5 XP in Code of Hermes, and 1 point in Finesse, Penetration, and Magic Theory.

If you don't already have a specialty in Order of Hermes Lore (Cassidy, Eva and Rene) or Code of Hermes (everyone except Garcette), you gain the specialty "Certamen."

Breandan gets his free House Virtue: Minor Magical Focus: Certamen.

Summer and Autumn

Shadow of the Moon

With the end of spring, everyone returns to their masters. Breandan finds Diana in her laboratory, already begun inventing a new spell. Alacrity of the Huntress is a ritual that will permanently increase the Dexterity of its target; since the Moon governs Dexterity, the spell capitalizes on Diana's Potent Magic, but she cannot use a lab text from another magus. Breandan spends about ten hours a day assisting Diana in the lab, and also acts as a general servant around the sanctum, serving meals, cleaning, and so forth. Diana inquires briefly about Breandan's use of magic in the adventure of the Krampus, apparently searching for any sign of the Turbulence that plagued his childhood, but does not share her thoughts with him, instead retiring to her sanctum. Breandan will notice that Diana is writing more correspondence than she was before his time away from the Alps; a Redcap visits each season to both deliver and take letters. Judging from the chessboard which Diana has set up in her sanctum, at least one of these letters is a game of chess played through the mail.

Cassidy arrives home just in time; Kynthia is literally on the way out the door as she arrives. "There you are! Come on! No, no. No time for that! I packed your bag!" And there is, in fact, a bag there at her side which at first seems to have a random collection of Cassidy's clothes and belongings in it; Cassidy will later begin to miss various items from home -- that hat, that scarf, her favorite belt -- only to find that the item in question is neatly rolled up and tucked away in the bottom of the bag. In any case, Kynthia takes an object out of her purse -- Cassidy recognizes it as the Arcane Connection she affixed for her domina the year before -- and then they are off, magically transported to Castle Hartwell. Lord Hartwell barely has time to stand from his high seat before Kynthia has dashed from the hall, Cassidy in tow, and begun marching towards the sun.

The two women travel for about three months, finding numerous adventures along the way. Faerie monsters haunt the towering forests, and a faerie mother struggles to keep track of the fourteen children she has hidden inside her giant shoe-house. Faerie lords wage war against mortals, whose lands have miraculously been swept up into faerie regios. Kynthia avoids trouble when she can, talks her way out of many chance encounters, and uses magic to slip away when nothing else avails. Eventually, she and Cassidy find themselves at Swordpoint Keep, a massive fortress which is home to the largest army Cassidy has ever seen. Knights serve here by the score, and soldiers camp around the castle for miles in every direction. The master of Swordpoint is a mature Elfish lord wearing a steel crown decorated with daggers. Kynthia does not introduce herself, but instead slips into Lord Swordpoint's court as a servant to Lady Swordpoint, a beautiful but distant woman. Over the next few months, Cassidy serves Lady Swordpoint as a handmaiden, soon discovering that the Lord and Lady are desperately trying to conceive a child, to no avail. Lady Swordpoint is driven to desperation and finally commands Kynthia to bring her a mortal baby, whom she will then pass off as her own. This, Kynthia agrees to do.

"I shall return within a year, Great and Noble Queen!" And then, taking Cassidy's hand, she invokes Hermetic Pilgrimage and both domina and discipula are back home in Kynthia's sanctum. "Well," she says. "That was an interesting adventure, wouldn't you say?"

Late in the Summer, Breandan latest letter from his grandfather contains a gift: a pawn of Corpus vis in the form of a finger bone and a lab text for Bind Wounds. An encoded passage in the letter -- which otherwise goes on about the mundane political situation in Hibernia -- contains the phrase, "Try not to die, Pop-pop."

With this vis, the prospect of studying for himself proves too much for Breandan to resist. Although he continues to serve Diana in the lab when the moon is up, he sneaks out to the mountain's peak and burns the finger bone in a flashy explosion. For the rest of the season, he returns to this location again and again, experimenting with the Art of Corpus and trying to recreate the effect he has seen. This gives him only a few hours of sleep a night, and he appears tired and weak. His performance in the lab suffers; he is often nodding off, absent minded, and distracted. Finally, after Breandan carelessly mis-transcribes Diana's dictation, she confronts him directly about it. "What is wrong with you?" she asks, in an accusing tone. "You're smarter than this." Breandan matter of factly explains what he has been doing.

Diana's anger is cold anger. She does not fly into a rage and kick things like Breandan's fellow student, Garcette, might. Instead, Diana eyes her apprentice with contempt. "So. This is what you learned at Coeris? To disobey? And don't give me some feeble excuse that you were doing everything I've asked you to do, because a trained monkey would have been more use in the lab than you have been."

"Disobedience?" Breandan seems confused by her accusation of disobedience, and yawns, despite himself. "I thought I was giving you everything you needed for the project."

"In the past I have not thought it necessary to stand between you and your grandfather. But you must be punished, and Busiran appears to be the only thing you care about. You are forbidden to write any letters to anyone, and I will retain all his correspondence with you until such time as you have learned obedience. I will remind you that an apprentice in this House must earn his Gauntlet. If you wish to become a magus, you will do as I command. And that includes your assistance in the laboratory. Further disobedience will be further punished."

"What do you think I'm trying to do? I'm trying to grow my power. You taught me Mentem, and then promptly ignored it. You taught me Muto, but Muto Imaginem and Muto Mentem spells are much too difficult to leverage any knowledge at my level for useful spells. I was trying to make the best use of my time, not be disobedient. If you want me to waste the pawn of vis, and discontinue my research, because you need more attention from me, I will, domina." Breandan thinks to himself, she took me because of my grandfather, to seek an advantage for herself, not the House, of course, if I mention this, she will become unhinged. "Domina, I could challenge for Gauntlet now, but I realize that would be unwise. I was trying to perform all of my necessary duties while trying to learn on my own. The last time I tried it with a book from the library I didn't like the result." Breandan does have a bit of a point about the dearth of MuIm and MuMe spells within his reach...

"You are not responsible for choosing how you are taught, or what you are taught," Diana replies. "That power has been granted to me, by the House, to use as I see fit. I also have the right to command you to whatever task I see fit. Every Tremere knows that obedience is its own reward."

Breandan smirks, his exhaustion getting the better of his tongue, "I have performed every task you asked of me, until I made this mistake. I honestly disclosed the reason for my mistake, I could just as easily have lied, but I do respect your authority that much, domina. I thought you would be pleased at my initiative, as you seemed to have the project well in hand, and I would likely have caught the transcription error after a good night's sleep or three and a review at the end of the week. I truly find it ironic that you lecture me on obedience when your taking me as your apprentice was disobedience to both your House and the Tribunal. I am acting in the best interests in the House. I am trying to be Tremere." Of course, there's an intimation (subtle, not so subtle, you decide), that she's not Tremere, or at least not acting like a Tremere. "I know you have power over me, I know you can kill me, at your whim. But, I am not some apprentice who didn't know his head from a hole in the wall. I recognize that you awakened my magical powers very effectively, but was it for your purposes, or for the House's purposes? Quite simply, I think I'm protecting the House by acting independently to the utmost capabilities I have. I do not wish my domina to be declared Orbus the moment I have passed my gauntlet."

Diana remains stone-faced. "I will not debate instruction techniques with an apprentice. You know your punishment. I give you the opportunity to reflect upon your course of action and change your behavior. If you choose to continue to disobey, I will be forced to devise further punishments. We are a militant house. When a soldier disobeys, he is whipped." She pauses a moment to take a breath. "Do not make me do this to you." She seems to mean it, both that she does not want to do it, but that she will. "You are excused."

"I choose the whipping and continuing as I have done." He then excuses himself to his quarters to sleep.

The next morning, which is the first day of Winter, Grogs from the covenant appear at Breandan's chambers. He is escorted down to the base of the mountain to the covenant's formal gardens, where his shirt is removed and he is tied by his hands to a wooden pole. All of the Grogs and many of the other covenfolk are present, though some are peering from windows or otherwise trying to pretend they're not watching. All the covenant's magi are present, with Yrio the Lunarian presiding from a floating chair.

Diana has a leather whip. With a stoic expression, she pulls back the whip and lays the first of fifteen strokes across Breandan's back, one for every year of age. The strokes are intensely painful, but Breandan is not without stamina and his concentration allows him to fade in and out of consciousness. Nevertheless, by about halfway through the ordeal, he cannot stand. Yrio does not seem to entirely comprehend what is going on or why he is here; at one point he leans over to Kynthia to ask a question. She murmurs a quiet reply, "House business." At this, he nods as if he understands.

When it is all over, the Grogs cut the thong tying Breandan's wrists, they keep him from falling to the ground, and he is taken to the covenant doctor, who sees to him without the aid of magic. After about a week, most of the wounds have healed, and Breandan is able to walk slowly. (Mechanically, each lash of the whip was a Light Wound, and he recovers to a Wound penalty of about -5 after a week.) As he is released from the hospital and back to Diana's service, Aurore of Bonisagus arrives with a casting tablet for Purification of the Festering Wounds, which is cast upon Breandan so that his remaining wounds will heal without the doctor's care.

Advancement

Breandan can reflect on his Winter adventure in the Summer, and gain 5 Adventure XP in anything he used in that session. In the Autumn, he studies from vis, gaining 15 XP in Corpus and exchanging his Turbulence Prone flaw for Magic Addiction.

Cassidy gets 5 XP in Survival or Faerie Lore in the Summer. In the Autumn, she gets 5 XP in Etiquette or Faerie Lore.

Icy North

Gustov has a few days to loiter around the covenant before Kentigern returns from his spring hunting expedition; the kitchen staff try to put the young lad to work, but he is able to dodge them for about a day and a half. Just as he is really starting to hate peeling vegetables, Gustov hears Tobias and the rest of the pack barking up a storm, and the doldrums are over. Or so he thinks. That night there is a feast of roast boar, and then Kentgern takes Gustov back into the laboratory where the pair resume work on Kentigern's spear Talisman. Kentigern's biggest weakness as a hunter is that he carries no bow. When he summons magical animals to slay a foe -- such as his invisible winged snakes -- they are magical and thus must penetrate magic resistance. What he needs is a mundane weapon that can kill from afar. His spear becomes this weapon. With the help of smiths from the town, the spear's shaft is encircled with bands of precious metal and studded with gems. It is these which are enchanted, leaving the steel spear tip utterly mundane, so that it can slip right through Parma or other magic resistance. Gustov spends six months in the laboratory with Kentigern. He senses he's not really all that much help, but there is a certain companionship in the lab and Kentigern likes to tell stories of Ireland and his fellow Ex Miscellanea who dwell there. "Perhaps you will meet them one day," he says, "When, like all other Alpine apprentices, you in your turn depart for the sea."

Garcette spends the summer assigned to another Quaesitor who is traveling the Alps Tribunal investigating accusations of various low crimes and settling trade disputes. After the Tribunal, there are always magi who are displeased over the result of a case, or whose case was not heard at all, resulting in the sporadic Wizard's War. Quaesitors seek to resolve these issues for the good of the Order, but Garcette finds the whole matter both boring and a little demeaning for a Quaesitor. "Shouldn't we be hunting down the Shadow Magi?" she asks. Perhaps because of these questions, she is returned to Icy North at the end of summer and summarily dumped into the mundane library, where she finds a book to her liking and begins to study it.

Rene has a night to rest and partake in the feast of Kentigern's return before he and Hugh are on the road, bound for Provence. Hugh has been reading reports from scouts and spies throughout the Roman Tribunal and he is now convinced that his initial guess was wrong: Grigori and his followers have not fled there. Instead, Hugh believes they are hiding in Provence, where the Albigensian Crusade gives them perfect cover. He and Rene were forced to cut their search short the year before, and Hugh is eager to return. Master and apprentice take a ship to Marseilles, and from there travel to the Covenant of Verdi Provencal ("Winds of Provence"). There, they are welcomed and they meet Hadrian of Guernicus, a local Quaesitor. Hadrian tells them about the progress of the war: Crusaders under the command of the Papal Legate Arnaud-Amaury took the city of Beziers. When the inhabitants -- who were both Catholic and heretical Cathars -- refused to come out, the entire population of the city was slaughtered and Beziers was burnt to the ground, resulting in the death of at least 15,000 people. Soon after, the Crusaders took the fortified city of Carcassone and the famous knight Simon de Montfort was given command. Other towns and cities surrendered without a fight, but surviving Cathars have fled to the village of Minerve and Simon has followed them, laying siege to the place with trebuchets.

Hadrian is eager to try and track down Grigori and the other diabolists, and he knows the land well enough to avoid Crusader forces. With his shield grog Carey, he joins Hugh and Rene for a season hunting infernalists. Together, the group is confronted by the awful damage of the Crusade, which has turned into a land grab by northern lords eager for plunder. Southern lords who refuse to cooperate with the invading northerners are judged to be heretics and excommunicated. Infernal Auras dot the landscape, especially in Crusader camps and the villages and towns they have looted, pillaged, or simply burned to the ground. While they are searching, Hugh and Hadrian learn that Minerve has surrendered to Simon's forces; a group of 140 Cathars who refused to give up their religion were tied to stakes and burned to death. Hadrian considers this a tragedy, insisting that the Cathars are innocent of evil acts and deeds. "They have some strange beliefs," he admits. "But they are pacifists, and do much to spread learning, literacy, and wisdom in Toulouse and elsewhere." Regardless, Simon's victory means his army is on the move again, so Hugh insists the small group stay mobile and get out of their way.

By August, Simon's army is encamped around the Cathar stronghold of Chateau de Termes, giving High and Hadrian more freedom of movement. They continue to investigate Infernal auras, and are forced to kill a few bands of Crusaders who have become possessed. Likewise, demons of plague and famine roam freely over the land, and Rene gets a chance to put his greatsword to work against them, though spells like Demon's Eternal Oblivion are much more useful. Hadrian proves to be fairly incompetent at combat, being an expert in tracking and identifying Hermetic magic. His shield Grog, Carey, however, is a valiant and redoubtable mountain man from the Pyrenees. He drinks constantly, and seems immune to intoxication.

By the onset of Winter, Hugh and Hadrian are forced to come to the same conclusion: Grigori is in Provence, but the only place that has not been checked is Simon de Montfort's own army. It seems very likely that Grigori is, in fact, inside the Crusader camp. There, he is all but unassailable, unless the Order is willing to go to war with the Pope himself and all of France.

Grimly, and with a last round of shared wine, the hunters depart, and Hugh turns his brave horse for home.

Advancement

Gustov gets 2 Exposure XP for Summer and Autumn, spent on Magic Theory, Rego, or Herbam.

Garcette gets 5 Adventure XP in the Summer, and in Autumn spends a Fan point for a summa on Art of Memory, Level 3, Quality 12. She reads this book for 12+3 XP.

Rene has his choice, for both Summer and Autumn, of 5 points in Infernal Lore, Church Lore, Ride, or Provencal Lore, or 8 XP in Occitan, the language of Provence. (Provencal and French are -2 to each other; Rene can carry on a functional conversation with the Provencal using his French, but only barely.)

Sinews of Knowledge

Eva returns from school to find Balbina hosting a guest, an elderly Iberian man who is remarkably fit, with muscular arms and shoulders. He is well-dressed and has short steel-gray hair, a mustache, and strong chin. This is the first time the reclusive maga has ever entertained anyone, and although Balbina finds talking difficult, she proudly introduces Ferdinand of Toledo, a Master Swordsmith and former priest. Ferdinand knows Latin, and smiles warmly to Eva, taking over the conversation. Apparently, Ferdinand has been contracted (and very well paid) to teach Eva the basics of sword-making. Instruction begins the next day, and over the next six months, Eva learns the art of shaping Toledo steel by day, while Ferdinand spins stories of the Reconquista by night. Ferdinand was a young and idealistic son of Spanish aristocracy when he joined the Church, but what he saw during the wars convinced him that the wars against the Muslims were misguided and that the Church was too interested in temporal power at the expense of the spirit. The destruction of Muslim culture in Iberia devastated him. He left his position and became a tradesman, devoting the rest of his life to an honorable craft. Now his swords are carried into battle by kings and caliphs. He's not sure what that means, but he has tried to live a good life.

By the onset of winter, Eva has come a long way, but Ferdinand admits she would not yet be considered a Journeyman. "But you are so young!" he says with a smile. "It takes an apprentice five years to learn the rudimentary skills of a journeyman swordsmith and we have studied only six months. If you wish to learn more, come to Toledo, and I will gladly show you."

In June, Akakios returns to Sinews of Knowledge to find that Sebastien is away, apparently on an errand in the Novgorod Tribunal. Ragoneda takes him in charge and Akakios spends the season alongside Augustina, assisting Ragoneda with various projects in the lab.

This is his first chance to really see how another Tytalus maga treats an apprentice, and he finds that, like Sebastien, Ragoneda also follows the Book of Instruction to the letter, also apologizes for doing so, and may be even more close-lipped and unwilling to confide than Sebastien is. Augustina is so used to the demeaning and grueling tasks imposed by the Book that even her complaints have become casual and obligatory. She just has too optimistic and carefree a demeanor to allow the hard treatment to affect her, blithely dismissing Ragoneda's harsh supervision with a breezy, "That's just her way." She also has a very vivid imagination which allows her to turn virtually any chore into an amusing game. Akakios is a very welcome addition to all this, as she's never really had company in chores before. She talks constantly, often speculating about where she will go or what she will do after her upcoming Gauntlet. This season, the top contenders are the Levant or Iberia, both of which are attractively warm.

Augustina is completely oblivious to Akakios's perfectly excusable but impossible crush. She is a master of giving excuses to get out of chores, and shows him how to sneak into an abandoned chamber of the covenant which she has fitted up as her "super secret sanctum," complete with salvaged lab equipment and decorated with faded tapestries depicting unicorns. Here, she has books she has collected over the years, most of them old and damaged, on mundane topics, or stripped of all their magical resonances. Among them Akakios finds a copy of The School of Apromor, by Ysabeau filia Apromor, one of the Roots of the Arts. It is a quarto flap-book in miniscule print, clearly designed for copying, but filled with examples which illustrate the many uses of the destructive Art, especially in magical combat. With the use of a "seeing stone" (a glass lens which is placed on the page as a magnifying glass), Akakios finds himself reading late into the night, while Augustina steals them both food from the kitchen.

All around, it may be the best time he's ever spent in the covenant.

Sebastien returns, looking unusually frustrated and weary, in September. Akakios is moved back into Sebastien's sanctum while Sebastien himself closes himself up in the lab. Akakios is assigned chores around the covenant, largely cleaning and cooking detail, which gives him ample opportunity to sneak down into the catacombs to see his mother.

Kallisto is both gratified to see her son and in a pensive state of alarm. She goes on about their "many enemies" who are "closing in all around us."

Akakios demands to know who the enemies are and says, "I'm no longer a child, Mother. Who are they and why did the Flambeau kill you?"

Kallisto looks left and right, as if trying to see these enemies. When she answers that she doesn't know who they are, she seems to be telling the truth. "The Knight. The Thief. The Dead Woman. The Master." She knows no more about them. Asking why Hugh killed her gets a puzzled look. She seems to be trying to remember. Finally, after muttering for a while, as if retracing things back in time, she finally remembers, "He was told to find me and kill me by his masters in the Order. If that is not enough for you, you must ask him yourself."

There is no time to lose, she insists, and while Akakios is still so young, she nevertheless cannot wait any longer. She must teach him the ancient rites and rituals which allowed her to call upon the dark gods of the underworld. "My time has already passed, my son," she says to him in her ghostly whisper, her voice a mixture of honest love and lingering pain. "And it is too late for me. Only through you will our line continue."

In the months that follow, Akakios is forced to live two lives. By day, he hurries through what chores he must, occasionally finding moments to see Augustina. By night, he steals deep into the bowels of Sinews of Knowledge, where Kallisto has somehow built shrines to Hecate, Hades, Persephone, and other gods of the underworld out of trinkets stolen from throughout the covenant. He sheds his shirt to bare his witch marks, and learns from his mother the chants and prayers that curse God and invoke more ancient, buried powers. Along the way, he realizes he has heard this kind of magic before: Grigori, leader of the Shadow Magi, chanted curses in just this way when, five years ago, he murdered Arnulf, concealed the magi's camp, and escaped the arrival of both Hugh and Kentigern.

Finally, near the end of the season, Akakios visits Augustina and startles her. With wide eyes she looks him up and down, "You look terrible!" she exclaims. "Aren't you sleeping? Or eating? Or ... are you even breathing?" He tries to placate her with a lie, but she knows him well enough to see through it. "What's going on, Akakios. I know you. You're into something."

It seems impossible to explain, and so Akakios decides to confide his secret to her. "To defeat my enemies and escape Sebastien's torture, I have to follow a dark, dangerous path. But you will have to see it to understand."

Taking her hand, Akakios leads Augustina down into the depths of the covenant. "I've never been down this way," she whispers. For a moment, she wonders if he is trying to get her somewhere private to make out. But no, instead, he leads her round a corner into the Chthonic chamber where his mother "stands," waiting. But she is not alone. Before a raging fire is the towering, translucent spirit of a man, a man Akakios has never seen before. His skeleton can be seen burning within his body. Flesh seems to hang off his nude body in strips, as if he was being peeled from dozens of places at once. Blood oozes off of him. As he turns to look at the apprentices, Augustina gasps. "God's teeth," she says, "That's the ... the ... the thing in the cellar! The Dead God!" Akakios has no idea what she's talking about, but he introduces the ghost of his mother to her, trying to assure her that everything will be all right.

"She is fair," Kallisto says, "And bold. But matters of the heart have no business here." For a moment the ghostly mother looks almost sad. "Where we go, you and I, love is a burden. To love, my son, is to die." Lifting her hand, she beckons him forward. A ghostly wind is in her long and unbound hair. "Come. It is time for you to cross the threshold. As Odysseus, Heracles, and Orpheus did, now you shall do, and walk in the Land of the Dead."

The towering Dead God silently points at the roaring fire, which suddenly acquires the aspects of a gateway or portal. A place can be seen through that portal: a place awful, terrifying, and profane. It does not look like the raging fires of Hell, exactly. It is darkness, and shadow, and the spirits Akakios can see within it are lost and forlorn, stripped of life, memory, and meaning.

Kallisto continues to beckon him forward. "Come, my son." Augustina has retreated to the wall of the cave, but she cannot take her eyes from the portal to the underworld. There seems little choice for Akakios but to bare his witch marks, take his mother's hand, and do as he is bid.

Akakios's first indication something is wrong is when, gazing into his mother's face, he can see that she is looking at something over his shoulder. Probably Augustina, he thinks, before he hears the words, "Animam Agitantem Exterminare!" (Lay to Rest the Haunting Spirit) A blast of pale blue magic streams over Akakios's shoulder and strikes Kallisto in the chest, blowing a head-sized hole in her and collapsing her to the floor. Spinning around, Akakios sees Sebastien in the black mask that is his Talisman. "This madness must end," he says firmly, his jaw set. The Dead God looks at Sebastien and walks through the portal to the underworld, which closes behind him. Augustina stands nearby, shocked and horrified at everything she has seen.

Akakios tries to go through the portal after the Dead God but realizes it is, indeed, closed. He shouts at Sebastien, "You ass, you've ruined everything," and attacks him with his dagger. Akakios goes all out, years of pent up rage over the unjust murder of his mother and treatment at the hands of Sebastien pouring out of him, but his dagger cannot seem to touch Sebastien. It is a Rego Terram ward against weapons. Augustina tries to restrain him, but leaps back from the dagger's edge. Akakios struggles fruitlessly, finally collapsing in exhaustion. His last memory is meeting his mother's eyes as she watches him from the cavern floor. Apparently, she was not quite completely destroyed, but she fades from existence as he goes unconscious.

Akakios eventually wakes up in his room. The door is shut, but Augustina is there, and she explains that Akakios has been asleep for three days, talking in his sleep. "Sebastien told me everything," she says quietly. "He said the magi found out about the ghost a while ago, but they didn't know she was ... Your mother. He's been following you, invisible. Off and on. For ... A long time, when we all thought he was away. He was trying to find out where you went. I think maybe he was spying on us when we were in my ... My place."

Akakios gets a sad expression on his face when Augustina tells him this. He says, "It was a pleasure getting to know you, Augustina. I'm afraid that I'll not get to see you again. Don't do to your apprentice what they've done to us. It's wrong and can lead to horrible results. I'm sure I'll fail, but I'm ready to die trying."

She nods silently, tears on her cheek.

Soon, Sebastien arrives in the doorway and Augustina slips out. "Interesting approach to taking an apprentice," Akakios says. "You've got time to spy on me, but no time to actually teach me anything. Three seasons in seven years. You call yourself a master? You're pathetic. You're a child. I'm done with your stupid games. Touch me again, and you'll pay. Give me to a real magus, let me go, or kill me."

Sebastien is very grave. "You hate me, and I don't blame you. But the truth is, you don't know anything about me except what I've wanted you to see. And you don't want to admit it, but I just saved your life. You brought a ghost into the covenant; if the other magi had their way, you'd be dead already. If a Quaesitor or Hoplite had seen what I'd seen..." He just shakes his head. "And don't pretend this is about your instruction; we both know you've learned more from the Profound Doctor than an apprentice like Augustina learned in six years from her domina. Tomorrow morning," he says evenly, "we'll start again, with no secrets between us. No ghosts, no play acting, no Book of Instruction. Just us. It's not too late for you to take your place as one of the greatest magi the Order has ever known."

Akakios is left in his room for the evening. A servant delivers food. But as the servant leaves, a strange thing happens. The door closes, and a figure is standing in the room. He's not changed much since Akakios saw him years before. Grigori is tall, with long dark hair, captivating eyes, a full beard, and dark red robes. He bears a staff. Akakios can tell somehow, perhaps because of his second sight, that this isn't really the master of the Shadow magi, but rather an illusion, some kind of Imaginem effect, projected through the covenant's Aegis.

"Akakios," he says quietly, in a voice that is filled with sympathy. "I have learned of your loss, and I grieve for it. And for you. But there is hope." Grigori lifts a hand to his chest, covering his beard. "I, too, know the names of the Dark Powers. Your mother's lessons do not need to have been in vain. Where she left off, we can resume together." He extends an elderly hand. "It is not too late for you to take your place... As one of the greatest magi the Order has ever known..."

Advancement

Eva: Over summer and autumn, 30 XP in Craft: Weaponsmith.

Akakios: Summer, 21 XP in Perdo from reading one of the Roots of the Arts. In Autumn, Akakios is initiated into Chthonic Magic, gaining that Virtue and Chthonic Magic 1, but losing Ghostly Warder. He also gets 2 Exposure XP in anything that makes sense.

Winter

It has become the custom in the Alps for apprentices to be taught the Arts during the Winter season, and this has already begun as the rumor spreads throughout the Tribunal that Akakios fled his covenant out the front door and, as Grogs watched, he was whisked away by a cloud of demons. Sebastien's apprentice has joined Grigori and the Shadow Magi, and is presumed to be in Provence. This puts a cloud over the apprentices and their magi, and the magi can often be seen traveling back and forth through the Portal Arches or engaging in private conversation behind guarded doors.

Midwinter, Sinews of Knowledge is host to the Decennial Games, a series of martial competitions open not only to covenants of the Alps, but to all neighboring Tribunals. Apprentices from the Rhine, Transylvania, Roman and Normandy Tribunals arrive at the covenant, where they are all quartered in a dormitory deep within the tunnels. Competition between the apprentices soon breaks out; two teams form, intent on exploring as deep down the catacombs as possible. With Eva, a resident of Sinews of Knowledge, on their side, the local apprentices have an advantage.

The first challenge is navigating the tunnels; fortunately, Cassidy can see in the dark and Eva can cast magic within the Aegis. Gero the Gnome realizes that there has been recent tunneling nearby, and it soon becomes clear that some of the foreign apprentices have been abducted by goblins. Cassidy and Eva tell stories of goblins raising children in their tunnels, and the exploration becomes a rescue expedition. The group emerges from the Aegis, stumbles across a lake where a maga of the covenant is raising enormous lobsters for food, and then find their way into a faerie regio.

When Cassidy realizes she is in a faerie regio, she thinks she is in Arcadia, and she runs forward. Garcette pursues her, the others are more cautious, and the two girls find a goblin town. They try to withdraw, but are spotted and pursued, running back to the others, but by now a general alarm has been raised. Attempts to escape prove fruitless and everyone is escorted into goblin town to the throne room of the goblin king.

When the apprentices arrive, they can see that the foreign apprentices have mostly all been captured. Cassidy and Eva charm the king with etiquette and flattery, and when the king demands tribute for the release of the prisoners, they respond by telling heroic stories of the king's adventures and those of the goblin soldiers. This is enough to get some of the prisoners released, but not all. The goblin king demands a lock of Garcette's hair, and she reluctantly complies while the king leers. Eva's story had planted the idea of the apprentices returning with a scepter which would be a token of the king's power; the king forces Garcette to promise to return in one month's time with the scepter, but she will not be forced to stay. Poking her finger with her dagger, she agrees to this oath, over Breandan's well-meaning and probably prudent objection.

With the foreign apprentices all freed, the group is escorted back out of goblin town and into the covenant's tunnels. They reveal themselves to search parties and tell their stories to their masters. In particular, there is now a new requirement that a scepter be created to placate the goblin king. There is only a month, so no time to make anything enchanted. Balbina accepts responsibility for this, and assigns one of her workshop craftsmen the task. It is made exceptionally big, gaudy, and ugly, these being traits that are sure to endear it to the king of the goblins.

The rest of the Decennial games pass without incident and everyone has a very good time, except for the apprentices, who are not allowed out of the dormitory. A month later, Athena Alpina, Balbina, Philomena, and their apprentices return to the goblin town, with Eva, Garcette, and Tomas protected by their domina's Parma. Philomena, who appears to have much experience with faeries, does most of the talking. Athena works out a contract with the goblin king detailing the conditions of his peace with Sinews of Knowledge. The scepter becomes a token of this treaty, and Garcette hands it over to the king, who takes the opportunity to whisper something undoubtedly lewd into her ear. Red-faced, she beats a hasty retreat. The magi and their apprentices withdraw.

At Icy North, Rene is taught the basics of Corpus magic by Hugh, who has several spells designed to make a warrior bigger, stronger, and tireless. Kentigern has deduced that Gustov will often need to use his magic on Magical or Faerie Beasts with intelligence rather than cunning, and teaches his apprentice the Art of Mentem. Cassidy learns Creo so she can create illusions out of nothing. Breandan begins his instruction in the Art of Intellego, critical for a spy and messenger, and already useful for some of his cantations. Eva's dream of forging a fire-breathing dragon has been noted by her domina, who arranges for an Ignem summa. And, finally, Athena continues her tour through the four classical elements, instructing Garcette in Ignem.

Advancement

Breandan gets 15 Teaching XP in Intellego.

Cassidy gets 13 Teaching XP in Creo.

Eva gets 18 Study XP in Ignem.

Garcette gets 14+5 Teaching XP in Ignem.

Gustov gets 13 Teaching XP in Mentem.

Rene gets 13+5 Teaching XP in Corpus.

Everyone ages a year. This primarily affects Gustov, whose Characteristics and Size both rise by 1, and Garcette, who would normally have no Age penalty at all except that she is a Late Bloomer. Her Characteristics and Size also rise by 1.

And, off camera, Akakios turns 14, loses all Age penalties, and gets 15 XP in Parma Magica...