1217

Autumn

"Girls are caterpillars while they live in the world, to be finally butterflies when the summer comes; but in the meantime they are grubs and larvae, don't you see..." ~ Carmilla

On the first day of Autumn the apprentices returned to Icy North, joining Gustov and, ostensibly, Garcette for weapon practice. But when Sergeant Gregor called everyone to order in the courtyard, Garcette was absent. She did appear, eventually, overtaken by a strange languor that resembled fatigue. Unable to effectively wield a weapon, she was dismissed by a contemptuous Gregor. To everyone's eyes she appeared as healthy as ever, indeed more so, her skin glowing with youthful vigor, her green eyes bright, and her thick mane of hair a deep reddish-brown. But her lethargy was obvious. Breandan's Physican's Eye revealed only a deep-seated fatigue.

The apprentices peeled away from weapons practice, Cassidy first, Eva immediately following, then Innocentius, until only Gustov remained. Cassidy and Eva found Garcette in the solarium, a room in the castle prepared for aristocratic ladies to spend their time. On an upper floor, with large windows, an airy space, and brick floor to keep the heat in, Garcette had found rest on a sort of divan where she was reading. This, it became clear, was how she had been spending most of her days throughout the summer. She would not reveal anything to her friends, but Eva could tell that she was deeply frightened by something. While Eva left to give the other girls some privacy, Cassidy was able to get a confession, of sorts, out of Garcette.

"She comes to me," Garcette said in a whisper. "Whenever no one is around to see. She takes me into her embrace, lavishes kisses upon me, and tells me we shall be together forever." Her eyes rolling a little with weakness and terror, she managed a final, "I am dying. Help me," before she passed out.

Eva and Cassidy conferred in the hall and were soon joined by Innocentius, who had spotted Mircalla, the Ghost of the Motherhouse, watching him from an upper story window. When Eva tried to end weapon training so that Gustov could be appraised of the situation, Sgt. Gregor refused to obey her. Breandan, however, took her side and bullied the drill sergeant into obedience, ending official training for the day.

Breandan and Gustov joined the others and they briefly consider searching the covenant for Mircalla before realizing that only Cassidy and Innocentius can reliably see her, she can walk through walls or simply vanish, and if she does not want to be found it is very unlikely they can catch her. There was no consensus about the nature of Garcette's tormentor; Mircalla is one suspect, but Prima La's condition is also well known and there was some suspicion, especially from Innocentius, that the old Criamon Prima may be up to something.

Athena was consulted; she seemed noticeably uninterested in Garcette's activities until Mircalla was mentioned. Cassidy concealed the nature of Garcette's testimony; she hid the sexual and intimate nature of it and instead said only that Garcette was being troubled by bad dreams. Athena informed them that, after Akakios told her of his encounter with Mircalla years ago at Tribunal, Athena tried to ask La about Mircalla's life and death, but the Prima refused to answer questions and was entirely uncooperative. Athena gave permission for the apprentices to use the Portal Arches to travel to the Cave of Twisting Shadows, should they wish to speak to the Prima.

Gustov hatched a plan which the others supported. Using a spell allowing him to see what Cassandra sees, he then hid the raven in a basket which Eva delivered -- along with flowers and other items -- to Garcette's sleeping chamber. Cassandra could observe the room from hiding. Eva, Cassidy and Innocentius waited in the nearby solarium while Breandan positioned himself outside Garcette's door.

This led to another interesting encounter between the two, as Breandan's self-appointed guard duty did not go unnoticed. Garcette was pleasant to her friend, noting that he had "always been kind to me, except when you were pulling my hair." Breandan, in turn, noted that when young we don't always know what we want and how to act. He encouraged her to get some sleep, she touched him briefly on the shoulder, and went into her room.

Before the door had even closed, Cassandra could see Mircalla, laying upon Garcette's bed. As she beckoned the apprentice in, she removed her nightgown. The scene which followed left Gustov, who saw everything through Cassandra's eyes, speechless, as Mircalla ravished a fatigued and essentially helpless Garcette. As he watched, Mircalla changed her form. She adopted the shape of a giant cat, a black panther the size of a man, which crouched atop Garcette's supine form and seemed to be breathing the woman's own exhalations from her mouth.

Cassidy, Eva, and Gustov ran for the door. Breandan, who had heard nothing this whole time, saw them coming and threw the door open, using a quick spell to urge Garcette up and away. Eva's Twisting the Demon's Tail failed to affect the hideous cat, as did Gustov's spontaneous Rego Animal spell. The creature lept straight for Cassidy, who survived only with a fast-cast Wizard's Sidestep. Hurling past Cassidy and into the hall, the creature vanished, leaving the girls to help Garcette recover her dignity while the boys were stationed outside.

Meanwhile, Innocentius had been about another task. In order to use his necromancy spells on a spirit, he needed a human skull. Returning to the hanging tree at Icy North, located on the grounds of the misdsummer fair, he found a prisoner hanging in a gibbet there begging for his life. Eventually Innocentius agreed to free him, finding out only afterwards that the man, whose name was Peter, had stolen from the covenant itself. Nevertheless, Innocentius agreed to take him in, threatening him with tortures from the pits of Hell were he to prove disobedient. Peter showed himself to be an adept groveler, however, and Innocentius returned to the covenant with his skull only to learn of the encounter with Mircalla.

The evidence -- a ghostly form that could penetrate an Aegis, Garcette's sleepiness, and the adoption of an animal shape -- began to point towards one conclusion: Mircalla might be a Nightwalker. There are many traditions of these folk magicians, who are born with a caul and adopt a spectral form called a phantasticum. This phantasticum exists only while the Nightwalker sleeps, and is usually called to do battle over the crops in a fertility rite. But the powers of a Nightwalker did not explain everything the apprentices had seen: Mircalla was supposed to be dead, and would be over 150 years old in any case. Was it really Mircalla? Could someone else be impersonating her?

The apprentices broke into two groups. One went to the covenant library to find the records of Tribunals past, because it was at Tribunal that La's relationship to Mircalla was first exposed. The others went to speak to Marie, one of the apprentices who was discipula to Fortunatio, a well known Criamon magus.

In the library, Innocentius and Eva found the records of the Tribunal a century and a half ago when La, a very young maga at the time, arrived with her "apprentice," a fifteen year old girl with various supernatural abilities, including Second Sight, Sense Holiness/Unholiness, and Magic Sensitivity. It was discovered during the Tribunal that La was using her "apprentice," (whom she had in fact just found and whose Arts had not been opened) to spy on other magi. She was ordered to kill the girl in punishment. On the last page of the Tribunal proceedings, it was noted that on the night the Tribunal ended, La left the covenant with two Grogs and returned later, having said the deed was done.

Meanwhile, Gustov, Cassidy and Breandan met with Marie, a pleasant young woman of 22 who could tell them about Criamon ways. She explained that La's behavior was very strange. As a Primus nears Final Twilight, he or she always chooses to undergo ritual murder, so that his ghost can join the others at the Cave of Twisting Shadows and serve the House until the Enigma is answered and all magi are able to escape the cyclical alum, the eternal circle of time. That La was refusing to do this was deeply troubling. La was chosen in a communal dream at the death of the last Primus, and the dream always chooses someone willing to serve. La's refusal to serve implies that the dream was wrong, which cannot be true.

When she learned that the apprentices wanted to talk to La, Marie told them this was impossible. No one not of House Criamon was ever permitted to go beyond the first level of the regio in which the Cave was built, unless they were participating in a Criamon ritual. However, she was willing to go with the others to the Cave and do what she could to help them gain admission.

The apprentices gathered and, with Marie, prepared to travel to the Cave of Twisting Shadows by Portal Arch. No one wanted to leave Garcette behind in the castle, lest she continue to be preyed upon by Mircalla, and so after some debate it was resolved for Eva to use her Verditius magic to craft a pair of wooden servants who carried Garcette between them on a pallet taken from the covenant's infirmary.

With Garcette weakly protesting, they emerged from the Portal Arches in the first level of the Cave's regio, in a large central cavern used as a mess hall. Dozens of magi, covenfolk and grogs were there, and they were greeted by the ghost of a Tremere who, before the Sundering, had become Primus of the House in a misguided and doomed effort to co-opt it for the Founder Tremere's vision of world domination. He patiently denied any knowledge of Mircalla or anything else the visitors were so eager to talk about, and instead directed them to a waiting chamber where they were met by Hera, the spectral Autocrat of the Cave.

At first, Hera had no interest in admitting the apprentices into the upper levels of the Cave. However, when they suggested that their errand might be directly responsible for La's refusal to die, Hera's interest immediately sharpened. She confessed that there was a way for the apprentices to see La, but it was not without risk. They could become ritual witnesses to the murder of the Prima. This would enable them to join the procession and enter La's chamber, where they would have a chance to speak with her. But, once the ritual is begun, it cannot end until La is dead. The apprentices would be kept in the upper levels of the Cave and not permitted to leave until the ritual concluded, however long this might take.

Cassidy, whose deep concern for Garcette was by now obvious to everyone, refused to leave the other woman behind while everyone went on the ritual. It was decided she would stay in the mess hall with Garcette and keep guard.

The rest of the procession gathered and the ritual begun, with almost the entire House Criamon in attendance, nearly 90 magi from throughout Mythic Europe. The apprentices were clad in gray robes and those who were willing had their heads shaved. Each was divested of all belongings except for a knife, if they had one. They recognized Archmage Vincent, a resident of Icy North, as well as Marie's dominus Fortunatio. Over a few hours, the group made its slow way through the labyrinthine tunnels of the Cave of Twisting Shadows until it reached the eighth level of the regio, where La floated in her sickbed in the central cave, attended by purified covenfolk who retreated as the apprentices approached.

Gustov was in the lead and, as she saw him, the withered Prima urged him forward, saying, "He said someone would come. And now you have. It is well. You are here to ask me my last riddle."

Gustov asked, "When is a ghost not dead?"

La told the story of how, at the moment her grog's axe struck Mircalla, the girl had called out to the entities of the Magic realm which govern the Nightwalkers, asking for help. One of these powers, a ruler of the Malandanti, had answered, sustaining Mircalla in a kind of half-life so that she could continue to manifest her phantasticum and would not age even though her body appeared to be dead, so long as she continued to wear her caul. La, in turn, seeing what was happening, called to the Benandati for help. She was answered, and Mircalla was bound to the valley of Icy North, but only so long as La lived. Mircalla was buried under a pine tree a half mile south of the covenant, and the tree marked with an M. "But beware," La said, before signaling the procession that she was ready to move on, "as soon as I die, all the limits placed on Mircalla's power will fall, and the world shall become her meadow."

The apprentices had succeeded; La was ready to die. But the ritual could not be interrupted, and so they continued to the final level of the regio, adjoining the Magic realm. There, Archmage Vincent gestures to Innocentius that the time had come. Being chosen to murder the Prima is a great honor, but it is also a deeply impure act, and the House had chosen Akakios to do this thing. Innocentius, who had decided he didn't like La very much, decided to do the sacrifice by slitting the old woman's throat. She bled out into bowls held beneath her by quick-moving apprentices.

It took an hour or more for the apprentices to descend through the levels of the regio, guided by Marie. What they discovered was that a short but furious battle had taken place. Only moments after La's death, Mircalla had appeared in the mess hall and tried to kill Cassidy, who was defended by the ghost of the Tremere Primus, a very capable magical combatant. None of his spells proved able to affect Mircalla, but Mircalla could not get to Garcette. Cassidy had by now used "the Vanishing Nun Trick" to make Garcette look like her, while she adopted the shape of Garcette. Wizard's Sidestep protected Cassidy once, but a second pounce from the hideous black panther disemboweled the young Merinita, who was briefly on the brink of death before Criamon covenfolk were able to stabilize her. Mircalla soon fled, thwarted, and spells were used to ensure Cassidy would live, but she could not stand.

Armed with the location of Mircalla's grave, the apprentices returned through the Portal Arches and, with Peter carrying a shovel, headed south. They found the dark pine tree where Mircalla was buried, the ground around it devoid of grass or life. There the young woman stood, defiant to the last. There was another brief, furious battle. A touch from Mircalla paralyzed Innocentius's arm and Breandan was saved from death through his fast-cast defenses. Gustov and Innocentius used Rego Terram magic to uncover the grave, allowing Breandan to Wizard's Leap into the pit and pull the caul from the body. Mircalla's phantasticum vanished in a shriek and her body shriveled to bones. Only Eva, who had tried to clear the earth from the grave but botched, casting herself into a six foot pit, was injured.

Breandan and Innocentius began to argue the division of the spoils. Breandan, who had the caul in one hand, had picked up Mircalla's skull in the other. Innocentius pointed out that there was no need for Breandan to have both these items, and Innocentius expected to have one of them. Innocentius casually suggested they "could Certamen for it," and Breandan enthusiastically agreed, whereupon Innocentius cast a sleep spell on Breandan instead.

The spell lasted only a moment but Breandan fell to the ground, long enough for Innocentius to step up and claim the caul, which was kept in a silver locket on a leather string. The other apprentices were wary, for it was not often that one of them cast a spell on another in such a fashion. But Eva was too busy climbing out of the pit and Gustov held his hand. Breandan, when he recovered, dismissed the matter and seemed content with the skull.

Innocentius, with his new body servant Peter, returned home to Klara but did not tell her what the caul was. Cassidy was eventually brought back to Icy North where Garcette -- who began to recover immediately -- happily installed her in the solarium to recover from her injuries. Breandan assisted Garcette in tending to Cassidy, though it became clear to both girls that Breandan's chief desire was to impress and spend time with Garcette herself, for his feelings for her were increasingly clear. Eva tried to offer herself as a confidant to Garcette, should she ever "want to talk about relationships," and Garcette claimed to accept and welcome this offer, but Eva could tell that Garcette was deeply troubled over this very personal matter and could not speak about it.

The truth was by now clear to most: Garcette's heart was Cassidy's, and vice versa, and though Cassidy didn't seem to care a whit that their love was "unnatural," it deeply troubled Garcette herself, whose self-loathing was very difficult for even the ebullient Cassidy to overcome. And she continued to treat Breandan with sincere affection, even as he dutifully attended Cassidy in her sick bed.

A few days later, Breandan went on foot to Mircalla's grave and, using Perdo Corpus magic, ensured that every bit of Mircalla's corpse was destroyed. This left two arcane connections to the Maladante spirit: her caul and her skull. Both could, in theory, be used to summon and command the Ghost of the Motherhouse.

The rest of the season passed uneventfully, with most of the apprentices receiving weapon training under Sgt. Gregor. Cassidy is able to read a book from the library of Icy North. Breandan has persuaded Diana to let him avoid martial training in favor of study, and he is inducted into the ranks of the Cult of Mercury, a social institution within the Order which performs rituals honoring Roman traditions and the ancient Mercurians. From them, he is able to borrow a useful book on Spell Mastery.

Advancement

Gustov, Garcette, Innocentius and Eva each get 12 Teaching XP in Martial Skills.

Cassidy can read a book on a subject of her choice from the library at Icy North.

Rene has been assigned to leading the Grogs, and receives 5 Practice XP in Leadership.

Breandan reads a tractatus on Spell Mastery: Wizard's Leap worth 10 XP, doubled for Spell Mastery to 20.

Winter

It has become the tradition for Alpine magi to teach their apprentices the Arts in Winter, when the weather is at its worst and everyone desires most to be inside. This winter is no exception. With only a few seasons of instruction remaining, the apprentice's Arts are very close to their final score before Gauntlet.

Advancement

Breandan gets 15 XP in Imaginem

Cassidy gets 13 XP in Imaginem

Eva reads a book for 18 XP in Terram

Garcette gets 14+5 XP in Ignem

Gustov gets 13 XP in Rego

Innocentius gets 13 XP in the Art of his choice

Rene gets 13+5 XP in Rego