Summer 1252:
Ahnah wakes in a forest and her sisters are gone! There is a clearing and lots and lots of trees. Although they seem to be very little trees (compared to the one in the covenant) there do seem to be an awful lot of them. There seems to be sound coming from down the path, so she goes to see what it is.
She arrives at another clearing and there is a dwarf cutting wood. Unlike uncle Pumilius, he is not at all scary, and he is using a big chopper to cut the logs. His name is Torvald Vannaheim, and asks if she is going to visiting Grandma's house, and warns her that there are giants in the wood. Ahnah doesn't know about grandma's house but asks if she can borrow his ax. Torvald freely gives it to her and wishes her well.
A few minutes later, Deirdre a Tytalean maga from Praesis in the Hibernian tribunal finds herself in the same clearing. Torvald is cutting wood with his big chopper. He again asks if she is going to Grandma's house, and Deidre also states that she had no such intention. She asks about other people, and is told about a small girl that had gone ahead.
Back at Aoide the Magi are told by Emma that the apprentices are gone. They try using the map of inexorable search but get a null reading. Wepwawet trackes them, but their trail disappears at the entrance to Pumilius's Passage. They discern an entrance to a Faerie Regio (that noone had noticed before..) Horton manages to wander straight through, but the others need to get themselves into a state of sexual immaturity to cross the threshold, this takes a while.
Ahnah arrives at the cottage and notices that it is indeed made of gingerbread. Inside are three bowls of porridge and three chairs and three beds. She deliberately tries to do everything wrong. Eating the hot porridge, jumping on the soft bed, and wandering through a wardrobe trying to tear down the fur coats.... Until she is disturbed by a shout. Outside Dierdre has found the cottage.
Horton also stumbles on the dwarf, and the same stilted dialogue is performed (although Torvald is impressed at meeting Horton once he has been told who he is). Horton proceeds to the cottage
Deirdre and Ahnah exchange a few barbed insults. Dierdre establishes that Ahnah is an apprentice, and Ahnah finds out that Deidre has already rescued her sisters. They are interrupted by the appearance of Horton who calls out for the girls.
While the try to establish each others bona fides (Ahnah warns Dierde that Horton s a bit of a creep) a wolf appears, Horton and Ahnah are poleaxed, but Dierdre manages to put it to sleep. Dierdre and Horton Flirt outrageously, and that is how the rest of the Magi (Sans Pumilius who can't ping to then like others can once in the regio.) find them. Dierdre explains that she found the other two sisters and has sent them back to her covenant back in the Hibernian tribunal in the care of her sister. Horton asks how they are supposed to get out of here, and Deirdre states that she just intends to walk back out, she turns round and promptly vanishes... without telling the assembled group the *name* of her covenant.
All except Pumilius manage to pop back out, and Pumilius emerges a few hours later, having stomped grumpliy around the story not really getting it.
Back at base, they decide to go (via their portal at begorrah) to Qui-Sonant, as Orlaith's Parens, Turlough might have heard of Dierdre.
Despite forgetting to bring a guest gift, Turlough is helpful, and points them towards the covenant of Praesis on the border with Connaught. The Magi start popping along to Preasis...
Illi and Qilliaq wake in a deep feather bed in a stone room. There are rushes on the floor and pretty tapestries on the wall. As they are discussing where they are, a woman bursts in. She introduces herself (in Latin) as Shona, and that her sister Dierdre resuced them from a Faerie wood. She bustles off to get them food and drink (also to inform Deirdre).
Dierdre chats to Iluliaq and Qilaq about the nature of apprenticeships, legal rights, and the specifics of Tytalean gauntlets. Qilaq is asleep for most of the conversation as Deirdre felt that she was being too rambunctious. Liuliaq took the implied threat, and started to wonder if trusting the Parens she knew was possibly better than what other fates could befall her.
The Adult Magi arrive at Praesis, and are entertained with overt hospitality by Ballack of Tytalus, the Parens of Deirdre. He eventually manages to "persuade" Deirdre that she should remit the apprentices to their parens, and Gunther and Martin agree that an appropriate gift be given in exchange for finding them.
And so to bed.