1237, Spring

We get back to the covenant, and I sit down to continue reading the books on Creo.

We discuss what we know of Dun-naemhaig, and what we should tell the rest of the Order. But what do we actually know?

• There seem to be magi casting rituals around the country, probably causing the earthquakes.
• Horsingas was on a line direct between the temple and Innerleithen, next to Fire’s Heart.
• The knife was made from two pieces of stone, forged together. It had imprints of magic which seemed to come from two different sources. One Fey, one Hermetic.

We still don’t know what is going on. We can’t go and investigate Dun-naemhaig, because we don’t have any authority to do that. We also can’t investigate with magic, because it is against the Code to use magic to spy on other magi.

We could go tell Caitlin about our findings, but we have no evidence. We also don’t know if we can trust her.

There seem to be lots of Merinita involved in whatever is going on. Back at the previous Tribunal, many of the Merinita were off in their own secret meetings, to which Maedbh hadn’t been invited. Caitlin didn’t seem to attend those secret meetings, but does that mean she can be trusted? Maybe we just wait until the Tribunal next year before telling anyone.

Maebh realises that some of the magic that she detected on the dagger was similar to the magic of the healers that were doing the rounds a few years ago. 

After a few weeks, Quaesitor Whitburh Frithowebba and Coenwulf Eofurcumbol ex Bjornaer are now awake, though still recovering. The Quaesitor is very thankful towards Allistor, though Coenwulf seems to be in mourning for his wife.

Allistor talks to the Quaesitor, and tells her everything that he knows. She guesses that the dagger might be an arcane connection to both sites – the Temple of Mithras and Innerleithen. In terms of enemies who may have wanted to destroy her covenant – that could either be the North or the South. Which is a lot of people.

As it turns out, one of Jack’s youngsters is based around Innerleithen who might be able to find out information.

My asset in Innerleithen does mention some people from the north who give him a bad vibe. We guess these are simply the magi from the covenant of Fire’s Heart. But there is another person who is dodgy seeming – an old woman who lives outside the village. She seems to be a medicine woman, and when she comes into the village she tends to have dealings with less reputable people.

I go along to Innerleithen with Greyson and Maedbh. Maedbh is in disguise as a middle aged woman so as not to be recognised. At the inn, I do make mention of having a bad back which is causing me pain. I get some local folk remedies – mostly alcohol – suggested, as well as mention of people in the house to the north.

A couple of people though mention that there is a wise woman who has been looking after the town for the last few years. If I take a suitable present, then she may give me something for it. She turned up about five years ago, and doesn’t have any family in turn. So now we have an excuse to go looking for the wise woman.

She has a cottage in a copse of trees some distance from the village, in the direction of the local lord.

Whilst we stay in the village, Greyson heads to Fire’s Heart to stay there overnight. Whilst there, he finds out that some of the covenants are trying to plan to form a bit more of a political voting block now that Horsingas is out of the way. They also mention that the Kings of England and Scotland have come to an agreement over Northumberland, with England being granted it in return for marriage and money for Scotland.

This would have made it harder for Horsingas to cause trouble in the South, since the general background level of conflict is probably going to drop dramatically.

The next day, we head off to see the wise woman. We decide to talk to her rather than just bash her over the back of the head, which I had suggested as the simplest solution.  She has a small stone cottage with a neatly thatched roof. As we approach, the door opens, and there is an old woman standing in the doorway.

She is wearing well made peasant garb, and there is a cat at her feet. I mention that I have a bit of a bad back, and the villagers suggested I came up to see you. She is named Meg.

She gets me to lay on the ground, and kneels down next to me and prods and pokes at my back. She sees through my pretending, but does get me some ointment and some nettle tea. She also mentions stretching exercises, and seems to think that I might be in a relationship with Meadbh.

She does invite me back if I need to see her again, or just have a  talk… or other things. I do notice that she has the Gift, since she gives me an unnerving feeling.

Maedbh has a chat with her, asking about where’s she from and what she does. They end up having a long chat, and Meg brings out some tea and scones.  Maedbh did ask about whether she knew anyone with an otter wring. She did meet him, and gave him something for a bad leg.

As we are sitting drinking tea and eating scones, Donald and Maedbh pick up a strange metallic smell coming from the cottage. She may be an alchemist, which wouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Maybe later tonight we can sneak back and have a poke around.