11 December 2005 session notes--

12th Mercy

scenes

Kawaakow-oshi comes up from Iyyonchaba to ordain Shoha as Nemus Animæ’s head Fisher-priest. Shoha then heads off to some other town, to find an apprentice, but after a few hours in the forest, gauging its mood, he decides to head back and drink.

18th Mercy

scenes

Minkho’s working some with Calvus on dealing with the termites and beetles and the fish-boy, and Minkho asks when he might be turned back into a dog; Calvus explains he needs to research the magic to make sure he doesn’t hurt Minkho when undoing it. Ishta and Calvus discuss the magic and the ramifications on what might happen when the pig-herders return. Calvus has done some idle calculations on what sort and how much vim one might expect to extract from pig-humans.

Calvus is also investigating the pool with Minkho’s help. The pool smells of both Cholæic and Gætani magic, and it goes deeper than expected, and also climbs higher than expected; bits of it are walking around the covenant right now. Some of it has left to go far away. North. Calvus wants to take Minkho around the covenant to sniff out the bits that are walking around, but Minkho says he can’t tell. The pool can tell. We have to take the pool with us. The entire pool? I don’t know, says Minkho. Calvus scoops up a bucket of cave-water and takes it with them, but the bucketful isn’t helpful at all, and just wants to be back with the rest of itself. Calvus promises to take it back as soon as it finds bits of itself that are walking about.

The bucket leads Calvus and Minkho to the Great Hall, where they find Tully, eating his dinner. Tully’s one of the bits of the pond, but it isn’t a bit the pond wants back. Tully hasn’t the slightest idea what that means. Calvus says maybe it’s people who’ve been down to the pool and used it in some significant fashion. The bucket next leads them upstairs to the library, where they find Cameron hunched over a book, taking notes. (He thinks he’s taking notes. Actually, he’s just writing “monkey monkey monkey” over and over again.) Calvus’ appearance surprises Cameron. Calvus asks when was the last time Cameron visited the pool he can’t speak of. Cameron says he has no idea, but he did attend a party once. Ndapé was there. —Some discussion of muto, and pigs, and what Sonata had done to the Judge earlier that summer. (“Perhaps—turning someone’s brain into a hummingbird...”) —So how long have you known about the party? Cameron wants to know. Since shortly after it happened. You haven’t been to any others, have you? No. I’m unpopular. The kids don’t ask me out to any parties. Calvus heads off to go find Sonata. —Some business with pigs and buckets; she opens the door. Calvus describes the “party” Cameron attended, and explains the connection that now exists between the pool and her apprentice. And you learned this with the pig and the bucket? Yes. He also explains that part of the pool went north. Huh, says Sonata. Calvus asks how the Monkey-studies are going. Well, says Sonata. She tells Calvus that Ilba wants to talk to him. Which is fine with Calvus. Does Perdix know? Sonata isn’t sure. Does she wish me to approach her, or are she and I to use you as a go-between? I think with me as a go-between, says Sonata. I have arranged with Perdix to meet Ilba tomorrow afternoon. We usually talk near Tully’s sun. Around mid-afternoon. The sky’s been getting grey and there’s a rumble of thunder. Hoopoe flies in, seeking shelter.

Calvus heads back to dump the bucket into the pool.

That night, Ilba is dream-learning with dream-Perdix, reading from the dream-volume of Lux umbrarum, when dream-Perdix leans over and plucks something from Ilba’s shoulder. Ilba rolls her eyes, looks up, sees Insomnium hanging out on the ceiling, reading.

19th Mercy

scenes

Perdix calls Ilba upstairs in the trunk, where she finds Shotik’s face lathered up and Abakoshi kneeling by him on the bed with a razor. They want to know if she slept well; she doesn’t remember. They mention they’d seen the spell had been broken last night. If she slept well, then Insomnium obviously hadn’t been by. They were lucky. I don’t want to depend on luck, says Ilba. That’s the idea, says Perdix. I’m not quite ready to try the rewritten spell. —They’ve been reading and writing and smoking a lot. Anything else? says Ilba. What are the five laws of essentialism? She turns and goes downstairs. When Perdix heads down, dressed for breakfast, she hands them a piece of paper with the five laws written on it.

Sonata sets Cameron to cleaning the Monkey finger-bones. She’s negotiated with Calvus, who sent off Ilbakoshi’s hand and mask to the Quintus Opacans; she got the other hand, and Calvus still has both hands belonging to the other Monkey.

Ilba’s hand aches that day. She doesn’t write anything. When Cameron pops the pinky off Ilbakoshi’s hand, Ilba stumbles upstairs in the trunk to demand permission to see Sonata immediately. Confused, Perdix grants it. She storms down the hall to pound on Sonata’s door; some business cleaning up as Hoopoe stalls. When Sonata opens the door, Ilba storms over to where Cameron is washing his hands at the lab sink and slaps him. She demands to see the hand, now. Cameron, abashed, pulls out the box. I’m afraid it’s not down to the skeleton yet. There’s a knock; it’s Perdix. Cameron puts the box back. Perdix asks what’s going on, and Sonata hints as broadly as she can without directly addressing the subject, and Ilba speaks harshly to her. Perdix gently—hesitantly?—rebukes Ilba. Cameron begins to sketch out a perdo imaginem spell that will perhaps block the sensation of the work they’re doing. Perdix plucks at Ilba’s right hand, which is raw; she’s holding the pinky oddly. Sonata asks that they leave; Cameron opens the door; Ilba demands the hand. Sonata refuses as politely as she can. Ilba says she’ll see Sonata this afternoon at their meeting. —Some discussion of maggots versus boiling versus soaking.

Ilba and Perdix discuss hands, and Monkeys, and brothers.

Calvus and the Wolf priest discuss pigs, and hunting, and hungry women, and blood and milk and water. Calvus brings up the beetles in the caves, and the shadows, and seeing the hungry woman dissolve into something like them. He tries to explain the complexity of the structures the termites are building, but the Wolf priest doesn’t understand. He thinks Calvus hasn’t seen termites before. He offers to help Calvus if Calvus is having any trouble with termites or anything. He also wants to be told when Calvus proposes to do something about the woods. —Calvus is proposing to bring Minkho to the Wolf priest’s children on the pretext of entertaining them, while using Minkho to see if any of the children have the Gift.

Ilba shows up to her rainy afternoon meeting with Sonata and explains she’d asked Perdix to come along. (Calvus, wanting to make sure he does not encounter Perdix while meeting with Ilba, heads to the control room to send an orb to spy on the meeting.) —She explains the social structure of Monkeys, and how she and her brother fit into that. Sonata offers to give Ilba the smaller of the two matters discussed this morning, if it is acceptable. It is, says Ilba; Perdix nods. Perdix leaves; Sonata hands Ilba a small cobalt vial with a mostly fleshless finger hanging inside it. Sonata’s curious as to how such a thing would protect Ilba. Ilba mentions how it’s inappropriate for a Queen to be on her own. Having such a thing will make it seem less like she is, making her harder to see.

Perdix passes Calvus on their way back inside; I haven’t seen you outside much, he says. It’s a lovely day, says Perdix.

Calvus tells Ilba that he’s curious about the monsters of Gætan. He wants to know what Monkeys have to say about them. She talks about pacts with monsters: the temperament of the individual is more important than the type of monster. The pacts aren’t terribly complicated. Don’t piss in my woods, I won’t piss in yours? says Calvus. Something like. He asks how one might speak with monsters; she says magic will make them angry. The trees are fussy. Ritual is needed. Could you teach me? asks Calvus. They’d still notice you’re a mage. You might ask someone else to do it for you. But could you teach me? She says yes. She offers to do it for him. I might take you up on that, says Calvus. Have you been to the basement? She hasn’t. I would still like to learn this ritual, says Calvus. You’ll have to ask Perdix first. Hmm, says Calvus.

When Ilba returns to the trunk, Perdix asks her how her meetings have gone, and she explains that Calvus is going to want to speak to them, and they are not surprised. They tell her to sit, and prepare to cast their version of Scribonia’s spell, which goes rather horribly awry. It turns the dreamscape of the trunk inside-out, and Insomnium tumbles in as Perdix finishes the spell. —Some discussion of dreaming. Ilba tries signalling Sonata with the hand; she tries reaching Insomnium through her Monkey-channels. One of Somnex’ infants wanders in. The dreamscape of the dreamers in the trunk is pulling wandering dream-stuff in. Ilba gets Sonata’s attention, and she flies into the room; Hoopoe turns into a hummingbird and squeezes into the trunk to shake Shotik awake. Perdix and Ilba wake up, and Insomnium retreats; Sonata asks if everyone is all right. After a moment, Perdix calls Chittery to them, stands, and leaves the trunk. They set up downstairs on a couch by the fire. —Ilba comes down after a while, and works on her grammar homework. Perdix says nothing. When Nishoba comes by, and Perdix is asleep, he helps her with her homework.

Insomnium opens negotiations with Sonata in her dreams; some discussion of Somnex, and his abilities, and what Insomnium wants, and how there’s no need for all this fighting. He wants an alliance, a working relationship. Perdix is messing about with stuff that will get everything disrupted out of their own fear. They should be more careful. Also, since Insomnium figured out how to get into Sonata’s head through Cameron, she shouldn’t trust him with any secrets for the next couple of days. This does not please Sonata. Insomunium offers her Monkey-secrets. She has considered this. He gives her a drink and tells her that if she attempts to drift off to sleep, she’ll wake up. As he tries to leave, he discovers the back door he used to get in has been closed. How do you feel about having a headache? he asks. How about if I just wake up? says Sonata. Which she does.

meta

So Kip picked getting it done now; communicability; how cumbersome it might prove to cast; whether there is a one-time failure. He rolled four failures, boom boom, boom boom. Hence the above.

“Could we get the pig-dog out of here? He’s ruining the mood.”