names
It’s spelled “Nemus,” by the way. No wonder I haven’t been able to find it in a dam’ dictionary.
19th Dominion
scenes
In the basement, Calvus extinguishes all but two torches and drags the Ulveggi corpse into one of the cold storage rooms and casts a spontaneous intellego vim spell with his Love and Reason medallion, seeking the point of concentration for the shadows. It’s down underground. Deeper. So Calvus heads down, deeper, to the cistern. He drops one of the torches in a nice flat spot. Breaks his six-points-of-light spell. Drops the second torch and stands with his back to it, facing the first torch, casting a great shadow before himself, reaching out to greet the other shadows. Wrapping it into a spontaneous intellego vim spell to try to speak with them, clustering about his light. Who are you? he asks. They find this an odd question. Who are you? they ask. One of the mages who lives above-ground, in the new keep, the old keep which has been rebuilt. You are contained down here, more or less? Kept out. What is it you do? What do you do? I study, wage war on my enemies. We don’t do those things. No, you scare old women. We are shadows. We draw our forms from others. Others who have died? Others. Other people? Yes. Solid people. Things.
Calvus presses them on how long they have been here, and what they do; if they know the two men who are not solid. They are not our concern. They ask who he is. Calvus tells them: a mage, named Calvus, not Gætani. What solid people come down here? The shadows shrug. They mostly pay attention to solidity, light, darkness. They draw their substance from the solidness of others. Light and solid make shadow; they are shadow. Calvus asks how they detach themselves from their solids. We are not attached to living solids, they say. Were you ever? We can attach ourselves, and from that draw substance. So again, what do you actually do? They don’t understand the question. When there is light? When there is no light? Do they wish for more light? Not too much. Not the shadowless light. They feed better where things move. The walls and floor give them very little, and there are few rats, that swallow their own shadows. Why do you kill people above, with fear? Again, an odd question. We don’t know. The actions of solid others are not ours. We cannot speak for the actions of solid things. Flickering light, it seems, is better than solid light. They’re blocked from some rooms above, but they are otherwise in all things. They move freely in the woods. —Calvus wants to get to know the creatures of Gætan, which is why he’s going through this. He also wonders whether the shadows are the reason for the covenant’s aura. The shadows don’t really know. Were you always here? How long is always? Calvus goes through a brief history of Sol Media Nox to try and figure out the timeline, but the shadows are fuzzy on the details. —It was good talking to you, says Calvus. Do you have a name?
We are shadows.
Calvus requests that they leave the Ulveggi corpse and the vim-packed head alone. If it doesn’t move, and it isn’t in light, say the shadows, it’s not our concern.
Calvus goes upstairs and wakes up Robert, his scribe. He requests a letter to Manu Tenere, informing them of the Ulveggi corpse, inviting them to show up any time after Passion; as well as the correspondence prepared for Quintus Opacus, which should be wrapped up and ready to send off before dawn. And he then retires a bit, reading through Ndape’s report. Hungry woman? What?
Then, correspondence wrapped, pigeons away, he knocks on Ndape’s door, requesting more information on the hungry woman, a wake-up call at two hours past noon, and why he’s playing a disloyal Steward, rather than loyal-but-objecting. Sonata insisted, sir, and I did not feel it was my place to gainsay a mage. True, says Calvus. He promises an early death. Then he staggers off and makes it to his bed before dawn and the collapse of his endurance of the bear-sark spell.
Cameron’s down with the coffin. He opens the lid. There’s a wolf-elf inside. Dead. With a severed head tucked against its hip. Gætani. Frightened expression. No one Cameron knows. He ruminates. Hears footsteps. He closes the lid and hides himself around the doorway. Ndape walks in, lifts the lid, looks at the corpse, shrugs, and goes back upstairs. Cameron sidles out, lifts the lid, looks at the corpse, shrugs, and goes back upstairs. Grabs a sticky bun from the pantry, and ensconces himself on Sonata’s balcony to spy on Nishoba some more. Sonata and Hoopoe pry into what his obsession with her balcony. Cameron says something about standing out here to consider the type of party he’d like to throw for all his friends, in case he’s ever invited to a party and needs to reciprocate, with clowns and ponies and nice things. —Just be careful who you invite to your party, says Sonata. Hoopoe suggests snails, not ponies. There’s a digression into Isrillion’s party. Cameron recounts an interesting conversation with Elias. Hoopoe was fond of the Coronal’s Dresser, with whom he made it a personal mission to spend as much time as possible. Coronal. Coronal. What a conservative-sounding official. —Manerean parties are discussed, as well as the party Calvus is planning to throw, with Savacions, and Lemmites.
Excuse me, mother? says Cameron, a little strained. Tully’s standing on his head. The magus Tully wishes to know if you are in? —I should tell you that I consider my balcony part of my rooms. Good point! says Tully, who disappears. There’s a knocking at the door. Cameron goes to open it. Is—what am I here for? You want to know if my mother Sonata is in. Exactly! But I know she’s in. What is it you wish to speak with the maga Sonata about? The sun! The sun! cries Sonata. Oh, do let him in!
Wine is poured, or is about to be poured before Tully grabs the bottle. The sun, it seems, has been done for a week or so. When are you going to take it? Sonata asks about turning it off. Is there a hood? To achieve night-time? Night-time? says Tully. Huh. He’d thought it would be raised and lowered for incredibly bright daylight and just plain bright daylight. Maybe if they lower it into a well? —Tully hasn’t slept in weeks. Perhaps this is because there’s been an incredibly bright sun in his labs? He’s been getting more work done, but he tried to kill that tall fellow the other day, Jerry? And failed! And there are two problems: one, he failed; two, he tried. This is disturbing. So maybe he’ll try sleeping. And Sonata pledges to take the sun. She asks what role he’s playing. I thought about it, but decided I’m too old and dignified. Sonata tries to find a dignified role. Perhaps Reason? I could play Reason, says Tully. I can throw thunderbolts. —Tully hands Cameron some goggles. (“Does this involve killing, or trying to kill?” asks Sonata. “Not at all,” says Tully. “They’ll let him see through walls.”) When Cameron puts the goggles on, he becomes incredibly, hideously ugly. Open, weeping sores, suppurating wounds, it’s awful. And the best part, whispers Tully, is they think they can see through walls!
They arrange to have the sun and its harness moved to the Chæronian garden, and to have a night-well dug and lined with stone. —Tully’s fascinated by Hoopoe’s wing. Flap it. Do you think one made of leather would work? He is reminded of bats. Hoopoe offers to catch one for him. Sonata waxes rhapsodic about flying. Tully leaves. Cameron goes to change into a tunic without quite so many tiny footprints on it, but first he goes in search of the one servant you have to know so you never have to know any of the other servants. The Chatelaine. He asks that a hole be dug in the Chæronian garden, past the tower. The one to have the sun. Which is what the well will be for. Fairly immediately, as Tully is preparing to deliver the sun virtually any moment. The Chatelaine suggests one of the mages, as that might be quicker? —Cameron goes in search of Ishta, but knocks first on Nishoba’s door. No answer. He writes with his fingertip, I am Cameron I am Nishoba Who am I. Then heads upstairs.
Ishta and Nishoba have been putting the finishing touches on the orbs. So they’re a bit busy. The room is full of glass, two large orbs, pearly. Nishoba fetches the hole-digging tool to dig the hole and goes with Cameron to the garden. The hole, eight feet deep, is dug and lined with glass. Put a board over this so no one falls into it, says Nishoba. We don’t want to kill a gardener. Of course not, says Cameron. I understand we had them imported. That’s the, uh, garden, says Nishoba. That we’re having imported. From Chæronia. He heads back, and Cameron is left to ponder how to go get someone to put a board over the hole as he stays to make sure no one falls into it.
Tully and Sonata bring the sun and its stand to the hole (Tully turns and fires a blast of flame from a ring at Ishta’s window. The flame gutters and fails a couple of feet away from the glass. “Good!” says Tully. “Her defenses are still up!”), where they find a message scrawled in the dirt: given the improbability that anyone can read this script, it says, it makes this warning not to fall into this hole especially futile. Tully’s leather chair-thing lowers the stand, then the sun, into the hole. They decide to brace the winch against the guard tower. —Some math. Tully decides to go try getting some sleep, now that there’s no sun. In his lab.
Cameron brings a wooden plank, and they cover the sun, and ponder for a bit how to warn people away from it. Sonata hops up on the pavement around the hole and leaps from one side to the other. The stone leaps after her, forming a stone beam across the wooden lid. She moves to the other side and leaps across that way, making another beam. The plank is secured until nightfall. —They discuss possibilities for Cameron’s speech. Perhaps a metaphor using rabbits? Or a sentence—of death? Perhaps both.
Nishoba opens the secret guard chamber and then lets servants in to set up the equipment for this afternoon’s demonstration.
Shammomóli in a dirty apron, his arms covered in salmon scales, takes a break from prepping salmon for the smokehouse and finds Jerry at the smithy and asks to talk to him, because he’s heard that they won’t be doing Tali’ Lakna’ Nani next year, and Jerry can talk to the mages, and the mages could make someone like him, because he really thinks Tishkilla is really pretty, even though she’s married, and if Jerry talks to the mages and the mages make her like him then he doesn’t have to wait until Tali’ Lakna’ Nani which they’re not going to have next year anyway and it won’t matter if she’s married, if he’ll do that. I have to go to work now. —Jerry says he’ll see what he can do.
Ndape wakes Calvus, and Calvus tells him about his conversation with the shadows on the way to the council room. Perdix tells Ishkin to keep working on the shingles for the castle; they don’t bother to summon a guard, but do murmur a brief intellego corpus spell over the doorstep. Nishoba goes looking for Tully, and ends up pounding on Tully’s door, which morphs into a giant Tully-face, bellowing, who knocks on the door of the Great Tully? After a couple of iterations, Nishoba tries the door. It’s unlocked. But the boots are waiting, quivering, just on the other side. Nishoba reaches past the mostly closed door and tries to grab the boots, snagging one and flinging it across the room as the other kicks his arm. The boot hits Tully’s inner sanctum door and hops back. Nishoba closes the door, and the boots start kicking it, and the door bellows. Nishoba goes down to his lab, grabs a rego terram device to protect against the steel-toed boots which kick ineffectually at his shins and a giant trebuchet-stone bounces off his head, and heads for the inner sanctum door, made of very hard leather. Nishoba catches the boots and uses one to knock at the door, which envelopes it. Hey! Tully!
Tully walks into the council chambers to meet the other magi. Ishta enquires after Nishoba. Nishoba? No, says Tully. He calls into one of his rings: Nishoba, I’m in the council room. We’re waiting for you.
Nishoba tosses the other boot into the door and carefully picks his way back across Tully’s lab.
Ishta is presenting her journeyman project, a gift to the entire covenant, presented in honor of Master Tully. The magi are given small stained-glass maps of the covenent. The orbs they’ve been working on are to be a new surveillance device: it will keep watch on the area outside the walls to one mile’s distance, under the control of the operator of the device. She points out the walls to be covered on the maps. Tully wonders if anything like this has been created before; not in Gætan, it hasn’t. You’ve read the Touccian texts, says Tully. It’s not in there, either, says Ishta. —She takes them down to the secret surveillance room. They see a large piece of square glass mounted in a frame inscribed with the essences, elements, and substances, as well as numeric planks to enable the operator to determine which is active and which aren’t. There’s also a pair of mail gloves. Nishoba puts them on. He turns on an orb, and the glass fills with the view from the gates. Nishoba, using the gloves, makes the view rotate. He peers down the empty roadway below, and pulls that view closer to see a deer at the side of the road. He turns on the second. Perdix allows as how it all could make you seasick.
Meanwhile, the corpse of the wolf-elf staggers up the stairs from the basement, carrying the head. Bubbles leads the kitchenstaff, screaming hysterically, from the kitchen.
The magi tumble down the stairs towards the kitchen.
Tully lifts his hand to shoot flame at the wolf-elf; Ndape, catching this out of the corner of his eye, quick-casts rego auram, setting off a massive thunderclap that sends flame gusting sideways along with flour, pots, pans, and Tully. Calvus regoes the wolf-elf in place as Tully bellows at Ndape, how dare you interfere with my magics, boy! Don’t look at me like that! Ndape snaps to parade-rest, head down.
The magi examine the wolf-elf and the snarling head it holds, looking for enchantment. Calvus breaks whatever it is, and it fades quickly. It feels Cholæic, or perhaps it feels strongly of this place, but it’s gone too fast to be sure. Tully tosses some earth over it, to intensify what’s there (“That tasted funny,” says Perdix, deep in intellego vim over the wolf-elf), but it’s not enough.
Sonata comes down from the library with For Those So Lazy in her hands. Calvus prepares spells to talk to the shadows. Gi heads down to the basement room—totally devoid of aura—to ask the coffin what happened. The coffin is affronted: what was in it came to life and walked away! Totally against the order of things. The only people who’ve visited were Ndape and Cameron. Gi has to head out into the basement hall to feel where the covenant’s aura resumes, and he talks to the hall to find out who’s been down it. A lot of people, and the hall is slow; this takes a while.
It takes some effort, but Ndape is able to cast the Wendellian house-cleaning variant from For Those So Lazy. He’s wiped after casting it. The kitchen is set to rights. (As it’s based on a Wendellian track-covering spell, the one who made the mess must cast the spell.)
As Gi looks on, Calvus sets up his torches to speak shadow-to-shadow, asking what caused the solid thing in that box to get up and walk. What made it move? Why should we answer? I’m doing what I can for you, bringing down moving light. So I’m asking: what made that move? We are asking ourselves, say the shadows, fading away. When will you have an answer? There was an insignificant moving thing. A small—we don’t find your language useful. We don’t find your question useful. How tall was it? The small solid? The shadow cast by the nose on your face is larger. Calvus turns his head to see the shadow cast. That small, huh? He promises to do what he can to provide moving light.
The kitchen staff is being fed calming potions by Nishoba as Ishta looks on. He has a hard time convincing Bubbles to drink it. The potioned staff has a hard time keeping straight where they are and whether lunch has yet been served or not. (It had. That’s why most of the dishes don’t need washing.) —Bubbles, rather than drink the potion, turns and flees. Ishta and Nishoba take off after him and tackle him and sit on him and pour the potion down his throat. Once he seems confused, they get up off him and help him to stand up.
Perdix and Sonata take issue with Ishta over the indiscriminate feeding of mind-altering potions to the kitchen staff; some heated words are exchanged, with Gi seeing the sense in removing worry. When Bubbles says something about how kind the magi were to help him to his feet, Perdix turns and stomps variously off, followed by Sonata. They discuss the inadvisability of feeding potions to the staff any time anything untoward happens. Perdix is furious and wants nothing to do with Ishta and her magehood now; Sonata pleads with them to come to the meeting and get it over with. After a long, uncomfortable moment, Abakoshi turns and heads into Perdix’ room; Shotik follows Sonata back down to the guard room. Half a loaf, he says, is better than none.
Ndape is cleaning the scorched wood from a cabinet when Calvus comes up from the basement. Calvus lets him know Tully was merely upset, and bears Ndape no ill-will, and that Ndape had done what he did on Calvus’ behalf. The wolf-elf corpse is important to Calvus, after all. So Ndape doesn’t have to punish himself by repairing the damage. They head up to the guard room.
Tully is testing the surveillance device. A stunning piece of work, he says. All yours, should you choose to accept it as my journeyman project. Tully asks the assembled mages if it is an acceptable piece. The magi variously agree, yes. Tully, smiling, is very happy to accept it; worthy of her talents and his training. It is now traditional for you to thank me for your training.
Thank you, says Ishta, for scores of years of training, which—thank you, Tully.
With your thanks in mind, I shall now retire to my chambers to consider your maga name.
Maga name? says Ishta.
Perdix smiles.
Nothing to add to your thank-you, then? says Tully. Ishta thanks him a little more, referencing all the many years beyond the call of duty she’s given him. Tully promises to have her name within the week. She’s a mage! And she promptly claims Nishoba as her formal apprentice. Tully tells her if she isn’t completely toasted by nightfall, she’ll be in violation of his lineage’s glorious traditions. He takes her to one side and tells her what his master told him: pick your own damn name. Get it to me in a week. It can’t be the same name, or I’ll look like a wimp, and you have to keep the Sebasticook thing going. —Thank you, says Ishta. You are one of the most talented Touccians of your generation, says Tully. You don’t have the perspective to see that. I do. Thank you, says Ishta, genuinely touched. I’m not used to this side of you. It won’t last, says Tully. And I wouldn’t have taken a Miller as an apprentice, if I were you. Other people will judge you by what Nishoba does. Keep your eye on him. —She says it’s been suggested he be sent to the Hall of Touccio, for some extra training, away from Gætan. Tully suggests she goes along with him, taking some of her digging devices, and he’ll provide her with letters of introduction. She’ll be accepted there, he says. But as for Nishoba? Frankly, it’s not my problem anymore. Just pick a name that’s not too boring. I have a reputation to uphold. Ishkin asks Abakoshi what the screaming was. She explains, and lets him know if the memory is too traumatic for him, he can be fed a potion that will wipe it from his mind. Ishkin’s a little disturbed. It would greatly help us to bring Love and Reason to this land if we actually brought Love and Reason to this land. Your foreign gods are strong, says Ishkin. I want some wine, says Abakoshi. Do you want some wine? —He goes and pours two glasses, and she takes one unwatered, says, yes, I am, and drinks it down. Pours a second glass, heads to the balcony, and sits there. After a moment the door opens and Shotik walks in. Ndape is trying the gloves. Ishta asks him to find a critter; he finds a squirrel. Calvus tries casting a rego animal on its image, to see if casting can be done through this as a connection. It doesn’t work. They admire the device some more, but Gi asks if no one is concerned about the undead wolf-elf in the basement. Ndape tells him Calvus has nailed the coffin shut, and will retire to pray for strength; Ndape will, meanwhile, watch the body. Gi will go with him, and Ndape thanks him for his expertise. Gi says it’s odd, the aura’s gone, the spell had a Cholæic taint, and only two Cholæics visited, Cameron and Ndape, at which Ndape take offense: he did nothing! Gi assures him that’s not what was meant and don’t take that tone. Ndape, abashed, apologizes; his people, after all, are known to traffic in the undead, and some make assumptions... Ndape heads for the basement as Cameron asks if it’s possible for Monkey-magic to disguise itself as Cholæic magic? No one knows for sure. It’s possible. But to get in this far? And how much do they know about Cholæic magic, really? —It might have been a trap placed on the wolf-elf as Calvus carried it in. What about the ghost? Palenti? —Gi heads for the basement after Ndape, apologizing to Ishta for not being able to join the festivities. Tully heads to the Scarecrow King to work on getting as many people as royally drunk as possible. Send messengers! It’s all on me! So send me the bill! Sonata, on her way to her rooms, confides to Cameron that she suspects Tully; he was interfering with his student’s graduation. We know he has devices that make zombies. We know he cast dirt upon the corpse. And if he hadn’t been interfered with, he would have destroyed the corpse entirely. He may also be displeased with the idea of Manu Tenere coming for a visit. Also, he doesn’t really like Calvus. Sonata hands Cameron pen and paper and tells him to write, describing everything he saw in that room. The light. The shadows. Who visited. What they did. Where the coffin stood. What it looks like. The taste of the air. Gi and Calvus discuss Gi’s training; the staff; Calvus’ demeanor; the shadows; and indepently arrive at the same conclusion: what do we do if it’s Tully? Ndape asks for permission to stay to watch the corpse, as Gi heads up to talk to Sonata; Calvus to Perdix. There’s a knock at Sonata’s door; it’s Gi. Have you come to any conclusions? Not particularly. Gi reveals he thinks it’s Tully; Sonata agrees, advisedly. There are many... signs. —If it was Tully, it’s the best, really: a prank, not an attack, not an unknown. Better that than another Cholæic force wandering about. Or that Ulveggi corpses in our basement mysteriously come to life. Perhaps the body should be stored somewhere other than our cool pantry? —Some discussion of zombies. Gi, giddy with five days of fasting, laughs at the part zombies might play in the Passion pageant. Cameron will go speak to the Chatelaine about the cap for the sun. Calvus goes to Perdix’ room, and Ishkin lets him in. Calvus tells Perdix he didn’t wake them for the wolf-elf last night because he didn’t think Perdix would be interested, not being an animal mage. He tells them about speaking with the shadows. Perdix asks Ishkin what ought to be done about the shadows; Ishkin asks what their gods can do to protect them. Plenty, says Calvus. There is some discussion of the Passion play, and Perdix is clearly displeased at having to take part. You don’t enjoy the idea of performing your religious rites for our people? asks Ishkin. It’s the Day of Passion, says Perdix. Passion is a day of excess. And the excess of others can be—tiresome. But it’s a glorious day. Good food. Though the music probably won’t be that much here, this year. Calvus lets Perdix know that the Manu Tenereans will be visiting soon. Perdix asks to know who and when, when Calvus finds out.
