There are (I’m sure) murmurs of appreciation and queries about how this would work.
The small table in the centre of the room cleared and then first feast settings and then a large tureen of soup appears on it. With the Cook and the Nun supervising the two apprentices begin to lay out the meal and then serve it. The Nun murmurs Grace (which gets a glare from Corvus) and Julia directs the seating arrangements: Hubertus and Acerbus to either side of her, Uillorard and Diligentus flanking Corvus. With the arrival of the Redcap who takes a seat by Anna the Cook the feast begins.
Chicken soup with barley.
Julia turns to her right and says: "Well then, Ungulus. The Claw.” She takes a piece of bread and stirs it in her soup as she stares into the distance.
“Ungulus was established in 984. Before the Normans came to England. Before the Schism War broke out and tore across Stonehenge and the whole order. It was founded by Flambeau magi, in anticipation of the coming of the war against the Diedne and the remote site was chosen to stage attacks against the Druid-held covenants in Cumbria and North Wales. But with the end of the war it became the home of a tradition of Veriditus magi who remade the place in their own image.”
“They’re all dead now: the last of them died about thirty years ago but you can see their workmanship in every inch of the place. A single, huge black stone tower, carved on the outside with runes, pictures of animals and stars, writing in Latin and in other unrecognisable scripts and I don’t know what else. I could never make any sense of it as decoration or magic or anything else.”
“Inside is still stranger. Visitors are told not to wander the corridors nor to go into rooms that they have not been given permission to enter. Every corner is filled with the products of the Veriditus tradition’s special skills. To look at you can’t tell whether a particular statue is there to guard the corridor, open the door for you, act as a bed companion or eat you alive. A bowl might produce wine, scented bathwater or open a gateway to the Realm of Magic. The covenfolk are warped in a dozen different ways and all descended from generations of servitors of the magi. They seem to know how to disarm the traps and propitiate the spirits. It’s not safe to go out of your room on your own and I convinced that there’s a regio, perhaps more than one, inside the tower. It seems bigger on the inside than the walls could possibly accommodate and the passages don’t stay the same for every visit.”
“Now, the covenant has drifted into Winter. The last Veriditus died of a broken heart after his only apprentice was fried by a dragon and the last Flambeau died in a Wizard’s War just earlier this year. There are five magi left there and all of them are old. Flavius Ex Miscellanea is the only one I’d actually call sane and his only hope is that the others will die before he does and he can do something to reactivate the covenant. Aquilla of Bjornaer is our Corvus’ parens: she spends most of her days in eagle form and I expect that she will soon lose the ability to return to humanity.”
“The third is perhaps the saddest and the maddest. Sinead Ex Miscellanea was in love with Parsirus, the Veriditus apprentice the dragon slew. That was fifty years ago and she has burned for revenge ever since. She has tried to slay the worm herself and failed twice and she will veto any attempt to bring in new blood to the covenant unless she gets her revenge first.”
Julia pauses and looks down at her now empty bowl. “I tried to slay it. I failed. It cost us half of our turb and two good companions…”
She slumps back and does not speak for a while.
“There are two more members. Viator of Mercere is a Gifted Redcap who wants the whole of the covenants resources to be spent on his project to create a device that will allow safe communication between covenants without violating the Aegis. Espera of Merinita is a frightened woman: she offended a Fairie Lord twenty years ago and will never leave the Aegis of her covenant again. Every stranger that turns up she assumes is a fay spy sent to assassinate her.”
“Now, none of this would matter to anyone outside their walls if it weren’t for politics. If and when Ungulus falls the vis resources of the covenant will be up for grabs which is not an inconsiderable resource. Also if it can be brought out of winter it would be a valuable ally for anyone interested in the future of Stonehenge Tribunal.”
“Speaking of which, Ungulus lies between us and our rivals at Blackthorn. I know that they have approached the mad magi but they have gotten no further than we… than I did.”
“Find some way to gain the friendship of Ungulus or even to stop it falling and you will earn the gratitude of the whole covenant. Perhaps of the whole tribunal.”