Chapter 3: The May Queen

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Cast, Part One:

[Date: 2000-07-??, Storyguide: Michael Krammer]

Cast, Part Two:

[Date: 2001-07-08, Storyguide: Michael Krammer]

May Day's Eve

On May day's eve, Flavius, Silvus and Tonitrus woke up in the tavern at sunrise. A couple of hours after breakfast, Imma returned from Aesculus (as always, disguised as Imhard). The magi walked around in the village and made up plans the future. They went back to the tavern and talked with the tavern-keeper Heinz and his wife Matilde about the village and its surroundings. At noon, some peasants arrived from the fields to eat and the magi soon started to talk with them too. The peasants told the magi about a wise woman called Mechtild, living in the woods outside the village. They also talked about the castle ruin and the magi asked the peasants if they were willing to help them restoring some parts of it to make it habitable, but the peasants hesitated ("we must work on the fields", "we don't like to work that far away from the village") and almost seemed to be afraid of the woods and the ruin. When the magi asked about the strange tree circle, the villagers quickly responded "it's rumoured to be an old cult centre, but we're all good christians" and made it very clear that they didn't want to talk about that place. When the magi tried to pressure them for more information about the magical place, father Filibert, the village priest, entered the tavern and the subject was quickly dropped. The villagers quietly finished their meal and returned to the fields. Imma revealed to the priest that they had moved in to the castle ruin, a confession which made Silvus very angry and which later resulted in a serious argument. The priest offered to visit the ruin to help the newcomers and he became very happy when they accepted.

When the priest had left and the magi had finished their meal, they decided to find and talk to Mechtild, the wise woman. With some directions from the villagers on the fields, they managed to find her small cottage in the wood, north of the village, where she lives together with her three daughters Adelheid, Diemut and Hemma. They found the woman in her herb garden outside the cottage and introduced themselves. When they asked her about the magical tree circle she told them that the glade is the court of a faerie king and that the villagers are wise to avoid the glade, since the king is angry with them. About twenty-thirty years ago, the villagers broke an old custom to appoint a May queen amongst the unmarried women in the village and let her stay with the king as his bride during the summer. Mechtild also told them that it was the old village priest Engilschalk who stopped the celebration, and that the villagers usually still celebrates the May day to some degree, by appointing the May queen but not letting her stay with the king anymore. When the magi revealed that they had moved in to the old castle ruin, Mechtild sighed and said that she had known that the ruin would be habitated again - her "mothers" had always been right. She now also confessed that her "mothers" had been allied with noble magi in the castle, and that "the mothers" suspected that it was an internal conflict that resulted in the collapse (no magi asked what she meant with the phrase "mothers").

Without meeting the three daughters, the four magi left the cottage and started to walk back to the ruin via the village. On their way back, they collected gifts for the eve's celebrations: Imma collected honey in the wood, while Flavius and Silvus gathered flowers and twigs for a May pole and Tonitrus bought beer, bread, rope and a tanned skin in the village. Back in the ruin, they had a light meal and waited for the dusk. Imma tried to hunt the crows away again, but found that they all just disappear when she try to close the distance to them.

At dusk, they took their gifts and started to walk towards the glade. The wood now seemed to be more alive, and the four magi could hear strange sounds and voices behind the trees but they were wise and stayed on the path. When they arrived at the glade, they built a May pole just outside the tree circle and placed the food and the flowers on the big boulder. When Flavius walked around the boulders he suddenly entered a regio and disappeared from sight! He found himself standing in the same glade, but found that all trees and plants now were bigger, more perfect and more beatiful. He continued walking around the boulders, which soon changed into a giant table and seven chairs. Finally, he reached the faerie court and found the faerie king himself sitting on his giant throne surrounded by his six companions. The faerie king asked Flavius where the May queen was, and Flavius told the king that she had not yet been appointed but promised that she would arrive later. Flavius asked the king if the food and the gifts were good, and the king seemed satisfied. Flavius bade farewell and returned to his friends who were patiently waiting outside the regio.

Picking a May Queen

To be written...
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