Prologue: Monday and Tuesday following Feast of Saint John, 1178

It has been a dark and rainy Spring in Brabant, but Spring it is. A knight appeared in Bois de Haillot, fully armed and armoured and on a great destrier, his squire following with an armful of lances. The villagers gathered about, but few strayed close, for this was clearly a man with blood in his past, and even his horse was dangerous and eager. William de Bierve, the bailliff, challenged him at the ford, and the knight seemed satisfied to wait there, at least for a while.

Shortly after several people of the Covenant, including one of the apprentices and the squire of the Captain, came down from the nearby fields. Renaut spoke for the Covenant, or more properly for the princeps Anaxagoras (for that is who the knight, Friedhold, came seeking). Friedhold gave Renaut a letter in the name of Duke Gottfried of Brabant, calling him with arms, retainers, and provisions to an army the Duke was gathering. Renaut, along with Rutger the squire and Brother Christophe, delivered it up to the castle, leaving the other covenfolk, along with the bailiff and the villagers, to watch Friedhold as he idly sized up the manor.

Anaxagoras was infuriated by the letter—is not Bois de Haillot a fief of the Holy Roman Emperor, immune to a call to arms by any local lord? At his command, Renaut and Brother Christophe penned an elegant but unequivocal reply. Before returning to the village, Renaut magicked Rutger's horse Sven, giving the gelding the stature of the heaviest of destriers, and Rutger took up his arms and armour. The knight Friedhold left with Renaut’s written reply, apparently with some relish for the fight that it seemed might be coming.

The Covenant called Council, and the magi debated their options for some time. At last they emerged from their private council chamber, and orders were given. Under the supervision of Aline's apprentice Pietre, Renaut was tasked with gathering vis from the waters of the Pool of the Stone horse in the forest some miles from the manor. Given the danger of an army in the region, he was not to travel alone in the woods, so he gathered about him his companions from the day before: Rutger and Christophe, along with the huntsman Edgard, and Olaf and Albrecht (who may have been more attracted to the silver coins to be thrown into the pool than to the task at hand).

Someone had been to the pool before; Albrecht found footprints at the water's edge. Edgard and Olaf spotted a black horse moving in the bracken nearby, but despite its size and the density of the forest, it disappeared with hardly a sound. It has been speculated that the pool is home to a fey creature (perhaps that's what gives its water magical properties), and Renaut posited that this horse might be the fairie, driven from its home perhaps by the previous visitor. Edgard followed the footprints, which clearly led back to the manor but gave no clue as to their creator. Renaut would later find that the water he gathered had no power to produce vis.

Back at the castle, Olaf was approached by a friend. Georges was concerned for his lover Lydia, who had not been seen since morning. The two were banned from seeing each other (having endangered their virtue without the benefit of betrothal), so Georges was hesitant to bring the issue to Doriane, the steward. Could Olaf and his friends investigate first? Olaf found only that indeed, nobody had seen Lydia since midday, and that she did not reappear at compline.

In the mean time, a cousin of Edgard's appeared at the castle, seeking shelter for herself and her children. She reported an army occupying Arbois, the nearest manor to the north of Bois de Haillot. The Duke was gathering forces, and wherever men of war gather, fighting, looting, and death are not far behind.

Bois de Haillot shrinks before the threat of a nearby army. Covenfolk are missing, and people and creatures unknown ply the dark forests that envelope the covenant.