Of Inquisitive Minds
Twenty-Fourth Day of the Ninth Month 294 AC
The word goes out east over arcane whispers,
Keep your heads down and your evacuation plans close. Not that the Inquisition has drawn many would be martyrs, but it is good to make these things clear lest a moment of hesitation cost you not just lost ground but lost people. For practically as long as there has been had Inquisition presence in the cities of the Ghiscari, they have had the thin but sturdy line of foresight to grasp to, now that is gone and their enemies are in the ascendant.
Speaking of enemies, you do not trust the Sons of the Harpy. Not because of the stench of the Pit that clings to them, you do after all have demons in your service, but simply because of the eminently mortal motivations that drove them to take up the winged banner. They are the champions of the Ghiscari nobility, and that is to champion slavery in its basest form, not merely from cold calculation but from philosophical commitment. You do not have the time, the resources, or, truth be told, the inclination to see if one might find a nugget of gold in that bucket of muck.
For a moment you consider a trap, there are, after all, other uses to which the would be defectora can be put, but no. You will not cheapen your word of safe passage like that, not even by deniable proxy. Let them go where they will. You will deal with them and their goddess, if that is what she is, in good time.
Closer to home, some doings of thes Inquisition far less momentous make their way to your desk by virtue of who had seen them done. Your wards have graduated from smugglers and magic rats...
The first time you read the word 'cult' on the report you are caught between a sudden spike of worry for their safety and anger at whoever had allowed it. As you go over what Kyla, Ysilla, and an enthusiastic Ysandryx had actually dealt with you calm down a notch or two. It had not been daemons or devils, or indeed any sort of deeper malign influence. Rather, a skilled but unscrupulous practitioner of low magic had managed to create a cult around herself with little more than minor healing powers, the ability to divine the bones of the dead, and a commanding stage presence. That sort of thing would not work on local Deepsmen very well, which is why 'Madame Omnyda' was not baiting the hook for them, but for new immigrants to the city, particularly ones who were already grieving or who had little more than the clothes on their backs when they made it to the city. The lure of a community can be particularly strong, all the more so one lead by such a 'wise sage' amid all the strange sorcery of the city.
That alone would likely not have gotten anyone sent to the tree, but a young man had actually been starved to death as a form of punishment and to maintain control over the rest of the 'faithful'. Kyla and Yislla had both countersigned their instructor's suggestion that the ringleader at least should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law in this matter. Given the general tone of the report, you doubt a prosecutor would struggle to obtain a conviction. Two girls still shy of their tenth birthday had just signed someone's death warrant.
You cast your mind back to the last time you had seen them at the court picnic you had been present for all of half an hour, They seemed genuinely cheerful and showing off their new magic to any who were interested. It looks like they were right about being fit for the Inquisition.
[] Write in level up plans for Kyla and Ysilla
OOC: I still have the god forging to handle, but that will take a while to work the tangles out of so in the meantime I rolled what the junior inquisitors were doing. They did well enough for a level up. Not yet edited.
