Kiyoka, Douaga and beyond

[Graybeard]

"Thank you, I'm in your debt for this one," Sister Rose said to the disappearing Harker, meaning it (although that indebtedness had ... limits). Then she turned back to Argus. "Well, I guess we'd better get on with it."

Some minutes later, the six travelers filed into the briefing room. Kitaura, it was noted, was absent, and his seat was occupied by a middle-aged Orthodox priest whom Rose didn't recognize. Formalities were exchanged, and the session began.

"Please start by informing us," Father Amalric said, "of how you first came to meet the late Father Blaise. Respond individually."

Rose cleared her throat and got out two words before the man interrupted. "Sister, please save your own description for last. Brother Timothy, please begin."

Rose started to bristle at this -- as usual, the Orthodox man prefers the male viewpoint -- but then something occurred to her. If she'd gone first, the dominant response from the others in the party would be "just what Rose said." By having her go last, the others would be forced to give their own interpretations, not just spinning them for consistency with hers. Amalric wasn't putting her down, he was just engaging in sound interrogation practice. She held her tongue and waited to hear what Tim had to say, curious to see if she'd missed something.

[Alberich]

"Yes, Father," said Tim. He gave his account steadily, his attention mostly on Father Amalric himself. Despite all his recent frustrations -- from Rose's leadership to Desiree's petulance to his own inability to rescue Eli -- he was at his ease here. It was right and proper that the Church inquire into these recent events, and learn what they needed to know.

Maybe there were some other matters that they didn't need to know, but Tim wasn't even thinking about those.

"It began when I was serving as a priest in Umbertiel, under Bishop Cyrus and Father Arpad. Inquisitor Blaise had come to our town, but I had no business with him and didn't meet him then. He and his companion, Sister Bree, commandeered rooms in our church, as was their right. They were there to question Sister Rose and her companions, who had just arrived in town.

"Well, one morning, Blaise simply disappeared - he and all his goods. What the novices said was that there was just a big flash of magic, and poof! - he was gone. And Sister Bree died suddenly that same morning, with a look of horror on her face. And right around that same time, the Church stables caught fire. Bishop Cyrus ran up to learn what was the matter. His heart almost stopped. I and Desiree, there, were able to save him from death by the hardest. In fact, she started before I arrived, and he would not have lived without her part."

He might be mad as hell at her, right now, but the truth was the truth; and if she'd played a crucial role in saving a bishop, that might help to deflect any blows she wished to bring down on her own head. Unless, of course, they knew him. Saving that bishop wasn't likely to make too many friends...

"The horses were mostly recovered later, but Blaise's was not among them. Anyway, that done - someone tried to start a rumor that Rose's companions had started the fire. I brought them to the church, where they received sanctuary. And we received word that Inquisitor Blaise had been seen near Getsemiel. And I received orders through Father Arpad to leave town with them the next day. Which I did."

He elected not to bring up the matter of Ronnie Sigriel, the statuette, or his dead uncles Tommy and Shemmy. None of them seemed to have a thing to do with Blaise, and he saw no reason to bring more investigations down on the boy's head. Likewise, the business of the enemies Maduin seemed to make so easily, including the woman with the giant lizard he'd heard about, even his encountered with the horrible lust monster - none of this related to Blaise.

"So while we travelled, Sister Rose told me a little about Inquisitor Blaise and his history. How he used to be on the Southern Continent, and had a 'mystery encounter' down there, and came back and did nothing for twenty years. And how suddenly this year, people who knew him or knew about him started just dying without a mark on them. And she had an intuition that he might be himself a fallen priest, and worshipping Death instead of Lord Luminosita. Which from what we saw later I can well believe.

"Well, we made it to Getsemiel" -- once more, there was much to leave out. The strange pursuer, Rose's shameful treatment of Sergeant Tarmage, Tim's desire to preserve the addled townfolk from their pursuer, Bryce's insubordination in preferring to ride back to his lover, Maduin's disappearance after an encounter with the enemies he seemed to make so easily - none of that had anything to do with Blaise. -- "and the next morning we set out after him. The man who'd seen him, Brother Tyler, pointed Sister Rose to a merchant where he'd bought provisions. Sister Rose talked to the merchant and heard he'd been asking about Frobish Bay. So that's where we went. Just out of town we found the Inquisitor's symbol, as if he'd dropped it carelessly by the road. Or was going where it would have no meaning."

Here, too, he was being vague about details. Rose's self-indulgence in soaking in Californican baths, with this non-husband of hers, while time went by and Blaise got his head start...well, none of that was going to help what this inquiry was about. Neither would a critique of the singularly ineffective tactical choices made by Rose at the battle site - wasting time and energy on a watchtower, putting Brad on top of it with orders to make a giant Visage over the sea, when even a tiny visage at closer range would knock him cold...

"So I was helping to provide overwatch, and that's where I first saw Inquisitor Blaise. There was a strange magical watercraft approaching on the sea, like nothing I'd ever seen, something like a ship, but legged, and running at speed over the water. Inquisitor Blaise had dismounted his horse and was approaching it. He magically froze everyone before they could get near him or do anything to stop him. He jumped on board. Then it left at amazing speed. The next time any of us saw him, he was dead." He looked a question at Father Amalric. A slight nod said, Yes, go on, tell me about that, too.

"We searched the beach and the area where he'd left his horse. There was a sign that something big and heavy had been sitting there but disappeared. Rose found a strange little figurine of a drummer, but it was broken. Also a strange picture of a Tsuirakuan wizard named 'Asoto Kurou,' not like a normal drawing, something Tsuirakuan I've never seen. She explained to me he was a man who looked into strange and old cultures, and i wondered if he wasn't linked to Inquisitor Blaise through an interest in whatever he found down on the Southern Continent."

All the business with the Tsuirakuan airship had nothing to do with Blaise. Tim left it out. Even the explosions, and the healing he'd done there, were other business - dreadful business, to be sure - but not Blaise business.

"So, we figured Blaise might be heading for Tsuiraku, and Sister Rose called for an airship. We received a report Blaise was in Port Lorrel. We flew there..."

Where a great many disturbing things had happened, Rose had placed her fleshly desires above his own soul, Eli and he had slain some slavers, who had almost dragged Desiree away to a life of "respect"...none of which this board needed to hear.

"..and Sister Rose met a seaman of some kind, apparently one of those who'd been driving the strange vessel. A priest from our mission in Port Lorrel had died, in the same way as others had, without a mark on his body. He told this seaman he was going downtown but went to the docks instead. Argus was able to find out that Blaise was heading for Goriel, in the Northern Confederacy. So we went there by airship.

"We arrived. On Sister Rose's instructions, we posed as the chiefs of a foreign clan. Those barbarians accepted us readily as such - we had messengers from their chief clan, the Duravsky, and their second clan the Yurkashev. We were feasting with the Yurkashev. They brought in some entertainments - which turned out to be unwashed, fanatical outlaws. These outlaws tried to kill us. The Yurkashev helped us fight them off. And then the gong struck midnight and the outlaws who were still alive, like prisoners, died. Not a mark on them, same thing."

Part of him really wanted to talk about Eli, about Rose's refusal to save his soul, about how she changed her mind when the elf showed up, how the elf bullied him because that was her soulless nature, and Rose claimed the patriarch wanted him to submit to her whims, how Brad the Reformist trusted this elf above him...and so much more. But it was nothing to do with Blaise. Nor in the end did Desiree's "mission" as a kept whore for the Duravsky.

"The less said the better about that awful place. The True Light has not shone brightly there! Sister Rose heard a rumor that Blaise had fled north from the city we were in, to a ruby mine held by their third clan, the Gibazov. So we travelled north to investigate. On the road, we met some adventurers, not Gorielians. They told us they'd just come from the mine, and Blaise wasn't there. And one of them was an assassin who'd was trying to kill Blaise. Sister Rose told her we wanted him alive. She ran off.

"The next night, while we were camped and scouting the countryside for clues, this assassin came back. She said she'd killed him with a rifle shot. We went to investigate. We met a tribe of outlaw fanatics - probably the same ones that'd tried to kill us at the Yurkashev feast. Their leader was some kind of powerful insane half-elf wizard. They screamed about death and they wanted to die. The Good Lord fought on our side. We vanquished them, completely, and truck down their chieftain. There was a monster of some kind inside him - but we killed it together.

"The next morning, Sister Rose led an expedition to their camp. They found Blaise laid out for a heathen funeral, like bodies we'd seen in the wilderness. Up there, they use some kind of little funeral tokens that are kind of like the drummer statuette. She said the Rites to keep him at rest. And that was the last anyone saw of him. They also found their women and children - all dead by some kind of suicide pact. So whoever his friends were there, they're dead too."

The mysterious altar was something he left out - it wasn't directly part of the question. And he wasn't sure the heathen Tsuirakuan member needed to know there was anything up there in the wilds that could be a source of unholy power.

He hoped his long answer would save the board members some time. Now they had a narrative to hang the rest of their questions on. If they weren't stumbling around in the dark, trying to figure out who'd done what, maybe they wouldn't stumble on any of the more awkward questions.

[Alberich]

Father Amalric gave a brief glance at the Luminositan Scientist, who gave a barely perceptible nod. "Thank you, brother," he said. He took a quick glance at his notes, then looked up at Anfisa. "And what of you...Anfisa?"

Anfisa hadn't been listening while this stupid priest from this stupid country told his stupid story about their stupid "Blaze." She'd been daydreaming about her lover Desiree, and occasionally stealing glances up with her demure, downcast eyes - to see if anyone here was noticing that there were pretty girls in pretty dresses here, bored stiff by this men's business.

"I met my new friends in Goriel City," she said. "They were kind enough to take me away from there. I never met this 'Blaze.' I'm glad I didn't!"

From Father Amalric, the same look. From the Scientist, the same nod. Then he checked his notes, and looked to...

[OOC: Whichever PC would care to answer next. Rose is going last, so that's Therese, Desiree, or Argus. Mind you, he's not letting the witnesses decide who will answer next; it just so happens, as a coincidence, that the next person who gets asked is the one whose player feels like posting next.]

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Exactly, A. Therese will step up and take the next one, leaving Argus and Desiree to decide who goes after that. To that end:]

Therese listened calmly to proceedings, digesting what Tim had said, and giving silent thanks to the Five Great Mothers that she'd been given a chance to organize her answer. When Father Amalric turned his gaze in her direction, she was ready to speak.

"My story resembles Anfisa's," she said. "I had come to Goriel from my home state on a humanitarian mission, a mission of mercy, of no relevance to Blaise or to your church. I--"

Amalric interrupted. "We will be the judge of that," he said, his face stern. "Please explain this--" Then he subsided, the sentence unfinished, with a surprised glance at the newcomer to the room. That passed in no more than two seconds, to be replaced by his usual demeanor. "My apologies," he said. "That will be unnecessary. Please continue."

Just like when we met him before, Sister Rose thought. Almost excessively brusque, military personality, cojones the size of watermelons, absolutely rigid adherence to lines of command, and always a sense that there's something else going on. Well, if nothing else, he's consistent. And it looks like there's someone else in the room who uses telepathy. She sat silently awaiting the rest of Therese's answer, although she was pretty sure what her colleague was going to say.

Therese picked right up where she'd left off. "I had never met your Father Blaise before Sister Rose and her colleagues came to Goriel, and to my knowledge, I never did meet him while he was alive. A chance encounter with Rose and Dr. Cleiviein here led to the discovery that we had a common interest, not so much in Blaise, but in where he had gone. The organization that apparently gave him shelter is notorious in Goriel, a persecutor of exactly those wom--" she caught herself -- "people -- no, women that my own people try to protect. They have a significant criminal element as well. One thing led to another, and I joined this mission -- but I never did meet Blaise."

Again, the subtle glance and nod, which caused Therese no small amount of relief. The evasion had worked, apparently. Everything she said was true: Blaise was being sheltered by the nasty outlaw band, which persecuted women just as every other outfit in Goriel did. That he wasn't a member of that band, and possibly was a member of the Convergence, was something that didn't need to come out yet. She waited patiently as the inquisitor (may as well call him what he was, whether attached to the Cardinal Inquisitor's office or not) turned his attention to Desiree and Argus. [OOC: Up to you two to decide who goes next.]

[Alberich]

Tim thought Anfisa's answer had been cleverer than Therese's. Therese's smacked too much of mystery - she was practically, no, literally telling the Board that she was leaving things out. Had she never been questioned before, as a girl, by her parents or superiors? Evasions drew questions the way flowers drew honeybees.

Anfisa, by constrast, hadn't even mentioned that she was a getera with ruling clan. That was cunning -- those heathens would probably be thinking of her as stolen property, and if they knew she was in Veracia, start making noise through diplomatic channels. Or Veracia might see the benefit of offering her in exchange for something else...

"Speak less than you know" was a Veracian proverb. It might be a useful survival skill in that slave-cage she came from. Whether or not it was, she seemed to have that much wisdom.

[Drannin]

Argus sighed. There was too much to relate, but he decided to give descriptions of his involvement as best he could. A little bit about how he had originally been approached by Father Egbert. Wound up traveling with Sister Rose in search OF Egbert. And then going into detail when he turned to the madness with Blaise.

"In the end, I've been traveling around mainly out of a sense of curiosity at it all, and how it all ties together. There's been enough occurring to write a novel about it. Or possibly a series. Still, this concludes my description of events. Is there anything else?"

(Translation: after four years [wow] of this quest, I just don't remember all of the details.)

[Graybeard]

Sister Rose winced inwardly when Argus mentioned Father Egbert, and not just because he was getting beyond the bounds of the question Father Amalric had asked. That unfortunate episode was still too close to the surface. She wished she could take back those words ... but what had been said could not be unsaid.

The new man in the room, who still hadn't introduced himself, picked up on it, and raised a hand. "So am I to understand that you believe there to be a linkage between this unfortunate affair and the equally unfortunate incident with Father Egbert?" he asked.

Therese moved closer to Rose in her seat, and whispered a single word in her ear. "Who?"

[Alberich]

It didn't seem quite fair to Tim. The question was being addressed to the group. It was Church business, such that Argus would be unlikely to know and less likely to want to be mixed up in it. Rose was the one who knew the answer best, yet she'd been held to go last. He didn't see her wincing at the topic. Better to let them know --

"Well," injected Tim. "I've heard that Inquisitor Blaise is the one who recruited Father Egbert into the Church, and that Father Egbert had some connection with this way of making people die suddenly without a mark on them. Sister Rose is the one who knows the most about it, and, ah, she's been directed to give her answers last."

There. He wasn't telling the new member to hold off on his question or even advising him to do so - he was just providing information that would naturally lead him that way. And with Desiree going first, that might give Rose a moment to think about framing her answers, if there was something she wanted to leave out. And he'd been vague enough that she could tell part of the "connection" if she wanted to without revealing all.

[Drusia]

It seems I'm up last, or second to last. Well, let's get it overwith then.

"My situation is similar to Anfisa's," I state. "My parents have known Rose for a number of years, and my mother particularly considers her a friend," I lie smoothly. That's the key to a good lie - the heart is true, but the details are wrong. My mother, the only parent I've ever had, has known of Rose for years, as have I, and my mother does consider Rose a friend.

"When she heard Rose was in the area, my mother contacted Rose and asked her to take me along," I continue. Which, again, is true - misleading, but true. "My parents wanted me to see more of the world. I didn't really know much about the world before I began traveling with Rose. She and her companions have shown me so much - and taught me much as well. Brother Timothy, particularly, has been the best ambassador your chuch could hope for. He has explained so many things to me." I smile brightly at both the council and at Tim.

There. To the council, particularly the Luminosans, I have just given Tim glowing praise. I have no idea what Tim will see there.

"I've had no part in the Blaize search, other than hearing a bit about it over supper," I say. "I helped some of the injured after that battle with the outlaws, but after that I was very tired, so I was in the tent sleeping when they found Blaize's body." I shrug. "So, like Anfisa, I never met Blaize while he was alive, nor was I present when Rose and the others found his body."

There, done. I look at Rose - it's her turn next, and then we can all leave. Right?

-- Desiree

OOC: Just in case it isn't obvious, since her thoughts are elsewhere on the matter, Desiree is keeping with the pretense that she has only recently joined the group. She didn't SAY it, but she's implied that she's only been there as long as Therese and Anfisa. And anyway, the last time Blaize was sighted, she was crying over Kenny's 'grave' and wasn't paying the least bit of attention.

[Alberich]

[OOC: Tim's already told them that Desiree was there in Umbertiel - and given her full credit for saving Bishop Cyrus - so I think she can't quite sell that.]

Tim was mildly surprised by Desiree's compliment, but chalked it up to gratitude because he'd given her her full due for saving Cyrus. It still gave him a slight flush of pleasure at the decency she was showing. But he couldn't dwell on that right now. He wasn't letting himself examine his own feelings -- eyes and ears had to stay open. There was a lot of spiritual and temporal authority in this room. And that meant danger for the unwary.

If put on the spot he couldn't have explained why he'd wanted to leave Rose room to leave things out before this tribunal. Part of it was that, whatever his problems with her leadership, she still didn't strike him as fundamentally bad. Weak sometimes, indecisive sometimes, misplaced in her loyalties for sure - but not bad. Part was the presence of the Tsuirakuan member. The Church allowed him here for reasons it knew best, but maybe those reasons hadn't taken everything into consideration. And part of it was his upbringing again - it just didn't feel right sticking women out front, no matter what kind of danger it was.