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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ellinor" data-source="post: 5368144" data-attributes="member: 14561">16x01Wind whistled through the cracks of the storage cellar as, for the briefest moment of silence, Tavi took stock of the situation.  Guards continued to pile into the room, and in seconds, the party was surrounded by nearly a dozen armed men.  The guard captain, Yutaka, stood among the boxes and crates with a smug, self-satisfied glare.  But there was no more time to think, as one of the guards raised his katana and charged toward Rose.  Rose shrieked in shock and fear.  Without hesitation, Tavi ignited the green flame of his sword and closed the distance to Rose’s attacker, slicing the attacker’s shoulder before he could even turn. “What are you doing?”  Tavi yelled.  “We are here to help your Lord!” “He is not worthy of that title!”  Yutaka snarled.  “Get the heathens!  For Kettenek’s Truth!” And suddenly, Tavi wasn’t just surrounded and protecting Rose, he was fighting for his life against a crowd of Tide zealots.  The guards rushed in, and Rose teleported to a corner behind crates, where she would be safe from the fighting.  But that left Tavi in the middle. One of the guards’ katanas connected with Tavi’s arm.  It seared in pain.  He could hear cries from Savina and Mena, too, although he couldn’t see them.  But wherever they were, he knew they were fighting back.  Tavi saw one of the guards clutch his neck, blood seeping through his fingers…and then saw Arden wiping her blade behind him.  Kormick strode through the crowd, swinging his warhammers, bashing a path through the guards, leaving them bruised and weakened, clutching their guts and knees.  “Now you’ve made us cranky,” Mena announced, as she cut a swath through the crowd.  One of Nyoko’s arrows whizzed past Tavi’s head and struck one of the guards.  Then—suddenly—Twiggy teleported into the crowd of guards, and erupted in flame.  Several of the guards screamed as their tunics caught fire.  The guard in front of Tavi flailed, burned, and fell backward, and an abyssal maw opened up in the ground, swallowing the guard whole.  Other guards backed away from the maw and its churning, gnashing spikes.      That cleared the room a bit, Tavi thought.   But as he glanced looked more closely, Twiggy wasn’t in such good shape.  She was fighting hard—her force orb pushed two more men into the maw—but she was paying the price.  Her robes were torn, blood streamed from one shoulder, and her other arm hung limp by her side. “Die, Alirrian scum!”  Tavi couldn’t see who yelled it, but he could see the guards converge on Savina, swords in motion.  In a flash, the girl was engulfed by guards, some of whom were still burning from Twiggy’s spell.  Savina’s retort rang out with divine power.  “Alirria!  Defend us!”  Instantly, Tavi felt stronger.  Now, if I can just get myself within sword’s range of Yutaka, he thought.  Yutaka was on the other side of the room, bearing down on Mena.  Blood had soaked her sleeve and she was limping.  Tavi saw his opening.  He slammed his sword through the air beside him, cutting through the air and dimension warping into Mena’s spot.  As he appeared beside Yutaka, a burst of flame spewed from his sword and right into Yutaka’s gut.   The man’s robes caught on fire. Yutaka was hurt, but still dangerous.   He wheeled around, bringing the full force of his sword down onto Arden behind him.  It opened a gaping wound across her front and seemed, somehow, to renew Yutaka.  Arden stumbled backward and caught her balance on a storage crate, grunting in pain.  That’s too many of us hurt, Tavi thought, and too many of them still fighting.  Tavi kept Yutaka’s attention as Arden scrambled up the crate by her side and, with a wince, hopped to the next one, right behind Yutaka.  She jumped forward off the box and stabbed, deeply, into Yutaka’s kidneys.  He was pinned, still.  Nyoko leapt up onto a storage crate and shot two arrows into Yutaka’s smoldering form. He slumped off of Arden’s dagger and hit the floor.  Dead. The remaining guards swarmed, for a moment, disoriented without their leader.  “Your man is dead,” said Mena.  “It’s time to walk away.” “We don’t fight for him,” hissed one of the guards.  “We fight for Kettenek.” Mena stepped forward and kicked him, twice.  Savina whacked him on the head with her staff. “You fight for a perversion, and you are wrong,” Savina said.  “If you think that this is Kettenek’s way, you will learn:  Alirria takes care of her own.” A faint shimmer spread from her staff.  Tavi felt stronger.  The guards looked weaker.  Consecrated ground, Tavi knew.  And Savina was right:  A few more arrows from Nyoko, stabs from Arden, blows from Kormick, and suddenly, there were only three guards remaining, injured but alive.  Twiggy stood over one, her foot on his chest.  “This one’s unconscious, but alive.  We can question him.”  Tavi nodded in assent.  “Honored Inquisitor,” said Nyoko, addressing herself to Tavi as she lifted her bow and drew back her hand, “do you require any more of these heretical vermin to be alive for questioning?”Tavi felt the cuts on his body and looked at his friends, their clothes torn and bloodied.  “No.” Two arrows flew from Nyoko’s bow at the same time.  And at the same time, the last two guards were dead.###Savina tended to everyone’s wounds, and then turned to Yutaka's dead form.  She made a sign of Alirria over his body, but it was hard to feel compassion for him.  Heretic.  Betrayer of Alirria.  His pockets held nothing but a Kettenite holy symbol.  Betrayer of Kettenek, as well, she thought. “Looks like we’ll need to get our evidence the old-fashioned way,” Kormick smiled, and slapped awake the last living guard.   Mena fixed the guard in her stare.  “You’re a loyal soldier,” she began, “but you’ve failed.  We need to know who else fights on your side.” As the guard looked down, his failure was written on his face, but it was mixed with defiance.  “I am Azuma.  I fight for Kettenek.” “We are willing to do whatever it takes to find your allies,” Mena continued. “I am Azuma.  I fight for Kettenek.” Twiggy glared at the guard.  “And as Inquisitors, we act as Kettenek’s authorities.  If you truly wish to serve him, you will answer our questions.” “Plus, we dropped you once,” said Tavi. “We won’t hesitate to make it final.”  Arden twirled her dagger ominously. The guard’s eyes narrowed.  “If I am to die,” he replied, “then kill me.” Savina was shocked by the realization:  this man wants death.  But how do you scare someone who wants to die?.  “Not so fast,” she said, and steeled herself.  “How’s that kneecap?” She bent down to evaluate the guard’s injured knee, without the usual gentleness in her healer’s touch.  The guard bit back a moan of pain.  “Or that ankle?”  He pulled his foot back and winced.  “We can heal your internal bleeding, you know, and you can live life as a cripple.” “I fight for Kettenek.  I deserve an honorable death.” “You think so?”  Savina said, poking again at his ankle.  “I’m Alirrian. You were defiling my faith.  Why should I care for yours?”  The man’s face contorted. He looked up at Savina.  “If I tell you what you want to know, can you promise me an honorable death?” Savina paused for a moment.  “Yes.”  He was not a good man, she thought, but getting his information would serve Alirria, and punishing him would only serve vengeance.  She stood up, and met Kormick’s eyes with defiance, although she wasn’t sure whether she was embarrassed by her threat or by her mercy. “So Witnessed,” added Nyoko. From there, the guard’s information flooded out.  Kawazu, the seneschal, was a member of the Tide.  The Tide had forged the heretical ritual and incorporated it into the fake book, The Lady’s Ways.  Kawazu had brought the book to the Nishi estate when he was hired to become the new couple’s seneschal, hid it among the couple’s collection, and brought it to Nishi’s attention.  The goal was to utterly disgrace Nishi—the most politically powerful open Alirrian in the Sovereignty—and to incite open revolt, either from the peasants or from Nishi’s vassals.  Worship of Alirria would be reviled, and Nishi and his wife (“the infidels”) would be lynched and drowned, in the tradition for Alirrian heretics.  Kawazu had recruited the guard captain Yutaka, and his guards.  It was, the guard spat, “easy.”    It was, Savina thought, disgusting.  She marveled at how close the plan came to working.  They bound the guard then, and dragged him, together with the burned and broken body of Yutaka, through the estate, to Lord Nishi’s audience hall.  ###“What is the meaning of this?”  Lord Nishi asked, a look of horror on his face as he stared down at the bloody body of Yutaka on his rug and the fettered guard at Mena’s feet.  Mena couldn’t tell whether Nishi was more upset about the rug or the men.  Not a heretic, she thought, but I still don’t like him.Nyoko turned to the guard.  “Speak.”“Don’t forget the part about the drowning,” added Mena, and her armor whispered in dark agreement.As the guard recounted Kawazu’s plot, a succession of emotions passed over Nishi’s face.  Shock; horror; disgust; disbelief.  Mostly, he did a lot of blinking.  At the end, he fell backward into his chair, confused and horrified. Tavi stepped forward.  “The Inquisition will not permit this heretical ritual to continue.”Nishi looked…relieved.  “Yes, Inquisitor-san.  And the book shall be destroyed.”“Reparations shall be made to all who were subjected to the ritual,” Savina added.   “Yes, reparations.”  Nishi still looked shell-shocked, and Mena couldn’t be sure whether he actually knew what “reparations” meant.  “Everyone shall be compensated for what they lost as a result of this false ritual," Mena clarified.“Tell him to include the serfs, Mena,” murmured Arden from behind her.  Mena thought of the man they’d met on the road, and sighed as she realized that Arden was most likely correct in assuming that Nishi, like so many of his comfortable rank, wouldn't think beyond the nobility harmed by the ritual.  Poor, foolish, narrow man.  She spoke again to Nishi: “Including the serfs.  There was one whose daughter was killed, although her wedding was canceled.”“I hadn’t thought…”  Nishi searched for words.  “I am sure something can be done…”“Our lady cares for all,” Savina reminded him.“We shall send a message to Lady Oroko, telling her she can kill the Tidesmen who are now on their way to her home,” Tavi said“Which leaves Kawazu,” said Kormick.  “Where is he?”One of the servants stepped forward from the back of the room.  “Gone, Inquisitor-san.  I saw him leaving on his horse, hours ago.”“Where would he go?”“His only family is in Cauldron,” said Lord Nishi.  “His aunt is Lady Kawazu Noriko, the Mother Superior of Cauldron.”At that news, Nyoko suddenly looked grim.  Mena shot her an inquisitive look, dreading bad news.“The Mother Superior is the head of the Ring of Priesthood,” Nyoko clarified.  “They are up the Circle from the Inquisition.  They have the power to order the Inquisition to order or abort any inquest they wish.  If Kawazu reaches the Priesthood before we can catch him, he can request sanctuary from his Aunt, and the Inquisition will not be able to touch him.”Yes, bad news.  Very complicated, very political, very Sovereign bad news.  “Then we must go now, Lord Nishi-san,” said Savina.  “May our Lady be forever by your side.”  Nishi looked almost dizzy, as if his world had been turned upside-down.  Perhaps it had been.Outside, Savina looked away as they beheaded the guard.  An honorable death, Mena thought, for a dishonorable man.  And Kawazu will see even less justice if we don't catch him before he reaches the city limits.  We will have to move as if Sedellus’ wind itself were at our backs.They rode hard toward Cauldron.</blockquote>

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