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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3044561" data-attributes="member: 3448">Session 8:Determined to start a new morning routine for the archducal household, Dame Brionna came in the early morning to fetch Alistair for the morning services.  She found a small crowd waiting patiently outside his bedchamber-- two assistant chamberlains, one with attire for the day, the other with a large breakfast platter, and an assistant to the Privy Secretary with a collection of scrolls and a small desk.  Dame Brionna glanced over the group for a few moments and realized that they would wait until the door opened from within.  As the Captain-Presumptive of the Archducal Guard, she felt that maintaining a sensible schedule for the Archduke fell within her prerogatives.  She wrapped briskly on the door.Alistair’s voice answered sleepily, “Yes?  What is it, and can it wait?”“No, your grace.  The chamberlains have brought breakfast and attire, and the scrolls from the Privy Secretary for your grace’s morning briefing.  And your grace should dress quickly-- we don’t want to be late for morning chapel.”An even more disgruntled Kit rolled over in the bed.  “Just give me a few moments, I’ll head back to my room.”“You don’t have to, you know,” replied Alistair languorously.  “The household staff are discreet, and they should get used to this.”Kit paused for a moment, discomfort with the idea of servants coming in to Alistair’s bedchamber while she was still there warring with a desire to stay comfortably in bed.Dame Brionna called in through the door, “There’s plenty of breakfast…”Kit bit her lip.  “Fine,” she muttered pulling the sheets up to a modest level.“Enter,” said Alistair.  If he felt any discomfort at robing in front of a group of servants and Dame Brionna, he concealed it well.  As the secretary set up the desk and scrolls, he looked them over.  “My morning briefings are brought before chapel?”“Yes, your grace.  Your grandmother always insisted that they be ready when she awoke, but never read any but the most urgent until after services.”“Yes, I can imagine.  We will be following a new pattern.  The morning briefings will be delivered and read before chapel, so if there are pressing matters that have not been marked as urgent, we may nonetheless attend to them immediately.”  Dame Brionna frowned slightly; reading the messages before chapel would often mean missing chapel, which was likely precisely what Alistair wanted, but she could not argue with his reasoning.“Yes, your grace.”Alistair quickly began breaking the seals on the messages and reading them.  Most were relatively standard.  There was a report from Alonzo Strawberry listing the last night’s major crimes:  murders, major thefts, and other felonies.  Canberry has always been good about keeping track of people, and almost everyone is at least listed in a parish roll somewhere.  Alistair scanned through the report.  “The number of murders seems high.”Kit shrugged.  “People get killed, m’lord.  More in the poorer parts of cities, but murders happen.”“I know that.  But still… seven last night alone?  And multiple murders every night since we arrived?  That seems too many for a city the size of Canberry City, especially with the number of guards and the watchful eye of the Church.”Dame Brionna nodded thoughtfully.  “I agree, your grace.  We would expect some murders, but this is more than I would have thought.”“Any patterns to them, m’lord?”“Let’s see… concentrated in two of the poorer areas.  We don’t have any districts with true penury, like Cabbage Heights, say, in Enclaves.  But there are some that are less well-off.  One is directly on the other side of the wall from the Temple Ward, the other is just outside the Merchants Ward.”  Most of the poor of Canberry City live outside the inner city, with its five wards, in the many wards between the ancient inner city walls and the great outer walls that protect the city now.Dame Brionna glanced at the sheet.  “Interesting.  Most of the dead are unmarried, young women.  That could suggest more demonic involvement.”“You think they may be being killed for ritual purposes?”“Virgins are traditional for such things, your grace.”“I would have hoped that clearing the sewers out would have ended that sort of threat…  Let’s see what the rest of the scrolls say.”The Chamberlain sent a message that the Holy See of Paranswarm had unexpectedly sent a representative to the coronation, apparently the Archbaroness of Mandrath.  Another document listed the quarterly tax income, basically saying that the treasury continues to be flush.  Another message, from the minister of trade, detailed a steady and substantial drop of the trade of spices, dried and smoked fish, and meats from the South.</blockquote>

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