"No! No! We report to The Order!" he refuted abruptly eyes gazed sharply at Carnathia, and for that brief moment, it looked like Carmen was in terrible psychological pain. "Not some elven woman who thinks she knows it all. It is absurd! If only this damned Case officer did not stall our mission with unnecessary precautions, those... they could still be saved. What is the merit of following order if it impedes us from preventing unnecessary death?"
"Either way," Carnatia replied, in a placating tone,
"Our mission here is not to capture nor punish the perpetrator for the disappearance of Paladin Thomas and his entourage, but rather to bring back the group, or provided it is not possible, to discover the truth of what happened and report it to the stakeholders of this mission."I am not suggesting us to engage in mindless slaughter, lady de Valmont." Replied the ex-inquisitor, a bit offended that the noble would even imply such. "Merely pointing at the best course of further investigation. If you hadn't noticed, this site is a dead end."
Mirielle joined the conversation, replying to Carnatia's urging to keep calm help. Carnatia held back a sigh as she heard her response. She expected her to believe that after being the one who escalated the encounter with the previous soldiers?
Still, she schooled her expression and replied,
"That is not what at all I was insinuating, Lady Mirielle. My apologies if I have caused any offence. I am merely saying to approach this situation with a mindset of neutrality, not naming any single party as the perpetrator until we have decisive evidence of their guilt."The conversation then continued, as they started digging up makeshift graves for the corpses. It was clear that they had not been able to find any clear leads of the guilty party, neither confirming nor denying the rest of the group's suspicion of the soldiers' guilt.
As all the shovels were in use, Carnatia respectfully stood at the edge of the burial site, doing her best not to impede the work of those digging the grave.
Although, if she were to be honest with herself, she doubted she'd be much help with intensive physical labour. Of course, being an adventurer it was not as if she were helpless, but just about anybody else in this group could probably make better use of this hypothetical extra shovel. After all, if Carnatia had an affinity for pure physical strength, the course of events that made her be exiled all those years ago probably would not happened. And she would be wielding a monstrous greatsword like the rest of her family instead of a rapier.
Eventually, the graves were dug and prayers were uttered, to which Carnatia joined in. It was then, that Carmen's lantern started to materialize several shadowy figures and a gruesome scene unfolded before them.
Halfway through the scene, Carnatia felt the content of her stomach started to rise up. She closed her eyes, before turning away from the scene, only to realize that she could still hear the projected voices, her imagination filling in the blanks in horrific imagery.
Still, she couldn't walk away now, as there may be hints in the vision. She took a deep breath and entered her Zen State of mind once more. Emptying her mind of any thoughts except to clinically dissect the vision shown by Carmen's lantern.
Finally, the vision ended.
"...Pardon me," Carnatia managed to utter, she then walked off hurriedly, before vomiting.
She uncorked her water bottle, as she washed her mouth to get rid of the unpleasant aftertaste.
As Carnatia turned her attention back to the rest of the group, she found many among them understandably angered, and yet...this was exactly what she had warned them against earlier.
She took a deep breath, before she called out to the group,
"Before we take any rash actions, might I ask all of you to consider a few things? While I agree that what Captain Friston's lantern showed us was a vile example of beasts in human form, there was no, in fact, any evidence within that vision that would tie the group in the vision to the soldiers we encountered earlier. In fact, I would argue that the circumstantial evidence we have implied the involvement of other parties."Turning to Amaris, she continued,
"Lady Amaris. Earlier you mentioned how given the Ealdorman held the most influence in this area, they are the most likely party to be responsible. Allow me a few rebuttals as a devil's advocate, if nothing else. First of all, we simply do not know if the premise that they held the most influence here is a true premise. You infer it so based on the fact that they seemingly were able to execute everyone they liked. While it is true, that compared to the more civilized lands such as Helvetia or Westernant such actions would seem to be the actions of an unchecked despot, for years Tretagor had been a war-torn land. There is a reason why it is a failed state, I doubt that the right of a peasant such as Dromele would be guaranteed by any of the poor excuse that called themselves 'government' in this land, regardless of their sphere of influence. They simply have other priorities. But even if they are a major power in this land, there are in fact, at least two other factions that we know of. The witch and the traitors those soldiers mentioned. They seem wary enough of both that if we are working under the premise that those soldiers belonged to a major power, then it follows that these traitors and witch are also considerable power in this land."She stops, taking a breath, before continuing her argument,
"Next, let us consider the vision we see from the lantern. Yes, there was a man they called 'General', however, the term general is common enough to be found in any standing army. This General could belong to the traitors the soldiers mentioned, or perhaps the witch has a standing army. Let us not forget that the spectators in that vision did not seem to be soldiers. Indeed, if anything based on the vision, I would say the witch would be the guilty party. After all, they were conducting some experiments, which given the black flames that resulted as the result, appeared to be an arcane experiment. Typically, though not always, the moniker of 'witch' would be given to practitioners of magic."She then turned to Carmen,
"Finally, there is also Captain Friston's hypothesis. That of the Red Stripe is the guilty party due to them possibly not liking the idea of foreign clergymen. I posit the possibility that the soldiers we encountered were Fredrin Loyalists. The only testimony we have of them being the revolutionaries came from Dromele who mentioned that red stripes were stationed at the outpost, but I think we can all agree that Dromele did not exactly act in a trustworthy manner. But if we set aside Dromele's testimony, is there any proof that those soldiers were the revolutionaries? Consider, for instance, their use of the term Ealdorman. While it is true that technically speaking, Ealdorman only refers to a governmental office, typically it is tied to a noble title, in Regions of Westernant the term Ealdorman is interchangeable with Earl, is it not curious that a faction who is allegedly the revolutionaries to be serving an Ealdorman? Furthermore, consider their usage of the word 'traitor'. Of course, it is possible for them to merely be referring to defectors who joined the Fredrin Loyalist, but if that was the case, wouldn't you find it strange that they specifically referred to traitors rather than the whole Loyalist faction when inquiring which of their enemies sent us? No, I think it is reasonable to infer that by traitors, it is likely they did not mean merely a group of defectors but a faction opposed to them as a whole. In this case, the usage of the word 'traitor' becomes quite...curious."She paused not enough for them to offer a response just yet, but enough for her words to sink in better and for them to start following the threads of logic she laid out. A common enough oratory tactic.
Carnatia continued,
"Consider this. If they were the revolutionaries, the 'red stripe' as Dromele put it, then why would they refer to the Fredrin Loyalists as 'traitors'? Extraordinary circumstances aside, typically in a civil war, or any conflicts of similar kind, the usage of the word traitor is used by those defending the ruler of the previously established status quo. If hypothetically speaking, my brother's Duchy or Captain Friston's County were to rebel, they would not refer to the Westernant Crown loyalist as 'traitors', again barring any circumstances such as the Crown now held by a usurper. Rather, the Crown loyalist would be the one calling the rebels 'traitors' for eschewing the status quo and rebelling against the crown. If those soldiers were part of the revolution, wouldn't they refer to the Fredrin Loyalists as 'dogs' or 'boot-lickers' or any derogatory phrases of that sort? Since they call their opposing faction 'traitors', that would imply they are the loyalists. Either that or the situation in this land had changed substantially that there is a third major faction that is formed by these traitors, and since those soldiers only mentioned two factions, the witch and the 'traitors' if these 'traitors' are indeed a new faction, that would imply whichever faction the soldiers were not a part of, either the Fredrin Loyalists or Revolutionaries had fallen to such insignificance that they did not even merit a mention."
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