„It’s almost a week since they desecrated the body of my son! Now I can’t even dream of being able to resurrect him in time! We can’t let them stay unpunished!” a stout, bearded man slammed his fist on the table they were sitting around, “Silverfords even have the guts to keep housing inside their estate the blasphemer responsible for turning Marius into a mindless undead!”

Belith observed the speaker. Emil Boeward, if not for his height, could be easily mistaken for a dwarf. While his adorned outfit might fool a stranger into believing that he was just slightly overweight, Belith saw the head of House Boeward using his warhammer with a terrifying strength whenever they were hunting owlbears or ankhegs in the nearby forests.

 ‘Marius was mindless even before he was raised as a zombie. If only he had trained as enthusiastically as he was partying… or at least, if he had had a better judgment of his skills he might have reconsidered duelling with Heinrich. Sparing us all that mess.’

He mentally sighed, taking a sip of wine.

“Do we even know for sure that their guest is really a necromancer?”

 Darius Lawkett asked, earning a hostile stare from Emil.

“My spy in their estate reported one of the servants claiming to see undead owlbears in his laboratory,” Belith spoke. “That servant disappeared the next day. Moreover, over the last week Silverfords have been generously paying hunters for every beast they managed to catch alive. You are doubtlessly aware of this.”

“They must be preparing something vicious, I am sure of this.”

“As sure as you were yesterday, Emil? Your cleverness matches Kurtulmak’s own!” the fat merchant’s joke made Belith snigger. “You managed to track a girl matching a description of the one that your guards claimed to see on the graveyard. I even lend some of my men to help yours arrest her…”

“That was not…” the noble tried to interrupt, yet Lawkett’s outburst was much louder.

“And she turned out to be a fucking paladin! The one well-known around, as she was often helping around Leisha and Windhelm. Moreover, your dumb captain even decided to try apprehending her just outside of Baaru Consortium’s office, for which she usually works! Now every merchant asks me if my people are going to accuse of necromancy a cleric of Uther next!”

“For eyes are deceitful,” an amused voice sounded from an empty chair. A carafe of wine levitated towards its source and suddenly a seated, smiling man appeared. “I’ve told you that the guards might have been fooled by illusions back on the graveyard.”

Belith wondered for how long Ignatius, a 4th circle wizard working for his house for many years, sustained his spell before deciding to remind them about his presence during this meeting. His friend really had a talent when it came to avoiding others attention if he wanted to.

Only one of Belith’s guests seemed unfazed by his sudden reappearance.

“Edler Joseph Silverford visited the Temple of Uther yesterday and offered to answer some of our questions under the Lord’s watchful gaze,” she spoke. “Inside a Circle of Truth, he denied any order, encouragement or any other involvement of his family into animating your son’s body, may his soul reach Uther’s eternal light. The edler also denied having knowledge about his guests' involvement with the so-called Cult of Horned Rat nor performing any blasphemous acts themselves.”

“You must be aware, Head Priestess, that there are ways to fool this spell.”

“That is why the Church is distressed by his vague answers. Whether the wizards living in his estate are necromancers? Why is he even hiring them? If not for the laws governing the usage of this spell, we would have pushed further in questioning.”

“Necromancy isn’t an outlawed school of magic, even if your church still has problems with accepting this fact,” the wizard cut in with annoyance.

The woman stared at him coldly and continued.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Yet regulations concerning its use were violated. If Silverfords and their guests are truly innocent they should not fear our investigation.”

The priestess was still vexed that without them having any hard evidence, the edler could claim that answering more direct questions about his guests would endanger businesses of his family. As he claimed that Silverfords meant no harm for the kingdom, finding their answer truthful, according to laws, she couldn’t press any further.

“They should cooperate, especially in the current situation, where townsfolk believes that both the necromancers and warlocks responsible for unleashing demons onto northern tract are now conducting another ritual inside the city.”

“Don’t you understand now?” Emil eagerly asked. “We must gather our soldiers, stop the ritual the cult is conducting and secure all the evidence inside their estate! Silverfords and their wizards would be captured and put on trial or found guilty and executed on the spot if they resist!”

The head priestess could only smile looking at the man. Emil was always hot-headed, but after losing his son he started to behave like a rabid dog.

Darius choked hearing this declaration.

“Are you mad? Do you really want to raid one of the influential merchant families? And basing on what? Unconfirmed rumours and a negative reading of the truth spell? There is no possibility that they will cooperate.”

“No one will question our actions with a mandate from the church.”

The Priestess of Uther nodded encouragingly. If House Boeward and the rest of nobility would have taken eventual repercussions on themselves, the Church could support their actions. However, seeing Belith and Ignatius trying to keep poker faces looking at each other, she knew that nothing will come of this plan.

“And what are you suggesting? Maybe a direct assault?”

Seeing Emil nodding to his question, Darius started a tirade. It was as if the noble, blinded by his desire for revenge, was unable to rationally think.

“Do you even realise how many guards they have currently stationed inside their estate? How many more Swiftglades will send to help them if we fail to resolve everything quickly? Not even accounting corrupted city guards or hired thugs that would also join in the fry? Nine hells, the very wizards you want to capture would be just an icing on the cake as every merchant association in the town will immediately fund mercenaries against us. They would be surely afraid that actions like this could set a precedent to be used against them by other old nobility afraid of constantly losing their influence,” Lawkett couldn’t resist verbally jabbing the head of a slowly diminishing House Boeward. “We already had a foretaste of a civil war a few days ago, and what are you proposing is a full-fledged conflict.”

“Especially if the cult has already infiltrated the city so deeply as everyone seems to believe. An open attack would end with city drowning in blood,” Ignatius added.

“I must agree,” Belith decided to speak. “Moreover, if we succeed, even before the dust settles, other parties, be it merchants or other Houses, would pressure the king to deal with us. Profit and lives lost, incompetency that allowed the situation to deteriorate down to this. With a threat of reducing their support in a war, he would punish our actions, whether they were justified or not.”

Belith knew that the only party that could profit from an open war between nobility in Leisha’s Crossroads was the Church of Uther.

“However, we might try to act more subtly. Maybe, seeing how much the Church is concerned about this situation, you could send a covert, small group of operatives, Priestess.”

“Please tell me, Ignatius, how do you imagine the church succeeding in an ordeal that you deemed impossible for your troops,” she gestured towards their group, annoyed that they have chosen not to follow Emil’s suggestion. Not that she had high hopes they would do.

 “Wearing the armour of faith, striking with purity of flames,” a distant, ethereal voice sounded inside the room.

Whenever Belith saw the head priestess and Ignatius together, he had a hard time believing that they had been lovers few years ago.

His friend feigned innocence and continued, unconcerned by the woman’s murderous gaze.

“It is not a question of managing to. The biggest problem, as I know you are aware, would lay in dealing with an aftermath of the plan Emil wished us to follow. We can’t deal with Silverfords in such a crude way.”

The wizard, having everyone’s attention on himself, let the silence linger for few seconds. He took a sip of a wine and just in a moment when the head priestess opened her mouth to speak, he continued.

“Oh, we would support your operatives. Only, we will do it in a way that could be easily denied if anything goes awry. If I remember correctly, a Hallowing Ritual takes at least twenty-four hours, probably even longer when cast on a scale your high priest wishes to. Uther’s Church might demand every noble family to attend it and provide guards of honour to the praying clerics. You might even turn the whole event into a celebration, requiring us to field even more forces to protect jubilant townsfolk from the threat of undead or fiends.”

“As Silverfords wish to secure greater influence they will surely compete with the numbers we would send to support the event, probably compromising their security,” Darius immediately understood the wizard’s plan.

“It would be a pity if some thieves try to break into the estate during that time, doesn’t it?” Ignatius smiled, “Maybe they happen to encounter the cultists? Or they will find something so dreadful that they decide to show an evidence to the Church?”