"How much longer will we have to do this." Marcus said as he leaned back, away from the stack of papers on his desk.

"Write reports?" Alexander asked from the door of the study.

"All of this. Writing reports that get read once and filed away in some archive hundreds of miles from here. Going from town to town, village to village, asking the same questions and getting the same answers, listening to the same rumors and hearing neighbors accuse each other of the same vices, year after year."

"Are you thinking of retiring, then?"

"Retire?" Marcus exclaiming with a laugh. "I wouldn't know how. I'm too old to learn a new trade, and the idea of puttering around some cottage by myself doesn't appeal to me. Couldn't take a wife, wouldn't want to subject the poor girl to my withering body. Besides, if I wanted someone to nag me to eat and bathe, I already have Chloe for that."

"I'll be sure to tell her you said that."

"Trying to get me killed, are you? Get rid of the old man so you can take his place? No, the same year you were born I had already been Inquisitor for this area for ten. I think I'll be here until I'm forced to give it up or my heart fails."

"Then why were you wondering about how long you'll be doing this?"

"Ah, yes, sorry. I meant us, not me, as in the Inquisition as a whole."

"What do you mean?"

"The world is changing, Alexander, much as we try to fight it. You've read the reports the Inquisition sends to us, sharing what they learn about the nations across the sea. Each year they leave us further and further behind. Eventually our people are going to look at theirs, growing numerous and prosperous and think we need to hurry to catch up to them. When that happens, I suspect many will begin to question why the Inquisition is permitted to have such authority over their lives and cast jealous glances at the properties and wealth we use to fund our operations."

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"There have always been vicious men who shirk Virtue, it's our duty to ensure they cannot spread their immorality to others."

"Yes, that is what we've become, isn't it? Headmasters running around the halls of the Empire, rapping boys on the knuckles when they misbehave, making sure they don't encourage rowdiness in the other students."

"We keep the people safe, and the Emperor knows our value in enforcing the laws."

"Magistrates can appoint constables to enforce laws and punish criminals. As for safety, we have the army for that, we levy more than enough taxes to pay for the legions. I've been an Inquisitor for thirty years now and I suspect we had already outlived our purpose by twenty the year I started."

Alexander stood in silence, unsure of what to say. Hearing Marcus speak this way made him feel like a small boy listening to his father and mother talk about some problem too complex for a child to understand beyond that it made his parents upset.

"Ah, but listen to me rambling on. Pay me no mind, this is nothing more than the mutterings of a man realizing he's getting old and wondering what his legacy will be. I think everyone who passes fifty years suddenly believes the generations following them will be the end of civilization. My instructors thought when me and my cohort took over that our lack of discipline and zeal for Virtue would result in everyone under our watch throwing off all morality, and I suspect their teachers thought the same about them."

"I will say this, Alexander," Marcus began after a short pause. "Follow my example. Keep on the good side of the people under your watch so that if our nation does decide it no longer needs the Inquisition, the locals may permit you to resign and leave rather than be cast aside in a less pleasant manner."

"I will keep that in mind."

"See that you do. Keep your eyes and ears open, Alex. Change can come about so slowly you don't even realize it until you look back and see how far you've come, or it can burst forth all at once like an air tank pumped too full. A hundred years ago, the only way a foreigner would set foot on our land outside of a trade port would be as a slave. Now, we permit some to live among us. Under careful watch, of course, to make sure they don't spread foreign beliefs and ideas among our people, but who knows how much more will change as our citizens continue to encounter people who were raised without the guidance of the Philosopher's Ethics and the Inquisition and still managed to avoid becoming like dogs concerned only with eating, sleeping, and humping."

Alexander nodded, still unsure of what to say to his mentor. Marcus had always been confident and sure of himself, hearing the man talk about the possible end of the Inquisition was unsettling.

"But enough of the ramblings of an old man," Marcus said as he stretched in his seat and picked up his pen. "I need to finish these and you need to pack for your journey."