“Does the inquisition have access to your work?” I wondered.

“Not officially but I have no illusions. They do have spies. I am certain of my inner circle's allegiance, so the inquisition will not get their hands on my results though.”

This entire situation was a mess. The Empire itself seemed like a mess. I suppose any large nation would have its politics and factions. But it seemed everyone here had their own agenda. And everyone was crazy.

“What do you think will happen? You know the Emperor. Will he take action against them?” I asked.

“It’s hard to say. He needs them to keep order. It will also depend on how much backing Elias has from the other high inquisitors.”

“You have certainly given us a lot to think about. We will need some time to make a decision about your proposal.”

“Certainly. If you want to get in contact with me just ask the palace staff.” She smiled.

After that we started the actual lunch. The chef served a lovely three course meal and we kept the conversation light. It was already mid afternoon when we got back to our quarters.

Everyone else seemed busy so it was just Lucy and me. The first thing I did was get a drink.

“What are we going to do Amaya?” Lucy asked. She looked depressed. “Beira should be stopped but we have no power here. We can’t just attack a court mage.”

I sighed. “It’s a bad situation. I expect that she is experimenting on humans. Probably slaves. I was hoping we could pretend to be interested to find out more. But I don’t think I could stomach it for long. If she showed us a lab… I would just blow it up.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Can we sabotage her? Expose her?” Lucy wondered.

“Expose her? I am sure everyone important is fully aware of what she is doing. And since they control the news we could never really inform the people. Sabotage…” I paused and contemplated the issue. “If we sold her tainted material… I am not sure how we could taint blood to screw her, without it being obvious though. Maybe we could track samples we offer? And then sneak in and blow up the lab… We need to talk with Loriel about this.”

“Why did she tell us anyway?” Lucy wondered. “We represent a different nation. We are not human…”

“We are just tools for her. She requires someone with power. But also someone who isn't using this against her in politics. Every powerful human in the Empire is already part of a faction. She might also fear that they will steal her results. As elf and beastkin we would have to adapt any potion she comes up with. She probably also thinks we would need her help with that. Further, she could betray us with few consequences.” I reasoned.

“Would it not destroy her reputation, if it came out that she is working with people from the Dominion?” Lucy asked.

“It would depend on how much we could prove. She could always just deny it and claim it’s a smear campaign. And considering that her goal is improving humans she could hardly be called a traitor anyway. She might even threaten to release the information to blackmail us. We would look far worse.”

“But why would anyone agree to this in the first place?”

“Beira is so obsessed with her legacy, and her magical humans, she just thinks this is something everyone would want. She simply assumes that we crave the same things for elves or beastkin.” I shrugged. “People are weird.”

Lucy stared into her drink. We both sat in silence for a bit. “I wonder how involved the Emperor is in all of this.” I said after a bit.

“Good question.” Lucy said. “Growing up in the Empire I was always told he is the absolute authority. He does as he pleases and has absolute power. All the intrigue and politics are kept from the public.”

“Maybe the emperor is losing control so he made a deal with something.” I suggested.

“Could be. Maybe Loriel’s intel is wrong. Maybe they mistook Beira’s experiments for someone messing with souls. Or maybe Beira is doing it and not admitting to it.”

“I am not really trained as an investigator. We should talk with Elnora.”

“Or we just blow up the palace.” Lucy suggested with a smile.

“Now that is a nice thought. Maybe we should look into something that we can blow up, just to vent. Where is a random monster attack when you need one?” I looked around. No monsters or assassins appeared. What a shame. Hm... Monsters. Neither my black panther, nor Lucy’s fox form were common knowledge. We transformed briefly on the way here but that was in our room. Maybe we could use that.