Girsten POV

Fiona is a mage prefect of the Arais Emodun who is tasked with looking into the events of the [Christmas Massacre]. Her investigation into the legates of [First Team] turns her onto the scent of a trail of corruption in Lavmoor, luring her into the heat of the civil unrest in the country of knights and rebels. She steadily uncovers the insidious truth about a league of shadows masquerading in Cremalia.

## Cast

* Fiona Hale
* Lisyohn
* Vandra Sloan
* Proconsul Meine
* Lucien Fay
* Lord Conroy Fay
* Jeseride
* Samson Dodd
* Sir Amory Crane
* Eccentric Amadi Cais professor
* SCIENTIST
* Celea Hangue

## Storyline

### New Column

#### [Christmas] Massacre

Amory and the [First Team] survivors go renegade and attack the capital.

#### Quarantine

Fearing the release of a curse from the Head of Aklys after the [Christmas Massacre], Dome is put under quarantine while everyone is scried.

### Travel

#### With Constable Escort

» Salt and Pepper accompany the armed escort of a CC payment to the Gnomon Bank in the Duchies for a stint of time before splitting off with Lisyohn towards Amadi Cais.

#### Without escort

» Fiona reanimates Aklys' Head and has a conversation with it.

### The Duchies

• While in the Duchies, Fiona subpoenas the bank account information of the [First Team] legates to check for clues as to their motives for the [Christmas] Massacre.

• Dubious payments from Lavmoor in the group's financial records piques Fiona's interest.

#### Lich lecture

» Narangheer; Book of Names; preserved qurit specimen in jar of formaldehyde, "bloated and coiled into a dark shape within the embalming fluid."

#### Proconsul

Fiona interviews Proconsul Meine in Amadi Cais about the secret commission and the deceased Eleza, with whom he was closest (she had no known living relatives).

> "Look, I know you have your mind control theory..."
>
>

> "It's not a theory," Fiona corrected. "Amory Crane didn't kill himself because he was desperate. Amory Crane killed himself because he was told to. I saw it in his face."
>
>

• Meine tries to deter Fiona's inquest and mind control hypothesis by reminding her about the empowering qualities of her arm transplant.

> "That is your arm. You move it, no one else does. Think of all the things you've done just today with your arm, with your hand."
>
>

Meine's policy on demonhunting:

> • "Some people question your election to Proconsul. They say you haven't done much protecting of anything, lately."
>
>

> "When situations arise, we are quick to respond. Or do you perhaps imply my refusal to declare war on the Triunes of the West?"
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>

> "There remain demons in the world that wish to see mankind undone and brought to heel."
>
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> "And are they here? Have you seen a demon in your last ten years? Have you ever been at the mercy of an incubus or a dromut? They are a distant plague, dwindling, and it is a plague that demands a tribute of blood and unnecessary death to stop. They are not harming us."
>
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> "But they mean to."
>
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> "There are no demons to fight. Should I conjure evil to keep people afraid just so our mages are busy? I am fighting a different breed of evil, Miss Hale, an evil that lingers as idleness and denials. These pointless wars, these grudges and vendettas and claims of righteousness, are destructive vices that continue to tear us all apart, limb by limb. If I can devote my life to undoing some of this evil, if I can put the resources of this fine organization towards nobler feats like giving a girl back her eyesight, or a good soldier back his hands, then I should say I am doing what a Proconsul should: using magic to defend the dignity and lives of all peoples and creeds."
>
>

> "I feel you ought to be thanking me, Miss Hale. I used my gifts to give you back what those thugs took from you. Your father used his to
> punish them and take from them everything. What do you think is better? More villains taken out of the world or more good people brought back into it?"
>
>

### Lavmoor

• Fiona discovers that Amory was a corrupt legate, taking pay-offs to overlook criminal activity and being protected by his adjutant from ever being prosecuted for several civilian complaints issued against him.

• After reviewing his bank accounts, Fiona deduces that the Lavmoran knight had accepted a bribe from an unknown benefactor shortly before he crossed the Velvet Curtain with [First Team] into Salavia.

• She submits her findings on Amory's activities to Dome.

• Lavmoor is mortified and incensed, and deny the allegations.

### Hangue Manor

Meets with Celea Hangue about the payments made to [First Team] under her dead husband's name.

### Jailbreak

While in Lavmoor, Fiona is requested by Sloan to look into a local disturbance of a shipwreck, which she discovers to have a whole registry of escaped prisoners.

### Reassignment

• Fiona is informed that enigmatic "higher ups" have closed her case and ArEm has recalled her to duty, commanding her to track any of the renegade magi listed on the registry, specifically the warlock Jeseride.

• Fiona presumes that Amory's mysterious patron was responsible for her reassignment, and that he must be powerful and connected to review confidential CATO files. Fiona suspects she was getting close to the truth.

>> suspects the Lavmoran ambassador/Crane family(?).

>> Fiona thinks Amory's mysterious employer orchestrated their mind-control to acquire the Book of Medas for some reason, and that Amory's 'suicide' was to keep the cornered legate silent.

• Fiona resolves to continue her investigation in secret.

• PLOT: It is revealed that Proconsul Meine intervened in suspending Fiona's investigation after recognizing the threat she posed after she probed him about Eleza and explained her mind control theory//discovered the active gorget in Salavia.

*>> WHO HIRED AMORY?*

### Death of Fiona

• When Fiona is killed, Sloan suspects that the Lavmorans assassinated her to cover up their humanitarian crimes that Fiona was supposedly looking into on behalf of CATO.