Jalahora Praerie: being a stretch of the calsan countryside between two major cities, it felt a degree more tame than the wilderness they had crossed back west. One thing Livia immediately noticed was all the flowers; someone had come out here and tried to turn this huge sprawl of grassland into a veritable garden. Beyond that, though, Livia’s interest in her surroundings had dwindled… at least, for the time being. For now, her attention was solely focused on Krey Zoubor, the reason they’d just been yanked off the street and brutalised.

The knight had managed to turn around on the horse’s back to face Livia. Emilie was still unconscious, and Livia had reached forward to impart some healing light as soon as they had been sure the inquisitors weren’t pursuing. However, even if they were in the clear, they kept Danu’s pace up, and they would likely not spend anywhere near as long on the praerie as they had in the fields or the plains… at least, if Danu’s mana held out. Great mare of the earth and steed of a goddess she might’ve been, but Danu was still a summon like any other, and her mana would not last forever; she would eventually need to be dismissed to rest. However, Livia had confidently gambled that, given the ease of the terrain and the mild briskness of their pace, Danu would last the day.

“Krey…” Livia finally said. “What the hell just happened? And, please, be a bit clearer than what you said back there.”

Krey, despite the weight on his soul, managed a smile. “I was still woozy from the hypnodust. I’m sure I’ll do a better job this time.”

“You’d better,” Livia said, a bit louder. “And while you’re at it, maybe you should tell me about any other outstanding business you have that might get us into trouble.”

“First of all, allow me to apologise…”

“You can apologise by telling me what I want to know, damn it.”

“I… very well.” Krey took a deep breath. “What I said in my stupour was, as Hector said, apt. We, the Knights Berodyl, are the light of civilisation; we protect all who walk this land from myriad dangers. However, there are some dangers that we cannot protect people from; dangers that can’t be slain with sword or stopped with shield. When these dangers rear their ugly heads… it is the Garnet Inquisition who deal with it.

“As I also said before, they have no official standing. Officially, the powers that be in the lands of Berodyl all mutually condemn the inquisition as a renegade band of shadowy vigilantes. However, unofficially, they’re the left hand of Berodyl, and the right hand - us - doesn’t often know what the left is doing. Except…”

“Except?” Livia urged.

“Except in rare circumstances when a threat is so, well, threatening, that our two orders have had to work together. There are only five or six of these incidents in recorded history, seven or eight if you count stuff that was kept out of the records. The latest of said incidents… I was involved.

“It was… three years ago? No, no… four. Four years ago, definitely. The Paladin came to me personally - a rare honour - and told me that, as one of his most trusted knights, I was to represent the Knights Berodyl on an important mission. Of course, I couldn’t say no to him, so I did what I always did, and accepted my duty with pride. I was told that the nature of this mission was clandestine, and that I was to speak of it to no one. I thought I was prepared for that, but…

“Then I was introduced to a young Mister Hector Reynoso, a Commandant Inquisitor in the Garnet Inquisition. Even back then, I knew all the stories about them, knew about their sinister reputation. I didn’t let that bother me… at least, not at first.

“To keep a long story short, the mission went sideways. I realised I wasn’t up to the task, and I blew the whistle on the damn job. I found that our objective didn’t agree with my stomach, so I made sure we’d fail. That got me marked for righteous punishment, and while my position protected me for a time, it would appear that being a knight Berodyl no longer affords me that protection.” He scoffed, looking over his shoulder at Emilie. “Apparently no position in any order affords any protection against them anymore. I tell you, Livia… this severance has, in mere days, made a ruin of this world. Cut off from the gods and all beyond our firmament, people have already started giving in to the worst of themselves, and I get the feeling things are only going to get worse down the road.”

While Livia did want to press that line of thinking - what the future might hold for this world - she instead brought the focus of the conversation back to Krey’s past. “What was your mission?”

Krey let it hang in the air for a minute before replying. “Remember when I told you my greatest shame was getting my helmet stolen by a pack of kobolds?”

“Yeah,” Livia nodded with a thin smile, “I remember.”

Krey shook his head. “This was my greatest shame— this mission. I nearly helped in the murder of a hierophant.

“The idea was that if a hierophant was given the same information by both a knight Berodyl and a garnet inquisitor, that they’d have no choice but to believe it, and act accordingly. What could be more convincing than a trusted ally and scorned enemy telling you the same thing? Even the most blatant of lies start to sound true at that point. The point of this mission was to get the hierophant to take a leave of absence for a while, a spiritual journey or something; it didn’t really matter why, we just had to get them out in the open. And then… we’d take them.”

“Take them?”

“Take them. Please, don’t make me word it some other stupid way.”

Livia let him continue.

“The inquisition believed that communion with the gods only being achievable for a small, mysterious few was an intolerable slant in the landscape of power. If one of these exclusive individuals could be captured… studied… it might help demystify their secrets, and let more people make contact with the gods.”

“Level the playing field,” Livia uttered.

“Exactly. However…” Krey’s smile was more genuine now, his slouch giving way to a better posture. “Despite my callowness at the time, I caught on to what was happening… and told the hierophant we’d targeted the exact opposite of what I’d been ordered to tell them. This totally derailed the plan, and unless they wanted to risk making their plan public knowledge - which they most certainly did not - they couldn’t touch me for it. Three months of careful planning…” he made a gesture with his hands, suddenly spreading his fingers apart, as if to say poof!

“And Hector’s been biding his time ever since,” Livia mused.

“Looks that way,” Krey sighed. “I figured he wouldn’t be able to let it go. I got to know him quite well during those three months, and even back then, I could tell how proud of himself he was.” He scoffed again, looking up into the sky. “Meditations on a garnet shadow indeed…” he brought his eyes down again to stare into Livia’s. “Back then, the inquisition wouldn’t have dared touch a hierophant without such delicate conspiracy… but now, apparently dragging one off the street and bloodying them is well within their acceptable parameters. All it took was this damn severance; all it took was a good enough excuse.”

Livia decided she was satisfied with Krey’s little recount, and didn’t speak again until sundown.