NewU Pt. 19

She nodded slowly. "I have checked our records. There is no information at all in our systems about the party where the most recent attack took place. More than that, in the time between the signing of the accords and today, there have been exactly nineteen Inquisition interventions... what you would call attacks, and only two of them were serious enough to warrant the death of the Evos in question, both of them were members of the rogue faction. The others were just imprisoned."

"Although I have no idea what the exact number of attacks against Evos has been, I know that in the same period, there have been at least several hundred attacks. We have proof that at least two of them have been carried out by Inquisitors."

"I would like to state for the record," she said with a slight smile and a nod to the screens behind her, "that I am grateful for Mr.... For Pete's apparent knowledge of the distinction between Inquisitors and the Inquisition."

Bob must have spotted the look on my face and leaned over to whisper into my ear. "It's the same as Evos versus the Conclave. In our case, Inquisitors is the name of our race, whereas the Inquisition is the name of our organization. You were definitely attacked by inquisitors, there is no doubt about that, but Ms. Bernhardt is making it clear to the rest of the council that you are not automatically accusing the Inquisition of being involved."

"Ah, good to know. Thanks, Bob."

"Pete, you said there have been two attacks. Has something else happened since you spoke to Miguel?" Isabelle said.

"Umm, sort of." I answered after a pause. "The video you received is the playback of my own memory of the attack on the party. I have since... let's say I have uncovered memories of another attack that happened in February of 1888. Although Inquisitors were not responsible for the death of the Evo in that attack, they were certainly trying their best. More than that, they were trying to prevent an exchange of information that I believe would have shed light on their identity."

"I see," Isabelle answered ponderously. "Do you know what that information was?"

"No, the man was killed before he could pass it on, and the intelligence was lost."

"Damn, that would have made life easier. Is it possible for us to see that memory? I understand that these may be sensitive subjects. We are aware of how serious the sharing of personal memories is taken within the Conclave."

"Are you?" I snorted. "Well, consider yourself more informed on that subject than I am. I have no problem showing you. I just need a screen of some sort."

Isabelle smiled and nodded before pressing a button on the desk in front of her. A small hatch appeared on the top of the desk to her side, directly in front of Bob, and a computer monitor slid upwards through it.

"Okay, that's pretty cool," I chuckled at it. "I am gonna have to get one of those for home." Isabelle stifled a giggle as I leaned over and reset my hand on the back of the screen. "Can they see this?" I nodded to the rest of the council.

"Yes, they will be able to see anything that is displayed on this screen."

"Great, then here goes. Bob, do you have any popcorn?"

"I... do not," Bob replied with another eye roll and a sigh.

"Ah, well, maybe next time."

I let the memory of Matthias and Jaques play out on the screen. Isabelle, Bob, and the entire council sat in absolute silence as they watched. I didn't fail to spot, however, the wince and shudder that washed over Isabelle's face as she watched Sterling's murder of Jaques. This was a woman who was unfamiliar with violence. Considering who I was hunting, this did a lot to discount her as an enemy in my mind. There is always some kind of joy, or at least a satisfaction, in watching an enemy be defeated, if not outright killed. It is just in our nature. We tend to dehumanize the people we are fighting against. It is part of war. So we overlook the fact that the person being killed is someone's son, or father, or husband. Mother, daughter, or wife, and just see the end of an enemy.

The look of sadness bordering on shame that spread across the faces on the screen behind Isabelle, not to mention Isabelle herself, gave me the distinct impression that none of these people considered either Jaques or Matthias their enemies. At the same time, it was hard to ignore the fact that the rank-and-file Inquisition, namely Mr. Slappy, the guard with the newly snapped arm, had treated me with not only hostility but open disgust. There seemed to be a massive disparity between what was happening in this room and what the rest of my experience had been so far. I still, for example, hadn't forgotten about the blatant intimidation tactics that had been used before this, either. The contradiction was not lost on me.

Still, I was never a man who thought that first impressions were the be-all and end-all. Charlotte, arguably my closest friend, had slapped me and called me an asshole the first time we had met. I was not ready to dismiss the tactics used by the Inquisition up to this point, but I would be lying if I said that Isabelle wasn't giving me a little confidence that this could be a productive relationship.

I waited in silence as they watched the video playing.

One of the men on the one of the screens behind Isabelle started to say something, but there was no sound. Isabelle pressed a finger to her ear, listening through what must have been some sort of earpiece. She nodded a few times before turning her attention back to me. "The Inquisition has always kept very stringent records; we should be able to find out who was assigned to Paris on that night. That should lead us to some answers, hopefully. My colleague is quite alarmed about these events and is going to start looking into it immediately."

"I feel like I already know the answer to this question, but I still want to hear it from your side. What is so alarming about it? From your perspective, I mean."

Isabelle took a deep breath, seemingly weighing her answer very carefully before she spoke again. "Reinard Montreaux was what the rest of the world would call a fanatic, an extremist. He was against the peace accords from day one and was very vocal about it during meetings of the Royal houses. Despite this, his house had weathered the bulk of the fighting against the Rogue faction during the War of 1812 and suffered the lion's share of the losses. If memory serves me right, the Montreaux-branch of the Inquisition suffered more than sixty percent of our total casualties. Thousands of men and women. Bear in mind that there are five houses, and all of them are expected to share the responsibilities fairly and equally between us. But when it became clear what was happening, that it was a dangerous rogue faction of Evos responsible for the War, he was first through the breach, so to speak. It is also worth remembering that Reinard is... well, was not the head of his house. He was a second son, the third in command. But his father, the king, made his decision, and Reinard appeared to accept it."

I nodded, paying attention.

"There are those within our order who believe the accords were a mistake, that we simply gave the Conclave an opportunity to rebuild and to branch out into other means of control. The accords stipulated that none of their members are allowed to hold high political office, but we also know that these days, high political office is only one of a myriad of ways a person can become powerful. The accords account for none of these. For centuries, Reinard Montreaux was the firebrand to whom these malcontents flocked. As far as we knew, he allowed them to express their views but kept them in line. He was sworn to maintain the peace. The apparent death of the entire Montreaux line in that crash twelve years ago seemed to have put an end to the whole argument. The hostility toward the accords seemed to end with him."

"But he wasn't dead," I added.

"Precisely. So here is our concern. It is looking increasingly likely that we have had our own rogue faction for almost as long as the peace accords have been in place. The attack in Paris, obviously over a century before Reinard's "death," suggests that this faction was openly attacking Evos right under our noses. But it's not like Reinard had his own private army; Inquisitors are sworn to answer to whichever Royal presides over the territory in which they are operating. So an Inquisitor could be working in South-East Asia and would answer to one house, then could move to Europe and answer to another. There is very little in the way of personal loyalty to Royal houses. This is by design; it stops any one family from growing too powerful. Yet your video suggests that Inquisitors have been acting against Inquisition law in territories that were never controlled by the Montreaux house. The faking of the Montreaux's deaths obviously suggests that they are responsible for this, but it doesn't tell us who the traitorous lower-ranked Inquisitors who follow him are. But this video might."

"The second issue," she went on, "concerns that obviously staged plane crash. As I said, Reinard himself was against the accords, but his father, the King, was one of their most ardent supporters. That plane crash did not just appear to kill Reinard, but the entire family, meaning that something happened to the rest of the family. Did they all switch allegiances and join forces with Reinard? Were they always with Reinard and just played nice during the Royal meetings? What have they been doing for all the time since the crash? If they have supporters, as they clearly do, judging by the attack on the party, who are they, and how are they communicating?..."

"Communicating... that is something the computer should be able to track fairly easily."

"...Why did the Montreaux King allow this action? The things he would have had to give up to be part of this deception are beyond imagining. Not to mention the fervor with which he supported the peace accords during the Philadelphia summits. His sudden, or even gradual, change of heart to be a part of this is beyond comprehension. So what happened to him for him to agree to it? For that matter, is he even still alive? Was this a coup? There are... so many questions. I am not sure a threat this large has loomed over the Inquisition since the church excommunicated us."

"That sounds like a story that involves alcohol."

"You have no idea," Isabelle scoffed. "And one for another time, I am afraid."

"Yeah, priorities and all that. Right, Bob?"

"Sorry?" Bob squinted again.

"Never mind." I turned my attention back to Isabelle. "So, what you are saying is that the Montreaux family are the head of a snake you thought were dead, and the Inquisitors acting on their orders are the body of the snake that you didn't know existed."

"An over-simplification, but basically, yes."

"Then I would say you have a pretty massive problem."

"The council agrees," she nodded. "To be honest with you, the fact that we are meeting with you and not the leadership of the Conclave should be more than enough evidence of that."

"So, why did you?"

"I would imagine it is for the same reasons that you came to us rather than dealing with them. We have lost trust in them. The simple fact of the matter is that whoever we have been communicating with has not been honest with us, or you, or the rest of the Conclave for that matter. Attacks never sanctioned by the Inquisition have been allowed to be portrayed as that. The fact that none of your members are aware of the peace accords is, frankly, astonishing to us, and..."

"Wait..." I interrupted. "What do you mean "whoever you have been communicating with?" Don't you know who they are?"

"Well, that's the thing," she replied carefully. "When the accords were drawn up, it was realized that whoever held the responsibility of passing the information of errant Evos along to us would hold a tabooed position within the Conclave leadership. It was decided that, for their safety, the identity of the person holding that position would be a secret known only to the Archon."

"Fuuuuck!" I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"And now you see our problem."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure the Archon has no idea who that person is. I'm almost certain that Thomas is not the same Archon who held power back then."

"Who?" Isabella narrowed her eyes. "We were under the impression that the current Archon was Issac."

"Nope never heard of him. It's Thomas now. So that position of communicating with you could have been hijacked... fuck.. Centuries ago, and nobody within the current leadership of the Conclave would know anything about it."

"I'm afraid it's worse than that," Isabelle sighed. "Whoever holds that position was still feeding occasional names to us up until about thirty-five years ago; that was the last communication we had. Long periods of time are not unusual. As I said, there have only been a handful of instances of its usage in the whole time since the accords. What is more concerning is that this person knows that these attacks are not being officially carried out by the Inquisition, yet is actively allowing the Conclave to think that they are. Holding back that information can only mean one thing..."

"That they are working with the Montreaux's."

She just nodded.

"So, if I may ask, who on your side holds the responsibility of communicating with the Conclave?"

"That's a little different on our side. The short answer is that the head of any of the Royal families is capable of using that communication channel. We are in Europe, which is controlled by my family, the Bernhardt's, so here, it would be my mother. But that answer would change depending on where in the world you were."

"You're a Royal?" I squinted at her.

"Yes, I thought I mentioned that."

"Errr, no. You just gave me your name."

"Oh, my apologies. It's not very often that I have cause to use my full title. I am Princess Isabelle Maria Bernhardt, the first daughter of Queen Eliza Bernhardt and second in command of the Bernhardt line of the Royal Inquisition."

"I have questions... about a few things you just said there... but they will probably have to wait."

The smile on her face grew a little wider. "I am hoping that this is going to be the start of a long and fruitful working relationship, so we should have plenty of time to answer them. But why did you ask about the lines of communication?"

"Because I want you to use them."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Yup. I want you to tell the Conclave that I attacked you and request that I be sanctioned for death. I want to see who in the Conclave knows about it and if that information ends up in the hands of your traitors. Then I can sit back and see who comes for me."

"Pete, I have to warn you. That could be extremely dangerous." Isabelle cautioned.

"Not necessarily," I smiled. "Not only am I capable of looking after myself... the party being a good example, albeit one I didn't even break a sweat on... But I am going to see them coming. Because you are going to tell me."

Isabelle held my eyes for a few moments before touching her finger to her ear again. Although this time, I didn't see any of the faces talking. She nodded after a few seconds and took a deep breath. "The council has no objections to your plan, providing you understand and accept the risks. I will be your contact within the Inquisition, and we will be in contact regularly. We expect to be kept up to date on the progress of your investigation."

"I can agree to that."

"Normally, we would assign a security team to back you up, but the information you have given us makes it hard to know who to trust, also, that would give away your plan. But we will get something in place as soon as we can..."

That was already a refreshing change of pace from what I had been dealing with from the Conclave.

"...Bob will ensure you have my contact information before you leave."

"But, my name is..." Bob huffed in exacerbation.

"Quiet Bob, don't interrupt the lady. It's rude!"

He huffed a little louder and slumped back into his chair. I didn't miss the playful smirk that graced Isabelle's face. She absolutely knew that man's real name but was more than happy to play along.

I liked her

"Me too." Faye's voice giggled in my head.

"Pete, you need to understand the gravity of this situation," she cautioned me again. "When this treason becomes known to the rest of our Order and the Conclave, it could mean war. We need to do everything within our power to stop that from happening, and if we can't, we need to ensure that the right sides win. There is going to be bloodshed. Probably a lot of it."

"Oh, I'm counting on it," I answered honestly. "My enemies are the Montreaux's and anyone supporting them. I don't care which Order those people used to belong to. As long as we have the same opinions on that, and you know and accept what is going to happen to them, you will have my full support."

"And you will have ours. It would seem that we are unlikely allies in this fight."

I nodded and stood, holding out my hand to the Princess. She, in turn, also stood and shook it, a graceful smile curling her lips. "Good luck, Pete. I will let you know when it is done."

"And to you."

Our hands stayed joined for a few more seconds before they parted. "C'mon, Bob. Time to go."

The man to my side sighed heavily and nodded before following me out of the door. "Yes, Sir. If you would please follow me."

*******

Depending on how the lit gods have handled the end of the year, this will either be the last story of 2022, or the first of 2023. The plot is thickening for our hapless hero and the shadows are gathering around him. The people in those shadows could be friends or they could be enemies, they could be guilty or innocent. It will take some drastic action for him to find out which are true. Stay tuned to find out if his plan pays off

Until then, happy new year

Stay awesome

Nova