~Risch~
"I have received testimony to the effect that Darren Masler was severely injured by a third party on the night of your highness' gathering. There is no evidence that he gave in to any demands, but circumstantially it seems very likely that demands were at least made of him."
"And you're suggesting that for him to have stayed quiet about it, this third party must have something on Masler, correct?"
"Precisely, your highness."
"I will personally question the witness. Have her brought in."
"As expected of your highness." Risch made a slight bow and opened the door. "Trainee Vee, his highness requests your presence."
In his peripheral vision, Risch saw the prince straighten his posture and set his shoulders as Vee walked in with too obvious trepidation. The clothes of Vee's new station fit her poorly and clearly chafed. Unlike a brothel where appearance was of the utmost importance and clothes were custom tailored, the inquisition saved most of its budget to line the pockets of its senior members. She stood frozen in front of the prince with her eyes angled down at the floor. Even so, the temptation in the prince's gaze was clear.
"You did not inform me that your informant was an inquisition trainee. How did one of your ranks know this information and only now come forward with it? I would have expected better discipline. Unless you bring her here such that I personally intervene?" asked the prince.
"On the contrary, for her meritorious service as a citizen, I personally saw to inducting her into our ranks. She was not yet a trainee when she volunteered this extraordinarily important detail to me," Risch responded.
The interest in the prince's gaze quickly fell away and was replaced with his natural bored expression. He slumped back into his seat, no longer feeling the need to put up his guise of princeliness. "Very well. Since you have already granted her a reward I see no reason to impede your investigation any further. Both of you are dismissed."
Vee came alive at that and joined Risch in a bow, then they exited past a pair of impassive guards and into the main palace thoroughfare. People mainly went toward the main audience chambers where the king held court, but enough officials crossed between various administrative offices that there was no hope that the bustle could be turned into something orderly.
Even among the chaos though, one shout caught Risch's attention. "House Masler announced what? I want two, no, three sources confirming that right now!"
***
~Darren~
"Yes, of course I am aware of my own inexperience, but that does not entirely preclude action." Rather, it simply necessitates that I put up with your incessant attempts to change my mind.
I avoided speaking all of what was on my mind for the sake of not making any more enemies that I needed to. At best, the reactions to my announcement that House Masler would be supporting the reforms for commoner trials had been head shakes and laments over the optimism of youth. At worst, they had called for me to be stripped of my title for supposed treasons against the king. How changing the system for enforcing the king's law was treasonous was as of yet unclear, but the call had been taken up rather fervently by a good number of my detractors.
"Given your inexperience, I would be happy to take you under my wing and see to it that you make no more such oversteps in the future," Baron Bremer offered. He was not the first to make such an offer, but with the wake of vultures that had been surrounding him ever since he had made his announcement finally thinning out, it was hopefully the last. Baron Bremer had been one of the few in the group that actually had a stake in the change as few of the others had lands that they administrated over. For most of the counts and viscounts who had harassed me, it seemed to be more a way to participate and feel like they had influence than an issue that they cared about either way.
Even the simple fact that noble trials and commoner trials would still be under separate systems meant that it would likely be only a very small improvement. It wasn't as if the nobility would start being held accountable to their actions. Given that the only things that kept my finances afloat were the profits from selling the last of the contraband that had made it through inspection before bribes started getting too expensive to pay and the loans from Lorn, I didn't exactly want a perfectly fair system.
If I wanted those loans to continue, I needed to start attending the academy again, but that would just give the nobles at court more fodder to discredit me with. After all, if I still had things to learn from the academy, then my actions and positions were the actions and positions of a child. Unlike Mary, I couldn't act under the auspices of my father either. Thus it was the inevitable conclusion to come to that I needed to rebuild the house's primary source of revenue. Until then, my school days were not yet over and done with.
***
My return to the classroom was heralded not by rumors, stares, or really any attention whatsoever. It was the spectre of testing that greeted me. I had no explanation for why, in a world where inheritance and birthright trumped merit at every turn, there were tests, but the idea of not having them in a game set in a school must never have crossed the developers' minds. Even more extreme, testing was supposed to be done biweekly so that it could happen twice within the month, the length of time the game was set in. The subjects covered by the testing were grammar, history, logic, government, and philosophy. Grammar, history, and government mostly mirrored their more modern equivalents and logic took the place of math or science with an emphasis on puzzles and reasoning that anything numerical. Logic also seemed to be considered one of the hardest subjects, so many of my fellow classmates were busy puzzling out riddles or memorizing common forms that questions took.
The other major difference and probably the biggest issue for me was the addition of a philosophy exam. The biggest problem being that it was at its core based on the religion here. Unlike the other subjects which I could get by in because of how rudimentary they were in comparison to modern education, I had no shortcuts for learning the theology here.
The day passed quickly and uneventfully. In a way, it was all the more uncomfortable for that absence. Elizabeth didn't do anything that would trigger a major event or even anything that would give the impression that she was anything but a normal girl among all my classmates. At least the prince stood out because of his station and Lorn for his. Georn's lack of grace still stood out, and the ease with which Jezbeth navigated the classwork put her in her own category. All of the other characters were distinct and notable, but Elizabeth just blended into the background. At best, Elizabeth was friendly with Lorn and politically backing the prince, but there were no signs of progress toward any particular route.
***
~Mary~
At some level, she must have expected that her contributions mattered. She had pushed Darren into making his announcement and it had taken precisely two bells for it to be buried and forgotten. The stacks of papers were undeniable evidence that their contribution had mattered exactly as much as a marriage between the children of two viscounts. Mary hadn't expected the announcement to carry anywhere near as far as the one made by House Finer, but the reality of it was like a bucket of cold water. They were children playing at an adult's game, so they would be treated accordingly.
"We expected this, our only option is to press on and tailor our approach to fit our circumstances," Chella reassured from somewhere behind where Mary sat. Chella's pessimism had taken away much of the bite from the way that their play had been papered over. In all things she was supportive, but sometimes she could be even more jaded than many adults. "I have made edits to the proposal to your father that you drafted this morning. Please look over it and see what you think of them."
Mary reached behind her and felt the rough texture of paper slide across her outstretched palm. Except for the way that Chella still abbreviated some letters, their scripts were basically identical. It looked like the writer was arguing with herself. She made a claim and then right beside she made a refutation to her own argument. It had started with a silly challenge that they had come up with when Chella had first been learning to write. Chella would try to write something that they could pass off as Mary's work so that they could play a magic trick on Mellok.
The forgery had worked so well that Mellok had thought that magic was truly at work until they had talked him off the ledge. It had also come in handy for letting Chella ghostwrite letters to suitors, but most of all, seeing the barely differentiable scribbles again was a welcome reminder that her second half was once again by her side.
"I'll rewrite a final draft. Hopefully I'll be done before the sun sets. I hope to present this tomorrow," Mary said.
***
~Risch~
"I'm aware that this has all been a bit rushed, but bear with me while I explain the trainee program. I'm sorry to say that you don't have a choice as to whether you'll take part, but if you want me to, I can minimize the danger you'll face and fast track you into an administrative role," explained Risch.
It had taken some doing, but Risch had successfully pulled Vee out of the dormitories where all the inquisition trainees lived for the duration of their trainings for one last explanation before things started in earnest for her. It was supposed to be two months of carefully monitored, isolated indoctrination before a trainee graduated to being apprenticed to a full fledged inquisitor as a junior inquisitor. Sadly, only some fifteen percent of the trainees survived their two months. In his own group, Risch had been one of only two out of thirty. The other had only lasted a month as a junior inquisitor before he had to be retired, so Risch was the last one left of their class.
"Danger? But inquisitor, sir, I didn't even want to be an inquisitor, why is the training dangerous?" asked Vee anxiously.
"The most important thing to remember is that it's only as dangerous as you make it for yourself. You are not responsible for any of the other trainees. Just know that no matter how bad it gets, there is always a way for you to survive. I have to ask you again, do you want me to interfere?"
"No. I don't want you to treat me differently just because you did what you had to do."
"Fair enough."
