An important meeting was being convened in the innermost reaches of the Bithynian city, the capital of Nicaea, a theocratic state that was the centre of Trinity Church. Nicaea was a small city state that consist only two cities, namely the capital Bithynian and another city, Serdica. Nicaea theocracy, however was ten times the size of other small city states such as Venetian and Florence. 

Very few people were allowed into this inviolable sanctum.

The first was the highest-ranked member of the church; Pope Boniface.

Next were the Cardinals, the highest appointment holders that were devoted to the Three Gods. Incidentally, each of them was a potential candidate to be the next Pope.

1) Cardinal Theresa. 

She was over 50 years old, the only female and a little plump, possibly due to her age. Her well-fed face bore a motherly smile which put all who looked upon it at ease.

2) Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia.

He  was a shrivelled old man. He was so old that one could not tell his exact age, and his skin was a dusty brown. Although people worried about his health, none could exceed his intellect.

3) Cardinal Bartolomeo Prignano.

He looked like a kindly old man, but he was originally commander of Sun Templar, and had exterminated many heretics during his time as a holy warrior. His wrath was like a wildfire while his murderous intent was like chilling frost.

4) Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici.

He was a keen-eyed man and the youngest of his present company. That said, he was still in his mid-40s, though his energy made that fact difficult to believe. He was a former member of the Inquisition Templars who had served for 15 years — a hero who had defended his religion.

5) Cardinal Benedetto Caetani.

His narrow eyes and skinny frame made him look like a sinister person, but that was definitely not the case. Everyone here knew the reason. As a user of divine magic, he ranked at or near the top of all the people present.

6) Cardinal Theophylactus.

He was surrounded by countless books. He wore round glasses, and he had originally been a priest from the judiciary. Hence, many of the books next to him pertained to the law.

There was supposed to be another Cardinal but he was recently killed.

In addition to them, there were four grand commanders of different Templars division.

These 12 people comprised the highest executive authority of the  Trinity Church.

They lined up in front of the three statues — which appeared to be defending this room — and lowered their heads.

“Today, we give thanks to the gods that human beings like ourselves are still alive.”

After the Pope said those words, everyone repeated them after him.

“Thus do we offer our thanks.”

After bowing, they took their seats at the round table.

This included the Pope.

At this table, everyone was equal. There were no superiors or inferiors here. Everyone was a collaborator and a comrade. Indeed, all this was for the glory of mankind.

“Then, let us begin the meeting.”

The organizer of this meeting was Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia.

"Our first topic is the death of Cardinal Mozgus."

There was nothing that could possibly be any more important than the sudden death of a Cardinal. 

However, far too few people knew the details of the situation. Most of what they knew was little more than hearsay.

For starters, they knew that Cardinal Mozgus went to holy tower in Saint Albion, a territory within Olga Federation.

Rodrigo Borgia reported these details in his capacity as the meeting’s organizer.

Just then, someone spoke out:

"Based on the scout of Templars, the fortress and tower are totally destroyed, reduced to rubbles. What actually happened, I wonder?"

"Is there any surviving eye witness"

Rodrigo Borgia replied,

"There was no survivor among the refugees when our scouts went there. But Commander of Iron Chain, Farnese Vandimion wrote a report. She said Cardinal Mozgus and templars were defeated by unknown groups. Refugees became hostile and tried to kill the Templars."

"That demon daughter of Vandimion. Couldn't she wrote a detailed report?"

"You know church cannot force the heir of Vandimion to do something.... "

"But still for Templars and that Mozguz, I can't believe they were defeated."

"Where is Farnese now?"

"She just waited here briefly, before joining with Orlais troops to attack on Hyuutia " Cardinal Theophylactus answered. 

Rodrigo Borgia closed his eyes for a while before opening and resuming,

"That goes to our second topic. Our elite troops, Moon Templars joined Orlais in attack, but they  disappeared without trace."

"Could it be they were defeated by enemies?"

Cardinal Bartolomeo hammered the table with his first,

"Impossible. That's Moon Templars, our elite knights. We sent the whole unit. Godfrey is in there. Furthermore, Orlais commanders are also strong. Their strength is too much for Hyuutia!"

Cardinal Theresa interjected,

"But even that Mozgus was defeated.... Could it be bandits. Bandits are everywhere in that area."

"Bandits can't beat them. You know that we'll. We even put a Templar division acting as bandits there, colliding with Orlais nobles." Pope answered. 

Rodrigo Borgia added,

"That goes to our third point. About that bandit group, members of Sun Templars...They have also gone missing. Our spies discovered their tent were burnt to crisps and there were trace of fighting."

Theophylactus raised his voice,

"How come they were defeated? That monster Benedict was leading the group. And the members were not that weak."

Theresa repeated,

"As I said before, even that Mozgus was defeated?"

"Could it be all these incidents related?"

"That huge Orlais force invaded several months ago...they were defeated by unknown force."

"Even so, Saint Albion was too far from Hyuutia. I don't think the incidences were committed by the same perpetrators." Theresa gave her opinion.

She added,

"Perhaps the culprits have grudge against us. Come to think about it, last year we abducted the child of Redcliffe Marquis in broad daylight. Could it be Redcliffe?"

Pope rejected her notion,

"Impossible. No one knows our conspiracy in Orlais nobility and banditry. Even if they know, Redcliffe don't have the ability to defeat us, especially after the death of the previous Marquis and his brother. Based on report, Redcliffe knights tried to resist when took the Marquis's son, but they posed no threat to our top elite. Benedict, Godfrey, Mozgus and others, Redcliffe has no one strong enough to defeat them."

Theresa, the only woman in this secret hall argued, "Still, we shouldn't take that boy. He is son of a high noble, Moreover one of six great noble of Ferelden...very influential family. Our action could incite animosity against the church."

"What are you saying? We cannot allow any sorcerer to be influential aristocrat. Didn’t we all agree on that earlier? You might have objected then, but don’t try to overturn our previous decision…"

Theresa insisted on arguing,

"Still, we shouldn't take the boy away from his mother, imprison him in Circle Tower of Kinloch Hold. He is better put in house arrest with his mother."

"We cannot reverse a decision..."

After a brief clapping of hands, the debate which was about to heat up promptly cooled down. Then, Pope voiced his concern,

"Federico Vandimion is largest contributor to our coffer. Are you sure her only daughter has gone missing...or dead?"

Rodrigo Borgia who also seemed stressed replied,

"When our spies reached the border, they couldn't find anyone, not even corpse. Neither our battalion nor their foes. They even ventured into Hyuutia and other Dioral territories."

Benedetto Caetani sighed, "Federico Vandimion's three sons are also troublesome, Giorgio, Poliziano, and Magnifico."

Rodrigo Borgia commanded the clerks to distribute some papers.

"Then, we shall distribute the records of what they saw. These have not been verified by others; they’re just her account of what they have discovered.”

How troublesome, everyone thought, though they did not say it. They took the records and studied them.

They stopped after the last piece of paper. They went over the same part over and over again. They had the same stiff expressions and their faces slowly grew sour.

Rodrigo smiled to see the changes in their expressions. He had been through the same thing that was happening to them now, and he was glad because misery loved company.

And then, as though to represent everyone else, Theophylactus shouted. His mouth opened so wide that his glasses fell off, but he did not seem to care about that.

"Impossible! How could anything like this possibly exist?!”

“I told you earlier, didn’t I? This is just a description of what she claimed to have seen.”

Theophylactus shut up in the face of Rodrigo Borgia’s cold response.

He was panting like he had just been sprinting. As Theophylactus struggled to get his breathing back under control, Theresa decided to ask another question, to see if someone shared her opinions.

“Can you say that again? Is this actually real?”

"They managed to find eye witnesses in an incident in a heretics' cave before the night the tower crumbled in Saint Albion. Our investigators merely recorded their statement. There were five knights who escaped from there before the tower crumbled. In fact, the eye witnesses are still here in Nicaea."

With sour looks on their faces, they all looked back to the papers they were holding.

"Holy Iron Chain Templars were ambushing heretics' lair located inside a cave at the outskirt of Saint Albion when they discovered refugees were performing weird rituals. The refugees bit each other and then attacked the knights. The bitten refugees and knights also turned aggressive and preyed on other knights. A large pig faced man also went rampaged and killed the knights."

Silent filled up the chamber for minutes.

"What manner of creatures were that?"

That pig faced man.... was that orc from the myths? We have never met such things?"

"Man eating human... No.. normal human became man eating.. bitten persons became man eating as well... What's that? Ghouls? Undead?"

"Couldn't be undead as they were still human..but there's chance they were bitten and became undead.. argggggg... there's too little information to draw conclusions."

"So, these creatures killed refugees and templars at the tower including Cardinal Mozgus?"

"But Farnese Vandimion and her henchman survived and live in here like normal human for a while."

"It could be they managed to escape with their life."

Rodrigo Borgia interfered with their aimless discussion,

"The report and result of investigation only arrived days after Farnese left here."

"Our intelligence report confirmed her report that refugees became weird and killed templars. But she also mentioned about the unknown human group not related to the rampaging refugees."

They became silence again and were staring helplessly at the papers.

"Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia. You’re not telling us everything, are you?” Bartolomeo Prignano stared sharply at the meeting organizer.

“Bartolomeo, what are you getting at?”

"The law does not prohibit false testimony and obscuring the truth in this place, but we are colleagues serving under the same flag and lying is a grave offense. If you agree with this, let me ask you one more time: What are you hiding?”

“Bartolomeo. What’s wrong with you? Why are you saying this?”

"Chairman. I have a question. Why did Farnese and her bodyguard hid the the whole fact? Is really no one else who has witnessed the incident?"

Bartolomeo spoke,

"I personally had spoken to Farnese before her departure. She looked very frightened. She must be speaking so out of despair. Or perhaps she must have suffered some sort of shock. It’s true that incident is frightening. However, she’s a member of the Templars. Do you really think she would be frightened just because of that? … It’s because she saw something that even the Templars might not able to beat. This report isn’t complete, is it?”

Everyone looked at Rodrigo Borgia and Bartolomeo.

"What are you trying to achieve by hiding that point? I trust you. I know you’re not the sort of man who would use the church for his own gain. But why are you not revealing this?” Bartolomeo resumed his interrogation but the chairman remained calm as if he expected this.

"Well done. As expected of you, Bartolomeo. I simply wanted to explore the possibilities… then, I’ll say it. Agonizing over this problem alone would simply give me an ulcer, so I’d be glad to share it with all you gentlemen here.”