Bishop sat down, after offering Mace a seat.
"I mean, I can understand, if you don't want to divulge information on that - I don't know, how many people are actually involved in this."
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Bishop sat down, after offering Mace a seat.
"I mean, I can understand, if you don't want to divulge information on that - I don't know, how many people are actually involved in this."
"Ah, of course," Mace said. "I came in at the end of this, as you are no doubt aware. But you heard what we spoke of at the last Consilium meeting." She watched him for a reaction. "Truth be told, there's little I know. At least, little I know for certain. Animus and I investigated the health of the souls, to see how they had been marked y their ordeals. The results were...unsettling." She shuddered at the memory. It was an understatement. "They had been tortured. Probably before removal, but the souls themselves have been tortured. Those that did this, they've paid for it. But we're still paying for the fallout. I... I think I've found a ritual to help them, to free them to go back to the Supernal. But there's a lot I don't know." She wasn't happy admitting it, but if he had any insight, she'd use it.
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Bishop listened, quitely and without displaying any reaction.
"Well, I hate to tell you that, but all you told me that was done to those souls was to be expected." he replied, slowly, when the councilor had finished.
"The fallout you were...are dealing with was to be expected. Because, in my opinion, it was intended. Battling these groups will always involve collateral damage."
Leaning back, Bishop thought about what was at stake.
"Freeing the souls is one thing, but they need...some sort of spiritual sanctuary. Something they remember as positive. For that woman, Triquetra, it might be Animus. For the others, I don't know. Releasing them ritually may work, but if there is too much grudge or negativity in them, they might stick around. As was probably intended as a last ditch effort to stale any victory. What did you have in mind for the ritual?"
Mace nodded. "I completely agree. I asked Animus to find some objects of significance for each of them. He's the only one I've managed to find who knew them all." She twiddled her thumbs for a moment. "Beyond that, I've collected a candle, representing a Wand and set in a stand of resonant metal, to point to the supernal, and a polished mirror to represent the soul. I'm hoping that if we can use these foci to reinforce their connection to the suprenal, their souls won't linger. And then Aquinas will provide some Mind support to make sure they have that sanctuary."
She hesitated, and then continued, "My research suggests that this would work. There's a risk, but it's the best I could find. There's something else that's been on my mind though," she added. In for a penny, in for a pound. "This should never have happened. They had much too much information about us. I think some of us need to get together and sort out what happened, and how we can shore up those holes. What do you think?"
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Raising an eyebrow, Bishop gave Mace a curious look.
"Interesting point. And one worth entertaining, I'd say." he stated, while pondering the subject. "We would need to do some digging on them. Cabals, Orders, access to facilities, locations, artifacts...all that. If they were tortured for the sake of mapping uncharted territory, then we have a serious problem on our hands, because we are playing a double blind. We don't know, what was compromised by them and we don't know what can be compromised either."
Leaning back, Bishop put his fingers together and touched his lips.
"We also need to establish a time-frame. When were the living bodies of the souls tortured? That would be the hard point. With that and their time of death, we could establish references as to when exactly the information was obtained and what has changed in the meantime. Most importantly, we could evalute, if an attack is already under way. The whole GLO-affair could be a prelude in that context, conducted to weaken and corrupt the pentacle society."
Bishop thought back to a Consilium meeting a few months back, when a security breach of the Aethernet had been announced. <Was that part of the whole affair, too?> he wondered. He paused for a moment.
"Ok, here is my two cents on that. We figure out the timeframe. We interview Animus about potential targets, that have relations with the souls. We compile a list of those items and see, if anything unusual happened to those items within the timeframe. I'll see, that I get in touch with Ariadne. She has been around long enough to know, where to look. She might even have some ideas of her own."
Bishop wondered, if he was blowing this thing out of proportion, but then again...better safe than sorry.
"Oh, and I would keep this quiet. We announce this publicly in front of the consilium, and we will have a whole flea-circus on our hands with councilors dictating actions and politicking slowing the whole thing down. Or someone flashes his lip in public and we are dead in the water. We assess, compile and evaluate. And than we go to our esteemed hierarch."
Mace smiled. She'd hoped that he would be willing to follow up on this with her. "From what I was told, the perpetrators were killed in the clean up. But that doesn't mean there isn't more to the story. There may be other plots afoot, and they may be related. They may not be. But either way, these people managed to get far enough in our heads to kidnap 5 councilors, each of whom was affiliated with a different order."
She listened patiently as Bishop outlined his plan. "I agree a timeline is important. We'll have to talk to who we can, but I'm not sure I've met many people who would have been around when this started. If you think this..Ariadne can help, then yeah let's talk to her." She hesitated, and nodded. "Keeping it secret may be for the best. At least while we're assessing things. But if a security leak is uncovered, then people need to know about it. So that they can better protect themselves against it."
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"If we confirm a threat, we inform." Bishop agreed. "I'll arrange things with Ariadne. Maybe we can bring Animus in on that meeting, so that we don't have to do everything twice. Plus, the two may help one another on points of uncertainty. Do you have sufficient knowledge of time to conclude ToD on the soul jars, or do we need external expertise?"
Mace nodded. "Might as well kill two birds with one stone," she said. "My knowledge of time is all second hand. I've heard people talk about it, but I have no knowledge of it myself," she admitted.
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"Ok, I'll see, what I can do about that." Bishop replied, making a mental note to ask around for mages with proficiency in time.
He rose from his chair.
"Thank you, councilor, for your time." he said, politely and extended his hand towards the lady.
Mace stood, and shook his hand. "Thank you for speaking with me." She gave him a smile. They'd made some progress today, and she was pleased for that. "Enjoy the rest of your evening."
Mace rejoins the main thread
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