When they arrived, the TV had already been qued up and showing a tired, pacing Atreus. Behind him Kaviah, Eriene, Simon, and Huda were sitting together on a sofa, hovering between two laptops as they coordinated on something. In rare form, Ismene was awake, hands cupping her a large cup of espresso and one hip leaning against the arm of the sofa to look over their shoulder.
Atreus turned when he saw movement on screen. "Are we all accounted for?"
When others nodded around the room, he continued. "Okay, we have been in conversations with the Governor about the thralls and Leta's situation."
He pressed a button and the screen flipped up to a video of nine different news stations covering the fight from this morning.
Leta winced in shame and discomfort at the public confrontation.
"We have been strangely fortunate with this." Atreus continued, "The number of documented thralls in so short a time frame is a serious concern, which the Governor agrees with. General Maria Gutierrez will be coming with her team, which will consist of Hunters and Inquisitors. Their job is to weed through the population and tag every single thrall in the city. With a population well over 3 million, we will expect them to take a while to go through everyone within the metro area and in the surrounding neighborhoods."
"Question, sir." Allister said with the same seriousness that a sailor has addressing their captain.
"Speak." Allister said as the visual on the TV cut back to him.
"How large of an inquisition party are we expecting?"
"Twenty Hunters, Ten Inquisitors. In addition, there will be General Gutierrez's support staff, which includes a Healer, Blacksmith, and Scribe." Atreus answered.
"What will living arrangements be?"
"The team is working out a long term hotel arrangements to utilize as their barracks. General Gutierrez will be using the Penthouse as their base of operation to coordinate logistics for reviewing the citizens. Depending on their needs, they may need to use the Outpost and all other Sect locations, so be prepared to share quarters if needed."
"When will we be expecting them to arrive?"
"It will take the team roughly half a day to mobilize and then give or take six hours for them to arrive from North Micronesia. I fully expect to be rolling out the red carpet around 10 p.m. tomorrow night."
Allister nodded, satisfied with the answer.
Atreus faced the team, "Any questions regarding the incoming team?"
When no other questions were raised, he continued.
"On to the next order of business. I informed the Governor that we have recently had an Arisen recently come to the Sect that is showing Talent combinations that have never before been accounted for. I gave my honest opinion, which is I cannot give a definitive answer of if Leta is a Crown or not. The Governor is… less than pleased that we did not bring it to his attention immediately-"
"Man screams like a fat chihuahua guarding a turd." Ismene interrupted with a snort.
"But when I informed him," Atreus gave her a pointed look, "That Leta was up to speed on the Chosen and had already signed her contract, we gave him no choice but to accept the situation. One of the Inquisitor that is being sent with the team is specifically instructed to question Leta on her powers and see if they can confirm her class."
He crossed his arms as he spoke as if he had some mixed feelings about this situation.
"I believe this will go one of two ways. One, the Inquisitor is able to determine your class. If you are a Crown, you will be sent to meet the Senator in Slovakia and the Leta is on her own, or they find that she has a more mundane class and it's business as usual. Or two, the Inquisitor is not able to determine Leta's class, in which case the Governor will have the final say if further inquiries need to be made."
He gave Leta an almost apologetic look on his permanently scowling face, "If I was a betting man, I would put money on the later. My guess is that the Inquisitor will be just as stumped as well all are, and Leta will be heading to North Micronesia to meet the Governor in person."
Leta raised her hand as if she were back in school, which had Atreus squinting at her in annoyance and Afra trying to hide a snicker.
"Seriously?" The General groaned.
"Question, sir? What is the whole process that I should expect from this inquisition-ing?"
"Inquisitors have truth tasting abilities similar to a Judge. However, they lack the mental offensive abilities of a Judge. Instead, Inquisitors have the ability to detect weaknesses in their subjects, which they can utilize to extract information. Don't be alarmed, Inquisitors are not like those from the witch hunts of history. Inquisitors are the Chosen equivalent of a detective - their job is to discover the truth, and then provide the information to a Judge, who is able to act out justice from there."
Leta worried her bottom lip, "I'll be honest, that doesn't really make me feel any better. The last detective I met had been beguiled to arrest me."
"Don't worry, girly." Ismene pipped up from behind the General, "You don't have anything to worry about from the Inquisitors as long as you answer their questions to the best of your abilities."
"Can't you just tell me what's going to happen?"
The Priestess shook her head. "Nope, that's cheating. Every future where I give you spoilers about the ending goes really, really badly for everyone, so you're stuck being held in suspense. However, we aren't going to leave you empty handed."
She gave a pointed look at Atreus.
The General sighed, "My time away from the Sect wasn't an idle vacation. I hunted down one troll and a goblin while I was away. Both have been left in Holding in the Outpost. Kaviah will be coming with me tomorrow to hunt a Golem-""Arre, you have yet to convince me to do such a thing, ji." The Blacksmith interrupted, grumbling."
"-We will be delivering that to the holding in the Outpost as well. Do you have any other questions?"
"Is there any way I can avoid going with the Governor?" Leta winced at even asking the question but felt that it needed to at least be said.
"Afra snorted behind her at Atreus's sour look.
"Unless you can come up with a very compelling argument about what your class is and why we should believe you, I think you're going to have to get used to the idea that you'll be leaving." Atreus grated out.
Leta looked over his shoulder to Ismene.
The Priestess gave a single shake of her head, her face serious and uncharacteristically hard as she held Leta's gaze.
"Fine." Leta sighed, "So there's probably no avoiding this."
"Nope." Ismene said with a more casual shrug, "You can't run or hide, but you can at least do some negotiating."
Leta groaned at the though of haggling over her very life.
"Any other questions?"
"What's the plan for my road trip to North Micronesia?"
"Irene and Huda are currently working out the details for that. We are considering Simon going low profile for a time and having the story be that Leta joined him on an engagement north. Once we have this nailed down, we will let you know."
When she grew quiet, Atreus took that moment to say, "seeing that there are no more questions, I will conclude this meeting. Marching orders given at the last call still stand - do not leave the Outpost. I will give you all a heads up if that changes. Until then, stay safe."
Allister slapped her back when the video feed cut out. "Don' be to worried, lass. You'll not be abandoned by us. Now, let's go have a look at what monsters our fearless leader has left for ya."