The Inquisitor's Survalliance

“There he is! Not sure who that is with him. We have reports of him working with two Dark Velvet assassins, but they are Asian and she’s clearly white,” one knight told the rest in the van.

“It’s possible he has other allies, after all, he has befriended those wicked Abyssal creatures,” pointed out a second knight between the bites of his sandwich, no real concern in his voice.

“Shouldn’t we alert Lord Brighton or attempt to capture them?” asked the first knight, unsure of what to do.

“You’ll do nothing,” came a stern but feminine voice. Behind the troops, the Grand Inquisitor had arrived on her new assignment, and entered the spy van cloaked in a barrier across the street from John Newman’s house. “Do we know how they got into that house since the initial sweep showed no signs of the warlock being in the house?” asked Fran, a stern look spread across all the knights in the van.

“Uh...”

“Well….”

“You see...”

Fran raised her hand and the knights quickly fell to silence, not wanting to anger her, the rumors of her rage well known to all the knights of the Order.

“So he simply appeared in the house? That’s interesting. It could mean he has some sort of movement magic. Perhaps teleportation or tunneling? Was there any magical spikes?” asked Fran.

“Yes. There were two a few hours apart. The first was far larger and had some strange readings, like some sort of magic that’s never been recorded. Here are the readings on that one,” said the knight as he handed some readouts to Fran. “The second happened a few minutes ago and saw the target and a mystery woman come out of the house,” finished the knight.

“Hmm. I’ve seen these readings before. We were chasing a strange Abyssal creature whose magical abilities were like nothing we’d ever seen. It also had the strangest personality. It was the only creature that not only did I ever not capture or kill, but it would also appear in our camp, looking at our supplies and asking us random questions before disappearing. Infuriating creature,” Fran revealed to the troops.

“Either way, one of you follow them and see what they are doing. We will not capture them yet. If they have a hidden base, we need to find out where it is. Perhaps we could even do a surgical strike to capture him and take out his leadership,” determined the Grand Inquisitor.

“Are you sure?” asked another knight, who was not sold on Fran’s idea and not afraid of her as the other knights.

“You dare question the Grand Inquisitor of the Order of the Golden Rose?” roared Fran, her voice more threatening with every word. She topped off her threat by pulling out her weapon and aiming it right at the knight. The knight slunk down in his seat, sweat rolling down his face as he stared at the pointy end of Fran’s weapon.

“I-I-I meant no dis-disrespect!” mumbled the man, attempting to not be killed by his new boss.
“I’m sure you didn’t, but that doesn’t excuse the disrespect. I’d kill you now, but I don’t want to deal with the delay that would cause. So, monitor everything that happens in that house. I want to know the moment any magical spikes happen, you hear me?” she said, not a moment later the knight monitoring the equipment told her the magical spike had happened yet again.

“So, he used his teleportation magic. Can you track it?” she asked.

“No. It’s just a large discharge of magic and then suddenly it’s gone. It doesn’t show the magic actually going anywhere like with a transportation spell,” explained the knight.

“Hmm. I see. I wonder...could it be he has a permanent barrier? Moira did report that the Lady herself gave the warlock his powers, so perhaps she gave him some land as well? But why would she? Is she testing us, perhaps?” Fran wondered out loud as she made her way to a different area of the van and started to go through the books located in the area.

A few hours later, Fran had found what she was looking for. It was in a dusty old tome that had not seen the light of day for many decades. Fran flipped through the pages in a fervor, her eyes devouring anything and everything on the pages as she searched for her intended information.

“Ah ha! Here it is!” exclaimed Fran, a tone of victory in her voice.

“What is it, Inquisitor?” asked one of her knights, eager to know what made her so happy.

“I’ve found a list of every permanent barrier the Order has ever come across. Some are independent kingdoms ruled by Abyssal creatures, others are hideout for criminals like this warlock. Over the years the Order has cataloged every one we’ve found and even crusaded against some of the worst ones. My guess is the Lady may have granted him one of these abandoned ones in the hope that he’d make it a paradise in her name. Instead I’m sure it’s a kingdom of debauchery and vice. One that the Order must purify! Begin searching these kingdoms to see if any have had a similar reading of the transportation magic. If we can pinpoint where he is, we can determine how best to attack,” ordered the Grand Inquisitor as she tossed the book onto the knight who was monitoring the equipment’s lap.

“Oof!” cried the knight as the thick tome landed on his lap, which caused him to cry out in pain from the sudden weight on him.

“Suck it up. Now, I shall continue researching while you take care of the scanning,” informed the imposing woman as she went back to her table and continued her reading of the tomes she had surrounded herself with.

Meanwhile in a field outside the castle

“And that’s when Dardar appeared and sent us all home!” concluded Mimi who, along with Yatina, had acted out their trip to the alternate dimension, albeit with various liberal interpretations of what happened so great that a Hollywood screenwriter would blush at what those two thought up. Gali listened intently to the two young girls as they recounted what happened. She knew the basically of what had happened from John, so she knew the two weren’t making everything up.

“That was quite the adventure you two went on, wasn’t it?” she asked in a gentle voice, a big smile on her face. She leaned in and gave the two derps a gentle pat on their heads, a smile from the two was her reward.

“It was!” said Mimi.

“Super fun! Specially the s’mores!” decided Yatina. Mimi nodded enthusiastically at that statement, as did the sneks as they looked at each other for confirmation.

“Oh yes, I’m sure they were tasty, but do you two think anything bad happened during that trip?” asked Gali, still speaking gently to the girls. The two looked at each other for a moment, the derpy cogs in their heads turning to see if they can figure out what Gali meant. The two shook their head no in unison. “Ah, I see. Do you think it was right to jump onto Idena and John as they were teleporting?” she asked.

“Yes!” the two said in unison with big smiles on their faces. It was clear to Gali that the two meant no harm and just wanted to play, but their antics nearly killed themselves and John and Idena. She realized the two needed to be not really disciplined but made to understand that they should think a bit more before they do potentially dangerous things like the crystal fiasco and their derptime game.

“No, you shouldn’t have,” Gali told them plainly. The two looked at her and their faces immediately dropped. “What you did was very dangerous and you could have hurt yourselves! Or even John and Idena! Now how would those two play with you if you two or those two were dead?” she asked. The eyes of Mimi and Yatina began to water as snot began to dribble from their noses. Finally, the two burst out in tears and cried, each one jumped into Gali’s chest, their faces rested on her bosom which the two used as pillows as they cried.

“W-we didn’t mean tooooooooo!” cried Mimi.

“W-we just waaaanted to plaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!” continued Yatina, tears and snot pouring from both girls’ faces.

“I know, sweeties, I know. But you have to remember that your playing may interfere with other people. You have to make sure the other people want to play before you play with them, ok?” she asked as she patted and rubbed the heads of the two girls. The two sniffed up their snot and wiped away their tears as they looked up at Gali with big doggy eyes.

“T-then nobody is mad at us?” asked Mimi.

“We won’t be punished?” asked Yatina. Gali laughed as she pulled the two into a big hug.

“No, of course not! They know you are young girls and are still learning. But you have to make sure you start to think about if others want to play first, ok? Or else we will have to punish you. And who knows, maybe the tickle monster will get you!” she said as she began to tickle both the girls.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOT THE TICKLE MONSTER!” the two yelled in unison as they laughed and giggled with the motherly Gali who played with them.