Confessions of a Doubting Arbiter

JP with Omni and Winteroak

He looked at Voah for what seemed like an eternity. His red strange eyes bore down on her as if he was stripping her flesh from her bones and looking into her very soul.
"Where you threaded first we now follow Arbiter Voah Sahnsuur." He started. "Your small step will turn into the Long Walk of the Inquisition."

And there it was the grand statements he was known for. The piety and dedication to the Pillars. He lean backed on his chair.
"I want to hear all about the last year and if your mission." He said as a matter of fact. "Although something seems different Arbiter. As if you are... Less. Or lost..." He told her directly as if he could see her wavering.

She knew and expected his gaze, she used a similar approach to intimidate, analyze, and judge others. It was confrontational and uncomfortable… but not disarming, like the eyes that she missed so much already.

“It has been a strange and challenging year… and you are not wrong, Purger.”

She bowed. “I confess. I feel I have lost something as well. Perhaps even before boarding for the new world. I expect that your arrival will help correct my faults. For I have been tested.

My methods have always been… subtle… gentler than your own, Purger. Where you meet the enemy head on like cutting weeds from a garden, as you know, I have always been one to take a step back, a defensive approach, dig deep and uproot. This has served me well in Helias, but I fear that it has failed me in Arcadia. Where to begin?”

She hoped the forward, earnest, and truthful approach would help assuage his intensity and prying curiosity, making any lies that she had to tell more convincing.

Margrave Otho sipped at his water listening intently at Voah's words. The report he had received from Duke Stoneshade was concerning but he was not going to take the word of a Salarian noble at face value, no matter his family's commitment to the Noctua Inquisition, over of that of one of his sisters.
"Purge yourself of doubt and incertitude, Arbiter Voah Sahnsuur. Open your heart to the Pillars. Share your burdens with me..." He coaxed.

She exhaled, ready to unburden her troubles in stages, “Thank you, Margrave. I am humbled.”

It was true, she needed this, and who better to hear it than the most ruthless Arbiter she knew.

“To begin, Friar Balvaris must be commended on the challenge that he has faced. It is no easy feat to raise a shrine and lead a straying flock of criminals and religious dissidents. We shall come back to him later, but know that he is a devout and admirable fellow.

Around the festival Hoi, Duke Stoneshade asked me to lead a trading party to the Plains and meet with the Odsier people, hoping to confirm rumors that they were magik weavers and killers. I have no doubt that by now you have seen their bonecasters for yourself. But something about the witch I met gave me great pause. You know that I don’t treat the subject lightly, especially because of what happened to my mother, but my time camping among them felt very much like my own nomadic upbringing in rural Mizar. None of these natives have heard of our Gods, or even share similarities. They know only one entity, Erewhon… From my understanding, it means something like Wonderland… They say that Erewhon spoke of my coming, but… Why did they not do away with me? Why do the Pillars not reach out to them? Do they not want the whole of mankind to take them into their hearts?”

The questions continued to roll out, “My mother, being a pilgrim and missionary, taught me to bring the strength of our faith to the far reaches of Mizar. Sorcery and paganism aside, is it not our duty, tasked by the Pillars, to teach these natives to know and love them as you and I have?”

He listened to intently to her take. He noted her questions. Her doubts. He would circle back to that he was sure but something she said caught his attention.

"What happened to the witch you met?" He asked looking at Voah for her reaction.