The Tangled Web

At the Citadel of the Wyverns yesterday, the congregation of the faithful was summoned to the Auditorium (for there is now no Chapel at the Citadel, but only a place for listening to the Inquisition). The sorrowful knight, heir to those who had gone before, sat listening. And when he had listened, he could control himself no more, and his mind went out in search of the Wolff...

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Wolff, no longer Sir Wolff, sits sipping his atrament with old friends. It is the season of prevarication again, and deceit like a cloud of flies hovers over the Citadel. He speaks.

I have heard from the sorrowful, and though the Grand Inquisitor is not in residence, it is said that his consortium makes words as from his mouth. They have told the faithful to speak the truth of the Citadel, but only the truth that suits the Lords of the Magistratum.

In particular, one of them has said most plainly, "I am confident that you will respond in the way we want you to," and also, "The lenses and prisms that spy upon you are for your safety, and not because we wish to scry upon your deeds through sorcery," and also, "We do not want you to lie for the Citadel."

His friends stir. One points out that this particular one-who-speaks-for-the-Magistratum is adept at misdirection and manipulation. Another points out that she is also adept at threatening without actually saying so. Wolff laughs. He remembers the taint. He knows what is in his book. He replies.

I remember speaking the truth with intent to misdirect, on the orders of the Grand Inquisitor himself. He said to me, "Sir Wolff, tell of the glories of the Citadel, but do not bring down wrath, nor lead us into difficulty, by telling the kind of truth that does not bring us reward. Do not search too deeply, nor research again, for life can be very short, and you must live well."

This is what the Faithful are told in the Auditorium-that-is-not-quite-a-Chapel. And some have learnt that loyalty to the Brotherhood is only loyalty to the Citadel, that loyalty is the clever silence and the beautified truth. For the Grand Inquisitor and his High Lords of the Magistratum seek to hold truth by power, knowing that they have not the excellence of the unvarnished truth.

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And talk moved on to other things, such as how come the Gryphons had convened a conference on the Science of Sport, while the Grand Inquisitor had six years past decided to do no such thing at all.

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Note: The fictional adventures of Sir Wolff do provide much that is of interest. You can find them linked here. Just ignore the one about earwax. That was an accident.