Mealy-Mouthed Purpose

Mealy-Mouthed Purpose
Date of Cutscene:	10 April 2013
Location:	Mullonde
Synopsis:	Bishop Jaren consults with Bishop Emerald, after Ophelia throws a wrench in their plans, and find a few loopholes to compensate to get their crooked operation back on track.
Cast of Characters:	Bishop Jaren (Count Valos), Bishop Emerald (Faruja)

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Bishop Jaren rubs his chin as he reads Ophelia's report, which reached him not long after news came forth that Count Valos was guilty as originally charged. He immediately begins to rummage through various documents in the drawers of his desk, and pulls out various pieces of paper which he starts to scribble upon; this goes on for a couple hours, until he hears a knock at the door.

"Enter." calls out the Aegyl Bishop.

In comes Bishop Emerald, who closes the door immediately afterwards, and remarks, "We have a situation."

Jaren motions towards a chair across from himself on the other side of the desk, with a hand, offering Emerald a seat, which she takes without hesitation. "Ophelia's rank as an inquisitor meant that the testimony she received from Father Bouhr overrides Faruja's claims that Valos' confessions were false." He shakes his head, "But I doubt The Count would've been so foolish as to neglect to account for a contradictory testimony, even though he didn't know Ophelia would be overseeing the interrogation of Father Bouhr."

Bishop Emerald shrugs, "Well.... I don't know Count Valos that well, maybe he slipped?"

Jaren shakes his head, "Dubious. There's probably a technicality in his testimony that..... ah..." he pulls forth the original notepad upon which Faruja transcribed Valos' entire dialogue, which may have been a bit different from the official, summarized version that was entered into the vast bureaucracy so that some dunce could give the order to have Father Bouhr interrogated..... Let's see...."

Emerald folds her arms as Jaren scratches his head, commenting "Well, he did cover his tracks. Unfortunately, this means that we now have to take matters into our own hands, or the trail could lead straight to us."

"What'd our wonderful nobleman say?" Asks Emerald, leaning forward slightly as though to peek, even though she can't really see from her vantage point, but the gesture itself implies that she expects Jaren to let her attest to the information personally.

".....I received a message whose seal originates from Father Bouhr, you know.... the one who's trying to encourage reforms in the procedures of Glabados. It could be that he wanted to see this recent campaign against Mister Beoulve to fail..... and so forth." Emerald reads it right from the scratchings on the pad.

"Faruja Senra has documented proof that Valos did not actually accuse Father Bouhr. His ability to foresee this contingency was..... quite remarkable, it'd be nice if he were actually on our side...." chuckles Bishop Jaren. As Emerald gives him a quizzical look, Jaren shakes his head, "Gidarch Valos said he received a message whose /seal/ originates from Father Bouhr, ergo, what if someone snatched the Bouhr's seal and delivered the letter to Valos, who can plausibly deny that he stated for absolute certain that it did in fact hail from the priest, himself."

Emerald sighs, "....Which means once Valos tells his side, that implicates neither himself -or- Father Bouhr for who was ultimately responsible for the crimes that occurred....."

Bishop Jaren shrugs, "I don't wager that Ophelia actually transcribed Father Bouhr's exact words, in writing.... on a piece of paper, while simultaneously doing what she does best? If not, we don't have to necessarily blame Ophelia for miscommunication, but we /CAN/ say that Father Bouhr, after his innocence was proven, decided to come clean after all, and retracted his claims. The only way anyone could actually -prove- Father Bouhr's word is more legit than Valos' is if there was some sort of mind-reading involved, to see which of the two of them speaks falsely. Regrettably...." He peers up lazily at Emerald, who hijacks his thought.

"Mind-reading can't be verified by a third party, even if Faruja or Ophelia had such powers..... So there'd be no way to.... validate either one's testimonies, without concrete, physical evidence. And the only evidence is the piece of paper with his seal on it." Emerald tilts her head to the side, questioningly, "But if that comes up in a trial to determine the truth, since there's conflicting information....."

Jaren nods his head, rolling his eyes, "In trial, they won't be sloppy enough to fail to consider the possibility that someone sent the letter in Father Bouhr's stead.... but if we don't help Count Valos weasel out of this, then he'll point fingers at us, because he knows what's really going on."

Emerald growls, "This can't go to trial."

Jaren shakes his head, "Of course not..... not unless it involves a kangaroo court trial, that is...." he smirks, confidently.

Emerald winks, "....And nobody would dare accuse Glabados of rigging a trial to favor some random nobleman over an upstanding, longstanding member of the cloth, because that would create a lot of backlash for whoever made such a preposterous claim. So.... we bring Valos into the courtroom, under suspicion of being the guilty party seeking to tell his side, with Father Bouhr as the well-loved hero of the day, have the bought-off lawyers do their dog and pony show.... And the Potemkin's Village will serve as proof that everything proceeded fairly."

Jaren nods, "Please, do go on...."

Emerald, snickers, and continues, "Of course, Father Bouhr's lawyer will do a poor job, and sabotage him, while one of the craftier lawyers will pull a fast one on the jury, who will all be dimwitted folk who don't know their arse from their ear...." she nods midway, and goes on, "But just in case the jury does give precedence to Father Bouhr, we'll be sure the judge gives Count Valos a slap on the wrist, and then prepare a situation that'll give Valos a chance to redeem himself, so that he can get off on good behavior."

Jaren raises a finger, pivotally, "And!!!!!" he cries out.

Emerald folds her arms across her chest, closing her eyes as she leans back in her chair, "Father Bouhr will just have to have an accident, if he does get acquitted."

Jaren whips his arm around in a semi-circle, like a round-house punch, as if pulling everything to a close, "Bam!" The aegyl laughs, then frowns, "....That other bishop friend of our's who's working for the Lucavi, he might have to pull some strings too, if we're to arrange all this. You and I alone might not quite have enough resources to set this whole thing up. But surely, a triple-pronged attack would be a clincher....."

Emerald bobs her head from side to side, sighing as she keeps her eyes closed, "That'll mean we'll have to put forth extra effort to assure that he gets a chance to..... meet Ramza Beoulve. That's what he wants most.... a duel.... with backup- he's chicken-hearted, after all."

Jaren shakes his head, "Heh.... Well, we let Ramza get away, didn't we? Now.... we just have to do the opposite, and steer him into a little trap."

Emerald grins, "And.... even if our brethren doesn't get to face off against Ramza immediately, as long as the heretic exists, we'll have another opportunity to try and ensnare him so that our friend can get a chance to pummel him, personally."

Jaren scratches his head, "Then, we're going to have to reduce our efforts to trap Ramza for right now, until we get our comrade into our employ,.... then beef-up our efforts while allowing him to be part of the escapade, or even to spearhead it.....?"

Emerald nods.

Jaren wags his wrist dismissively, "...Alright, then we'll give Count Valos a summons to appear at court, and a letter preceding it from an anonymous source telling him that he shouldn't worry too much. Then, everything else should fall into place."

Emerald puts a finger to the side of her jaw, thoughtfully, "I don't like that Ophelia derailed us..... this is going to create delays in our plan. But she's an Inquisitor, which is almost as highly ranked as ourselves, so we can't just dispatch her like we're doing with this annoying priest....."

Jaren folds his arms behind his head, as he reclines comfortably, "Then, for now, we need to /attempt/ to track her movements, and.... maybe an opportunity will eventually present itself. Right now, though.... we're only enabled to strive for surveillance, if possible. With luck, we might be able to find some of her weaknesses, so that we can put a few stumbling blocks in front of her, so that she doesn't damage cause a further setback- so.... at present, all we can do is hope for the best, and prepare for the worst...."

Emerald ".....In the eyes of humans, what we've been doing could be considered as having been preparing for the worst for several lifetimes. They do -not- want to see our master return."

Jaren shrugs, ".....If they don't want to see the master return, maybe we should pave the way for the master's debut by..... getting rid of the humans. Win-win."

Both share a laugh, as they begin to discuss other matters.....