Chapter 766: Faults and Doubts (Part Two)
"You said a survivor of your caravan described this armored demon," Owain said, snatching the parchment from Loman with enough force that he nearly tore a corner off the sketch. "Was he a soldier or a knight who understands armor well? Was the man who sketched this an armorer?"
There were several details about the sketch that seemed odd to Owain’s trained eyes. From the way the plates fit together to the strange gaps that looked like they were either covered by overlapping metal scales or were exposing the scales of the demon itself. It was difficult to say, leaving him to wonder if this was a real thing or a fanciful imagining by a drunken farmer who fell off his wagon.
"The survivors were farmers guiding the wagon and carts," Bastian admitted. "Our soldiers fought bravely to the last man to buy time for the common people to escape or we wouldn’t even know this much," he said, his words coming out in a breathless rush as he tried to defend the value of the intelligence he brought.
"And the artist? Is he the man who paints your castle walls?" Owain asked with a dismissive sneer as he tossed the sketch to the table.
"He, he’s the man who painted my father’s portrait and the portraits of many of our knights," Bastian said, nervously smoothing his tunic over his thick midsection as he fought the urge to retreat from Owain’s questioning.
"He, he sketched many copies, revising them each time until the witness agreed that it was correct," Bastian insisted, thumping the table with a meaty fist as he spoke. "These, these are the best documents we have of the strange demons who attacked our march!"
"But these ’witnesses’ don’t know what to look for and they’ve likely never even seen a demon much less fought one," Owain said, scowling at the young lord and wondering if all of the Hanrahans were as cowardly and useless as Hugo had proven to be. "Are these really the demons who attacked us? Or an exaggeration intended to cover your losses?"
"It might not be entirely fanciful," Diarmuid said with a heavy sigh as he stood from his seat, walking around the table to retrieve the sketch from Owain and frowning as he inspected it. Much like Loman, he turned to High Priest Aubin, waiting for a nod before he continued.
"There was a famous High Inquisitor during the War of Four Brothers," Diarmuid said with a defeated look as he realized that there was no point in holding back secrets as long as Loman was more interested in proving himself worthy of his father’s throne than protecting the knowledge the Church deemed too dangerous to spread among the masses.
But since the Highest ranking priest in Lothian March had decided to take the young lord’s side in this, there was little Diarmuid could do other than to continue, providing what information he had in the hopes that the people attending this meeting would understand how precious the information they were hearing truly was.
"His name was Ignatious, and he succeeded in capturing several Undying Demons," the Inquisitor said.
"Impossible!" Liam said, nearly dropping his cup of steaming, mulled wine when he heard the Inquisitor’s claim. "I’ve tried capturing demons before to earn the bounty from the Church. I lost three good men just trying to corner one horned demon and capture it without killing it! To capture an Undying demon... How?"