The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]

The Imperial Bureau of Investigations (henceforth referred to as the IBI) should serve to support the Special Imperial Service (SIS) in its clandestine operations. Whereas I do not mean to speak poorly of Malam here, Malam has a relatively crude approach to proactivity within the Empire. I understand the limits placed upon her by bureaucracy, for her talents serve best when she is used in the role she currently inhabits as the Imperial silencer of dissent, but the current situation has revealed a threat within the Empire.

The Empire at large relies entirely on Malam for clandestine warfare. The SIS is the first shield that enemy operatives have to break through before they reach the easily pierced barriers that are local police forces and military garrisons, and she serves as the last shield. Likewise, any recovery of initiative in the hidden war is left entirely to her. I say this because I know that Malam will never say it, the workload is too great for a single organisation.

In the same way that the Imperial Military is managed entirely by Kassandora, yet supported by the various Bureaus which allow the Goddess of War to dedicate herself entirely to the war, the SIS requires a fellow supporting organisation, or a sub-branch, of an internal department that will allow for organised investigation efforts.

In this realm, I propose the creation of the IBI. Where the SIS exists as a scalpel to cut out our cancers and an axe for diseased limbs, the IBI should serve as the eyes and ears of the state. They would be limited in the lack of licenses to kill, as the SIS possess, but would instead focus on information gathering, surveillance, infiltration, extraction of information and the locating of high-value targets. Discipline would be maintained in the same fashion as is used in the Imperial Military. Eventually, they could be re-adapted into use for foreign espionage, which the SIS obviously cannot be unless we wish to cause an endless streak of diplomatic incidents.

I have attached more documentation in the file, nevertheless, I urge haste. Malam’s style of operation I believe will quickly exhaust the easy leads and we will be left back at square one.

- “The Imperial Bureau of Investigations Proposition: Cover Letter”, written by Goddess Helenna, of Love, and sent to God Arascus, of Pride.

Malam did not even bother staring down the pair of guards as she marched once again into Benoit Deferre’s office. The corridors in Arseille’s city hall were grand, grand enough for Malam to stand tall as her black boots clicked against the ground and devoured a distance to her target. But they were not so grand as to make sure that her retinue could march besides her. Four SIS agents had come along, more poured into the city everyday, some were veterans, a few were even survivors of the original Tremali Division that had formed this branch of the Empire. And the rest were new hires taken from the troops. They did not have time to waste on teaching men how to shoot or threaten, and soldiers seemed to pick that up on the job.

So Malam stormed through the door, the guards saluted to her, she just strode on past them and into the room of the city’s mayor. Benoit Deferre sat in his desk, he had obviously been made aware she was coming. It would have been embarrassing if he wasn’t, more for him than for Malam. And everyone knew of her reputation. She looked around office, it was wide, tall, as all of them were. Every city in the Empire needed a town hall that was large enough to hold a meeting for Divines, even if the best they could hope for was one such meeting every decade. Portraits of the city hung on the wall, along with portraits of Paida and the Rancais country. There were some Imperial paintings. Malam smiled at the piece of art which was a portrait of herself in a black dress that matched her eyes. What a way to build favour.

It would not work on her. The last of her agents filtered into the office and closed the door, they spread out in the general space around her. Outside, the view of other city blocks could be seen. Great sandstone structures, all their details intricate with pillar and balustrade in front of the windows. The sky between them more grey than blue. Every single day, when the sun rose, it did not shine as brightly as Tartarus’ Ashen Skies slowly buried discoloured the local atmosphere. “Benoit, you have a problem in your city.” Malam began, giving him no room to talk or answer back. “More of my men are coming in, I expect you do not need to be told that they have full jurisdiction to enter every building in this sorry little city of yours, and that everyone, from your bankers to your archivists, should be told that going up against us is a sign of treason.”

“Of course Goddess.” Benoit said with a bow. He was much the same as yesterday, slightly more confident in himself maybe, or maybe he was just used to the how she operated.

“A full lockdown of the city is going to be announced today. Every vehicle in and out is going to be checked and inspected.” Malam spoke quickly, there was no reason to waste time. “Although it’s immediate now. You have an hour to draft it.”

At that, Benoit did have a reaction. He blinked and leaned back on his leather throne of a chair. “I…” He began. “Well, it can be done, but…”

“What?”

“The food? The logistics? What of that?” Malam spoke without narrowing her eyes, even though she very much wanted to. That wasn’t a human way of talking now, was it? She didn’t know why didn’t sit right with her and it could have just been a bureaucrat being odd.

“My men will be sweeping the city door to door, you have a full succubus infestation.” At that, Benoit almost stood up. His mouth trembled, his eyes went pale. “The receptionist at Hotel Imperial was one, if they have so many of them that such a job can be spared, then I assume they’re in your administration.”

“I…” His voice cracked. “Goddess, of course. Whatever you require.” That was a natural response at least. He was handing it off to her. Malam stared into his eyes, there was sheer terror in them. Terror too terrible for… Malam cocked her head to one side. Well, men were afraid of failing her, but a mayor? A city mayor? It wasn’t as if everyone in the Empire trembled before her, and Malam knew her reputation was terrible, but surely it wasn’t so terrible that a man this banal and common thought he was worth the hassle of killing?

“They impersonated me in front of Helenna.” Malam said.

For a moment. There was no reaction in the room from anyone. The SIS knew already, Malam had prepped her own. They had been separated into groups of four and weren’t allowed to split up, even going down to the fact that if they entered a public toilet, they had to do it together. The faux-Malam incident was reported on, the entire Empire would know at this point. Even Divines would have to do undergo blood-cell testing.

And then, there was another moment of no reaction. Malam cracked first, she raised her eyebrows and flicked her pale cape of white hair back. That reminded Benoit he was supposed to be surprised. Reminded was the right word, it was a play. Malam had seen men act more than enough times to know when even stunned-surprise would come too late.

Whether it was paranoia, whether it was gut feeling developed over thousands of years spent surviving on Arda, whether it was just the fact she did not particularly like this fellow. She took another step forward. “The entire city will undergo blood-cell testing. Everyone I can think of.”

“Of course.” That was a perfect reply, there was nothing which screamed guilty, nothing that screamed innocent either. Malam had to check at this point. What Helenna had told her made her as paranoid as Leona’s Luck did.

“Beginning with you.” She took a step back as Benoit’s eyes went wide in shock. There it was. That was the tell, something was up, this man was hiding something, if he was a man in the first place.

“Well shall do it now.” Malam raised her hand flicked her wrist forward. Two of her agents, the men closest to her, stepped up. And Benoit finally revealed himself. Blood-cell testing was common enough, all it required was a few drops, it could be done on the spot, it was perfect.

“Goddess.” Benoit’s voice cracked. “Surely…” He cracked a half smile. “I am loyal to the Empire of course.”

“I have no doubt.” Malam spoke over him. “Nevertheless, all is all.”

“But I’m a man.”

“So it be.” Malam raised her hands and flicked her wrist. “Test him.” Two of the SIS agents closest to her sides raced ahead to grab the mayor as he stood up, shouting.

“Guards! Guards!” The door slammed open, steps of movement started from behind Of Hatred, then stopped. Obviously they were smart enough to consider whether their loyalties lay to the mayor or to an Imperial Princess. Malam did not even turn to face them.

“This is an official Imperial investigation. Think carefully on whether you will raise your rifles on a Daughter-Goddess of Emperor Arascus.” She heard shuffling backwards, faint apologies, and the doors creak back shut as she watched her two men grab Benoit and slam him down onto the table. The needless papers of bureaucracy were sent flying as one man brought out a knife. A third man stepped forward, knelt down and dropped his backpack. He unzipped it to pull out a small, portable, microscope. Official SIS kit as of yesterday. “I do not see the need for panic Benoit.” Malam mused, she had won, she was certain of it. “All we need is a drop of blood. I thought being so squeamish should have stopped you from promotion.” She let out a small chuckle to simply bask in the satisfaction.

“After everything, why am I being questioned?” Benoit shouted.

“Why indeed?” Malam asked. “Why indeed? Who knows?”

“I’m a man! They can’t change into men!” Malam smiled at him. If they could adopt the form of her, why should they not turn into men? Why should they not into dogs and cats frankly?

“Every soul.” Malam said. “Every man, woman, child, every sick and injured, we will test every last cat and dog and then gas the sewers to clear out the rats. You better not keep ants Benoit, because we will test them too. Every soul is every soul.” One of her agents pulled out a knife as Benoit kept on thrashing about in their grasp. Malam just coldly watched the embarrassing scene, this man was dead in any case at this point: either for being a saboteur or for being such a fool before her. Any of her men, any of Kassandora’s soldiers, any magician and any sorcerer in the Imperial Army would have just calmly given up their blood instead of acting like a little cut was about to kill him.

The man managed to make enough of a scene that the door opened again. “What is going on here?” A male voice, deeper, yet spoken from too high of a location to be human or elven. Malam sighed and turned to come face to face with Victor, the local mascot Divine of this city. He wore the Imperial black at least, his coat boar the white shield and blue cross of this city. Tall and golden-haired, the same shade as the stone that made up the city, the eyes as blue as that cross on his emblem. And he was a full head and a half shorter than Malam, only slightly taller than an elf.

“Imperial Business.” Malam looked down her nose at him.

“That’s…” Victor said and then trailed off. He looked to Benoit, still struggling on the tabling, thrashing and putting his hands under his body, and then back to Malam. And he made the correct decision. “May I ask why, your Imperial Highness?”

Finally someone who knew authority when he saw it. “I am conducting on the spot blood tests.” Malam said. “Your mayor is causing an embarrassment.”

“There is no reason as to why-AAAHHH!” Benoit’s shout was cut off as the SIS agents finally gave up on simple manhandling. One of them elbowed the mayor in his side, the other knocked his legs out.

“I…” Victor sighed, his eyes carefully going to Malam. He looked over the other SIS agents in the room. “I apologize for the indecency and hope it won’t reflect poorly on the city.”

“Of course.” Malam said, smiling and turning back around to Benoit. “Get him, just get a move on. Benoit, stop moving or I will just execute here on the spot and leave your corpse for Victor to clean up.” The dry tone finally put the fight out of him. Malam rested her hand on the pistol at her belt as one of the agents by the mayor’s side grabbed his arm and yanked it up. Out came a knife, Benoit’s hand was cut. It was deeper than necessary, without a Cleric, the man would be out of commission for a week at least.

Malam just watched, there would be no reprimand for that, after the show she had just witnessed, she decided he deserved it. He winced and curled his fist, it was too late to hide now though. The blood from the agent’s sleek knife was taken and deposited on to the microphone, smattering blood-drops over all the papers on the table. “The mess is caused by yourself.” Malam said as the man behind the microscope finally leaned into it.

There were a few moments of silence. Malam in the centre of Benoit’s office, one hand resting on the oversized pistol on her belt dressed in the full uniform of the Special Imperial Service. The four agents she had brought with her dressed in the same manner, one of them stood at attention, a rifle over his back. Another cleaned off his knife, the third looked into microphone and brought out a strip of pictures which featured human and demonic cells. The fourth stood by Benoit’s side. The mayor of Arseille was cowering by the wall, clutching his hand, tears running down his face as he mumbled nothing of importance, grey light of the discoloured daytime streamed in from the window above his head. And Victor, Divine of this city, merely waited, looking through that glass and pretending to see nothing.

“Goddess.” The man with the microscope finally pulled away as Benoit started to openly bawl. “You may want to look at this.”

Malam’s smile grew deeper, she knew what that meant, she had felt something was off with Benoit the moment she stepped in. And here it was. A step crossed the room, she leaned into the microscope. Then cross-checked with the reference pictures on the table, then once again at the still-living cells being examined. There it was.

A set of cells far too larger and too active to be human. They matched up almost perfectly with the examples being used for Succubi cell structure. “Well well well.” Malam cooed, she pulled away. She turned to Victor, her smile like that of a wolf which smelled fresh and easy prey. “Who knew that succubi could turn into men as well?”