Senko wrote:
Hmmmmm I may be paranoid here but I see two ways this could be going.
The first and one I'd have done was to ensure there were witnesses to the whole fight (I doubt she'd really trust the test to an up and comer to another novice who's already messed up plus this is meant to be a SECRET valley). Particularly since someone DID come back and report. Their order would probably be on the lines of observe and if she defects to her brothers side kill them both. The thing is an Elf has just been thrown into the mix, the overconfident novice is dead and the up and comer while loyal has been kidnapped by the brother. At which point they could try fighting the weakened combatants and if it was just humans probably would have but why the elf, what is she interested in him enough to fight for, they did win are our skills enough and so on. So they came back. The smart thing now would be to say okay send a high level member (like the guy) or go yourself and observe find out what the elfs interest in this is and whether killing him and possibly her will trigger something your not ready for after all wiping out the wraith should be easy, keeping the church onside if you do so same but the elves now thats a different kettle of fish (mackerel perhaps?).
The second one its just relaying messeges of the church which would potentially worse. The target escaped but your two operatives were killed and kidnapped by the wraith. If this is the case then their relationship with the church just became more unstable 1 succesful assasination and now two members of their order defeated by one wraith. The potential threat level of the wraith increases and since they are unaware of the elvish front may result in a conflict with them before she realizes what she's headed into.
Occam's razor. No monk intervened after the fight started to go horribly, horribly wrong for Sara and Warrel, so it's most probable that no monk was there (in the cathedral) to intervene. First-hand information on just what happenned after Sara usherred the Veracians out of the room starts with some Veracian working up the courage to investigate why all the explosions and screaming have finally decided to stop, and finding Warrel's corpse in an otherwise empty room.
a) Warrel's body gets turned over to a local monk (or described to a local monk) and its swiftly determined that he was killed by a Durus Flamma blade. From behind.
Obvious conclusion? Sara killed him to save her brother, then ran off with him.
b) Warrel's body isn't turned over to monks or closely inspected. All the Ensigerum have to go on is that he's dead. Sara's still missing.
Obvious conclusion? Sara killed him to save her brother, then ran off with him.
Given the probable lack of first-hand accounts for the fight, the idea that a Gewehr wraith got into a fight with two Monks that knew he was coming, got his hands on one of their blades, used it to kill the other
from behind, and either captured the one he had disarmed/ran off with her body is ridiculous. The idea that without Sara doing something he would have lasted longer than .2 seconds is just extremely improbable.
(A Cathedral. At dawn. Sun starting to stream through stained-class windows. Four masters of combat fighting for their lives in an extended melee. I
so want to see that chapter colored.)