[closed] No longer are we hunted! We shall never again / Be prey, waiting to be struck down!

[faithlikeaseed]

WHO: Araceli Bonaventura, Wren Coupe, Myrobalan Shivana, Simon Ashlock
WHAT: Intrigue and sabotage as Chantry scholars debate the Canticle of Shartan's inclusion in the canon. (In pursuit of the "Absolute Shartanty" Chantry Relations mission.)
WHEN: [waves hands vaguely] before the Tournament
WHERE: Val Royeaux
NOTES: Will be added as need be.

Sister Aleya is a small woman and a nervous one, not at all the image of a liberal crusader bent on returning Shartan's canticle to the canon as she fidgets with her fingers before the Inquisition security team. Nevertheless: Here she is, the lynchpin of scholarship the whole argument rests upon. Her painstaking reconstruction of older, fragmented versions of the text of the Canticle bear strong resemblance to validated work in the first Justinia's own hand--resemblance she thinks could beat claims it was a later addition to the body of the Chant. She has made clear the import of her work--briefly--before launching into the meat of her complaint:

"Someone has been into my room to go through my effects. They've taken my latest manuscript and defaced copies of my older work-- The latter I can send for, but the former is irreplacable--I hadn't time to copy it before the conference, there's never enough time..."

With two templars in the group, of course she addresses herself to them--though things are so uncertain with the Order, aren't they? And the other side of the argument may have more legitimate claim to what aid exists from that quarter-- But they are familiar, at least in a way the rifter and the mage are not.

The implications of the stolen manuscript are dire: Without other copies, she says, it could be altered to throw her entire body of work under a pall and she'd be with no recourse to repair her reputation in the scholarly community. That, more than losing the chance to reconcile Shartan's memory, seems to upset her most--even more than the item she adds as an afterthought,

"And, sers, I have heard things that make me fear for my own life."

A scholar's line of work isn't so risky until one turns up something a more powerful faction would rather remain buried. The manuscript must be retrieved; the mind behind it-- Well, it would do the Inquisition no good to gain the reputation they can't support allies of the slain Divine, would it?