Coquelicot was leaning on her table, in front of her was the map of the area. She had been staring at it for hours.

“Anastacia, where are you?...” She muttered to herself.

She hadn’t slept or eaten properly ever since the report of Alizarin’s death came, and it was showing. Her normally pale skin had turned even pastier, making the dark circles around her eyes appear even worse. The high inquisitor’s diet had changed to mostly liquid and there were a few wine bottles around the room, one of them was shattered after being thrown at a wall.

Next to the map were the folded robes of her husband, she glanced at them every now and to fuel her anger towards the other inquisitors and to keep herself focused.

She sat down and leaned back. This single event had ruined just about every plan she had. She no longer had the insight from her husband or the ace in her sleeve that was Anastacia. At one point she considered just attacking the royal palace on her own. With Carmine and Cerise wounded, there wouldn’t really be anyone who could pose a threat to her… Except Amaranth, her old boss was no doubt staying with the cult leaders and was powerful enough to hinder Coquelicot’s control over her arms and thus her necromancy. So it would probably just be a suicide.

“Madame High Inquisitor, I have the scout reports. Do you wish to read them now?” Said a young man standing at the doorway to Coquelicot’s room.

“yeah, sure. Just leave them. I’ll go through them in a minute.” She responded and tried to perk up.

The scouts were instructed to look for unusual activity around the area where they found Alizarin. Wherever Anastacia went, she was likely to pull off some stupid stunt and cause a commotion. Especially if she was going insane like Rosie had said.

She flipped through the reports, no sign of a necromancer in any of the settlements within a walking range. The friendly elf villages around the area had their own scouts roaming the forests and the reports from them would take a day or two to get.

Coquelicot threw the papers on the floor and turned to her map. She crossed over the towns and other settlements. This would only leave a few forests and some other places of interest like riversides and ruins. It’s unlikely that Anastacia would just be lying in the middle of a field with no water or shelter. Or maybe she would, she’s kind of daft at times, even normally.

The tortured cult loyalists had confirmed that Anastacia wasn’t in the cult’s possession and that they weren’t actively looking for her as Carmine and Cerise were badly injured by Alizarin, and anyone who they could send would probably just get killed by the girl. That at least gave Coquelicot’s people some more time, assuming Anastacia could find water and food or didn’t get killed in some other way.

Coquelicot went to take a breath of fresh air on the balcony that was connected to her room. She leaned against the railing and surveyed the area around the base. At the beginning of the revolt, she and Alizarin had taken over the inquisition’s base while the other members were summoned to the castle. The base itself was a fully prepared fortress near the border to the south, capable of housing 400 or so personnel, but the areas around it were also loyal to her cause and held many more able necromancers, including all of those capable of controlling living materials. All this made a direct attack against them an idiotic move, even if the loyalist necromancers currently outnumbered hers.

She had also managed to turn most of the neighboring countries against the cult, as Mournvalley had been considered as an unknown or a possible threat by them, someone trying to open up the country was more than welcome news. Aside from the recent event, things were looking good for the revolution. If Anastacia was found and would be able to get rid of the three remaining inquisitors, there wouldn’t even be a fight. The cult was stuck using what they considered to be the “proper” ways and would be crushed by the resistance’s more modern forces, wielding weaponry developed by Alizarin and borrowed from other countries. Even if Anastacia wasn’t found, they would most likely be victorious, but the costs would be too high and their control over the area too limited.

When Alizarin had told her about the girl successfully escaping, Coquelicot couldn’t believe her luck. After all, Anastacia was what she feared most in the world. If the cult had managed to make her the anchor and brainwash her to respect the old ways, there was no way the revolution would have happened. Even now, the high inquisitor could only hope that the girl would be content with her new life. If Anastacia held too much anger towards Mournvalley and was allowed to grow as a necromancer, there would always be the chance that she might come back to just wipe the whole country off the map.

From what she had seen from the reports by the scouts in Valor, that was unlikely at the moment, but even the kindest soul is just one really bad day away from insanity and evil. And adventurers aren’t exactly unlikely to have really bad days.

Having rested for a while, Coquelicot had to return to work. Just as she was about to go back inside, she noticed someone unfamiliar running towards the fort. By the looks of it, the runner was an elf and in a hurry.

Coquelicot decided to go meet them directly and jumped from her balcony. Grabbing onto some vines that grew along the wall, she slowed down her fall and hit the ground gracefully. The elf was almost at the fortress and was surprised to be greeted by the high inquisitor herself.

“Among living creatures, I thought you elves had more time than the most. Yet you run with all your might. I assume this means you carry something important with you?” Coquelicot greeted the elven messenger.

“I’m a scout for the small village of Yomm, near the Garden of the Ancients. We’ve had some trouble with a pack of imperfects lately, but something drew them back to the forest a few days ago. We had heard you were looking for a human child around the area, and the only thing I know that would draw them like that is the smell of humans.” The exhausted elf explained.

“And you didn’t go look because?...” The high inquisitor inquired.

“We don’t go to the forest anymore, something in there killed almost all of our hunters.” The elf answered and took a step back, fearing that the answer might anger the Inquisitor.

Coquelicot was silent. That would indeed make sense, the garden was a forest within the range she could be at and getting there wouldn’t require a passage through any settlements. Everything seemed to point at Anastacia being in there. Luckily a pack of failed werewolves shouldn’t be a problem for the girl, assuming she had materials.

“Well done, elf. We will send a team to investigate the matter and wipe out the pack while we’re there as a reward. Rest here for a bit and return to your village to inform them about our arrival.” Coquelicot said and returned inside.

She ordered a team to be prepared immediately and returned to her room, smiling.