New Year's Day.
The two towns of the Gray Marsh Fief, Newborn Town and Minas Tirith, were both caught up in an unprecedented bustle.
Colorful strips of cloth hung along the streets. Simple as they were, they swept away the usual drabness.
Miport in particular had wooden stages set up in several large squares, where several theater troupes were enthusiastically performing plays in a variety of styles.
There were not only "When Sugar Comes Knocking" and "Rocky," but several newly written plays as well.
The scent of roast meat and ale drifted through the air, while children darted through the crowds, laughing and playing.
The atmosphere was just as lively inside the banquet hall of Miport's newly built Lord's Manor.
Holding a cup of black tea, Veylin stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the bustle in the square outside.
Kale came up behind him.
"My lord."
He handed over a stack of parchment documents.
Veylin took them but did not immediately begin reading.
A clear, bloody fingerprint marked the top sheet.
"Fabian's?"
"He and his subordinates, seven in all, have each left their fingerprints."
Only then did Veylin lower his gaze and leaf through the pages one by one.
These were confessions written by Fabian and the others in their own hands, detailing their various indiscretions under the influence of drugs the previous night.
Veylin did not care how Fabian had persuaded his colleagues to sign these documents.
He only needed the results.
Attached at the end were the "Church secrets" Fabian had voluntarily confessed.
The Church's true purpose in sending him here was to monitor Veylin and collect any evidence that could be defined as "heresy," paving the way for a complete takeover of the Gray Marsh Fief's secular authority.
He had also "exposed" several scandals within the Church.