Don't demons resist cold? At least they resist Frost arrows. "Extraordinary," he says. 

He is not sure he believes in miracles that look like very powerful spells, especially not people who have an elven teleport wizard doing them favors.

"With a single blow?"

"Well, it was all very fast, I certainly wouldn't swear to it that he didn't also stab her some more times. But the thing I remember seeing is deadly ice shards swirling everywhere and the Knight-Commander stabbing the horrible demon and her collapsing to the ground. Probably you should ask the Knight-Commander, if you want to know more than that."

He nods. "Thank you. I intend to."

"He's a brave crusader. Just what I suppose all our crusader ancestors were like. He'd be a good hunter, too - very careful that every fight starts when we pick it. ...he told Wenduag, if you choose the demons I will kill you personally, and then she did, so he did, can hardly say that's anyone's fault but her own. She shouldn't have betrayed us."

He nods. "Wenduag?" Executing someone for siding with demons isn't any of his business. Executing people on suspicion...

"A...friend of mine. From underground - we're undergrounders," as if that were not completely obvious. "She offered to show us through the Shield Maze, and then when we reached the cult leader who'd stolen the children, it turned out she'd been working with them. She thought it was fine, turning our children into monsters, so long as they were strong. Of course she said that she saw now that the Knight-Commander was stronger and she should really be serving him, but he didn't think much of that. Nor should he have."

"No," Ettore agrees. Some people you have to kill.

"I think the Knight-Commander is sad, and angry, and lonely. A lot of people who spend all their time killing demons start to think that they do not have time to be kind, that if they are more terrible then maybe their problems will be less terrible. I do not think the Knight-Commander is doing that, not exactly. But I think he has not noticed that being sad and angry and lonely are injuries, and so he is not getting them bandaged up like he would a bite. That is what I think of the Knight-Commander."

She smiles vaguely at Ettore. "I think you are sad, and angry, and lonely, too. Maybe you will be friends!"

"It is natural to be sad when a great many people have died," Ettore says.

"It is very sad that so many people have died," Ember agrees. "I don't think that's what the Knight-Commander is sad about, though."

He sends multiple copies of his preliminary report, ciphered, as usual. One is going back with the teleporter, one the long way, one will be read the next time they Scry him. 

A short summary of his report:

- He does not know who Aspex is. He claims that his goals do not differ from Iomedae's in 'any significant way.' He is clearly a powerful adventurer in disguise; hopefully they know who. Ettore's got a physical description, not that it helps. (Hats of disguise are very cheap, as magic items go.)

- Ettore also doesn't know who Aspex's teleport wizard ally is. Hopefully his superiors do. 

- Ettore is extremely skeptical about the "miracle" narrative. Everything can be explained by an invisible wizard with some powerful cold-based spell he's never heard of following Aspex around helping him out with his problems. This is sufficiently obvious he isn't sure why anyone is talking about a miracle at all.

- The theory that this is all complicated illusions, demonic lies and that Aspex is a powerful demon or cultist in disguise also needs to be considered. Right now it looks like Kenabres was saved by the lucky coincidence of a few powerful unexpected adventurers, one of whom happens to be unnaturally charming. Prophecy's broken, and so this shouldn't happen any more. It seems likely (though not the most likely possibility) that the purpose of this was a plot to get a cultist in charge of the Crusade.

- ... On which topic, he is is confused about why Queen Galfrey is declaring a crusade and why she put Aspex in charge of it. Possibly she is just making bad decisions because she's Mendevian, or possibly she has some reason he doesn't know about.

- Also, they should absolutely not send Hulrun back. Everyone hates, fears and distrusts the Iomedaean inquisition. He's not sure how many, if any, of Hulrun's people he can keep on; he needs local experts but the people who are willing to work with him and the people who will obey the law seem to be two completely disjoint sets.

He'll also write another report after he's talked to Aspex, but he's writing this one first, just in case of Suggestion.

Report sent. Time to talk to the Knight-Commander, if he can spare the time.

But naturally he can spare the time for Iomedae’s church, Mendev’s greatest ally.

The Knight Commander is a man whose place of birth could be practically anywhere along the Inner Sea, with a little grey in his beard and a tightly controlled manner. He is wearing a weak Wisdom headband and rings of sustenance and deflection; he has a cloak of resistance; there is no other magic about him, though the plate armor in the corner of the room shines brightly with several overlapping enchantments. He is writing notes on the state of his army, in a nearly unreadable hand. 

(Obviously when he is writing real notes on the state of his army they're not in Taldane at all). 

His Hallit is seriously accented, but improving. (You don't want Tongues, to learn a language quickly; you want Comprehend Languages, so you know if your words came out right, and to be obliged to practice all the time. He knew some Hallit from his own time but it was barely better than useless.) "Lord Inquisitor. My condolences on the death of the Prelate. Many in the city credit him with Kenabres having endured as long as it did."

"Thank you, Knight-Commander. Prelate Hulrun Fell before his death," Ettore says. "He is expected to recover, following his resurrection." 

Ettore is quietly cycling between Evil, Good, Chaos, Law and Magic.

"Congratulations are due, I believe. For your success and for your appointment."

Marit wishes he could be doing that but he's not supposed to be a spellcaster so he did it earlier through an arcane eye when the Inquisitor first arrived.

He appears to be Lawful, Good, powerful, and wearing precisely the magic items that it looks like he's wearing.  

It's not that he doesn't know what Iomedae would say here. She would lean forwards and pull out a map and start chattering with blazing conviction about the next objective until you caught yourself believing that the army would be there in a month or two. It wasn't lying, of course, since armies that are sure they can achieve a thing usually can. Marit knows the next objective. The only thing stopping him from doing that is that - well, he doesn't want to, and he isn't sure it did work, in the long run. Or maybe it only works while you have her.

In any event the thing he wants to do with the Iomedaen inquisition is keep them at as much distance as he can without being suspected of heresy. It's not personal. He'd feel the same way about the Arodenite inquisition, really. "I am honored by the responsibility that Her Majesty has invested in me," he says blandly. "No one could fail to be moved by the courage and conviction of the people of Mendev, nor by their plight." The great thing about politics is that it's acceptable to say things like that, which aren't literally true, and then no one can later ask you if everything you said was true and expect the answer to be 'yes'.

Oh no, Aspex is a politician. 

... No, that doesn't make sense. He's been a paladin to Seelah, a hunter to Lann... Who is he really?

"The bravery of the Mendevian people is unquestionable," he says. 

"But victory in a crusade takes more than bravery, and there is a great deal of work ahead of us - some of which you caught me in the middle of." He taps the papers, tiredly. "May I be of assistance to the Iomedaen inquisition?"

"I am afraid so," he says. "What can you tell me about the events leading to the death of my predecessor, Prelate Hulrun?"

"I spoke to him briefly what must have been a few hours before his death. It is hardly my place to speak ill of a man I did not know, much less a dead hero, but it is perhaps relevant to your investigation that by the time we spoke his judgment seemed considerably impaired. He had tangled with a nabasu, earlier in the day, so that was probably part of it, but also he was fixated on bringing to justice the Church of Desna in the city, and he took the undergrounders for demons - they do look monstrous, but it's not a mistake I'd expect an experienced man to make. He did not recognize Ember, but when she identified him as the man who had ordered her execution he said that she'd probably deserved it if he did, which struck me as an attitude that might lead a man to error."

Ettore is trying to avoid looking unprofessional but cannot disguise the Very Low Opinion of Hulrun this is giving him. Aspex might be lying, of course, because anyone might be lying, but Hulrun did Fall and this is the sort of thing that would explain why. 

"This is not the Goddess's way," he agrees. He would really like to interrogate Aspex in more detail with the standard list of careful questions but the man can tell him the appointment is over any time he pleases.