He rounded a large crate and got his first clear view of the vessel of criminal mischief that was his goal. The ship was well-lighted from torches along the dock. Soldiers of some form seemed to be swarming all over it. Where had the soldiers come from? Fiernon wondered. They did not appear to be the local constabulary, if said organization could even be called that with a serious face. He scanned the surrounding docks and quickly realized where the soldiers must have come from.
There were currently twelve more ships in the harbor than there had been this afternoon. All twelve ships were identical in design and bore the same emblems. The same emblems were on the surcoats of the soldiers. White surcoats trimmed in red and black, with large golden starbursts centered on them. Superimposed on the starbursts were short metal combat staves. Rather combat rods, Fiernon thought. He cursed his luck. He recognized the emblem as belonging to soldiers of the Rod of Tiernon.
The soldiers of the Rod were actually a rather credible force; Fiernon had to admit. They were certainly some of the finest soldiers outside of Oorstemoth itself. They were also extremely thorough, and competent in other matters. He would not be able to get past them, invisible or not, to carry out justice. Technically, he supposed he should sentence the Rod as being obstructers of justice; however, that might be impractical at this time. Further, they’d obviously taken the ship into custody. Obviously, they were aware of the perfidious and malefactorious nature of its proprietor. They must be conducting their own investigation. Thus in their own small way, they were agents of justice.
Admittedly, as such organizations ran the Rod did try to uphold some semblance of justice and law, at least compared to most heathens and barbarians around the world. Even so, the Rod was a bit lax on certain key points, and at times had in fact been questionable in its actions regarding the preservation of law and order. Fiernon suspected that this came from ultimately serving a deity, rather than serving the law itself. In summary of this learned and legal discourse with himself, Fiernon was not quite ready to judge that the Rod was up to ethically questionable activities; that would require further investigation. Nonetheless, ethically questionable or not, they did prevent, or at least delay, the required judicial action.
Fiernon shook his head. This was most unfortunate. He would not be able to wait until the Rod had completed its investigation. His superiors had instructed him to follow the principal perpetrators of lascivious and wanton illegal destruction as soon as possible. If he stayed around to enact the requisite portions of the judicial code upon Asmeth and his crew, he’d most likely lose the trail of the more heinously guilty parties. Justice would have to be patient a while longer to exact its price upon Asmeth and his scallywags of surreptitious seagoing smugglers.
The morning sunlight shone brightly down upon the sea below him. A gloriously bright and sunny morning to begin once again the quest to defeat the scions of sin and perdition. A morning to begin anew. The past forgotten. Talarius adjusted his visor slightly to reduce the glare. The wind of their passage penetrated his helmet as a gentle breeze. He peered down to his right, between War Arrow’s neck and right wing. The city of Hoggensforth lay spread out before him.
Slightly to the north and to the east of the city, he could see the clearing in which the Rod had assembled. Unfortunately, the folk of Hoggensforth were denied the benefits of a full Temple of Tiernon, and thus a parade ground for assembling the Rod. The citizenry had to make due with but a small chapel dedicated to Tiernon.
He knew priests that would say it was truly a shame, that all should be allowed maximum opportunity to witness the glory of Tiernon, but that, unfortunately, material resources were always insufficient to cover all required spiritual needs. While he agreed it was a shame, that the glory of Tiernon could not be spread so, the more pressing reason he regretted the lack of a full Temple was the good that such a resource could have done in the community. Not only would it provide a bastion of light in the Darkness, but also in times less pressing it could provide aid and sustenance to the less fortunate. That was one of the challenges that Tiernon gave his followers, to overcome the adversity of material limitations, in order that they test themselves and prove their worthiness for his glory and love. Not that Tiernon could not be generous to those proven worthy, he certainly was. But first, one must prove oneself worthy. One must not fail in the never-ending battle against the Dark.
