Neferet nods, and signals everyone to stay put, as Anai leaves. Heading to the temple, she finds it all in good order, for the first few rooms. It's all elegant and well ordered. A few more rooms in, however, she finds the place trashed, urns shattered, candles scattered around the ground. A few temple guard men lie dead on the ground, and the rest of the huge complex is devoid of people.
Maat looked as if she wanted to say something, but obeyed the general's wishes and eft. Since her joining the Romans, Quintus had yet to talk to her, listen to her reasons, wishes, demands, get to know her plans and information. But that was not on his mind right now. Before the duo could leave, Ouei entered the tent, with a jar of wine. "Master, should I serve you a dinner?" She asked.
Anai snarled seeing the devastation of the temple. Romans, were about to rape their city, and the priests were destroying their temples before Romans? She gritted her teeth. "Search the complex - but quietly. If you find something, report immediately. Don't get noticed." She ordered.
'Thank you, general, you are too generous,' Aulus saluted as the general left. He looked to Maat, 'Where is he going to go if he lets stay in his tent for the night?'
The men, trained elites, get to work immediately. After several minutes, they come before her, holding a woman by the arms. Anai doesn't know the woman's name, but she recognises her as the daughter of one of the old nobles who lost their land due to treachery. Despite this, she's shown no sign of disloyalty, fighting several times on the wall. She has fairly recent blood on her, and a small cut on her forehead.
Maat chuckles. "This isn't the general's tent. I think he just has meetings here." After a few minutes, the slave from this morning arrives, bowing deeply before sitting and awaiting orders.
'Of course, I knew that,' Aulus lied, slightly embarrassed. He looked to the slave, 'Could you bring some food and drink?'
"I recognise you." Anai says, motioning her men to let the woman free. A little gesture, to show her appreciation of woman's past loyalty, and test of her present loyalty. If she tried anything, she would die at the hands of her bodyguards. "Explain what is going on here."
Maat grins, but stays quiet, as the slave nods and moves to the fire. She brings some wine in goblets to Aulus and Maat, and after a little cooking, some spiced meat.
The woman nods and explains. "I was here to pray for success in the next assault, when a group of men walk in, maybe a dozen, criminals, they looked like, with temple guards with them. They start ransacking the place, trying to get anything valuable, and beat the priests when they protest. When the guards moved to stop them, they said they were from the high priest, here on his orders." "Then the high priestess gets here with her own men, and things go to chaos. A brawl starts, the guards killing each other, not knowing who's on who's side." She rubs her head. "I tried to stay out of it, since I figured someone was a traitor, and I didn't want to accidentally pick the wrong side, but one of the thugs thought he would be able to have some fun with me, so I slit his throat. After that one of the gaurds came after me, and in the fight I didn't see what happened to everyone else. I got knocked out, and when I came to, the place was empty, besodes the bodies."
Aulus went to the tent opening and looked for Agorix, 'Join us for food and wine? You've earned some respite as much as us.' He took the wine and meat with thanks and lied down on one of the recliners, drinking and eating, 'I really needed that after crawling through dusty tunnels for so long.'
"I see." Anai said. So, high priest send someone to robe High priestess' temple? Or was it her cover? So many questions, so little time. "Continue searching the place." She ordered her men. This entire mess was starting to get on her nerves. She then turned to the woman. "You can return home if you desire so." She nodded to her. She needed to cut this entire mess down, as quickly as she could.
Agorix nods. "Why not?" The celt heads inside and joins them, skulling a goblet as it's handed to her. "Yeah, I agree. Pretty boring. A shame we didn't get the chance to get into a scrap."
The warrior nods curtly, and leaves. The bodyguards search the place thoroughly, but find little of use. They uncover several escape routes, but no means of tracking where the people involved in the fight went, as they lead into the sewers where any tracks they may have left were washed away by the water, and where they could have surfaced at any point. The high priests, both male and female, are now missing.
'You'll have plenty of chances at that I imagine,' Aulus chuckled, drinking some wine, 'I thought going in and leaving with as little signs as possible would be best. Getting found out because we killed a guard or that Greek commander would not have helped our chances.'
Anai sighted. It looked like both priest and priestess robbed their temple and escaped. She would send bounty hunters after them... and would make an example of their families. Some were prominent members of society, and would serve as a good example, for an angry crowd to be presented. Especially, female members of their families. With that in mind, Anai ordered the arrest of the families of traitors and returned back to the palace.
Maat hummed. "Do you regret not interfering with the capture of nobles who were fighting against Anai? They are probably already in governor's hands." Agorix snorted as she took a sip of wine. Then she smirked. "I bet you regret not being little boy-toy of general's daughter." She chuckled.
'There's not much we could have done for them,' Aulus shook his head, 'Our mission was more important.' He chuckled at Agorix's comment, 'Hah, if I was on the mission alone and had to keep up my disguise with her perhaps, but since you two were waiting for me things had to be done quickly.'
"How considerate of you." Agorix chuckles. Maat shakes her head. "It's probably for the best. I've heard things about how Taia treats her boytoys. I'd say you dodged an arrow." She grins and takes a sip of her drink.
