Today we received the first group of new recruits in several months. Although many of our divisions are quite successful, I've had bad luck to date with Division VI. In fact, the last Division VI was killed to the last man during what they apparently thought was a routine assignment—guarding a pair of akashics to the keep that the Council of Magisters closed down nearly a century ago. As it turns out (why this didn't occur to their captain, I'll never know), Havinar Balacos has an interest in the Pillars of Life and Death, and it was his men who killed them and the akashics they were supposed to be guarding. In fact, his servants' stupidity is the only reason disaster hasn't struck so far—they killed the two akashics before they could recite the two-part charm of opening that would have temporarily negated the Council's magical protections.
Their bodies were left in a most inconvenient place; it's fortunate that —— showed me how to retrieve their badges magically. It's interesting; the badges are not what they seem at all. I had taken mine at face value when I was first admitted to the order, but now, as its leader, I find myself taking mine off and examining it every so often. Normal means of seeing magic don't reveal the complexity of the spells that work within each badge. Through exhaustive research, I've been able to discover what could be done with them, but the means of doing it still elude me. Each one seems to bear a unique mark, but that mark changes as it gets assigned to someone, almost as though it attunes to them. The purposes of the attunement could be many-fold—but any thoughts about that can only be pure speculation at this point.
And now the badges are in other hands, doubtless attuning themselves to their new owners as I write. These new members—the new Division VI.
I think I'm going to send them to deal with the Gahanis issue. Probably undercover. That cursed city's town council is completely worthless, and when they came to me, cringing, offering too little pay for a job more complex than they understood, I almost turned them away. I didn't for only one reason: the Blue Knight. She's a destructive annoyance and an outlaw, but she's clever enough to avoid my territory, and to stay well away from any who might defeat her. She preys upon the weak, which is not a bad tactic in and of itself, but in her case, she preys upon the weak out of weakness. Her reputation for terror is overrated, given her choice of targets—defenseless merchants or poorly-guarded caravans, usually. Perhaps the new Division VI can be of immediate use to me. . .
