#orzhovic

“He died of natural causes.”

“You pushed him off a cliff.”

“Gravity is natural.”

Despite her internal protests to the Council's decision, Rin had calmly accepted her punishment, offering her superiors a respectful bow with no apparent attitude whatsoever. "If that is the Council's wish, then I will abide. I shall make the necessary reparations myself and return from this shame as soon as I can." 

As soon as she was granted her leave, she did so, nodding at everyone above her that she could see in order to acknowledge their supposed grace and mercy before walking out with narrowed eyes and a plan in mind. 

Rin had spent at most three weeks running errands for the Syndicate, her efforts allowing her to quickly rise through the ranks as a Syndic, still a low-ranking functionary but one that can now expect deference from borrowers who will perform small favors that require no significant risk, effort, or cost to them, and in turn, she has to do the same, performing favors for those above her. 

As a priest of this rank, Rin would be able to perform minor tasks in an Orzhov church: collecting tithes at the door, scheduling appointments for the senior priests, keeping ledgers, and the like. That would have been the case had she not intentionally botched her assignment to burn down the house of a female merchant who refused to pay protection money to the Syndicate. How could Rin? Especially after she found out that the reason why the merchant refused to, rather could not, pay the protection money was because her husband just recently passed away? Despite her best efforts, she could have done nothing else but to help the merchant. But what was her reward for an act of self-indulgence? Getting banned from the guild until she makes the necessary reparations. 

“Such ancient foolishness...” She finishes her glass of wine, as she contemplates her next step. “No matter. This was just a temporary setback. I shall return in time, and I shall repay this favor. I still have...friends in dark places, after all.”