Chương 133: CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE: WHAT THE DECLARATION COST

Within a week, the western bishop issued a formal condemnation. Vance had expected it. The condemnation was specific and carefully worded — she read it twice and said that it was professionally drafted, which in her vocabulary meant that someone with genuine legal training had written it. The bishop had, apparently, acquired better counsel than he had previously employed.

The condemnation covered four areas: the declaration's claim to sovereign authority over matters the Church claimed as its jurisdiction; the medical operation and its relationship to the healing authority the Church derived from divine mandate; the education system and its specific claim to provide literacy outside the Church's institutional framework; and the printing press and the broadsheet as instruments of unauthorized knowledge distribution.

"He's not wrong about any of the facts," Vance said.

"The declaration does claim sovereign authority over those domains. The medical operation does operate outside the Church's institutional framework. The schools do. The broadsheet does." She paused.

"The question is whether the claim is legitimate. The condemnation asserts it is not. The declaration asserts it is. That's the legal dispute."

"Can he do anything with the condemnation?" Marcus said.

"The condemnation itself does nothing," she said.

"It establishes the Church's position. What happens next depends on whether the Church has the capacity and will to act on that position, and what form the acting takes." She paused.

"The Alaric assessment — his report to the bishop after the February visit — I don't know what it said. Torres doesn't know. What I know is that the condemnation was issued despite the visit, which tells me either the bishop didn't read the report, didn't believe it, or read it and decided the political necessity of the condemnation outweighed its findings." Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Torres," Marcus said. The message to Torres went through the heliograph the same day. The response took three days. Torres's response said: Alaric's report was accurate and fair. The bishop read it. The condemnation was issued anyway, on the grounds that the march's declaration represented a challenge to ecclesiastical authority that required a formal response regardless of the specific findings about the march's practices.

The bishop is under pressure from the Curia in the capital — the declaration has attracted attention at the institutional level. He paused in the transmission. Alaric is not pleased. He believes the condemnation undermines the investigative process's credibility. He has said so to the bishop, which is unusual. Another pause. I believe Alaric will be worth talking to directly. Not through me — directly.

"He wants to talk to us," Marcus said.

"He wants to talk to you," Okafor said. She was at the council session, which she was still attending even with the reduced clinical load.

"The report he gave the bishop was fair. The bishop dismissed it. That's an injury to his professional standing that he will want to address."

"We don't take advantage of his position," Marcus said.

"No," she said.

"But we can be honest with him about ours. He was honest with us in February." She paused.

"Honesty met with honesty is a relationship. Relationships are more durable than political positions." Marcus sent Alaric a direct message through the channel Torres had established — not through Torres, as Torres had suggested. He wrote it himself, as he had written the declaration. He said: The bishop's condemnation has been received. I understand its political necessity from the bishop's perspective. I do not believe it represents your finding from the February visit.

I would value a conversation about what comes next, on terms that respect both our positions. The offer of honest engagement that I made in February remains. The response came in ten days. I will come in June. Privately, not as the bishop's instrument.