91 - When He Preaches, They Believe

Report from Assemblywoman Mitzi Mil Koren to Assembly, the Imperator, the High General Pasen… in haste…

-  I must confirm that Assemblyman Abatzas Irianalias has perished. (I enclose the Pages story from Boriras Turen, fessas about his heroic stand saving his people from threat of the sword and purification knife and his uncanny and terrifying end.) Imperator, he melted as if Mella had struck him down and all the Prophet did was point a finger at him. 

The Assemblyman died confronting the so-called ‘New Prophet’ (I have not seen him myself but the Kadussas clan have passed a description along, in their tap code, he seems to be a solas from the monestary of Blessed Joras of the River, much further north).  The Prophet gives no name and proclaims that all Tenners who refuse to see reality and convert should be put to the sword. Or die by the hand of the Gods (as he struck Abatzas down. Enclosed find one of his spawn-press printed sermons).

People report that they find it hard to gainsay him, if they hear him preach. “Like a dream, a nightmare…” I quote a refugee who fled into the Tunnel and was rescued. "When he preaches you can't help it. You believe him." The Prophet has made few more converts since he and his followers (approx a rejin’s worth) took North Tunnel Mouth. 

It is because people are fleeing away rather than coming to hear him preach, and he has apparently already influenced everyone in the immediate area and pulled everyone out of all the villages, to follow him and hear him every night.  The wing couriers warned people all on the edges his sphere of influence and they are mostly avoiding the evangelical forays of the Prophet, for now. The ones that do come tend to be disenfranchised young men ready to hear him.

He’s lost nearly four hundred men trying to cross into the Tunnel, blind, but they are being led astray into side tunnels, have fallen into pits they did not see. One group lit a torch and smothered inside a bead.  The Kadussas have control of the breath of the Mountain and even though the Prophet has attempted to control the fans on his end, has succeeded only in damaging them.

The rejins holding the passes report that trade is still proceeding though only at a trickle, (Enclosed find a number of letters pleading for the swift resolution of this impass, Imperator.)

The misled followers of the prophet seem to ‘recover’ if they are removed from his presence, which leads me to suspect that his sway over people is more alchemical rather than charismatic.  We’re getting a steady flow of refugees (mostly women) who are sneaking into the lesser tunnels till they run into the blockages and calling for help.

It takes about a day and a half for the Prophet’s influence to shift.  He has a number of non-Arkan ‘acolytes’ (four, we think) and tends to preach every night, between braziers that burn handfuls of incense.  (I’m starting to see a pattern here, General.)

This is what I know.  We’re holding the Tunnel and hope he continues trying to send his solas followers through (we get to save more of the poor dupes that way).

Mitzi Mil Koren Aitza HMA