Ashes of Innocence

Aftermath of the conclave. Malchus departs with ominous patience. Ashford offers Petro command of a new Special Investigations office with Suzanne as chief investigator. Sir Martin retires to Harwood's garden, giving Petro his sword.

The winter conclave at Harwood Manor. Suzanne presents three years of evidence documenting property-motivated witchcraft accusations - forty-seven cases across four provinces. Malchus rebuts with arguments about institutional necessity and the threat of magic.

Petro and company flee Westminster through hidden passages, travel five days through the Blackwood to Lord Harwood's estate. Sir Martin reveals his wife Catherine's story around the campfire.

Petro and Sir Martin return to Westminster with evidence. After filing reports and securing Knight Commander Ashford as ally, they face Malchus in armed corridor standoff where Ashford intervenes. They race home to find agents ransacking quarters.

Petro and Sir Martin arrive in Millhaven and confirm the corruption pattern through land records. They confront Deacon Aldwin at the parish church, seeing through his rehearsed accusations. Meeting the miller Thomas Brennan, they learn about his son Marcus's healing gift.

Petro receives a summons from Inquisitor General Malchus and learns of a mission to Millhaven involving a magical child. He investigates property records at the Citadel archives, discovering a denied land petition that mirrors the corruption pattern Suzanne has been documenting.

After killing a young witch in the forest, Petro visits Suzanne's grave and reports to Malchus, who reveals awareness of Petro's habit of checking property records and assigns a near-suicide cult mission.

Five years after his revelation, Petro executes an innocent man in Westhollow. The chapter tracks his mid-thirties through early forties with clear temporal markers: growing disillusionment, Elena's wedding at twenty, granddaughter Sara's birth, and Suzanne's three-month decline from consumption...

Petro leads soldiers into the Darklands to destroy a Mithras cult in the Citadel of Shadows. The psychological impact of his revelation about killing innocents persists throughout, coloring his interactions with soldiers and his processing of the cult leader's words about Hank.