Not long after the second rogue hunt had truly gotten underway, however, Leo Compulsus received a message from the young magi of Isrillion, who claimed that they themselves were in possession of Tenellus, whom they had accepted as a new member earlier that year. The Isrillionites also explained that, as they had no idea whether Tenellus was truly guilty of the crime of which she stood accused, they had also requested Cristoferean adjudication to ensure that their colleague would receive full justice.
This news was not well-received by House Savacion, who resented the idea that Cristofer was now to be permitted to intervene in what was, unlike the Mille Lacusian Incident, a solely Savacion affair. Others within the Order were inclined to agree, until they learned that Leo Compulsus had neglected to inform the Savacion magi of Covenant Isrillion of the rogue hunt in the first place. The Isrillion magi had therefore been completely unaware that Tenellus had been rogue when they had admitted her to their covenant, and when the Order heard of this, Leo Compulsus lost a great deal of the Order's sympathy. If the Leo Compulsans chose to snub certain unpopular members of House Savacion, it was claimed, then they could not reasonably object when these same members turned to Annalum, rather than to Leo Compulsus, for adjudication.
In the summer of 421, therefore, Savacion rogue-hunters, Cristoferean investigators, and a host of other interested parties, each with their own political agenda, converged on Covenant Isrillion. House Cristofer had sent its young rising star Quentin once more as an adjudicator, hoping that he might prove as effective at Isrillion as he had one year before at Mille Lacus.
The magi convened at Isrillion soon discovered, however, that Annalum now had its sights set much higher than it had in the past. Emboldened by their recent successes as the adjudicators at Isrillion and Mille Lacus, House Cristofer hoped that it might finally lead the Order to accept the Cristoferean Code: Quentin arrived at Isrillion prepared not only to oversee an investigation, but also to hold a formal trial according to the procedures of the Second Cristoferean Code, procedure which had not been used since the trial of those accused of Eleanoreanism at the First Tribunal.
The Savacion Phrancor, the only major political player of Leo Compulsus to have reached Isrillion in time to counter Annalum's move, chose to take a diplomatic approach rather than confronting Cristofer directly. While cooperating with Annalum's investigative team, he insinuated himself so completely into the proceedings that they appeared to be the result of a Cristoferean-Savacion alliance, rather than the work of Annalum alone. Furthermore, by taking on the role of the trial's co-prosecutor, Phrancor presented himself as the voice of Leo Compulsus, and thus of House Savacion itself. While he was able to work with the Cristofereans, however, Phrancor was careful to avoid being seen as a tool of Annalum: he objected to a number of Quentin's plans and endeared himself to conservatives by insisting that, since the investigators were at Isrillion already, they might also do well to look into the diabolic events of the previous year.
Phrancor's attempt to establish himself as Savacion's leader was obstructed, however, by the other Savacion magi present, many of whom were not supporters of his faction. The Plenilunial Elementalist Aestus Fornax was particularly obstreperous: he refused to obey Phrancor's commands, claiming that although he had indeed once sworn loyalty to Leo Compulsus, he did not consider Phrancor to speak for that body, and would obey only commands coming from the covenant itself—by which he meant the Plenilunial Pantera, who alone of Savacion's would-be rulers had remained behind to oversee the rogue hunt from the covenant. Affairs were further complicated by the eventual arrival of a group of Boccaccio's supporters, and by the aged Meles himself, come to Isrillion to ask Tenellus in person why on earth she could possibly have wanted to murder Perfidius.
Nothing complicated the situation at Isrillion, however, so much as the realization, part way into the investigation, that diabolic magic had been used to keep Tenellus hidden from the rest of House Savacion over the course of the spring. Tenellus' physical appearance had been somehow exchanged with that of the Arcadian Savacion Ferricors, whom the rest of the House had been pursuing through the Lake District since the beginning of the spring.
Furthermore, Tenellus herself claimed to have been advised to seek admission at Isrillion by Pantera herself, an accusation which offended the Elementalists and puzzled the investigators. A number of things simply did not make sense, and the investigation soon came to the conclusion that diabolic magics were playing their own part in the muddled affair.
Within a week, the proceedings had turned from the original murder investigation into an investigation into an apparent diabolist conspiracy. While suspicion naturally fell first on the suspect magi of Isrillion, it soon appeared that the source of the diabolic magic was in fact Leo Compulsus itself, and that the Isrillion magi were themselves among the plan's intended victims.
As evidence for a conspiracy centered at Leo Compulsus began to emerge, Covenant Isrillion fell under a direct diabolic attack, in which Meles was killed. Simultaneously, word reached the investigators that a number of the Savacion magi on their way back from the Skulstorren had also fallen under attack by diabolic forces, and that members of the Wendellian sub-House seemed to have been singled out as targets. By Strife of 421, the investigators at Isrillion declared Tenellus to have been an innocent victim of diabolic influence, and the entire investigative party departed for Leo Compulsus.
