"Commander Marit. The legate requested my presence this afternoon." Hopefully he's happy about all these Teleports being expended on keeping him happy. Unless he works for Tar-Baphon, in which case Marit mostly hopes that he doesn't think they're onto him.

"Of course, this way Commander."

"Ah, you must be Marit? Are you the one who authored these reports?"

They had his signature on them and a clarifying note from him and this is why he was asked to come talk to the auditors in the first place. He can respect asking whether he wrote them anyway. "Yes, I am."

"Do you already understand how this report makes fulfilling my directive from the Grand Prince incredibly difficult, or do I have to explain?"

That is a likely response both from a Legate working for Tar-Baphon and one working for the Grand Prince, unfortunately. "I imagine that without militarily critical details of the disposition of our forces it is difficult to confirm that we are not embezzling money. I have seen the figures from which I made the summary for you, do know the disposition of our forces, and am optimistic" only true because it's a very vague phrase "that we can find some way for you to verify those figures that your work requires, without sharing such where they could be learned by our enemies."

"You imagine correctly. As a matter of imperial policy I am not to make judgements about whether you or your commander are embezzling merely off of my assessment of your character. And of course, someone else could be embezzling without your knowledge, in which case it benefits us both for me to find it. I am glad that you think we can verify your figures without compromising your operations, do you have particular ideas for how that might be done?"

"I'm sure someone's stealing, I'd be shocked if it's at notable scale. Last case we caught was an officer who hadn't reported the deaths of eight soldiers, to pocket their paychecks, had the unit's logistics manager convinced this was normal, went on about two months before they were grouped with a second unit whose logistics officer immediately reported it. I propose that you pick one division you want to look at closely, check that the aggregate numbers we gave you for that division match its real numbers, and then we reshuffle the whole unit on the assumption you sold everything you learned straight to Tar-Baphon."

The legate's nostrils flare. "And why the hell would you assume that?" he spits out, "I am a representative of the Grand Prince, not some barbarian's puppet!"

Ah, all right, that was too candid. "With all due respect, legate, we presume anything studied by your team may reach our enemies for precisely the same reasons you assume we may be lying to your face and can beat a truth spell to do it. Neither of us could do our jobs if we assumed the best of people."

He opens his mouth as if to shout something else, then seems to catch himself. He takes a deep breath, then speaks more calmly. "I suppose I cannot hold that against you, in my place. Very well. I'll do your test."

...He may not be entirely mollified, though, because a moment later he adds, "But two divisions, and I'll expect the numbers right away, and I'll want to see them in camp where my people can count heads and speak with the officers."

It's going to be such a headache. "Yes, legate. Of course. Can you arrange your own teleports, if you want your people to visit them in camp, or should we plan to provide those? For how many?"

"You should provide them. For nine."

Well, the sooner they're appeased the sooner they'll go away. "Understood. Pick your divisions. I have the un-aggregated numbers with me."

"Fifth foot and second horse."

He has the real numbers on hand from the process they used to generate the nonspecific ones. He pulls them out of his bag, breaks the seal on them with a spoken password, hands them over. 

"Thank you. When will the teleports be available?"

"Tomorrow." That's three Teleports there and three back, a distinctly nontrivial expenditure that'll require delaying supply somewhere. "Either shortly before dawn, if there are no military emergencies overnight, or a few hours past it."

"Very well. I'll leave you to arrange that while my people look over these."

People don't directly die of six Teleports suddenly being needed for appeasing the Emperor. They probabilistically die, if Tar-Baphon thinks to exploit the situation, which he probably will. There's nothing to do about it but try to make it as few of them as possible. 

The Crusade's real numbers for the unit are consistent with the generalized numbers (though many other numbers would also be consistent; that's the point). The Crusade claims to have reasonable pay and alarmingly high losses and good recruitment aaaaand a lot of paladins donating their salary back to the Crusade for the good of the world.

"Photius can teleport. And you have the boots."

"Do you imagine I forgot? Don't be an idiot. Get back to checking those numbers."

Tar-Baphon presses them overnight.

In the morning there are three fifth circle wizards available to transport the auditors to the units they want to audit. 

The legate seems somewhat annoyed, having woken early and gotten his staff assembled early to catch a before-dawn teleport that in fact turned out to not be available until midmorning.

"Finally," he says, "No sense in wasting more time, we're all ready."

Then they will be on the front near Gallowspire. The land feels doomed; the sun isn't visible. Vultures circle, everything stinks of corpses, the usual. The Teleporters are to stand by, if they think they'll be done today.