Aglaya Lilich

Aglaya Lilich (Аглая Лилич) is an Inquisitor, sent from the Capital to address the epidemic.

Nina Kaina is her sister and, consequently, Maria Kaina is her niece. However, according to Victor Kain, the sisters hated each other, and this hatred did not lessen even after Nina's death. He suggests that Aglaya may have come to town for revenge on Nina.

The Inquisition
In this case, the term has nothing to do with the Church. The Inquisition is a group of unique experts (their number has varied over the years from 19 to 52) sometimes entrusted with special tasks by the Powers That Be.

Inquisitors possess a mysterious ability to solve problems that seem to be completely unsolvable. They combine their unique techniques and broad outlook with the unlimited powers provisionally vested in the inquisitors by the Powers That Be. While completing a task, inquisitors are bound by no law but their own.

Arrival
The arrival of Lilich proved to be very unexpected, as initially, everyone assumed that the authorities would send Inquisitor Kroy, Orff or Karminskiy. This is partly due to the fact that the Inquisitors Board had recently sentenced Aglaya Lilich to death.

Victor Kain makes three suggestions why Aglaya was given the mission to save the city: either the rumor about her impending execution was false; she was playing the role of Inquisitor illegally, having usurped her power from another; or the authorities provided her with one last near-impossible chance to rehabilitate herself. The last assumption is confirmed in a conversation with Artemy Burakh by Aglaya herself.

Background
Lilich was the student of the famous Inquisitor Herman Orff. Unlike other Inquisitors, he relied on investigation and interrogation rather than trickery. He "always set his cards on the table, and always won". However, all of his students were eventually sentenced to execution for their initiative and for using their positions for secretive games of their own.

In the past, Aglaya, while going by the name Stella Karstlich (Стелла Карстлич), met the Bachelor when his Thanatica was performing an experiment.

Objective
Aglaya Lilich calls herself a servant of the Law and believes the main purpose of her activities is to save the city and preserve the rule of law. According to Aglaya, the presence of miracles in the town-on-Gorkhon had violated natural law. In her view, creative wonders warp the thin fabric of the universe. The logical conclusion is clear: to save the city it is necessary to demolish the Polyhedron.

If one recalls that the spirit of Scarlet Nina is currently concentrated in the Polyhedron, the brainchild of the Kains, Victor's idea that Aglaya seeks revenge against her sister may not seem so wrong. But there is an additional, more nuanced perspective: that Aglaya knows who the Powers that Be are and leads the fight against them directly--which presents another reason for the demolition of the Polyhedron.

Spoken Dialogue

 * → See The Inquisitor/Spoken Dialogue