How did the Camberian Council know to chuck Thorne Hagen?

[tmcd]

Again in the prologue of The King's Justice.

Sofiana of Andelon returned to the Camberian Council "to fill the seat of Thorne Hagen---threatened with suspension if he did not resign, for his connivance with Wencit of Torenth and Rhydon of Eastmarch in the Gwynnedd-Torenth War".

How did they know about it? In chapter 6 of High Deryni, Rhydon of Eastmarch comes to visit Thorne Hagen and tells him, from Wencit, to get the Council to agree to make Alaric and Duncan vulnerable to challenge. But Wencit didn't tell the Council. Stefan doesn't mention it to Denis when he's dying (ch. 27, High Deryni):

[They establish that the Councillors can see them]

[Arilan] "... Did you want to tell them something?"

[Stefan] "No." Coram shook his head....

So how could they have found out?

I am reminded of the famous story about The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Supposedly, someone asked Chandler who killed the chauffeur, and Chandler said he didn't know.

[tmcd]

O.K., I thought of a fanwank (from TV Tropes).

(An inferior definition of fanwank (from Wiktionary).)

High Deryni, ch. 22, first ed. pb. p. 288 bottom, Morgan relates his and Duncan's experience with the Cheap Plastic Imitation Camber, CPIC says that A&D had "Deryni enemies that we didn't know about". CPIC also warned them that they "might be challended to duel arcane to discover our strength". Arilan is gobsmacked and states, "It's impossible. And yet, it almost has to be one of the Council." So there was a warning of unknown enemies.

Also, after it was revealed that one member had use shape-changing, a natural thought would be "why are you so sure there aren't two?".

My theory: after the dust settled from Llyndruth Meadows, the Camberian Council had a nice little inquisition, with Truth-Reading (1) are you who you say you are and nobody else? (2) are you an enemy of Morgan, Kelson, or anyone around them, and/or have you been conspiring with anyone outside the Council? Thorne Hagen could pass question 1, but (depending on the wording) he might stumble badly on 2.

[Evie]

O.K., I thought of a fanwank.

High Deryni, ch. 22, first ed. pb. p. 288 bottom, Morgan relates his and Duncan's experience with the Cheap Plastic Imitation Camber, CPIC says that A&D had "Deryni enemies that we didn't know about". CPIC also warned them that they "might be challended to duel arcane to discover our strength". Arilan is gobsmacked and states, "It's impossible. And yet, it almost has to be one of the Council." So there was a warning of unknown enemies.

Also, after it was revealed that one member had use shape-changing, a natural thought would be "why are you so sure there aren't two?".

My theory: after the dust settled from Llyndruth Meadows, the Camberian Council had a nice little inquisition, with Truth-Reading (1) are you who you say you are and nobody else? (2) are you an enemy of Morgan, Kelson, or anyone around them, and/or have you been conspiring with anyone outside the Council? Thorne Hagen could pass question 1, but (depending on the wording) he might stumble badly on 2.

True. And I'm sure they would be very careful about the wording of both questions.

You nearly made me spit out my soda with the linked term above, though. I'm far too familiar with UK slang to have "a distinct term meaning 'drama' or 'disagreement'" be what initially comes to mind when I read any word containing wank in it! 😅

[tmcd]

I don't agree with definitions that include "drama or disagreement". The term as I have seen it and used it is definition 1, "Explanations invented by fans (of a film franchise, television series, etc.) to gloss over mistakes in continuity.".

In fact, I've gone to TV Tropes and linked to their page, which starts

"These two methods clearly do not agree with one another, which means one of two things: either I'm terribly over-analyzing the content of the illustrations of a beloved children's book, or the bunny's bedroom is moving at extremely high velocity relative to the Earth, so that relativistic time dilation makes the six-minute rise of the moon appear to take an hour and ten minutes. Calculating the necessary velocity is left as an exercise for the interested reader." — Chad Orzel tries to make sense of Goodnight Moon

Fan Wank refers to a fan's personal theory about a work, designed to resolve inconsistencies or help make sense of the work, but tending only to reveal that the fan is putting way too much thought into the exercise. It's the other reason you should use protection when reading fanfic.

(A note given there: 99.63% of the speed of light.)

There, the British-based etymology makes eminent sense. Someone comes to a conclusion that satisfies them, but may not satisfy anyone else and may be considered self-indulgent visible vice.

[Bynw]

My theory: after the dust settled from Llyndruth Meadows, the Camberian Council had a nice little inquisition, with Truth-Reading (1) are you who you say you are and nobody else? (2) are you an enemy of Morgan, Kelson, or anyone around them, and/or have you been conspiring with anyone outside the Council? Thorne Hagen could pass question 1, but (depending on the wording) he might stumble badly on 2.

I certainly wouldn't put it pass them. They are ruthless lot. A retched hive of scum and villainy masquerading as good guys.