Mariella is still unhappy about the pagan ritual. As to the factions within the village she is of the opinion that there is little she can do unless the council wants one of the factions killed, it looks like a matter for diplomacy and the blatant gift will not be helpful in such matters. As to the possibility of another magus she is perfectly happy to accept a magus who is known to Justus. As to finding a replacement for managing the covenants mundane affairs she has two suggestions although she does not think either is a particularly good solution. The first is that she could see if her brother can recommend someone who has been managing properties for the monastery however this would be both and outsider and someone with dubious loyalties, the second option would be to pick someone from the covenant of proven loyalty to work with Horst and develop the skills and experience to manage the covenant , there are several covenfolk whose loyalty has been proven , both from the militia and the staff including the young women who risked her own life to protect Mariella some time ago, choosing someone from the covenant household has the advantage of not favouring anyone from a faction which is not already seen as having the mages support,
(reference for someone saving mariellas life https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/campaigns-active/203/1)
"I intend to track down this renagade mage, ideally I wish to interrogate them and then kill them to make certain they were involved in the attack on us and determine their motive