"I am not saying it is guaranteed, but it is possible that Harriet was acting of her own free will. There are ways of testing for such magical interference, and I intend to perform those tests before any kind of punishment is given." Meesei answered. She was glad that they seemed to be receptive to her explanation, but she had to be careful not to go too far. Convincing them that Harriet could have committed the murder would not be greatly useful if she also created a panic that there could be traitors everywhere. Fortunately, the actual likelihood of being able to magically influence a large number of people was quite slim. 

"As for who could be under Vile's influence, it is not likely to be widespread. Gaining control of another's mind is neither a quick nor easy process, so fortunately, it is not practical on a wide scale. It can take days, or even weeks to gain control. From my understanding, Harriet is hands-on as a leader and will undertake missions outside of this ruin. If she was away for an extended time at any point, that is a possibility. Alternatively, there are ways of imbuing an object with magic which can influence an individual's mind over time. If someone spends enough time near the object, usually while sleeping, they can be influenced. Again, this is something that is not easy to do over a wide scale. If Vile wished to influence multiple people in this clan, he would need to smuggle in multiple objects, but that would be more easily detectable. An example from history would be Vvardenfell, in Morrowind near the end of the Third Era. Using the magical properties of corprus disease as a vector, the ancient being Dagoth Ur spread his influence across the island. For those that he wanted to influence in a less obvious manner, he created small statuettes imbued with magic that would influence the minds of those near them. However, even with the power of a dead god at his fingertips, Dagoth Ur could not influence all of Vvardenfell. Instead, he had individual agents spread across the island. If Vile wished to be effective, he would not concentrate all of his agents in one place. One traitor has been enough to sow chaos among this family." Meesei explained.