Poor Arha. Yes, they can certainly still punish the poor kid, can't they?
What they did to her companion is something they did here on our Earth hundreds of years ago to high born young princes of England. Since no one could lay violent hands on the heir to a throne (in that culture they actually thought royal blood was somehow more special than anyone else's in the Divine Right of Kings), the courts had an offical post - an actual job - of whipping boy. The whipping boy would be a friend of sorts to the young royal (a kid who was all too often kept isolated and lonely) and would be brutally beaten when the noble boy would be naughty.
The whipping boy would be of noble blood himself, and would share the education and perks of royalty - but would be whipped for the deeds of the prince he was being raised with.
Sick.
The search for the reincarnated Priestess sounds sort of like the search for the new born reincarnated Dahli Lama. I wonder if any of those mothers fought to keep their child, like Arha's did?