Now that I think about it, if any of the gods are available for threads, if she seeks them or their temples out, she would try to corroborate their story with whatever the NPC told her. In the interests of threading time, I would probably handwave the ministry/mortal explanation.

Would the ministry try to dissuade her from this? Ie. If they found it she was trying to find information on what caused this and how to fix it, would they tell her to mind her own business and just deal with the distortions?