Humming a little tune, I went down into the darkness of my celr.

  An expansive one had e with the property, and I’d expa sihen, adding the proper airflow for a b and dividing it into three parts. Lab, ste, and diabolist practig chamber. I’d put Gregory and Melissa ier.

  Bound to cause some worry and fusiohey wake up? Maybe, but the room was desigo tain diabolism, which would help with the one of them I expected to make the most fuss.

  I opehe door, carefully stepping over the boundaries I set up. Nothing as fancy as Father Reginald’s setup, just some ented steel desigo cut off all magic that passed over it. Not very effective at stopping iionally directed effects. Byproducts of practice sessions gone sour though? It worked nicely for those.

  For Melissa’s diabolism, I’d have to hope the diluted holy water I’d poured dowhroat worked. It would be painful when she woke up, and a huimes worse if she used Diabolism until it was out of her system. Not ideal, but I wasn’t letting a potentially hostile Diabolist have nearly free rein inside my shop.

  The entire room wasn’t very pretty, just a big stone block with a metal door. Purely for practig, and since I wasn’t enough of a fool to try summoning or sacrifices the paraphernalia could be pared down to fitting inside my coat.

  I lit the room’s single mp, illuminating my two prisoners down below.

  I’d put some distaweewo of them when I’d put them down on these spare mattresses. Wouldn’t do for either of them to wake up right o each other. I couldn’t guess if that would end with them trying to work together to escape, to kill one another.

  They’re hands were cuffed together, and those were o a single ring I’d installed in the middle, same for their leg irons. That was about all I’d managed for security st night befoing upstairs and passing out.

  Gregory first. Depending on how this versatio, he might be out of s before I started the sed.

  His hair actually looked better like this than it did bed. Just the way it hung, brown locks framing his face.

  You are not going to kiss this one are you? The Imp suddenly interjected in my head, making me jump bay hooves. He’s a particurly worthless dandy, and sworn to a deity only slightly less terrible thaerrible suy.

  “Could you not?” I hissed at the Imp. Not for the first time I sidered going and hunting down Versalicci just so he could ge the tra the thing or banish it.

  It is a serious . The Duke likely has a good match among his many-

  “Of all the things I want to talk about, the thing that spawned me having some devil set aside I’m expected to marry is actually below thinking I’m going to kiss an unscious person!”

  Unfortunately, my yelling seemed to have roused one of my prisoners from their sleep, and of course, it was Gregory.

  “Five..five more minutes Bishop,” he muttered sleepily. “I’ll get the chorus whipped into shape this afternoon I swear.”

  “Yeah, whips are definitely not getting used,” I remarked, and his eyes shot open.

  He fumbled with his s only a little bit before he realized he was restrained, and only a seore looking about at everything around him. He settled into a cross-legged sitting position as I waited for him to get his bearings.

  “You know, I’ve been in promising situations beforehand,” Gregory said with surprising ess, although I could hear just a little quaver to his voice. “But most of the time, I agreed to get in them.”

  “Most of the time?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Angry family members, angry exes,” he replied with that forced serenity. “People angry over things beginning or ending.”

  “I don’t really qualify as any of that,” I said firmly. “Nothing really started.”

  “No, it did not. Malvia, why is there dried blood on my suit?”

  There was quite a bit of it, the entire front of it covered in stains from the body parts littering Tyler’s basement. Holy, I thought the spsh of ade an already quite nice suit even nicer. Mind you, blood ain to get out, and it would smell, and you know what, that actually wasn’t important.

  “Because I didn’t strip you while you slept?” I ventured. “Seriously, what kind of person do you think I am, Gregory?”

  “A person who is willing to bite into fingers and sacrifice people to summon devils,” he deadpanned.

  I bristled, then tried to force the tension out of me the moment after. Don’t let him rile you Malvia, it’s not worth it.

  “ we simply not with the sniping?” I asked him. “You’ve already plicated things enough, I don’t…I’m not having a discussiohat.”

  “Okay,” he said with a suddeleness. “I…that was rude of me. My apologies, Miss Harrow.”

  I grinned, just a little one. “Aw, thank you. Mind you, I did kidnap you and interrupt your iigation, so maybe a little rudeness should be expected. But speaking of that iigation, what were you doing with Donald Tyler? I overheard something about Father Reginald owing him money. Guessing that is a trail you were following?”

  “Yes,” Gregory said after a moment of hesitation, gears clearly turning. “It turns out our murderer was right in sards about Father Reginald. When I went through his records, it turned out he owed quite a bit of moo Glee Street. Not just lost in the o, but borrowed from a number of moneylenders, one of whom was Mr. Tyler. I don’t necessarily think the murders were done by him, diabolism is a bit of overkill for not paying him back, and if he was keeping it secret from his superiors-“

  I let him get a few more steps into his lies about Father Reginald’s supposedly gigantic gambli. I could guess what the actual reason for the owed money was. He had been buying from supplies of Diabolism supplies, after all.

  “This is about the bined church Diabolism program, isn’t it?” I said, and his face went bnk. “Maybe Father Reginald did do some gambling on the side, but that’s not why he owed Tyler money. He was trying to secure Diabolic supplies for the church program, wasn’t he?”

  He closed his eyes for a few seds, then opehen again, gaze i. “You made it into the practice chamber and warding room then. Cra swore she’d hid the key and burnt all the correspondence.”

  “She did,” I firmed. “An admirable job, but she had to tend with Voltar. Although the door being locked after she came out from it was going to pique his i anyway. Be gd he decided to focus on the door instead of the girl.”

  “Voltar doesn’t torture people,” Gregory interrupted quietly.

  And suffers all the more for it.

  A retort was half-formed on my lip before I decided it wasn’t worth arguing. “Not what I meant. If he hadn’t found the key I imagi would have been the lock picks then the crowbar. And if those didn’t work he’d see about ferreting out the information out of Miss Lionel. Also, just a tip for the future, you didn’t o firm it actually was a group. You could have pyed it off as rogue agents of the church. Albeit the sheer amount of holy sigils down there does make that-”

  “I’m sure it was all very clever,” Gregory said sarcastically, earning a sful gre from me.

  “It wasn’t, but thank you, I need more defting this time of the day. But in all seriousness, how much trouble are you in if it es out you leaked this? Galspie already doesn’t seem to like you.”

  “He will. And would regardless. If he refuses to believe me when I tell him that you already knew? He approach my superiors in my churd keep his suggestions I o bathe in holy water ihat odious little block of cheese he calls a brain.”

  I couldn’t help but grin a little.

  Perhaps the boy has some sembnce of seer all. Down with all worshippers of the suns.

  “Alright. So the variions of Avernorn and the Empire as a whole are funding a collective program into making their own Diabolists?”

  Gregory finally let out a little sigh, shoulders slumping i. “Keep in mind, I was only introduced to this program very retly.”

  “At some poiween the end of the shape-ger affair and now?”

  “Yesterday m.”

  I paused as I digested that. “You mean after the murder?”

  “On the carriage ride over,” he admitted. “I arrived at the church early to assist Bishop Doylen’s for the celebratiohis week, when I found myself bundled into a carriage and asked to help with this. Told about it all. Well, about its existence. Bishop Doylen herself seemed to only know it existed and little else, and as far Father Reginald’s former colleagues-“

  “One of them already seems to hate you, and the other seems alright but is probably not willing to spill any more secrets to an outsider than necessary?” I guessed.

  “You’ve summed it up pretty well among the senior members,” he replied. “The ones I know of anyway. I was told I was wanted because of my experieh Voltar. No oioned you being there.”

  “I’m sure that must have e as a shock,” I said.

  “A little unbang,” he admitted. “I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t handle any of that well, and while being thrown off by a string of revetions is discerting, it’s no excuse for how I hahings.”

  “Apology accepted,” I said. “The diabolism program?”

  “The bishops give more details,” he started, before swiftly tinuing upon seeing my expression. “But sihey might not cooperate, my uanding was that it was being pursued to do resear the diabolic. There have been worries ever since well, not to be awkward but your brother’s activities. Some in the church have been arguing it could have resulted in a crisis on the same level as Her Most Profane Majesty.”

  “That was never going to happen,” I said ftly. “We never were going to get that far. Hells, he barely mao get people into key positions of the city bureaucracy willing to take orders before the ehing started falling apart. It took a month for Voltar to expose the first of them?”

  “From the inside, I’m sure it looked more fragile than oside,” Gregory said. “I wasn’t there firsthand to know about it as it happened. All I knew is that there were riots in the Quarter that required the army’s intervention. For those who did know? An Infernal illing to summon devils and had multiple diabolists w for him nearly took over the city without anyone knowing. There were fears of opening a perma portal to the Hells, multiple ones even.”

  “It never would have happened,” I assured him. “Versaliever cared for the Hells or for Infernals. He only cared about personal power, and personal power he trolled. An army from the Hells taking over he’d then have to ao? He never would have risked that.”

  The son is distrustful, The Imp whispered. Power is all he craves, but never when aands to be, not if it means one higher on the dder than him. Admirable if he was in the Hells. Definitely something to be arranged, if you have the mettle for it.

  “I’ll trust you know your brother better than I do. I’ve never met him, and from what I’ve heard I never want to meet him. But still, you could uand why it would spark worries. The diabolism program? It’s there mostly so we could start researto the Hells, and what was going on down there.”

  “There’s a whole wealth of literature on Diabolism,” I said. “It exists, I’ve tried getting my hands on some of it, and mostly failed, but it’s there. And I know some churchs hold onto quite a bit of it, especially Halspus.”

  “Old literature,” Gregory noted. “And that’s what reserved. A lot was well, burnt. But even if there was a certed effort to preserve said literature, it’s spread across a lot of pces, including the Imperial Archives where the royal family is not letting ahout their approval examining it, the different churchs, and then the private collectors. People who just happen to have a book on the diabolic arts in their attic.”

  Of course the sun god’s ckeys burnt it, The Imp hissed in my head. Permaly sealing off the Hells is all they care about, denying us proper gress and trade.

  Well, it ossible both of those things happeo cross between the Hells and this world, I suspected both got overshadowed by the violence sent both ways.

  “Run across a few of those?” I asked him.

  “Only o was enough to leave a nasty impay in my youth.”

  Huh. He had never explicitly said anything about it, but I’d always thought I’d been his first brush with Diabolism. I wao ask about that attic, but since he was talking what I needed him to, I held my tongue.

  “It’s also old,” Gregory tinued. “Diabolists were always rather secretive with what they discovered to begin with, and after the downfall of Her Most Profane Majesty? Nothing. The Hells are entire yers of worlds, we’ve barely scratched the surfa what is down here. Usually the portals open to specific parts of the Hells, but there are other pces down there, we know from a few of the ats. Pces even deeper that normally ’t be accessed from here. Even in the pces that are easily reachable for most diabolists, there are devils that show up and no one has ever entered their kind befetting ready for that art of the program’s goal. At least what I was told.”

  “Having a secret on that no one, not even the empire, would suspect you of having, sounds pretty good for anoal,” I opined, and he nodded glumly.

  “her of them said as much, but it’s not hard to see that as a reason,” he said. “They also insisted they are the only two bishops involved which I doubt.”

  “Too banced of a leadership pool,” I noted. “Deadlock. So there’s a third vote?”

  "At a minimum,” Gregory replied. “Galspie sees my involvement as an unwele intrusion. Derrick is more weling, but it’s clear her of them appreciates me being foisted on them. However, if they think Tarver is not going to have one of his mortal servants involved in….that, they will learn tret that.”

  I was a little fbbergasted. That level of vitriol I’d heard before but, well, aimed at me, and even that had felt like a chilly breeze pared to the icy cold in his words. A thought that I should have had before now finally arose from my brain.

  “You and Father Reginald were close?” I guessed, asking carefully.

  “A little,” he admitted. “We didn’t meet regurly, and he didn’t recruit me into the church, but when a young boy needed reassurance if he just disappeared someone would care? He was there. And helped make sure that fate would never occur.”

  My eyes widened a little. Gregory had hinted about how frosty his retionship with his shitheel of a father was before. And there was no denying the love lost when his father intended for him to die via Shape-ger assassination attempt. Still, for oo be that young when it happened.

  I waited for him to eborate, but he moved past it.

  “Seeing him ed into that perversion did upset me,” he said. “The two bishops though…you should knoie hates you for what you did with Bishop Strevans.”

  It took a sed to pce that he shape-ger? He’s irritated we found someone who was masquerading as Bishop Strevans?”

  “As far as he is ed, Bishop Strevans was a devout worshipper of Halspus regardless of her actual identity, and her expulsion from the church without more crete evidence of involvement in their plot.”

  “Iing,” I mused. Perhaps Bishop Galspie had been directly involved in that series of agitations in the Quarter during that time.

  “Galspie is there to keep an eye oire thing,” Gregory told me. “When they were putting this together, Halspus’ church was the rgest repository of Diaboliformation they could iate access to. The cost of that was Galspie joins as one of the bishops involved with the projed gets plete ht ohing.”

  “Why bishops?”

  Gregory paused, clearly taken aback at my interje. “Sorry?”

  “Bishops,” I repeated. “It’s all different religions, why wouldn’t there be different ranks for each of them? Especially the ones not uhe tral pantheon?”

  “I…you don’t know?” Gregory asked incredulously. “They are different ranks, it’s just that the Empire demands that the public fag ranks be as uniform as possible. Makes their paperwork tidier. And was tilted in favor of Halspus’ church since most of them use the rank structure the Empire pushes us towards adopting. You didn’t know this?”

  “Xang’s followed a very different religion and didn’t have much faith in fies,” I told him defensively. “And then I was in the Quarte, where it was either Halspus’ priests trying to police or persecute us, and occasionally another deity trying to make inroads before they had their efforts frustrated by the Halspustians, the Watch, roups like the Fme. My religious education best be summed up as nothing local followed by being occasionally poi as evidence of the corruption in man’s heart when they brought worshippers to the outskirts of the Quarter to pray at us.”

  “Point taken,” he said. “Bishop is a leadership position senior enough that it be trusted they speak for their church. Bishop Derrick seems more ied in the program as a whole. She’s the one who talked Galspie out of not immediately trying to throw you all out of the churitially, and she’s more ied in-”

  “You save it for Voltar,” I said, fishing my key out of my coat. “Save your throat some effort, and maybe we vihose two to just tell him themselves.”

  “That’s it?” he said disbelievingly. “You’re letting me go?”

  You’re letting him go? The Imp shrieked. Surely just a nibble, just a taste, a bit of skin, a trickle of blood. Do not even deny you want it!

  Amazingly, having that eg inside my head nearly made fumble the keys to the cuffs. “Shut up,” I hissed.

  Before a fused Gregory could say anything I added “Not you. Do you wao put you back to sleep? You’ve been on good behavior but that doesn’t buy you any leeway if you start making ents like that.”

  Bah, you shame your father!

  “Did you ever say what kind of imp is inside your head?” Gregory asked. “Because if you did it has slipped my mind.”

  “Gluttony,” I said irritably. “And it’s a greedy little ooo. Anyway, unless someone wants to risk their weekly cow ration, they will be quiet unless what they bring up is relevant to the case.”

  “The cow thing is regur?” Gregory asked. “I uh, sorry. It’s none of my business.”

  Of course, I had to say the ohing to remind the both of us of that i.

  I took the ck of interje from the Imp as firmation it was doalking a back to fitting the key intory’s handcuffs.

  “So, you are just letting me go?”

  I nodded, putting the key to the cuffs. “Knog you out was more….well, I suppose seeing where things stood. Not between us, but the Churd Voltar. Besides, I could only imagihe uproar if it came out I was keeping you in my basement.”

  “It’s not the stra pce I’ve been discovered,” he admitted with a grin. “One day I was forced to spend the better part of the afternoon and evening locked into a wardrobe.”

  I was about to ask about that when suddenly I heard the sound of someone knog on my door loudly.

  “Shite,” I said, looking up at the ceiling with a frown. “With my luck with visitors retly, I should probably ahat.”

  The hammering on the door only grew louder as I moved towards the door.

  “Do me a favor?” I asked Gregory, pointing over at the still pretending to sleep Melissa. “Keep an eye on her while I hahis. Don’t wake her up, don’t venture close, don’t assume she’s sleeping, and definitely don’t let her out. Bck Fme, and also mixed up in this, I think.”

  He nodded, moving towards the door, while I went up to see who the Hells it was this time.

  How much was the truth? Not out of personal animosity fory, I couldn't ighat possibility just because he was being somewhat friendly again. Loyalties, loyalties, where did they lie? With family, religion, or the other churches?

  For now what he said was close enough for me to accept those words, as I moved to see who was still hammering at my door.

  Of course it was Holmsteader. And she'd brought friends.