I stared at the temple, a pensive frown growing on my face as I looked it over.

  I’d never seen a temple to Savareth before, as important as the o was to Anglea’s trade. I couldn’t be sure how heavily the leaking Diabolism from the murder had altered this pce, but I couldn’t imagi normally looked like this.

  A massive grey and red cm sat at the end of the docks, its open shell g down on the sides of what robably a building. A door and windows, embedded in walls made of barnacles and sea ur spiig out among them. Something about how the temple doors and circur window up above remained symmetrical in that anic mass was more disturbing than if it had beeirely sea life.

  We rolled closer, nearing the line of Watch officers. A smaller picket crew than at yesterday’s crime se, a half dozen bored Watch members, idly waving away members of the public. The only standout member was Walston, engaged in a fierce discussion with the two bishops.

  “Good,” Voltar said behind me, peering out of the carriage window. “The corruption didn’t reach the building’s exteriors.”

  “It’s supposed to look like that?” I murmured. The mass of sea life crawled over the docks beyond the cmshell’s. Barnacles, sea sponges, and other marine life filled the end of the dock, leaving not a speck of wood to be seen. How could it even support the weight?

  “Savareth is a deity of the seas first,” Gregory said. “All of the seas.”

  Well, maybe she should sider that not many people in Avernon lived in the sea. Or in the Nover, which teically was a liquid. I supposed.

  The ck of a rge Watch presence did mean less gawkers. A mid-size crowd, maybe forty people total, a mixture of ord Keltish bourers for the most part with a couple of outliers. They seemed more engrossed in the ongoing yelling match between Bishops and Watch Captain. Well, one bishop.

  “-you shall not defy me again, Captain! Halspus is dedicated to the thwarting of evildoers wherever they may walk!”

  “Last I checked, Semiv was the patron of Wat, Bishop. And while I appreciate your s over another deity’s temple being broken into, I reiterate this is our .”

  Walston’s gravelly voice didn’t eveo be raised to match the Bishop’s in volume, if not in iy. I smirked at the clear irritation iohough. Sounded like Galpsie making a spectacle of this while the Watch was trying to keep people from realizing a priest had died. I could uand Walston’s irritation, trying not to cause a panic over all of this. I still was going to appreciate how good Father Galspie was at irritating everyone around him.

  The only returning priests were the two bishops, although Galspie had brought a new face. A reedy bespectacled acolyte wearing a robe with Halspus’ golden sunburst on the front stuck close to the bishop, writing down notes as Galspie argued with Walston.

  The crowd watched with some i as our carriage passed through the picket line, past a few feet. Murmured whispers only grew louder as Voltar and Dawes exited the carriage.

  To my shock, they seemed almost as loud as I left. Must be spotting an Infernal outside the quarter, it was still somewhat rare.

  Bishop Galspie’s face tightened as both I and Gregory exited the carriage.

  “That is where you were?” he thundered. “I khat those who follow Tarver think little of the sequences or realities of their as, and I expected little, a you disappoint. Tempted by th-”

  “I kidnapped him,” I interrupted bluntly. “And ed him up in my basement. Nothing else happened.”

  The Bishop paused mid-tirade, seemingly dumbstruck by the blunt admission to the crime. The blonde acolyte by his side seemed even more insed, sputtering out in an ed squawk something about my immoral character.

  “She did not do anything to me I haven’t agreed to before, Bishop,” Gregory said cheerfully as if I hadn’t been yelling at him less than an ho. “Actually, she has been quite a help to me retly. I unfortunately blundered into a dangerous situation and Miss Harrow helped pull me out of it.”

  A bit of creative rewriting of me putting a bullet in Donald Tyler’s head, but I was hardly going to correct him.

  “Blundered into,” the blonde said with a sneer. “Really Montague, did you end up with that appehat trols your brain deep in some-”

  “Helped me handle a diabolist, which is more than I think you could do,” I drily noted. “Where were you st night?”

  My interruption derailed the blonde, who faltered but managed a det recovery, chest puffing up. “I was assisting Bishop Galspie with-”

  “If you didn’t kill a diabolist, you were less help than him,” I said, talking over him. “So-”

  “You-” Galspie started, r to the defense of his acolyte, while Bishop Derrick looked down into the Nover, nothing but embarrassment on that weathered face.

  If she wao drown herself, she might want to pick a river that wouldn’t melt her first.

  “Bishop Galspie,” Voltar interrupted. “What a pleasure it is to see you today! Captain Walston, why are you barring ood friery to the crime se?”

  That took Galspie off-bance, as Walston’s eyes widened just a little. Pretty soon all three of them, and Derrick, were busy talking about that, giving me a ce to slink back out of sight, Gregory following me.

  ly wele after earlier, but more wele than the lickspittle who looked like he wao bite into my throat.

  “Whose the blonde?” I whispered.

  “Michael Forcreek,” Gregory whispered back. “Bishop Gallespie’s personal assistant. Met him once. Even more stuck up than the Bishop.”

  “Impossible,” I murmured. “How did he bee a bishop? I have to know.”

  “He’s more personable around people of a certain type,” Gregory muttered back.

  I paused. Me, I could uand. Filthy degee Infernal, here to steal your souls, your lives, and all your men and women, thank you. Captain Walston though? What could his-oh.

  “Halspus has non-Anglean members among his clergy, does he not?” I whispered back. Maybe not subtly enough, Fourcreek was staring at me in suspi. His boss remained engaged by debating Voltar and Walston. I gave him a little wave. He replied with a sign of his god that made my skin tingle a little.

  “Yep, and both they and the bishop put a lot of effort into avoiding each other for the good of the church.”

  The debate cluded pretty quickly, since Voltar wanted both Bishops inside anyway, and just o get Walston on board. She seemed willing, or at least willing to trust Voltar had a good reason.

  Huh. The Watch had seemed somewhat sour on Voltar during the shape-ger case, what had ged sihen?

  Oh, wait. I gnced over at Tagashin. Hrrm. Yeah, a few weeks of dealing with her disguised as Voltar may have exhausted the Watch’s collective patieh him. Over years of good cases though? No wait, this was Tagashin.

  Easily possible.

  “I do apologize,” I lied insincerely when asked to make good with Forcreek. “It was a very long evening, I didn’t get much sleep and I shed out.”

  “I suppose one must at for the unstable nature associated with your kind,” he said in a tohat made that sound like some kind of solemn musing on whichever ‘kind’ I beloo that had an unstable nature. I gave a small polite smile, aed the urge to see what his Adam’s apple tasted like.

  The gist of the discussion up this, which I’d paid attention to but kept myself out of, was that Walston had been stalling the two bishops. They’d arrived soon after the Watch had gotten here, in a series of events that Walston was c as we walked along the docks to the temple.

  “Patrol Officer Raleigh spotted a cloaked figure leaving the temple at dawn,” she said as we closed the distance. More people were gathering now that Voltar had made an appearance. Reporters would make their way here , I suspected. At least it being on a pier meant access would be limited.

  “He ehe temple, saw the body, and immediately shut the doors,” Walston tinued. “Blew his whistle, got a whole squad here, and they sent a runner. Soon after these three showed up, g that they’d detected a massive surge of divine power.”

  “We did not e immediately,” Galspie growled. “It took an hour to get here, and if you talked to any temple nearby, you’d knorobably every priest in a mile felt that. Someone personally called on diviervention to purify this pce before the corruption could spread.”

  “Our killer?” Dawes asked, only to get a sc gre from Galspie he met without seeming impressed.

  “Possibly,” Bishop Derrick said more calmly than her fellow bishop. “Although the ce of some practig both Diabolism and Divine magic is extremely slim. Or perhaps an intervention on our behalf, and if that’s the case they may have spotted the killer.”

  ‘Extremely slim’? Still hoping to hide the program’s existence as long as they could. We were finally approag the temple itself, when something caught my eye.

  I looked at what y beyond the pier the temple was situated on in disbelief.

  “Is that-?”

  “It is,” Voltar firmed, looking down at it. “I uand your disbelief but yes, it is the Nover.”

  “It looks like water,” I muttered, staring at the flowing, liquid river. It wasn’t crystal clear, instead a murky brown, but it was water. “It ’t be water though. It’s the Nover.”

  “Well, this is a temple to Savareth,” Gregory said. “Deities of the o make even the Nover bend to their will. To aent.”

  True. More than a few doze out, the Nover returo its stagnant, squalid self. But still, it was unnerving seeing even just a patch of it move at a pace faster than sludge.

  “You look like you could leave your hoof in there for a few hours and it wouldn’t have dissolved half of it,” I muttered. “Hells, it might not even be fmmable anymore.”

  Walston coughed, and we tio the door itself.

  “The priestess inside was Stormspeaker Leliel Starken,” Captain Walston said. “Well-respected in the unity, so let’s try to keep disturbance of the corpse to a minimum.”

  I could uand her desire to not rile the citizenry up but in all hoy? The diabolist who’d killed her likely would have done more than enough in that regard.

  The doors opened, and the exterior put the interior to shame.

  Rough, unpolished, uncarved stone formed the interior, ne sea life or massive cmshells. Stone benches, although cushions had been pnted on them as a cession to people’s fort.

  There was no one i us. I eyed the floor, where a massive circle in the middle had been repced by gss. You could see through it into the Nover, and even in the murky water the occasional passing fin.

  At the far end of the church, a statue of a mermaid erched on a weathered rock, arms gesturing upwards. Watery waves carved out of coastal stone followed the dire of her arms up towards the ter of the church’s ceiling.

  In the ter of that gss circle? Stormspeaker Starken.

  As opposed to st time, the body wasn’t posed, instead lying on the ground, curled in a fetal position. Fins poked out from tears in her clothing, thid rubbery as they fanned out all around her. A lifeless fish’s eye stared at the ceiling along her back, smaller ones dotting her skin. The ones in her face had been forced to the side of her head, swelled and almost falling out of their sockets.

  Her limbs hadn’t gone unscathed. Her legs were flippers now, lohan they had any right to be. One arm a crab’s pincer, split into three of them in fact. The other a mass of tentacles.

  “Did she always look like this?” I whispered tory. Her face looked a little like the Savareth priestess from yesterday. However, between now rubbery skin and being half-forced into a fish’s shape, it was hard to tell for certain.

  “No,” he whispered back sharply, looking down at the corpse. “She did not.”

  I bent down, examining the body closer but not toug it just yet. There was a thin film on her ski and oozing. It slowly traveled down to the floor, gealing into a growing puddle.

  “I don’t think there’s any diabolism left,” I said, pulling out my diabolism focus. “But definitely gloves for this one. No idea what this slime is, but limited exposure seems best.”

  A touch of the focus proved that. Also proved there was nothing in the air, which was a more mild . Entire world was lucky how much raw diaboliergy o be pumped out to make air corruptive.

  “Now,” Voltar said. “Before we examihe body, I believe there is something else that should be discussed first. A matter of information to be shared.”

  Galspie fixed a hateful gre ory, nearly matched in iy by his little toady. “You informed them?”

  Bishop Derrick sighed, moving iween Galspie and the rest of us. “While it is hardly his pce to decide if they should know, I am sure it was to help the iigations Matthew.”

  “In actuality, we discovered it before talking with Gregory,” Voltar said.

  “They discovered the training chamber,” Gregory told the bishops. “When they asked, I figured hiding it would gain nothing but ill will. And we need help that is not…suspect.”

  “A diabolist, two if you t the one in the coach,” Galspie said. “A meddler, something disguising itself, and whatever you are.”

  I was amazing how he mao somehow make that st ohe most insulting, Dawes face tightening while Voltar’s expression darkened.

  “If our help is not wanted,” Voltar said coldly. “We always leave. You try a out who this is, who in your program has decided to cull your own ranks, or we leave this to you and the Watch?”

  I quietly got bay hooves, taking a few steps back as Voltar and Galspie gred at each other. The entire room had gone silent, Walston adding a gre of her own to the back of the bishop’s head, and Galspie’s toady, Forcock I think? He was gring at her, to her apparent indifference.

  Bishop Derrick coughed awkwardly, an awkward grin stretg the aged lines of her fabsp;

  “Mr. Voltar,” she said apologetically. “I’m sure Bishop Galspie did not ihat. reciate any help offered but you uand why erhaps upset that this program’s existence is known?”

  Walston looked betweewo of them, then cursed.

  “You could have told me about this before we entered here,” she s Voltar.

  “I just firmed it retly myself,” he replied calmly. “Bishops, I’m willing to stay on this case, but we need cooperation, not stonewalling.”

  Galspie and Derrick traded gnces, and the Halpsusian bishop shook his head.

  “I disagreed with this from the beginning Lillian,” he said gruffly. “Now it is e down upon all our heads.”

  “I am aware Matthew,” she said tiredly. “Since you’ve tried to drill that thought in my head sihe first killing st night. Mr. Voltar, what we answer for you?”

  “For now?” Voltar said. “Nothing. I’d rather we discuss this topi a pce with a warm crag fire, away from death. I just want assurance of cooperation. For now, let us handle examining Miss-”

  “Stormspeaker,” Gregory corrected gently but firmly.

  “-Stormspeaker Starken’s body. Miss Harrow, Doctor Dawes?”

  Sighing, I followed Voltar to the corpse.

  “First, our victim has clearly been posed in a mockery of Savareth’s circles,” Voltar noted. “Between the flippers her legs have been turned inted int a circle with her back, and her arms being dragged down to meet her waist.”

  Hrrm. I’d simply thought she’d colpse to the floor in the middle of the murderous ritual.

  “Fish and sea life are typically associated with envy,” I said, leaning down. “Voltar, do you wao leave the corpse in pce?”

  He looked over the body quickly, then shook his head. “Lividity is hard to tell with the disfiguring of the ski me check for any trace elements before you move her?”

  “If you think you get anything that’s not just diaboliinants, be my guest,” I said, eyeing the oozing slime and mucus.

  He gingerly moved the patches of hair left on her face, looking for the back of her head. He wore thick leather gloves, and I tensed as they touched her skin. No hissing, so whatever the slime was, acidic it was not.

  “Discolored flesh,” he noted. “Darker coloration, potentially sistent with ruptured blood vessels. Dr. Dawes?”

  Dawes joined him, keeping a cautious distance.

  “Looks sistent,” he agreed. “I’d ime with the body to firm, but just from here, I’d say a blow to the head, probably with a blunt object. Will time with the body be an issue?”

  “I have tea with High Stormspeaker Galven tomorrow,” Bishop Derrick said. “I’ll talk to him about deying her joining the sea until you have time to examihe body doctor.”

  “An iing ge in our killer’s teique,” Voltar noted, putting Leliel’s head back down on the floor. “Our killer didn’t trust whatever methods got them close to Father Reginald to work for his arget. Perhaps realizing that his victims will be more cautious after the first one dies. Decided te for her to be dazed and incapable of fighting bastead of relying on a prior retionship aing them get close. Still, shouldn’t assume anything just yet. Hands show signs of defensive wounds, same with arms. Let’s just move the sleeves all the way back.”

  I frowned as I looked at the abrasions and bruising on the skin as Voltar moved her sleeves. It was entirely possible this was just discoloration, or even trauma from the forced transformation, but if it wasn’t.

  “She fought back but didn’t use magic?” I asked.

  “Potentially,” Voltar said, carefully prying Leliel’s ched fist open. “Well, isn’t this iing?”

  A scrap of fabric had been clutched inside her closed fist. Voltar stood up, bringing it close enough to see properly.

  Crimson and silk, with a line of blue running through it. The make of the material retty clear to me.

  “Dress piece,” I muttered. “Our diabolist is a woman then?”

  “Or ined to wear women’s clothiher to throw us off the st, or because it’s now they dress. Don’t be so inded.”

  Voltar frowhough, turning his attention back to the corpse.

  “Does seem iing that the body was clearly moved afterwards and they didn’t notice. Potential attempt to throw us off, although we should try and trace the cloth anyway.”

  “Or the killer was in a hurry,” Dawes said. “Perhaps not expeg her to fight back at all. If they surprised her and the first blow was to the back of her head, they might have expected her to colpse immediately. Instead she fought bad spooked them?”

  “A good point,” Voltar said. “Miss Harrow, a hand pulling her robe aside? I just o see the stomach.”

  With some difficulty, we got the clothing move on Leliel’s swollen frame.

  “Signs of blunt force trauma to the stomach. So, she got hit in multiple pces, did not use divine magic to fight back. Iing.”

  “Or the diabolic,” I noted. “She might not have a focus on hand, but there are tricks easy enough for even novices without it. Was Stormspeaker Starken a poor hand to hand fight?”

  Bishop Derrick shook her head. “I have no idea. Not something we really tested for. She was rather athletic, teo spend time on the docks helping worshippers, so she wasn’t in poor shape.”

  “She was at the crime se of Father Reginald,” I noted. “How many of that group were Diabolists?”

  “Close to none,” Galspie said. “None of the church leaders in the anization are supposed to practice.”

  “Leliel was both the representative and the trainee,” Bishop Derrick said, closing the corpse’s eyes. “Savareth’s following has always been small, especially pared to how important the seas are to our nation, and the amount of clergy reflects this.”

  “She talked about it?” I asked, scraping a few of the scales into a vial for testing ter. Likely just more diabolism to be found in there, but it paid to be thh. The slime as well, and a small sample of the blubbery flesh.

  More of the former was sliding off of flesh onto the ground, yet still her skin was covered in a heavy film of it.

  “Quite often,” Galspie said, standing stiffly as he looked down at the body. “Not a day went by without her pining about how her goddess deserved more followers. Perhaps if her barnacle of a deity didn’t cause storms and chaos as well as pleasant seas, more actually would worship her instead of tossing out prayers so a storm doesn’t hit their house.”

  The light of the sun dimmed ihe temple. The doderh shuddered. A foreboding snap of a board beginning to break apahe sound of creaking wood growing louder. The floor tilted, just enough to feel.

  Everyoared at Galspie, who himself stared at the statue of the goddess with an unimpressed look. His aide, perhaps possessing more brains than the bishops, gowards the door out.

  I got up from the corpse, bowing to the goddess’ statue.

  “My pardons, Savareth, as I do not normally worship, but I would like to request ohing. If the Bishop must die for his insults, please spare the rest of us.”

  Galspie’s gaze shifted from the statue to me, but without the fire of earlier. Apparently even he couldn’t be stantly furious. His aide’s gaze more than made up for that though, looking as if I’d pissed in both his and his master’s pe.

  I met it unwaveringly and just as unimpressed as the Bishop’s gre at Savareth’s statue. I didn’t worship deities. I never had much use for them. I did know better than to insult them iheir own temples, especially oly desecrated.

  “Bishop Derrick, it sounds like what you described is an expression of envy,” I said. “An uandable ohat no one would normally begrudge someone in Leliel’s position, but perhaps something our murderer might have tched onto?”

  She mulled it over, a cautious eye on Galspie and Forcreek, then nodded.

  “Someone closely acquaihen?”

  “She was not quiet about her pints,” Galspie said, moving closer. He stood as straight as he could, a full head taller than me as he got within a foot.

  I met his gaze evenly, vaguely aware of Forcreek moving closer as well but I focused on the bishop.

  “I ’t say either way,” I said. “I never knew her, but I doubted she routinely pio her gregation. Unless anyone believes differently?”

  “She did not,” Derrick said softly. “Which does point to it being someone who knew her more personally.”

  “How often did the program meet if at all?” Voltar asked.

  “Once a month,” Bishop Derrick said. “At a minimum. Practice fe-scale rituals, colborative efforts. Socialization happened as well, which would be harder to keep track of.”

  Forcreek cleared his throat, and g Bishop Galspie, who stiffly nodded. “Actually, we have detailed records of all meetings between members of the programs, both actual diabolists and everyone else involved. Including social calls, which we are quite sure we tracked all of.”

  Silence for a moment after as everyone eyed the acolyte, then Bishop Derrick closed her eyes and sighed. “Matthew.”

  “Don’t pretend no one suspected us of doing it,” Bishop Galspie replied bluntly, folding his arms across his chest. “Be gd the resource exists now that we . And that the Church of Halpsus is willing to share it.”

  “Others probably have records,” I noted. “Semiv, and Larrerahe most likely, but I doubt no one else tried keeping track.”

  “Our records are the most prehensive,” Forcreek said with a frown.

  “I don’t doubt that,” I said. “Still, it’s possible they picked up something you might have missed.”

  “They are prehensive,” he insisted, and I held up my hands in mock surrender.

  Something to look into when I had a ce.

  “In terms of motivation, I think we have a clear one if the killer is part of the program,” Voltar noted. “Not a certainty, but more likely than any other possibility.”

  “Attempting to destroy the program,” Bishop Derrick said soberly. “It was one of the first things we sidered upon Father Reginald’s death. It has never been a popur idea-“

  “Food reason,” Gallespie interjected. “I warned something would happen the moment this program began, and I have been proven right.”

  “Killer sees this as a corruption,” Voltar opined. “Sins magnified by tapping into a form of magic they see personally as the greatest sin.”

  “They are not necessarily wrong,” Galspie muttered, Fourcreeks nodding behind him.

  “How would you go about the move then?” Voltar asked him.

  Galspie’s face reddened, and theook a breath. “I assume you are not acg me of being the killer?”

  “Hardly, but you clearly agree with some of their mi.”

  Galspie breathed slowly, then mulled it over. “A mess. I would make a mess while trying to save the souls of those corrupted by their good iions. Merely killing those involved would result in it being tried again. Even those who are in charge, such as myself and Bishop Derrick? There will always be someone along to try such a fool thing again. It would o be ripped out root and stem.”

  “A problem,” Voltar said. “Our killer decides to murder Miss Leliel, and then immediately makes efforts to limit colteral damage. This fits with the idea that they are trying to shut down the program and wish only those directly involved dead. The first murder may have been a mistake, something that slipped their mind in the moment, only to now course correct after the Diabolic corruption made a statue murder several i people uninvolced in this.”

  “But then the issue arises,” Doctor Dawes said. “Evil, or what others sider evil? It dies slow. Takes time to die. Killing an idea? Especially ohat grants power, or worse, you vince yourself that it’s wielded for the right reasons. So our killer would want something that discredit the program. Diabolism run amuck is that.”

  Bishop Derriodded solemnly.

  “Their existence discredits it,” I pointed out. “A loose on who takes a deal that burns themselves out, and in the process makes it clear that the overall damage could have been much worse. Eveer, they get agitation withiy against diabolism and anythied to it thanks to how public the murders were. And a high ce it gets found out the program exists.”

  “A deal that burns them out?” Bishop Derrick asked.

  “Power to desecrate a church doesn’t e cheap,” I said. “ you say none of your Diabolists took a deal without you knowing it?”

  Their silence was all the answer I needed as I tinued.

  “Just a theory. Power of that kind be gotten three ways. Unless one of your trainees got very lucky or has an iing lihey made another deal. Cast it into the Hells, a begging for power. If you want to accept something ruinous to you, you will get power. And noerson might be running rampant through your program. How do you think the Imperial Gover is going to take it?”

  “Shouldn’t you know that?” Galspie said darkly. “All of you work for it.”

  “tractor,” Voltar said, with Dawes eg him.

  “Over my head,” said Walston.

  “Dog!” Tagashin added, and Galspie’s gaze turo me.

  “Woof.”

  The bishop cursed, then stomped off, muttering angrily. Forcrick was not far behind.

  Gregory frowned. I turned my attention back to Leliel Starken’s corpse. More slime. I frowned. While it was entirely possible that this had all slowly dripped off her body while we’d been talking, this seemed far too big a puddle.

  “Voltar?” I asked. “I think I have an altero both of those theories.”

  He frowned, probably thinking I meant the Whisper.

  “Everyone away from the slime,” I ordered, and now I had everyone’s attention. Gregory and Dawes moved away, and Tagashin came closer from the door. “Not everything got purified by the killer.”

  I was w if you would notice, The Imp cackled, the damhing finally making it’s presenown. I couldn’t betray a fellow of the Hells.

  A low guttural ugh echoed through the temple, and the body of Leliel Starken twitched on the ground.

  Saithorthepyro