The word hung in the tavern air.
'Involved.'
Lucian stopped his wine mug halfway to his mouth.
"Wait. Are you saying the Church, our Church, is involved in necromancy?" He looked from Odessa to Raziel. "That's insane."
"You think it's insane that a novice disappears without a trace and nobody cares?" Odessa replied.
Raziel kept his head down. Vulnerable. Scared novice who stumbled onto something too big for him.
'Calm down. You're a simple frightened kid. Not a regressor who knows everyone dies if you don't act.'
"I don't know what to think," he said. "I just know Seraphina wouldn't leave like that. And that symbol on the wall was real."
Odessa was quiet for a moment. When she spoke, it was more to herself than to them.
"We can't investigate this in the open. If what we suspect is true, any official move alerts the traitors."
She stood. Her armor clinked.
"The Royal Monastery. Its library has restricted sections that even the Arch-Lectors don't visit. As a Paladin, I can get us access. If there's any record of that cult or that symbol, it'll be there."
Lucian's eyes lit up. Fear replaced by excitement, the way it always was with him.
"The Royal Monastery? I've always wanted to see the forbidden archives."
Raziel just nodded. His stomach was in a knot.
'Into the lion's den.'
"For Seraphina," he said.
***
The Royal Monastery was nothing like the academy.
It was a stone giant. Towers that scraped the sky, walls thick enough to stop a siege, every surface carved with scripture and authority.
Two guards in polished armor blocked the gates.
Odessa didn't slow down.
She showed her Paladin badge, said a few words too low for Raziel to catch, and the guards straightened and opened the doors like the Goddess herself had given the order.
Lucian whistled quietly.
Raziel felt the familiar bitterness.
That was the power of a name, a rank.
He was an orphan novice, he could be crushed at any moment and nobody would file a report.
Odessa led them through silent corridors to a hidden section behind a bookshelf that moved with a dull squeak.
"The texts here are delicate," she said.
"If there's anything about necromancers operating in the capital, it's in this room. Look for blood symbols, lunar rituals, disappearances of initiates."
Raziel nodded and started scanning the shelves. Old leather, dust, the smell of secrets kept too long.
His fingers brushed a spine and pain shot through his skull.
CRACK.
Zion's face, not a full memory, just a fragment.
Her mocking eyes, the strange power in her hands and a phrase that froze his blood.
"You think you're saving them, but you're just delaying the inevitable, little hero."
"Raziel? Are you okay?"
Odessa's hand was on his shoulder. Concern on her face.
He blinked. His heart was hammering.
"I think I saw something," he managed. "I—"
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS, LADY ODESSA?!"
The doors slammed open.
An old priest, red-faced and furious, entered flanked by two temple guards.
His scarlet robe marked him as someone important.
"Father Luman!" Odessa said, standing firm.
"You know these sections are forbidden to outsiders!" the priest thundered.
His eyes passed over Raziel and Lucian like they were dirt on his floor.
"What business brings you to profane this sacred place with them?"
"Father, I was showing my cousin and his companion the greatness of our archives," Odessa answered with a calm that made the priest's fury look childish.
Lucian, because he couldn't help himself, let out a chuckle.
"Relax, Father. We're not going to steal your fairy tales."
"Insolent!" Luman's face went purple. "Guards, remove them!"
Odessa stepped between the guards and the boys. Her presence filled the space.
"Enough, Father Luman," she said, no diplomacy left.
"We're leaving but I'd recommend you measure your words. My father wouldn't appreciate hearing that one of his protégés treated his daughter like a criminal."
Luman went pale. He stammered an apology.
Odessa walked them out with her head high.
In the corridor, Lucian was still complaining about the old priest. Raziel barely heard him.
Odessa must have noticed his silence, because she stopped and looked at him.
"This is more complicated than I thought," she said.
"We can't trust anyone inside the Monastery. Luman is a lapdog, but if he found us that fast, it means they're watching."
Raziel's mouth went dry. "What do we do?"
The Paladin looked through a window toward the rooftops of the lower city.
"The path of light is blocked," she said. "So we walk through the shadows. I know someone not a saint, not a friend of the Church, but knows everything that happens in the dark corners of this city."
Lucian perked up. "A snitch? Now we're talking."
Raziel felt the chill settle in his bones.
'Walk through the shadows.' He knew exactly what that meant.
"Are you sure?" he asked. "Involving outsiders could be dangerous."
Odessa gave him a hard look. But there was respect in it.
"We're already in danger, Raziel. The only difference is that now we're going to find a demon to hunt other demons."