The Aurelion Church building on Scales Square was wide, low, and ancient—older than the Erynis cathedral by at least two generations. The stone portal had scales carved on both sides, symmetrical and precise. Valeria always felt someone had labored over them longer than the rest of the facade.
They waited ten minutes in the vestibule before anyone received them.
The man who finally emerged wore grey administrative robes and the face of someone tasked for years with matters that did not interest him. He called himself Ersten. He shook Thorne's hand and ignored Valeria's.
"Inquisitor," he said. "I understand the matter is urgent."
"Seven rifts in three weeks," Thorne said. "One of them near the border of your sector."
"Near the border," Ersten repeated, emphasizing the first word.
"The tracks lead to your side of the line."
Ersten folded his hands in front of him.
"Is this a formal request for entry?"
"This is a conversation," Thorne said, "taking place before the formal request. Because a formal request requires three high-tier signatures and two weeks of procedures, and we have active entities from the Void on the streets."
"I understand the gravity of the situation—"
"I don't think you do."
Ersten narrowed his eyes.
Thorne spoke calmly, his tone flat.
"One of the entities that crossed through the rifts left traces at four points in the district. Two of those points are on your side of the border near Stone Street. If you like, we can wait for the signatures and procedures. In the meantime, your watchmen can hunt for something they've never seen before and don't know how to stop. Or we can go in tomorrow morning and solve the problem together."
Ersten stared at him for a moment.
"What specifically do you want to see?"
"The sewers under Stone Street, from the corner of Side Street to the corner of Second Cross. And the warehouse at Six Side Street, which has been empty for a year."
"The warehouse at Six Side Street is private property."
"It is owned by the Aurelion Church, registered under real estate management fund number fourteen. I checked before coming."
Silence.
Ersten cleared his throat.
"I will have to consult with my superiors."
"Of course." Thorne pulled a folded document from his pocket and handed it over. "This is a preliminary protocol for a joint operation, pursuant to paragraph nine of last year's cooperation agreement. It requires one signature, not three. If your superior has doubts, the contact number is at the bottom."
Ersten took the document and looked at it for a moment.
"Tomorrow morning," he said finally.
"Tomorrow morning," Thorne confirmed.
Outside, the air was colder than before. Valeria walked two paces behind Thorne across Scales Square, heading east.
"Paragraph nine," she remarked.
"Hm."
"I didn't know it existed."
"It's existed for four years. Sub-clause six, specifically. No one uses it because it requires admitting the problem exceeds sector borders, and no Church wants to admit that officially."
"But it got us in."
"It got us in with one signature instead of three and without a week of red tape." Thorne slowed at the corner and looked at a map he pulled from his pocket. "Instead of two weeks, we have one day. Aurelion will take note and hold it over us at the next opportunity. That is the price."
"It's worth it."
"It is," Thorne confirmed, folding the map. "But I know the price and I pay it consciously. That is the difference."
They walked in silence for a while.
"Ersten didn't ask for operation details," Valeria said.
"No."
"He should have."
"Yes."
"Either he already knew what we'd find," she said, "or he knew we wouldn't find anything."
Thorne shoved the map into his pocket.
"Or," he said, "he already received instructions from someone who told him to let us in without resistance and ask no questions."
Valeria processed this.
"Someone wants us in there."
"Someone either isn't afraid of us going in," Thorne said, "because whatever was to be hidden has already been hidden. Tomorrow we'll see which."
In the evening, Valeria returned to Third Street, to the spot by the well.
The cleanup crew had taken the body but hadn't scrubbed the area—that wasn't in their remit. The passage between the tenements was dark, narrow, walls damp with evening mist. Valeria lit a small Ether lantern and crouched where the body had lain.
The stone was dry where the head had been. Wet on both sides.
The man had been here before the mist started rising—which meant since at least noon. But Sett had seen him alive at the well three days ago. That meant he died sometime between three days ago and yesterday at noon.
Right hand under the body.
Valeria leaned lower and looked at the stone beneath the level of the right shoulder. There was a scratch—irregular, maybe three centimeters, like someone dragging something sharp across the stone. Or like someone trying to brace themselves and slipping.
He fell. He wasn't placed here.
Which didn't mean he wasn't led—or that he didn't come here alone.
She straightened up and directed the lantern at the wall to the left. At about a meter from the ground, the stone was slightly darkened. Irregular, blurred—not the sharp, focused discoloration of a rift. More like the trace of something passing close, not something touching directly.
The entity.
It was here before the body. Or with it.
Valeria extinguished the lantern and stepped out of the passage onto the street.
She stood for a moment in the cold air.
The man who knew about the contact inside was dead. The trail led to the sewers under Stone Street. The Church gave them entry without a fight.
Too much or too little—she didn't yet know which was more accurate.
She headed toward the cathedral and decided she would tell Thorne about the wall in the morning, with the rest of it.
Thorne was still in his office when she returned. At his desk, over a map, with a pencil. Valeria entered without knocking—the door was ajar.
He looked at her.
"It was there before the body," she said. "Or with it. A trace on the wall, blurred, less than a meter off the ground."
Thorne set the pencil down.
"An entity from the Void."
"I believe so."
"It didn't kill him directly. Exposure takes time." Thorne looked at the map. "Someone set an entity on a man who heard too much."
"Or the entity acted alone."
"Entities don't act alone at this level," Thorne said. "What comes through a wild rift is either instinctive and chaotic, or guided. What we have—is guided."
Valeria sat opposite him without an invitation.
"Someone is using entities as tools," she said.
"Someone knows how to guide them."
"It's possible."
"It's only possible for someone with deep contact with the Void. Not a one-off, not accidental. Systematic." Thorne folded his hands on the desk. "A priest with that kind of contact would be detected by his own Church at the first audit."
"Unless they're covering for him," Valeria said.
"Unless they're covering for him," Thorne repeated.
They were silent for a moment.
Outside the window, the square was almost dark, only the Ether lamps at the gate casting narrow streaks of light onto the cobblestones.
"Sewers tomorrow," Thorne said finally.
"Sewers tomorrow," Valeria confirmed.
She stood up.
"Stay a moment."
She sat back down.
Thorne looked at the map, but Valeria felt he wasn't seeing it.
"When you started working with the informant network," he said, "how long did it take for your first useful lead?"
"Four months."
"And the first lead from someone acting of their own will, not under duress?"
Valeria thought.
"Two years."
Thorne nodded.
"Sett," he said, "acted of his own will. He gave you more than he had to and asked for nothing in return."
Valeria didn't answer.
"Don't tell me you didn't notice."
"I noticed."
"And?"
"And I don't know why," she admitted. "Insufficient data to conclude."
Thorne raised his eyes from the map and looked at her.
"Sometimes," he said, "insufficient data is the answer itself. Someone who gives you more than they have to without asking for anything—is either honest or building credit for something big. Observe which."
"I will."
"And go back to him after tomorrow's operation. On your own—without a summons. See if he gives anything else."
Valeria stood up.
"Thorne."
He looked at her.
"The man in The Pot. The son."
"Yes?"
"You handled it."
"The license department received a memo this afternoon." Thorne went back to the map. "I told you to do it through the department."
"You did. I was busy, sorry."
"Next time, do it yourself."
Valeria walked out.
On the stairs, in the cold air of the cathedral, she realized he had done it before she finished the interrogation at The Pot. Before she gave him the report. Before he even knew if the information was worth the promise.
He had kept her word for her.
She went downstairs and didn't return to the thought for the rest of the evening.