This new corridor smelled faintly of the cloying incense favored by the Inquisition. The wooden floor planks were covered in tiger-stripe patterns, and the luxurious material had been cut and inlaid to form intricate representations of the Empyrean Flame. The walls were smooth and seamless, the color of well-worn ivory. A warm, golden light poured from floating discs near the ceiling and made the whole place look like it had been dipped in honey. Intricate scrivenings spiraled along the ceiling. They held so much jinsei I felt it even twenty feet below them.
“Keep walking,” Harlan said. “You can gawk at the splendor of the Empyrean Flame while moving your feet.”
I couldn’t help but gawk. It wasn’t the glory of the Flame that I saw, though. It was the incredible waste. Only a handful of Empyreals would ever see this place. What sense did it make to waste so much money on housing the priests when there were so many worthier causes? Those thoughts sparked the fires in my head again, and I had to abandon them. I bit back my questions and cycled my breathing, forcing myself to remain calm.
“On your left,” Brother Harlan called out.
Sure enough, a door opened next to me, and I stepped through it.
The room I entered was even more over the top than the corridor I’d left. The same wood covered the floor, though the patterns were more intricate here. The ceiling was lower, but the scrivenings were so thick on the walls they hummed with jinsei currents. A small table that looked like it had been fashioned from a single piece of wood sat at the center of the room, a stack of papers neatly aligned on its surface. Two chairs, one high-backed and overstuffed, the other little more than a stool, faced each other across the table.
“Take a seat,” Harlan said.
“Sure.” I headed toward the bigger chair.
“Not that one,” Harlan snapped, his voice suddenly cold and hard as a thrown stone.
“I thought I was a guest.” I shot Harlan a snarky grin over my shoulder, shrugged, then perched on the stool.
The look in Harlan’s eyes as he took the seat across from me made it abundantly clear he’d be happy to see me gone. The feeling was mutual.
“Though I do not believe you’ve told us the entire truth, our time together has finished. Pay close attention. What I’m about to tell you is the official story the Inquisition will put forth about your time here and what happened in Kyoto,” Brother Harlan said sternly. “You will not disagree with our statement, and you will not speak ill of your time as our guest.”
“Fine,” I said. “When do classes start?”
“Tomorrow,” he said. “Well, in about twelve hours. We will provide you with a serum to adjust your sleep schedule to the time difference. You don’t want to be portal-lagged your first day back in class.”
“Thank you,” I said. That was more than I’d expected. “What will we tell the world about what’s happened?”
“We’ve spoken with the Portal Defense Force and investigated the site where the gateway to the Locust Court was closed. We’ve also heard from the Kyoto security teams that tried to stop you on your approach to the courtroom. You’ll be happy to know they won’t press charges and will issue a formal apology for the misunderstanding. The Tribunal also agrees that your actions were heroic and motivated by a sincere desire to do the right thing for Empyreal society.”
“Thank you, honored inquisitor,” I said with true gratitude.
I’d broken a lot of laws to stop the attack by the Lost and their Locust Court allies. I’d convinced my friends to break laws, too, starting with Abi misappropriating a portal station to send me to Kyoto. Then I’d gotten into a scrape with the local police, who had no reason to believe I wasn’t a heretic terrorist sent to disrupt the trial of Sage Grayson Bishop. In the end, I’d prevented the invasion and saved a bunch of very important people from being slaughtered by the hungry spirits.
Until Brother Harlan had given me the news, though, I’d had no idea if the authorities had branded me an outlaw. For all I knew, the government had been furiously filing charges against me despite how many lives I’d saved.
I’d been very worried that my time in the Temple was the lead-up to more serious prison time. If that happened, I’d never find my mother.
I’d never learn why she’d done this to me, or what the heretics were really up to.
“Finally, we will tell anyone who asks, if anyone asks, that you were well-behaved and helped us in our investigation as much as you were able.” Harlan said that last with a disgusted frown. “Though we both know that is a pure fabrication. You’ve stymied our efforts to catalog your core at every turn, and even our jinsei analyses have been foiled by your refusal to fully stress your core during our studies. You are unique, Jace. Your core doesn’t even correspond to the engrams we possess of true Eclipse Warriors. That has disturbed the senior inquisitors. They have raised some concerns and placed conditions on your release.”
“Fine.” It was far from fine, but there was no fighting Harlan. His orders had come down from the highest levels of the Church. He was a messenger boy. Nothing more. “Let’s hear the conditions.”
“Very good.” The inquisitor adjusted his red robes as if they’d become uncomfortably tight around his neck. “First, you will be under the direct supervision of Headmistress Cruzal. She will watch for any signs of danger, and you will report any changes in your physical, spiritual, or mental state.”
“Fine.” I was used to being watched, and Cruzal wasn’t the worst person in the world to have on my case. “If I have a sudden urge to go on a rampage, I’ll
