With everything in order, Ais performed one final divination to confirm the path to the church carried no threat from that woman.
"Sleeping soundly, are you? Maybe laughing in your dreams. Let's see how you're laughing tomorrow."
She drew a long breath, thought of how long that woman had probably been enjoying herself at her expense, and went without further hesitation — heading straight for the church.
The church was nothing like an ordinary shop. The kind of church serving less affluent congregants was very likely to stay open into the early hours — since for poorer believers, even a Sunday wasn't guaranteed to be a day off, let alone any regular weekday.
Arriving near a Church of the Evernight Goddess chapel, Ais looked up at the prominent steeple and felt a flicker of something puzzling:
"Why does this look familiar?"
She didn't know enough to place it, so she didn't dwell on it. Steadied by the logic of choosing the lesser of two evils, she pushed herself through the door.
Walking down the corridor toward the prayer hall, she examined the walls on either side. The only windows were high up and narrow, the glass patterned with decorative designs. Imagining what this passage looked like during the day, she muttered internally:
"It suits your name, I'll give you that — but does it really not strike you as a bit too villain-coded?"
Recognizing this as nothing more than her own preconceptions, she said nothing more and walked on, already lighter in spirit, into the prayer hall.
The hall was modest in size, equally without windows. The only light entered through star-shaped perforations in the ceiling — not many of them — filtering in a faint, blush moonlight that left the space deliberately, atmospherically dim. Ais felt compelled to note internally:
"And yet the people of this world genuinely find this calming. Preconceptions, apparently, are extremely important."
She spotted candlesticks and a small supply of unlit candles and stopped wondering what ordinary worshippers did on moonless nights.
Well past the hour for sermons or mass, the hall held only a sparse few people sitting silently in the pews. Spotting a figure in a deep black robe seated on the pew closest to the altar — clearly clergy — Ais walked directly toward them.
She came to stand before the altar, which was carved with a profusion of star motifs. The priest, hearing footsteps, turned — looked at Ais — and asked gently:
"Is there something you'd like to ask, ma'am?"
Ais had never felt language to be so sharp. She drew a breath and answered in a low voice, summoning her nerve:
"Father, I've accidentally come across information about members of a forbidden cult. Who should I speak to?"
After a brief pause, the priest stood and led Ais to the confessional beside the altar.
Stepping into the confessional booth — nothing but a door, a slot in the front wall, and not even a gap anywhere else — Ais spotted a candle and matches in the corner and thought with surprised relief:
"So you do acknowledge that total darkness might frighten people. I'd assumed that if you couldn't conquer your fear of the dark, you had no right to call yourself a devout Evernight Goddess worshipper."
The wooden partition lit with a faint candlelight, and the priest's warm voice came through:
"Beautiful lady — there's a candle in your upper right corner as well."
Don't assume a voice like that means the person looks as good as it sounds. You can't be that shallow. You're a devout believer in a deity, Father… Ais felt another jab to the chest and found her urge to comment completely irresistible.
She exhaled slowly and decided to deliver something of a shock to this priest in return:
"Father, please believe me. This matter concerns a cult member with unusually formidable power — she is at minimum a Sequence 6 Beyonder. If the second half of that sentence means nothing to you, please notify the church's Nighthawks immediately. I want to confess everything to them."
After Ais finished, complete silence fell in the confessional. Noticing the priest seemed to have some knowledge of the supernatural, she added with wicked satisfaction:
"As a gesture of good faith, please also tell them that I am a Sequence 7 Beyonder myself. Don't worry — I won't leave the confessional a single step before they arrive."
Ais leaned back in her chair. She listened with quiet satisfaction as the priest's breathing went erratic — the hurried sound of the door opening, the remaining worshippers being gently sent home, and then the sound of someone being sent to notify the Saint Anjelka Cathedral.
In any city, a cathedral with "Saint" in its name was effectively the church's local headquarters.
Once that was all done and the church doors were closed, the priest remained inside rather than leaving — sitting in the pews and praying quietly to the Evernight Goddess .
Very professional. And genuinely brave. Ais gave the priest a quiet note of respect. She had a strict sense of fairness — people who earned it got credit. She had no inclination to cause further trouble.
Happy for the quiet, she settled back. The priest's prayer gradually became inaudible. The church was peaceful, as if nothing had happened at all.
About ten minutes later, four slightly urgent sets of footsteps broke the stillness — slowing slightly only as they neared the building. They made no effort to conceal their use of a hidden passage to enter. After confirming the situation with the priest, they sent the latter away.
Ais opened her eyes at that point and spoke into the silence:
"It's a pleasure to meet you, esteemed Nighthawks . My name is Ais. I regret not coming to find you several months earlier."
"An unusual opening line, Miss Ais. Tell us now what you regret."
Alec Howard, captain of the Moen City Church of the Evernight Goddess Watcher team, spoke in a measured voice.
Ais remained seated, speaking through the closed door at a measured pace:
"Simply put: this afternoon in the Docklands, I was pursued and shot at, three of the attackers being well-prepared Extraordinaries. Under pursuit from two Sequence 9s and one Sequence 8, in order to survive, I had no choice but to drink a potion and advance to Sequence 7 — becoming a Witch.
This was precisely what the Beyonder who claims to follow the 'Primordial' and belongs to the Witch pathway — Tina Edith — had been hoping to see."
Her voice grew more agitated as she continued:
"My formula and materials both came from that woman. But she never once told me — not once — that the Sequence 7 potion was called 'Witch.' That is exactly why I've come to you. I want that woman to pay for everything she hid from me and everything she did to deceive me."
Outside the door, Watcher Captain Howard listened to Ais's account. His expression showed nothing — but internally, his composure was quietly becoming complicated.
Outwardly unreadable as he was, when he had first heard that a self-described Sequence 7 cult member had voluntarily walked into a church to file a report, Howard had been genuinely stunned. Not in his nearly twenty years as a Watcher, and not in any of the countless archived case files he'd reviewed, had he ever seen anything like this.
There were other possible explanations — but the experienced Watcher captain had inevitably considered the worst one. He also genuinely could not imagine what this cult could have done to drive a Sequence 7 Beyonder to the point of risking instant death by running to a church to report her own superior.
Now, familiar as he was with the Witch cult and their methods, Howard hadn't fully accepted everything this person had said — but having found no obvious inconsistencies, he allowed himself a quiet breath of relief and set aside his worst-case assumption.
"A sympathetic situation. Is there anything else you'd like to say?"
"That's essentially it. That woman was very careful — she never revealed much. And I'm not certain the face I saw was her real one."
"Then please open the door now and walk out slowly. Do not make any unnecessary movements. Otherwise the consequences will be yours to bear."
Ais did as she was told and stepped out of the confessional.
Author's Note (this chapter): Outwardly unreadable as he was, when he had first heard that a self-described Sequence 7 cult member had voluntarily walked into a church to file a report, Howard had been genuinely stunned. Not in his nearly twenty years as a Watcher, and not in any of the countless archived case files he'd reviewed, had he ever seen anything like this.
书友20250513464 "I've never seen anything like this in my life I've genuinely never seen anything like this."