His right hand was still trembling. That voice wouldn't leave his head. ——I have none either. That's why I understand. Your loneliness. Viola stood during the morning prayer, trying to drive out that voice. Her raven-black short hair sank quietly into the light of dawn. The faces of the faithful lined up before her. The usual three hundred. The usual white robes. The usual prayer voices. ——It's fine. Just do it like always. She channeled power through the stigma on her right palm. That was the moment. Light overflowed. It wouldn't stop. Control vanished somewhere. Emotion had broken through a dam. Nox's gray eyes floated in her mind. The warmth of Rei's hand lingered at her fingertips. Neither would fade. Neither could be brushed away—— CRASH!! A stone pillar collapsed from its base. One. Then another. Dust erupted. Stones fell from the ceiling. Screams from the priests. The faithful stumbled and fled in panic. A third pillar fell, and the impact sent the candelabra from the altar flying. Two priests were swallowed by the falling rubble. "Stop——" She tried to contain the light with both hands. But it wouldn't stop. The stigma burned like fire. The turbulence of emotion transformed into power—into something massive she couldn't control—— Then the power faded. Silence. The remains of the prayer hall spread across the dust. Collapsed stone pillars. Cracked floor. A faithful who hadn't escaped in time pressed against the wall, unable to move. Two priests were pulled from the rubble. One bled from the shoulder; the other was unconscious. Viola's knees gave way. She fell to the floor on both hands. Stone dust pierced her palms. Her hands trembled. *I* did this——that fact repeated in her head over and over. —— Baldes moved quickly. The great hall of the Seraphina Cathedral. Five elders stood in a formation surrounding Viola. Bodies near eighty years old, yet not one wavered. Baldes stood at the center, facing Viola directly. White hair, deep wrinkles, gray eyes——and in those eyes today was something different from usual. Not just anger. Fear was mixed in there too. "[cold]When you heard the Demon Lord's words——your right palm glowed" His voice echoed off the stone ceiling. "[cold]Did you move your heart? Answer me, Viola" Viola opened her mouth. "I did move——" In that instant, her cheek burned hot. Why. Why now. Her body knew the words before her voice did. Her voice grew small. Her gaze slipped away from Baldes. She tried to face forward, but her eyes fled. A tremor reached her lips. The five elders watched that change in silence. No one said anything. They simply watched. The silence read everything in Viola's body. The flush on her cheeks. The tremor in her voice. The nowhere for her gaze to hide. Baldes exhaled slowly. "[cold]The evidence is sufficient" Viola bit her lip. Her teeth dug into the soft flesh inside. Betrayed by her own body——that humiliation and terror filled her chest at once. "[cold]Suspension of Saint authority. Confinement. Prohibition of contact with the hero Rei. In three days, a hearing will be held" There was a pause. "[cold]Should you be judged guilty at the hearing——title revocation and expulsion from the temple" She knew those words as knowledge. She'd read them in books. Written at the end of the third precept of the Saint's Code as the prescribed punishment. But the moment those words were directed at her. Eighteen years crumbled with a sound. —— Flanked by two priests, she walked down the corridor. Deeper into the Seraphina Cathedral. Deeper. The stone corridor narrowed. The doors grew heavier. At last, the door at the end opened. There were no windows. A small room enclosed on all sides by stone walls. The only light came from a small magical lamp in the ceiling. A bed, a water pitcher, and one wooden chair. That was all. The door closed. The sound of the lock echoed down the stone corridor. Footsteps receded. Silence. Viola stood in the middle of the room, unable to move. She didn't even know where she was. —— She heard the shout some time later. "[angry]Release Viola!! This was an accident—what reason do you have to confine her!!" Only the voice reached her across the stone wall. It was Rei. That shout came from the direction of the great hall. Footsteps thundering down the corridor, doors being thrown open——all of it reached her as sound alone. Viola moved toward the wall. She placed her hand against it. Cold stone. The sensation of it. "[cold]Hero" Baldes's voice came from far away. "[cold]Your emotions too——are one of the causes leading the Saint astray" There was silence. Rei's shout stopped. What came next was from outside the cathedral. The sound of fists striking stone. Once. Twice. Three times. And continuing. Not stopping. The dull sound of a fist pounding stone reached through the wall of Viola's room. As vibration. As heat. Rei was there. Viola pressed her forehead against the wall. (Rei——) He was on the other side of the stone. That was all she knew. Her voice wouldn't reach him. Her hand against the wall wouldn't reach him. Only the sound of blows continued. Eventually, it changed to a wet sound. He was bleeding——Viola understood that. Still the sound continued. It didn't stop. All of Rei's rage was there. Viola pulled away from the wall. She knelt on the stone floor. Her knees ached. But her chest hurt far more. —— Daylight came. Evening came. Night came. The light seeping under the door grew thin, then vanished. Only the pale blue glow of the magical lamp remained in the room. Someone came to the door when the outside grew noisy. A single set of footsteps stopped. There was a sense of breath being held beyond the door. A small voice leaked out——"Lady Viola......" A voice she knew. The voice of one of her attendants. The girl who had helped her prepare for her long journey. But another set of footsteps approached quickly. "[cold]Return to your post. It is the order of the Council of Elders" The attendant's footsteps receded. Only the sense of that commotion reached Viola. Something was happening in the royal capital. Beyond the stone walls, something was being decided about her. Her title, her place, her trust——all of it moved in places her hands couldn't reach. That sensation spread through her chest, cold and slow. Viola had no way of knowing what people in the taverns and inns of the royal capital Soleil were saying. But she understood. A priest had seen the barrier of the cathedral turn purple last night. If that color entered someone's mouth—— The Saint has fallen to the Demon Lord. Those words must be spreading. Viola sat on the stone floor, hugging her knees. —— Deep night came. The hour when the magical lamp was darkest. Sound from outside had ceased. In the stone room, there was only the sound of her own breathing. Then a voice reached her. A low voice. Crossing door and wall, coming through the darkness. "[whispers]What binds you is not——the words of the Goddess" Viola's body went rigid. "[whispers]It's a chain that humans made up three hundred eighty years ago" It was Nox. That voice. That low, quiet voice that crossed physical walls. Viola couldn't move. Still hugging her knees, she turned her gaze toward somewhere on the wall. The voice came from nowhere and everywhere. It had no direction. It was as if the darkness itself were speaking. "[whispers]Can't you even make your own heart your own?" That quiet question broke something. It was a gentle statement. Not accusatory. Not mocking. Just asking. But it pierced something deep. Eighteen years of being a Saint——the meaning of it crumbled with a sound. She'd been told to suppress emotion. Told not to love. Told to live for power. It had seemed natural to set aside her own heart for someone else's sake. She'd believed that was right. "[whispers]...I understand" Her voice came out. It was hoarse. "[whispers]But how can I——" The words wouldn't continue. Not because she didn't know the answer. Because she knew the answer but lacked the courage to speak it. Nox said nothing. In that silence, tears came. They wouldn't stop. She tried to cry silently, but sound leaked from her throat. Her shoulders shook. She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth. But it wouldn't stop. When was the last time she'd cried like this—— As a Saint, she had cried for others' pain. Tears shed when using healing magic, taking others' wounds into herself. She'd shed those tears hundreds of times. But what flowed now was her own pain. No one else's wound. Her own pain, and she herself was on her knees because of it. This was the first time. In eighteen years, the first time. When she thought of Rei, her chest grew warm. The touch of his hand that night by the fire. His back, standing firm even wounded. It was real. When she thought of Nox, her chest ached. His scarred hand extended. Gray eyes carrying the weight of long years. That too was real. To acknowledge either was to wound someone. To deny either was to become a lie herself. Holding that hell alone, she collapsed on the stone floor. —— She cried herself to exhaustion. How much time had passed, she didn't know. Her cheek rested against the floor. The cold of the stone seeped into her skin. The pale blue light of the magical lamp continued to illuminate the room. Something floated vaguely into her mind. The prayer chamber two levels below. In the Lumière Underground Cathedral, the room where the mural of the Goddess Soleia was painted. Beside that mural was another picture. A faded one. An old painting. The figure of a Saint from three hundred eighty years ago. The Twilight War——eight years of conflict between humans and demons, four hundred thousand dead on both sides. A woman who had ended it by offering her life in exchange, creating the great barrier and the Wall of Twilight. The books said only that she had given everything. But now Viola's mind posed a different question. ——Didn't that Saint love someone too? Wasn't it because she loved that she could create such a powerful barrier? The Saint's Code that Baldes had established three hundred eighty years ago, right after the Twilight War. If the power of the predecessor Saint who sacrificed herself came from love——what was the Code forbidding love meant to protect? The answer still hadn't come. But in the depths of her tear-swollen eyes, something small kindled. ——Love might not be a sin. That certainty was still only a seedling. No foundation. No proof. Just a direct knowing, present there. The hearing would come in three days. By that day, Viola would have to find her answer alone in this place. In this stone room with no windows, where no light reached.