"Go for it."

As soon as they had retreated a safe distance, Teysa held up her hands. "Li," she began, "you don't have to do this if you're not comfortable with it. I don't want to sign you up for anything. I know you just came here because I wanted to see a priest, and--"

Aliara cut her off with a wave of her hand. "Tey, come on. I saw your face. You're not going to not help this guy. I mean, isn't this what paladins do? Isn't it what you're for? What kind of partner would I be if I tried to stop you?"

Relief flooded Teysa's face. "Thank your for understanding," she said. "You're right. I can't turn my back, especially if it's a direct request from the Church." She turned back to Ansium, and Aliara followed in her wake.

"We'll help," she announced. "What can you tell me about Father Tuubel? Did he have any enemies?"

"Enemies?" Ansium's face wrinkled in an expression of puzzlement. "I don't... that is..."

"What about the other temples?" Teysa pressed. "Are relations good with them?"

"Well... I'm not sure..." Ansium's hands twirled around each other nervously. "There's the Priests of Cy'shar... they were making some threats a while back. But Father Tuubel told me to ignore them."

Teysa's expression hardened. "Cy'shar, huh? Where?"

"A-across the way," Ansium stammered, pointing. "Next to the Mason's Guildhall."

"Thank you," said Teysa, laying a hand on Ansium's shoulder. "Be calm, brother. Light will prevail. We'll bring Father Tuubel back to you."

As they turned away from the boy, Aliara looked up questioningly at Teysa. "Cy'shar?" she asked. "Tey, what's up? You sounded pretty sure of yourself back there."

"Cy'shar is the Goddess of Night," Teysa explained. "Her priesthood bears a vendetta against the Church. On the surface, they'd never dare to act directly, but down here..."

Aliara still looked dubious. "You don't want to go looking for evidence?"

"Oh, we'll find evidence," Teysa said. "At the temple of Cy'shar, I have no doubt. They're evil, vicious opportunists. If they were making threats against the Father then they intended to see them through." She cracked her knuckles. "We haven't got much time. They may have sacrificed him in one of their depraved rites."

"If you're sure," Aliara said. "Lead on, Tey. But be careful. There's just the two of us down here."

Teysa nodded. She was fuming. The gall of Cy'shar! To strike directly at Agamor's church, down here away from the sun! To abduct a helpless old man! She would not have put anything past those vipers, but this seemed exceptionally cruel. She set a brisk pace across the market square, leaving Aliara struggling to catch up.

The Fane of Cy'shar was easy to find. The Mason's Guild was, appropriately, a square-cut and neatly dressed building with a huge stone hammer set in bas relief above its door. Next to it, the Fane looked raw and wild. The stone here was darker and rough-cut. It seemed to drink in the torchlight, so that the facade huddled in a pool of shade. There was no welcoming mosaic to lead weary pilgrims to the door- indeed, there was no door at all, merely a crack in the stone wall. The only sign of artificial construction was a shining disc of white marble embedded in the stone above the entrance. Bands of dark stone criss-crossed it like clouds passing before the moon.

The temperature inside the crevice was noticeably cooler than the cave outside. It took an effort of will for Teysa not to draw her mace as she crossed the threshold. She kept her hand resting lightly on it in any case. She followed a winding passage into the Fane, with Aliara at her heels. There was very little light here; the bright glow of the market was fading behind them, and its hubbub was curiously muted. Just as the bright circle of the entrance vanished from view, the passage opened out into a large, dimly lit cave.

Teysa squinted as her eyes adjusted. What little light there was came from the ceiling, from thousands of tiny points like stars in the sky. She wondered if they were luminescent fungus or some kind of magical light. Their glow was steady and cold, not at all like the flickering warmth of torchlight. The room was silent. Most of the floor was given over to rows of stone benches. Teysa could see a couple of huddled shapes kneeling in prayer. Some of them rocked back and forth, others stood as still as statues. All stared straight ahead, to the altar stone and a vast statue. Teysa's stomach flipped as she looked at the thing. Cy'shar was misshapen, malformed, with one twisting horn jutting asymmetrically from her head. Her face had a cold and sterile beauty, but below that she was monstrous. Her belly was grotesquely swollen, her stone breasts heavy, pendulous orbs. She was worshipped as Mother of Monsters, Teysa knew, and half-formed abominations slithered forth from her womb. The sculptor's hideous skill had captured the exultant expression on her face and the mewling horror of her misbegotten offspring.

The awful statue loomed in Teysa's sight. Her throat constricted. She was filled with an overpowering urge to smash the thing, an instinctive revulsion that drew her magnetically closer. Her mace was somehow in her hand without any recollection of having drawn it. She took a step forward, the muscles in her legs vibrating. Another. Yes...

It was Aliara who saved her. Her voice was as chipper as ever, without a trace of disgust. "You think we're in the right place?" she asked. "God, that is one ugly statue..."

Teysa blinked. She felt as though she was waking up from a nightmare. Her gaze fell on the statue, and she shivered and looked away quickly. She slipped her mace back into her belt and turned to Aliara. "Yes, this is the place. Sun above, but I hate that thing. I can't even look at it."

"Welcome, pilgrims," hissed a sibilant voice from the shadows. Teysa whirled around to see a diminutive, robed figure, no more than four feet tall, creeping out of the darkness. Where it had come from, she couldn't say. There was nothing nearby for it to have been hiding behind. It seemed to have stepped out of the shadows that pooled along the edges of the room.

The figure shuffled up to Teysa and looked up. It reached up and pulled back its hood, revealing a diminutive woman of indeterminate age. Her skin was smooth and her head was bald and shiny. Her eyes were solid amber, without discernible pupils. She inhaled deeply and her face wrinkled in an expression of distaste. "You smell of the sun, paladin. Servant of Agamor." She made the name sound like a curse. "There is nothing for you here. Go away."

"I'd love to," said Teysa, "but I'm not leaving without Father Tuubel. What have you done with him?"

The tiny priestess raised her hands and spread them wide, palms upward. "Nothing. That interfering bag of bones? I would not taint Cy'shar's holy sanctum with his body. Look elsewhere."

"Liar!" Teysa snarled. Her fists balled up so tightly that her nails bit into her palms. "Ansium told me you threatened him. If you've killed him, I swear on the Sun..."

"Threatened?" The priestess let out a wheezing laugh. "I warned him to cease meddling with my congregation. We only want to be left alone. We do not have your doddering old priest, you lapdog. Most likely he's enjoying the attentions of some cooze somewhere. If you find him quickly, maybe you can suck his wrinkled old cock when she's done with him."

Rage flared in Teysa's brain, bright and hot. She drew her mace with one hand and closed her other fist around the little priestess's robe, hauling her off her feet. She hefted the mace and held it inches from the priestess's head. Aliara laid a warning hand on her shoulder, but Teysa shook her off. "One chance, you **** worshipper," Teysa whispered between gritted teeth. "Tell me where he is or I'll splatter your brains across the wall of your profane temple."

She'd expected terror, or maybe angry defiance. Instead, the priestess laughed in her face. Her laughter was a wet chuckle that spilled out and echoed off the walls of the cave. "You dare?" she rasped. "You sun-worshippers are blinded by the light you serve. I would worry less about your missing priest and more about your own skin, paladin." She shuddered and opened her mouth. Her jaw unhinged like a snake's. Before Teysa could carry out her threat, a tide of liquid darkness poured from the priestess's gaping maw. It flooded over Teysa, freezing and burning all at once. Her mace bounced away across the floor. She let go of the priestess, who levitated in the air a few feet off the ground. A nimbus of shadowy fog encircled her like a rotten halo.

Teysa stumbled backward. It felt like she was trying to walk into a gale. The darkness sleeted over her, filling her eyes and nose and mouth. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Aliara reaching towards her with panic in her eyes. She stretched out her arm. Their fingers could almost touch. They brushed each other...

The priestess howled and a fresh wave of blackness poured off her. It rose up over Teysa like a tidal wave and crashed down.