as its colour shifted to the faintest shade of pink. She had died recently, maybe as little as two hours ago.
Next came the vision powder, sprinkled over each bulging eye. Inside Dema felt shame for treating her this way, for using her as a source of information rather than mourning her. Even yaskedasi deserved better.
The powder revealed only smudges over her eyes. She had not seen her killer. In all likelihood he had come up behind her.
Next he got the bottle of stepsfind, took a mouthful, and sprayed it over the body with a fresh, silent apology. Looking down, he saw the killer’s footprints, shadows that led through a side door into an alley.
Three white-clad priests were there, building a circle of protection around the temple. “How did you know?” cried Dema, furious past all common sense. “How did you know about this?”
One of the priests, the one who held their supplies, turned to look at Dema. Behind him his partners, a man and a woman, closed the protective circle and brought it to blazing life, cutting Dema off from the killer’s traces. “You walk perilously close to the defilement of all you touch, Demakos Nomasdina,” the priest who’d looked at him said, grim-faced. “You would have carried the pollution from the corpse you just saw out into this district, letting the rot spread to innocents. We knew you were capable of it. A watch was placed on you.”
“You had me followed!” shouted Dema. “By what right? I am a citizen of Tharios, a member of the First Class, and I am doing my duty towards the city!”
“Your vision of your duty blinds you to the risk you take, involving yourself with the rotting shell that once housed a spirit,” retorted the priest. “Continue as you meant to just now, and you will carry spiritual rot to the houses of the First Class and to the temples and offices that serve them.”
The female priest looked at Dema. “If pollution spreads over the First Class, the city is doomed,” she said flatly. “It is our purity that saved us while an empire was falling to pieces. It is our cleansing and our vow to stay clean despite temptation which makes us a great power now. And you would destroy that, in your arrogance, in your belief that only Demakos Nomasdina of the arurim dhaskoi may speak for one of the Fifth Class. She is before the All-Seeing. He will judge her as well as her killer.”
“But her killer spreads his pollution, too,” Dema said daringly. “He goes out into the city with death all over him. You say I risk polluting the city —what of the killer?”
“The city’s priests cleanse Tharios in prayer, fasting and meditation,” said the priest who had first spoken to Dema. “The killer will only pollute those who encounter him. They are plainly of the Fifth and Fourth classes, with the crimes of their last lives to pay for in this one. He is their penance. It is you who are the greater danger. You take this vile taint among those who must keep the city from plunging into chaos.”
“You have lost sight of what is vital, imagining that matters of this world are as valuable as those of the spiritual realm,” the female priest announced. “You will spend this day and tonight among us, to fast, repent and be cleansed.”
“But there is a killing!” protested Dema. “He could kill again!”
“He is in the All-Seeing’s hands,” said the third priest, who had been silent until now. “As you are in ours.”
Dema clenched his fists, his heart racing with fury. “I have an investigation to run!”
“Others will work on it,” the female priest said flatly. “Your superiors and your family are being notified. Tomorrow you may take up your work again.”
“If you have a more fitting vision of what matters, and what does not,” added the third priest. “If you accept your true duty.”
Dema turned, to discover more priests behind him. He was trapped. He looked beyond them, to his arurimi. “One of you go to Touchstone Glass when you are released from here,” he ordered. “Tell Kethlun Warder and Trisana Chandler about this.” His sergeant nodded. Dema faced the priests. “If he kills again tonight, it will be on your heads,” he snapped.
“If he kills again tonight, he will answer to the All-Seeing,” retorted the female priest, “as we will answer if we allow you to continue in the path of error.”