Javeno's knee bounced as he waited in the clean white marble lobby of the inner sanctum. His mind was turning over what he had done wrong to get called to see the High Bishops. He kept his [Listen] skill low, especially once Jasreal started having problems, so the silence pressed in on him. Somewhere unseen, water rushed through channels in the walls, a constant distant sound that kept the temple cold. How did bishops not go insane in this clean, empty space?

  Or maybe that was a prerequisite.

  Javeno knew he was problematic. Yesefi's words, not his. Maybe he had trouble remembering or caring about all the rules, or he cared about results and his results had been great. Recently. Still, he was twenty and no one would put him in charge of recruits. Maybe he had fallen asleep on the wall too many times? Javeno scratched his head, fingers finding the texture of scars on his scalp.

  They had healed ages ago.

  They made him think of Benjera. He had saved his life that half. Before the Gausites gave Venn a title. Javeno grimaced, eyes fixating on the patterns and streaks in the marble floor. What was he supposed to do? Benjera "Relentless" Venn had crowned skills and a title and was still a runner. He must like it. Not Javeno. He hated it. Hated the petty crimes he had to clean up after. Hated the bodies he had to carry. No, if Relentless couldn't get a promotion then Javeno was definitely going to get in trouble. Maybe kicked out.

  "Javeno Liis?" an Attendant called. Javeno jumped to his feet, ready to fight the demotion. The woman gave him a tight smile as she opened the door. Not the large ornate one leading to the nexus. He had been in there. Once. He was going to the personal office of High Bishop Mensi that was next to the heart of the city.

  The door was white calcified wood with black paint, four blue eyes of Lazil painted in a square at the center. Always watching. Javeno stepped through into the office.

  It was as pompous and rigid as High Bishop Ilusro Mensi. The floor was marble like the lobby, but softened with woven rugs in Lazilite blue. Tapestries hung along the walls, religious scenes he didn't care to study. The bookshelves and fine decor were background noise. Walking in, Javeno's eyes were drawn to one thing.

  On the wall behind the High Bishop seated at his desk was a collection behind glass. Bones. Specifically, the first bone where the head meets the spine. Dozens of them. Each labeled with a name. A collection of executions made while Mensi had been High Judge before he climbed to his current position.

  Javeno refused to show how nervous the bones made him and slid his gaze down to Mensi.

  Ilusro Mensi smiled wanly at him, like a doddering old man. He gestured for Javeno to sit.

  "Liis, come, get comfortable," Mensi said. His voice, unlike the other high bishops, had a wavering quality to it. All of it was an act.

  Javeno sat down obediently, the chair cold even through his pants. He gripped the edge of the seat, forcing a smile on his face for the bastard. His shoulders stayed tight, pulled back. He'd play the role.

  "High Bishop, I'm honored," Javeno said. He wasn't, but he was saying the words expected. Behaving.

  "I am sorry, but I have a sorrowful matter to discuss with you," Mensi said, smile falling away. Something that looked like sympathy crossed Mensi's face as his brows softened and he tilted his head. "I can inform the bishops at the Stair Well to prepare after our discussion."

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  "The Stair Well?" Javeno bolted up to his feet, the chair scraping against marble beneath the rug. He ran everything through his mind. He just left his wife who needled him for getting in trouble again. And his kids had all been home along with the Erlansins’ two. Who was dead?

  "Yes, last half your father was found in the archives, caught in the halls," Mensi said.

  The words pulled the world out from under Javeno and he sank back into the seat. The cold from the chair seeped through his clothes.

  "You're sure?" he mumbled, not seeing Mensi. Just seeing those bones behind him. The machine of death that was life. Caught in the halls wasn’t the real name. He remembered reading that somewhere. The Healers called it cognitive collapse.

  "He's been looked over. It seems he is well and truly absent," Mensi said and leaned forward. The sound of rushing water filled the silence between them. "I know this must be hard, but I have seen this many times, so allow me to offer you some advice."

  Javeno had not replied. He was thinking about the last time he saw his father. A few halves ago. He said he was close to a crowned skill, and that if Javeno listened to Venn he'd have a crown too. Javeno was getting there. He wanted a mobility skill first, not his [Dash]. He wasn't going to be a runner forever like Benjera. His father's last conversation had been about Benjera's father and grandfather. Javeno had been painting the apartment for him.

  Had they said they loved each other? When was the last time?

  His siblings were gone. Javeno was the only one that survived the famine. He carried on the Liis name.

  Mensi gave his advice despite Javeno not wanting it. Even there in the shock he thought Mensi was as palatable as dirty glass at the bottom of a trash heap.

  "Javeno, many people will see their loved ones like this and bring them home, try to get them back," Mensi explained. "That is very difficult and confusing. The easiest thing is to inter him directly into the Stairwell."

  "Easiest?" Javeno echoed, then he laughed. "That's a joke, right?"

  "Think of your children. This will be hardest on them if they have to see him waste away—"

  Javeno stood up, knocking the chair over. The crash echoed off marble. He was shouting at the High Bishop. He couldn't stop himself. "Keep my children out of this! Where is my father?"

  "He's here," Mensi said. He picked up a little bell on his desk and rang it. The high, clear tone cut through the air.

  Javeno turned towards a side door, and an Attendant came in holding his father's hand. Venoze Liis. He walked slowly, eyes open and empty of intelligence, his face covered in stubble.

  "Father?" Javeno called. His throat felt tight.

  [Notice 12 ^^]

  The skill was only supposed to activate if he was missing something, a part of his mind primed to activate on subconscious cues. This would be imperative for his eventual promotion to Arbiter. The details came in quickly. His father had not shaved in a few halves. He was also wearing the same clothes as when Javeno last saw him. He looked ill and smelled soiled. The Healer's Hall wouldn't have let him get like this.

  The Healer's Hall would have sent a Gausite Attendant to tell Javeno straight away. Who looked his father over? What about his crown?

  "How long has he been like this?" Javeno asked, voice strangled.

  "We found him this third," Mensi said.

  There was no way the Searchers of the archives didn't notice his father standing soiled in the archives until this half. Mensi was lying. Mensi knew something more he wouldn't say.

  Javeno grabbed his father's hand from the attendant, pushing him aside roughly. The attendant said something in objection. Mensi raised a hand, quieting the man while Javeno searched his father's face for recognition. For anything.

  "Father? Father?" Javeno tugged and shook his father. There was no reaction other than a slow blink.

  "Javeno, now stay calm—" Mensi began.

  "Shut your mouth! You're a monster!" Javeno shouted, pulling his father along with him toward the door.

  "Liis, I'm only trying to help," Mensi said, sticking to his serene old man routine.

  Javeno's eyes caught on the wall of labeled bones. Lives of those that wronged Hassa. How many specifically wronged the High Bishop? Had his father really become Lost in the halls? Did Javeno believe that?

  "Never speak to me again!" Javeno snarled, retreating with his empty headed father. He went to the Healer's Hall first.

  I'm worried the explanation comes too late in the book. So time in the Maze on a cycle around the mana sun. The time you need to worry about for this chapter is glows and halves. A half is equal to around 21 hours. In a half there are ten glow and a glow is just over two hours. So when Ilusro Mensi says that Venoze Liis was found 'this third' it was the sixth hour of the twenty-one hour day. More on time in later chapters but basically Javeno realizes his father has been sick for days and Mensi is claiming to have found him that morning.