_Archpriest Dominic Vermont stood at the tall, arched window of his private study high within the cathedral residence, watching the rain fall in heavy, silver sheets over the cobblestone streets of the city below. The storm was relentless, drowning the metropolis in a gray, suffocating haze—a reflection of the very purging he felt his domain required. His hands were clasped tightly behind his back, his posture as rigid and unyielding as the ancient stone pillars that held up the holy sanctuary.
He knew.
The realization did not come as a sudden, shocking revelation, but rather as a slow, poisonous seep that had finally saturated his consciousness. For weeks, the signs had been accumulating, impossible to ignore for a man whose survival depended on meticulous observation.
First, there wer
