The scent of incense lingered in the air long after the choir had taken their final note, curling slowly beneath the high ceiling as sunlight filtered through stained glass and spilled across the polished floor in fractured colors. The church felt alive in its stillness, filled with quiet reverence and practiced devotion, yet beneath that calm surface something else moved, something less visible but far more unsettling, and Liana felt it the moment she stepped inside.
"Oh Lord God, keep deciet away from me as you show me the light and trust" Liana said under her breath as she did not bow her head immediately like the others.
She stood still for a moment, her eyes lifting toward the altar where Uncle Gulio was already preparing to begin the mass, dressed in his priestly robe, compos
