Casus instantly went wide-eyed as he considered the consequences of Yao’s account being the correct one. He knew of the World Needle, of its purpose, of the Rite of Amrakas. He had never once considered that the supermassive Archon Flash a few weeks back could be a consequence of that rite, rather than just another of Jas’raba’s usual Archon Flashes.
“I had nothing to do with the events leading up to it, of course… But I happened to see that the window was open, so to speak, and I took advantage. The fact I did it is the reason I am here, rather than rotting away a crippled husk. The problem is, I was halfway across the world, and to describe my ritual as rushed would be singing its praises. My only leads were, and still are, under here.”
She tapped her taped-over eye.
“A gift from the One Beyond the Window. The Master of the Black Labyrinth, Chernobog. To remember him by, to guide me on my path, he said. It led me to this city… And it led me to you two. I’ll stop beating around the bush, seeing as your Banisher friend here looks about ready to have an aneurysm, and you look about ready to shoot me. Tell me, Ms. Krahe. Those weeks ago, in the Underground City, was it you, who came through the Black Gate? Is the smoke that shrouds you from appraisal merely a way for Chernobog to conceal his touch upon you?”
“Impossible.”
It was Casus who interrupted.
“Hm?” Yao raised an eyebrow to him. “Is it so difficult to believe?”
“It was not an expression of disbelief. Lady Blackhand is a graft-apostle. Even a speck of Outer God taint would have been detected. In the infinitesimally likely scenario of that not being the case, her grafted relic would have violently rejected her. There is no conceivable scenario in which Lady Blackhand could carry the taint of an Outer God.”
“Perhaps it isn’t taint that I carry, then…” Krahe sighed, deciding to neither lie nor tell the whole truth. “But Yao is right, I did indeed pass into this world during the event which she speaks of, and Chernobog had a direct hand in facilitating that. That is all I know of the event, though.”
“How?! Genuinely, how could such a thing be possible?!” he demanded, growing exasperated. His demeanor suggested, more than anything else, that he saw this the same way as someone telling him they could simply choose not to be affected by gravity, without any source of that effect. It wasn’t a question of corruption, never once for a second did he consider that Krahe might secretly be corrupted, having personally witnessed incontrovertible proof to the contrary.
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Bubbling with excitement at the possibility, Yao cut in: “Perhaps Ms. Krahe’s condition is one which your Grafting Church has not encountered before. Perhaps it is somehow fundamentally different to the methods by which, say, someone like me, benefits from communion with an Outer God. Come, peer into me again, see if you can find the taint.”
Casus, though repulsed, did as asked, his eye wandering down to Yao’s stomach. At that point, he closed it shut and recoiled, uttering: “Yes, it’s… It is there. Seething, like boiling tar, holding the shards of your Soul Furnace in an unseemly, yet contiguous single mass.”
Krahe cut in: “Regardless of the specifics, it cannot be denied that I carry a relic which would have rightly torn itself free of my flesh if I carried an Outer God’s taint, and that neither the divine safeguards of the Grafting Church nor the senses of a High Grafter detected any Outer God’s taint within me.”
“Nonetheless, I must backtrack for a moment,” Casus said, turning to Yao. “You are aware that you have just confessed to high blasphemy in front of two graft-saints, yes?”
“High blasphemy? No such thing. I had no hand in opening the window, my communion rite accelerated its closing, and not only were the local side effects of the rite resolved immediately afterwards, Tiengenzhen is perhaps one of the few places on the face of Zastreon that your Twin Churches consider to be outside their jurisdiction. Please, Silberblut. I am not so foolish as to invite one so known for righteousness as yourself into my temporary home without being certain that I am innocent of any possible crime you could hold against me.”
At that rebuttal, Casus froze in place, his brow furrowed in thought. Yao took advantage and returned her attention to Krahe.
“Now, where were we… Ah, right. As things stand at the moment, I am taking a truly perilous risk by bringing you straight into my home. I’ve done my best to secure myself, but one can never be too sure.”
“I couldn’t agree more. I sought you out in pursuit of my own goals, of course, but I can’t help being curious - in what way do you expect that I might be able to help you? If anyone here is knowledgeable-enough on the matters of spiritual injury to make that guess, it’s you.”
Yao observed Krahe for a few seconds in silence. A heavy sigh.
“You would need to permit me to look at you with my left eye before I can make that judgment. I do not expect that it will let me peer through your soul-smoke as if it weren’t there, but it will show enough. It… Doesn’t see in the true sense. It sees how the world moves, how it might move in the future. A twisted sort of clairvoyance if you will.”
Krahe really didn’t like how forthcoming Yao was acting. Every cautious voice in her head screamed trouble, and yet… If she was being truthful, it was Yao who was putting it all on the line. Was that why she had invited Casus? To make herself seem trustworthy, knowing already the full powers of his Third Eye, including his ability to detect outright lies? After all, the Banisher had kept his eye open for most of the conversation, and never raised the alarm for lies.