Volume Two: The Mask's Weight
Chapter 196: Sanctuary Has Teeth
Brother Halven requested sanctuary before anyone could accuse him.
That was not innocence.
That was timing.
The Church sanctuary chamber beneath Astral Zenith's theology annex looked exactly like a room built to make cowardice sound holy. White stone. Gold script. Seven candles that never guttered. A circle of pale light in the center, wide enough for one kneeling penitent and narrow enough to remind everyone else that mercy could be reserved by architecture.
Halven stood inside the circle.
Not kneeling.
Interesting.
Sanctuary was supposed to make people smaller.
That was its design. Kneel, confess, receive mercy through a structure older than the person asking for it. A room like this did not need chains because architecture had already decided where guilt should stand.
Halven had stepped into that design and refused the posture.
That mattered.
