After two days in the Penitence Hall, Thalric was finally released but whatever the priests claimed had been cleansed inside that sanctified chamber had only fermented into something far more volatile.
There was no lightness in his chest. What lingered instead was a coiled, blistering rage, tightly leashed and directed squarely toward the High Priest.
The Penitence Hall stood deep within the inner sanctum of the temple, a place most clergy spoke of only in hushed reverence. Its stone walls were etched with scriptures of mercy and judgment alike, towering figures of the Goddess Mirath carved to loom over the kneeling sinner.
Candles burned day and night, their smoke thick with incense meant to dull the senses and sharpen the guilt and only those of rank like the inquisitors, and the High Priest's chosen were permitted to cross its threshold, for what happened inside was deemed too holy for ordinary eyes.
