The priests of Rosada were kept in the smallest cell, what the prison guards jokingly called "little comfort nests", worse than "hearths", because the caves were deliberately carved into the shape of an inverted semi-cone, and the people in them could neither lie nor sit, but could barely maintain a half-squatting position, which lasted for a few minutes and your spine would ache as if it were about to break.

Not many people survived the deadly madness, the wounded were not cleaned and treated, and after a day or two in such a place they became infected, their wounds swollen, blackened, and drained with pus, and several people had a fever.

"Who do you want to interrogate?" said one of the guards, "not many are sober. ”

"Senior Pastor. Master Antonio said, "Maybe there are others." ”

The guard bowed to him, "Yes, honorable mage," but he corrected sarcastically, "Former senior priest." ”

He led them to the cave where the "former" senior pastor was being held, and took the torch off the wall and held it close to his face, a wizened old man, covered in filth and small wounds like the other prisoners, with one of his wrists dislocated and his palm hanging limply under his forearm.

The guard stabbed the torch into the iron fence, sparks splashed in his face, and the old man cried out in pain and opened his eyes, but it was evident that his will was still in a state of chaos.

"All right," said the guard, "what do you ask? Or do you need me to drag him out and tie him to the shelf?" Kremar followed his line of sight, and on the right side of the wall was a wooden beam about two palms wide and three palms deep, blackened, from one end of the corridor to the other, as high as a normal railing, nailed to the wall with nails as thick as a thumb, and on which there were iron rings every five to six feet, to which were tied with belts or ropes, and on which were some creepy ornaments. At first, the otherworldly spirits saw them, but they didn't associate them with torture instruments at all—swarthy metal shoes, long forks at both ends, clips that looked like birds' beaks, large hooks, and scissors.

"That's it. Master Antonio said, lowering his knees and clutching the iron fence, and he asked softly about something, but the old man would only say "water".

"Give him some water. Carey Ben said.

The guard glanced hesitantly at the elves, and although the people of the White Tower were now wary and suspicious of these beautiful non-humans under the influence of Master Demon, the Ranger Kerry, who had received numerous praises for his immaculate conduct and admirable bravery and wisdom in the past, did not want to confront such a person, "So he nodded, "You can give him some water." But he then added: "But I don't think it's useful for questioning." ”

Another guard led Cremar up the stairs, and they returned to the room that connected to the kitchen, and after receiving permission, Cremar picked up a large wooden cup with a little ale remaining. He drew water from the well, washed the cup, and poured a full cup, and the guard looked at him amusedly, sniffed the water, and took another sip tentatively, frowning as if it had been frozen by water.

"The water is clean," said the guard, the black-haired caster shaking the cup in the light, which reflected the light and rippled brightly, "What a waste to give those pigs to drink." He muttered disgruntly, but returned to the prison with Cremar.

The otherworldly soul gripped the cup firmly, his tongue hurt, he bit it hard just now, and the hot and sweet liquid suddenly filled his mouth - he remembered that the lich had told him that the purest positive energy flowing in this body was the most important thing, and he made the appearance that he wanted to drink water, and let the huge wooden cup cover his face, allowing his blood to flow into the cup, and shaking the cup until the light was gone, so as not to be suspicious, they obviously did not want the prison people to be healed.

Mage Antonio took the cup that Cremar had brought back, he held it steadily, through the iron fence, first pressed the cup against his old friend's lips, tilted it slightly so that his lips touched the water on their own, when he felt it, he opened his mouth, and stuck out his tongue before leaning more heavily, he was careful, but some of the water still ran down between the prisoner's lips and the cup, and slid through the ribs of the chest.

The black-haired spellcaster stepped forward, as if to hear the conversation they were about to begin, when in fact Cremar was only trying to block the light of the torch so that the guards would not notice that the prisoner's wounds were rapidly healing.

Mage Antonio also noticed this, but he wisely remained silent, and the senior priest's eyes gradually cleared, indicating that wisdom and reason were returning to this body, and he immediately discovered the little secret, and raised a finger with difficulty to make a gesture to push the wooden cup away.

The old mage returned the cup to Cremar, "and to the others," he said in an unquestioning voice, "don't let me wait while I ask." ”

Cremar walked away with the cup, he fed it to the priests of Rosada first, they were all smart, although they noticed something strange in the water, none of them shouted, and one of them, after taking two sips, gasped and told him that Adel was next to him: "Give him more water," he mixed the sentence into a trembling moan: "He's badly hurt." ”

Adel Rickets in a "little comfort zone" His face had been violently beaten, his jaw was shattered, his eyes were swollen and purple, his body was bruised, and there was a wide, deep wound in his ribs, as if it would break him in two at any moment, perhaps the worst wound on his body, because he had to bend his body, his hands between his legs, his fingers almost touching his tail vertebrae, Cremar could not see his chest or his abdomen, but there was viscous blood flowing from under his body, wetting the filthy ground.

Cremar sensed the position of the guard, they were standing at the mage Antonio, their attention was almost all on their conversation, no one paid attention to it, he spun his wrist, luxuriously cleaned the hideous wound, and only pressed the cup against the white lips after seeing that it was no longer bleeding slowly, the unconscious Adel moved slightly, the white lips eagerly sucked on the edge of the wet cup, but the rock cavern that imprisoned him was like a well-made close-fitting coffin, he couldn't raise his head at all, Cremar quietly danced his fingers, and a lively little water balloon emerged from the cup, only the size of a marble, it jumped straight into Adele's mouth.

The young priest of Rosada swallowed several balloons of water to come to his senses, but as soon as he figured out what was going on, he kept his mouth shut tightly - fortunately he had swallowed almost enough, his injuries were healing, and Cremar put his fingers into the iron fence and dug some ...... from the ground He tried not to think about what the greasy stuff was - it was black and bloody, and he rubbed it on Adel's face, covering his eyes and nose, which had cleared the swelling.

As his fingers retracted, he accidentally ruffled Adele's hair, only to find that all but the outer layers had faded to a lifeless leaden white.

Adel looked at him, and Cremar didn't know if he recognized him, and then he noticed that the priest was trying to say something.

His voice was soft and chaotic, no different from a cloud of cobwebween blown away by the wind, but Cremar understood what he meant.

"The senior pastor has already drunk water. He said.

Adel continued to blink.

"Others too. Kremar bluntly said, "You're the worst of them all." ”

“...... Thank you......" he said with difficulty and vagueness.

The otherworldly soul sighed silently.

"Monroe is the one in charge of the Holy Water Chamber," said Master Antonio, "and he has been serving the glorious Rosada for forty years, so the Senior Priest still allows him to work in the Sanctuary despite knowing that his faith is not so religious—as to why they put him in charge of the Holy Water Chamber," the old mage shook his head, "because it is simple and safe." No, of course there is no danger in swapping the blessed balls of pure water, what they mean is that if Monroe is allowed to manage the donations, the reliquary, or deal with those merchants, will he accept bribes or embezzlement - Monroe and the senior pastor had been taught by the same teacher, and he didn't want to watch Monroe slide all the way into the endless abyss, but even he couldn't believe that Monroe would suddenly become an honest and good person, so he thought of a solution, which was to isolate everything that could lead to Monroe's downfall. ”

"That is," said Kerribben, "they arranged for a fool who most likely betrayed them and the sanctuary for a bag of gold coins to manage the most important holy water chamber. ”

"Probably no one thought that the Holy Water Room would be tampered with. Mage Antonio said with a sad face, "The biggest mistake you can make in managing the Holy Water Room is forgetting to change the water balls. ”

"So," asked Cremar, "who is the man who took out a bag of gold coins?"

"Someone saw Monroe with a priest of a flora the day before the madness broke out," said the old mage.

;