876
A short while later, in the lounge of the Cathedral of Light.
The baptism, which had not been particularly lengthy, was over, and it was not yet eight. Ileana reached out to support Audrey, only to find that she looked distinctly unwell, even a little unsteady on her feet. Her eyes remained fixed on the floor, and there was no telling what she was thinking.
"Audrey?"
Although Ileana was not a Spectator, she could still tell that something seemed to be weighing on her mind.
But this was rather strange. Throughout the day or so Audrey had spent with her, she had been perfectly natural and at ease, showing none of the sorrow of someone far from home in her behavior. Anyone who saw this young lady would have taken a liking to her.
She had been perfectly fine even when they went to prepare for the baptism that morning. How had a simple initiation ceremony turned her mildly nervous but still relaxed mood into this?
"What's wrong?"
With this Spectator demigod, who had close ties to her and was skilled at reading people, Ileana never concealed her thoughts. At this moment, those thoughts were nothing more than concern and curiosity.
She carefully recalled the entire ceremony-from the Psychology Alchemists' senior members going out to welcome this demigod to the Grand Cathedral, to the ritual of drawing a cross of holy water on her forehead, the Choir's hymns praising the Lord, the bishop's chanting, and Audrey's own oath. Although a new member's initiation did not require many witnesses, she too had been invited to observe. There had clearly been no problems or oversights anywhere.
Ileana held Audrey's arm and asked softly:
"I don't remember anything going wrong during the ceremony. Did the Church do something that bothered you?"
With