Gabriel regained consciousness in a freezing, underground meat cellar beneath the San Cleyland Priory, stripped and manacled to an iron hook. Sœur Talya d’Naél, the veiled inquisitor he had previously shot, confronted him with cruelty, while a massive henchman, Philippe, stood by a bench laden with torture tools including a ten-tail whip, bonesaw, hammer, thumb screws, and a red-hot poker. Gabriel demanded to know Dior’s whereabouts, but Talya taunted him, asserting ecclesiastical authority over his excommunicated status and gloating over her intent to exact pain.

Talya introduced herself, mocked Gabriel’s wife Astrid, and physically tormented Gabriel by gouging a claw through his nipple. Gabriel headbutted Talya, breaking her nose, which only intensified her malice. When he again demanded news of Dior, Talya claimed her sister, Sœur Valya d’Naél, was taking Dior’s confession, then accused Dior of being a witch and murderer who had ritually slaughtered a bishop running an orphanage in Lashaame. She produced parchments and demanded Gabriel confess Dior’s witchcraft, implicate Sœur Chloe Sauvage and Père Rafa Sa-Araki as her accomplices, and admit his own heresy.

Gabriel refused. Talya ordered Philippe to reveal a burlap bundle containing the stolen supplies from Madame Souris, including sanctus bottled for Gabriel’s torment. The scent of sanctus intensified Gabriel’s thirst. Talya then flogged Gabriel with the spurred ten-tail, tearing his back and driving him toward a breaking point as his paleblood healing faltered under starvation. The pain and bloodscent pushed him to the edge while Talya relished his suffering.

Between lashes, Gabriel reflected on Dior’s earlier fear of being abandoned and recognized his own failure, resolving not to leave her as others had. He remembered Astrid and Patience, recalling a hard-learned lesson to act despite fear and pain. Just as he teetered on the brink, a knock at the door interrupted the torture; a young sister relayed urgent word from Talya’s “holy sister.”

Philippe opened the door to investigate. Dior charged in and drove Ashdrinker into Philippe’s belly, cutting through his mail and killing him as blood and viscera spilled. Gabriel, still chained and starving, watched as Dior, wild-eyed and determined, leveled Ashdrinker at Talya and delivered the message: Valya said to tell Talya the witch was loose. The scene ended with Dior confronting Talya, having turned the Inquisition’s trap against them.