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.”Tobias found himself suddenly weak, and he fumbled to the closest pew to sit.It had been easy to say David deserved his fate and should submit to it back when a cure was impossible.But now? Did he really hold David’s life in his hands? And could he truly stand by his moral resolution when there was an alternative?As dubious as that alternative seemed?Although increasingly not as dubious as it ought to seem.“You’re considering,” the stranger said.He stood for the first time, revealing a body that was lanky under his long cloak.His pale throat was bare, no cravat to be seen, and he walked with a sleek golden cane fitted to the palm of his left hand, moving gracefully despite the limp in his left leg.He was silent until he was seated in the pew in front of Tobias.Then he looked shrewdly at him.“Aren’t you.”“You knew David’s name,” Tobias said.He smelled.smoke? A queer smoke, clinging to the stranger’s skin.“I did.” The man offered his hand.“Tobias Sinnet, my name is Mr.Ashmedai.”A Jew? Well, they were in Whitechapel.But why was he in a Christian church, then?Tobias eyed his hand, then took it.Mr.Ashmedai’s grip was firm, his hands soft like David’s.“Are you an acquaintance of David’s, then?” Tobias asked.“To know his.situation?” An acquaintance or.what else? Tobias’s skin seemed to cool with Mr.Ashmedai’s touch, and doubt bloomed at the back of Tobias’s mind.Mr.Ashmedai shrugged.“Aren’t we all acquaintances? The truth is, I heard your prayer.Before.”Had Tobias spoken so much aloud? He must have.“You eavesdropped on me?” As soon as he’d said the words, though, he realised he’d been mistaken.Which left— “My prayers were between myself and God.” Between myself and God, and I swear I did not say a word of them aloud.More impossible things.“One must always be cautious how loudly he prays.” Mr.Ashmedai’s smile widened, as if he’d heard Tobias’s inward insistence as well and thought it quaint.He traced the top of the pew with his middle finger.“But in your case, it seems to have paid off.Have I caught your interest, then, Tobias?”“Are you a doctor of medicine?” Tobias asked in return.Hoping.Desperately hoping.“I think by now you know I am not.”Tobias wet his lips.The hair on the back of his neck prickled.Of course he knew.The candles, the smoke, the mind reading.Of course Mr.Ashmedai’s claims had no scientific basis; and nor did the man himself.He swallowed through a parched throat and licked his dry lips.“What are you, then?”“Does it matter, just so long as I bring the desired results?” Mr.Ashmedai tilted his head, watching Tobias from under his lashes in a way that Tobias almost thought of as coy.It made him think of David.“You want David to be healed, do you not?”“I’m not sure that I do,” Tobias admitted.Not if it means making a dark deal with the likes of you, but also.“If he were well again, he would just return to his trade.I would be responsible for his future sin by proxy.Is it morally correct to save a life at the price of your own soul?”Mr.Ashmedai’s smile reached his eyes.“I’m hardly asking for your soul, Tobias.And really, what kind of cruel, pitiless God would punish you for having mercy and charity for your fellow man? And would you really worship such a God?”“Even if my charity enables him to sin?” Tobias wasn’t going to address his other points.Blasphemy, more blasphemy.And in God’s house, no less.He couldn’t yet bring himself to tell the man off, to send him away once and for all.He knew he should, but he couldn’t.Perhaps that weak, impressionable boy still held some sway inside him.“Are you so certain he would sin? David has a necessary profession, as you have a necessary profession.If his situation were to improve through your intervention, surely that would be a little less sin in the world.We are all sinners, after all.We all have capacity to change.”Tobias shook his head.“What if he doesn’t want to change? He’s had so many chances to be.different, to be normal and to return to God’s good graces.” Chances that I took.Ultimately.“You,” Mr.Ashmedai said, his voice blank, “are lucky, to be able to own your moral ground and look down on him.”“Luck has nothing to do with it.Hard work.Discipline.Good Christian values, which David rejected.”“And yet you love him just the same.”Tobias’s face flared with heat.“Wh-what makes you say that? I barely know the man.We were boys together.Nothing more.”“Together,” Mr.Ashmedai echoed delicately
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