The Purifier team from Saint Viève Cathedral soon arrived at Moran Avigny's study, carrying a nearly sealed wooden box.
They each wore white robes adorned with waxed golden threads, thin rubber gloves, and leather hoods. Their masks curved downward, forming a bird's beak in front of their mouths and noses.
Angoulême signaled the other Purifiers to withdraw from this floor and clear the adjacent ones. Donning a bird-beak mask and similar attire himself, he tightly bandaged his wrists and ankles.
Peering through the red glass lenses of his mask, Angoulême watched his colleagues open the wooden box.
Mirrors of the perfect size lined the inner layer of the box on all sides—top, bottom, left, right, front, and back.
In the center, surrounded by the mirrors, stood a milky-white stone statue half the height of a person. It portrayed a beautiful half-naked woman, her dress torn away to the waist.
