Alex and Fufi wandered around the catacombs for an hour, realizing that the place was vast. The corridors became narrower the further they got from the main paths. It was creepy to see slots where three or four people could fit side by side, although the ones with bodies were plastered over. It felt like they were intruding on many people's final resting place.

"Hey Fufi, please tell me there aren't zombies in this world," Alex stuttered.

"Mmm, do you want the truth or a white lie?" Fufi asked.

"Oh, never mind. We should try to head back up. The deeper we get, the narrower things get and the more dead ends we find," Alex sighed.

The pair wandered around lost for a while.  They couldn’t trace their way back the way they came.  It was a bit scary.  A couple of the paths were completely dark and Fufi had to use her magic to light the way forward with her forehead gem.

When they walked past the bust of some regal looking fellow the head followed them the entire time.  

Alex waved the hero plushie at the stone figure, saying, "Don't make me use this."
The statue did not respond, simply staring at them with its creepy stone eyes.
Fufi took the opportunity to pull the doll's chain.

"I will defeat the Demon Queen!" the stuffed doll proclaimed with conviction.

"Stop that, we're trying to be sneaky," Alex said with a laugh. The recording was just too ironic not to laugh at.

Eventually, they made it out of the catacombs. The trick was to never take stairs down and always take the stairs that went up. When they got back to the ground floor, as evidenced by the windows that let the evening light in, both the magical girl and the flamingo breathed a sigh of relief.

It turned out that they had entered along the male side of the temple.  As they walked past a priest who looked disturbingly similar to the rest he greeted them with “Praise purity.”

Alex gulped and forced a smile. “Praise purity.”

The man nodded and continued down the corridor.

“Well that was close.  I’m glad he didn’t recognize me.” Alex said when they had turned a corner.

“He probably recognized you as every other priestess in this place.” Fufi whispered back. 

Alex slumped her shoulders.  Eventually, they made it back to the dorm room where Alex was assigned.  She really wanted to get her warm outfit back before braving the chilling cold outside.  Without wings, it was going to be a long and unpleasant trip.

The inside of the room was empty.  Alex headed to the chest where the clothing should have been but it was missing. The only thing in there was another cleaned set of priest’s robes.

“Ah, it is gone.” Alex despaired.

“Too bad they didn’t just partially transform you. If you would have turned avian at least you’d have some feathers to keep you warm.” Fufi said.

“Well what now?” Alex asked.

“You could double up on these robes but I still don’t think that would be enough.” Fufi mused.

“Do you think it would be suspicious if we asked someone where the laundry was taken?  Actually, did they even take it to be laundered? I’m quite sure that it was clean.” Alex prided herself on cleanliness. Getting dirty reduces one’s cuteness afterall.

“I hope they didn’t throw it away.  That outfit was one of your better ones, it is full of fluff.” Fufi lamented.

The pair decided to head back to the library.  

The librarian was still there, sitting behind the reception desk.  “Hello Yuti.”

Alex looked around, trying to see if there was someone else the receptionist was addressing.  Fufi nudged her trying to correct the obvious mistake.

“Ah, sorry, yes I’m Yuti.” Alex stumbled to avoid admitting she wasn’t just another copy of the purity clergy. “Ekta I presume?”

The librarian nodded. “Yes, probably one of the oldest ones around.”

“Ekta, you wouldn’t happen to know what they do with dirty clothing would you?” Alex asked.

“The younger priestesses will collect them and clean them.  There really is only one outfit so there is a laundry shack near a fountain.  Also, your tamed bird has decided to remain by your side.  You should be grateful that she didn’t abandon you as soon as your class switched.  Anyway, follow the path and you should get there.”  The priest pointed in a direction.

“Thanks, I’ll be going then.” Alex turned to leave.

“It looks like you are a new initiate.  Remember, the goddess lives on through us.” Ekta said with conviction.

Alex and Fufi high-tailed it out of there.  They followed a cobblestone path through the agricultural area.  Produce grew on both sides of the path.  Some irrigation ditches were flowing with water.  Many of them were not used though.  The overwhelming theme of this place was big but sparsely occupied.

“This place is so creepy now.  I wonder what it was like back in the day and how it came to be like it is now.” Alex said while walking down the path. “Also, do you know what he meant by losing your class?”

“I imagine that this place slowly declined after the demon queen’s armies swept the area.  They either didn’t know about it or decided that it wasn’t worth marching an army through the frozen mountains.” Fufi paused. “As for losing the class.  You can’t really lose your class.   That is one of the escalations the deities have agreed not to cross.  People have come up with ways to do that but they are all taboo.  Anyone that actually succeeds is fair game for divine punishment for any god.  They usually get a really nasty punishment from the god who gifted the class.  Transgressions that cross the accords usually end in a quick death or wishing for a quick death.  The only normal way to lose a class is to die or willfully abandon it.”

Alex hummed. “Wouldn’t that mean that what they are doing should get divine judgment brought down on them?”

“That is a good point.  I don’t know what having a bunch of classless people who forget who they are would accomplish.” Fufi’s eyes widened. “Wait, they might be using a low level demonic immortality technique.”

“What’s that?” Alex asked.

“Well, the demons' goal is to cultivate enough to become immortal.” Fufi explained. “At least the ambitious ones want to defeat death.  Anyway, some will sacrifice their younger kin to extend their lives.  Maybe sacrifice isn’t the right term.  They copy themselves to a younger demon of the same kind, keep their same powers but have a younger body to work with.  It is just that this technique is flawed.  Because you can’t make a perfect copy.  It sets back their cultivation and the new one loses a part of themselves.”

“Why would the followers of purity sink so low as to use demonic techniques?  It doesn’t make any sense.” Alex complained.

“I don’t know either, but things must have been really bad for them to even consider it.” Fufi continued down the path.

When they came to the cleaning shack adjacent to the fountain no one was there.  Several robes were swaying on a clothesline.  Inside were neatly folded priest’s robes.

Alex and Fufi searched the shelves of clean and dirty clothing but couldn’t find anything other than variations of the same outfit in slightly different sizes.

“Ugh, what did they do with it?” Alex complained.  She kicked over a trash can in frustration.

Trash spilled out on the ground.  Fufi headed to a bundle that looked rather big. “Hey, good thinking I believe we’ve found your outfit.”

Alex scowled and picked up the soiled outfit. “So rude.  I worked hard to sew this and now look how dirty it is.”  She grabbed a washboard and some soap and proceeded to clean the outfit in the fountain.  It only took a minute to get it clean.

“Your cleaning skill is impressive.” Fufi tried not to laugh

Alex snorted. “I’m not going to leave this on a clothesline.  They obviously can’t be trusted with my outfits.”

“But how are you going to dry it?” Fufi asked.

“Let me try something.” Alex took out the feather duster and dusted off the fir robe.  Oddly, the water turned into mist and blew off into the wind. “I can’t believe that worked.  I didn’t even have the magical duster.”

Alex folded the robe neatly and tucked it under her arm.  “So, what now?  Should we head back?”

Fufi considered this. “We could, but I don’t think we could make it on foot before it gets dark. I don’t want to do it either but we should stay at least a night here.”

“Okay, but where should we stay?  I don’t want to go back to the dorm they gave us.  I don’t trust them to not throw away my garment again.” Alex stomped.

“Hide it under your robe maybe?  It is a bit thick but you might be able to wrap it around a leg.  Or we could hide it somewhere and come back later?” Fufi presented some ideas.

“If nothing else we can sleep outside somewhere.  It’ll be like old times when we first got here and I slept on a rug on a stone table with a couple articles of clothing for a pillow and a blanket.” Alex chuckled sadly.

They took a strip of cloth and tied the bundled robe to Alex’s inner thigh and headed back down the path towards the temple.

“I’d like to finish that journal now that we have some time.  I saw that it was still on the podium in the library.  Do you think that the priest there will suspect us if we go back?” Alex said.

“I don’t know for sure.  There is always running away and hiding as a backup plan.  You might not have all your dolls but I have confidence that you are not the same Alex that would get jumped by barbarians in the middle of the night from months ago.” Fufi sounded encouraging.

After a few minutes traveling along the path they made it back to the main temple and headed into the library.  They exchanged the same customary greeting from before with the librarian and went to go and sit down to read some more of the journal.

Eventually the unending praise for the hero cooled down and the high priest of the time lamented that the hero abandoned them.  At first, all of humanity shared in the betrayal and condemnation of the hero.  But when the decisive battle was lost, the demons started a slow but steady counter campaign.  When refugees mounted and people lost their families to the war eventually the followers of purity got blamed along with the hero for the worsening situation. 

After years of retreating and civilization collapsing, Catalina’s name became nothing more than a curse.  Followers were either driven out of towns or killed when the losses mounted.  Worse, at one point no one was able to pray to Catalina for a class anymore.  Years passed and the people with classes from Catalina started to die off of old age.  They needed to have people with classes from Catalina to maintain this temple.  So, not wanting to go quietly into the night, the clergy took a vote when presented with some unorthodox method to preserve themselves.  When the bird flu was first unleashed, harpies were a huge problem.

They captured one by luring it to the temple and were able to use the ritual which they altered to using a hot spring to overwrite the mindless harpy and turn it into a copy of the priest of priestess.

Alex and Fufi just gaped at the slippery slope. “Darn, I mean I know it is wrong what they did but would I do the same thing if I was in their shoes?”

“You know, I think I might have heard something about this.  I think Catalina might have abandoned this world. I heard something about how she planned to smite the hero but the evil gods objected saying that the hero was under their protection and if she wanted to do something rash they would consider that an escalation.” Fufi whispered back. “So if she’s written off this world then it would explain why there are no new priests of Catalina.”

The librarian coughed quietly, “You know most people consider it rude to talk in a library.”

Ekta stood up and glared at them.

Alex and Fufi gulped.  Had they been caught?