House of Silence, Prague – 12:01 a.m.
The building stood behind the Astronomical Clock Tower—abandoned, fenced, and erased from most city maps. Once a Jesuit observatory, then a psychiatric asylum, now a sealed ruin.
Langdon approached cautiously, followed by Inspector Lenka, who insisted on accompanying him.
Inside, the hallways were choked with mossy molds and broken icons. They passed walls lined with murals—depictions of disembodied eyes, floating symbols, and minds emerging from stars.
Then they saw it.
At the centre of a great chamber stood a massive stone table. On it: an empty metal cube-shaped container. Katherine's "psi-field recorder," missing.
Next to it: a blood-red wax seal.
Langdon stepped forward and saw the symbol imprinted in the wax—a double-headed raven, wings stretched across a labyrinth.
He drew a sharp breath.
"Not the Order of Janus," he murmured.
Lenka frowned. "Then what?" Langdon whispered, "This is The Black Veil." She stared at him. "That's just a myth." He looked up at the crumbling ceiling.
"Not anymore."