"You are to be commended for avoiding my traps," Father Grigori notes with an expression equally pleased and rueful. "The work of a man who once had too much time on his hands, and now finds time for nothing but the work of salvation."

The church itself's been emptied of most of its seating. Not gutted, as that would imply things being torn off the walls and generally ripped apart. It still bears more than a few of the flourishes that mark Eastern Orthodox churches: the intricate metalwork altar screen covered in icons, the wall about halfway down the center aisle with symbolic doors in either side, the stained-glass windows through which the moon is just beginning to shine again...