I found an altar in PC:5 and went for three precrowns. The messages all appeared normally for the first two, but after saccing my way back to "x favors you," it went back to "very close" soon afterwards. I had thought I was just losing piety faster than I could gain it, but I crowned when I prayed in an emergency (was at L+ of course). I went back to check with the backup, dropped to L, and confirmed that I could precrown a third time having received the messages "very close," "favors you," and "very close" again.