What can I tell you of my fate. Very much, I will assure you. This is the final journal and testament of Sir Alastir Gwydion, let it be known forever that I was a loyal man, only did what I had to for the Imperium, and that if this is being read I have given my life in service to it. I was employed in the service of Inquisitor Antonia Selendus, that woman for which I have great respect for and I will till the end of days as it approaches.
I first met her on the day that I turned thirty by normal Terran standard, or six on the world of my birth. I had no idea what our meeting would bring about and I could not be happier for that very reason. I remember that day as if it were still fresh in my memory.
The doors slid open with a pneumatic hiss and my jailers pushed me forward with a sharp thrust between my shoulder blades. The thrust was light as it was done more to get my attention and spur me on then it was to do harm. I though was under no false intentions to believe that they would not use force and much worse against me, if I tempted them.
Fortunatly, I did not have that intention. I knew well enough that even if I wished to run, there was no place for me to hide, let alone live.
As I shuffled forward I passed into a large rectangular room. I must admit, I found a great deal of comfort in it after passing from the tight corridors I was coming from and had made up most of my journey. It was illuminated by a series of psychically-sensitive crystals that rested atop staves running the length of the chamber. The walls were adorned with weapons both mundane and exotic, along with devices that I could not have even hazard a guess at the actual functions.
At the end of the hall, sat a woman behind an ebony desk. She wore a stylised over coat bleached the color of snow and laced with gold, over a metal cuirass embossed with an image of a two headed eagle surrounded by a pair of laurels.
Upon the wall rested a large and stylized letter I. It hung high above her head. It had a single eye in the center that seemed to follow us as we approached.
She sat there, lower body hidden behind her desk and her fingers twirling a mercy blade. She was looking at us, observing me with an interested eye. A pencil thin smirk slowly gliding across her face as I grew closer. Her desk was black as if made of obsidian. It was bare excluding a crystalline decanter, filled with an almost golden liquid, and two glasses.
She raised a hand and we stopped, in that moment I could feel her piercing amber eyes. I imagine I was quite the sight standing just under two meters tall, starved, and unnaturally pale from more days than I could recall under artificial light.
For a time we simply observed one another, speaking not a word and yet in that moment I felt as if she had gotten from me all that she wanted. I could feel an icy pain at the back of my head as she probed me for weakness.
Once she seemed perfectly satisfied with my resolve, she simply asked, in a voice both measured and noble, "and what is it that you want here?"
I did not know how to answer her at first. I had no desire to be here and so her question meant nothing to me. My silence though seemed to displease her.
"Come now," she sighed, brushing aside a strand of silver hair away from her face, "I was informed that you were taught low gothic and were quite articulate. It would be most unfortunate to find that I was misled."
"You were the one who brought me here..." I felt another sharp thrust of an elbow into my back. "My lady..." I said remembering how I was told to address her, before I had even arrived.
"So he can speak, but that is not what I asked. What is it that you desire, that you want, that which both your heart and mind wish for?
"I would wish to be free of these bindings, my lady, and if I could drink to settle my parchedness I would be appreciative."
She seemed to smile at that. While looking at my guards, she gave a dismissive wave as if to tell them to make it so. One of them drew a small handheld device from his side, bringing it up to my collar, before activating it. There was a moment of silence followed by mechanical spinning sound, a sound echoed by my shackles. A moment later I felt them all fall away.
I brought one of my newly freed hands up to my throat and lightly touched where the skin had been rubbed raw. Despite the pain, I could only feel relief. I might have still been a prisoner, but I did not look the part and was free to move as I desired. It was a gift.
She pushed forward the glass, the caramel colored liquor smelling so sweet. With a wave of her dainty hand, she offered it. I took up the glass wary of its contents, sniffing it gently, and yet nonetheless I took it. As I saw it, if they had wanted me dead they had been presented with a million opportunities before poison.
With a prayer to the golden sun, wherever it was, I took a sip. It was as sweet as it smelt. It went slowly down my throat as if it were made for me and me alone to drink. I took only a few sips, not wanting to waste it, as I never knew when I would get another chance to drink something so... Magnificent.
"That does not answer what I asked, but it is an improvement."
"Do you know why you are here... Gwydion is it?" She spoke my name with fluency of practice. Although I must admit it seemed off with her accent.
"Because I am a mutant, my lady." I simply repeated what I have been told time and time again.
"Because you are very special, and you took my interest some time ago."
I bit my lip, hoping my next words did not ruin my host's temper in giving me these pleasantries. "I do not know how to feel about that, if i was to be truthful."
"And why is that?" she asked with a raising eyebrow.
"Since I was dragged from my home, the only interest in me seems to be how I can be used."
"What if I told you I am interested in what you can become." She lean forward as if interested in hearing my response.
"And what is it that you believe I can become, My lady?"
"That would depend entirely on what you are willing to become." She mused at the decanter still resting on her desk, "What anyone has the skill to become is entirely their choice, most simply lack the will to achieve it by their own means."
"And how is it that I can do this, what is it that I would have to do?" I knew well enough that such things did not come without a price.
"First, you would have to become one of my acolytes." She spoke it so matter of factly I felt almost foolish as if I was meant to know it in the first place.
"I do not mean to offend but is this already decide it for me?"
"I have the authority to conscript anyone, today though I am willing to give you a choice. I will warn you though, this is not something given lightly to anyone." She began to pour herself a drink before stating, "take your time." She spoke confidently as if she knew my answer before even I did, though I still believe that this was just her nature.
And I did. I stood there, watching this finely dressed woman, and thinking of what I wanted and what I was being offered, even if what I knew was little at best.
while I did not know what I was truly being offered, at that very moment all I could see was that there was a possibility that I would not be living within the dark tunnels and cells that I had spent the past innumerable days within. Even if I was wrong, this woman was the first person who had bothered to ask me my own wishes since the day that the silent ones had come and dragged me from my home.
For the first time in years, I made a decision that was entirely of my own accord, "When may I begin?"
"Soon, but first," she rose from her sitting position and walked around her desk, full elegant frame visible to me. What really caught my eye though were the blade in pistol up on her hip, they were decorated but some instinct told me that their apperance made them no less deadly. "Welcome then Alastir Gwydion, I am Antonia Selendus. Your life now belongs to me." She raised high her glass and waited. When I clinked my own against hers, that was the day I joined the imperial inquisition.
I hoped you liked this, it was how I imagined my dark heresy character got into th inquistion. I just wanted to to a little adding to his back story as the campiagn he is in, he is working with many others (7 to be exact) all from different inquistors If you all like this, I shall add more.
