"These claims are absurd." Naharva stated, "Need I remind you that you are only an Interrogator, you do not yet have the training required to assess these problems, such skills take years to master, as well as a complete understanding of the Genestealer." He sighed and leaned back in his chair, "I cannot sanction any sort of action on account of some wild-eyed Commissar."
"With all due respect, my lord, it is not often that such maladies prove innocent; an hypnotic gaze can be all too indicative of possession." Khalaina argued.
"Then it is a matter for the Ordo Malleus, and I will make a request for their presence through the proper channels in due course, but until then, you will return to the planet's surface and give the governor back control of his planet." He detached his targeting monocle from his armour, pulled a strange webbed cloth from a desk draw, and proceeded to wipe the translucent red surface, "You are barely even accountable as an agent of the Inquisition, Khalaina, were it a more competent governor leading the planet you could have dropped yourself into some very hot water."
"I sized him up as soon as I entered, my lord, he was weak minded-"
"But his advisors were not. You said it yourself, the only way he could make any sort of verbal riposte was from a word in the ear; it is only our combined reputation that prevented you from overstepping your authority.
"You are young, too young for meddling in politics that are beyond your comprehension. You have the ability to extricate information and to joust with words, but only against those who are not likewise trained in verbal combat. I will not have my reputation, and that of the Ordo Xenos, brought low by the foolish actions of a rash Interrogator!" Naharva rarely shouted, and Khalaina felt tiny in his presence when he did, but the little nugget of information, the trick up her sleeve, allowed her to stand her ground.
"I understand my lord. But there is something I have been keeping from you."
Naharva's eyebrows rose, "I am listening."
"I myself did not come to the conclusions I have come to you with."
"You seek to only further discredit your argument? You disappoint me, Khalaina."
"No, my lord, it came from a source which I was assured you would understand." All she needed was a name, a damned name.
"Don't pussyfoot around the point, girl!" Naharva said through gritted teeth.
"It was…" His name, "It was…" Why did he not give her his thrice-damned name? "It…" Naharva's brows furrowed as his rage rose. He opened his mouth to speak, but Khalaina interrupted, "Erix."
In an instant, his anger subsided. With shaking hands, he replaced the cloth in the drawer and his monocle over his eye, "Leave me."
"My lord?"
"I said leave me." Naharva's voice was calm, but no less authoritative.
"As you wish, my lord."
It had just appeared. Erix. She did not know, and then she did. Erix. It sounded oddly familiar. Her mind drifted as she waited outside Naharva's quarters. Eldar. How did she not recognise the Farseer and his retinue? Something had clouded her memory, blocked her thoughts. Perhaps it was for the best, had she known, she would not have been open to his suggestions. Regardless, the Xeno had infiltrated her mind; she was not yet ready, as Naharva had said. He, Erix, would one day pay for his interference.
Naharva's door hissed as it slid open, revealing the daunting shape of the Inquisitor, clad in polished black power armour. An array of artfully crafting rings adorned his fingers, each one a masterpiece of design and also extremely deadly, as was most digital weaponry available. At his waist he had a variety of objects, some such as the psychotroke grenade held obvious value in a fight, whereas others, such as the mysterious plasma siphon, seemed to be little more than oddities, and yet were the bane of certain races and aliens, or allowed the bearer to pass unharmed through their midst.
What often caused more concern to his enemies, however, was the crimson blade that crackled in its sheath at his hip. His force sword was the ultimate display of rank after the brilliant golden '=I=' emblazoned upon his chest, and was also the last thing his enemies saw before they perished. With it, he had slain untold numbers of Xenos, and brought entire races to their knees. Combined with the forceshield upon his left arm, he could wade through enemy fire unscathed and deliver the Emperor's justice to those Xenos deserving of it.
"Khalaina, you have been made privy to something far beyond your current capabilities to comprehend, and whilst I am not in the least bit happy about it, it seems as though I have no choice but to grant you access to this secret." Naharva stepped in front of her and took a heavy breath, "Many years ago, the Imperial worlds in the Mauvoris sector witnessed a sector-wide disaster. The sanctioned psykers of the Imperial Guard forces stationed there went mad one by one, and in the first few days alone, hundreds of lives were lost.
"A select few, however, did not go mad in this sense; instead, they received horrific visions of chitinous beasts, hordes of them, approaching the sector. These psykers were grouped together into the Choir of the Forsaken, and foretold the gruesome deaths that would follow the invasion of the Shadow in the Warp.
"The governors of the worlds in the Mauvoris sector, however, did not listen, and the ramblings of the Choir did not leave their prison; and so the sector sat ignorant before a Tyranid splinter fleet looking to replenish their stocks. Some of the commanders of the PDF forces risked their own lives to go over the heads of their governors, and I was the first to respond to the request of Inquisitorial presence. It was not long after this call that Erix appeared to me.
"The Eldar are a tricky and untrustworthy race, but they are intelligent, and my curiosity not only as an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos, but also as a human being, led me to listen to what he spoke of. The Planetary Governments had been infiltrated by Genestealer cultists – much like the ones we face upon Nuraema Secundus – and ensured that the Tyranids were not only unexpected, but also already in control of their latest feast. What the Tyranids did not expect, however, was the Holy Inquisition, and the might of a Craftworld.
"Erix and I worked tirelessly whilst en route to the Mauvoris sector; his knowledge about the Tyranids and expertise in dealing with them being second to none, but the Tyranids had all but beaten us there and we only reached one conclusion: Exterminatus. Ultimately it worked for both of our races; the Tyranids were deprived of their meal; the Eldar warriors of Erix's Craftworld, Dras'Scur, ultimately crushed the weak, hungry fleet; and the Imperium was saved from facing a full-strength Hive Fleet, albeit at the cost of an entire sector.
"From that day, my main foe has been the Tyranid menace; it is because of them that I condemned trillions of innocent lives to death, and because of them that the Imperium must make these sacrifices for the good of humanity. Dras'Scur likewise seeks to eliminate the Tyranids, for they pose one of the greatest threats to their dwindling number, and have already claimed untold numbers of Eldar lives across the galaxy. They must be destroyed."
Naharva's eyes burned with incandescent fury, the likes of which Khalaina had never before seen. His force weapon hummed as powerful psychic currents reverberated through it from the hand upon its hilt, and he strode purposefully past the Interrogator,
"I do not trust many, and I do not generally trust Eldar, but I do trust Erix when it comes to matters such as these. Come, Interrogator Ferrum, we have much work to do and not nearly enough time in which to do it.".
