The black rose chapter 18
The world looked silent. It looked calm, peaceful compared to the Eye. Derik stared through the window, his closed fist between his forehead and the glass. Why are eyes so easy to trick?
The door behind him banged.
Derik sighed and rubbed a hand across his face. Go away. He wished.
"Come in." He said.
Derik turned as the door opened and saw General Corey enter the room. His felt his features sinking when seeing the man.
"Lord General."
"Lord Inquisitor."
"I have received the news. I know what happened at the siege." Derik remarked before the General could say anything.
"Good." Corey replied.
"Is that it?" Derik raised a brow.
Corey shrugged in response.
"I was just expecting more." There are few things people like more then to be proven right to those who doubted them.
"Won´t make a difference if I had more." Corey said. "The Maid is dead, and the Sisters and Alfred are both furious."
"Tell me, would I be wrong if I said that the Sisters are furious at your guardsmen and Alfred is furious at me?"
Corey drew a breath. "Both of them are angry at both of us. Doesn´t matter much now."
Derik felt himself puzzling at the General´s words. "I don´t think so."
"What do you mean?"
"I suspect Alfred to be a lost cause at this point. He´s seen too much, and yet not enough. He´s determined that he hates me."
"He may hate you but I´m more concerned for the lives of my soldiers." Corey said, his voice stiffening. "Because of you, there may be another civil war just as this one ends, or we may end up infighting and the heretics finish us of."
"Not if I can help it."
"What are you going to do? Lay down exterminatus and cleanse the planet of life? Or even better why don´t you force the Sisters to follow you and kill everyone once they´re on their way to Cadia?" The General growled. "It would be good for you wouldn´t it? You get rid of all of our problems and get what you want."
"If that was my plan, do you think I would allow on my ship? Do you think I would even have talked to Alfred to begin with?"
"Shut up." Corey snapped.
"Why?" Derik rebutted. "Am I making sense? Listen, there may be a way to get the Sisters to fight alongside your soldiers. To end this civil war."
"How?"
"I read the reports, one of the Sisters that where part of finding the Maid experienced an extreme, abnormal migraine. And you said that the Maid was famous for being able to wash away the corruption of chaos, yes?"
"I did but what does have to do with it?" Corey looked back at Derik with puzzled eyes.
Derik folded his arms and drummed his fingers. "I have a suspicion but I can´t say for certain without the body." He threw the General a quick glare. "And if I´m correct I don´t think you´re going to like the answer."
"Try me." The General replied with stiffness in his voice.
"Whether knowingly or unknowingly, the Maid may have been a psyker."
"What?!" Corey bellowed. "You suspect that the Maid of Astroya, the one who brought hundreds of pure children into this world under the Emperor´s blessing to be a psyker? A mutant?"
"Yes." Derik replied.
Corey paced back and forth, his hand rubbing against his forehead. He kept silent as he plodded.
"If that is the case," The General replied after a few moments. "Why does it matter?"
"It might be the reason she killed herself." Derik said.
Corey sighed, leaning his back against the wall. "Explain."
"Psykers have an affinity for the Warp and the energies that flow around it. Like how some have an affinity for running, swimming or just general strength. Unlike most other talents however, being a psyker comes with more curses then blessings. I trust you are aware of what happens when a psyker is discovered."
"I am aware that the Inquisition takes them." Corey said. "The rest is not something I am familiar with."
"There are few who are." Thankfully. "Considering how famous the Maid was, I would assume that she did not know herself of what exactly what she was. You and I both know what a psyker is, but most citizens in the Imperium are not familiar with it. She may have gotten lucky and managed to control her powers, or they just took a long time manifest. Either way it would seem like she had a knack for removing the psychic energies in those that touched her, being able to somehow channel them away."
"But how did cause her to kill herself?" Corey asked.
"Because the Warp is a swirling, mad sea of energies fueled by the emotions of everything with a soul in the galaxy. When you are able to feel it and channel it like psykers do, personal comfort is usually one of the first things to go. Daemons and other nightmarish entities will haunt you, like a pack of mad wolves chasing you through a forest in the night." Derik scoffed lightly. "And that is just for the average untrained psyker, this close to the Eye and during a bloody siege, the Warp would have been screaming with the pain, fury and hatred of the dead and living alike."
"Is that what she experienced?" Corey asked, his eyes widening and his skin growing pale.
"In some respects, yes."
"By the Emperor…" Corey rubbed his temple.
That´s not mentioning the Warp-predators and parasites that would have been seeing her as a piece of fresh meat. Poor girl. Derik took a moment to think about the Maid, her intentions, her ambitions and how she ended. The conclusion send ripples under his skin, cold enough to make him shudder.
"If you are right," Corey said. "And I hope you are, there may be a way out of this."
"I never found much usage in hoping."
"You do strike me as a man of action." The General replied, some bitterness in his tone.
"Regardless, there is still the issue of Alfred. You said he was furious with me."
"No less than he is with me."
"You?" Derik raised a brow.
"He sees enemies everywhere these days. Once he found out he accused me of being a conspirator to have tainted the Sisters and corrupted them." Corey shacked his head. "If any of the Sisters had been there, I would have been bleeding out on a crucifix by now."
Derik puzzled for a moment. "Who´s the commander of the forces deployed with the Sisters?"
"Colonel Garius Lup." Corey replied.
"Do you know him?"
"He was my mentor and teacher in the art of war."
And yet you are outranking him. Curious. "Send word to him, that Inquisitor Derik Horst is on his way."
A smile flashed on the General´s lips before it quickly faded. "What´s your plan now?"
"I am going to the fortress. From there I have a few ideas, the goal being to avoid the Sisters and the Imperial guard infighting and get them to stand united a second time."
It took a moment before Corey replied. "Why don´t I come along?"
"Because if Alfred is furious with you, then he´s made sure that the Sisters know it." Derik replied. "I know that the same applies to me, but you are just a general of the Imperial guard and I´m an Inquisitor."
"You´re not wrong. You are an Inquisitor and that means your words hold more weight to the Sisters then that of a general." Corey stared into the ground. "I will make sure that Garius knows you´re coming. Be careful with the Sisters though. I wasn´t joking about the crucifix." He turned and left the room.
Derik turned back to the window and started thinking when another knock came through the door. Did he forget something? He wondered.
"Come in." Derik said.
It wasn´t the General, it was Tayber who entered the room.
"What is it now, tech-priest?"
The clicking yellow dots locked onto Derik´s face. "We´ve just received a message, lord Inquisitor." One of the segmented hands held forth a rolled parchment.
Could he be any vaguer? Derik grunted to himself as he took the parchment.
"Prepare for departure." Derik said as he unrolled the parchment, quickly skimming through it. It was a simple update on the state on Cadia nothing of importance. But then he soon slowed down. His eyes darted back forth between the letters.
"Are we finally leaving this planet?" Tayber´s vox butted in.
"No." Derik stopped himself. "We are going to the other side of this world. To meet the Sisters of the Hawk."
"Very well." The tech-priests voice grated noticeably more. "I will have the rest of the crew preparing the ship." Tayber turned and left Derik.
The moment the door closed, Derik rushed over to his desk. He took a notebook and quill and started writing. Word by word, he was transcribing it.
"Head…" He refilled the quill. "Approach…"
The quill hanged still above the paper, a drop of jet black ink fell of the tip and quickly sunk into the parchment.
"Wolf."