Sitting at his desk, Commissar Ciaphas CAIN HERO OF THE-

Right, that's enough of that. Look, I'm not a hero, and I never have been. The sense of relief I felt when I was finally allowed to retire, for real this time, was so deep I thought I actually might pass out. My previous retirement had just been an excuse for Amberly to turn me into her pet private agent, though I'm still not certain if it were myself or Jurgen that she was really interested in.*

Speaking of Jurgen, I glanced up from my reports as a pungent odor wafted in. My ever faithful aide trundled in, bearing a tray with a steaming pot of tanna tea and two cups.

"Yer tea, Commissar," Jurgan said. I didn't bother correcting him. Jurgan is a man of habit, and at this point I wasn't going to bother teaching an old dog new tricks.

"Thank you Jurgen." I frowned at the extra cup. "Am I expecting someone?"

"Um, me, sir."

I looked up to find Kittenus smiling at me, his white teeth a stark contrast to his dark skin. Normally the boy was all eager smiles, but this one seemed just a bit strained. He had dark circles under his eyes, and my eyebrows rose.

"You look like hell, young man. Have a seat."

Kittenus slumped into a chair across from me as I moved aside the various assignments I was grading. Jurgen dutifully set out the tea and cups. It was a credit to Kittenus' manners that he didn't flinch away from Jurgen. As a Blank, he tends to have that effect on people. I did have to wonder if Kittenus were really tired or just not as smart as I thought he was when he accepted then bit into a sandwich that Jurgen pulled out of one of his innumerable pockets. I took the offering with a smile and a nod of thanks, but didn't eat it.

Aside from pornography, grenades, and extra ammo, the Empress only knows what Jurgen keeps in those bandoliers. Even though we'd been at the Imperial Acadamy for three years now, Jurgen still acted like we were in a combat zone and kept himself prepared. He was even carrying that old melta gun of his strapped to his back.**

"What brings you to my office, Kittenus?" I asked, picking up the tanna and sipping at it. Kittenus did the same, then made a face. Tanna tends to be a bit of an acquired taste***, and one I picked up during my many years with The Valhallan 597th. Though how he could stomach whatever greasy mess Jurgan served up while misliking the tea was beyond me.

"Two things, sir," Kittenus said, sitting up a little straighter. "First, I've come to inquire about another student joining your class."

"Ah, if you're here on behalf of the two freshly arrived Princesses, their highnesses have already been added to my roster," I said with a reassuring smile. Dutiful young man, Kittenus. Just the sort of hard working sort who would gladly charge into the heat of battle and get himself killed at the first chance. I'd been trying to pound caution into his head, but the poor lad had a bad case of "For the Empress" and seemed determined to martyr himself for the cause.

Of course, as I would later find out, letting the boy impale himself on a greenskin's axe or even on a tyranid's claw might have been kinder than the fate that awaited the poor lad.

"No sir, though I am glad to hear it." Kittenus flushed, but forced himself to meet my eyes. "It's about Shas'O'Shassera."

I blinked in surprise. "What, you mean Shadowsun?"

"She...prefers not to go by her Imperial name, sir," Kittenus said slowly. "But, you do know she's Fire Caste, don't you?"

I nodded. "Of course. I fought with her brother, Shas'O'Shovah, at Quadravidia."

That was, of course, a gross exaggeration of the truth. What I had done was use the overly zealous xenos and his Fire Caste maniacs as a convenient and disposable moving shield. For some reason, Far Sight had got it into his head that I saved his life from a hive tyrant, and declared us Nakama, as if we'd gone through that insane ta'lissera ritual of theirs. Really, the hive tyrant had just got in the way of me leaving O'Shovah and his companions to their deaths, and since it had been after me as the closest target, killing it had been the only way to save my own skin.

Saving the xenos was just an unfortunate side effect.****

"Well sir, she…,well, she wishes to join your class. She feels as though the tactics class would be best for her. The only reason she isn't in it is, well...you know the official Imperial stance on the t'au military."

I nodded slowly, considering. Officially, the Fire Caste still existed, but was limited to operations around T'au Sept and the Farsight Enclaves. Shadowsun, that is, Shas'O'Shassera to use her xenos name, was at the academy as a sort of cultural exchange and diplomatic fig leaf to sooth t'au egos. I had personally been in favor of it, as frankly I'd rather have the big guns of the Fire Caste pointed at my enemies, not at me, thank you very much.

What I didn't want to do was stick my neck out for some xenos girl. She was supposed to learn about Imperial culture, not Imperial Military tactics, and me violating that would have been a good way to draw attention I didn't want.

"Well," I temporized, "does the girl have any talents in that regard?"

"Oh yes sir," Kittenus said eagerly. "She's an expert at infiltration and assassination! Why, I'd hate to ever get on her bad side, she can be quite deadly when motivated."

A cold trickle of sweat ran down my back. I had far to much experience with infiltrators and assassins from my career. Actually, I would have preferred a sum total of zero experience with them, but I'd gotten in the cross hairs of the enemies of the Imperium, human, xenos, or otherwise far too often for my own tastes.

"You, ah, don't say." My immediate thought was to try to find a way to get rid of the girl. "She's loyal though?"

"She acknowledges the Emperor as the Supreme Ethereal of the world, head of the Ethereal caste, and thus she is honor bound to obey her and her orders. But she could do so best with tactics training! She'll be really upset if she's not let in, sir."

"Oh?" I asked, swallowing. I'd had to dodge a T'au stealth suit kill team once, with only happy accident leading to them bumping into a lictor that had the same idea of assassinating one all too squishy commissar. Honestly, I don't know why everyone was always gunning for me. If they'd just left me alone I would have been happy to never bother them.*****

"And it would be a big favor to her family, sir! You could ask Commander O'Shova, he could tell you that his little sister is just as deadly as any trained commando," Kittenus said earnestly.

Now I came to a conundrum. One thing I absolutely did not want was a highly motivated xenos assassin with access to the Empress only knew what sort of weird alien technologies developing a grudge against me and going head hunting. However, I also did not want to anger any higher ups and lose my cushy post. They'd only just post me back at the front, and I was far too old and mortal to be willing to risk that again.

Thus, I needed to pass the buck, and fast.

"I tell you what, Kittenus. If you can get approval from a higher authority to rubber stamp Ms. Shassera's transfer, I'd be happy to have her as part of my class."

"Higher authority, sir?" Kittenus asked.

I nodded, putting a mournful expression on my face. "Yes, you see, I'm only a professor. You need approval from the professor and either an administrator or Imperial authority of some sort for a student to switch classes once the semester has started. Here, I'll sign the paper myself."

I pulled a transfer slip off my desk, scrawled my name on it, and passed it over to Kittenus. "Just get it properly approved and I'll welcome my newest pupil."

"Oh, thank you sir!" Kittenus said eagerly, and hurried off.

I grinned as he left, satisfied that I would not have to deal with a xenos in my class, as there was no way old Malchador would sign it, nor would Dean Celestine. They were both Empress botherers of the highest degree, and had no patience for xenos auxiliaries. For me, I couldn't get enough of them. A few xenos between me and danger instead of a few xenos putting me in danger was just the sort of idea I approved of.

Of course, if I had only known WHO Kittenus was going to get to sign the paper, or what it would lead to, I would have tendered my resignation on the spot and begged for that front line posting. Or worse, thrown myself at Amberly's feet and begged for her own tender mercies.******

InquisitorVeil's Notes:

*A bit of both, actually. Jurgen is quite useful for his more unique properties, especially against the ever present threat of the tyranids, or whoever else seems to think mucking about with the greater mysteries is a good idea. Cain, however, has his own unique uses.

**Considering what future events would shortly bring to the Imperial Academy, I have to say Jurgen was quite the insightful man.

***That's putting it mildly. I've always described tanna tea as having the same taste and color of boiling ones socks after a week long march, with a bit of boot heel for flavor.

****To hear the legendary t'au general tell it, Cain personally dueled and dispatched a hive tyrant with nothing but his chain sword, a laser pistol, and quick thinking. Either way, Cain did manage to once more be at precisely the right place at exactly the right time, and his stroke ended up unifying the T'au and Imperial Forces to successfully repel the tyranids from Quadravdia. Indeed, it was later one of the reasons for the successful annexation of T'au by the Imperium peacefully.

*****Probably because as the Imperium's most famous and beloved hero, his death would have been a massive blow to moral. Not to mention Cain's rather impressive combat and command records.

******He has other reason to throw himself at my feet. Honestly, my husband can be so dramatic at times. It's not as though I'm actually trying to get him killed, as he has a refreshing tendency to survive all those suicide missions.