-Planet: Kawus -Year: 913.M34 -Location: North of Ultima Segmentum, border of the Ghoul Stars -POV: Inquisitor William Husan of the Ordo Malleus
On the orbit of the hive planet Kawus, stationed an army, their first task is to liberate imperial planets under orkish control near the ghoul stars, their second task is to deal with an awakened tomb world that is threatening the imperial territory. The force sent to retake the territory was relatively large, armies of this size were uncommon in these parts of the imperium, forgotten lands far from emperor's light and filled with horrors unseen to man, the army force task with this mission consisted of 15 million guardsmen, Astartes chapter 'angel vindicators' and the main reason of this expedition, 10000 skitarii from mechanicus. Under the pressure of the Mechanicum, they assembled their armies and prepared to reclaim the territory from Xenos filth.
It all happened when a mechanicus fleet found an STC unit near the ghoul stars and news were sent out about the successful expedition, magos, and his forces were about to reclaim it when Necrons awakened and orks start assaulting the planet excited to fight the "metals boyz", magos couldn't reclaim the STC and died trying to protect it.
Inquisitor William was standing in the command center of his ship which stood alongside the imperial forces, his purpose, however, was different. Inquisitor has been tasked by his Ordo to investigate a psychic signal emanating from the long-lost planet of Thule within the Ghoul stars.
Almost 900 years ago an inquisitorial ship with classified cargo was lost within the region, the psychic signal received from Thule reached to eyes of the inquisition so he was sent to retrieve it.
"Are you worried about the mission" Inquisitor heard a cold voice behind him, he was looking at a holographic map of the region and the planet Thule
"Say my title out loud next time you ask questions like these, assassin" Said inquisitor to Avina, she is a death cult assassin who has served under the inquisitor's orders for only 2 years, but in those 2 years she has proven herself to be a great asset, her skills are a fine addition to his retinue
"We are far away from emperor's light inquisitor and that map you looking at is untrustworthy" Avina said before pausing "The words of our sacrifices may not reach the Emperor from here, why kill heretics if God cannot witness our actions" Said the assassin declaring her desire
"Although I do not approve of your tradition, I cannot argue with the results, do not worry, the emperor will see your deeds regardless of how far we may be" said the inquisitor "For now we need to find a psyker, the loss of Thassail is affecting our performance" William said, his was remind him of their previous companion, Thassail was a sanctioned psyker William found in a hive world 20 years ago, the fact that a psyker survive that long in his ordo was a miracle
"One mutant wasn't enough, you want to add another?" Avina growled with disgust at the thought of having another witch on board
"Pray to the emperor that we can find a sanctioned psyker on the planet, otherwise we'll have to resort to taking a wild psyker" Said William
"They fall to chaos, sanctioned or not" the assassin argued
"Looks like you don't understand your position assassin. I decide who to take on MY retinue, YOUR job is to do as I told you to do!" Inquisitor growled, the assassin was skilled, no doubt about that, but he will not tolerate insubordination.
Avina stood silent hearing the inquisitor's words and said nothing more, but her face showed dislike about the idea.
"Look assassin, I know your distrust of psykers, which is justified, but we need them nonetheless, without them, banishing the daemons would be difficult" William sighed "Just tell the crew to prepare, the army is ready to leave soon" said the inquisitor waving his hand to indicate she is dismissed.
-Planet: Thule -Year: 913.M34 -Location: North of Ultima Segmentum, Ghoul Stars -POV: Anon
The memory of the revelation Anon saw was still fresh in his mind, 800 years ago Anon realized where exactly he was, Warhammer 40k, one of the worst universes someone can live in, and he had the unfortunate "Blessing" of being a psyker, worst wizards in history of science fiction and fantasy.
At first, it took a few weeks for Anon to come to terms with this, for weeks he was thinking about the new realization, his world turned upside down then his hopes crumbled to dust with the thought of living in 40k.
That Anon was now gone, now he had changed, the wisdom of age helped him come to terms with his situation and gave him new purpose, he had to learn how to use his psychic powers, it was essential for surviving in such a harsh and unforgiving galaxy, he might be a perpetual but that doesn't mean he can't truly die.
His efforts were not futile, after all those years of dedication and training he reached a level of psychic control that was unachieved amongst normal human psykers, maybe he had a talent for it, maybe Duran's efforts were to blame, maybe normal human psykers don't receive proper training or maybe because he had such a long lifespan like that of the aeldari. The only difference between him and the Eldar(except his round ears)is that even an Eldar die of old age but he didn't.
Anon personally believed it to be a bit of all of them but mostly the last theory, he thought the reason for him being able to learn psychic powers with such level of control, was because he had dedicated a few human lifetimes to train himself, a luxury the others could not afford.
However right now it wasn't the time for theorizing, he had lived here long enough and now he was ready to leave the planet, if he wants to survive 40k, he had to leave the planet behind. Living in a feudal world is good for psychic training but not ideal for defending yourself from the threats of the galaxy, so if possible Anon wished to go to a planet in Segmentum Solar, which is the most defended region of the galaxy.
But since he had no means of leaving the planet he had to use an outside factor to do it for him, so when he found an imperial ship with the mark of the inquisition that had crashed into the planet, he searched the ship in hopes of finding a way to leave the planet, he found many remaining skeletons of the dead inquisition agents alongside the dead inquisitor. He also found a few lasguns and even a plasma pistol alongside a box with a seal, when he opened the box he found a psychic item with the purpose of killing daemons, it was a staff that in the hands of a trained psyker discharged enormous amounts of psychic energy at a small location turning everything into ash.
50 years ago he found the crash ships but because he wanted to finish his training he ignored it, however, now was the time, he opened the sealed box and started to emanate his psychic energies that turned into a signal in the warp, enough for imperial forces to recognize and come to retrieve their item, after doing that, Anon decided to wait and train until his 'saviors' come to pick him up, or at least he hoped they would come.
His psychic gift was not the only thing he trained in. 400 years ago when a large number of feral orks attacked his region, he, in an act of self-defense(and arrogance), fought a large number of them at once, he thought after all this time of training, he could beat all of them alone... he was mistaken, Anon's powerful psychic attack devastated the ork numbers before they could get close, however, he had underestimated the orks, orks came in such numbers that even killing hundreds of them in a single attack couldn't drive them back, he unleashed one spell after another until the entire land was filled with ork corpses, even then they didn't stop coming, this continued until after 14 hours of fighting Anon was exhausted, that was when orks finally managed to close their distance with him.
The orks utterly crushed him in close combat, the memory of his first death is still fresh, 5 nob-sized orks surrounded him and used their axes and clubs to decimate him, they broke his bones and tore down his flesh limb by limb. That memory helped Anon realize how arrogant he was to underestimate his enemies, and how much he overestimated his abilities, and most importantly he learned a valuable lesson: Start training in melee combat, so after his revival, he started to practice with various weapons.
Anon was still trash in using swords compare to the other races like dark Eldar, space marines, and others, In the best-case scenario, Anon could beat a single howling banshee, he just prayed that either he could have enough time to train or that no enemies more skilled than howling banshees closed their distance on him, well at least he could leave when he left the planet.
-Planet: Galludic III -Year: 913.M34 -Location: Segmentum Tempestus, Uhulis Sector -POV: Farseer Anath'lan
Planet of Galludic-III is a hive world that is home to many important local manufactorums, they were tasked with helping the forge worlds produce a steady supply chain for vast armies of the imperial guard.
Galludic-II is currently feeling the wrath of a WAAAGH led by warboss Snagdakka Steelfang.
History was not kind to Galludic-III, even before the arrival of WAAAGH the planet's air was barely breathable, and now that vast armies battled under the already ruined ecosystem, made it impossible to breathe without a mask.
Snagdakka Steelfang arrived at the system 2 years ago by a space hulk and caught the imperial defenders off guard, 3 hive cities fell to the greenskin armies rampaging on the planet, the orkish Waaagh! was under the rule of one of the meanest and baldest warbosses in the sector.
They were winning against the PDF until the reinforcements arrived, knowing the importance of the manufactorums on the planet, segmentum command has sent 5 million imperial guardsmen to exterminate the greenskin vermin before they damage valuable factories and production facilities. And when the storm wings space marine chapter arrived to aid the local imperial forces, perfect distraction for aeldari forces were made.
Two Eldar strike teams moved unseen, using the distractions made by two forces clashing each other and aided by their farseers, the teams were almost invisible to the local human garrison, the first squad led by farseer Kaedra moved to retrieve a soul stone from a human facility. The soul stone belonged to a farseer long dead, so long that Kaedra wasn't even born at the time.
And the second strike team was led by farseer Anath-lan who was tasked with retrieving a psychic staff known as Shadowshard an item said to be forged before the fall of the aeldari race from grace. Both of the items are necessary for a ritual.
Biel-tan had always wanted to retrieve these items from this world, but due to their craftworld's reputation amongst the mon-keigh even slimmest chance of diplomatic solution was lost, they also could not attack an important mon-keigh world, that would only bring unneeded destruction to the craftworld, so their only option remaining was stealth, and now that a distraction was conjured by the orks, the eldari plan began.
Anath-lan approached his objective, the psychic trails of the staff had led him to a small hive guarded by human PDF garrison and a small group of the imperial guard, the plan was simple, a small group of fire dragons and dire avengers were to move unseen using farseer's psychic cloak to the other side of the city and create a distraction by blowing up the promethium storages, then the other team consisting of dire avengers and howling banshees were to move through the unguarded gate once mon-keigh soldiers left.
At first, the plan worked as expected, the distraction drew the guards away and the second team managed to sneak through the gate, only needing to kill two PDF troops that stayed behind to keep watch, but then, it all went wrong, farseer in his visions had seen few paths leading to a battle with imperials, the paths which he tried to avoid but in the end, they came to pass, not only that but they were worse!
Unfortunately for Anath'lan space marine librarian of the storm wings has seen his arrival at this hive and prepared an ambush for his team, and now they were surrounded by all sides, stuck inside an imperial vault house as Anath'lan desperately tried to find a way out.
"Farseer!" a voice was heard alongside the sounds of weapons fire, the screams of banshees cutting down imperial PDF forces foolish enough to get close then gracefully retreating to the covering fire of the avengers, the sounds of primitive mon-keigh lasguns and auto guns was almost deafening,
Eldar avenger's voice was barely heard "Farseer space marines are assaulting from our backs, we have already lost 4 banshees and 2 avengers, if this continues like this we'll all be dead before we could see another day " said the avenger he clearly wants an order, no, vision to save them
Anath'lan cursed himself for not seeing this turn of events, only if he could saw the librarian, all this would not have happened, but if he could get out of this place with the staff all would be worth it, the souls of his kin would worth the sacrifice, after all, what worth few souls have compared to billion living on the craftworld.
"We will break through avenger, wait for my orders, I will nullify their minds into seeing illusions, you will have a brief moment to escape, do it but leave the staff with me I need to use it to hold off the human librarian" Anath'lan ordered to the avenger receiving a slight nod of acknowledgment from the young ranger
Seeing through strings of fate, Anath chose a path, a path where the chance for failure was great, unfortunately for the second team this path is their best option.
With each second, the sounds of bolter fire from their back approached, bringing with them the doom of the Eldar, Farseer focused his powers for his plan, he had to create an illusion to trick the mon-keigh into thinking they were still in the battle fighting them, to do this in such a large area he required a great sum of his power, or at least what little left of it.
The main problem, however, was the mon-keigh librarian, the human was fresh while the farseer was almost exhausted, not only did he need to perform an illusion in a rather large area but also needed to fend off the human psyker so he couldn't see through the illusion.
'In Isha's name, I'm not the young soul I once were' farseer complained to himself as he prepared his runes, he activate his rune and started to draw power from it, it was truly a skillful art he was performing, he was drawing just enough power for his task and just low enough to not break the rune, truly, he was pushing himself to the limit.
The 1000 years of experience and training were showing their effect on performing the illusion, as he finish casting the spell he signed his group to move as quickly as possible.
His visions became true as mon-keigh seemingly ignored the Eldar passing by them. Under the effects of his illusion, the mon-keigh thought that his kin was still fighting back against them within the ruined vault.
The Illusion cast by Anath could not hold forever, it will hold even less thanks to the human psyker pressing his against his illusions. Anath'lan fought a battle of wills between himself and the space marine, using the Shadowshard staff he barely managed to hold the space marine back, fortunately, the space marine was not as experienced as other librarians he have seen before.
For more than half-hour the two battled with each other, until all of the second strike team left the ambush area moving towards their escape route made by the fire dragons.
When all of his warriors were outside of the city, Anath-lan disengaged with the space marine and used the last of his power to enhance his body. He ran like Isha when she was escaping the great enemy, he ran with all his might, dodging lasfire and autogun rounds, finally in what it seemed like longest 5 minutes of his life farseer escaped through the hole made by the distraction team outside the hive,
"Anath!" shouted a feminine voice as he looked in the direction of the voice, he saw Kaedra and what was left of the strike teams in a vampire raider waiting for him, the raider was concealed by Kaedra's illusion in order to prevent humans from using their AA guns, after only a few moments, farseer managed to throw himself into the transport, vampire raider moved into orbit as imperials tried to chase them with their fighters but they were unsuccessful.
-Planet: Craftworld Beil-tan -Year: 913.M34 -Location: Segmentum Tempestus, Uhulis Sector -POV: Kaedra
Farseer Anath has been quiet since he came from the mission, perhaps he blames himself for not being able to foresee the space marine's interference with the mission, or perhaps he is too fixated on completing his ritual.
In the last 50 years, her teacher has been obsessed with his vision, the vision of a silver mask. She didn't know why he was so obsessed with it, she was scared that her teacher might get lost in his path completely, so she decided to help him.
Kaedra has been worried about her teacher's condition since he asked the council for the mission, at first, the council was confused about the suggestion but agreed with him anyway, after all retrieving their ancient artifacts was within their interest.
The seers and exarchs thought Anath wanted this item for the greater good of the Craftworld, but Kaedra knew better, Anath was obsessed and she felt that his obsession might harm him or people around him, so she decided to confront him about it.
Kaedra is a farseer, someone who leaves everything behind to serve the craftworld, even their families, a farseer must not have a family that might cause them to be biassed towards someone, all of the eldari in the eyes of a farseer is her/his family so that if they had to sacrifice one to save many others they would do so without hesitation.
But even then Kaedra couldn't help but to see Anath as her father, he always cared for her, always guided her, and now that he required her help, she will be there for him.
Kaedra stood before the door that lead to Anath's personal chamber where he meditated most of the time, a room which he hasn't left for a long time, the time when he didn't interact with anyone, even Kaedra.
It was true that farseers have the oath to dedicate their lives to the betterment of the craftworld, and that includes time spent on social matters as well, but even a farseer needs to talk with someone from time to time, and Anath was no exception.
Kaedra sensed someone inside the chamber, it was her teacher who was meditating, she knocked on the door to announce her arrival, after 2 minutes of uncomfortable wait the door opened to reveal an aged Eldar.
"Is there a reason for your arrival farseer?" asked the old man with a tired tone
"I have come here to talk with you, if you'll have me" said Kaedra asking permission to enter
Anath-lan moved out of the way and welcomed Kaedra, she entered the room. Inside her teacher's room was bland like most people's rooms in his profession, the room had a wraithbone color, and a window on the wall that looked up to the empty space, there was a small shrine under the window, the rest of the room was furnished sparsely with a few chairs, a table, plants, and a bed.
"So farseer, I apologize for I cannot provide much in terms of hospitality, but I'm sure that is not why you are here" said Anath-lan sitting on a chair next to the wall and offering another sit for her
"Anath, you know that you can call me the way you used to before, you feel distant when you refer to me by my title" said Kaedra with a sad tone
"Then and now are different, now you are a farseer and as an equal, it would be insulting to refer to you like have I used to before" Anath answered before pausing momentarily then continued "Besides the person you knew before has changed, I have lived for too long Kaedra, and soon I too will join our kin in the infinity circuit, but before that, I need to do one final thing"
Anath's explanation was cut short by his guest "Does your reason have something to do with the mask?" said Kaedra, the anger in her face is visible to Anath "You saw that vision hundreds of years ago when I was still a warlock, the silver mask has no meaning" said Kaedra out loud
"We both know that it's not true, the silver mask means something Farseer and I need to know it" said Anath trying to convince Kaedra
"And why it is only you who can see it then? why no other can see it, Anath? no other farseer has ever seen such a thing" Kaedra retorted
Hearing that Anath-lan's face grows angry "Are you claiming that I lie?"
"N-no" Kaedra paused for a second trying to put her words in such a shape that will provoke Anath's anger "It's just that... I...I worry about you..." said Kaedra looking down
Seeing this Anath felt shame for raising his voice against his disciple when all she was trying to do was to look after him "I'm sorry Kaedra" said Anath with an apologetic voice "I appreciate your concern but they are unnecessary" Anath said
"You cannot continue like this Anath if you do so you'll lose yourself in the path, then not even infinity circuit will accept you" Kaedra argued "Anath please If you continue following that vision you'll be damned" farseer begged to her teacher
"I have served the craftworld as a witch for far longer than you, I know you may doubt me, it is understandable, but know this, I will not lose myself in the path, I know the thin line between obsession and duty" Said Anath trying to calm down his disciple, but Anath knew it wouldn't be enough
Kaedra was a good disciple, so much so that he wouldn't ask for anyone else. So he decided to offer her a solution "Since I know my word can't convince you so I offer you something else" said Anath in a calm tone
"And what that solution would be?" Kaedra asked with a slight show of doubt on her face
"Since you do not trust my words, I will give you a promise" said Anath with a slight pause then continued "As you know that damnable mask has been plaguing my mind for a long time, and I intend to end it" Anath smiled while saying that.
From the day when he first saw the mask, all of his visions were doomed to end the same way, at first the visions were so far in the future that the mask was of no concern, but in the last 50 years the said future was getting closer, to such extent that all of his visions ended at some point, and he was unable to see it further into currents of time for unknown reasons, but by using this ritual he might be able to see his final prophecy.
Kaedra was in deep thought on what to do, on one hand, she doubted the credibility of her teacher's words, and on the other hand, she wanted her teacher to stop pursuing the visions, in the end, she decided to trust her teacher one final time, all she can hope was that he was right "My ears are yours farseer" said Kaedra eager to hear his solution
Anath smiled then spoke about his proposal, Kaedra would allow him to conduct his ritual, in return, he will be doing it in front of the council for all to see, if he is right, they'll know what the silver mask means, and if it wasn't important, he will stop pursuing this vision.
Kaedra thought for a few minutes before answering "Very well farseer, I accept it" She said while smiling, Anath was treading the right path and that was all she needed to know.
"Thank you Kaedra, your trust means a lot for me" Anath thanked her
"There is no need for that Anath, I shouldn't have doubted you, I'm glad that I was wrong about you being obsessed" said Kaedra apologetically
"Well" said Anath pausing for a minute then asked a question "Tea?"
"Yes, I like that" answered Kaedra. Both shared a chuckle then spend some time talking and sharing stories of old times, it was times like these that Kaedra cherished the most, it may not last for long but for now, she intends to enjoy it.
-Planet: Orbit of Thule -Year: 914.M34 -Location: Ultima Segmentum, Ghoul Stars -POV: Inquisitor Willam Husan of Ordo Malleus
Inquisitor stood above the orbit of the planet, Thule was an unremarkable planet in the middle of nowhere with no value to the imperium, far from emperor's light, the planet was left to fend off enemies on its own, but they won't last long, not as a feudal world.
"The team is ready for the mission Inquisitor" announced a deep voice from behind
Willam looked behind to see the ex-arbite standing near the door, Ishmael was an arbite before joining Inquisitor's retinue, he was a well-built man with brown hair and black eyes, he stood at 1.9cm tall and wore inquisition issued black colored carapace with stormtrooper issued helmet, he has been serving under his orders for 12 years now.
"Good, we will only use two teams, one team will stand by in reserve while we go to retrieve the package" Willam ordered then moved towards the shuttle bay of the ship.
Since the mission was to retrieve a package from a feudal world Willam didn't expect much in terms of fighting, but being too careful never harmed anyone in his line of work, the only problem was finding the damn thing without a psyker, it might even take them a month to do so.
In 15 minutes all of the crew was in place, his team consisted of a death cult assassin Avina, arbite Ishmael, 3 Stormtroopers, magos Toll Lexiom, and himself. The second team consisted mostly of stormtroopers and two combat servitors, they would leave on two Aquila landers. After everyone was briefed about the mission they moved into the landers and commenced the mission.
After hours of navigation at a low altitude, the pilot detected a ship crash site and landed the ship in 50 meters of the crash site. Immediately inquisitor's team moved to secure the perimeter while Avina moved up the trees and into the woods, in the darkness of the night she was almost invisible to the naked eye and move with a grace that showed her skills as a death cult assassin.
William led the team from the front towards their objective, he was wearing black power armor with golden lines and symbols, he had a bolt pistol and a power sword, right behind the team was the magos in red robes with plasma weaponry, Ishmael on the other hand, preferred a shotgun while stormtroopers had hotshot lasguns, they moved information that showed their experience and training as elite troops.
After 10 minutes they reached the crash site, the stormtroopers, and Ishmael secured the crash site while inquisitor and magos moved into the crashed ship, the ship was an arvus a transport ship capable of holding large amounts of cargo. The search was over in less than 30 minutes when magos confirmed that cargo wasn't there.
"Throne damn it, if we are to search for every crashed transport we'll have to search for months" Inquisitor complained, he had no psyker on his ship, the only psyker were the navigators and they are not good at pinpointing the location of the cargo, the only thing they did was to show a large area of the planet and told him cargo was there, at this point he had to search 1/4 of the planet.
As William and his team were moving toward the lander they heard something ~You need not search for that long~ all of the team heard the voice, the strange part was that voice was heard directly from their minds.
"A WITCH" shouted Ishmael, the group immediately prepared their weapons and searched for the psyker, they couldn't find him
~You cannot find me, as long as I don't wish to show myself~ said the voice
"Who are you?" asked the inquisitor wondering if this was a sanctioned psyker or not, it was impossible for sanctioned psyker to be here without means to travel towards holy terra, so that remained two options, a rogue psyker which was highly unlikely since he showed skills in telepathic communication and had the ability to hide his presences, that leaves only one option, a chaos sorcerer. Before he could finish thinking the psyker's voice was heard again.
~You are quite skilled in analyzing Inquisitor, but you are wrong, I am not a chaos cultist~ said the voice again
William realized that his thought was opened to the psyker, a normal human psyker will have a hard time doing multiple tasks at once and he doubted any librarians would come to this planet for whatever reason, perhaps he was an Eldar? either that or he was a chaos sorcerer and he was lying to him.
~And no I am not lying nor am I an Eldar inquisitor~ said the voice again
"Then who are you?" asked Ishmael clearly angered by being at a disadvantage
`You don't need to know my name, what you need to know however is what I can do for you?~ the voice paused ~You are looking for something and I can help find it~ offered the voice
"You know that we can find the thing right? it may take a long time but in the end, we'll find it with or without your help" said William trying to learn who he was talking to
~Yes you are right Inquisitor, but I can help you locate it immediately instead of wasting time~ said the voice, there was no feeling in the tone of the voice, it was just it, a voice ~Besides, it appears you have recently lost your psyker, don't you think a someone like me, can be of help for you?~ asked the voice
"So you wish to join my retinue, the problem is you don't talk to an inquisitor without showing yourself and asked them to join their retinue" William retorted "Show yourself and I might consider your offer" Inquisitor shouted
~My apologies Inquisitor, I did not mean to insult you~ said the voice
William was surprised to hear humility from the psyker, most, if not all of the time psyker as skilled as he, were an arrogant bunch, thinking of themselves as above others
"I will accept your apology if you reveal yourself"
~Very well Inquisitor~ said the voice but nothing happened, there was no one "I'm behind you" this time it was not a telepathic voice rather, it was a male voice that came from behind, the entire team looked behind to see a man with a silver mask wearing a red robe on a golden cloth that covers most of his arms and reached till his knees, he is wearing leather boots and his pants was the same color as his cloth, short black hair was visible behind his mask which covered only front of his face till his ears, the psyker had a plasma pistol attached to the right side of his belt and held a staff with a blade on top, it looked like it was used for multi-purpose of melee and psychic enhancer but it was not an imperial design nor eldari, frankly it looked rather primitive but well crafter.
"Well, say what you want to say" said the inquisitor signing his soldiers to keep their guns prepared
"As I said before Inquisitor, I will help you locate the item" said the masked man
"And I presume to wish to join my retinue?" Willam asked, the squad was watching the masked man carefully as he answered
"That is your decision to make, all I wish is to leave this planet wheater you accept me in your retinue or not, but knowing imperium you can't leave a psyker like me to his own" masked man answered
"Yes that is true" said the inquisitor, William, in his peripheral vision saw Avina ready to strike at the unsuspecting psyker, William quickly replaced the thought with something else, a trick he learned when fighting psykers, replacing your thoughts, so that psyker don't have the chance to read your mind, he was pretty sure the witch didn't manage to read his thought "It is true that having a psyker in my retinue makes my job easier, but why would I choose a wild psyker who haven't named himself or shown his face, over sanctioned ones?" asked the inquisitor
It was when psyker tried to answer that Avina leaped from his back with such speed that was impossible for a normal human to respond, the masked man didn't even react, the squad watched in shock as the assassin levitated in the air unable to land or move, the psyker have managed to hold Avina in place without any effort "My apologies Inquisitor but I cannot show my face nor reveal my true name, my identity is very important for me, I cannot afford to reveal it, however, I can allow you to scan me for chaos taint, I can assure you I'm not a sorcerer or eldari" said the masked man
William considered his offer, it was a reasonable offer, although he didn't like the idea of not knowing the identity of his retinue, he could test him for chaos taint using gray knights, after all he had seen, having a skilled psyker like him would greatly help in his mission and even allow him to rise through the ranks, maybe he could even learn the secret of his skill and use it on other psykers, greatly increasing imperium's ability to fight chaos, but still the thought of not knowing his identity bothered him "I can allow you to join my retinue but under one condition" the masked man showed no emotion under his mask "You will show me your face" said the inquisitor
"I told you inquisitor, I cannot do that lest I will suffer the danger of being known" argued the masked man
"I know, that is why you will only show it to me" said the inquisitor "And in return, I will take you off this planet and accept you into my retinue" offered the inquisitor
"Lord, you cannot possibly accept a rogue witch into our ranks" Ishmael retorted "Throne knows what is he hiding! he can be a tainted chaos cultist wanting to persuasive you into selling your soul!"
"Know your place, Ishmael, you may have served me for a long time but I will not tolerate disrespect" William said out loud "Besides I'm not the first inquisitor that recruited a wild psyker, as for him being a chaos cultist, I will make sure to check for marks of the taint, no matter who you are chaos always leaves its marks on you, also from what I have seen so far I can tell that he is trained, perhaps even reaching the level of a librarian" Inquisitor argued
The masked man thought for a moment then start speaking "What inquisitor said is precisely right, one can tell from one's face if they are tainted or not" he turned towards the inquisitor "Inquisitor, I accept your offer" Psyker declared
"Good, but before we introduce each other can you release her?" Inquisitor pointed towards still floating assassin who was in a state of half paralysis
"O-oh yes, my apologies" said the masked man as he released the assassin
Avina fell to the ground and looked up at the psyker "YOUR CURSED WITCH!" Avina shouted as she leaped forward to slash the witch with her blades, Avina moved with grace as she brought her blade up to slice his throat, as the blade was about to hit its target, the witch with a swift motion deflected her slash with an efficient move of his staff, Avina was shocked to see her pray block one of her attacks, normally psykers were weak in melee, this one, however, seemed different
William did not intervene, instead, he decide to watch them, the psyker was surprisingly good in melee, he wasn't as skilled as him but he knew how to fight, there was no technique in psyker's skills, however, he was efficient with every move. It was apparent that he didn't have a proper mentor to train him, his fighting style was self-thought, maybe he could teach him little of his technique when they return.
"Should we stop them lord?" asked one of the stormtroopers
"Oh yeah the fight" William realized he lost himself in thought for a second, he quickly look at the psyker and the assassin, psyker was holding his ground for now but it won't take long before Avina kills him after all without technique his skills were useless "Alright STAND DOWN AVINA" Inquisitor shouted
Avina stopped and looked at the inquisitor then at the psyker then to the inquisitor again "You are a lucky witch, next time you use your sorcery against me I'll make sure to make your death painful" said the assassin with a hateful voice then left towards the inquisitor
"Now that it's over let's get down to business, my name is inquisitor William husan, the assassin Avina, arbite Ishmael, and magos lexion" William introduced them
"I cannot say my real name but people of this world call me Jermai, you can do the same" said the psyker and gave them a slight bow "I'm sure you will see many uses for my talents lord" said the masked man
"I'm sure I will Jermai, I'm sure I will" said the inquisitor with a smile.