Tathe held his eyes with the Inquisitor's; he could tell she was used to people blanching under her scrutiny, such as that young fool, Attelus Kaltos. Still, Tathe had faced down worse things in the galaxy than an angry Inquisitor. And he'd faced down a few of those as well. For a second, he couldn't help admire Enandra's beauty, her flawless dark skin like the highest quality re-caff. Her damn amazing, wide, wisdom laden brown eyes.

'Pray tell, Commissar, why your...killing of one of my Throne Agents "needed to be done"?'

'Because he was slipping, mamzel,' said Tathe, his brain bashing back into reality. 'It occurred during the time the young Attelus and the others were fighting the Bloodthirster. I think now it's a good time to rewind the timeline a bit.'

Enandra leaned back in her chair and whipped out her hand dismissively. 'Yes, yes, go ahead.'

Tathe nodded; he more than empathised with the Inquisitor's exasperation. 'We fought our way towards the tower as this happened. The enemy was demoralised by the falling of the Bloodthirster and its disappearance, or I supposed it was the case as they'd lost so much fight since its fall, then Adreen revealed herself among the Resurrected. She was restored to her beautiful young self, and I shot her through the head, didn't hesitate. I saw it as the manipulation tactic it was, and my anger at such a...use of the woman I loved angered me, enraged me beyond anything I've ever felt before.'

'Of course, it did,' said Enandra, and Tathe didn't quite know what to make of her tone; it seemed both sympathetic and sad but sad in a strange way. 'I am sorry you were forced to do that, but it was the right thing to do...'

The Inquisitor trailed off in her sentence, but Tathe knew she wanted to say something along the lines of "even if it was because of the corruption within you."

Tathe cleared his throat and continued. 'Above us, Darrance and the Guncutter fought off the enemy craft, and just before we managed to enter, he became overwhelmed, and the Guncutter was shot down.'

'And obviously, Saderth Darrance managed to eject beforehand?' said Enandra. 'And that is why he is still alive? Unless he was killed and came back because he's one of those immortal perpetuals Attelus mentioned.'

Enandra turned to Attelus. 'That brings us back to the question, Attelus Xanthis Kaltos. Why did you believe so fast in a concept so...strange that you went to get a daemon weapon?'

Attelus shrugged. 'I was stupid, idiotic, I know. I have just seen things, mamzel. Seen too many things that in this horrid galaxy that an immortal human seems pretty, uhh...'

'Normal?' said Karmen. 'In comparison, anyway.'

Tathe smiled; say what you will about the boy, but his acting was damn on-point.

'In comparison, yes,' said Attelus. 'And my paranoia, mamzel. With just an even small chance, Etuarq is one it had to be assumed that he is. How much power has he accumulated, mamzel? How much has he learned in ways beyond any of us with that power? Please, mamzel, Inquisitor, you have to see my logic here.'

Enandra pursed her wonderful lips, folded her arms, then looked back to Tathe. 'So, you entered the tower. What happened next, Commissar?'

'We ran into the lobby,' said Tathe. 'And there we found...people, the locals. They had taken shelter in there.'

'What?' said Enandra, as her brow furrowed.

Tathe shrugged. 'I cannot overstate how surprised I was. How surprised all of us were.'

With Inquisitor Jelcine Enandra in the room, most other people seemed to fade into the background. 'It had to be some trick by the frigging Arch Enemy.' 'A trick,' said Arlathan and Tathe fought the urge to flinch, having forgotten about the Interrogator entirely until then.

'It was, Interrogator. Or a "test". to those locals, they'd only been in the foyer for about an hour after the beginning of the invasion.'

'Time dilation?' said Arlathan. 'How? Why?'

'It turned out later we'd been trapped inside a small dimension thing,' said Tathe.

'Pocket dimension,' said Kalakor.

'A pocket dimension, that's it, Kalakor, thank you. Like the one Attelus and the others were trapped inside, but it seemed like the main foyer of the tower. My father spoke again over the vox network, saying we had to kill the civilians there. If we are to escape the place before all of us starved to death, we'd have to slaughter all of the uncorrupted civilians. He'd hoped we'd just kill them straight away due to thinking them corrupted and...our compromised mindsets. And almost all of us argued to kill them, both Tresch and Vark included, but Dellenger and I stepped in their way. We knew what would happen if we murdered the civilians...'

'I see...' said Enandra, her eyes glaring up at Tathe, but what that glare meant, he could only guess. 'Then what happened?'

Tathe sighed. 'I performed a summary execution on the one most vocal about murdering the civvies.'

'And I am presuming that was Vark,' said Enandra; she sounded weary or bored, Tathe wasn't sure.

'It was.'

'Then it was not a "summary execution" as Vark was my agent, not a part of the Imperial Guard and thus, not under your charge.'

'I beg to differ, mamzel. He and the others were placed under my command by Attelus Kaltos before the battle started. So it was, in a technical sense, Vark was acting as my vox operator in my new command squad.'

Enandra's gaze shot to Attelus. 'Is this true? Did you pawn off your leadership responsibility to Commissar Tathe?'

Attelus furrowed his brow in what seemed confusion. 'Of course, mamzel Enandra. Commissar Tathe needed a command squad, and we were going into a big battle. So, of course, I gave him command of my people and me. I have no experience in large-scale battle command.'

'Yes, but he could've been corrupted. I can't believe you trusted him so much already, even if he and his regiment were your childhood idols.'

Attelus folded his arms across his chest and shrugged. 'Perhaps, but I had no choice if we were going to complete our mission. Which we did, didn't we? I'd say the ends justifies the means, in this case, anyway.'

Enandra clenched her teeth. 'No wonder Glaitis lost her damned mind when she had to deal with this.'

The young man looked away and pursed his lips. 'Either way, it's the truth, mamzel, and the truth can't be denied. Not even by an Inquisitor.'

'Is it, Attelus Kaltos? Is it the truth? How do I know you aren't lying through your teeth about everything?'

'Does it seem like I'm lying?'

'No.'

'Do you think I'd be able to lie so well to get past your scrutiny?'

'No, not unless you somehow believe your lies. Or...'

'Or?'

'Or you somehow managed to become so good at lying during your time away you've managed to surpass me.'

That set Tathe's teeth on edge.

Attelus shook his head, his face becoming unreadable again. 'You don't believe that, do you?'

Tathe looked back to Jelcine Enandra; she glared at the young assassin. Tathe fought the urge to reach for his sword. This was it, Enandra seemed quite down-to-terra and humble for her kind, but according to Attelus and Karmen, that was somewhat of a false exterior, that beneath was an arrogance that burned strong and bright. Just not as strong and as bright as most of her kin.

Enandra's jaw twitched, and Tathe swore he could hear her teeth grinding together. It was a good long while before she finally spoke.

'I have been an Inquisitor for a good long while, Attelus Xanthis Kaltos, far before you were born. You are the greatest warrior in my service, and you have infinite potential. But no, I do not believe you managed to accomplish such a feat.'

Tathe fought back a smile, and there was the trademark arrogance they'd hoped for.

'But if I find out you somehow managed to lie to me...'

Enandra let her sentence hang with the obvious implication.

'Yes, of course, mamzel,' said Attelus with no hint of irony, which Tathe couldn't help be impressed by.

The Inquisitor's horribly piercing gaze fixated on Attelus for a good few seconds more before she looked back to Tathe.

'So, what happened next, Delan?'

Tathe blinked at the almost...intimate use of his first name, she wasn't exactly being subtle, and he managed to ignore the glare from her Interrogator and continued on. 'I must be honest. I thanked my luck that it was Vark. He was an outsider; if I had to execute a Velrosian or a Marangerite or a Sovrithian, that might've pushed my men over the edge.'

'Yes, I bet you did,' said Enandra.

'I had to, mamzel Inquisitor, they were going to give their souls to Chaos. It had to be done.'

She didn't reply, just flicked out her hand for him to keep speaking.

Tathe cleared his throat. 'It worked. They stood down, thank the Emperor. But it wasn't long before my father's voice came from the speaker that if we do not kill those innocent people...then the walls, everything, began to close in on us.'

'By the Emperor,' breathed Arlathan.

'So you shot those people and left, then?' said Vex.

Tathe shook his head. 'No, I had everyone stand in the middle of the foyer, and we sang.'

'You...sang?' said Arlathan as he straightened in his chair.

'We did. We had faith that Attelus Kaltos and the others would save us before we'd be crushed to death.'

'That'd be one of the most hideous ways to die I could imagine,' said Arlathan. 'Did you eventually give in and kill them?'

'We didn't. We were released before the desperation overtook us, which on hindsight, I think would've been inevitable.'

Enandra looked at Attelus. 'How were they freed, Attelus? Did you kill general Tathe, and that freed them from the...pocket dimension?'

The young Throne Agent shook his head in his childish, overeager way. 'Nope, the general did it himself.'

Enandra raised her eyebrows and tilted her head. 'He did, did he?'

'Before we get to that, we should continue from after we stepped from that portal,' said Karmen.

'I suppose that makes sense,' said Enandra. 'So continue onwards from there, Karmen Kons.'

The psyker cleared her throat, and Tathe kept his gaze on her; he couldn't help wonder what kind of person she'd be if it weren't for the invasion of their home-world. Tathe had fought in that war along with the Velrosian 1st against the Tzeentchian invaders. The Elbyran Contingent just so having to be close enough to aid Elbyra in time as they'd fought off a Chaos rebellion on a nearby horrid little feudal world named Victrous, so shitty Tathe understood why so many people turned to Chaos and rebelled. Tathe was beginning to think that might not be a coincidence anymore.

But why would something or someone want the Elbyran contingent there too? He'd also fought alongside the 5th company of the Dark Angels Space Marine chapter led by an affable Company Master named Remiel, did that...thing want them there too?

Tathe shook himself back to reality. Tathe was becoming like Attelus Kaltos, overthinking things. Was that because he'd become a Throne Agent? Or soon to be one, if this goes according to their plan.

'We stepped out,' said Karmen. 'Led by Kalakor, who took point. We found ourselves in a corridor leading to the tower's main public foyer. We approached it, Kalakor stepping out. First, he then looked down in the foyer, turned back to us and said we had to see this. So we came out and froze at what we saw...'

'And what was it?' growled Enandra as she swivelled in her seat, seeming more annoyed at Karmen's dramatic pause than drawn in by it.

'A big, swirling ball of blue light. But it somehow didn't give off any light.'

'And I'm going to guess, inside of it was Commissar Tathe and his men?' sighed Enandra.

'Yeah,' said Attelus. 'Then Kalakor looked back at me, raised his bolter and opened fire. The bolt round flew right by my head and exploded on the psychic shield of a daemon of...that god.'

Enandra's eyes narrowed. 'What god, Attelus Kaltos?'

He pursed his lips. 'You know...that I don't like to say their names or even think them. It's the one that has the daemons with the wings, and they use psychic powers and feathers. You know. I wish I never learned their damned names in the first place, in all honesty.'

'Tzeentch?' said Enandra, causing Attelus to flinch and cover his ears. 'I admire that paranoia, Attelus, but I think you're giving them too much power with such...uncharacteristic superstition. But we've talked on this subject before, and I suspect I will not be able to change it if I try again. So, this daemon, what happened with it? It seems both Khorne and Tzeentch were working together in this scenario, very interesting.'

'Indeed,' said Karmen, now she seemed annoyed; Tathe couldn't help think it was because the spotlight wasn't on her anymore. 'The daemon spoke, said we'd have to fight it to get to the elevators behind it, so we opened fire with everything we had, but it just mocked us for "using violence" for everything. Then, hypocritically mind you, began summoning these weird, squat daemons, some blue, some smaller and pink. The blue ones would split into two pink ones when we killed one. They threw daemonic fireballs at us. I barely managed to bring up my kine shield in time to allow us to take cover.'

'I know what those daemons are,' said Enandra. 'Blue Horrors and Pink Horrors, they are the equivalent to Bloodletters, meaning they are for want of a better word the uhh foot troops of...'

She looked slowly at Attelus deliberately; Tathe would've smiled if he wasn't so nervous. 'Tzeentch!'

Attelus flinched again and looked away.

In truth, Kalakor had told the others the names of those daemons, and Tathe already knew due to Dellenger telling him, but they didn't want to reveal even that.

'They wouldn't just split,' said Karmen. 'But the daemon just kept summoning more and more and more and more.'

'That's shit, so, obviously, you managed to defeat the daemon and its servants,' said Arlathan, sounding much like his master. 'Or at least I hope so, so, how'd you manage it?'

'Attelus here,' said Karmen, looking at him with a playful smirk, 'being the hypocrite he is, used some of Delathasi's Combat Drugs.'

'He did, huh?' said Arlathan. 'I'm not surprised. It was a foolish principle in the first place. That didn't save you completely, though, did it?'

'No,' said Karmen. 'It just allowed him to charge forwards and slaughter many of those...horrors which took the pressure off the rest of us. So we managed to focus fire on the daemon's kine-shield, weakening it enough to allow me to tear it down with my telekinesis, which in turn allowed Attelus to take the head off its shoulders. Although, I was not able to witness that as the extreme effort caused me to lose consciousness.'

Enandra straightened abruptly in her chair. 'You managed that, Karmen? Really? That is...impressive. Incredibly impressive, perhaps even more impressive than when you held back that Bloodletter outside the tower. Especially after the horrid exertion of that action must have weakened you.'

Tathe couldn't say anything; he never expected the Inquisitor would be so open and passionate in her praise. He just hoped Enandra's awe would distract her from asking more pointed questions. The truth was that Kalakor wanted Karmen to distract the daemon, to allow him to use his reality phasing power to teleport behind the daemon and kill it inside its shield. Still, in her stubbornness and spitefulness, Karmen decided she'd pull down the shield herself, and somehow she managed it. Which, on hindsight, now was a good thing.

'Thank you, mamzel Inquisitor. I only serve Him on Terra.'

'As do we all,' said Enandra.

'But then, what?' said Arlathan, who seemed more awed than anyone.

'The main doors behind is opened, and the Resurrected poured inside,' said Karmen. 'So, mostly everyone stayed to hold them off except for Kalakor and Attelus, who began up the tower to take care of General Tathe.'

'That must have been a shit ton of stairs,' said Vex.

'It was, but as an Astartes, it was easy,' said Kalakor, the sudden eruption of his deep voice causing everyone except for Enandra to flinch. 'I am sure it would have been impossible for a little runt like you.'

Vex shrugged. 'I'm not as runty as I look, believe it or not, but yeah, probably. My mind is my greatest weapon, not my physicality.'

'Anyway, maybe we should get back to the Commissar's narrative here,' said Enandra, and she looked to him. 'Tell me, why did you murder my Throne Agent?'

Tathe couldn't help frowning his lips, he didn't murder that frig-head Vark, but he pushed past his anger.

'Your...Throne Agent...mamzel Inquisitor was, by and far, the most vocal proponent in favour of killing the civilians, the second being your other Throne Agent Tresch. We tried to warn them that by killing these people, it would render all our struggle pointless as we'd be selling our souls to Chaos in that act. They wouldn't listen, so I had no choice, I had to take control, so I drew my laspistol and shot Vark between the eyes. It worked. You can ask Dellenger, Hayden and the others, and they will corroborate my account, mamzel Inquisitor.'

'Then what did you do?' said Arlathan.

'As I said, I had everyone sing. I gathered them all in the middle of the room, and we sang as the walls. The very air seemed to close in on us.'

'We Are The Imperium,' Tathe muttered, pompous overly patriotic songs like that were mostly to his distaste, but he couldn't think of a better song at the time. 'I made sure to sing a song the civilians would also know and well known enough that people in the Gothic Sector would know it, and luckily, they did.'

Enandra said nothing; she just looked at Tathe wearily for a few seconds before turning to Attelus.

'So, while this was going on, what were you and the Space Marine doing?'

Attelus couldn't help but grin. 'Well, mamzel Enandra. As Vex so ingeniously guessed, running up a shit-ton of stairs.'

Enandra rolled her eyes. 'Please, Attelus, I am not in the mood for your joking. Just hurry it up and get this over with.'

Attelus nodded. He more than knew how she felt; his earlier contemplation on his own humanity despite his inhumanity also applied to Enandra but in a different way. The level of her responsibility, influence and power were inhuman. Not just that but her force of charisma, as well. It was nice seeing her expressing her humanity so openly. She was also being quite hypocritical, having lectured Attelus about his impatience earlier.

'Yes, of course,' said Attelus. 'Kalakor and I managed to get to the top without any resistance at all. But when we reached there, that was when we encountered the final few Bloodletters. So, Kalakor held them off while I ran to confront the general.'

That was one of the more outright lies, and Attelus wished it'd been Kalakor to tell it, but oh well. The truth was that they'd reached the floor below the top one, and there Kalakor opened an entrance with his sorcery to the top floor, and it was Attelus who held off the daemons. Five of the freaks who he managed to defeat by being a cheating bastard and collapsing the floor beneath their hooves, then diving through the small tear in reality.

'Yes, continue, Attelus,' sighed Enandra.

'There I found him, looking out a huge window,' said Attelus. 'His back to me. It seemed like he'd been skinned, and he was huge, his muscles too large. I expected he'd attack me right away, roaring like one of those berserkers, but he seemed sane, rational. He asked me how we managed to bypass the warpstorm, I refused to answer, which he respected oddly. I asked him about the Exterminatus, and he answered me-'

'And you believed him?' said Enandra.

'No,' said Attelus. 'I don't believe him, and I don't disbelieve him, either. I won't take either stance, not until we find out more, but we have no choice but to look into it. Do we?'

Enandra raised her hands and leaned back in her chair. 'Alright, Attelus Kaltos, I was just making sure. Continue, please.'

Attelus pursed his lips; he didn't mean to seem so defensive. He supposed he felt she should know him better than that, but in all honesty, he couldn't blame her much for suspecting she no longer did.

'The general said he'd forgotten about the Exterminatus until only a few months before, then, with a wave of his hand, he released the Commissar and his remaining men from their prison.'

Now that made a look of shock course through Vex, Enandra and Arlathan. Vex even flinching.

'He did?' said Arlathan. 'You sure it wasn't some trick?'

Attelus raised an eyebrow. 'Now I think about it, it could've been, but he was corrupted by the blood god, so tricks and subtlety are unlikely, right? But I did call Tathe over vox and did get a reply, and everyone else corroborated that it happened around then. He claimed he was happy to see me, the "little assassin", that he wouldn't have been able to get the courage to do that. He then told me about the Exterminatus. It was an agri-world named Gurtar taking part in the invasion force against the forces of the Arch Enemy...'

Attelus stopped, pausing in what he hoped was in a dramatic way. 'But during the war, black domes began to appear across the planet.'

Arlathan raised an eyebrow. 'Black domes?'

Attelus nodded. 'Just like the ones we encountered on Omnartus. Although you...'

Arlathan frowned, and his eyes fell to the table. That's right, during that...misadventure, Arlathan, back then a senior detective for the Magistratum, had fainted and missed almost everything. A fact Arlathan had been ashamed of ever since, mostly because many of his people had been slaughtered, and he regretted that he couldn't save any of them due to his weak will.

It was the onus for Arlathan to start changing his attitude and become a better person.

'Hmm,' said Enandra, as she stroked her chin. 'How did the Chaos forces react to these domes?'

'Hmm, that was the interesting thing, mamzel. Apparently, according to intelligence reports, they were just as bemused by them as the Imperials.'

'That is interesting,' said Vex. 'It could have been counter-'

Attelus shut the annoying little bastard up with a raised hand. 'No, when those...daemons emerged from and around those damnable domes, just as they had on Omnartus, they slaughtered both Imperial and Chaos soldier and civilian alike. No one understood what the hell those domes were, so General Tathe called in the Inquisition. And two weeks later, an Inquisitor Soloston of the Ordo Malleus with three squads of Grey Knights showed up.'

'Ah,' said Enandra. 'That explains why no one in the Elbyran contingent remembered. They erased their memories.'

'More like one of them erased their memories,' Attelus corrected grimly. 'Well, when Soloston and his people arrived, those...daemons finally began to emerge from the domes and around them. They began to slaughter everyone and everything. There were a few dozen on Omnartus, and that was just from two domes, imagine how many would come from hundreds and hundreds of them? Like on Omnartus, they were almost unstoppable and...'

Attelus couldn't help let his sentence drain away as the images of those horrid, nightmarish things flashed through his mind. Their round, bulbous torsos, their elongated arms ending in claws at least a good fifty centimetres long, their jaws were jutting from the middle of their chests with jagged teeth that spike out in every direction and lack of any eyes. Their tiny legs like the rear legs of a canine, which ran over rooftops after Attelus in the Omnartus Under Hive and-

'Attelus!' Enandra cried, making him blink back to reality. 'Terra to Attelus.'

'Y-yeah, I'm sorry, got distracted there. Uhh, where were we? That's right. Those daemon things were slaughtering everyone and everything. Even the Grey Knights were being overwhelmed, so General Tathe suggested to Soloston Exterminatus.'

'So, this Soloston obviously agreed,' said Enandra. 'I do not know him, his philosophy, nor have I heard of him, which is unsurprising as he did work in the Gothic Sector. But I am surprised he did not resort to Exterminatus sooner, especially when his Grey Knights were so overwhelmed.

'I agree,' said Arlathan, a little too fast, in a subtly sycophantic way. 'Why didn't he?'

Attelus shrugged. 'Don't know. I didn't think to ask, in all honesty. Perhaps I should've, but we didn't have much time.'

'Yes, yes, I understand,' said Enandra. 'I can guess what occurred afterward, but I will let you continue, so go on, please.'

'Yes, so yes, Soloston did agree, but they only had enough ships to evacuate the soldiers of the Imperial Guard. And then, after the destruction, the last remaining Grey Knight erased all of the soldier's memories. Tathe believed it was a good thing, but afterward, something began to speak to him in his head. Then he began to talk to it, and, well, it all went downhill from there. He begged me to kill him because he was the lodestone for the Resurrected, that if he died, they all would, and he was obviously losing control. I tried to ask another question, but he lost it and attacked me. We fought, he was frustrating to fight, but I managed to win by using a krak grenade on him. He called me an honour-less cur. I said honour's overrated, especially when your friend's lives are on the line.'

He didn't say that; Attelus had snarked about how combat rolls were stupid as Attelus had thrown two grenades, the first causing the general to dive out of the way, the second timed to explode when the general was in the midst of rolling, making it impossible to dodge. With his enhanced reflexes, he could've just slid out the way, but being human for so long, the general was used to having to dive.

'Then, what?' said Vex.

Attelus sighed, he really didn't want to tell of this next part, but he had no choice. 'A glowing white light caught the corner of my eye, and it was a glowing rectangular shape, like a door and a voice in my head and something gained control of my body and made me walk toward that door, no matter how hard I fought.'

'What did the voice say?' said Enandra.

Attelus exhaled; he had to choose his words carefully here. 'It said that "it'd been waiting for someone like me for ten millennia." I managed to fight from its mind control, regain my thoughts, but it still had control of my body. Then I stepped through the door, and I...I don't remember much after then. Just that...if I didn't do something, I was going to kill Adelana...'

Attelus caught Karmen frown and turned away in the periphery of his vision; he ignored her.

'So, with all my will, I managed to regain control of my body. It seemed to take me hours. The effort hurt me to the marrow, and it was like I was trying to push back against a roaring, twenty-story tall tsunami. But I managed it, somehow, somehow. And with a roar, I threw the sword away, but then the realisation of all the people I murdered while in its control hit me, I'd seen it all, and I fell to my knees, and the world became nothing but a blur.'

'Who...did he kill, Tathe?' said Enandra, looking to the Commissar.

Tathe sighed. 'Too many of my men. Men and women who fought tooth and nail to reach that tower, who I'd known for decades, just when they thought they'd won. As it seemed, killing my father finally released the Resurrected from their state of un-death. Attelus came down in the elevator. Adelana warned me something was wrong, as she'd talked to him over the vox, but even with all of us ready, it wasn't enough. He slaughtered us with that damned sword, moving faster than the eye could see. I only lived because scout-trooper Dellenger saved me in the very last split-second. Attelus killed Verenth, Helma, Jelket, and most poor civilians massacred like animals. The captain of the Sovrithians Dantian a lot of his troops. So many.'

'I'm sorry, Tathe,' said Enandra. 'You lost so much and at the hands of former friends and allies.'

Tathe shrugged. 'That is just a truth of serving the Emperor of Mankind.'

'It is,' said Enandra. 'It is, but it doesn't make it hurt any less, does it?'

She looked back to Attelus. 'Yet again, your strength of will impresses me, Attelus Xanthis Kaltos. But I am sure it was not just willpower that gave you the strength to break from the sword's control. Now, what happened next?'

'By this time I had arrived on the ground floor from the stairs,' said Kalakor, and when I emerged from the corridor, I saw that Serghar Kaltos was there, and holding the sword of Kalncerak above his head, it shone with a pink glow, then it exploded into nothingness.'

'Serghar Kaltos destroyed the sword?' said Arlathan.

'Indeed he did,' said Kalakor. 'We assume that he destroyed it because, in all likelihood, it was a danger to our enemy, Etuarq, as he is likely one of these...perpetuals and that sword consumed souls.'

'But why did he need Attelus here to retrieve it?'

'We do not know,' said Kalakor. 'He did not tell us.'

Arlathan looked at Attelus. 'Could it be that you're one of these perpetuals?'

Attelus shrugged; they'd assumed that someone would guess this fact, but not Arlathan and not this quick. Yet again, it seemed Attelus had underestimated the Interrogator. He was in such a senior position for good reason, after all.

'Good question, don't know, maybe?' here was Attelus yet again lying by telling the truth, there was a lot of evidence toward him being one, but he didn't "know" as he hadn't died yet.

'I am...sceptical of the existence of these...perpetuals,' said Enandra. 'I have never heard of them before. But the implication is...terrible if we cannot kill Etuarq, especially with his incredible power...'

Attelus held back a smile; he'd hoped her inherent arrogance would make her so sceptical. 'Yeah, fair enough, mamzel Enandra. But with this implication, we must assume it's true so we can take measures, just in case.'

Enandra grimaced, and her anger glaze attention shot to him. 'I know that! Damn it, Attelus, I am an Inquisitor for a good reason! Damn you.'

He raised his hands; that's good, you get irritated. Excellent, yes. 'Alright, alright, I'm sorry. I was just saying.'

Enandra pursed her lips and looked back to Kalakor. 'What happened next?'

'Serghar Kaltos then drew his power sword and raised it to kill Attelus Kaltos, and I saw my time to strike. So I took my bolter and exploded his arm holding his sword from the shoulder upward.'

'What?' said Vex, blatantly nonplussed. 'Why didn't you just shoot him in the chest or something?'

Kalakor turned to the young hacker as if making a target lock on him, and Vex withered back from it. 'A good question, for someone with no experience at all in the realm of subversion and psychological warfare. Besides Serghar Kaltos, three well-trained and enhanced agents with power weapons. They were there with him. If I had exploded his wretched skull then and there, we would have had all those agents angered and with nothing to lose. I was not certain I could kill them, and either way, they would have slaughtered many more of the survivors before I could. Attelus and Karmen here included. So I gave them an ultimatum, fight and let their leader bleed out, surely making them incur the wraith of their higher leader. I had been told of how badly this Serghar Kaltos treated them, so I made the assumption this Etuarq was the same. My gambit paid off as they left with their master, and we did not see them afterward. Also, they had completed their mission. There was no point of them not withdrawing.'

'The destruction of the Sword of Kalncerak?' said Enandra. 'Not the death of Attelus Kaltos and the others? Surely they are a threat needing to be destroyed? If Etuarq is able to see into the future so well, how did you manage to get the drop on Serghar so effectively?'

'The destruction of that daemon weapon seems to exceed even that,' said Kalakor. 'It is a strange occurrence you ask that because Serghar Kaltos mentioned something of great interest, something I am sure he would not have said if he was not certain he would kill everyone near. As he was about to kill Attelus here, he said that his master had foreseen that Attelus was going to kill young Adelana before regaining control of himself. That, "My master predicted that you would kill the girl Adelana before managing to break the sword's control, but he's not always correct." Confirming the fact that Etuarq's vision of the future is not infallible. My presence must have somehow eluded their far sight.'

Attelus smiled, he couldn't remember if those were his father's exact words or not, but he didn't have the Space Marine's eidetic memory.

Enandra looked unconvinced. 'Or, this was foreseen, and Serghar allowed it to happen for yet another one of his master's machinations.'

'Perhaps,' Attelus said with a shrug. 'But I doubt it. There we're going into territory so convoluted even Etuarq could accomplish such a machination. I think it defies the philosophy of Occam's Razor so much. It must be assumed that it wasn't predicted.'

Enandra grimaced and gazed at the ceiling, seeming deep in thought. Everyone watched her in silence for a few seconds before she hung her head and sighed. 'I see your point, Attelus. It's on shaky ground, but...By the Emperor, why do we have to have an enemy like this? Why did it have to be so annoyingly convoluted? That is just how this universe works, I suppose. Anyway, I can guess how it went from there. Attelus managed to break from his trance, and someone blurted out the truth to all of the survivors. I'm guessing that was you, Estella Erith. Many decided to join you, including Mr Kalakor, here. You then burned or buried the dead, or at least I hope you did. Then you caught a ride with the Eldar back to the Calixis Sector.'

'That's right, mamzel Enandra,' said Tathe.

After another sigh, Enandra looked at Karmen Kons. 'And I am guessing. If I have Selva look into the memories of the other survivors, it will corroborate your story exactly. That I cannot believe either due to you travelling with a race made up of psykers, many of which have power and experience far beyond us humans, and...'

She trailed off, closed her eyes and breathed deeply through her nose. 'I should have Attelus here executed. He could still have the corruption from that sword inside him. I should not believe a word of anything you say.'

Attelus exchanged a side-long look with Karmen. He placed his hand on his sword, and she began to furrow her brow.

'But yet, I do,' said Enandra. 'Well, most of it, anyway. I think if all of you were corrupted, I would be dead already. I sent you on this mission in the belief you would overcome every single obstacle you would face, which included Chaos corruption, as I knew it was very much a possibility as the star system was cut off by a warp storm. As I knew, you had the means to bypass it. I knew all of this, so in the name of consistency...and thinking from the perspective of Occam's Razor, if you murdered me, it would not be hard for you to take control of this ship. And, I need all of your strength...'

She opened her eyes and looked at Attelus. 'I know all of you so well. I know the incredible strength Attelus and all of you truly are capable of, perhaps more than any of you do. But I could not imagine what lengths you had to go through... I'm just sad that you decided that all of you felt you...'

Enandra sighed.

'I Just...' she said. 'Just...continue on with your story, please. I am just so sick and tired of this crap.'

Frowning, Attelus found he couldn't hold her gaze anymore and looked down at the table; he never would've thought he could feel such pity for an Inquisitor before. Guilt squirmed in his chest.

'Yes, mamzel,' he said. 'Well, as we were leaving the tower, Kalakor...'


The situation reminded Attelus of when he and the others had just been picked up by Inquisitor Enandra after escaping Omnartus. Still, now it was two ten-man squads of Stormtroopers, not just two made up his guard derail. Attelus wondered if any of them were the same two from three years ago. He wondered if either of them were still alive. Right now, Adelana and the others were being transported to The Audacious Edge for interrogation; he hoped it'd go well for her, for all of them. But most especially her.

They turned the last corner of the labyrinthine corridors of the ship, a maze he had long ago learned the layout of, to a door which was like most of the other doors but by far the most familiar. It was his door, to his quarters, which had been his since that horrid day three years ago.

He'd missed it over the past few weeks. Leaving the Stormtroopers to loiter outside, Attelus stepped through the threshold into that spartan room, his hands in the pockets of his flak jacket. It was still a complete mess; spare, dirty grey bodygloves were laid everywhere as well as civilian tunics, his sleeping clothing along with weapons, mostly knives and sidearms Garrakson would have a fit if he saw the place. A desk sat at the other end of the room, six by seven-metre room just beside his personal cogitator, which was covered with scattered papers and books; many were historical tomes he had yet to give back to The Audacious Edge's large library. On the end wall was another door that led to his private bathroom.

The door slid shut behind him, and he sighed deeply, hoping it would alleviate the knot of stress in his chest. It didn't, of course. Then he suddenly stooped as the weariness hit him, shuffled to his double bed in the far-right corner. He glared at it, what he wouldn't have given to have Karmen in there waiting for him, or more salaciously, Adelana.

With a sigh, Attelus dropped his arse on it with a squeaking creaking.

He tore off his armoured gloves and tossed them on the pile along with the rest of the dirty pairs.

He sighed for what seemed the millionth time and rubbed his eyes with the balls of his palms. He really needed a smoke, so absently, he reached into his flak jacket for the ceramic box.

Attelus couldn't help thank the Emperor that de-briefing was finally over and damn well done with, but Enandra's sadness and disappointment weighed on him more than he cared to admit. Perhaps it was a manipulation, but if it was, it was a damned genuine one. Without any conscious thought, he opened the box of Lhos, placed one between his teeth and lit it with his igniter. How damned easy was it to take that habit up again? Too frigging easy.

Enandra had got her adepts and Vex on scouring the data for traces of Inquisitor Soloston straight away. Still, Attelus doubted they would find anything, the galaxy was a damned huge place, and Soloston could be anywhere. It was unlikely that he'd be in the Calixis Sector. Unless...unless he had come here to find their enemy? Just the same as Brutis Bones did years ago? Brutis had come all the way from Segmentum Pacificus, so why couldn't Soloston have come from The Gothic Sector? How he'd have managed to find out about Etuarq, Attelus had no idea. Assuming Soloston was even still alive.

Attelus leaned back and looked at the ceiling high above; he took his Lho stick from his lips between thumb and index finger and let out a long exhale of smoke. He couldn't believe it, all that suffering, all that brutality and death for such a slight slice of information. Information that might lead to nothing. Well, not just that-

+Attelus Kaltos,+ said a familiar, distant voice in his skull, which made him sit forwards, causing his bed to creak.

Faleaseen? Is that you?

+Indeed,' she said, and Attelus had never heard her sound so exhausted before as if she was only just clinging to life. +My apologies that I have not been in communication with you since you left Sarkeath.+

It's... It's okay, are you alright?

+No...no I am not, okay, Attelus Kaltos...I have, along with my fellow Farseers, been searching the skeins of fate for this Inquisitor Soloston. The toll has been great...four of us had died in the...effort. That is why I have not...communicated with you.+

Attelus gaped; he had no idea how to reply to that.

+Also, Raloth Arlyandor spoke of your...criticism, and I see wisdom in your words...I will begin to discuss the possibility with the Craftworld senior leaders...+

Her voice flowed into nothingness.

'Faleaseen!' Attelus couldn't help saying aloud. 'Faleaseen?'

He waited and waited, his heart thundering through his chest.

+Do not...worry about me+ she said after what seemed like several minutes +...I just need a rest...But I have good news, Attelus Kaltos. We managed to find a name, but what it is...the name of...+

Attelus leapt off his bed, dodged to his desk, snatched up a stylus and shouted, 'Name? What name?'

She said the name.

'Spell it out for me, please!'

She did, and Attelus scribbled it on a notebook. He hoped it was a world, although it wasn't one he'd heard of before.

'Thanks, Faleaseen,' said Attelus.

+There is no need to thank me...I am just performing my duties as a Farseer, but now I must rest. I will be...in touch with you soon, Attelus. Good...luck.'

Attelus smiled; he thought she didn't believe in luck, having called it an "abstract human concept" once.

'Good luck to you too, Faleaseen.'

Then she was gone.

Attelus turned on his old cogitator and tapped the tip of his shoe on the floor as he waited for it to boot up. It took a good minute before he could finally enter in the name with his two-fingered, but fast, typing and...it was indeed a planet. A small, remote but wealthy shrine world with a convent of the Adepta Sororitas or more commonly known as the Sisters of Battle, and it was...it was in the far galactic north-east of the Calixis Sector. What the frig was Soloston doing there? Assuming he's even there, to begin with. Attelus activated his micro-bead and tuned it to Enandra's personal channel with sweaty fingers.

'Yes?' said the Inquisitor after a few seconds of calling. 'What is it, Attelus?'

'Mamzel, Enandra, I've found a lead.'

'Oh, yes? And what is it?'

'Have you so happened to have heard of the Shrine World of Quoranda?' said Attelus.