I can feel the heat off the caffeine even through the glove.

Even more, I can smell the damned nuts they use to flavour every fecking hot drink on this planet. Its not unpleasent, but when having it shoved into my face every time I have a drink and it gets a little...much.

Adare paying the service girl snaps me from my thoughts just in time to see her flashing a smile at me. I thank her for the caffeine and the service, throwing a few coins into a nearby cup as I follow Adare away from the cart.

The Commercia Square, usually busy with merchants and traders, is slowly winding down from the day's deals. Merchants followed by local bodyguards walk away from the Square, talking into their microbeads, no doubt discussing the days successes and failures with the elders of their Houses. A butcher is finishing carving some meat and handing it over to her two apprentices, watching them wrapping it in paper before sending them home for the evening. A confessor has taken to a makeshift pulpit in a corner of the market, preaching to any and all who walk past him.

Night is closing in and I can already see the evening frost creep along the edges of the shop windows. A sip of caffeine and I'm suddenly very grateful for the heat.

I can't stand it here.

Its so peaceful and for me or at least people like me, I find it disturbing. I know I'm not a peaceful man. I have only ever felt comfortable with a weapon in hand.

I have to tap the holster on my hip, to remind myself it's there and to calm myself.

The last time I was here, I was ducking for cover behind upturned carts and stalls, trading fire with a couple of assassins. Walking past a baker's stall, I wince slightly; remembering the stub round that grazed my thigh...and ass. I dropped the assassin, but there are some injuries that will I always remember and be forever embarressed about.

"Its the uniform. People love the uniform." Thalsom breaks the silence as we finally leave the Square and turn towards a small park. "They look at you and they think some hero will take them off to an adventure in the stars."

A sip of caffeine and I smile. "Meanwhile, people see you and they shit themselves."

Rather amusingly, the identity assigned to Thalsom was that of an Astra Militarum Commissar. I think in another life, Thalsom would have made an excellent Commissar. A completely different life... The more I think about, the more I realise that's too much power for him...

With Thalsom's glare burning into the back of my head, we find a bench near the statue of another Imperial Saint. An entire row of statues line the pathway ahead, each statue showing righteous fury...or pain as they show their stylised martyrdom.

I hear Thalsom taking a deep breath before reaching towards the inside of his jacket. Instinctively, my hand is motioning towards my holster until I see it's a dataslate. "Van, you're being reassigned."

"Is this because I tipped the girl more than you did?" Thalsom isn't laughing. Then again, neither am I. I knew it had to be bad if Thalsom arranged to see me before the pre-arranged time.

"Ha...ha." Still the same stale laugh as always. I'd known Thalsom Adare for nearly six years and the man had the complete and utterly inability to actually laugh or tell a joke. I took to studying the dataslate as he continued "The night before last, the real Elias Noq was in a bar in Linska playing cards with several crewmates and a couple of locals. Noq got drunk, lost a hand and shot a couple of people. He was arrested by the local PDF and his trial and execution took place yesterday morning. Only now officials are wondering why his pass is showing up in St. Camille a day after his death. We've been able to fool them into thinking its a glitch or delayed payments, but we can't do it for too much longer."

I sigh and rub my temple. I knew there had been a risk using Noq as an identity, the man had a discipline longer than a ship's honours. How he hadn't been shot before now, I don't know. "How long?"

I watched Thalsom adjust his collar, shielding himself for the wind cutting through the park. "We can fool them until morning. But we're getting a ship prepped to take you to your next assignment before that. If you have anything to take care of, do it before then."

"Right." I drain the caffeine and crush the cup before dumping it in a nearby bin. This change in events had left me feeling increasingly angry. "Any idea where I'm going?"

By now, Thalsom had taken the dataslate back and pressed several runes, deleting the information contained. "Yes. Dawnslight. Word is coming from Corvanz herself, you're leading a Combat Team. Dawnslight is a Paradise World, but if you're going there, well, I won't book any trips there any time soon."

Another attempt at shitty humour from my friend.

Adare stared at me and I knew what he was going to ask even before he opened his mouth. "Are you going to tell me?"

"Tell you what?" I shifted in my seat. As much as I thought of him as a friend, I didn't like sharing information about myself. Him putting me on the spot like this isn't going to end well, for either of us.

"Van. I was a very good investigator when I was an Arbitrator. I could look into this myself but I'd rather hear it from you."

I sigh again. "Fine. I have a daughter. Nine years ago, the Old Man got a message from a representative of House Tastrov. His master helped secure House Tastrov as the ruling House of Dovlornisk three hundred years ago and they provided the Inquisition with, well, anything."

I stop for a moment, just enough to make sure we're not being watched. Satisified for the time being, "One of the rival Houses had hired assassins to wipe out House Tastrov and take control of the planet. So the Old Man agreed to help and lead the investigation himself. While he looked for the assassins and who hired them, several agents were assigned to guard key members of the House. I was one of the human shields because that's what we were. Thats when I met Nadya Varyan Tastrov, Kiryan Tastrov's eldest daughter."

For the briefest instance I can feel something against my cheek. The wind was getting to me.

By now, Adare has gotten up from the bench and taken out a lhostick. "By the Throne, Van..." After a few failed attempts to light it, the lhostick is in the bin, followed by a few choice swears.

"Leave it be Adare, I know. Half the time I was trying to make sure neither of us got our heads blown off! I had to act as her shadow for six months!"

Was it really six months? Sometimes it felt like an eternity, other times only a moment...

"And?"

The question snapped me back to reality and I snapped. "And you spend that much time around someone...and things happen."

"Damn it, Van. What the fuck were you thinking?!"

Ignoring him, I lit my own lhostick. "Between the Old Man's efforts and the other agents, we wiped out around forty six assassins over eight months. Finally, they tried to launch a final assault on the Tastrov estate. We stopped them of course, but during the fight, I took a few rounds from a heavy stubber, stomach you know, and the next thing I knew, I'm waking up in the Medbay of the Old Man's ship, leaving Dovlornisk."

Thalsom sighed, a little too loudly for my liking and sat beside me once more. "So when did you find out?"

I take a drag on the lhostick, letting the smoke settle in my mouth for a moment before breathing it out. "About a year ago. I got a message from Nadya telling me about her."

The only thing more surprising than getting the message from her was that she was able to find me at all. The Old Man had been dead for nearly three years at that stage and Corvanz network of contacts had changed immensely. And yet, I got it.

"And what are you going to do?" The question hit me like a truck. I knew what I was going to do but actually saying it out loud...that was different. It was taking an idea and making it real

"Keep out of the kid's life. She doesn't need to know me. She's grown up with a fantasy of a man." Looking at the statue of the saint, I can feel that anger returning. Like so many of the saints in the park, he's been given huge avian wings and a flaming sword in his hand. "She thinks her father is a hero. That kid thinks he's off on some planet to make the galaxy safe for her and Humanity. She thinks he's a knight. Let her keep the dream."

I pull my jacket tighter around me. It was my turn to leave, knowing that time was short and I still had one last job to do on Dovlornisk before the morning came. I light a lhostick for Adare and hand it to him.

"She doesn't need to know her father is a grunt. She doesn't need to know that her father is a man who is going to either end up with a knife in the back or shot in the gut and left to die in a ditch. I've done too many things to be a part of her life. So I'm going to do the best thing for her and keep out of her life. She needs a saint, not a killer."

I walk away from my friend, leaving him in the shadows of saints, knowing that I'd never be one.