Chapter I: The Arrival
Neriss found herself face down on an unfamiliar beach. Her armour was wet and the dye had run off her from her hair. I had been drowning, she thought. The Emperor, in his infinite mercies, had chosen to preserve her for his divine reasons. Neriss pulled herself into a sitting position. She was at the shores of some unknown beach. The wind played with her long hair while the waves washed up to her armoured ankles. She looked up and saw unfamiliar stars but that wasn't surprising; for a Sister of the Ordo Famulous, she was used to travelling to furthest reaches of the galaxy. Every night sky had been unfamiliar to her once and she had domesticated them all. This one would prove no different.
"Begging your pardon, Sister," someone drawled behind her. Neriss turned around to face another Battle Sister leaning against a tree. "I would like to know if you have finished admiring the scenery."
Neriss inspected the other woman. She was a tall woman in red armour with an enormous power sword magnetically attached to her back. Her dark face was a patchwork of scars and ritual tattoos, her black hair was cropped closely to the scalp.
"You are Sella of the Order of the Carmine Tear." Neriss, more to herself than to the stranger. Her memories trickled through her mind. "We were on a mission together."
"Aye and now we are the last two on an unknown planet, sister," Sella said. "So if it wouldn't be too much of a burden, pray tell me what does the Emperor intend for us as I am at a loss."
"Despair is the province of the heretic, sister." Neriss said as she unsteadily got to her feet. Sella did not move to help her.
"Forgive me, sister, I forget myself, just as you forgot to bring any weapons on your person." Sella replied. Neriss looked about her person in alarm and felt dismayed to see that Sella was true. She had not even a dagger or a laspistol. After patting and feeling about for a long time, she was forced to concede that she was weaponless. Her weapons were probably at the bottom of the sea and she might as well be naked. A Sister without a weapon, even one of a non-militant order, might as well be no sister at all.
"It appears that you are right, sister. Emperor witness my sins, I am a weaponless woman." Neriss said. Sella merely grunted.
"We must move. We are not making any progress here." Sella said.
The two of them began walking away from the sea. The first trees they saw were stunted and skeletal looking. Further inland, they were more numerous and healthier looking. The leaves became a green canopy which hid the stars, making it seem as if the forest existed in some green twilight.
"Sister, do you not think it strange that there is light enough to see?" Neriss asked. Sella considered her statement for a while.
"Truth be told, Sister, I had not noticed. I am hive-born and I still remember how to walk in the dark. I thought you were following my lead." she said. You are as thick as a hiveborn ganger as well, Neriss thought but held her tongue. "Can you surmise whence the light comes from?"
"I think that way. But I trust the Emperor more than my instincts,"Neriss admitted. Sella shrugged and started walking in the direction. The forest had not become dense and very soon they emerged from the other end to find the source of the light.
It was a building on fire. Judging by its height, it was a two storey structure. Bodies were strewn around it, some of them floating in the shallows. Wordlessly, they made their way to the scene of carnage.
"They are human." Neriss noted.
"They are dead." Sella added.
"Who do you suppose killed them, sister?" Neriss asked.
"Other humans, mayhaps?" Sella said with a shrug before rummaging through the corpses. She isn't just thick as a hive ganger, she acts like one as well, Neriss noted. But then again, Sella was a Battle Sister. It mattered not to her why these people were dead, only that they were.
One of the corpses gasped, proving itself to be not dead. Neriss walked over to the wounded man and cradled his head in her lap.
"Modor," the man whimpered. Neriss frowned. The man wasn't speaking Low Gothic. So they were no in the Imperium of Man but on an unknown planet possibly populated by humans.
"Beorge me, Modor," he repeated.
"He won't survive," Sella noted, nodding at the man's guts hanging out of his belly. "Emperor knows how he is alive right now."
"Who did this to you?" Neriss asked. The dying man's eyes focused for a moment and he stared at Neriss.
"Hwy sy ou?" he said and Neriss knew it was a question.
"I don't know what you ask, my good man, but I shall answer regardless. I bring you good news, the Emperor on Terra, the Master of Mankind, has deigned to bring your world within his fold, with all the duties and responsibilities it entails. I am Sister Neriss of the Order of the Offered Hand and my companion is-"
"Dead." Sella said.
"Sister?" Neriss said.
"The man is dead, sister. Waste your breath not." Sella said. Neriss laid down the dead man on the grey sand gently. "The dead lived once and they may have lived in some town or settlement. There is a dirt path that leads somewhere. Perhaps it may lead us to where the dead once lived?" the swordswoman said. Lacking any other direction, Neriss stood up and the two of them went down the path.
"How did we end up here?" Neriss mused.
"Our lifepod crashed into the sea. I was barely able to swim to shore while the waves threw you out. The rest perished, Emperor accept them." Sella answered.
"The Fallen shall forever be known as the Emperor's finest." Neriss intoned.
"Good thanks to the Emperor for not counting us amongst them." Sella remarked.
"You forget yourself, sister." Neriss warned her. How did they make such a faithless woman a Sister of Battle? She wondered.
"Emperor forgive me as I forget a lot." Sella said. "The people of this planet must have forgotten to invent hearths, it seems."
"Why do you say that?" Neriss asked.
"Because those buildings are on fire." Sella stated, pointing in the distance. The entire town seemed to be going up in flames although its inhabitants seemed to be alive. They seemed lively enough, running about. The truth became clearer once they got nearer.
"It seems that we are witnessing a sea gang raid." Neriss observed.
"Was it the black sailed vessel that tipped you off, sister, or was it the maidens being dragged away?" Sella asked.
"The corpses and burning buildings helped as well. We should make ourselves scarce. I have no desire to meddle in such petty affairs." Neriss said. The Emperor seemed to have different plans for them as their presence was noted by the men raiding the pathetic fishing village.
Three of the raiders came up to them, running and screaming. Neriss scarcely bothered to look because she already knew the outcome. The raiders died in pieces, their iron armour proving useless against Imperial steel. More raiders tried attacking them and Sella cut them down, barely exerted. There were now seven dead and every other raider had taken notice.
"Your sword can be activated, sister." Neriss mentioned.
"This scum isn't worth it." Sella grunted as she readied herself.
The battle, if it could be called that, was short. The remaining raiders attacked at once, possibly hoping to overwhelm the Battle Sister. All it did was bunch them together for Sella to kill them at once. In a few sword strokes, the raiders were all dead and Sella began to wipe down her sword with one of the dead raiders shirts. Neriss sat down on the ground to pass the time.
"The people are looking at you in wonder." Neriss commented. They weren't approaching her or Neriss out of fear but it was novel to see their faces. Sella grunted and didn't bother looking up. One of the women timidly crept closer to Sella, her eyes wide with hope.
"Thank ou, frowe ridder." she said. Her simple dress was torn. Her face and arms were caked in grey sand, with tear stains on her cheeks. But it was her words that made Neriss look up.
"Do you speak Low Gothic?" Neriss asked.
"Forgiefe mi, mi frowe." the woman said. "I gewitan noth oure tongue."
"I am getting somewhere. I understood a few words." Neriss said.
"Keep it up, sister, and you might even translate the Lectitio for them." Sella said.
"Oh I will, sister. The Emperor will guide my soul." Neriss said. Sella merely shrugged and magnetically locked her sword to her back. Neriss turned back to the woman.
"I am Neriss," she said slowly, pointing at herself to make the woman understand. "Neriss."
The woman seemed to grasp her meaning. She pointed to herself. "Ada."
Neriss was of the Ordo Famulous, whose members served as diplomats and advisers throughout the Imperium. Although she wasn't an adept at linguistics like the Ordo Dialogous, discerning and understanding a tongue which resembled Low Gothic was within her abilities. Through false starts and mistakes, she was able to make headway with the people of the planet.
"So," Neriss said slowly, "this is Greyshield Island and those were Iron island reavers."
"Indeed, my lady." Ada said. The few remaining survivors who were unhurt and had no worries of their own, were watching them with poorly disguised interest. The buildings had stopped smouldering, their remains visible in the breaking dawn.
"Does this island have a governor?" Neriss asked.
"Your pardon, my lady?"
"A nobleman," Neriss changed the wording but the words seemed to be foreign to Ada. "A castle?"
"There is a castle, my lady. But did you not come from it?" Ada asked.
"No. I am not from this island." Neriss said.
"Of course she ain't," one of the villagers, an old man with a beard but no head hair, suddenly seemed to get his courage. "You have come from King's Landing, no doubt, my lady?"
"Gather your wits, Pate, she is accompanied by a lady warrior. She must be from Dorne." one of the women said. By now, even the wounded were part of the audience. Neriss wondered why.
"Dornish do not fight with courage. I know, I was with the King's Army when the craven Dornish broke the peace and the Dragonknight was captured." Pate said, his beard wagging furiously.
"Westeros has no lady warriors, you old fool. Look at her dark skin. She must be Dornish." the other woman said.
"She fought like the Dragonknight himself, this lady warrior did. No Dornishman could lay a hand on him. I know what I saw. They used cruel magicks to bring him down."
"My goodfellows, I am neither from King's Landing nor from Dorne." Neriss said. Sella pointedly kept ignoring everyone else, wiping her clean sword with what remained of the raider's shirt. "I am a lost traveller and I wish to find the nearest authority."
"It'll be the lord's castle you'll be needing." Ada said.
"My lady!" Pate said, standing as straight as he could. "It will be my honour to escort you to our lord's castle."
"Be sure to ask the lord's castellan for help, Pate." One of the other villagers said. "We will have want of wood and men to rebuild our homes."
And that was how Neriss and Sella ended up being accompanied by an old man on their way to the island lord's castle. The old man had a loose tongue but Neriss did not mind. He was proving to be a source of the planet's history and language.
"He is a good sort, our Lord. His father, Uther Grimm, was with the King when he conquered Dorne. The Stranger had his eye on him that day and his son became Lord of Grimston." Pate prattled.
"Indeed?" Neriss said politely.
"Truly, my lady," Pate continued. "The Lord was knighted by Ser Alex Florent at the Highgarden Tourney. They say he unhorsed Ser Jon Hewett and Ser Walder Bracken but lost against Alwyn Peake but only after breaking two lances."
"Does the old man understand the virtue of silence?" Sella asked in Low Gothic.
"Peace, sister. Let the old man talk." Neriss asked.
"May I know where you are from, my lady? Your companion fights with the strength of the Warrior himself. I have only seen such strength among the knights of King's Landing." Pate asked.
"We are from a realm quite far and our ship sank near your coast." Neriss said.
"No doubt you came to serve in the King's court. We need strong knights to lead us against the Dornish. The man on the Iron Throne may be Aegon's son but it is Blackfyre who was meant to be King."
"Town's here." Sella grunted.
Neriss had been so preoccupied with Pate that she hadn't noticed that they were at the outskirts of town. It was morning now and the town was bustling with peasants. They had set up their stalls and were selling their wares. Neriss could see fish, vegetables, some manner of animal meat hanging from metal hooks. Baskets, bolts of rough cloth, baubles and trinkets, any manner of object a peasant needed seemed to be for sale here. Neriss couldn't help being a bit impressed. For a backwater island on backwater planet, it seemed to be prospering.
Her musings were interrupted by the arrival of a lording on a horse, accompanied by six men at arms. The lording was a pimple faced boy of barely eighteen, lanky with a wisp for a beard. He carried himself with the confidence of a noble walking his estate.
"What's all this then? I heard that there were washerwomen carrying swords around so I came to teach them their place. But I find it's two mummers and a fool." He said. He was trying to make his voice sound deep but wasn't good at it.
"If it pleases you, my lord, I am Pate of Shore village. Our houses were just burned ironwork reavers and our women would have been carried off if not for these two. I am here to petition for help to rebuild our village, if Mother may have mercy." The old man said.
"You will speak when I require, you old fool. Learn to hold your tongue." The lordling replied coldly. Pate did as he was bid. "Now then," the lordling said. "Luthor, arrest these women."
"On what charges, my lord?" The man at arms named Luthor asked. HIs voice, unlike the lordlings, was deep as a hive quake.
"I care not. For being eyesores on the Greyshield? For stealing a sword. For being women. I want them in chains." The lordling sniffed.
"Get ready to fight our way out of here." Neriss said. Sella scowled but slung her sword off her back. In response, the six men at arms unsheathed their swords.
"There will be none of this foolishness," a deep voice boomed. The men at arms stood aside to let three armoured riders on horses through. The rider in the middle had the largest horse and wore simple armour, covered with a green surcoat with sailing vessels embroidered on it. His helm had no plumage, Neriss noted, as he took it off to reveal a hard, bearded face.
"I apologise for my son's behaviour, my ladies. I am Ser Gunther Grimm and I bid thee welcome to Grimston Castle."