Tonally this isn't very 40K but this is what happens when I'm in charge so here we are.
Jarrion sighed and pinched his nose.
"Does anyone else have anything else they'd like to tell me? Torian, have you been moonlighting as a Primarch? No? Thale? Thor reincarnated? No? Shame. Anyone else? Anything? Eldar in disguise? Hiding Orks in the bilge? No?"
No-one else in the room seemed to think this was the time for jokes. Jarrion sighed again. No-one ever seemed to think it was the time for jokes. He turned to the Inquisitor who had by now tucked the rosette away and was happily relaxing in her chair the way someone does when they know they can do just about anything they want.
The chair, Jarrion noticed, that had been carved out of the bones of a breed of xenos the name of which had utterly escaped him. They were extinct now, he believed. But that was just him getting sidetracked. Mostly it was just the sight of her sitting in it so casually that made him a little cross. Jarrion did his best to ignore this.
"I've never seen an Astropath who was an Inquisitor before," he said instead. Loghain tapped a finger to her nose, a thoroughly disarming gesture for an Inquisitor.
"I'm not an Astropath, it's a disguise."
Jarrion looked deep into her charred, empty eye sockets. Disconcertingly, they seemed to be looking right back at him.
Most Astropaths, he belatedly realised, kept that sort of thing covered up. Maybe she had foregone this on purpose just to unsettle everyone. If she had, it was working. Jarrion had to look away.
"Very convincing," he muttered. She smiled.
"If there's one thing the Inquisition strives for it is to be convincing."
Somehow, an Inquisitor with a sense of humour seemed more worrying than one without. Jarrion didn't really want the only person on the ship other than himself telling jokes to be someone who could also make his life extremely difficult. But it seemed he wasn't to be so lucky.
"I have heard that about the Inquisition, yes. And your name would be…?" He asked, trying to keep at least a fingertip-hold on the momentum of the conversation.
"Loghain."
"Inquisitor Loghain, I take it you won't tell us why you're here?"
"Of course not," she scoffed.
"No, I suppose that would be too much to hope for," Jarrion said, sighing and slumping a little in his seat.
"May I ask a question, my Lord?" Torian asked.
"By all means. My table is open to all. Apparently," Jarrion said, waving a hand.
"If you don't mind me asking, Lord Inquisitor," Torian said, shifting in his seat, his whole body creaking, augmetics buzzing. "How was it you were able to remain so well hidden in the choir? A room full of telepaths hardly seems the safest place for a spy. Forgive my impertinence."
Torian had not dealt with Inquisitors before. His experience lay almost exclusively with and within House Croesus and so largely concerned the vagaries of Rogue Traders and their associates. He wasn't entirely sure what the etiquette was when talking to the Inquisition. He felt it best to play it safe and be polite. It tended to work for him in anything he came up against.
Loghain turned Torian's way, making the old man flinch as he got a better view of the damage that had been done to her eyes. Jarrion reckoned she had to be doing that on purpose.
"Not a spy. And I am a very closely guarded person. Though, if my concentration did slip and the Choirmaster did happen to catch perhaps a whisper of my true purpose and intentions and my true authority and then decided to keep it to himself I can hardly be blamed for that."
This she said with the slightest hint of a grin.
"Does that answer your question?" She asked. Torian just nodded, shrinking back into his seat and rather regretting having said anything in the first place.
Curiosity wasn't exactly a virtue, as he knew, it was only the bizarre circumstances that had pushed him into trying. Clearly the excitement had got the better of him. He wouldn't make the same mistake again.
Jarrion spoke, forestalling any further awkwardness:
"Well now that that's out of the way can we continue? I think-"
"Let's not be too fast yes? I don't think we're giving the situation the weight it demands. " Loghain said. Jarrion, cut-off, gave her a very level look.
At this point he had had rather enough. Today had been going very well and now nothing was making sense and an Inquisitor had come barging in and was acting with every sign that she was going to start to throw her weight around.
One of the best things about being stuck on the Assertive had been the distance it had put between Jarrion and his family, keeping comfortably out from under all of their thumbs and away from their interference. To swap familial meddling for Inquisitorial meddling was not something Jarrion felt that enthusiastic about.
So it was time for a little speech. A Rogue Trader's prerogative. He laid his hands on the table and lent forward, ever-so-slightly.
"Inquisitor," he said, voice commanding the room immediately. It was That Voice. He'd practised it. "While I appreciate the importance of you and your cohorts and the good work you all do for the sake of humanity and I am fully aware of the vaunted position you occupy in the Imperial hierarchy, I would like to remind you that I am a Rogue Trader, an individual empowered by the hand of the Emperor himself - or at least those charged to speak for him - to go places and do things in his name."
He paused to see if Loghain would interrupt him, perhaps to bring up the fact that technically he was the son of a Rogue Trader, and so that therefore his particular authority might have been disputed by some.
She did not, so he continued.
"That brings with it a certain level of, shall we say, authority? An authority that covers all the domains of House Croesus and which is carried with me on this ship to whichever area of space I feel could benefit from Imperial light and civilization or else could benefit the greater Imperium by virtue of something contained within it. An authority that you might well say stems from the same source as yours, and so should be treated with the same level of due respect. You might say."
Another pause. No interruptions.
"And just because I make a joke or two and I don't raze planets that look at me funny - unlike, say, my brother - doesn't mean I should be taken any less seriously than my aforementioned brother, my father or anyone else in my House. With that in mind, I would appreciate it if you did not interrupt me on my ship again. If you'd be so kind."
Loghain's face did not so much as flicker and for a moment she was completely silent. Then she tipped her head in that weird way again. Jarrion assumed it was meant to be some kind of nod, but just less emphatic. Like a sarcastic yes.
"As you say," she said.
"Thank you. However, I suppose you might have a point. What, in your experienced, Inquisitorial opinion, do you make of the current situation we find ourselves in?"
"I know you're trying to unsettle me by thrusting me even further into the limelight, Lord Captain," said Loghain, and Jarrion did take note of her carefully chosen form of address. "But as it happens and given the evidence I do actually have a theory."
"That was quick. Do tell."
"I posit that we are in a wholly different universe!" Loghain said with obvious glee.
Given what little they knew about her already - and what they knew about Inquisitors generally - it was hard for anyone around the table to grasp whether or not she was serious, joking or just trying to trick them somehow.
Jarrion shifted in his chair and glanced around at the others, reading the room.
"Do you now?" He asked, delicately. Loghain cocked her head.
"My finely-honed Inquisitorial senses tell me that you may be expressing sarcasm, but consider: the Astronomicon is nowhere to be found. The Warp is utterly still, without strife. The stars are not where they should be and some, indeed, are not there at all. This goes a little beyond the unusual, don't you think?"
Jarrion glowered but couldn't immediately think of anything to say. How she knew any of this wasn't anything he was even going to bother broaching. Presumably she had methods, and if she wanted to be obliquely complimented on how good her spying was Jarrion wasn't going to be the one to do it.
"I'll admit these things are unexpected, but another universe? How can I honestly be expected to believe that?" He asked.
"Those travelling through the Warp have, on occasion, found themselves arriving before they have even departed," Loghain pointed out. Jarrion flapped this aside with a wave of his hand.
"Yes, but thats time, that's different. People have also found themselves lightyears off-course, as I rather suspect we are. Time and space I can understand, just about. You're talking about something else entirely. It just doesn't make sense."
"It may not make sense to you, Lord Captain and begging your pardon, but such things have been theorised. Of course, if they were ever realised or achieved there's been no record I've seen. But now, here we are!"
This settled nothing.
"I still feel that you are perhaps jumping to conclusions," said Jarrion.
"That remains to be seen."
"Quite."
Both of them seemed to realise that pursuing this matter further from within a closed room in the middle of a spaceship was unlikely to get either of them anywhere.
Fortunately, someone chose this moment to knock at the door. A bell had been installed, but apparently not everyone knew about it. Jarrion waved to a servant to permit whoever it was entry, and it turned out to be a junior member of the bridge crew.
"What is it?" Jarrion asked. It had to be something, they wouldn't have been interrupted otherwise.
"We have identified a contact in the vicinity, Lord Captain. A ship."
Jarrion rolled his eyes.
"If it's not one thing it's another. Hostile?" He asked.
"Not immediately, Lord Captain."
A genuine surprise. The way things were going Jarrion would not have been unduly alarmed to hear that Horus himself was outside and wanted a word.
"Well that's something. Alright, back to the bridge we go - let's say hello."