-Planet: Kawus -Year: 913.M34 -Location: North of Ultima Segmentum, border of the Ghoul Stars -POV: Inquisitor William Husan of the Ordo Malleus
The Inquisitor gazed at the hundreds of Imperial ships stationed in the planet's orbit, soon, the fleet will leave to deal with an orkish empire that has been a plight in the nearby sectors, or at least that is what the Imperium told its citizens. The real reason for the assembly of such a force in this Emperor forsaken region was none other than the mechanicus of mars, the machine cult would do anything to get their hands on an STC, even if it meant venturing into the most cursed region of the galaxy with an army.
Recently, a mechanicus exploratory fleet has come upon an STC unit within the ghoul stars, but when the Magos of the fleet and her teams deceased on the world to retrieve it, a newfound Xenos race rose up from the depth of the world, and began engaging with the mechanicum forces. The forces of Magos fought ferociously for their prized artifact, but even their zeal wasn't enough, not when an ork waaagh descended on the world and began fighting them and the 'Metal boyz'.
William sighed, had the mechanicus retrieved the STC when they had the chance, then there wouldn't be any need for assembling such a fleet, this damnable region was nothing but a waste of resources. At least, the assembling of the fleet gave William the opportunity to investigate the psychic signature coming from a certain planet in the system.
William's gaze turned towards the holographic mapping of the region, at least the known parts "Does this region worry you too, Inquisitor?" William didn't even need to use his eyes to recognize the voice, it was Avina, a death cult assassin of his retinue.
"Throne of Terra, someone has finally learned how to call people by their title" William chuckled at his own weak jest.
Ignoring the mocking remark, the Assassin strode forward and sat on the corner of the table "The Emperor's light has left this accursed region, Inquisitor, the sacrificed souls may not reach him from here"
William's face hardened as he was reminded of the Assassin's tradition, their actions were borderline heretical "The Emperor sees all, Assassin, even this foul region is not far from his gaze, I'm sure your sacrifices will reach his ears" William said, his words giving comfort the cold-hearted killer. Avina stood up and walked towards William, stopping beside him and looking at the map, trying to understand what was there that William looked so intensely for. William glared at the woman, his attempt at intimidation failed, it was hard to intimidate someone when they stood a head taller than you, and Avina was the very image of intimidation, though her appearance had no effect on the Inquisitor either.
William tried to ignore the feeling of having a deadly assassin so close by and continued to look through the map, trying to find the planet he was looking for "There" he said as he enhanced the picture with his hands. Avina looked as the image of a planet became visible through the map, its name was "Thule".
"Looks no different from any other, Inquisitor" Avina noted "What is so special about this one?" she asked.
"Recently, Ordo Malleus became aware of a black box signal emanating from the planet, signatures belonging to that of the Inquisition. We are here to see the cause of this signal"
"And we to depart when?"
"Once the Imperial guard are resupplied, we have only until then to find another psyker" William informed the assassin, his retinue has been lacking a psyker since the death of his previous one, though his death was a major inconvenient, William couldn't be mad at him, he had done a great job surviving as far as he did, surviving in the Inquisition for 20 years was no easy feat for a badly trained psyker.
"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 may find a sanctioned one, Assassin, if things are to go the way they are, we might end up with a wild one"
"They are one and the same, Inquisitor, to know one mutant is to know them all" the assassin argued
"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 there was no doubt about it, but he will not tolerate insubordination.
With that Avina stood silent, her face showed discomfort at the idea of having another Psyker on the ship but her lips remained silent, even one as headstrong as she knew the limits of an Inquisitor.
William sighed "Your discomfort is justified, the psykers are always a wild card, I know that" William said.
"Then..." Avina tried to say something, only to be cut off by William's hand, gesturing for her to stop speaking.
"But seeking comfort is not our mandate, ours is the life of discomfort and hardship"
"Are you accusing me of weakness, Inquisitor?" Avina growled.
William smiled which made him look smug, irritatingly so "Can you not accept a jest as is? or perhaps there something much weaker hidden beneath your mask of strength"
Hearing William's words, the Assassin's face hardened and grew cold which caused a slight sense of worry to find its roots in the Inquisitor's heart "Mark my words, Inquisitor, these psykers will be the end of you" she informed the Inquisitor with such level of certainty that one might mistake her for having the gifts of a doomscryer.
"Was that a threat?"
Avina smiled "Was it? can you not take a jest, Inquisitor?" the Assassin left the room the way she entered, leaving the Inquisitor to his thoughts.
"This damned woman" William cursed before returning to his tasks, the day was long and there were many things need attending.
-Planet: Thule -Year: 913.M34 -Location: North of Ultima Segmentum, Ghoul Stars -POV: Anon
The memories of the revelation were still fresh in Anon's mind. It was over eight hundred years ago when he finally realized where exactly he was, he was reborn into the universe of Warhammer 40000, one of the worst possible realities one might find himself in. This universe was filled with horrors enough to break the greatest of wills and knew nothing but war and suffering, a place where the strong determined the laws of morality, now here he was, forced to face this new reality. This reality was the end for many great men and women, a place where legends died, fortunately for Anon, he was blessed with perpetualhood, the power to cheat death itself but even with this blessing, he still doubted he could survive the horrors of this dark future.
At first, it took a few weeks for Anon to come to terms with his current state. For weeks he secluded himself, contemplating this newfound knowledge, he thought deeply and carefully day in, day out until it looked like his very sanity hung in the balance. His hope was the first to be crushed, turning into dust as his world turned upside down, after all, there was nothing but a horrible death awaiting him in this reality, there was no place for hope, no place for optimism.
His desires were the next, in the grimdarkness of the far future, there was no place for pleasure, joy, or love, his new life was that of suffering and pain, he couldn't allow such desires to hold him back. Then came the turn for his dreams, everything he ever hoped to achieve in life became meaningless and was cast aside for a single purpose, to save humanity by any means necessary, to try to fix this reality as much as he can until he too perished under the weight of his goal.
After everything was said and done, the man who came in before had died and in his place, came out a new man whose resolve rivaled steel, ready to do what it takes to achieve his goals.
After he left his isolation, Anon focused all of his time on training, honing his skills with psionics even further, what other choice did he have? he had to sacrifice everything if he wish to ever survive in this new harsh reality.
His efforts were not futile, after all those years of dedication and training, he reached a level of psychic control that was not seen amongst humans. Maybe he achieved it because he had a talent for it, maybe the Duran's instructions were to blame, or maybe because he had such a long lifespan like that of the aeldari which allowed him to dedicate even more to training. Anon personally thought it to be the last option, he never saw himself as a talented individual, the only difference between him and the Eldar, except for his round ears, was that even an Eldar dies of old age while he still remained.
The Witch shook his head, there was no time to delve into the memories of the past, he needed to find a way out of this feudal world and blend into Imperial society if he was to achieve anything, this planet whilst good as a training ground, was extremely limiting. Fortunately for the Witch, he had already found a way to leave the planet.
It was five years ago when he discovered the crashed Imperial ship on the world, an Inquisitorial ship whose crew were slaughtered to the last, most likely due to a daemon incursion within the warp, now, decades later, nothing but husks has remained from the voidsmen and a skeleton of a poor Inquisitor cleaved in half. Although the ship itself was beyond repair or flight, it was still capable of sending a message. It took years for him to make the black box device operational again and at last, his labors bared fruit, the only thing remaining was to wait and enact his plan, one way or another he will leave this world, even if it means lying to the Inquisition.
"Inquisitorial agent Jermai. I wonder whether they will believe it or not" The Witch said to himself as he looked skywards, as if his naked eyes could see beyond the cloudy skies "Only time will tell"
-Planet: Galludic III -Year: 913.M34 -Location: Segmentum Tempestus, Uhulis Sector -POV: Farseer Anath'lan
Planet of Galludic-III was 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. An important world in Imperium Tempestus that is currently under attack by an ork WAAAGH.
History was not kind to Galludic-III, even before the arrival of WAAAGH. The planet's air was barely breathable thanks to the heavy industrialization, collapsing the fragile ecosystem, and now that vast armies battled under the already ruined atmosphere, the air became even more toxic, killing the ones who dared to breathe without a mask.
Snagdakka Steelfang, the warboss of the WAAAGH, arrived at the system 2 years ago by a space hulk that caught the imperial defenders off guard, 3 hive cities fell to the rampaging greenskin armies on the planet. Many other orks from other systems began to join the Snagdakka's vast armies as he became one of the meanest, greenest, and shootiest of Orks in the entire sector.
The PDF, despite showing admirable resilience against the invaders, began to crumble under the weight of an endless greenskin horde, until when reinforcements arrived. Knowing the importance of the manufactorums on the planet, segmentum command has dispatched 15 million imperial guardsmen, to exterminate the greenskin vermin before they could damage valuable factories and production facilities. And when the storm wings space marine chapter arrived to aid the local imperial forces, a perfect opportunity presented itself for aeldari forces was made.
Two Eldar strike teams moved through the war-torn planet undetected, using the distractions made by two forces clashing each other, they preceded their plans, aided by their farseer's psychic might. 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 belonging to a long-dead farseer that could yet prove valuable to the craftworld.
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. Both of the items are necessary for an important ritual.
Biel-tan has always wanted to retrieve these items from this world, but due to their craftworld's reputation amongst the mon-keigh, even the slimmest chance of diplomatic solutions was lost, they also could not attack an important mon-keigh world, that would only bring unneeded destruction to the craftworld. Seeing no other options and seeing the opportunity present itself, the seer council voted for a stealth operation.
Anath-lan approached his objective, the psychic trails of the staff had led him to a small hive guarded by a human PDF garrison and a small group of the imperial guardsmen, 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 have left to deal with the ensuing fire.
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. The Farseer in his visions, had seen a 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, the Librarian of the storm wings has seen his arrival at this hive, and has prepared an ambush for his team. Now stuck between the forces of the Imperial Guard and the space marines, Anath searched desperately for an exit.
"Farseer!" a voice called out his title, barely managing to pierce the sounds of gunfire of the barbaric mon-keigh. The howling banshees let loose their psychic scream as they cut down imperial PDF forces foolish enough to get close, they then gracefully retreated to the covering fire of the avengers, their actions conducted in perfect unison.
"The winds of battle blow against us, Farseer, the space marines are pursuing us from the back, we cannot hold them much longer" the Avenger explained, his voice was that of desperation, he didn't want to die on this world, Anath could sense it.
Anath'lan cursed himself for not seeing this turn of events, only if he could've seen the librarian, maybe, maybe this wouldn't have happened, they have already lost many of their numbers, five banshees and three avengers, their loss was a tragedy but acceptable if they could take the staff back to the craftworld, the artifact was far more valuable than the Ashurian lives spent here
"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 its power to if I am to hold off the nearsighted human" Anath'lan ordered to the avenger, receiving a slight nod of acknowledgment from the young aspect warrior.
After seeing every member of his team prepared, the Farseer tapped into the sea of souls, seeing through strings of fate. Anath observed the strings, many leading to their demise, they were easy to detect as they ended quicker than the other ones. Anath read through every possibility until finally, he chose a path, a path where the chance for failure was great, but unfortunately for his team, it was the only path saving them from their demise.
With each second, the sounds of bolter fire from their back loomed closer, bringing with them the doom of the Eldar team. Farseer focused his powers on 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 a large area, he required a great sum of his power, or at least what little of his that still remained. 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 his trick.
'In Isha's name, I'm not the young soul I once was' the 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 that he was performing, he was drawing just enough power for his task and just low enough to not break the rune, though it was also pushing him to his limits.
The 800 years of experience as an Eldar seer showed itself as he quickly prepare the ritual. After he was ready, the Farseer signed the men to be ready. As soon as he began, the Eldar team rushed towards the exit, keeping their weapons silent so as not to break the illusion. 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, no 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 an 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. Anath disconnected himself from the illusion and began to run towards his kind, dodging bullets as he moved, though even his speed combined with his psychic enhancements could not dodge the lasguns.
Several the primitive human lasguns hit the Farseer, many of the rounds from their directed energy weaponry being nullified by his armor, though the few which managed to pass caused him great pain. The human weapons were as barbaric and simple as themselves, when the directed energy weapon hit its target, it unleashes a heated energy round that dispersed its heat inside the victim's body, suddenly vaporizing the fluid within the victim's body, causing him to explode under the pressure of the steam, although extremely primitive and crude, it was effective, at least against lightly armored opponents.
The Farseer's power began to pour into his shoulder, his biomancy trying to heal the flesh wound, he won't be able to fully recover but at least his shoulder won't hold him back. Soon, Anath reached the exit from which they came inside the city, tens upon tens of human corpses were visible.
"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. Anath jumped, still enhanced via his psychic gifts, and managed to throw himself into the transport. The Vampire raider began to fly up towards the 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 was blaming 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.
For the last 50 years, her teacher has become too obsessed with his vision, the vision of the silver mask. She didn't know why he was so gripped by it, after all, most if not all visions of masks were related to their harlequin cousins, and there was no way for them to do anything against the Eldar's interest, yet her mentor seem to think otherwise.
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 the 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 Aeldari 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 Kaedra couldn't help but 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 chamber where he meditated most of the time, a room which he hasn't left for a long time, and he didn't interact with anyone while inside his chamber, not even Kaedra. It was true that farseers have the oath to dedicate their lives to the betterment of the craftworld, and that includes sacrificing 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, and after 2 minutes of uncomfortable wait, the door opened to reveal an aged Eldar.
"Farseer Kaedra. What revelations have brought you here?" asked the old man with a tired tone.
"I have come here to converse with you if you'll have me" Kaedra said, asking for 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, and the rest of the room was furnished sparsely with a few chairs, a table, plants, and a bed.
"I apologize for I cannot provide much in terms of hospitality, but I'm sure that is not why you are here" Anath said, 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 profession" said Kaedra with a sad tone.
"Then and now are different, you are an equal, it would be insulting to refer to you like anything other" Anath answered before pausing momentarily "The person you knew has changed, I have lived for far too long Farseer, 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?" Kaedra asked, the anger on her face 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, her voice was almost a shout but not quite.
"We both know that it's not true, the silver mask means something, Farseer, and I need to know what it is" Anath argued.
"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 vision" Kaedra retorted.
Hearing that the old Seer's face became 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" Anath apologized "I appreciate your concern but they are unnecessary"
"You cannot continue like this Anath if you do so you'll lose yourself in the path, then not even the infinity circuit will accept you" Kaedra said "Anath, please. If you continue following that vision you'll be damned" Farseer begged 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" Anath tried to calm down his disciple but Anath knew better than anyone that 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, I offer you something else" said Anath in a calm tone
"And what that solution would be?"
"Since you do not trust my words, I will give you a promise" Anath paused in order to clear his throat, making sure that his voice would be as clear as possible "As you know that damnable mask has been plaguing my mind for far too long, 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 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 about 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 Anath" said Kaedra eager to hear his solution.
Anath smiled then explained 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, 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 to me" Kaedra sensed happiness flow into her psyche after hearing Anath's response, not because he thanked her, but because he called her by name like he used to do before.
"There is no need for that Anath, I shouldn't have doubted you, I'm glad that I was wrong about your obsession" said Kaedra apologetically.
"Well" said Anath pausing for a minute before asking 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 the 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 more than a hundred years now.
"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 landed the ship within 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 in formation that showed their experience and training as elite troops.
After 10 minutes they reached the crash site, the stormtroopers, and Ishmael secured the perimeter while the Inquisitor and the 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 the 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 that the 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, sanctioned psykers couldn't be here without the means to travel to the holy Terra, so only two options remains, a rogue psyker which was highly unlikely since he showed skills in telepathic communication and could hide his presences, or one of the previous Inquisitor's retinue.
~You are quite skilled in analyzing Inquisitor~ remarked the voice.
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.
~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 need not 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, that and so much more~ offered the voice.
"The Inquisition requires not your aid Witch, why should I accept your offer?" William asked, 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 in this forsaken planet~ 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 someone like me, can be of help for you?~ asked the voice.
"One does not hide his face and ask an Inquisitor to join his entourage" William retorted "Courtesy demands that you should show your face if you wish to negotiate terms"
~My apologies Inquisitor, I did not mean to insult you~ said the voice
William was surprised to hear humility from the psyker, most psyker at his skill level are 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 only covered the 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 Xenos, frankly it looked rather primitive but well crafter.
"Much better" said the inquisitor signing his soldiers to keep their guns prepared "Now, say what you want to say and be done with it"
"As I said before Inquisitor, I will help you locate the item" said the masked man.
"And I presume you 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 whether you accept me in your retinue or not, but knowing imperium you can't leave a psyker like me to his own" the 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 an unknown 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 but I cannot allow anyone to see my face, however, I can allow you to scan me for chaos taint, I can assure you I'm not a sorcerer or an alien" 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 everything 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 "You yourself should know it better than anyone else, the Inquisition does not reveal its secrets, especially not when your own life is depended on the information. My master and I made a great many enemies, if you know my meaning"
"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 this 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 retinue of a dead Inquisitor, 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. 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 detect the taint of the warp with the mutation that it leaves behind" 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 the 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 "YOU 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, with a swift motion, the Witch 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 the psyker's movement, however, he was efficient with every move. It was obvious that he didn't have a proper mentor to train him, his fighting style was self-thought, maybe he could teach him a 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 looked 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 will be a painful one" said the assassin, hate oozing in her every word, she then left towards the Inquisitor.
"Now that it's over let's get down to business, my name is Inquisitor William Husan" William introduced his name.
"Acolyte Jermai, personal psyker of Inquisitor Leone of ordo Malleus. A pleasure, my lord" the Silver masked bowed "I'm sure my skills will be quite useful once you truly accepted me as your underling" William could not see through the Witch's mask, but he knew he was grinning.
"I'm sure I will Jermai, I'm sure I will" the Inquisitor said with a frown on his face.