Amberley Vail sighed as she retreated to her chambers. Her duty done, her loves life and achievements would be forever engraved upon the halls of the inquisition. Yet, despite the burden lifted from her shoulders, the strange heaviness lingering in her chest only grew heavier. Still through centuries of experience and rigorous discipline she walked through the halls revealing nothing until she finally reached the safety of her home.
The door closed and all at once the wave of tiredness that had become more common with age, swept through her body. Feeling every wrinkle, every worn out muscle all the way to her bones, left Amberley exhausted.
'A short drink and then sleep.' The investigations surrounding the rumors out of the Halo Zone could wait in the morning as she dragged herself to her desk popping open one of Ciaphas favorites'.
Eyeing the half full glass a familiar pain shot through Amerley's chest and again she could not put her finger on what this ache was about as her lips pressed into a thin line. Her gaze became distant as she searched within herself, the instincts of an inquisitor forcing her onto a path she did not want to travel. And like so many other times, she saw a glimpse of him. Tall and dashing with that smile and look in his eyes that were etched in her mind with crystal clarity.
She downed the glass in one swing and breathed out a sigh the throbbing ache slowly abiding with the help of alcohol her gaze drifted across her desk. The many sources that had contributed to her loves legacy strewn about just as she had left them. Or they should've been. In an instant Amberley went stiff, attention sharpening to a razor's edge as she grabbed her love's private diary.
'Who put this note here?' Poking out of the pages of the diary was a strange paper, one that had NOT been there before in all her time working with the documents, or when she had left her office for the fateful meeting today. A sense of indignant boiling fury roiled within her belly as she scrutinized the strange piece of paper with unwavering focus.
And immediately choked on her breath as she recognized Ciaphas hand writing.
'Impossible!' She thought furiously her knuckles tightened around the edges of the assuredly heretical evidence as she looked for any sign of forgery pointing at the true culprit. Not even the faint wisps of wind coming from the open window, that combed through her hair like familiar fingers oh so long ago couldn't sway her from her vengeful curiosity.
Amberley felt almost overwhelmed with an rage on a level she had previously thought impossible as it surged through her veins. Her heart hammered in her chest as she read each line with care.
'I will carry this secret to my watery grave. By the throne let it vanish forever beneath the wave. On a strange alien world where death brushed my shoulders again. Another mission by a person not using their brain. As I lay bleeding on a unfamiliar rocky shore, listening to waves crashing against the cliffs with a roar. 'Twas like a triumphant sound that raised the hairs on my neck, mocking the purple sky's retreat behind their chaos wreck.'
As she read Amberley trembled, her face turning white, 'This is not Ciaphas writing! It can't be! So why? Why does it feel like him?'. Eyes welling up with tears Amberley lost herself in the impossibility resting in her hands, a fresh and sharp wind blew through the open window. Sweeping behind her back, crisp and cool yet strangely soothing and comforting that Amberley couldn't help herself but sink deeper. Deeper into the letter, deeper into that ghostly embrace and ever deeper into her fondest of memories. Opening up to her like a bottomless ocean.
'Hidden from mortal sight a terrible battle was won. Its triumph dragged to a place that never knew the sun. Into the deep a place where millions and more minds rested. As waves crashed against me I felt myself being tested. Throne knows what it saw but a ringing laughter shook the earth. And it spoke with haunting words colored in ancient mirth. "Time makes for strange bedfellows, for you and I are the same. Lairs and survivors living on cheated laurels and fame. You are better than what you think you are, never forget." '
In that moment I realized it to be true. My questions answered with a secret I always knew. Yet 'twas a secret I never wanted to comprehend. My love, my pythia, our meetings were fated like the tide. Coming and going with the waves each memory is my pride. For every memory was a victory hard fought. Bringing sweetness to my tongue I never knew I sought. The waves were our battles and our battles were the waves. Shaping all there was and ever will be with our deeds.
Amberley. My Pythia. Fret not, for I will hold you in my arms again soon.'
Inquisitor Amberley Vail clutched onto the letter like a life line. Only the cold embrace by the night wind calmed her fraying nerves. Even as her heart seemed to implode in her chest and her breath was caught in her throat, as she fell ever deeper into the strangely familiar yet cold embrace that smelled of the bottomless sea.
Her eyes shot open and Amberley wrenched herself upright with all her might and whirled about, bolter in hand. There was nothing behind safe for the open window letting in the cold reeking stench of the city.
Breathless she scanned the room before stumbling to her commbead and alerting security. Sleep would not come to her tonight.
A little omake if you guys don't mind with our favorite commissar and inquisitor.