– Present –

von Valancius flagship, warp travel -

It was dark in the dream.

Elena stood in a huge ballroom. The walls were made of light gray stones and adorned with artworks, statues, paintings ; intricate details made of gold revealed the wealthiness of the place. All drew the face of Theodora : here she was smiling, here she was young, here she was fighting a humanoid, robotic figure. An enormous chandelier barely lighted the room, its candles flickering, their flames changing colors, from pale yellow to purple.

The place was made to host thousands of people, but Elena was alone in it. From her body hung threads anchored in her chest, shoulders, thighs, feets and skull with tiny hooks. She moved her hand to examine one of them. Its color was black and it evoked a feeling of dread and villainy in her mind, as a wave of thousand voices whispered with it. She let her hand fall to her side.

Her retinue stood around her. She could only guess at their shapes from the corner of her eyes ; every time she tried to have a better look at one of them, the shape dissolved in the shadows. Abelard, there, older, much older. Idira, spiraling out of control. Argenta, like a flame consuming itself. Pasqal, his face cascading upon himself. Heinrix, twisting shadows like chains. Jae, frightened little girl. Cassia, but her face was someone else's. They were all connected to her with one of those threads, red this time. She counted three more threads than her usual retinue. She could not quite grasp the silhouettes linked to it, but they felt very odd and alien. One stood close to her right, nearly protective, looking vaguely feminine. She only caught a glimpse of red hair before it faded away. This connection felt meaningful and left her with a strange sense of nostalgia. One of the others' unknown threads led her to a threatening figure that made her skin crawl and her stomach turn, and the last was…unpredictable, which, as a diviner, she didn't like.

She kept on trying to get a better look at her companions, but every time she thought she managed to catch a glimpse at them, they disappeared.

She made a step forward in the ballroom. It felt like walking over a tomb. That was it. She was in a mausoleum, Theodora's monument. It felt as if Theodora was here, dissoluted in the air, in every stone, in the flickering flames of the candle.

" Theodora ! " she called.

She believed she heard something in the air. A cold wind caressed her cheek, carrying the sweet, acid smell of death and decay.

In front of her, something moved and another thread pulled her from the wound on her chest, attracting her to the new form. She realized, as she took another step forward, that it was Kunrad. His creepy little smile wavered, distorted. His eyes shone like suns in his pale, twisted face. He was holding the shard he had wounded her with close to his own heart, seemingly either talking to it or listening to it. She couldn't help but step towards him as he kept getting away.

Something in the air changed. A buzzing, strange sensation.

— Do you want to find him ? To get your revenge ? I can get you revenge —

Suddenly she was by Kunrad's side. She was bashing his stupid little smile into the walls. The blood oozing from his face thrilled her. The sense of pleasure she felt from the pleas of the traitor was so physical, so powerful that it felt like making love. Each stroke, each wound inflicted was a thrust carrying her to ecstasy.

Elena recoiled in surprise. Such violence, such bodily impulses was not in her usual nature. Of course she wanted to kill the traitor, but the scene was just so…raw and abrupt, not at all like her. What was it ? This could not be her dream !

— Or is it attention you seek, Lord Captain ? —

She couldn't quite grasp her own mind that the scene changed again, quickly, letting her with no time to adjust. Now the ballroom that used to feel like a tomb was full of guests and people she could not name nor discern exactly. She stood amongst them tall, with regal clothes. She had never felt more beautiful, more confident, more seen than this exact second.

All the paintings of Theodora had been brought down and it was her instead in the artworks. Elena von Valancius reclaiming Footfall for herself, Elena von Valancius claiming the Cenobium, Elena von Valancius fighting demons, Elena von Valancius having tea on an unknown planet…she felt the awe and adoration from the crowd. People looked at her oddly. Ah, yes, they did not have that cautious glint in their eyes, that distance that everyone always had around a psyker, not the lines of contempt some held towards voidborns. Elena could not ever remember someone approaching her so openly.

Theodora was gone, and it was only her, everywhere, all at once, excessively so. Her self-esteem felt so strong, she had never felt so affirmed, so true to herself. What is how it was like, to be the owner of oneself, and not someone's else pet on leash ? Was she going to radiate confidence and assurance, like this woman that dominated the crowd simply with her presence ? A sense of excitement made her heart beat faster in her chest and her palms sweat, but also a sense of warning, of alert.

This could never be her. She was a psyker. No one would ever let her be free this way. She hadn't even learnt how to yearn for that kind of adoration. It felt alien to her, like someone forcing a dream upon herself. This could not be hers.

— Maybe you seek a more personal attention…to be desired, to own someone else's passion, and lose yourself in it ? -

From the crowd of admirers, Heinrix took a decisive step towards her, the unknown people moving aside to let him pass. The way he looked at her - with the utmost yearning and lust- left no doubts about his intentions. She felt her legs grow weak in surprise as, without further ado, he kissed her fiercely, one hand gripping tightly at her hair. The next second, they were laying upon a table, entwined and lost in lust consumption, warmth engulfing her body in delight and ravishment as the crowd looked at the show, cheering. However, everything was wrong in this. The strange voyeurism of the crowd felt violating, displaced. Heinrix's gestures were slightly off all the time, too violent, too raw, too brutal to her liking, and it seemed oddly empty of thought, as if she was holding a meat puppet between her legs and not a man. That too seemed violating, forceful, unkind. But in those brutal throes, she couldn't help but feel a sensation of elation, one that would be all too easy to lean into and forget about the oddness of the dream.

Feeling dizzy, she detached her feelings and mind from the raw and carnal scene. The sense of warning was more acute now. She could feel her mind turning around, defending itself. Usually, her precognition didn't involve any personal desires or ambitions. It just showed her pieces of enigma, coldly, with anguish. It certainly never felt good and rarely seemed satisfactory at all.

She recoiled internally as well, and focused on her inner mind, trying to get out of the vision.

— If not this sort of attention, then surely you seek recognition, approval, maybe even to be, not only desired, but loved. Have you not long to be special in somebody's eyes ? Have you not longed to find a place where you belong ? Someone you could trust and who would take care of you ?–

She was back in the ballroom and the crowd had gone, just like Heinrix.

Instead stood Maria, looking older. The appearance of her old mistress made Elena shiver. Maria was still the most beautiful woman in the universe to her eyes. Yes, it was true, she ached for Maria's acknowledgment, Maria's approval.

" Come, Elena. My child. You are now a Rogue Trader. How far you have come, my little underdog. It is time I tell you this : I am so proud of you."

The woman embraced her, like a mother would to a child. The contact of those supportive arms, the sense of finally gaining worth in her eyes, overwhelmed Elena with a mixture of shame and joy.

It was painful. She now knew that she was in a trap, her mind being probed. There was no way none of that would happen. Kunrad would not stop eluding her. Theodora would always be the rightful Rogue Trader whose shadow she lived in. Her infatuation with Heinrix was naive and stupid. And Maria would never, ever say something nice to her.

A telepath, maybe, was poking around her dreams, her inner desires, her futile wishes at being loved. How risible she must be, if tempting her with the love of a mother she never had was the ultimate trap in this layout plan. Still, she had longed so much for these simple words - that knowing they were only a trap made it worse. That was the truth of it. All the rest were childish dreams.

She resisted the desire to accept this embrace, to give in to those comforting words, and kept detaching herself from the scenes. It blurred out now, all those different kinds of love she could not get mixing together in a strange orgy of perversity and unease. It felt captivating, she wanted to look at it - but vile and sick at the same time. It was like resisting scratching an old wound that could only hurt you, or looking away as an accident occurred in front of you.

She felt sick at her mind being violated in such a way, at the images she was trying not to get a glimpse at. No, that could not be a telepath's work. All of this was absent from her mind, from her soul, she was sure of it. It felt more like nightmares than dreams. Was she under a sorcerous spell ? It seemed likely.

The only comfort she found was that this was not her precognition abilities - this was something inviting itself into her dreams, manipulating them, and for what end ?

Without regrets, she finally found her way out of the dream, by exerting her will over it.

Elena opened her eyes, her precognition now scratching her brains with the sense of danger. She had made it out of the mental trap, but saw nothing and no one in front of her. She was laying in her bed, her sheets unmade, and had visibly rolled around a lot in her sleep. Slowly, her eyes went up the ceiling and there it was. The one that tried to get into her mind and twist her dreams to nightmares.

The thing was laying upon the ceiling. It was humanoid. In the dark, its pale, light purple skin seemed to shine softly, almost sensually. It was naked, adorning an androgynous body. Its head was very similar to humans, but the eyes and the smile were crazed and exhilarated beyond human damnation. Its arms ended in horrible, huge fleshy claws, disproportionate in comparison to its lithe and dexterous body. Elena could only imagine how easily one of these claws could pop her head off her neck or even her torso. Its feet ended in jaws and talons, and it had tentacles for hair, which moved around its face.

The creature was both horrible and beautiful. It was hypnotic, in a way. It held the power of something profoundly disgusting and wrong but also so pleasurable you couldn't quite stop from watching it. It was all the horrible things people did to each other out of excess and search of affirmation of their own desires and power glued up in one incarnation. It was transgression made flesh.

The apparition riveted her, surprising her. She remembered from Scholastica Psykana that those demons were called daemonettes and belonged to the Chaos Lord Slaanesh. Such demons were known for tempting loyal subjects of the Imperium, captivating them with their vile promises, and driving them mad before killing them. Their Lord was a master of excess, of fantasies, of decadence and degeneracy. She had been taught about them, but had never before truly met a demon like this. The fact that there was one hanging from her ceiling, smiling at her in devilish intent, in the middle of her bedroom was… not a good sign. How did it even happen ? Weren't the Gellar Fields activated ? Was her ship lost to the warp ?

The demon opened its mouth and a black, forked tongue went out of it. To Elena's horror, it just kept going out and going out, longer even than the daemon. She wanted to move, to get away, but her limbs betrayed her, feeling weak and burning at the same time. The tongue felt flat on her face, its contact hot and slimy. It was disgusting and it smelled like decomposition and decay. Her flesh slightly melted at this contact, as the tongue slid sensually down her neck and her breasts. It was both painful and…arousing, in a shameful way.

Inhaling sharply, Elena came to her senses as she got the feeling that she was going to die if she did nothing. The demon strained its musculature, ready to leap on top of her. As the thing started its jump from above, she activated her telekinesis ability, projecting it to the side of the room instead. In the same moment, she rolled out of bed with difficulty, trying to grasp at her vox and rifle on the other side of the stupidly large bed. Damned Rogue Traders and their tastes for gigantic, useless luxuries !

Elena's mind may be willing, but her strength was lacking. Her nightmares session had left her body weakened, slower, and her mind dizzy. Her band barely grasped at the gun before someone yanked sharply at her hair, pulling her back. She fell on her back, and was surprised to find that the one exerting such violence over her was not the demon but merely a man. One of her own wardens.

From her antechamber and her desk came muffled sounds of violence, as her guards and servants turned to face each other. The appearance of the daemonette must have driven them mad. What did the demon make them see ? How long had it been here, lurking to twist their minds ? What did these men desire most, and in what perverted way would they long to accomplish it ?

The soldier reasserted his grip. Without her weapons and armor, barely clothed for the night, Elena could only rely on her wits and psyker abilities. She projected her mind towards him, pushing him back on the wall, and got to her feet in the same movement. A sense of precognition enabled her to dodge the incoming blow of the daemonette, who barely looked harmed by her projection. Soon the demon entered into a flurry of blows, its rapidity inhuman and unnatural, each attack requiring Elenna's utmost concentration to dodge. She could not duck the last one and the claw nailed her arm to the wall. Elena watched in horror as she feared the thing would just cut her arm off, but the demon was too malevolent to end her quickly. It wanted to see her suffer.

Two other guards entered her room, along with the servant who had spilled her mug of recaff earlier. They all grabbed her limbs and dragged her to her bathroom, with the enormous stupid pool. As she was trying to use her powers back, one grabbed her head and smashed it into the mirror. The shards of glass pierced her right cheek, tongue and palate, as the rest of the mirror grasped at her eyebrows, her forehead, her neck. The pain was so sharp that she lost focus for a second, enough for them to bash her head once more into the wall. She heard her eyebrow cracked and her ear ringed painfully.

Dizzy, light-headed, and her skull now resonating with pain, Elena tried to break free of their embraces to no avail. Grabbing the shards of glass, the men that had sworn to protect her now cut at her skin. Her young servant, his eyes wild with madness, proclaimed :

" Lord Captain ! Let us adore you !"

As he said that, the young boy tore at her shirt and bit into her stomach with uncanny strength. He swallowed the bit of flesh and blood with an ecstatic smile, his teeth red with her flesh. The men cut her, stabbed her, and, like leeches, drank her blood. Elena felt shocked by this unholy behavior.

" May the blood blessed by the Holy Warrant be bestowed upon us !"

New wardens entered the room, led by another daemonette. Both demons looked exultant, as if every blasphemy committed by her servants to her was a source of delight and pleasure.

Elena could not even move anymore, what with all the people pressing her down on the ground. The madmen were now trying to eat her alive, tearing up at her skin, asphyxiating her under their weight. One of them lifted her head to put it into the hot water of the pool, where she suffocated.

But even in this poor state, she wasn't helpless. The pain inflicted to her required a show of will to endure and ignore, but she managed to dissociate her mind from the condition of her body. Precognition and telekinesis would not be sufficient here. She would have to dig down deeper and take more risks. She hadn't used pyromancy for a while now, mainly because it tapped in the Immaterium too much with two other psykers around, and the chance of collateral damages were heavy ; a gun could do as much damage with much less chance of making people's heads explode around her. However, she was now alone, and it was pretty much a life-or-death situation ; even though the warp was already too present in the room with the incursion of the demons, she had to take the risk.

She called on her focus and let fire and heat engulf her. The men drinking from her blood screamed as it turned to a boiling liquid in their mouths, and recoiled. The daemonettes laughed in delight, even more pleased that the pain was now shared.

Free of the madmen's grip, Elena grasped at one of them and fell head first into the pool, all the while pushing her fire aura further and stronger, feeling the flames rolling in waves around her, cauterizing her wounds. The soldier struggled in her grasp, seething in pain and trying to get away from the liquid trap, but couldn't and soon grew motionless. Elena let his body go.

She emerged back from the pool. The heat had grown so much that the superior surface of the water had turned to hot, burning vapors. The wardens were gasping for air on the ground, their faces red and melting as each inhalation burnt through their lungs. The daemonettes had prudently left the room, leaving their servants to die on their own. Elena could now hear a stronger ruckus coming from her antechamber, sounds of a fight.

" Lord Captain !"

That was Abelard's howling, muffled from the distance.

She cautiously climbed up the pool. The warp was getting so strong that her long, blonde hair was now raised and floating upside down like a crown of snakes. A strong stench of rancid smell assaulted her. She caught a glimpse of herself through what remained of her mirror. The heat of the fire encompassing her flesh had caked the blood covering her into a kind of repulsive, red-clay like impression. The right side of her face was badly bruised with a huge shard of glass piercing her cheek and into her mouth, her right eye closed. The numerous stabbings and wounds looked perverse and vile. She guessed she could look like a Chaos spawn in this violent attire, with her psyker abilities so blatantly used and tearing at the veil. Only her left eye remained focused and clear, the only sign that she had control over the situation and had not fallen to corruption.

Elena walked out of the room. The vapors had made their way into the whole habitat, slightly hiding her and the demons from view. She relied on her psyker senses to pinpoint their location, ignoring the screams of alarm of her companions searching for her.

One daemonette had slid into the main room, to face her companions, and was causing mayhem amongst their ranks. Hopefully, the demon was aiming to kill and not tempt and torture them. The other was covered in a corner. As it detected her, it moved into the shadows with dexterity, aiming to skirt around her back. Elena let it move, and, as it got ready to pounce, she turned to face it, letting the Immaterium connected to her soul bend the law of physics. From her mouth erupted a beam of fire that caught the demon in the face. The thing screamed, but even as it seethed in pain, its skin melting, its voice resonated with thrills of joy. It was degenerate. It even prevented her from feeling any satisfaction at wounding her enemy. She resented it for that.

In an agile leap, the demon ran back to the shadows. Now, Abelard and Idira were running towards her, followed closely by Argenta, Pasqal and Heinrix. Elena took a step forward, intending on not letting her prey escape her. She found herself surrounded by armed wardens. They were aiming at her.

A round of bullets made three of them fall as Argenta's religious song erupted, singing of praise and glory. The surviving wardens took cover, aiming at the Sister who recoiled under their assault.

Imperiously, Elena turned her wounded face to her Seneschal, who had stopped in his tracks as he saw her emerging from the smoke. The pain from the shard of glass in her cheeks tearing at her flesh as she opened her mouth to speak seemed distant, as she was engrossed in her psychic powers and her mind was barely in the present at all.

" Seneschal, join me" she ordered sharply.

" Lord Captain !" replied Abelard obediently. But there was something cautious in his eyes as he took a step towards her and then stopped, shivering and grimacing.

Ah, yes. The warp. The veil had grown so thin, in between the demons and her powers, that it started to distort the environment, projecting an unholy aura of fear and coldness around the daemonettes and herself. Even the bravest ones would stop at the unnatural feeling of something unfathomable crawling under their skins, ready to erupt. It took some training to endure the feeling.

Fortunately, Heinrix had joined Abelard at the front of the battle. His hair was sweaty, stuck to his forehead in an unusual mess. How late was it exactly ? She found her mind drifting, unable to grasp the time anymore. Did it even matter ?

The Interrogator asserted the situation quickly, and his dark eyes met hers.

Just as imperiously as before, Elena barely commented, blood dripping from her teeth and torn out palate :

" You're useless", she said to Abelard. " van Calox. To me."

Abelard blanched, but still could not quite force himself to enter the area. In a swift movement, Heinrix brushed past him without a glance, bracing himself as he approached. Without further ado, he leaped in front of the three guards still left standing. Elena turned her back, letting him handle the soldiers, as she focused on scrying the vapors and the shadows for her more dangerous prey who had eluded her. She felt Heinrix's back against hers as he slashed at the wardens.

She didn't pay attention to that. In a sense of acute timing, she felt the presence of one of the demons nearby.

" van Calox, duck to your left", she ordered. She waited for him to register the order and laid more heavily on her left leg as she turned swiftly, emitting another beam of fire at the demon. It howled in pain, revealing its presence. However, it did not kill it. If anything, the acute presence of the warp over the scene seemed to make it stronger and tougher. The daemonette braced and leaped towards her. She stood there, looking at it, as her precognition took a kaleidoscopic form. The demon seemed to move in slow motion, the present folding upon itself, but it didn't seem so dangerous now. It was far away from her. Something else was begging for her attention in the currents of the future. Or was it the past ? Damn. She really had dissociated too strongly. Her mind felt like a balloon let loose on the winds of divination. She battled inside to anchor her mind.

Heinrix flinged himself just in time to parry the attack from one of its gigantic claws, his force sword repelling the arm of the demon and snapping it at the shoulder. The thing now looked hideous, with its melted head, burnt off chest and arm limping. Heinrix killed it with another piercing slash, nailing the thing to the wall.

" There's yet another one", she commented. " Hiding over there." She was now facing a wall, but also at the same time being able to look through it as if it didn't exist at all.

Heinrix battled for a second to extract his sword from the demon. Looking at her sternly, he said :

" Pardon my manners, but you should better not speak. I don't understand a word you're saying anyway. Wait a second."

She looked through him blankly, her senses blinking strangely. She barely felt there at all. The Interrogator, in a swift and merciless movement, ripped away the shard of glass cutting her mouth. Elena stepped back in surprise and pain, not expecting that. Just as swiftly, the Immaterium tickled at her wounds, repairing them, and she absent-mindedly lifted her bloodied hand to the right side of her face. It felt better and smoother.

Her eyes got attracted by a shade in the vapors. It looked like Kunrad.

" Thanks", she said distantly, focusing on the apparition. None of her companions reacted to Kunrad's presence. He was watching sorrowfully at one of Theodora's artifacts. She felt that, if she paid attention enough, she could project her mind to spy on it through the tides of time, to understand it.

Heinrix's austere voice tore her from her vision.

" Elena, keep your mind in the present. There are demons trying to kill you right here, right now. Focus on that."

Regretfully, she let the vision of Kunrad go away and let her eyes focus once more on the Interrogator. He was close to her, eyeing her face with a lingering trace of concern. Her regained clarity seemed to reassure him. The fact that he'd understand her abilities enough to guess at what was going on inside her mind surprised her.

" Don't worry about me, van Calox."

He didn't reply, holding her his gun instead - one he barely ever used. She hummed in approval. The veil was already stretched enough as it was, they would be better off without relying on their powers. The weight of the gun felt reassuring in her hand.

She led the way, Heinrix following closely. It occurred to her that she may have waited for the others to catch up with her - going after the demon with just one companion would be judged reckless by Abelard. She hadn't even stopped to consider it before - fighting with Heinrix was pretty seamless and organic. They both knew what to expect from their psyker powers, could ignore the side-effects of it, and were complementary in their fighting styles. The vapors were even thicker in the next room. It was hardly possible for human perception to even outline the shape of the demon, who had taken cover behind one of Theodora's trophy.

She used her palm to make a few signs learnt in the Imperial Guard on scouting missions. She knew that, with his background, Heinrix would understand what she meant : target was 12 meters away, on the right. Take the lead, I have your back.

She slowed down, fading into the shades herself, and let Heinrix go forward. He managed to fade into the background, silent as a cat. He hadn't striked her as the stealthy type, yet it was obviously something he was familiar with.

Heinrix slid from artifact to artifact, and, following blindly her guidance, slashed in the dark ; the hidden form of the daemonette leapt to the side and out of cover to dodge the attack. Elena took advantage of the movement of the demon to shoot, aiming at its arm. The bullet grasped it in the chest. In a swift movement forward, Elena aimed a second time, with less precision ; still, the bullet also struck the demon. It didn't do much damage though, and she missed the more powerful shot of her long-las.

The demon broke in a flurry of blows, attacking Heinrix. He parried most of it, but one caught him off guard and the creature pierced its shoulder, projecting him to the side. Heinrix got back on his feet quickly, and assaulted the demon once more, ignoring his wounds. The force sword repelled the daemonette back and left it slightly stunned. Elena aligned another set of shots. With uncanny speed, the demon jumped back on top of one of the artifacts, avoiding Heinrix's reach. The Interrogator swore under his breath, taking a step back to keep track of the demon as it climbed up the walls.

It was tempting to use her psychic powers once more, to end the fight quickly. But Elena resisted the urge ; she knew she had already gone a bit too far and it could prove dangerous. She aimed once more, her bullets barely grasping at the demon. It ran towards her from above in response. She dashed to the side and tumbled over one of the trophies. A kind of strange, ivory stone that she didn't identify before. Close combat quarters were not her forte. Heinrix rushed at her side and contained the demon, to her relief. She slided to her right, aiming above his shoulders, for the head of the demon, and waited for it to focus on parrying Heinrix's sword to shoot. This time, the bullet went right to its head and, from this short distance, left its skull in a pulp. The demon shivered, still not dead, but Heinrix took advantage of its imbalance to put his sword through its neck. The daemonette fell back on the ground, motionless.

" That was very close to my face", he said, rubbing his left ear.

" I have an excellent aim", she replied confidently.

" Thank the Golden Throne for that", he commented ironically. " That was the last one ?"

Elena straightened. " In here, yes. What about the rest of the ship ?"

" The incursion was mostly focused here and over the bridge of command. We took care of it on our way up. You…obviously were the target and the center of the assault. " He looked around, pensive.

That wasn't normal at all, and they both knew that. Incursions could always happen when you traveled the warp. However, demons usually did not materialize in the upper levels, where the Gellar Fields were the strongest ; and even less so directly in the Rogue Trader's bedroom. That room was so protected that it should have been the last to fall…and not the first.

That sent her paranoia reeling and her blood boiling. She was certain that someone had tried to kill her. But who ? One of her servants ? Who could have done that ?

Elena walked back to her antechamber, where the rest of her retinue was examining the corpses of the wardens. If they had dared to cross the place towards the center of the incursion - where the veil was the thinnest - she did not know. Abelard stood to attention as she appeared, and threw a cold look at Heinrix.

" Lord Captain, are you all right ?" asked Argenta, crossing the space separating them in a swift movement. The Sister looked at her with concern. Elena could only suppose she looked horrible, because everyone but Pasqal looked vaguely preoccupied by her state.

" I'm fine." She cleared her throat, her voice growing colder. " Leave me. I need to speak with my Seneschal and with Tlass alone. "

The retinue left the room, leaving her alone in the antechamber, with the dozens of corpses of her personal guard laying on the ground.

" Lord Captain. Thank the God-Emperor, you're alive. Tlass warned us you were in danger ", said Abelard. Idira walked to his side, saying nothing, her face looking weary and absent.

" I am glad to know someone is competent enough to ensure my safety", she replied coldly. Abelard's eyes narrowed, but he hung his head down.

" I have asked the both of you to reinforce my guard. I have told you to scry the men you chose. I can see how Theodora was killed so easily, considering your repeated mistakes and lapses of judgment. Can any of you explain to me why I was nearly murdered here, in my own bed ?"

Abelard shivered in shame and embarrassment, but didn't try to counter her. Idira took the lead, her words seemingly jolting her back to life :

" Please, Lord Captain. This - this is my fault. Do not blame the Seneschal. We did everything you ordered…but I failed to see that one of your guards was a traitor, a soul sold to Voigtvir. Now the voices tell me…" she rubbed at her tired eyes in distress. " …he used his evil influence to sabotage the Fields and lure the demons here. There is a cabal against you, even here. I don't know why I didn't see that before. Twice now my little voices have failed me ! I'm…i'm just glad we made it on time this once. "

Abelard looked back sternly at Idira, and, quietly, kneeled down in front of her. " Lord Captain. My failure is unacceptable. I accept any punishment you deem fit for me."

Elena looked harshly at the both of them, her Seneschal ready for penance and her unsanctionned psyker trembling with anxiety and remorse. She could have Abelard demoted, even executed if she so wished. And no one would even care if she threw Idira out of the airlock.

" I don't want you to be punished, Seneschal, I want you to be better. Do not disappoint me again", she finally said.

The man inhaled sharply in relief, and got up to his feet. " I won't !"

" Idira, this is indeed on you. Twice now you have failed a Rogue Trader." Her words cut the psyker sharply, as her eyes widened in anger and grief. " You shall redouble your efforts to prove your worth to me. However, since you have saved my life multiple times already, and considering our enemy's cunning, I shall forgive you this time."

Idira said nothing, her face contorted in a grimace. Abelard casted a stern look at her.

" Lord Captain", he added. " I will investigate this matter and find out if Voigtvir has left any other rat on your ship. Tlass did mention a cabal."

" You won't succeed in this endeavor alone", replied Elena, pensive. " Work with Jae and Henrix."

Abelard stared back blankly. " The smuggler and the Inquisition spy", he said, words dripping with disgust.

" Yes. Those exact ones. Glad to see your hearing has not been diminished by your age yet."

" Lord Captain, I shall do as you command. However, might I add that it is a risky combination. Who's to say what information we might find, and how the smuggler or the spy could use them ?"

" I am sure van Calox would be more than happy to do his job and interrogate heretic cultists. It would just be vacation for him. And if you don't take in him, then knowing the man, he'll end up investigating on his own anyway. As for Mistress Heydary, she can get to people none of you could even approach. And the current assassination attempt just demonstrates that you need fresh blood and exterior expertise. I am confident this mission will suit you well. Idira, you will help them, of course. " Elena gestured at the corpses. " There is an awful lot of psychometry and divination to throw around, and I don't want to do this myself."

Idira glanced at the corpses and the objects littered on the floor. That was indeed a lot of psychometry…a talent that consumed time, will and spirit. " As you wish, Lord Captain. I shall find the traitor's body and possessions and find out what he's been up to, and with who."

" Then there is the matter of your personal safety, Lord Captain", said Abelard. " I will find another set of servants and wardens for you. But from now on, I shall also participate in the patrols. This night can't happen again. I shall see to it personally that you're well guarded. "

" Good idea. However, I don't want you exhausting yourself by watching over my door every night. Ask the retinue to contribute. Argenta and Pasqal have my complete trust in these matters. Now, I shall see to the damages done on the bridge."

Elena started getting away, towards the platform, but Idira caught up with her. The little woman cleared her throat uneasily. " I hate to have to make this suggestion, but…shouldn't you see the Chief Medic first, Elena ? I'm not sure your appearance will comfort the officers much in this state. No offense intended. But I know I didn't feel much reassured when I saw you like that."

Elena sighed, looking down at her bloodied rags, and then back at the corpses and the mess around her. " You're probably right. Send the Chief Medic here, and some servants to clean up the mess. "

" It shall be done."