– Present –
von Valancius flagship -As matters settled in Kiava Gamma, they deemed it safe to leave the system and go in search of the warp routes leading to Dargonus. Which meant they entered another sequence of warp travel and exploration of the unknown. While waiting for Cassia to deliver them to the next system, there were a lot of things to do for Elena, namely taking time to check on her various companions, repair her ship and etch plans for the future. It was as good a time as any to have a debrief about what happened in Kiava Gamma with van Calox.
Heinrix had welcomed her with a brief, content smile. He was more relaxed around her now.
" Are you happy with your results on Kiava Gamma ?" she asked.
" Of course. The Fabricator's machine was stopped. Not another soul will be sent into the mouth of the Archennemy. In time, we will succeed in uncovering and stopping other schemes of the Cult."
The hint of a smile passed on his face. " We dealt a blow not only to the cultists but also to the Archennemy itself. I cannot help but be pleased."
It was a rare thing to hear and to witness.
" That's good to hear", she commented, and went to lean on the railing of the cursive they were in. A sound of rustling fabric informed her that Heinrix was doing the same. The technical cursive, though hidden from view, held in itself a panoptic viewpoint on the bridge below. It was normally used by repairmen and servitors, but when the Interrogator was around, they all mysteriously disappeared.
From there, one could keep an eye on nearly everyone important on the ship - Heinrix had made it his official spot, where he could study his reports and data without disturbance, and still be nearby when interesting things happened. Another advantage : he could spy on them all easily. She noticed he kept a tactical view over Yrliet at all times. The Aeldari must have noticed too, because she had picked another location to hang around, behind a series of monitors that made her harder to track down...or provide useful cover for a snipping attack if need be. Wasn't her retinue such a peaceful, trustworthy bunch after all ?
However, Yrliet was bright as a star in witch-sight and there was no way she could hide from a psyker. Yrliet's aura was determined, that of a hunter, but beautiful as well, almost melodic - with undertones of sadness and bittersweetness. From all her companions, she actually had the purest form in witch-sight.
" I saw something happening to you when you touched the cogitator," Elena said in a soft voice, trying to get Heinrix to open up to her. Genuine sincerity wasn't exactly his forte. " What happened ?"
Heinrix fell silent for a long time. Then he met her gaze. " No servant of the God-Emperor has closer dealings with corruption than the agents of the Golden Throne. In its quest to guard the Imperium's citizens against its foes' most devious and secret schemes, the Inquisition seeks to understand the essence of evil. We must study it, understand it. Touch it. Every time we do our duty, we are risking our very souls. But when it comes to psykers…our souls are very enticing to the Archennemy, as you would know."
He let the idea settle in and added with distance : " The cogitator was stopped, yes…"
His voice turned bitter. " I touched an infernal machine that was created to serve Chaos. I used it. I delve into the principles of its operation…That was enough. Corruption needs only the briefest brush of contact."
It was a dark thing to admit. Elena narrowed her eyes.
" When I touched the corrupted cogitator, " continued Heinrix slowly, " I drew the thousands eyes of evil upon me. And that evil undoubtedly left a mark upon me - as it does to any acolytes who fight the Ruinous Powers. And this will be the case everytime I do my duty. I know a good deal about the fates of those who have served the Golden Throne before me. Enough to know that my path leads to one place and one place only."
There was no need to elaborate. She knew what it meant. Things rarely ended well for psykers. They didn't exactly begin well either. There was a reason the Emperor's grace meant delivering a swift death to them.
Carefully, as if putting her hand over fire, she lifted her hand and gently brushed Heinrix's fingers in a comforting gesture. His fingers were as cold as the railing, the back of his hand callused. As she brushed his skin, he tilted his head towards her. His hand tensed at first under her touch then slowly relaxed, allowing the ever-brief contact.
" You're the most stubborn man I know. I'm confident that the Archennemy is going to have to fight hard to take you down", she said confidently.
Heinrix looked at her intensely, his expression showing a mixture of feelings, then answered, with an unusual warmth in his voice :
" Your optimism may be ill-placed, but…thank you, Elena." His voice trailed off, and his usually confident pace gave way to a more cautious and hesitant tone. " I am sincerely grateful for your presence on Kiava Gamma. We don't often agree, but…things would have been different without you around. You keep surprising me every day, to be sure. "
For once, a vulnerable, timid smile flashed on her face. That was a huge compliment in Heinrix's cryptic ways of speaking. It could be interpreted in a lot of different ways. Surprise was not always pleasant after all. She guessed she wasn't exactly a pleasant person anyway. Nor was Heinrix. He was irritating, stuck-up, know-it-all, secretive, paranoid. He also was brave, combative, clever and intent on his duty - things she admired.
They stayed like this for a few more seconds than necessary. She could almost physically feel the red line in between them, the line she couldn't cross, because she couldn't trust him ; the line he couldn't cross, because he couldn't trust her. As long as they didn't cross that line, they could stand together. It seemed lately the line allowed more and more closeness. But it was still present, a reminder that there was a limit not to be crossed, other priorities and different loyalty.
As they spent more and more time together, on the battlefields of missions and in the closed-up environment of long warp journeys, it was getting harder to guess what fell within the line or outside of the line.
Elena straightened.
" I have business to attend to."
" Of course, Rogue Trader."
She could feel his eyes on her back as she disappeared into the cursive, on to other affairs.
There was something she ought to do and had been procrastinating about for some time.
Elena took the cursive down to the residential area, walked by the crossroad of the open market, and right to the cabins of the ranking officers.
She stopped at number 22. She knew the whole hallway was actually empty, except for Ravor's room on the far end of the hall.
That was because no one wanted to live close to Idira Tlass. The residents affected to these chambers found a way out of the loop, and suddenly married another person on the ship just to get away from her.
The witch.
The unsanctioned psyker.
The other diviner…
Elena knocked, and none answered.
" Tlass. Open up. I know you're in there."
There was no way her companions could escape her witch-sight. Idira's turbulent and swirling aura was clearly visible through the walls.
There was a rumble inside, and then the door opened. The small, tousled-hair woman leant on the doorframe.
" I can't fool you, right, Lord Captain ? Anyway. Please come in. The place is yours anyway."
Elena entered the room. She had expected it to be a mess but it was actually pretty tied up and neat. Idira apparently had a secret affection for plants. Her whole cabin was filled with various pots and vegetation. The pretty flowers gave the modest-sized cabin an agreeable scent and atmosphere. There were books scattered around, and shelves, containing some logic tabletop games and decks of cards. The very few pieces of clothes possessed by the psyker were drying out over the right corner. The room looked completely cozy and normal, not at all what she had expected from a member of her retinue. She knew everyone else had taken up bigger rooms. But Idira's place was…well…homey.
" Do you want something to drink ? I've quit armasec, as you know, but I've replaced it with a severe addiction to tea and recaff."
" I'll kill for some recaff," replied Elena with gratitude. And recaff that would not be served by servitors' hands nor servants's quivering ones either. She wouldn't go so far as to say it was served by friendly hands just yet - but maybe they could get there in time. Elena sat down on one of the cozy chairs surrounding a very small table in what was Idira's bedroom, desk, and guest-reception area at once.
Idira came back with two steaming mugs of recaff and sat opposite to her. Her features were strained, and she still wore a reddish bruise from where the demon had tried to pull out her neural implants. There were dark circles under her eyes, but her gestures were more precise, less jittery than before. The Chief Medic was following her closely for her alcohol addiction's cure.
Idira smiled, amused by her presence. To Elena's surprise, it was a genuine smile. She very rarely was on the receiving hand of those.
" You came all the way down here to see me ", stated Idira. " I didn't expect that. "
" That would explain my presence, yes", said Elena. She seized the cup of recaff in her hands, appreciating the warmth around her fingers. " How have you been, Idira ?"
" I'm fine, Lord Captain. You don't have to worry about little old me anymore. What happened was a terrible mistake. It won't happen again." Idira rubbed her eyebrow with her thumb.
" The point is," Elena breathed slowly, organizing her thoughts, " I chose to let you live because you've survived until now. I daresay that, if you shall fall to the warp, you would become a terrible opponent. But I would not have strayed Argenta's hand away if I didn't truly believe you could hold on longer. If I didn't believe in you. I have been cold to you before…distant, even, when we met. It is because we share the same boon and curse and it troubles me. Yet you have been nothing but supportive of me, and I won't forget that, Idira."
Elena's voice died down as she darted her eyes to evaluate Idira's reaction. The psyker's face was contorted in a semblance of pained wince.
" Lord Captain…Elena, damnit, I don't even know what to say." Her voice cracked and quivered.
Elena softly continued :
" Theodora is gone. I am not like her, and I never will. My objectives are not hers. My way is not hers. You grew attached to her, and I cannot replace that. I hope, though, that you can find the strength in yourself to confide to me if need be, Idira. After all, I understand what it's like. As you know, I don't have voices…but I get these feelings and these dreams. It is sometimes hard to focus on the present when your mind is both in the past and in the future at the same time. And I know you're very powerful - you see things that I don't. And that's the reason why I need you. Do you understand ?"
Idira's face soured and she barked a bittersweet laugh. " Need me. Of course. I understand it plainly. I am useful to you, and my life is measured out of my usefulness. Just as it always was. I'm just a witch on a leash for you all. " Idira sighed in anger, and put her palms to her eyes in a gesture of despair. " What am I saying ? I should thank you for your mercy. You've shown me compassion when it would have been your right to kill me. And here I am talking trash to you. Please forgive me, Elena. It's just hard…not to be my own person all the time."
Elena said nothing for a few seconds, staring at her fuming mug of recaff. She understood the feeling perfectly. That was what it was like to be a psyker after all. She had escaped that fate only because of the title of Rogue Trader - yet she wasn't free either from that.
Idira inhaled sharply, removing her palms and looking at Elena's face. " I see you're trying to cheer me up, Elena, and I'm thankful for it. But the fear of becoming - something else, not me anymore…it's terrifying. It keeps me awake at night and it sends chills down my spine everytime you order a warp travel. Armasec used to help me numb the voices. Now I have to live with them all the time, every day. I can make it, I swear, but…it's scary."
Elena didn't envy the fate of the unsanctioned psyker at all. She couldn't fathom how she would have dealt with her visions if she hadn't been bathed in the Emperor's light and glory, to numb down the influence of the warp on her.
" I have another thing to tell you about." Elena broke eye contact, looking embarrassed for a second.
" I have ordered pys shackles to be delivered to me", she said plainly. Idira's eyes widened in surprise at that. " I want you to keep them around you. As a last resort."
" Elena", replied Idira, her voice shaking. " You can't ask that of me ! To put myself in those…things ! It would…it would kill who I am !"
" Last time I checked, I was still a Rogue Trader, so I think I am more than perfectly capable of asking that of you, whether willingly or not", snapped Elena, her gaze growing colder.
But then, softening : " Idira, if you get possessed, all that you are will be destroyed. There will be nothing else of you, except your bodily shell. Those shackles - they are a last resort solution. If you come to have use of them - it will erase something that defines you, but you will live. And it could provide us with more time to find a solution for you. As I have told you, I will look for something to help you out. But I need to know, right now, that you would resort to this rather than becoming one of my enemies aboard my own ship."
Idira stayed silent for a while, processing the reveal. Both women carefully took a sip at their recaff. They could hear the chantings of crewmembers below - it was mass time. " Do the others know about it ? Does Abelard know ? Does Vigdis ?" asked the psyker, tensing.
" I've kept it a secret between Janrus and me. No one knows. So, what would it be, Idira ?"
" I…I promise you, Elena, that if the voices finally get to me…I will use the shackles. I promise. I…I realize that it is a chance you're given me. An escape in a worst-case scenario. I need some time to process this, but do know that I won't be ungrateful to you."
" Fine. I would hate to lose you, Idira", said Elena, putting the matter to rest. It was a gamble, to trust Idira to give her the reins over her fate like that. Idira could just as well lie to her face or waver when the time comes. There were many who'd say she has proven to be unworthy of trust.
Idira looked up again with gleaming, determined eyes. " I won't disappoint you, Elena. I shall have your back. I promise."
Elena tilted her head in acknowledgement, and let her finger circled around her mug, thinking.
" You look troubled", commented Idira, eyeing the way Elena's pale finger circling caused ripples in the beverage.
" Something happened on Kiava Gamma", said Elena, and she started telling Idira about her psychic meeting with Ularon. She told her that Ularon had mentioned Kunrad, about Theodora's blood. Idira listened intently, nodding along.
" I see," she finally said. The diviner picked at her short hair nervously. " The little voices are reacting to that name. Ularon. They speak of…" her eyes turned glassy and rolled in her eye sockets, as her head jerked back and forth unnaturally. When Idira spoke again, her voice sounded throaty, raspy : " …your end, Rogue Trader, and that of everyone you have ever known ; the end of the Koronus Expanse, hammered in the Primordial Truth ; the Final Dawn, claiming all the souls to one master, one who has been watching over you before, who walks in the shadows of your worlds. From there, from its cradle, it will come for you when you least expect it."
The temperature in the room had dropped. Elena stared at Idira as the psyker's face returned to her normal expressivity.
" Wow," said Idira after a few moments. " That was a strong bad omen." Her neural implants shimmered as the crystals captured the excessive bleeding warp energy, containing it. She casted a worried glance at Elena.
Elena thought about telling Idira about the demon she had seen on her first translation to realspace, but decided against it. She hadn't told a soul about that. " Oh, by the way, I have conversed with a huge bird demon and it is it who saved us all from doom, we should actually be dead by now. " That was the sort of thing that could lead a typical Imperial mind to think that the whole ship should be executed, just in case, to foil the plan of the daemonic entity. She grimaced. Every time she thought about it, she got the inevitable headache accompanying an utter sense of incoming doom.
" That is one strong enemy your voices talk about. We shall uncover its plans in time," replied Elena calmly. She finished her mug of coffee, and got up.
" Glad to see you're doing fine. Tell me, what do you think about Yrliet ? You've been pretty quiet about her."
Idira laughed at that, as she took up the two mugs to clean it up in the kitchen.
" The Aeldari ? I like her, if only because she pisses stupid, stuck-up Heinrix off, and I much prefer her to hypocrite and fanatical Argenta ", she replied acidly. " In regard to you, I believe she's a strong ally. She looks like the sort of person that would run off in the face of certain death in an instant if she believed she was saving up her people. You're pretty much the same. Too bad you're not from the same people, you two would make a fiery match made in heaven otherwise. "
Elena raised her eyebrow dubiously. That wasn't what she had expected, but, well, that was Idira.
She said goodbye and left.
The nightmares didn't die down after Kiava Gamma. If anything, they increased even more.
Jae was on personnel duty watch this night. Ever since the assault of demons in her chambers, there was always one of her companions' on watch duty at night. It must have been the most boring job of all. Except for tonight.
Elena had woken up in the middle of a dreamy fight, adrenaline racing high to her heart. She had examined her room cautiously for any other assassination attempts, to no avail.
As she turned around, she saw Kunrad smiling at her from the other side of the room.
" Voigtvir", she stated plainly.
Of course, Kunrad wasn't really there. She must still be in a dream. Or not so far from it for his image to form. It looked like he was talking to someone - and his ghostly figure crossed the wall.
Tensing, her shoulder blades tightening in a predatory stance, Elena let her diviner abilities engulf her sense of presence. Taking advantage of the clarity of post-dreaming, she let her mind tipped wholly into precognition. If she had a chance at grasping clues about her personal nemesis, she would take it. She hated that man with a passion.
She flung open the door leading to her desk. She didn't even notice Jae and her wardens watching over her. Decisively, she walked up straight to her desk and her large black eyes narrowed down, like feline slits, as they analyzed a presence that was not there anymore.
Past. Present. Future. What were they in the end ? Most perceived time as being linear and thus, believed that sequences of events had to unfold according to the law of causality and effects. They were categories with which the mind could comprehend and classify, in a narrative sense, the materiality of the world it explored. They were not physical realities in themselves.
Some archeotech savants argued that the physicality of time wasn't linear, but rather was relative, and depended on questions such as gravity, displacements of particles, and such things. In this view, time was just a dimension in which events happened ; a dimension that could be bent, distorted, to the point where it was even possible to imagine a place in the universe where time was circular or ran backward or didn't exist at all.
The diviner knew something else about time. Time was a mess. Time wasn't linear at all, though it was very hard to think out of the narrative box and see it for what it truly was. Mostly, time involved a psychic and affection dimension - it was the environment in which things changed, and things changed only to the eyes of a consciousness to which things matter, which meant it could feel. Time held no value in the eyes of the immortal and unfeeling. It flew by for the ones that cared.
So, in the end, time was mostly about feelings and change. Feelings of everyone and everything, all around the place, thrown away to the winds of the Immaterium, sometimes virtual and just possibilities of it - and that was those tendrils and threads that her own psychic talents picked up upon.
Divining was a draining exercise, because it tapped into one's emotions. In Elena's case, she fueled it with hidden, inner anger. And her anger was especially high when it came to the man who stabbed her in the back, then ran away, and kept trying to assassinate her from a distance ever since.
Focusing on her inner hatred for Kunrad, she separated completely from her present environment, and dived into the traces left by Voigtvir in the Immaterium, where all strong feelings remained. She captured his psychic signature in a sense of fear - there, in her desk, which was once Theodora's place, Kunrad had been frightened.
She heard Jae talking to her from a distance, and ignored her, engrossed in her vision.
By leaning hard into the Immaterium, she now could almost see the ghostly silhouette of Kunrad and Theodora. They were in a fight. The scars on Kunrad's face were new. These traces of memories must have been from a year ago, maybe.
Her powers had been developing strongly lately, as her role as a Rogue Trader had pushed her limits hard and forced to strive to be better or die. She would have never been able to even capture that idea in her mind a few months ago.
" Your Seneschal cannot know about this", was saying Kunrad.
Theodora's voice replied, sounding slightly contemptuous : " Of course not. And we can't bring Tlass nor the Sister along. Idira is too unreliable to be trusted with this amount of information. The Sister…I'm still gauging her up."
" She is unworthy of your trust", replied Kunrad. " Anyway, the task is clear. The virus is ready. The Sentinel has been computing it as intended. We can abide by this little experiment."
Kunrad was playing strong, but she felt his fear deep down. What were they talking about ? Some kind of mission, one Theodora didn't want her entourage to know about.
Time lapsed upon itself as her attention was drawn on Theodora. Her predecessor has had a lot of vivid emotions in this room. Multiple flashes of her life imprinted upon the original vision, like a holo flashing by. And upon that again - she saw herself, like a mirror shattered into pieces, and others too, that lived there.
She was losing focus on her prey. That was the danger of divination. Getting lost into the threads. She turned back from the desk - just as she saw the image of Argenta holding a gun to her face.
The shock could have completely thrown her off the trail. A less experienced diviner could even have been hurt from it. But Elena put that away, off her mind, and chose to let this go - though she now knew that her companion had stood in this room and killed.
Where had Kunrad's trail gone ? She scanned the room and perceived his traces leading to the main bridge.
She exited her room, moving like a sleepwalker. She couldn't stay in that heightened perception of things for long.
She followed the trail, pushing back all the memories and feelings imprinted upon the ship. Dark things lurked there, very dark things. Violent deaths. If she gazed upon it, maybe she could save them, prevent those things from happening. Don't look, don't look, stay on track, she thought to herself.
It led her back towards Kunrad's room, one she had visited before with Idira. There, she found something - a trace of a ghostly figure anew. Kunrad. He was holding a shard, glowing like azure.
The same color as Ularon's symbol on his armor. The same pieces as the ones from the mirrors used by the Cult on Rykad to bring forth madness and chaos. The same shard that was used to stab her. Even in the labyrinthic corridors of times intertwined, it pulsated with malevolent intentions, almost speaking to her through the distance. Begging for her to pick it up.
She clenched her jaw and ignored it. The menace was not here, in the present. It was in the past It was in the future.
" Not here, not now", she mumbled to herself. She realized she'd been mumbling for a while now.
Someone was calling her name now. She heard it from afar. Keep your focus. Where has he gone ? Can you see anything useful ?
She pushed harder on her bond to the Immaterium, forcing the truth to crack open in her mind's eye.
" I will find you, brother of mine", she said grimly, her voice like a soft promise of death. The echo of her anger and desire for revenge bounced back on the walls of time - and then the connection was established, the perception of time unfolding to reveal Kunrad's location.
It didn't occur to her like a precise place. Divinations were, by essence, hard to interpret. It wasn't something like a clear image forming into one's mind. It was more like a multiplication of instincts and intuitions, like a wave of fragmented feelings that made your soul turn into a compass. She had the clear, distinctful flavor of being around an environment charged with Theodora's readings and signature, belonging to her. Manors of white spires, prosperity - lurking menace and traitors. It felt like Dargonus.
She let the image go and disperse, as she railed back her mind into the present. It wasn't easy, maintaining her sense of anchor as she scattered the rest, all the interesting things she wanted to pry upon, all the secrets and the schemes she could scry down. But one had to know when to stop. People had gone mad, losing theirselves in their minds.
Jae was there, and, for some reason, Idira as well. Also, she was in a nightgown in the middle of her ship. And she was staring and talking to a wall. She wiped her mouth. Had she been drooling too ?
Jae was looking at her with traces of concern. The smuggler looked spooked.
Idira was eyeing Jae with caution.
Noticing that Elena was regaining her focus in the present, Jae stepped back. " You scared us for a few minutes, shereen." Her voice hid a tremor that wasn't there before.
Elena shrugged. Of course, people would be uncomfortable with psychic phenomena. That was the whole point of it. Yet it had proved useful.
" Kunrad is on Dargonus as we speak", said Elena. Her fingers twitched and she pressed her other hand against her forehead. " Damnit. The warp routes are still veiled. There's no way to tell if we'll be able to catch up with him." Feeling agitated - wanting to act - Elena turned on her heels, ignoring Jae and Idira.
" I must address this with Abelard and Lady Orsellio at once", she said and left.
In Jae's point of view, this event had been peculiarly disquieting.
Firstly, because she had no idea what Elena was doing all along. Jae was a simple woman, a smuggler to the heart, someone who liked the idea of surviving.
She didn't like seeing her boss, upon whom she had gambled with very high stakes, stormed through her vessel in a nightgown, talking to people that weren't there, and mumbling to herself like a crazy elderly woman.
She didn't like that though her mind was clearly absent, her bodily shell was moving around with acute, supernatural precision. She didn't like the feelings that there were things present that she should have seen, but couldn't. No one wanted to spend a hour with someone like that.
Jae had hesitated : who to call to help her out ? She couldn't have the wardens follow Elena around as she spoke nonsense and acted like a madwoman. That would have scratched her aura as Rogue Trader. Of course, everyone knew Elena was a psyker, but…she wasn't like the other ones, you see. She wasn't strange-acting, didn't look much like one, wasn't neurally implanted. In fact you could go through entire conversations with her without realizing she was one of them. You could grow to forget about it.
And then she went and started speaking to ghosts and whatever, and all this time Jae felt a crawling presence in her own head, like a predator prowling around.
Jae had thought about calling Abelard, but the Seneschal would be out of his depth to understand what was going on there. van Calox, maybe ? The two of them were always wrapped up together anyway. But Jae would not bet on a high tolerance level to craziness from an agent of the Golden Throne. That left Idira Tlass. After all, in the matter of talking to ghosts, Idira was top ranked. Surely she would know how to deal with this.
Jae had mostly made sure that Elena didn't hurt herself, but she sleepwalked just fine and navigated the ship with utmost certainty. Jae had thrown a few reassuring smiles to the people they passed by - all of them had saluted the Rogue Trader with utter reverence and ceremony, only to be ignored as Elena raced them by. Fortunately none stayed around enough to notice her odd behavior.
Idira had shown up shortly after. She had recognized the corridor they were in as being the one where Kunrad used to live. Then they had watched Elena as she mumbled incomprehensible things to the wall for whole minutes. When Elena went back to her senses, she still acted haughty and cold, and stormed by once more, completely oblivious to the strangeness of what had happened.
" It would be preferable not to say a word about this episode to anyone else, for now ", said Idira.
Jae had a crooked smile. " Tell what ? That the all mighty Rogue Trader is talking to walls in the middle of the night ?" She snorted.
Idira's eyes flashed with something somber and she took a step forward.
" I like you, but don't play smart with me, Heydari. I could soar your soul open, fill it with thoughts that aren't even your own, and sew it back up just for the fun of watching you ram your head into the walls out of madness. Snitches get stitches, you see."
Jae eyed the psyker carefully, her smile evolving, from crooked to amiable. " Of course. Duly noted. I wasn't gonna rat out anyway. But maybe one of us should tell her about it ? I mean, I'm pretty open-minded, but I'm unsure that would be the case for everyone else in this entourage."
" I shall take care of it. Just forget about it". Idira passed a nervous hand through her hair and went off to follow Elena back to the bridge.
Jae, alone in the empty corridor, leant back on the walls.
She was beginning to have doubts about Elena von Valancius. How could you trust someone like that ?
She shook her head, reminding herself of her true goals here : obtaining the administrative status to roam her commerce openly. For that, she needed to keep on Elena's good side. Even if it meant keeping quiet on those…episodes.
Jae Heydari wasn't the only companion that was having doubts about Elena.
Pasqal had also been distant ever since Kiava Gamma. The news that there was something in the ship - a piece of archeotech, according to Elena - that could influence the machine spirit, and that he'd been kept in the dark about it, had gnawed at him.
His curiosity was unsatiated.
Having a Magos on board who thirsted for Knowledge and was willfully deprived of it was an unhappy situation. After conversing with her Seneschal, Elena had decided to let him enter the antechamber of the Warrant and study the Sentinel. It was a bit of a gamble. Theodora certainly had good reason to keep the Tech-Priest away from the Sentinel. Maybe the Sentinel was something very bad that Pasqal, faithful as he was, would want to destroy on the spot. Elena believed him to be capable of doing just that, even if it meant going against her direct order not to damage it in his study.
But she chose to bet on his curiosity and search for knowledge. Faced with something none could understand, wouldn't Pasqal strived to get a grasp at it ? Abelard had agreed with her. He had commented about the way Pasqal had been dutifully monitoring reports on Kiava Gamma, even upon corrupted machinery that he normally should have strived to destroy. The Seneschal had been, in his usual, caustic words, "impressed by the extent of the Magos' curiosity."
So, in the end, it was best to keep their overly curious Magos occupied.
Elena had convoked Abelard for a dinner, during which she had told him about her certainty that Kunrad was now on Dargonus, and about the bouts of conversation she had picked up from the past, in between Theodora and her Master of Whispers. The only thing she kept to herself was seeing Argenta holding a gun towards the desk.
Abelard looked gravely at the piece of meat in his plate, stabbing it with his fork with more strength than necessary.
" Lady Cassia is doing everything she can, but…it is highly unlikely that we reach Dargonus before Kunrad gets away." He stabbed at his meat once more and cut it down vividly. " You talked about a secret mission Theodora undertook. Now that you remind me, she'd been exploring with Mort and Kunrad a lot this last year. She had trusted me with managing the protectorate - on Dargonus. I didn't realize she was keeping me away from things." The old man was troubled by the thought. " You see, all my family is on Dargonus. She tasked me with upgrading the fleets. It was a busy time. Lots of work to oversee."
" What about Argenta and Idira ? What were they doing during this time ?" asked Elena, sipping down her glass of water.
" The Sister was still recovering from the traumas she had when we picked her up, so I didn't think much about it. As for Idira, it is true, come to think of it, that she'd been put aside last year. I was so engrossed in my tasks that I didn't think much about it…but it is indeed strange that Theodora didn't bring Tlass along with her on her late travels. She liked Idira a lot, found her useful. Yet she disregarded her lately, putting her less and less on the missions, sending her away to oversee minor administrative issues." Abelard gave up trying to eat and sighed heavily. " What was Theodora doing ? The truth is…I do not know, Rogue Trader. "
Elena pursed her lips unhappily. She had expected this reply, but still was disappointed by it. It seemed everything she learnt just deepened her questions.
" Would the ship know ? Could we scrub the data systems and the cogitators ?" she asked.
" We could. But if Theodora had a secret task, as you seem to think, she'll likely have erased it. She was no fool. The crew would not even know about this. They could be lied to easily. Only the Navigator would have known the truth. And we know how he ended. "
A deadend, then. She changed the topic. "I am deeply troubled by what we have uncovered on Janus and Kiava Gamma. "
" Me too, Rogue Trader. Vyatt's treason was…a stab in the back. I have always thought of her highly. I am not gonna lie, I worry about the reports our spy friend is making to Xavier Calcazar. " Abelard's eyes narrowed as he tactfully avoided putting her decisions in question. " Calcazar has considerable influence in the Koronus Expanse. Fortunately for us, he also knew Theodora and may be willing to extend some of their past agreements. As long as we're useful."
" It's always the same, isn't it ? And then we should worry about Chorda and Winterscale as well…"
Their conversation was interrupted by the buzzing of her vox. She reached for it across the table.
" What is it ? " she asked.
It was Pasqal. He replied, his voice sounding more agitated than usual : " Lord Captain. I have studied your Sentinel enough to guess at its essence. It is an abominable intelligence."
Elena let that settle in for a second, then added : " Sorry, what ?"
" An AI. Forbidden under the rules of the Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus." The emphasis was on Adeptus Mechanicus.
" Fantastic. I mean, is there anything in Theodora's legacy that isn't breaking a rule somewhere in a way ?" she commented sarcastically.
Abelard sighed and rubbed his thumbs over his temples, taking his own vox to join the line of comm.
" Magos, are you positive ? This is a grave allegation. I beg you to consider your response carefully. Maybe this problem needs to be studied more before reaching a conclusion ?" he suggested.
Elena could only applaud the cunning. Through veiled words and implications, Abelard was suggesting Pasqal to keep quiet about this if he wanted to keep studying it. She tensed. Now they would know what side Pasqal truly swung to. Would his curiosity truly be greater than his respect for the rules of the Adeptus Mechanicus ?
" You may be right, Seneschal. More time is needed to truly understand the workings of the machine", finally said Pasqal. " The Lord Captain shall be informed of my progress."
" Thank you, Pascal", Elena answered, and the comm ended.
" So, when Kunrad tried to kill you, you were saved by an artificial intelligence", said Abelard after a while. " That would explain why Theodora didn't want her Tech-Priests down there. And also why she didn't like going to the Antechamber."
Elena shook her head. " A problem at a time. The Sentinel has been a steady ally to me. Let's keep this between us for now. "
Abelard nodded. " What if the Magos speaks to his Order ? The Adeptus will want to retrieve it for destruction purposes."
" Then we still have a miraculous reactor to trade them with. I don't know, Abelard. We'll find a way."
" We'll find a way", repeated Abelard grimly.
On their way to Dargonus, they explored a recolliger's base. Recolligers were voidborn tinkerers, clans specialized in looting up abandoned bases and void ships.
That had been a good time for Elena, though her entourage had sighed and complained through it all the while.
There was one thing she enjoyed at every one of her missions, and that was to loot things up. To Abelard's dismay, she got along very well with the recolliger's leader - a mature voidborn woman. They started speaking in their strange, guttural slang that he associated with lowest-deck rabble. After that, Elena assured them that there was some sort of treasure on the base and they started hacking old cogitators and assembling logical puzzles in order to find it.
The base was very low-g and, observing their difficulties to explore it, the recolligers have shared magnetic boots and gloves with them, as well as voidsuits, oxygen bottles and helmets. Yrliet and Elena only wore the suits and masks of oxygen. They both seemed to have a natural sense of orientation and movement in low-g environment.
Abelard sighed once more as Elena insisted on rummaging through what looked to him like a trash bin.
" Theodora would have never done that," he complained to no one in particular. " Surely the leader of House von Valancius would have better things to do than rummage through trash ?" he mused caustically.
He knew his effort was wasted. Elena would spend the next hours kicking up every debris she found if she believed there was a secret artifact behind it.
Cassia, next to him, was stumbling clumsily through the corridor. For once, the Navigator, ever-supportive of her Rogue Trader, was looking quizzically at her.
" Elena, surely you must have people to do that for you ? I'm sure there are servants aboard the ship more fitted for this."
Cassia had refused to even approach the debris. Yrliet, who followed Elena around at all times, wore an expression of contempt and disgust. Those 'mon-keigh' things were not to her liking at all. Only Heinrix and Argenta were actually doing some work and helping out Elena.
" Why would I let my servants have all the fun ?" mused Elena, her voice sounding distant on the vox. Heinrix shook his head, throwing away a set of garbage nails and vices. Argenta was graceful enough to smile. Abelard lifted his eyes to the ceiling and crossed his arms.
They were going to be there for a while. Idira and Pasqal were busy trying to crack the code protecting the trapped door leading to the supposed artifacts
" And here it is ! The secret key to the secret computer leading to the secret door. People just keep losing them in the most embarrassing places", added Elena mischievously, retrieving a data-slate from the rubble.
Abelard sighed again. Rogue Traders. They would drive you insane.
Elena took the lead back to the main room. They had made their way through twisted sets of cursive. In a swift movement, she jumped up, using the low-g to climb up quickly, and maintained herself to a sort of ring nailed into the wall that Abelard hadn't even seen. She was already a dozen meters above them. With ease, Yrliet followed up.
For Abelard, Heinrix and Argenta, things were trickiest. They weren't used to navigating old, void stations. Argenta was definitely more handy than both of them though, and gave them a hand as they awkwardly made their way back.
All the while, Elena and Yrliet had drifted away, without a care. They were now floating high up above even the main room, and visibly talking to each other. It was a strange vision to witness. Yrliet's red hair formed a crescent over her head that catched and reflected the artificial light of dying lamps. The color contrasted starkly against Elena's pale moonlighted hair, floating like a curtain around her, fading into their grayish suits and the blackness of the void. It could be almost poetic…but mostly, it made Abelard want to pick up his gun and shoot at the Aeldari. From van Calox's grim expression, he could tell the feeling was shared.
Ignoring their companions downstairs, the Aeldari and the Rogue Trader were discussing privately.
" You seem accustomed to moving in void environments, elantach", was saying Yrliet.
" As do you. Was it common, over the Craftworld ?"
Behind her mask, Yrliet's face closed up, and she grew defensive. " If you think you are going to coax me into sharing with you information about my kin, you are wrong, elantach. We are but travelling companions who happen to be following the same path amongst the stars. Do not try to get under my skin - it will not work. "
So much for trying to make conversation. She had a feeling she was going to need to be patient with Yrliet. Elena diverted : " I understood that your Path was that of the Outcast. What does it mean ?"
" It means", Yrliet replied " that I have chosen for myself a path of exploration and sacrifice. I left the Crudarach because I have seen too many lose themselves in stagnation for fear of the unknown. I could have been a Warrior, but the ability to see behind the boundaries of my homeworld led me to travel. Stepping into the Path of the Outcast has allowed me to gain the freedom to choose, to question, to doubt whereas the others merely bow before the wisdom of a Farseer who dictates the will of destiny. I will follow my Path until I reach its pinnacle. "
Elena stared, thinking. The words Yrliet said resonated with her. She didn't say it out loud - for even to her, it sounded crazy - but she found there were similarities in the way Yrliet described her path and the way she perceived her place as a Rogue Trader. The idea confused her, and she switched the topic.
" How do you feel about living within a human ship ?" asked Elena.
" It feels like I'm in the belly of a bird with steel wings, blindly gliding through the dark. It lacks life with its light and beauty. But…strangely, I feel satisfied when I'm on your vessel. To find myself in a moving world once more, even one such as yours, is a source of much joy."
Elena tilted her head, her large black eyes, for once perfectly adjusted to her environment, capturing light. The Aeldari was such a strange person. Yrliet didn't trust her, obviously, but at the same time seemed eager for contact. Elena wasn't sure what Yrliet wanted with her. But she was glad to have her around.
Yrliet added : " I know enough of mon-keigh culture and system to know you are different from your predecessor. You have been blessed with psychic enhancements. Yet, instead of turning to you for guidance, your crew fear that in you. I want to know if you could use your powers to help me find my people."
Elena stared in surprise. In the Imperial Guard, people had sometimes come to her to know their fate. But ever since becoming Rogue Trader, none had asked for a prediction from her. That it would come from Yrliet out of all people was surprising. The Aeldari hadn't been kind to the Farseers she had mentioned.
Yrliet must be really willing to find any clues that could lead her to the survivors of Crudarach.
" That may require you to elaborate more about them and to consent in establishing a mindful connection ", she replied cautiously. " And predictions can be hard to interpret and take a long time to happen."
Yrliet's eyes shimmered with a hint of determination. " I know that. Predicting the future is like trying to fixate running water. Yet…I will do everything in my power to find them. The Outcasts I have met have a saying : " If you fall off a cliff, grab the roots and do not ask if they belong to a weed or to a noble bush" Yrliet almost smiled at that. " You are the root I grabbed, elantach. Because I fell off a cliff. My homeworld is gone, my kin is either dead or hiding who knows where. By joining forces with you, I may be able to nurture a seedling of the truth I so deeply yearn for."
" I see." It was always nice to be compared to a root. Yrliet's poetic way of speaking was deeply refreshing, often captivating, but also so nonsensical that Elena had to make an effort to translate the Elucidator into something more comprehensible.
People hardly willingly ask for her to probe their souls around. Imperial citizens despised the idea. But, considering the powers of the Farseer - far greater than hers -, maybe it would make sense that Yrliet wasn't afraid of entering in contact with a psyker after all ?
" We can try. Let's just wait for Dargonus. I won't take any chances in warp travels and it will take time."
There was no harm in trying. In the worst case scenario, she would gain valuable insight from Yrliet. Considering her otherworldly and secretive nature, that was still a step forward.
Yrliet hesitated. " Really ? You would help me ? You're really not like the other mon-keighs at all. " She flashed a prudent smile. "Thank you, elantach."
Elena glanced down. The others had made their way up. Even from this distance, she swore she felt the boring eyes of both Heinrix and Abelard on them. Yrliet treated them with haughty disdain.
" Let's go", she said, and they floated down the base.
They were jumping through systems, exploring and fighting enemies as they went. The promise of reaching Dargonus grew closer.
It was on one of those long days spent in the Immaterium that Heinrix called her up on her vox.
" Elena. Are you free ? I need to talk with you."
She signaled for Ravor, who was doing her an extended report of their weaponry arsenal, to wait a second as she clicked her vox.
" Sure. Meet me at my desk in ten."
" Noted."
Ravor finished his presentation that she could resume in "we need more torpedoes" and Heinrix entered soon after, ushered in by her servants.
" To what do I owe this visit, Heinrix ?" she asked, stretching her neck as she did. She'd been stuck listening to reports in here for some time.
Heinrix didn't answer immediately. Instead, he grew close to the desk and very carefully lifted the little statuette of a dog she had put there.
The statuette was similar to the one she had stolen back on the Black Ship, when she was just a kid, and had made her foci as her psyker powers evolved. Of course, the original statuette had been lost in her various training in Scholastia Psykana. This one was just a reminder of it, something she had bought on Janus on a whim to act as press-paper. Most of her visitors noticed it. Probably they just reached the logical conclusion that she had very poor taste.
" I remember watching you buy this thing on Janus. You were quite content with it. I have since wondered why ? "
Elena raised an eyebrow. She had not been expecting that kind of question.
" It is a very precious figurine. Plus, I like dogs."
Heinrix raised a dubious eyebrow, eyeing at the gross wooden statuette, but respectfully put it down on the desk.
" I presume no one can truly grasp the complexity of the taste of a Rogue Trader. I'm told most of your brethren enjoy jewels, metals and exotic beasts." The hint of irony in his voice wasn't aggressive. Which was strange. He sat down in front of her desk, his face politely unreadable as always. Elena wondered where he was heading at.
" It actually was very similar to my first foci", she felt compelled to reveal, in a futile attempt at explaining why she was attached to the crude figurine. She knew Heinrix would understand what a foci was. He probably had one too. Mostly you didn't talk about it to non-psykers, because it was a bit risible. And she certainly didn't want to tell how she had snatched hers from a dying boy's hands for her own selfish amusement. That wouldn't put a good light on her. She grimaced. " And it is one of the few things that are truly mine in a vessel full of legacies, so I deem it very precious and aesthetic. You cannot convince me otherwise."
" I see. I understand the feeling ", he replied, more gentle than usual. " Isn't your legacy to your liking ?"
She tilted her head to the side, ignoring the question and assessing Heinrix's attitude, and then calmly asked :
" Heinrix," Elena paused. " Is this you trying to have a conversation not involving work-related subjects ? I seem to remember you promised me one shortly after leaving Footfall. Should I infer from this inexplicable new interest in my decoration tastes that this is it ?"
He looked away briefly, then back. He stated plainly : " Yes. I thought it was pretty obvious. Unless you wish otherwise."
She considered the idea and its implications, and that brought her a small, ironic smile.
" 'Obvious', Heinrix," she replied, " is not the adjective that first comes to mind when talking about you. In fact," she laid back on her seat, extending her legs on her desk as she understood they were in complete informal territory, " I beg to say no one would ever call you 'obvious.' It would be something more like…" she waved her hand dismissively " 'shady-snarky'."
" Shady-snarky", he repeated sternly. " That, Rogue Trader, is not how protocol warrants one should address an agent of the Golden Throne."
" As I said, snarky", she mumbled back.
Heinrix replied with a strangely relaxed, weary smile she had never seen before. The expression seemed authentic. " Point made", he consented.
To her surprise, they kept chattering about nothing important for the next hour. Avoiding any topic that could tip into work territory was harder than she thought. She wasn't that great at making conversation. She was good at staring people in the eye to intimidate them, and grasping up at visions and precognitions, not at entertaining anyone with her noticeably absent social skills. However, Heinrix proved a remarkably smooth interlocutor - demonstrating he had years of training in infiltration. The initial awkwardness of the exercise soon faded away.
It wasn't that easy to avoid work related topics. Anything too recent or interesting could fall under that scope. She ended up asking advice about the comparative assets of various technical elements she had to buy to upgrade the ship - it was possibly one of the most boring subjects possible, but Heinrix tried to get into it and managed to deliver a long-term analysis of their various pros and cons. The discussion then turned to their common ground experience as psykers. Though they carefully did not approach any topic related to the Black Ship, they did share a few thoughts and memorable souvenirs from Scholastia Psykana - picking up the ones that didn't involve torture-training or various excruciable exercices. Heinrix had mentioned his complete frustration at divination and telepathy, disciplines he had never mastered. Too irrational and illogical to him. Elena had shared her feeling that biomancy was completely alien to her. Too brutish and unsubtle for her.
Somehow Heinrix also shared memories of his childhood and his homeworld, explaining his surprising knowledge of machinery and mechanisms out of his original aim to be a Knight pilot. Him opening up about more personal information was surprising, and Elena didn't quite do the same. She remained vague about her native void ship, only mentioning that her taste in tinkering and looting came from her upbringing. Her clan used to be the local equivalent of the recolligers they met. She'd been reluctant to share that, considering how the typical Imperial citizen looked down on what they thought of as degenerates and servants. But Heinrix had not shown any traces of contempt at low-born before, and he just listened politely.
They were often interrupted by vox calls chiming in to reach Elena. When it happened, Heinrix remained discreet. At some point, servants brought them a tray of refreshments. It was later, as Elena was pacing around the room, talking with Janrus about the state of their various colonies, that she realized how uncommon and unique this situation was. Having Heinrix around felt more natural and organic that she would have thought at first. She dared say it was even soothing, and the initial awkwardness of it had quickly died down. She didn't have to explain things half as much with him around ; their common nature as psykers and similar past experiences made it easier to communicate and to understand each other. It felt odd, because she's been keeping to herself for so long, but also, it felt pleasant to open up a little.
She glanced at him. He was busy pretending to check her library, but she saw him studying a report of his own on his data-slate discreetly. She hadn't noticed how relaxed and calm he'd been before that ; now his usual frown had returned and something colder had slipped over his face. She could tell he'd noticed her gaze, as he stopped pretending to be interested in her bookshelves and focused on his data-slate, careful to hide it from her view. She didn't try to pry and finished up her call with Janrus as usual.
Heinrix straightened as she did, putting away the data-slate swiftly. The tension in his shoulders slightly lessened when he turned towards her.
" This has been a very pleasant meeting, Elena. But I must go." He didn't elaborate - she understood that he'd seen something he didn't like on his incoming reports. The way it had shifted his behavior appealed to her curiosity, but she knew better than asking about it.
" Of course. I've enjoyed talking with you. "
He made a few steps towards the exit, balled his fist, then turned back to face her - Elena had a feeling he would. Considering her gravely, he raised a sure hand and gently pushed back a lock of hair behind her ear. His skin was still cold.
There was a time in the life of any grow-up woman where one could think they had it all under control, until someone came along and a sense of both vulnerability and curious exhilaration crashed down your beliefs. That was one of those times.
" I've been wanting to do that for some time ", Heinrix commented to himself with a hint of satisfaction. His hand was still resting behind her ear, warming up against her skin. She felt his fingers finding and then slowly caressing the scars of her old neural implants ; that was a bolder move, one that sent a jolt to her heart and made her nervous. She let him and he soon gently let go, straightening with a sense of tension and, for once, uncertainty. She realized that he was as confused as she was with the situation.
He cleared his throat. " Thank you for pretending to be away from our respective duties for a while. I will cherish the thought of it, however delusional it may be. " He bowed his head respectfully and made his way back.