Finding food, water and shelter in the Dark City seemed impossible. Abelard had opted to always be on the move, never establishing himself somewhere precise. It threw some predators off his trail.
That was why he ended up in this mangled mess of a place, where impossible platforms gave way into the void. Sometimes whole places disappeared there, with no reason at all ; it was like living in ruins that could crumble at any second. The place was whitened out in a strange light that he could not find the source of, but which projected crazy shadows all around. Sometimes, there were things in there, doing what everybody else was doing - looking for a prey and a victim.
He killed some human that had been wearing weapons actually looking like weapons, and not makeshaft things. They had been harder to kill than the beggars Abelard usually stalked around, but the old Seneschal had found back his motivation with the return of the Rogue Trader and had crashed their skulls all the same. He had survived from drinking human blood before. But he would rather avoid that for the Rogue Trader : she was weak already, delirious, and he could not take the risk of her going sick.
Instead, he chopped down the men's limbs and boiled them by making a fire out of a few ammunitions. The trick was to let the flesh evaporate its own water and catch it in the fabric. He fed what droplets of sweat he could find to Elena.
From time to time, Elena drifted back to him and the present, and she told him that they needed to find the Commissar. She had said she would kill him in exchange for more medical supplies.
But, most of the time, she was…somewhere else. No matter what efforts Abelard put through to talk to her and get her back, it seemed the Rogue Trader was gone.
His two latest victims had been extraordinarily armed for humans in Commorragh. Abelard wondered if they were from the camp Elena was searching for.
He settled to hide and wait, prowling the mangled sector in search of the Commissar's camp.
He found it after a while. Elena's state had been degenerating. He hoped he could find help there.
His prayers must have been heard, because he was more than surprised to find that Sister Argenta was there, too - alive, and well. She barely wore any sign of torture or wounds at all, and still kept her armor and bolter. She was busy healing some poor fellow in a makeshift infirmary.
It was the perfect place for Elena to recover from her wounds.
When she recognized the both of them, Argenta's eyes widened in horror.
" Seneschal ! " she began, getting up, her voice warm like hot chocolate in his ears. Abelard couldn't help himself but smile at her formidable sight.
Argenta gestured for the soldiers around her to let them through and took him inside her strong arms. Abelard would never admit it, but he felt such a strong sense of relief at having her back. He wasn't confident he would have been able to protect Elena all alone. " I prayed day and night for your protection and safe return. Have you any news about our companions ? "
Abelard took a step back and gestured to the stretcher he had built from scratches for Elena. The Rogue Trader looked skeletal in it, but he'd done well enough a job to clean her up as much as he could and tend her with bandages.
Still, Argenta's face blanched. " I am so sorry, Lord Captain ", said the Sister as she fell to her knees beside her and took her hand in hers.
Argenta's dark eyes roamed over Elena's stump and the blood-soaked bandages around her back. Her now bald head wore multiple, gruesome scars - some very ancient. She was ugly and off-putting, deprived of the air of authority and coldness she had wrapped around her in the past. As Argenta murmured a quick prayer, Elena's eyes rolled in their sockets. Her left orbital was swollen and red with an infection Abelard couldn't fight or treat, and whose source he didn't understand.
" Theodora says she does not care for your apologies, Sister. "
Argenta's face froze, emotionless for a few seconds, and Abelard spotted her fingers twitching in the same way she did before pulling the trigger of her bolter. Feeling a sense of unease, Abelard took a step forward.
" Fuck off, Kunrad ! " mumbled Elena, looking at a place behind Argenta's shoulders. " You and your plans - plans within plans…"
Abelard gently put a hand over the Sister's shoulders. " The Lord Captain needs medical attention immediately. As you can see, she is…not herself lately," he whispered.
Elena kept mumbling, arguing with a non-existent Kunrad. Abelard ignored it - she'd been doing this for a while now. When she wasn't speaking to Kunrad, she was sometimes having talks with Theodora, or "Maria", or her imaginary father.
The most troublesome parts were when she was talking to people he knew, like Tisiphone, Heinrix, Astartia, or Idira…but what sentences he could make out from her gibberish only sent a chill over his spine.
Argenta had more trouble than him accepting the situation, he could tell. All traces of pity and compassion had gone away from her face, replaced by something else - restrain.
Argenta got up, and thoughtfully added : " Let's see what we can do for her. As for yourself, Abelard, this place has not been kind to you either. You look like you've grown twice your age while we were apart !"
The Seneschal sighed. " And it feels like it as well. Some beast attacked me down there, a horrible creature made of metal. It…encased me and…fed off me. Sucked my strength out of me, until it got distracted by a younger prey and let me go. "
Abelard hung his head down in sorrow and shame. That his survival had held only to his old age was ironic - and so cruel.
While talking, Argenta took hold of the stretcher and dragged Elena's body into the infirmary. Her aura and authority were enough for the humans there to take a look and obey her when she asked them to tend to her wounds.
" I thank the God-Emperor that our paths have crossed again. You are a good man, Seneschal Werserian, and it is good that you have found me. I now fight for a righteous soul - a man who consecrates his will and power to form a community of fighters, in the hope of escaping this place ! You must meet him and stand by my side in the fights to come. This will convince him to keep Elena around. "
Argenta didn't say it, but Abelard understood it anyway.
No one would want to take care of a cripple in a place like this - so he needed to sell his own strength to make up for Elena's uselessness.
As soon as he met the Commissar, Abelard knew something was wrong with him. The guy was too clean, too handsome, too pretty for this place. Argenta looked up to him with flames in her eyes - but the Sister had never been a good judge of character and lacked the ability to take a step back and make double guesses.
Abelard said nothing and pretended to fall into the Commissar's snares, if only to buy himself some time. He trained his soldiers, making them better whenever they went away to the place they called "the arena." They gained a few days of rest in this way. Enough to actually do something for Elena.
When he was not training the young soldiers, Abelard was with her, standing guard. He feared that if he should turn away his attention from her, someone would try to kill her off. He dared only sleep when Argenta was there to replace him, standing vigil over the Rogue Trader.
Elena's amputation had been cleaned and disinfected. The Commissar's doctor did not possess any synskin to replace her flayed back, so they had to make do by cleaning the wounds and applying fresh bandages every four hours. That and a cocktail of drugs stabilized Elena's health. The amount of abuse and torture she had suffered worried Argenta and Abelard.
She had survived and escaped her tormentors. But from her mumblings, they gathered that Pasqal, Heinrix and Idira had been held in the same place as she did. Were they still alive ? If so, in which state could they hope to find them ? Elena was bad enough as it was.
As time went by, Abelard started admitting to himself that the other members of the retinue were done for. His heart mourned for their fate. He'd known Idira for so long, and she had been such a tough and resilient woman, even funny at times. Pasqal he didn't care much about before, apart from his utility as Magos, but now that he was gone Abelard felt his absence and realized how much he had grown accustomed to his weird ways and quest. As for Heinrix, well…for all the wariness the spy inspired him, he could not find it in its heart to rejoice from such a fate. The young man was a dutiful soldier and didn't deserve that.
He woke up from his short nap, feeling dazed. When Elena would be better, the three of them would settle to chase down the beast that had stolen his youth, in the hope to find a way to cure him. Sadly Elena didn't seem to get better, despite the healing that was provided to her.
Argenta was busy praying. The Sister's expression was conflicted - Elena's crazy musings frightened her, and Abelard knew what word the Sister did not dare to say out loud - "witch." Yet, Argenta was a kind woman and she hated to see Elena suffer in this way.
Her voice was soothing, serene and warm. She was praying for Elena's soul.
Abelard barely had time to get up and check for his weapon when a xenobeast entered the place. The alarms went off and the soldiers he'd trained took their rifles, aiming to blast - but the older amongst them prevented them from shooting.
The Commissar walked up the xenobeast in a show of defiance, then back to them.
" My dearest kin ! Today we have a chance to fight for Humanity ! To crush our enemies in the Arena - and to steal their secrets, weapons and vehicles ! Who amongst you will fight in His name and glory ? "
The Commissar's eyes darted naturally towards Argenta, and Abelard saw it : the glimmer of cold calculation and cunning in his eyes. Still, it was too late. Her shoulders squared by themselves and, even as Abelard reached out to her to make her stop, Argenta took a step forward.
" I will ! " she almost chanted, her voice crystalline like that of a jewel in the night.
Her sight inspired the younger men. Who wouldn't want to fight alongside a Sister of Battle ? What kind of young man would want to be found lacking in one's eyes - especially the ones of a woman so brave and beautiful as Argenta ?
The Commissar smiled broadly, but the xenobeast hissed something angrily, and his eyes darted over the wounded and the older veterans, who were far more less enthusiastic to go into the Arena.
His eyes fell on Abelard. " Old man, you have benefited from the Emperor's grace and mercy in here, and we have tended to your daughter's wounds. You have the way of a fighter with you. Will you not stand with your trainees and inspire them with your experience ? "
Abelard's hand tightened around the hilt of his thunder hammer. You bastard, he thought.
" You will have to do better than vain compliments to hide the fact that you're a conman and a coward from a silver fox such as I", commented Abelard, straightening despite his protesting kneecaps.
The Commissar was a good actor. He barely flinched at all. His smile remained pleasant and generous.
No real commissar ever would have tolerated something like this with no less than a show of execution. Abelard held his gaze.
" It seems you are struck with the same madness as your daughter", replied the Commisar kindly.
Argenta frowned for the first time. " She is not his daugh-" she began, but Abelard silenced her by pressing his hand into hers harshly. She fell quiet, confused.
" Or maybe you are an envoy of Malice, sent to infiltrate our camp and sow dissension amongst good faithful," added the Commissar, leaning in slightly.
Murmurs and whispers. Argenta's mouth formed an "O."
" I assure you, good man, that these people are not working with the horrid xenos ! " claimed Argenta, shivering in fury. " Stray your hand and your accusations all at once ! I vouch for the clarity of their souls. "
" Then surely they will fight for the Imperium. "
" They will ! " agreed Argenta.
Abelard threw daggers at her, but relented. The Sister didn't even begin to realize what gross trap she'd set foot in - but he was certain that soon enough light would dawn on her.
Elena was in no shape to fight. But he could not leave her there by herself. He was certain now that someone would end her. It was only because of Argenta's presence - and how easily manipulated she was - that Elena had been sheltered in the first place. Abelard took her in his arms, while Argenta protested. He didn't listen to her and the group of soldiers all took a step forward the xenobeast, as a portal opened up in thin air.
" Then it's agreed upon. Brothers and sisters, let us raise our voices and sing a prayer for the brave souls that will fight in His name today ! May the Emperor keep you strong, soldiers ! "