X. JUDICIARY

'Sir.' It's Prosecutor Ishmayl. 'The insurrection is ended, but our quarry… His black soulfire burned like a flame to me, and yet — he fled the trial.'

Via my optical augmetics I regard the psyker's Terminator armour marked by evidence of heavy combat, his zealous gaze tinged with failure, his antique force-hammer, Requiter, held firmly two-handed. The sprawling administrative castelli's purge have taken far too long, and all we accomplished is… this.

'Abiathar and his Paladins beg for expiatory scourging, sir.'

'I permit. In truth, we've all earned one today,' I remark dryly. Physically unable to leave my flagship, I followed the mission's progress, watching our Doomwing knights and their commander fight on the surface with exceptional valour. I expected no less of them — and still they fell short.

Knowing the capabilities of this particular delinquent, it's unsurprising. Still, it rankles.

'What of the Stormwing?' I inquire.

'They gave chase, right into the tempest at the northern pole. No word from them since.' A small pause. 'Although, sir, we managed to detain… a woman. An Inquisitor.'

I swear under my breath, digesting the words. The implications.

An Inquisitor — not someone to dispose of without hassle, though the loss of any law-abiding soul hurts.

'Bring the detainee aboard Justitia Tenebris,' I order at last. 'Learn everything you can from her. Whether she has conspired with the betrayer in mounting this revolt, and so on. Discover what he might've told her.'

'By you command.'

'Oh, and regarding that lieutenant… Clyfford… He's yours to adjudicate.'

'Sure, sir.'

I know better than to trust our new brethren, even if I do acknowledge their use, for so many of our chasteners, interrogators, jurors, vergers and witnesses died serving justice — and to refuse Guilliman's gift would've been dangerous in the extreme…

However, all my Invisible Court officials chose to 'cross the Rubicon': they'd rather have died in the process with our secrets than risked outsiders learning of them. No few did expire, though both Abiathar and Koch, Masters of the Themidae, survived. Me too — albeit crippled in body. Even for an Astartes, I am old; and ever since the late Aradiel shared with me all the terrible information, I am the most cognizant in my Chapter, though this knowledge rests heavy upon my shoulders.

I still recall the Macharian Reconquest, as ony just a few now can, like it was yesterday. I was a mere sergeant in the years when we fought alongside the 6th Battlegroup, and elevated to a brother-captain in the decades of civil wars that followed. It was also when this vicious criminal, self-styled 'Undying' struck his first blow — reappearing now, centuries later, during fresh turmoil and the greatest militarum endeavour since the Primarch's legendary time…

Again we failed.

Now though, we have the one who can lead us to him.

Decades, centuries, millennia — the hunt for justice will continue to the last Unrepentant we'll convict. Until then, we are simply boys in darkness: guilt-ridden, insular, tormented by the past.

But the Lion's Verdict is delivered.

We are to enforce it.