Ciaphas was old. Rejuvenatioment after rejuvenatioment had seen to that he lived so long he could barely even recall his home p.

  The dark tunnels of the far-off hive world, and the tunnel-rats sehey had gifted him were the only mementos he had.

  turies had gone by since he first stepped foot on the Scho’s grounds, and sometimes he still wondered about the sheer impossibility of it all. He was still alive, despite time and every st enemy of mankind doing its best to put ao him on a near-daily basis.

  “Sir?” A nonplussed voiapped him out of his brooding. As his senses returo him, he felt his oldest rade’s utterly unique body odour invade his nostrils. He really must have been lost in thought, Jurgen was not the sneaky kind a hadn’t noticed his preseil he spoke up. “Care for a cup of tanna?”

  “Yes,” said, nodding slowly as he made sure to breathe only through the mouth. Jurgen had many positive qualities, foremost of which was his unbending loyalty, but few ever cared to look beyond his u and rather repulsive exterior. Oh well, that only served to keep them from realising his true nature as a Bnk, so it was to his be. “Thank you, Jurgen. Was there any unication from our friends in the capital while I was out?”

  “No, Sir.” Jurgen shook his head. “It’s been silent.”

  “Well, that’s not good.” rubbed at the bridge of his nose as he savoured the warmth of the tanna spreading through his body.

  It did little to banish his rising ahough. There had been no news from Amberly for what felt like ages, but was a mere two days in actuality.

  was rather certain the headstrong woman would be just fine, one way or another. Inquisitors were made of steruff, and Amberly even more so. What he was more worried about, was that without her, he was stuck here like a nded fish since she was the only one who had access to whatever they used to unicate with the stealth void-ship up in orbit.

  It was her own personal ship of course, but would really do with any shoddy piece of junk that could fly him off of this damnable p. He had never beeo believe the Emperor had the time, or willio personally protect his every st subject, so he liked to take every precaution to put as many obstacles between himself and enemies as possible.

  As, life always found a way to mess it all up.

  This time, it came in the form of a request. Few men could ever resist the words ‘darling, could you do something for me?’ spoken by a beautiful woman. That was doubly true when said woman was an inquisitor.

  “Sir?” Jurgen spoke up, and gnced up with a start to find the man’s face ed in a fused frown. “What are we supposed to do with the Miss that came with you? The Lieutenant has been pining that she keeps poking at his men’s equipment.”

  “‘Poking at his men’s equipment’?” repeated, an eyebrow tiredly raised in amusement. Unfortunately, Jurgen was immuo humor, or likely never even learhe word to begin with, so he just nodded. “Which equipment?”

  “Guns, kactical gear,” Jurgen listed out, looking fused. “I thought they weren’t supposed to let a civie touch their stuff, but most of them didn’t seem to care. I don’t get it.”

  “Well,” said, pausing to down the remaining tanna in his cup before rising to his feet with a groan. The day’s a had not been kind to his knees and hip. If he couldn’t get another rejuv treatment soon-ish, he’d really start to wither, he felt. “Let’s see what’s going on.”

  already had an idea of what might be going on, several ones in fact, and he was relieved to find that it turned out to be one of the rather tame ones. As he stepped into the rger room, the ohey’d he lounge’ of the safe-house, he wao sigh. The detat of elite stormtroopers that had stayed behind with should have knower, but they had been stuside this ratty safe-house for weeks now.

  At least this bunch isn’t from a mixed regiment. mused, watg half a dozen grizzled troopers fawhe geous woman who had found herself locked in a room with them. The Lieutenant was frowning up a storm in the er, arms crossed a almost tapping in annoyance. khe troopers would have killed the woman if their superior had given the order, but by the fsh of almost malicious relief on his face as his eyes caught ’s, he seemed relut to weather the bme fiving that order. After all, why did they have a issar in house if not to be the object of all maltent and bme?

  Well, frak that. thought, suppressing the urge to gre at the man. Making a ptoon full of veteran soldiers loathe him was the st thing he wao do, especially so far away from any real imperial authority and with them being the only thing that’d staween him and a p full of Sanesh-worshipping-loons.

  Before doing anything else, he let his gaze wash over all the ons and gear spread out on the small table before that Emilia woman. Laspistols, srifles, bat knives, fk jackets and even a tactical bat helmet. More importantly, all the firearms were missing their power packs. Meaning they were harmless. The most dangerous thing oable was the bat knife, but retty sure whoever lived long enough iormtrooper corps to bee ae veteran could handle a single civie woman with a knife.

  Surprisingly, the sed person to notice him lingering just beyond the doorframe was the woman iion, not any of the other soldiers. ’s palms tingled as his eyes made tact with a pair of enthralling emerald eyes filled with overflowing curiosity and a hint of … amusement. That couldn’t be right. What regur woman would feel not a hint of fear or ay when locked in a room with a score of killers of whom she knew barely anything about?

  She must still be in shock. decided, rememberirembling hands coated in blood as she stood utted cultist with a haunted look on her face. People reacted in a million different ways to fag dowh. It wasn’t the first time he saw someone seemingly lose grip of reality as a result. The ck of fear, and the need for distra in the form of pying with strange ‘alien’ ons made seoo, if he looked at it like that.

  sighed, squared his shoulders, and strode into the room. The men gnced over, then so attention, their fists smming into their chests.

  “At ease,” said easily, and they all rexed. He was just about to address the woman iion, who stood along with the soldiers, wearing a sheepish expression on her face. Then she fliaking a half-step back before she caught herself and hid her rea ihan a sed. What was that? “I see yetting along well.”

  A moment ter, Jurgen’s familiar bouquet notified of his aide’s arrival. For a brief, tiny instant, ’s heart froze in terror as he recalled the kinds of things that teo react to his aide’s presence most ively.

  Daemons, Geealers and Psykers. Any who drew upon the cursed realm of the Immaterium for power.

  He bahat thought in no time ft. Emilia was back to her previous, mildly curious expression that masked just a hint of revulsion as her eyes flickered over ten. If she syker, she would have been writhing on the ground, bleeding through her eyes and screaming in agony, as had seen Psykers do on more than one occasiohey got too close to the Bnk. It was foolish of him to even sider the possibility, especially sihout the Scho’s teags, a rogue Psyker was uo live beyond the age of ten without blowing themselves up, etting possessed.

  No, Emilia was a regur human woman. With eyes. Which expihe revulsion he saw in her eyes when she id eyes on Jurgen, and had her eyes forever tainted by the sight of what a varied colle of skin diseases could do to the face of someone who already thought hygiene was something that only happeo other people.

  Now, a more ruthless man in his pce would have ordered the woman’s death the moment she outlived her use as a meat shield, distra and, stly, driver. Which was just about when the beat-up van rolled to a stop in the abandoned warehouse he safe-house. A kinder man, oill having deluded ideals of i human goodness, would have let her be on her way.

  Ciaphas was her. He didn’t want to order the death of an i woman just because she was in the wrong pce at the wrong time and had ‘seen too much’, but her was he willing to trust her not to go bbbering about their location to the local authorities the moment she was out e of their rifles. So she had bee here, as their sort of prisoner for the time being.

  “So,” said, drawing the word out as he let his gaze spicuously wash over the assortment of gear the troopers had id out oable. “I hope you have not fotten your duties just because a woman finally graced the room with her presence?”

  “Of course not, Sir.” One of the Sergeants said, the one named Marvin … something. He souhe slightest bit offe the question, but hid it well behind a veil of professionalism. “Third and fifth squads are on lookout duty, keeping watch of the streets.”

  *****

  I watched the bypy between the soldiers and with some amusement, but the main part of my attention was focused solely on pushing the boundaries of what I could still do with the oppressive power of a Bnk pressing down on me.

  Now that I was this close to him, I could tell my drone would have had no hope of pushing back against it. My telepathik to it would have she moment it came close ten and my inbuilt tingencies would have activated, which would have had this lot around me sughtered to the st man. A Bnk’s powers might dampen, or even nullify, all of my powers that were fueled by soul energy, but it had no painst bio-energy and raw power.

  Without exerting myself overly much, I could still actually use my powers, though in an area limited to my body and its immediate surroundings. Even that mue pulling my aura ba and ing it around me in a bubble, yering it atop itself until it kept most of the interference away from me.

  The Emperor’s feat of using his Psyker voodoo on a Bnk suddenly became a huimes more impressive. It might take me frying my current avatar with a massive amount of soul energy to even e close. I was fident I could ma, if it was some tiny thing like sending a bst of psychic screeg into his mind, but it just wasn’t worth it beyond tig my ego.

  I had hands, with fihat could turn into cws able to rend flesh from boh little to no effort. Killing a Bnk the simple way was much more doable, sihey really were just like regur old humans when it came to physicality.

  was talking with that grouchy Lieutenant guy while I pushed and pulled at the aura-shell arourying to expand it and i with more soul energy without promising its iy when I caught the telltale sound of statiing through a vox-speaker.

  In the er, the tactical officer — the guy responsible for maintaining the s and keeping in tact with other units — jumped in shock just as a warbled, but clearly feminine voice came through.

  Whatever petty drama was going oween the issar and the Lieutenant, which rgely involved the two throwing barbed insults bad forth, came to a sudden stop as the man manning the not-radio turhe volume up.

  jerked and turowards the speaker, ign the soldier who gred at him, but kept whatever he wao say to himself.

  “ … -thre, do you- … -repeat, do you copy?”

  The techie gnced up at his anding officer, then at who was by nht there o him with the urge to nab the speaker and the mic out of the trooper’s hand clear on his face.

  “Respond,” said, and I caught a hopeful tone in his voice.

  The techie nodded jerkily, then grabbed a mic before speaking a string of words that was likely some authorisation code or maybe it was to make sure whoever was oher end of that line knew for sure this side hadn’t been promised.

  “The e is shaky, but we hear you. Over.”

  “Thank the Emperor,” the voice cleared up a little, and I could hear the relief in the woman’s voice. “Prepare for departure. We o leave this p yesterday. We will be using the agreed-upoup locatiohere in 48 hours. Vail, out.”

  Hmmm. So they are running? I mused. Didn’t they have something they wanted from this p? Beyond just banishing that Daemon Princess? They must have gotten it already, or decided to abandon the mission with all the fuss we had been kig up around here. Oh well, it could still be iing to see what they found, or would have wao find. I just o somehow attach myself to this buntil they leave … but how I vihem not to leave me here?

  P3t1