Usually, Inquisitors only gathered in number for conclaves and when a world was near doom. It wasn’t that they never crossed paths, but the enemies of the Emperor were beyond counting and tireless. The defence of His Holy Realm was an endless task. Thus, it wasn’t unusual for two Inquisitors to be present on the same planet, following their disparate tasks, and indeed, that was the better option.

The secret Inquisitorial histories were rife with occasions where Puritan and Radical Inquisitors went after the same target, with very different ideas for how the crises should be resolved. Such conflicts were buried after the fact, but every Inquisitor here was aware of the terrible prices often inflicted on the world of the Imperium, when two Inquisitors went to war.

They still did it, for whatever the price of stopping a Radical from fully falling, it was far better than allowing the corruption to spread or the consequences of birthing a monster that would result from a fully fallen Inquisitor.

Nikos and her Hunters were proving to be one such bone.

“This is near heresy! Warp craft and using xenos! Have we fallen so low!?”

Inquisitor Hartmann of the Ordo Hereticus had taken upon himself the role of Puritan for this discussion. He viciously opposed these Hunters and wanted them all purged. Immediately.

“Be reasonable Hartman. The Calixis sector has always been a locus of the cold trade and more… liberal interpretation of some of the High Lords edicts. That the Library of Knowing still stands is but one example of such… allowances.” Malleus Inquisitor Marthesius was, in this case, exhibiting an unwelcome stroke of Radicalism. He had several good points about the possible usefulness of Nikos and her ilk, but the risks were considerable.

Serina was forced into playing the moderate peacekeeper, a role she did not appreciate.

“If the two of you could stop barking at each other for a few minutes? This is the fourth meeting we’ve had on this matter in the past year, and every single one starts the same. We’ve already decided to render judgment once our investigations were complete. You are wasting all our times and I will not allow it. We’ve enough enemies beyond these chambers to quarrel here.”

The Planetia Inquisitor, Sebastianus Mortz of Ordo Militum inclined his head to her in thanks, before clearing his throat.

“If we can focus on the matter at hand?” the governing Inquisitor asked. It wasn’t really a question. He was being polite. As the host of these talks, he had that right.

Hartman scowled but settled down, his face a permanent thundercloud.

“My thanks to my colleagues for their forbearance.” Inquisitor Marthesius began, sliding data slates to the other three Inquisitors. “While I believe the investigation of Ordo Machinum is still ongoing…” he trailed off, looking at Serina.

She allowed herself a snort. “It is. It will be for a century, if not two.” The tech-priests would be trying to figure out new uses for Dust for decades, if not centuries to come. So long as the Mechanicus was involved, the Inquisitors overseeing them would be looking into their experiments.

“I do have a preliminary report to share, but it is that: preliminary.” Serina stressed. She did not want to be on the hook for it, if it turned out Dust was actually some kind of daemon plot. Her responsibility were xenos, not the Warp.

“Understood. Then, understanding that this is merely preliminary work,” Marthesius inclined his head to Hartman,” and that these Hunter’s will need to be observed for at least the next millennium if sanctioned, I believe my own findings are ready for presentation before this gathering of peers.”

Hartman sat up at that. It was theatre. Serina wasn’t very familiar with Mortz, but Hartman had a penchant for playing to type. Beneath the mask of the fury spitting Puritan were eyes and a mind as sharp as any. Serina despised it. That even here, with only Inquisitors present, they still played games when they should all be working for the good of the Emperor and His Imperium.

“Get on with it.” Serina snapped. Her last transport had been rough. The Rogue trader had somehow allowed a cult to sprout right beneath his feet, and they’d almost sabotaged the Gellar field mid-transit. She did not appreciate the idea that her involvement in this whole affair was drawing more attention to her from the Ruinous Powers.

Or it could have been a coincidence. That was the problem with the Warp, she couldn’t know, only make ready for the worst case.

The look she got was unamused, but Serina had no time to spare. As soon as this meeting was over, she needed to get back into orbit. Any clue that might unravel the mystery of the Threefold Curse was to be pursued to the utmost.

“Let us begin with the main event: to the best of our ability to access, through divination and other means, the daemon slain is indeed dead. It was not banished, but destroyed. The body has not yielded any great discovery. It is made up of a mix of human and various xenos materials, built in a way that without the daemon to inhabit it, it doesn’t work. At least, to the best understanding of the Genetor Magi who have examined it.” And others. Serina had allowed one of her trusted Rogue trader’s Explorator Magos to have a look, and even he had no idea how it worked. It was a nonsensical jumble, a mystery for another day.

Hartman peered at Marthesius with great suspicion, but said nothing. The Malleus Inquisitor continued:

“This “Grim Spear” technique thus joins the exalted ranks of the few reliable ways we have of permanently dealing with more persistent threats from beyond the veil.”

“Not that he will name them.” Serina thought.

“Nikos repeated the feat?” the Planetia Inquisitor questioned.

“She did. While it takes her a year to fully recover from using it, twelve days ago she slew a Daemonette.”

A moment’s silence followed. Marthesius giving Hartmann a chance to jump in again. One he declined. Protesting the death of daemons was beyond foolish.

“The recordings of the event did not survive, but with proper preparations no one else died. Miss Nikos has designated the technique Grandmaster in rank.” he pushed a button on the table and a recording of the woman of the hour played on the pict screen. She was sitting in one of the less direct interrogation rooms of the Inquisitorial bastion. One usually used to deal with nobility too troublesome to arrest immediately.

“The Grim technique is inherently dangerous Inquisitor. If the student is not adequately trained to prepare them, the final step will kill them. We tear out a part of our Souls every time. It heals in time, but only if we survive. I will not repeat that mistake.”

“I’ve attached reports from the second slaying. Until another of her students develops the appropriate skills, Miss Nikos remains adamant against teaching them.”

“So she can remain the only one able to deliver this precious service. She hoards it! The principles behind the ritual must be shared with the Inquisition and properly inspected for heresy!” Hartmann closed fist rapped against the table, emphasising his point.

“We allow some leniency in dealing with such matters to some.” Marthesius coolly replied.

“Trusted individuals! Who have undergone many trials and been tested over the millennia. Many of which bear the blood of our Emperor! Not unknown outsiders with mysterious origins!”

“Have you an actual point to present, or will this be more of your theatre?” Serina accused.

“I too would like to know if you have found something Inquisitor.” the Planetia Inquisitor backed her up.

“I have! A plot to put us all off our guards and insinuate themselves in our favour. The damned heretic Logician has tried to conceal their true nature, but I have seen through their lies! Hunters? They are not hunters. This is merely attempt to steal comradeship from our Holy Ordos. They are not hunters of the daemon, the mutant or the alien. They are Huntsmen and Huntresses.”

“Please get to the point.” Serina insisted.

“Individuality! Independence! Rebellion! Heresy and secession! That is the point. Pyrrha Nikos is not the general of these false hunters, nor even a Captain of a company, as it would be among the Astartes. She is their leader but not their commander! Because they don’t have one!” Hartmann screeched. He was being really unpleasant.

Suddenly, he became calm.

“These Huntsmen and Huntresses prize individuality. They prize themselves. I have walked the streets of this Sanctuary and I tell you: they are not soldiers. Not even as independent ones as the Astartes. They are individuals. A core component of their teachings is that each and every one of them is to act according to their own judgement. The older Huntress is a mentor and a teacher, even a leader. But she does not command.”

Hartmann leaned forward, giving them all penetrating looks:

“This Academy offers classes and missions. Some are assigned as part of the coursework. But once they graduate, these Huntsmen and Huntresses pick their own assignments. They are encouraged to do so with rewards: dust rounds, training time with teachers or specialists, forge creations and so on. But make no mistake, these are teams, not squads. They bicker, break apart and reform at random. Attempts to attach them to any regular Munitorum chain of command would be a disaster.”

“Levels of professionalism vary wildly and some of them prefer to run if the odds are against them. They are disruptive, but worse, they are sheltering cowards.” His voice was a low hiss by the end. It was clear that in his judgment, such offense was unforgivable.

“If I may?” Marthesius asked. No one objected.

“While my colleague was prowling the streets of Sanctuary, I walked the halls of power. When I discovered the same, I asked Nikos about this very point.”

Serina didn’t catch how he did it, but another recording played. This one was voice only. It sounded like Marthesius and Nikos were walking down a hall filled with other voices, other people. Many young, childish.

“It is essential Inquisitor. I understand that our ways will cause friction and trouble. It’s one of the reasons why I’ve been requesting that my Hunters are only placed in charge of forces trained to support them, recruited from Sanctuary itself. Hunters make for poor soldiers. But that very individuality and confidence we build in each and every one of them is what allows them to fight the enemy.”

“When faithful of the Imperium call on the God-Emperor to save them and shield them from woe, they are borrowing his power. Reflecting his distant light. Billions, trillions of souls in this galaxy don’t have a better option.”

Serina was surprised. Her voice was full of pity.

“We do. We learn how to fight back with our own Souls, our Aura’s so we don’t have to rely on the Emperor.”

“Some will call that traitorous and heretical.” Marthesius voice replied, tone carefully blank.

“I call it mercy. God or not, He already has countless trillions of souls calling on him to protect them. If I can take up even a fraction of that burden, for even a few hundred souls? Or just my own, to lighten His burden? How is that treachery? It’s mercy.”

Serina was stunned speechless. Nikos was pitying the Emperor.

“I can help. So I will. That’s what all this is about. He’s been carrying the Imperium on his back for ten millennia. It’s about time someone took some of the weight off him.” her voice was calm, not firm so much as committed. She’d thought about it and made her peace with this long ago.

She paused. “Not that I’m accusing you or the others of anything, I know how hard dealing with Chaos is. You’re doing your best. Let us do ours.”

The recording ended there.

“SHE DARES!?” Hartmann screamed.

“Not more of this.” Serina thought. They were going to have to recess so Marthesius and the Planetia Inquisitor could talk the Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor down from storming out of here and going to exterminate all the hunters. Or huntsmen and huntresses, as the case may be.

It was all just politics. Hartmann was trading on his Puritan reputation to allow them to convince him to allow this to go on, in turn getting favours and resources for his Ordo. Malleus would be paying, and Mortz and the Militarum would be playing guarantor for a bite of the prize. The only reason Serina was here was because Nikos needed her Rogue Trader contacts and approval for clandestine trades of warp materials, primarily wraithbone. Serina had to keep reminding herself that this was why she was here.

Hartmann was taking his due, but soon enough, it would be her turn. If the Ordo Malleus was willing to pay for the privilege of deploying these specialists, they needed her approval.

***

After a short break, they reconvened. With how stoic Hartmann looked, he’d gotten his pound of flesh and more. At least this meeting wouldn’t keep getting interrupted.

Marthesius on the other hand no longer had an ever-present smile on him, which could have been a lie set up for this very moment. Or it could be that this whole endeavour was costing him a lot. Or both.

“I’ve been warned we’re short on time, so I will keep to the salient points.” Briskly, Marthesius went on:

“Dust rounds are vastly inferior to psybolts, lacking their ability to ignore various forms of defensive shielding. They can be fired by anyone, and in the hands of Tempestus Scions have demonstrated a similar effectiveness against Warp foes as blessed rounds, bypassing daemons unnatural resilience.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

In this respect, pending the judgment of Ordo Machinum, the Ordo Malleus of the Calixis sector is willing see them deployed against enemies of the Imperium, where blessed rounds cannot be sourced. Demonstrations have also shown that this should be a use of last resort, as Dust rounds in the hands of a Huntress or Huntsman have greater impact when mixed with their Aura techniques.

The Hunter Academy has agreed to open their classes on the warp and daemon foes to the Inquisition, for the purposes of training Acolytes. Weapon mastery as well. Dust rounds must be transported either in stasis, with the Aura user carrying them, or under the constant guard of a null shield or effect.”

He flicked his hand, and a list of rankings showed up on the pict caster.

“Ranks, training times and complications are as follows:

-Trainee Huntsman/Huntress – 1 Year, no Aura, 20-40% losses to dropouts.

-Combat School Student – 3 years, Aura awakened at year 1 graduation ceremony. 5-10% losses to unawakened and awakened students transferring to a non-combat class or failing to meet standards.

-Huntsman Academy Student or Artisanal Academy Student

While the Huntsman Academy produces Huntsmen and Huntresses, the Artisanal Academy trains up their support staff. Everything from technicians, smiths, dust forges and so on. Our local Adeptus Mechanicus is currently tearing itself apart over the existence of this Academy. The radicals on either side believe in turn that they are hereteks engaged in proscribed innovation violating the Treaty of Olympus, or blessed by the Omnissiah.

The number of industrial accidents with lethal results for quarrelling tech-priests has gone up by 1200%, both here and on Scintilla and Malfi. The ranking Magos of Fenksworld is still waiting on orders from the Fabricator-Generals of the Lathe Worlds. In the meantime, he is doing his best to stop the quarrels from disrupting hive production lines.”

Which was a mess Serina had quietly quashed on arrival, ensuring it would not spill over beyond infighting among the Mechanicus. They could argue and even fight as much as they wanted… but if their disputes disrupted the production of the manufactoriums and forced Serina back here to deal with them, she would be taking a close look at all of them.

“That should keep the situation from boiling over locally, until I can came back around to properly deal with it.” That she would be leaving a team of her Acolytes to keep an eye on things was regrettable, but necessary.

“The Artisans of Sanctuary produce Dust rounds and Dust forged armour and weapons. These are inferior to power armour or power or force weapons, but effective against daemons. Nikos has also claimed, and we’ve been able to verify: using fire Dust to kill an Ork Warboss does set fire to a portion of his following. We estimate a 10-15% loss in common Ork numbers due to suddenly bursting into flames. Losses are far lower among Nobs and other leadership, and somewhat higher among lesser orkoid forms, like gretchins.”

“If used by a sanctioned Psyker to land the fatal blow, numbers rise to 20-25%, and with proficiency in the school of Pyromancy and the use of the appropriate power, that number rises to 35-40%.”

Now Serina was surprised. That was one of the claims she’d dismissed. It made no sense.

“Master Huntsman Urdal Goodbook, rated an expert in fighting Orks and escorted by a squad of Deathwatch, demonstrated a proper duel with a Warboss on the Agri World of Percipre in the Hazeroth Abyss sub-sector.”

It was the first Serina was hearing of this. She had been out of contact for two months.

“Upon executing the Warboss, the Huntsman called down divine judgment. 60% of common Ork “Boyz” burned to ash, severally curtailing the infection. The fires that erupted burned with his light, a golden yellow matching his Aura.”

Serina put it together quickly. “Nikos. The fires on Valos Krim in 184.” There’d been reports from the Feral World of Orks crumbling to ash suddenly, devoured by bright, solid red flames.

“Indeed.” Marthesius confirmed. “No one there was around to count their losses, but the Orks still haven’t recovered.” The sudden disappearance of a major infestation of Feral Orks on the world had been a mystery to the Ordo Xenos. “You’re certain?”

“I asked.” Marthesius replied. “She did not try to hide it.”

What surprised Serina was that Nikos hadn’t bothered to bring it up at all. “What is she hiding?”

“All that said, I propose we allow limited deployment of Dust rounds in the sector, reserved for use by Inquisitorial and Astartes forces. Any objections?”

No one did. By the Emperor’s shadow, Serina needed to get her hands on more fire Dust rounds. The Orks were a permanent thorn in their sides. Even a 10% loss to each and every defeated Waargh would be worth a planet or two. At least.

“The counterpoint is that without specialised transport, Dust rounds self-detonate the moment a ship enters the Warp. Which brings me to the next rank of Huntsmen:

-Graduates, or Regulars. Huntsmen and Huntresses of this rank hunt mutants and monsters, not daemons. They will fight and banish lesser terrors if given the chance, or forced to it, but their primary use is to clean out and keep clean vast sections of the Underhive. Ensuring they are safe to travel by killing many dangerous mutants and predators that dwell down there. These teams and the Sanctuary Guard are what Nikos is using to hold back the tide of horrors crawling around in the Underhive.

Greater Hunsmen are only called in when needed. About 20% of students never graduate, some quitting, some dying or falling out due to injuries on missions in the later years of the Academy.”

-Expert Hunsmen and Huntresses, the next rank, are no different than Regulars. Just with stronger Auras and 5-10 years spent studying one of their expertise subjects. And all of them, from Expert to Artisans to Students, all of these Awakened are planet-bound. So are the Veterans, who have spent those same years hunting, but not working on an Expert rating. After 5 and especially after 10 years, losses due to hunts drop off to nearly nothing.”

Marthesius paused there.

“Taking any of them into the void without a proper escort is sounding the lunchbell for daemons. They cannot be possessed, but from the moment their Aura is awakened, daemons are attracted to each one. After thorough investigation and some applied pressure, Miss Nikos has admitted that all her students, Huntsmen and Huntresses stand out in the Warp. Each Awakened does. That is why she built Sanctuary at the bottom of a Hive.”

Another recording played, sound only: “Our Aura, it allows us to touch them. To touch the Sea of Souls. We pay for that privilege. We can touch them and they can touch us.”

“The billions of tons of metal, rock, and citizens all provide a place for her growing Huntsmen to hide from the hordes in the Warp. For while Huntsmen expert and below protect Sanctuary from threats in the Materium, the Elite and Master Huntsmen, and the Grandmistress Huntress herself, hunt the Immaterium around Sanctuary, ensuring no daemon can feast on her students or lesser Huntsmen.”

“That is their great limitation. Until they undergo the Fourfold Trial separating Experts from Elites, they are all bound to this world. Planet bound. Otherwise, a Huntsman without the appropriate training can only run from a daemon until their Aura is slowly worn down over hours and days of assaults from the Immaterium. When and if they finally falter, the daemon can pull their souls out into the Warp and feast on them.”

No one here missed the implications. Serina allowed herself a disappointed sigh. Hartmann had a different concern: “Not possession? They do not become Daemonhosts?”

“No. That risk exists for the newly awoken, which is why the Academies are all clustered together and Miss Nikos insists that any new founding of an Academy on another world must be done with a Headmaster of at least Master, if not Grandmaster rank, to oversee to the safety of the students. Otherwise, we might end up with two dozen Daemonhosts on our hands.”

“Something about Aura and the training they undergo aligns the body and mind with the soul, after several years of training. This training is the only universally mandatory training for every Awoken, on pain of death. Trying to escape without it, or subvert the training is a capital offence.”

“In the hands of our enemies…” Hartmann trailed off. “It would be a disaster. As much as Chaos Marines are. There must never be a Chaos Huntsman. Everyone in favour of banning all interplanetary travel for every Huntsman and Huntress below Elite rank?”

The decision was unanimous.

“What makes these Elite’s different?” the Planetia Inquisitor asked.

“They cannot fall. They can die, but part of becoming one is exposing each and every one of them to the essence of each of the Four. Taking them into their very souls.”

Serina did not lose self-control, but a lesser woman would have gasped. Hartmann looked grim, but not surprised. Marthesius turned to her, deadly serious:

“That is why individuality, independence is written in their hearts. Instilled in their very souls.”

Another recording played. It was wistfull:

“My teachers told me that a Semblance was Unique. An expression of our soul.”

“They study their Auras and Semblances for years, sometimes decades, before taking the plunge. Each one must face the Four, one by one. Deny them through knowing their individual selves and finding that part of them that find the inhuman nature of the Ruinous Powers abhorrent. That is why their individuality must be strengthened, burnished and shined. So when it matters most, it endures, shines through.

They burn that denial, different for each one, into their very souls through battle and ritual. Only then are they Elites. Only then can Hunters fight our enemy in their very home. Step into Tenenboum, to the edge of the Warp and do battle with our Enemy on the border between Immaterium and Matterium. That is what Nikos did on her first official expedition to the docks in orbit. She administered an Elite test, before executing the daemon for good herself.”

“Most Veteran Hunters never undergo those trials, failing to meet the stringent conditions to qualify for the Fourfold Trial. Among those that do, a quarter lose their lives. Either to the taint or in a duel.”

“In the end, only a fraction of all Huntsmen are eventually qualified for interplanetary work.”

“Why do I feel you have more bad news for us?” Serina asked, her instinct twinging on the exact wording.

“I do. Interplanetary work, not interstellar.”

Another recording played, this one hushed:

“These are not my secrets to give. I don’t know what you know about the inner workings of the Gellar Field, but for someone with our talents and training, it’s obvious. The tech-priests were not happy with me knowing their secrets. I’ve already trained all my people to know better, but they still swore me to secrecy on the details. My other option was a Mechanicus crusade. So I cannot tell you exactly how or why… but every Hunter Elite or above is capable of feeling the Gellar Field. And damaging it, on accident or purpose.”

The room was silent. Serina, as the local Mechanicus Inquisitor, was well aware of the true nature of the Gellar Field, but among those here she would bet on only the Malleus Inquisitor perhaps knowing the same. She’d already called for another member of the Ordo Machinum to be dispatched to Calixis, but Inqusitorial numbers were ever insufficient. The one they already had was off as usual, gallivanting around the fringes of civilised space, overseeing an equally suicidal Magus Explorator.

Nikos kept going:

“I would ask you to ban Hunters below a Master rank in Aura or Self from interstellar travel. After so many years of training and stories of other worlds, they’ll all want to scatter. I’ve told too many stories of adventure. They want to have their own. Most are not yet ready for all the horrors of the world beyond Sanctuary. Or the attention the Four will give us, once we start acting in numbers. A team of Masters I can trust to take care of themselves. They won’t cause any terrible accidents because of a moment of inattention. I’d prefer the rest of my graduated students not learn this lesson the hard way.”

“Incredible. They expect us to trust each Huntress on board not to doom the vessel they are on?” Hartmann asked.

“We do the same for Navigators and sanctioned psykers.” Marthesius reminded him. Whatever the bribe was, it had to have been potent, as Hartmann let the matter rest. For now at least.

“From there, there are only two higher ranks. Master Huntsmen and Grandmaster. Miss Nikos has refused to say much about these ranks, claiming the details as Hunter secrets. In her own words, what matters is that a team of four Master Hunters are meant to be able to match a Greater Abomination of the Four. A Grandmistress duels one and wins.”

Here, Marthesius paused and it was a weighty pause. “Miss Nikos has claimed two such victories. The heads of a Great Unclean One and a Keeper of Secrets. She has declined to share where and when she fought them. They make up two of her three Grandmaster orders. She considers herself a Grandmaster Huntress of the third order and is willing to face another of their kind, if called upon.”

That? That was the kind of statement very few people could make. Or ever would. It was a death warrant to anyone not able to back it up. Serina did not miss that Nikos’s third Grandmastery was glossed over. No Inquisitor worthy of the title would ever miss something so obvious.

“This is what the future House Nikos offers to the Imperium: services of her Elites to help sweep and defend Fenksworld and the ships of Battlefield Calixis in orbit, and the right to issue missions to her Master and Grandmaster Hunters in the sector. Currently, she can make one team of three Master Hunters and herself available. In her own words:”

Another recording played:

“I’ve been cooped up beneath these metal ceilings for too long. Teaching, mentoring the next generation. It’s worth it, I know, and work that needs doing. But I’m itching for a challenge and so are my best students. We’ll leave at least one of us behind to watch the Academy. Urdal loves teaching, he’s volunteered to stay. The rest of us need to stretch our wings, now that we’re no longer in hiding. It’s been too long since I’ve walked under an open sky. All we need Inquisitor, is permission.”

The final word was hungry. As hungry as any death world predator.

“We’ll need to arrange transport.” Sebastianus Mortz said slowly.

“60% or more.” Inquisitor Serina Cosano of the Ordo Xenos reminded him.

“This is ridiculous! Each of those events was with Warbosses, not a Warlord. The biggest force was less than 200 000 Orks and they were feral! We do not know how this effect will work on a real Waargh, or even if it will work. Even if it does, it must have limits to the range of the effect. Limits unknown to us! Risking such rash actions on incomplete data is the height of folly!” Inquisitor Hartmann objected.

Serina wasted no more time on him. Oh yes, it seemed that what she had worried would be the biggest problem, getting the Hunters, Huntsmen to actually go out there and fight, was not actually a problem at all. They wanted to battle the enemies of Mankind.

Inquisitor Serina Cosano of the Ordo Xenos could respect that attitude.

***

“…Aura Hunters have displayed an unusual talent in reducing Ork infestations. We find their deployment against such foes as skirmishers, scouts and in decapitation strikes prudent. The Hunters have a weakness to divination, making them poor foes to Eldar Farseers and servants of the Plotter. This weakness can be turned to strength by using the Emperor’s Tarot on the team to counter such machinations.

Such divination can give clearer answers for battles to come than it usually would, if the enemy lacks their own means of divination or obscuring the future. It is recommended that if deployed against Eldar or Plotter cultists, Hunter teams be a part of a mixed force able to compensate for this weakness, else by the time they arrive the enemy will be long gone…”

Excerpts from the “Recommendations of the Conclave of Fenksworld in regards to the question of Aura Hunters.” This text is meant for internal Inquisitorial use only. Its classification is Obsidian.

***

“The three walks are a tradition that harkens back to the founding of Sanctuary. Before there was Sanctuary, there was only the Underhive. We must never forget that. Every citizen of Sanctuary, low or high, must take the three walks. The first, at twelve, to walk the Abandoned Halls. Navigating environmental hazards, scrounging for food and water, avoiding the bad air.

At sixteen, they walk the Halls of Mutants. Groups of friends armed with primitive or scrounged up weapons let loose among halls still infested with lesser mutants. They live or they die together, as our ancestors did.

At twenty, every citizen of Sanctuary is drafted into the Sanctuary Guard. They spend a year walking the edges of Sanctuary and fighting back the horrors beyond the walls. Or serving as support staff, if they truly have no taste for combat. Serving as medicae and labourers carrying ammo and supplies for the forward camps. Some make a career of being in the Guard, or move on to the Navy.

Most are happy when their year is up.

All must know not merely what Sanctuary is, but what it means. It is said our Lady once protested this tradition. That she held faith in her people to hold true without a reminder. We know the truth. We’ve seen the nobility in their high spires. Humans are fallible, prone to corruption if not vigilant. Unless faced with the truth first hand, our children will forget. This we cannot allow.

So we send them on their walks and welcome back the survivors.”

The Three Walks of Sanctuary, a common pilgrimage of the city hidden within the Nova Castilla Underhive.

***

“…the holding of Sanctuary under House Nikos falls under the Tithe Grade of Exactus Extremis, in accordance with its homeworld of Fenksworld. The Administratum tithe is to be paid in Artisanal work from the forges of Sanctuary, primary in the form of generatoriums. The Munitorum tithe is to be paid to the Navis Imperialis in ranks of qualified Armsmen, accompanying Warrant Officers, specialist Voidsmen and ordained Tech-Priests…”

Excerpt from the founding Writ of House Nikos of Fenksworld. The full Writ took twelve years of negotiation and was only granted after the second and third invasion of the Underhive. It is said among the people of that hidden city that if the powers that be had not placed such a burden on Sanctuary, their home would have grown in time to fill the entire Underhive.

***

“… it is utterly illogical that some warp entity may affect our forges ability to perform their work. The Omnissiah, in his infinite wisdom, has given us the appropriate oils, cants and protocols to produce these marvels of the Machine without interference. To imply some newly arisen order of mortal men can better guard the forges against daemonic influence is utterly heretical. You will be purged. Next we shall purge that Logician heretek who poisoned you with such an absurd idea and his illogical apprentice.

I will have the memory banks of every Magos on Fenksworld inspected for corruption. They should have never dared. Allowing the uninitiated to take the tests of the most holy Mashine? By the Omnissiah, such foolishness I would not expected from an Artisan, let alone from Magos. They must be faulty or suborned.

Her passing grade is irrelevant.”

Fabricator Locum Restanx PV-249 of Lathe-Hesh, moments before summoning the Legiones Skitarii.

***

Arc 1: Foundation

End.