My first lesson in the basics of safely using psychic powers should be happening soon, it was kind of exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.
I was wondering if I had talked too much in my session with Inquisitor Thaberus when someone knocked on the door of the meeting room, it opened and Acolyte Herlindya entered.
‘Lady Syrine,’ she bowed, ‘the psykers you have requested to have a word with have arrived.’
Psykers? More than one person? No matter, I might even get more advice. ‘Thank you Miss Herlindya, please let them in.’ I replied while trying my best to be courteous and caught her subtle expression of being surprised first followed by a faint smile.
Was she astounded by the fact I remembered her name? Having the photographic memory of a primarch really helps in scoring easy social points. Due to all the happenings, it felt like a lifetime ago when she introduced herself meekly back in the inner sanctum.
Herlindya bowed again and left, after that two newcomers entered the meeting room. Without even looking at them, I knew they were psykers because even without going psychically active myself, somehow unseen energies could be felt whirling around them. Not only were they psykers, but these two were also in a different league compared to Arradus the astropath.
A man and a woman stood near the entrance and were looking at me. Both of them had similar pale skin and attire, wearing the psyker robe with extra carapace chest and shoulder armour pieces. The man was carrying a thin staff whereas the woman had a small psychic-hood like structure behind her collar.
‘Well, come in.’ I said while standing up and greeting them with a light bow. The man and woman nodded, together they walked towards my table, slightly bowed and proceeded to sit on the empty chairs available.
‘Greetings, I am Syrine.’
‘Fulton Murdini,’ the man replied with a soft voice, ‘this is my colleague Tsalieh Hennard, we are sanctioned psykers in the service of the Holy Inquisition, currently assigned to Inquisitor Thorn.’
A swift [Analytica] confirmed both their human and psyker status as I took a closer look at them, they both appeared to be in their late thirties, the man was slightly below average height, had short white hair and a face that could say to be uneasy, he gave off the aura of a tamed beast, controlled but dangerous.
The woman was half a head taller than the man, beneath an average-looking face was her unkempt waist-length blonde hair that hung lazily in front of her psyker robe. The one common trait of appearance they shared was their hollow looking eyes.
My best description of their overall impression would be “unhinged battle psykers”. While this might be just me stereotyping, these two definitely reinforced the notion of why normal people would be uneasy near psykers.
‘Inquisitor Thorn mentioned you would like our advice, well we are here.’ Fulton said then stopped talking, looking at me with his unnerving gaze. Truth be told I was not exactly feeling easy talking with them, but I had a much, much greater fear of being possessed by a daemon or worse... being turned into a chaos spawn down the road. The very notion that such a possibility existed sent ice-cold chills down my spine, so despite my trepidation if I ever had to rely on psychic powers I had to consult the real professionals.
+Well?+ suddenly a female voice was heard communicating telepathically.
+I got nothing.+ replied a male voice.
Looking at them, I realised they were chatting through telepathy.
‘Did Inquisitor Thorn mention anything to you about me?’ I asked. Fulton shrugged and Tsalieh answered with her hoarse voice, ‘we were bedridden for days after arriving at this accursed system and just got better recently.’
‘I see… well, I would like you two to brief me on the perils of the warp and teach me the knowledge of self-protection when using psychic powers.’ Fulton’s eyes narrowed upon hearing my request.
+What is the deal with her?+ Tsalieh asked in telepathy.
+No idea, I will probe and see.+
+Wait, Thorn introduced her, is that wise?+
I then felt the slightest sensation of being probed but it quickly fizzled out. ‘Huh?’ Fulton seemed startled but his timing was so good without knowing better it would be as if he was reacting to my request.
Tsalieh shot him a glance, sighed sent telepathically, +Fulty, don’t be rude.+
+She resisted my probe.+
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+Wait what? Are you getting rusty?+
+Like hell I am.+
‘Please, will you accept my request?’ being probed without permission should have been considered egregious conduct on his part but I decided to let his actions slide for now.
Tsalieh replied this time, ‘who are you and why do you need such knowledge?’
‘Well, I too am a psyker…’ I began explaining before being interrupted by Fulton, ‘Haha! You? A psyker? I am sorry little lady, being requested by Inquisitor Thorn to meet with you is one thing, what you asked of us is off limits.’
He then stood up, approached me with an imposing stance, pressing his face close to mine and spoke, ‘I don’t know who you are nor do I care, but we sanctioned psykers do not indulge with the make-believe of the privileged, especially when it concerns matters dealing with the warp. Do you think this is a game? One wrong move here and you with your entire whatever noble family lineage on this little God-Emperor forsaken rock can be wiped out without a trace. Do you hear me?’
+Tsalieh, I will probe again, aid me.+ Fulton was apparently not satisfied with the previous attempt.
Judging from what I just heard she can buff him? Is this some sort of psychic choir technique? Interested in their technique, I shut up and just kept observing them.
+She went quiet, very suspicious.+
+Very well, let’s go.+
For a brief instant, I felt their powers connected and Fulton tried probing me again with greater intensity but again it fizzled out.
+I got nothing, this is not normal.+ Fulton declared.
Now that I saw their technique, I decided to show them my psychic active state to end this charade. ‘Please, I know this is not normal but I am a psyker. Let me show you.’
[Psykana Activa] activated-
The now-familiar trippy sensation took over me again, as expected the two of them had a much stronger psychic resonance than Arradus in my active state, I could even detect a small linkage of their powers, that must have been the result of years of working together.
+Do you get it now, Fulty?+ I joined the telepathic conversation.
Both of them were stunned, especially Fulton who was very close to me and had this derpy look on his face. In the next second suddenly things took a dive as I sensed warp energies gathering around Fulton. Alarms in my head sounded as my thought acceleration activated automatically.
Wait, is he trying to smite me? Smite was a generic psychic power in this universe in which the psyker unleashed the power of the warp in the form of otherworldly lighting energy to electrocute their enemies. I could see in slow motion the power gathering on the psyker as he charged up for what could be a fatal attack.
‘Fulton!’ Tsalieh called out to stop her companion but the latter seemed lost in the motion. I needed to stop this from developing into a disaster and suddenly recalled that the warp energies seemed to respond to my will when I was psychically active.
Standing up, I instinctively willed myself to disperse the energy gathering around Fulton. Reacting to my directive, the gathering storm dissipated like light smoke hit by a strong wind. Surprised, like me, by my successful denial of his powers, Fulton now had an even derpier look on his face as panic started to take over him, flipping my previous impressions of the psyker being the cool kid in class sort of person.
Not wanting to risk another psychic attack, I put strength into my words and felt my inner might radiate outwards as I delivered a serious warning to Fulton, ‘Mister Murdini, STOP!’
Something tangible burst forth from me, it even flipped the teacup on the table as my words echoed in the room and what followed was dead silence. Fulton had fallen back and sat on the floor. Both psykers went still looking at me like deers staring into headlights. Well, that was effective but why are they looking so afraid?
Looking closer at them, my transhuman eyesight picked up my own reflection on their irises. It would seem like… my halo was leaking out and it petrified them.
Hold on, why is my halo active now? I quickly looked into my status and found out it was actually part of the feature in [Regalis] which became available when becoming psychically active. I must have missed that the first time as it was quickly dismissed after witnessing that terrible war vision.
‘Please, my colleague was spooked.’ Tsalieh found her voice and placed herself between me and Fulton. It was at this moment I caught more details from my reflection on the spilt decaf on the table.
My halo looked and felt slightly different from the first time it manifested, it was more pronounced and had more weight to it. Looking closer at the reflection I could even see the edges of it had a hint of red tint with an edgier outer glow. I guessed in my desperation to stop Fulton my halo must have been cranked up to the maximum level.
They each held up a hand as if blocking rays from the sun while holding hands with their free hand. Fulton was even hyperventilating.
Am I being oppressive here in my current state?
‘I am sorry.’ I apologised while deactivating my halo, their relieved faces told me it was far from a pleasant experience.
Fulton let out a breath of relief and proceeded to just lay down fully on the floor. Tsalieh shot him a glance before commenting, +Told you that was a bad idea.+
I sighed. This meeting had started on the wrong foot but was still salvageable, and going forward I will need to treat my future interactions with psykers very carefully.
+Let us start again, I recently lost most of my memory. Would either of you kindly brief me on the perils of the warp and teach me the knowledge of self-protection when using psychic powers?+
Just then, my mind registered a flurry of encrypted vox messages received by the fortress from the frontline. Things were happening and we had little time to lose.