Origin: Thracian Primaris, Helican Sub 81281 origin date:
142.386.M41
(relayed: divergent M-12/Ostall VII)
Received: Durer, Ophidian Sub 52981 reception date: 144.386.M41
Transcript carried and logged as per header
(redundant copy filed buffer 4362 key 11)
Author: Lord Inquisitor Phlebas Alessandro Rorken Master of the Ordo Xenos Helican, Inquisition High Council Officio, Scarus Sector
My dear Gregor,
In the name of the God-Emperor, and of the Holy Inquisition, greetings.
I trust the elders of Durer have welcomed you in a manner befitting your status. Hierarch Onnopel has been charged by my officio to ensure that you are provided with all requirements for the long task ahead. May I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to you again for agreeing to conduct this Examination in my stead. My health, so it would appear to everyone but me, is still a matter for concern. My physician clucks over me night and day. They have changed my blood a number of times and talk of further surgery, but it is all for naught. I am healthy and sound and would be on the road to recovery but for their coddling. Indeed, I would be on the road to Durer too but for that.
Yet it seems a quack from the Officio Medicae has authority over even one such as I. The work I have done to bring the heretics of Durer to trial must be finished in my absence, and I can think of no surer hand than yours to steer the business.
I write to you for two reasons – apart, that is, for expressing my thanks. Despite my efforts, Sakarof Lord Hereticus has insisted on sending two of his own delegates to the Examination: Koth and Menderef, you know them both. I'm sorry, Gregor, but you must tolerate them. They are a burden I would have spared you from.
Secondly, I am forced to saddle you with Inquisitor Bastian Verveuk. He was an interrogator under Lord Osma, and had come to my staff to finish his preparation. I had promised him a hand in the Examination, primarily because of his good offices in securing the central prosecutions. Please accommodate him in your counsel, for my sake. He is a good man, young and
untried, but capable, though he reeks of the puritan. Didn't we all at that age? He will arrive with you on the 151st. Make him as welcome as you can. I know you hate to incorporate unknowns into your camp, but I ask this as a personal favour. Osma will make things very difficult for me if I retard his pupil's progress at this late stage.
I wish you speed, wisdom and success in the closure of this inspection.
Sealed and notarised by astropathicae clerk, this 142nd day of 386.M41.
The Emperor protects!
note 47
To Gregor Eisenhorn, a communique
Carried by Guild Astropathica (Scarus) via meme-loop repeat
45~3.5611 secure Path detail:
Origin: Thracian Primaris, Helican Sub 81281 origin date:
142.386.M41
(relayed: loop navigatus 351/echo Gernale beacon)
Received: Durer, Ophidian Sub 52981 reception date: 144.386.M41
Transcript carried and logged as per header
(redundant copy fded buffer 7002 key 34)
Author: Inquisitor Bastian Verveuk, Ordo Xenos Inquisition High Council Officio, Scarus Sector, Scarus Major
Salutations, sir!
In the name of the God-Emperor, hallowed be his eternal vigil, and by the High Lords of Terra, I commend myself your eminence and trust that this communique finds your eminence in good health.
Great was my excitement when my Lord Rorken informed me that I was to take a part, at his side, in the formal Examination of the vile and abominated heretics of Durer. At once, I threw myself into the cataloguing of advance discovery, and assisted in the compilation of the evidentiary archive that would support the particulars of the Examination.
You may then imagine my terrible disappointment when my lord's sudden and lamentable illness seemed to cast the very occurrence of that divine work into doubt. Now, this very hour, my lord has informed me that you are to oversee the matter as his proxy and that you have agreed to find a place for me at your side.
I cannot contain my exhilaration! The chance to work at close hand with one such as you! I have studied your holy work with awe since my earliest days in the preparatory scholams. You are an object lesson in devotion and puritanical duty, an example to us all. I look forward with great eagerness to discussing matters of contra-heretical law with you, and perhaps hearing first hand a few scraps of your dazzling insight. It is my most fervent ambition to pursue the rank of inquisitor in the Ordo Hereticus, and I am sure I would be better armed for such duty if I had the benefit of learning from your own first-hand accounts of such infamous beings as the dread Quixos.
You will find me a devoted and hard-working colleague. I count the days until we can begin this sacred work together. Hallowed be the Golden Throne!
Your servant,
note 48
To Lord Rorken, a communique
Carried by Guild Astropathica (Ophidia) via meme-wave 3Ql^c.l22
double intra Paul detail:
Origin: Durer, Ophidian Sub 52981 origin date: 144.386.M41
(relayed: divergent B-3/loop Gernale beacon)
Received: Thracian Primaris, Helican Sub 81281 reception date:
149.386.M41
Transcript carried and logged as per header
(redundant copy deleted from buffer)
Author: Gregor Eisenhorn, Inquisitor
re: Bastian Verveuk
My lord, what foetid corner of the Imperium breeds these fawning idiots? Now you really owe me.
G. E.
note 49
ONE
The case of Udwin Pridde.
Small talk with Verveuk.
Something like vengeance.
When the time came, Fayde Thuring was damn near impossible to stop.
