Part 5

Sister Honoria

Sister Honoria closed the ancient codex and set it aside.  So far she hadn’t found the meaning of the symbol that Sister Axilla had given her.  She didn’t honestly believe that the symbol was of any importance, but the puzzle intrigued her.  If it was known to the empire, she would find its meaning. 

Also, Sister Axilla wasn’t one to refuse.  She was frightening. 

She stood up from the wooden table and picked up the heavy, leather bound codex.  She put it back in its proper place and went to the next book on her list.  This “book” was an ancient data slab left over from the time of Strife when slower than light ships spread humanity out to countless worlds, only to let them fall away in ignorance and solitude. 

She plugged the data slap into a terminal and brought it back to life.  The cracked screen burst into static for a few seconds every few minutes, but it still worked and the data was not lost. 

It was in a Terran language that no one spoke anymore but her cyber eyes brought up the translation using a program she had written herself.  She had help from the Mechanicus woman, Sophia, but she had provided all the translation data. 

She had gone through a hundred pages when she noticed the time on her internal chronometer.  She had an hour before she had to be at the palace of Governor Preventius.  It was time for his children’s tutoring in language and literature. 

Once everything was put back into is proper place and the convent library was perfect again, she shut the door and began walking towards the exit.  She passed by the chapel and found it odd that no one was there.  Where was Axilla? 

She left the walls of the convent and walked up the hillside to the Ciel District where the rich and powerful had their homes.  The paving became smoother and trees lined the streets.  The trees grew bigger the closer she got to the Governor’s palace. 

The guards gave her a cursory inspection before letting her in.  She carried nothing with her and only had her robes.  All the other gear of a Diologus sister was left behind in the convent.  She didn’t need her vox projectors or anything else.  She only had three well behaved students. 

Back during her novice years of training, she had received basic firearms training and she knew how to shoot a las-pistol and even a heavy bolt pistol, but she had never needed those skill since. 

She was a scholar, not a fighter.

A few of the servants gave her nods as she passed. By. 

It seemed the entire mansion was being redecorated.  Old tapestries that had been there for years were being taken down and servants were running carrying vases and statues. 

“What is going on?”  she asked a nearby servant that was carrying a rolled up carpet.

“The master wants the house redone in some new style he’s obsessed about.  I don’t know what they do, I just do as I’m told.”

“As we should.  Thank you.”

Some new fashion among the nobilitae?  She had little time or patience for such trivialities. 

She went to the family wing of the mansion and to the door of the children’s quarters.  They were expecting her and the three children were sitting around the table with their data slates. 

“Very good, children.  You’re all ready to start your studies,” she said. 

It had taken a year but she had finally gotten the children to conform to the standard template of childhood instruction. 

One of the girls raised her hand. 

“Yes, Lucia?”

“Father says that history is a waste of time.”

“Waste of time?  Not at all.  Only by knowing the sacrifices our ancestors made for the Empire do we appreciate what we have.”

She started with a lesson in basic mathematics and then went into the lesson on the Imperial Creed. 

As she lectured she saw that Julia wasn’t paying attention and was doodling on her data slate.  Honoria reached over and snatched the slate away. 

“What are you drawing that’s more important than the Imperial Creed?”

She turned it around and looked at what the little girl had drawn. 

It was a symbol.  A symbol that a little girl should not have known unless she had seen it somewhere.  It was old and something was wrong with it.  Her memory stirred and she took out her own data slate and began searching through her library until a match appeared. 

The symbol of the Chaos power Slaanesh. 

She almost dropped the slate. 

“Julia, where did you see this symbol?”  Honoria said, keeping her voice level and calm. 

“Father has it in his office.”

Julia kept her eyes on the ground.  She was scared of punishment but Honoria didn’t care about such trivialities right now. 

This was big and it was terrible. 

“Does it have something to do with the redecorating?”  Honoria asked.

Julia shrugged.

“I don’t know.  I think its for all his parties that he won’t let us go to.”

“Parties?”

Julia and Lucia told her about late night parties with wild music, drinks, chems and naked people doing strange things.  The symbol Julia drew was on the wall where the Imperial Eagle used to be. 

Honoria had to do something.  The governor was trafficking in powers he shouldn’t be meddling with and casting aside the Imperial Truth.  She suspected that he had waited for the Order to leave before opening up as a heretic. 

But right now she had to realize her position.  She was the house of the most powerful man on the colony and for all she knew all her armed guards were heretics as well. 

She erased the image and gave the slate back to Julia. 

“Children, do not mention this to your father or anyone else.  You must swear to pretend that you never saw this symbol and never showed it to me.  Understand?”  They nodded their heads.  “Sister Honoria is not feeling well and I’m ending the lessons early today.”

She packed up as fast as she could without appearing to be as panicky as she felt. 

As she walked out of the children’s quarters and down the hall she was aware of every person around her.  Few seemed to pay her any attention but she held her breath every time someone glanced at her. 

She clutched her data slate to her chest as she approached the guards at the exit. 

“Leaving early?”  One of the guards asked. 

Her eyes shot to the las pistol at his hip. 

“I’m not feeling well today and I have a great deal of work at the convent while the Order is away.”

“What ails you?”

“Headache and nausea.”

“You can’t stay until your appointed time to leave?”

She was trained to use words to sway people and she took a deep breath and let her training change her voice to one of assurance and authority.

“No, I’m afraid I have more pressing matters at the convent.  The lessons will simply have to be postponed until tomorrow.  If there is a problem you may call your master but unless you have taken to dictating policy regarding the Governor’s children I suggest you let me about my business. 

He quickly nodded and they let her pass. 

Once out of the mansion’s walls she bolted into a run.  She ran as fast as she could all the way to the convent and didn’t stop until she was at the door of Sister Irena’s quarters.

She pounded on the door while gasping for breath. She hadn’t run that hard since her days as a Novice. 

There was no answer.  It wasn’t her place to intrude but this was an emergency.  No, this was the worst kind of emergency.  The implications of everything she had learned were reeling through her mind. 

The planetary governor had turned traitor.  For all she knew there were already cults in place.  Perhaps he was planning a rebellion.  If that was the case he would surely come to wipe out every sister left in the convent. 

She opened the door but found Irena’s cell empty. 

Irena was one to never sit idly by while there was work to do.  She would make a lousy scholar but the Emperor had seen to it that she found a vocation in which her personality could flourish. 

She began jogging through the halls, looking in every door for Irena. 

Then she paused when she heard a scream.  At first she thought it was the Mistress torturing the Repentia as she did every day, but then she realized that the voice had been male.       

She followed the sounds of the screaming down into the Castigation Cells and found Irena and the Tech Adept standing over a nude man that was lying on a Atonement Table.  Blood was everywhere. 

She took a deep breath and entered the stone room. 

A servo skull flew over to her and buzzed around her head as she made her way to where Irena was. 

Irena glanced up from the table and waved her forward. 

“Sister Honoria, what brings you here?  Found out anything about those symbols?”

Symbols?  Oh, yes, Irena had found strange symbols vandalized into the walls of the city. 

“No, not that.  Something worse.  Sister, I’ve just returned from the Governor’s mansion.  While instructing the children one of them drew a Chaos symbol of Slaanesh.  She said that she had seen her father replace the Imperial Eagle with this symbol.  He’s having late night parties full of vice and wickedness.”

Irena furrowed her white brows and placed her hands on her hips. 

“Say that again.”

Honoria recounted her story in detail from the beginning. 

When she finished she watched as Irena began pacing up and down the room.  The Tech Adept remained silent and still.  The woman’s red cyber eyes looked right at her and Honoria wondered what they saw. 

“We need a plan, Sister,” Honoria said.

“Then it’s a good thing that I have a plan.  Sophia, I need you to get that Penitent Engine up and going, now."