You Will Not See My Fall
993.M30.
Shadow of the Throne, upper decks.
The maple desk The Emperor had gifted to Capinus House had been moved into the cabin assigned to Petronella Viva, but she had made far less progress than expected.
So far, the Remembrancer had yet to meet Lord Primarch Nimrod in person, let alone persuade him to accept her as his biographer.
The closest Petronella had ever come to Lord Nimrod was on Compliance World 33-81, but just as she received permission to set foot on the surface, the Primarch's black iron bird had already begun to rise slowly into the air.
She still remembered how Hui Lan, chief Lecter of the 33rd Expedition Fleet, had warned her.
"Lady Capinus, more than a century of experience has taught me that people like us will never have a moment of our own in this fleet."
"I had no choice, but you do."
"You should go to another Expedition Fleet and follow another Primarch."
"No moment of my own?" Petronella tightened her grip on the only gains she had made: two photographs of that unremarkable world.
"I didn't come here to be a photographer."
Petronella set the photographs aside and, murmuring under her breath, opened a labeled leather document pouch.
Repeated reading had left the leather binding cord slightly worn.
Petronella drew a thick stack from it, over a thousand sheets of parchment.
She moistened her right hand and carefully arranged the photograph on top.
A photograph of Lord Nimrod.
Lord Nimrod's fame was illustrious, but very few photographs of him survived.
The photograph in Petronella's hand had come from the sculptor who had erected Lord Nimrod's statue in the Square of Heroes, and the Primarch himself had permitted him to take it.
He stood there at ease, yet