999.M30.
Shadow of the Throne.
As the person aboard the Gloriana-class Battleship whose status was second only to the Primarch's Attendants, the private quarters of the female captain, Diana Pauline, were adjacent to the Primarch's Palace.
Her private quarters were a suite, decorated with a soldier's simple practicality.
Data Slates recording information on every subject filled every room, including the bath.
In Diana's hypnosis room, there was a large collection of psychology books, even works by the ancient Terran master of psychology, Freud.
She gazed at the Psyker Dragonet before her, its long tail drooping to the floor.
The "Hypnotist" raised her left hand, spirituality spilling from her palm as it brushed against the wick of a meter-long candle.
Howl!
The Psyker Dragonet bent its slender neck and let out an ear-piercing psychic scream.
Diana, maintaining Thelema's third-layer Mindset, showed no reaction at all, while the Brainy Cat crouched by the door suddenly sprang up, its dense ginger-yellow fur standing on end.
The psychic scream cut off abruptly, and the Psyker Dragonet's taut body gradually relaxed amid the quiet scent spreading from the candle.
The candle was made by crushing Mandrake into a solid-liquid mixture, then letting it solidify again.
Mandrake had originally been used for people without the protection of a Simian Field, to treat the nightmares, headaches, and other agonizing torments they suffered after Warp travel.
Of course, ordinary crew members, and even mid-ranking officers of the Solar Auxilia, could not afford it. Its largest users were nobles ennobled by the Imperium, esteemed Navigators, and Astropaths.
Candles made from Mandrake were also top-grade materials for hypnosis, especially when targeting psychic creatures.
It was just that few in the Imperium were so extravagant.
But Diana felt no pressure at all. Among the benefits she received each year were fifty