Brothers Reunited

No one knew exactly how Felix had soothed the disagreement between the Grey Knights, Sisters of Silence, and Ecclesiarchy over how to handle the girl.

But one thing was certain: when the ship emerged from the Warp, the two sides had at least not come to blows.

Do not think this was an exaggeration.

Though the Imperium of Man appeared on the surface to be a highly centralized militaristic dictatorship, it was in fact internally fragmented.

The Ecclesiarchy, Adeptus Custodes, Inquisition, High Lords of Terra, Adeptus Mechanicus, Department of the Interior, Department of Justice, Imperial Defense Force, Imperial Navy, various Astartes Orders, planetary governors, sector governors, Officio Assassinorum, Astronomican Court, Astropathic Court, Rogue Traders, and so on—nearly every institution had ideas of its own.

Even within those institutions, there could be endless subdivisions, producing hundreds or thousands of factions.

And these institutions and factions often held utterly different attitudes toward the same matter.

Though they all claimed loyalty to the Imperium and the great Emperor of Mankind, they showed no mercy when dealing with their own kind.

Especially now, when the Regent—Roboute Guilliman—wanted to reinstate the Imperial Truth. Some fanatical Chapter Clerics had even wanted to assassinate him, while the High Lords had attempted to use their authority to force him to kneel and submit.

They treated even the Emperor's son, a Primarch, this way. Others naturally fared even worse.

Even now, many within the Imperium bore intense hostility toward Roboute Guilliman.

Because before the Emperor had taken his seat upon the Golden Throne in the thirtieth millennium, the High Lords of Terra he had personally established had excluded every Primarch.

Thus, these people believed that allowing Primarchs to participate in politics, let alone steer the Imperium, was itself a violation of the Emperor's will.

In short, compared to the