When Lorgar returned to his room, Anna had already left the conference room ahead of him and was curled up in her personal armchair, its softness utterly at odds with the warship's cold, austere style.
Her long silver hair gleamed like metal beneath the room's soft, simulated natural light, and in her hands lay the thick, antiquated Lectitio Divinitatus.
What caught the eye, however, was the sizable transparent habitat tank that had somehow appeared on the floor beside her chair. Its temperature-control and filtration system emitted a faint, soothing white noise.
"Meeting over?" Anna asked without looking up, her gaze still lingering over the ancient Holy Words on the pages. Her tone was as casual as if she were asking about the weather.
"Those tin cans didn't start arguing over the Daemons, did they?"
Lorgar's gaze was drawn to the tank that had appeared out of nowhere. He walked over, his boots making no sound on the thick carpet.
Stopping before it, he curled his fingers and gently rapped his knuckles against the spotless glass, producing a crisp tap-tap.
"Where did this come from?" he asked, unmistakable puzzlement in his voice.
His warship should not have contained such a purely decorative luxury with no military value, much less one housing living creatures.
"Oh, that." Only then did Anna lift her eyes from the pages. Her ice-blue gaze flicked toward the tank, her tone indifferent.
"Guilliman had someone deliver it while you were out. Said it was a 'little gift.'"
She shrugged, her silver hair shifting with the motion.
"According to his rather pompous messenger, a Rogue Trader expedition that had barely escaped a Warp Storm discovered a native species on a remote, uncharted Savage Planet. They thought its 'unusual color and amusing appearance' were worth bringing a few specimens back."