Inquisitor Carter's fingers clamped tightly around the yellowed parchment, her knuckles drained white from the force.
Even her heart, tempered cold and hard through countless storms, now rang from the shock of the information on the page.
The words in the secret intelligence seemed to carry scorching heat, burning her fingertips.
"Unimaginable..." Her voice was dry, trembling with disbelief. "The Terran Ecclesiarchy... how could they botch something this important so badly?"
"Before everyone's eyes! Right beneath the gaze of millions of believers." She abruptly looked up, excitement blazing in her eyes as she faced everyone on the bridge. "Mortarion, a fallen primarch, actually... escaped!"
Her words instantly froze the atmosphere in the ship's interior.
Everyone could recall the Ecclesiarchy's boundless arrogance when it had announced the news—they intended to publicly burn a primarch at the Judgement Square of Holy Terra, beneath the Emperor's gaze.
What staggering arrogance and confidence that had been. Had they truly succeeded, the Ecclesiarchy's prestige would have swelled enough to crush the High Lords' Council and perhaps even force every Imperial institution to bow beneath it.
If they could judge and execute even the Emperor's offspring, who else could they not judge? What authority could stand above them?
"This intelligence was bought with the lives of the Terra Inquisition's hidden agents." Carter lowered her voice further, and it carried a bloody urgency.
"The Ecclesiarchy is now like a venomous snake whose tail has been stepped on, desperately trying to cover up this hole that could utterly destroy its reputation!" She gave a cold laugh, unconsciously rubbing the rough edge of the parchment.
"But how could paper cover fire? Can they silence hundreds of thousands of witnesses? Or turn every High Lord into a mute?"
The Ecclesiarchy's mad expansion over the past years had long made it