The Word Bearers hermit refused the luxurious quarters offered by the primarch. He firmly demanded that the Ultramarines provide him with a heavily guarded prison cell deep underground.
It was a secret prison within the city of Macragge, once intended for noble governors who had lost political struggles.
After Guilliman became Lord of Macragge, the prison was repurposed to hold certain important and still useful special prisoners.
Its walls ran deep into the natural bedrock, more than a hundred meters below the surface. They had been reinforced with alloys such as ceramite and plasteel, high-voltage currents flowed through the walls, and the cages made from the ashes of untouchables were a Psyker's nightmare.
Its active alarm system sent a security signal to the guards stationed nearby every twenty seconds. Should that signal cease, the guards would immediately join the city's garrison forces in surrounding the prison.
When Lox arrived, he was surprised to find Ventanus standing like a statue outside the specially designed cell, clad in full Mk I power armor.
He stared intently at the hermit imprisoned within, who was also bound in anti-psychic chains.
The company captain who had come all the way from Calth nodded to Lox without saying a word.
Lox looked inside. Within the electrified cage, the hermit sat in a metal chair in an odd posture.
He still wore no armor, only that gunmetal-gray hooded cloak.
A pitch-black chain bound each of his neck, wrist joints, and ankles. The chains were fastened to adamantium anchor bolts in the cell, making them almost impossible to break through brute force.
"This was my request. I need to atone for my mistakes. Perhaps this little suffering of the flesh can lessen even a fraction of my sins."
The hermit's voice came from within the room as he