Cadia was still burning, but with the threat of the Blackstone Fortress eliminated and the daemonic army routed, the survivors finally had a moment to breathe.
On a relatively level rise in the Elysion Plains, a meeting destined to go down in history-or be classified as top secret by the Inquisition-was underway.
The atmosphere... was deeply awkward, and thick with tension.
It was like forcing a powder keg, a lighter, and a burning match into one tiny box.
"So, let me get this straight."
Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax removed her cracked, wide-brimmed, high-crowned hat, the muscles in her stern face twitching slightly. Although her master-crafted boltgun hung at her side, its safety was already off, and its muzzle always seemed to swing "accidentally" toward the red-haired Aeldari woman standing in the middle of the crowd.
"We are supposed to trust a... xenos witch, Yvraine," Greyfax said through gritted teeth.
"We are supposed to trust a... priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus who has illegally modified his own body and is even suspected of using heretical technology, Cawl."
Finally, her gaze shifted stiffly toward the "Ember Lord," Liu Zhipeng, who still stood over three meters tall even after shrinking himself, radiating golden light and heat and looking like an oversized xenos figurine.
"And an... unidentified Warp entity who claims he is here to 'help'?"
Greyfax felt the last thread of her sanity about to snap. As a member of the Ordo Hereticus whose creed was "absolute purity," she considered this gathering sufficient grounds to burn everyone present except Saint Celestine at the stake ten times over.
"A correction, Madam Inquisitor."
Belisarius Cawl's enormous mechanical body emitted a grinding of gears. One of his auxiliary arms extended, and he even scanned the wraithbone sword in Yvraine's hand with evident interest. "This is not 'illegal