Editing Story:Love Can Bloom (section)

===Chapter Fifteen===
	Madek had been tipped off by allies in the Inquisition that he had been condemned as a heretic. It would be most prudent, he decided, to free the Eversor to do what it would in the city, while still targeting the Vindicare - if he should show up. Meanwhile, having sent his Grey Knights to do pointless errands for the Imperial Guard, he departed with haste for the Inquisitorial landing pad. Then he showed up, with a squad of Kasrkin at his back.

	Governor-Militant Lukas Alexander.

	“Are you going somewhere, Inquisitor?” he said with mock curiosity, “I thought that you wished to oversee the elimination of the traitorous Vindicare.”

	“You gloat now in my ruin, governor? I have warned you what would happen if you attempted to stand in the way of the Inquisition again. Think not that you shall be overlooked.”

	“I have not stood in the way of the Inquisition, Madek. And you are no Inquisitor.”

	“You underestimate my power and influence, Alexander.”

	“And you underestimate how deadly Cadian Storm Troopers are.”

	“Your Kasrkin are weak compared to what I command.”

	Lukas Alexander stepped closer. Madek’s fingers twitched at his side. “Don’t even try to go for your bolt pistol, traitor. Now tell me, ''where is the Eversor''?”

	“Oh, here, there, everywhere, naturally.”

	“Enough of your games! You yourself admitted the Emperor knows all you do. Repent and-”

	“The Emperor can do ''nothing'', to stop me, Alexander. ''Nothing''! He lies on his throne, dy-”

	Madek’s words were choked off as a power fist grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air. Even on a low power field, he could feel his neck blister and burn. The Governor-Militant let go, and the traitor fell to the ground, gasping in pain. Now would be his only chance. One chance to escape. Fast as lightning, he reached for his bolt pistol, drawing and raising it to kill Alexander. A plasma bolt melted Madek’s arm.

	“By the will of the Emperor, by his holy wrath against the heretic,” Alexander told his soldiers, “Execute this traitor.” The final thing that Madek saw was a line of Kasrkin aiming hellguns at him.

	Looking on the body of Madek with disgust, Alexander told the squad sergeant, “Contact Ardrin. Tell him of what happened and ensure that he contacts the Inquisition.”

	In the back of the squad, a Kasrkin screamed with pain. The soldiers turned to find his chest shredded, and Madek’s Eversor standing above him, blood dripping off its claws.

	“Kill it!” shouted the governor.

	Shrugging off the hotshot lasgun bursts hitting it, the assassin leaped into the shadows.

	“Before that message is sent to the Inquisition,” Alexander ordered the sergeant, “I want every man in the city on the lookout for that, that ''thing''. It could wreak havoc on our defenses.”

	“Understood, sir.”


----


	“Mon-keigh, how will we be able to access the controls on an Imperial Guard Valkyrie? Surely they have security procedures...”

	“This data device contains autopilot data and access codes.”

	“And you were able to access those from a single computer terminal?”

	“Security protocols must have been disrupted. You think that it is a trap?”

	“No, but it still feels very… convenient. For it to be a trap… there is only one man who could, and would, create a plan of such intricacy, and he is on Ulthwe.”

	“I do not know of whom you speak, but-” 

	The sound of marching and voices reached their ears. Why, Taldeer thought, had she not foreseen them coming? The pair dove behind a pile of abandoned, rusted machinery from times long past.

	“They say it’s some kind of assassin.”

	Behind his mask, LIIVI frowned. They could not possibly know that they were in the city, could they?

	“Big skull for its mask, a giant claw on its hand, they said.”

	“I heard a story about one of those once. Some kind of assassin. It slaughtered two squads of some heretics before rippin’ off the head of their leader.”

	“They hunt for the Eversor,” LIIVI whispered to Taldeer, almost too quiet to be heard.

	“Why do they hunt their own assassin?”

	“I can think of no reason they would, unless… unless it has gone rogue.”

	“That thing? Loose in the city? That does not bode well for an escape.”

	“If the need comes, I shall deal with the assassin.”

	Eldar and Human, unwatched and unknown, sank into the shadows as night began to fall.


----


	“We have lost contact with three squads. Two of them have been confirmed as eliminated.”

	“Do you have any idea where the damnable thing is now?” burst out an irate Lukas Alexander.

	“Not exactly, sir, but...” Ardrin trailed off, trying to think of the best way to phrase his next words.

	“But what?”

	“All its latest attacks have been in the vicinity of our landing zones. I believe that it may be waiting for an Inquisitor to arrive to give it new orders, as Madek is… executed.”

	“I want two Kasrkin squads and a transport vehicle, at minimum, by the spaceport.”

	“From the data we can access, Eversor assassins do not go down easily, sir. Should we deploy specialized weaponry?”

	“Ardrin, I trust you to oversee this operation as you see fit.”

	“Thank you, sir.”

	“Dismissed.”

	The last person - at least to the extent that he was a person - Alexander wished to see at that moment, Mildilv, burst into the office.

	“Where is the Inquisitor?” he demanded.

	“Madek is dead,” Alexander said, appearing almost unconcerned with the content of his words.

	“Dead? In the city? He sent me off to do a menial task, and I come back to find out that your ''pathetic'' guardsmen have let an Inquisitor die in the middle of your stronghold?”

	“I said Madek is dead, not that an Inquisitor was dead. Madek was a traitor and a heretic. Even the Inquisition let us know when our digging turned them on to his actions.”

	“You have killed an Inquisitor? This is treason!”

	Alexander slammed his armored fist on the desktop, and stood up to look directly into the assassin’s eyes. “I executed a traitor. He blasphemed against the Emperor. He tried to kill me. He unleashed ''an Eversor assassin'' into the city!”

	Mildilv frowned. “An Eversor? Let loose on Imperial forces?”

	“It has already killed at least three patrols, and I am sure that the number has already grown.”

	For the first time, a slight hint of doubt appeared in Mildilv’s eyes.

	“I… must contact the Inquisition.”

	“You do so. When you have finished verifying the truth of my words, perhaps you will help eliminate a rogue assassin. Perhaps two.”

	Ardrin, visibly flustered, entered Alexander’s office once again, just as the assassin was leaving.

	“Sir,” he said breathlessly, “Gebbett’s forces were ambushed by Orks while en route to the Hyperion Peaks. We’ve lost the manufacturing facilities there to the Blood Ravens.”

	The governor let out a sigh. “Perhaps there are wars the Emperor does not wish that we win.”


----


	Near the edge of the city’s landing zones was a scarred and beaten Valkyrie. Clearly, it had been in combat and had been damaged. Parts of the plating were brand new, and crates of parts lay aside it. It would not have been unusual to see techpriests working to repair it on a normal day, but with the Eversor on the loose, any non combat personnel were hiding in bunkers and habitation shelters.

	Inserting the data device from Pavonis into the landing pad terminal, LIIVI uploaded command codes and a flight path to the Valkyrie. Hissing as a thin layer of smoke and water vapor escaped, its doors slid open.

“No munitions, and compromised armor. We cannot risk getting into combat with this. You’ll have to enter coordinates to reach your ship.”

Taldeer smiled sadly at LIIVI. “Do not worry, you’ll be safe on Ulthwe.”

“You matter more than I, Taldeer.”

LIIVI helped her into the aircraft, and inserted the Pavonis data device into the computer system, for course corrections. Then it appeared in the distance, closing fast.

“They may never stop coming.” he said to her, kissing her for a last time, drawing his Exitus pistol and dropping the rifle behind him.

“What are you doing?” she shouted as he jumped out of the Valkyrie. The doors sealed shut and the engines activated as the aircraft’s autopilot kicked in. Below the Valkyrie, LIIVI, holding his pistol, walked towards the Eversor assassin. With unerring accuracy, he raised the Exitus pistol and fired.


----


“Sir, an unauthorized Valkyrie just launched from the landing zone!”

“Get a message to the fleet, and direct available forces to that position.”

“Yes, sir,” the vox operator replied, as Governor-Militant Lukas Alexander hurried to reach the location before it was too late to stop whatever the assassin.

“Sir,” Ardrin told Alexander as he stepped out from the chimera, “The Eversor is dead.”

“Ah, excellent. So you brought it down?”

“No, sir… we didn’t.”

The governor glanced aside at Ardrin.

“What do you mean by - ''oh''.”

Over the body of the Eversor, surrounded by Kasrkin ready to shoot him for a single move, stood a figure. The visor in his mask had been cracked by some previous battle. His suit had been slashed open on one side; a clear scar was visible through it. The Vindicare’s Exitus pistol lay on the ground beside him.

“You are a traitor.” Bitterness laced Alexander’s words. “You have abandoned the Imperium to consort with xenos. You have murdered soldiers of the Emperor. How do you plead?”

“I have completed my mission.”

“I do not see the dead body of an Eldar witch, traitor. You failed your mission, and when we find her, she will die.”

The Vindicare remained silent, perfectly still.

“The only reason that you are not dead right now is because the Inquisition wants you alive. In their tender mercies, you will reveal all you know.”

Alexander turned to Ardrin. “Clap him in chains and put him in a cell until the Inquisitors arrive.”

High above Kronus, a Valkyrie left the atmosphere.


----


A tear slipped down Taldeer’s cheek as the Valkyrie ascended ever higher. “Mon-keigh fool,” she sniffed. Its engines struggling to function outside the atmosphere, she fumbled with the Valkyrie’s communication systems.

“Primitive… humans...”

A light turned on as she adjusted the frequency. Shuddering as she took a deep breath, she spoke into the system.

“This is Farseer Taldeer. Are you receiving?”

A crackle of static answered her.

“Can… can anyone hear me?”

The communications system remained silent.

“Does this even work?” she muttered to herself. Looking out at the stars in the far distant regions of space, she only remembered the distance now between LIIVI and herself. If he even still lived.

A communication crackled in over the system. “Xenos scum, your treachery will not go unforgiven.”

Her fingers flying over the sensor system, Taldeer tried to determine what the ship was. It appeared to be an escort, capable of…

She had poorly functioning engines, compromised armor, no weapons. She was helpless, hopeless. Taldeer stifled a sob.

A barrage from a weapons battery sailed past her, as the ship grew ever closer. An energy beam lanced past the cockpit, and the Farseer realized, with a shock, that it had not come from the Imperial ship. Her massive wraithship loomed over her, and in an instant enveloped her in its holofield. 

A swarm of Eldar awaited her arrival, and even cheered that she had survived.

Taldeer had never felt more alone in her life.