She glanced around the chamber, but the apparition was gone. Dreams within dreams! She rubbed her temples to try and ease the pain in her head. "I am here, Rhoda. Enter."
Sister Rhoda stepped in, clutching a robe of crimson about her. In one hand was a Godwyn-pattern bolt pistol while the other held her robe closed over her simple white bed-frock. "Mother Superior...we heard you shouting something out in your sleep. Are you well?"
Katherine slid out of the bed, opening the nearby wardrobe for a gown to slip over her own frock. "Yes...well enough." Once dressed she grabbed a hairbrush off the simple dresser and began to fix her hair, matted from sleep, "Is the Inquisition's vessel, the Vigilance still in orbit?"
"Y...Yes, Mother Superior."
"Awaken Sister Eve and the Seraphim...and my Celestian bodyguards," She commanded, breezing past her and into the hallway, so that Rhoda was forced to follow. "Get an Astropath from the Ecclesiarchy and send a message to Mother Rebecca on Byzantium. She is to put the convent there on alert."
"What is it, Mother Katherine?"
"I must go to Byzantium..."
Katherine stepped down the rough-hewn stairs into the cellar, her crimson and white habit flowing about her. The haunting sound of hymns drifted up from the chambers deeper within the catacombs of the convent. In the bowels of the nunnery were the rooms used by Inquisitors to coax confessions from the heretics hunted by Order. Cells to hold these criminals surrounded the inquisitional chambers, where they were forced to listen to the screams of the damned.
Past the now silent chambers she walked, through cold, echoing stone halls. The hymns grew louder as she neared the chambers of the Repentias. While the quarters of all Sisters of the Adeptus Sororitas were Spartan, the rooms of the Repentias were barely more comfortable than the cells of the prisoners. Living in their austere chambers, they listened to the interrogation of the heretics, as they were punished for their crimes, and found absolution through pain.
At the door, she was met by sister Superior Jezebel, the mistress of the Repentias. The veteran sister served as a guide for the Repentias, sisters who were seeking repentance for sins committed. She was their role model, providing a shining example for them to follow, and she was their judge, shriving their sins with the agony of the Neural Whip. She bowed her head slightly as she opened the door, "Mother Superior."
Katherine laid a hand on her shoulder, "I have come to see...her."
"Of course," Jezebel cocked her head to the side. She led the Canoness through the corridors, filled with the psalms sung by the Repentias like dirges. For they believed that salvation only could be earned through their martyrdom battling the enemies of the God-Emperor.
"How is she?" Katherine asked.
"The same, I think," Jezebel shrugged. "To be honest, it's a miracle we've gotten her this far." She glanced sidelong at the Canoness, "She's expanded her...artwork."
"I know you were not keen on the idea..." Katherine started.
"I think I may have changed my mind," Jezebel shrugged. "She was a special case."
The Canoness stopped outside the unmarked cell door, "I remember you making the argument that though Idle lands lead to evil, time spent in such pursuits was better served in prayer and study of the Litanies of Faith."
"Or the purification of the soul through the whip?" Jezebel remembered the conversation well. She unlocked the door with a key from her belt, "See for yourself."
Katherine pushed open the door and gasped, her eyes wide. Every inch of the walls of the eight-foot-square chamber was covered in a mural of glorious colors. Along the bottom of the walls crawled innumerable daemons rising from the formless, swirling maelstrom of the eye of terror. Shapeless Horrors of Tzeentch belched flame while sinuous Daemonettes of Slaanesh danced. Berserk Bloodletters of Khorne hacked apart loyal servants of the Emperor as Plaguebearers of Nurgle spewed their vomitous pestilence. Against these evils the Sisters of Battle threw themselves with flame and burning hot lead. Across a ruined landscape that appeared suspiciously like Byzantium the Sisters slew the daemons or were martyred. In the skies above them flew the many saints of the Adeptus Sororitas on pearlescent wings.
Chapter 1: Katherine of Pentateuch and Harodiah the Broken Psyker
Start from the beginning
