The two daemonettes left after the handful of Sisters had driven them back, suddenly froze. The Sororita closest used the moment's confusion to bring her bolter up and fired it, point blank under the creature's chin. Blood and gore showered down on them from the back of the thing's head as it vaporized. But the second daemonette watched only Simone.
And it retreated, backing away, its head dipped down and its claws held close to its body.
Lukas made a low startled sound. "Lady…" he began but couldn't finish.
Simone glanced up at her youngest Trooper. "Go. Find Malachi…" she started but he cut her off.
"No, Lady. I'm with you." He shook his head.
Simone nodded but her heart broke a little. She knew where she was going now and she didn't want him walking into the lion's den with her. She shut that part of her heart away: fate was a cruel thing.
Simone brushed the front of the long white tunic she wore and straightened the gold cord that was its belt. It wouldn't do to meet her 'groom' looking untidy. She pushed back her short blonde hair and squared her shoulders. She knew she wasn't a woman to be desired. She was too tall, too thin, her features too sharp. But if Gaius was willing to want her, then she would accommodate him.
Simone climbed the few steps, Lukas at her back, up to the dais were the Messiah of Slaanesh bent over a bound Katherine, his hand on her face.
"Gaius."
Gaius looked up, with a faint smile on his face. He stood and regarded her for a few seconds before speaking, "Ah...Simone...." He raised an eyebrow elegantly and pursed his lips, "You seem dressed a little...informally for the occasion."
The Inquisitor shrugged slightly, "You saw to my armor the last time we met." She gestured to Katherine. "Other women in your bed already." She shook her head making a tsking noise.
"Aren't we droll this evening?" Gaius allowed himself a crooked smirk. "Come to finish the job dear Kathy failed at, have you?'
"Fight you? Would there be a point?" She put her hands behind her back giving every appearance of calm. "Katherine was rash. But it is a flaw I have seen in her character before."
Gaius stepped forward, "Oh? Then you intend to convince me to give up my wicked ways? To return to the fold?"
Simone finally smiled, though it was a sad thing. "Perhaps. Hatred and rage and bloodshed haven't worked against you. You somehow shrugged off the attentions of a Keeper of Secrets. Maybe love can triumph where brutality failed."
"Love?" Gauis laughed. "So...is that what you are offering me? Love?"
She shrugged again, "It does seem foolish, doesn't it. What is faith or love in comparison to power?"
"Are they incompatible? Do you think I cannot know what love is?" Gaius shook his head. "Love is why I have rebelled against the autocracy of the Emperor. I have come to Byzantium not as a conqueror...but a liberator. I have come to free the people from the Emperor's yoke. As I freed Rebecca. As I shall free Katherine...and you." He gestured toward her vaguely. "Have I not opened your mind to new vistas. Have I not freed you from the shackles you placed on your own mind? This...this is what I offer."
"Love, as I understand it, makes both people happy." She leaned to the side to look at Katherine. "She doesn't look happy. And Rebecca is dead." She drew a shallow breath, "And Byzantium burns. Slaanesh is not a creature of love, Gaius."
"Katherine will be happy, once she has shaken off the bounds ingrained in her by the Emperor's dystopia. Rebecca was happier serving Slaanesh than she ever had been serving the Corpse upon the Throne. She was finally Free. Free to love, free explore, free to know what had been denied her for so long." Gaius raised himself up from the column, crossing his arms over his chest.
Chapter 46: Simone's Destiny
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