Heretic

The smell of antiseptic stung his nose, the all too familiar vapours marred by the metallic stench of blood. The lights flickered erratically, distracting him from focussing on the guardsmen crowding through the doorway. He raised his arms when they shouted for his surrender, dropping the bloodied scalpel he held as plasma rifles swung to cover his every move. His eyes roamed across the room, making the soldiers flinch with every pass. The weapons they held were a joke in front of him and they knew it, but it must have provided them with some security.

He sat down on a desk slowly, making sure his movements didn't draw any fire. Even though plasma wasn't able to hurt him, it would be inconvenient dealing with a melting room. He didn't have to wait long before an Inquisitor arrived flanked by officers of the guard, the clank of her alloy boots preceding her entry. Bound in flowing synthfab, her shimmering robes writhed in time to her every emotion, tentacles of synthfab spinning around her in irritation.

"Talassar." She intoned, eyes flickering around the room to assess the carnage. "Do you know your crime?"

"I don't remember committing any crime Inquisitor." Talassar tilted his head as he observed the woman, marking her weaknesses in memory like he'd been trained to do.

"These poor souls lying at your feet are not victims of your heinous actions?"

"They came at me with weapons drawn. I had little choice." He eyed the corpses with distaste. The Synod couldn't even be bothered with decent assassins.

It was insulting.

"Favoured always have choices Talassar."

"Rarely Inquisitor. Rarely." He let his arms drop, ignoring the heightened tension amongst the guardsmen. Talassar could feel it, their every breath bleeding fear and anger into the room. "So what do you expect to do now?"

"Nothing." The Inquisitor smiled. A cruel grin, revelling in his misfortune. "The Judicars have already sentenced you…"

"Illegal without my presence." Talassar interjected.

"A death sentence Talassar." She tapped a command on her pad, projecting the scene of a courtroom presided over by the Highmost Judicar. Talassar recognised the supreme ecclesiastical court, having protected the basilica on multiple occasions during the Troubles. He suppressed the rage building in his heart at the sight of a man with his own features bound to the defendants stand, stone faced marines to either side. "It was a masterpiece." She breathed, reverence gleaming in her eyes. "A Messenger herself descended upon the court to denounce you. A revelation from the Guardians just to convict a Favoured."

"Who was the double?" Talassar knew the Synod wouldn't just use a mocked up image. They would demand blood.

"Does it matter?" the Inquisitor pointed at him. "You have been summoned Favoured. The Hierophant demands your presence to answer for your heresies. Kneel and repent!" she was almost frothing with rabid fervour, the cast iron symbol of the Guardians on her necklace clenched tightly in a waving fist.

"The Hierophant can no longer call on my services." His heart twisted at the statement, some part of him still desiring their leader's blessing.

"Blasphemy." She hissed, the officers at her side backing away in fear as her synthfab robes twisted to the ceiling, menacing tentacles ready to strike at him.

Talassar rose from the desk, opening and closing his hands in preparation for action. "You're an idiot if you thought that was enough to make me come."

"Maybe we will be though." The flat, emotionless, translated voice filled the room, silken mist spinning into three Messengers descending from the ceiling. The Inquisitor fell to her knees as the fox-like beings materialised, slamming her head to the armoured floor while the guardsmen huddled and cried for deliverance. "Will you not bow Favoured?"

Talassar resisted the urge to kneel, the compulsion in the Messenger's voice was almost overwhelming. "I'm honoured a Celestial herself was sent to escort me, but I believe we're far beyond shows of respect now."

"True." The Messenger's tail twisted in agreement, its short arms signalling the Inquisitor to approach. "You have done well child, occupying the Favoured until we could arrive. Now go and take the rest of your people with you. We would not want any harm to come to them."

"Yes holy one." She was shivering with excitement while guiding the soldiers from the room. Before leaving she faced Talassar, glaring with her arms crossed. "I gave you a chance Talassar, in memory of your service, but now it's too late."

Talassar waved the Inquisitor away, focussed on the Messengers. Despite their diminutive stature, he knew how powerful they were, especially the Celestial. Messengers always wielded powerful psychic abilities, and the Celestials were the greatest of their psychers, some said strong enough to match the Guardians themselves.

"Hand over the core Talassar." The Celestial demanded once the room emptied. "Where have you kept it?"

"I haven't lost enough of my sanity to give away my only leverage Messenger. It's kept safely until I can arrange my departure." He slid around the bodies on the floor, fingers twitching, ready to attack at a moments notice.

"Please Favoured." It crooned its harmonious voice relaxing him for a moment. "Tell me." It repeated the words until Talassar fell into a daze, but a surge of energy flowed through his body to break the hypnotic suggestion. The Celestial coughed up a trail of blue blood as its psychic weave was broken.

"Don't try to affect my mind Messenger. I'm warning you." He growled, kicking a chair out of his way as he circled the Messengers crowding around the Celestial.

"Impressive." The second Messenger observed him carefully. "It's no wonder they sent us. Only Guardians have this level of power."

"I can't believe one of these barbarians could become this powerful." The third Messenger spoke, stalking him around the room, hopping erratically in a way Talassar couldn't track.

"It seems negotiations aren't possible any more." Talassar struck out before the words even left his mouth, thrusting his hands out to summon a wave of telekinetic force which caught the already reeling Celestial in the chest. The power was incredible, turning the Messenger into a paste of blood and flesh against the wall.

The other two Messengers were already moving, ripping rifts open to appear on either side of him. Talassar grunted as one of the Messengers sent a wave of electricity to crash against his hastily erected barrier while the other pulled his body off balance with a claw of psychic energy. Talassar slid back, bringing his hand down to sever the claw as the room erupted in combat, waves of energy tearing through the air as rifts sliced open to erupt with a squad of Messengers descending upon him in a flurry of psychic blows.

Even with his newly acquired abilities, Talassar tired quickly, struggling to hold his own as he was overwhelmed by numbers. He might have managed to to break the attack, but a rift snapped open behind him and the scaled hand of a Guardian shot through to clamp around his neck, slamming a webbed binding device on his skull. Unprepared, Talassar could only slump to the ground as the device activated, sending his mind spinning to sever his psychic abilities.

"Bring him to me." The Guardian intoned before withdrawing its hand.

The squad of Messengers chittered in their own language as they tied him up and one of the original trio approached him.

"Are you angry Favoured?"

"Is that a taunt? Provocation?" Talassar groaned in agony as the device tightened further, spurs of nanofibre drilling into his mind. "You bind me because of the actions of an idiot and I'm meant to go to my death without resistance?"

"No one defies the Guardians." The Messenger declared and Talassar sighed, flopping without energy on the backs of the Messengers.

Talassar's laboured retort was interrupted by a dull roar and he frowned, trying to place the sound. His eyes widened moments before the room turned to radioactive flame, screams and the blasts of weapons lighting up his surroundings. The Messengers dropped him and scurried into rifts, surprise and instinctive fear of the nuclear fire sending them into retreat. A few Messengers realised they'd left him behind but before they could return a yawning chasm swallowed Talassar, an overwhelming impact knocking him unconscious.