"Lady Jill."
An attendant at the entrance of the grand room, where piles of papers were stacked upon one another until reaching the very ceiling, stood like a statue as he waited for his lady's reply.
"Yes?"
An annoyed voice came from behind the piles of papers as the attendant subconsciously stood straighter as he began to read about the situation currently unfolding.
"My Lady, a ship with a crew of scouts has discovered and successfully captured slavers who wished to sell new slaves at Luminar, still believing that it was the old Meereen."
The vicious writing of papers came to a halt as Jill, wearing her issued 'noble' clothes, looked with a hint of excitement at the possibility of leaving her office/home, which she had been trapped in for three days doing revisions and number checks.
"Well? What does that have to do with me? Send an inquiry to Erich for matters such as slavers, he'll deal with 'em."
The attendant made a visible gulp as he read off the remainder of the message.
"My Lady. The note also says that in the ships of the slavers were 'artefacts' which point to daemons."
Jill looked at the attendant with an expression of explain or I'll gut you. The look made the attendant tremble, his leg shaking before he continued.
"Th-That's the end of the message. High Inquisitor Erich and Lord Jurten have gone to secure the area and inform the Emperor."
Jill once again looked at the attendant before returning to her work and spoke with boredom.
"So why have I been sent this message?"
"Er-erm… Lord Jurten wished to inform you of the matter, as he has taken the experimental weapons from our god's clique to secure the boat, slavers, and slaves."
Jill Quill snapped her fingers as she looked at the attendant.
"That fool, those weapons were for Lord Nazareth's protection, and he's taken them?"
The attendant looked straight at the ground with the paper in his hands before, with a quick filling of papers and the sound of rapid footsteps, Jill arrived in front of him.
"Give me that."
The paper was quickly skimmed over as Jill arrived at the final part of the message, which the attendant apparently hadn't seen.
'To Supreme Administratum Jill, I have sent this message to key you into the arrival of daemon artefacts and that I have taken two of the experimental gunpowder artillery pieces from Lord Nazareth's protection clique, as according to the rules and laws placed by our god, he had deemed that the annihilation of daemonic artefacts and the protection of Luminar's citizens is far more important than experimental gunpowder weapons being reassigned.'
'That fool, those weapons were for those damn daemons that keep appearing in the pyramid.'
For context, for the last week, black shadows had been appearing within the pyramid and causing quite the ruckus, as only the firepower of Kriegmen standard-issue lasguns or bolt guns could kill them. One had even arrived in the throne room before Nazareth quickly cut the foolish thing down and it was quickly burned.
Jill slammed the paper into the attendant before storming out of the grand room of papers.
As Jill pushed open the doors of the room, the gladiators, previously slumped from the hours of inactivity, jumped as they watched Jill move with purpose towards the exit to the Administratum's doors.
As they watched her back slowly disappear, they realised their purpose and quickly ran to catch up with their lady, who had already straddled a horse off a passing servant and begun to ride it to the docks.
– Location – The Docks of Luminar –
"Move it, secure the eastern entrance! No man, woman, or child is allowed into the docks. Under the orders of High Inquisitor Erich and Lord Jurten, entering the docks will be punished by execution!"
The soldiers previously standing around began rapidly moving as their officers shouted orders and commands.
In a nondescript ship not different from any within the closing docks, four men stood at the ramp of the boat connecting it to the docks.
"Lord Erich? What are we waiting for?" Karl asked, whilst Will to his left stared at the ship with confusion as to why they hadn't stormed it.
They had already executed the slavers and burned all the material present on the ship, yet when it came to setting fire to the actual ship, the fire simply stopped as if halted by a mysterious shield.
Inquisitor Erich stood next to Jurten, looking at the ship like it was a monster. Both men had previously seen in the wars of their lives the power of the Immaterium and the creatures which called it home.
Even more so when those black figures had started to manifest within the pyramid and killed any who stood in their paths. Only the guns of the Kriegmen and the new experimental gunpowder artillery piece recently made could kill the things.
Even then, the bodies had to be burned as they would melt into the ground and return. Luckily, though, the outbreak of such things had only appeared between specific times, but this knowledge was only known to their lord, Nazareth, and a total of three others.
The main reason for such secrecy was due to Lord Nazareth's gag order on such events, as if word spread among the common people of Luminar, it would be devastating to the city's prosperity and rebuilding.
On the neck of Jurten was the black and green trimmings of the necklace previously worn by Nazareth. When his god had arrived with a new set of armour unlike anything any of the Kriegsmann had seen, Nazareth personally gave Jurten this necklace.
Jurten still remembered the words of his god: "If you come into contact with anything from the Immaterium, wear this."
As any good soldier, Jurten remembered this short but direct message, even though the necklace was given to him less than four days ago.
Jurten personally believed that his lord had given him this necklace as protection from those things which couldn't be hurt. Originally, he declined, believing that his god should have such protection instead of a foolish follower like him, but was coerced when Nazareth described the powers of his armour and, with a quite literal otherworldly glow surrounding his god, Jurten had to believe his words.
Karl, finally having had enough of the halting of any action, raised his plasma gun strapped to his side and shot directly into the hull of the ship. The corresponding light and crackling of energies made the four men turn away, and when they looked, they saw only faint ash marks on the timber hull.
The once-bustling port became silent at the sound of Karl's plasma gun firing, as the soldiers previously moving people from the area looked on with awe; some had personally seen how the weapon had demolished some of the supporting pillars of the great slavers' pyramids, causing them to collapse. And the scene of the weapon leaving nothing but ash on the wooden boat made them question reality.
This stopping of actions quickly halted as officers realised their soldiers had stopped moving and began screaming at them once again.
The superstition of the unnatural, which had permeated the four men, became even more pronounced as they stood at the front of the scene, seeing a weapon powerful enough to blow a Space Marine apart deal little to nothing upon an obviously wooden ship.
From beyond them, in the crowded entrances of the port, came startled noises and the rapid thumping of horseshoes against the paved floor as the crowd parted.
The sound of soldiers roaring for the rider to stop was abruptly cut as the horse and its rider ran towards the four men near the boat.
Jurten turned to see only Jill riding on a random person's horse before the beast, galloping at full speed, started to halt, kicking dust and muck from the port floor into the air.
Jill flew off the horse as she marched past Karl and Will before meeting eye to eye with Jurten.
"You may be the Lord Commander of the forces here. However, you cannot take protection from our god."
Jurten seemed to be predicting Jill's over-protectiveness, talking with a calm face as Erich stood behind, looking with a hint of enjoyment at the show currently unfolding.
"Jill. Our god has given me a decree that if the people of this city were to be put in danger of daemons, I was to immediately, with all my power, halt any attempts at an incursion."
Jill, not accepting the fact that Jurten had avoided the point of her accusation regarding his blatant ignoring of their god's protection, roared at the man once again, with Jurten replying with a more annoyed or 'pissed off' face.
Erich, who had arrived less than a week ago, had experienced much with being promoted and having to organise the Inquisition, leaving him with little free time; however, the arguments between Jurten and Jill for some reason always made him laugh, seeing the two fight over their god.
Deep down, he knew that both were correct in their own ways: Jurten following the orders of their god, whilst Jill cursed over the lack of protection for their god. Both made good points, but both ignored that Nazareth, their god, was currently watching. With a quick look upwards, Erich seemed to be staring at something.
Nazareth, in the planner mode of his system, watching the unfolding argument between his subordinates, let out a laugh as he watched Erich look towards him. That mildly surprised Nazareth, as he couldn't believe that Erich, whom Nazareth had told about this power, could directly look into Nazareth's virtual god-like view.
Obviously, when news of a Chaos artefact arriving in Luminar had directly attracted Nazareth's attention, he watched the situation for anything. Furthermore, what he had experienced or learned during the week was to probe things with his mind.
He learned that anywhere within Luminar, he could feel that area or place, and when news of the artefact alerted Nazareth, he explored the ship to find a marking from the Pleasure God marked within the ship. Nazareth had deduced that the mark might relate to the ship's immunity to damage, but when things were taken off the ship, they would return to their natural state.
Why the Pleasure God would have her followers mark a ship with her markings was not known to Nazareth as he, in his hands, read what slaves were aboard the ship at the time.
(AN: Helllooooo. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Ill see you guys tomorrow.)