As it is always, we will highly appreciate any form of CnC.
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‘Yea, I would warrant so. Of course, you know how it is, a 99% chance still might end up not happening, but it’s a whole load of risk you’d be talking of.’ Inquisitor H was sure in his voice. Of course, the 99% was just an example, since anything even remotely that risky would be treated as a full-on emergency, but it did mean that the problem at hand was deserving of taking measures.
‘All right. If such is your warrant, then I say you’re free to dispatch any countermeasure you see fit. I trust your ability to judge forces correctly.’ Indeed, the Inquisitor has proven himself most capable on repeated occasions. To not give him my trust in this case would be not only a terrible insult, it would also be terribly stupid. All in all, he did know more than me about his forces, and would be in a better position to make the judgement of the countermeasure.
‘Well, thanks for that one then.’ No matter how you looked at it, you couldn’t miss the fact he used to be a friend to me since a long time. After all, he was one of the few persons who could address me this casually without getting himself a quick ticket to the punishment chambers down below. ‘I can’t say I don’t understand your surprise though. I was just as certain as you in the fact someone that high up wouldn’t manage to find the sheer stupidity to betray the Empire. It’s a death sentence.’
I chuckled. ‘Indeed it is. You’ll make sure of it, too’
He returned the sadistic chuckle. ‘Indeed. I guess the rest of the bunch are to be spared where possible? Or did she finally convince you?’
My chuckle turned into a laugh. ‘Nah, not yet. She’s damn trying though, that’s for sure.’ I smiled to myself at the thought of the talk with my Mistress. Hell, she was insistent on those unnecessary casualties.
‘Well that’s good. You know I don’t like to waste men.’
A short nod was enough to answer. ‘Of course. You’re not High Inquisitor for nothing, H.’ I took a look at the screen in front of us. ‘So, anything else of relative interest?’
He blinked fast at me for a split second, then scratched his chin. ‘Uhm. Good question you’re askin’ there.’ He popped a few windows on the screen open and closed. ‘Oh. There’s this guy.’ An image of an Asian-looking man popped on the screen. Nothing more could really be said about him, but it’s not like the image quality was terribly good, either. I raised my eyebrows at that. ‘No idea of the fellow’s name.’ Yes. Very informing, H. ‘We just thought he may personally interest you. See that kid over there?’ I looked at where he pointed. Indeed, although blurry, I could see the vague shape of a kid. Perhaps female, perhaps long-haired male. Couldn’t really tell. ‘Seemingly, some people have called her a demon, on some occasion. Of course, by itself doesn’t sound that unusual, but there’s more. She herself makes some rather occult comments every now and then, with the man answering. She does not seem related to him, for that matter, although they travel together.’
I tilted my head. ‘Are you implying those people talking of demons may be right?’ Was H going insane? That wouldn’t have been good. One insane guy running this Empire was more than enough already.
‘Not yet.’ He popped a video open. ‘Watch.’ In the video, a security cam footage, you could clearly see a man’s weapon fly out of his hand, for no reason whatsoever. It looked as if something hit it from the side, but nothing seemed to actually physically hit. I hummed meditatively at it. H turned back to me. ‘To that, the man always seems aware of dangers. You could say it’s just street smarts and awareness, but some of my guys claim it goes past that from time to time. They’re not the most reliable of them, sure, but dubitable info is still info.’
‘Hm. Indeed it is.’ I leaned back on my chair. A demon? Could that be true? If so, what could I gain from that? ‘Interesting. I’d like it if you could send some of the boys to get that guy here. Sure enough, only if you’ve got what to spare.’
H tilted his head. ‘Come on. We both know perfectly well that riff-raff is plenty enough to spare in hordes. I’ll tell you what we find out and didn’t know.’
I nodded. ‘Sure. And keep me updated with the little rebellion the Shadowmaster is planning.’ Shadowmasters. A pseudo-military role within the Inquisition, mainly responsible for coordinating shadow ops. In charge of a retinue of personal Shadows, of various specialisations, it wasn’t a really low position. As such, rebellion from someone like that was not a matter to be ignored. Especially when most of them are inoculated against betrayal. Hm. I’d have to look over the methodology applied in inoculation in retrospect to the individual’s psyche, when we get him. Flaws in that aspect aren’t tolerable, at all.
‘Of course. I guess this means we’re done here?’
‘Pretty much.’ I gave him a grin. ‘Why do you ask?’
H replied my grin with a sly smile. ‘Oh you know, been a long day. Done a lot of work. I wouldn’t mind a pair of pretty, well trained slaves. And a bottle of some good something.’
I chuckled. ‘Sure. Don’t bother calling, I’ll ask someone to bring them to your room. I don’t think you’d mind if you find three instead of two though. Or four, for that matter. The slaves are uncharacteristically eager to go when it’s your room we talk of. Way more than mine.’
‘Well, I’m not implying anything, but I don’t keep a psychopathic, way-too-sadistic woman around my quarters. Unlike someone else I know…’
I laughed at that. ‘Yeah, keep commenting like that and I’ll send her to you…’
‘Please no.’ His tone was half joking, but the other half was genuine fear. Sure, he’d probably end up on top from that fight, but really. He wouldn’t escape without marks. Lots and lots of marks.
I laughed. ‘Kidding, kidding.’ I got up from my chair, and so did he. ‘Well, see ya some other time then.’ I raised a hand in a friendly salute.
‘See ya.’ He returned the gesture, and left for his quarters. He indeed had a long day, and a long week before that. And, given the current rebellion, he’d have an even longer week. He did deserve his free time, whenever he could snatch it. I left for my chambers.
*
Minutes later, I was in my chamber. My mistress was already there, painting. She had always been talented, only she did it quite rarely in these days. After all, whom in her un-right mind would paint when they can torture? Quietly, I glided over the floor with my footsteps, taking a seat on the couch behind her. I synched my breath with hers, so she wouldn’t notice me.
Just seeing her was always enough to make all tiredness go away in a fleeting instant. People always talked about how the fires of passion went cold after the first few years of marriage. Maybe that was right. But it was certain, the love was still there, if it existed in the first place. Like it was with us. I had to struggle to swallow a chuckle. Where would you think you’d find true love? A naïve couple, or one of priestly pure people. Certainly not here, in the heart of this den of misdeeds.
‘Dear!’ Oh. Dammit. She noticed me. It took her something less than an instant to leave the chair and instead collapse in my arms.
I kissed the tip of her ear. ‘Really, I tried to not disturb you. S…’
She put a finger on my lips. ‘No being sorry for that. Understood?’ I smiled. There was no one else in probably the world who would address me like that. I loved her so much.
‘Yes, Mistress.’ We both laughed. ‘But you know, you could’ve remained there longer. I do enjoy seeing you paint, you know?’
She gave me a disbelieving look. ‘You enjoy seeing me, period.’ Well. I couldn’t deny the truth of that statement. ‘So, anything interesting with H?’
‘Well, rebellion.’ She looked at me, obviously not having expected that. ‘Really! A Shadowmaster, too.’
She was genuinely surprised. ‘Aren’t they…?’
I nodded. ‘Yeah. They are inoculated. I have no idea what that guy’s psyche has wrong with it.’
She got a spark in her eyes. ‘Do we torture him?’
With my arms occupied in holding her, I just softly bashed my face against her shoulder. ‘You goddamn maniac! No!’ I got a half-sad look from her. ‘Or yes, depending on how much resistance he shows.’ A happy look. ‘But not unless really needed! No excess damage!’
She gave me a feigned look of sadness. If you’d ask me to explain her in one word, that’d be paradox. The reason for that is too long to explain here, but to exemplify, she looked cute just now. Talking of torture, as the most sadistic person in an Empire dealing in sadism and sin, and she looked cute. I shook my head at that, getting a smile and laugh from her.
‘Goddamn you, dear.’ My voice was joking, of course. I guess I was a paradox too. The heartless, merciless Master of the same Empire of Sin, joking with a warm tone. Indeed, our relationship made no sense whatsoever. I kissed her deeply at that thought.
A few eternities of kissing later, we slowly came back into normal discussion. Or, well, normal-ish discussion. Okay. Fine. Non-normal discussion. Namely, about the other thing H told me of.
‘So, you’re saying that guy has a little demon kid?’ She was damn good at putting points… interestingly.
‘Yes, that’d be what it looks like. Of course, it may and probably is just a load of crap, but you never know.’ After all, it wouldn’t be the first time to hear rumours of the paranormal. That being said, after the event with the disappearing man and his “Council”, I had taken an interest in investigating the more physical rumours. After all, like H said, we almost had too many riff-raffs, so no problems with manpower to spare.
‘Hm. I want to meet a demon!’ Honestly, she was not in her right mind. Well, that’s why I loved her. I wanted to meet a demon too.
‘Indeed! I wonder if it’s going to be a high-level, adult talk, or if the demon behaves the age he looks like. Or, hell, is that age. Everything’s possible.’ Hm. Now that I just said it, it was right. If the demon was the real deal, I’d have no info on his powers whatsoever. Wouldn’t be riskless to try talking to it.
‘Don’t worry, dear! Our own Demon should be enough of a match for another one.’ She snapped me out of worrying over it now. You’d think, that after years and years of training to control my facial expressions, no one should be able to read them. But no, my Mistress could still read them. Sometimes I wondered if she even does that. Maybe she just listens to my thoughts.
‘Okay, okay. But our Demon is, after all human.’ Barely-so, but human. Or, at the very least, ex-human. Still, not a certain bet against a supernatural entity. ‘So, I’m not su…’
She kissed me quiet. I returned the kiss. Maybe she was right. Why worry over it? It didn’t even happen yet. Her tongue played in my mouth. Well, it was hard paying attention to something else with her doing that, too. I just begun leaving myself into it, turning her around and laying her down on the couch, without once breaking the kiss. She clung to my neck, as one of my hands begun sliding down her narrow waist…
*
I was in my study, dozing off on the chair, as one of my personal retinue slaves entered the room. I knew him by the pace and demeanour of making sounds when moving about, but I turned my eyes to watch him anyway. You could never be too careful.
‘Master.’ He began with a low bow. ‘H sent this for you. He said you’d know what it is.’
He placed a sealed envelope on the table, then bowed again. I gestured to him with my head that he can leave, which, after another bow and ‘Master’, he did. I was left with the envelope. Updates on the various situations in the Empire, no doubt. Lazily, I extended a hand after it, and got the contents out into sight.
A quick read between the lines was enough to tell me what was going on. The rebel Shadowmaster had been caught, alive. Good. That’d mean we could interrogate, and psychologically reassess him. I had to put some of the higher-ranked Inquisitors to that. His Shadow retinue was half-killed, due to martyr actions for their leader. The rest were caught. Not as good as it could’ve been, but once-rogue Shadows were dubious forces at best. It wasn’t much of a loss, either. Now then, the rest of the report.
The guy with the demon kid had escaped. After killing ten people. With a sword. While followed and blocked off by a horde of about fifty. If my reflex of controlling my reactions wouldn’t have stopped me, I’d have shown a lot of surprise on my face. This was almost certifying the info. Street smarts wouldn’t be nearly enough to do that. Also, a sword? In this age? Interesting. The detail report also contained information about some of those invisible hits people were taking, and some spectral or translucent energy seen by the rest of the mob while the hits were going on. Hm.
I took a pen, and piece of paper. Even if this guy wasn’t the babysitter of a demon, with that amount of skill, he’d still be worth taking note of. As such, my pen danced on the paper, writing orders to H. Namely, to send out a full-fledged Inquisitor after him, together with a full retinue. The caretaker man would be disposable, if no other way would present itself, but the demon kid had to be taken in at all costs. No harm would be to be brought on that one. If it could even be harmed, that was. I pressed the button calling for the slave, and sent him to H. If a rebellion could be solved in a few days, but this guy couldn’t be taken in by fifty people in the same amount of time, that was a sign.
Call it a hunch, if you will, but I was rather sure this guy would be exactly what he was advertised as. If not more.
*
Silence. No motion around. I was gazing at H, and he gazed back with an understanding look. We both were still. I had trained years to control my expressions, but even I showed clearly what was going through my mind now.
I opened my mouth to speak. ‘…’ And I closed it right back before I even begun. I swallowed, looking downwards. It was… it was very unexpected news.
‘Yes. That report is true.’ H was just as disturbed as I was. It made very little sense. The report he spoke of, it was of how the abduction mission for the demon kid went. That man that played caretaker…
‘So…’ I stopped, closed my eyes, and drew a sharp breath. I voided my mind, leaving emotion alone now. It was time for intellect, not feel. ‘We have a dead Inquisitor on our hands?’
H nodded. ‘And about half the retinue. That man is not human. The scouts we had there mentioned clearly of how he seemed to know what the Inquisitor’s plans were beforehand.’ He shook his head. ‘He flawlessly outdid an Inquisitor in both strategy and single combat. He won with a sword against a gun goddammit.’
I blinked slowly. Interesting. He killed far less in the previous mob. Was it because they weren’t as much a threat? Easier to evade than subdue? ‘Are you considering supernatural powers? Prescience?’
H gave me the look of a man without explanation. ‘I don’t know, Michael.’ Calling me by name, was he? He really was disturbed. In all honesty, he never had the habit of using my name, even back way before the days of the Empire. ‘I really don’t have any idea. This surpasses me. How do you beat a man that god-forsakenly skilled?!’
I stopped. He was desperate. In his career as Grand Inquisitor, I could tell he never felt as powerless. After all, up until now, warfare was against humans. Now, it was something else. ‘I’ll take this one, H. Contact the Legion and get me ready a full retinue of Inquisitors, with their men as well. The Legion should provide a full assault force. Where is the man now?’
Inquisitor H blinked at