Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies

‘Enough,’ said Covenant, and Viola felt the cold authority in the word. He took a step closer to Hesh. The Black Priest did not move. ‘Your master lived his ideals, and died fighting for mankind’s survival. I am giving you the chance to serve mankind, because of him, because he trusted and valued you. But do not think that in this place you are anything but a servant of the Emperor, and your service is your knowledge, your reward is to obey, and if you presume to judge that which is beyond your means then I will judge you in turn.’

Hesh held Covenant’s gaze for a second, and then bowed his head.

‘Your pardon, my lord.’

‘Continue,’ said Covenant.

‘Horusianism was an old belief, as old as the ordos themselves, some say. Its… followers sought a vessel to contain the ascended power of Chaos, and in so doing conquer Chaos. They sought to enslave Chaos to the service of mankind, to make the tormented the master, the enslaved the saviours of the future.’

Hesh paused, his mouth moving as though he was chewing something bitter and sharp.

‘They believed that the warp holds no evil that we do not put into it, that with great will and strength the powers that seek to destroy mankind may save it. They sought a dark messiah to be the avatar of Chaos, a being of Chaos who will bring Chaos to its knees.’

‘You say they were,’ said Viola.

‘Horusianism is a dead ideal. The last who professed its creed was Catullus Ven and he is a millennium in the grave.’

‘Ardena-Venusia?’ asked Covenant.

‘A rumour, never confirmed. Likely a move by the Solar Cabals to discredit her.’

‘You sound very certain,’ said Josef.

Hesh shot him a look.

‘I am. When Lord Vult took the seat of Inquisitorial Representative amongst the High Lords of Terra, he asked me to confirm the extinction of the Horusian ideal. I was thorough. I saw records that even the most exalted of my lord’s peers have not seen, past and ongoing. I burned through one hundred data-sift servitors in the task. Nothing was left to chance. I am certain.’

‘A lot of effort looking for signs of something that is supposed to be dead…’ said Viola.

‘My master was concerned with the stability and unity of the Imperium, and the Holy Ordos that protect mankind, and he did not believe in leaving risks to that stability uninvestigated.’

‘So he got you to check the grave to make sure the corpse of this dead ideology had not sprung back to life?’ asked Viola, arching an eyebrow.

‘Horusianism is not an ideal, it is a poison. You can see the shadow of its passing in the fragmentary records of wars within the ordos. Wars… not skirmishes between individuals of different convictions, but wars lasting centuries, battles fought in shadows and by means too terrible to think of. My master wanted to be certain that those days were gone.’

‘Why?’ asked Covenant.

Hesh looked at him.

‘My lord?’

‘Why did he want to be certain?’ asked Viola, her mind flowing forwards into the space left by Covenant’s question. ‘It was not whim, was it? What made Daemonhunter-Lord Vult think that the dead ideal of Horusianism might not be as dead as it seemed?’

For the first time since entering the chamber, Hesh looked uncomfortable.

‘Nothing… A heretical superstition.’

‘You will tell me,’ said Covenant, his voice low.

Hesh drew and let out a breath.

‘There was a… a prophecy… more an outpouring of insanity, in point of fact. A Black Ship entering the Solar System suffered a containment breach. A high-grade, unstable psyker began to manifest his nature. When he had been subdued he was conscious for several seconds. His words were recorded by the witch-keepers and passed to agents of the Inquisition on Terra.’

‘What did this psyker say?’ asked Viola.

‘I am not permitted to remember it in entirety,’ said Hesh, ‘just phrases from it.’

‘Those fragments?’

‘“Three born of judgement… bearer of cup, bearer of coin, bearer of crown… reborn, renewed, re-blessed…” That is all I am allowed to remember. The motifs in those phrases correspond to some of those found in the works of Catullus Ven, and in the writings of Inquisitor-Master Zaranchek Xanthus. Writings that related to the beliefs of Horusians and…’ Hesh trailed off, teeth closing over his tongue. Viola saw the muscles on his jaw tense.

‘Finish what you were going to say,’ said Covenant.

‘The writings concerned the appearance of a “prospect” for a vessel of Chaos – for the rise of their Dark Messiah.’

The silence lengthened through the seconds.

‘Yet you found no evidence that Horusians were active in the Inquisition?’ asked Covenant.

‘None. It was coincidence, the noise of the warp throwing up the heresies of the past.’

‘Perhaps,’ said Covenant. ‘But if Horusianism was dead then it has found resurrection. Its followers walk amongst the Inquisition again. They killed your master.’

‘Talicto was no Horusian,’ growled Hesh. He was angry, Viola realised. Despite his utter control and stillness he was vibrating with rage.

‘No, Talicto was half a decade dead already when your master and I found him.’

‘Then who?’