Who gets to decide that a life is dangerous? Explore NO APPEAL: Adeptus Arbites in a Living Hive, our Wrath & Glory campaign where law, fear and the lives behind every verdict collide.
Warhammer 40,000 · Spooky October · Week II · The Price of Protection
The girl is fourteen.
She sits on a wooden bench beneath the immense stone arches of an Imperial embarkation hall. In her hands is a small piece of cloth, folded and unfolded so many times that its edges have begun to fray.
Beyond the gates, a Black Ship waits.
SEAN:
“She looks younger than fourteen.”
ELJARA:
“Her name is Ilyra. They found her after a man died in her village.”
SEAN:
“Did she kill him?”
ELJARA:
“No one knows. She heard his thoughts. Then something spoke through him in a language nobody recognised.”
Sean watches the girl.
SEAN:
“And that’s enough?”
ELJARA:
“In the Imperium, it has to be.”
“Does it?”
Eljara doesn’t answer immediately.
ELJARA:
“An untrained psyker can become a doorway. Not a metaphorical one, Sean. A real opening into the Warp.”
SEAN:
“I know. And that’s what frightens me.”
“The Warp?”
“No. That the people taking her away might be right.”
A bell sounds.
The prisoners rise.
Some whisper prayers. Others stare at the floor.
SEAN:
“Where will they take her?”
ELJARA:
“First, aboard the Black Ship. Perhaps years of travelling from world to world, gathering others like her. Then Terra, if she survives.”
SEAN:
“And there?”
“They’ll examine her. Test her strength. Her control. Whether she can be trained.”
“And if she can?”
“She may become a sanctioned psyker. Perhaps serve the Imperial Guard, or another Imperial institution. Some undergo soul-binding to become Astropaths.”
Sean looks towards the procession.
SEAN:
“And those who cannot?”
Eljara’s voice grows quieter.
ELJARA:
“Many are sacrificed to sustain the Emperor upon the Golden Throne.”
The girl stands.
Her folded cloth slips from her fingers.
Nobody stops to pick it up.
SEAN:
“There’s a word we used back home. Witch.”
Eljara turns.
SEAN:
“Sometimes it meant a healer. Sometimes a neighbour people didn’t like. Sometimes somebody who frightened the wrong priest or magistrate.”
ELJARA:
“And sometimes people genuinely believed they had witnessed something supernatural.”
“Aye. But believing wasn’t the same as knowing.”
“Here, they have evidence.”
Sean nods.
SEAN:
“Which means they have a better reason to be afraid.”
ELJARA:
“And to act.”
SEAN:
“But not necessarily to act like this.”
The guards lead Ilyra towards the gate.
For a moment, she turns towards the crowd.
Perhaps she’s looking for her mother.
Perhaps she simply wants to remember the last place where she was still somebody’s daughter rather than an Imperial problem.
ELJARA:
“If they leave her alone, she might endanger thousands.”
SEAN:
“And if they take her, they might destroy her.”
ELJARA:
“They might also save her.”
“Aye.”
Sean watches the Black Ship.
SEAN:
“That’s the terrible part. All three things can be true.”
A long silence.
ELJARA:
“Suppose she survives. Suppose she’s trained. Suppose she spends her life protecting others from the Warp.”
SEAN:
“Then I’d be glad she lived.”
ELJARA:
“Would you call her fortunate?”
Sean considers the question.
SEAN:
“I’d ask her.”
The gate begins to close.
ELJARA:
“And if she tells you the Imperium saved her?”
SEAN:
“I’d listen.”
“And if she tells you it stole her life?”
“I’d listen to that too.”
Eljara looks towards the immense vessel.
ELJARA:
“The Imperium cannot simply pretend the Warp doesn’t exist.”
SEAN:
“No. But perhaps it should remember that the people it fears are still people.”
The gates close.
Somewhere beyond them, Ilyra’s journey begins.
ELJARA:
“If a civilisation truly needs protection from the supernatural, who should have the right to decide which human lives must pay the price?”
Game: Warhammer 40,000
System: Wrath & Glory / Imperium Maledictum
Campaign: Mythveil Chronicles
Theme: Spooky October · The Price of Protection
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