Half a year later Maximilian was back on the streets of Malfi, now working as an Investigator in the Absolom hive-spire, far from his old haunts in Norumo. He'd been doing well. Very well. He'd rooted out several criminal conspiracies and seen to it that they received just sentences; death as it were. The work truly appealed to him. He was making the Emperor proud. Proving that he deserved His attention. A dazzling beam of light caught him as he cross the street; a the silent form of an Arbites gunship suspended above the ground, weapon pods extended. Dark shapes moving in weapons at the ready. What is this?“ Investigator Maximilian Elazar Dante! In the name of the Holy Emperor you are hereby placed under arrest. The charge is heresy and witchcraft. The verdict is the Black Ships. Sentence to be carried out immediately. Resistance is futile and will only further damn your black soul!” Betrayal from within? Then only darkness as a power maul smashes into his skull.

Arbites interrogation room. Placed in an interview chair. Shackled hand and feet. A tall dark-haired woman sitting opposite the steel table, dressed like an Arbites but her bearing more...regal. A dataslate and several print-out spread out before her. A glass of fragrant high-quality amasec in her hand. She dismisses the medicae standing behind you; he quickly packs up his gear and leaves. The woman leans back, flexing her supple body and revealing ample curves beneath the black body-glove – and the Inquisitorial Rosette clinging to her slender neck. “Quite the record you have here Maximilian Elazar Dante. Quite the record. Your parents would have been proud I think.” She finishes her amasec and pours herself another. “Unfortunately your glorious career is over before it could begin. As you may have gleaned from your all-too-dramatic arrest, you've been charged with heresy and witchcraft. Which is where I come into the equation.” She points at the rosette and smiles, a warm and comforting smile of soft red lips and white-white teeth. “It is not as much what you've done, but what you are. The brutality, the lack of intimate social connections, the ego-centrism, those are all indications of a sociopath personality. Not a crime in itself...perhaps even an asset in your line of work? Certainly nothing that concerns the Holy Inquisition!” She pauses a bit, looking like she's considering offering you some amasec, but thinking better of it. “You, however, are a living crime. Every breath you take, every work you speak, every though that passes through your mind – heresies every one.” Seeing that you're completely cofused and dumbfounded she continues: “Maximilian Elazar Dante your crime is being a rogue servitor. You are, by the law of the Imperium, not human. You are a machine. Not a metal machine, but a flesh and blood one. A machine with no rights at all. A machine that now belongs to the Inquisition.” She finishes her amasec, gets up, walks elegantly around the table, sits down on the table's edge to look directly into Maximilian's eyes: “Even though you're a machine, you're a free-willed one – which is an even worse heresy in the eyes of some – so I'll make you an offer. You can either leave this room in a body-bag or you can accept that your life as you know it is over, and that from now on your taskmaster is the Holy Ordos. Inquisitor Tancred. Me.” She leans over and gently kisses your forehead before standing up to look down on you; man is she tall! “Be quick. It's a one-time offer; take it or leave it.”