Timestamp: 7.454.996.M41

Location: Inquisition decontamination facility, Gorgonid Mine, Sepheris Secundus, Golgenna Reach

Situation: Undergoing screening and testing to ascertain level of physical/moral contamination

Body: Who would have thought that the Inquisition has these mobile facilities. You can see that they have multiple applications. Such as screening and testing. Or interrogation. Or research. Or whatever. Reminds you a lot of Guard-issue prefabs; you know, prefabricated hab units that can be assembled to serve as accommodations or command facilities. Only these are filled will all manner of stuff - holding cells, interrogation chambers, medicae-theaters, labratoriums, the works.

Actually it isn't all that unpleasant. At least not for you. The three of you are singled out from the onset and separated from the others. You three and the girl. Guess Xerza is calling the shots. Anyway it a pretty standard, if extensive, decontamination drill, followed by numerous tests. But the medicaes seem very pleased with the results. Oh, and there is sleep and food to be had also. Then there are interviews. But they seem to go well. You're actually feeling quite well so that shouldn't come as a surprise!

They don't tell you nothing though. But Haxtes has his special friend. And Odessa relays the good news. The brain-boys are quite astounded. All of you are in pretty good shape, in all the ways that matter. You are even led to understand that the guardsmen who had suffered quite a lot have - miraculously - made full recoveries. It's quite extraordinary. So extraordinary that the only reason you're still quarantined is because of your extraordinary recovery!

----

So you've a few more days to kill. Not too bad really. The food is bland, but Xerza drops by to say hello and she brings a few bottles of vintage. The fanboy that's guarding the visitation section forgets procedure and lets you have it. Good man. She tells you to relax, don't speak more than you have to, and never mention what happened down there to people without the correct clearance (something about having to kill them if you start blabbering - that's Xerza, never a happy thought).

The girl seems nice enough. A little thin and pale, but healthy-looking enough. Doesn't speak though. The Malleus Interrogators seem to think that she was some sort of sacrificial lamb. That there must have been others like her. But she doesn't check out with any appreciable level of psychic latency, nor is she deemed any more morally compromised than the rest of you. The non-speaking part might be residual trauma. Whatever that is.

You learn later that there was even a Malleus Inquisition to see her. His name was Ahmazzi and he was evidently already en-route by the time the shit hit the fan. You're left with the impression that he came down with the Arbites. At any rate he plainly didn't like the situation, but the girl passed every test, and seeing as Rykehuss has already claimed her for the Ordo Hereticus he could not prevent Xerza (also Hereticus) from taking her without causing a major incident (Conclave politics can be quite fierce).

----

Well, screw the old geezer. If he'd know what happened the day after, on the very last day of your stay, he'd have burned her on the spot. See, the brainboys had figured that drawing could help the girl cope. So you had a little drawing session. Jarra turned out to have a fluid line, drawing landscapes from Dusk.  Maxi was good at making funny little cartoons - even the mute laughed a little at those. Haxtes was surprisingly good at portrait sketches.

Not as good as the girl though. After drawing several alien landscapes of astounding clarity, she put Maxi's cartoons to shame with one of her own - detailing your underground struggles with swift and sure strokes. Then she tried her hand at portraits. For some reason she drew three women. Very lifelike. Jarra recognized her mother the instant she looked on the drawing...and Haxtes could feel old betrayals resurfacing as he gazed upon the likeness of his own long-lost mother.

Maximilian Elazar Dante looked long and hard on the face of the strange woman on the sheet of paper. Beautiful and regal. Somewhere deep inside the image merged with a faint memory - a laughing woman, a soft song, a sweet scent...

----

Shortly thereafter you were released to Xerza.