As the dark waves crashing into the confused masses of the heretics and slaves, I felt a twinge of regret for the laborers. One man had just climbed out of a hole, fear and confusion in his eyes before he even saw the oncoming waters. The swell washed over him before he could even cry out and sent him back into the hole he had dug, evidently being the digger of his own grave. I know the reputation on Inquisitors. That we would signal the end of entire worlds in order to stamp out the smallest infection of chaos. Perhaps some of us have that strength of will, and lack of regard for their fellow man. I do not, and to see even a hundred men and women under the thrall of chaos being engulfed by the returning landscape was not what I wished for.

But even so, my mind fled their deaths quickly when I saw Emmaline fall. I admit I was selfish. She was the woman I cared for... 

[hr]

"She'll be fine," Selencia told me, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. I looked at her, and we shared a lingering gaze for a moment before I was convinced. 

The walls around us were stone and mortar, built in the style of stone fortresses of ancient terra. Crossing Town was a small port by imperial standards, but a castle dominated the center of the settlement and kept a hanger behind it's large walls, hidden just the same as the modern servitors and specialized equipment held within. I had revealed myself and my station to the Portmaster, and he had been all too accomodating granting my team a small wing in the citadel. I had spent most of my time by Emmaline's side, almost as much as Selencia. Her dark hair tied back and her jacket removed, she had worked nonstop to diagnose Emmaline and purge purge her of impurities. Psychic overload was very hard to treat, but if anyone could keep her stable, it was Selencia. 

She didn't disappoint. 

I gave her a smile, a rarity for me. She commented on it. "My, my, does the Inquisitor finally show a bit of his old self?" She teased. 

"Old self meaning?" 

She sat down on the cushioned chair across from me. The drapes hid the sunlight, but there was still a soft glow that surrounded the attractive woman. It brought back memories of a time before I was an Inquisitor, when I had first realized just how delightful she was. Perhaps if I hadn't been gone those five years to find Bahometus, I might have told her so. But I waved the thought away, knowing as lovely as she was, Emmaline was taken my interest more swiftly and completely than any woman. Selencia broke my thoughts. "Meaning back when you followed Kronus around like a puppy. You used to smile a lot then." 

"That's because I was stupid," I told her, and turned my gaze to Emmaline. Her left arm exposed, there was an IV feeding nutrients into her system. 

"You're still a fool, just a glum one," she replied, but I didn't hear her. Emmaline's eyes opened up, and immediately I was on my feet. Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something more elaborate than what came out, but the only words that escaped her lips were a soft 'frack,' again. I smiled again. My strong hand reached over and brushed her cheek gently. 

"How are you?" I asked, care in my voice. 

"Feeling like Lucius threw me down a mineshaft. W-where are we?" 

"At Crossing Town. Don't worry, the Caledonia will be here in a few days."