Toros stood against the broken vitrage of the room, her fingers caressing the plas-tek casings of what once had been her personal Omnissiah altar. What was the point of trying to cover-up the theft of data-cores specifically, covering it up behind stealing of the whole cogitator AND behind an assassination?..

It took her a good five seconds to process the question. Took another five to come up with an answer. She hated operating in meat-time. 

"Allow an old woman to revisit one history lesson, Kota", protomaga turned around, her silhouette against the light of the broken window. "Long ago, there lived a woman who chose to protect her ruler and did a damn good job of doing exactly that. She fought rebels, crushed millions under her gilded heel right into some very fine phosphor-smelling ash. She fought my people, impressed even them with her loyalty and zeal - and, trust me, Sister, we are not easy to impress. She fought the Angels of Death themselves to a bloody standstill, their holy blood again flowing through the Throneworld. Nobody thought it to be possible for a backwater upstart to hold the ground against the Emperor's finest. She surprised them all, keeping through it all with her loyalty, her against the whole Galaxy."

Toros licked her suddenly dry lips, checking the armour status. She could take three bolts. The fourth would kill her. The first hit would throw her out of the window anyway, out of the line of fire - hopefully, Maglev coils still worked after all those years. Even more hopefully yet, Kota won't try anything stupid.

"One morning, her choice changed. She chose another way. She walked straight to the ruler, the same old man who trusted her completely, the man she swore to protect, the man who she had previously defended for decades, and then painted the wall with his brains.", Secunda shuddered, her eyes straying to the splatters along the bullet-riddled walls. "Nobody cared about her not being on 'equal ground' with the old man. Nobody dared to 'leverage' her old loyalties and broken oaths of allegiance against her. The only important thing was that her personal choice was seen as correct, and nobody really knows why she made that choice one morning."

The latter part was a lie. Someone knew. Someone cared for that one part to remain forgotten. Sorrowful golden shadows lurked through the footnotes of hagiographies and cyber-prophesies, charred lacunaes beginning shortly. Magina knew better than to acknowledge their existence. Some things were not to be researched deeper.

"We venerate her as well, you know.", Archmagos nodded to the moving holo-projection in one of the surviving panels of the temple. Armour-clad woman stepping through the blood, golden lighnings behind her back - Toros herself found solace in considering the life of the blessed. "Motive Force, at its simplest, is every single particle choosing to move in the same direction under the external field, just as we make our individual choices under Omnissiah's light - and, no matter what, his potential drives us into the right direction, no matter the prior resistance. Which is to say, make your choices and live with the consequences. Shouldn't be more difficult than becoming a saint after losing a war and shooting your boss in the face, right?"

Shouldn't be more difficult than coming to ZRK and figuring out what happens. Secunda twitched the corner of her mouth and killed the thought. She had more important business here. Definitely.