The two Sister Hospitaller who housed with Harodiah as her adepts rested on their knees outside their teacher's door, keeping their eyes on their hands folded in their laps and prepared to nurse the wounds too greivous for the Chirurgeon to cleanse herself. Some nights, Harodiah would flagellate her own back to the point where she would cause hemorrhages and it took much effort on her students' part to keep Magdalena from finding out. While the Mother Superior knew Harodiah performed her own form of penance, the escape in the pain was seen as a drifting towards the Dark Gods and it was hard enough to keep the psyker in her retinue.
While the sound of leather on tender and raw skin echoed in Harodiah's chambers, her screams rising up from behind her door, a figure stood in the light of the main doorway, shadowing out the sunlight as they looked down on the two Sisters.
Inquisitor Gaius Romulus Saevitiae loomed in the doorway and waved the Sisters Hospitaller away, "I will handle this, girls. Off with you." With a firm hand, he opened the door to Harodiah's chambers. He looked down at the woman kneeling disrobed on the floor, her back a network of fresh, livid lacerations. He cocked his head to the side, "Sister Harodiah."
Harodiah was shocked to find Gaius behind her and her eyes shot open, but the pain in her back did not allow her to show her reaction physically. Any other time she would have picked up on his physic signature, as it was a powerful one. She knew she had cut too deep and had done muscle damage. If Gaius had not shown up, she may have hit bone, but with the skill mankind had developed in the fields of surgery and healing, she knew she would be fine with time, but that did not stop her from being woozy now. It took her a few moments to gather her bearings and respond, her voice choked and raw from yelling, "Inquistor Saevitiae... I did not realize you were here. Have you witnessed my entire little show?"
"Enough," He stepped forward and took the whip from her hand. "You know this is much easier if you have someone doing the whipping for you." He walked casually across the room and sat on her spartan bed, crossing his legs as though relaxing and making himself at home. His eyes drank in her naked and huddled form as she knelt on the floor before him, the symbology of the situation obviously to his liking. "We must speak, you and I...about your future."
Harodiah wanted to chuckle, but it was hard for her to even speak. The pain running through her body was intensifying with every moment and she feared she would pass from conciousness, but she held herself up by putting her bloody palms on her pale, naked knees. "We are both quite aware of my future, Inquistor. It would be foolish to assume that by speaking we can portray truths... we are more aware of each other than I care to be."
"Are we? Perhaps so." He raised an eyebrow over his cool, ice blue eyes. "There are only a few paths for your future to take, sister. And it is I who will choose what path that will be." Gaius turned his hand over and inspected his nails critically, "I have spoken with Magdalena...oh, excuse me...Saint Magdalena. She has remanded you into my custody."
This came as a true shock to Harodiah. It was not the fact that Magdalena had turned her into the hands of this monster, for they both knew eventually Harodiah would be somehow approached by the Inquisition, but the fact that Harodiah had not sensed her Mistress performing the act. Magdalena's ascendance to Saint-hood had made her something beyond human and who is to try and read a true avatar of the Emperor's will? "I suppose you are glad..." Harodiah winced in pain and shut her eyes, holding in the young girl-like screams that seethed beneath her tongue,"... to have taken such a skilled Chirurgeon into your service?"
"Oh...I am," He stood and walked to the small desk upon which lay Harodiah's implements on healing. "I'm sure you are a girl of...many, many talents." The Inquisitor picked up a jar of oinment from the table and opened it, walking behind the Hospitaller. He stood behind her and gently slid an ointment-slathered hand down her raw and bleeding back, numbing the pain. "I'm looking forward to having you tend my needs. But you are more than just a Chirurgeon, aren't you?"
