Pulling the trigger hurled a blast of superheated plasma that incinerated anything it touched…the cleansing fires of purity. The gaze of the Emperor. The blast struck the mutant psychic, immolating his flesh like paper. He wailed piteously as the skin and muscles of his body burned and flaked away from his bones. His face melted and his eyes burst before his warp-addled brain was consumed. Even his bones crumbled to charred dust.
Katherine blinked and looked around the Calidarium. Eve was sitting on the tile floor, tending to a wounded Seraph. The other golden-clad Sisters were moving among the cultists, delivering the coup-de-grace to those still clinging to life with single bolter rounds to the head. There was only one penalty for Heresy.
Two Dominions were still standing, vigilantly covering the entryway in case there were cult reinforcements on the way. However, the bathhouse was filled with stillness, broken only by the faint moans of the wounded and dying. Claudia was kneeling by the large pool, her eyes wide an unblinking. A cultist had impaled her through the abdomen with a crowbar of iron, though she refused to fall. Her gaze drifted over the bodies of her priestesses floating in the crimson-stained water as she went into shock…
"It's Mother Rachel!" One of the Dominions called out. A few seconds later, the Palatine walked through the archway, leading her white-armored Celestian bodyguards. Behind them was Harodiah, unmasked and head shaved smooth. Her eviscerator was caked with blood and chucks of heretic flesh, her black corset-like armor dripping.
Rachel glanced behind her, "Sisters, see to the southern half of the building. Find Sister Superior Dinah and her detachment." As her Celestians and other forces rushed off to obey her command, she strode up to Katherine, "We have pacified the northern half of the bathhouse, Mother Superior."
Katherine nodded and placed a weary hand on the Palatine's shoulder, "My trust in you was well founded." Her gaze fell onto Harodiah and she beckoned with a crooked finger, "Come with me." She led the Repentia to the Chaos Marine, still nailed to the floor with the Blade of Saint Magdalena. The Aspiring Champion was laboring for breath, blood flowing freely from his mouth. "He doesn't have long to live. I need to know where his master is."
With clenched fists, Harodiah nodded, her face grim. The penitent psychic loathed using her warp-spawned powers, opening that doorway into the Immaterium and the wellspring of all psychic power. The very thought of wielding them made her feel unclean, like she needed to bathe and wash away the foul taint. Harodiah reached down and took down the mental barriers she had erected to hold her powers at bay. The bile rose in her throat as her stomach churned, gagging her. She swallowed her gorge and squeezed her eyes tightly shut, "I see…I see Him…He's…" The others could her the disturbing sound of her teeth grinding together as she clenched her jaw. Muscles of her neck corded up with the strain. "A mansion…it's…huge. An estate…with a large garden. Gaius is there…It's…" Suddenly her head snapped and Harodiah swooned. Rachel and Katherine quickly stepped in to grab her by the arms and prevent her fall. "Ah…he's dead…the Marine is dead."
"Do you know where this estate is?"
Harodiah shook her head weakly, "No, Mother Superior. I apologize."
"Could you recognize it if you saw it…or was shown a hologram?" Katherine asked. The psychic nodded slowly and the two Sisters gently lowered her to the ground to rest. The Canoness turned to Rachel, "If we can get some holos of the city, we may be able to find this mansion. I'll wager the Legions or perhaps the Arbites have aerial reconnaissance holos of the capital."
Rachel nodded, and offered, "And perhaps this mansion is the abode of whatever Patrician owns this bathhouse."
"We'll see what we can dig up," Katherine started for the door. "Let's find Dinah."
