"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here," Eve whispered as she peered into the doorway. Stairs, rough-hewn from the bedrock beneath the palatial estate of Sextus Pompeii, wound down into the earth beyond. The white-clad Celestian leader, Dinah, leaned around the doorjamb to look as well.
Katherine placed a hand on a golden shoulder pauldron of her Seraphim leader, her eyes staring down the steps as though she could pierce the Stygian gloom to see whatever horrors lay below, "While I appreciate your reference to classic literature, I am not yet ready to abandon hope, Eve." She turned her head to look back to Harodiah, "Is Gaius below?"
The penitent's face was drawn with concentration, her lips pressed so tightly together they were white. She shook her head, "I cannot say. His presence is everywhere, and nowhere. He allows me to sense him, yet cloaks himself. It is a game to him."
"And we've little choice but to play," Katherine sighed. "Remain alert, my sisters. In the catacombs, combat will be close, and the enemy will have numerous places to hide and ambush us. I would wait for Rachel and her forces, but I fear already Gaius has had overlong to prepare for us."
The Acolyte Flavia stepped forward, her youthful teenaged face set with grim determination, "Mother Superior, may we take point?" She held up the flamer she'd taken from a fallen sister. "We can use the purifying flame to clear our path."
"I think it is too dangerous, Sister Flavia," Dinah said. "It would be best if the experienced Celestians descend first."
Flavia met Dinah's eyes with fire in her own, "It is dangerous, thus all the more reason for us to go first. Sisters of your skill are too valuable to fall to some trick of the enemy. This way, if we are ambushed and fall, you and the Celestians will be there to counterattack." She glanced to Katherine, her grip tight on the flamer. "Mother Superior?"
The Canoness closed her eyes and bowed her head slightly, "Very well. Flavia and the Acolytes will be on point. Dinah, your Celestians will follow closely with the Seraphim. The Dominions will cover the back with their storm bolters."
"We will not fail you, nor the God-Emperor," Flavia began down the stairs, the maroon and cream armored Acolytes falling in behind her.
Eve whispered in Katherine's ear, "I remember what I was like at that age. I felt like I could take on the whole galaxy."
"You don't still?" the Canoness teased as she waved Dinah and Celestians into the portal. Katherine saw something of herself in the girl. Many years ago, she had earned her Vestments at the tender age of sixteen, though she had been trained personally by Canoness Magdalena. Katherine knew the emotional price of such responsibility on someone so young. She knew the nightmares the girl would have after the things she had seen…
Flavia leaned against the wall where the stairs doubled back on themselves. She nodded to Octavia, and the other Acolyte stepped around the divider, pointing her flamer down the stairs. "Clear." Octavia whispered, and Flavia pivoted around the wall and stepped past her. They had leap-frogged their way down several switchbacks as they descended deeper underground. Cornelia and two other shotgun-armed Acolytes followed. "How deep is this cellar delved?" Octavia sighed.
"A structure this big must have a foundation fifteen or twenty meters thick," Flavia answered.
"Sound discipline!" Cornelia hissed, wincing with the pain it caused to speak. Her cheek had been rent so badly her cheekbone and teeth could be seen in the wound, but she had simply fastened a simple bandage over it to continue to fight.
Flavia and Octavia silenced themselves, rebuked by their fellow sister. Another landing and folding of the stairwell upon itself, and they came to the bottom of the stairs. They led into a storeroom of considerable size, stacked with crates, boxes, and sacks of supplies to keep the staff and guards of the estate fed and equipped. Several other rooms connected to it, freezers, wine cellars, and more storage. The girls fanned out to cover each doorway while the other sisters entered the chamber.
