Following on our Pilgrym coverage, it’s PDH with a trilogy of moody retelling:

“Sit, Interrogator Clayre Abhozen, for now is the time for me to briefly tell you my tale, take it as a warning and your first lesson. 

Twenty eight years ago I stood on the observation deck of the eccliesiarchy vessel ‘The Martyrs Path’. My three year pilgrimage to the homeworld near completion. Nearby the faithful sank to their knees, weeping and praying.  I gazed down upon Terra with a heavy heart and abject disappointment. I had resigned from the Ordo Xenos for this pilgrimage; the belighted jewel of the Imperium my destination. But the stained glass within the Chapels and Cathedrals of Dalthus Prime had been a lie. Everything I had been told was a lie. This was not a shining beacon of hope but a dingy ball of filth suspended in space, surrounded by an adamantium wall of void ships and gun barrels. Thick brown clouds hung heavy in the atmosphere, spires pierced the veil into space and the ship was slowing running towards one of the transatmospheric docking ports. This planet was nothing but another hive world in a galaxy of a million. The Orks at Sword Point had taken most of my humanity. The failures of the Administratum had taken my devotion to the Throne. I had hoped my pilgrimage would be an act of catharsis and renewal, but this vision of Terra took my faith!

Then twenty six years ago I found myself at a crossroad. For two years I had tried to rekindle my faith in the God Emperor and the Imperium. For two years I travelled as a vagabond upon the pilgrim trails, all my possessions bar my rosette confiscated by the Adeptus Arbites. I dressed in sackcloth and flagellated my humanity, my mechanical parts felt no pain and I despised them for it.

The first road offered to me was by Ehret Filipovic; if you meet him kill him, for he is a heretic. He used my pain and loss against me to try and recruit me to The Church of the Red Athenaeum. I see you’ve not heard of them? They are fools who delve too deeply into the sundering of the Emperor, as if they could recreate his suffering or sacrifice. Filipovic wanted to manipulate me for the accesses my rosette could give his so called church.

Inquisitor Stiber Gorst saved me. Gorst’s raid on the heretic Filipovic’s repository saved me from being seduced by the glimmer of salvation, which ultimately was a heresy. Gorst found me snivelling and broken, moments before my intended execution he discovered my rosette. This was the other road, I am still on this route by the grace of the God Emperor.  I was imprisoned under the Administratum Catacombs and the injuries to both my body and mind were treated by Magos Biologis Frent. In this period I learnt of the Ordo Scriptorum and wished I had known of its existence before my fall from grace. Anyway, for three years Gorst investigated my legacy in the Ordo Daltus, in my former life it turns out I saved billions of lives from the threat from without.

In this time I also reformed my faith in the God Emperor with help from the Adepta Sororitas. I took this period of my life as a challenge from the Emperor. I made my appeasements and awaited execution for my failures and doubts. Rather than fulfil my wish of being excommunicated and executed for my weakness, Gorst indentured me to his service and that of the Ordo Scriptorum. He took my Rosette, and for that I am eternally grateful. For the second time in my life I was an Interrogator for The Most Holy Orders of the Emperor’s Inquisition. I had much to prove, as you do now.

Seven years ago I was paraded before Lord Inquisitor Ker-Slate. I had proven myself worthy to be an Inquisitor, again. Here I was presented with this new rosette, my badge of office within the Inquisitional Ordos, though I am still oath bound and indentured to Ordo Scriptorum. Gorst returned my original rosette as a reminder of what could have been. I wear it over my heart, for this badge saved me and allowed me to return to the service of Emperor, under a different guise. Of course I am still watched, they do not completely trust that my will is now indomitable, but know this Interrogator Abhozen, the Ordo Scriptorum is my calling and I ruthlessly pursue its mandates.

I expect the same from you.”

Continues tomorrow..