This is an introduction to a three part story arc that I've titled Portents. How does the writing hold up?
Answered Questions
Inquisitor Ignatius Toth lit the final incense burner in the corner of his dark cabin aboard the flagship, The Unforgiven Saint. He walked once around the circle of candles that lay burning before him, willing his thoughts to emptiness. A cushion sat within the circle, as well as a deck of blank white psychoactive crystal wafers, the Emperor's Tarot. He took his place upon the cushion and inhaled a deep breath of the recirculated air present aboard the starship.
His mind stretched from its fleshy prison and into the infinite shifting expanses of the Immaterium. Toth both loved and hated the warp, reveling in the freedom of the unbridled power, repelled by the risk it posed to his soul. His consciousness dipped into the Sea of Souls and drew forth an image. He pulled it from the expanse easily, drinking from the cool, clean water beneath the greasy surface of the warp. It was a star, seemingly both yellow and blue at the same time. His mind snapped back to his body for the fleetest of seconds revealing a stylized star against a black background on an overturned wafer before him.
He was tossed back into the warp by a tide of his own psychic energy. Another image came to him unbidden. A naked man hanging by his feet from the roof of a cave. His features twisted into a pale mockery of their former selves, a horrible smile splitting the the face into two distinct halves. The “I” of the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition has been flayed from the skin of his chest and stomach. Another flash of his corporeal self flipping another of the pale wafers. The Inquisitor lay inverted before him. Toth's mind and body both shivered uncontrollably. The two together symbolized a system on the brink of collapse, eaten from within by the corruption of heresy. He knew exactly which system his vision indicated. His mind's eye drifted to the data slate on the table on the other side of the room, though his body sat stalwartly staring at the two cards that he had already overturned. His unfettered mind absorbed the information on the screen greedily.
A spike of pain stabbed through his head, heralding a migraine from his recent efforts. He was reaching his breaking point. No. He couldn't afford to surrender now. The system, the people and the Holy Emperor himself depended on his strength. He forced his way back into the warp, clawing at the last two pieces of the prophecy. The first came free with a visceral tearing, a knight in tarnished power armor a series of 6 crests displayed upon his torn and filthy tabard. He was ripped from the warp back into his body. A pile of cooling vomit sat in his lap. Blood dripped from his nose and eyes onto the wafer displaying the Knight. This was a small victory, the sign that someone to stand against the coming doom of the system.
Toth knew that his time was growing short. His willpower dwindled into desperation. He attempted to reach back into the Empyrean for the last image. His mind fought to pass the barrier between this world and the next but was thrown back with concussive force. His physical body was pitched into the wall like a toy, shattering his ribs and extinguishing the circle of candles as his mind lost control of the psychic force. His vision blurred and the now dark room swam before him, illuminated solely by the pale green light of the data slate. He had failed to complete the viewing.
Still he refused to surrender to pain and doubt. What he had seen had vindicated the risk tenfold. It was vital that he warn his allies. Two hours later, Toth had crawled to the bridge of his ship, alarming the few unaltered crewmen charged with piloting and attending the vessel. The executive officer came to help him rise, but was beaten away by the still amazingly strong arms of the Inquisitor. He insisted on staying conscious until an astropathic message was sent to the other Inquisitors within his small conclave. A message demanding the combined efforts of the whole conclave in an grand investigation. Chaos was coming to the Eosian Rift.