Perhaps I’ve made a mistake
by spirapira** Name: Piper Eversly
** Title: Noble Daughter
** Strength: 5
** Dexterity: 6
** Vitality: 5
** Intelligence: 11
** Willpower: 7
** Psi Capability: 29 (Zeta)
Skills: Reading (27), Cooking (22), Hiding (16), Housework (15), Dissembling (12), Observation (11), Sword Mastery (8), Acting (6), Sewing (6), Embroidery (6), Marksmanship – Ballistic (5), Horse riding (5), Teaching (5), Etiquette (4), Athletics (3), Archery (3), Lying (2), Language: High Gothic (1), Memorisation (1)
It took me a couple of weeks to learn what my Psi stat was, and in that time I gained five more levels in Memorisation, four levels in High Gothic and three levels in Reading. I had been reading more than I had in recent memory. Books were something of a rarity for us. We only had, perhaps, ten books and three of them were reading primers of various levels. However, there were a lot more books available to me now, even if most of them were religious in nature.
I sat there with the dataslate open to a particular passage with a gaping, open mouth, in shock. The text read,
“While some among the Ecclesiarchy have advocated for the destruction of all Psykers as abominations against the natural order, the authorities of the Imperium have recognised that the use of psyker powers can be a valuable tool in defence of the Emperor’s realm. Thus, the Psykers are closely monitored and trained under the watchful eye of the Holy Inquisition and the Adeptus Astra Telepathica to ensure that their curse is used only in the service of the Emperor’s will.
Though mistrusted and feared, the Psyker may yet find redemption in the eyes of the Emperor, for their gifts can be a powerful weapon in the fight against His enemies. As long as they remain vigilant against the corruption of the Immaterium, the malevolent entities that dwell within it and live under the utmost supervision, the Psyker may yet find a place within the ranks of the Emperor’s defenders.
The use of psychic powers is a path fraught with peril, for the very nature of the Immaterium is one of chaos and corruption. The Psyker must exercise great discipline and willpower in order to prevent themselves from being consumed by the malevolent entities that dwell within the Warp, for such corruption can lead to their fall into darkness, damnation and the embrace of the Ruinous Powers.”
It took me quite a while to parse the text, which was written mostly in High Gothic. I had been sitting there with the data slate in each hand, one of which was a dictionary, for the past hour. Psykers were witches, and it didn’t take a lot of guesses to figure out how the word Psi was conjugated in my list of “statistics.” Psi was my highest number!
No, no, I couldn’t be a witch. My mind was roiling in shock, and I reached out to take a sip of water, only to find the cup that was sitting across the table suddenly jerk and fly into my hand, the sudden deceleration of the vessel causing water to slosh out and splash all over my face.
[Skill Warp Resistance gained at LV1.]
[Skill Telekinesis gained at LV1.]
** [QUEST] New quest, Go Your Own Way! Difficulty: B. You have discovered you are a Psyker. Avoid being discovered by Imperial authorities until you can control your own powers (and probably after that too!) Some psykers can detect the perturbations of the Warp when Warp-based powers are utilised!
** [QUEST] Rewards: Five stat points, three levels in Warp Resistance skill, and One Standard quality Warp-concealing equipment.
** [QUEST] New quest, Imperium Knows Best! Difficulty: Nominal. You have discovered you are a Psyker. Turn yourself into the authorities.
** [QUEST] Rewards: Two stat points, one level of Warp Resistance skill, loss of freedom, and the possible and likely death of body or soul.
** [QUEST] On Failure for either QUEST: Variable penalties include the possibility of but are not limited to: Being detained as a witch, possession, death, Enslavement, transmutation into a living Warp-rift, loss of freedom, corruption of personality, mutation, etc.
** You have unlocked the QUEST system! For more information, utilise the standard method of focusing on an item.
Well, poop. I casually cleaned my face off with my hands while thinking about this, staring at the glass of water in my hand. Also, I didn’t realise that I could get additional information on everything mentioned in my brain, although perhaps I should have because I did it before for those special “Skills.” But it just occurred to me that it would probably work on all of the Skills, as well as this new “Quest.” Looking up that word in the dictionary got a definition of: “an often lengthy or dangerous expedition made to accomplish a prescribed task.” Like a knight killing a dragon.
Did that mean that just living without being discovered was akin in difficulty to killing a dragon? Sighing, I tried to focus on the new skills I had received.
** WARP RESISTANCE (LV1): Resistance to damage and corrupting effects of the Warp. Training this skill without high Willpower or Self-Discipline skill is not recommended.
** TELEKINESIS (LV1): The ability to control, move, modify, destroy, fix, float, push, pull, and throw any object by the power of your mind and the Warp. The precision of this ability is a result solely of TELEKINESIS skill, while power is a result of a combination of TELEKINESIS skill and PSI CAPABILITY stat, although the precise formula is confidential.
I didn’t even notice Sister Jorus looming behind me until she asked, “You’re reading about witches?” Her tone was curious but not judging. I somehow managed to avoid jumping out of my skin in surprise, and instead, I glanced up at her.
“Uh… yes. On the trip here, our family encountered one; I’m not sure if you’re aware,” I told her, quickly coming up with a reason as to why I would be interested.
[DISSEMBLING has gone up a level.]
I frowned at that internally. Dissembling was one of my highest levelled skills, in the top five at least, but it wasn’t as high as Hiding was. It didn’t particularly say anything good about me. I wasn’t always sneaky around my mom, for goodness sake!
Sister Jorus smiled in a sympathetic sort of way and took a seat at the chair across from me, “I heard a little bit about that, that must have been terrible to see, but your father did the right thing. Do you want to talk about it?”
I didn’t, really. I knew my dad did the correct thing. You couldn’t have people just walk around shooting lightning bolts out of their hands. Things would get out of hand! Still, I told her about it, sparing only the details about my secret text that only I could see.
Sister Jorus winced as I described the fate of the villager; specifically, my description of the smear he left on the pearapple tree seemed to upset her. I thought it was just the explicitness of it, but she stopped me, “You said that the witch’s body was burned? What about the villager and this tree?”
I tilted my head to the side, “I don’t know about the villager; maybe he was as well. He was hit directly with her magick lightning bolt, after all. I don’t think they did anything to the tree. Is there a problem?”
The Sister stood up and paced left and right, “I’m not sure. No. Maybe.” She sighed, “To be safe, we would have cut down the tree as well and burned it. But it might not be necessary. I’ll make a note and have the tree examined in a season. So long as the bark seems to be healing correctly and there is no foulness about it, it should be fine. I’ll have to get someone to go look at it before it fruits again, just in case something is wrong and someone eats its fruits.” She said the last bit quietly as if to herself. Then she shook her head a little bit and smiled at me, “You must think I am being silly. I can see it on your face.” She slid back into the seat.
She continued, “But I am not, I assure you. Just ten years ago, we had an incident of a tree that was corrupted by a witch to the north, and it started to eat people.“
I blanched, worried, “Does this sort of thing happen all the time?”
She smiled, “This planet has an unusually high incidence of rogue psykers, yes. Right now, we have eleven people awaiting transport off-planet, and a Black Ship arrives at least twice a year. That’s about average here.”
I frowned. I didn’t know how common witches were. It didn’t seem like they were very common, but one always heard about one around somewhere. Sister Jorus asked, shifting her tone to a teaching or lecturing tone that I recognised, “What do you suppose the total population of Orkney is, Piper?”
“About two hundred and fifty million people?” I asked in a guessing tone.
She blinked and asked, “Most children born here guess wildly low, but your guess is just over three times the actual total, which is something like eighty-five million souls. What made you guess so high?”
Ah. I had read that there were that many people on the continent in one of the other books in the church. I grinned sheepishly, “My dad had a book that described the planet, an actual book, and it said that there were four continents. I just thought that there were a similar amount of people on each continent.”
She nodded, smiling, “Good use of logic, Piper, but it led you down the wrong path this time. Remember that. There are only permanent settlements on this continent. About twenty Terran years ago, all of the settlements on two other continents were relocated to this continent. But there were only a couple of million people on each of those two continents anyway. The last continent is uninhabited except for specialised rangers and workers that harvest certain plants for shipment off-world.”
I nodded. I didn’t know that we shipped anything off-world, and I couldn’t imagine what could be worth shipping interstellar distances. I only learned that we actually had interstellar traffic a week ago. In fact, I just learned the definition of the word interstellar a week ago! I asked, “So, eighty-five million?”
She nodded, “And how uncommon do you expect witches to be?”
“Pretty uncommon!” I replied immediately.
She shook her head sadly, “No. Incredibly, terrifyingly common. The overall Imperial rate of witchery is… well, it depends. Perhaps one per billion souls per annum, though, is a round enough number. Remember how many witches I said were here right now, waiting to travel off-planet? Now, keep in mind that for every witch delivered here, three to four are killed, and this is average for six months. So, that is about eighty to ninety witches per year, or very, very close to a rate of one per one million, one thousand times more common than average.”
I let my mouth hang open, shocked, and she saw that and nodded, “Yes, that is the main reason the Order of the Crimson Oath has a permanent Mission on this planet. Of course, they’re also here to defend the Ecclesiarchy personnel, but in practice, they are out searching for witches most of the time, as there are really no threats here that the PDF cannot crush. The great Holy Inquisitors come to this planet so often, at least once every other year, I’d say, that I’m on a first-name basis with two of them!” She sounded very proud of that last bit.
She then sighed, shaking her head, “If this planet wasn’t so valuable, the Imperium wouldn’t …” she then glanced at me and shook her head, “Nevermind, that.”
Well, poop. I didn’t even know what the Holy Inquisition was, but I knew who the terrifyingly devout Sisters she was referring to were. They stayed around the Monastery, and I saw them exercising, praying, or just running around Landing in huge armour, carrying swords and giant guns. I had made… well, not friends, but I was the acquaintance of one of them. She seemed to like me, although she didn’t seem to care for my brothers, and of that, I couldn’t blame her.
“What’s so valuable about Orkney?” I asked, shocked that our sleepy backwater had value. I had just learned about Forge Worlds and couldn’t imagine anything more valuable than that.
She smiled, “The plants we export contain a number of chemicals and proteins that are the primary ingredient in several different types of rejuvinat treatments. It’s so important to the Sub-Sector that there is a permanent Naval fleet, even if it is a small one, in the system at all times. We even have a Magos Biologis here on the planet who will give such treatments to citizens for, essentially, free. I’m not ashamed to admit I have taken advantage of it myself. These plants are also the reason the technology level of the planet is limited, although I don’t understand the reason, just that it is imperative.” My dad had mentioned something like that; that he and mom were getting some kind of treatment to make themselves younger, it sounded magical.
Was that then the wizard, I wondered? A few of the kids at school said that there was a wizard in the large tower next to the cliff face. I wanted to go see it, for sure. But if he was a real wizard, he might be able to tell I was weird too, and I had already decided to try to conceal and not use my witchery, if at all possible. When the reward for turning myself included possible death…
Sister Jorus smiled and said, “Join me in a prayer, and then you can head out for the day.” I tried not to roll my eyes, but at least she selected one of the briefest of all the ones I had read in half a dozen prayer books.
I held my hands together and said, “Oh great Emperor on the Throne, In your shadow, I find my home. Guide me with your holy light, And keep me safe both day and night.”
“Alright, go on, get out of here. Place the dataslates back where you found them first, though,” she said.
My feet were already moving, and I called back, “Yes, Sister Jorus,” in the universal way that a kid would reply when a grown-up asked them to do something obvious. My mother had stopped coming to pick me up several days ago. At first, she was worried about my safety in a new place, but she realised that the place we lived in was very, very safe.
Instead of going back home, I went exploring. Specifically, I found an entrance to what I was privately calling The Hive because it sounded cool, and I had just read about Hive Cities. In actuality, it was called the Orkney Auxiliary Accommodations, though. It was the massive complex built into the side of the cliff. Instead of the Hive Cities that I had read about, it was built into the ground and went down instead of built at ground level and going up.
Supposedly, ten million people could be housed here in comfort, a million per accommodation level. That meant that there were hundreds of thousands of rooms per level! It would be physically impossible for me to explore them completely, even if I had years.
From what I had overheard, the top level was partially utilised. But none of the rest were, except the bottommost level, which had no accommodations at all but had dangerous and interesting things like the fusion power plant that powered the entire city of Landing.
As such, I avoided both the bottom and the topmost level, and after sneaking into the complex, I took the nearest elevator to the fifth level. I have been working here for the past several days. The problem was that most of the machines that created light were not working properly, but some were. My Observe skill helped me a lot here.
[Lighting unit, poor to fair condition, installed by The Orkney Enterprise LLC at time of planetary settlement; the unit is non-functional due to damage to the replaceable LED emitter matrix.]
Maybe about one out of twenty would be functional, I found, but I quickly discovered that I could take this “LED emitter matrix” out of the functional ones and place them into the ones that didn’t work! I had about thirty of the working emitters now, and I had created a path for my exploration. I would get about every fourth light working, which allowed me to explore every room on this corridor, invariably getting more working lights.
Most of the rooms were not only empty but incredibly dusty! That made sense as if my Observe wasn’t lying; these rooms were built at the time we settled in Orkney over fifteen thousand years ago. The doors opened automatically as soon as you approached one like they were magic; well, most of the time, they did. This one I was standing in front of seemed to be having some issues.
Frowning, I noticed something out of place. On all of the other doors, there was this little oval-shaped thing on top of the door, in the centre, but in this case, it was hanging by wires. I triggered Observe on it.
[Passive infrared motion detector, this device can be used to detect the infrared emissions from most living beings in order to activate a device, in this case, an automatic door. The device is currently misaligned.]
I giggled, quite excited despite not knowing what infrared was at all! It was something that living things “emitted”, though, so that was how the doors worked. Amazing! I had stopped Observing everything I saw because I had not gotten a new level since a week ago, but I thought I was going to start again because it was clear that it was useful just on its own.
I couldn’t reach that thing, though, but I wouldn’t let that stop me. I had stolen, err, borrowed a small step-ladder that I had brought in with me. I wouldn’t have been able to get half the lights working otherwise. I drug it over to the door, got on the top step and grabbed the oval shape. Testingly, I held my other hand in front of the device and was pleased when the door slid open jerkily, sliding into the wall.
A lot of these doors seemed like they could use some lubrication, like the axle bearings on a wagon that would squeak and creak if they were properly lubricated. It was a bit of a shame, I thought. I placed the oval back in the detent that it was supposed to sit in, but it fell out again.
Sighing, I hopped down and slid the step ladder in between the doorway. I had learned that the doors wouldn’t close if anything was in the doorway, even this step ladder. That meant it had to use some completely different mechanism, too, compared to the “passive infrared” because step ladders weren’t alive. I peered into the wall where the door slid into when it opened and tried to use Observe to see it, but I couldn’t make anything out, and I could only use Observe if I could see, distinctly, an object.
The inside of the room was completely dark, but I could already see that the room wasn’t as empty as the others I had found. Grinning, I pitter-pattered back into the hallway and grabbed one of my working LED emitters and ran back into the new room. Lights in these rooms were placed at pretty much the same places in every room, namely in the ceiling and on the side of the walls. By touch, I found one of the devices built into the side of the wall and carefully unsnapped the faulty LED and sat it on the floor before sliding the known-working one into the housing. Sure enough, it lit up brightly, illuminating most of the room.
The first thing I noticed was I recognised the desk that was sitting off to one side of the room. It was almost identical to the desk that my father had in his study, and I had seen similar desks in the Baron’s large house as well when we visited. How interesting. These were the stereotypical “noble’s desk.” Did that mean they were just salvaged from the mountain? I peered at it.
[Aluminum and steel desk, good condition, this desk was used by a Health and Safety police officer of Orkney Colony.]
I think I was right, and this was something like an office for the Arbites, then. That was something new to me, as well. I was more familiar with a more feudal style of justice; for example, my father was the arbiter of justice for all crimes below a certain threshold, and above that, he had to bring the miscreant to the Baron. However, in Landing, they had professional peacekeepers that did not have any other jobs besides that, not that they were very busy, I felt.
The single light fixture caused the light to be very dim, so I investigated the room quite slowly. In the corner of the room was a small closet which I found several items, which I pulled out and sat on top of the dusty desk, coughing when my movements caused a cloud of thin dust to alit into the air.
The first object was a belt, but it was in terrible condition and about to fall apart.
[Leather toolbelt, deplorable condition, this belt and its contents were left in the lost and found at the Health and Safety office.]
The contents were a lot of hand tools that I somewhat recognised, like screwdrivers, pliers, snips, a roll of sticky tape called duct tape that still seemed sticky, something my Observe called a tape measure. I quickly figured out how to use it and found out I was a little bit above one hundred and forty centimetres.
Also, there was a small folding knife that still was quite sharp, which I put in my pocket, a small saw and two things that I identified as electronics that I set aside.
[Combination laser rangefinder and level, very poor condition, this device is used to find the distance between two objects within one hundred metres as well as ensure the level of a working area if utilised properly. The power cell is irreparably damaged.]
[High-lumen output flashlight, poor condition; on its highest setting, this device can output one hundred thousand lumens if used in the visible spectrum. Features an adjustable output power and wavelength from infrared to ultraviolet colours. Caution, high-intensity ultraviolet light is dangerous and may cause blindness and skin damage. There is corrosion in the power cell connection preventing proper operation.]
[OBSERVE has gone up a level.]
Oooh! That was the first time it had increased in a week. I think I needed to use it on more unique and interesting things in order for it to advance more. I was hoping I could just do it constantly, but that stopped working after a while. Wait, infrared was a colour?! I was pretty sure living beings didn’t emit colours, but I’d have to look up all of these words in the dictionary, and hopefully, they would be in there. It wasn’t complete, as I already noticed that.
The last interesting item was the coolest of them all.
[Stunner carbine, very poor condition, Health and Safety officers carried only non-lethal weapons, and this is an example of one of them, or it would be if it was in working condition. There is damage to the waveguide, there is corrosion on the electrical contacts on the power management board, and the power cell is irreparably damaged.]
I didn’t know what any of that meant, but everything sounded cool! Although a boy might have been more interested in the gun, I didn’t think I could fix that, but maybe I could fix the flashlight. That would make my explorations down here much easier! I grabbed some of the tools, including pliers and screwdrivers, as well as the flashlight and stuffed them all into my pockets.
Then, I glanced at the duct tape and hummed, grabbing it too. Pulling the step ladder out of the door, I waited until the door closed before climbing back up on the ladder and pulled out a healthy strip of the sticky tape to affix the uhh… the infrared sensor back into its normal position.
Scowling, the first strip of tape only adhered to the dust on the wall. Spending a few moments, I cleaned the dust off and tried again, and this time succeeded! I wouldn’t need the step ladder to enter the room again.
[Skill Jury-rigging gained at LV1.]
I quickly focused on the skill.
** JURY-RIGGING (LV1): The skill to repair or assemble items quickly or from whatever is at hand, especially for temporary use.
That is cool, too, although I would rather have had a skill that would help me repair the flashlight permanently. I didn’t want to mess it up, as it was too important for my exploration. Still, I didn’t have any more time to mess around; I had to get back home before my mom, or Mrs Robins started looking for me.
I ran back to the elevator with my treasures in my pocket, and rode it back up to the top level. This level was consistently lit, although I made sure to enter the complex well away from the area I knew the Duke and his men utilised. Still, I glanced around furtively until I was back outside. Then, I ran full speed back to my house, and it appeared as though I was just in time as my mom asked, “Piper! Where have you been? Oh, did you roll around in the dirt like a dog? How did you get so dirty and dusty?!”
She grabbed me by my ear, dragged me inside, and made me take a shower immediately, which I didn’t complain too much about. Although our house in the country had running water, it was only because rainwater filled the cistern. Otherwise, someone — usually children — would have to fill the cistern up one bucket at a time, so the water was never wasted on a shower for only one person. Instead, we’d usually clean ourselves as best we could and then get into a bath one at a time.
Although we didn’t have running hot water, as some places did, I was still quite pleased with the concept of running water being so simple to have. Emperor-willing, I would never take a bucket of water up on another roof again.
The next day I woke up an hour earlier than I usually did and set off to school. I had a question for someone that I only usually saw if I was early to school in the morning or if I stayed late after my mandated religious education. I didn’t want to stay late because I wanted to run back home and try to fix that flashlight that I had hidden under my bed.
Seeing the woman I was seeking swinging a sword in the garden of the church, I smiled.
[Sister Lucia Decimya, Human Woman, Lucia is the second-in-command of the Permanent Mission of the Order of the Crimson Oath. She would rather be on a Mission with more combat, especially against xenos.]
I called out to her, “Sister Lucia, Sister Lucia,” and ran up to her as she paused, swinging the giant sword around. It might seem insane to ask this woman for help if what Sister Jorus said was true and her main duties included tracking down witches, which I might be considered, but at the same time, I thought she liked me, and if judging from her behaviour she might be the best one to teach me what I thought I would need to prevent myself from getting caught.
“Yes, girl?” she asked in her usual brusque manner.
I put on my best puppy dog eyes, “Sister Lucia, do you know a way to and can you help me train Willpower and Self-Discipline?”
Wait, why did her grin look so predatory?