Torquemada Coteaz

The hum of filtered air filled the Inquisitor's private sanctum like the slow exhale of some slumbering warbeast. Scripture-covered servo-skulls drifted lazily overhead, their ocular sensors clicking and whispering catechisms of vigilance. The scent of incense clung to everything—burnt cinderroot and sanctified oils masking the stench of old metal and ozone.

Torquemada Coteaz stood rigid before a holo-slate suspended in the air, pale light dancing across the iron edges of his armor. His hawkish gaze scanned the dossier… or rather, the lack of one. “No name. No classification. No origin enclave confirmed,” came the voice of Interrogator Vecht over the vox. “Just that they were marked ‘active asset’ and ‘anomaly,’ my lord. From the Temple archives themselves.”

Coteaz said nothing for several long moments. The hum of his armor’s internal servos was the only reply.

Finally, his gloved hand closed the slate with a quiet snap.

“No operative arrives on my ship without clearance,” he growled. “If they were sanctioned by the Clades, they will have proven useful. But unexplained anomalies are seldom accidents.” He turned slowly from the hololith, his mind already arranging contingency plans. Daemons could wear faces. Xenos could feign Imperial tongues. Even loyalty could be forged in clever deception. But anomalies… anomalies were deliberate.

“Have them brought directly to me. No detours. No observation. I want to see the whites of their eyes the moment they step aboard.”

He reached to his belt, where the Inquisitorial rosette gleamed like a knife in candlelight. The presence he felt... it was already here. Subtle. Wrong-footed. Not hostile, but not entirely human either. “And Vecht,” he added, voice lowering, “if this proves to be a test from the High Lords… let them know I do not fail.”

The vox clicked off.

Coteaz turned toward the reinforced doors of his chamber, the faint psychic resonance already prickling at the back of his mind.

Someone was coming.

Someone not quite accounted for.

And he would have his answers—one way or another.