A quartet of household guards in golden helms and scarlet dress coats escorted Aeschelus into the Sanctum Navis, flanking the captain as he stepped through the broad double-doors into a well-appointed living area. His eye was immediately drawn to three figures, two standing over a third lying on a couch near the centre of the room. More red-clad attendants waited nearby, one with an ornate pitcher and cup, another with a silk handkerchief with which he dabbed at the mouth of the supine Navigator.

All three had their third eyes hidden behind metal bands, as they always did in the presence of servants or outsiders. To do otherwise was to threaten madness to any that looked upon their warp-orbs.

Kosa turned towards Aeschelus, straightening. She looked even more gaunt than normal, the fingers of one hand fluttering like a butterfly at the high collar that she wore tight about her throat. The other dismissed the guards with a wave.

Aeschelus had expected perhaps screams or moans from the afflicted Navigator, but she seemed entirely comatose as the captain looked past the orderlies at the figure on the couch. She was dressed in a tight-fitting tunic which had been opened at the front to reveal a bright yellow shirt within, her hands lying by her sides as though dead. He could see the slight rise and fall of the chest and hear the heartbeat, painfully slow it seemed. Not dead, but not altogether alive either.

Kosa moved away, indicating with an inclined head that Aeschelus should join her in an adjoining chamber. The captain loitered for a moment longer, entranced by the stare of the catatonic Navigator. Violet eyes gazed at some point beyond the lavish scrollwork of the ceiling, looking at something only she could see.

A cough from Kosa drew his attention back to the chief Navigator, who waited at the door to the next room. Ducking through, Aeschelus found himself in a more austere chamber set with a table and chairs, a small cabinet to one side. He realised it was where the attendants on duty would wait while not needed by their lord and ladies. The door swung closed behind them as Aeschelus squeezed the bulk of his armour between the furniture and wall, his head almost touching the ceiling.

‘Why have we dropped out of warp space?’ the captain asked. ‘Did something attack your companion?’

‘No, it was nothing like that,’ Kosa replied, sitting down on one of the straight-backed chairs. She put her hands on the bare wooden table and spent several seconds examining her fingernails in some detail before continuing, without looking at the Space Marine. ‘Dosellua has lost the sight in her third eye. Blinded, she activated the emergency translate before succumbing to the condition in which you now see her. There has been no breach of the Geller field.’