‘He’d been pulling double rotation,’ Kallis says. ‘We all have, since we made the translation. It didn’t seem to bother him overmuch, but when I made my way up for relief at five bells he wasn’t at his post. I thought perhaps there’d been unrest as there has on other decks, so I went looking. When I found him there was no unrest, though. Just Van Roys.’

‘What was he doing?’ I ask.

‘Just standing in the corridor,’ Kallis says. ‘He was preoccupied. He kept murmuring to himself over something.’

‘Over what?’ I ask.

Kallis’ eyes stay on Van Roys’ body. ‘Whispers,’ he says. ‘In the walls.’

I hear Ashava hiss air through her teeth. Some of the crew make the sign of the aquila as a warding gesture.

‘I reported it, of course,’ Kallis says absently. ‘But by then it was too late. By then he’d already done this.’

He gestures emptily at the words scrawled on the wall. I cannot help but think of Eugenia’s words. Of the great heap of stone waiting to collapse, and of the darkness that waits behind my eyes in place of dreams. I realise that perhaps there are signs to see, after all.

‘Where did you relieve Van Roys?’

Kallis frowns. ‘At the cross-wards corridor,’ he says. ‘Sub-section eight.’

‘The Navigation quarter,’ I say.

‘Yes.’

‘We must go,’ I say to Ashava. She nods, her eyes fierce.

‘Sisters,’ Kallis says, before we can leave.

I pause and look back at the watch officer. His eyes are shadowed. Guilty.

‘He wasn’t faithless,’ he says, again, as if he is trying to prove it to himself as much as us.

I glance down at the body of Alisdar Van Roys and the pool of thickening blood creeping out from under the black plastek. At the ruin that was once a man, who was so broken by the Rift that he could not resist the siren song of death.

‘The God-Emperor will be the judge of that,’ I say.

Ravara

RAVARA

My boots ring from the decking as I hurry through the lowdecks towards the midships junction, attempting to raise Canoness Elivia, or the shipmaster. Naval Security. Anyone at all. No matter how many times I try, nothing answers me save for a wall of white noise. An assault of emptiness.

‘Nothing?’ Zoric asks when I curse and cut the link. I went straight to find him and Yumia after leaving Sofika to her slumber. I didn’t need to look for them, or vox them. Zoric and Yumia were exactly where I knew they’d be. Together.

‘Nothing,’ I say.