‘Lady Brobantis would have died also, were it not for my intervention,’ Ngiri put in. Chetta started to object – she’d handled that one with the claws quite readily, she thought – but clamped down on the words. Ngiri was only trying to help, after all.

‘You?’ Morandia scoffed, rounding on her. ‘The rogue pauper attached to the beggar Xudines? Of course my brother’s death would aid your patron, since it would leave this fool in a position of power!’ She pointed at Chetta, who fought very hard to control her urge to swat Morandia’s arm away with her cane, and possibly have her finger slip over the activation stud at the same time. She managed to keep control of herself, however,

‘So I am both a snivelling incompetent and a manipulative schemer?’ she demanded. ‘Morandia, you need to choose one or the other for me. And lest we forget, now my husband and my brother-in-law are both dead, you are the sole surviving scion of the ruling branch of House Brobantis! Don’t pretend that you do not stand to benefit from this state of affairs!’

Well. Perhaps she hadn’t fully kept control. Morandia’s mouth had lolled open for a second in utter shock, but then her nostrils flared as she drew in breath, ready to retaliate–

‘There is an unregistered psyker called Radimir Niklau at large in Ascension City, and he is killing Navigators and cutting out their warp eyes,’ DeShelle DuVoir said loudly, inserting herself between Chetta and Morandia. ‘Including in a dive bar called the Star Lounge in the Mids, despite the efforts of at least one house to keep it quiet. We believe that he is attempting to replicate a ritual that pulled the entire planet of Gallimo Prime into the warp, which means we could all die at any moment.’

It was the Star Lounge that got them. As soon as those words left DeShelle’s throat, Morandia’s mouth began to close again, and Jalamar visibly paled. They knew she had the truth, or at least part of it. Morandia licked her lips.

‘How many other deaths have there been?’

‘Were they yours?’ Ngiri asked. ‘In the Star Lounge, I mean.’

‘One of them was,’ Morandia admitted. ‘We never identified the other. I didn’t remember her as being Brobantis, either. A visitor from off-world, we thought.’

‘We know of six in total, as of this evening,’ DeShelle said. ‘There may be more, of course.’

‘We have only just ascertained the killer’s likely identity,’ Ngiri said. ‘I have already instructed Judge Arctos to begin a citywide manhunt.’ She let that sentence hang in the air for a moment, while Morandia and Jalamar registered the fact that this rogue trader was capable of, and willing to, dispense instructions to the system’s highest-ranking representative of the Adeptus Arbites, and the implied fact that he’d obey. ‘Any resources that House Jo’Sin could lend to the search would, of course, be very much appreciated.’