It literally only just occurred to me now that Altani, the little astropath girl from that Sevatar short story The Long Night, could've been a ruse.
Now I have a theory. Maybe this is a common theory already, I don't know, I haven't seen it yet, but: hear me out, I really think I'm onto something here.
One of the most popular theories when it comes to what happens to Sevatar is that he's recruited for the Knights Errant, Malcador's Suicide Squad-esque chapter of penitent Traitor Astartes.
And as a basic run down: in The Long Night, while Sevatar is going through his horrific psyker awakening alone in his cell on the Invincible Reason, gushing blood from every hole in his head and wishing he was dead, little Altani starts communicating with him telepathically from the Astropathic Choir while also helping to alleviate some of the pain. Sevatar is convinced she's either a hallucination or the ghost of a little girl, as the dead used to speak to him before he suppressed his psyker abilities in his youth. Later it becomes clear she's very much alive.
However, Altani is shockingly insightful, intelligent and mature for a little girl. She's supposed to be like eight-years-old or some shit.
She's also startlingly powerful for a little girl Psyker. Moreover, she's incredibly powerful for an Astropath in general. It's kind of implausible that the Astra Telepathica had a Psyker who showed as much power and potential as Altani at such a young age and decided to just make them an Astropath. That position infamously treats its Psykers as highly disposable and replacable commodities, it's a job largely for mid-tier Psykers.
The amount of skill Altani is (allegedly) showing at, like, eight years old would almost certainly have drawn the attention of higher ups. There's a slew of specialist jobs more fitting for a powerful Sanctioned Psyker. The Inquisiton doesn't exist yet in M30-M31, but there were Sanctioned Psykers during the Heresy doing Proto-Inquistor shit. There were Psi-Titan crews. Malcador has a bunch of Psykers running around, doing his bidding as agents of the throne.
So, at one point, Altani informs Sevatar her Overseer caught her communicating with him and beats her so badly, he snaps her spine. Sevatar is so furious, he makes a break for it when the Dark Angels come to transport him just so he can go on a one-man army mission to avenge Altani. She helps him do this by incapacitating the Dark Angels and he's blown away by the amount of power she wields.
He reaches the Astropathic Choir and briefly lays eyes on Altani lying asleep in her little pod. She comments, telepathically, on how tired he looks before he proceeds to strangle the everloving shit out of her Overseer with his own whip as payback for the abuse he's inflicted upon an innocent child.
So now that we've covered all of this, let me lay out my theory:
Sevatar is never actually talking to an eight-year-old Astropath named Altani. Altani does exist, but an entirely different adult Psyker is using her identity as a disguise of sorts to communicate with Sev.
I think it might be one of Malcador's Psyker Agents sent to sus out whether or not Sevatar's a good candidate for the Knights Errant or if he's just an irredeemable scumbag traitor. It's all a big test.
They use the guise of a little girl to communicate with Sevatar because they know he'll be more amenable to conversation with someone so innocent. They're prodding at his psychology, at his internal logic, at his moral compass.
This question isn't just a little girl slowly realizing she might be speaking to a Traitor, its the Agent planting a seed in Sevatar's mind
The whole conversation is this Agent going "You care about justice, you wanted to punish the evildoers, you wanted to be a good man who did the right thing. That noble goal was terribly skewed during your time with Curze, that's not how things turned out...but it could be. You could be that person still"
Then they test Sevatar's moral compass; they present him with a scenario that they know will trigger his intense Justice Sensitivity while also giving him an opportunity to escape. Will he choose the self-centered option by accepting Altani's help to simply book it and escape the Dark Angels...or will he sacrifice a chance at freedom to punish an evil man on the behalf of an innocent child?
Plus, he never actually TALKS to Altani. He sees her looking bruised and beaten and tiny while asleep in her pod, and she "speaks" to him then, but that could just be the Agent "speaking" to him while watching from afar.
Then there's the Overseer reacting to Sevatar showing up to kill him with "Why?". He seems genuinely baffled as to why Sevatar is doing this. Could be that he's so desensitized to savagely beating children that it doesn't occur to him that anyone would give a shit, but I think maybe this guy didn't actually do it. It's all a set-up.
I suspect they did snap the spine of the real Altani because this is Warhammer, everything is grimdark: you break a little girl's spine and pin it on an Astropathic Overseer as a part of your recruitment process of a weirdo Night Lord. #JustImperiumThings.
But then, the pièce de résistance, the final test that Sevatar passes with flying colors: he surrenders himself to face the consequences of his actions when the Dark Angels come to subdue him.
He's demonstrated that he is redeemable. He does have morals and principles, even if they are, y'know, a very Sevatar version of them. They'll accept him for the Knights Errant.
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