Harakoni Chymist

A Sophia mini drabble

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Somewhere out there, was Terra. She was a glittering gem in the illuminations and the stained glass windows depicting their species’ history. Upon it, most protected and Holy, was He on Terra, lighting the way for His children who navigated the dark. Navigators spoke of His Light like a beacon, a literal lighthouse at the center of it all.

It did not seem that light reached here, in this ramshackle chapel, far from Terra and far from home. The ex-hospitaller stared up at the effigy of the God Emperor. Peeling paint had been painted over many times, sometimes so thick it left drips like tears. Smoke from candles and the clouds of coal dust that followed the locals who passed through here coated every surface, turning the aging wood dark and every crevice grimy. 

The further she traveled, the darker it seemed to become. And not just the places, but the stories too. She chased a man determined not to be found, and the depths he was sinking to do so were becoming harder for the holy sister navigate. This far from her life before, the doubts were beginning to trickle in. Leaving the convent. Leaving the Order. Trading all she’d known to follow him. The decision had come far too late; he had been long gone by the time she finally worked up the courage to leave, and she was never the investigator that her fellow acolytes had been. Credits only got her so far. Proselytizing and offering her skills as a medicae helped some. Then peeling fingernails and cracking bones of unwilling informants got her just a little more. She wondered if she would recognize who she was at the end of this. Would he recognize her when she found him?