“You cannot mean to send him in my stead?”
“And why not? He is intimately familiar with the Earthcrusher’s design. He knows the engine schematics better than any save perhaps yourself.”
“Two weeks ago he was part of the Kagé rebellion!”
“And since then, has handed over the Kagé leader to us, and would have gladly executed him at our command. Of your entire chapter, there is none less likely to be a traitor than he.”
“You do not know,” the second Inquisitor breathed, “what he Will Be.”
“But we know,” said the third. “We have seen.”
Looming over the black-clad trio, Kensai found himself contemplating heresy for the first time in his life. But to raise a hand to an Inquisitor …
“The Earthcrusher is my dream,” he hissed. “My design. I will be dead before I see this child steal my glory after all he has done.”
The first Inquisitor’s voice was barely a whisper. “That is…”
“… disappointing,” finished the third.
“First Bloom will hear of this…”
“… hubris.”
“I will tell him myself,” Kensai spat. “When I lay the Stormdancer’s head at his feet.”
The Inquisitors began drifting from the room, a brokenback trail of smoke in their wake. As they approached the doorway, the leader turned, eyes on Kensai’s once more.
“First Bloom has sent word, by the by. We are to bring the Kagé leader Daichi with us to First House for execution.”
“I thought he was to be executed publically in Kigen?”
A slow shrug. “First Bloom commands and we obey. At least some within these walls remember their place.”
The iris doorway closed behind them with the sound of a headsman’s blade.
The room seemed to grow lighter once the Inquisitors had departed, both the glow of the overheads and the breath in his chest. Uneasy murmurs and blood-red stares were exchanged. Kensai stilled the chatter immediately, planting himself at the table’s head and glaring at the Third Bloom of the Purifier Sect.
“Kyodai Yoshinobu, you will seek out and eliminate any insurgents within Chapterhouse Kigen. You will make this your first priority, and report your findings directly to me. Not the Inquisition. Not any other. Do you understand?”
The Kyodai cleared his throat. “Second Bloom, all due respect, but my resources are stretched thin. With bounty now being offered on the Impure, accused are being turned over to us in greater numbers than ever before. Each of them must be tested. If guilty, they must be put to pyre. We simply do not have the manpower to continue processing, testing and purifying if we are also to oversee internal investigations into this rebellion.”
“Conduct the testing at the Altar of Purity, then,” Kensai said.
“… In public?”
“Why not?” Kensai asked. “Hold one burning each weeksend, at noon. The skinless will bring their accused to the stones, the testing can be conducted then and there, anyone bearing false witness can burn on the pyres instead.”
“Second Bloom, testing is usually conducted privately … There are rites to be conducted, forms to obey. I think it unwise—”
“I think it unwise to allow insurgents to roam this chapterhouse unchecked, don’t you?”
“Of cour—”
“Assign your most trusted Shatei to the internal investigations. Leave no stone unturned.”
“… As you say, Second Bloom.”
“The rest of you, attend your duties. Any aberrant behavior must be viewed with suspicion in light of events in Yama city. Any Guildsman found to be in allegiance with these rebels will be victim to the most heinous brutality we can fashion. Am I understood?”
The assembly spoke with one voice. “Hai.”
“I depart for the Earthcrusher tomorrow. It is up to each of you to ensure this chapterhouse endures while I am gone. The lotus must bloom.”
“The lotus must bloom.”
The assembled Kyodai rose and stalked from the room in a cloud of smoke and suspicion.
All save one.
A small figure, seated at the opposite end of the table, his atmos-suit still gleaming with the shine of fresh-pressed skin.
“Fifth Bloom Kin,” Kensai growled. “Do you not have duties to attend?”
The boy’s eyes were aglow, cables from his mouthpiece rasping against each other as he shook his head. The smoke motif on his spaulders and gauntlets seemed to shift in the fume-choked air, blood-red light spilling from his eye socket.
“I don’t trust them,” Kin said.
Kensai reclined in his chair. “Trust whom?”
“The Inquisition.”
“Trust is a rare thing these nights, Kioshi-san. Oh, but forgive me … you abandoned your father’s name, did you not? Around the same time you abandoned this chapterhouse…”
The boy hung his head. “Will you never forgive me?”
“Were it my decision, you would have already been boiled into fertilizer.”
“It was a mistake, Uncle…”