‘Tell me what you remember,’ said the inquisitor. Astraeos did not speak. In his mind he saw his brothers firing from parapets, the light of their burning home staining their armour. Silver-grey warriors walked through burning halls, haloed by warp light, cutting down all they found without a word. The towering form of a Dreadnought walked before the grey warriors, shaking the tiled floor with its tread. He saw Chapter Master Thidias take his cloak of office from his back as the pyre leaped higher. ‘What is a king when there is nothing left to rule?’ Thidias had asked. ‘Silence,’ said the inquisitor. ‘Do I take it that the memories of your treachery have returned to you?’ Astraeos felt the muscles of his jaw clench. ‘We broke no oaths,’ he said. The inquisitor raised an eyebrow. ‘We? So you are a son of greater treachery, rather than a lone creature of heresy?
