Rae van Daleon – The Roots of the Storm
by Lea von Löwenstein
Chapter 26: A Dangerous Alliance
The words hung in the air like a thunderclap, silencing the group. Rae blinked, her mind racing as she tried to process what Alric had just said. The Inquisition. Of all the ideas, this one carried the heaviest weight—and the gravest consequences.
“The holy Imperial Inquisition?” Soren repeated, his voice trembling. “Are you insane?”
Celestine took a sharp step forward, her eyes narrowing. “Do you even know what you’re saying? You want to call the Inquisition into this?”
Alric shrugged, a faint grin tugging at his lips, though his tone was serious. “I’m just saying, if there’s really something down there—a Chaos cult, monsters, whatever—it’s bigger than us. The Inquisition deals with this kind of thing all the time.”
“That’s because they burn first and ask questions later,” Tyren shot back, his voice rising. “You think they’ll care about us? About Talia? We’ll be purged right alongside whatever they find.”
Marcus crossed his arms, his imposing figure adding weight to his quiet but firm voice. “We don’t even know if we can trust them. What if they decide the Scola itself is corrupted? They could wipe out everyone here.”
The Debate
Rae held up a hand, silencing the rising voices. “Enough,” she said, her tone cutting through the tension. She turned to Alric, her gaze steady. “Start from the beginning. What’s this idea of yours?”
Alric leaned against the wall, his grin fading as he spoke. “My father… he served with the Astra Militarum before he retired. One of his closest friends was inducted into the Ordo Hereticus after a particularly nasty campaign against a Chaos uprising. They stayed in touch—barely. But this friend owes my father a favor.”
“And you think this Inquisitor would help us?” Rae asked, her voice calm but skeptical.
Alric hesitated. “It’s not a guarantee. But if I reach out and frame it right—make it seem like there’s something worth investigating without implicating us—they might take interest. And if they do, they’ll bring resources we can’t even dream of.”
“And they’ll bring fire,” Celestine muttered darkly. “Fire that could consume all of us.”
The Weight of the Decision
Rae’s jaw tightened as she considered the implications. The Inquisition was a double-edged sword. If they uncovered the cult, the creature, and the corruption beneath the Scola, they would destroy it. But they wouldn’t stop there. The Inquisition’s purges were legendary—they wouldn’t hesitate to burn the entire Scola if they deemed it necessary.
“We’d have to control the narrative,” Rae said finally, her voice steady but cold. “We can’t let them think the entire Scola is compromised. We point them toward the lower levels and make it seem like it’s isolated. If they think the whole place is tainted, they’ll purge it all.”
“That’s a gamble,” Marcus said. “A big one.”
“It’s the only way,” Rae replied. “If we can’t handle this ourselves, we need to make sure the Inquisition focuses on the right target.”
Alric nodded, his confidence returning. “I can write to my father tonight. It’ll take time for the message to reach him and for his friend to respond, but it’s worth a shot.”
“And if they don’t respond?” Soren asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Then we’re on our own,” Rae said, her gaze hardening. “And we’ll deal with it.”
A Divided Group
As the group sat in tense silence, Celestine finally spoke, her tone sharp. “I don’t like it. Calling in the Inquisition feels like inviting a storm we can’t control.”
“I don’t like it either,” Rae admitted. “But we’re running out of options. That thing down there isn’t something we can fight alone.”
Tyren frowned, his fingers drumming against his knee. “What if we don’t tell them everything? Just enough to get their attention, like Alric said. We keep control of the situation.”
“You don’t control the Inquisition,” Marcus said, his voice grim. “You survive it.”
Rae’s eyes swept over her team, gauging their reactions. She could see the fear and uncertainty in their faces, but also the determination. They were all walking a fine line, and she knew the weight of this decision would rest on her shoulders.
Finally, she spoke, her voice calm but firm. “We’ll let Alric reach out. But we don’t rely on them completely. While we wait, we keep preparing. If the Inquisition doesn’t come, we’ll face this ourselves.”
The Letter
That night, Alric sat at a small desk in the corner of the chamber, a single candle casting flickering shadows on his face. The others watched in silence as he wrote, his pen moving quickly but deliberately across the page.
When he finished, he folded the letter carefully and sealed it with a simple wax stamp. He held it up, a faint grin on his face. “Let’s hope my father’s old friend still cares about debts.”
Rae nodded, her expression unreadable. “Send it. Then we wait.”
The Shadows Stir
As the group settled in for the night, Rae found herself unable to sleep. The weight of the day’s decisions pressed heavily on her, and the thought of what lay below gnawed at her mind. She sat by the door, her blade resting on her lap, her eyes scanning the darkness.
The Scola was silent, but Rae couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching, waiting. The shadows seemed deeper tonight, the air colder.
She tightened her grip on her blade, her jaw set. Whatever came next—whether from the depths or the Inquisition—she would face it head-on.
The shadows didn’t frighten her anymore. They only fueled her resolve. Talia. The pit. The creature. Everything hinged on what came next.
