01x01 - Death's Hand

[bunniefuu]

[Andor] Death

[coughing]

[Andor] Sundering.

The Emperor's Light is the only light.

That which He illuminates, the only path.

[Andor] The harbinger and the fool.

[slams fists]

Which is it, reader? Which am I?

Either.

Both.

Turn the last card.

Turn the last card.

[Andor] The faceless void.

An ignominious end.

Death is coming.

Even now, he waits at your door.

Measure your next steps with care,
Inquisitor.

My thanks, Guious Andor.

You have served the Emperor
as we all must.

This cruel universe
will not remember your name,

This cruel universe
will not remember your name,

but trust that I shall.

[g*nsh*t]

What did he see, lord?

The same as the others.

[foosteps approaching]

Burn it.

Burn everything.

[flames whooshing]

[suspenseful music]

[foosteps fading]

Will there be any Astropaths left
before you're done with this?

There is a fate line somewhere, Si'ana,

one that does not see my end.

I will find it.

Not all futures can be divined.

The ripples of every action
cannot be seen to conclusion.

Can they not? The Aeldari believe so.

You still hold that those xenos
and their witch-seers would help us?

We have an enemy in common.

That has not prompted them
to kindness before.

That has not prompted them
to kindness before.

True enough.

A thought for tomorrow.

Today, we can be certain of this.

If we do not leave for Terra soon,

we shall be late for your investiture.

There is time yet.

They can hardly begin the ceremony
without me.

[electronic beeps]

Inquisitor Arturo has docked.

He's waiting for you
in the receiving chamber...

He's come to escort you to Terra.

Is he alone?

No. He has a retinue of four.

I'll need my effects.

Have Gutter and the others meet us there.

You're expecting trouble?

Wake Turk, and reset his k*ll count.

[drums beating]

[Kiamoro] Greetings and welcome.

[footsteps approaching]

[footsteps approaching]

It is good to see you, my old friend.

[hands bang]

Old friend?

[laughing]

It feels like yesterday
we were wasting our evenings

with amasec and dice.

It was a century ago.

And now you stand
on the precipice of greatness.

Investiture. On Terra, no less.

Investiture. On Terra, no less.

Bureaucracy comes for us all in the end.

You shouldn't have come.

You knew that someone would.

Eventually.

And the investiture?

Is this just the cover you needed
to board my vessel?

It's as real as anything else.

But what difference does it make?

You know then?

[Arturo]
About your obsession with the Tarot?

[Arturo] About the Aeldari?

[Arturo] About the Aeldari?

Yes. I know.

We almost died at Antioth, Arturo.

The Arch-enemy knew our every move.

We handed them a hundred worlds.

Billions died.

Even with your limited psychic ability,

tell me you cannot still
hear their screams.

There was nothing more we could have done.

But what if we could have?

-What if we knew?
-We are not gods.

-What if we knew?
-We are not gods.

We have only the certainty of the moment.

Only the Emperor can divine the future.

And yet He has given us the foresight

to wield such tools as might.

We cannot stack the deck, Kiamoro.

We must play the hand we are dealt.

Very well.

[g*nsh*t]

-No!
-[grunts]

[swords clash]

[grunts]

[grunts]

[suspenseful music]

[g*nsh*t]

[g*nsh*t]

Damn you, Kiamoro!

[sword clashing]

You invite ruin.

[Kiamoro] You come to see it done.

[yells]

[Arturo] Someone must stand in your way!

[swords clashing]

[grunting]

[laughs]

[g*n blasts]

[g*n blasts]

Must it be you?

[g*n blasts]

[gasps]

[yells]

Who else?

[thud]

[Arturo] I wish you'd understood.

[g*n blasts]

[expl*si*n]

[screams]

[screams]

[laughing]

[flames crackling]

[phase hum]

[upbeat music]

[g*n shots]

[g*n shots]

[grunts]

It seems you're not
the face of death today.

[grunts]

[air whirring]

[thuds]

[g*n shots]

[yelling]

[slashes]

[slashes]

[screaming]

[gasps]

[g*n blasts]

[intense music]

Turk! Now!

[growling]

[slam]

[growling]

[g*n blast]

[growls]

[grunts]

[growls]

[growls]

[yells]

[footsteps]

[g*n blasts]

[grunts]

[growling]

[growling]

[growling]

[blades slashing]

[intense music]

[intense music]

[blood splashing]

Day denounces night!

[beeping]

-[boom]
-[thuds]

[grunts]

[fire crackling]

[footsteps approaching]

What shall I do with her?

Take her to the cell.

[footsteps fading]

[Eerie music]

Who sent you to k*ll me?

I will not ask again.

[machine whirring]

Cellulor inhibitors.

Cellulor inhibitors.

I wonder...

Am I the first to wear them?

Who?

I did not come here to k*ll you.

[Kiamoro] This... tells a different story.

[blade stabs]

You cannot break me.

Many have claimed as much before.

[assassin] It is never the many.

It is the single crack

that topples the walls of empires.

I do not fear you, assassin.

You will not leave this chamber alive.

[Kiamoro] Like the hundreds of others
I have interrogated,

[Kiamoro] You will tell me your truths

[Kiamoro] And beg for release in death.

Yes.

Your deeds roll before you
like the smoke of corpse pyres.

Your deeds roll before you
like the smoke of corpse pyres.

You, Inquisitor,

[assassin]
Are by every account a hard man.

[assassin] A capable man.

A man whose cruelty
is matched only by his arrogance.

But...

the Tarot cards.

[ominous music]

[assassin] You want answers?

[assassin]
For all the hardships you have endured.

[assassin]
For all your training and resolve.

[assassin] For all of your might,

[assassin] Did you ever consider

[assassin]
That, in this universe of horrors,

[assassin] There could be something worse?

[Kiamoro]
You stand unsteadily on that pulpit.

[Kiamoro] I am not an acolyte
or some unbloodied initiate.

[Kiamoro] I am not an acolyte
or some unbloodied initiate.

[Kiamoro] For almost two hundred years
I have stared down the darkness.

[assassin] Yes...

[assassin] Heretics,

[assassin] Aliens,

[assassin] Daemons...

[assassin] You have faced them all.

[assassin] But what of a child?

[assassin]
What of a child orphaned by w*r?

[explosions]

[assassin] What if need and instinct
drove that child to k*ll?

[assassin] To master what they must.

[assassin] What if death was the only
companion the child ever knew?

[assassin] What if this child was plucked
from their world as you were?

[assassin] What if this child was plucked
from their world as you were?

[assassin] But instead of the hallowed
halls of the Schola Progenium,

[assassin]
They were taken by far harsher masters?

[drilling]

[jostling]

[machines operating]

[assassin]
What if these monstrous teachers...

[assassin] Cut away whatever
humanity remained in the child

[assassin] Cut away whatever
humanity remained in the child

[assassin]
And left behind nothing but a weapon?

[g*n shots and screaming]

[Eerie music]

You've spent your life
trying to avoid death,

but its child is here now.

You are a lethal thing.

That fact I do not deny.

But you, like all the rest, have failed.

[assassin] Have I?

[assassin] Then where is your armour?

As I said, Inquisitor,

As I said, Inquisitor,

I did not come here to k*ll you.

[assassin]
For all that you see and have seen,

[assassin]
You are blind to an obvious truth.

[assassin]
That here, where you seem most in control,

[assassin]
You are also at your most vulnerable.

My mission was simple.

To bring you here.

To have you sit there, across from me.

The famed interrogator
in the chair of his office.

[assassin] Lure.

[assassin] Witness.

[assassin] I came to play both roles.

[assassin] And I did not need to parse
the skeins of fate to do it.

[g*nsh*t]

[thuds]

[air whirring]

[g*nsh*t]

[air whirring]

[squishing sound]

You should have paid more attention

You should have paid more attention

to the Tarot readers
you burned like sump trash.

Hubris is the weapon the fool
uses to cut his own throat.

[crunching sounds]

[Eerie music]

[door opens]

[beeps]

[grenade expl*si*n]

Did you get what you wanted?

Yes.

Good. Your investiture awaits.

Well then.

Let us go and change the future.

Let us go and change the future.