'What does "salvation" mean?' I asked.
'It's why I'm here, why the Emperor put me at your side. To keep you centred. It's destiny/
'Is it? And what does destiny entail?'
'Renounce it all. All of it. Give over the Malus Codicium to me… the dae-monhost, your runestaff. Let me take you back to the ordos headquarters on Thracian. You can do penance there. I'll plead for you, plead for leniency. They wouldn't be too hard on you. You'd be active again before too long/
You actually believe that you could take me back to the ordos, tell them what I've done, and they'd let me practise again?'
'They'd understand!'
'Fischig, you don't understand!'
He looked at me, disappointed. You won't then?'
'I think this is where I say goodbye. I admire your efforts, but I can't be saved, Godwyn/
You can!'
'No/ I shook my head. You know why? I don't need saving/
Then this is where I say goodbye too/ he said, pouring another drink.
'Remember what we did/ I said.
Yes/
I shut the door behind me and left.
* * *
It took me three hours to get back to the landing field through the solid mob of revellers. I powered the quick-heeled red speeder back up to the Essene.
They were all waiting for me in the hangar as I docked. Maxilla. Crezia. Eleena. Aemos. Medea.
I tugged the rumpled copy of the astropathic communique I had received earlier out of my pocket and tossed it at Maxilla. 'We're breaking orbit. New destination: Promody.'
'What about Fischig?' asked Eleena.
'He isn't coming.'
There is a move in Carthean blade work called the teht uin sah. The phrase literally describes a position of the feet, but the philosophy is deeper. It means the moment in a duel when you gain the advantage and begin to win home. It is the turning point, the little fulcrum on which a life or death fight turns. The moment your fortunes change and you realise victory can be yours if you rally hard enough.
I felt that the astropathic communique from Promody was the equivalent of the teht uin sah. It had been sent to me, uncoded, by a trusted friend I hadn't seen in a long time.
It read simply 'Khanjar must be stopped'.
It took the Essene ten weeks to reach Promody, a jungle world on the trailing hem of the Scarus sector, specifically the Antimar sub-sector.
I went planetside alone, using the little red speeder, in case it turned out to be a trap.
They were waiting for me on a tropical hillside, below a break of pink-lobed punz trees. The evening was warm and fragrant. Insects fidgeted in the gathering dark. The air was humid.
I got out of the steaming speeder.