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It was the first chance they’d had to relax and enjoy the palace on Dargonus after their escape. And the new Rogue Trader and her Inquisition escort intended to take full advantage of the luxurious bedroom available to them. Heinrix had folded his clothing neatly beside her bed, next to her much messier pile, and was currently appreciating the view of Isiabel’s naked body underneath his own.
He reached out lightly with his powers, caressing her body and warming her skin and…felt her freeze under his touch. The exact opposite of what he had hoped to achieve. Her heart was racing wildly now and her breath had shifted to shallow gasps. For a moment he wondered if his powers had failed him and he had accidentally hurt her. But her responses indicated fear.
He started to look around the room before being hit, suddenly, with the wave of her own powers. Instinctively he tried to block and then…stopped. Cautiously, he let his own defenses down to feel what she was projecting.
Commoragh. A strange egg-shaped device with a drukhari operator in front of it. A figure inside of it…no…his own half conscious figure inside of it. Her knife, cutting through wires and tubes frantically. And then a sudden sense of pain and betrayal that seemed to last and last and last as her blood heated and boiled in her body and she screamed…
He pulled back with a jolt remembering. How, blinded by pain, he had attacked his rescuer before realizing who it was, that it was actually her and not another cruel xenos trick. To his mind it had only been a moment. To hers…
He whimpered and moved to pull away, but her hands were still digging into his biceps, her grip tightening as he started to shift.
“Isiabel?”
“Heinrix?” She blinked rapidly. “Why’d you stop?”
“Are you ok?”
“I’m fine.” She smiled as if to try to convince him of this.
“Isiabel, you’re projecting. I could see your memories of…that place.” He had known she’d come away with scars. He hadn’t expected one of those scars to be the memory of him hurting her. He tried and failed not to think about that aspect.
“Worried I’m spiraling out of control? I’ll make sure to keep a better lock on my abilities next time.”
“That is not the point!” Heinrix immediately regretted the words the minute they left his mouth. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to shake her or kiss her or both right now. Instead he pushed himself up to sit on the oversized bed next to her.
“I said I’m fine.” Isi’s tone was angry, but her widened eyes and shallow breathing still betrayed fear. And he could still feel her memories pushing at the edges of his mind. Not as strong now, but he was a psyker, and they were so close still.
He’d done this to her. Of all the things that had happened in that cursed city, the one she remembered was what he had done to her. And his actions now had sent her mind back to that horrible place and all the pain she’d experienced.
Slowly he reached for his clothes. A whimper behind him interrupted his movements.
“No, don’t leave.”
“You should get dressed.” Truthfully he had no idea what to do. He was very good at inflicting distress on people. Normally, his absence was the best thing he could provide to reassure them.
Carefully, he finished pulling his pants on and brought her a delicate dressing gown from her closet, one she had worn at her Magnae Accessio while her servants fussed over her appearance. None of them were in evidence now, of course, being well trained enough to simply pretend they had no idea what their lady was doing at the moment.
“Done with me already?” Now she just sounded upset. But it was the least he could do for her to make up for everything. Instead of replying, he half-lifted, half-dragged her off the bed and over in front of the massive fireplace her room held.
“I’ll get you some tea.” He didn’t know how to do that either, but he could at least get oen of the servants to procure something without asking too many questions.
Isiabel responded by wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him down onto the floor with her. No tea, then. She pressed her forehead into his bare shoulder.
“I suppose I ruined the evening, didn’t I?”
“Isiabel…you don’t always have to be strong. Especially around me. I hurt you, and then I reminded you of that. And ended up hurting you again.”
“You know none of that was your fault, right?”
“I…” he didn’t actually have an answer for this. So instead he wrapped his arms around her and listened to her breathing settle. Eventually, it turned to a light snore against his chest as the clock ticked onward and he held her against his heart. He didn’t think she’d ruined the evening at all.