Elaine

“Freedom is slavery, except you don’t know who your master is.” 

Birth and Early Life
The girl who would one day become known as Elaine was born in 974.M41, on a small Agri World in the Laanah Rift of the Laanah Sector in the Segmentum Pacificus. Her first 16 years were uneventful, the life of a normal farmer’s daughter in a relatively quiet sector of the Imperium. However, an accident involving a harvesting combine revealed to the people of her world, and particularly to the government, her innate Psychic abilities. She was a natural Telekine who, in a moment of dire stress, used her latent abilities to prevent herself from being crushed. The attention this drew led her to be taken by the local authorities to await the arrival of the Black Ships, who would take her to Terra to either fuel the insatiable fires of the Astronomican or, if she was lucky, be Sanctioned and bound to the Emperor and serve as a Psyker of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, levied to serve whatever organisation required her abilities. Perhaps if she showed enough promise she could have even served beside an Inquisitor, maybe even becoming one herself. Alas, fate had other plans in store for her; as she awaited the coming of the Black Ships, a Renegade chapter of Space Marines descended on her world and began to pillage and burn; taking hundreds of slaves, thousands of tonnes of food stuffs, and putting to the torch any who stood in their way. The Night Reapers had come.

Raiding the holds of the Governors Palace, the Reapers discovered a small treasure trove of valuable assets; unbound psykers ready to be sold to the highest bidder or converted into vile sorcerers for the Chapters use. While the psykers were being removed from the palace they were evaluated for stability by the former Librarians and Apothecaries, however those that posed immediate threats were already executed by the local witch hunters, so most were simply forced onto transports and taken to the waiting fleet above. But one of these psykers caught the eye of the Apothecary in charge of the examinations; Czegor Dvorak singled out Elaine as different from the gibbering, twitching mass of mutants and witches. He recognised the intelligence behind her eyes, and the unusual charisma she exuded. Taking her as his own, and ignoring the protestations of the others, he further studied her nature and concluded that she could prove inordinately valuable, if properly educated. And so Elaine became the personal slave-attendant to the Chief Apothecary of the Renegade Night Reapers.

Over the next nine years in the service of the Reapers, she was taught how to control her Psychic abilities, as well as given a full education in as many subjects that Dvorak could cram into her head. She appeared to have an unusual ability to simply absorb information, as well a natural knack for languages and medicine. The latter proved very useful in the service to an Apothecary, and she was trained in the full range of human and Astartes medical treatments, becoming an accomplished Chirurgeon in her own right. Finally she was taught the intricate rites and rituals for maintaining Astartes power armour, a skill desperately lacking in the Night Reapers since they lost access to the forges of their Fortress-Monastery or any Forge Worlds they may have had deals or pacts with. For a while at least, Elaine was resistant to the idea of serving as a slave, even a highly educated one. However days and weeks in torture chambers and the insidious words of her master eventually wore down her resolve until she finally gave in and accepted her fate.

Newcomer
Two years into her service she took on another duty: caring for a prisoner of her master. The prisoner was another Astartes; though stripped of his armour he was still an impressive figure, standing near 8ft tall. He spent most of his time in meditation or recovery after receiving a fresh wound in the fighting pits. Elaine was there assisting Dvorak in repairing the damage to the prisoner, however she was always dismissed once the surgeries were complete. She would bring him his daily meals, in quantities she doubted would satisfy such a mighty figure, but she brought him what she was told to bring and never questioned it, and the prisoner never had anything to say about it; he would calmly consume the slop provided in one or two mouthfuls before washing with the bowl of water she always brought, then returning to his meditations. Elaine was never allowed in the prison while her master was there, save for during medical treatments, which took place with the Astartes unconscious. For around 5 years she watched as his strength withered, such captivity and meagre nutrition eventually taking its toll on even such a powerful being. But beyond his physical health she watched as the weight of all the torturous pit fights, the long hours her master spent alone with him, and the near complete silence in which he sat changed him. Slowly, his eyes sunk and darkened. Tiny flecks of light began to dance behind them. Bowls she collected from him began to have minute traces of frost where he held them. But above all the most startling change was that the defiant stoicism that characterised his face was gradually replaced by a deep, profound sadness, and she was filled with pity for him.

It was unusual then, when the Night Reapers were particularly brutalised by Imperial forces, she was asked to accompany her master to show an ally of his the prisoner. The Witching Hour, the vessel she had lived on for over half a decade, had sustained heavy damage and Dvorak had negotiated repairs with this black clad Astartes in return for the use of the prisoner in his pits, along with other services and items in trade. Perhaps her master wanted to show off to the Astartes his pretty little pet psyker; she was not really clear on the reason for her presence. As the Black Legionnaire inspected the captive in his cell, the brute expressed contentedness at the state of his merchandise and moved to leave with her master. Dvorak turned, preparing to say something to her;

“Make sure to –”

He never finished that thought, as the cage, promised to be indestructible, was broken open in a flash of motion and the prisoner rammed a blade captured from the Legionnaire into the Black Ones neck. He drew the bolt pistol from his power armoured shield and trained it on her master. Elaine watched as the blood spurted forth from the dead marine, then heard the first thing the prisoner ever said.

“I’m sorry.”

And in a flash and a crack her master was dead on the floor. For a moment, she had no words for what she felt.

The prisoner approached and demanded she help him into the armour of the Black One; but even as he spoke a flash of panic gripped her, the look on his face was one of both murder and pain, however surprise followed. He approached the window, and in an act of utter heartbreak to Elaine, placed his hand on the glass after finally seeing himself after all these years. The sorrow she felt, that radiated from this man in front of her, overwhelmed her for a moment and all she could do was what she had been conditioned to do the entirety of her slavery: she did what she was told. She began to strip the dead marine and clad her new master, or her new friend, in the armour of his fallen brother. With a last glance at the oozing corpse of Czegor Dvorak, she left the ship to begin a new life with Octavius Faust.

Allies
Octavius Faust