The drop-chruch was abandoned on the planet Nyx. Nyx’s vault was shattered, its contents looted and destroyed. The remnants of the Order of the Triumvirate returned to their Piety Class Cruiser – The
Ballad of Ophelia.

They had failed. Broken, faith wavering.

Canoness Titania compiled the battle report with a half-empty box of blackstone and sent it to Thaddeus Varn, the Inquisitor they had allied with. Titania gazed into her own stolen blackstone and made the choice to
send a farewell message to the Masque of Leering Fools – a bit of heresy never hurt anyone.

Canoness Roxanne failed to scrub the scorch marks of heavy flamers from her armour, but hey – it gave it character. Roxanne wished their temporary Tau allies, the Unrelenting Daybreak Cadre, the best in
their journey, knowing that they might well meet again as enemies.

Canoness Marika ensured the wounded battle sisters were treated by the hospitallers aboard their cruiser. Marika was struggling to keep the Triumvirate intact. She was cautious of Titania and disappointed in Roxanne. All she could do was pray and reinforce her faith.

In the lower decks of the Ballad of Ophelia, three more leaders in the Order gathered around a table, with candles, cards and ballads of saints and deeds.

Sister Jeanne, Saint Potentia, had two more trials of a living saint left, each one harder than the last. The scars on her thigh itched from where her bionic replacement leg was attached. The Pariah Nexus had tested her
beyond human limits. And their next destination would test her further. Jeanne told the ballad of Saint Benedicta, whose name was engraved on her blessed sword.

Sister Lola, Imagifier, sang a litany of deeds, of how the Sisters of Battle came to be and how their Order was founded. It was inspiring, even to the deckhands scrubbing the air filters. Lola looked at the bandages around her torso, the blood forming its own ballad.

Sister Artura “Vahl” Valiant, talked about the maintenance of her squad’s Paragon Warsuits and how to properly maintain a Multi-Melta. It bored the other sisters.

As the Ballad of Ophelia activated its warp drive, the Triumvirate of Canonesses looked longingly out of the window in silence. They had retrieved several saintly relics and antiquities. They had stuck together through
thick and thin. And yet…

Roxanne still hungered for the blood of heretics. Titania was struggling with her faith and had become a winged-mystery who the Ordo Hereticus would very much like to get their hands on, as the mark of chaos stirred with her. Marika remained steadfast in her faith and her failure.