[RP] Witch-Finder's Origins

(This is a continuation of the RP story in Silas McCaran, Witch-Finder. The first part is in that post: https://darkheresychainsofmalice.blogspot.com/2019/12/character-silas-mccaran-witch-finder.html)

Two months later, he’s in a river village outside of Caoking. He walks in with a dirtied duster. He carries a number of guns now. Some older, some newer. He looks for a store of charms, said to hold holy relics but rumored to hold more esoteric things. The store owner is packing up for the day. A smaller older man from the city. He is packing a bag when from the backroom a barrel reaches out from a shadow and a click is heard.
Yesterday at 12:25 AM

He freezes and carefully says "Please don't shoot."
Yesterday at 12:25 AM

“You are Mr. Bao Yi, yes?”

Yesterday at 12:26 AM

"Yes."
Yesterday at 12:27 AM

“You are in possession of a tome known as the Liber Psykana?”
Yesterday at 12:29 AM

He trembles and wets his lips. "Y-yes."
Yesterday at 12:29 AM

“Give it to me.”
Yesterday at 12:33 AM

He looks at him with fear in his eye. "I - I have many charms, far more use than a musty old book. One to bring lovers, one to bring wealth. Take them both."
Yesterday at 12:36 AM

Silas takes a bowie knife he keeps in his belt and slams it into the man’s hand on the closest surface. He then puts a hand to his mouth and raises the barrel to under his chin. “I have had my fill of worthless talk.”

He gets close to the man’s face and in a guttural deadpan he says. “You know, there’s a rumor little Na Yi’s had strange happenings around her,” he says with a dispassionate forwardness.

(That’s his granddaughter)
Yesterday at 12:39 AM

He screams and writhes, feet drumming against the floor.
Yesterday at 12:47 AM

He pants and looks up at the younger man in fear. "Where did you hear that?"
Yesterday at 12:48 AM

“Your neighbors in the city really don’t know how to keep their mouths shut. Give me the book. I can confirm I’m wrong.”

Yesterday at 12:49 AM

He slumps. "I'll get you the book."
Yesterday at 12:49 AM

He takes the blade out and keeps the gun trained on him.
Yesterday at 12:51 AM

The old man hisses through his teeth and clutches the wound against his chest. He stumbles over to a locked safe and starts to clumsily put in the combination with his off hand.

The door clicks open, and he reaches inside.
Yesterday at 12:53 AM

“Indulge yourself in pulling a pistol Mr. Yi and I’ll kill you then her. Witch or not.”
Yesterday at 12:54 AM

He takes a deep breath and says "Because of you, we're already dead." He whirls, six-iron clutched in his bleeding hand. He's nowhere near fast enough.
Yesterday at 12:57 AM

He slides the knife up his throat into his brain.
Yesterday at 1:01 AM

His body hits the door with a soft thump. The safe contains some bullets for the gun, a pouch bulging with throne, and the book.
Yesterday at 1:03 AM

He takes them all and places them in a bag held beneath his duster. He splits town. It’s a month later. He’s caught word of someone being unnaturally good at poker. He plays against them, and then deliberately thinks about his cards and even bluffs mentally about wrong ones.
Yesterday at 1:09 AM

The guy does play really damn well, but when he mentally bluffs, he looks down at his cars with puzzlement and shakes his head. He lays his hand down and says "I got a bad feeling about this one, fellas. I'm calling it quits for the day." One of the cards he had was one Silas was thinking about.
Yesterday at 1:12 AM

Not good enough. Silas doesn’t say it, but he thinks about being worried about that buried sack of cash he’s supposed to be giving to a smuggler near the river under a bent tree. He goes on to think about how he took some out of the bag to play poker today and hopes he can recoup his losses.
Yesterday at 1:14 AM

The man doesn't pause his steps, but he half glances at Silas as he exits the saloon.
Yesterday at 1:14 AM

Silas waits a few moments, then folds and goes around the obvious path to the river to watch that spot.
Yesterday at 1:17 AM

The poker player doesn't show up, but a couple of deputies do. They conceal themselves (less skillfully than Silas) and keep watch for a while.
Yesterday at 1:17 AM

He smiles. Smart, little witch. He stays still using his coat and a poncho as camouflage.
Yesterday at 1:20 AM

Eventually, they give up and go away.
Yesterday at 1:20 AM

He stays there waiting.
Yesterday at 1:22 AM

Another deputy swings by briefly a couple of hours later, but that's all.
Yesterday at 1:22 AM

He finally gets up and finds the place the player was staying.
Yesterday at 1:26 AM

The player is there, as is the local sheriff, who looks unimpressed. The sheriff says "Look, Guster, I've followed your hunches before, and put away some bad people, but I'm telling you this one didn't pay out. That happens, with gut feelings." The card man - Guster - shakes his head and says "I guess. I have been feeling kind of off today. Sorry for the wasted trouble." The sheriff waves his hand and says "Just help me catch the bastard smuggler selling lux to kiddies and we'll call it even." He tips his hat and exits the establishment.
Yesterday at 1:27 AM

Silas waits nonchalantly outside with a lho-stick until the man is alone.
Yesterday at 1:28 AM

It's a couple more hours, but he eventually retires to his room. There's an open window that leads right in.
Yesterday at 1:28 AM

Silas goes through the open window.
Yesterday at 1:29 AM

Guster lies snoring on his bed. He's in pajamas, belly down.
Yesterday at 1:30 AM

Silas pushes his face down into the bed and stabs the back of his skull with the knife, bringing it down in a decisive slam.
Yesterday at 1:30 AM

He starts at the head grab, then goes still as he dies. There's hardly a sound.
Yesterday at 1:31 AM

He pulls it out then turns him over and makes one more stab in the middle of his forehead. He uses the blood to trail a message, “suffer not the witch to live” on a wall in the man’s room. He steals the man’s money and any belongings he can use, then goes out the window.
Yesterday at 1:33 AM

He's got a decent amount of cash, a pretty worn autopistol, and a decent pair of boots, but other than that not much. Silas gets away without issue.
Yesterday at 1:39 AM

He continues like that for the next year. Rumors of a firebreather at a carnival that’s a little too good at his job. Talk of a bandit leader that makes his enemies see hallucinations. A teenager that can move things without touching them. On and on like that. Then there was the day of the wedding. The son of the planetary governor who was too lucky at predicting future events. Caleb McHart. Silas threw his carriage off the road with a stolen one of his own. Put two bullets in his head. Then laid low. Realized he was sure to be found then hopped on a ride off-planet on a pilgrim ship to wherever they were going.

He often doubted himself at first, but somehow always knew the right ones eventually. A few escaped. There were many false ones. He somehow knew though. Like it was a scent or something else they had. Like he was attuned to it.
Yesterday at 1:46 AM

It gets harder, and easier. Other worlds have much more security, ever watching cameras and constant crowds around his targets. Bounty hunters pursue him, sometimes, hired by the families and loved ones of those he's murdered. But he manages to stay one step ahead. Eventually, he ends up in a city where a legendary Inquisitor, the Witch Finder Rykehuss is conducting a Court of Ordeals.
Yesterday at 1:47 AM

He tries to hide away from the court, hearing nasty rumors about the inquisition.
Yesterday at 1:50 AM

Many are taken away to face their executions. Some are foul, some are fair. But it is not a good time to be a stranger in a strange land. Eventually, the mob comes for him, the stranger that none of them know, who talks strangely and acts strangely. They scream that he's a heretic as they try to drag him away, too.
Yesterday at 1:51 AM

He yells and tries to fight back but he gets pulled under.
Yesterday at 1:56 AM

The howling mass of arms and hands and madness drag him away, to face judgement. A towering man in golden power armor, with a face as craggy and weathered as a cliffside roars "GUILTY" as soon as he sets eyes on Silas. The crowd shrieks in vindication as he is taken away once again, this time to a small, foul smelling cell where they hold the condemned until it is their turn on the executioner's block. It is rarely a long wait.
Yesterday at 1:57 AM

He’s technically not wrong.
Yesterday at 2:01 AM

Pretty much, yeah. Eventually, the jailer returns with two other men in tow. One appears more or less average, but the other is almost inhumanly large. He undoes the lock, then bows obsequiously to the smaller companion and hurries away. The smaller man blandly says "Now, Silas McCaran, are you going to come quietly or are you going to be difficult?"
Yesterday at 2:01 AM

“Who in hell are you and how do you know my name?”
Yesterday at 2:04 AM

"Mmm. Difficult it is. Hit him." The giant steps forward and brings a fist crashing into Silas's face. It feels like a sledgehammer descending on his skull.
Yesterday at 2:04 AM

He goes down and fades to black.
Yesterday at 2:07 AM

When he comes to, he's naked, and cold. If he cracks his eyes open, he's met by the sight of a cold, metal room, utterly sterile and featureless aside from the operating table he's strapped to and a harsh, unyielding overhead light. There's a cough from somewhere behind his head that he can't see. "Finally awake, I see."

Yesterday at 2:08 AM

“This is more effort than a bounty hunter would give. Mind not wasting my time and just saying what you want?”
Yesterday at 2:11 AM

The voice chuckles. "How refreshingly direct. Just like another I met recently. Tell me, Silas, why have you been hunting and murdering unsanctioned Psykers?"
Yesterday at 2:11 AM

“Because them Emperor-damned witches burnt my home! My kin!” He yells out.
Yesterday at 2:13 AM

"Mmm. Fair enough, and true, from what is known. How do you do it? Most witchfinders have find rates of thirty percent if they're competent, lower if they're not. It's not an exact art. Yours is upwards of eighty, from what we can tell."
Yesterday at 2:15 AM

“I just... know. They’ve all got patterns and signs and sometimes you just catch them doing it and other times there’s too many confluences and contrivances it can’t be nothing but.”
Yesterday at 2:17 AM

"Ah, I see. I'm going to call in three people now, and I want you to point out the psyker to me." The smaller man from earlier (his voice is recognizable) claps his hands, and the giant from earlier, a beautiful noblewoman, and a tech-priest walk in.
Yesterday at 2:18 AM

He’s exasperated on table, “I can’t tell from a fuckin’ look! I have to know what’s happening around them.”
Yesterday at 2:21 AM

"Mm, I see. Observe them in their natural habitats, as it were. Would recordings suffice, or does it need to be in situ?"
Yesterday at 2:22 AM

“Recordings will work.”
Yesterday at 2:25 AM

"You three may go." The giant and tech priest leave without complaint, but the other woman rolls her eyes as she departs. There's the sound of a chair scraping against metal as the man stands up and says "I'll be back shortly." He leaves as well.
Yesterday at 2:25 AM

He stays where he is and just waits.

He also already has a gut feeling it’s the tech-priest and he doesn’t know why.
Yesterday at 2:30 AM

After nearly half an hour, the white-haired man returns, wheeling in a recorder playback set. He sets it up at the foot of the slab Silas is strapped to and begins fiddling with it before saying "I've prepared a number of observation sets of increasing obviousness. Please, tell me when you think you've identified the Psyker." He presses play, and a set of recordings of the three from earlier begin playing. They're doing typical things; the giant is working out, the noblewoman is talking to several people, and the tech-priest is modifying a plasma gun.
Yesterday at 2:31 AM

Silas pays attention to the noblewoman and tech-priest but clearly is favoring watching the priest.
Yesterday at 2:33 AM

The video eventually transitions; the giant is dragging an enormous container across a cargo bay, the noblewoman is deftly breaking down an already weeping man psychologically, and the tech-priest is performing remarkably fine engravings with a mechadendrite.
Yesterday at 2:34 AM

He continues to watch slightly paying more attention to the noblewoman but splitting his attention to both.
Yesterday at 2:36 AM

As the recordings continue, it becomes increasingly clear to him that both of the women are actually psykers. The giant isn't, though.
Yesterday at 2:37 AM

“Both the tech-priest and the noblewoman. They’re witches.”
Yesterday at 2:39 AM

"Correct. Interesting, very interesting. If I recall, the records indicate that the psyker who burned your family had glowing golden eyes. Is that correct?"
Yesterday at 2:40 AM

“Yes...” he hesitates thinking that’s a specific fact for him to bring up. “That’s correct.”
Yesterday at 2:41 AM

"Hmhmhm. And that was the only physical feature you recalled. Is that also correct?"
Yesterday at 2:41 AM

“Yes... that is also correct.”
Yesterday at 2:45 AM

"How terribly ... inconvenient, for you. It will make tracking down the perpetrator rather difficult. You wouldn't even know if you were in the same room as your prey if he could conceal his eyes, would you? In an exceedingly good turn of fortune for you, I find you to be a rather droll fellow, and I've decided to help you, though of course you'll be helping me in turn."
Yesterday at 2:45 AM

“In what way,” he sighs.
Yesterday at 2:48 AM

"As you may or may not have guessed, I'm an Inquisitor. I have many things that need doing, and you'll be doing them, both to repay me for saving you from Rykehuss's tender mercies and in exchange for future favors related to tracking down your enemy. I don't think you'll find the work unenjoyable, general heretics are only a step above witches. You'll have to work alongside my psykers, but, well, we all have to make sacrifices sometimes."
Yesterday at 2:49 AM

“Sure.” He says, tentatively. “Can I have my guns back?”
Yesterday at 2:51 AM

"Tell me, how difficult will it be for you to work alongside psykers?"
Yesterday at 2:51 AM

“I’m already planning to kill them.”
Yesterday at 2:57 AM

"Mm, unfortunate, but not unexpected, unlike your continued honesty. Well, I suppose I have no choice but to resort to draconian methods." The man stands once again, and Silas can hear his footsteps approaching. He snaps a thick metal collar around the bound man's neck. "That's a correction collar. It's configured to deliver considerable shocks to your body at the press of a button, or explode if you try anything particularly stupid. I've given both Lomae, the tech priest, and Frioli, the noblewoman, command codes for it. I wouldn't recommend getting on their bad sides." He presses a button on the underside of the slab, and Silas's restraints snap open. "I'll give you a tour of our little base, introduce you to the important people."
Yesterday at 2:59 AM

Silas feels the thing around his neck. He’s brazen enough to shoot someone right in their base, but not stupid enough to ensure his death.

He gets up, rubs his arms, and goes on the tour.
Yesterday at 3:02 AM

The white-haired man leads him around to various other acolytes and a couple of inquisitors and tells him who to watch out for.
Yesterday at 3:04 AM

He nods and takes it all in stride. He takes a glance at the hot redhead felinid he saw. He’s anti-psyker, not anti-abhuman. He goes on with him.
Yesterday at 3:06 AM

At the end of the tour, he's in the acolyte's quarters. "Well, that's everything you need to see. Roam around as you like; if you end up somewhere you're not supposed to be, believe me, you'll know." The man chuckles. "Well, have fun. Don't kill anyone. I'll call you when I want you." He starts to walk away.
Yesterday at 3:06 AM

He settles down into a bunk.
Yesterday at 3:07 AM

His stuff is in a bag nearby.
Yesterday at 3:07 AM

He places his hat over his face.

He sleeps deeply.
Yesterday at 3:10 AM

His slumber is deep and dreamless, No-one disturbs him.