Civil War
Anastacia's father was a well-connected and influential man, the scion of a powerful family. The weight of his purse and name secured his release - he was paroled on the condition he did not challenge his wife's diagnosis, and did not attempt to regain custody of or paternal rights to Anastacia. In truth, even if he had wanted to, he was unable to pursue either of these ends - because the rest of his family was fighting him. Sensing weakness they had moved against him while he was imprisoned, taking over his portions of the family business and undermining his authority within the Techtriarchy. Angrily, he mustered his allies and fought back - politically and economically in the main, but also with criminal violence as he sought the aid of underworld
pakhans whose gangs sabotaged and assassinated to support his ends. His brothers, uncles and nephews responded by allying themselves with rival
vory and an orgy of gang warfare exploded over the territories of the Ternovnik family.
The conflict continued for several years, with the Techtriarchy growing ever-more dismayed and angry at the internecine warfare. Other families were gradually drawn in, production quotas missed, and damage done to the industrial infrastructure of the planet. A diplomatic resolution eluded the Techtriarchy - this was a personal vendetta, a civil war within a family, and now the
vory were involved they would not let their bloody claws loose. But neither could they censure the Ternovniks - they were too powerful. The Adeptus Mechanicus overruled a military solution; their inelegant-logic could not countenance such a sudden and immediate loss of productivity in the short term, despite the promise of long term recovery.
It was a small conclave of unaugmented Techtriarchs who hit upon a solution; they made secret overtures to
Jessica Stark, a Cadian
Inquisitor based on the Fortress World to the galactic south of Vostroya. She would be willing to make the hard decisions to endure an immediate and devastating loss of production to ensure continued delivery of quotas for the future. "Would you rather have a moment of agony or a lifetime of ache?" was the argument used by the senior Techtriarch who was the main architect of the plan.
Stark responded, but she was not as easily controlled as the Techtriarchs hoped and her plan was more subtle than theirs. Under the guise of cracking down on the
vory she weakened Anastacia's father's rivals and allowed him to take control of not only the whole family's factories but also tempted him with the throne of the primary
pakhan, offering to remove the underworld boss if the nobleman desired it.
The temptation was too great and he agreed - cementing his control over the Vostroyan criminal underworld but trapping him in a web of silent blackmail he could not easily escape. Stark asked for nothing in return for helping him defeat his rivals and ascend to his current position - such a thing would have been improper and
iudicium cum maledictum - but he was generous in his donations to her coffers, both in terms of financial resources and bespoke munitions for her Inquisitorial stormtroopers.
He did not ask her to secure the release of his wife - in the intervening years she had plunged even deeper into madness and, besides, he was enjoying the attentions of the courtesans and pleasure-women within the
vory's stables - but he was interested in re-establishing a relationship with Anastacia; although some of his paternal attention was given to nephews and promising underlings drawn from the dregs of society into the
vory, he wanted his own blood as his right hand. He asked Stark to release her from the Schola and let her take her place by his side.
The Inquisition
Stark was intrigued by the Techtriarch's request; Anastacia had become a young woman - very young, but a woman nevertheless - of great skill and ambition and filled with the promise of more. Stark became aware of her during her investigations and found her compelling; she was reaching the point in her career where she might want to select an Acolyte who could rise to the level of Interrogator, a potential successor to her role as Inquisitor. In the young Vostroyan
