Chasing Stars

"No!" Serenity said and turned her head to the side.

The Emperor of Mankind let out a sigh. That was it then. The girl had reached the "no" period. He did not dread it, of course. After all, he had brought up many a child and he knew it only lasted that long. For a being of his age it would be a mere eye-blink.

Splat!

Some of the apple mousse that he'd been patiently trying to feed Serenity landed on his forehead. Serenity giggled and said, "No!"

In the background, the nurse unsuccessfully tried to hide a smirk in her apron.

Serenity learned to walk quickly. Her first steps were the result of her wanting to get to a toy, which had mysteriously found itself in the furthest part of her room. Then she learned to run.

And cling to her father's leg. The Emperor looked down to meet the Princess's innocent blue stare. Without stopping the conversation, he scooped the girl up in his arms.

Once he was standing straight, Serenity used the advantage his height gave her to look around. Very soon, he learned that her gaze managed to distract even Malcador the Sigillite, who after a while just could not stop looking at her and finally attempted to get her to laugh by putting on silly faces. If he had not intended to keep her existence secret for now, this ability of the princess would certainly have proven useful…

Serenity did not appreciate when her father had to work. She would have preferred that he stayed and played with her all the time, but she knew there was nothing she could do and so she had to wait for him to finish working.

Maybe she should surprise her father? Some people were painting things on the walls of the palace, so maybe she should help them? The walls in her room were covered in a wall-paper with moons and rabbits on it, but the palace corridor in front of it was quite boring.

Serenity took her trusty box of crayons and proceeded to create art, undeterred by the shrieks of her nurse. Incidentally, a few days later her new playmates moved in. And a new nurse.

Serenity had a Very Important Question. It all started with Miss Lydia, who had to take leave and was replaced by two other tutors. Serenity had been not particularly happy about it, but managed to forget her displeasure after a week. Then, after several months she had met her previous tutor, now nursing a little bundle. The bundle looked like a cross between a red orange and a hairless monkey to Serenity, but she had been polite and didn't mention that.

The Very Important Question occurred to her later, which meant she could not ask Miss Lydia. That left her playmates. Her question left them rather surprised. Merir scratched the back of his head and then said, "Well… A woman's body produces tiny eggs and the man's body produces a lot of little seeds—they're called sperm. If a sperm gets into the egg than a zygote forms and after nine months a woman gives birth to a baby."

Serenity watched him solemnly for a while, trying to make sense of what he had said. The explanation was only bare bones, but then she did notice that her playmates did not appear to be thrilled about having to answer that. It probably would be not nice of her to force them explain it in more detail.

"I need to see Father," she announced.

"Of course, Princess," Tal eplied. "He will be visiting you in a few hours."

The little girl scrunched up her nose. A few hours were ages! She couldn't wait so long.

"I need to ask him something now," she said firmly.

"You could ask us," Merir said.

Serenity pouted and shook his head. "It's an important question."

She observed the three Marines exchange looks—the kind that meant they did not understand how pressing a matter was and that they were going to be difficult. Clearly, this called for stronger arguments.

"I'll go anyway and you're supposed to look after me," she said with an air of finality.

The three exchanged more looks.

Serenity decided it was a good sign and slid down from her chair. She neatly avoided being picked up by three sets of hands and spent another fifteen minutes avoiding them over and over. Then, she reached the door and with the grace of an expert was out in minutes. She couldn't outrun the Marines, of course, but this was not the point.

The point that by the time one of them grabbed her, she was giggling happily and cuddled to him. "Please?"

The Emperor of Mankind had been a father many times before Serenity. He was well aware certain questions would fall sooner or later, having answered them countless times. "Where do babies come from?" came as a good friend, rather then some form of dreaded duty. His answer had been the same for several thousand years now, but this time around it had been also an opportunity.

"There is another way," he said, picking Serenity up so that she was his eye-level. "Before you were born, I had created twenty sons. Each of them was going to be a might warrior, a brilliant leader of man. They were going to help me unite mankind."

"Where are they?" Serenity asked.

The Emperor did not sigh, but he did look into the distance for a while before answering. "They were lost. Scattered in the Warp."

He felt his daughter cuddle to him. "But we'll find them," she stated with surprising firmness.

The Emperor could not help, but to smile at that. He returned the hug and then motioned at her daughter's rather nervous playmates. "Come. I will show you where it all begun."

The Marines followed in silence, and he could feel equal measures of excitement and anxiety from them. They knew about Primarchs, and though they had never met him, they felt instinctive loyalty towards their gene-father.

Serenity was not silent. She chattered on, asking all sorts of questions as they headed first into one of the many elevators and than towards a shuttle. The Emperor couldn't help to notice that the three Astartes were straining to hear all the details, including hair and eye-colours.

The laboratory still bore the signs of what had happened. Twenty broken tanks stood in a circle around a generator. Each bore a stencilled number. Even broken as they were, the still dominated the chamber. Astelan and the two others were drawn to the first one.

The Emperor joined them and placed his hand on one of the broken tanks. "Here is where my sons matured, until they were lost."

Serenity watched the tanks with wide eyes. Her gaze wandered each of them, but then it was drawn to the side, where the vortex had opened.

"Something more got lost, didn't it?" she said, half dreamily. "Seeds of souls…"

She held her hand palm out and something silvery glinted on it. A jewel, shaped like bloom, formed.

The Emperor of Mankind looked at it, his expression thoughtful.