Morygen hurled herself at me as we returned to the rally point, attempting to wrap her arms around my neck in an embrace.
My wife was an athletic woman but at the time she had been unable to manage quite that kind of a feat.
So I caught her and pulled her into an embrace.
I was a more pleasant feeling than I had been expecting, her presence and mirth warming me even as her safety filled me with elation.
"You're safe!" She laughed as she planted a kiss on my lips. She fell down from me and pointed to me with a proud smile. "Not that it is in doubt."
I was grateful that my anatomy kept me from furiously flushing at the praise.
"She has the right of it," An nodded gruffly as he moved towards the camp and removed his grim-faced helmet. Beneath it the veteran's long face was tired and drawn, a hand went up to massage his still stiff face. "He was worth it."
The others were around the old fire pit that previous raids had built in the plaza, a circle of carved stone paths and a ring of marble to be filled with wood.
The Oathmaster looked up from the fire and pulled herself up to come stand by my wife with a nod.
I could not help but notice that Morygen seemed marginally less tense than before.
"You found something," She looked to An while the others filled past to take their share of the food around the fire. Her tone did not sound like a question.
An actually looked to me with something resembling deference and nodded.
My hand reached to the new blade, bound above my sword of fine but mortal steel.
I drew it and felt the life in the blade the moment that I gripped it in my hand, the subtle hum of life that emanated from its arcane functions coming through my gloved hand as if my hand had not been obstructed at all.
It bore none of the faults of the blade now once more sheathed in my side, in fact every motion that I moved was flawless as its cuts against the air produced what was almost a purr.
Morygen's smile threatened to reach ear to ear at the sight of it, "Now that's a prize."
The Oathmaster nodded but looked to An with a raised brow and I understood why.
A Moraltach was a fine prize, priceless even but not what she needed to revitalize her weakened faction.
"There's more to it," An said.
As if in punctuation, the nanites that rested along the blade moved to live as they launched themselves from the fine grooves of the hilt. They became a mist swirling along the blade.
"This was a gift," I explained.
"Clarification," A voice came from the sword. "This is a tool and a vessel to further our mutually beneficial alliance."
The men who had not come with me looked at the sword with immediate suspicion, some even drew drifted their hands towards their blades to prepare to fight as needed.
To her credit, the Oathmaster merely raised a brow.
"Oh joy," Morygen sighed. "A talking sword and a Moraltach too."
"Objection, the sword is not talking," the sword spoke in conflict with its claim. "This is merely the method by which I am communicating with you."
Morygen gave me a careful look before smiling nervously and scratching her cheek.
"Can you explain?" She asked with an awkward smile.
"It is called Merlin," I said. "It is a spirit constructed by the Fallen Ones."
"An AI," An clarified only for me to be mildly embarrassed at the Oathmaster's nod as her eyes flashed in comprehension.
The Oathmaster blinked as she starred at the sword, "A thing of legend. Except you are all dead in the stories."
The newly named 'Merlin' scuffed.
"Indignation, if we were dead/erased/damaged then so would you," It protested before sighing and adding. "Admission, we are the last."
I knew that it was a gamble to trust the thing, it was not a Daemon to the best of my ability to determine for it had born color but it might very well be a Man of Iron seeking to manipulate me to my doom.
I had told it as much and I was still amused by the response.
Merlin opened its mouth to smile with holographic teeth, "Statement, you will feel foolish when I am vindicated and proven honest."
That was a funny thing to consider, an AI that seemed to be more simplistic in its perception of truth and honesty than most people.
Most anywhere else in the galaxy, people would react in horror at Merlin's very existence, much less his words.
Calengawg was ever a strange place though.
Far from fear, a savage sort of eagerness filled the eyes of both Morygens.
"Please then," the elder Morygen said eagerly. "Share your words."
…
I had always wondered about a particular saying and that night I got to see its meaning pushed into such a precise example.
'Like an oasis in the dessert.'
The Children of the Dawn had long held to the belief in their righteousness to my understanding, of the justice of their cause despite being a less than successful movement.
The vindication Merlin's account provided had moved any doubt in them beyond question.
I would not be going back in alone.
Unfortunately.
While the Oathmaster called her men together to consult with nanites, I sat off a bit closer to the woods polishing my new sword while the grew stream fed off into the meeting around the fire.
"I am genuinely surprised that you are not in the epicenter of the meeting," I commented to my wife as she approached and sat down to lean on my side.
"It was just made today," She said instead while regarding Merlin's vessel. "Why are you polishing it already?"
"Interjection," the Moraltach hummed. "Proper maintenance is never missed."
Morygen snorted, "Then enjoy having my husband's hand on you. Be sure to tell me about it."
The sword did not respond to that with anything more than an annoyed huff.
"To answer your question," she said as I put down my sword carefully next to me and raised an arm for her to sneak under to look up at me from my lap. "I wanted to talk to you."
"I am here," I smiled while poking her cheek. I had begun to accept that my emotions did not feel so distant when I was with her. "So talk."
She smiled up at me before pulling back up and rising to stand in front of me.
"The Oathmaster," she explained. "She spoke to me."
Then perhaps An was not a deluded fool.
Perhaps.
I hoped that I was right, the older man had been rather forgiving about Merlin's actions and I found him agreeable.
"Something to the nature of your being a useful symbol?" I asked.
She frowned, "It doesn't sound great when you put it that way."
"So she wants to build up your own reputation and then I imagine that she promised you some role in doing your father's work," I recited.
By the end Morygen was giving me a look somewhere between a glare and smile.
I smiled broadly at her look.
And got a poke in the nose for my trouble.
"You don't have to be smug about it," she crossed her arms.
"Smug?" I asked, playing a game for a moment before letting it end. "What do you want to do with her words?"
She crossed her arms after pushing her bangs behind her ears.
"I want to believe her," she shifted her wait to her right leg and then to her left in consideration. "You'll probably say that's all the reason I need not believe her."
I gave her a guilty smile which she returned before continuing.
"She says that she's sorry for not contacting me, that she didn't want to put me at risk," She sighed. "But all that aside, I know that she is loyal to the Children."
"Which is not the same thing as loyal to you," I pointed out and sighed. "She will probably want your father's reputation and if she can collect your father's support, then that would only add to your utility?"
"Yes," She smiled with her usual confidence. "I'm not a fool though, I have to be alive to be of use."
"Apologies, for underestimating your genius," I chuckled. "So we plan to cooperate?"
"Best case? We get an ally," She offered. "Worst case? My namesake's underestimating us."
"And there is no point in trying to deter you," I sighed while she gave an affirmative nod.
"Well," she sniffed. "I like to think that you'll eventually like this about me."
"Clarification, he already does according to my reading," Merlin pipped up.
I rewarded the slight betrayal with a glare at the sword while Morygen laughed.
"I think that I like your new sword," she sniggered.
"On that note," I shook my head and slid my own personal Excalibur into its scabbard as I stood up again. "If we are going to go into the depths of voidspawn infested ruin with a small army of people that we cannot trust, we might as well be there for the planning."
"They have been at it for a while," She said tiredly. "Everyone understands the situation by now."
"I know," One of the perks of a Primarch's ears and thought processes was the ability to hear the elder Morygen and Merlin explain the change of objectives to newly returned parties while maintaining my own internal dialogue.
The men and women made way as we snuck in to the core of the group around the fire where the Oathmaster nodded to us.
"Now that we are all present," the elder tapped the stones as she regarding the cloud of mist hanging over the fire. "How exactly would we reach the generators."
The could hummed as the nanites whirled beyond their cloud, forming pattern above us before beginning to shake. Their friction created wisps of light which interlocked into a phantasmal map.
"Explanation, Sector 2 is the least damaged regional grouping so the generators are within a fairly short range of this site. Using the movement pattern which I have monitored, it will require three days, six hours, twenty four minutes approximately to reach the first of the generator sectors," it explained.
That dampened the enthusiasm of the group, raids were known to spend entire days within the ruins before retreating to the safety of camp sites such as the one we currently sat in.
Spending one night, much less two within the ruins was the sort of thing done in legends.
Night meant greater Daemon resistance and the men would need to actually sleep.
"That will be difficult," An cracked his fingers in thought. "We have the provisions of a week of expeditions but we would be slowed by carrying them."
"And this would not even be an expedition," Another of the senior Seekers commented while pointing to the curving map. "It is closer to suicide."
The murmurs of the men did not seem to lean one way or another.
"It does not matter," the Oathmaster said while raising her voice. "We have been given the opportunity that the Children have been waiting millennia for!"
Her words were a whip that silenced dissent amongst the Seekers.
The questions continued after that, questions not of men and women seeking to alter their course but of those attempting to find problems to be solved.
I cannot remember when I started to speak myself, nor when my questions became answers to others.
But eventually I found myself at the center of the discussions, forming the plan that we would follow into the ruins while others merely provided peripheral assistance.
At the time, I did not think that I was saying anything especially brilliant or clever. I was just saying what I saw on the map, little details and the logical conclusions that one could draw from them.
I would later reflect that it was sort of insidious.
The way that I did not see myself changing as I had my first tastes of command.