Noctem Oritur: Chapter 25
In the deepest parts of the monastery there was an echoing catacomb, triple sealed and hidden away, the vault's walls were built out of thick slabs of inert lead and obsidian and they were covered in arcane wards of aversion and abjuration. The space stretched away into darkness and was filled with shadows that hid large alcoves.
The cells were portioned off by tinted armourglass walls with no doors or hatches, the things sequestered here were not meant to be removed under any circumstances. Even the destruction of the Fortress and the death of the Chapter itself would not justify releasing these horrors upon the galaxy. History had taught humanity hard lessons that there were some things too perilous to ever be wielded, not even by the purest of heart.
The vault was hidden away behind cunningly wrought disguises and completely sealed off so that even the raging waters flooding the lower levels of the Fortress did not trouble the interior. This crypt was meant to stay isolated and untroubled at all times, not even guards were permitted lest the horrors within reached out to corrupt and twist their minds. Only the sternest of character were allowed to visit this place and then only when there was something to add to the contents, so it was disturbing that today there was the crump of armoured footfalls echoing within.
Marching down the centre of the space was a Marine clad in brilliant blue plate decorated with secret sigils and arcane emblems, at his waist hung a thick book and his helm bore two golden crests that touched above his head, it was Yuikai and he was here looking for something. Behind him in geomantically precise lines marched nine figures in armour only slightly less brilliant than the Sorcerer's own, they marched in complete silence and there was a curious lethargy to their movements for they were the tragic and doomed Rubricae.
Yuikai strode confidently down the centre of the vault sticking to a narrow band of light running between the cells; he glanced at the various alcoves as he passed by, the tinted armourglass not hindering his ethereal senses at all. Some of the alcoves made him pause for a second in longing, others he merely shook his head at as if astonishing by the ignorance displayed by locking such trifles away. Yet a few he hurried by without looking inside as if even he were troubled by their contents.
For long minutes the party pressed onwards, passing wonder and nightmare alike as they sought out their goal with the confidence that they were totally alone. Then suddenly Yuikai stopped to stare at one particular cell, he looked it up and down then uttered an arcane syllable. The tinted glass turned transparent to reveal a compact library in its own right, stacks of shelves holding volume after volume of thick leather bound tomes.
Yuikai spat another word but was shocked when nothing happened, he stepped right up to the armourglass and placed one hand on it as if astonished that it still existed after his utterance. He craned his head back to peer at the wards inscribed around the barrier, confident that such elementary impediments would not defeat a Magister of the Thousand Sons for long.
He was pondering how to break through when he was interrupted by a voice calling out, "Having problems?"
As one the entire group spun about, the Rubricae's lethargy lifted now action loomed and they found a single Storm Herald standing behind them in the shadows. He stepped forwards and the interloper was revealed to be Sergeant Priyar holding his power maul.
Yuikai that saw he was alone and waved the Rubricae back confident that he could deal with any threat as he said, "Clever of you to use the wards to hide from my psychic scans but don't think my ability to kill you is in any way diminished by these scratchings."
Priyar ignored the threat and said conversationally, "So you finally came here, I knew you would, I knew as soon as word came that Vorshaan had a powerful sorcerer with him that it had to be you."
Yuikai cocked his head to one side and said, "Am I supposed to know who you are?"
Priyar replied, "I suppose you wouldn't remember me, I was but a humble initiate when the Storm Heralds fought the Thousand Sons but I remember you and the nightmares you unleashed, just as I remember what it was that you sought."
Yuikai seemed irked to hear those words and snarled, "You ignorant savages stole it from us and you don't even know what it was you took, you have no idea of its significance."
"Oh but I do" said Priyar, "Prospero, it all comes back to Prospero with your kind."
Yuikai spat angrily, "Don't say that name you know nothing of what you speak, you don't know our nightmare, you weren't there!"
Priyar replied coolly, "I know enough, I know you don't mourn the loss of the facilities or the people or even the planet that died when Leman Russ brought the Space Wolves to your door. It's the knowledge, that's what you mourn, the loss of knowledge."
Yuikai was truly incensed now and spat, "Our Libraries held the greatest collection of learning mankind has ever known, the pinnacle of human achievement and they burned it, those by-blows with their canine fetish burned it all! Even that which was harmless, even that which was beautiful and pure, they piled it all up like it was just wood for their primitive hearths and torched it!"
Priyar probed further saying, "But you have tried to rebuild it, haven't you?"
Yuikai spat "You have no idea what it is like to spend ten thousand years piecing together what was lost but it is an impossible task. There was too much material and never enough of us to memorise it all, not even Magnus had time enough to read each line in every scroll and book."
Priyar took up the narrative saying, "That's what gnaws at you isn't it, you will never know if there is some obscure text missing, one lone scroll yet to be found. It must nag at you like a rotten tooth, the fact that you will never know if you have finished your work, never know if you have completed your collection. But with the contents of that cell you would, with that you would possess a full list of every scroll, data crystal and book kept on Prospero before it burned."
"The Index of Tizca," breathed Yuikai reverently, "You will give it to me or I will burn your world to ash."
"Never" said Priyar raising his power maul between them.
Yuikai said condescendingly, "Just try to use that bit of gristle between your ears for once, if you give me what I want I will take my forces and depart, you can remove a good portion of Vorshaan's army at a stroke. More enemies routed by doing nothing than you could ever achieve with those crude bolters, you might even be able to turn the tide and save your home."
"No" rebuked Priyar, "All that knowledge and yet you never learned wisdom, you never learned that somethings are not worth the sacrifice it takes to get them, that some prizes come with too high a price. Making deals with the wellspring of corruption, thinking that you could treat with the Warp and Chaos itself without consequence, that's where it all started to go wrong and you are a fool to think I will allow it to happen again."
Behind Yuikai the Rubricae snapped up their bolters and the Sorcerer said smugly, "Tell me exactly how you planned to stop us all by yourself?"
Now it was Priyar grinning under his helm and he replied, "What makes you think I came here alone?"
Even as the words left his mouth the shadows lit up with the flare of bolter fire as nine more Astartes revealed themselves, their salvo hit the Rubricae dead on and blew chunks from their ornate gilded armour. A squad of conventional Astartes would have been hammered by the impacts, a few of them would even have been killed outright but the Rubricae seemed untroubled.
With gaping craters in their armour they ponderously turned about and let fly with bolters that spat rounds which left tracers of daemonic flames hanging in the air. One of Priyar's squad took the salvo in the chest and the rounds melted the plate effortlessly to punch into the flesh beneath.
The Marine shrieked hideously as his soul was consumed by the sorcerous rounds but the squad was not done yet. From behind them built a thunderous roar and then a shining ball of starlight flew out of the darkness, a Plasma Canon blast hitting one of the Rubricae and melting the undead being into slag.
The crossfire was intense and both sides sought what little cover there was to avoid being hit but Yuikai stood proudly in the midst of the bedlam and yelled, "You pretend to know our nightmares, then maybe you should experience them yourself!"
He thrust both hands forwards and from them leapt streams of multi-hued energy that shot forwards and wrapped themselves around one of Priyar's squad mates. For a single second nothing happened then an unearthly scream ripped out of the Space Marine and he began to convulse and thrash.
His armour creaked for a moment then split at the joints and masses of heaving, pulsating flesh erupted out of the joints spilling out like clay from a broken mould. The mound of muscles and blubber grew and grew becoming monstrously vast and in the skin mouths formed and insectile eyes blinked in horror as the nightmare of the Flesh Change was unleashed.
Priyar was horrified by the sight and knew his supposed ambush had in fact turned into a trap for his own men but he did not let that slow him down. He drew in a breath and shouted three words loudly above the clamour of battle triggering a response in the vault's inbuilt Machine Spirit.
Inside the sealed alcove multiple nozzles suddenly jutted out from the walls and ceiling, activated by the key phrase they ejected sheets of burning flame into the space, setting each and every tome on fire. Yuikai screamed at the sight and leapt at the glass walls, he summoned a blade of unlight and began to carve a doorway into the thick glass.
He was desperate to save the index from the flames, to prevent another mass book burning like he had seen on Tizca and was totally focused on stopping history repeating itself. Thus he was oblivious when Priyar leapt from behind him and brought a power maul down hard on his head, smashing his skull to pieces and spraying brain matter over the walls.
Instantly the Rubricae lost all co-ordination becoming listless and feeble in their movements and the survivors of Priyar's squad quickly cut them down with concentrated volleys of bolter fire. Priyar was breathing hard from the exertion and knew that he had come within an inch of losing everything but he still had one task left to perform.
Reluctantly he marched over to the quivering mass of flesh that had once been a friend and amid the heaving mutations he swore he could see a pair of human eyes, silently pleading for death. Priyar wasted no time on words but brought his power maul down in one mighty strike to grant the final peace to his lost brother.
Priyar looked about the bodies of his brothers laying amid piles of empty Rubricae armour that were spilling dust instead of blood and declared, "Some prizes come with too high a price."