Speculum Enigmate Chapter 24

Odrin wasn't running, he certainly wouldn't do that, but there was haste to his step as the darkness under the world enveloped him. He hurried along abandoned railways lines and slid down metal ladders, crossing an underground aqueduct with barely a glance at the frothing waters. He was treading paths he hadn't walked since his childhood but he remembered the route like it was yesterday, twists and turns he had committed to memory long before his rise to power. The First Secretary had abandoned his long coats and heavy symbols of office, switching for a tight jacket and baggy trousers that left him free to move. He also bore a laspistol in a holster on his belt, he knew the undercity was filled with dangers and wild animals and had no intention of ending up as some mindless creature's dinner.

As he walked he had plenty of time to gnaw on the reason he had fled the Jade Citadel, the unexpected turn of events that had upended his world. Only a few hours earlier it had all been going so well, the heir was out of the way and Aleys Bassail was in total panic, ordering a complete lockdown of her home, sealing everybody inside and cutting off the outside world. The lack of news from the centre of government would send the city into a panic, stirring up rumours and discontent. The Viscount had been livid, demanding to know what was going on, a rage Odrin was stoking with careful snubs and evasions. Tensions were mounting swiftly, soon it would be time to trigger the rebellion. Then it had all gone wrong.

It was all the Imperial's fault. Odrin had manoeuvred them into the depths and sent word to the Kiith to have them eliminated. It should have been easy, his collaborators had every advantage conceivable, numbers, arms, knowledge of the environment, victory should have been assured. Then came smuggled reports from the dark. Whispers of slaughter in the depths, of hundreds being gunned down by Ceramite giants. In the railway lines Devastators had slaughtered foes with relentless Heavy Bolter fire. In the sewers giants had blasted waves of attackers with deadly crossfires while a warrior with a burning axe hewed foes like fallen logs. In the aqueduct system skull-masked killers had unleashed the beasts themselves onto their enemy. Of the Inquisitor there was no sign, she had been sighted marching into the undercity and then vanished, as if she had some means of befouling the Kiith's sight. Odrin hadn't believed it at first, surely this wasn't possible, but then he remembered that Pascum hadn't felt the boot tread of an Astartes in centuries and it dawned on him that the legends of the Angels of Death were not embellished. He had badly underestimated the Space Marines, they all had.

Then only an hour before he had seen the smoke rising from the Genic Council's home. From a high window in the Jade Citadel he had watched flames consuming the domes and spires of the ancient guild, a centre of Genic purity that had stood for millennia collapsing in on itself. Even to Odrin that place was a closed book, but he knew the Kiith had agents within, working to subvert the practices of Pascum to their own ends. One Space Marine had marched within, one Apothecary all alone. His death was certain, or so Odrin had thought. As he watched the fires growing he realised his plan had failed, all his decades of scheming had been undone in hours and he determined the time had come to save his own skin. The Jade Citadel had been in lockdown, but Odrin knew many secrets and had made sure one exit to the Undercity was unguarded. He had slipped out when nobody was looking, well aware that soon someone would notice his absence and his treachery would be exposed. Best he be far away when that happened.

He was brought to a sudden halt as he felt something he had not experienced in many years. A warm, throbbing inside his skull, like soothing fingers massaging the back of his head. It coursed through him, sending his nerves into tingling waves of sensation. It was the feeling of home, the call of kin and kind, drawing him to them. It was the shared consciousness of the Kiith, the communal bond that gave them purpose and brotherhood, making them one in spirit and in blood. Odrin hadn't been a part of it for years, his association with the Imperials and their damnable Psykers and Astropaths meant he had been required to operate alone, but now it filled him with its siren call.

Of their own volition his feet took him left, down a descending flight of stairs that had once served hundreds of commuters in ages past. He walked with confidence only to be brought up short as he was confronted by three guards. Two of them were inhumanly warped, mutated hunchbacks with bulging muscles. These were the less salubrious members of the Kiith, those born too divergent to pass on the surface. While hidden agents furthered their agenda among the populace these ones born were confined to the undercity for life. Still they served their purpose as guards and enforcers, using the lasrifles they bore to good effect. But the third was different, a chitin-clad beast with four arms and vicious fangs: a Purestrain.

Odrin smiled as they brought up their weapons and spread his arms out to show he was friendly. The Purestrain jerked nearer, its head bobbing up and down as it peered at him. Odrin was not concerned, he could feel the connection between them, the sense of family that came with the Broodmind. They were both aspects of the same greater whole, flowing from the same font and their kinship was obvious. It seemed the Purestrain agreed for it backed down, letting him pass and Odrin walked on with a parting, "I thank you, Brood-Brother."

He continued down the steps and found himself entering an abandoned rail station, one whose glory was long tarnished. He pulled up short when he entered for the place was strewn with bodies, piles of dead laying across the raised platforms and corroded rail lines. Hybrids stared upwards with dulled eyes, their bodies sundered by mighty blows and explosive rounds. Hardened warrior-forms, gene-bred for lethality, had been ripped to shreds, blasted and cleaved by terrible wounds that left pieces of them laying everywhere. One glance was enough to tell him that the Space Marines had done this, yet that was not the most shocking thing. The truly amazing thing was the sight of Matriarch Tyvis, standing among the dead with a fierce glower.

Odrin's jaw dropped as he spluttered, "What are you doing here?!"
Tyvis looked up impatiently as she spat, "Isn't that obvious?"

Odrin slowly paced nearer, struggling to comprehend as he said, "You're part of the Kiith?"
Tyvis sneered, "Is that what you think, and here I thought we bred you for brains. I am not part of the family, I am the Kiith!"

With that her eyes flared darkly, her will lashing Odrin through the Broodmind. He felt the sheer force of her mind, the psychic potential flowing through her. She was not the source of this power, she was merely a conduit but she was the most potent and focused avatar of the gestalt consciousness Odrin had ever felt. She was the nexus and focusing lens for the Kiith's power, the Magus of the Genestealer Cult.

"You're the Mother?!" Odrin gasped, "All this time and I never knew."
"You weren't required to know," Tyvis snapped, "You had a part to play and one slip would have given us away."

Odrin snorted, "That hardly matters, the secret is out now we've been exposed."
"You don't have to tell me that," Tyvis sneered, "One pathetic Apothecary laid waste to my home, undoing priceless gene-craft that had taken decades to produce. Our finest stock went up in flames; our breeding pits are charnel houses and our cover is blown."

Odrin sighed, "A shame but it couldn't have lasted forever. Sooner or later we had to emerge into the light."
"Not so early," Tyvis snapped, "Not before you were in place to rule the planet. With you keeping order we could have spread our Kiss throughout the population, subverting millions to our cause. By the time the dupes realised something was wrong we would have owned the planet. Now we are merely thousands, when we should have been millions."

Odrin shook his head and said, "Then we must move fast, kill the whelp and leave his body out today. Start the riots that will overthrow the Governor, before the Imperials can stop us."
"They already have," Tyvis hissed, "This is where we were keeping the heir, they took him from us."
"They what?!" Odrin yelped, "How could you be so careless?!"

Tyvis's eyes flared and her will washed over him as she growled, "Careful, remember who you speak to. I own you never forget that. We were prepared but the Imperials eluded our watch somehow; they have a power to pass unseen. The Broodmind grows confused, our eyes are blinded and our ears stopped. By the time we can close in on the disruption they have already relocated. Still it wasn't a total loss; we recovered the girl's body."

"The girl is nothing!" Odrin spat in vexation, "The boy was the one we needed, without him we have nothing."
"Then what do you suggest?" Tyvis sneered.

Odrin reluctantly said, "We go silent and run far. We leave a token force in the city for the Imperials to fight while we scatter our Brood-Brothers across the planet. The off-worlders will exterminate those who remain and then pat themselves on the back for a job well done, while we start over somewhere else."

Tyvis's lip curled as she snorted, "Run and hide… never."
"We must," Odrin protested.

But Tyvis' will surged and Odrin felt her anger settle over him as she growled, "Centuries of patient breeding, keeping our public face spotless, all to be wasted. No, I won't allow it. We still have arms and troops waiting throughout the city. We have your allies in the other cities and in orbit. We shall strike, openly and with full force and take what is our due."

Odrin felt her mind pressing on his spirit, demanding his obedience, but he fought back as he protested, "But we need the common folk's rebellion to aid us, we don't have the numbers to overthrow the Imperium alone."

"We have more than you know," Tyvis sneered, "Our numbers are legion, we no longer require secrecy. I see it now, that was our mistake, trying to fight the Imperials while keeping our veil on. We have been fighting with one arm tied behind our backs, no wonder we fell short. No more, our hour is at hand. We shall strike with our full might. No more holding back, no more secrecy. We shall sweep the Imperials from this world and crush the Astartes with sheer weight of numbers. Then we shall call the One God from the stars to claim its due."

Odrin was sweating profusely as he forced his jaw to utter, "But what of the common folk?"
"Let them burn," Tyvis uttered as she stared upwards with a fanatical light in her eyes, "Let them bleed and scream and run to their overlords, the panic and confusion will serve our cause. We shall tear down their temples and their palaces, crush their law courts and precincts. You shall contact your allies and tell them the time has come, I want civil war across this whole world while we secure the capital and then the people shall learn to obey me!"

Odrin could barely speak, so strong was the will crushing his spirit, but he gasped, "It's… too soon."
Tyvis turned her full attention on him and Odrin's knees went weak as she barked, "You will do this, my servant. Else face the wrath of the Grandfather."

From the shadows beyond Tyvis came a lumbering giant, a stooped monstrosity of claws and fangs. It loomed over them all as talons as long as a man's arms flexed and a long tongue hung with a sharp ovipositor twitched in the air. Eyes as black as the space between stars fixed Odrin in their gaze and he felt his will fold as the Genestealer Patriarch looked down upon its errant spawn. Faced with the wellspring of his blood Odrin had no choice but to submit, he bowed before the embodiment of the Broodmind and knew soon Pasdem city would burn.