The Wayward Son

by Angelus Titanus

Specially chosen by the Ordo Malleus to help hunt down the leader of a warband of Emperor's Children, Kill Team Calamity of the Deathwatch encounter way more than they were counting on. Between Heretics, the Inquisition, Eldar, Dark Eldar, and Chaos one Blood Raven librarian has his faith truly tested in the midst of heresy and temptation in the 13th Black Crusade.

27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Suspicion

After their long discussion, not much was said in the following hours. Ferrus had requested a digital copy of the Codex Astartes to read over during that time and Seiras could see him cringing in disapproval quite often during their flight.

Melisara would occasionally chime in with updates on their location, but other than one-word responses of acknowledgement, nobody said much else. The weight of all the recent revelations was truly a burden upon Seiras. Even despite his success at actually reanimating a primarch, he felt even more concerned about the future than before. The Blood Raven spent the majority of the time pondering over the new knowledge and simply couldn't even believe some of it was possible.

'Titans that can fly…how in the Emperor's name could you take down something like that? Assuming it's relatively fast, a ship would be too slow to hit it and nothing on the ground would be able to do much either. That's not even considering what type of advanced weapons and armour it would have. It could outmaneuver any ground force and would be massively advantaged against ground-based titans. Plus if it could enter and exit a planet's orbit on its own, then such a titan could easily break through blockades and puncture fleet formations with minimal effort. Something like that could even break through Battlefleet Solar and land on Terra,' he thought about the tactics that it would take to even engage a war machine of that caliber.

Their long silence was finally broken as Melisara looked back, "Alright, well I have bad news and good news."

Ferrus looked up from the data slate he was reading and sent her a visible look of dread and annoyance. He leaned back against the bulkhead of the ship and released an audible but silent growl, "What is it now?"

Seiras focused on the haemonculus with serious eyes, "What's the issue?"

"Well the bad news is the battle between Vect and Malys is long over. We were in there for about a solar week based on my ship's time calendar. For us it was only a few hours, but I suppose we were lucky that the time dilation wasn't too extreme thanks to our close proximity to Khaine's Gate. I was going to mention it sooner, but I hoped it wouldn't prove to be an issue," she paused momentarily as she took in their reactions.

Ferrus had no visible reaction other than annoyance; he had nothing to say about the matter as his attention turned towards Seiras.

The librarian frowned, "What's the good news, Melisara?"

"The good news is Vect won the battle by disabling the Blackstone Fortress. Malys managed to retreat with it but had to abandon almost a third of her forces. I've been listening to communications for the past two hours on my personal headset here. Apparently, Faelan's Kabal and Velatha's Kabal are working together to wipe out and drive back the rest of the Poisoned Tongue Kabalites and their Ynnari allies. Vect took the Black Heart Kabal to pursue Malys, so at least you don't have to worry about him. You will be interested to know that there's also a search party moving towards one of the decoy trackers I built for you. At the rate they are going it'll take them another hour or two. With good timing I can drop you off there before they arrive," she explained calmly.

Seiras exhaled a breath of relief, "That's a remarkably lucky turn of events. I expected something far worse."

"I've been thinking about this escape you're planning," Ferrus interjected sternly, "is there any reason we shouldn't just leave this blighted realm right now?"

"Honestly, I don't know…I hadn't given that idea much thought," Seiras' eyes lit up.

Melisara shook her head, "Unfortunately, that won't do…preparations need to be made before I release you to break out of Commorragh. Also I think you would do well with some armour and weapons before you two escape, Ferrus. While Seiras is working out his escape plans, you can forge some in my lab. Don't worry I have everything you could possibly need. Though I would advise not making Terminator Armour since that would take too long."

"Hmph…that is a good point. I certainly will need wargear before we return to Imperial space," Ferrus acknowledged a bit begrudgingly.

"We'll also need allies here, Lord Ferrus. Plus I promised to help the eldar and some Imperial Guardsmen to escape. The captive craftworlders can navigate us back through the webway to Corun where I was captured. Inquisitor Atia should still be there with my kill team in Sub-Sector Justicar. They were trapped by warpstorms in the sub-sector," Seiras added.

"Why can't you just take us there, alien?" Ferrus asked Melisara.

The haemonculus sighed, "Alas, I cannot do such a thing. I am quite well-connected in this city. Your escape has to look like an accident. Even as amazing as I am, I would not fare well against Vect's wrath if he found out I was helping you. I'll explain in detail how I plan to handle that issue later."

"Fair enough," Ferrus sighed in acceptance.

Melisara pressed a few buttons in the cockpit of her ship to put it on autopilot before moving to the back, "Anyways, I need to put your collar back on before I deliver you back, Seiras. You should also come up with a good cover story about what you've been doing the past week. Some of the communications I intercepted sounded a bit upset. They think you tried to escape. Renfaeda personally thinks the harlequins abducted you."

"That's actually really bad. They were just starting to trust me enough to give me a small measure of freedom. They'll be more suspicious of me now," Seiras sighed as he tried to come up with a good excuse for his reunion with the Kabal.

She pulled out the familiar devices to equip his psionic limiter collar. Ferrus stared with curious disgust as Melisara quickly and efficiently loosened part of his power armour's carapace and gorget to drill the collar back into his neck.

Once it was on, Seiras felt the familiar burning sting return once again. He had almost forgotten how it felt even despite the collar only being off for a few hours relative to his own time. After a minute or two of grimacing through the pain, he felt a familiar numbness return as his body adjusted to the constant electric stinging burn of the collar again.

Ferrus stared at the collar as he voiced his disapproval, "Is that thing plugged into his black carapace?!"

"Yes…it's a specially made psionic limiter collar with an agony circuit amp built in. It nullifies his psychic powers and gives anyone with a collar remote the ability to stun or shock him. I built it for his masters so that they would be more at ease around him," Melisara remarked as if it wasn't any big deal.

The Gorgon met her gaze as she looked back. He clearly didn't approve of the collar, but a moment later he nodded, "I see…such a thing would certainly give slave masters no reason to fear him. They would be fools to underestimate an Astartes regardless, but it is a clever deception."

"I thought so too. It's also extremely painful and it is considered especially cruel to even put one of these on craftworlders. The warlocks and farseers we typically put them on can't even handle the basic collars without crying pathetically. Seiras' has been remarkably resilient to it. No doubt that's due to Astartes having a higher pain threshold than Eldar," Melisara smiled at his statement before going back to retightening Seiras' armour.

"Those collars seem like a good idea for nullifying dangerous psykers. Would it be possible for you to give me the blueprints for how to make them? If so, I would give them to the Silent Sisters and the Astartes chapters so that they could more easily manage dangerous psychic prisoners. The Inquisition would also make good use of them I imagine," Ferrus requested.

Melisara beamed at his request, "Absolutely Ferrus. I'd be honoured for you to use my devices. I'll even give you a blueprint copy of Seiras' collar so your Inquisition can use them on chaos sorcerers. If they ask, just say you built it. They'll believe it I'm sure. With that being said, these collars aren't powerful enough to work on Alpha plus level psykers. So…anything stronger than Seiras or a farseer would be immune to it just so you know. I've also never tested one on a daemon either…it's probably not a good idea. Although I would be fascinated to see what it does to a daemon prince."

"You have been surprisingly helpful. I find you much more tolerable than the craftworlders I've dealt with. If the rest of your species behaved as you did, I might actually listen to them. You're clearly intelligent and proud, but you don't come across with that condescending holier-than-thou attitude that they have. You tell us what we need to know without any mystical nonsense," Ferrus remarked.

Seiras found it almost amazing that a primarch would indirectly compliment an alien, but even Ferrus couldn't deny Melisara's usefulness in their situation.

"Anyways, have you come up with a good excuse yet, Seiras?" the haemonculus changed the subject after finishing her handiwork.

He shook his head, "No, I can't think of anything that could possibly justify why I was MIA for a week. Other than being trapped somewhere I suppose. Before you teleported me, I was thrown off the spire by a Night Lord. I could probably make a story up about fighting my way back up."

"Well fortunately for us, that main decoy tracker I set up is buried under the battlefield. The surrounding area is also still intact. I can actually teleport you directly to it. However, when I do, I am going to need you to do some things to make it extra convincing," she trailed off. It seemed apparent to him that Melisara had already planned on the idea.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like this?" the librarian looked between Melisara and Ferrus as he felt a wave of dread flooding his insides. He knew that for this to be convincing it would likely involve him looking injured.

"When I teleport you there, you will see the false decoy. It has a homing beacon in it. You're going to have to destroy it very thoroughly, but don't break it right away. I am going to use it to also teleport enemies in there for you to kill. It's going to be a lot of enemies, but I know you can handle it. Make sure none of them survive and that the beacon is destroyed before the search party finds you. I will keep you updated on your personal vox channel," she explained almost cheerily.

Ferrus rose a brow in disbelief, "How are you going to teleport him from here, and better yet how are you going to teleport enemies to him?!"

"The homing beacons are devices I use to teleport individuals to and from certain locations. I have one built in, Seiras' collar has one built in, and so does the decoy beacon that the others are tracking him to. Also since I anticipated this type of complication, I managed to purchase a company's worth of Poisoned Tongue Kabalites before this all broke out. They're being held captive in one of my deep fortress labs. I can just teleport them directly to Seiras. One hundred or so ought to do…maybe more. I'll start him off with twenty and work it up to one hundred. Make sure to let them shoot you a bunch as well. Fortunately, those Night Lords stabbed through your cuirass earlier. That's a good sign of damage. Try to get some more damage like that. Don't worry about your armour, we can repair it later." she elaborated.

"While I do not mean to question his competency in battle, would that not get him killed? As skilled as Astartes are, they cannot fight one hundred Eldar warriors alone in that situation. I detest your species, but I am not blind to their skill in battle. He's also a librarian and won't have any access to his psychic powers. If he were in terminator armour I'd understand, but your weapons can puncture power armour. The intent is to make him look injured…not to kill him isn't it?" the Gorgon expressed his doubt.

"True, but I enhanced Seiras with an Immortis gland. Short of disintegrating his body, it would be exceedingly difficult for kabalites to kill him with splinter weapons. Just to be cautious I made sure to take their heavy munitions away minus the grenades," the haemonculus chuckled.

Ferrus went wide-eyed at her remark, "You…gave him an Immortis gland?! As in one of the primarch organs?!"

She nodded, "Yes, I did in fact. Before his enhancements I would say Seiras was easily in the 85th percentile of space marines. Now he's biologically superior to every baseline Astartes in the galaxy. Maybe closer to Custodes level or somewhere a bit below it. This will be vital field data to determine the extent."

Turning his head towards the Blood Raven librarian, Ferrus spoke seriously, "Is this true?"

"Yes, Lord Ferrus…my reflexes are much faster. I haven't noticed any significant changes other than that. I highly doubt I'm anywhere near as deadly as a baseline Custodian though," he answered.

"How did you acquire an Immortis gland to implant into him anyways? How did you make that work?" Ferrus asked Melisara disbelievingly.

"I cloned yours…quite a few times in fact. I've only made two work as implants though. One for me and I gave one to Seiras," she responded with immediate honesty.

The flintlock silver eyes of the primarch began to bore a hole into Melisara's neon green, "The Immortis gland is incompatible with everything except a genetically engineered primarch. How did you manage to make this work? I want details."

"Yes, Fabius tried many times to replicate primarch organs and failed all of them. The first time we met he asked me if I could help him with it. I wasn't able to at the time, but I eventually finessed him into giving me the last clone of you. I knew I could always get more gene-seed, but primarch genetics were priceless. Over a few millennia I experimented until I finally found the perfect genetic makeup to accept the organ. I had to gene-splice human DNA into my own in order to make it feasible for myself. I'm also female so it was extra challenging to rewrite the primarch sex chromosomes and make them compatible with my eldar genetics. My 26th pair which are the Aeldari sex chromosomes were particularly annoying to alter as they would mutate me every time they were combined to match with the 23rd pair of human sex chromosomes. Fortunately, the baseline genetic material for two X chromosomes was already there in your DNA. That means you primarchs were initially capable of siring offspring. It also proves that the Emperor likely did consider making you primarchs female in your early development. You might find this funny, but my first few attempts turned me into a hulking grotesque. Eventually I found the perfect balance and made it work. The process only made me respect the Emperor more…for almost nothing is that challenging to a top tier geneticist like myself," Melisara went into detail.

Ferrus looked half appalled and half impressed by her explanation. He stared at her almost disbelievingly, "So you're part human then?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. The reason I did this was so that I could truly become biologically immortal like you primarchs. It also worked to nullify soul decay that all commorrites experience. Before I made my immortis gland work, I also wasn't as pretty as I am now. So many of my colleagues are super jealous of me because I'm one of the oldest haemonculi and I am better looking than most wyches. I never told anyone how I did it though, and I don't intend to. Plus it's so funny to see them bask in envy thinking I came up with all of this myself. Granted I owe it all to the Emperor though and I will gladly say so to you both. Even as great as I am, I cannot deny that the Emperor was the greatest geneticist in the galaxy. Having his own genes within my current body is humbling and amazing," she beamed.

"I don't know whether to be impressed or disgusted that you tampered with the Emperor's work and succeeded. I just can't believe an alien would admire the Emperor's work that much," Ferrus scoffed.

"How exactly does the Immortis gland combat soul decay, Melisara? That's more of a warp phenomenon than a biological one is it not?" Seiras interjected.

"A good question, Seiras. Allow me to explain. I learned a lot about how primarch organs worked during my experiments. There is another requirement for one's body to accept an Immortis gland in addition to the perfect genetic sequence. Mind you every genetic sequence required is unique to the individual…that's why the primarchs are all uniquely crafted and can't be mass-produced. For the body to accept a complete Immortis gland, one must also have a warp siphon gene…it's a rare variant found in the psychic gene. We drukhari have lost our psychic abilities over millennia, so it took me quite a while to finally realize that necessity. I discovered that the immortis gland only functions properly if its owner has a warp siphon variant powering it. Specifically the Sintarius lobe requires this unique psychic gene. The Emperor designed it to kill or horribly mutate anyone who gets the gene-splicing wrong or who doesn't possess the warp siphon. I can't tell you how many times I had to die to get it right. I went through hundreds of backup bodies if you want perspective on how difficult it was even for me. Each Immortis gland is also unique and I am only compatible to Ferrus'. The same goes for you as well, Seiras. The organ is a biological masterpiece indistinguishable from magic. While the regular progenoids in Astartes prevent the telomeres in human chromosomes from shortening during cell division, the Immortis gland also uses the warp to hyper-accelerate or turn back time relative to one's body. So you'll regenerate from a wound in seconds or minutes instead of hours or days. In regard to soul-decay it essentially reverses time relative to my own body whenever I am injured, or my soul is affected by Slaanesh. It's also constantly draining the warp which essentially keeps my soul topped off. Think of it as an energy collector that is constantly powering your body with the warp and can use the warp to regenerate your wounds. Fascinating huh?" Melisara ranted with enthusiasm.

Seiras tilted his head curiously, "Is psychic glamour a side-effect of having this warp siphon gene, Melisara? I've been told by a farseer that I possess psychic glamour like all of the primarchs do."

"Yes, Seiras…very astute observation. With that said, I doubt the farseer told you the whole truth about what it is as even craftworlders barely understand the gene. When I examined your body after you died to Renfaeda, I realized you had the warp siphon gene. In humans the gene is even rarer than pariahs. I've only ever known it to be present among beta or higher level psykers…and only a rare few. Other than you, I only know of two Astartes who possess it…Typhus the Plaguebringer of the Death Guard and Ahzek Ahriman the greatest Thousand Son Sorcerer. Among regular humans, I know that Malcador the Sigillite possessed this gene as well. The Silent Sisters have a special ability to detect if someone has this gene since they would see the warp aura draining into the psyker. To them your aura would look like an event horizon in some ways. Throughout history, any regular human with the warp siphon would typically be given to the Inquisition by the black ships as a recruit. The warp siphon is especially useful for an Inquisitor as it would give them psychic glamour in order to more easily influence people around them. Assuming the current Imperium even knows about this gene, the inner circles of the Imperium would undoubtedly believe that only the Inquisition can be truly trusted to live with a dangerous ability like this. The gene is also far less common among Astartes pyskers than regular humans." Melisara explained.

Ferrus himself looked interested in the description as he immediately interjected, "I had no idea such a gene existed among the primarchs. I knew we were all somewhat psychic, but that is quite interesting to hear. What does this psychic glamour do and why is it present in the primarchs and a rare few humans?"

"Essentially what it does is it constantly drains energy from the warp and powers your soul. This gives you a psychic aura that usually manipulates the emotions of those around you. It's even more potent to other psykers and especially to Eldar. It can do a lot of interesting things. For a primarch it would make you unnaturally charismatic to your own Astartes and of course it powers your Sintarius lobe in the Immortis gland. Normal human psykers with the gene have remarkably powerful souls just like we Eldar and you primarchs. This is a blessing and a curse as it makes mastering psychic power much easier and influencing others easier. Sadly, it also makes you a beacon to creatures in the warp…so only a psyker with the discipline of an Inquisitor or an Eldar would be able to manage it. In Seiras' case a librarian as well. That is why you'll likely never see a human psyker outside of the Inquisition with this gene other than primarchs. I imagine this gene was present in the Men of Gold as the Emperor and Malcador both likely had it," the haemonculus continued as she twiddled one of her hands through her black hair.

"Why is the gene rarer in space marines than regular humans? How does he have it then?" Ferrus asked intently.

"It's even rarer in space marines by design of course. The Emperor purposely ensured progenoids would not possess or manifest this gene as it could have unusual side effects if clashed with a primarch's psychic glamour. This would also prevent them from gaining too much influence or being beacons to daemons in the warp. The fact that a rare few librarians have the gene is a small oversight by the Emperor. The likelihood of a regular human being born with it and later becoming a librarian is so astronomically slim that the Emperor likely did not think it would be an issue on any relevant scale. This was even more apparent considering Nikaea and his censure of librarians. Unfortunately for him, the gene did manifest among two of the most powerful and renowned traitor librarians. Ahzek Ahriman and Typhus…both of whom became champions of the chaos gods. The reason Seiras has the gene has nothing to do with his gene-sire Magnus…he simply possessed it as a regular human, and it was only empowered further with the Blood Raven…or Thousand Sons gene-seed. This combination is especially volatile since it produced Ahzek Ahriman the greatest space marine psyker." The haemonculus stated informatively.

"That's disturbing. No wonder the farseer was so worried about it. She seemed to think I would fall to Chaos and corrupt a lot of people," Seiras pointed out.

Melisara shrugged, "It would certainly explain why the Chaos God Tzeentch was interested in you. Having another Ahzek Ahriman would undoubtedly appeal to him."

"I have NO intention of ever falling to Chaos! I've done a lot of heretical things, but never without the goal of my duties in mind!" Seiras said angrily.

"Relax, I wasn't suggesting you were that weak-willed. Your Inquisition would call what you've done heresy, but there sits a primarch alive and well…so it was certainly worth it. The craftworlders that warned you also underestimated you and thought you were weak. Prove them wrong and throw their stupid prophecies back in their faces. Don't listen to that nonsense the Eldritch creature was saying or to what the delusional craftworlders spew. Fate is a lie…as are prophecies. The future only speaks of what could be…not of what will be. There is nothing that cannot be undone or changed…and we have proven that here today," Melisara soothed his anger with a reassuring grin. Even considering how nice and helpful she was, nothing ever took away from the creepy factor that Melisara seemed to ooze. Nevertheless, Seiras nodded in acceptance at her remark. If it was possible to consider an alien a friend, then Melisara was certainly a friend to him. In a way he felt like he might actually miss her counsel once they were gone.

Ferrus stared at the Blood Raven for a moment in silence before speaking, "I doubt you will be falling to Chaos anytime soon in my company. Especially now that I'm aware of what this corruption looks like. My experience from the heresy and these additional insights have taught me much. I respect father's past decision to keep Chaos a secret, but now we must combat the lies of these daemons with truth and vigilance. The alien speaks truly…and we will commit to the Golden Path."

"As you say my lord," Seiras bowed his head.

"With that said, I will consider all possibilities from now until my demise…should you ever fall to Chaos, I will do my duty and kill you without hesitation," Ferrus added seriously.

Staring back with serious resolve, the librarian responded, "Likewise, Lord Ferrus."

To his surprise, the Gorgon actually smiled at his remark. He didn't say anything in response, but it seemed quite apparent that Ferrus approved of Seiras actually making the same promise. While it was entirely unlikely Ferrus would ever fall to chaos and even less likely Seiras could stop him, the primarch likely respected him for saying it. Most wouldn't dare say something like that to a primarch…especially one with a temper like him.

"Words are cheap, but I actually believe your intent. That resolve and these enhancements will make you a worthy advisor for me, librarian. Ensure that you use your elevated position responsibly," Ferrus finally responded.

"Thank you, my lord," Seiras bowed his head briefly.

"I have another question, alien. What is the criteria for this warp siphon gene to be present in human psykers? Is it just a rare genetic anomaly? Is it random among psykers?" Ferrus changed the subject as he redirected his gaze back on the haemonculus.

"The gene has the highest probability of manifesting through breeding psykers. If psykers have children with other psykers for a few generations, it will typically manifest in a descendant. Considering how rare psykers are among humans, and the unlikelihood they will ever breed with another psyker, you can imagine it's not something that would occur very often. If I had to guess, it would only occur naturally among a psychic family of unsanctioned psykers. Though you'll rarely find one of those that doesn't have a bit of light inbreeding. I believe inbreeding would amplify the likelihood of the gene as well. In that regard it would most likely arise among a noble family with a psychic lineage…which seems to be the Inquisition's favorite place to find their recruits. Isn't that curious?" Melisara explained.

Ferrus glanced over at Seiras now, "I highly doubt he came from some noble family though…"

"Obviously not…what do you think about this matter, Seiras? What did your lineage look like?" Melisara asked curiously.

"Your explanation makes sense to me…my tribe on Calderis usually always married our psykers to the village leaders. They tried to keep the 'magic' bloodline strong for countless generations. From what my mother told me, there were a few cases in our family's history of cousins marrying. My mother's grandparents were cousins. Plus, there were many psykers in my immediate family and our lineage," the librarian replied.

"You're inbred? I'm surprised there was no genetic degradation in you then. Only genetically perfect boys can survive gene-seed implantation." Ferrus asked curiously.

"Fortunately for human psykers, inbreeding doesn't affect them nearly as much as regular humans. It's only harmful if done every generation. Considering his example was three generations back and it was only cousins, I imagine it didn't affect his genetics at all. The psyker gene is remarkably interesting in how it overrides a lot of DNA in humans," the haemonculus commented.

Seiras shrugged, "That's all I know about it…but psychics were quite common in my family. We lived in a savage desert mountain city on Calderis. The Blood Ravens would sometimes come to recruit from our tribe if a male psyker was born there. It was rare though. For some reason male psykers only happened once every couple centuries. Female ones were born every generation."

"That seems odd…is there a correlation there, alien?" Ferrus turned towards Melisara expecting she had the answer.

"That is a side-effect of psyker inbreeding. The psychic gene has strange effects on human sex chromosomes. I imagine a male would only be born once a new male genome with recessive psychic genes is added to that psychic line…otherwise the Y chromosome would always be overwritten to copy the mother," Melisara theorized.

"My father's father took over the tribe after the former Shah and all his sons died out. There was only one psychic in that generation name Kaluka, and she was too old to bear him any children. However, my mother and aunt were the former Shah's nieces and they developed psychic powers in their adolescence years later. Since they were close to my father and uncle's ages my grandfather married them to his sons in order to consolidate the tribe's 'royal bloodline' I guess. If all the male heirs to a Shah died out, the females would always be married to the new leaders. From the marriage of the new Shah's bloodline into the former's, nine children were conceived in my generation. I had four cousins and four sisters. Three of my four cousins were male and were not psychic. My female cousin was five when I last saw my tribe, so it's entirely possible she developed psychic powers. Of my four sisters however, two of them were psychic…as was I," Seiras went into detail.

"Interesting…I guess that confirms my theory then. Your psychic sisters likely possessed the warp siphon as well. Based on the genetic variables there was a one in four chance of one of you being a male psyker as well. It is good to have validation for that hypothesis," Melisara said approvingly.

"That aside, what I'm getting from all of this is that he has this Warp Siphon gene and that's why he was compatible with an Immortis gland? Better yet, if you have this gene, does that make you psychic as well?" Ferrus asked.

She nodded, "Yes and no…I'm not able to read minds or do anything notable. I don't have any great power over the warp, and nor do I care to. I simply managed to integrate the gene just enough to where I can use the Immortis gland. I would say I'm about as much of a psyker as you are Ferrus. I suppose if I cared to make myself a psyker I could, but I don't see the point. Also, the warp siphon is only required for the Sintarius lobe of an Immortis gland. The Dextrophic lobe is probably still compatible with regular Astartes. It's only if a Sintarius lobe is implanted into a non-psychic, they'll mutate horribly and die. That's what happened to me a lot during my early experiments even after perfecting the gene sequence."

"For you to rewrite primarch genetics from scratch and figure all of that out…I'm genuinely impressed," Ferrus remarked still in shock.

"It was no simple feat mind you. It took me thousands of years and Fabius' research to copy a template of what the Emperor did in centuries. I wouldn't be able to make an actual primarch from scratch though if you're worried about something like that. I couldn't even understand some of the other organs in your body. I truly am inferior to your Emperor's brilliance, but that's why I like him so much. It's so exhilarating to have something noteworthy to pursue in my quest for perfection. Eventually I'll figure them all out," she replied.

The Gorgon shook his head, "Your experiments sounds plausible for you, but how did you manage to make it work on an Astartes? From what you've both told me, you simply reanimated him after he died in the arena. You got it right the first try with no experiments? Was simply having this Warp Siphon enough to make it work for him?"

"As a space marine, he was already compatible with the Emperor's genetics and primarch genetics. With the warp siphon and inherent psyker genes he was ideal to test it out on. I was supremely confident I could make it work given all my research and prior experimentation on myself. The only issue with him was his gene-seed's DNA attempting to conflict with a foreign incompatible implant. I was putting in yours after all…and not Magnus'. His immune system would also try to kill the foreign cells. Thankfully since he was dead at the time, so were his body's cells. I was able to put the organ in and connect it to his progenoid gland. Considering how the process went, I imagine it would be impossible to replicate on a live space marine. They would horribly mutate and die if the proper overrides weren't made before reanimation. It only worked because he was dead," the haemonculus elaborated.

"What kinds of side-effects were you expecting this to have on him?" Ferrus wondered.

"Well the most obvious one is a baseline increase in his natural attributes and reaction time. I expected he would probably grow a little bit from it and obviously gain the regenerative ability of a primarch. In other words you'd have to cut his head off, destroy multiple life-sustaining organs in quick succession, or disintegrate his body to actually kill him. The organ also hardens bones and reinforces skeletal tissue with a special type of keratin making it difficult to dismember him. Add that to his growing psychic powers and he's even more difficult to kill. You're welcome for giving you an Immortis marine. Dare I say he's my finest work other than myself," she answered with a proud smile.

"Immortis marine? Is that what you turned him into?" Ferrus gawked.

"It's just a silly name I came up with. Just think of him as a regular space marine that's way more difficult to kill. Nevertheless, mark my words Ferrus…he's around Custodes level now," Melisara laughed.

Ferrus' eyes widened, "Why go through all this length to enhance one space marine? They're not individually crafted like Custodes are. They are mass-produced for a reason."

"There are a number of reasons I did it. Most importantly…just to see if I could. I also did it because I didn't want him to die again. I rather like Seiras and unfortunately for the Astartes they have high mortality rates. I saw his value in bringing you back and what he could accomplish beyond that if given more power. A space marine who can think beyond indoctrination is quite rare and should be preserved," she explained as if it was a simple question.

"Your logic doesn't make sense to me. His well-being is among your concerns?" Ferrus said disbelievingly.

"Why wouldn't it be? He's my friend." she countered with amusement.

Ferrus gave up on trying to figure her out as he glanced over at Seiras, "Well, nevertheless, if he is as enhanced as you say he is, I will ensure he is put to good use. I will also keep this information to myself. I am surprised by your honesty in telling me, but I respect it."

Seiras simply nodded briefly before turning to Melisara, "Something crossed my mind just now, Melisara. You said earlier that Silent Sisters could detect if someone had the warp siphon gene? Does that mean Meela knows I have it, or that you do?"

"Technically she can't see it on me because I wear a warp disruptor on the back of my neck. It's made with the pylon technology of the Necrons. It just makes my warp siphon invisible. As for you though, I have no doubts that she knows you possess it. The solitaire probably knows too for that matter. Your collar works to dampen its visibility, but Meela did see you fight Faelan's forces before your capture. It's certain that if she saw you without your collar on now, she would be able to tell that it's gotten more powerful," the haemonculus pointed out.

"Do you think I can trust Meela? The craftworlders and some of the human slaves seem to hate her. They swear she's evil and that she's loyal to Faelan," Seiras asked with a concerned expression.

"Who is Meela?" Ferrus interrupted immediately.

"She's an Oblivion Knight that the archon has a rather unhealthy obsession with. She's been his sex slave since before I even started working for him. She will be an interesting obstacle in your escape Seiras. You won't be able to kill Faelan with psychic powers around a pariah. It is highly likely Meela will defend him. She has that…what do you humans call it again? Captive Syndrome? Stockholm Syndrome? Whatever it is. Faelan also treats her very well…probably better than humans ever treated her. I doubt you can trust her at all," Melisara shrugged.

"An Oblivion Knight? The Sisters of Silence are ONLY loyal to the Emperor and are trusted by the Custodes! To be trusted by the Custodes is no small matter. I find it impossible one would ever forsake the Emperor and you're telling me this woman is a SEX SLAVE to an alien, and she's loyal to him?! I don't even know where to begin with this…why would this archon even want to rape a human?!" Ferrus piped up with stoic anger.

Seiras made sure to stay silent and mentally prayed for Melisara not to mention any unnecessary information regarding the topic of how perverse the dark eldar were.

Melisara shook her head slowly, "Honestly, I don't know…it's not like I can talk to Meela. She's always with Faelan since he's extremely paranoid about daemons or psykers killing him. Other than fulfilling his carnal needs, she's extremely useful in many ways to the archon. Even harlequin psykers can't get near Faelan with a pariah in his presence. The time I resurrected her, Faelan wouldn't leave my lab until she was alive. Even if I could probe her with some questions or test her indirectly, she's mute. She does know Astartes sign language…but Faelan does as well unfortunately. I've never seen her actually attempt to communicate with anyone other than him. I would have tried, but I couldn't be certain she wouldn't tell Faelan anything I asked her. You won't know where her true loyalty lies unless you face Faelan in combat. Her reaction to Ferrus will certainly be the most interesting to witness."

"So you're saying we should kill her then?" Seiras asked.

"It's probably safer to kill her, but I certainly wouldn't waste her life if you didn't have to. A pariah would be a useful ally against Aeldari and daemons. With harlequins after you Seiras, Meela would be a perfect counter to their illusions. Plus she could probably get you access to the Sisters of Silence…who are of course still allies with the Custodes. Many of the silent sisters recently returned to Terra to bolster with the Custodes. That would be a convenient way to earn their trust in addition to Ferrus' testimony," Melisara mused.

Ferrus shook his head, "If they found out she was a sex slave to an alien overlord, they would just execute her. She likely realizes that. There is no grey area among the Talons of the Emperor. You are either loyal or you are not."

"Slaves don't really choose to be slaves though. Given enough time the Drukhari can sap the wills of almost anyone. Seiras has only been in Commorragh for a few weeks and he's had my help in planning his escape. Meela could have been here for centuries for all I know. She's died several times and was brought back to life. It's difficult to be fussy when you can't even take that road out of here," Melisara countered.

"I suppose that is a good point. She can't even die with honour without being brought back. This place makes me sick…" Ferrus finally replied after realizing Melisara was right.

"I will leave Meela's fate to your discretion, but I would advise caution in trusting her or if you have to fight her. As I'm sure Ferrus knows, Oblivion Knights are no pushovers even compared to Astartes. Unlike those pitiful Sororitas, the Silent Sisters are actually good at killing space marines. Many are genetically enhanced from what I saw of Meela. If she does oppose you, then take her very seriously. You would likely have to fight her and Faelan at the same time if it comes to it. Plus the incubi as well." the haemonculus replied simply.

"I'll give her one chance…if she hesitates, she's dead along with anyone else that gets in our way. Nobody is stopping me in this escape…let me make that perfectly clear," Ferrus said coldly.

Seiras frowned deep in thought for a moment before speaking again, "When I returned from the purge on the Khestri Family, Meela tried to communicate with me in sign language. She told me: 'They all like you and so do I.' I asked how she knew Astartes sign language and she simply told me: 'Not now…talk later. Be seeing you.' Does that mean anything to you, Melisara?"

"Ah yes, you did mention she communicated with you a while back. I nearly forgot about that. Show me the exact gestures she used," Melisara requested eagerly.

Repeating the sign language Meela used on him back then, Seiras replicated it exactly.

The haemonculus looked like she was holding back laughter, "Hmm…that is very fascinating. She told you a lot more than just that."

"Are you certain? That is what the gestures translate to in sign language." Ferrus interjected with impatience.

Replicating the symbols herself now, Melisara replied, "True Ferrus, but if you look closer, she used the third version of the 'like' gesture here instead of the more common second one. As you know, it's almost identical to the 'trust' sign which she made with her other hand. Positioned like this you can say both of them at the same time. When this is done it has a hidden meaning between the negative space. It's sign language within sign language. In fact the whole sentence had hidden meanings and double phrases. I'm surprised you didn't catch that." Melisara snickered as if the answer to it was amusing to her.

Seiras narrowed his gaze, "It was a bit different to standard Astartes Sign Language, but the symbols directly translated to what I read. I didn't consider hidden phrases in them."

Ferrus immediately got defensive and somewhat annoyed at Melisara, "So you apparently know sign language better than us then?! How did you or this archon even learn it?!"

"Eldar are very smart Ferrus…and obsessive. Given a good reason, one would find a way to learn it. That aside, the variation the Silent Sisters use is based on the Astartes one, but it has more comprehensive variables in it that only they usually recognize. It is quite possible Meela believed Seiras was smart enough to figure it out. I can't see why she would do it otherwise," she giggled.

"Then what does it mean?!" the primarch demanded.

"When this variation of 'like' is combined with 'trust' it also has a hidden phrase when seen from the side and combined like this. It means 'need' and it points at the person you're talking to," Melisara burst out giggling.

Both the primarch and the librarian exchanged confused expressions as they clearly did not understand what made that so funny.

"Is that a plea for help?" Seiras finally decided to ask, "does she mean she needs my help?"

"Wait wait…let me translate the rest. The 'Not now', 'Talk later', and 'Be Seeing you' gestures also had hidden words in them. For the former she said, 'Not now' and used the hidden word 'alone'. For 'talk later' she used the hidden words 'Just us.' The funniest part is the end. That doesn't just mean 'Be seeing you' if you read it like this…" Melisara held her hands in another angle showing a hidden gesture.

Seiras gasped at it, "That's the second variation of 'help!' She…wants me to help her?!"

"Along with this one like this and the thumb pointed back it means 'I will help'. Also when said in that order with the other hidden words, it translates the hidden phrase. This is what she was trying to tell you: 'I like you and we'll talk later alone… Not now, just us. Trust me…I need you. I will be watching you and I will help.' The part I found so funny was her variation of 'like' was the suggestive type," Melisara chuckled again.

"Meaning what exactly?" Ferrus scowled.

"Well you probably don't know this word in gothic, but that variable of like means 'fancy' or 'adore' in your low gothic. It's a much stronger emphasis on 'like'. She essentially told Seiras she delights in him. Considering its context with the rest of the hidden meanings in the sentence it just looked like a funny love confession to me," Melisara laughed.

Ferrus gave her a perplexing and disbelieving look, "I don't see how that's funny or how you could possibly draw such a ridiculous conclusion…"

"I don't understand why she would say all of that," Seiras frowned.

"Well that variation is the only way you can fit in that phrase of gestures. I doubt she meant it as humorously as it sounded to me. I think it was just her way of trying to say she likes you in a less simple and more sincere manner," Melisara theorized.

"Forget that," Seiras immediately deflected the conversation for going anywhere near that topic, "does that mean I can trust her?"

Melisara seemed to catch on to Seiras's evasion to the confession joke as it would likely devolve into Ferrus learning about his shameful torture in Commorragh or the weird sexual fetish the wyches had for him. She collected herself and answered him promptly, "No…but it's certainly worth seeing what she wants to talk to you about. Don't tell her anything though. If she is truly anxious to escape, then she'll help you kill Faelan. Do not give her any idea that you plan to escape. Just see what she wants to tell you in private."

"Can you teach me these hidden sign language words and phrases? I won't communicate in front of Faelan unless I can test her with them," he requested.

"Sure thing Seiras. I'll show you when we get back to my lab and after we put your armour up. As much as I enjoy these chats, I need to get you to the beacon location. Stay still while I activate this teleporter," Melisara replied as she pressed a button on his collar before pulling out a strange looking device from nearby.

"I'll see you when you return, librarian. Don't die," Ferrus stated authoritatively as a glow began to envelop him. The familiar pain of being teleported with the collar on immediately set in as Seiras let out an agonizing howl before disappearing from the ship.

Somewhere under the battlefield, Commorragh

An excruciatingly painful teleportation later, Seiras collapsed onto the ground in a deserted chamber of some sort. It was very dark, but the eerie green alien lights decorating the room showed him enough about his surroundings.

Seiras quickly recovered from the painful teleportation before putting his helmet back on. He gripped his halberd tightly and spoke into his vox, "Alright, Melisara, I'm here. I see the beacon."

"Good good! Okay, we don't have much time. I'm tracking Nelfaera is about ten minutes away from your location. She's moving fast, so make this quick." Melisara remarked casually.

"Ten minutes?! I thought you said we had over an hour! We didn't talk for THAT long did we?!" he gritted his teeth.

Melisara's laughter filled his vox, "Ahaha, yeah well they found a shortcut. That's why I went ahead and ended our lovely conversation abruptly. Anyways, I'll start you off with fifty. Make sure that beacon's destroyed before Nelfaera gets there. If she sees it, she'll know she's tracking a false signal."

"Fine…I'm ready." He responded immediately.

Upon uttering his response, enemies were already phasing in around him on all sides. Seiras wasted no time hacking them apart with relentless haste as they materialized in. The unfortunate Kabalites were all hopelessly confused by the situation, but due to the vast quantity of them coming in, Seiras couldn't kill them all in time.

"I went ahead and just dropped them all in. Go ahead and destroy the beacon now. Tell me the exact moment it's destroyed so I can time the signal transfer accurately," she instructed.

Seiras barely had time to look in the direction of the beacon before splinter fire opened up in his direction from all sides. True to Ferrus' claim they were effective at penetrating his power armour more than he liked. A majority of the Eldar were specifically aiming for the claw holes in his cuirass as well.

Using whatever tactics he could, the librarian violently and efficiently went to work killing them as fast as possible. Seiras grimaced in pain as blood erupted from the weapon's fire piercing his armour, but he managed to charge his way through a crowd of enemies cutting a swathe of them down. After the opening slaughter, he immediately took cover behind the beacon and let the splinter rounds do the work for him in damaging it. As he suspected many grenades came his way. At least a dozen from what he could see. He ranged them as best he could and felt a slight bit of relief when he saw them easily disintegrate most of the beacon. The Blood Raven then quickly spoke into his vox as he circled around to kill more enemies behind cover, "It's destroyed Melisara!"

"Transfer done. Now you just have to kill them all before Nelfaera arrives. I think someone is close behind her too. They're picking up speed, so it looks like you only have about 5 minutes now left based on my scans here," Melisara said as if it wasn't a big deal.

Despite the injuries he had sustained, Seiras could already feel his wounds regenerating unnaturally. Part of him wondered how it could even work with the collar on, but he didn't have time to speculate on that topic.

He went to work systematically obliterating the remaining kabalites with increasing urgency. After wiping out about two thirds of them, he noticed many were trying to run away. To his relief, the door they were running towards sealed unexpectedly in front of them. Luckily for him the remaining third were all grouped up now at the door.

"Okay, I hacked the security system and locked down the doors in that chamber. I'll reopen them when you're done." She stated as he opened bolter fire into the mob of bunched kabalites. Twenty or so died to the storm bolter's entire magazine emptying its explosive rounds through their ranks.

Realizing they were in trouble now, the survivors doubled down on their efforts to kill him as they used the rest of their grenades and all focused their shots on his chest. One splinter round pierced his gorget and actually erupted near his carotid artery causing him to start bleeding heavily from the neck within his armour and through its many holes. Several grenades blew up beneath his feet in quick succession and melted parts of his armour but he was still standing.

While a normal Astartes could certainly have survived this much damage, they would not have been as unfazed by it as he felt right now. Tanking onward, he managed to wipe out the last dozen or so near him and watched as the last survivor was crouched down near the panel of the sealed door. The kabalite urgently tried to override the lock on it and was hunched down behind the cover of corpses.

With one clean bolter round he blew the kabalite's head off. He looked around carefully to make sure all of his enemies were now dead. His armour was covered in heavy damage ranging from countless holes, melted ceramite plates, and quite a few scratches from the few sybarites that had power swords. Nevertheless, he felt his body slowly regenerating from the damage as countless splinter rounds and their shrapnel painfully fell out of his healing flesh.

Deciding to be extra cautious, he took this opportunity to go bury the remains of the beacon under some rubble and bodies. Checking his helmet's HUD he scanned around for any life signs. There was a faint one near the door on the ground next to the kabalite he just killed.

"Alright Seiras, I hope you got them all, because Nelfaera is right around the corner. Good luck! See you back at the lab," Melisara said cheerily before ending the vox call.

Seiras swiftly ran over to the surviving kabalite. She had been standing behind someone he cut in half earlier and had a large scar across her torso from where his halberd barely sliced.

As he raised his bolter to finish her off, the door unfortunately opened and in came Nelfaera. The syren took in the carnage of the room for a moment but quickly pressed the trigger switch for Seiras' collar causing him to howl in pain.

"Bad boy! BAD!" she chastised him like he was a dog. After sinking to his knees from the shock collar, Nelfaera switched it over to the stun setting to keep him paralyzed in place.

"How did you get a trigger switch again? Didn't Renfaeda take yours?" he decided to ask Nelfaera.

She smirked at him, "This one is Faelan's he let me borrow it when I found your location."

The cocky syren looked around the room somewhat impressed, "Wow, did you really kill all these kabalites by yourself? What were they all doing in this room I wonder?"

"I don't know…" he replied calmly.

This situation was unbelievably bad. With the survivor still there, Nelfaera could possibly figure out that they were teleported in. The survivor immediately tried to dart past Nelfaera as she made a break for it outside the door. Nelfaera easily tripped her and immediately pulled her helmet off before grabbing the kabalite by her hair.

The syren grinned smugly, "Where do you think you're going? What were you guys doing in here?"

Divine intervention must have happened a moment later as the kabalite was shot in the head by someone else coming into the room. It was none other than Mokaela.

"Am I a good shot or what?" the sassy succubus giggled as she stylishly blew the firing hole of her splinter pistol.

"Mokaela! What the hell?! I wanted to interrogate this one!" Nelfaera groaned as the succubus came trotting into the room.

Her eyes lit up with astonishment, "Woah! Look at all the dead bodies. Did Seiras kill all of them by himself?"

"It certainly looks that way…his armour is covered in dents, burns, and holes. I don't know what they were doing in here, but that bitch you just killed could have told us! Thanks for that!" Nelfaera groaned.

"How are you, Seiras?! I was worried about you when you went missing on the battlefield. We've been looking for days during our cleanup sweeps. What are you doing down here?" Mokaela asked while ignoring Nelfaera's sour mood.

"I was thrown off the spire by those Night Lords. I've been trying to get back up here but with all the damage I've sustained, it's taken a while," he lied.

Mokaela seemed to believe him right away surprisingly, but Nelfaera looked unconvinced, "Right…so you didn't try to escape then?"

"Why would I? Where would I go? I don't know where this place is or how to navigate this twisted realm. As much as the idea appeals to me, I'm better off with you lot," he countered.

Nelfaera rose a brow, "Well that's certainly true, but you've been gone for eight of your solar days. Your tracker has been glitching as well."

"That's probably a side-effect of Vect shooting a black hole at the spire. I got launched off shortly after that happened by a Nightlord with a jump pack. Fortunately, I salvaged one as well to save my fall, but it was damaged. I fell for several kilometers before it started working," Seiras tried to reinforce his story.

The syren shrugged, "Well whatever…you look like you got your ass beat. What the hell have you been fighting this whole time? I didn't realize there were this many kabalites still entrenched down here."

"I guess they were trying to escape. I tried to go around them, but I'm rather noticeable," he added.

Speaking into her communication device now, Mokaela addressed the others, "Good news Renfaeda, we found Seiras. Looks like he's been fighting kabalites down here under the spire. He said he got thrown off the spire and had to climb back up."

Renfaeda's voice came over the alien comm a moment later, "You found him?! About damn time! Did you figure out why his tracker has been acting weird?"

"He thinks it might have to do with the blackhole Vect used on the palace spire. It would make sense considering he was way beneath it," Mokaela replied.

"Hmm…well I guess I'll ask Melisara then. She's the one who built the tracker anyways," Renfaeda stated, "bring him back to the ravager. We have no reason to stay here now that we've found him. Faelan says has to stay with the Kabal for now and coordinate Velatha's surviving forces…but our job is done."

"We'll be right up," Mokaela responded before ending the call.

"Alright, well let's get back home! I'm gross and I need a bath," Mokaela announced.

Seiras began to follow her as she departed. To his concern, Nelfaera lingered behind momentarily and appeared to be looking at something before subtly picking it up. Mokaela stopped when she noticed the syren wasn't following, "What are you doing, Nelfaera? Let's go!"

"Yeah, I'm coming…" she snapped out of her daze. Nelfaera found it strange how most of the kabalite corpses at the door were grouped up. There was no doubt in her mind that they were trapped in there with Seiras for some reason. The sight of one dead over a panel was a huge red flag to her. Nevertheless, she pushed her concerns aside for now.

As they ascended back up together, Seiras did his best to brace himself for whatever inevitable punishment was probably in store. This entire ordeal went far too well, and he felt a great unease creeping in. There was no way things were going to go this well. From the corner of his eye he briefly examined Nelfaera's expression. She looked to be deep in thought and there was no doubt in his mind that she was suspicious of something.

The walk back up was mostly silent other than Mokaela and Nelfaera talking a bit. To help fill the silence, the succubus had also taken the time to explain a bit more about how the battle ended to Seiras.

He tuned out most of it as he honestly didn't care about their alien politics. All that mattered was they won and the Kabal was going to be in a weakened state for a while until Faelan returned. Mokaela seemed super excited about something else as well. Apparently, the Ynnari forces had cult of strife wyches helping them in the battle and the Cult of Eternal Night was able to capture some.

"We killed most of the little red-headed whores, but you'll be happy to know we captured some of their leaders. Two Cult of Strife Hekatrix Bloodbrides and one Syren! Their succubus got away unfortunately, but at least they'll be fun to torture," Mokaela elaborated on the subject almost gleefully.

Seiras took this time to remove his helmet and clip it to the side of his armour. He gave her a perplexing look, "Why would I care?"

"Don't you hate the Cult of Strife too?" she responded while looking back at him.

'You're all the same to me…' he thought carelessly. He thought about saying that, but considering the circumstances, it was probably a better idea for him not to.

He nodded, "I suppose I do."

"Hahaha! Ah this is always my favorite part of winning battles…the spoils! You should come torture them with us! It's going to be fun!" Mokaela giggled like a psychopath.

The librarian almost felt sorry for the prisoners and he hadn't even seen them yet. Wych cult rivalries were already cutthroat within their own ranks. There was no telling what kinds of cruel and twisted things they would do to wyches from another cult.

A Short Walk Later, Terrace of Endless Slaughter

After a few hours or so of ascending back up to the battlefield, Seiras looked around at the sheer destruction it had wrought. The entire palace spire was in ruins as well as countless other buildings. The Terrace itself was covered in debris ranging from downed ships, buildings, and endless corpses.

He paid the scene no mind as he followed Mokaela and Nelfaera back to a ravager. Upon getting there he saw the leaders of the assault all speaking together. They all perked up at his arrival and had various looks of surprise.

"Ah, you found him after all. Good work," Faelan smirked as he walked over and briefly examined Seiras. He seemed exceptionally fascinated by the amount of damage Seiras' armour had taken.

"You are quite tough, Seiras…I'm honestly amazed you can still walk with damage like that. I'd expect you to be more injured with your armour looking like that," Faelan noted.

"We heal fast, and very few shots got past my black carapace," he acknowledged Faelan's comment with a simple cover story.

Renfaeda now looked him over with a disapproving face, "So, you were thrown off the spire you said? Where exactly?"

"Over there…I salvaged a jump pack from one of the Night Lords I killed but he damaged it after suicidally tackling me over the ledge. I landed what I assume is many kilometers down below. I had to climb back up the spire. It was difficult and I didn't really know where I was going," he reinforced his lie with more details as he pointed to the direction where he had been earlier.

"Well that would explain quite a few things. I was under the impression you tried to flee, but your signal never did leave this area. We've had a difficult time tracking you. I suppose the singularity could have affected it, though I'm surprised Melisara would make a mistake like that," Renfaeda said as she narrowed her eyes somewhat dangerously.

"Like I told them…I didn't try to escape. I have nowhere to go and I don't even know how to navigate this place," he sighed.

"True…but maybe you were looking for someone who could. You haven't seen any harlequins around here, have you? I also suspected that they tried to abduct you from under our noses," Renfaeda explained.

Seiras thought for a moment about reinforcing the idea, "I mostly just encountered mandrakes, kabalites, and scourges. Though I did get the feeling someone was following me, and I was ambushed a couple times by unseen enemies."

"We found him in a chamber full of Poisoned Tongue Kabalites. They were all dead, but they looked like they were up to something," Mokaela added.

Faelan placed a hand on his chin, "Hmm…I'll have some men look into that. What kind of chamber was it?"

"It was part of some labyrinth beneath the terrace. Seiras said he crossed paths with them on his way up, so I imagine there's probably some escape route they were heading for. They could have been bunkering down waiting for a ship maybe?" Mokaela answered with shrug.

A nearby Bladed Sun Dracon quickly explained it to them, "There is a hidden foundry beneath the spire…I imagine many survivors likely tried to use it. The monkeigh's explanation does make sense."

"Well that place was a fucking labyrinth, so I am not shocked it took him so long to get as far as he did," Nelfaera stated.

'I can't believe my cover story seems to be working this well. Why do I get the distinct feeling something is about to go wrong though?' Seiras thought seriously.

Faelan shook his head, "Well it doesn't really matter…it's good to see you back, Seiras. You girls are free to leave now. I have some things to take care of here and then I have to go meet with Lord Vect. Try not to burn down the palace while I'm gone."

"When are you coming back, Faelan?" Renfaeda asked curiously.

"I'm not sure yet…I'll let you know," he smirked before walking away with his incubi.

It was only then that Seiras noticed there was something wrong with the situation. Meela who was in her full armour didn't follow them right away. Faelan noticed her lingering and looked back, "Is something wrong, Meela?"

'I'll wager she can sense all the warp residue on my armour…she knows I'm lying to them.' Seiras immediately figured out. He mentally chastised himself for overlooking that detail and was even more surprised that Melisara would. They had even been speaking about Meela earlier, and he didn't consider this until just now.

The pariah looked over at Faelan and made some hand gestures, (May I ask him a question, master?)

Faelan nodded without saying a word much to the confusion of all the Eldar present. They seemed particularly focused on the situation and were no doubt unhappy about their inability to understand what Meela was gesturing about.

(Were you attacked by a psyker? I sense residual warp energy on you.) the silent sister asked.

Seiras gestured back to her, (That ambusher I mentioned. I'm not sure what they were, but I think it was an Eldar Shadowseer.)

The librarian then turned towards Faelan expecting him to react in some way. The archon tilted his head before gesturing himself, (The one from the play, right?)

(I believe so. I didn't think it was a good idea to mention it in front of everyone here. They could possibly be watching still.) Seiras lied.

Faelan then spelled out the shadowseer's name in sign language (You were right. S-y-l-a-n-d-r-i V-e-i-l-w-a-l-k-e-r is her name. She claims to work for V-E-C-T but is an Y-n-n-a-r-i agent. We'll discuss this later. I had a feeling they were still lingering around. Don't tell anyone about this if they ask.)

Meela then made another gesture (Watch your back when you return to the Kabal. Faelan suspects a trap and doesn't want to be there for it.)

This time around Seiras was paying extra close attention to the negative spaces between her hands. To his surprise he caught two hidden words in her sentence: 'Impressive' and 'liar'. He was somewhat amazed he was able to pick it up so quickly, but it seemed easier to understand now that he knew what to look for.

He simply motioned back, (Be seeing you) to where she could see the hidden word, 'alone'.

Meela didn't react at all other than a brief wave before following Faelan and his incubi away.

Once they were gone, Renfaeda looked completely annoyed, "So what the hell was that all about?! What did the mute bitch say to you?"

"I'll tell you about it later, Lady Renfaeda…Faelan told me not to discuss it in front of everyone here," Seiras made up a conveniently vague lie.

"Very well," the succubus queen replied in gothic before switching to her own language, "Go on ahead without me girls. I want to talk to Faelan for a bit. I'll meet you back at the training grounds for the party. Don't kill those Cult of Strife leaders until I get there though, okay?"

"We can still 'have fun' with them right?" Mokaela asked anxiously.

Renfaeda nodded, "Yeah, just don't mutilate them yet."

"You got it, Faeda! Let's go hekatarii!" Mokaela announced as she hopped on the ravager. Seiras reluctantly followed her as they all loaded up on it. He noticed Aelendriel looked a bit beat up, but she was incredibly quiet. The younger succubus was staring at him so intensely that it actually made him uncomfortable.

Once the ravager was a good distance away from the battlefield, Mokaela turned towards Seiras, "So…what did the null girl say to you?"

"She said something about Maeralya that I didn't understand. She told me to watch out for her. Faelan told me not to say anything about it," Seiras lied.

Mokaela looked at Aelendriel now, "We should keep an eye on that smug bitch then."

Aelendriel then glanced at Seiras with a sly face, "Well since Renfaeda isn't coming back for a while, you're welcome to come party with us."

"I have no desire to do that," Seiras responded hesitantly.

"Yeah, you want to come torture Cult of Strife whores with us?!" Mokaela beamed cheerily.

Seiras sighed, "Not really…"

"Well too bad! I want you there, and I'm the next one in charge, so you're coming!" Mokaela laughed.

'Emperor preserve me…I already saw from Nelfaera what their idea of 'partying' is.' Seiras felt the horror of the upcoming event already.

The party wasn't the only thing that had his mind troubled. Faelan didn't want to return to the kabal yet and Renfaeda actually left him alone with her wyches. This dire situation could only end in trouble.

Back at the Kabal, Wych Training Grounds

The journey back was about as unpleasant as Seiras imagined it would be. The returning Kabalites and wyches were all celebrating and some already had slaves or torture victims that they were eagerly humiliating on the decks of the ship or everywhere else imaginable.

After doing his best to tune out the depravity, he eventually found himself back at the hanger with the wych posse. The hanger was filled to brim with slaves from the enemy forces. They varied from actual slaves themselves, to captured warriors that were now playthings for the other dark eldar.

The sight of a female scourge being raped in the middle of the hanger by four kabalites was the least pleasant thing he had seen today, and he had been in the warp mere hours earlier. Another unpleasant sight was a captured dracon being castrated and flayed alive by ravenous kabalites.

Seiras did his best to ignore the cries of horror and despair as he exited the Foundry hanger with the wych leaders. He almost felt relieved to get out of the hanger as they crossed the bridge back to the palace. Many other wyches soon caught up with the group. Most were proudly parading around trophies or dragging unfortunate victims by chains. It was only then that he caught sight of the several dozen Cult of Strife wyches who had been captured. They were all being taken to the cult's training grounds and living quarters.

The librarian actually felt pity for them and the horrible fate that probably awaited. His time here had shown him firsthand just how hateful and malicious wyches were to even their own cult members. A rival and infamous cult wych would undoubtedly have every indignity done to her. Rape and mutilation were probably the mildest horrors they would face. He couldn't even imagine what else Renfaeda's wyches would do to them, but he knew it would be far worse than that.

He was drawn from his silence as Mokaela spoke up, "Alright girls, don't start the party without us! No mutilation or anything until Renfaeda returns, got it?! I'm going to take Seiras to get his wargear put away. We'll be there in a bit."

"I'll come with you! We shouldn't travel alone if there's danger lurking at the Kabal after all." Aelendriel immediately volunteered to come along.

Nelfaera found her rival's eagerness a bit concerning and quickly did the same, "I'll come too."

Aelendriel seemed a bit put off by Nelfaera coming along, "Why are you so eager to come with us?"

"I wanted to speak to Melisara actually…" Nelfaera obviously lied.

A weird tension filled the air between the two wyches before Aelendriel huffed, "Whatever…"

Mokaela herself didn't look too thrilled about it, but shrugged, "It's just a little chore, Nelfaera…but come along if you insist."

For once, Seiras was actually thankful for Nelfaera's nosiness. The last time he was alone with Aelendriel and Mokaela in Melisara's lab ended in depravity.

Melisara's Lab

The entire walk to Melisara's lab had been one of the most silent and awkward experiences Seiras had ever endured. One could probably cut the unusual tension in the air with a knife, and there was a clear unspoken annoyance that the wyches had about the situation.

Upon reaching the lab, Seiras truly felt relieved to see the haemonculus happily floating around gathering things. The sight of forge equipment in two of her four hands made it clear to him that she was getting things for Ferrus to work on.

"Melisara, we're back!" Mokaela announced to the haemonculus.

Feigning surprise, the haemonculus turned around, "Ah, so that's what all that noise was. I take it everything went well?"

"There were a few complications, but luckily Lord Vect had a solution for them," Mokaela explained.

"Oh my, what happened to you, Seiras?! You look like you got quite the beating out there." Melisara acted surprised by the damage on his armour.

"He went missing for most of the battle and we only found him a little while ago. Your tracker was malfunctioning. He thinks it has something to do with the singularity Vect used on the spire," Nelfaera added as she intensely inspected Melisara's reaction.

Like a perfect actor, Melisara rose a brow at her, "You're implying MY tracker is flawed? Are you sure you simply didn't misread it?! You children tend to have a difficult time understanding my masterworks."

"No, she's right…we thought he tried to flee, but the tracker kept showing him in different areas beneath the spire. He looked like that when we found him in a room full of dead Poisoned Tongue Kabalites," Mokaela shook her head.

Melisara rolled her eyes, "My tracker is perfect…it would not have malfunctioned. I used to work for Vect so I had the singularity interference in mind as a possible issue when I designed it. Tell me exactly what happened…"

"Well, Lady Malys had a Talisman of Vaul and it-" Nelfaera began but was quickly interrupted.

"There's the problem right there…those things use the warp and it distorts signals. I suppose I did overlook the possibility of Malys having one of those…still my tracker is not defunct!" Melisara sighed.

"A warp distortion? Hmm…that actually does make sense," Nelfaera's face relaxed as she seemed to believe it now.

Melisara shook her head, "Well, at least you didn't lose him. Seiras is quite a valuable slave."

"That damage he took is crazy…how did he survive that?" Aelendriel asked as she pointed at the countless holes and burn melts in his armour.

Melisara chuckled, "Skill aside, he's a space marine. All that bulk isn't for nothing. They're built to take a lot of hits since they're not fast like we are. You little girls like to dance around naked on a battlefield but you're not nearly as durable as he is. There's nothing surprising about this."

"Considering how much damage he took in the arena without armour, I can sort of see your point," Mokaela noted.

"Well unequip him…we're going to take him back to the slave chamber," Nelfaera announced causing both of the other wyches to eye her confused.

"Are you now? Are you sure you're not going for a detour?" she smiled wickedly.

Mokaela blatantly dismissed Nelfaera's claim, "He's coming to the party! We'll take him back after that. Renfaeda and Faelan aren't coming back for a while, so I figured we'd have some fun."

"Yes…just make sure to have your fun before Renfaeda gets back. She definitely wouldn't allow all three of you to play with her favorite toy again if she were here," the haemonculus purposely called all of them out in front of each other.

Nelfaera immediately voiced her confusion, "Again?! You two have fucked him?!"

"When did you?!" Aelendriel shot back with obvious disapproval.

"Right before we left actually. We even had that little Khestri whore join us. Me and her are the two sexiest eldar here. Seiras even said as much. Are you jealous?" Nelfaera boasted when it became apparent that Aelendriel was upset about it.

"Oh yeah?! Well Mokaela and I fucked him in this lab! He even agreed to be our boyfriend!" Aelendriel countered.

"In the lab?! You allowed that Melisara?!" Nelfaera went wide-eyed.

She nodded, "Yes, I wanted semen samples and they were more than happy to oblige."

'Now I see why Melisara told me to go along with this nonsense. They're fighting each other. Why over me though? How exactly is this going to help?' Seiras found the situation bizarre.

"I thought you hated monkeigh, Aelendriel…turns out you're just a desperate whore who couldn't wait to give herself to the first person that would have her," Nelfaera sassed back.

"You had better show us some damned respect, Syren! We both outrank you! There's only so long Faelan and Renfaeda can protect you," Aelendriel got flustered now, "and besides, you're a hypocrite! You can't shame me for this when you did the same thing! You've probably wanted him since we captured him!"

"And what if I did? Can't exactly shame for that, now can you?" Nelfaera put her hands on her hips.

Mokaela shook her head, "You're both being ridiculous…we can all have sex with him, you know. Unless you intend to tell us to back off, Nelfaera…"

The elder succubus had a dangerous look in her eyes as if she were daring Nelfaera to tell them off. The syren begrudgingly backed down, "Fine…I'll share. But just so you know, Renfaeda got angry when she found him in my room with me. Pursue him at your own risk. She won't kill me because we're family."

"I'll fuck him right in front of Renfaeda, do you think I care? She can even join us. In fact I hope she does." Mokaela laughed.

"Uhh...that doesn't seem like a good idea," Aelendriel spoke up with evident concern.

Nelfaera smirked, "Well you're the ranking succubus right now, Mokaela, so I'll defer to your decisions then."

"Well sadly your 'fun' will have to wait. I have some experiments I want to run, and I want to make sure he's uninjured. I also want to see if I can fix his tracker since it malfunctioned apparently. Go on girls, I'll return him to the slave chamber when I'm done," Melisara responded a bit humorously.

"What?! But we had plans, Melisara!" Aelendriel protested.

Mokaela frowned, "Can't that wait? I was looking forward to the party…"

"By all means, please go indulge yourselves, but it will have to be without him for now," Melisara replied.

"You can't do that though…he's property of our cult. We get to decide where he goes and what he does," Nelfaera said unhappily.

Melisara sighed, "You should know that Renfaeda also gave me authority to oversee him when she and Faelan were absent. I'm also in charge of the Kabal until Faelan returns. By that account, I have all the proper authority here. Though if you wish to attempt forcing the issue, then I can certainly inform Renfaeda of your intentions."

All three of them gave her a shocked expression. Aelendriel looked appalled, "Wait…you set us up then the last time we were here! It was your idea! Now you're trying to use it against us?!"

"I guess your authority explains why Faeda had no issue sending him back with us," Nelfaera crossed her arms.

"By all means feel free to indulge later. I will even keep it confidential. However, for now I require him here. So if there is nothing else…" the haemonculus stated almost threateningly.

Aelendriel looked noticeably intimidated by her remark and even the psychotic Mokaela immediately backed down. Nelfaera on the other hand had a curious look on her face as if she had just figured something out.

"Well that sucks…but you're saying we can at least do it later?" Mokaela groaned disapprovingly.

"Of course, there is plenty of time. Renfaeda sent me a message saying she wouldn't be back for a while. She and Faelan are working on something top secret. Though you should keep some vigilance in case of a counterattack on the spire," Melisara noted.

"Alright, well fine…let's go torture those Cult of Strife whores. That'll keep me entertained until then," Mokaela said with clear disappointment on her walk out. Aelendriel followed closely behind her.

Nelfaera lingered behind as if waiting for the two of them to leave. They noticed her remaining and stared over. Aelendriel addressed her immediately, "You coming or what?"

"I said I had to talk to Melisara about something. I'll be right behind you," Nelfaera motioned them away.

"Go on girls…it's probably one of her beauty treatments," Melisara diffused the tension masterfully causing Mokaela and Aelendriel to laugh as they departed.

"Beauty treatments?! Hahaha! So much for being all-natural!" Aelendriel laughed.

Nelfaera looked a bit horrified at being called out for that but stayed quiet until they were gone. Once they left, Melisara sealed the lab shut and stared at Nelfaera, "So what can I do for you, Nelfaera?"

"First of all…you know damn well I've never been here for a beauty treatment! Why did you have to embarrass me like that?!" she hissed.

"So they would leave without suspecting anything…I take it your concern is something serious yes?" she replied.

The syren nodded as she pulled up a hacking bypass from the kabalite that nearly escaped Seiras earlier, "We found Seiras in a chamber full of Poisoned Tongue Kabalites. He killed them all, but they looked trapped in the room. One was using this to bypass the door manually. What do you make of it?"

Melisara glanced over at Seiras now briefly before speaking, "You suspect he is hiding something?"

"Obviously…there was something off about the whole thing, and it's no coincidence that your tracker malfunction disappeared shortly before we arrived," Nelfaera pointed out.

'Wow, so that's why she was so curious about the chamber. Of course nothing ever goes right. I wonder how Melisara will handle this?' Seiras thought concerned.

"You're implying I had something to do with it? Quite a bold accusation, my dear." she stated the obvious with an unfazed smirk.

"I'm not accusing you of anything, Melisara...but it's obvious to me that Seiras is hiding something. The whole situation seemed weird to me." Nelfaera pointed out.

"Perhaps someone else encrypted that system to try and capture him. Faelan sent me word to watch out for harlequins targeting Seiras. Sealing him in there with Kabalites would be a good way to trap him. There's also the possibility of them altering the tracker as well to throw off your pursuit. It could have returned to normal when they realized you were almost there," Melisara shrugged.

"I suppose that could be a possibility. Well, I just thought I'd bring that to your attention, Melisara. Please let me know when he's free. I want to take Seiras to my private party. If you would be so kind, would you please give me priority over those two?" Nelfaera smirked.

"Of course dear, I'll give you priority. Come back in a few hours. Do be careful around the Kabal until then," the dark-haired haemonculus responded peppily as she opened the door for Nelfaera to leave. The door closed shortly afterward.

Once she was gone, Melisara glanced at Seiras, "Well, that could have been bad. She suspects you're up to something…be wary of Nelfaera, Seiras. She's smarter than she looks."

"I am starting to get the same impression about her," the librarian agreed.

Melisara quickly went to work unequipping his armour in the following silence. Afterwards, he was in his clothes again. They were covered in holes and dried blood, but the wounds beneath them were all healed.

"Light bruises and scarring, but no lasting injuries," she said more to herself as she did a brief examination of his shirt, "I'll have to get you some new clothes."

"So…Meela talked to me when I returned to Faelan's company. She could sense the warp residue on me. I made up a story about the shadowseer chasing me," Seiras explained a troubling issue still on his mind.

"Hmm…I figured she would react in some way. This was also an interesting test to see if she would call you out in front of everyone. It would seem she did," Melisara stroked her hair as she looked away briefly.

"She made these gestures as well. I think I caught the words 'impressive' and 'liar' in her sentence," Seiras replicated Meela's earlier hand signals for Melisara to examine.

The haemonculus smirked, "Interesting…she said you're an impressive liar. Fascinating that she would do so without telling Faelan."

"If you said I couldn't trust her, why would you risk her seeing me with warp residue still lingering on my body?" Seiras asked.

"Because she wouldn't be able to distinguish what it was. I am pleased to see you used harlequins as a cover story. That reinforces what Renfaeda already assumed and the cover story I gave to Nelfaera," the dark-haired alien replied approvingly.

"You can teach me the rest of that hidden sign language right? I'm actually curious about trying to see where she stands," Seiras asked anxiously.

Melisara nodded, "Of course my dear. I'll give you a crash course on that."

"By the way, where is Lord Ferrus at right now?" Seiras asked as he looked around the lab.

Floating over to her sealed chamber, Melisara opened it and gestured for the librarian to follow her. She still had several tools in her hands, "He's in here. I was just bringing him some supplies to start working with."

Following her inside the chamber, Seiras saw the Gorgon sitting at some bench with a plethora of salvaged imperial tools and reagents all around him.

He noticed their arrival and immediately addressed Seiras, "You return alive…I take it your endeavor was a success?"

"Yes, my lord," Seiras answered.

"Good…I will be forging myself new armour and weapons with the materials that the alien has provided. How long before you'll be ready to escape? I need a time estimate so I can prioritize my workload," Ferrus replied.

The Blood Raven thought for a moment, "A terran week at the most. The archon and the lead succubus are both absent for a while, so it would be a good time to set up for the escape. I need to gather my allies up and come up with the distraction for our escape plan. How long do you need my lord?"

"There's no point in rushing this just yet. Do what you must to ensure this plan works. It will take me at least a week to remake myself wargear. If we're pressed for time I can expedite my work. I just need to know what's going on," Ferrus replied

Melisara placed the forging equipment down in front of Ferrus now, "This should get you started on crafting yourself some new power armour. I have some necrodermis pieces if you want too."

"No…I'm not using alien metal for my power armour," he protested immediately.

"Aww, don't be like that! Your arms are covered in alien metal. Just take a look at this design I made. I've been working on it for a while and hoped you might want to forge it," Melisara handed him a data slate.

He looked at it disapprovingly, "This is ridiculous…"

"Ferrus, get with the times will you. The Deathwatch uses alien technology all the time, and if we're being real here…the Golden Throne is alien technology that keeps the Imperium alive. Don't be so stubborn about it. You'll need every advantage you can have for when you return to the Imperium," she countered.

"Ughh…I'll look at it, but I make no promises that I'll use this dumb design," he shook his head.

"Also, Seiras' armour is heavily damaged. I have no problems fixing it, but if you would like to have a look at it, I'm certain he would appreciate a primarch's touch." Melisara pointed out. Moments later, the device that held the librarian's armour came floating into the room and opened up for the primarch to see.

He stared at the damaged power armour briefly before standing up and walking towards it. He then saw the holes in Seiras' shirt, "It would seem you were right about his regenerative abilities. I will fix his armour first. Do you have any requests, librarian?"

"Do what you think is right, my lord," Seiras responded.

Examining the armour more closely now, Ferrus frowned, "This armour used to have an iron halo on it. It was removed by the looks of it. This is Thousand Son librarian armour. I will make you a new one. Do you have any requests for its design?"

"You're…going to make me an iron halo?!" Seiras said disbelievingly.

"Yes…I suppose a raven will do to match your chapter, but something fitting your station as my advisor should also be present," Ferrus noted.

"I would be greatly honoured Lord Ferrus," Seiras bowed his head.

The Gorgon then glanced at Melisara, "Leave me now, alien. I have work to do. Don't bother me for trivialities."

"Oh alright, let's go Seiras. It's time to teach you advanced sign language," Melisara chirped as she guided the librarian out of the chamber.

'At least something good came of my captivity in this place,' Seiras thought approvingly as he and Melisara left the chamber before it closed again.

Turning towards him now, Melisara smiled, "Alright, let's get started. We'll go to my room for this."

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Hey guys I'm back and alive! Don't worry, Nurgle hasn't taken me yet with his Covid plague. My lord Slaanesh keeps my safe from all diseases. Anyways, this was a big chapter that I had to end up downsizing unfortunately. It originally had the 'party' in it but that ended up being like 25 k words, and even that's too much for me. So that stuff will all be in the next chapter.

I know you guys were hoping for some more action than this, but don't worry…fun stuff will be in the next few for you to enjoy. This chapter was mostly dialogue and the return to Commorragh, but we did get some more insight into the plot's progression.

Some things to pay attention to are Nelfaera in particular. As Melisara pointed out, she's the most cunning of the wyches and she clearly suspects Seiras is up to something. What's interesting though is she did not mention it to the others…why might that be?

Next chapter will include the party and will have some of the last lemons before the end of this Commorragh arc. Stay tuned for that because I want to start updating more frequently again. As always, thanks for reading guys. Let me know what you're looking forward to and feel free to make requests before I finish solidifying to rest of the plot timeline here. Make sure your commissar isn't around for the next chapter…because it's going to be wild!