Incantator Congressus Chapter 38

The maze was as confusing and tangled as ever. Arvael soon abandoned any attempt to chart his course, finding the looping turns impossible to map. Several times he could have sworn he had crossed over his own tracks but there was nothing familiar or repeated in his surroundings so he could only conclude the labyrinth did not conform to any physical laws. The parade of bodies continued, slain Arvaels by the score. Few living versions did he see but they seemed incapable of speech, merely staring into the cold sky without any sign of awareness, their sanity shattered and minds scoured clean by the terrible fight to come.

Arvael closed his mind to the implications, as he had been taught, focusing only on his steps and the destination. The Daemon Harbinger awaited and with it a battle the loyalists seemed unlikely to win. Yet there was a small chance, in Arvael's reckoning. Master Echeb, he too lay ahead, the Daemon's prisoner. Echeb was mighty and wise; if Arvael could free him from his bonds then the Librarians would gain a powerful ally. Space Marines cared little for hope, but this once Arvael permitted himself the indulgence.

He was coming around a corner when he was shocked to find himself running into Ashuay. The Primaris seemed haunted and his expression spoke of harrowing experiences. Licks of flame trailed from his fingers but his hands lowered when he saw who it was. Ashuay sagged as he breathed. "Arvael, you're real! Red Sands it's good to see you."

Arvael looked the Fire Lord up and down and remarked, "I take it your journey is proving as harrowing as mine."

Ashuay whispered, "I have seen… things I wished I hadn't. Lives I never lived, futures dark and terrible and vile. Promises of betrayals to come, against me and by me. I want to say it could never be, but it was myself telling the story."

"I know your pain," Arvael lamented, "But we must find the others and regroup."

Ashuay shook his head and said, "I have seen Jhur and Imix, both are as lost as we. They walk their own paths and vanish at a moment's notice. I don't know if I will ever see them again."

"We have to try," Arvael urged as he checked the next lane, "We might be…"

When he turned back Ashuay was gone, vanished without a trace. Arvael bit down on a curse as he saw there was no keeping near his comrades. The maze had them in its clutches and there was no escape. Bitterly he set off again, wandering the passages. Several times he paused, sure that a lethal trap lay ahead, forcing him to divert. Time lost meaning as he wandered, hours or days passing without any mark. Armour logs showed only hash and his biology could keep him active for weeks, so there was no way to judge how long he wandered. Once he thought he saw Sythah, but when he dashed to the corner the Librarian was gone. Resigned to a lonely fate Arvael kept plodding on, so he was totally surprised when he turned a corner and collided with Chamat.

"Oof!" the Steel Confessor exclaimed, "Watch where you're going."

"Chamat!" Arvael burst out, "Thank the throne!"

The Librarian pushed him back and brushed specks of dirt off his plate as he muttered, "You sound like you haven't seen anyone in weeks."

"I think I haven't," Arvael sighed.

"Don't be stupid, it's only been a couple of hours," Chamat sniffed, "And why are you staring at me?"

Arvael's eyes were locked wide open and he explained, "I think if I blink, you will vanish."

"Not you too," I had enough of that from Jhur."

"You saw him?"

"Aye and he walked off in a daze, mumbling about visions."

Arvael kept his eyes fixed as he sighed, "The visions, they have been troubling… such wild possibilities."

Yet Chamat snorted, "You are all going mad. I've been charting this place for hours and haven't seen anything at all. I think I've almost cracked the secret of the maze, a simple puzzle only laid out in more dimensions than the basic four."

"Wait what did you say?!" Arvael started.

"It's a variation of the Pythago Hexadecimal Progression, laid out in ten dimensions…"

"No before that," Arvael urged, "You haven't seen any visions?"

"No, should I?" Chamat questioned.

"No visions. Nothing at all, that must be significant," Arvael breathed.

"I hardly see…" Chamat scoffed.

"No… you don't see, not naturally. Your eyes… you have augmetic eyes. No, no, no, shut up and let me think. Basic principles, spells have energy and matrixes… but they require a medium to conduct their effect. This maze's traps are powerful visions, but they are inherently visual. That's what the other me's kept trying to hint: don't trust my eyes. The Daemons beguile our sight, and so we try to see harder, looking deeper thus falling ever further into the trap. But what if we…"

Arvael's hand flashed out and grabbed Chamat's wrist as he screwed up his eyes tight. "What are you doing?!" Chamat exclaimed.

"The maze has ensorceled our eyes, but it can't affect you because your eyes are augmetic, seeing only the natural spectrum. My visions told me to trust my comrades. I can't navigate this maze but you can, you must be our eyes."

Chamat sighed, "Sounds stupid to me, but it's worth a try. Hold on tight, I don't want to lose you too."

Chamat led the way, dragging Arvael behind him. It was uncomfortable and the urge to peek rose in his soul but he refused to open his eyes. Bereft of sight Arvael found no trace of bodies, no dead Arvaels, no living ones either. Only mundane turns and forks, walking along the labyrinth with no more trouble than strolling the garden maze of some noble's estate. Arvael was reduced to following Chamat's lead, trusting the Steel Confessor to steer them true and his faith was rewarded.

"Imix!" Chamat called, "Come here and grab Arvael!"

"You have found me at last," Imix breathed, "I was preparing to commit my spirit to join Corax's shade."

"Don't waste time gushing superstitious nonsense. Grab on and close your eyes, do not open them for any reason."

To his credit Imix obeyed without question and Arvael was reassured by the Shade-Seer's presence. On they pressed and within another hour they found Sythah, who joined them gladly. Jhur was next, adding to their line as they pressed deeper and deeper. Arvael was gladdened to have found so many, but sensed in his blindness they were nearing the heart of the maze. He held no confidence in seeing Ashuay again but to the surprise of all they ran into him just before they breached the centre and the Fire Lord gingerly joined their line.

"This is stupid," Ashuay hissed as he took Jhur's hand.

"If it looks stupid but it works, it isn't stupid," Jhur retorted.

"If you want to keep wandering be my guest," Arvael added, "Else trust Chamat's eyes."

"Very well, but this ridiculous display never makes it into the tales," Ashuay growled.

"On that you and I agree wholeheartedly," Chamat concurred.

On they walked and the sense of close confines faded, leaving the impression of open air. Arvael sensed the maze falling behind and trusted they had reached their goal. He strained for a sign that it was over and finally Arvael's feet found softer ground and he smelled a faint breeze, signs something had changed. Chamat declared, "We're here, better open your eyes."

Arvael complied and found himself staring into a stone circle of upright menhirs and henges. Dull crystal plinths surrounded a ring filled with blackness, but these details faded into insignificance when he spied his master. Echeb stood in a prison of solidified time, held in stasis and unable to act. Arvael yearned to leap to his aid but there was opposition. Two mortals, one dead the other retreating behind a menhir. There was a hinting suggestion of another form lurking in the depths of the crystals. Yet the true threat stood before them, a small mutant with hands clasped behind his back and a grin on his face.

"Harbinger!" Arvael snarled.

"Welcome my friends, I am glad to see you. I wasn't expecting six of you to survive the maze, but I can make room."

"Do not trust him," Ashuay spat, "Jubila is probably lurking behind a pillar, waiting to ambush us."

But Harbinger laughed, "Jubila is done for, he will never escape the maze and its traps. The Gladius is as good as mine. But first we have so much to discuss."

Sythah growled, "We have nothing to debate with a Daemon!"

"Yes we do: your deaths, your shockingly violent and painful deaths."

Weapons rose and powers stirred as Jhur cried, "You shall not find us so easy to dispatch!"

Harbinger laughed, "You have nothing that can compare to my majesty! One at a time or all together, your dooms are sealed."

"You overestimate your power, runt," Ashuay growled.

Yet Imix hissed, "Be not fooled by shallow appearances, this one contains depthless power. Look deeper and see the horror below."

Harbinger grinned, "You are so right, this tiny body is not equal to my might. You cannot appreciate how outmatched you are with me looking like this. Time we did something about that."

Arvael sensed mystical forces stirring and opened his mouth to shout a warning, but too late. Before their eyes the host body began to shake and jerk, then it grew. With a snapping of bones the torso began to expand, growing longer and stouter by the second. Further than any body could stretch, further than its mass would allow, it lengthened, becoming a wyrm-like body that writhed continuously. Arms and legs disappeared into vestigial bumps, while tendrils sprouted all along its length, each thick as a steel cable. The head rolled back as the neck was subsumed into its length. The face split by a vertical gash that tore apart the skin, leaving a howling slit of a maw, filled with double rows of fangs. Eyes opened around the bulbous head, scores of them ringing the top and sides while below fronds like an anemone of the ocean waved in the cold air. Where the squid-head met snake-body tentacles grew, scores of limbs as long as a rhino and each tipped with a diamond-hard claw that dripped black poison.

Arvael's jaw fell as Harbinger reared on its tail, tall as a Warhound Titan but far more terrifying. Ethereal shimmers coated the Daemon's length, miasmas of change and where it touched the ground mouths opened and screaming faces pushed at the surface of the world. It oozed impossibility, an affront to the laws of reality and the sight would have tested the sternest soul. Any mortal who gazed upon the awful sight of a Daemon given free rein would have collapsed in terror, weeping as their sanity imploded. No living thing could stand before such a hideous malformation and not feel sickened, the Daemon defiling the clean Materium by its mere existence.

Lost in the shadow of a Daemon the Librarians were stunned to silence, given pause by the scale of the threat. Never had Arvael been confronted by such a foe, previous Daemonic incursions shrinking into insignificance by comparison. A part of his soul shrank, wishing to curl up and die but the greater part of him stood firm. He was a Space Marine; his will was steel and his courage unbreakable. Faced with the oldest nightmares of mankind his grip tightened on his weapon and his jaw set into a grimace. He would fight this menace, fight and die to deny the filth of the Warp, no matter the cost he would stand his ground.

Harbinger's monstrous bulk reared high, as the sky turned black and the first lightning Holdfast had ever seen rolled in sheets above. The Daemon cried in the voice of a thousand damned souls, "Behold the true power of Chaos! Behold the extinction of mankind!"

Dwarfed by the foe the Librarians stood their ground and Sythah proclaimed, "Darkness arises and the end is nigh, but the sons of the Imperium are not afraid!"

Chamat roared, "Until the end of time itself we shall never yield!"

Jhur bellowed, "Strength and fury are ours, let our foes beware!"

Ashuay yelled, "Into the fires of battle, into the mouth of hell we stride!"

"For the shades of our ancestors!" Imix yelled as he took up his staff and led the charge, "Victorium Verandi!"

"We are the Emperor's Storm!" Arvael cried as he leapt into battle, hearts surging with pride and defiance, "We are His wrath!"