Beyond Farthest Thule

by SDWilson

The far reaches of the Imperium of Man tore themselves asunder during the High Lord Goge Vandire's Reign of Blood in the early 36th millennium. But while this happened, most of Humanity was blind to the fact that the Galaxy shook from the events that occurred Beyond Farthest Thule. But not the Inquisition, for they were at its heart. Part 8 Visions of the Past has now been posted.

38. Part 7 The Dance ch6

Basil instantly merged his psyche with that of Reality, feeling where each and every move made by his opponents would be, and augmenting his speed. With no time to draw his golden bow, Basil telekinetically hurled one Death Jester to the side as it tried to remove from its black cloak a heavy weapon that he knew to be called a Shrieker Cannon, though he did not know what it did. The Death Jester crumpled as it impacted with the floor. As he did so, the other two Death Jesters managed to draw their Shrieker Cannons and fire. The tiny disc-like projectiles, called shuriken, that they ejected were too small and too fast for any normal human to have picked out but Basil held a tight grasp on the Warp and saw them clearly. He launched a wave of fire at the projectiles and the Jesters. The shuriken speeding through the air at him were vapourized, as were as the Shrieker Cannons, but there his fire ceased, leaving the Death Jesters alive and untouched.

Basil realized with shock that the Black Council had combined their individual psychic powers into a gestalt force. A force that they had used against him and stopped his attack. He forced a telekinetic blast through the protective field and sent the remaining two Jesters into the far black wall where they crumpled to the ground.

And then the Solitaire was upon him.

Again, and again, he batted away the Solitaire's strikes with his Singing Spear, its attacks alternating between the Harlequin's Kiss and the Harlequin's Caress. Basil was barely able to keep up with its speed by psychically sensing its attacks and knew that his foe was holding back. The Caress slipped inside Basil's Singing Spear and grazed his left arm, leaving a cut and burning pain.

"I will kill you," said the Solitaire. "You cannot escape me." The Caress grazed Basil's right arm and he nearly lost hold of his Singing Spear.

Basil rained lightning down from the vaulted ceiling above.

But the solitaire was already gone, moving in a circle around Basil. Suddenly lightning rained down at Basil and he was barely able to fashion a kyne shield in time. Lightning from the Black Council? What are they doing? Basil asked himself. Friend or foe, or both? He did not wait for an answer from himself and split his grasp of the Warp into a multitude of threads.

Winds buffeted the three Death Jesters who had begun to stir and rocked them into walls. Lightning rained down at the Solitaire but it danced away from his bolts. Lightning rained down too at the Black Council but they had fashioned a kyne shield of their own. And they rained lightning and fire back down at Basil which he blocked with his own kyne shield. Without ever leaving his side as it danced around Basil's bolts of lightning, the Solitaire continued its attack. The Spear in Basil's hands sang loudly as he blocked blow after blow, psychically in-sync with the Solitaire's moves.

The Solitaire is still holding back and so is the Black Council. How am I supposed to defeat them at the same time? Basil screamed in his head, looking for answers as he wove the Warp in countless ways while psychically augmenting his speed and staying in-sync with the Solitaire's moves. The answer popped into his head as the music reached a crescendo. Popped into his head as he felt the waiting Warlocks gather their strength. I'm not, he realized. She Who Thirsts killed Asuryan and this Solitaire is going to kill me. Anger filled Basil. Anger at the Masque of the Horned Serpent. Anger at the Black Council. Even anger at Siân who he felt had betrayed him. This has all been simply a game to make the most spectacular performance possible, and done at my expense. He drank in the Warp, drank in heavily and prepared to unleash a blow that would level everything and everyone in the chamber, whether or not any being there erected a kyne shield for its own defense.

But the Solitaire stopped holding back.

Just as the Warlock's of the Black Library emitted a psychic scream that entered into Basil's head, trying to shatter his concentration, the Harlequin's Kiss was aimed and fired too rapidly for him to move out of the way. The monofilament wire pierced into Basil's chest and he knew his time was over. The spool released itself into his innards as Basil tried to release his power. His organs and bones were turned to bloody soup within his body.

And a great flash of light filled the chamber.